Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

Rose has it all - the gorgeous children, the husband, the beautiful home. But then her best friend, Polly, comes to stay. Very soon Rose's cosy world starts to fall apart at the seams - her baby falls dangerously ill, her husband is distracted.... Is Polly behind it all? It appears that once you invite Polly into your home, it's very difficult to get her out again.

Austria, 1938. After years of hardship, Ella is full of hope for a better future for Austrians, and when Hitler marches into Linz, she can’t help but become swept up in the euphoria of her boyfriend, Max. But she soon realises her mistake. When she witnesses a woman being shot in the street and a childhood friend’s Jewish department store is closed down, she knows she must do something. It’s a dangerous time to be a resistor, especially when her fascist boyfriend proposes to her.

The incomparable Inspector Alan Grant returns in the latest addition to our enormously popular Josephine Tey series. As well as all the usual delights of Tey’s writing and the Inspector himself, To Love and Be Wise also features one of the most cunning and surprising twists of any of Tey’s novels – making it an absolute must-listen for any Golden Age crime aficionado.

Welcome to St Ambrose Primary School. A world of friendships, fights and feuding. And that's just the mothers.It's the start of another school year at St Ambrose. But while the children are in the classroom colouring in, their mothers are learning sharper lessons on the other side of the school gates. Lessons in friendship. Lessons in betrayal. Lessons in the laws of community, the transience of power... and how to get invited to lunch.Beatrice - undisputed queen bee.

When Edward of York takes back the English crown, the Wars of the Roses scatter the Lancastrian nobility, and young Henry Tudor, with a strong claim to the throne, is forced into exile. Recently widowed and vulnerable, his mother, Lady Margaret Beaufort, forges an uncomfortable alliance with Edward’s Queen, Elizabeth Woodville. Swearing an oath of allegiance to York, Margaret agrees to marry the King’s shrewdest courtier, Lord Stanley. But can she tread the precarious line between duty to her husband, loyalty to her son, and her obligation to God and the King?

Emma and Dele’s dreams came true nine years ago when they adopted their daughter, Isla. It felt like fate, like they were meant to find each other, and now they’re living the life they always wanted. But then one day a new family moves into Forest Grove - and Emma can’t shake the chilling feeling that the wife looks just like Isla’s birth mother.

It is 1940, and, as the Battle of Britain takes to the air, Hope Stapleford is recruited to join the Special Operations Executive. On her way to Scotland, she is pulled from a train and driven to spymaster Fitzroy's stately home. She is his intelligence operative, and he wants to send her to a Scottish airfield where Harvey is already stationed undercover as a mechanic. At the airbase, Hope and Harvey find a community in turmoil. Pilots talk of strange sightings in the air, and local mechanics report mysterious scratches appearing on the wings and fuselage of the aircraft.

Hester always loved her mother best, her father had always been a hard man to like, spending more time (and money) in the local than with his family. After her mother's sudden death, followed by an injury forcing her father to give up his job as the ferryman, Hester is placed in the position of care-giver for her young brother and sister. As the years pass, Hester must row the ferry night and day to keep them all from starvation, while her hopes of working in a kitchen and one day becoming a cook slip further and further away.

After the horrors of the past, Louisa Williams is desperate to make a clean start. Her husband, Sam, is dead. Her children, too, are gone, victims of the car accident in which he died. Sam said that she would never get away from him. That he would hound her to death if she tried to leave. Louisa never thought that he would want to harm their children, though. But then she never thought that he would betray her with a woman like Sophie. And now Sophie is determined to take all that Louisa has left.

A breathtakingly tense thriller from the author of The Wrong Girl, about one woman's determination to defend what's hers - and how quickly a straightforward plan can spiral out of control. Perfect for fans of Katerina Diamond's The Secret and Fiona Barton's The Widow. Shortly after Christmas, a message arrives at Sophie's house, scrawled across her own round robin newsletter: 'He's going to leave you. Let's see how smug you are then, you stupid bitch.'

