It’s the sixties, and London might be swinging, but not for our girl, Edith. Raised in a miserable home full of anger and hate, life for poor Edith seems to hold little hope. But she finds plentywhen she teams up with her older gay cousin, Ronnie, who makes her his mission with a plan to re-shape her into the fabulous young woman he knows she deserves to be.

Once free of her father and her weak, defenseless mother, her transformation is swift and dramatic. Suddenly, life is an exciting adventure, full of twists and turns, as Edith’s coming of age becomes a roller-coaster ride of glorious highs and frightening lows, including a father who comes back to haunt her. But where will it take her, and how will it end? Who will win, and who will lose?

‘Can’t Buy Me Love’ is the first of six volumes in the ‘The Cost of Loving’ Series. If you like stories of success over adversity, family dramas and sexual diversity, then you will love Martin Humphries’ bitter-sweet voyage of discovery through some of the most exciting years in living memory. Years chock full of changes of every kind, when being gay usually spelt trouble with a capital T.

Sophia is ruthlessly determined to achieve the sort of success that she hadn’t, until now, only dared to dream of. Thanks to Ronnie, life seems ready to take a dramatic and unexpected turn that could complete the job that he alone started, and where love will not be required. But does Sophia’s coming of age reach the triumphant climax that just might be waiting for her? It’s a roller-coaster ride full of glorious highs and frightening lows, especially when history catches up with her to destroy the greatest day of her young life. Will she survive it? And, if she does, how will she deal with it? And will she seek revenge?

Scandal, murder, blackmail and suicide are all part of life when you set out to become celebrities, especially when you have eyes for someone else and revenge on your mind.

Sophia and Toby create a whiff of self-made scandal that boosts their reputations sky high. Soon enough, Toby is becoming a ‘star’ and they are pulled headlong towards the dazzlingly bright lights of Hollywood. Sophia takes a lover under the most unlikely circumstances, as Toby finds his own pleasures elsewhere. It’s all part of the deal they’ve made with each other.

Yet, despite all the good fortune, there are dark clouds and hard truths to be dealt with, including a wicked father who has plagued Sophia’s life for far too long. Along the way, an old friend returns from the dead, and a young man enters Sophia’s life whose story distresses her to the point that she feels forced to intervene.

The consequences are so tragic they tear her apart. Was it her fault? Or would it have happened anyway? Toby and Sophia wonder if life will ever be the same again when their European vacation, to get away from so much turmoil, ends in Toby’s attempted murder. Is it all simply too much for our star-struck, but beleaguered pair?