Showing results by narrator "Sarah A." in All Categories

When young Anna inherits a dilapidated once-grand hotel from her Great Aunt Mathilde, she's determined to restore it to its former glory. But this is no ordinary hotel - all of her staff and guests are animals! Anna soon rises to the challenge. Whether it's a flamingo, a penguin or a hippo knocking at the door, Anna is ready to welcome them all - with the help of her trusty sidekicks T Bear the doorman, Squeak the friendly elevator mouse, and Lemmy the lemur receptionist.... As she soon finds out, though, running an animal hotel is no easy task.

A change in the circumstances of the entail leaves Elizabeth Bennet as the mistress of Longbourn, beholden to no one. Despite the tragedy that took her parents and all but one of her sisters from her, Elizabeth eventually heals, and she takes up the affairs of the estate with a flair her father never possessed. But estate ownership has its own trials, for it makes Elizabeth the target of those who might have otherwise viewed her as nothing more than a pretty vivacious girl.

I’m an Earth Fae who doesn’t belong here. They can play their little mind games all they want, but I’m going to find a way back to my elemental world. Even if it kills me. Except Headmaster Zephyrus is one step ahead of my every move. Prince Kolstov won’t stop cornering me. And Shadow—the reason I’m in this damn mess to begin with—haunts my dreams. My affinity for the earth is dying and being replaced by something more sinister. Something powerful. Something deadly.

Having uncovered the secrets that lay behind the spookily pristine town of Perfect, Violet and the townsfolk are enjoying their new freedom from the maniacal rule of the evil Archer twins. But have they really seen the last of Edward Archer? Why is Boy acting strangely? And who is masterminding a scary zombie army?

The best-selling revisionist biography of one of the great women of the 16th century. Orphaned in infancy, Catherine de Medici was the sole legitimate heiress to the Medici family fortune. Married at 14 to the future Henri II of France, she was constantly humiliated by his influential mistress, Diane de Poitiers. When her husband died as a result of a duelling accident in Paris, Catherine was made queen regent during the short reign of her eldest son (married to Mary Queen of Scots, and like many of her children he died young).

It's such a savage thing to lose your memory, but the crazy thing is it doesn't hurt one bit. A blackout doesn't sting or stab or leave a scar when it robs you. Close your eyes and open them again. That's what a blackout feels like. For Sarah Hepola, alcohol was 'the gasoline of all adventure'. She spent her evenings at cocktail parties and dark bars where she proudly stayed till last call. Drinking felt like freedom, part of her birthright as a strong, enlightened 21st-century woman.

Imagine discovering an animatronic sex doll hidden in the garage. What would you do? Dolores initially does nothing. She assumes the doll belongs to her husband, David, and their relationship is already strained. They’re not young, they’re not old; they have no children, they keep up with the markers of being middle class and Dolores is well versed in keeping men’s secrets. But then, Dolores and Zoey start to talk ...What surfaces runs deeper than Dolores could have ever expected, with consequences for all of the relationships in her life, especially her relationship to herself.

Undoubtedly, there are moments when hope is obscure. That's because hope has many hiding places. It hides behind heartbreak, camouflages in stress, and disguises itself in grief. It only takes a few disappointments before our expectations are hijacked by doubt and disbelief. Hope is easy to lose and hard to find, but there is never a season when hope is out of reach. Inspiring you towards the pursuit of hope with a lens of compassion, Sarah serves as a guide who exposes the hidden hope that awaits you each day.

I know I want to marry Sam the moment I meet him. After I lost my beloved mother so suddenly, this charming, softly spoken architect with his deep-brown eyes is just the fresh start I’ve been searching for. I’m delighted to be expecting our first child before we’ve even had a chance to plan a honeymoon. I want our family to work, so I try to ignore his long work trips. I turn a blind eye to the private calls he takes, and I listen to his excuses about why the money keeps disappearing from my bank account.

