Showing results by narrator "Kate Rawson" in All Categories

June, 1905. Helena and her parrot, Orbit, are swept off to Cambridge when her father is appointed clock-winder to one of the wealthiest men in England. There is only one rule: the clocks must never stop. But Helena discovers the house of one hundred clocks holds many mysteries: a ghostly figure, strange notes and disappearing winding keys.... Can she work out its secrets before time runs out?

Interior designer Tilly Campbell loves being carefree and single. But her latest job is redecorating the cosy local café for a Christmas party, and when her friends confess their plans for the big night - including a proposal, a declaration of love and a pregnancy announcement - Tilly starts to wonder if she might be missing out.... Transforming the café into a winter wonderland is more of a challenge than she thought, so when she bumps into gorgeous newcomer Seth, Tilly welcomes the distraction. 

Family and friendship mean everything under the darkening skies of wartime Britain, by Sunday Times best-selling author Margaret Dickinson. It is the 1930s, and the Maitland family have spent the years following the Great War struggling to come to terms with its catastrophic aftermath, and their hopes now lie with the next generation. Their Lincolnshire village of Doddington suffered terrible loss and it has taken great courage for the bereaved families to rebuild their lives without their loved ones. 

It is the early 1920s, and the Maitland family are still coming to terms with the aftermath of the Great War. After her brave work as an ambulance driver and nurse close to the Front, Pips is restless and without purpose. Determined to enjoy life after the years of misery, and to help her forget a broken love affair, she seeks excitement in the London parties and balls of the Roaring '20s. No family or community escaped the ravages of this war, and Pips knows her own has its share of troubles.

When Cassie sees a job advertised for a couple to run a remote Australian farm, she thinks it will be the perfect escape for her and Graham. But trapped under the baking sun of the outback, paranoia sets in. There's no radio and they send but never receive any letters. Their enigmatic and unusually forgiving boss Larry and his wife Mara have secrets, sedatives, and some very odd habits: a result of their isolated lifestyle or something more sinister?

Botanica is an island, but almost all of the island is taken up by the Tree. Lillah has come of age and is now ready to leave her community and walk the tree for five years, learning all Botanica has to teach her. Can Lillah keep the huge secret she has been entrusted with, or will she have to resort to breaking the oldest taboo on Botanica?

Innkeeper’s daughter Jane Heatherington is sold into indentured servitude to cover her father’s debts. She's sold to Aidan Warrick, a man whose handsome face and form mock the rumors that skulk in his shadow, rumors that paint him a smuggler, a pirate...and worse. Isolated and alone, Jane's only companion is the man she dare not trust, the man who looks at her with heated desire she both fears and craves. Jane must decide if Aidan Warrick is the dark prince of her dreams or a monster preying on the innocent....

Francine would prefer to be thinner but is happy enough to suffer her boss' manhandling of her ample hips if it helps her survive the next cull in quality assurance. She just wishes she could get the dead biker's crushed face out of her mind's eye. Robin is having a baby with the wrong woman, wishes he were with the perfect Polish waitress instead, leans hard on Deleuze for understanding, and wonders if his work in film will continue to be valued by the university management.

When Maeve O’Brien’s boss sends her to a dreary old island to finalise some paperwork, she couldn’t be happier. It’s the career boost she needs to become a fully fledged lawyer - besides, it hasn’t been so great on the home front in Dublin. Maeve’s oldest friend and flatmate has kicked her out, and moving back in with her uptight mother has been less than cosy. But her reception on Hy Brasil, a remote island off the west coast of Ireland, couldn’t be any more hostile - it’s as if the island itself wants her gone.

It's a sweltering summer's day, and Anja Aropalo is on her way home with two errands in mind: first, to water the roses, and then to commit suicide. She is slowly losing her husband to Alzheimer's disease, and she has made him a terrible promise - one she's not sure she can keep. For Anja's niece, Mari, death is a teenage fantasy of grieving family and eternal beauty, an escape from the dullness of her life.

