Showing results by narrator "Rosie Jones" in All Categories

England, 1943: Home is no longer safe for eight-year-old twins Molly and Jacob. Night after night, wailing bombs and screeching planes skim the rooftops overhead. They cradle each other, shivering in terror, not knowing if they'll live to see dawn. Their mother, Martha, has no choice but to evacuate them to the safety of the countryside. At the train station, Martha bites back tears as she says good-bye to her precious children. Knowing she might never see them again, she gives Jacob a letter, pressing the envelope into his hands and telling him to only read it if they are in danger.

England, 1937: After a devastating childhood at Blakely Hall Orphanage, 15-year-old Sandra is released. She finds work as a housemaid, finally able to put her past behind her. But the start of World War Two throws the country into turmoil, and her brother, Alf, is sent away to fight, leaving her completely alone. Germany, 1939: Eleven-year-old Frieda is about to board a ship bound for England with her brother, Kurt. But at the last moment, as Frieda stands on the deck crammed with frightened children, she spots her brother jumping off, back to land.

Is your phone the first thing you reach for when you wake up? And the last thing you see before you sleep? Do you find the hours slip away as you idly scroll through your social media timeline? In short, are you addicted to your phone? If so, How to Break Up with Your Phone is here to help. How to Break Up with Your Phone is a smart, practical and useful plan to help you conquer your mobile phone addiction in just 30 days - and take back your life in the process.

Sophia's Imperial forces will stop at nothing to keep the rebels from returning Charlotte to the castle and her rightful place as queen. With the help of an underground resistance movement called The Iron Ladies - a society that rejects beauty treatments entirely - and the backing of alternative newspaper The Spider's Web, Camille must use her powers, her connections and her cunning to outwit her greatest nemesis, Sophia, and restore peace to Orleans.

Fifteen-year-old Maisy Mitcham and her twin brother, Duncan, lose their mother to an insane asylum one night in 1960. The twins are sent to their grandmother's country house, Nightingales. Cold and distant, she leaves them to their own devices, to explore and to grow. That is until the day Duncan doesn't come home from the woods. With their grandmother seeming to have little interest in her grandson's disappearance and the police soon giving up hope, it is left to Maisy to discover the truth.

China, 1941. With Japan’s declaration of war on the Allies, Elspeth Kent’s future changes forever. When soldiers take control of the missionary school where she teaches, comfortable security is replaced by rationing, uncertainty and fear. Ten-year-old Nancy Plummer has always felt safe at Chefoo School. Now the enemy, separated indefinitely from anxious parents, the children must turn to their teachers - to Miss Kent and her new Girl Guide patrol especially - for help.

Welcome to the dark decadence of Dhonielle Clayton's sharp tale of beauty, obsession and magic.... In the opulent world of Orléans, the people are born grey and damned, and only a Belle's powers can make them beautiful. Camellia Beauregard wants to be the favourite Belle - the one chosen by the queen to tend to the royal family. But once Camellia and her Belle sisters arrive at court, it becomes clear that being the favourite is not everything she always dreamed it would be.

It's 1942, and World War Two is in full swing. Roberta 'Bobby' Hollis has joined the Air Transport Auxiliary in a team of pilots known as the 'glamour girls'. Just as capable as the men, these women ferry aircraft, parts and people between factories, assembly plants and airfields. 

It's autumn in Yulethorpe, and everyone is gloomy. It's cold and drizzly, and the skies are permagrey. The last shop on the high street - an adorable little toy shop - has just shut its doors. Everything is going wrong for Yulethorpe this autumn. Until Clara Kristensen arrives. Clara is on holiday, but she can see the potential in the pretty town, so she rolls up her sleeves and sets to work. Things are looking up until Joe comes to Yulethorpe to find out exactly what is going on with his mother's shop.

The aliens are here. And they want to help. The extraordinary new project from one of the country's most acclaimed and consistently brilliant SF novelists of the last 30 years. The Jackaroo have given humanity 15 worlds and the means to reach them. They're a chance to start over, but they're also littered with ruins and artifacts left by the Jackaroos' previous clients.

