Showing results by publisher "Penguin Audio" in Contemporary

MBA student Caroline Sedlacek knows her personal balance sheet is a little lopsided. On the asset side, at twenty-two she’s got an NCAA trophy, a great education...and the two million dollars she unexpectedly inherited. Liabilities? She's never had friends, a boyfriend, or any life experiences away from the tennis court or the classroom. She'd love to invest herself in everything else, but "everything else" never came easily for her.

Laurel Grant works as the social media manager for Buckeye State of Mind, an Ohio tourism magazine and website. She most definitely does not run a farm . . . but one tiny misunderstanding leads her boss, Gilbert, to think she owns her twin sister Holly’s farm just outside of Columbus. Laurel only handles the social media for the farm, but she’s happy to keep her little white lie going if it means not getting fired—she cannot be jobless again. And keep it going she must when Gilbert, recently dumped by his wife, invites himself over for the farm’s big Christmas Eve Eve dinner.

Whenever things get too serious, baker Lolly Crocker knows it’s time to break it off with a guy. Without fail, her gut would tell her that the man she was dating was not Mr. Right. The one exception is Shaun Montana, her high school sweetheart. With Shaun, life felt complete; but her mother convinced her she was too young to be tied down, and Lolly broke up with him the night before she left for college.

Forty-nine-year-old Margot Hughes has lived and breathed theater for the past twenty-five years. After a devastating breakup with her playwright fiancé, she wants nothing to do with the industry. She has sworn off New York, theater, actors—all of it. She returns to her hometown on California’s central coast and takes a job in real estate, where she manages significant investment properties. But Margot’s suddenly thrown back into the theater world when Sally, her friend and boss, who had been restoring and funding Cambria’s historic theater, has a heart attack.

Ten years after fleeing home, Nina is the chief stewardess on the super yacht Serendipity, single by choice, and perfectly content with how life has turned out. But Nina’s ex-coworker and old flame, Irish chef Ollie Dunne, isn’t so happy with the status quo. One year after leaving yachting, he's returned as the Serendipity’s chef with an ultimatum: if Nina continues to deny she's in love with him by the end of this charter season, he'll go back to Ireland for good.

Photographer Cassie Harris loves her job - her company Buxom Boudoir makes people look beautiful and feel empowered with her modern twist on classic pinup photography. Cassie’s best friend, Dana, is about to launch her own dangerously dreamy lingerie line and wants Cassie to shoot and direct the career-changing national campaign. But company politics and Dana’s complicated pregnancy interfere, and Cassie finds herself - a proud plus-size Black woman - not behind the camera but in front of it.

When 12-year-olds Kat Steiner and Blake O’Neill meet at Camp Chickawah, they have an instant connection. But everything falls apart when they learn they’re not just best friends—they’re also half sisters. Confused and betrayed, the girls break off all contact. Fifteen years later, when their father dies suddenly, Kat and Blake discover he’s left them a joint inheritance: the family beach house in Destin, Florida. The two sisters are immediately at odds. Blake wants to sell the house, while Kat is desperate to hold on to the place where she lived so many happy memories.

Nell is 26 and has never been to Paris. She's never even been on a romantic weekend away - to anywhere - before. Traveling abroad isn't really her thing. But when Nell's boyfriend fails to show up for their mini vacation, she has the opportunity to prove everyone - including herself - wrong. Alone in Paris, Nell finds a version of herself she never knew existed: independent and intrepid. Could this turn out to be the most adventurous weekend of her life?

Sometimes Kenya Davenport believes she was switched at the hospital - how else could a lover of anime, gaming, and cosplay come from STEM parents? Still, Kenya dreams of being able to turn her creative hobby into a career. She finally has a chance to make it big when she joins the reality show competition Cosplay or No Way.

