Showing results by narrator "Harrie Dobby" in All Categories

I sit little Mila down at my kitchen table with a glass of milk and a plate of cookies. She smiles shyly at me and I reach out to ruffle her hair. Leaving her alone for a moment, I dash upstairs, closing my eyes as I take a deep breath. What have I done? Mila isn’t my child. I should never have taken her home. But what choice did I have? Painting a smile on my face, I head back down to the kitchen.

I push open the door to the beautiful French villa and my clever, handsome husband and adorable wide-eyed children follow me inside, taking in the breath-taking view. This should be a blissful summer break, filled with sun, swimming and relaxation but the truth is very different. Because my husband has just revealed the real reason we’re here. When our friends staying at the sprawling villa greet us on the sun-soaked terrace, I smile brightly and attempt to calm my nerves.

There was no doubt that things had definitely looked better for Gabriel Atwood, one time Viscount Northwood. Mainly because everyone who knew him or of him almost certainly believed him dead—the bastard who'd betrayed him had made sure of that. His only hope was to seek aid from Nicholas Sinclair, his former mentor, now the current Duke of Blackmore, before his enemies realised that news of his demise had been greatly exaggerated.

When Ellie tells me she has a new boyfriend, I am absolutely thrilled and can’t wait to meet him. She finally seems so happy and in love. But there’s a catch. Ellie has never met him in person. In fact, he doesn’t even live in the same country. Our home is in England, but Daryl is in Los Angeles.

When librarian Kay bumps into her ex-boyfriend Nick at a Christmas market, she thinks fate is finally giving her a second chance with her first big love. But then she gets spectacularly tangled in a Christmas tree-netting machine and meets another Nick entirely. One who cuts her free, dresses her wounds, and makes her pulse race in ways that thoroughly confuse her.

When yoga teacher Amelia falls victim to an online scam, her colleague Paige really comes through for her. And with their daughters Marnie and Taryn becoming best friends, the two families grow even closer. But all is not as it seems. Paige has an agenda.

Bridget is suffocating. Trapped by the monotony of her everyday life and the relentless bills landing on her doormat. So when an old friend invites her for a week on his superyacht, she jumps at the chance to escape. Champagne at sunset. Turquoise waters. A reunion with friends who were once inseparable, before fame, heartbreak, and failure tore them apart. But the dream shatters fast.

Berlin, 1944. ‘It is a great honour to have you here, Herr Hitler.’ Lili doesn’t stumble over the lie, her hand steady as she pours champagne. Everything must be perfect, no one can suspect a thing… Lili Rodenberg and her husband Marius run the Edel, Berlin’s most glamorous hotel. For its wealthy guests, it is an escape from the destruction outside, with its elegant piano bar and fine amber brandy. But Lili is Jewish, a secret she is terrified will end in tragedy for her and their beloved little girl.

Connie Fitzwalter never imagined that her passion for music would lead her into a world of danger and intrigue. When her old family friend, Stephen, who works for the foreign office, tells Connie the true scale of the violence against Jewish people in Germany and Austria, she can stand aside no longer. Together, Stephen and Connie devise a daring mission to help families escape the clutches of Nazi persecution. Under their cover as music enthusiasts traveling to high-society concerts in Europe, Connie and her sister Dottie begin by smuggling money and valuables for families over the border.

My daughter is getting married to the man of her dreams. But will she pay for it with her life? My beautiful daughter Ellie walks down the aisle in her full-length lace dress, beaming with happiness. As she exchanges her vows with Kyle, who looks devastatingly handsome in his smart black suit, I hope this time will be different.

She told me she was the housekeeper, and who was I to question? Our stay in this perfectly renovated Victorian house on the rich side of Hastings was a favour from an old school friend while the fire damage to our own little place was being fixed. This is not my house, and they are not my rules. So I step aside, and I let her in. Am I paranoid to think that she’s watching my every move? What am I supposed to do when she rests her head on my husband’s broad shoulder, a glint in her eye that only I can see?

