Showing results by narrator "Avita Jay" in All Categories

It's 1965 and Rosie Churchill has arrives at run-down Castaway House. But when she uncovers a scandal locked away in the old house, she soon realises that secrets never stay buried for long. In 1924 fresh-faced Robert Carver comes to Castaway House to spend the summer with his cousin, Alec Bray. But the Brays are a damaged family. As Rosie begins to learn more about Robert, the more their stories, old and new, entwine.

At 25, West-End dancer Ellie Wakefield should be having the time of her life. The only problem is, since waking up in a 300-year-old vampire’s leaky cellar, Ellie’s been very much dead. William James Austen has fallen hard. He’s spent the last year loving Ellie from afar and now he’s finally able to be truthful about who and what he is. But this time, Will might just have bitten off more than he can chew.

Weathering critical scorn, Lady Audley's Secret quickly established Mary Elizabeth Braddon as the leading light of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, sharing the honour only with Wilkie Collins. Addictive, cunningly plotted and certainly sensational, Lady Audley's Secret draws on contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxieties about the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding the charming heroine?

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.

Sir Michael Morpurgo retells two of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, King Lear and Henry V, in this stunning audio collection in association with the RSC, featuring readings by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Michael himself.

Sir Michael Morpurgo retells two of Shakespeare’s best-loved plays, Macbeth and Hamlet, in this stunning audio collection in association with the RSC, featuring readings by members of the Royal Shakespeare Company and Michael himself.

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.

Soma is a shy young woman adrift in a strange new country. After moving from Sri Lanka to Yorkshire to become a nanny to baby Louis, Soma tries to settle into life in the UK, even if every day presents her with a new challenge, from trying new food or getting to grips with the language. But the one thing Soma never counted on was falling in love....

Strange as it may appear, Draupadi, the most accomplished heroine of the Mahabharata, happens to be the most suffering, most sacrificing, and yet most misunderstood character from the epic. Though counted among the five supremely virtuous women, honoured as pancha sati in mythology, the name Draupadi still bears stigma and is often contemptuously uttered by people in society as the woman who brought about the greatest war of all time. Pratibha Ray makes a determined effort to present a balanced portrayal of the epic character.

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.

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.

Sam is a war photographer famous for her hauntingly beautiful pictures of the dead. After a particularly gruelling assignment, she checks in to an expensive hotel. Unfortunately she has chosen the exact moment terrorists attack the hotel. Abhi, the manager, thought his hotel was a safe haven, a place where he could be himself. Now stuck inside his office, he is desperately trying to keep those safe who're still alive....

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.

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.

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.

Three months after the killer rain first fell, Ruby is beginning to realise that she cannot survive alone. When a chance encounter lands her back in the army camp, Ruby thinks she is safe. But being safe has a price, and if Ruby wants to stay she must keep her eyes - and her mouth - shut.

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.

John Venton's drunken fall from a cliff leaves his family with an embarrassing ghost. His twin children, Morwenna and Corwin, flee in separate directions as their mother, enraged by years of unhappy marriage, embraces merry widowhood. Only their grandfather finds solace in the crumbling house, endlessly painting their story onto a large canvas map. As the twins are drawn back to the house, they discover that their father's absence is part of the map's mysterious pull.

"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.