Showing results by narrator "Jane Collingwood" in All Categories

The fourth novel in the internationally bestselling Malin Fors series, a Swedish crime-writing phenomenon, perfect for fans of the television series The Killing and The Bridge.The Swedish town of Linköping is bathed in Spring sunshine. The trees are blossoming and families are having breakfast at outdoor tables in the main square.Then a deafening explosion rips through the air.

Scarlett makes mistakes – over and over again. She’s not perfect, she has a tricky relationship with her mother and is desperate for people to like her. She repeatedly goes back to the people that hurt her, no matter how badly. She moves to London with no plan (of course), but manages to land a job at a modelling agency. Finally, she’s getting her life on track, but the fashion industry is a murkier place than she had imagined. She changes herself to please others. Just as she starts to find her place, Scarlett’s life begins to spiral.

It is 1951, and sisters Ginny and Meredith have travelled from England to Spain in search of distraction and respite. The two wars have wreaked loss and deprivation upon the family and the spectre of Meredith's troubled childhood continues to haunt them. Their journey to the rugged peninsula of Catalonia promises hope and renewal. While there they discover the artist Salvador Dali is staying in nearby Port Lligat. Meredith is fascinated by modern art and longs to meet the famous surrealist.

Kirsty Jenkins adores the allotment her grandfather lovingly tends and, just before he dies, he asks Kirsty to look after it for him. But when horrible Mr Thomas from the council insists it must go to the next person on the waiting list, Kirsty is determined to find a way to keep her promise.

Ali has just moved into Lever Tower with his mum. He soon meets Caitlin, Gez, and an Alsatian called Falcon. Together they set out to discover why the foxes have disappeared from the area, why the owls have appeared, and why Miss Osborne has vanished.... With the help of his friends and Caitlin's dad, Ali and his mum begin to feel happy in their new life without Ali's dad.

Marion Bishop's life has fallen apart. Her daughter Hope was killed in a hit-and-run accident six months ago, and now Sam, her beloved husband, has walked out. Left alone with her grief, Marion has begun to contemplate the unthinkable.

Snowbound with society’s most notorious rake, Ruth Hayden has to use every ounce of her defiant spirit to keep from falling into his arms. But behind his charm, Sir Clayton Powell hides the pain and humiliation of a past betrayal. Recklessly, she seeks to silence the rumor mill—by announcing their engagement. She then wonders how Clayton will take advantage of the situation.

The Wayland family - Lara and Marcus and their three children - leave England to spend a long, hot summer in Trout Island, Upstate New York. A chance meeting at a party reacquaints the family with Marcus's old actor friend, Stephen, with whom Lara once had an affair. Lara feels herself drawn towards Stephen and they pick up their secret relationship where they left off. Lara knows she's playing a dangerous game; what she doesn't know is that it's also a deadly one.

Annie is morbidly obese, lonely and hopeful. Moving into her new home alone, she describes her increasingly bizarre attempts to ingratiate herself with her new neighbours, learn from past mistakes and achieve a "certain kind of intimacy" with the boy next door. As Annie struggles to repress a murky history of violence and sexual mishaps, she realizes her past is never too far behind her....

What if you had always dreamed of something more? Waving goodbye to the chip shop, Nell McNamara starts up a new business making her own line of must-have handbags, which are soon flying off the shelves. It seems Nell's dreams are finally coming true, but her success doesn't come without a price. Before too long, Nell has to ask herself if it's really possible to have it all….

This is the tale of three 14-year-old girls and a volatile combination of lies, jealousy and perversion that ends in tragedy. Except the tragedy is even darker and more tangled than their tight-knit community has been persuaded to believe. Blackly funny and with a surreal edge to its portrait of a northern English town, Jenn Ashworth's gripping novel captures the intensity of girls' friendships and the dangers they face in a predatory adult world they think they can handle.

Elektra is hoping for big things this year.... She's finished her first feature film (even if her character was unexpectedly killed off halfway through filming), hosted the party of the year (well, before her mum arrived and threw everyone out - how embarrassing!) and managed to become Archie Mortimer's actual real-life girlfriend (for now anyway...), so things are most definitely moving in the right direction. But with social media to navigate (#actinggoals #instanightmare), GCSEs looming and a seemingly never-ending parade of failed casting calls, Elektra's road to acting stardom is proving to be as rocky as ever.

Elektra has finally landed a part in a film. It’s the dream. Well...until she works out that Straker is a movie so dystopian that within weeks most of the cast and all of the crew wish that the world had actually ended (preferably in scene one). And while it’s obviously great news that she’s moved from the friend zone with Archie to become his almost-girlfriend, it would be better if he hadn’t immediately relocated to Transylvania to play a vampire hunter surrounded by ‘maidens of peerless beauty'....

When Elektra is discovered by an acting agent, she imagines Oscar glory can't be far away but instead lurches from one cringe-worthy moment to the next! Just how many times can you be rejected for the part of 'Dead Girl Number Three' without losing hope? And who knew that actors were actually supposed to be multilingual, play seven instruments and be trained in a variety of circus skills? Offstage things aren't going well either - she's fallen out with her best friend and remains firmly in the friend zone with her crush, and her parents are driving her crazy. One way or another, Elektra's life is now spent waiting for the phone to ring - waiting for callback.

A fugitive stalks the shadows of the Petitioner's City. Though his fellow Outcast Dead are no more, the lone wolf Severian still intends to escape from Terra by any means possible - but the enigmatic hunter Yasu Nagasena is in pursuit. As news of the massacre on Isstvan V continues to spread and Severian's trail doubles back to the place where it all began, both he and Nagasena must face some uncomfortable truths - and an even more uncertain future.

There are some people you'd do anything for. For Fran that list would include her husband, Max, her daughter, and her best friend, Alison. Only Alison is now desperately ill and she needs Fran's help. She wants to find her husband a new wife, and leave her young daughter with a new mother. Fran finds the whole idea deeply uncomfortable, but it's hard to refuse your closest friend at the best of times, let alone ignore her dying wishes.

Allegra North's second thoughts about splitting with childhood sweetheart Francis need a first-class stamp. But with her unfinished letter to him still in her handbag, she can't find the right words to express her regrets. Invited to a big movie premiere through her work, she resolves to put all thoughts of her ex fiancé out of her mind; then she loses her handbag in the foyer. Francis, meanwhile, is determined to win Allegra back. Convinced that they should never have parted, he intends to declare his feelings in front of crowds of press and film fans.

My best friend was now my deadliest enemy, the one person I'd hate beyond all measure for the rest of my life…Franny Barker's best friend, Alice, is the worst girlfriend in the world according to the many boys of Merrycliffe-on-Sea. She toys with them, then dumps them. But she'll never dump fashion-obsessed Franny. Nothing and no one can come between them. Until Alice, jealous of Franny's new college friends, sets her sights on Louis.

Lilly Melkun is out fishing with her sea-cat when the bloodthirsty Reavers come raiding and steal the Prime Minister's daughter. Her village blamed, Lilly decides to find the girl. Off she sails in secret with a ransom - an extraordinary talking jewel. But nothing can prepare her for what happens next.

It was supposed to be the perfect summer... On the luxurious private island of Angel Cay, four privileged students toast the end of their exams. Miles, Grace, Alex and Sasha have the world at their feet. But one dark night will change their perfect lives for ever. As the friends move into glamorous careers, in fashion, music and politics, each tries to put the past behind them.