Showing results by narrator "Laura Kirman" in All Categories

You’ve heard of the Afterlife. Welcome to the Beforelife. There are four of us: Samuel, Lucy, Thomas, and me – Eliza. We came into being the day Becca Valentine was born. We’ve been by her side ever since. What she doesn’t know yet, is that one day she might become our mother. Then two men come into her life. Both seeking her heart. And then we realise: everything rests on Becca’s love story. Because one of the men is Lucy and Thomas’s father. And the other is mine and Samuel’s. And there’s simply no way we can all be born.

Cressida Collins is the queen of makeovers. With a well-placed stitch, button or seam, she can transform any frock in The Vintage Dress Shop and give customers their Cinderella moment. Like her beautifully organised workroom under the eaves, Cress's life away from the shop is just as orderly and mapped out. But when her boyfriend of fifteen years drops a bombshell, it explodes all the carefully laid plans Cress had for her future. It's going to take more than needle and thread to put Cress's own life back together. Will she ever be brave enough to say goodbye to her old dreams and start over?

With Christmas days away, the land girls of Gosling Farm are full of merriment. Only Lottie feels far from festive cheer after her sister's death. But with the help of handsome vicar and injured veteran Matthew, she begins to feel hopeful once more. Then one frosty night, a German bomber plane crashes nearby. A survivor is missing, injured and in desperate need of help. But this is no ordinary German airman: his capture would change the course of the war.

At 30, Claudia's life is stale and the romance with long-term boyfriend Seth has disappeared. Determined to inject some festive spark back into their love life, Claudia and Seth go on their first date in a very long time. But when the night ends in disaster, Claudia suddenly finds herself facing life - and Christmas - alone. Life alone is exciting, scary and full of soon-forgotten exercise regimes and ill-advised attempts at crafting sexy underwear. It's also filling up with dates, surprisingly.

Amid the sun-soaked hills of southern Italy lies the Romano family olive grove, where Lara lives with her daughter Rose and her granddaughter Bea. Lara has spent a lifetime trying to forget the traumatic events that led to her desperate escape from Dorset seventy years ago. But when she sees Bea—a passionate horticulturalist most at home in nature—being swept off her feet by Matteo, a handsome and charismatic restaurateur, Lara fears her granddaughter is in danger of making the same mistake as Lara did all those years ago.

For Sophie it’s a trip home and for Hector it’s time to meet Sophie’s parents... Though their trip has village tongues wagging about a stop at Scotland’s notorious elopement spot, Gretna Green. No matter what, it’ll make a nice break from the murder and mayhem that has been plaguing their beautiful Cotswolds village. But Sophie and Hector are barely across the border on the way to Inverness before a sinister encounter leaves them shaken.

Kings and Queens of England is an entertaining account of the larger-than-life characters that have ruled England through the ages. It follows the fascinating history of monarchs from the first Saxon kings to the Windsors of the present day. Author Nigel Cawthorne paints vivid portraits of a mixed bunch of rulers ranging from the drunken and debauched merry monarch Charles II to the idealized domesticity and colonial ambition of Queen Victoria and Prince Albert.

When a landslide on the Jurassic Coast reveals a rare ‘dragon’ dinosaur, best friends Kat Wolfe and Harper Lamb are thrilled, especially when stars and scientists come flocking to sleepy Bluebell Bay. But after they begin investigating a suspicious death, events spiral quickly out of control for detectives Wolfe and Lamb. Worse still, Kat’s wild cat is in trouble. Can they solve the mystery - and save the cat's life - before it’s too late?

When Ava’s partner Will is diagnosed with a terminal brain tumour, the doctors give Will one chance to survive - an operation which means he will lose his recent memory. Ava begs him to take the chance, sure that she can cope with Will forgetting her. After all, they have something very special to live for. But they are also keeping a heart-breaking secret, and if Will loses his memory, Ava will have to carry that secret alone. Can they rebuild their love from scratch, or will their secrets and past come between them?

Jules and Holly have been best friends since university. They tell each other everything, trading revelations and confessions and sharing both the big moments and the small details of their lives: Holly is the only person who knows about Jules’ affair; Jules was there for Holly when her husband died. And their two children - just three years apart - have grown up together. So when Jules’ daughter, Saffie, makes a rape allegation against Holly’s son, Saul, neither woman is prepared for the devastating impact this will have on their friendship or their families.