Kate McDaid is listing her new-year’s resolutions hoping to kick-start her rather stagnant love life and career when she gets some very strange news. To her surprise, she is the sole benefactor of a great great-great-great aunt and self-proclaimed witch also called Kate McDaid, who died over 130 years ago. As if that isn’t strange enough, the will instructs that, in order to receive the inheritance, Kate must publish seven letters, one by one, week by week.

Bea has started to hear and see things that no-one else can - creatures, voices, visions. Then strangers visit Bea and tell her she is different: she has the rare powers of a witch. They warn her she is being hunted. Her parents think she is hallucinating and needs help. All Bea wants to do is get on with her life and to get closer to Lars, the mysterious young man she has met at the skate park. But her life is in danger, and she must break free. The question is - whom can she trust?

A tragic family event reveals devastating news that rips apart Bella's comfortable existence. Embarking on a personal journey to uncover the truth, she faces a series of traumatic discoveries that take her to the ruggedly beautiful Cornish coast, where hidden truths, past betrayals and a 25-year-old mystery threaten not just her identity but her life.

Only very special people are chosen by children's author Laura White to join 'The Society', an elite group of writers in the small town of Rabbit Back. Now a 10th member has been selected: Ella, literature teacher and possessor of beautifully curving lips. But soon Ella discovers that the Society is not what it seems. What is its mysterious ritual, 'The Game'? What explains the strange disappearance that occurs at Laura's winter party, in a whirlwind of snow? Why are the words inside books starting to rearrange themselves?

A little girl is missing. Her parents are hiding something. Who will pay the price? When eight-year-old Jasmine Peterson goes missing, the police want to know everything. What is local park ranger Sam McIntyre running away from, and why did he go out of his way to befriend a young girl? Why can't Jasmine's mother and father stand to be in the same room as each other? With every passing minute, an unstoppable chain of events hurtles towards a tragic conclusion. Everyone has secrets.

Trapped in a London flat, Beth remembers a transgressive love affair in 1960s Paris. The most famous writer in Russia takes his last breath in a stationmaster’s cottage, miles from Moscow. A father, finally free of his daughter’s demands, embarks on a long swim from his Canadian lakeside retreat. And in the grandest house of all, Danni the Polish housekeeper catches the eye of an enigmatic visitor.Rose Tremain awakens the senses in this diverse collection of short stories.

Battered by the sea, Adam remembers nothing of his past, his ducal rank, nor of the shipwreck that almost claimed his life. However, he's delighted to hear that the golden-haired vision tending his wounds is his wife. Mariah's name and face may not be familiar, but her touch, her warmth, feel deliciously right....

Thwarted in her desire to become a doctor like her brother, Robert, Pips Maitland rebels against her mother's wishes that she settle down and raise children. However, when Robert brings home a friend from medical school, Giles Kendall, it seems perhaps Pips might fall in love with an acceptable suitor after all. But the year is 1914, and the future is uncertain. Hearing that her father's friend, Dr John Hazelwood, is forming a flying ambulance corps to take to the front lines, Pips is determined to become one of its nurses and asks Alice Dawson, her maid, to go with her.

Sonja's over 40, and she's trying to move in the right direction. She's learning to drive. She's joined a meditation group. And she's attempting to reconnect with her sister. But Sonja would rather eat cake than meditate. Her driving instructor won't let her change gear. And her sister won't return her calls.

A fabled house. A fabulous fortune. Beautiful, identical twins...a tale of dark shadows and extraordinary deception. Dark shadows fall across the golden summer of 1886. Naive country girl Ida Garfield longs to escape the farm. When Miss Matilda Gregory, the elegant mistress of Summersby House, offers Ida employment as a housemaid, Ida leaps at the chance. Yet it's not for her servant's skills that she's wanted. It's her inquisitiveness.... Before Ida starts her first day, however, Miss Gregory is found dead.