Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

Viviane de Faitaud has grown up alone at her family’s château, for her father, the Marquis de Valaine, lives at the court of Louis XVI in Versailles. After a hailstorm destroys the château’s orchards, gardens and fields, an ambitious young Welshman, David Stronach, accepts the commission to plan new gardens in the hope of making his name as a landscape designer. However, the love that blossoms between them is doomed: Viviane is betrothed to a duke, and David is forced to leave the property.

In need of an escape from her failing marriage, Nia agrees to house-sit her aunt’s cottage on the Isle of Wight. She feels sure the cosy close in a quaint harbour town will be a safe place to hide and figure out what to do next. But things are not all as they seem in the close, and the neighbours who welcome her with open arms, are keeping secrets. When Nia finds the body of one of her new friends lying on the beach, she feels sickeningly sure that the killer is dangerously near to home.

The perfect escapist listen, for all fans of Cathy Bramley and Scarlett Bailey. A Year at the Star and Sixpence is Holly Hepburn's four Star and Sixpence novellas collected together as a novel for the first time. When sisters Nessie and Sam inherit a little pub in a beautiful country village, they jump at the chance to escape their messy lives and start afresh. But when they arrive at the Star and Sixpence, it's not quite what they imagined - it's pretty much derelict, ruined by debts, and it's going to be a huge job....

On paper, Merina Wilde has it all: a successful career writing the kind of romantic novels that make even the hardest hearts swoon, a perfect carousel of book launches and parties to keep her social life buzzing and a childhood sweetheart who thinks she’s a goddess. But Merry has a secret: the magic has stopped flowing from her fingers. Try as she might, she can’t summon up the sparkle that makes her stories shine.

Frankie doesn't believe in true love. As relationships expert at popular magazine Stylife, she has learnt that dating disasters are far more common than happy-ever-afters. So when she is tasked to find out if meet cutes can work in real life, she is up for the challenge—but whether it's being a damsel in distress with a flat tyre or spilling coffee over a stranger, she isn't convinced this can really lead to love. But little does Frankie know that the ultimate meet-cute opportunity is just around the corner.

Just 45 years ago, the age of gene modification was born. Researchers could create glow-in-the-dark mice, farmyard animals producing drugs in their milk, and vitamin-enhanced rice that could prevent half a million people going blind every year. But now GM is rapidly being supplanted by a new system called CRISPR or "gene editing". Using this approach, scientists can manipulate the genes of almost any organism with a degree of precision, ease and speed that we could only dream of ten years ago.

When Dani's boyfriend (and boss!) dumps her for a younger model, the only silver lining she can see is to be able to spend Christmas at home with her family after years away. Determined to surprise them, Dani turns up unannounced in her hometown, excited to see that the festive season in Marram Bay is in full swing with Christmas lights twinkling on every corner. But disaster strikes when she finds her parents' house is empty and they appear to have gone away on holiday!

The Complete Jane Austen Collection includes Austen's 7 novels, selected short fiction, and a selection of her letters. Read by an incredible cast including Joanne Froggatt and Fenella Woolgar, this collection is the perfect opportunity to listen beyond your favourite novel and discover Jane Austen's complete writings.

Wynter’s Trees is the home of Christmas. For the people of Wynmouth it’s where they get their family Christmas tree and where Christmas truly comes to life. But for Liza Wynter, it’s a millstone around her neck. It was her father’s pride and joy, but now that he’s gone, she can’t have anything to do with it. Until her father’s business partner decides to retire and she must go back to handle the transition to his son Ned.

Ruby has finished with university and is heading home for the holidays to save up for her trip around the world in January. Against her father’s wishes, she takes on a stall at the local market and sets about making it the best Christmas market stall ever. There’ll be bunting and mistletoe and maybe even a bit of mulled wine. But with a new retail park just opened on their doorstep, the market is under threat. So together with all the other stallholders, Ruby devises a plan to make sure that Wynbridge is the first port of call for everyone’s Christmas shopping needs.

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audiobook of Crikey a Bodyguard. When Kelly Bridge’s parents insist on employing a bodyguard for her protection, she’s not happy. Okay, so maybe not every woman is on the cusp of developing a vaccine against a potential biological terrorist attack - but crikey, it’s not like she’s a celebrity! Ben Jacobs flunked spectacularly out of school, so he knows his new client Dr Kelly Bridge spells trouble for him. But on a conference trip to Rome he finds things are worse than he thought.

In her pioneering audiobook, now fully updated to mark its 40th anniversary, Dickson draws on her long experience of in-person training to give all women the tools we need to assert what we feel and want, manage difficult conversations, avoid being sidetracked by culturally learned behaviours, say ‘No’ and find self-acceptance.

Number one best-selling author Jill Mansell talks with sensitivity and optimism about love, loss and new beginnings in To the Moon and Back. Not to be missed by fans of Jojo Moyes and Veronica Henry. When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband, she feels her life is over. But eventually she's ready for a new start - at work, that is. She doesn't need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company.... Moving to North London, Ellie meets neighbour Roo, who has a secret of her own.

It's 1910, and archaeologist Amelia Peabody heads for Palenstine hoping to prevent an English adventurer called Morely from causing damage during his search for the vanished treasures of the Temple in Jerusalem. The War Office fears increasing German influence in Palenstine and insists Morley is working for German intelligence.

The Irish Classics Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 9 classic works of fiction and poetry by Irish authors, read by an award-winning cast of narrators. Included here are stories by some of the greatest writers of all time, including James Joyce; Bram Stoker; Oscar Wilde; W.B. Yeats; Elizabeth Bowen; and more.

Following a shocking revelation within her family, Tess Tyler is looking to escape her hectic city life - and where better to hide than Wynmouth, the seaside town she visited as a child, with its sandy beaches, stunning rock pools and welcoming community. But little does she realise, Wynmouth isn't quite the haven she remembers it to be, and her real life is still threatening to catch up with her. Also returning to Wynmouth is Joe. Having fled more than a decade ago after an accident that changed his life forever, he’s back and is determined to face his demons.

When four sisters arrive at Applecote Manor to spend the summer, all is clearly not well. They find their aunt and uncle still reeling from the disappearance of their only daughter, five years before. No one seems any closer to finding out the truth. Why did Audrey vanish? Who is keeping her fate secret? As the sisters are lured into the mystery of their missing cousin, the stifling summer takes a shocking, deadly turn. One which will leave blood on their hands, and put another girl in danger decades later.

Bestselling author Lucy Pym is initially thrilled to be invited to lecture at Leys Physical Training College. The girls are eager to learn about psychology, her pet subject, and she finds herself inspired by their discipline, humour and determination. However, a tragic accident in the gymnasium reveals a darker side to the school, and unexpectedly Miss Pym finds she must draw on her psychological expertise to trace who, of all these wholesome girls, has violence on the mind.

When an old friend gets in touch, Sarah Havenant discovers that there are two Facebook profiles in her name. One is hers. The other she has never seen. But everything in it is accurate. Photos of her friends, her husband, her kids. Photos from the day before. Photos of her new kitchen. Photos taken inside her house. And this is just the beginning. Because whoever has set up the second profile has been waiting for Sarah to find it. And now that she has, her life will no longer be her own....

Elly is an expert in stalking – an academic at Cambridge University, and a talking head for TV and online, she knows the subject intimately – what motivates a stalker, what drives them, how to rehabilitate them. But when she starts to receive notes saying just ‘Me or you’ and realises she is being followed, she has become the victim herself. The professional becomes the personal but Elly does not realise quite how personal it is. When she is put in hospital by a stranger pushing her in a crowd, and realises she is in danger, she goes into hiding.