Showing results by narrator "Helen Phillips" in All Categories

You wake on a beautiful, remote island. Sparkling blue seas, golden sunsets, barely a footprint in the sand. Yet this is no ordinary escape. Next to the wreck of a plane, a stranger paces. Another sharpens a knife, scoring a list of the dead onto a palm tree. Others watch from the shadows of a campfire—all with untold stories, and closely-guarded secrets.

Varangantua is in turmoil. After the district of Korsk is obliterated in a fiery cataclysm, the city’s enforcers must pick up the pieces. As sanctioner teams comb the wreckage for survivors, dogged probators such as Agusto Zidarov and Lycia Calix seek to uncover the truth about what happened. Their stories become intertwined with those of petty criminals and desperate citizens, even drawing the vaunted attention of agents beyond Alecto itself, painting a picture of sprawling conspiracy.

When the anonymous invite arrived, we knew exactly who it was from. Elle Romero, the beautiful, charismatic Texan who burst into our lives when we were teenagers. We'd gone our separate ways and lost touch. Until now. Elle, the legendary prankster, is back. She's invited us all—me, Claire, Lizzie and Megan—to a swanky country house for a reunion. We arrive excited for a weekend of reminiscing and reconnecting. A chance to step out of our uneventful lives for a while. But when Elle fails to show up at her own party, we begin to wonder if she's up to her old tricks.

1838, England: When eighteen-year-old Frances Dickinson impulsively marries Lieutenant John Geils, all her hopes for her future are quickly shattered as she finds there is much about her husband she did not know. A cruel and violent man, John keeps Frances in isolation on his family's estate, while spending her fortune and preying upon their maids. Frances yearns to break free from her marriage but the law is not on her side. Only when John's abuse escalates can she set in motion a daring plan to secure her freedom.

Where will the magic take you? When Magician Winnifred's enchanted house gets stuck upside down in ten-year-old Callie's garden, the pair strike up an unlikely friendship—until Winnifred realizes that it is Callie's intense homesickness that is causing her magic to malfunction. Now all of Winnifred's most precious magical possessions are unprotected. Can Callie and Winnifred restore the Wanderdust before malicious pixies and dangerous giants steal everything?

When Christmas-hating Sam moves to Holly Cross, he thinks he's found the perfect home, until he discovers that, each year, Holly Cross transforms into the most Christmassy village in the whole country... Blythe is just one sale away from being Real Estate Agent of the Month, so she twists the truth to sell a home to city boy Sam, who is looking for the perfect house in the perfect location. Little does he know he's just bought a cottage in the middle of the most Christmassy village in the country. And if there's one thing Sam loathes, it's Christmas.

In 21st century Britain, what does it mean to be working class? This book asks 24 working class writers to examine the issue as it relates to them. Examining representation, literature, sexuality, gender, art, employment, poverty, childhood, culture and politics, this book is a broad and firsthand account of what it means to be drawn from the bottom of Britain's archaic but persistent class structure.

The Metamorphosis, first published in 1915, has captivated readers and artists for 100 years. Studio 360's Kurt Andersen leads spirited conversation exploring the classic story and its impact on arts and culture with guests Ben Marcus ( Leaving the Sea), Helen Phillips ( The Beautiful Bureaucrat), Eric Jarosinski ( NeinQuarterly), and translator Susan Bernofsky. With a reading by Heather Burns ( Bored to Death).

When Lucy and Alpha's parents split up, they move with mom to their grandad's home in the forest. Mom has a new job at a rewilding center, reintroducing wolves to the wild. Lucy loves the forest where she can stargaze with her telescope. But Alpha hates the forest and hates dad. All she wants is for life to go back to normal. Things between Lucy and Alpha have never felt worse. When a new wolf cub arrives at the center, Lucy names him Claw and they form a special bond. But Alpha thinks he should roam free, and together with her friends, they plot to release him.

I always thought I was going to be a girl who did something. I was going to run my own business and find fame and fortune! Fall in love… But here I am. Still waiting for it all to happen, sitting on the floor, surrounded by lilies and roses, trying to do my best friend’s wedding flowers because – in her words – ‘how hard can it be, Frankie?’. The answer is actually ‘very hard’ but it’s not the only thing that’s tough right now. My boyfriend won’t commit, I barely have a job, and once again I have the hangover from hell… What I don’t know is that life’s about to throw me a curveball.