Showing results by narrator "Emma Powell" in All Categories

Thea Thomas needs to get away from her old life...and the interfering ex who won't leave her alone. When she lands a job heading up the restoration of Mill Grange, a stunning Victorian manor in Somerset, it feels like the perfect opportunity to start afresh. What she didn't anticipate was how hostile the volunteer team - led by the formidable Mabel Hastings - would be about accepting new leadership. And with the deadline looming before the grand opening, Thea is in desperate need of more volunteers.

Of all the weavers of magic, there is none like Lord Dunsany. During his long lifetime he wrote more than 60 books including novels, plays, poetry collections and most memorably, innumerable exotic and fantastical short stories. Here is the very best of Dunsany's extraordinarily evocative tales of Faerie, of dreamworlds and of magic.

1941. Maisie yearns for a family of her own. Raised as a charity orphan in a Catholic convent in Ireland, she believed she was all alone in the world. But when she is twelve, her world is turned upside down by a shocking revelation. She is uprooted from the only life she has ever known, and transplanted against her will to Plymouth, England. Family might not be all it's cracked up to be. But Maisie is resilient. She surrounds herself with a family of her own making. Then war breaks out across Europe and a horrific tragedy occurs during one of the worst nights of the Plymouth Blitz.

Emily Moon lives with her mother in an inn on a clifftop in the darkest reaches of Cornwall. After her father mysteriously disappears, her mother finds solace at the bottom of a bottle, and the only way to keep afloat is to turn a blind eye to the smugglers who send signals from the clifftops. But Emily knows that the smugglers killed her father to ensure his silence, and she will not let his murder go unpunished.... 

Heavily pregnant, Barbara is looking forward to welcoming her new baby. But with her husband Alex still away flying and fighting the Germans, she fears he will miss the arrival of his longed-for child. But after the birth, Barbara is gripped with a terrible fear that she will lose her family completely – that this dreadful war will take everything from her. As she spirals into a dark depression, she pushes everyone away and it seems as though she will lose everyone she loves after all. Unless Barbara can find the courage to grab her second chance at happiness?

Inheriting an old stone house in Provence, along with her sisters is the catalyst Ellie Gilchrist needs to put some distance between her and her grief. But when she arrives at the run down ‘La Masionette’ hidden amongst overgrown Lavender and Ivy, she wonders if she’s made a mistake? That is until she meets her guarded neighbour Julien and his adorable little boy, and she’s surprised by the flutters of excitement she never thought she’d feel again. Add in rescuing a stray dog and she has the much needed distraction she needs.

Libby Cooper hasn’t celebrated Christmas since the night her parents died in a terrible accident. She wants to forget that the season of goodwill even exists; but her grandmother has other ideas. It’s time for Libby to start living her life just as her parents would have wanted her to do. First stop New York! What better way to immerse herself in the celebrations, than working in her great aunt’s Christmas shop, just a few blocks from Central Park? Making new friends in the Big Apple is the easy bit, but leaving the past behind proves much harder than Libby imagined.

The sixth book in M.C. Beaton's charming Edwardian Candlelight series. In any given glittering social season, Edwardian London's dizzying whirl had its share of surprises. The latest was Kitty Harrison, once achingly poor, suddenly an heiress and now, thanks to her determined mother, she was...

The second book in M.C. Beaton's charming Edwardian Candlelight series. She had dared to turn a cold shoulder on London's prize catch. She was a precocious American upstart who thought beauty, brains, and bravery were enough to conquer London society. Well, he'd show her! Nobody publicly (or...

Based on many years’ experience counselling bullies and targets, Stella O’Malley offers concrete strategies to empower children and teenagers to deal confidently with bullying and dominant characters. We can’t always be there to protect our kids as they make their way in the world. What we can do is equip them with the tools they need to ensure they have a positive social experience. Based on many years’ experience counselling bullies and targets, O’Malley offers concrete strategies to empower children and teenagers to deal confidently with bullying and dominant characters.