Kit can’t stand reading. She’d much rather be outside, playing games and getting muddy, than stuck inside with a book. But when she’s dragged along to the library one day by her two best friends, she makes an incredible discovery - and soon it’s up to Kit and her friends to save the library...and the world. The first book in a fantastically exciting, brilliantly funny, magical new series!

In the fourth collaboration with We Need Diverse Books, 15 award-winning and celebrated diverse authors deliver stories about a princess without need of a prince, a monster long misunderstood, memories that vanish with a spell, and voices that refuse to stay silent in the face of injustice. This powerful and inclusive collection contains a universe of wishes for a braver and more beautiful world.

I was dead for 13 minutes. I don't remember how I ended up in the icy water, but I do know this - it wasn't an accident, and I wasn't suicidal. They say you should keep your friends close and your enemies closer, but when you're a teenage girl, it's hard to tell them apart. My friends love me, I'm sure of it. But that doesn't mean they didn't try to kill me. Does it? 13 Minutes by Sarah Pinborough is a gripping psychological thriller about people, fears, manipulation and the power of the truth.

Twenty-three-year-old Katy Speed is fascinated by the house across the street. The woman who lives there, Gloria, is the most glamorous neighbour on the avenue, owning a fashionable dress shop in Bexhill-on-Sea. But who is the woman who arrives in the black car most Saturdays while Gloria is at work? Sometimes she brings women to the house, other times they have children. Hilda, Katy's mother, disapproves of Gloria. She wonders if these mysterious visitors have just been released from prison. Is Gloria secretly bringing criminals, or worse, into the heart of the community?

Megan is really excited about moving. She can't wait to take her lively golden Labrador puppy, Ellie, for walks in the countryside near their new house. But Mum and Dad are worried that Ellie is getting in the way, so Gran offers to have her to stay during the move. Megan and Ellie have never been separated before. Megan misses her puppy so much - and Ellie will do anything to get home to Megan. 

When Lara and her dad discover a scared black puppy in an alleyway while walking their dog, Oliver, Lara desperately wants to take him home and look after him. Her dad isn't so sure. Lara can't stop thinking about the poor puppy and soon goes to find him again. She convinces her dad to let him stay and names him Jet. But when Jet spends all night howling, Lara's dad isn't impressed. Night after night, the wailing continues, until it begins to look like Jet may need to go to the animal shelter. Is there anything Lara can do to help Jet sleep?

Romilly lives in a ramshackle house with her eccentric artist father and her cat, Monty. She knows little about her past - but she knows that she is loved. When her father finds fame with a series of children’s books starring her as the main character, everything changes: exotic foods appear on the table, her father appears on TV and strangers appear at their door, convinced the books contain clues leading to a precious prize. But as time passes, Romilly’s father becomes increasingly suspicious of the outside world until, before her eyes, he begins to disappear altogether.

A encounter with a boy dangling from the sky changes pickpocket Magpie's life forever. Like her, the boy dreams of flying over the rooftops of Paris. His family, the Montgolfiers, are desperate to be first to discover the secret of flight. Together with Pierre, Magpie is soon caught up in a world of inflatable bloomers, spies and a trio of unruly animals in a race to be the first to fly a hot air balloon - in front of the King and Queen of France.

It's been 500 years since the end of the world, and society has built itself anew. The old Norse gods are no longer revered. Their tales have been banned. Magic is outlawed, and a new religion - the Order - has taken its place. In a remote valley in the north, 14-year-old Maddy Smith is shunned for the ruinmark on her hand - a sign associated with the Bad Old Days. But what the villagers don't know is that Maddy has skills.

Humanity's future has been disrupted and shaped by the mysterious alien Jackaroo. We spread to the planets they gave us, and we discovered the ruins of a dozen previous civilisations. All previous clients of the Jackaroo, all dead. So far we have escaped that fate - but we have also escaped from the Jackaroos' planets and begun to explore the galaxy. The discovery of ancient spaceships and the unlocking of their mysteries has led to a new way of life. But humanity's failings and conflicts are always with us.