Showing results by narrator "Bea Holland" in All Categories

Librarian Thea Rush was looking forward to exploring the beautiful Cornish town of Port Karadow with her best friend. But when she is dumped for a better offer, Thea isn’t sure if she can survive the three-week holiday on her own. Her holiday doesn’t get off to the best start when she arrives at her rented cottage to discover a noisy building site next door, and a grumpy (and handsome!) builder, Ben, in charge. When a series of mishaps and misunderstandings throw Thea and Ben together, she discovers there is more to him—and to the town—than she thought. 

Ollie Spencer has started a new life in the idyllic Cornish seaside town of Port Karadow. Throwing herself into her job at the town’s bookshop, A New Chapter, is one way to make friends. The shop is glitzing up for first Christmas and Ollie hopes her inspired ideas will give the shop the edge it needs to dazzle the town. But far from being the Sugar Plum fairy the place needs, Ollie is fast becoming its Christmas pudding. With the bookshop’s success at stake, Ollie turns to twinkly-eyed café owner Max for help.

Wedding Planner Ellie Moon is dreaming up the most beautiful bespoke wedding for Charlie and Daniel, owners of Cornwall’s favourite cream tea bus. Even though her own life has been turned upside down and she’s had to rent out her charming Cornish cottage with its climbing roses and lavender beds, Ellie is determined to give them a day to remember. Her new tenant, handsome Mechanic Jago, keeps popping up around the picture-postcard seaside village of Porthgolow.

Maisie Winters has everything she could ever want. She lives in the idyllic Cornish town of Port Karadow, has a jammy job in her dad's shop, adores her rescue mutt, and has time to take the landscape photos she loves. While her best friend and sister left the town to chase big dreams in London and New York, Maisie stayed – she wouldn't leave her favourite place for anything…or anyone. When her long-time crush, Colm Caffrey, returns from a decade abroad, old feelings start to resurface. Maisie begins to ask herself if there might be one big thing missing after all?

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother - who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community - she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life. When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep. Then Lucy goes missing.

The characters in Samanta Schweblin's wildly imaginative new novel, Little Eyes, reveal the beauty of connection between far-flung souls but they also expose the ugly truth of our increasingly linked world. Trusting strangers can lead to unexpected love, playful encounters and marvellous adventures, but what if it can also pave the way for unimaginable terror? Schweblin has created a dark and complex world that is both familiar but also strangely unsettling, because it's our present and we're living it - we just don't know it yet.   

Lilli Sternberg longs to be a ballet dancer. But outside the sanctuary of the theatre, her beloved city is in chaos. The Nazi party are gaining power, and the threats to those who deviate from the party line are increasing. Jewish families are being targeted and their businesses raided; even her father’s shop was torched because of their faith. When Lilli meets Captain Marco Zeiller during a chance encounter, her heart soars. But Marco has been spotted by the Reich as an officer with potential.

Vicky Lewis is a force to be reckoned with: not yet 30 and already Crew Manager in the London Fire Brigade, she's destined for great things. But when she enters a burning building to save a man's life and leaves it with catastrophic injuries, all that changes. She's shunted over to the Fire Investigation Unit, where she's forced to team up with cantankerous veteran Des Farmer, aka the Grouch.

Alex Parkinson is in love with his writing tutor, Siobhan. He has never loved anyone like this, but how can he convince Siobhan that they are meant to be together? So Alex stalks her on Facebook and finds out where she lives, buys her presents using her own credit card and sends her messages telling her exactly what he wants to do to her. He breaks into her house, reads her diary and secretly listens to her while she takes a bath. Isn't that what all lovers do?

All Meredith Verran has ever wanted is to escape the holiday season without having to wear a Christmas jumper. Her new job at the cosy gift shop in a picturesque Cornish tourist spot is making it impossible for her to maintain her Scrooge-like manner. With their seasonal hampers on everyone’s wish list, Meredith must paste on a smile and fake some holiday cheer. Then she meets handsome new arrival, Finn, who wishes it could be Christmas every day and wants her to feel the same way, too. Can she embrace the holly and the ivy before the decorations are packed away for another year?

