Showing results by narrator "Emma Powell" in All Categories

Anthea Halliwell's once-bright future is cruelly taken from her the moment she is accused of stealing a necklace dripping with rubies and diamonds and attempting to sell it. Her beloved Captain Crispin breaks off their engagement at the first hint of scandal and marries her friend instead. Then to make matters worse, her father gambles away their fortune. Heartbroken and penniless, Anthea is forced to beg handsome Gideon Rodrigo for help. But she never expects him to propose.

Then: Madeleine lived for her children. She'd always believed she'd die for them, too. But on the morning of her twins' tenth birthday her love was put to the test when a killer knocked on their door and forced her to make a devastating choice: which child should live and which should die - her son or her daughter? Now: Madeleine stands silent on the periphery of her now fractured family, trying desperately to unravel why her world was so suddenly blown apart.

In a small town, three mothers wave goodbye to their children at the school gates. Naomi has lived in Exton Cross since she was born, and she knows everything there is to know about everyone. Aleema hates it here. It’s been three years and she’s yet to make a single friend. And she’s sure the other mums whisper about her behind her back. Kelly is an outsider. New to the town, she arrives with nothing but her son—and a dark secret. By the end of the school day, one of their children will be missing. And rumours will swirl that one of them knows why.

Chrissie loves London, her job as an events manager and her daughters Scarlet (loud, vegan, activist) and Ruby (quiet, musician, boffin). She even loves her husband, Rob, despite him deciding to cycle across Africa. For a year. But Chrissie is stressed and overworked, so when her mum calls her home to Devon to help with the struggling family vineyard, she is almost relieved. Chrissie gives herself a year: if she can make it until then, maybe they can celebrate as a family with their own fizz? But adjusting to West Country life takes more than she bargained for....

Three years on from her fairy-tale country wedding to the deliciously handsome Charlie Wellbeloved, Bella's life is far from the 'happily ever after' she dreamed of. Now, heading for the big three-oh at horrifying speed she has gained a couple of stone from boredom and comfort eating, her fledgling interior design business is succumbing to infant mortality, she talks to her black Labrador Dolly more than she does her own husband, and now her close friend Maddy has announced that she's expecting a baby. How can Bella be happy for them when she pines for a family of her own?

To everyone who knows them, Louisa and Tom are the perfect couple. They have two beautiful kids, Stan and Flo, and are about to celebrate ten years of being happily married. Life is perfect. But when Lou is dealt devastating news, that perfect life is turned upside down and Lou and Tom must reevaluate the very foundations their marriage is built on. Lou’s main concern is who will look after her children if she’s not there to care for them? Will anyone be able to love them like she does?

When young Dylan Harris's former babysitter (and soon to be step-sister), Harriet, needs a last-minute venue for her acting troupe's outdoor production of Shakespeare's A Winter's Tale, the staff at Mill Grange throw open its doors, keen to fill their halls with guests over the holiday season but they may get more drama than they'd bargained for! With pageants and plays to arrange, a much-anticipated book launch, an unexpected arrival, a heart-warming offer, and a little bit of the manor's magic, this Christmas is one that Thea, Tina, Sam, Shaun, Helen and Tom won't soon forget.

Berry Chambers and her co-workers have joined the Women's Timber Corps - known as the Lumberjills - to do their bit for Britain. On their first day felling trees, they rescue an RAF pilot and become entangled in the loveless marriage of her new landlords. Danger is never far away, be it an ill-timed axe swing or the occasional activity of the Luftwaffe overhead. Add a psychotic farm cat, a couple of young runaway evacuees, a spate of malicious packages, and the jealousy of the Land Girls next door, and life for Berry and her friends is never boring.

This was supposed to be simple. Make a nice dinner for the Chemist, a ghoul with a penchant for stand-up and utterly obsessed with all things alchemical, and fulfill my promise. But it hasn't gone according to plan, and now corpses are littering the streets - although they're getting eaten pretty rapidly too. I'm not exactly in anyone's good graces either, as it's partly my fault, and my whole life is being turned upside down and inside out.

Piper Le Brocq is happily single after the disastrous ending of her engagement eighteen months before. The only man in her life is Jax, her best friend and cousin, who spends his life teaching locals how to forage and taking tourists on boat trips around the island. Her days are filled with helping out at her mother's guest house and selling her glass mosaics at The Cabbage Patch emporium in Trinity.

