Showing results by narrator "Róisín Rankin" in All Categories

Life is hard in Ireland in 1867. Eliza Carthy moves with her lighthouse-keeper husband James and sons Peter and Joseph to the remote island of Skellig Michael. When assistant keeper Edmund and his wife Ruth arrive, Eliza hopes for respite. But her new neighbours are not what she'd expected.

After decades of dereliction and inner-city neglect, Barrack Street, Cork is finally being excavated. The work uncovers the skeletal remains of six men, scattered around the site, their hands and feet all bound, all clearly killed violently, but many decades, even centuries, ago. When a seventh body is found, Detective Garda Alice McCann knows immediately this one is different. It's female, for a start, and considerably more recent. Who was she? And who killed her?

When Rose is entrusted with a powerful stone by a Frost Giant, she is swept into an adventure full of danger. The stone can be used for great good or great evil, depending on its keeper. It leads Rose to discover the magic that runs through all of Ireland. A magic that is threaded together beneath the land: the Silver Road. But the Silver Road is under threat. Now Rose must keep the stone from falling into the wrong hands and embark on a quest to find its rightful owner and keep the magic alive.

Since Sophronia's murder, princesses Daphne and Beatriz have discovered the truth: they are pawns in their mother's bid for the throne of Vesteria. Separated with enemies on all sides, Beatriz and Daphne's only hope are the few allies who stretch across the borders of Vesteria: Sophronia's husband, the deposed King Leopold; Violie, a former spy for Empress Margaraux; and Beatriz's missing husband, Pasquale, and his lover, Ambrose. But whispers of an ancient prophecy and secrets from their past follow every move they make.

Peggy Cassidy is a milly, working in the Belfast linen mills to just about get by. But Peggy also has another job - a secret one. She works as a handywoman - an illegal midwife, tending to the women of her community in their time of need. When Peggy is offered the chance to leave Belfast to receive formal midwifery training in Dublin, it sets off a chain of events that will change her life forever. But amongst her middle-class colleagues, Peggy must keep the truth about her past secret at all times.

Raven O'Sullivan doesn't remember what happened in Hyacinth House five years ago. When her father died during a paranormal investigation there, everyone said it was an accident, but she's pretty certain it's her fault. Her brother, Archer, wasn't there that night. When asked to investigate the supposed ghost of Hyacinth House, he can't resist saying yes. Even if his sister wants nothing to do with it.

Mara and her dad have lived in their van for as long as she can remember. Whatever her father does to scrape a living has kept them constantly moving, and Mara has never questioned it. That is until she uncovers a collection of notes addressed to ‘the Tider’, an individual responsible for harvesting lost time from people whose lives were cut short. But before Mara can question her father, he is taken by a dangerous group who want to use his power for evil. With the very fabric of time and space at stake, it’s down to Mara and her new friend Jan to find him before it’s too late.

Johnny was my first. I was seventeen and I was only brave enough to talk to him after I'd had three vodkas. He was only brave enough to kiss me when no-one else was around. Dave was different. We didn't go out or see friends. We were each other's world. Dave was all I needed. We were toxic before it became fashionable. Kyle was my best friend. And that was the problem. Or at least that's what he said was the problem.

Moving between Ireland, Scotland and London, Something About Her is a story about the fragility and transformative power of first love. With vivid insight and tenderness, it exposes the fear, hope, and longing that can consume us, particularly when there’s so much you still don’t know about love, about life, and about yourself.

In 1950s Dublin, life is hard and jobs are like gold dust. Nineteen-year-old Nell Flynn is training to be a nurse and planning to marry her boyfriend, Liam Connor, when her mother dies, leaving her younger sisters destitute. To save them from the workhouse, Nell returns to the family home - a mere two rooms at the top of a condemned tenement. Nell finds work at a biscuit factory and, at first, they scrape through each week.

Twenty-nine-year-old Katie Kelly is at an all-time low. By now she was supposed to have the perfect relationship and her dream career - but her boyfriend left her behind to travel the world, she’s sleeping on a friend’s sofa, and she’s working a temporary job... that she’s been in for two years.

Beatrice Alright is the queen of silver linings. She can find a spark of hope in any situation. Even when her partner delivers earth-shattering news that leaves Bea and their four-year-old, Ellie, without a home, she refuses to panic. Because Bea believes that what she does have is more important–her job at St Helen’s Hospital, which offers a warm, dry shelter for her and Ellie to stay while she figures things out. By day Bea cleans the wards, by night she tucks her daughter into bed between mops and buckets. And tries so hard to hold on to hope.

Twenty-nine-year-old Lily Buckley planned to be happily married and in her dream job by now. Instead, she’s been single since being left at the altar three years ago, and works at her local paper, writing stories about giant vegetables at the village fete and a dog who looks exactly like Chewbacca. Not quite what she was dreaming of. So when Lily’s allowed to write her own column it’s exactly what she’s always wanted - except there's a catch. She has to do one thing every week that scares her then write about it.

Amy jumps at the opportunity when she's offered a nannying job in picturesque West Cork. The assignment is for the welcoming Carroll family, whose stunning house is situated on a stretch of remote and rugged coastline. It's the perfect chance for Amy to start over - far away from her life in Dublin she is trying to escape. With two adorable children to oversee, a pair of generous employers and a lavish new home, everything seems wonderful. So why can't Amy shake a creeping sense of unease?

Jessica Mooney seems like any other student at her university. She's talented, driven, and looks set to be this year's 'favourite' in charismatic Professor Crane's Law and Literature class. But unlike the other students competing for his good opinion, Jessica isn't what she seems. She's carrying a dark secret. Her sister is dead. Crane's to blame. And she's the only one who can bring him to justice.

In the wilds of Donegal, Ireland, 1999, Saoirse is an artist living an outwardly idyllic life. Her tender husband Daithí and two beloved daughters are regular subjects for her work, and in them she has found the safe home that she has always longed for. She tends not to talk about her past, and those that love her have learned to accept that the full story is too painful for her to disclose. When her Dublin exhibition unexpectedly wins a prestigious award that invites a swarm of publicity, Saoirse is left panic-stricken.

In his final year at the Royal College of Music, star pianist Flynn Laukonen has the world at his feet. He has moved in with his girlfriend, Jennah, and is already getting concert bookings for what promises to be a glittering career. Yet he knows he is skating on thin ice—only two small pills a day keep him from plunging back into the whirlpool of manic depression that once threatened to destroy him.

Princesses Beatriz and Daphne have lost their older sister, but their mother's grand scheme of taking the continent of Vesteria is far from complete. With the country of Temarin now under the Empress's control, only the nations of Cellaria and Friv remain free from her rule. What's worse, an ominous prophecy has begun to shine through the constellations: the blood of stars and majesty spilled.

When Willow witnesses her animal-loving father, Silas, get kidnapped by a group of foxes and a huge wolf-like creature, she pursues them into the woods. There she meets wolves who tell her they know her father. Together they boldly enter the enormous tower the foxes have built deep in the forest. In the tower Willow discovers the dark project of the chief fox, Reynard, to create new life forms from magical clay buried in the Deep Forest where few can enter.

Dara Gaffney is fresh out of drama school when she lands the leading role in the revival of Eabha de Lacey's hugely successful yet controversial play. Based on the true story of the death of Cillian Butler, many claim that Eabha had an ulterior motive when she penned it. Cillian's death remains a mystery to this day, and Eabha and her brother, Austin, the only witnesses.