Showing results by narrator "Laura Kirman" in All Categories

How far would you go to save the ones you love? The first book in a stunning new crime series featuring DCI Anna Tate. When nine children are snatched from a nursery school in South London, their distressed parents have no idea if they will ever see them again. The community in the surrounding area is in shock. How could this happen right under their noses? No one in the quiet suburban street saw anything - or at least that's what they're saying. But DCI Anna Tate knows that nothing is impossible, and she also knows that time is quickly running out.

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!

Devon, 1918. When Jessie Hale loses her nursing job, she leaves London to become the nurse maid to the Kendle family. On arrival she finds the family in disarray. When their elderly Nanny suffers a bad fall, Jessie has to try to bring the household together. Gradually, Jessie finds her place in their lives. Jessie soon starts to love her life at Kendlebury Hall, but problems arise when her feelings for her employer start to change....

Christmas in Cornwall is just around the corner. But after last Christmas revealed a shocking family secret, Scarlett’s hardly feeling merry and bright. All she wants this Christmas is to know who her real father is. So Scarlett heads to the little Cornish town of Porthmellow, where she believes the truth of her birth is hidden. She just didn’t bargain on being drawn into the Christmas festival preparations - or meeting Jude Penberth, whose charm threatens to complicate life further.

There are some things you can never leave behind… Kate Forrest is invisible…her husband doesn’t seem to know she’s alive and her two children have become stroppy adolescents. With her fortieth birthday approaching, Kate walks out of her life, and gets on a plane to Italy. With no responsibilities, she soon finds herself caught up in the arms of a man half her age. But eventually Kate will be forced to choose between her past and the future.

Part of a remarkable family that produced three acclaimed female writers at a time in 19th-century Britain when few women wrote and fewer were published, Charlotte Brontë has been a great source of inspiration to writers, especially women, ever since. Now, in Reader, I Married Him, 20 of today's most celebrated woman authors have spun original stories using Jane Eyre as a springboard.

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.

A gripping and heartfelt story about overcoming the past and finding where you belong. Anna Wilson travels the world as a professional housesitter – stepping into other people’s lives - caring for their homes, pets and sometimes even neighbours. Living vicariously. But all Anna has ever really wanted is a home of her own – a proper one, filled with family and love and happy memories. If only she knew where to start.

Belgium, July 1939: Simone Lyon is the daughter of a Belgium national hero, the famous General Joseph Lyon. Her best friend Hava Daniels, is the eldest daughter of a devout Jewish family. Despite growing up in different worlds, they are inseparable. But when, in the spring of 1940, Nazi planes and tanks begin bombing Brussels, their resilience and strength are tested. Hava and Simone find themselves caught in the advancing onslaught and are forced to flee.

With Christmas just around the corner, Molly Bliss has almost hit rock bottom. After the heart-breaking loss of her parents, an escape to Iceland to spend the holidays with her sister Claudia is a chance for her to find solace and focus on her neglected relationship with her boyfriend Howard. But when Howard 'misses' his flight, Molly is forced to rethink her whole outlook on life. Surrounded by her family, Molly has never felt more alone. With ongoing family tensions rumbling and a surprising connection with old flame, Molly realises she has an opportunity to rediscover who she really is.

When Gemma Lamb takes a job at a quirky English girls’ boarding school, she believes she’s found the perfect escape route from her controlling boyfriend—until she discovers the rest of the staff are hiding sinister secrets. Even McPhee, the school cat, is leading a double life. Tucked away in the school’s beautiful private estate in the Cotswolds, can Gemma stay safe and build a new independent future, or will past secrets catch up with her and the rest of the staff? With a little help from her new friends, including some wise pupils, she's going to give it her best shot.

Clara King is left in sole charge of a fabulous new clifftop hotel for the summer. The owner has barely left the country when Clara realises that someone is hell bent on putting the Bluebell Cliff out of business. It becomes a race against time to hunt down the sneaky saboteur before they succeed in bringing the hotel to its knees. Meanwhile Clara’s family is in crisis following her grandfather’s affair.

This year, Lottie is hosting one last big family Christmas at the home she grew up in - just like her Nana would have wanted. But when her relatives descend on the old manor house, Lottie gets more than she bargained for.

Devastated when her wedding is called off and an injury ruins her career as a violinist, Amber escapes to her parents' holiday home on a beautiful windswept island. The charming cottage is falling apart, and Amber loses herself in the renovations. But then she meets Kai, a seriously ill young boy who loves music. Amber is determined to help him, and as she teaches him to play, she can feel herself coming back to life.

I still dream, every night, of Polneath on fire. Smoke unravelling from an upper window, and the terrace bathed in a hectic orange light.... Now I see that the decision I made at Polneath was the only decision of my life. Everything marred in that one dark minute.

Sophy Stevens is moving to Australia. Turning thirty has found her unexpectedly out of a job, out of a relationship, and just in need of Something Different - and Australia, where she can finally meet her grandparents and surprise them on their wedding anniversary, looks like the perfect answer...if she can save up the money for the plane ticket. So when her feckless, absent dad Johnno offers her a job at his vintage clothes shop in Primrose Hill, she can't turn it down.

Desperate to try and rebuild the reputation of Hopgood Hall, owners Alexi Ellis and Cheryl and Drew Hopgood agree to host a realty TV baking show, spearheaded by their arrogant but enigmatic head chef Marcel Gasquet. Fiery and hot-headed, Marcel’s antics makes for brilliant television, but off-screen trouble is brewing. One of the contestants, femme fatale Juliette Hammond, makes it clear that she will do anything to secure the winning prize – even if it means sweetening up the prima donna chef.

Unlucky in love Poppy Allen is the producer of a brand-new TV show, Date for a Day - think Take Me Out meets It’s a Knockout! Lovelorn contestants must perform a series of seaside challenges to win the hand of the starring lady and a date for a day. Left heartbroken when Stephen, her childhood sweetheart, eloped with her best friend on her hen night - Poppy has no plans to risk her own heart again. Besides, she’s far too busy filming contestants against the backdrop of the beautiful Bluebell Cliff Hotel and the stunning Jurassic Dorset coastline.

Clare's life is perfect...steady job, loving husband, two kids and lovely townhouse. Except her husband Toby's barely listened to a thing she's said since he landed his new TV gig, her daughter can't stand the sight of her and her boss barely even knows her name. It seems that with middle age she's become more invisible than a grey power suit and no matter what she does no one seems to notice her. Not the mad haircut, crazy outfits or brilliant job performance.

It’s been a year since Lottie’s fiancé walked out, leaving her heartbroken. But things start to look up when she lands her dream job at a beautiful Lake District estate, with a handsome groundskeeper for a neighbour. So when Lottie is asked to organise a last-minute Christmas wedding at Firholme, she can’t wait to get started. Until she meets the couple and discovers that Connor, the man who broke her heart, is the groom-to-be. As snow falls on the hills, can Lottie put aside her past to organise the perfect winter wedding?