Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlin" in All Categories

England, 1932: Grace Hamblin, the beekeeper's daughter, knows her place and her future, until her father dies. She’s alone, except for one man who she just can't shake from her thoughts…. Massachusetts, 1973: Grace's daughter Trixie Valentine is in love. But when he has to go home to England, he promises to come back, if she will wait for him. Both mother and daughter are searching for love and happiness, unaware of the secrets that bind them.

Daniel Sullivan, a young American professor reeling from a failed marriage and a brutal custody battle, is on vacation in Ireland when he falls in love with a world-famous actress who has fled fame for a rural village. Together, they make an idyllic life in the country, raising two more children in blissful seclusion—until a secret from Daniel's past threatens to destroy their meticulously constructed and fiercely protected home.

Paris, 1750. In the midst of winter, as birds fall frozen from the sky, a new maid arrives at the home of a celebrated clockmaker and his clever, unworldly daughter. But rumours are stirring that Reinhart's uncanny mechanical creations - bejewelled birds, silver spiders - are more than mere automata. That they might defy the laws of nature, perhaps even at the expense of the living. But Madeleine is hiding a dark past, and a dangerous purpose - to discover the truth of the clockmaker's experiments and record his every move, in exchange for her own chance of freedom.

Close to Rome, set among ancient ruins and freshwater springs, languishes the magnificent Villa Rospo, a jewel in the Tode family portfolio, and one they had virtually forgotten - until Sir Ecgbert and Alice decide it's the perfect place for their honeymoon. Now suddenly everyone wants a piece.

As dawn breaks over the Pont Neuf, and the cobbled alleyways of Paris come to life, Anna Trent is already awake and at work; mixing and stirring the finest, smoothest, richest chocolate; made entirely by hand, it is sold to the grandes dames of Paris. It's a huge shift from the chocolate factory she worked in at home in the north of England. But when an accident changed everything, Anna was thrown back in touch with her French teacher, Claire

Sarah Lotz's extraordinary, unmissable follow-up to the book that made headlines around the world, The Three - perfect for fans of The Shining Girls, The Passage, and Lost. Four days into a five-day singles cruise on the Gulf of Mexico, the ageing ship Beautiful Dreamer stops dead in the water. With no electricity and no cellular signals, the passengers and crew have no way to call for help. But everyone is certain that rescue teams will come looking for them soon.

Some interesting facts about Penelope Crumb... She has: A brother so awful he must be an alien. A mum who draws body parts (ewww!). Her grandpa's nose...but no grandpa.

Her family haven't seen him since her dad died. So Penelope and her friend Lizzie Maple set off across town to find Grandpa Felix, skipping school, taking trains and calling every F. Crumb in the phone book. But what if Grandpa Felix doesn't want to be found? One last fact about Penelope: She doesn't take no for an answer.

A woman with wings that exist in another dimension. A man trapped in his own body by a killer. A briefcase that is a door to hell. A conspiracy that reaches beyond our world. Breathtaking SF from a Clarke Award-winning author. Tricia Sullivan has written an extraordinary, genre-defining novel that begins with the mystery of a woman who barely knows herself and ends with a discovery that transcends space and time.

Young theatre nurse Clare Maitland is devastated when her fiancé calls off their dream wedding because he wants to marry someone else. Her friendship with charming surgeon Andrew Darvie provides comfort, but is it enough to mend a broken heart? Meanwhile, Clare's feelings are hurt by the harsh comments of moody but talented Dr. Hugh Sanders. The chance of a nursing job in Scotland seems the answer to all of Clare's problems. But she soon discovers that escaping the men in her life won't be as easy as she imagined.

Rob and Anna have arrived for their holiday in the Caribbean. Kim and Owen, a friendly couple they met in the harbour, offer to charter their beautiful boat to take them to a distant island. Rob dreams of lazy afternoons spent snorkeling. Anna looks forward to the silence of days at sea. But why is Owen so secretive? Why does Kim keep a knife zipped into her moneybelt? Maybe Anna and Rob shouldn’t trust strangers...

Princess Ellie is pony-mad! So when top designer Lord Leo arrives to give the palace a makeover, Ellie quickly escapes to the stables to avoid all the fuss. But she soon discovers that there's something strange about Lord Leo, and she suspects there's more to his plans than meets the eye. Can her pony, Starlight, help Ellie uncover the palace plot?

Chef Charlie Hunter is just trying for mindfulness and a work/life balance, if such a thing is ever possible in the context of a busy professional kitchen. She's found herself a great podcast that's going to help her get there. Until she finds that her online self-help guru has feet of clay — feet which are much closer to her restaurant than seems possible. Even more disruptive is the attack on a well known writer in Charlie's quiet Chilterns village of Hampden Green, and the arrest of the village's own celebrity shock jock.

Robotics scientist Rachel Prosper has created a top-secret humanoid android. When she dies suddenly, her family take the robot, which looks just like Rachel, into their home as part of an experiment. The After Wife is the story of a family ripped apart by grief who are given a second chance to reconnect with the woman they loved and lost.

On her 10th birthday, Hattie B is swept into the magical Kingdom of Bellua, where she meets a little pink dragon who needs her help. Evil King Ivar of the Imps has stolen the dragon’s magical voice, and Hattie is the only one who can help her get it back.

Bernadette is expert at hiding the truth. She has built her career as a journalist on her talent for lulling powerful men into a false sense of security, then exposing them in her ruthless profile pieces. But in Radley Blake, she may have met her match. Immune to her charms, he seems to see through every layer of her carefully constructed act, right to the truth of who she is inside. We think we're looking for love - but what if it's ourselves we need to find?

Rachel Jenner turned her back for a moment. Now her eight-year-old son, Ben, is missing. But what really happened that fateful afternoon? Caught between her personal tragedy and a public who have turned against her, there is nobody left who Rachel can trust. But can the nation trust Rachel? The clock is ticking to find Ben alive. Whose side are you on?

A photograph taken in 1971 sets two people on the path to uncovering the truth about their parents and themselves.

When a travelling skycircus arrives in Brackenbridge, Lily and Robert can't wait to step aboard.... But there's something sinister about the hybrid children who appear as part of the act. And before Lily and Robert can do anything, they're captured by shadowy figures and whisked off in the mysterious flying circus to somewhere far, far away.... Treachery, tightropes and trickery combine in this incredible third Cogheart adventure....

England, 1766: Abigail is happily married to James, a tobacco trader turned sea captain, and is looking forward to starting a family and settling down in Whitehaven, deep in the Lake District. But after a series of devastating losses, she finds herself in turmoil, with her future suddenly seeming unknown…

A cosy murder mystery from best-selling author MB Shaw....