Showing results by narrator "Clara" in All Categories

Christopher, the handsome and talented director, is embroiled in a steamy affair with someone who is strictly off-limits; Molly has become obsessed with a young boy whom she's convinced is her grandson; while Emily has just fallen in love - with the wrong man. As opening night approaches, it becomes clear that there are some tough decisions to be made. But until the curtain falls, you never know what might happen on The Street Where You Live.

After achieving Tier 3 as a Dark Matter Aspirant, Jace Seren and his allies—Priam Westerfold, Greg Bhastal, and Quinn Cipher—are on their way to Earth. Their mission is dangerous: take down all five megacorporations to clear the way for the Star Council to instill their control over the world and lift Earth’s civilization to its pinnacle of possibility. Corpo-mercs, cybered-up soldiers, lingering Aspirants, and Ascendants? That’s only the start of it. For the Nebula Alliance already has agents on Earth, and they do not take kindly to hostile takeovers.

Once upon a time, in a parallel universe, there existed the continent of Triton.... The land was filled with beauty, but it was also splintered by war. Out of the chaos grew a conspiracy to reawaken the Beast, a fearsome creature who wrought only tragedy and devastation. The only way to stop him was to fulfill an ancient prophecy: Triton’s four strongest warriors must wed its four most powerful witches, binding all nations together and finally bringing peace to the land.

Beth shows that women really can have it all. Ruby lives life by her own rules. And then there’s Lauren, living the dream. As perfect as it looks? Beth hasn’t had sex in a year. Ruby feels like she’s failing. Lauren’s happiness is fake news. And it just takes one shocking event to make the truth come tumbling out....

Ireland, 1011 AD. The mortal kingdoms rise up against High King Brian Boru as they seek to wrest his crown from him. Yet the real struggle is between the two magical races of Ireland, the Fomorians and the Descendants, eternal enemies who both now seek dominion over the mortal world. Gormflaith, queen of King Brian, remains unmasked as the powerful Fomorian she is. Gormflaith plans to establish control over Ireland and destroy the Descendants in one fell swoop... but she cannot do it alone.

Once upon a time, in a parallel universe, there existed the continent of Triton.... Our four warriors and four witches, destined mates, have begun their adventure, knowing the fate of their world is at stake, but not having any idea there are other factions plotting against them. Now they face political intrigues, religious zealotry, father against son, wife against husband, a mother’s plotting, a sister’s envy, grief, betrayal, and despair as the prophesied journey across the sands of Firenze into the lush green of Wodell.

When Rachel falls in love with her married professor, Dr Byrne, her best friend James helps her devise a plan to seduce him. But what begins as a harmless crush soon pushes their friendship to its limits. Over the course of a year they will find their lives ever more entwined with the Byrnes' and be faced with impossible choices and a lie that can't be taken back...

Airen is at war. The queen is dead. The coven is incomplete. And things are uncertain under the sea. Now, the unicorns and mermaids and witches and warriors and the strangers from other lands all must band together to face the Beast and save Triton. The unions have been realized. Silence and Mars, True and Farah, Cassius and Elena, and Aramus and Ha-Lah are at their fullest powers. But the gods require sacrifice. The sacrifice of pure love. If it isn’t given, the Beast will prevail, and Triton will fall.

In the notorious Conciergerie Prison, Marie Antoinette is having her cards read. What solace can the tarot give her now, in the midst of the Reign of Terror, when outside her cell the mob is baying for her blood? Kate, a young Irishwoman whose fortunes have seen her travel from maid to closest confidant of Mademoiselle Lenormand, the infamous Tarot Reader of Versailles, sees the Queen of France's cards and knows what's in store for her. As the French Revolution is consumed by frenzied violence, Kate must use all her wiles to ensure that Marie Antoinette's fate doesn't become her own.

One week. If you survive, you choose a Cosmic Power ... If you survive. Jace isn’t one to give up. Not when his sister dies. Not when he loses his legs. And definitely not when The Cosmic System takes over Earth. With nothing more than his street smarts, the clothes on his back, and a river otter companion, he must survive a planet full of vicious predators that see him as an easy meal. If he can survive? He gets to choose a Cosmic Power and a Class. A path to ascension. A way to bring his sister back.

