England, Spain, Ireland, and France

Tides of War by Stella Tillyard
Tides of War opens in England in 1812 with the recently married, charmingly unconventional Harriet prepared to say good-bye to her husband, James, as he leaves to join the Duke of Wellington's troops in Spain. Their interwoven stories of love and betrayal propel this sweeping and panoramic novel as it moves between Regency London on the cusp of modernity--a city in love with science, the machine, money--and the shocking violence of the Peninsular War. When Harriet befriends the older and protective Kitty, Lady Wellington, her life begins to change in unexpected ways.

The Chisellers by Brendan O'Carroll
Mother. Father. Business consultant. Cop. To her seven high-spirited "chisellers," Agnes Browne is all of these, and more. In the Dublin working-class neighborhood known as The Jarro, it's the Browne clan against the world--and against the backstreet villains and white-collar emissaris of market forces that threaten to tear this upwardly aspiring family apart. The Browne brood is about to be relocated to the wilds of suburban Finglas when their tenement is demolished as part of an "Inner City Renewal Plan." With the help of her ambitious eldest boy and her persistant French suitor, Agnes copes with the ups and downs of "rural" life, one unscrupulous gangster, and the son who is well on his way to breaking his mother's heart.

Obedience by Jacqueline Yallop
Sister Bernard has lived in a grey-stone convent in rural France for more than seventy years. In that time, a once youthful and lively cloister has gradually emptied, until only Bernard and two other nuns remain, a knot of survivors facing the creeping challenges of old age--ailing bodies and worn-thin friendships, slips of minds and, in their most secret moments, slips of faith. Now, the halls will fall silent as the three women pack away their few possessions into wooden boxes, preparing to leave the building that has been their home for decades.