Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau

‘This is a gem. Kate Atkinson fans will love it’ Irish Independent

In a world of lonely hearts, are there enough happy endings to go around?

Marriage matchmaker seeks assistant; discretion essential, rose-tinted glasses optional…

Matchmaker Martha Hart never got her happy ending: the Great War destroyed those dreams. Instead, her life's mission is to bring hope to other lonely hearts, though eligible bachelors are thin on the ground in 1930s Yorkshire.

She hopes her new assistant, April McVey, will breathe new life into the bureau. The irrepressible Irish girl with the knack for putting her foot in it is full of modern ideas, but doesn't appear to have a romantic bone in her body.

When lonely widower Fabian, and his enigmatic sister require their help, the bureau face their toughest challenge. Are Martha and April about to discover that in the search for love, it's possible to find something else that's just as wonderful…?

‘A briskly witty delight’ Irish Times

'A charming treat of a novel, full of heart and hope' Hazel Gaynor

Reviews

‘Really … funny, without being frothy … a real treat of a book’ Simon Thomas, Stuck in a Book

‘I absolutely adored this. It’s an intelligent and nostalgic read, with depth and surprising plot twists’ The Irish Examiner

‘Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau has been dubbed a "witty romantic comedy" but it’s smart too. Sheena’s characters do not suffer fools’ Belfast Telegraph

‘I loved this book! It’s alive with the hopes and dreams and heartaches of women in a 1930s Northern town, and its twists and turns are a constant delight’ S.J. Bennett, author of The Queen Investigates series

‘I found it impossible to put down. The writing and story are so compelling. I thought the ending was absolutely perfect’ Emma Pass, author of Before the Dawn

‘I couldn’t stop reading! It’s a really satisfying feel-good story, with very real characters that you are rooting for all the way through’ Keren David, author of What We’re Scared Of

‘Charming, unexpected, and a really great sense of time and place’ Emily Hourican, author of The Glorious Guinness Girls

​‘The characters are engaging and intriguing. Serious issues are addressed with the lightest of touches, and the ending is perfection’ Rachel Ward, author of the bestselling The Supermarket Mysteries series

About the author

Described in the Irish Times as ‘one of our foremost writers for young people’, Sheena Wilkinson has won numerous awards for her eight novels, including the Children’s Books Ireland Book of the Year for Grounded. Her historical trilogy about young women coming of age in the Ireland of a century ago has been praised for its ‘formidable narrative and . . . acute sense of historical justice’ (Belfast Telegraph). Her short stories and memoirs have won or been shortlisted in many competitions, including the Fish and the Bridport. Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau is her first novel for adults. Sheena lives by the shores of Lough Neagh.