It's 1943. Evie Yeo's best friend Sukie and sister Pattie are leaving Devon behind and heading to London to work in a hotel. Sukie's fiancé, Wesley, is in a swing band that's booked to play the bar and with Sukie 'upstairs' on reception and Pattie a chambermaid 'downstairs', they see and share all aspects of the hotel and meet all of its residents. From the military officials in town for meetings at the war office, to people from the theatre helping to bring joy to the capital in wartime, an eclectic mix of people come together at this small hotel in Covent Garden.

The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist - all these narratives intersect at an estate called Howards End. The fate of this country home symbolizes the future of England in an exploration of social, economic, and philosophical trends during the post-Victorian era.

Emily Klein doesn’t know she has killed her husband until the day of his funeral. At first, signs point to a tragic accident. Yet, as Emily pieces together the events before his death - events which led to her own memory loss - she begins to suspect that her husband’s death may have been the result of more than a terrible twist of fate.... But the accident is only the beginning. Because while Emily’s physical scars will heal, the trauma of the accident has awakened old ghosts. She hears strange sounds, catches things that can’t possibly be there in the corner of her eye.

In a forgotten corner of Paris stands a building. Within its walls people talk and kiss, laugh and cry; some are glad to sit alone while others wish they did not. A woman with silver-blonde hair opens her bookshop downstairs, an old man feeds the sparrows on his windowsill, and a young mother wills the morning to hold itself at bay. Though each of their walls touches someone else's, the neighbours they pass in the courtyard remain strangers. Into this courtyard arrives Edward.

Ali turned towards the cottage, anger flooding through her. She’d believed she and Meg were friends; that they’d bonded over a vision of motherhood...a world where your baby deserved everything you could give it. She’d pulled Meg’s words - Meg’s life - around her, like a comfort blanket. But that shared vision had never existed. And Ali was alone now, with nothing to protect her.

Do you struggle to find peace and quiet? Do you yearn to disconnect, find an escape, slow down and just breathe? Are you overwhelmed by modern life? The simple solution lies in this book. Rooted in the ancient Zen philosophies that ground her work, French Buddhist nun Kankyo Tannier will show you how to channel the power of SILENCE to get back in control of your thoughts and access the refuge that lies in your mind.

From relishing a quiet moment of comfort to enjoying the beauty of nature or even just reveling in the deliciousness of a favorite snack, you too can do like the Swedes and open your eyes to all of life’s pleasures, no matter how simple. Niki Brantmark, founder of the popular blog My Scandinavian Home, offers easy-to-follow how-to’s, practical lists of tips and tricks, and unique insights into the most fascinating aspects of Swedish culture, from morning dips to Christmas crafting. Njuta is the ultimate guide to rejoicing in the moment, anytime and anywhere.

When an old friend gets in touch, Sarah Havenant discovers that there are two Facebook profiles in her name. One is hers. The other she has never seen. But everything in it is accurate. Photos of her friends, her husband, her kids. Photos from the day before. Photos of her new kitchen. Photos taken inside her house. And this is just the beginning. Because whoever has set up the second profile has been waiting for Sarah to find it. And now that she has, her life will no longer be her own....

A painstakingly researched, revelatory biography of Svetlana Stalin, a woman fated to live her life in the shadow of one of history's most monstrous dictators - her father, Josef Stalin. Born in the early years of the Soviet Union, Svetlana Stalin spent her youth inside the walls of the Kremlin. Communist Party privilege protected her from the mass starvation and purges that haunted Russia, but she did not escape tragedy - the loss of everyone she loved, including her mother, two brothers, aunts and uncles, and a lover twice her age, deliberately exiled to Siberia by her father.

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audiobook of Crikey a Bodyguard. When Kelly Bridge’s parents insist on employing a bodyguard for her protection, she’s not happy. Okay, so maybe not every woman is on the cusp of developing a vaccine against a potential biological terrorist attack - but crikey, it’s not like she’s a celebrity! Ben Jacobs flunked spectacularly out of school, so he knows his new client Dr Kelly Bridge spells trouble for him. But on a conference trip to Rome he finds things are worse than he thought.