Ireland, 1000 AD. Gormflaith is unhappily married to Brian Boru, High King of Ireland, and although a queen she struggles with her limited position. As an immortal Fomorian with the secret gift of magic, Gormflaith has a burning desire: to find and destroy the hidden fortress of her sworn enemies, the Descendants, who seek to kill her kind at all costs. She begins to use her magical powers, and discovers she is more skilled than she ever realised... but can she control what she will become?

Three strangers arrive home to Ireland to the house that gave each of them refuge when they needed it most. They are there to celebrate the winter wedding of their beloved Annie, the woman who fostered them in their childhoods. Now Julia is a world-famous singer living in luxury in Paris and Eddie is a chef in London, while Steph spends her days on a remote Greek island, running a writers' retreat with her older lover. All three have moved on from the past, but as the wedding celebrations get underway, certain truths come to light. It turns out that some hurts last longer than others ...

A haunting and beautiful memoir from a Cambodian refugee who lost her country and her family during Pol Pot's genocide in the 1970s but who finds hope by reclaiming the recipes she tasted in her mother's kitchen.

Join Clara Parkes on a cross-country adventure and meet a cast of characters that includes the shepherds, dyers, and countless workers without whom our knitting needles would be empty, our mills idle, and our feet woefully cold. Travel the country with her as she meets a flock of Saxon Merino sheep in upstate New York, tours a scouring plant in Texas, visits a steamy Maine dyehouse, helps sort freshly shorn wool on a working farm, and learns how wool fleece is measured, baled, shipped, and turned into skeins.

What makes for a wonderful life? On a crowded Christmas train from Milan to Paris, Amy, an American headed to meet her fiancé, and Martijn, a Finn headed anywhere but home, meet cute. But when their train gets delayed in an Italian Alps hill town due to a snow storm, they, along with a passel of fellow stranded passengers, find comfort and joy in a cozy inn, run by a wise Italian man who forces them to look at the holiday and each other in a whole new light.

The queen has been assassinated. The Enchantments are under attack. The plot is unfolding. And our lovers, Silence and Mars, Cassius and Elena, True and Farah, and Aramus and Ha-Lah, are forced to separate as treachery and civil war sweep Triton. Not to mention, the Beast is still a threat to every breathing being on the continent, and it is the destined warriors and witches who must stop him.

In The Yarn Whisperer: Reflections on a Life in Knitting, renowned knitter and author Clara Parkes ponders the roles knitting plays in her life via 22 captivating, poignant, and laugh-out-loud funny essays. Recounting tales of childhood and adulthood, family, friends, adventure, privacy, disappointment, love, and celebration, she hits upon the universal truths that drive knitters to create and explores the ways in which knitting can be looked at as a metaphor for so many other things.

Over a hundred years after she went missing, Isolde, born to the family of a famous Irish king and a powerful immortal, inexplicably reappears. Her mother's kin, the Descendants, are one of the two magical races of Ireland. But no Descendant can understand the reasons for Isolde's disappearance, and worse yet, she is giftless – born with no magical ability, a dangerous thing when the magic-rich Fomorians, ancient enemies of the Descendants, are growing in strength.

The year is 1793, Stockholm. King Gustav of Sweden has been assassinated, years of foreign wars have emptied the treasuries and the realm is governed by a self-interested elite, leaving its citizens to suffer. On the streets, malcontent and paranoia abound. A body is found in the city's swamp by a watchman, Mickel Cardell, and the case is handed over to investigator Cecil Winge, who is dying of consumption.

Self-deprecating and with an acerbic wit, TikTok star Clara Batten aka @rabatts is every middle-class mother trying to get through the day without another sh*t on the staircase or panic drive to McDonald’s. In Gin and Phonics, she talks candidly about the ups, downs and hilarious reality of trying to parent two small people and fulfil her lifelong dream of becoming an actress without losing her bl**dy mind.