Showing results by publisher "Audible Studios" in Women's Fiction

Isma is free. After years spent raising her twin siblings in the wake of their mother's death, she is finally studying in America, resuming a dream long deferred. But she can't stop worrying about Aneeka, her beautiful, headstrong sister back in London - or their brother, Parvaiz, who's disappeared in pursuit of his own dream: to prove himself to the dark legacy of the jihadist father he never knew. Then Eamonn enters the sisters' lives. Handsome and privileged, he inhabits a London worlds away from theirs.

Irina obsessively takes explicit photographs of the average-looking men she persuades to model for her, scouted from the streets of Newcastle. Placed on sabbatical from her dead-end bar job, she is offered an exhibition at a fashionable London gallery, promising to revive her career in the art world and offering an escape from her rut of drugs, alcohol and extreme cinema. The news triggers a self-destructive tailspin, centred around Irina's relationship with her obsessive best friend and a shy young man from her local supermarket who has attracted her attention....

A woman and her husband rent a summer house, but what should be a restful getaway turns into a suffocating psychological battle. This chilling account of postpartum depression and a husband's controlling behaviour in the guise of treatment will leave you breathless.

When Autumn Carpenter stumbles upon the social media account of the family who adopted her infant daughter years ago, she finds herself instantly drawn into their picture-perfect existence. From behind a computer screen, Autumn watches Grace's every memory, from birthdays to holidays to bedtime snuggles. But what starts as an innocent fascination soon spirals into an addictive obsession that comes to a screeching halt the day the McMullen family closes their Instaface account.

As a child, Vicky Hall never had the sort of family she wanted. The least important person in her new step-family, ignored by her mother in favour of her two younger half siblings, Vicky was always an afterthought. Sitting alone at her graduation ceremony at the age of 21, she vows to create her own family and her own life, one which is full of the love and attention she has always craved.

They call him the puppet master. They say he's dirty, dark and dangerous. And they're right. He's everything they say he is, and more. So much more.... Alexander Henley has no idea I exist. No idea whatsoever how much I want him. But that's all about to change.

One coin for love, one for marriage, one to return to Rome. Two days ago, Lara Foxleigh tossed three gold euros into the Trevi Fountain. Now, she is caring for a cranky old man and living in a picturesque villa...half a world away from her home and the concerns of her loving family. Soon, it seems as if those wishes she made in Rome just might be coming true, and she may even be able to help heal a 15-year-old tragedy. Until Lara's past threatens to destroy everything she loves....

In 1944, British bomber pilot Hugo Langley parachuted from his stricken plane into the verdant fields of German-occupied Tuscany. Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal. Nearly 30 years later, Hugo's estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father's funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.

She thought this was a game. She thought she could walk away. She thought wrong. I've lived a cold, unforgiving life. I've seen things, I've done things, that would break a man. If they didn't kill him first. With my past behind me, I have nothing. No way to atone for my sins and nothing to lift me from the depths of despair I've come from. And no one to give me the control that I so desperately desire.

At first, his words were harsh and his touch cold. I knew he was a dangerous man and he could destroy me if only he wanted to. That’s not what he wanted though. It’s not what he needed. It’s not what I desired either. It’s so easy to get lost in the touch of a man who’s powerful and unattainable. A man who wants for nothing...except me. Soft touches and stolen glances made my blood heat and my heart beat in a way I never knew it could. Yes, it’s easy to fall into a haze of lust and desire. But there’s a reason his reputation is one of a heartless man.

Motherhood treats one of the most consequential decisions of early adulthood - whether or not to have children - with the intelligence, wit and originality that have won Sheila Heti international acclaim. Having reached an age when most of her peers are asking themselves when they will become mothers, Heti’s narrator considers, with the same urgency, the question of whether she will do so at all. Over the course of several years, under the influence of her partner, her body, her family, mysticism and chance, Heti's narrator struggles to make a wise and meaningful choice.

Her lips tasted like Cabernet and her touch was like fire. I was blinded by what she did to me. I so easily fell for something I thought I’d never have. I was weak for her and should’ve known better. I should’ve known she could never love a man like me. She brought out a side of me that I wish had stayed dead. I won’t make the same mistake twice. I don’t care how much she begs me. I don’t care that I crave her more than anything else.

Charles Henstock, vicar of Thrush Green, is living in his new vicarage after the old one burned down. In its place are eight retirement homes, but there’s heated debate in the village about the new residents. How to choose who will live there? How will they get on together? And how will they accommodate all the pets? Meanwhile the old residents have their worries.

Absorbing and escapist, The Villa on the Riviera is perfect summer listening for fans of Rachel Hore and Santa Montefiore. Polly Smith is struggling to make a living as an artist when her friend and patron, Oliver, invites her to the south of France. But her world is unexpectedly turned upside down when she digs out her birth certificate to apply for a passport. Her parents are not who she believed them to be - even her name is different.

Bossy. Heart of stone. Snarly mess next door. Send help before I'm prick-matized.... My next big mistake has a name. Warren Ford. Best kept secret in this weird little town. An alpha's alpha. Spartan abs. Too blunt for everybody's good. Moody, broody, mysterious, and totally up in my business.

As I saw my newborn baby’s face for the first time, I tried desperately to capture her face in my mind - to stamp it onto my eyelids. As she was taken from me, I knew I might never see my daughter again. Thirty-seven years later... 'You were adopted'. Three short words and Sabina’s life fractures. There would forever be a before those words and an after. Pregnant with her own child, Sabina can’t understand how a mother could abandon her daughter or why her parents have kept the past a secret.

Kate Fullerton, talented tea designer and now co-owner of The Tea Chest, could never have imagined that she'd be flying from Brisbane to London, risking her young family's future, to save the business she loves from the woman who wants to shut it down. Meanwhile, Leila Morton has just lost her job; and if Elizabeth Clancy had known today was the day she would appear on the nightly news, she might at least have put on some clothes. Both need to move on.

It'd take the impossible to hurt Connor Cobalt, even for a moment. At 26 his narcissistic tendencies have made room for the people he loves. And he loves Rose. But when his love is threatened, when his greatest dreams with her are compromised. What is the cost then?

I'm leaving you this note because I know you're very busy, and I don't want to waste the town sheriff's time. Lord knows I've already wasted enough of it. Thank you for taking me home last night and...everything else. I made you a basket of wild blueberry muffins for your trouble. That seemed like the appropriate baked good for getting naked in your living room. I wasn't myself last night. I didn't mean to kiss you or fondle your backside or ask all those intimate questions. Thank you for pretending to enjoy it.

Jo had thought that her life - and her heart - was full. With a busy job, a husband and a teenage daughter who is going off the rails, keeping her life running smoothly had already felt hard enough. But now Jo sits at the funeral of her best friend, Ginny, crushed by the loss of a friendship that had endured for 30 years: from college and their first days at work through to settling down and raising their own children. Against her husband’s wishes, Jo has made a life-changing decision: to take in Ginny’s teenage son, Victor, and raise him as her own.