Showing results by narrator "Juanita McMahon" in All Categories

On Emilia Morris's thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death.

Here are six magical stories to thrill and enchant you. Listen as Blackberry Blue rises from the bramble patch; follow Emeka the pathfinder on his mission to save a lost king; and join Princess Desire as she gallops across the Milky Way on her jet-black horse. These beautifully written and original stories will delight listeners of all ages.

Rocco de Marco. Legendary financier and billionaire. The most important man in the room. And he'd just witnessed her filching canapes from the buffet...If waitress Gracie O'Brien's first meeting with Rocco is memorable, the second is unforgettable. For when he finds her breaking into his office he doesn't believe her innocence - so he'll keep her close until he finds the truth. Yet it's impossible for Rocco to stay angry with the sparky redhead - she's making him feel emotions Rocco thought he'd buried for ever...And the sexual tension between them is reaching explosion point!

When Rocco de Marco, legendary financier and billionaire, finds Gracie O’Brien breaking into his office he doesn’t believe in her innocence - so he decides to keep her close until he finds the truth. Yet it’s impossible for Rocco to stay angry with the sparky redhead - she’s making him feel emotions Rocco thought he’d buried for ever… And the sexual tension between them is explosive!

There is one great love in everyone's life. For Ducky, Princess Victoria Melita, hers was a Romanov cousin, a member of the doomed Russian royal family. Her father is Prince Alfred, Duke of Edinburgh, Queen Victoria's second son. Her mother is Grand Duchess Marie, the daughter of Tsar Alexander III. Ducky seems doomed to be a pawn on her grandmother's dynastic chessboard. But Ducky is not so easily controlled.

Susanna Weber is the best dress maker in Imperial Vienna. Through skill and hard work, she now owns her own dress shop, looking out over the beautiful Madensky Square. To do so, she has left her past behind, if not without regret, at least resolutely. Looking around her, at her customers and friends, Susanna is aware that she has more than most - but a few small changes cause her to realize just how precarious her situation is.

Her whole world hinged on the moment one man jumped.... On a perfect summer's day in Paris, tourists on a river trip watch in horror as drama unfolds. A small boy has fallen overboard and disappeared below the surface of the water. As his mother stands frozen to the spot, another passenger jumps....

This is the story of how a single act of courage transforms the lives of all those involved. Louise Candlish returns with her most page-turning and emotional story to date.

If you asked the folks of Gyrford, they'd tell you Jedediah Smith looked up to his father. After all, Corbie Mackem was the Sarsen Shepherd: the man who saved the Smith clan from Ab, the terrifyingly well-meaning fey who blighted a whole generation with unwanted gifts. Corbie was a good fairy-smith. And if he wasn't a good father, well, that isn't something Jedediah likes to talk about. Especially since no one knows where Corbie's body lies: the day of his son's wedding, forty-odd years ago, he set off to travel and was never seen again.

Everyone knows that if you fall afoul of the People, you must travel the miles to Gyrford, where uncounted generations of fairy-smiths have protected the county with cold iron, good counsel and unvarnished opinions about your common sense. But shielding the weak from the strong can make enemies. Ephraim Brady has money and power, and the bitter will to hurt those who cross him. And if he can't touch elder farrier Jedediah Smith, he can harm those the Smiths care about.

In the 17th century, a wall is built around the deer park of a great house. Wychwood is a world in itself, its ornamental lakes and majestic avenues planned by Mr Norris, a master of the new art of landscaping. A world where, after decades of civil war, everyone has something to hide or something to fear, where dissidents hide in the forest and Londoners fleeing the plague are at the gate.

Young Dot Allbones is the runt of a large Midlands family. Blessed with none of her sisters' beauty, she'll be lucky even to find a man to marry her. Whatever shall be done with Dot? When Kate Eddowes comes up from London and moves in next door, no one expects the pretty and popular orphan to take any notice of the plain-faced and provincial Dot, five years her junior. But against the odds, the girls strike up an unlikely friendship.

Fancy getting snowed in with your family over Christmas? No. Neither did the Thorne family. But that's what happens when, on Christmas Eve, the remote village where they've gathered together gets cut off by the worst winter storms of two hundred and fifty years. Temperatures plummet. Winds howl at ninety miles an hour. Snowdrifts pile high and freeze. Roads become impassable.

The class of ’72, Sara, Ally, Jo and Mitch were as close as sisters, then life intervened and the four friends lost touch. Now in her 60s, Sara has realised - late in the day - that those women were the best friends she’d ever had and is determined to get the gang back together. Ally is facing a huge turning point in her life and Jo, after years of being chief cook and bottle washer, needs to put herself first after a wake-up call. None of them know what happened to Mitch.

London, 1665. Hidden within the growing pile of corpses in his churchyard, Rector Symon Patrick discovers a victim of the pestilence unlike any he has seen before: a young woman with a shorn head, covered in burns, and with pieces of twine delicately tied around each wrist and ankle. Desperate to discover the culprit, Symon joins a society of eccentric medical men who have gathered to find a cure for the plague. Someone is performing terrible experiments upon the dying, hiding their bodies amongst the hundreds that fill the death carts.

Out they came, away from natural predators, nesting in damp corners and in the tops of trees, crossbreeding with common cousins and laying thousands upon thousands of eggs. Then… the eggs hatched and an army of hungry caterpillars spread their tiny toxic threads on every breath of wind.’ The threads spell doom for humanity – half of it, at least. All around the world, men are dying in their sleep or turning into rage-fuelled killers. The world, as we know it, ends. However, humanity adapts and society moves on.

In war-torn France, Spaniard Luis and Elise elope to live in a small village in Catalonia. Little do they know that war will rip them apart, sending Luis to his death in the Resistance. Years later their daughter, Madeleine, returns to France to seek out her roots and the truth of her parents’ story. But her arrival in the Catalan village unleashes more than she had bargained for as the shocking truth behind her father’s death are uncovered.

Sally, a cynical 15-year-old schoolgirl, is much too clever for her own good. When partnered with her best friend, Pamela—a mouthy girl who no one else much likes—Sally finds herself unable to resist the temptation of rebellion. The pair play truant, explore forbidden areas of the old school and—their favourite—torment posh Sylvia Rose, with her pristine uniform and her beautiful voice that wins every singing prize. One day, Sally ventures up to the greenhouse on the roof alone. Or at least she thinks she's alone, until she sees Sylvia on the roof, too.

While visiting her daughter’s family in their new London house, Lina spends an afternoon with her childhood friend, the rebellious Charlie. One drink leads to another, and when Lina tries to return home, things begin to go awfully wrong. The 75-year-old lady gets caught up in the London riots of August 2011. In the midst of all the chaos Lina stumbles upon a path that leads her to her own personal revolution. Aging is transformed from being an obstacle into an exciting challenge.

In War Crimes for the Home we meet an old and forgetful Gloria, living in an old folks' home called Sea View. But when she met Ron, he was a handsome American pilot, and she was working in a munitions factory in Bristol during the Blitz. Now, 50 years on, Gloria starts to remember what happened....

Sisters Sophie and Jess have grown up knowing that a few little lies are necessary. After all, everybody does it, don't they? But when Sophie discovers her father's secret, and Jess falls in love with the charismatic Jake, Sophie faces a difficult choice. Should she keep quiet, or tear her family apart with the truth? And if she tells, who will pay the ultimate price?