Showing results by author "Laura Barnard" in All Categories

Elevating the PMO to Deliver Your Strategy

Ruby Campbell isn't daunted at the prospect of working as a nanny for the notorious Barclay Rothchester. She’s warned he’s a strict control freak, but she’s sure she can soften him up. Barclay Rothchester lost his wife three years ago. Of course he’s never going to find someone to replace her role, the one she did so perfectly. He’s sure its not going to be hippy-dippy Ruby with her sass and rebellious ways. Ruby is determined to give his daughters the Christmas they deserve. Now if only she can tolerate their father long enough to make that happen.

ORGANIZATIONS must accelerate strategic results to thrive, and they need you in the driver’s seat. How do you achieve this, even when firefighting is the norm? With three decades helping organizations deliver change, 2021 World PMO Influencer Laura Barnard unveils the system she uses with clients and students to evolve stagnant project and transformation teams into nimble, business-driven delivery engines.

Poppy and Jazz have been best friends since the first week of uni. Whenever these two get together, trouble isn't far away - and things haven't changed much. When Jazz gets herself into financial trouble, Poppy, being a good friend, offers to help. Instead, she ends up being talked into swapping lives, with Jazz insisting it will be good and will help her get over her broken heart.

Stuck in a dead-end relationship, Erica Bennett finds herself daydreaming of her first holiday romance. She was 15, and it was exciting, new, and full of possibilities...and Jack Lawson was hot as hell. That kind of thing leaves a mark. So when her friends suggest a girls' holiday to Luna Island, it’s exactly what she needs to take her mind off things. What she doesn’t expect is to spot Jack - a much older, hotter version of him - across the hotel lobby.

She’s an aspiring fashionista with her eyes on her career. He’s a government official who’s married to his country. From the moment Charlotte Bellswain and Arthur Ellison meet, their chemistry is off the charts. Everything about them is wrong, but neither of them can resist one stolen night together. Even if the consequences are life changing. He warns her he’ll let her down. More than once. And that the eyes of the country are on them both. Can a creative soul and an analytical mind put aside their differences and navigate this pregnancy together?

What is it about turning 30 that sends rational women into a tailspin? Suddenly going from having all the time in the world, to cringing at the ticking of her biological clock, Poppy is drowning under the strain of trying to get pregnant. With a dad in the throes of a mid-life crisis, a crazy mother-in-law, and time racing towards Lilly's wedding, will she be able to cope with it all...and give Ryan the baby they so desperately want?

Catching her sister in bed with her fiancé, school teacher Katy Cornish enlists playboy colleague Felix Montague to help her save face. What she doesn’t bargain on is them both losing their jobs in the process. With money running out, Katy must endure the rude and arrogant Felix while they embark on a road trip around the country in hopes of securing a new job. But there’s just one problem - they’re up for the same posts. This road trip is going to be unlike any other, with them doing whatever they can to sabotage the other.

When she hears about a council incentive offering the promise of free flights to the person who clocks the most volunteering hours at the local care home, she’s got her plan set. But she doesn’t plan on bonding with the old ladies, going after the village bad boy and trying to persuade Elsie not to become a Nun. Soon, she’s questioning who her real friends are and whether her old life is one she wants to return to. Can the village win her over and will she win the chance to leave it behind? Will she even want to?

Elevating the PMO to Deliver Your Strategy

Poppy and Jazz’s lives sound perfect on paper. Jazz has a new baby and Poppy’s getting married. But their realities are very different. Poppy must strive to keep her cool new job with crazy hours, while trying to keep Ryan happy. Before she knows it her wedding has got out of control, thanks to her mother, the runners at work are bullying her, her parents are in financial difficulty, and she’s doubting everything and everyone she ever knew. Meanwhile Jazz is struggling with motherhood, something a credit card won’t fix.

After a string of bad dates, Florence Gray is so over online dating. So much so, that if she has to survive another guy standing her up she might just do something crazy...like accept the first proposal she gets. So when she finds herself alone in the bar, again, Florence can hardly believe her eyes or ears when Hugh Humphreys swoops in and presents her with an proposal so adventurous she can't believe she's actually considering saying yes.

From chemo...to cannabis...to chaos.... When Sadie and her colleagues find themselves out of a job and down on their luck they know desperate times call for desperate measures. What starts off as a crazy idea to sell marijuana to the ladies at her friend's chemo sessions quickly spirals into a booming drug empire. But they didn't expect a sexy detective on their trail, suspicious neighbors, and drug dealers angry they’re working on their patch. Can Sadie pull them out of this dangerous world they’ve found themselves in? And can she do it before they end up in prison?

Independent woman to her core, Brooke Archer has always been happy to hit it and quit it with the men in her life. But when her beloved nan suffers from poor health, Brooke realizes just how precious life is and decides it’s time to face her daddy issues and seek out her estranged father. Without so much as a name or photo and a cagey mum withholding vital information, it’s going to be no easy task.

Alice is used to taking photographs for a living – not having intimate pictures of herself posted for all the world to see, thanks to a disgruntled ex-boyfriend. Now her clients are cancelling appointments, and she’s almost out of cash. What else could go wrong? Oh yeah, her roommate has scarpered, leaving Alice completely out of luck.

Nadine Roberts smiles for everyone, but beneath it, she hides a heartbreaking past that few know about. Throwing herself into her new career as wedding planner at The Duck & Goose, a property recently purchased by newlyweds Florence and Hugh, has helped distract her from her loneliness. When a teary bride suddenly cancels her upcoming wedding, Nadine looks to the two-year waiting list. Clara Blumenkrantz and Hartley Valentine. It’ll have to be a quick turnaround, but what’s the worst that can happen, right?

When Phoebe and Ella Bellerose leave England behind to run the Irish pub they’d inherited, it sounds like a great adventure...until they see for themselves what a wreck they’d been left. The two girls aren’t convinced they can actually make this work. Not until they meet Clooney Breen, who just so happens to be packed with charm, charisma, and barman skills that could help them all survive. It also doesn’t hurt that he’s the son of Cock & Bull’s biggest rival, and he’s desperate to help Ella and Phoebe teach his father a lesson. But can he be trusted?