My Sweet Valentine — Annie Groves

An emotional portrayal of the lives of four women as Valentine's day approaches, in 1941 wartime London

‘Life brought enough problems and upsets for young hearts, especially young female hearts, without them having to carry the added burden of the war…'

Tilly is passionately in love with the dashing American journalist, Drew. But he is harbouring a secret that threatens their burgeoning love. At the same time, Dulcie's brother Rick walks back into her life, the man who she longed for all those years ago…

Agnes is comforted by the loving arms of her caring train driver fiancé Ted. And Sally could not be happier with her talented surgeon boyfriend at her side, especially since he's risked his life to visit her at the stroke of midnight on New Year's Eve.

For Tilly's mother, Olive, the cold heart that had been frozen since her partner died, is beginning to thaw. But the man she pines for is betrothed to another. The net curtains on the well-to-do Article Row have been twitching, and prying eyes have seen the way she's been looking at Sergeant Dawson…

When the clock strikes midnight at the Hammersmith Palais, three couples stare deeply into their lovers' eyes. The confident and stunningly beautiful East Ender, Dulcie, is left alone once more, abandoned by her boyfriend at this most precious of precious moments.

But the women of No. 13 Article Row know that joy is short lived in the London of 1941. It's a treacherous place, especially for the tender-hearted. As Valentine's Day approaches, the perils of war threaten life as they know it and all matters of the heart.

Reviews

Praise for Annie Groves:

‘An engrossing story' My Weekly

‘A stirring and heartrending family saga…Against a backdrop of change when the suffragette movement was coming to the fore, the choices and dreams of a generation of women combine to create this passionate story' Liverpool Daily Post

‘Heartwrenching and uplifting in equal measure â€" a tragic indictment of what can happen when you swap passion for duty. Roll on the sequel!' Take a Break

‘Written from the heart' My Weekly

About the author

Annie Groves was born and lived in the north-west of England all of her life. She was the author of the Pride family series, Ellie Pride, Connie's Courage and Hettie of Hope Street, for which she drew upon her own family's history, picked up from listening to her grandmother's stories when she was a child. Her next set of novels was the World War II series Goodnight Sweetheart, Some Sunny Day, The Grafton Girls and As Time Goes By. These were followed by the Campion series, Across the Mersey, Daughters of Liverpool, The Heart of the Family, Where the Heart Is and When the Lights Go on Again, which are also based on recollections from members of her family, who come from the city of Liverpool. My Sweet Valentine follows on from Home for Christmas and London Belles and is the third in this series, which introduces a set of glorious characters living in Article Row in Holborn.
Annie Groves, whose real name was Penny Halsall, also wrote under the name of Penny Jordan and was an international bestselling author of over 170 novels with sales of over 84 million copies.
Sadly, Penny Halsall died in 2011. She left a wonderful legacy of heart-warming novels for many more fans to discover and she will be greatly missed by all who knew her.
The final books in the Article Row series, Only a Mother Knows and A Christmas Promise, will be published posthumously in 2013.