Showing results by narrator "Avita Jay" in All Categories

Fifteen-year-old Pearl has lived her whole life protected within the small community at Seed, where they worship nature and idolise their leader, Papa S. But when some outsiders arrive, everything changes. Pearl experiences feelings that she never knew existed and begins to realise that there is darkness at the heart of Seed. A darkness from which she must escape before it's too late.

"Why do you want to be a boat builder?" "Because," said Morwenna, "I like the way the boats grow." Morwenna and Corwin are eight years old, wind-swept and salty-haired twins growing up on the Devon coast. In the soft autumn light they play as their grandfather, Matthew, watches the boats come in. But it is a day unlike any other.

Aderyn's ancestral bird is a swan. But she has not transformed for years, not since witnessing the death of her mother. With the benevolent shelter of her mother and her father now lost, Aderyn is at the mercy of her brutal uncle, the King, and his royal court. Driven by revenge and love, she must venture into the malevolent heart of the Citadel in order to seek the truth about the attack that so nearly destroyed her, to fight for the only home she has ever known and for the land she has vowed to protect.

The late Binodini Thakur had been very clear that she would never agree to sell her hissa in her Bauji's big old house on Hailey Road. And her daughter, Bonu, is determined to honor her mothers wishes. But what to do about her four pushy aunts who are insisting she sell?

At 25, West-End dancer Ellie Wakefield should be having the time of her life. The only problem is, since waking up in a 300-year-old vampire’s leaky cellar, Ellie’s been very much dead. William James Austen has fallen hard. He’s spent the last year loving Ellie from afar and now he’s finally able to be truthful about who and what he is. But this time, Will might just have bitten off more than he can chew.

Weathering critical scorn, Lady Audley's Secret quickly established Mary Elizabeth Braddon as the leading light of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, sharing the honour only with Wilkie Collins. Addictive, cunningly plotted and certainly sensational, Lady Audley's Secret draws on contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxieties about the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding the charming heroine?

The four Amir Sisters - Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae - are as close as sisters can be, but sometimes even those bonds can be pushed to their limits.... Becoming a mother has always been Farah's dream, so when older sister Fatima struggles with a tough pregnancy whilst Farah has trouble conceiving, she can't help but be jealous - until a plan to break a huge cultural taboo in her family and use a surrogate gives her renewed hope. But nothing is ever that easy in this warm, witty look at a modern British family.

In a new audio adaptation of some of Austen's lesser known works, Avita Jay brings to life the wit and satire of one of England's greatest authors. In Austen's final and unfinished novel, Charlotte Heywood finds herself caught up in the comings and goings of the lively seaside resort Sanditon. It is a story filled with a cast of colourful characters, from the widowed Lady Denham to wealthy Caribbean heiress, Georgiana Lambe, and the dashing, Sidney Parker. Naturally, romance and scandal ensue.

21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire—not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection. But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight for the Democratic party in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie, who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco and his Fascist party.

Manny is a high-flying CEO who runs a company that specializes in other people’s breakups. Happily engaged and often featured in the media, she appears to have it all. But when she is photoshopped to look less Asian and her fiancé decries he doesn’t 'see race', she decides it’s time to reconnect with her roots. Determining she needs to learn more about her community, she convinces a client to take her to his brother’s big Indian wedding. When they arrive, Manny is instantly thrown into a celebration filled with fashion, food, dancing and family.

Sir Michael Morpurgo retells two of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, King Lear and Henry V, in this stunning audio collection in association with the RSC, featuring readings by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Michael himself.

Sir Michael Morpurgo retells two of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, Macbeth and Hamlet, in this stunning audio collection in association with the RSC, featuring readings by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Michael himself.

A book which epitomises the idea of life flashing before your eyes, The Atlas of Reds and Blues opens with a woman lying bleeding on her driveway, shot by police. The woman has moved her family to the wealthy suburbs, but once there was is met with the same questions: Where are you from? No, where are you really from? The American-born daughter of Bengali immigrant parents, her truthful answer, here, is never enough.

Soma is a shy young woman adrift in a strange new country. After moving from Sri Lanka to Yorkshire to become a nanny to baby Louis, Soma tries to settle into life in the UK, even if every day presents her with a new challenge, from trying new food or getting to grips with the language. But the one thing Soma never counted on was falling in love....

Kyndra has saved and damned the people of Mariar. Her star-born powers healed a land in turmoil but destroyed an ancient magic - which once concealed them from invaders. Now Kyndra must head into enemy territory to secure peace. And deep within the desert, Char Lesko struggles to control his own emerging powers. But when Kyndra and Char meet, will their goals align?

Strange as it may appear, Draupadi, the most accomplished heroine of the Mahabharata, happens to be the most suffering, most sacrificing, and yet most misunderstood character from the epic. Though counted among the five supremely virtuous women, honoured as pancha sati in mythology, the name Draupadi still bears stigma and is often contemptuously uttered by people in society as the woman who brought about the greatest war of all time. Pratibha Ray makes a determined effort to present a balanced portrayal of the epic character.

Fatima, Farah, Bubblee and Mae, the four sisters of the Amir family, are sometimes tired of being the only Muslim young women in a rural British village, not helped by their eccentric neighbours, including the hippie nudists next door. Oldest sister Fatima - or, as her family have always nicknamed her, Fatti (which, she worryingly suspects, has just as much to do with her inability to lose weight and guilty-pleasure love of Primula squeezy cheese as it does her birth name) - is having a particularly hard time finding her place in the world.

It's Zoe and Jack's first wedding anniversary party. They've got an announcement! They're getting divorced. Marriage isn't for everyone - something that Zoe and Jack discovered only after they'd walked down the aisle. Bad timing, huh? So now they're stuck together in their once harmonious marital home, neither one of them willing to move out of their lovely house. With Zoe's three sisters always wanting a say and Jack's best friend trying his best to fix things between them, misunderstandings arise. Tempers flare. 'Accidents' happen.

Tanya Tania is a story about two young women coming of age in two countries that are coming of age. Tanya Talati in Karachi and Tania Ghosh in Bombay, daughters of college best friends, write to each other of what cannot be said to anyone else: a mother who has gone from quiet to silent, sex that has become a weapon, a servant with unforgettably soft hands and a country beginning to play with religion.

Sam is a war photographer famous for her hauntingly beautiful pictures of the dead. After a particularly gruelling assignment, she checks in to an expensive hotel. Unfortunately she has chosen the exact moment terrorists attack the hotel. Abhi, the manager, thought his hotel was a safe haven, a place where he could be himself. Now stuck inside his office, he is desperately trying to keep those safe who're still alive....