A moving tale spanning two continents, from this well-loved author. Hull, 1874. The beautiful, mysterious Jewel Newmarch, adopted as a baby, turns heads wherever she goes—her exotic looks point to her origins far away from the streets of Hull. Even at her cousin Elizabeth's wedding, she is the belle of the ball. But as she looks on at the happy, newly-married couple she feels a restlessness and intense longing to know her own roots. And so she decides to return to her birthplace in America, taking the bride's twin sister Clara as her companion. In discovering the mysteries of Jewel's past the girls realize that this is a life-changing voyage of discovery for both of them, as they learn important lessons about family, friendship, home, and most importantly, love.

Homecoming Girls

Literature & Fiction

Wood, Val

Literary

Transworld Publishers

Sixteen-year-old Jeannie spends most of her time at Scarborough Harbour. She is a net mender and herring girl, just like her mother. When she meets Harry, a fisherman from Hull, she falls head-over-heels in love with him and soon finds herself pregnant. Her oldest childhood friend Ethan is devastated—he too was in love with Jeannie but never found the courage to tell her. Harry's dour grandmother tells Jeannie that they must marry, despite him being out of work. They do so, and begin a life in the hub of Hull's fishing community. But it is not long before Jeannie realizes she has made a terrible mistake. Jeannie is met with joy and tragedy when she gives birth to a beautiful baby boy, but her husband's grandmother dies soon afterwards. From this moment, their marriage drifts apart. Harry leaves her for another woman and Jeannie is left destitute save for the occational work on the fishing quay.

The Harbour Girl

Corgi

Holderness, 1846. For reliable, thirteen-year-old Bella, life isn’t turning out quite as she’d hoped. She lives at the Woodman Inn—an ancient hostelry run by her family in the Yorkshire countryside—surrounded by two older brothers who never pull their weight and a flighty younger sister. When Bella learns not only that her father is seriously ill, but that her mother is expecting a fifth child, her dreams of leaving home to become a schoolteacher are quickly dashed. Times are hard, and when their father dies, Bella also has to take on the role of mother to her baby brother. Her days are brightened by the occasional visit from Jamie Lucan , the eighteen-year-old son of a wealthy landowner in a neighbouring coastal village. Also grieving the loss of a parent, Jamie has more in common with Bella than she thinks. When her mother announces out of the blue that she wants to move the family to Hull, Bella is forced to leave the only home she has ever known. They arrive to find that the public house they are now committed to buying is run-down and dilapidated. Could things get any worse? Or could this move turn out to be a blessing in disguise for Bella?

The Innkeeper's Daughter

Genre Fiction

His Brother's Wife

1860. Harriet Miles is trying to take care of her seriously ill mother, and just when she thinks things couldn’t get any worse she is fired from her job at the hostelry. The last thing she expects after her mother dies is a marriage proposal from a man she barely knows, but her only alternative is the workhouse. And so begins her new life with Noah Tuke. But instead of marital bliss, Harriet finds herself in the cramped farmhouse which Noah calls home, and in this overcrowded and angry household she meets with hostility and bitterness. The only person who offers her friendship is Noah’s brother, Fletcher. Gradually she learns the true reasons behind Noah’s desire to marry her—and realizes that the only person she finds real companionship with is the person she can’t possibly be with…

The Songbird

Corgi Books

Daniel has lived his whole life with his mother, adoptive father, and his stepbrothers and sister in a small farm in Yorkshire. He has always been aware that he looks different from his blonde siblings, with his dark hair and brown eyes, and struggles to fit in. Growing up, he relies heavily on his childhood friends from the neighboring estate—Beatrice and Charles Hart—the two children of the area’s most eminent and prosperous landowners. They want to help him to find out where he really comes from, and so begins an endless journey. But instead of discovering his roots, Daniel realizes his deep, but hopeless and unattainable, love for Beatrice. Looming over all of them is a secret they could never have imagined. A secret that when they arrive home could bring disaster, love, or fortune. Or all three…

Every Mother's Son

British & Irish

Margriet grew up as a lonely child in the old town of Hull. Her adored father often traveled by sea to the Netherlands, leaving her with an unaffectionate mother and only her imagination of a little Dutch girl to keep her company. When tragedy strikes and her father’s ship goes down in a storm, devastation ravages her tiny family. A few years later, Margriet is blossoming into a kind young lady. Keen to escape her mother and strike out on her own, she forms an unlikely friendship with some of the street children who roam the town. As Margriet acts upon her inspiration to help them, will the troubles of her past break her spirit, or will she overcome? If you've liked books by Katie Flynn and Dilly Court, you'll love Val's heart-rending stories of triumph over adversity.

Little Girl Lost

When Lucy’s parents are killed in a train crash, her kindly uncle steps in to look after the little girl—to the initial apprehension of his wife and her son. However, Lucy’s sweet, spirited charm slowly wins over her new family, and as she overcomes the trauma of her childhood, she grows up inspired to become a doctor, just like her father. But studying medicine in London takes Lucy far from her home in Hull and the people she loves, and she has to battle to be accepted in a man’s world. With the dark clouds of World War I gathering on the horizon, an even greater challenge approaches. Can a woman find her place on the front line of battle? Will Lucy be able to follow her dreams—and find love—in a world shattered by war? Val Wood's wonderful historical saga is perfect for readers of Dilly Court, Maggie Hop and Rosie Goodwin.

No Place for a Woman

It is the late 1850s and a tired woman holding a baby walks from Hull to one of the big houses in Anlaby, the home of the wealthy Rayners. The baby's father is a Rayner, its mother dead, and the respectable shipping family are left shattered.

Children of the Tide

Annie

Set in the countryside of the Yorkshire Wolds and the River Humber, this is a companion volume to 'The Hungry Tide.' Annie has killed a man in the slums of Hull, and now she flees along the paths of the Humber, to unfamiliar territory and a new life.

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Books by Wood, Val