A Gift of Ghosts: Akira has secrets. But so does the town of Tassamara. A Gift of Thought: Sylvie Blair swore she’d never go back to Tassamara. She was wrong. The Spirits of Christmas: Akira's plans are simple: Write wedding invitations, bake Christmas cookies, and eat red meat. (The last surprises her, too.) But when Rose, the ghost who haunts her house, asks for a favor, Akira can't say no. A Gift of Time: Natalya thought she knew everything. Time is proving her wrong.

Ophelia is cursed with the ability to unwillingly siphon the secrets and emotions from everyone around her. But after a chance encounter with a stranger, she discovers she’s part of the powerful Conduit world, where gods and monsters are frightfully real, and her "curse" is actually her gift. Elias has been hunted since his parents’ murder. Now, he’s the only one left who can stop the Conduit war that has been waged in the shadows of humanity for over 3,000 years.

Becca Palmer has just lost her job as assistant to Simon Jones MP - the highly-regarded Policing Minister, tipped as a future Prime Minister. But Becca claims that Simon was more than her boss, that she is in love with him.When a heartbroken Becca leaves the Home Office, she heads to Westminster Bridge, intending to take her own life. Which is where hostage negotiator Alex Lewis meets her for the first time. It is his job to try to talk her back from the edge.

After being cheated on, individuals may feel battered by emotion, with nowhere to turn, and no roadmap in sight. International relationship advice authors Wayne and Tamara Mitchell provide that roadmap through Cheating in a Nutshell: What Infidelity Does to the Victim.

The rush of the high. The mind tingling feeling of that first line. This secret of mine has spiraled out of control, but I can’t stop. The drugs fill a void, helping me feel something and nothing all at once. But him… He makes me feel everything.

Alison is a marriage mender. Her job is to help couples who fear they have reached the end of the road. So when her husband's ex, Lydia, arrives on the doorstep demanding to see her son, Alison thinks she can handle it. But what Alison doesn't realise is that Lydia is the one person who has the ability to destroy their happy family. And sometimes the cracks run too deep to ever be repaired.

In Enid Blyton's best-selling school series, Elizabeth Allen is sent away to boarding school and makes up her mind to be the naughtiest pupil there's ever been. In book four, there's a new boy in Elizabeth's class. He's sulky and grumpy, and he'll do anything to show Elizabeth up. She means to keep her temper, but it's not so easy for someone who was once the naughtiest girl in the school....

In this delicious history of Britain’s food traditions, Diane Purkiss invites listeners on a unique journey through the centuries, exploring the development of recipes and rituals for mealtimes to show how food has been both a reflection of and inspiration for social continuity and change. Purkiss uses the story of food as a revelatory device to chart changing views on class, gender, and tradition through the ages. Sprinkled throughout with glorious details of historical quirks, this audiobook is both an education and an entertainment.

She's back! The Unmumsy Mum has put pen to paper (or fingers to the keyboard!) once more to bring you the next instalment of her life as mum to two young boys, documenting motherhood exactly as she finds it. Her words have made mums, dads and grandparents everywhere laugh and cry in equal measure. In The Unmumsy Mum Diary, Sarah shares with us a year in her life as a mum, wife, blogger and best-selling author.

Salama Kassab was a pharmacy student when the cries for freedom broke out in Syria. She still had her parents and her big brother; she still had her home. She was even supposed to be meeting a boy to talk about marriage. Now Salama volunteers at a hospital in Homs, helping the wounded who flood through the doors. She knows that she should be thinking about leaving, but who will help the people of her beloved country if she doesn't? With her heart so conflicted, her mind has conjured a vision to spur her to action.

In one way or another, we all carry trauma. It can manifest as anxiety, shame, low self-esteem, over-eating, under-eating, addiction, depression, confusion, people-pleasing, under-earning, low mood, negative thinking, social anxiety, anger, brain fog and more. Traumas, big or 'little', leave us trapped in cycles of dysfunctional behaviours, negative thoughts and difficult feelings. Yet many people are unaware they're stuck in old reactions and patterns that stem from their past traumas.