Showing results by narrator "Jessica Preddy" in All Categories

Peter Kent—newly inherited Duke of Stanhope—must become respectable. Between his radical politics and the time he interrupted a minor royal wedding with a flock of sheep—not his fault!—he's developed a scandalous reputation at odds with his goal of becoming guardian to his half siblings. For help, he turns to the cleverest and most managing woman of his acquaintance, Lady Selina Ravenscroft. Selina is society's most proper debutante, save one tiny secret: she runs an erotic circulating library for women.

One morning, Emelie can't get out of bed. Her therapist calls it burnout. Her neighbour calls it the tiny work death. She needs to get away from the brightness of the city lights, the noise of the people, the constant demands, so she goes to the woods, pitches her tent overlooking the lake, breathes. And that's where she sees them, the Colony:

The heroine of this haunting, spare novel is voraciously alive in the afterlife. Adrift yet keenly aware, our undead narrator notes every bizarre detail of her new reality. She has forgotten even her name, but she remembers with unbearable longing the place where she knew herself and was known – where she loved and was loved.

Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell.

A brilliant, slyly humorous dissection of wealth, power and the tragedies even money can't fix for fans of The Secret History, The Corrections and Succession, Somebody Down There Likes Me asks what might happen if we finally get what we deserve.

You are cordially invited to attend the grand opening of Sinclair's department store! Enter a world of bonbons, hats, perfumes and mysteries around every corner. Wonder at the daring theft of the priceless Clockwork Sparrow! Tremble as the most dastardly criminals in London enact their wicked plans! Gasp as our bold heroines, Miss Sophie Taylor and Miss Lilian Rose, crack codes, devour iced buns and vow to bring the villains to justice....

Dawn loves being a mother. No matter how Archie came into her life, or the fact he's a little different from other children, he is precious and loved. He is hers, after all. Especially because she’s never told anyone who the father of her son is. So when Dawn’s twin brother David and his wife Rebekah are struggling to have their own child, Dawn agrees to become their surrogate, as it is the one thing she can do to help.

Australian cowgirl Bridie Willis travels to Montana to escape the pain of losing her father. Headstrong and determined, she plans to spend the summer alone photographing wild animals. Instead she finds herself saddled with a stubborn cowboy as a back-country guide. Ethan Morgan has been shaped by a childhood spent on the run. Cautious, steady and conservative, he is tasked with ensuring the beautiful, risk-taking cowgirl doesn't ditch him or come to any harm.

Wonder at the puzzling disappearance of the Jewelled Moth! Marvel as our heroines, Sophie and Lil, don cunning disguises, mingle in high society and munch many cucumber sandwiches to solve this curious case! Applaud their bravery as they follow a trail of terrible secrets that leads straight to London’s most dangerous criminal mastermind, and could put their own lives at risk too....

Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop, peak YBA (Tracey Emin's tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown's Loaded detonated the publishing industry, and when pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). It was the year of The Bends, the year Danny Boyle started filming Trainspotting, the year Richey Edwards went missing, the year Alex Garland wrote The Beach, the year Blair changed Clause IV after a controversial vote at the Labour Conference.

Two sisters, haunted by more than their past... Just weeks after discovering each other’s existence, Jess and Hannah Ballard arrive at Fairhaven Hall, where they will learn the clandestine ways of the Durupinen, an ancient sect of women who control the Gateways between the worlds of the living and the dead. Though they are considered outcasts by most of their classmates, Jess and Hannah are determined to learn what they can to fulfill their responsibility to the many ghosts that haunt them. But danger, it seems, has followed them as closely as a shadow to their new home.

One day, the power goes off and the world falls silent. And in two very different parts of America, two very different nightmares are about to begin. In Manhattan, Elizabeth and her brother Henry are all alone in their parents' apartment. Looking out the window, they can see the carnage slowly spreading through the city. But as hopes fade for their parents to come back, Elizabeth and Henry discover that dangers might already have entered the building.

Sixteen-year-old Mila lives in LA with her mom and A-list actor dad, whose fame constantly thrusts their lives into the media spotlight. But when Mila’s antics around town make waves ahead of her dad’s next big movie, something needs to be done. So Mila is dispatched 2,000 miles away to Nashville, Tennessee, where she can cool off for the summer with her aunt and grandfather. The perfect solution - right? Mila’s not so sure. She’s dreading the idea of a summer away from her friends, not to mention being shipped to the other side of the country.

Seriously, why do guys on dating apps think I want a picture of what’s in their pants? I could open an art gallery with the collection I’ve got. Zoe really doesn’t want to die alone and surrounded by cats. But it’s not looking good: she’s had sex precisely twice in the last year, and her feline friend isn’t the kind of male company she wants in bed.

He was perfect. Denim blue eyes, a dazzling smile. And he hadn’t sent me a picture of his junk. Which is about as rare, these days, as a dodo. When Sloane met Myles, everything fell into place. He loved a martini almost as much as she did, shared her passion for four-cheese pizzas, and made her laugh harder than any episode of Friends. She’d found 'The One' at last, and she could finally delete Tinder, forgetting all those waste-of-space men she’d never have to date again. But then she finds out that Myles has a secret. A very big one.

It's been 10 days, two hours and 43 minutes since Tansy got dumped. Two heartbreaking weeks since Renzo, who made her weak at the knees and dizzy with excitement, found out Tansy’s secret - and ended it on the spot. Since then, she’s spent every evening scrolling through their old photos, drunk texted him 26 times (he stopped reading after five), and lost count of how many packets of Kleenex she’s cried her way through. But while she’s busy pretending, Tansy’s plan is thrown a major curveball.

When recently engaged Nat flips through a bridal magazine, she spots a quiz on page 111 about being ready for marriage. After failing it, she’s determined to prove it wrong. If only it was that easy. Getting married to Archie, whose smile makes her insides go funny, should be a dream come true. So why is it a total nightmare?

When an onslaught of revelations brings chaos to Mila’s life, her A-list parents jet from LA to join her in Tennessee. But they bring marital conflicts with them, leaving Mila distraught, betrayed, trapped. In the explosive fall-out, Mila can’t help but question everything she ever knew about her family and herself. The one person she can trust is Blake - and so she turns to him for a summer of freedom and fun. Their flourishing relationship grows stronger, more intense, but Blake has crises of his own...featuring a guitar, a pushy mom and a clingy ex.

Detective Sergeant Megan Taylor once lost her heart to a man who was too charming, and she isn’t about to make the same mistake again - especially not with sexy defence lawyer Scott Armstrong. But when Scott wants something, he goes for it. And he wants Megan. One day she’ll see him not as a lawyer but as a man...and that’s when she’ll fall for him. Isn’t a man innocent until proven guilty?

When romance-fanatic Candice meets writer Alexis, she thinks her happy ending is finally on its way. He walks into her struggling Cornish surf school, and they hit it off straight away. Until she discovers that Alexis has been using their courtship as inspiration for the romantic novel he's struggling to write.