Showing results by narrator "Avita Jay" in All Categories

Raised as sisters, Ghazaala is devastated when her friend Asiya is forced to leave their small mountainside village following a tragic circumstance. It's a separation that haunts her into adulthood, and she never gives up on finding a love that might replace the bond they shared. Years later, Ghazaala's family moves to Muscat, where she falls in love with a professional violinist who lives in their building. She completely surrenders herself to his charm and, despite her parents' opposition, runs away from home to marry him.

A gripping Orwellian vision of Britain, with a rebellious Hunger Games heart, Bright Ruin is the third and final title in Vic James’ electrifying Dark Gifts Trilogy, following Tarnished City. In a world where the lower classes must endure 10 years of forced service to a magical aristocracy, a revolution is brewing that will transform - or destroy - the world. And not everyone will be saved....

One unforgettable night in 1785, in a theatre in Drury Lane, the heady alchemy of love and murder suddenly fuses the lives of Mimosina Dolcezza, a Venetian actress, and Valentine Greatrakes, prince of London's medical underworld. The Remedy is a ravishing love story that seamlessly weaves fiction with historical fact in rich and detailed prose.

Tanya Tania is a story about two young women coming of age in two countries that are coming of age. Tanya Talati in Karachi and Tania Ghosh in Bombay, daughters of college best friends, write to each other of what cannot be said to anyone else: a mother who has gone from quiet to silent, sex that has become a weapon, a servant with unforgettably soft hands and a country beginning to play with religion.

21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire—not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection. But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight for the Democratic party in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie, who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco and his Fascist party.

Manny is a high-flying CEO who runs a company that specializes in other people’s breakups. Happily engaged and often featured in the media, she appears to have it all. But when she is photoshopped to look less Asian and her fiancé decries he doesn’t 'see race', she decides it’s time to reconnect with her roots. Determining she needs to learn more about her community, she convinces a client to take her to his brother’s big Indian wedding. When they arrive, Manny is instantly thrown into a celebration filled with fashion, food, dancing and family.

Dr Rea Dharmasena is devastated when she loses out on her dream research job to her med-school rival, Dr Julia Stone. When it comes to light that Julia got the job using Rea's own cutting-edge research, Rea just can't let it go. Until finally, just after a life-changing medical discovery, Julia is found dead. Now Rea has the dream job she's always wanted. A job she would kill for.

A book which epitomises the idea of life flashing before your eyes, The Atlas of Reds and Blues opens with a woman lying bleeding on her driveway, shot by police. The woman has moved her family to the wealthy suburbs, but once there was is met with the same questions: Where are you from? No, where are you really from? The American-born daughter of Bengali immigrant parents, her truthful answer, here, is never enough.

It's Zoe and Jack's first wedding anniversary party. They've got an announcement! They're getting divorced. Marriage isn't for everyone - something that Zoe and Jack discovered only after they'd walked down the aisle. Bad timing, huh? So now they're stuck together in their once harmonious marital home, neither one of them willing to move out of their lovely house. With Zoe's three sisters always wanting a say and Jack's best friend trying his best to fix things between them, misunderstandings arise. Tempers flare. 'Accidents' happen.

When her grandmother and cousin are 'accidentally' killed in a drone strike in Yemen, Samiya wants answers. She writes emails, pesters her MP, starts a petition...but no one will help. Disillusioned, she vents her anger in chatrooms, where she makes online allies who willingly loan her their skills.

While on holiday in Montana, Hope meets local boy Cal Crow, a ranch hand. Caught in a freak accident, the two of them take shelter in a mountain cabin where Hope makes a strange discovery. More than a 100 years earlier, another English girl met a similar fate. Her rescuer: a horse trader called Nate. In this wild place, both girls learn what it means to survive and to fall in love, neither knowing that their fates are intimately entwined.

Married to a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan injured in body and mind, Stella Carey leaves the house every evening. During her nursing shifts, Stella writes letters for her patients to their loved ones - some full of humour, love and practical advice, others steeped in regret or pain - promising to post them after their deaths. Until one night Stella writes the letter that could give her patient one last chance at redemption, if she delivers it in time....

Meet eleven-year-old Dara Palmer. She loves dancing and dreams of being a world famous actress - which means she has to get the main part in the school play. When she doesn't get any part at all, Dara begins to wonder whether it's because of her looks rather than her acting skills. But Dara has big ideas - and is determined not to let prejudice stop her from being in the spotlight.

Fifteen-year-old Pearl has lived her whole life protected within the small community at Seed, where they worship nature and idolise their leader, Papa S. But when some outsiders arrive, everything changes. Pearl experiences feelings that she never knew existed and begins to realise that there is darkness at the heart of Seed. A darkness from which she must escape before it's too late.

"How little you know of your own father. He took something I cherished long ago and hid it away. You will help me find it". The legendary Luck Uglies are the most deadly, dangerous band of men Ryley O'Chanter has ever met - and her father, Harmless, is their high chief. Having been in exile for ten years the Luck Uglies are back in Village Drowning, but bringing them out of the shadows and back together was never going to be without its perils.

When war photographer Jo returns from her latest assignment in Afghanistan and moves into the Brighton flat she's just inherited, she hopes to restore equilibrium to her chaotic life. But images and events of her recent past and the reading of her great-grandmother Elizabeth's diary haunt her night and day, forcing Jo to come to terms with demons she thought she could leave behind.

Carrie Fraser cannot believe her luck when she is invited to work at Oakenbury Hall, a beautiful manor house in the English countryside. Nor can she quite get over the owner of Oakenbury – the gorgeous Morgan Harrington. The more time Carrie spends with him, the further she begins to fall. But the likes of Carrie Fraser could never be enough for a high-flying businessman like Morgan… could she?

Luck Uglies was a name whispered around the docks and darkest taverns, places where men played fast and loose with the law…Rye has grown up hearing the legend of the Luck Uglies - notorious deadly outlaws who once stalked the streets. Now they have faded to ghosts and rumours and Rye isn't sure they ever existed. Then on the night of the Black Moon, strange cries are heard from the forest Beyond the Shale, and dark shapes glimpsed in the shadows.

In their small, mountainside village, Ghazaala and Asiya love each other like sisters, until tragedy strikes, and Asiya is forced into exile. Ghazaala is haunted by Asiya’s absence; a wound that never quite heals. When Ghazaala falls in love with a handsome violinist, everything changes. In Muscat, she tries desperately to balance university and the demands of a new wife. Then she meets Harir, whose life, unbeknownst to Ghaazala, has also been changed by Asiya and the mystery of her fate.

Jarlath 'Jar' Costello's girlfriend, Rosa, committed suicide when they were both students at Cambridge. Jar is obsessed with the idea that Rosa is still alive and is tormented by disturbingly real sightings of her. When a startling discovery convinces him more than ever that these are not just hallucinations, Jar is thrust into the heart of a larger intrigue that may finally shed some light on Rosa's death.