In a sweeping narrative encompassing political intrigue, illicit love affairs and even a murder mystery, Nancy Goldstone tells the riveting story of a queen who lost her throne, and of her four defiant daughters. Elizabeth Stuart's (1596-1662) marriage to a German count far below her rank was arranged with the understanding that her father, James I of England, would help his new son-in-law achieve the crown of Bohemia. The terrible betrayal of this promise would ruin 'the Winter Queen', as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved and launch a war that would last thirty years.

It is 1939 - World War II is looming, Oswald Mosley has awoken fascist sympathies among the British aristocracy and, in London, socialites are gathering for the start of the Season. Enter astute Oxford graduate Hope Stapleford, whose quick wit, love of books and keen observations set her apart from her peers. Her rebellious friend Bernadette has persuaded her to take part in the Season and Hope expects little more than a round of dull engagements and dreary introductions.

After the sudden death of her husband, Tess is drowning in grief. All she has left is her son, Jamie, and she'll do anything to protect him - but she's struggling to cope. When grief counsellor Shelley knocks on their door, everything changes. Shelley is beautiful and confident and takes control when Tess can't bear to face the outside world. But when questions arise over her husband's death and strange things start to happen, Tess begins to suspect that Shelley may have an ulterior motive. Tess knows she must do everything she can to keep Jamie safe - but whom can she trust?

When the world-famous conductor Leo Bruck dies suddenly, the three women who loved him meet for the first time at his graveside. Victoria, his partner of 20 years and mother of two of his children; Maddy, mother of Leo's daughter Phoebe; and 24-year-old Cat. Can these three very different women, whose lives become inextricably bound, break free from the masterful control Leo exerts - even from the grave?

Ex-fireman and edible flower farmer Shay McGillen has plenty of reasons not to give Sarah Pickering even one chance when she turns up in his small Yorkshire village. After all, she is only there to try and convince him and his fellow villagers to sell up so her company can build a bypass. If Sarah thinks she can make Shay give up his farmhouse and his business, she has another thing coming!

The explosive new stand-alone thriller from the author of the Spider Shepherd series. Sally Page is an MI5 'footie', a junior Secret Service Agent who maintains 'legends': fake identities or footprints used by real spies. Her day consists of maintaining flats and houses where the legends allegedly live, doing online shopping, using payment, loyalty and travel cards and going on social media in their names - anything to give the impression to hostile surveillance that the legends are living, breathing individuals.

Teacher Charlotte Kingston is sent to close a school on an isolated Scilly Isle where she used to spend holidays with her grandparents. But when two visiting children find themselves in need of a place to stay, Charlotte agrees to care for the boys, and decides to keep the school open a little longer. Hearing about her family from the islanders, Charlotte starts decoding her grandmother's old letters from WWII, and a story emerges of forbidden love and a brave man who would risk everything for his country, even giving up the woman he loved.

After her elder brother’s mysterious death, Rebecca Hunter vows to expose the man she believes responsible: Mr. Lewis Browning - known by the locals as the Midnight Devil and by Rebecca as her new guardian. Summoned to his reclusive country estate to await her London season, Rebecca plans her own secret investigation among the darkened corridors of the mysterious Greybourne Hall. Yet Lewis Browning is not as she once imagined, and his motivation is horribly unclear.

Newly divorced Jo is delighted to move into her best friend’s spare room almost rent-free. The high-tech luxury Camden flat is managed by a meticulous home assistant, called Electra, that takes care of the heating, the lights - and sometimes Jo even turns to her for company. Until, late one night, Electra says one sentence that rips Jo’s fragile world in two: ‘I know what you did’. And Jo is horrified. Because in her past she did do something terrible. Something unforgivable.

Blackpool, 1938. Miss Margaret Finch - a rather demure young woman - has just begun work in a position that relies on her discretion and powers of observation, when her path is crossed by the disgraced Rector of Stiffkey (aka Harold Davidson) who is the subject of a national scandal, and newspaper headlines. Margaret is determined to discover the truth about Davidson; is he a maligned hero or an exploiter of the vulnerable? But her own troubles are never far away, and Margaret's fear that the history is about to repeat itself means she needs to uncover the truth urgently.