When Faith Shackleford found herself in the unenviable position of having to accompany her irascible father to convalesce in the genteel seaside town of Torquay, she envisioned three months of wearying monotony. She certainly wasn't expecting to be intrigued by the forlorn empty house situated next to their own elegant villa, especially when she discovered it belonged to a handsome captain in the Royal Navy who was currently away at sea. Unfortunately, she never imagined that fascination might cost her her life.

Paris, 1940: As the German soldiers march down the Champs-Élysées, the Bélanger twins know there is no escape – their lives are about to change forever. But while Sophie, a third-year medical student, works long days and nights saving casualties of war at the American hospital, and waits anxiously for news of her fiancé from the front line, her recently widowed twin, Adèle, is determined to enjoy her freedom. Nothing – not the bombs, the curfews or the Nazi officers sidling up to her in nightclubs – can stop her from indulging in the temptations of Parisian society.

Eleanor Brewster is a proper English lady with a crumbling manor to prove it, and one inconvenient problem: she needs to marry to keep her family estate. Danni Franks is a no-nonsense farmer with a newly acquired (and deeply in debt) farm, a complicated family, and precisely zero interest in aristocratic drama. But when Danni's tractor collides, literally, with Eleanor's sports car, she somehow ends up engaged to a woman who considers tweed a fashion statement.

On Christmas Eve, Reverend Steve Rainforth leads midnight mass in his quiet Yorkshire village. Among the congregation sits a nervous young woman, a stranger to most—yet before the night is over, she will be found dead in the churchyard, and Steve's world will be shattered forever.

Children are not passive victims of oppression, but their resistance and struggle for equality has been largely ignored by the wider social justice movement—until now. In this groundbreaking manifesto, Eloise Rickman argues that it's time to stop viewing children as less than adults and start fighting for their rights to be taken seriously. Radical, compassionate, and profoundly hopeful, this powerful new book signals the start of a long-overdue conversation about how we treat children. It's Not Fair is a call to embrace children’s liberation and the possibility of a better, fairer world.

When Anais receives a near-derelict Paris hotel in her divorce settlement, her first thought is to tidy it up and sell it immediately. All she wants is to move on and forget her disaster of a marriage ever happened. But selling it proves impossible, so she has only one option: to make it gorgeous and open by Christmas… when her funds will almost certainly run out. She’s not counting on the grumpy American bar-owner next door, Noah, coming and interfering at every moment though.

Mia and Ed have been best friends ever since they began teaching at the same school. Ed bakes cake for the staff, Mia eats the cakes. Ed can’t control his students, Mia sorts them out. Mia can’t work the photocopier, Ed shows her how. Mia’s love life might be chaotic but she’s totally devoted to her super-tidy, cat-owning, geeky but not bad-looking best friend. So, when Mia discovers Ed is still a virgin at twenty-eight, she decides to take matters into her own hands and teach him the skills he needs to seduce the pretty new maths teacher, Caitlin.

Germany 1939 – To save her baby, Trudi Beck must hand her over to strangers who will take her across the sea to a foreign country. Trudi has already lost her husband to the Nazis, her stepsons are taking the train too. Walking away from the train station with empty arms is the hardest thing she's ever done. London 1939 – Newly married, Sally Matthews, is alone again. Her husband is away training for war, leaving her days and home empty. She volunteers to help with the children from the Kindertransport, becoming captivated by five-year-old Tom and his baby sister, Liesel.

When Natalie Powers returns home for the first time in 13 years, she must convince everyone she has fully recovered from the mental illness that has seen her institutionalised for most of her young life. But instead of being welcomed back, Natalie enters a baffling world of deception. In the village of Little Downey, everybody appears to harbour a mysterious secret, including her father, Frank, the village butcher, who refuses to discuss the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s mother's disappearance. But who can Natalie trust if not her own father?