Single mum Thora Mason is content with her life. Lucas Grant left the Cornish village almost 20 years ago, leaving behind his family and the only woman he's ever loved. When Thora bumps into Lucas, she's stunned by the feelings that come rushing back, and from then on avoids him at all costs. After all, she's happy as she is, so why would she risk that by allowing romance to upend her life? As an investor, Lucas is governed solely by his head, but once he sees Thora again, his heart takes the reins.

Victoria Bahani, the privileged seventeen-year-old, daughter of the Rajah of Marpur and an English woman, has always believed she would marry an Englishman. And when she meets Captain Henry Hindley-Jones she knows he’s exactly the kind of man she’s been thinking of. But when war breaks out everything changes for Victoria. With Henry away fighting, Victoria must try and find her own path in life and also do her duty for her king and country. Signing up to be a nurse in the Queen Alexandra’s Nursing Corp, Victoria must leave behind the country she loves for a life of danger and duty.

1648: Civil war is devastating England. The privileged world of Katherine Ferrers is crumbling under Cromwell's army, and as an orphaned heiress, she has no choice but to marry for the sake of family. But as her marriage turns into a prison and her fortune is forfeit, Katherine becomes increasingly desperate. So when she meets a man who shows her a way out, she seizes the chance. It is dangerous and brutal, and she knows if they're caught, there's only one way it can end....

Wild and Free is the festival du jour. Everyone piles through its gates - and Cupid lies in wait. Teacher Ginnie is desperate to forget her crush on headmaster Mark and hopes glamping might do the trick. But Mark is also heading for Wild and Free to reform his college band...desperate not to be recognised. Mark's bandmate, James, dreams of a festival blowout with his son, Guy...until his wife, Victoria, kills the dream.

After her husband dies, Cara no longer wishes to live in their London home. On impulse, she sells it and goes to stay with her brother in Salcombe, Devon, while she plans her next move. There, she begins to look back at her life and reflect on the choices that have led her to this moment. Cosmo has also escaped - temporarily - from his life in the city, finding the south-west a relaxing and appealing fit, especially when he meets local girl, Amy. But is he being entirely truthful about what he’s left behind? 

On a normal day, in a normal house, on a normal street, wife and mother Fran has had enough. She packs a case, leaves a note for her bullying husband, Pete, and one for her beloved 21-year-old son, Harry, and heads to the airport - and freedom. In another house, on another street, Helena is desperately baiting her husband, Jack, into a fight. These days it feels like the only way to get Jack to take notice of her. Passionate, volatile, increasingly fragile, Helena is fast running out of hope.

Morgan always knew her father, Owen, never murdered her mother, and has spent the last six years campaigning for his release from prison. After a retrial, a fresh jury acquits him, and he is set free into an uncertain world. A pandemic is sweeping across the nation, Morgan is broke, and both of them have the heavy stench of a highly publicized trial. Both need a change of scene, as Morgan can no longer live in the house that was last decorated by her Mother’s blood after she fell down the stairs—the accident her father was wrongly accused of orchestrating. Or was he?

When Tilly meets Adam, just a week before she's about to marry Gareth, she knows it can never be. Tilly and Adam's paths will cross, again and again, over twenty years. Tilly's a wife now, a mother too, not to mention a person looking after her ailing parents… Sometimes it feels like she's forgotten how to be herself. It's only when Gareth drops a bombshell about their marriage, that she decides to put herself at the centre of her own story. So she books a one-way ticket to San Jose – a place she's only heard about in a song.

Forty-something Molly is starting to realise – with growing horror – that life isn’t just passing her by, it has completely gone without her. Her husband, four children and large collection of animals are chaotic and demanding, and her job as a playgroup assistant has lost its power to inspire her. When temptation strikes and Molly is desperately attracted to the charismatic village headmaster, she is outraged to discover that her husband Jake has beaten her to a fling, and even worse, has done this with one of Molly’s closest friends!

Prince the racehorse isn’t as speedy as he used to be, and his love of fine dining isn’t helping matters. Can Olivia and Eliza help break the spell and get Prince working out again in time for the big race?