Showing results by narrator "Nicky DIss" in All Categories

Jemma has always loved books. Fiction, non-fiction, the dictionary. She has lived a thousand lives apart from, maybe, her own. Her favourite book is a romance called Too Good to Be True. She’s got a first edition and all the special editions, but it doesn’t stop her from taking it out from the library whenever she can. Except recently someone keeps taking it out too and she’s forever on the waiting list for it. And worse still, one day there is a note from the mystery borrower – scolding her for bending the cover!

Gina Mills is desperate to be a newsreader, but her boss, the director of the struggling Channel Eight, won't help. Walking home one night, Gina stumbles upon a dead body, and after calling the police, she makes the split-second decision to report the murder live. When questioned by the police, Gina can't remember specific details about her discovery, but these memory gaps are explained away as shock. But when Gina finds a second body, it's clear she's being targeted. But why?

Space has captivated mankind since the beginning of time. Fifty years ago, Neil Armstrong became the first man to step on the moon, and since then our knowledge of astronomy has continued to expand. With so many mysteries yet to be solved, science journalist Abigail Beall takes readers on an astonishing journey though the landscape of space.

A Christmas anthology from legendary historian and Christmas Cracker compiler John Julius Norwich. This year go carol singing in the Cotswolds with Laurie Lee or attend church with a grumpy Samuel Pepys. Make plum puddings for bemused French villagers with Elizabeth David; go present shopping with Virginia Woolf, or eat far too much with Agatha Christie. Celebrate Christmas at Chatsworth, in the workhouse or marooned in the ice with Shackleton....

One mother's past could cost her everything. Frankie Keegan is struggling. While she tries to make strides in her career, life at home is slowly unravelling as she is haunted by the secrets of her past. Someone else remembers. As the dark nights draw in, the anniversary of the loss of her brother looms, and Frankie is drawn back to the memories of that fateful night 20 years previously. As she descends into a guilt-ridden state, she begins to suspect that someone else is also remembering that night and they are determined to terrify her.

When struggling actress Heidi has a life-changing accident aged 32, her world falls apart. Stuck in hospital and unable to walk, her only companion is Maud, the elderly lady in the bed next to hers. Heidi misses her flatmate, her life, her freedom - surely 32 is too young to be an amputee? But when Maud's aloof but attractive grandson Jack pays a visit to the ward, Heidi realises that her life isn't over just because it's different.

Twelve-year-old Tig works at the Theatre Royale, cleaning, selling tickets and doing anything else that is asked of her by her tyrannical boss, Mr Snell. But Tig will do whatever it takes to get closer to her dream - to become a stage manager and spend her days inventing new ways to imagine and build the intricate machinery and props that bring the exciting productions to life! But when a strange new act - a talking machine - arrives at the Theatre Royale, it moves and behaves in a way that Tig just can’t work out.

Madame Augustina Pinchbeck travels the country conjuring the spirits of dearly departed loved ones...for a price. Whilst her ability to contact ghosts is a game of smoke and mirrors, there is real magic behind her tricks, too - if you know where to look. Through a magical trade, she persuades children to part with precious objects, promising to use her powers to help them. But Pinchbeck is a deceiver, instead turning their items into enchanted cabinets that bind the children to her and into which she can vanish and summon them at will.

The whole world believed eight-year-old Cara killed her younger brother on that fateful night. But she blamed it on a paranormal entity she swears was haunting her house. No one believed her and after two years of treatment in a psychiatric unit for delusional disorder, Cara was shunned by her remaining family and put into foster care. Now she's being forced to return to the family home for the first time since her brother's death, but what if she's about to re-discover the evil that was lurking inside its walls?

Magic is forbidden in Myrsina, along with various other abominations, such as girls doing maths. This is bad news for Gretel Mudd, mathematician and inventor of helpful contraptions. When the sinister masked huntsmen accuse her of witchcraft, she is forced to flee into the neighbouring Darkwood, where witches and monsters dwell. There, she happens upon Buttercup, a witch who can’t help turning things into food; Jack Trott, who can make plants grow at will; the White Knight with her band of Dwarves; and a talking spider called Trevor.

Mum-to-be Rachel did everything right, but it all went wrong. Her son, Luke, was stillborn, and she finds herself on maternity leave without a baby, trying to make sense of her loss. When a misguided well-wisher tells her that 'everything happens for a reason', she becomes obsessed with finding that reason. She remembers that on the day she discovered her pregnancy, she'd stopped a man from jumping in front of a train, and she’s now certain that saving his life cost her the life of her son.

The Battle of Nearby Village is over, and deep in the Darkwood, Gretel and her friends journey into the hostile mountains of the north, seeking new allies in their fight against the huntsmen. There they find Gilde the Bear Witch, along with a Werewolf named Scarlett and a winged man named Hex. Meanwhile, Hansel and Daisy set off on a dangerous trip of their own to the Citadel, where they end up in the middle of a political battle for the future of the whole country.

Deep within Tanglefern Forest, Moll Pecksniff and her wildcat, Gryff, are waiting for a sign from the Old Magic before they continue their quest to find the last Amulet of Truth and free their world from the Shadowmasks’ terrible magic. Still missing fellow Tribe member Alfie, and armed only with a mysterious set of clues, Moll sets out on an adventure across the northern wilderness with Gryff and her friend Siddy at her side. They must brave the Lost Isles, scale the Barbed Peaks and face witches, goblins and giants who lurk at every turn...while the Shadowmasks draw ever closer.

Moll Pecksniff and her friends are living as outlaws in a secret cave by the sea, desperate to stay hidden from the Shadowmasks. But further along the coast lies the Amulet of Truth, the only thing powerful enough to force the Shadowmasks back and contain their dark magic. So, together with Gryff, the wildcat that’s always by her side, and her best friends, Alfie and Sid, Moll must sneak past smugglers, outwit mer creatures and crack secret codes to save the Old Magic.

When she was a teenager, Zoë Frixos fell in love with Simon Baxter, her best friend and the boy next door. But his family moved to America before she could tell him how she felt and, like a scratched record, she’s never quite moved on. Now, almost 20 years later, Simon is heading back to London, newly single and as charming as ever.

Recently dumped by her boyfriend of 10 years, Bell is struggling to move on with her life - and surrender the fleecy pyjamas she’s been living in since January. Haunted by #blessed on social media, she can’t help but compare her life to those she follows online, wondering where she is going wrong. In the world of social media, Millie is the successful online influencer @mi_bestlife. But in real life she’s just a regular single mum trying to make ends meet, while fending off the younger competition and tenacious internet trolls.

Jessica Bay’s life is full – of chaos. As an inner-city GP, mother to two moody teenagers, and wife to a man who can recall the last time they had sex (632 days ago) but can’t remember to take out the bins, Jessica is at her limit. In need of a change of pace, she and her family move to a tiny island in the English Channel. On one of her after-work walks, Jessica sits on a bench. No big deal, surely? But she soon discovers that this bench gives her the ability to relive any day in her past.