Showing results by narrator "Rosie Akerman" in All Categories

A female thief, with four husbands, a lover, and, reportedly, over 12 children, is arrested and tried for the murder of her stepson in 1872, turning the small village of West Auckland in County Durham upside down. Other bodies are exhumed, and when they are found to contain arsenic, she is suspected of their murder as well. The perpetrator, Mary Ann Cotton, was tried and found guilty and later hanged on 24 March 1873 in Durham Gaol. It is claimed she murdered over 20 people and was the first female serial killer in England.

Violet Young is a hugely popular journalist-turned-mommy-influencer with three children, a successful husband, and a million subscribers on YouTube who tune in daily to watch her everyday life unfold. But one day she disappears from the online world - her entire social-media presence deleted overnight, with no explanation. Has she simply decided that baring her life to all online is no longer a good idea, or has something more sinister happened to Violet?

Rumor has it, charming adventurer Christopher Pringle is finally ready to settle down. He’s searching for a free-spirited bride to join him on his travels. But when the matchmaker he hires turns out to be the woman he had a public spat with the day before, nothing goes as planned!

Lady chemist Penelope Mitchell took England by storm with Duke, a perfume for men that has women swooning at their feet. To prove the same aphrodisiacal potency of her upcoming version for ladies, the new perfume must cause a rake to fall in love with her in 10 days. And she has just the man in mind.

Heartbroken and desperate to escape another London Season, Caroline Elliott stows away aboard a friend's ship, never dreaming she'll be mistaken for a courtesan and abducted by a handsome mariner with wounds as deep as her own.

Nell Cosgrove is the new wife who got it all. She married her handsome, wealthy boss within six months of meeting him. They live in a beautiful riverside home. She has a flourishing career. The only problem is her two stepdaughters, Ruby and Poppy, who are fiercely loyal to their mother and reject all of Nell's overtures.

Connie is living an idealized life in Manhattan’s Dakota building with the inscrutable Weston family. On December 8th, 1980, the 18-year-old’s idyllic life is thrown under the A train when she witnesses her husband, Dan, tragically die. In this intricately woven tale of long-buried secrets, the Weston family makes it impossible for the young widow to remain in the city. Connie returns to the Dakota in late June 2000, determined to live the life denied to her.

1971. When 15 year-old Ellen returns home from school in Yorkshire, her world is fragmented as she finds her mother has hanged herself. A dark mist descends, yet somehow she must find a new way to live. After her mother’s funeral, Ellen is taken to live with her aunt and uncle and pressed into housework, forced to wait on the men of the household...She rebels by running away to London. There she learns to stand up: For women and for herself. Written to provide support, insight, and comfort for those younger listeners dealing with parental suicide.

In a divisive world of mistrust and murder, there’s only one thing that matters growing up: You’re either in the Inside or the Outside. While the Insiders appear pampered and privileged, the Outsiders know only harsh realities. Believing themselves to be needlessly deprived of everything the Insiders have, the younger generation channel their rage into a terrorist group called The Freedom Fighters, a group intent on overthrowing the Inside at any cost.

Can good things really come from bad things? Why does God allow bad things to happen? Will Daddy still be able to hear me from Heaven? These are just some of the questions Renee starts thinking about after she finds out that her daddy has cancer. She feels very sad and struggles to understand why this is happening. He hasn't even been her daddy for that long - there's still so much they haven't done yet! All she can think to do is pray and ask God to make her daddy better.

Renee keeps a diary after she finds out her daddy is sick with cancer. She even starts praying and asking God to make him better. But what if he doesn’t get any better? She is worried that she won’t be able to talk to her daddy after he has gone, but her daddy encourages her to keep talking to him, no matter what.

Beth Brandon has always dreamed of owning a flower shop, but today the bouquets of peonies and bright spring flowers are failing to calm her nerves...because, today, Beth has a life-changing decision to share with her husband. Izzy Vaughan thought she and her husband would stay together forever, but sometime last year, their love began to fade. They both find such joy in their young son Noah - but is he enough to keep them together? Eight years ago, something happened to these two women - something that is about to bring them together in a way no one thought possible....

Krista Bourne has always been surrounded by the strength, love, and wealth of her family and their homes in New York City and Martha's Vineyard. She has never had to think for herself. Living with boyfriend Michael and her elderly grandfather, she can also summon up the comforting ghosts of her beloved father and grandmother. In vivid dreams, she flies with her pilot father, and when awake remembers idyllic childhood holidays spent with her bohemian grandmother. When Krista impulsively walks out on her career as a professional dancer, it is the beginning of a new chapter in her life.

Jack has it all - a beautiful wife and daughter, a home, a career. Then his wife, Rebecca, plunges to her death from the Sussex coast cliffs. Was it an accident, or did she jump? He moves to Manchester with his daughter to start afresh...but things don’t go as planned. He didn’t think life could get any worse.... Then, Jack sees a woman in a window who is the image of Rebecca. Attraction turns into obsession as he returns to the window night after night. But he isn’t the only one watching her.... Jack is about to be drawn into a deadly game.

On arriving home after a friend’s posh wedding, launderette worker Harriet finds her flat has been ransacked and her boyfriend is missing. Shortly afterward, she is harassed by East End gangsters and upper-crust aristocrats. Accepting an offer she can’t refuse, Harriet, against her better judgement, becomes the fiancée of the wealthy Hamilton Lancaster, with dire consequences. What she had not bargained on was meeting Doctor Brice Edmunds.   

Ewan Galbreith is out of prison. Libby Owen is scared. Fifteen years earlier she saw Ewan murder her aunt and uncle with their own shotgun, and now he's coming for her. Watching You is an edge-of-the-seat thriller with intriguing characters, an enthralling story line, and a shocking ending.

A new neighbour becomes a new friend. She looks up to you. She admires you, but then - you realise - she wants your life.... When Sharni and Tom move into 24 The Pines, it seems like Clare and Chris have the perfect neighbours. Sharni is always there to help, especially with childcare for Clare's two-year-old, Ben. As Sharni's influence touches everyone around her, Clare finds herself fighting for her sanity as well her family.

Continuing the magical adventures of siblings Cyril, Anthea, Robert, Jane, and their baby brother, the sequel to Edith Nesbit's Five Children and It opens with the hatching of a phoenix in the children's very own home. The phoenix, whose egg was contained in a magical carpet, tells the children that the carpet may grant them three wishes a day. As the bird accompanies the children on many adventures - sometimes enlisting the help of the Psammead - the children begin to wear out the magic carpet as well as the phoenix, bringing their time to an end.

Considered by Time magazine to be one of the best fantasy books of all time, Edith Nesbit's Five Children and It follows a tribe of children on their magical adventures during a summer in the English countryside. When a strange, furry creature appears in front of the children and offers a wish a day, the children take advantage of the creature's abilities and discover that their wishes have many unforeseen - and often quite funny - consequences.

When Richard Asquith dies in a car crash, it sets in motion a series of events that threaten to destroy his family and those around him. Richard has left behind children who dislike him, women who are bitter, and a question lingering over the disappearance of his daughter many years ago. As the family gathers at his wake, secrets from the past come to light, and the tension starts to boil over.