Showing results by author "Joanne Ryan" in All Categories

When Megan loses her beloved husband, Rick, in a tragic car accident, she feels like it’s her own life that has ended. She feels too young to be a widow. Walking around the house that had been their home – so quiet without him – nothing feels the same. But at his funeral, she sees a face she doesn’t recognise. A heavily-pregnant young woman, with a sweet heart-shaped face that is somehow a little familiar. This stranger introduces herself as Emily, Rick’s estranged sister. She explains how she’s been searching for her brother for years, but she knows she’s too late now.

When Gina advertises for a lodger, she never expects her childhood best friend to turn up at her door. What could be better, she reasons, than having a lodger who she already knows rather than a total stranger? As they rekindle their friendship, Gina recalls the long ago summer when they spent every day together. Gina believed then that they’d be best friends forever.

Ellie is twenty-one. She’s already decided that she’s one of life’s losers. She has no friends, no family, and not much of a life, and although she’s not happy, she’s not sad either; she just is. Life, she believes, is mapped out from birth, and there’s nothing she can do to change it. Until, one day, she discovers that if she’s prepared to do what others won’t, she can have everything she ever wanted. Her life begins to change, and she starts to make friends, and she begins to believe that maybe she can have what everyone else has.

It was a quiet night, like any other, when Abi went for her usual night-time run. It was her escape from all the stresses of life, the thing she did so she was stronger than the man who’d once hurt her so badly. But then – as she turns a quiet corner – she sees a car hitting somebody. Rushing forward, as the driver screeches off into the night, she realizes the man in the road has already died. After rushing to call for help, Abi returns to find a policeman already waiting. But there’s no body. No one is there.

Josie always forgets what she's done when she’s drunk. There are huge black holes where her memories should be, and that's why she’s not going to drink anymore. She might not remember everything, but she knows she’s different when she drinks. She becomes someone that she doesn't like.

Lena just moved to Mandalay Close. She needed a new start, since her boyfriend cheated her out of the happy-ever-after she’d believed they were always going to share. But on the day Lena moves in, letters begin to arrive for all her new neighbours. Letters that promise to expose everyone’s deepest, darkest secrets. Every house has received one - except for Lena’s. Someone clearly wants to implicate her, to ruin her new life and turn everyone against her. She’s made an enemy, but who, and why?

Mia and Carrie have been best friends since school. They share everything: clothes, shoes, a home…and their secrets. Only Carrie knew what Mia did that night. Where everything went wrong and Mia’s boyfriend attacked her, so she attacked him right back. Carrie made the problem go away. Like she always would for her best friend. They’ve got on with their lives. Mia’s even met someone new – a man she thinks she could be with forever. But now it looks like her ex is back.

Nat did something bad. Very bad. But she's not that person anymore. She has a new name and a new life, and no one, not even her husband Brett, knows what she did. She's desperate to keep it that way. When they escape the city to move to their dream home in the suburbs, it seems that life can't get any better. They quickly become friends with new neighbors Fen and Darius, and Nat begins to believe that she can finally put the past behind her. Until the letter arrives.

What are the chances of meeting your double? Impossible, Jess used to say, until the day she met hers on a train. But although they looked like identical twins, their lives couldn’t be more different. Jess has no money, no job and few prospects; her double has a fabulous life and everything that anyone could possibly wish for. Jess is envious of her double but reasons that it’s just the way life is; that’s the way of the world and there’s nothing she can do to change it. Her boyfriend, Mac, has other ideas.

Playful and practical, When You Wonder, You're Learning introduces a new generation of families to the lessons of Mister Rogers' Neighborhood. By exploring the science behind the iconic television program, the book reveals what Fred Rogers called the “tools for learning”: skills and mindsets that scientists now consider essential. These tools - curiosity, creativity, collaboration, and more - have been shown to boost everything from academic learning to children’s well-being, and they benefit kids of every background and age.

Layla and her mother, who also happens to be her best friend, are always totally honest with each other. Not that Layla has anything to lie about, she isn’t an average 19-year-old. She doesn’t go to parties or have boyfriends, or any friends. She lives in a perfect little village where nothing much ever happens. But life doesn’t stay the same forever.