Showing results by narrator "Sam Stafford" in All Categories

From the next big name in YA thrillers that fans on Book Tok have dubbed, “The CEO of plot twists” comes a classic horror story for a new generation. Six strangers. One night. But how many survivors? When a group of six strangers who have only ever spoken on a creepy Deddit thread decide to...

Prince Siegfried comes of age and celebrates his 21st birthday in the palace gardens. The next day he is to finally choose his future bride at the court ball. Near the castle, on the shores of Swan Lake, the beautiful swan girl Odette emerges from the water in the moonlight. She is actually a princess transformed by the magician Rothbart. Siegfried is overwhelmed by her beauty and immediately swears his eternal love and loyalty. The curse of the evil wizard Rothbart is now supposed to be broken, but he has his own plans for Odette.

A dangerous snake attacks Prince Tamino in the forest but three noble ladies protect him. Together with the bird catcher Papageno, Tamino is supposed to free Princess Pamina because the dreaded Sarastro has imprisoned her in his castle. Tamino and Papageno receive a magic flute and a glockenspiel from Pamina's mother, the Queen of the Night. The brave rescuers must overcome difficult tests, but the daring rescue plan succeeds. In the end, Tamino and Pamina, Papageno and his new girlfriend Papagena are happily in each other's arms.

There was no doubt that things had definitely looked better for Gabriel Atwood, one time Viscount Northwood. Mainly because everyone who knew him or of him almost certainly believed him dead—the bastard who'd betrayed him had made sure of that. His only hope was to seek aid from Nicholas Sinclair, his former mentor, now the current Duke of Blackmore, before his enemies realised that news of his demise had been greatly exaggerated.

Sunny, a working-class reporter at the trashy tabloid The Bulletin, dreams of writing hard-hitting stories that change the world. Ludo, a privileged musical theatre fanatic turned journalist at the prestigious Sentinel, can’t seem to enter a room without causing chaos. When an unexpected scoop lands in their laps at the same time, thrusting them into a web of political intrigue, these arch-nemeses find themselves reluctantly working together—and fighting an unexpected attraction.

The companion novel to Laura Wood’s “excellent, unputdownable adult debut” (Library Journal, starred review) Under Your Spell follows Theo Eliott’s best friend Cynthie Taylor as she’s pulled back into a fake PR relationship with Jack Turner-Jones, the one costar she swore she’d never...

NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW ""BEST HORROR FICTION OF 2024"" From Eliza Clark, the author of the brilliant novels Boy Parts and Penance and one of Granta’s Best Young British Novelists, comes a fierce, visionary and darkly comic story collection. A woman welcomes a parasite into her body. A...

Sabine and Rory Sugar seem like a perfectly respectable family to their new neighbours. They’re popular and friendly, their two teenage boys quiet and courteous. But when Rory starts staying late at work, and Sabine thinks she sees her son, Leo, in the woods apparently fighting with a girl, their seemingly perfect lives start to fall apart. And when the girl is reported missing and the police turn up asking awkward questions, Sabine must decide whether to lie to protect her son, or risk Leo being arrested on suspicion of abduction.

Through the seventies and into the mid-eighties, a cohort of young climbers challenged the siege mentality of their seniors on high mountains in the Greater Ranges with fast moving, lightweight expeditions run on a shoestring. Brian Hall was one of them and, in High Risk, he describes their daring adventures and the counterculture they lived within, their rivalries and relationships, and the terrible price many of them paid.

A beautifully written tale based on the true-life story of Varian Fry, called "the artists' Schindler," who rescued thousands of Europe's finest creative minds from certain death in WWII. In 2000, Sophie Cass, an ambitious journalist, may have finally found her big break. Convinced a celebrated...

A poignant, life-affirming love story about two people whose lives are turned upside down when they enter an experiment that predicts when they will die. For fans of Beth O’Leary, David Nicholls and Matt Haig. When OPM Discoveries puts out an ad seeking participants for The Life Experiment, a...

Two unlikely friends hatch an extraordinary scheme to expose the theater world in this “layered, hyperaware, and as entertaining as it is incendiary” (Mateo Askaripour, New York Times bestselling author) debut novel exploring perception, redemption, and how success shapes us all. “American...

All Charlie Masterson wants is to graduate Oxford. With a first, obviously. But then his life gets turned upside down when Evie Waters waltzes into his philosophy class. Evie Waters, the one-time, very careless owner of his heart. A heart he has no intention of giving away ever again, therefore he needs to come up with a plan to make sure that doesn’t happen. As Charlie and Violet spend more time together, it soon becomes hard to tell where the acting ends and real life begins, especially when Charlie starts looking at Violet the way she’s always looked at him.

In the dark labyrinth of his memories, can Cameron Todd uncover the truth about his girlfriend's fatal plunge from a clifftop? With a brain injury preventing him from remembering anything, even the night Emma died, Cameron is trapped in a sinister game of piecing together his fragmented past. Accusations swirl around him - the police, Emma's grieving family - they all question whether his amnesia is a mere pretence. As he struggles to reconstruct the mosaic of his life, Cameron discovers that his relationship with Emma may not have been as idyllic as he believed.

'Just delicious . . . a gorgeous love story with fantastic characters' MARIAN KEYES 'I embarrassed myself giggling, sighing and crying my way through it, and couldn't put it down' LUCY VINE ‘Utterly stunning, hopeful and bitingly funny' LIZZIE HUXLEY-JONES Their story might be scripted, but...

Jay Gardiner has given himself a fool's errand: to find the remains of his deceased father in the Pacific Ocean off the coast of California. He knows it's a long shot, but Jay feels it's the only way for him to lift the weight of guilt he has carried since his dad's death the previous year. The dive begins well enough, but the sudden appearance of a giant squid puts Jay in very real jeopardy, made worse by the arrival of a sperm whale looking to feed. Suddenly, Jay is caught in the squid's tentacles and drawn into the whale's mouth where he is pulled into the first of its four stomachs.

Popular romance author Margot Bradley has a secret: she doesn't believe in Happily Ever Afters. Not for herself, not for her readers, not even for her characters. When a super-fan leaks this to the world, Margot is dropped faster than you can say 'enemies-to-lovers.' Her sister thinks she needs a change of scene and sends Margot off to a remote Alaskan cabin on a writing retreat that could be the perfect chance to say goodbye to romcoms and write something new - maybe swap meet-cutes for murder mysteries? But then she meets the handsome owner, Forrest

Toddington FC defender Tom Horrocks is never happier than when he's on the football pitch, but when it comes to love, he's hiding a big secret. Worried about his young daughter and sick father - and with his team finally in the Premier League - he avoids all media. Journalist Cosmo Roberts wants to change the world, so is angry when he's sent to a quiet northern town to cover a sport he sees as anti-gay. Then something about Tom catches his eye. Cosmo hates football. Tom hates journalists. Perhaps this time they've both met their match.

Everyone knows Nolan Hill as the legendary quarterback of the Chicago Bobcats - two-time Super Bowl champ and heartthrob to countless fans. But to Lottie Thompson, he's just the stubborn pain in the ass who refuses her physio treatment. She's worked hard to command respect in a male-dominated industry, and she's not about to let a 6ft, too-handsome-for-his-own-good football player run all over her.

Courage starts small . . . discover the power of your own voice in a timeless winter's tale of family, hope and understanding, from the critically-acclaimed Sarah Ann Juckes, for fans of R.J. Palacio and Patrick Ness. ‘A haunting and lyrical portrait of courage, family and the power of nature...