Showing results by author "Phoebe" in All Categories

As an estate agent, Alex’s job is to create happy-ever-afters. It’s just a shame she can’t work the same magic on her own life. Her long-term boyfriend Thomas still lives with his mother, and her hopes of them taking the next step are dashed when he announces he’s spending all his savings (savings she’d quite hoped he’d want to put towards their future home) on an ‘artist retreat’ in San Francisco.

Ruby is happily sworn off men. There’s nothing she needs that can’t get from her friends, cat or, frankly, the wonders of modern technology. So when her flatmate tricks her into going on a singles cruise, she’s furious. Thankfully, Ruby isn’t the only one onboard under false pretences. Cameron also had no idea what he was letting himself in for. So after Ruby and Cameron strike up conversation, they agree to platonically pair off, to protect each other from the flirtatious advances of the other guests – not to mention the matchmaking efforts of Barry, the enthusiastic host.

For Beatrice, working at one of London’s boutique hotels is a dream come true. She doesn’t need a social life. She just needs an ordered diary, crisply folded sheets and happy guests. But Beatrice’s routine comes to an abrupt halt when her hotel is raided by the police. Suddenly she finds herself released on bail, and trapped in London, with only the hotel chef Jock for company.

Earlier this year, Autumn’s life looked great: she had a great relationship with her brilliant teenage daughter Chloe and from September she was all set to be Deputy Head at the London school where she works. And with a pay rise on the cards, she was excited for her and her long-term boyfriend Marc to buy their first home. But Autumn’s barely opened the estate agent's website when Marc vanishes with half their savings, leaving her no choice but to move into grandma’s rural home in Kent. And things go from bad to worse when Autumn is involved in an accident during the move.

Hysteria! presents tales of howling nuns, fainting schoolgirls, witches, wombs, online panics and threats – both imagined and real. Crossing decades and continents, and from personal panics to societal scares, Alice Lowe explores hysterical behaviour. Come join the delirium....

Thea Rogers has dedicated her life to her career in corporate law. Apart from her colleague and long-time friend-with-benefits Alasdair, she’s forgone friendships and relationships, and now she’s on track to become her firm’s youngest ever female partner. She should be ecstatic. But when a senior partner dies unexpectedly, Thea realises the people at his funeral are only there out of duty. Suddenly, Thea can’t shake the question: if she disappeared tomorrow, would anyone care?

Wren Xavier prizes loyalty above all else. So when someone murders her only friend in the world, the magical superspy swears she’ll bring the killer to justice. But her only lead is the megalomaniacal ambassador from the enchanted land of elves – who couldn’t possibly have committed the crime. Pursuing her quarry to his home country, the thirty-nine-year-old covert operative finds herself in over her head in a culture she doesn’t understand.

Daisy’s life is going nowhere, but that’s just how she likes it. Unable to move on from the tragic accident that killed her parents ten years ago, she’s living each day as it comes. After all, what’s the point of plans and dreams if one random event can rip them all from you? She’s quite comfortable with her dead-end job and her lacklustre love life, thank you. When she and her sister inherit a run-down café from a distant relative, her first instinct is to sell it.

In a luxury lodge on Botswana’s sun-soaked plains, four friends reunite for a birthday celebration. Arriving at the safari lodge, a feeling of unease settles over them. There’s no sign of the party that was promised. There’s no phone signal. They’re alone, in the wild.

Four friends on the holiday of a lifetime. Until a vicious murder shatters their paradise. Four friends who'd do anything for each other, until now. Only one of them committed a crime. But all four know how to keep a secret. And they're all guilty of something.

When Charley finds herself suddenly single on Christmas Day, it feels like her world has fallen apart. Forced to move back in with her parents, she embarks on a journey of re-invention. When she meets Ed, who is on honeymoon alone after being jilted at the altar by a bride he's never met, it looks like her life may be taking a turn for the better. Fate, however, has other ideas, and she and Ed are forced apart.

Bethany Parker finally feels at home. With a found family of fellow supernatural outcasts, the fifty-year-old divorcée starts to believe she can make peace with her past. But when the vampire she freed receives a visit from his former partner-in-crime, she discovers she's not the only one running from trouble. Threatened with death by the new arrival unless she retrieves a magical artifact, Bethany plots to thwart the bloodsucker's trap. But even with the help of her level-headed medium friend and loyal talking cat, the recently awakened mystic fears she won't master her powers in time.

Poppy is a therapist. You’d think her parents would be proud. But Poppy is the type of therapist that makes her mother cringe - she helps people with their, ahem, bedroom problems… Normally Poppy deals with her difficult family - two parents, one brother, a couple sisters and an assortment of nieces and nephews - by keeping a county or two between her and them. But with her little sister about to get married there’s no avoiding the week-long family holiday in Cornwall.

When Layla and Andy first meet, they can't believe they share 'McKinnon' as a surname. It feels like fate, almost too romantic to be true. But Sera, Layla's best friend, has her doubts about Andy. As the pair fall deeper and deeper in love, she becomes more and more vocal about Layla settling down with a white boy. And then, only a few weeks before their wedding, Layla discovers that the reason behind their shared surname might not be so romantic after all.

From acclaimed author Phoebe North comes a riveting, unexpected, and beautiful contemporary novel about a girl whose brother mysteriously disappears, the family and friends he leaves behind, and the stories - real and imagined - that they tell themselves to fill the empty space.

City girl Sophie has married the prince (or landed gentry - close enough), moved to his pile (which is more accurate a description than she’d anticipated) and is set to live happily ever after - until she finds the other half of her perfect life in the stables with the stable girl, and they’re definitely not grooming the horses. Shocked and appalled, Sophie’s no happier to learn that she’s supposed to 'just get on with it'. After all, according to her mother-in-law, she got the title...they even overlooked her family’s ‘new money’ status.

Madison reckons she’s a pretty good judge of character. When a disaster at work brings professional photographer Toby into her life, she has him all worked out within minutes. As their work collaboration blossoms into friendship, her preconceptions about him are only strengthened. The problem is that Madison has got one aspect of Toby completely wrong, and it tears their friendship apart when she finds out. How will she make sense of his revelation and, more importantly, how on earth will she get him to talk to her again?

Everyone remembers their first love. Jess Thomas definitely does. So, it’s more than a little awkward when Jess’s first love, Jamie Ferguson, turns out to be the best man at the wedding she’s catering for. And more than a little insulting when he doesn’t appear to remember her at all. Since Jamie broke her heart (via text!), 10 years earlier, Jess has sworn off romance. And with a booming catering business to focus on, she’s doing OK. She has no interest in revisiting the past. But when Jess’s car breaks down on a country lane, she has no choice but to accept Jamie’s help.

Bethany Parker is falling apart. Stunned on her fiftieth birthday to discover her stepchildren hate her and her husband wants a divorce, the devastated homemaker is suddenly and unexpectedly on her own. Taking a job as caretaker for a mysterious estate, Bethany fears she's lost her mind when she learns the house is cursed . . . and she holds the power to break it. Teaming with a pushy medium, a hard-drinking housekeeper, and a sarcastic talking cat, the discombobulated divorcée struggles to master the magic she never knew she had.

Luke Godfrey knows me only as Jade, the sweet stripper whose curves he is forbidden to touch. But when he is the surprise guest lecturer in my business class, he finally meets Abby Reynolds - the real me - even though I've done my best to avoid the gaze of this silver fox. Will this hot, high-flying CEO fall for the real me? Will he add "fall in love" to his to-do list? Can I get my startup off the ground without the help of a sugar daddy? And can I find true love - and lose my V-card - too?