The first book offering support for parents and carers of children and young people with body dysmorphic disorder (BDD), this guidebook explains the condition as well as the impact that it may have in education settings, family life and socialisation. The guide begins by explaining how and why BDD emerges, before moving onto an exploration of how the mental health condition presents itself emotionally, psychologically, physically and behaviourally. 

Charlie has a new helper on her bus, her free-spirited and loveable cousin Delilah, who’s paid a visit to the charming Cornish village of Porthgolow and is helping out on Charlie’s adorable cream tea bus. When the Director of a new TV series filming further along the coast tells Delilah that the bus would be the perfect addition to their onsite catering, she takes him a bit too literally. Charlie and Delilah find themselves caught up in the filming of a lavish period drama, and it isn’t long before Delilah finds herself drawn to the handsome male lead. 

Hannah Swan is looking forward to Christmas for the first time in years. Her new job as an eco-consultant is taking her - and her geeky colleague, Noah - to the beautiful Cornish village of Porthgolow for the first time. They’re are helping the Crystal Waters Hotel to ramp up its green credentials, though after a bumpy journey, Hannah can’t shake off the feeling that Porthgolow is strangely familiar. Never able to resist a mystery, her interest is piqued when the hotel’s staff and customers report odd noises and sightings, believing the hotel to be haunted.

Louise has had to watch her husband, Andrew, start a new family in the four years since he left her. The ‘other woman’ is now his wife - but Louise isn’t ready to let Caz enjoy the life that was once hers or to let go of the man she still loves. As Louise starts to dig into Caz’s past, the two women’s pretence of civility starts to slip. But in trying to undermine each other, they discover more about the man they both married. And when Andrew is murdered at a family party, both women are found standing over the body. It’s always the wife. But which one?

Through helpful exercises, guidance and expert narrative, Dr Arnold's techniques will show you how to reduce stress triggers that can feel hard to handle, and teach you how to reclaim your equilibrium and rediscover your self-belief. This audiobook is designed to help you to improve your self-care routine from the moment you wake up. Not only will you feel rested, calm and full of confidence, you will learn to sharpen your self-awareness and implement acts of care and thoughtfulness into your everyday life.

Two suburban women. Two dark secrets. The almost perfect murder. Everybody needs good neighbours.... Melissa and Hester have lived next door to each other for years. When Melissa's daughter was younger, Hester was almost like a grandmother to her. But recently they haven't been so close. Hester has plans to change all that. It's obvious to her that despite Melissa's outwardly glamorous and successful life, she needs Hester's help.

Food writer Estelle Forster has the perfect life. And with her first book on the way, it's about to get even better. When Estelle hears about Poppy O'Farrell's disappearance, she assumes the girl has simply run away. But Estelle's world crumbles when she's sent a photo of Poppy, along with a terrifying note: I'm watching you. I know everything about you. Estelle has no idea who's threatening her or how she's connected to the missing teen, but she thinks the answers lie in the coastal town she once called home and the past she hoped was long behind her.

Cynthia and Alex have always been like sisters. Living and working for years on Cynthia's mother's sprawling farm, they've raised their families together. It was the perfect life until the fateful night that Alex finds Hannah, one of Cynthia's eighteen-year-old twins, inexplicably murdered in her own home. Soon Alex's life is spiralling out of control as she questions everything she knows and everyone she trusted. And when local detective, Stefani Warner starts investigating Hannah's murder, one prime suspect quickly rises to the fore: Daniel, Alex's nineteen-year-old son.

Parents, friends, teachers, relatives, and even work colleagues - from the people close to us to those we never even meet - other people are constantly shaping who we are. The mirror neuron is a part of the brain that has shaped each and every one of us throughout our lifetimes. It is the very essence of what makes us human, but most of us have never even heard of it. Mirror Thinking explores how the mirror neuron has defined us through the role models we observe and interact with.

Getting pregnant as a teenager was never part of Kate's plan, but when it happens she's determined to do right by her daughter, showing her the love she never had as a child. Life as a single mother is hard, sometimes impossible, but it only brings Kate and Becky closer together. By the time Becky is making her own way in the world as a tenacious trainee journalist, Kate couldn't be prouder.