PRICKLY COMPANY
Life can get a little prickly…
Frances Mathews doesn’t get out much since her husband died, but that doesn’t stop her from jump-starting a campaign to create a hedgehog highway in Hilltop Place—feeding stations, holes at the bottoms of gates and fences, and wild garden areas for hibernation. To Frances’s delight, her neighbours are on board. Mostly.
There are Jess and Michael, whose marriage is cracking under the unanticipated strain of a recent adoption. And Ryan, a wounded war reporter struggling to connect with his son after a divorce and forced to return to an exasperating parental fold. Plus, a very forthright single mum new to the neighbourhood and an exceedingly proper couple not about to upend their picture-perfect garden for prickly nuisances.
As relationships—from the romantic to the nerve-racking—form and secrets are unearthed, Hilltop Place is threatened in ways that affect them all…unaware hedgehogs included. What Frances and her charitable neighbours soon discover about themselves and each other is hardly what any of them expected.
What people are saying:
“Prickly Company has it all: romance, suspense, intrigue, and a community of quirky characters all learning to help each other. As a bonus, there are lots of lovable, prickly hedgehogs that will have you rethinking your landscaping situation. I loved every page of this book!” —Maddie Dawson, bestselling author of Matchmaking for Beginners
“Bursting with witty dialogue and plenty of hilarious moments, Prickly Company will enchant readers from the first page. I adored every quirky character and felt like part of the neighborhood by the end of this smart, funny, and charming novel.” —Kerry Lonsdale, Wall Street Journal bestselling author
“Prickly Company is such an absorbing read, featuring a tangle of fascinating characters and a hedgehog’s-eye-view of the multitudes of things that can go very wrong—and very right—when they begin to cross each other’s paths. Johnson's writing is warm and earthy and the inhabitants of Hilltop Place—human and hedgehog—will stay with me for quite some time.” —Suzy Krause, author of Sorry I Missed You
FIVE WINTERS
Five Winters. Two dreams. One determined woman.
Ever since Beth Bailey was a girl, she’s been in love with her best friend’s older brother, Mark. She’s held out hope ever since that maybe, someday, he’d love her back. But now Beth is thirty-five years old, and on the day of Mark’s wedding to another woman, she finally accepts the wake-up call she needs to move on.
Beth’s dream of marrying her first love may be over, but her biggest dream is still within reach: becoming a mother. Having lost her own parents very young, there’s nothing Beth wants more in life, and nothing she’ll stop at to make it come true.
Over the course of five winters, and with unexpected twists along the way, Beth will come to startling realizations about family, friendship, the meaning of love, and most importantly, herself, on the winding path to happiness and, she hopes, to motherhood.
Winner of the Star Award 2024, awarded by the Women’s Fiction Writers Association.
What people are saying:
“Kitty Johnson’s Five Winters features such a warm, relatable protagonist in Beth and is a wonderful story about finding yourself—and love, of course! I very much enjoyed this read.” —Emily Stone, author of Always in December
“This book is such a tonic. Entertaining characters, a heartwarming story line, and an ending guaranteed to make you smile.” —Imogen Clark, bestselling author of Impossible to Forget
“Told in a fresh and original voice, Five Winters is a moving and hopeful study of one woman’s quest for love and motherhood. Readers will adore Beth and cheer for her all the way. Kitty Johnson’s book follows the tradition of all the best Christmas books: it gives you that warm feeling that, if you try hard enough, you can make all your dreams come true.” —Anita Hughes, author of A Magical New York Christmas
Writing as Margaret K Johnson
THE GODDESS WORKSHOP
Four very different women have an embarrassing problem they're determined to put right!
When Janet, Estelle, Kate and Reenie sign up for a course at the village hall promising women a 'garden of earthly delights,' not all of them know what they've signed up for. Their mysterious and charismatic workshop leader wants to sweep them into the adventure of their lives. But can they trust her? And can they overcome their personal struggles for long enough to become the happy, sensual beings they deserve to be? A funny, moving tale of four women on a roller coaster quest to change their lives forever.
THE DARE CLUB
Aleysha, Nick, Colette and Emma are on a mission to scare themselves into forgetting their problems. But will it work?
When four very different people meet on course for the newly divorced or separated, there are initial tensions. Aleysha hasn’t accepted the fact that her 7-month marriage is over. Nick is struggling with being a single parent. Colette is dealing with health problems, and Emma is a ‘dumper’, while the others have been dumped.
As the group gets to know each other, Colette suggests they start a dare club. If they’re challenging themselves, it’s bound to help them to forget about their troubles, isn’t it? At the very least, they’ll have some fun, and who knows? It might just change their lives forever.
PERFECT RESPONSES
How do you respond when things go wrong?
If you’re anything like Janet, Debbie or Kate, then maybe you panic, lash out or hide yourself away from the world. But what if someone’s entire future depended on you making the perfect response in a crisis? What would you do then?
The mysterious and straight-talking Nessa is about to crash into the three women’s lives. She’s so down-to-earth with her advice, she couldn’t possibly be anything as other-worldly as an angel, could she?
FOR HANNAH, WITH LOVE
Jen's partner Michael has never been in a relationship for more than four years, so with their fourth anniversary coming up, she's getting understandably nervous. Especially as she's just discovered she's pregnant.
She means to tell him about the baby straight away, but when Michael appears to be having an early mid-life crisis, she decides to take some drastic action. Aided and abetted by her two very different best friends, Jen embarks on some detective work that takes her as far afield as Cuba and North Norfolk. If she can find out why all Michael's other relationships failed, maybe she can stop the same thing from happening to her. But will her quest to provide a happy family unit for her unborn child work?