Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

Binny Cornwallis has lost something. Something that wasn’t really hers in the first place. With her best enemy Gareth and her beloved dog Max she turns detective to track it down, but the Cornwallis family are anything but helpful. Little brother James and his friend Dill are having an adventure of their own and big sister Clem is acting very strangely. And on top of all this, Binny suspects their next-door neighbour may be a witch....

The dark wood was green and gold - green where the oak trees stood crowded together with misshapen, twisted trunks, red-gold where the great smooth beeches lifted their branching arms to the sky. In between jostled silver birches - olive-tinted fountains which never reached the light-black spruces with little pale candles on each tip - and nut trees smothered to the neck in dense bracken.

It's 1940, Guernsey. Vivienne de la Mare waits nervously for the bombs to drop. Instead comes quiet surrender and insidious occupation. Her husband is fighting on the frontline, and her new life is one where the enemy lives next door. Small acts of kindness from one Nazi soldier feel like a betrayal. But how can you hate your enemy when you know his name, when he makes you feel alive, when everything else is dying around you?

Nash, the “dangerous” Duke of Malvern, has always bristled against the rules of English society. Hot tempered and fearful of becoming like his brutish late father, he lives a life of too much responsibility and too little joy. And although he’s vowed to never marry, a duke has a duty—and there’s only one way to get himself an heir and a spare. So Nash reluctantly takes a look around at society’s available young ladies to see who might be willing to put up with his one-word answers and frequent glowers.

Tess and Simon Sparrow may have a few more grey hairs than they used to, but that doesn’t stop them from being swept up in a whirlwind romance and starting over. Swapping their city lives for an escape to the Cornish countryside, they fall in love with a crumbling hotel and impulsively buy it to renovate as their forever home. But soon the newlyweds have had their first fight (and their second and third...) and building costs are spiralling out of control. Their families think they’re mad and Tess is starting to agree – she just wants to escape back to civilisation.

The young Princess Victoria, strictly confined within the boundaries of Kensington Palace, is being moulded for her awesome future as Queen of England. Surrounded by her dolls and closely guarded by her domineering mother and faithful governess, she slowly becomes aware of the bitter conflicts that surround her. The jealous and scheming Duke of Cumberland is a constant threat to her rightful accession …her mother’s sinister friend, Sir John Conroy, makes her uneasy … and the bickering between her mother and the king seems never-ending.

Rina accepts an invite to Aikensthorpe, a country-house hotel with a sinister past. Her fellow guests are an eccentric bunch of magicians and scholars who want to re-enact a séance. Back in 1872, it left one man dead and another mad. But Rina won’t be drawn into all of that. She's relieved when Detective MacGregor comes to her rescue. But then a blizzard sets in...leaving them trapped in the house, cut off from civilization. And then the first of the bodies is found—a distinguished scholar, smothered in his sleep. Who will be next to die on this dark and stormy night?

Each month best friends Claudia, Sal, Ella and Laura meet for drinks, celebrating 45 years of friendship. Sal had spent a lifetime building her career, but she hadn't banked on the one thing over which she had no control. Claudia loved her urban existence. But, as many women will know, other people's needs always seem to come first. Ella is ready to try something different. But she hadn't bargained on quite such a radical change. And Laura succumbed to the oldest cliché in the book.

It is 1936 in a remote dale in the old northern county of Westmorland. For centuries the rural community has remained the same, the Lightburn family has been immersed in the harsh hill-farming tradition. Then a man from the city of Manchester arrives, spokesman for a vast industrial project that will devastate both the landscape and the local community. Mardale will be flooded to create a new reservoir, supplying water to the Midland cities. In the coming year this corner of Lakeland will be evacuated and transformed.

Ever have that nagging feeling that you are better than the sum of your current achievements? Do you have a secret desire to be achieving much more, to change the world, or to reach the top of your game? Then it is time to use your ambition to your advantage. It has been proven that ambitious people achieve greater levels of success, whether that be a higher level of education, a more prestigious job, a higher income, or more satisfaction in life.

