Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

Vita's gift shop would do better if she ran it as a business, not as somewhere to daydream. But she's not one to tell herself off: she leaves that to Tim, her ex. Active, outdoorsy Oliver runs his trees-surgery business as calmly as his home - but his love life is intensely private. When Vita and Oliver's paths cross at a pear tree, there's a chance of something blossoming. As spring turns to summer, both Vita and Oliver are given second chances. Bu will they take them - or walk away?

Miriam hasn't left her house in three years and cannot raise her voice above a whisper. But today she has had enough and is finally ready to rejoin the outside world. Meanwhile Ralph has made the mistake of opening a closet door only to discover with a shock that his wife, Sadie, doesn't love him and never has. And so he decides to run away.

Delilah Darling - Queen Delilah from the Land of Far, Far Away - is desperate to play the part of the gingerbread man in the school play. So when horrible Charlotte Griggs gets the part instead, Delilah is cross. But soon she discovers that there's lots of fun to be had playing the big, bad fox. And beside, in the Land of Far, Far Away, things always have happy endings....

After the death of her husband, Ellie needs a change to her life and enrolls in a garden course in Tuscany. Here she begins relationships with her fellow students. Nerine, an eccentric character in her 70s, and the much younger Max. Through the teaching of Salvatore, who runs the course, Ellie finds that universal truths are still potently relavant.

Autumn, 1210: A year ago, King John was excommunicated - and now his men have come to take over Hawkenlye Abbey. Abbess Caliste, Helewise’s successor, worries how she is to feed the nuns under her care, let alone conduct her good works. Meanwhile, Helewise has moved into Hawkenlye Manor with Josse, and their lives are full of family and warmth. But after a visit to St Edmund’s Chapel, Helewise’s 11-year-old granddaughter, Rosamund, goes missing - and soon all that they hold dear is threatened....

England, 1087. On her sister’s wedding day, Lassair meets an attractive and enigmatic stranger who brings a breath of the fascinating outside world to her backwater Fenland village. When he asks Lassair to use her unique talents to help locate a mysterious treasure, she accepts despite the dangers. But this is no ordinary treasure hunt; the object of the perilous search is 500 years old and has a terrifying power of its own….

Four girls have disappeared in North London. Three are already dead. Britain's most prolific child killer, Louis Kinsella, has been locked up in Northwood high-security hospital for over a decade. Now more innocents are being slaughtered, and they all have a connection to his earlier crimes. Psychologist Alice Quentin is doing research at Northwood. She was hoping for a break from her hectic London life, but she'll do anything to help save a child - even if it means forming a relationship with a charismatic, ruthless murderer.

Driving home from a ceramics evening class, Clarice Beech reflects on the absence of one of her students, Colin Compton-Smythe. Later, Emily, Colin's daughter, telephones to say her father has died during routine surgery. Distraught, Emily opens up to Clarice about his wretched childhood and the day five-year-old Colin returned home to discover Avril, his mother, gone. Colin never believed she would have left without him and had been trying to find out more about Avril's disappearance all those years ago.

Sarah has been receiving threatening anonymous letters seemingly from a former lover. Just one day after revealing this information to her co-worker Nancy, Sarah is shot and found in her bedroom by one of her past flames, Donald. Desperate to clear any evidence of Donald's presence at the scene for her own infatuations, Nancy finds herself as the key suspect when she is discovered in the apartment. As the real killer uses the situation to their advantage, Bennett crafts a tense and nuanced story through flashbacks to Sarah's life and loves.

Fran's waved goodbye to the force and hello to her pension. But who is she without her job? She decides to get away from it all in Llanbryn, an idyllic seaside village in Wales. It beats feeling sorry for herself and watching Homes Under the Hammer all day. Fran's soon taken under the wing of the Sea Sisters, a group of inspirational women of all ages and sizes who swim in the ocean. They challenge her to move on from the past and face her life-long fear of the sea. And the strapping Wyn catches her eye.

Cece is gifted a cottage in the Scottish Highlands. She doesn't want a cottage or to go to Scotland. But Cece learns that another 'unwanted gift' is suddenly very real and forces her to flee to Scotland. Old, rundown and in need of some tender care like Cece, the cottage becomes her bolt hole to lick her wounds. Only, she didn't plan on sharing her home with a runaway orphan or finding herself the interest of the local schoolteacher. And there's a certain brooding Highlander that she can't quite work out.

Sisters Georgie and Kate have always been close. Brought up by their mum Jan after the death of their father, this family of women have always been able to rely on each other. Jan loves her daughters with all her heart. She knows some people think she’s an over-protective mother, but they didn’t know what she knows. She has always kept her girls close but now she can feel them slipping away. Secrets have a nasty habit of refusing to stay hidden, and now Georgie and Kate are about to discover that while lies can cause pain, the truth could destroy them all.

It was meant to be a romantic Christmas getaway... Except Flora's boyfriend Paul is more interested in whether there's WiFi in their holiday cottage than he is in the pretty village of Padcock where it's located. It seems he's incapable of taking time out from his work for gossip mag darling Maxine Marling - or Maxine Marmoset as Flora not so secretly calls her (well, she does look like a marmoset!) - to spend time with his actual girlfriend.

Recently divorced, Tessa Parker runs a successful B&B in a seaside town. During a surprise visit from Australia, a long-lost aunt lets slip a family secret that unsettles her fragile world.In shock, and feeling betrayed by her whole family, Tessa confides in her ex-husband just as he reveals he has a new woman in his life. Struck unexpectedly by jealousy; balancing her own turmoil against the demands of parenting, Tessa tries to trace her birth father, with devastating results. Yet she fails to see how this is a crucial moment in her children's lives.

In 1939, a young girl sits alone in a station waiting room in Marseilles. Half-Jewish Ilse has been sent out of Nazi Germany to safety in Morocco by her mother. But her journey takes her back to France, where she cannot escape the Nazi occupation. Blown about by circumstances beyond her control, she must grow up alone in a demi-monde of refugees, whores and freedom fighters.

London, 1929. Lady Alice Mayton-Walsh has always been a free independent spirit. With wealth and position, Alice defies convention and created, Sheer, a women's magazine. However, after years of hard work, she finds that her life isn't as complete as she expected it to be. Then her brother's best friend Vince reveals plans to marry an heiress to save his family's fortunes. The news shocks Alice as she realises she wants more than just friendship with him. Yet, before she has a chance to follow her heart, Vince turns his back on the extravagant life.

On the day that her youngest child leaves home, Alice Hatton discovers two disturbing truths in a matter of hours. The Empty Nest cliché is true. And she does not love her husband Peter at all. Now in her fifties, Alice is appalled to realise that she is no longer considered her own person, but is instead defined by her relationships – mother to her adult children, wife to her husband. Horrified by the thought of spending another thirty years with Peter in their North London suburb, Alice decides to take matters into her own hands.

Vita longs to write plays and poetry - but as a high-born girl in Roman Londinium, her fate is sealed: marriage and children. Then her father is murdered, her mother and brother disappear, and Vita flees from a shadowy enemy. Disguised as a slave at the gladiators' arena, she forges an unlikely bond with Brea, a native Briton gladiatrix - and her wolf. Together, they resolve to discover and bring the killer to justice before Vita's identity is revealed.