Love should never be this hard - a romantic fiction saga

Join the romantic journey of two families over a century with -

 

Book 1 - 'The Sign of the Rose' Starting in Ireland in the late 1800's, a Romani family travels from dramatic beginnings before crossing storm-tossed waters to begin a new life in Devon and Cornwall where they unite with distant relatives.

Together, and overcoming life's challenges which include brigands, wreckers and highwaymen of the day - two young lovers chase fortune to the Midlands for more romantic adventure, tragedy, hope and opportunity for a brighter future.

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This is stage one in this four-book saga where historical events are woven into a fictional accounts for a family with Irish Romani ancestry, spanning a century.

Book 2 - 'The Black Rose of Blaby' - introduces further romantic involvement between an Irish gypsy girl and more conventional English families, with mystical and spiritual forces at work to thwart and then repair relationships, covering the period pre-WW2 up until the late 1960's. The black rose is a symbol of hope, love and central to the healing process when love and tragedy collide.

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The story begins with the coming of age journey of four village lads as they encounter mystical - real or unreal? - partners. It also serves to capture the past history long forgotten of 'life in the 1950s' era in a typical rural community.

Books 3 and 4 - 'Rose: The Missing Years' and 'Finding Rose'- cover the same period and the same key characters - Rose and John - where romance grows and blossoms against the background of social chance, economic recovery in '60's and '70's Britain, and cultural differences between Romani and Gadjo (non-gypsy) people within a typical English village.

 

Follow events, first through Rose's eyes and then from John's perspective as our location switches from Leicestershire before heading to Devon and Cornwall.

Real events merge with fictional accounts for a fulfilling and satisfying read in all four books resulting in feel-good fiction embracing real emotion.

Living events in local settings are a feature of each book - with Southern Ireland, Tavistock and Leicestershire predominant in Book 1, whilst Book 2 is more central to Leicester and villages south of Leicester and Aylestone.

 

Books 3 and 4 cover the same events from two people's perspectives, with locations initially in Blaby before moving to Teignmouth, Plymouth and Cornwall.

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They are also a reminder and a celebration of 'the way we were' with the birth of rock and roll, the first real American-style super-highway M1, and cultural change and opportunity covering both rural and urban way of life at the time.