Showing results by narrator "Madeleine Leslay" in All Categories

Maisie has always loved horses. She is also a talented artist. When the opportunity arises for her to study in Paris, her two worlds collide. There, in the heart of the city, Maisie finds the childhood diary of famous horse artist Rose Bonifait and meets the beautiful black stallion Claude. As the two girls’ stories emerge, tragedies unfold - both past and present - and Maisie realises that she can’t begin to imagine life without her forever horse.

Corrie Browne is an ordinary girl with extraordinary ambitions. Determined to find the father she has never known, her search takes her from the quiet Suffolk village where she lives, to a new life in London, a fast-paced television career—and to three people who come to dominate her life. Three colleagues—all of whom are to play an important role in Corrie's search for love and success. One of whom intends Corrie's ultimate destruction.

Tilly can't believe it when her best friend, Matty, is asked to be a bridesmaid. In Tilly's favourite daydream, she's kitted out in the most beautiful bridesmaid dress, walking down the aisle behind a beautiful bride. The one wedding she'd really like to attend is her own mum and dad's. But as that's never going to happen, it's time for Tilly to make her own dream come true - and put her bridesmaid services up for hire....

Pretty, unworldly Sophia is twenty-one years old and hastily married to a young painter called Charles. An artist's model with an eccentric collection of pets, she is ill-equipped to cope with the bohemian London of the 1930s, where poverty, babies (however much loved) and her husband conspire to torment her. Hoping to add some spice to her life, Sophia takes up with Peregrine, a dismal, ageing critic, and comes to regret her marriage - and her affair.

Jenneen, Kate, Ellamarie and Ashley are enviable women. They are desirable and powerful, with glamorous jobs in the media and the theatre and, most importantly, the closest of friendships. But each of the friends has a dark secret, and none of them can ever be entirely safe from the passion, deceit and danger which threatens to seduce and then destroy them.

Bad Girls of Ancient Greece contains profiles of wayward wives, mad mothers, scandalous sisters and damsels, that quite frankly, caused others A LOT of stress in the ancient world. With the ever-growing popularity of mythological retellings, Lizzy Tiffin has written THE guide to all of the baddies of ancient Greece. This book stands as a reminder that us women really have been badasses since the start.

Everyone connected to the court of Louis XIV has something to hide. For the Baroness Marie Catherine, it is the pleasures she seeks outside of her unhappy marriage, indulging in a more liberated existence of decadent salons and discussions with writers and scholars. At the centre of her illicit freedom is her lover Victoire Rose de Bourbon, Mademoiselle de Conti, the androgynous, self-assured countess.

1789. The Bastille is marked for destruction. Skirmishes in the city are rife and revolution is in the air. When a gruesomely murdered rebel is found in the prison morgue, a plot is suspected. English spy Attica Morgan, is laying low after an abortive mission. So when she's given an assignment inside the Bastille, her instinct is to run. Instead, she's offered a pardon, in return for solving the mystery of the dead revolutionary; and exposing a plot that leads to Marie Antoinette.

Halley has been running from her problems for years. On a courier trip to Tallfors, deep in Swedish Lapland, everything is going to plan. Halley has her bag, with two precious wedding rings inside for delivery...until she doesn't. The only way to save the wedding is to team up with mysterious reindeer herder Bjorn, the one person who can lead her across the snowy tundra to be reunited with her bag.

Megan doesn't speak. She hasn't spoken in months. Pushing away the people she cares about is just a small price to pay. Because there are things locked inside Megan's head - things that are screaming to be heard - that she cannot, must not, let out. Then Jasmine starts at school: bubbly, beautiful, talkative Jasmine. And for reasons Megan can't quite understand, life starts to look a bit brighter. Megan would love to speak again, and it seems like Jasmine might be the answer.

