Showing results by narrator "Edwina Wren" in All Categories

Australian soccer mum Sarah Calhoun keeps the terrifying secrets of her time as an overseas aid worker from everyone she loves. Until two men from Northern Ireland hunt her down - one an obsessive policeman with demons of his own, the other a brutal IRA executioner, too closely connected to her past. She is forced to return to Belfast to testify at a murder trial. But she faces an impossible choice - lie on the stand and allow a vindictive killer to run free, or tell the truth and place her children in the line of fire.

1932. Ernie and Lily Hass, and their daughter, Girlie, have lost almost everything in the Depression; all they have keeping their small family together are their secrets. Abandoning their failing wheat farm and small-town gossip, they make a new start on the west coast of Australia, where they begin to build a summer guesthouse. But forming new alliances with the locals isn't easy. Into the Hasses' new life wanders Lily's shell-shocked brother, Tommy, after three harrowing years on the road following his incarceration.

In a wintry landscape in the Swedish countryside, the paths of two women cross. One bleak March evening, Veronika, a young writer, arrives in a small village in pursuit of stillness and solitude to enable her to come to terms with grief and loss, and to complete a novel.

Whilst living in exile on St Helena, Napoleon exerted an extraordinary influence on young Betsy Balcombe. How did she get from Napoleon's side to the Australian bush? Betsy Balcombe as a young woman lived with her family on St Helena. They befriended, served and were ruined by their relationship with Napoleon. To redeem the family's fortunes, William Balcombe, Betsy's father, betrayed Napoleon and accepted a job as the colonial treasurer of NSW, bringing his family with him.

This ambitious, electrifying work traces the harrowing journey of the famed Sarajevo Haggadah, a beautifully illuminated Hebrew manuscript created in 15th-century Spain. When it falls to Hanna Heath, an Australian rare-book expert, to conserve this priceless work, the series of tiny artifacts she discovers in its ancient binding—an insect wing fragment, wine stains, salt crystals, a white hair—only begin to unlock its deep mysteries.

Three people, struggling to come to terms with great loss after the end of the war, search for peace in a small town's library in a heartbreaking novel of love and loss and the healing power of memory and words. In a small town on the land's edge, in the strange space at a war's end, a widow, a poet and a doctor each try to find their own peace, and their own new story. In Thirroul, in 1948, people chase their dreams through the books in the railway's library.

Makedde Vanderwall is one of Australia's most-loved crime characters, and Mak's fans are eagerly awaiting her latest escapades. Mak Vanderwall - beautiful, street-wise daughter of a cop, graduate in forensic psychology, and now PI - is hired by a widowed mother to track down her missing 19-year-old son. Has he come to harm? Or has he run off with a bizarre troupe of shady French cabaret artists sweeping through Australia?

It's time to fill out our college applications. Not applying to the Ivy Leagues is not an option, and not getting into them would be a total embarrassment. But I know a few girls who aren't going to let the pressure get them down.

It's Chrismastime, and Blair and Serena are best friends again and up to their old tricks: partying hard and breaking hearts from Park Avenue to the Caribbean. Blair's mom and Cyrus are having their honeymoon in Salt Key. And when school lets out for the holiday, Blair, Serena, Aaron, and company head down there to blow off steam after their midterm exams.

Originally published in the Netherlands in 1993, De Loo's first novel to be translated into English explores the enmity that existed between Germans and the rest of Europe after World War II. This moving tale addresses notions of guilt and responsibility in a sensitive, thought-provoking manner, without exonerating or condemning.

Emily was an aspiring literary writer, forced to make a living from editing annual reports, when she met Scott, a screenwriter in similar circumstances. With Scott’s punchy plot and Emily’s luminous prose, they crafted an international hit - and fell in love doing it. Three years later, Scott’s own novel has flopped, Emily’s struggling with her literary manuscript, and their relationship is falling apart. Can they overcome their creative differences to produce another masterpiece?

Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. History's sister, the mysterious Herstory, believes that the more you know about the past, the better you can understand the future. And so she now sends Ming to work as a maid in an isolated English mansion to see a girl change the world in 1829. But which girl? The young mistress of the house is lying in bed, recovering from the measles. Abandoned by her aristocratic mother and family, she may never walk – or even read and write – again.

The gripping story of one woman's fight against all odds, and a sweeping tribute to Australia's landscape and its peoples. Australia 1945. Until now Kate Dowd has led a sheltered life on Amiens, her family's sprawling sheep station in northern New South Wales. The horrors of war have for the most part left her untouched. But with her father succumbing to wounds he's borne since the Great War, the management of the farm is increasingly falling on Kate's shoulders.

It's that time again ... time to indulge in a spot of jealousy, betrayal and late-night bar-hopping. Everyone's back from a week of après-ski hot tub fun in Sun Valley, and cream coloured envelopes from the Ivy League are beginning to drop all over Fifth Avenue doorsteps.

It's the spring break and love is in the air. Or is that a blend of Chanel No 9 and Gucci Rush? Blair moves in with Serena and they're back to being best friends. But will the love-fest last or will they end up tearing out one another's newly highlighted hair? Nate is on the straight and narrow with his crazy girlfriend, Georgie. And Vanessa...wait, is that Vanessa shopping at Barneys with a guy in a Lacoste shirt?

Enter the world of Gossip Girl - a world where espadrille sandals are flown in from Spain, crisp cotton sundresses are made to order, and jealousy and betrayal are the ultimate summer accessories... Serena and Blair are now co-muses to a super-famous designer, who just happens to live next door to Nate's Hamptons estate... But how neighbourly are these new neighbours going to get? And what's this about Vanessa venturing surfside? Who's next, Dan? Never say never...

Australia 1948. As a young woman running Amiens, a sizeable sheep station in New South Wales, Kate Dowd knows she's expected to fail. And her grazier neighbour is doing his best to ensure she does, attacking her method of burning off to repel a bushfire. But fire risk is just one of her problems. Kate cannot lose Amiens, or give in to her estranged husband Jack's demands to sell: the farm is her livelihood and the only protection she can offer her half-sister Pearl, as the Aborigines Welfare Board threatens to take her away.

It's February and most cities are a cold, grey wasteland. But not New York. At least, not my New York. Our college applications are in and it's time to blow off some steam. Best of all, Fashion Week is just around the corner, giving us plenty of opportunities to get dressed up and go completely wild. And just think: the later you stay out, the quicker the days will blur by. See you out there!

The adventure of a lifetime...or two, or three. When Sara is gifted a beautiful antique chair as a wedding present, she is completely unaware that it is one of a unique pair. On the other side of the world, the chair's twin is presented to a reclusive artist, Jon, as a birthday gift. The two new owners are thrust into a mind-expanding adventure through the ages - medieval East Anglia, Scotland, France and India.

The Gossip Girl series is the ultimate in glamour and cool - set in New York's glamorous Upper East Side, the narrative follows the thrills and spills (with Jimmy Choo shoes and shopping at Barneys mixed in along the way) of its richest and most beautiful teenage residents. Gossip Girl is the ultimate in sophistication, scandal and luxury.