Showing results by narrator "Mary Woodvine" in All Categories

Hithechurch, a peaceful, out-of-the-way seaside town in Kent. When Charlie was young, she would visit with her family, making friends and playing down by the beach. Their favourite was telling scary stories; silly games of make-believe that would twist and weave old wife’s tales to scare each other. They would laugh and try to shake off the shiver than ran down their backs and made the hair on their necks stand on end.

After their dreams of starting a family are crushed, Philippa and her husband Marco need a fresh start. Focusing on repairing the crumbling walls and leaking roof of the Cotswolds house they impulsively bought seems easier work than repairing their relationship. When Philippa finds a hidden memorial hidden deep in the garden, the discovery only pushes them further apart. But as Philippa determines to uncover the truth behind the memorial, could the secrets it reveals be the key to finally putting their heartbreak to rest?

Susannah has had a tough year. After a knotty divorce, moving to a small town in the south of England with her two sons is exactly the fresh start she needs. Charlotte is delighted when Susannah arrives in town. Charlotte may appear to have the perfect husband, the perfect family, the perfect house, but she needs someone to confide in. The two women instantly become best friends. But underneath the surface, secrets, lies and betrayals are all hiding. And when the truth comes out, not everyone will live to tell the tale.

As the Prosecco chills and Bing Crosby croons, Jen Barker just knows that her long-term boyfriend is about to propose. But instead of a diamond ring nestled in her champagne flute, Jen finds cold flat rejection. Her once perfect life and dreams of a husband and family seem even further from reach. A working holiday to the Swiss Alps with her younger sister Jody might not be the Christmas Jen had it mind, but it offers her the chance to recharge her batteries and recover from heartbreak.

A laugh-out-loud, uplifting comedy about finding the courage to be yourself, the importance of dreams, and learning to grab life by the glitter balls. Dance like nobody’s watching. Love like you’ll never get hurt... Laura Watkin’s heart isn’t broken, she’s just forgotten how to use it. After years on her own, the highlight of single mum Laura’s week is watching Strictly Come Dancing with a glass of Pinot Grigio and a large helping of imagination. With her daughter Sophie going travelling, Laura knows the time is right to do something for herself for a change.

Miranda's taken great care to create a calm and ordered world for herself, and in her job as property manager of a spectacular island castle in Cornwall, she's had the castle running like clockwork. But this summer, its sexy owner returns to claim his birthright—and Miranda's careful life will never be the same again. Dark, handsome and with a rakish reputation, Jago St Merryn not only looks like a pirate but is intent on flogging the Mount to a soulless leisure corporation. Miranda faces the battle of her life as she tries to persuade him to change his mind.

Rose Fell's friends think she's taking a big risk when she leaves the security of home and career to move to the beautiful but isolated village of Grosso, near Genoa. But after a year of emotional turmoil Rose no longer has any ties back home, and she relishes the challenges of a new start. Making a home, however, in the ravishing, haunted landscape of Italy's Riviera coast turns our to be lonelier than Rose had anticipated. And it is only when she is asked to write a profile on one of her reclusive neighbours, the once-glamorous film star Elvira Vitale, that Rose feels her new life is really beginning.

Emily's instincts tell her that best friend Joanne's new boyfriend is bad news. Emily fears for Joanne. Fears for Joanne's children. But Joanne won't listen because she's in love. So Emily watches and waits...and then she makes a choice. But Emily has a past, and secrets, too. And is she really as good a friend to Joanne as she claims?

Alone at Christmas, will she find somewhere to call home? No more than 18 years old, alone and heavily pregnant, Kathleen stumbles through the snow, desperate for somewhere to rest her weary head. As the Christmas bells chime around her, she glimpses a man through the haze before collapsing into his arms.

A heartwarming novel from the queen of family saga, Sheila Newberry. London, 1925. On Paradise Corner, just past the tram stop, Florence runs a pie shop, famous for miles around. Warm and comforting, just like her pies, Florence is always there as a helping hand or a shoulder to cry on, especially to her full house of family and friends. There's six-year-old niece Josefina, left with Florence by her wayward sister, Stella. Rose Marie, Florence's younger sister, in search of adventures of her own.

Jamie Allenby wakes alone and realises her fever has broken. But could everyone she knows be dead? Months earlier Jamie had left her partner, Daniel, mourning the miscarriage of their baby. She'd just had to get away, so she took a job on a distant planet. Then the virus hit. Jamie survived as it swept through our far-flung colonies. Now she feels desperate and isolated, until she receives a garbled message from Earth. If someone from her past is still alive - perhaps Daniel - she knows she must find a way to return.

When a surrogate mother pretends the pregnancy has miscarried and bears a daughter, to whom does the child belong? To her runaway birth mother or her deceived father and his wife? Scout, born as a result of a surrogacy arrangement, is kept by her biological mother, Joanie, who has deliberately deceived both the clinic and Scout's intended parents by claiming to have had a miscarriage. When this deception comes to light 10 years later, a compelling moral dilemma unfolds.

When Monica is offered a three-month placement in LA, she knows that for the sake of her career she must accept it - even though it means leaving behind nine-year-old Ruby, toddler Luca and her husband, Daniel. She hires Ursula as a housekeeper and nanny during her absence, although the older woman is oddly reluctant to agree to a childcare position. What is the dark secret in Ursula's past which has left her so closed off and reserved? Will her growing attachment to Ruby bring it to the surface?

When a delirious Irishman arrives in a Cornish harbour, baker Mary Kneebone takes him in, and soon the sick and gullible are queuing at her door. A wry comedy about faith, love and redemption from outstanding Cornish playwright Annamaria Murphy.

Cracow, 1893. Thirty-eight-year-old Zofia Turbotyńska has assured her husband’s rise through the ranks to university professor and is now looking for something to fill her long days at home. To stave off the boredom and improve her social standing, she decides to organise a charity raffle. To recruit the requisite patronage of elderly aristocratic ladies, she visits Helcel House, a retirement home run by nuns.

Samantha Jackson has been missing for 18 years when she gets back in touch with her sister. Sam needs Freya - now a grown woman with a family of her own - to take in her son. But Dino is not a happy child, despite the warmth of Freya's family he cannot settle. He startles at loud noises and he's prone to angry, violent outbursts. He's one of the family, Freya knows he is, but why doesn't it feel like that? In order to keep her daughters safe, Freya is forced to go in search of the truth. What is going on with Dino, and what really happened to her sister the night she left?

Everyone knows Melissa Silk and her two best friends: a walking poster for friendship and community. People might hate them if they weren't so infectiously likeable. But when tragedy strikes, Melissa can't move on. Everyone urges Melissa to let things go before obsession and paranoia pull her friendship group apart. But she knows that something isn't right. And she owes it to her friends to find out what it is. But what if learning the truth means losing everything she cherishes? Because friends don't lie. Or do they?

Rose is moving. For her and her son, Noah, this is going to be a fresh start. She’s almost finished packing, but Noah is determined to spend one last night camping out in the garden like he used to. Rose agrees as long as he wraps up warm inside their small tent. Four hours later, she’s woken by a frantic banging on the window. It’s Noah. There’s someone in the garden.

Will Bailey, a struggling musician busking in a tube station, falls for Emily, the quirky art student who passes by every morning. By 1997, Will’s performing on the pyramid stage at Glastonbury, and Emily has her own gallery show. The pair share a magical summer, touring across Europe and America with Will's band – caught up in their love, both for each other and their art. But within two years, Will is dead.