In 1886, a respectable young woman must acquire a husband. But Violet Pring does not want to marry. She longs to be a professional artist and live on her own terms. When her scheming mother secures a desirable marriage proposal from an eligible Brighton gentleman for her, Violet protests. Her family believes she is deranged and deluded, so she is locked away in Hillwood Grange Lunatic Asylum against her will. In her new cage, Violet faces an even greater challenge: she must escape the clutches of a sinister and formidable doctor and set herself free.

This Friday the 13th has been particularly unlucky. Jess has been fired from her comfortable job. She's gone from dating two guys to none. She's been kicked out of her mediocre flat. And worst of all, she's really really let down her best friend. As she drifts off to sleep, she is filled with relief that this terrible day is over. Tomorrow she will try to fix things; tomorrow cannot be any worse than this. Except it is. Maybe not worse...but exactly the same. When Jess wakes up the next morning, it is Friday the 13th again. And again. And again. And again.

Meet Jasmine. The quirky/cool photographer to a superstar blogger. She's going on a date with a super hot guy on the London Eye tonight. Best friend Mila is her wifey for life. This millennial is #LivingHerBestLife. But fast-forward a few hours, and the reality isn't so picture perfect. Jasmine hates her stuck-up blogger boss. She can barely afford rent in her stupid London flat. Her best friend seems to have all her sh*t together. Oh, and that date she was so excited about? She got dumped. On the London Eye. In the middle of a thunderstorm. With a bunch of tourists watching....

Can romance and riches ever work out? One minute, Jemma Pears is a struggling theatrical make-up artist in London. The next, she's been left a vast fortune by her estranged grandmother. However, there's a catch: she must marry a man with a title to inherit. Jemma thinks this is truly impossible: she's a romantic, searching for true love, not just a convenient marriage... and besides, where would she even find a titled guy? Enter Ashford, the new Duke of Burlingham. His legacy: massive debts that he must pay back immediately or risk the bank seizing his assets.

Three women’s lives tangled together in a web of secrets, scandal and deceit, as the legacy of Castle du Rêve is finally discovered.

Monica Felton's 1945 novel gives a lively account of the experiences of a group of men and women working in a munitions factory during the Second World War. Wide-ranging in the themes it touches on, including class, sexism, socialism, fear of communism, workers' rights, anti-Semitism and xenophobia, the audiobook gives a vivid portrayal of factory life and details the challenges, triumphs and tragedies of a diverse list of characters.

Sukie has had enough of not putting herself out there. She has had enough of her mother thinking so very little of her timid daughter. On a whim, she accepts an offer to go to a Greek island for the weekend with Jake, a man she has barely begun dating. If that isn't putting herself out here, she doesn't know what is. Heather is at the airport when she sees a young woman with an older man—and immediately she understands that the woman is in danger. Because in 15 years, Heather hasn't been able to forget what Jake did to her.

London 1859. Carina Temple has put away the stifling black crepe demanded by the death of her father - but with it, she has also cast aside society’s expectations of what a single young lady should be and do. When Carina’s uncle summons her to Belgrave Square to inform her that her reputation is ruined, thanks to a certain Lord Danby, he tells her that she must travel to Italy until the gossip recedes and a suitable match can be found for her.

Tim Parkes was three when his parents were killed in a train crash and he went to live with his aunt May, first in New Cross and then to Walworth, where the living was cheaper. They managed splendidly - and then came the war. Tim Parkes became Gunner Parkes and Aunt May spent most of her nights in the Walworth air raid shelters with Tim keeping an eye on her whenever he was able.

Alec Reid’s ghosts of the 21st century seldom lurk in old houses or waft across chilly moors. His dark tales may breathe alongside the supernatural, but they take place in broad daylight, in our daily lives. Their themes include dead warriors resurrected via Bluetooth, Rumpelstiltskin in the suburbs, an algorithmic fear of ghosts, and the shattered dreams of immortality. The world they describe is the one you inhabit, but you would live in terror were you to recognize it for what it is.