Showing results by narrator "Emma Noakes" in All Categories

Our dream home. A fresh start. But the house comes with secrets — and so do the neighbours. The moment we moved in, I knew something was wrong. A cracked stove. Scribbles on the wall. The lights flicking off every evening — always at the same time. Our daughter crying in the night, pointing at the corner of her room. "She has no face." Now the gifts are arriving. Notes through the door. A bottle left in the kitchen with no explanation. And my daughter won't stop screaming in her sleep. Everyone thinks I'm imagining it. But I know what I saw. What I heard.

Sadie Winters has spent her whole life doing as she’s told. But when her overbearing aunt forbids her from going to the farewell ball at the beloved local castle, Sadie has had enough! One magical makeover, one midnight curfew, and wearing a dress of her own creation, Sadie is unrecognizable as Ever After Street's shy seamstress. Sadie might dream of meeting a handsome prince but the only person to cross her path is Witt – the slightly awkward estate agent intending to sell the castle and dash Sadie’s dreams forever.

Harry Christmas and Angie Moon are best friends and almost-twins. Ever since they were born two days apart they’ve been partners in cloud-spotting, sweet-eating and treehouse-building. But when Harry is taken to hospital for headaches that won’t go away, he needs Angie more than ever. Because when things fall apart, only a best friend can stitch them back together. Told through Angie's lively diary, this is a bittersweet story about friendship and growing up. 

Twenty-five-year-old widow Tatty Crowe is the owner of busy undertaking firm Crowe Funerals. Life and business are good until Tatty notices how many women are dying after illicit abortions and after a terrible tragedy close to home, she vows to expose the culprit. And then there are the dead babies abandoned around the city. Once again Tatty sets out to investigate the crisis and finds herself immersed in the dark and heartless world of baby farming.

One thing about me: I HATE flying. It’s my worst nightmare. That’s why I book seat 2A every time I fly. Since my big win, I've been booking seats 2B and 2C as well. They’re my comfort seats, they cushion the claustrophobia, and at last I can afford them. I am now determined to live the life of luxury. I deserve it, after all. How to Live Like a Millionaire is the book I’m reading on this flight. When it lands on the floor, a handsome guy hands it back to me. I know he clocks the title, because he’s totally charming and talks to me as if I’m one of the Marbella Millionaire set.

Since her mum’s death, Marnie Platt has shut herself away from everyone who cares about her. Worse, her beloved bookshop on Ever After Street is suffering too. With sales down and the shop’s garden falling into disrepair, Marnie risks losing the very last thing she loves. Until a chance encounter with her surly and reclusive neighbour. Dark and brooding, Darcy O'Connell likes to keep himself to himself. But when he hears Marnie needs help, he can’t turn his back on her. Soon they are spending most evenings together in her enchanted garden and a friendship starts to bloom.

In a near future where a series of environmental disasters has left much of the country underwater, Pearl lives on a floating oyster farm with her father and younger sister Clover. Following her mum's death several years earlier, Pearl refuses to set foot on land, believing her illness was caused by the poisons in the ground. Meanwhile, Clover dreams of a normal life. Then Nat comes to spend the summer at the sea farm while his scientist mum conducts some experiments. But when the sisters promise to keep his secret safe, little do they realize that they may be risking everything.

In 1976, four students took a trip to the desert. Now the repercussions of that fateful summer are coming back to haunt them. And repercussions are just what Guy doesn't need: his wife, Jane, is moving swiftly from slightly eccentric to downright peculiar, their three-year-old daughter seems set on destroying Jane's sanity, and now even God's gone quiet on him. As for Nina, she's having enough trouble with her son, James. He's got exams looming, a new girlfriend with pneumatic breasts, and now, it seems, he's on drugs. Nina certainly won't welcome any ghosts from the past.

Nominated for the CILIP Carnegie Medal 2022 Waterstones Children's Book of the Month for October 2021 Winner of the Honour Award for Fiction, KPMG Irish Children's Book Awards 2021 'A magnificent, shadowy, gothic adventure full of heart' – Emma Carroll, author of Frost Hollow Hall. A...

Southampton 1920. Phoebe Collins rose to the challenge of running the family fruit and veg stall when her father did not return from the front. The work outside in Kingsland market in all weathers can be hard, but with her mother and younger brother Tim to support, she's determined that it continue to be a success. 

