Showing results by narrator "Rebecca Macauley" in All Categories

1895, Renmark, South Australia: Maggie O'Rourke has always had a hard head. No man was going to tie her down to a life of babies and domestic slavery, even if that man was as good (and as annoyingly attractive) as Sam Taylor. Maggie is happily earning her own way as a maid in a house on the Murray River when disaster strikes. Forced to defend herself and a friend from assault by an evil man, she flees downriver on a paddle steamer. With death at her heels, Maggie begins to realize that a man like Sam might be just who she wants in her hour of need.

Love will kill us all. Angels are real. They aren’t always kind. Violet Eden is certain of all this because she is Grigori - part angel, part human. She has felt the influence of both light and dark. When Hell unleashes its worst, Violet must embrace every facet of her angel self to save the people she cares about and the world as she knows it. But death is not the worst thing that Violet will face. For her, the endless question "Can love conquer all?" will finally be answered.

Mystery and adventure are the last things Liz has in mind when she forms Teen Power Inc., Raven Hill High's own job agency. All she and her friends want to do is make some money, and they'll do just about anything. But mystery and adventure are both in store. They are soon confronted with a puzzle they just have to solve - with a little help from the Raven Hill ghost of course.

Written 20 years ago, Puberty Blues is the best-selling account of growing up in the 1970s that took Australia by storm and spawned an eponymous cult movie. Puberty Blues is about "top chicks" and "surfie spunks" and the kids who don't quite make the cut: it recreates with fascinating honesty a world where only the gang and the surf count. It's a hilarious and horrifying account of the way many teenagers live, and some of them die.

Honolulu, Hawaii, 1941. On the evening of her 16th birthday party, Catherine McGarrie wants nothing more than for the night to be over, even though the opulence of the ballroom befits the daughter of a US Navy Rear Admiral. Then she meets Charlie, a navy officer from the other side of the tracks, a man her parents would never approve of. As rumours of war threaten their tropical paradise, Catherine and Charlie fall in love. But the bombing of Pearl Harbor on 7th December 1941 changes their lives forever.

An adventure fantasy about Nim - a young girl alone on a tropical island except for her three amazing friends: an iguana, a sea-lion and a turtle, plus a satellite dish for her e-mail. No one else in the world lives quite like Nim, and she wouldn't swap places with anyone.

But when Jack, Nim's Dad, disappears in his sailing boat, and disaster threatens her home, Nim must be braver than she's ever been before. Just as well she can call on her friends, old and new, to help!

Eleven-year-old Allegra shuttles between her grandmothers, who live next door to one another but couldn't be more different. Matilde works all hours and instils discipline, duty and restraint. She insists that Allegra focus on her studies to become a doctor. Meanwhile free-spirited Joy is full of colour, possibility and emotion, storing all her tears in little glass bottles. She is riding the second wave of the women's movement in the company of her penny tortoise, Simone de Beauvoir, encouraging Ally to explore broad horizons and live her 'true essence'.

1854, Ballarat, Victoria: When Nell Amberton's husband is shot dead by a bushranger, there are few who grieve his passing, and Nell least of all. How could she miss the monster who had abused her from the day they wed - the man who had already killed his innocent first wife? But his death triggers a chain of events that seem to revolve around the handsome bushranger who murdered him - a man to whom Nell, against her better judgement, is drawn. 

From the author of the Deltora Quest series comes a classic children's series in the tradition of The Famous Five. Richelle is delighted when the Teen Power gang is hired to be extras in a TV commercial for a new candy bar called The Lot. Is this her big break? Her chance to get into modeling or the movies? At last they've found a job that's interesting, and trouble-free.

In 1470 the Wars of the Roses threatens to tear England apart. Overnight a man can find himself set against his brother or unable to trust the woman in his arms. For the beautiful and spirited ward of Warwick the Kingmaker, Margery, freedom is the only prize worth fighting for. Disgraced and banished to a nunnery after the philandering Edward IV seduced her, she is determined that no man will ever decide her fate again.

Behind the tall hedges of the affluent gated community of Apple Tree Creek, not all is as it seems. Out of the blue, Gertie’s husband decides they need a break, and he’s leaving her with their three children. Two streets east and three gardens down, successful businesswoman Rachael discovers her husband has cheated on her—again—even though she’s pregnant with his third child. Thrown together by a chance encounter, the two women bond over the shared disaster that is their marriages. But did one husband push his wife too far?

Rage Winnoway's mother has been asleep since she had a terrible accident. In a quest to find healing magic, Rage and her animal friends travel through a strange gateway to Valley, a land of mythical beasts, talking dogs and streets that change shapes.

As they work at their new afternoon job at the local cat shop, Elmo and the rest of the Teen Power gang learn of more and more cats disappearing. Curious and worried, they decide they have to try and solve the mystery. Elmo knows that he has to find the cats before it's too late. Where are the cats going? Who is taking them? And why?

The cake shop in the local mall, the Gingerbread House, gives Sunny the creeps. The rest of the Teen Power gang disagrees. It's good money, easy work, and there are delicious things to eat - free! It seems like a fairytale come true. But fairytales can often be scary as well.

It is not that she likes praying, but what else can Penny Pollard do when Mum announces that they are selling the house? Suddenly, the thought of no longer going to Kooringa Primary doesn't seem so appealing. Inspired by a school project on saints, Penny decides to leave it all in the hands of "trouble-shooter" Saint Jude - after all, he's apparently quite good, and not just with ordinary problems, but with impossible ones.

Mimi laid the box on the bench and opened it carefully. Inside were rows and rows of coloured pastels that shimmered in the light. She rolled them under her fingertips and her imagination began to fill with amazing pictures. When Mimi is given a box of magical pastels, she discovers that she can draw the Garden of Empress Cassia - a drawing so beautiful and real that people are transported inside it. But the pastels are ancient, mysterious, and powerful, and in the wrong hands can be very dangerous....

Chances are, you know someone with dementia, but how well do you really understand the condition? Dementia is a complex interplay of biological, social and psychological factors, and understanding it means understanding more about society and ourselves. Approaching the topic through 20 insightful questions, Dr Kate Gregorevic explains the physical state of dementia, how to relate the diagnosis to real life, what questions to ask your doctor, strategies for preventing the condition and how we can make our homes and society better for people with dementia.

There are a lot of things Jamie hates about her life: her dark hair, her dad's Stone Age Charter of Curfew Rights, her real name – Jamilah Towfeek. For the past three years Jamie has hidden her Lebanese background from everyone at school. It's only with her email friend John that she can really be herself. But now things are getting complicated: the most popular boy in school is interested in her, but there's no way he would be if he knew the truth.

We all carry stories within us - wrenching, redemptive, extraordinary, and laced with unexpected and hard-won wisdom. These are the real-life stories that a group of women tell each other when they gather for a deep and structured conversation - once a month in a suburban living room - about the things that really matter. They discover that life can be a heartbeat away from chaos; that bad things happen to good people; that good people do outrageous things; that the desire for transformation is enduringly human.

Minding a luxurious house seemed like fun to the Teen Power gang at first. But now Nick is feeling more and more uncomfortable. Suddenly the house seems like a prison, or a tomb. Is it the sealed windows and doors? Or the aquarium fish swimming in endless circles? Or maybe it's just that a fortune in emeralds was stolen from the house, ruining its owner, and disappearing without a trace.