Showing results by narrator "Annie" in All Categories

The heartwarming historical novel from Sunday Times bestseller, Dilly Court It’s Christmas Eve. Flurries of snow fall on the cobbled streets of Whitechapel and an abandoned baby, swaddled in a blanket, is found on a doorstep in Angel Lane . . . Named after the street on which she was found...

"Schoolgirl missing", the ticker reads, and the camera cuts to a girl’s face. Blonde hair waterfalling over her shoulders, serious eyes, lips a little parted like she’s about to speak. That’s when I realize I’ve been holding my breath, because the gasp when I inhale almost chokes me. Sadie Kelly has lost her job. Until last month, she was a teacher at Horton College - the same high school she went to 10 years ago along with her best friend, Fiona.

Not far from London, there is a village. This village belongs to the people who live in it and to those who lived in it hundreds of years ago. It belongs to England's mysterious past and its confounding present. It belongs to Mad Pete, the grizzled artist. To ancient Peggy, gossiping at her gate. To families dead for generations, and to those who have only recently moved here. But it also belongs to Dead Papa Toothwort who has woken from his slumber in the woods. Dead Papa Toothwort, who is listening to them all.

Daisy Bacon has an ordinary, happy life living with her family in South London, until tragedy strikes and her mother is killed in a devastating accident. Blaming herself, Daisy retreats into a world of silence, unable to utter a word. When her father remarries, the family home becomes unbearable at the mercy of cruel stepmother Vera. Luckily, Daisy can always count on her cousin Lizzie to bring sunshine to her life. But when shocking truths about Vera come to light, could it bring the possibility of a fresh start for Daisy after all?

Will she make it on her own? Her strength is all she has left… When Dorothy meets Robbie, he sweeps her off her feet. The pair’s whirlwind romance soon leads to an engagement, but then an unexpected pregnancy changes everything. Robbie disappears without a word, leaving Dorothy to face the...

When Garrett Lynch bursts into the glittering Raynewood ballroom, a hapless footman clinging to each powerful arm, Lucinda Devering is equally appalled and impressed. How uncivilized! How barbaric! How...stirringly strong and manly! Then she learns he's the long-lost heir of the Duke of Raynewood - and that it's her job to transform him into a proper Englishman. And if she fails this impossible task, the duke will reveal her desperate secret, ruining her forever.

London, 1961. In the dying days of the Macmillan government, George Preston is in control of crime in West London, and Rina Walker is his favoured contract killer. When Rina is hired by Soho vice king Tony Farina to investigate the disappearance of girls from his clubs, she discovers that they are being supplied to a member of the English aristocracy for the gratification of his macabre sexual tastes.

London, 1940. The war is raging across Europe, and 23-year-old Grace is devastated by the loss of her husband, Brian, at Dunkirk after only a year of marriage. Her secretary job at a law firm keeps her mind from dwelling on her sorrow, but when her boss, James, enlists in the air force Grace is left without work. Alongside her best friend, Helen, the Grace joins the War Office in a move that will change their lives forever.

Success beyond my wildest dreams? Too bad I wasn't able to fully enjoy it. No time to sit back and watch the fame roll in when you're being hunted by superpowereds and a private military force. Still, everything was going according to plan. Grace, Veronique, and I were headed south. Our target? The secret government facilities scattered across the country. The second installment of Mutants in the Making was nearing completion, ready to be published any day now. Things were tense, but all was well. I wish they would have stayed that way....

When nightmares become reality, how do you find the strength to keep hope alive? When eleven-year-old Danny Stone is kidnapped on his way home from school, panic grips his parents, Martha and Richard. As authorities scramble to find answers, their home in Bristol becomes a battleground of suspicion - until a ransom demand arrives, leaving Martha ready to pay any price. But as Richard hesitates, secrets begin to unravel and Martha fights to untangle her husband's web of deception while the fate of their son hangs by a thread.

