Showing results by narrator "Maeve Smyth" in All Categories

In 1970s Dublin, all forms of contraception are strictly forbidden, but an intrepid group of women will risk everything to change that in this “heartbreaking, powerful, and ultimately uplifting” (Amanda Geard, author of The Midnight House) novel inspired by a little-known true story. Dublin...

The gritty prison memoir of Michaella McCollum, one half of the infamous 'Peru Two', imprisoned in a Peruvian jail for attempting to smuggle 11kg of cocaine from Peru to Madrid in August 2013. She was just a regular girl, spending the summer working at a bar in Ibiza, until she was approached by a man who asked her if she'd like to make some quick, easy money...and it would change her life forever. This is the truth of her time in prison, told through her own diaries and letters to her mother, family and friends.

Brought to you by Penguin. In sixteen sparkling stories, Jan Carson introduces us to worlds and characters that feel real enough to touch. All of life is here: the thrill of growing up, the grief when youth is over; first love, mature love, parenthood and loss - all shot through with profound...

The year 1865. Goldie O’Neill was nine years of age when she trekked across the unclaimed American West with her family to form their own Irish Catholic colony. Their new community had dreams of self-governance and prosperity far removed from the anti-Irish sentiment and prejudice of the ruling classes. They soon learned about the extremes of the American West and the ongoing Indian war. A year after their arrival, Goldie blames herself for her sister’s disappearance.

Fern's mother is a social climber and a former ballet dancer who lives a plush life in a London townhouse. Fern's father only climbs if there's a bottle at the top, has an IQ of 133 and lives hand-to-mouth in Californian motels. Aged 14, Fern has spent equal time with each of her parents. That is, until an unexpected visitor triggers a life-changing dilemma – whether she should get on a plane to London to be with her mother, or stay in California with her father. Here, Fern's narrative splices in two.

1916: Betty O’Fogarty is proud and clever. Spurred on by Betty's belief in her husband Seamus’s talent as a violin-maker and her desire to escape rural life, the couple elopes to Dublin. As Dublin is plunged into chaos as the Easter Rebellion of 1916, Betty gives birth to her first child to the sound of gunfire and shelling. A hundred years later, secrets churn their way to the surface, and Betty’s grandchildren and great-grandchildren uncover both Betty’s ruthlessness and her unique brand of heroism.

While war rages across the world, Kate struggles on her family farm by the wild Atlantic Ocean. But when she meets American airman Tony, whose blue eyes are as stormy as the sea, her life collides with the war in ways she never imagined.Their time is cut short when Tony leaves for war, promising to come back for her. Only then does Kate learn she is carrying his child - and when her family finds out, she is shunned and banished to a Magdalen Laundry to be imprisoned.

The Friendship Fairies Go to Paris, The Friendship Fairies Save the Circus and The Friendship Fairies Save Christmas are all available in this collection!

Marguerite Kelley’s childhood home was dominated by the disappearance of her uncle who vanished into thin air. On a windy morning in November 1905, she is the first to hear about the discovery of a skeleton tucked under the eaves of St. Patrick’s Cathedral, Manhattan. Suspecting the remains are that of her uncle who worked on the construction of the Cathedral, she wants to be the first person to break the news to Roisin, his widow, and to her father Patrick Kilbane. She hopes the discovery will solve a mystery that has dominated her family for a quarter of a century.

Underneath the floorboards of number 39A Cove Street live Joey and Fred O'Brien, nine-year-old twin elves who get up to all sorts of mischief together. Whether it's their missions Up-Up to borrow supplies from their human neighbour, Bee-Bee – and stay out of the path of her big St Bernard dog – or creating magic under the floorboards from all the things we leave behind, every day is an adventure for the Squirby elves. But when the twins see Bee-Bee needs their help, they risk everything to rush to her rescue!

A surreal and darkly comic collection of stories that offer a fresh and irreverent look at life in contemporary Northern Ireland from “one of the most exciting and original Northern Irish writers of her generation” (The Sunday Times, London). Humorous and horrifying, tender and absurd, the...

War has been declared, and the lives of three sisters – Lydia, Peggy and Teddy – are about to be turned upside down. As bombs rain down on London, the girls will lose their homes, their things, their loved ones... but they will find lost kittens, friendships with fellow rebels, the need for art, the strength to carry on and a greater sense of family than ever. And with each other's help and the radical changes that war brings, the sisters will discover the essence of who they truly are. 1939.

Charlotte Cairstine McDonald, the soon-to-be Duchess of the Isles of Caithness, is about to learn that even in 1967, it's dangerous to be born a royal. Especially if that royal - aka Charlotte - is hiding a secret...one that could end her engagement to a dreamy English duke. While alone on Saint Andrew's seaside bluff, Charlotte drifts into sleep and is transported from her 1960s reality to 1567 Scotland - an era when her secret would have guaranteed a trip to the executioner's dungeon.

Daniela will learn that some dreams should never come true!

Austin commits a fatal mistake and births a miracle — a child who could possibly change the trajectory of a small Southern town and even the world. A Generation of Lighted Evergreens is a heartwarming and wholesome story. This story will be enjoyed for seasons to come. For listeners who treasured the movie War Room, believe and dream again.

Her family was to be her legacy, until an angry mob murdered her only son.

Meet Daniela Rose and Cillian in the Orphan Dreamer Saga - a transcontinental sweeping story where Anne of Green Gables meets The Da Vinci Code inside the War Room. When a twist of fate alters the destiny of an orphan boy and the future of humanity in this epic journey that defies time and takes the listener from 1018 BC into a future of “what ifs” in the first full-length novel of the series, Orphan Dreamer and the Glass Tattoo.

Could Earth’s apocalypse really be worse than puberty for Daniela Rose-a depressive schizophrenic girl destined to meet a mysterious orphan boy who haunts her chaotic dreams? One girl. One boy. One mission. To protect their home-Earth-from invasion by the planet’s previous occupants...This epic story weaves an intricate tapestry of Divine guidance, faith, isolation, hope, and loss as it follows two children from their beginnings to their ends. If you knew your ending, how would you have lived your beginning?

There's much excitement in the Dixon household as the Friendship Fairies' dad has bought his own bakery – and he's planning on opening it just in time for Christmas! The girls are busy helping him get ready, and enjoying sampling the wares as they go. But when a little elf from nearby Red Forest comes seeking their help, they down tools and jump into action, for in the magical forest, disaster looms...

Sisters Emme, Holly and Jess – are off to Paris with their parents, exchanging homes with a French family for a month. The girls are having a brilliant time exploring the city, until disaster strikes and they have to track down their host family's precious pet octopus, who someone seems to have let out accidentally...