Mother’s Day was a bit all-of-a-sudden, wasn’t it? One minute we’re cruising towards the end of February (which has that annoying habit of ending about a week before anyone expects it to); the next it’s Oh-bugger-is-there-anywhere-near-here-that-sells-smellies? And stamps?

But help is at hand. If you forgot to make a moment for your mum this year, we think these books should do the trick. So tell her to sit back, relax, pour herself a glass of wine and get stuck into these fabulous reads. After all, you forgot on purpose, didn’t you? Any day can be mother’s day. A mum is for life, not just for March . . .
 
Take your pick from these seven splendid reads – whether your mum likes milk or sugar, or both, or neither, one of these is sure to be her cup of tea.

Secrets in Prior’s Ford
Eve Houston

There is consternation among the villagers of pretty Scottish borders town, Prior’s Ford, when a firm is interested in re-opening an old granite quarry. Almost overnight neighbours and friends fall out, with some welcoming the work the quarry will bring while others are ready to fight to preserve the village’s peace.

Publican Glen organises a protest group – but when the local newspaper takes an interest in him and the story, he starts to feel very nervous indeed. When Jenny Forsyth attends a protest meeting and sees the quarry surveyor she also discovers a problem. So does the surveyor, for they recognise each other from years back when they lived different lives – a past Jenny has tried very hard to forget . . .

Dear John
Nicholas Sparks

When John meets Savannah, he realises he is ready to make some changes. Always the angry rebel at school, he has enlisted in the Army, not knowing what else to do with his life. Now he’s ready to turn over a new leaf for the woman who has captured his heart.

What neither realises is that the events of 9/11 will change everything. John is prompted to re-enlist and fulfil what he feels is his duty to his country. But the lovers are young and their separation is long. Can they survive the distance?

Birds in the Spring
Evelyn Hood

Paisley, 1920. Fiona MacDowall, set on success, intends to inherit her father’s business. But there are those determined to stop her.

Alex, her half-brother, although born out of wedlock, has other ideas about the inheritance. And his wife Rose, owner of Harlequin, the town’s grandest dressmaker’s, is sure Fiona will stop at nothing to get what she wants – even if that means taking over Rose’s own livelihood. Both women know that only one can come out on top.

And they are about to learn that others, too, have things to hide – a storm of secrets is slowly gathering, and the whole community is in for the downpour.

The Russian Concubine
Kate Furnivall

‘Wonderful, a gripping love story . . . A hugely ambitious and atmospheric epic novel’
Kate Mosse, author of Labyrinth

1928. Exiled from Russia after the Bolshevik Revolution, the beautiful and fiery Lydia and her aristocratic mother, Valentina, have taken refuge in Junchow, China. With destitution looming, Lydia realises that she must use her wits to survive and resorts to stealing.

When a valuable ruby necklace goes missing, Chang An Lo, a handsome Chinese youth who is under threat from troops hunting down Communists, saves her from certain death.

Thrust into clashes with the savage triads of Junchow and the strictures of the white colonial settlement, Lydia and Chang fall in love and are swept up in a fierce fight against prejudice and shame. Forced to face opium-running, betrayal and kidnap, their compelling attraction to each other is tested to the limits.

The Russian Concubine is an epic novel of love and loss, secrets and lies, danger and terror.

The Chocolate Run
Dorothy Koomson

Who needs love when you’ve got chocolate?

Amber Salpone doesn’t mean to keep ending up in bed with her friend Greg Walterson, but she can’t help herself. And every time it ‘just happens’ their secret affair moves closer to being a real relationship, which is a big problem when he’s a womaniser and she’s a commitment-phobe.

While Amber struggles to accept her new feelings for Greg, she also realises that her closeness to Jen, her best friend, is slipping away and the two of them are becoming virtual strangers. Slowly but surely, as the stark truths of all their lives are revealed, Amber has to confront the fact that chocolate can’t cure everything and sometimes running away isn’t an option . . .

The Chocolate Run is a delectable tale of lust, love and chocolate.

Bed Rest
Sarah Bilston

Can you live your life without leaving your bed?

Quinn Boothroyd, or Q to her friends, is a successful young English lawyer married to Tom and living in New York. Six months pregnant with her first child, she is thrown into chaos when her doctor tells her she must spend three months on bed rest.

But just because Q cannot leave the apartment, it doesn’t mean the world stands still. Thanks to a constant stream of visitors, Q gradually finds herself re-examining her priorities – her marriage, relationships with family and friends, and her job, with some very surprising, funny and touching results . . .

Mommies Who Drink
Brett Paesel

‘I began to realise that no book was going to tell me what I wanted to hear, which was that I would be same person after the baby as I was before the baby. I spent the days mourning the loss of my past self  . . . I looked back with vague longing and could not look forward, because the terrain was wholly different and unfamiliar. It was terrain I would begin to explore with others of my kind . . . ’

Incisive and poignant, Brett Paesel’s wonderful book explores what it’s really like to be a modern mother. Is it possible to be a dependable mum and an independent woman at the same time? Can a woman successfully reclaim her carefree past after motherhood and, even if she can, should she? With integrity and candour, Mommies Who Drink speaks to all women who are braving the frightening new world of motherhood, where the secret question on their minds is ‘What time of the day is too early to start drinking?’