Eden Chase is head over heels in love with her husband, Tom. He's the sort of man who doesn't give much away, but Eden doesn't mind that - Tom is worth the effort. So when he's accused of a years-old robbery and murder, Eden won't believe it. No, not her Tom - he's not capable of the things they're saying he did. With Tom in prison, it's up to Eden to clear his name. But the closer she gets to the truth, the more she uncovers about her husband's past. Does she really know him after all?

Winifred Foley grew up in the 1920s, a bright, determined miner's daughter - in a world of unspoilt beauty and desperate hardship, in which women were widowed at 30 and children died of starvation. Living hand to mouth in a tumbledown cottage in the Forest of Dean, Foley - 'our Poll' - had a loving family and the woods and streams of a forest 'better than heaven' as a playground. But a brother and sister were dead in infancy, bread had to be begged from kindly neighbours and she never had a new pair of shoes or a shop-bought doll. 

Jolie Conway’s world is shattered the day her boyfriend, Steve Jenkins, is arrested for a brutal murder. Clutching her new baby to her chest as the police drag her first love and father of her child away, Jolie can’t believe what they’re saying: Steve is a killer with blood on his hands, and darker secrets than she could imagine. Fragile, broken, and left to raise baby Kane alone, Jolie hopes the worst is behind her.

he Sweet family have run the local bakery for as long as anyone can remember. Twins Ruby and Mary Sweet help their widowed father out when they can. Mary loves baking and has no intention of leaving their small Gloucestershire village. while Ruby dreams of life in London. But as war threatens, there will be changes for all of the Sweet family, with brother Charlie off to serve and cousin Frances facing evacuation. But there will be opportunities, too, as the twins' baking talent catches the attention of the Ministry of Food.

From Annie Murray, the bestselling author of The Bells of Bournville Green, comes Secrets of the Chocolate Girls, another gritty family saga about love, war and chocolate . . . September 1940, Birmingham. While her husband and daughter work at Cadbury's Bournville factory, Ann Gilby has her...

Kent, 1953. The Woolworths Erith store, a beloved cornerstone of the community, faces closure if the December turnover fails to increase. And, as if store manager Betty Billington doesn't have enough on her plate, personnel shortages and a troublesome new employee add to the strife. With...

Oric Rune, A Player Killer with nothing left to lose, wants nothing more than to avenge the villagers of Ducat, who were butchered before his very eyes by the Drachma Killers. But with the people of the Rune Lands encroaching on the southern cities of Unigaea, and something brewing in the sky that could prove fatal to the entire online world, Oric must make the choice between personal vengeance, and becoming the hero he is destined to be. Joining him on his epic journey are a giant Tagvornin wolf, a mute Solar Mage, and a cunning illusionist named Sam Raid.

In two run-down houses, at the side of a barren Black Country heath, live six children with no family but each other. Abandoned or orphaned, every day is a fight to find food and keep warm. But they are determined to stay free of the clutches of the workhouse and the horrors that would face them if they were ever torn apart. Dora Parsons lives with her mother, Mary, and her evil grandmother, Edith. Edith’s house may be comfortable and warm, and food is plentiful, but every day, Dora suffers at the hands of her spiteful gran.

With her family struggling amidst the nightly bombing raids in London’s East End, Ida Brogan is doing her very best to keep their spirits up. The Blitz has hit the Brogans hard, and rationing is more challenging than ever, but they are doing all they can to help the war effort. When Ida’s oldest friend Ellen returns to town, sick and in dire need of help, it is to Ida that she turns. But Ellen carries a secret, one that threatens not only Ida’s marriage but the entire foundation of the Brogan family. Can Ida let go of the past and see a way to forgive her friend?

Emerson Sinclair, 27-year-old hotel heiress, has said yes. With just over a year to plan her extravagant, over-the-top nuptials to Logan Worthington, it's all hands on deck with the wedding plans. A Sinclair marrying into the Worthington family is the talk of their small New Hampshire town, and ideas include filming the wedding for a TV segment. But as the items get checked off the list, plans start to go not as planned.