The Bear and The Thistle

Edward, the eight Duke of Lochmorland, comes back from World War I with a serious case of shellshock. His wife, Cordelia, two daughters and twin sons, do their best to help him.

Across the world the Grand Duke Alexander Romanov, his wife and two small daughters, escape the slaughter of the Bolsheviks via the Crimea. In April 1919 they escape on a battleship sent by King George V. On board the ship he wins a Scottish estate which happens to be next to Lochmorland.

With succession battles, unruly children and a bi-racial wife, Edward is fighting a war of his own Not everyone escapes the Spanish Flu or the depression that follows.

The enmity between the families grows at a similar rate to the passion, as the world inevitably tumbles towards another World War. This one is fought in the skies above Europe and the consequences resound through the hills of Lochmorland.

The first of a trilogy tracing the two families from 1917 to the present day, this is written by best-selling USA Today author, Julie Thomas.