A Good Confession by Bridget Whelan
A detective thriller set in DUNEDIN
10 Great Love Stories set in LONDON
3rd January 2025
London, a city of contrasts and endless possibilities, has long been a muse for love stories. From the romantic streets of Notting Hill to the bustling markets of Borough Market, the city offers a backdrop for a wide range of love stories. 10 great love stories set in London.
Whether it’s a chance encounter on a Tube train, a secret affair in a cozy pub, or a grand gesture on the London Eye, the city’s diverse neighbourhoods and iconic landmarks provide endless opportunities for romance.
Here are some of our favourite London love stories.
London Belongs to Us by Sarra Manning
Twelve hours, two boys, one girl . . . and a whole lot of hairspray. Seventeen-year-old Sunny’s always been a little bit of a pushover. But when she’s sent a picture of her boyfriend kissing another girl, she knows she’s got to act. What follows is a mad, twelve-hour dash around London – starting at 8pm in Crystal Palace (so far away from civilisation, you can’t even get the Tube there), then sweeping through Camden, Shoreditch, Soho, Kensington, Notting Hill . . . and ending up at 8am in Alexandra Palace. Along the way Sunny meets a whole host of characters she never dreamed she’d have anything in common with – least of all the devilishly handsome (and somewhat vain) French ‘twins’ (they’re really cousins) Jean Luc and Vic. But as this love-letter to London shows, a city is only a sum of its parts, and really it’s the people living there who make up its life and soul. And, as Sunny discovers, everyone – from friends, apparent-enemies, famous bands and even rickshaw drivers – is willing to help a girl on a mission to get her romantic retribution. A fast-paced, darkly funny love letter to London, boys with big hair and the joys of staying up all night.
Single in the City by Michelle Gorman
It’s official. Hannah has left her friends and family in the US behind and is following her dream. To live in London. Unfortunately she’s completely unprepared for what’s in store.
She’s going to find:
1. Her dream guy. A prince or Hugh Grant would be nice. Or does she have to settle for her half-naked Australian housemate or an “English gentleman” with terrible hygiene habits?
2. Her dream job. Something fantastic in fashion. So how has she ended up being the mini-me for an evil party planner who doesn’t even trust her to arrange the paperclips?
3. Her dream friends. But everyone in London seems to have known each other for years and Hannah’s having trouble getting to know nice people. Who’s she going to have fun with?
Dream life? Should Hannah just dream on? Maybe it would have been simpler and cheaper to just get a new haircut. Was she mad to move 3,000 miles away from everyone she knows? Will she ever find love and her perfect life in England?
.
A Good Confession by Bridget Whelan
This is a captivating debut novel about forbidden love…Cathleen Brogan is a young widow, struggling to bring up her family in 1960s orth London. Times are tough for the Irish immigrants who live there, their hardships comforted by the presence of their local Catholic priest, Father Jerry Brogan, Cathleen’s cousin-in-law.Over time it becomes clear that Cathleen feels more for Father Jerry than perhaps she should. She hopes confession will ease her troubled mind, not realizing that she is confessing to the man she loves…When a tragedy forces Cathleen back to Ireland, she must face the truth of her feelings and accept the consequences of such a forbidden love…
Christmas at the Cupcake Café by Jenny Colgan
“The scent of cinnamon, orange peel and ginger perfumed the air, with a strong undercurrent of coffee. Outside the rain was battering against the large windows of the eau-de-nil-painted exterior of the Cupcake Café, tucked into a little grey stone close next to an ironmonger’s and a fenced-in tree that looked chilled and bare in the freezing afternoon.” What a wonderful start to this lovely book. Issy Randall, proud owner of The Cupcake Cafe, is in love and couldn’t be happier. Her new business is thriving and she is surrounded by close friends, even if her cupcake colleagues Pearl and Caroline don’t seem quite as upbeat about the upcoming season of snow and merriment. But when her boyfriend Austin is scouted for a possible move to New York, Issy is forced to face up to the prospect of a long-distance romance. And when the Christmas rush at the cafe – with its increased demand for her delectable creations – begins to take its toll, Issy has to decide what she holds most dear.
Girls Who Travel by Nicole Trilivas
Last year, Kika Shores was traveling across the globe without a care in the world. Now she’s stuck at home with her mom, pining for a sexy charmer who lives across the big pond. But then Kika lands a job in London playing Mary Poppins to two girls. She’s excited to rekindle her long distance love affair, but her very snobby new neighbor, Aston Hyde Bettencourt, keeps showing up everywhere she turns. Trouble is, the more time she spends with Aston’s stuffed shirt, the less Kika seems to mind.
Small Pleasures by Clare Chambers
1957, the suburbs of South East London. Jean Swinney is a journalist on a local paper, trapped in a life of duty and disappointment from which there is no likelihood of escape.
When a young woman, Gretchen Tilbury, contacts the paper to claim that her daughter is the result of a virgin birth, it is down to Jean to discover whether she is a miracle or a fraud.
As the investigation turns her quiet life inside out, Jean is suddenly given an unexpected chance at friendship, love and – possibly – happiness.
But there will, inevitably, be a price to pay.
One Hundred Christmas Proposals by Holly Martin
If you thought Harry & Suzie’s life couldn’t get anymore sweepingly romantic than Harry asking her to marry him at the end of One Hundred Proposals – think again! It’s Christmas in a snow-kissed London, and the PerfectProposal.com have vowed to carry out one hundred proposals in December. No easy task at the best of times – made even more complicated by Harry & Suzie trying to plan their first Christmas and a visit from the dreaded in-laws. But one hundred deliciously Christmassy proposals later they find themselves asking if everything is still perfect in their own relationship…. Welcome back to the divinely warm world of One Hundred Proposals – with a sprinkling of pure, joyful, festive magic. Have yourself a very merry Christmas indeed with Holly Martin’s Christmas novella.
Before I Met You by Lisa Jewell
London, 1920. Arlette works in Liberty by day, and by night is caughty up in a glamorous whirl of parties, clubs, cocktails and jazz. But when tragedy strikes she flees the city, never to return.
Over half a century later, in the grungy mid-’90s, her graddaughter Betty arrives in London.
She can’t wait to begin her new life. But before she can do so, she must find the mysterious woman named in her grandmother’s will.
What she doesn’t know is that her search will uncover the heartbreaking secret that changed her grandmother’s life, and might also change hers for ever…
A Proper Charlie by Louise Wise
She’s losing her job.
She’s losing her boyfriend.
She can only afford to eat spaghetti hoops on toast.
She’s called Charlie… or Charlotte, or ginger, ginge, Duracell,
carrot.
Yet with all these odds against her, she pushes forward to
take the lead story on her paper at London Core.
Shame no one knows. Shame she’s the office general assistant and not a real journalist.
Shame it’s on missing prostitutes and Charlie thinks pretending to be a ‘tart
with a heart’ will get her that story.
She doesn’t just get a story.
She becomes the starring role.
Enjoy our selection of great love stories set in London!
Tony for the TripFiction team
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