Jason Warwycke, Marquess of Wyckeham, has vowed never to wed again after his disastrous first marriage, which left him with nothing but a tarnished reputation. That is, until he sets eyes on Ianthe Templeton... But can Wyckeham and Ianthe overcome the malicious schemes of spiteful siblings and evil stepmothers to find wedded bliss? Or will Wyckeham discover that the past has come back to bite him for a second time?

Sebastian, Duke of Hasford, has a title, wealth, privilege, and plenty of rakish charm. Until he discovers the only thing that truly belongs to him is his charm. An accident of birth has turned him into plain Mr. de Silva. Now, Sebastian is flummoxed as to what to do with his life - until he stumbles into a gambling den owned by Miss Ivy, a most fascinating young lady, who hires him on the spot. Working with a boss has never seemed so enticing.

When Alessandro Marchese strides into the headquarters of his latest acquisition, one person is particularly struck by his awesome presence. Cassie's new boss is the man who left her pregnant with twins and now it seems he's forgotten her altogether. But the Italian is more affected by Cassie than he lets on.... Now Alessandro needs just one more thing to complete the picture - Cassie, with his wedding ring on her finger.

Watch out! The locusts are coming... A terrifying army of locusts is making its way along the edge of the Sahara desert, devastating crops in one village after another. Gidaado's village is next. When the locusts arrive, Gidaado will need all his wits about him in order to survive. He will need his friend Sophie. He will need his three-stringed guitar. And he will need an albino camel as fast as the harmattan wind.

Alice Samuel might be old and sharp-tongued, but she's no fool. Visiting her new neighbours in her Fenland village, she suspects Squire Throckmorton's household is not as God-fearing as it seems and finds the children troubled. What she cannot foresee is that all five daughters will succumb in turn to a terrifying affliction and accuse her of witchcraft—who else to blame than an ugly, black-capped woman with mysterious healing skills?

For Victoria, image is everything, and on the surface, she has it all: a big house, a successful husband, and two beautiful children. But behind the scenes, things are very different. Victoria and her husband have a dark secret, and she lives in terror of it being discovered—of her perfect façade being shattered forever. Under massive stress, but still desperately trying to keep up appearances, her family is falling apart. Victoria has to ask herself how far she's willing to go and how much she's willing to do to preserve her perfect family.

A high society Christmas Eve wedding at a secluded Scottish castle sounds like the perfect winter getaway for the three Dahlias - until a dead body wearing a wedding dress and a stolen diamond necklace turns up in the snow outside the family chapel, and the bride and groom are suddenly the prime suspects in a murder case...

Edward the Second has been barbarously murdered in Berkeley Castle on the orders of his wife Queen Isabella and her lover, and 15-year-old Edward the Third is now king. Young Edward has already fallen in love with Philippa of Hainault and, to prevent him enquiring into the details of his father’s death, Isabella allows the marriage to take place. While some suggest that Edward has a claim on the French throne, he is reluctant to pursue it.

Friendship, freedom, booze and student loans: the glory days of University, the halcyon haze. For friends Liz, Cora, Mike and Stevie, students at Cardiff, that haze was shared, their circle tight, a surrogate family, bound together for three idyllic, hedonistic years in total trust. Or so it seemed. Mike and Cora marry after graduation, while Liz and Stevie look on, misty-eyed.

The murder of aspiring crime writer Victoria Denby created a sensation at the time. The public's imagination was hooked by the detail of a paper dahlia placed beside the body, just like in one of Dahlia Lively's fictional cases. Was there a copycat killer at large in the peaceful town of Market Foxleigh? Despite the tabloids' fearmongering, the police quickly arrested Victoria's friend and fellow writer, Scott Baker, and when it emerged that he had also been accused of stalking Dahlia actress Caro Hooper, it seemed like an open and shut case.