Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

A moving tale of laughter and loss from best-selling Cathy Hopkins. Emily and her dad have been on their own since her mum left. But Emily has a secret: she still sees her mum, and people are beginning to worry about her. Because Emily's mum isn't coming back.... But as her friendship with Mark starts to develop into something more, can Emily find the strength to start letting go?

The stage is set.... Deborah O’Hara loves leading her troupe of actors. But when she becomes entangled in a web of secrets spun by the rakishly handsome Damian Beaumaris, Duke of Cirencester, she is forced to play the hardest role of her life. That of the stunning but disloyal Paulette, the Duke’s widowed sister-in-law. To regain the honour of his family Beau needs Deb’s help. But, despite his intentions, he doesn’t bargain on the forbidden sparks that fly with his beautiful leading lady….

Winter, 1211. Former abbess Helewise moves back to her cell near Hawkenlye Abbey to help the needy, putting a strain on her relationship with Sir Josse D’Acquin, who is called to examine the bodies of three men, one of whom bears a complicated symbol carved into his chest: a symbol that signifies vengeance. Meanwhile, far from home, Sir Josse’s son, Ninian, has become involved in the cause of the doomed Cathar people, soon to be swept up in a fight that they cannot hope to win.

Literary Giant seeks young man to push bathchair. Own room in Hampstead, all found, exciting cultural milieu. Modest wage. Ideal 'gap year' opportunity. So orphan Struan Robertson, leaves his native town of Cuik, and arrives in London. His job is to care for Phillip, paralysed by a massive stroke. Struan finds himself tangled in a midsummer's dream of mistaken identity and overwhelming passions. For everyone, it is to be a life-changing summer.

Uniquely disturbing and deeply erotic, this collection confirms Sarah Hall as one of the greatest writers of her generation. From the heathered fells and lowlands of Cumbria with their history of smouldering violence, to the speed and heat of summer London, to an eerily still lake in the Finnish wilderness, Sarah Hall evokes landscapes with extraordinary precision and grace.

On May 3rd, 1942, fifteen-year-old Alma Braithwaite and her fellow boarders at Goldwyn's school huddle in an air-raid shelter as bombs rain down on Exeter. When the girls emerge, the school is in ruins. Twenty-one years on, Alma lives alone and teaches music at her old school. The arrival of a new student takes Alma back to that summer and the long shadow it cast on her life.

From the instant his fingers touched her back the little cat knew. The boy was someone she would trust. Homeless and hungry, Magnificat is desperate for someone to take her in, so when she sees a kindness in local boy Ben, she is happy to give herself over to him. But a cat isn’t something Ben wants. He’s got enough problems with a prickly relationship with his mum and an absent father; besides, he’s a dog person. He wants an exuberant, loyal, doting companion, not a gentle, self-contained cat.

Ginnie Holmes has found something she never intended to find - an overwhelming passion for a man she should not be with. At an abandoned boathouse hidden on the riverbank of the Thames, Ginnie steps into a world that’s just a little bit brighter than her ordinary life. Then, in a single terrifying event, the lovers' secret becomes a deadly catastrophe, and Ginnie finds herself in the path of extraordinary danger.

The first book about ten-year-old FRANKIE FOSTER – the girl who wants to help, but ends up causing chaos!Frankie Foster loves fixing people's problems. Her help might not always be welcome – and she might cause the odd total disaster – but Frankie always fixes things. Eventually!It all started with the “My Beginnings” essays that Frankie and her classmates had to write for English. Her best friend, Jem, wrote all about how she felt being adopted and it was so good it got chosen to be read out at the end of term Speech Day!

Sergeant Louise Nightingale is content in the knowledge that a psychopath has been put behind bars for a very long time. She is unaware that he was just a student of a much more deadly opponent - a nameless, faceless terror who is intent on proving his prowess on the killing field. It soon becomes clear that Louise is his ultimate goal. Desperately trying to find Nightingale before the killer does, DCI Andrew Fenwick wonders if her continued silence means he is already too late.

Delilah Darling - Queen Delilah from the Land of Far, Far Away - is desperate to play the part of the gingerbread man in the school play. So when horrible Charlotte Griggs gets the part instead, Delilah is cross. But soon she discovers that there's lots of fun to be had playing the big, bad fox. And beside, in the Land of Far, Far Away, things always have happy endings....

After the death of her husband, Ellie needs a change to her life and enrolls in a garden course in Tuscany. Here she begins relationships with her fellow students. Nerine, an eccentric character in her 70s, and the much younger Max. Through the teaching of Salvatore, who runs the course, Ellie finds that universal truths are still potently relavant.

Charles Mountford, Marquis of Tonbridge, knows he must do his duty and take a wife. But when he's left snowbound with the unconventional Miss Honor Meredith Draycott, he finds his inner rogue wants to come out to play... Merry doesn't need a man - no matter how handsome he is! Sadly society takes a different view. Charlie is more than happy to make her socially acceptable, but only if she acts publicly as his betrothed and privately as his mistress!

Antmouth is said to be haunted by the ghosts of smugglers, but Ben and Claire are more alarmed by the peculiar living residents. Who are the fish-eyed golfers who seem to be spying on them? Why do people keep vanishing?

The first of a new series of young fiction by Jenny Valentine, winner of the Guardian Children’s Fiction Prize for her debut novel, Finding Violet Park. IGGY AND ME is a series of family stories featuring the mishaps and shenanigans of the irrepressible 5-year-old Iggy as seen through the eyes of her big sister Flo. Funny and endearing, each chapter is a complete and satisfying story in its own right, perfect for newly-confident readers to enjoy alone, or for reading aloud at bedtime.

A new life in Wales has not turned out to be the rural fantasy that social worker Jess imagined when she left London for a simpler, more fulfilling future. And it seems there's no escape from evil - even in such a beautiful landscape.

Isis and Hopi, orphaned when crocodiles kill their parents, are due to perform for the pharoh's tomb-builders near the legendary Valley of the Kings. But the villagers fall under suspicion when the heavily-guarded royal tombs are broken into. Can Isis and Hopi discover the truth about the robberies - in time?

One winter's afternoon, Sonia, 43, married and respectable, answers the door to 15-year-old Jez. He’s come to borrow some music. Sonia invites him in and soon decides that she isn't going to let him leave. As Sonia's desire to keep Jez hidden and protected from the outside world becomes all the more overpowering, she is haunted by memories of an intense teenage relationship, which gradually reveal a terrifying truth.

Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago.

Gina Donovan arrives in Florence on a beautiful spring morning to stay with an old friend. She is hoping for nothing more than a break from her demanding young family, but as she soon finds out, this most ancient and beautiful of cities has its dark side. Within hours of her arrival, Gina meets the elegant Frances Richardson, who invites her to her birthday party. As Gina learns, Frances' party is the highlight of the expatriate calendar. This year it is to be held in the gardens beneath the city's medieval wall.