Liverpool, 1924. Racing to meet her fianc� in her father's new-fangled motor car, Penny Forshaw knocks over a little girl and - much to her fianc�'s disapproval - feels it her duty to take in six-year-old Kelly while she recovers. But little did Penny anticipate the challenges and responsibilities of looking after a child from the slums, and Kelly's miserable, poverty-stricken existence opens Penny's eyes to a world she never knew existed.
Her relationship with her fianc� Arnold under strain, Penny's decision to take in young Kelly will change her life in ways she could never have expected. She wanted to give Kelly a better chance in life - but it may be Kelly who changes Penny's life for the better.
Rosie Harris was born in Cardiff and for several years worked in the City Hall. Her husband, Ken, was from Wallasey and after they married they lived on Merseyside for many years. She has been writing since the 1950’s. In the 1960’s she ran her own agency, Regional Feature Service, writing articles for most of the provincial newspapers. During the 70’s she became Editorial Controller for a non-fiction house. In the 1980’s, after publishing a number of non-fiction titles she turned to fiction and during the 1980/90’s had a number of short stories published as well as five books by Sphere under the name Marion Harris. Since 2002 she has had some 20 books published by Heinemann/Arrow. She sets her books in the 20’s because she has a great admiration for the women who were wives and mothers in those days. They had none of the current time-saving equipment – no washing machines or vacuum cleaners, no instant electric fires or cookers, and certainly no Internet. Their days were long and arduous and often they had to manage on very little money. In 2005 she was one of the judges when Arrow and Asda collaborated in a major national competition to find the next big saga writer. Her most recent titles are Love Changes Everything and The Quality of Love. The next, Whispers of Love, will be published in March 2010.
Liked thisbook but felt it was dragging on rather then get to the point. She goes out in the large car she isn’t meant to drive and hits a child who ran out after a ball went into the road. The mother from the slum wants to turn the thumb screws and get money from a high society well to do family. Got so far into this and gave up.
I found this book at the hotel I was staying at and thought I’d give it a try.
It was a easy and very entertaining read, such an enjoyable and heartfelt story! I found myself just reading chapter after chapter without feeling an ounce of boredom. A great holiday read with a simple yet wholesome plotline!
A very uninteresting story, difficult to believe people could be so cruel to their daughter and then completely change,not enough story content for me.
Oh dear, note to self, I must not dash into the library and grab a couple of books off the new books display shelf. Admittedly the book I was hoping to find had about 6 people already waiting for it. This book, Love or Duty, was not for me. The title should have told me enough. The characters were wooden and what some people might imagine was stereotypical for the upper middle class from 1924 with a child from the slums thrown in or in fact knocked over at the beginning. Maybe it would have improved. Not quickly enough was my worry.
In 1920s Liverpool a young heiress's life is disrupted when she hits a young girl for the slums with her father's car. Over the course of the novel, the consequences of the choices that she and the girl both make unfold in surprising ways. A little romance (het) and a little mystery. Not exactly a genre book but it kind of reads like one.
I found the book to be crass and contrived. The main character, Penny, was a limp dishrag with no spine at all and her parents arrogant attitudes prevailed throughout without explanation. I feel sorry for Bryn, the man she married at the end! Awful!