


The Liverpool Brides

Book 1: The Autumn Posy
No. 1 Bestselling Amazon UK Time Travel Romance!
Any maid found fraternising with members of the opposite sex will dismissed without a hearing - Allerton Road, House Rules
Liverpool, 1981. Sabrina Flooks can barely remember her mother. Abandoned when she was only three, she longs to understand what happened. But when she searches a mysterious pocket of Bold Street where she was found, she’s shocked to be flung back in time to 1928.
Taking a position in the kitchen of arrogant Magnolia Muldoon’s manor house, Sabrina befriends a housemaid with starry-eyed dreams. And when she agrees to assist her new acquaintance in winning the heart of their mistress’s son, she has no idea of the repercussions their romance will cause.
Will Sabrina find the answers she seeks and get back to the man she loves, or is she destined to live in a time that’s not her own?

Prologue
The child vanished on a stifling Liverpool summer’s day in late August.
Up until then, it had been a perfectly normal day with no hint of what was to come as the young woman pushed her small child in the fold-out umbrella pram up Bold Street.
The eclectic mix of tightly packed two, three, and four-storey buildings loomed over the duo forming a higgledy-piggledy montage either side of the street and the bombed-out church at the end was a watchful sentry.
As the young woman moved forward with the pushchair, she noticed the child had undone the straps, again.
‘What have I told you?’ she huffed, veering out of the way of a woman in a pink sari. She’d a hand-knitted sweater thrown over the top of it to ward off the awful wind whistling down the street.
‘Don’t like it, Mummy.’ The child wriggled in an attempt to avoid being buckled back in.
‘Stop that right now, do you hear me? Or there’ll be no chocolate bar when we get to the station.’
The wriggling stopped.
The shop beside them had a ‘To Let’ sign in the grimy window and an empty lager can along with a collection of cigarette buts littered the doorway. The woman wrinkled her nose because she was sure she could smell wee.
She bent over the pushchair to click the strap back in, jumping as a piercing wolf whistle sounded. The culprit was a fella with longish hair leaning out the passenger window of a white van as it sailed past.
Pulling a face and pretending to be annoyed, she tugged the hem of her skirt down. Then, ignoring a group of lads with Mohicans in every shade of the rainbow, studded dog collars wrapped around their necks, and scrawny white arms protruding from Union Jack singlets she weaved around them and spied the familiar striped awning framing Tabac across the street.
The cafe was a source of fascination to her because it was a great spot for celebrity spotting and the food was good. She was too skint to call in for coffee or a bite to eat today but she could veer past and see if anyone of note was dining in there today.
She waited for a break in the stream of cars and when it came bounced the pram across the road, coming to a halt under the awning to gawp in the window. There were no diners whose lunch was worth interrupting to ask for an autograph and so, with a disappointed sigh, she hurried on.
The sign for the wedding shop tucked between two larger buildings a short distance ahead caught her eye.
It was the boutique where one of her old school mates had had her wedding and bridesmaids dresses made. Brides of Bold Street. Her mouth tightened. She hadn’t been asked to be a bridesmaid.
The irritation that still rankled at the snub disappeared however as she saw the newsagents where she’d called in to buy her monthly magazine treat just a week ago had gone.
In its place was a shop with posed mannequins in the antwacky gear her mam might have ponced about in. Retro was all the rage these days she thought. Not that she’d be caught dead in clobber like that.
Her eyes swung out to the road. How weird. There were nowhere near as many cars as there’d been a moment ago and the ones tootling up the street were similar to the old banger her grandad had refused to part with.
The air had changed too. It felt thick, almost as if she were wading through tepid soup. She came to a halt. The sensation wasn’t dissimilar to the time she’d stood at the top of the Blackpool Tower and her legs had threatened to give out on her.
‘I’ll just close my eyes for a second,’ she mumbled, having decided she must be having a funny turn of sorts.
The whoosh of people carrying on about their business as they passed her by continued as if there were nothing at all odd about her standing in the middle of the pavement with her eyes squeezed shut, clutching the pram for support.
The familiar smell of exhaust fumes and a trail of cigarette smoke saw her cautiously open them once more. She blinked rapidly to assure herself things were as they should be.
Only they weren’t.
The blood turned to ice in her veins as she realised the pushchair was empty.
Book 2: The Winter Posy

An intriguing time slip, historical fiction story to transport you from the days of big hair in the eighties to even bigger hair and the Beatles in the sixties, by award winning author, Michelle Vernal
Tucked away on Liverpool’s Bold Street is a bridal shop where there’s a lot more going on than meets the eye…
For nearly twenty years Sabrina’s wondered why she was abandoned as a three-year-old on the streets of Liverpool. Taken in by Evelyn Flooks the proprietress of Brides of Bold Street, she’s learned the tricks of the wedding dress trade at her Aunt Evie’s side. She’s also in love for the first time with dark eyed, Adam who’s given her a clue as to what might have happened to her mother. Now, she needs to let go of her past in order to move forward to her future.
In order to do so though she’s going to need to be brave. Sabrina will have to say goodbye to Adam as she steps back into an era of rock and roll, hopes and dreams, and young love.
Swept up in the Merseybeats scene, will she discover the truth behind her mother’s mysterious disappearance and find her way back to Adam? Or, will she remain forever lost…
If you like entertaining women's fiction you'll love this new and different story.
Book 3: The Spring Posy

Sabrina Flooks can barely remember her mother. Abandoned when she was only three, she longs to understand what happened. But when she searches a mysterious pocket of Bold Street where she was found, she’s shocked to be flung back in time.
Liverpool 1982. Delving into the past can be dangerous and Sabrina’s promised, she’ll forget her quest to find her mother. But, when a young woman calls into Brides of Bold Street, where she works, she shows her a photograph that changes everything.
Liverpool 1945. The victory bells are chiming out over Liverpool; World War 2 in Europe is over. By the firelight of the bonfires burning brightly and amidst the cheering crowds, Sabrina will find the answers she’s been searching for.
But should she have left the past alone?
From Amazon charts bestseller, Michelle Vernal comes the third book in the Liverpool Brides historical, timeslip fiction series. If you like charming characters, delightful humour, and intriguing mysteries, then you’ll love this enthralling tale.
Book 4: The Summer Posy

Liverpool 1982: Sabrina Flooks found the answers to why she was abandoned, but her story isn't finished yet because while she looks to a future with Adam, her Aunt Evie has a secret that only her oldest friend, Ida and Adam's father, Ray Taylor, know.
Liverpool 1927: Evelyn Flooks is a young woman who dreams of escaping her violent home life by opening a dressmaker's with her mam. But a chance encounter with the swaggering Ray Taylor of the notorious Lime Street Boys gang sets her future on a course she could never have imagined.
When Sabrina learns what happened all those years ago between her aunt and Adam's father, will she be able to reconcile Evelyn's past with the woman she's always known as her mother? And what does the future hold for her and Adam?