The house is on Montpelier Parade: just across town, but it might as well be a different world. Working on the garden with his father one Saturday, Sonny is full of curiosity. Then the back door eases open, and she comes down the path towards him. Vera. Chance meetings become shy arrangements, and soon Sonny is in love for the first time. Casting off his lonely life of dreams and quiet violence for this new intoxicating encounter, he longs to know Vera, even to save her. But what is it that Vera isn't telling him?

A delicious Christmas feast of short stories from the Sunday Times number one best-selling author of A French Affair and The Perfect Match. Add some extra sparkle to your Christmas by joining Katie Fforde for a perfect, romantic Christmas feast of short stories. Collected together for the first time and including one brand-new story. Make your Christmas wishes come true....

One love letter can change everything.... The new Rose Harbor novel from the international best-selling author of Rose Harbor in Bloom and Blossom Street Brides. Ellie travels to Rose Harbor to meet a man she's been writing to, but he reveals a secret that makes her question their relationship. Maggie and her husband have grown apart. Can a love letter from long ago help them to find the spark they have lost?

It is 1943, and three very different girls are longing to do their bit for the war effort. Frances - her life of seeming privilege has been a lonely one. Brave and strong, stifled by her traditional upbringing, she falls for a most unsuitable man Prudence - timid and conventional, her horizons have never strayed beyond her job as a bank clerk in Croydon until the war brings her new experiences Rosalind - a beautiful, flame-haired actress who catches the eye of Frances's stuffy elder brother, the heir to an ancestral mansion.

Jemima Jones is driving home to her family's magical hill-top farm for Christmas… And on arrival, she soon learns that her dad has been keeping a secret – all is not as it seems, and Hollybush Farm is struggling to make ends meet! Worried about losing the childhood home she loves, Jemima decides it’s time to pull on her winter wellies.

Noah Adams’s career as a playwright is circling the drain, thanks to a scorching review of his first Broadway musical. So when a family emergency sends him back to his Podunk hometown of Plainview, Illinois, he figures he’ll hide out for a bit. But to Noah’s horror, his agent has secretly arranged for him to stage an amateur version of the career-ruining musical at the local community theater. As if trying to work with a bunch of artless amateurs wasn’t enough, Noah runs into Luke, the jerk from his high school years, everywhere he goes.

From their very first date, Jamie and Lucy know they've met the one. They're as different as night and day. Jamie's a home bird, while Lucy's happiest on holiday. He has a place for everything—she can never find her keys. Yet, somehow, they make each other happier than they ever thought possible. So why does their story start with them saying 'goodbye'?

James Patterson's BookShots. Fast-paced, high-impact entertainment. He's worth millions, but he's worthless without her. It's been a month since her traumatic break-up with Derick, and Siobhan now lives in Detroit, where she can support herself and her painting career. But suddenly Derick's back after flying halfway across America for her. And though Siobhan's body comes alive at his touch, she doesn't know if she can trust him again....

James Patterson's BookShots. Fast-paced, high-impact entertainment. She's a starving artist, and he's a billionaire playboy.... Siobhan came to New York with a purpose: she wants to become a successful artist. To pay her bills in the meantime, she's the hostess at The Stone Room, a bar for the beautiful and the billionaires. She is fine with being on her own - until tech billionaire Derick takes her breath away.

An apparently happy marriage. A beautiful son. A lovely home. So what makes Emily Coleman wake up one morning and walk right out of her life? How will she survive? And what is the date that looms, threatening to force her to confront her past? No-one has ever guessed her secret. Will you?Tina Seskis's One Step Too Far is an absolutely unputdownable story of secrets and heartbreak.

The frost and fairy lights only remind her it's been a year since she lost the mother who took her in as a baby and raised her. She's never felt more alone - until she discovers her birth mother's identity. And where to find her. A lifetime and thousands of miles have separated Evangeline and Bonnie. Now, travelling to New Zealand could be Evangeline's chance to confront the woman who gave her up. But is she ready for what she'll find there? The answers she's been looking for, a new family to heal her... Or someone she could never have expected?