Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Friendship

Out in the drought-struck backwaters of rural Florida, The Kingdom of Sand's nameless narrator lives a life of semi-solitude, enjoying the odd, fleeting sexual encounter and the friendship of a few. His world is ageing, and the memories of another time flash, then fade - visions of parties filled with handsome young men, the parents whom he chose to spend his life besides, the generation he once knew, struck down by AIDS. But, when forced to watch the slow demise of a close neighbour, he is drawn back to the here and now

Peggy Gilbert left the hustle and bustle of London for the beautiful blue skies and rugged cliffs of Pencarrow Bay three years ago with her husband, Ted. While Ted has immediately taken to life in their new corner of the world and Peggy feels as though he's leaving her behind, so she’s determined to find her own passion. Peggy will do everything from a sunrise swim to a salsa class and a fishing trip. Can Peggy find what she’s been looking for? Or has it always been closer to home than she thought?

At fifty-eight Minnie McAllister isn’t an old woman. But as Alzheimer’s ravages her mind, her brain says otherwise. Cat McAllister is tackling everything life can throw at her. And just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, she’s faced with the discovery that Minnie might not be the mother she once knew. Meanwhile, Cat's daughter, Ruby McAllister, who is staring at a two very blue lines, faces a decision that will change the course of her life.

World War Two has arrived for the girls of the Rowntrees factory, and with rationing crippling the country, chocolate production has been driven to a bare minimum. It's all change for the Freeman sisters when the Rowntrees factory is turned over to making munitions. Molly is put on the fuse and detonator line, soon becoming skilled at her work despite the dangers. Rose copes with husband Ned’s absence with the RAF by relishing her position on the Board. And Annie joins the Land Army, billeted to a pig farm in Lancashire.

The new novel from Claire Daverley: a love triangle that will fill you up and keep you guessing . . .

Sophia, Safa, Ella, Ajola and Caoimhe have been friends since school. They are difficult, unlikeable women; funny, sharp and clever ones – the sort that would have probably ended up burned at the stake a few hundred years ago. When one of them is about to be framed for murder, they inextricably bind their fates together via some bin bags, a spade and a promise never to tell. They decide to separate to ensure the safety of their secret, leaving each of them to navigate the daily challenges of womanhood alone.

East London, 1916: The Sanctuary Lane Animal Hospital is proving a huge success. For its founder Ruby Archer, this is a dream come true – and her blossoming romance with a local boy is the icing on the cake. But in wartime things change in the blink of an eye. When a heartbreaking tragedy shatters Ruby’s world, suddenly she is at odds with everyone - her family, her friends, and even her sweetheart. And when the hospital is threatened with immediate closure, she’s not sure who to trust.

Francine's Spectacular Crash and Burn is a bighearted novel that will wiggle its way into the heart of every listener. It follows Francine Stevenson. whose life revolved around her anxious agoraphobic mother—her abrupt passing rocks Francine to her core and sends her into a tailspin of depression. She copes by rummaging through her mother’s assortment of pills, dancing manically at night to the disco she and her mother enjoyed while keeping up appearances at work during daylight hours.

The cheerful Mother Superior of St Philomena's convent is friend to many in the town of Fairbridge and the irrepressible caller at the weekly Parish Bingo. There is nothing she can't sort out with a kind word, a cup of tea and a slice of her amazing chocolate cake. As the Christmas tree goes up and festive cheer rises, a visitor arrives at the convent who doesn't like Sister Bridget one bit. Sister Bridget learns that secrets are bubbling to the surface back home in Ireland - especially for her younger sister Mary.

Blackpool, November 1942. Wartime worries fail to dampen the glitz and glamour of the ballroom in the run-up to Christmas. After all, life is for living. Newlywed Pearl's bliss is cut short when her beloved Bernie is called up into the Army. Will dancing at the Tower Ballroom take the edge off her heartache or will it throw temptation her way? Unexpected news of an inheritance presents Joy with a different dilemma. Should she move to Scotland in line with her parents' final wishes or stay in Blackpool to dance with Tommy, the man she loves?

Emma Oxley and Nellie Yarrow have been inseparable their whole lives. Ever since they reinvented themselves, changing their names and wiping clean their digital footprints, they have made a game of following wherever the next adventure leads and challenging themselves to thefts, street cons, and mind games. Adhering to only two rules—they will only con men, and only ones who deserve it—Emma and Nellie are secure in their reputation as the most trustworthy swindlers on the European black market. Until suddenly, they must play to save their own lives.

Dorothy “Dee” Gale is searching for a place to belong. After their globe-trotting mother’s death, Dee and her sister Toni settled with Uncle Henry and Aunt Em in Kansas, where Dee attends graduate school. But when Dee’s relationship with a faculty member, a bestselling novelist, ends in heartbreak and humiliation, she’s caught in a tornado of negative publicity. Unable to face her colleagues—or her former lover—Dee applies to the writing program at Trinity College Dublin.

The aroma of chocolate was as familiar to Molly Freeman as the nose on her face. Living and schooling on Haxby Road alongside the Rowntrees Chocolate Factory, Molly watched the daily trudge of women employed there in their white uniforms as she sat at her school desk. When Molly secures a job on the production line at the factory, she's excited to become one of these women. As she labours hard at the factory, she meets Connie. Quickly the two form a close friendship, and Molly begins to see the world differently.

Former policeman Ray ‘Sugar’ Leonard is no stranger to bad breaks. But even Walter White never had to open up and share his feelings with a bunch of misfits like Ray’s chemotherapy group: a giant God-bothering Welsh bouncer, a sharp-suited wannabe Wolf of Wall Street, and a misanthropic, potty-mouthed little old lady. Compared to that lot, getting mugged on his way home from the clinic was almost a relief.

As the Great War rages across Europe, twenty-one-year-old Ruby Archer decides to ‘do her bit’ at an East End munitions factory. The work is relentless and deafening, but the camaraderie of the other girls carries her through. As the threat of another Zeppelin attack grows by the day, Ruby cannot ignore the abandoned animals scavenging the local streets. She rescues a stray kitten, Tess, and takes in an injured terrier Mac, but when all the local cats mysteriously disappear, she knows she needs to do more, and with the help of her friends plans to open a weekly animal clinic.

It’s been six years since Maggie followed her screenwriting dreams to Los Angeles and forgot to look back. But things in Hollywood didn’t go quite to plan. Now, twenty-five and suddenly home in New York, Maggie doesn’t know who she’s more anxious to see: her ex-boyfriend, Mac, or her ex-best friend, Liz. When Maggie accepts her former friends' unexpected invitation to join in their summer share house, a rental named Serendipity, she knows it’s the chance she needs to get her life back on track.