When you are alone in the world, how does your heart find its home?

1904: When plucky, red-haired, eleven-year-old Ellen Copley crosses the Atlantic Ocean with her father, it is with a head full of dreams for what the New World will hold for her. Yet within weeks of their arrival in America, her father has abandoned her—leaving Ellen with hateful relatives, alone and terrified for her future.

But then her kind Aunt Rose brings Ellen to stay with her, in their rambling family farmhouse on beautiful Amherst Island, which nestles like a jewel in the blue waters of Lake Ontario.

There Ellen finally begins to find love and acceptance, both from Aunt Rose’s boisterous family, and—as she grows into a beautiful young woman—from the boys next door, Jed and Lucas Lyman. But it’s Jed she’s drawn to… the one with the twinkling eyes, who teases her, and laughs with her, and soon steals her heart…

But does Jed love her back? Because—even though Amherst Island feels like home—Ellen knows she can’t stay there with a broken heart…

This is the first book in the unmissable Amherst Island series that follows the life and love of Ellen Copley from the magic of Lake Ontario to the bloody battlefields of the First World War and beyond. Perfect for fans of The Oceans Between Us, The Orphan Sisters, and My Name is Eva.

Previously published as Down Jasper Lane.

Henry McAvoy leaned forward. “I have been looking for an artist just like you - a diamond in the rough, so to speak. And really, Miss Copley,” he said gently, “what do you have to lose?”

Amherst Island, Canada, 1911: When a chance encounter takes Ellen Copley away from the beautiful island she has called home since she was orphaned as a child, she believes it is the new start she has been waiting for.

She settles into an exciting, creative new life in Glasgow, feeling like she’s finally finding her independence. And even though she left a part of her heart back on the island, she’s flattered by the attentions of her handsome, charming benefactor, Henry McAvoy.

But tragedy strikes their fledgling relationship, and soon after, war looms over Europe. Emboldened by all she has loved and lost, Ellen leaves Scotland to become a nurse on the front line. And, as she finds herself having to choose between love and duty, desire and bravery, her courage is tested as never before.

The war rages on - and familiar faces appear on the front line, including her childhood sweetheart, Jed Lyman, and his brother, Lucas. Coming face-to-face with her past, Ellen will learn what she is made of. But can she finally decide where her heart truly belongs?

Previously published as On Renfrew Street

What would her life look like without her beloved island in it? Where would she go? Ellen had come back here—to the place she felt she belonged—thinking she would stay here. But was it home… or just a place to hide?

1918, Canada: The First World War is over and those who have been fighting in Europe are heading for home, forever changed. Amongst the lost, the damaged and the broken, is former nurse Ellen Copley; who finds herself returning—not to her house in Glasgow, but to her childhood home on Amherst Island.

There, she feels sure, in the warm embrace of the McCafferty family, with her beloved Aunt Rose and her cousins, she will feel safe and loved. She will be able to escape the ghosts of the past and her loss, and find peace.

But the island is a changed place too. The war has affected life the world over, and Aunt Rose is struggling to keep their small farmstead going. The family’s only hope is asking their neighbours, the Lymans, to help. But Jed Lyman is a broken man, both physically and emotionally, and his once-adoring brother Lucas is now more distant than ever.

And as Ellen fights to save the farm, she has to ask: what makes somewhere a home? And—when help comes from an unexpected place—she wonders, has the man she’s destined to love been waiting for her out there all along?

“I love you. Of course I do. But we haven’t any choice in the matter, do we? If our little boy’s health, even his survival, is at stake, we have to do whatever it takes.”

1928, New York City: Ellen and Lucas Lyman have made a heart-wrenching decision to leave their beloved Amherst Island behind in search of a new life. The island was once the home of their hearts: where they had met as children, become friends, and over time found love.

But New York City was calling, and it was everything they’d hoped for and more. With Lucas making money on the stock market, and Ellen finding fulfilment as a mother, at first they are happy raising their family, together, in the most exciting city in the world.

Until their beloved son Jamie becomes perilously ill, and Ellen is given an impossible choice. With Lucas unable to leave his job, it is down to her to take Jamie to a place he might recover even if it means making the journey across America without him.

Ellen knows what she must do. What every mother would do to save their child. Even if it takes her further away from the man she loves—and every place she has called home‑than ever before.

Rosie realised she loved the man standing before her. She wanted to spend the rest of her life with him. And if he were to fall in France, heaven help them both, she knew she would not regret one last night with him…

1941, Canada: When Rosie Lyman and her cousin Violet join the Canadian Women’s Army Corps, Rosie is uncertain about leaving her life in Ontario behind and entering a new and challenging world of duty and service.

From the moment Rosie signs up, the intensity of the work pushes all thoughts of home from her mind. And when she is selected for officer training and a placement overseas in London, Rosie finds herself swept up into an exciting world of classified postings she could never have imagined…

When she meets handsome Lieutenant Thomas Crewe, with sparkling blue eyes and a smile like a movie star, Rosie soon finds herself falling in love for the very first time. With precious moments together restricted to weekends on leave, the pair try to steal as much time together as they can.

But when Rosie hears that Thomas’s division is flying in the D-Day invasion, she feels like her heart might break. Will he survive the battle? And can she find the strength within herself to go on if he doesn’t?