Showing results by narrator "Sophie Roberts" in All Categories

How do you mend a broken heart? It's been three months since Alison Miller-Juul's world fell apart when her six-year-old daughter, Amalie, died in an accident. Three months of sympathy cards, grief counselling and gritting her teeth, but it's still only the vodka and pills that seem to help. Across town, Iselin Berg's life is finally looking up. Her seven-year-old daughter, Kaia, has survived a life-changing operation. After years of doctors, medication and hope, they can now start thinking about the future.

Across Europe, a young woman with no name and no fixed appearance hops from empty villa to vacated apartment to dormant summer house under the guise of house sitter. Her agenda? Steal from the rich, and kill anyone who gets in her way. On a stormy night in England, travelling home down narrow country lanes, a fatal car crash leaves Kat’s husband Oliver dead. But as Kat begins to mourn his loss, she discovers something that suggests she never knew her husband at all.

Hannah lives life on the edge. Never one to pass up on a new adventure, she has truly been living her best life. But once the adrenaline wears off, she wishes she had someone to spend the quieter moments with, too. Learning that her best friend’s online dating business has taken a hit, she comes up with an idea that just might solve both of their problems.

I know they think I killed my husband. Because they think I've killed before. Eight years ago, a girl I knew died. I try not to think too much about that time, about the person I used to be when that tragedy happened. It hurts too much. Besides, it's so far in the past. Now, I have a beautiful home and a committed husband. I should be looking to the future.

A heart-wrenching and unforgettable story of two women - centuries apart - linked by the hidden secrets of a beautiful woman in a Venetian painting. Venice 1704: Anastasia is desperate to escape her controlling father and plans to marry her childhood sweetheart. But instead of the life she has always dreamed of, she finds herself trapped in Venice, the unwilling wife of a silk weaver. Anastasia seeks comfort in painting and draws strength from her talents. Despite her circumstances, two women reach out to her and give Anastasia a reason to hope....

Sicily, 1977. Ten-year-old Lily and family arrive for their annual summer holiday in Sicily. Adopted as a toddler, Lily's childhood has been idyllic. But a chance encounter with a local woman on the beach changes everything.... Ten years later... Ever since that fateful summer Lily's picture-perfect life, and that of her family, has been in turmoil. The secrets of the baking hot shores of Sicily are calling her back, and Lily knows that the answers she has been so desperately seeking can be found only if she returns to her beloved island once more....

Amateur baker Claire Walker is thrilled to be a contestant on Britain’s Battle of the Bakers. She can almost smell the fresh pastries wafting through the air. If she can win the grand prize, she can ditch her teaching job and launch her baking career. The Viscount of Colburn, Jonathan Ainsley, is the custodian of Blackfirth Park and an eligible bachelor. He reluctantly agrees to allow the cooking competition show to film on his estate, but when a contestant is found dead soon after filming begins, Jonathan is forced to get involved.

It is not an overstatement to say that numbers dictate the way we live our lives. They tell us how we're doing at school, how much we weigh, who might win an election and whether the economy is booming. But numbers aren't as objective as they may seem; behind every number is a story. Yet politicians, businesses and the media often forget this - or use it for their own gain. Sanne Blauw travels the world to unpick our relationship with numbers and demystify our misguided allegiance....

It's not always easy to grasp the complex forces that are shaping our lives. But by following a dollar on its journey around the globe, we can start to piece it all together. From a shopping trip in suburban Texas, via China's central bank, Nigerian railroads, the oilfields of Iraq and beyond, The Almighty Dollar reveals the economic truths behind what we see on the news every day. Why is China the world's biggest manufacturer—and the USA its biggest customer? Is free trade really a good thing? Why would a nation build a bridge on the other side of the planet?

Declutter every aspect of your life - from your wardrobe, exercise schedule and food budget to your phone, bookshelves and beauty regime - with this realistic guide to getting neat and keeping things that way. Anna Newton is just trying to balance work, her friends, her family, her husband Mark, a growing handbag habit and a love for takeaway pizza. Over the past eight years of running the blog and corresponding YouTube Channel The Anna Edit, she's grown a loyal viewership who tune in for her weekly videos on everything from house renovations to the best summer foundation.

