She’s The One
A Modern Jane Austen Variation on Mansfield Park
Hattie lives a hand-to-mouth life with her mother Jo-Jo where they’re always running to keep ahead of the next bill. When Jo-Jo’s latest in a string of disastrous relationships ends, she turns to drinking again.
In desperation, Hattie resorts to calling her uncle Tommy for help. He’s rock and roll aristocracy with a stately home on the British south-western coast in Cornwall and an entourage in tow.
Tommy arranges for Jo-Jo to go into rehab and for Hattie to live with him and his extended family amid the glitter and glamour of Penhallows Park.
This is an engrossing story of hope and transformation as we see how Hattie comes to terms with her much changed circumstances and how she battles against her own lack of self-confidence, and the prejudice and disapproval of others.
She’s The One is the second in the series of Mary Rizza’s Modern Jane Austen Variations and is based on Mansfield Park, but readers who are not Jane Austen fans will still find much to enjoy in this engaging novel of a young woman’s personal journey.
She’s The One by Mary Rizza is available worldwide at Amazon
Charlotte’s Wedding
A Modern Jane Austen Variation
on Pride and Prejudice
Every mother wants the best for her daughters and Patsy Nicholson has particular reasons for wanting her three daughters – Rachel, Meredith and Shelley – to have secure futures.
When their plain, dull cousin Charlotte announces her engagement to a man with little going for him other than a huge bank balance, Patsy sets out a plan for her girls to raise their game and look for well-off, well-established men to marry.
Rachel, the smart and confident owner of a bookshop, is happily independent but keeping her business going is a financial struggle.
Meredith is kind and sweet-natured – too nice for her own good, really. She has had a string of relationships with men who take advantage of her kind nature.
Shelley is footloose and fancy-free, having a good time and not thinking about settling down.
Patsy has her own reasons for having remained a resolutely single mother for all these years, but secrets from her past emerge and threaten to damage the life she has carefully built for herself and her daughters.
This is a compelling story which explores the compromises and choices made by women as they negotiate their way through issues of independence and security, love and money in their complicated 21st Century lives.
Charlotte’s Wedding by Mary Rizza is available worldwide at Amazon
LIVING DOLL BY MARY RIZZA IS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE AT AMAZON. CLICK ON THE COVER OR THIS LINK TO SEE THE BOOK IN YOUR LOCAL AMAZON STORE.
Living Doll
Reviewers say:
‘It is gripping because every word is authentic for the period and the author creates a believable heroine…’
‘Cleverly crafted, big, bold, plausible characters…’
On the road with the Beat Girls just as the Sixties start to swing
A coming of age novel of the 1960s featuring friends, family, lovers and the Blessed Virgin Mary.
The colour and glamour of the Sixties are just starting to come into reach for Maggie O’Hara as she strives to be a Living Doll, or Peggy Sue, or a beatnik like Juliette Greco, or the girl on the Bob Dylan album cover.
To add to her confusion, she is getting visits from the Blessed Virgin Mary…
An immensely engaging novel which reflects on the realities of growing up in the Sixties.
Living Doll by Mary Rizza is available worldwide at Amazon
THE LOVE YOU MAKE BY MARY RIZZA IS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE AT AMAZON. CLICK ON THE COVER OR THIS LINK TO SEE THE BOOK IN YOUR LOCAL AMAZON STORE.
The Love You Make
A contemporary romance novel of friends, family and lovers
In the game of love, the more you give, the more you take.
One minute, Sadie is enjoying the garden party she and her husband Will give every year but then he is telling her he wants time out from their marriage and goes off to work in America.
Sadie looks for support from her three daughters but they are involved in their own personal dramas. Even her best friend Jackie is distant and preoccupied.
So Sadie decides to take some time out for herself and she takes up a new way of life and a romance with a new man before getting some devastating information about Will from one of her daughters.
How can relationships between family and friends survive secrets and lies, betrayals and mistrust? Is the love you take really equal to the love you make?
The Love You make is a warm and witty romantic book about relationships and families, love and forgiveness and the changes and compromises which are often needed for happiness.
A romance novel for fans of Elizabeth Buchan, Joanna Trollope, Erica James and Hilary Boyd.
The Love You Make by Mary Rizza is available worldwide at Amazon
WEST BEACH SUMMER BY MARY RIZZA IS AVAILABLE WORLDWIDE AT AMAZON. CLICK ON THE COVER OR THIS LINK TO SEE THE BOOK IN YOUR LOCAL AMAZON STORE.
West Beach Summer
Generations of a family face upheaval and major changes in their lives.
After her husband dies, Maddy resolves to start a new life in West Beach, a small town on the coast that’s riding a wave of new money and glamour.
Among the new arrivals is Maddy’s boyfriend from her teenage years who has found fame and fortune as a record producer. Will he and Maddy rekindle their teenage love and can they reconcile his rock and roll lifestyle with her more staid background?
Maddy also faces the challenge of coping with two married daughters hit by their own personal problems while their teenage children begin to explore the world of love.
Add in an insecure niece yearning for a loving relationship, plus friends who really should know better in matters of the heart, and the temperature rises in a summer of love.
A novel that looks at the comedy and absurdities of human life at all ages, with worlds colliding and families and friends surviving amid lies, mischief and misunderstandings.
