Her work has been translated into twenty languages, and includes two adult collections of literary short stories, Flying to Yellow and Devil's Darning Needle, as well as the historical novels The Linnet Bird, The Moonlit Cage, In A Far Country, The Saffron Gate, The Lost Souls of Angelkov, and The Devil On Her Tongue.

Her particular interest in writing historical fiction is demonstrating the plight of women in the 18th and 19th centuries, from the point of view of strongly drawn female protagonists.

She travels widely to research her novels in great depth, and her ability to capture place and era has consistently met with positive critical review.

Amnesty International UK has chosen The Moonlit Cage as one of the "Ten Great Books on Human Rights", along with To Kill a Mockingbird, 1984, The Help, and Mosquito.

Her young adult body of work consists of a collection of short stories, Saying Good-Bye, which was re-released as Toxic Love, and four novels: Promise Song, Mercy's Birds, Raspberry House Blues, and Search of the Moon King's Daughter.