Showing results by narrator "Billie Brown" in All Categories

With war threatening her city, Rowan and her mother must flee to the Dark Forest. There she meets a grandfather she didn’t know existed, and his white wolf, Arto. Rowan is homesick, but soon she makes new friends—including a trio of powerful witches. When Rowan rescues a baby dragon from poachers, she discovers the secret of her own identity. She is a wildsmith, just like her grandfather, a person who cares for and can speak to magical animals.

Haruka and Takashi are devoted to shopping and going out in Tokyo. She loves her Louis Vuitton handbags, Hermès scarves, and Louboutin shoes. He enjoys eating out and looking through the department stores in Ginza and Shibuya. Together they make a cute couple, but love is never easy.

In Brannland, terrifying beasts called Umbrae roam freely once the sun sets, so venomous that a single bite will kill a full-grown adult—and lately, with each day that passes, their population seems to double. The only people who can destroy them are immune children like Nora, who are recruited at the age of seven to leave their families behind and begin training at a retrofitted castle called Noye’s Hill. But despite her immunity, Nora’s father refused to let her go.

Gemma is only just holding it together - she's a single parent, she's turning 40 and her seven-year-old daughter has drawn a cruelly accurate picture which locates Gemma's boobs somewhere around her knees. So when her new next-door neighbour, Becky, suggests that Gemma should start dating again, it takes a lot of self-control not to laugh in her face. But Becky is very persuasive and before long Gemma finds herself juggling a full-time job, the increasingly insane demands of the school mums' Facebook group and the tricky etiquette of a new dating world.

Out of Dublin, a survivor's captivating story of loss, abuse, and resilience, is a stunning short memoir told with startling honesty and vulnerability. Perhaps what's most arresting about this work, above its unique voice, above its call to end silence, is the depth of its author's capacity for compassion, love, and forgiveness.

Emily Crane is the toast of the ton - and she couldn't find it more tedious. Until she encounters the darkly sensual stranger whose life she once saved and the London Season becomes infinitely more exciting. Recently returned from the wilds of South America, Lord Richard Sheldon has only contempt for tiresome London chits, but he finds himself stunningly intrigued by the dauntless Emily Crane.

It's back to a new school term for the kids. Their mums - Gemma and Becky - are breathing a huge sigh of relief and reaching for the gin bottle. Except for the fact that Becky appears to be accidentally a little bit pregnant.... But that's not the first shock for the parents in the playground. Over the summer, part of their beloved Redcoats Primary has burned down. The school needs to raise thousands of pounds to stay open - and Gemma and Becky have been forced on to the fund-raising committee (just to add to the millions of messages from their online parent groups).

Maud has grown up in a house made of gingerbread, wanting nothing more than to be a witch like Mother Agatha. But just like all of Agatha's gingerbread creations—from the magical house to the chocolate mousse squirrel—Maud will turn back into crumbs if anything ever happens to Agatha. This seems unthinkable…until Hansel and Gretel, a pair of witch hunters, push Agatha into the cottage's oven.

In a world filled with stunning clones Mina Hart is Blemished. Her genes are worthless and that takes away her rights: her right to an education, her right to a normal life, and her right to have a child. Mina keeps a dangerous secret which she never thought she could share until she meets Angela on her first day at St Jude's School.

Róisín and François are immediately drawn to each other when they meet at a remote research base on the frozen ice sheets of Antarctica. At first glance the pair could not be more different. Older by a few years, Róisín, a daughter of Ireland and a peripatetic astronomer, joins the science team to observe the fracturing of a comet overhead. François, the base's chef, has just left his birthplace in Bayeux, France, for only the second time in his life. Yet devastating tragedy and the longing for a fresh start connect them to each other.

Everyone at Coal Hill School has become obsessed with completing exciting dares posted on a strange new website, run by the charismatic vlogger Seraphin. Soon, the challenges become more dangerous and competitive, yet even broken arms and fistfights don't stop the craze for them. And then students start to disappear.... As April's fragile group of friends starts to fracture, she decides she's going to uncover the truth behind this site herself.

The exciting story of one of the fastest growing sports in the world, played by over 30 million girls and women. Over 25 million people tuned in for the Americans' 2015 Women's World Cup final victory - the most-watched football match in United States history. The Making of the Women's World Cup details the most incredible tales from previous Women's World Cups.

Two strangers aide one other on a dark country road, and vow to meet again at the local Renaissance Fair. To do so, they must learn to see beyond their own masks, and united, win past a host of glamor fairies, crazed role-players, angry jugglers, sinister bikers, and the secret of the ancient charter of Strawberry Fair itself.

When Amelia arrives at Nexum House she sparks the fire of revolution. Daughter of a gambler and a scientist, the 16-year-old wants revenge for her parents' murder. But not just against the killers. Amelia wants to start a catalyst that will change the world.

The respectable middle-class Twist family is settling in for their usual Sunday lunch. Husband and wife Roger and Becky are there, along with their daughter, Lucy, and her husband, Frank. But then they're joined by an uninvited guest. His name is John, and he knows everything about them—including their darkest secrets. After he manipulates his way into the house, John soon has them bound at their wrists and ankles. But what is the agenda of this twisted stranger?

Adolf Hitler's secret mistress, an upstanding member of the British aristocracy, gives birth to a daughter. The child is whisked away at infancy and raised as an orphan. She is protected from the truth concerning her origins, but that doesn't prevent the remnants of Hitler's scattered empire from seeking her out as part of a plot to reignite their dream of conquering Europe. Enter into our drama the starchy, conservative Jean Hastie, an art historian and official for the Scottish National Trust.

Growing up in a small town on the Cornish coast, Natalie and Fiona have always been besties. Then roommates. But now, with thirty looming on the horizon, it all seems to be falling apart. Fiona’s decided it’s finally time to move in with her long-term boyfriend, leaving Natalie wondering how on earth to pay the rent. Just as she’s on the brink of despair, Natalie somehow lands her dream job, and surviving solo suddenly doesn’t seem so bad. But Fiona had set her sights on that same role.

Maud may be made of gingerbread—plus a spark of magic—but she’s a real witch! Even if she’s still learning, and has a habit of making messes…and might have accidentally unleashed the hundred-year-old Class IV sleeping curse that envelops a princess’s bramble-covered castle. Oops. Maud has her friends Gretel, Ludo, and Nuss the hazelnut mousse squirrel to help her fix this. But it won’t be easy to find the sleeping princess’s true love, and the curse might end up being the least of their problems…

Clemency Fry has always been certain that marriage is a ludicrous arrangement—a notion she has believed ever since reading a scandalous feminist treatise as a girl. But her outlook on romance suddenly changes after meeting the handsome Lord Boyle. With the proposition of a different sort of union, one with mutual respect and financial security for her family, Clemency is won over, but when the wedding is set and the plans are in motion, Lord Boyle turns cold and dismissive. Clemency fears the worst has come to fruition; she had been right all along about affairs of the heart.

In a dissatisfied world, looking back to ancient wisdom can shed light on fresh solutions. For years, many of us have upheld the Stoic concept of ‘no pain, no gain.’ But in a time when we are burdened by the fear of failure and outsize ambitions, perhaps we should stop skirting around the edges of our problems via punishing exercise regimes, productivity apps and early morning starts. According to the pleasure-centric philosophy of Epicureanism, life can be good without great sacrifice, and temptation isn’t always the enemy.