Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

The picture house by the sea is the Palace at Polwhipple - a lovely art deco cinema nestled in front of azure Cornish seas. But it is long past its heyday now, and its only saving grace is Ferrelli's, the family run ice-cream concession in the foyer, which is widely known as the best ice cream for miles. So when Ferdie, the owner of Ferelli's, breaks his leg, his granddaughter Gina drops everything to come and help out.

The four Bliss siblings have a loving but complicated bond, but when their mother, Dorothy, dies seemingly without a will, this relationship is put to the test. As the mourning siblings try to make sense of the situation, one of them is caught with a secret: before she died, Dorothy entrusted her favourite daughter with her will and a letter - and told her to destroy them both. But what Anna finds in the documents could change everything. Do the other siblings not deserve to know what it is about them that their mother was so desperate to hide?

Winter, 1923. It’s nearly Christmas and Lady Eleanor Swift has received a rather strange letter from an old friend of her uncle. Mr Godfrey Cunliffe has asked her to stay in Cornwall for the holidays–but only because he believes his gardener is trying to poison him! With not a moment to waste Eleanor hurries down to his picturesque manor house with her butler Clifford and handsome beau Detective Hugh Seldon. But they arrive too late to stop the crime…

Her dream holiday is his everyday life. His dream holiday is her normal life. What happens when they collide? Ally and her dad, Geoff, run the family business, a creative retreat, from their home Hollyhock Cottage in picturesque Kittiwake Cove. They give their guests their dream break, but Ally...

Bella is living her best life in Wynbridge, with her beloved Spaniel, Tink. She’s found a way to keep the house she inherited from her grandparents while expanding her dream business – Away With the Fairies – and she’s ecstatic that Christmas is on the horizon! In fact, everything is...

The virtuous and loving Emily, the young protagonist, finds herself in the care of her aunt following the death of her father. Her aunt promptly marries the villain Montoni, a cruel and calculating man whose scheming leads him to lock both women in the dark and winding castle of Udolpho. Will they survive to tell of its terrors?

Jo Watters would rather do anything than go to her ex-husband Ben’s wedding to perfect Monica, and if it wasn't for her beloved children she would already be far, far away. But having promised to be civilised for the sake of their soon-to-be-blended family she is headed to Spain with a fixed smile and hoping for a very fixed drink! But when Jo realises that she’s on the same plane as Monica's ex-husband, the devastatingly handsome but equally cantankerous Adrián, she thinks her trip can’t get any worse... she’s wrong.

Phoebe Dashwood and Sam Hendrie welcome their beautiful baby daughter into their already busy lives. With motherhood now top of Phoebe’s to-do list alongside being a vet, and running an animal sanctuary there’s no time for day dreaming. As Phoebe battles sleepless nights, extra challenges arise in the shape of abandoned African Pygmy Hedgehogs, stolen cats, and a worrying trend to keep wildlife as pets.

Susan has always taken comfort in the peaceful rhythm of life on the Isle of Wight. But when her daughter Zoe invites her to a Halloween ghost walk at a remote castle, Susan has a sense of foreboding she can’t quite shake. It’s meant to be a bit of fun for the group of old school friends, the thrill of an overnight stay behind the castle’s ancient gates. But when one of them is found dead, the weekend away takes a sinister turn. With the castle locked down and the group trapped inside, it soon becomes clear the killer would have been amongst them.

In an isolated castle deep in the Austrian forest, Laura leads a solitary life with only her ailing father for company. Until one moonlit night, a horse-drawn carriage crashes into view, carrying an unexpected guest—the beautiful Carmilla. So begins a feverish friendship between Laura and her mysterious, entrancing companion. But as Carmilla becomes increasingly strange and volatile, prone to eerie nocturnal wanderings, Laura finds herself tormented by nightmares and growing weaker by the day.

Susan never imagined herself an amateur sleuth, and she certainly never goes looking for trouble, preferring days spent walking her loyal dogs Libs and Rocco, and maybe even a dip in the sea to cool off after this interminable heatwave. When she hears of a break-in at the vet's where her new neighbour works, Susan's curiosity is piqued. And then, a few days later, the lead vet, Peter, mysteriously disappears. They assume it's business related until his body is washed up on the beach close to his clifftop home.

Catherine has been enjoying the single life for long enough to know a good catch when she sees one. Gorgeous, charismatic, spontaneous – Lee seems almost too perfect to be true. And her friends clearly agree, as each in turn falls under his spell. But there is a darker side to Lee. His erratic, controlling and sometimes frightening behaviour means that Catherine is increasingly isolated. Driven into the darkest corner of her world, and trusting no one, she plans a meticulous escape.

But when her boyfriend Andreas rebuffed the romantic gesture, heartbroken Sophie cut all contact with the gruff mountaineer, determined to get on with her life. When the destination wedding agency she works for merges with an adventure travel company to create unique ceremonies for outdoor enthusiasts, Sophie is horrified to discover Andreas works there. Even worse: he's been assigned as her guide for a scouting trip to Italy, in search of the perfect location for a summit-top wedding.

Sarah-Jane Crosse, SJ to her friends, is desperate to avoid going to her parents’ ruby wedding anniversary party. She’s terrified of introducing her husband, Tom, to her estranged sister, Alison, because the sisters have history. Alison covets everything that belongs to SJ. With her anxiety spiralling, SJ knows she often has one or two glasses of wine too many and after a disastrously drunken night she reaches out for help. However, help does not begin at home. Tom is not supportive.

Nestled in the quiet countryside sits the cosy village of Little Monkham, home of the Star and Sixpence, a renovated pub owned by sisters Sam and Nessie. As the locals welcome the new season, it appears that change is afoot in their tiny community, and not all of it for the better...Nessie is moving in with her boyfriend, leaving Sam alone in the pub. But with the arrival of new chef Gabriel causing a flutter among the women of the village, it seems that Sam might not be so lonely after all.

Lark Rise is Flora Thompson's childhood memories of a north Oxfordshire village, the people who lived and worked in it, and a way of life that has totally disappeared. The story is built around Laura and her brother Edmund, through whose eyes are seen 'old Sally', whose grandfather built the house she lived in before the enclosure of the heathland, children's games, the interaction of village and gentry, and the way in which the seasons governed life.

Escape the cold winter nights with Sunday Times top five best seller Heidi Swain's Summer at Skylark Farm! Amber is a city girl at heart. So when her boyfriend, Jake, suggests they move to the countryside to help out at his family farm, she doesn't quite know how to react. But work has been hectic, and she needs a break, so she decides to grasp the opportunity and make the best of it. Dreaming of organic orchards, paddling in streams and frolicking in fields, Amber packs up her things and moves to Skylark Farm. But life is not quite how she imagined....

After twenty years apart, Matthew and Helena have rekindled their college romance and are away in Iceland on their first holiday together. Swept up in the romance on a mountain hike, one moment they are taking the perfect photo, the next Helena is hanging from the cliff edge…

Freya Fuller is estranged from her parents and has been following her childhood dream of becoming a gardener ever since. When an opportunity to design a winter garden opens up at a Victorian property in Nightingale Square, Freya jumps at the chance to make a fresh start. But while the majority of the residents are welcoming, local artist Finn seems determined to shut her out, and when Freya's family makes a surprise appearance, it seems that her new life is about to come crashing down.

When Ella wakes up in a hospital following a hit-and-run incident, she is scared and confused. Close to tears, her eyes fall on a get-well-soon card on the window sill, and the nurse reassures her that her loving husband will be back soon. But Ella has never been married. In fact, she has lived alone her whole adult life; working hard, rarely socializing, quietly harboring a terrible secret from her past.