Venice, 1717. Before Maddalena arrived at the Ospedale della Pietà, Venice's most illustrious music school, fifteen-year-old orphan Luisa has only wanted one thing: to be the best at violin. Luisa is good at violin, but she is not the best. She has peers, but she does not have friends. Until Maddalena. Sent to the Pietà until her noble family can find her a husband, Maddalena is cunning, passionate, and unlike anyone Luisa has ever met. Maddalena can promise the world to Luisa, and when she does, their fates intertwine.

Ginny is about to turn 32. It’s a year she’s been thinking about for a long time. Sixteen years ago she crossed paths with a psychic who made some key predictions about her thirty-second year. Three bad things: A heartbreak, a loss of independence, and a death. Three good things: A life-changing trip, reconnecting with someone, and meeting her soulmate. The issue is that Ginny is due to get married in a month…but it’s all nonsense, obviously. But when some of those pesky predictions start coming true she starts to wonder what might happen next.

Once upon a time, Ella had wished for more than her life as a lowly maid. Now forced to work hard under the unforgiving, lecherous gaze of the man she once called stepfather, Ella’s only refuge is in the books she reads by candlelight, secreted away in the library she isn’t permitted to enter. One night, among her beloved books of far-off lands, Ella’s wishes are answered. At the stroke of midnight, a fairy godmother makes her an offer that will change her life.

Unfairly dismissed from her role as a governess after her lecherous employer forces himself upon her, Druscilla Morley is determined to keep her head down. Dressing drably to hide her beauty, she is surprised to find an old acquaintance staying with her new family. Valdo, Lord Marquis of Lynche, is handsome, charming and an absolute rogue. It soon becomes clear that he is having an affair with the lady of the house and proposes a marriage of convenience to Druscilla to cover his tracks.

In Edwardian England, bookish and bespectacled Vita Carew longs to be left to her scientific studies. But she can't avoid the event of the season, a gala at Pemberton Hall. This glamorous concert and sumptuous dinner will mark the Pemberton household’s triumphant return to society after a run of misfortune. But disaster strikes as soon as the seafood is served.

The Virginia Woolf Complete Collection brings together all of her 9 published novels, from her very first published work, the exuberantly youthful The Voyage Out, to the modern masterpieces of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, as well as the hugely ambitious and ever-relevant Orlando, alongside many other wide-ranging and ever-inventive works of fiction.

The Virginia Woolf Complete Collection brings together all of her most iconic works, including all 9 of her published novels, a selection of her best short stories, as well as some of her most influential non-fiction writing. From the enduring importance of her ideas of female independence in A Room of One's Own to the modern masterpieces of Mrs Dalloway and To the Lighthouse, alongside many more of her novels, criticism, and essays, this collection takes you across the broad breadth of Woolf's ever-inventive and timeless writings.

Elizabeth Angela Marguerite Bowes Lyon,the youngest daughter of the Earl of Strathmore, was born on 4 August 1900. It might reasonably have been expected that she would lead a life of ease and privilege but few could have imagined the profound effect she would have on Britain and its people. Her life spanned the whole of the 20th century and this official biography tells not only her story but, through it, that of the country she loved so devotedly.

London, 1749. Following the murder of her husband in what looks like a violent street robbery, Hannah Cole is struggling to keep her head above water. The Punchbowl and Pineapple, her confectionary shop on Piccadilly, is barely turning a profit. Henry Fielding, the famous author and new magistrate, is threatening to confiscate the money in her husband’s bank account, because he believes it might have been illicitly acquired. And even those who claim to be Hannah’s friends have darker intent.

Life in the spotlight was never going to be easy... Jess's life was turned upside down when her blog went viral. Now, with hundreds of thousands of followers, Jess is now navigating the trials and tribulations of a world online. Being a mummy blogger was originally an escape, but now it seems to be turning into a career. And after one wrong post on her social media channels, Jess discovers that life in the spotlight isn't always peachy.