Quin believed that a life away from The Beck would make her happy. But when a cruel twist of fate forces her to leave sooner than planned, she struggles to come to terms with her new reality. Haunted by memories of the people she left behind, she finds herself wishing she was back in Patrol, with Cam by her side. Cut off from The Beck, the escapees carve out a new existence on a small island. Tentative bonds are formed, but as disputes surface and rebellion is threatened, Quin quickly realizes that their new home isn't the sanctuary she had imagined.

Air Transport auxiliary pilot Doris Winter is accused of stealing a valuable item from a famous Hollywood movie star, now a captain in the US Army Air Corps, after a dance at the air base in England where he's stationed. Gathering her close friends together, she's determined to clear her name. Ruth's POW son suffers a life-changing injury just as her own cottage takes damage in an air raid, and Penny's estranged little sister unexpectedly turns up, having run away from school.

Where to hide when there's nowhere left to run? Sandrine is asked to empty her late grandmother's house on a small island near the Normandy coast. She soon discovers that its elderly inhabitants haven't left the island since their arrival as children during World War II. Sandrine can tell they are terrified of someone, or something. Yet, they refuse to leave the island. What happened to the children from the holiday camp that was suddenly shut down in 1949? And who was Sandrine's grandmother really?

When Betty Palmer's sister dies under suspicious circumstances whilst landing her Tiger Moth, Betty and three other women pilots of the Air Transport Auxiliary in WWII England unite to discover who killed her and why. Estranged from her family, Penny Blake wants simply to belong. American Doris Winter, running from a personal tragedy, yearns for a new start. Naturally shy Mary Whitworth-Baines struggles to fit in. Together, though, they are a force to be reckoned with as they face the mystery that confronts them.

Nettlecombe Manor, nestled in the rolling hills of Devon, is home to the Lord Farringdon and his second wife, Lady Charlotte. As if running the vast estate wasn’t enough, Lord Farringdon has five daughters to keep him busy. Lady Charlotte is determined that the betrothal of the eldest, Louisa, should be celebrated with a ball that is the envy of Devon society and summons a corsetière from Exeter to measure them up for new corsets.

Cornwall, 1895. Grace Kellow is a young woman with a strong sense of who she is and where she comes from. As the daughter of a well-respected Cornish dairy owner Daniel Kellow, her existence in the village of Trehale is comfortable and peaceful. But then handsome Talek Danning comes striding over Hel Tor, and soon after his arrival Grace is hit with a revelation that leaves her questioning her identity and her place in the Trehale community. In her hour of need, Talek and his sister, Amelia, offer Grace sanctuary - but wherever Grace runs, her secret will follow....

Ten women, all called Claire, are tangled up in complex power dynamics with their families, friends and lovers. Though all are different ages and leading different lives, each is haunted by the difficulty of living on her own terms and by her capacity to harm and be harmed. Claire is a teenaged babysitter left alone with a strange little girl and her imaginary friend. She is a woman trying to escape her elderly mother by employing an android carer. Claire is a young TV journalist wrecking her first big interview.

It’s the 1960s, and Lily Denham is about to begin her studies at Oxford University. On her first day she meets Harry Gale and Max Farley, two fellow undergraduates who are both full of mischievous charm. The three of them become firm friends and enjoy exploring everything Oxford has to offer. However, Lily soon realises she’s falling for both of her newfound friends, men who might offer her two very different futures.

When Evie is invited to the wedding of the guy she’d fancied throughout her teens, it’s the final straw. What’s wrong with her, and why can’t she keep a man? In between consoling herself with ice cream and chocolate and sobbing her heart out to her cousin Chamaine, Evie has a brainwave - and it all centres around her 'little black book' (well, more floral patterned notebook really), which contains the details of every man she’s ever kissed or dated. Perhaps the cure for her disastrous love life has been nestled within its pages all along....

Since inheriting the link to the main source of warlock magic, the bounty on my head has quadrupled. If I don't find a way to disconnect from the powerful source, the warlocks will hunt me down. Banished to the city of Edinburgh for protection, I throw myself into a new case. Magic drugs are on the rise, and the agency is tasked in bringing down the coven responsible for pushing contaminated batches. But with a powerful witch mob leader protecting our culprit, we may run out of time. In an effort to prevent further deaths, I use my magic...and bring the warlocks back onto my trail.