Nell Hobson lives with a tortoise called Bob Marley, guinea pigs Asbo and Chaos, goldfish Beyoncé and Destiny, gerbils Fiz and Tyrone, Aunty Lou the Hamster...and her mum, who drinks too much. Nell does everything she can to be a good daughter so that her mum will stop. But when things get really hard, Nell stands on her head. Everything looks better upside down, don't you know?

Fifteen year old Rose hears voices. Mostly she gets along with them ok, but when her real Dad turns up out of the blue to take her away for the weekend, things get completely out of control. This drama has sprung out of a project that listened to people with mental health issues, and in this...

In the polluted, sprawling hive cities of Necromunda, life is short. From the decadent heights of the Spire to the murderous deeps of the underhive, those on the climb must be bold and brutal, or face a violent end. When the barbarous Fettnir, Goliath overlord of the Chemfall Butchers, turns his attention to Escher territory, the result is nothing short of a massacre. Brielle of the Wild Hydras escapes the slaughter and is cast into the deepest levels of the underhive.

Baggit is a fast-talking ratling sniper with a greedy eye and loose morals. Clodde is an ogryn, a brute with a core of decency and a desire for a better life. Two abhuman deserters turned thieves, at large in the monolithic city of Varangantua, where only the tough or the ruthless survive. Having landed in debt to a savage crime lord, Baggit and Clodde end up in the crosshairs of the meanest, most puritanical sanctioner in the city.

Willem has Asperger’s Syndrome and two main aims in life: to fly and to make at least two friends of his own age. As he stands on the edge of a wall, Sasha gives him a wink. Might she become his friend? As he flies through the air he wishes he could fly and escape. Instead he comes crashing down and breaks his ankle. Sasha is determined to put things right.

Bee stumbles through life in her stripy socks with her head in the clouds, doing her very best to keep out of the way of her bickering parents and avoid the bendy tap-dancing freak Crystal Kelly - who makes her life a misery. But when Crystal double-dares her to volunteer for a sponsored swim in honour of her great grandmother Beatrix's memory, Bee can't back down. Even though she is terrified of water and cannot swim! Then new boy Moon-Star gallops to Bee's rescue on his horse and takes her to meet Old Alice, who lives in a beautiful painted wagon. 

Tatiana Caldwell's childhood in London is idyllic and filled with the love of doting parents. But when they die in quick succession, she's left heartbroken and destitute. In 1864, at seventeen, she emigrates to Australia, determined to build a new, financially secure life for herself. After an apprenticeship as an undertaker's assistant with Crowe Funeral Services, Tatty marries owner Titus Crowe. Titus himself soon dies, and Tatty inherits the business, becoming Sydney's only female undertaker.

Cleo Jordan has only ever wished for one thing – to open her own teashop in memory of her lovely gran. So when she accidentally fools the interview board into thinking she's a brilliant baker and is offered a prime spot on Ever After Street, she knows her dream is about to come true! Stepping into The Wonderland Teapot is like falling down the rabbit hole - magical! But there’s a catch: Cleo has completely lost her love of baking! With her little white lie ticking in her ear, it seems her dream is over before it’s begun. Until she meets her very own Mad Hatter.

Twenty-four-year-old Daisy Moore is at a crossroads. Racked with guilt over her mother’s tragic death in a house fire, she needs a job and somewhere to live. She’s offered a lifeline, working at the Dolphin Hotel in the quiet Oxfordshire village of Fernfield. It’s a huge change after her exciting secret wartime work in London. Though the villagers aren’t keen on outsiders – or young women who speak their mind. But when a body is found in one of the hotel bedrooms, Daisy must use all her skills to help find the murderer.

It’s the most wonderful time of the year, but Franca Andrews has never felt more miserable. With business far from bustling, she needs a Christmas miracle to keep her beloved nutcracker shop open... But there’s one man standing in her way - expert snow globe maker Raff Dardenne. Dardenne Snow Globes have a magical reputation for bringing lovers together, a myth Raff continues to exploit. But this Christmas their shops are pitted against each other and only one gets to stay on Ever After Street. As these two enemies get to know each other, Franca discovers another side to Raff.