Melissa Vaughan

Mourning lost years spent in a marriage that has finally come to an end, Marnie needs a fresh start and time to heal. Things she hopes to find in the rural west Lancashire village her mother always told her about. With nothing but her two green thumbs, Marnie takes a job as a gardener, which comes with a little cottage to make her own. The garden is beautiful - filled with roses, lavender and honeysuckle - and only a little rough around the edges. Which is more than can be said for her next-door-neighbour, Ned Mars.

Marnie remembers Ned from her school days but he's far from the untroubled man she once knew. A recent relationship has left him with a heart as bruised as her own. Can a summer spent gardening help them heal and recapture the forgotten dreams they've let get away?

It's 1949 and nurse Kitty Longthorne is still hard at work at Manchester's Park Hospital. The one-year-old NHS is inundated by the nation's sick and dying, made worse by a crippling labour shortage. 

Now engaged, Kitty and James adore each other, but once they marry, she will be expected to leave the job that means so much to her. When she is offered the trip of a lifetime - a voyage by sea to Barbados to recruit nurses to join Park Hospital's ranks - adventurous Kitty is desperate to go. But what of her beloved James? What of the baby she suspects she may be carrying? 

Returning home, Kitty has more to contend with than she ever anticipated: a gravely ill father, a dejected fiancé and the close-minded views of her peers upon the arrival of Kitty's first, hardworking recruit - Nurse Grace. After paradise, will Manchester ever be the same again?