A Penny a Day - Lilian Harry

He doesn’t own me, she thought, gazing out of her bedroom window at the curve of the bay and the shining sea. Nobody does.

It is December 1952, and a wedding is being planned in April Grove. Jess and Frank Budd want to bring together all their friends, including Ruth and Dan from Bridge End, where the family was evacuated during the war, and Maddy, from the Devonshire village of Burracombe.

At the wedding, Maddy meets up with a childhood friend – who falls in love with her. But there is a rival for Maddy’s affections.

Meanwhile, there are problems in Ruth’s family, and the long shadow of the war is threatening to destroy more than one person’s happiness…