Showing results by narrator "Imogen Church" in All Categories

Prince Siegfried comes of age and celebrates his 21st birthday in the palace gardens. The next day he is to finally choose his future bride at the court ball. Near the castle, on the shores of Swan Lake, the beautiful swan girl Odette emerges from the water in the moonlight. She is actually a princess transformed by the magician Rothbart. Siegfried is overwhelmed by her beauty and immediately swears his eternal love and loyalty. The curse of the evil wizard Rothbart is now supposed to be broken, but he has his own plans for Odette.

I look at our neighbours gathered in the garden for our annual summer barbeque, sipping chilled wine and smiling at my two daughters sprawled on the grass. I go inside to help refill glasses and then I hear it. A shrill scream that stops me in my tracks. I race outdoors to silence, a sea of bewildered faces. My first thought is for my girls, but they are there unhurt. With relief, we push the chilling sound to the back of our minds, returning to our drinks and conversations like it never happened.

From Sarah Hilary, winner of Theakston’s Crime Novel of the Year and author of Fragile, this is a slow-burn psychological mystery set against the abandonment of an exclusive housing development – and devastation of the families that lived there . . . 'An astonishingly gifted writer' –...

When Liam unexpectedly turns up in Jude's life after ten years of no contact, asking her for a favour, she just can't say no. He was her first love, and even though she is now a successful doctor and about to get married, he will always be someone special to her.

In the aftermath of a family tragedy, an aspiring author is torn between love for her childhood friend and the temptation of a mysterious outsider. Trying to escape the ghosts of her past, she is swept away to a house that breathes, bleeds...and remembers.

Anna and Ingrid have survived World War II. Now they must live through the Berlin airlifts. Evocative and unforgettable, CHILD OF THE RUINS is set during the Berlin air lifts of 1948 and written by one of the most brilliant writers of historical fiction in the UK. People are disappearing. I...

Liv Reese wakes up in the back of a taxi with no idea where she is or how she got there. When she’s dropped off at the door of her brownstone, a stranger answers—a stranger who now lives in her apartment and forces her out in the cold. She reaches for her phone to call for help, only to discover it’s missing, and in its place is a bloodstained knife. That’s when she sees that her hands are covered in black pen, scribbled messages like graffiti on her skin: STAY AWAKE.

When your life falls apart all you need is a friend. Abbie Finch loves her job. Unfortunately, her boss doesn’t love her. When she finds herself unexpectedly unemployed, Abbie realises that she’s let all her friendships fall by the wayside and has no one to turn to. Lost and lonely, Abbie decides to leave her comfort zone and join the neighbourhood café’s community table. There she meets aloof, elegant Ethel, down-on-his-luck Bob, colourful, chaotic Dawn and recently relocated Viraj. Friends? Not yet.

Lizzie Riley is sure that the local academy school, with its excellent reputation, is perfect for her eight-year-old son Tom. But there's something strange happening at school. Parents are forbidden from entering the grounds and there are bars across the classroom windows. Why is Tom coming home exhausted, unable to remember his day? What are the strange marks on his arm? And why do the children seem afraid to talk?

At eight years old, Lucia is torn from the life she knew. Her village burned to the ground and parents murdered by Romans, she is kidnapped, sold and shipped abroad to the Villa Tempestatis in Britannia to serve the young Roman army officer Castus. Faced with a bleak future of decades of servitude to her master, as well as sadistic brutality at the hands of his slave and manageress, Paltucca, she finds herself fixated by one thought alone. Fuelled by hatred and a belief that the gods saved her for a reason, she vows to never taste freedom until she gets her revenge.

Singer Olivia Grant has recently separated from the father of her two small boys and knows that the best place for her children is with their mother. She has beautiful home in America and wants to give her sons the childhood she never had. Even though their father Roy is unhappy about them being so far away, Olivia is sure that she’s doing the right thing for her children and takes them for a visit. As the boys play in the pool and soak up the sun, she knows she’s made a good choice. After so much hardship, this is the life they all deserve.

Four hundred years ago, a cataclysmic war cracked the world open and exterminated the Elder races. Amid the ashes, their human inheritor, the Dawn Republic, stands guard over lands littered with eldritch relics and cursed by plaguespawn outbreaks. But a new conflict is looming, and brother and sister Maya and Gyre have found themselves on opposite sides.

Finding themselves suddenly impoverished and alone in the world, the three Hartington sisters must rely on their wits, charm, and unique talents to support themselves. Forced to go their separate ways, each of these enchanting sisters is brought to a dead end by the perplexing ways of men and the inequity of fate. Then each receives a letter that changes everything... and if the sisters are going to overcome the obstacles to love, they're going to require some astonishingly creative solutions.

Cuba, 1958. Elisa is only 16 years old when she meets Duardo, and she knows he's the love of her life from the moment they first dance the rumba together in downtown Havana. But Duardo is a rebel determined to fight in Castro's army, and Elisa is forced to leave behind her homeland and rebuild her life in distant England. But how can she stop longing for the warmth of Havana when the music of the rumba still calls to her?

Her path to the throne is paved with treason.... 1330. Philippa of Hainault may be married to King Edward III, but she’s penniless and powerless. England quivers in the clutches of the Dowager Queen Isabella and her darkly ambitious lover Lord Mortimer while her husband rots in jail, a prisoner at Mortimer’s hand. It will take a courageous young man to emerge from the shadows and rise up against this formidable pair. Philippa won’t sit back and see Edward puppeteered. She is determined to see justice done.

In this heartwarming story of hope and second chances, Emma and Mel are about to discover that sometimes life is about the journey, not the destination . . . Classic forgetful Emma – she’s done it again, this time accidentally ruining a Valentine’s Day surprise for her best friend Mel. Desperate to make up for it, she promised Mel a birthday trip to Edinburgh – a girls’ weekend to end all girls’ weekends. There’s just one massive hitch . . . Emma has already promised her grandma that she’ll go on a coach trip with her to scatter her grandad’s ashes . . . In Edinburgh.

“A deliciously chilling gothic mystery with a smart and resourceful heroine . . . What more could fans of Jane Eyre and Rebecca want?” — Carol Goodman, two-time Mary Higgins Clark Award winner Two brides band together to unravel the secrets at the heart of a crumbling island manor in this...

Gripping, tense, twisty and full of emotional insight, Come and Find Me is the fifth book in Sarah Hilary's Marnie Rome series. On the surface, Lara Chorley and Ruth Hull have nothing in common, other than their infatuation with Michael Vokey. Each is writing to a sadistic inmate, sharing her secrets, whispering her worst fears, craving his attention. As the hunt for Vokey gathers pace, DI Marnie Rome fears one of the women may have found him - and is about to pay the ultimate price.

Grandpa is dying. He can barely move his hands any more but, stubborn as ever, refuses to stay in hospital. He's determined to finish his last painting, 'River Boy', before he goes. At first Jess can't understand his refusal to let go, but then she too becomes involved in the mysterious painting. And when she meets the river boy himself, she finds she is suddenly caught up in a challenge of her own that she must complete - before it's too late...

Sasha Greenhope has a very lovely life. Her marriage is solid, her only daughter is delightful and the family business is going full steam ahead. The only blip on the horizon is the upcoming family reunion for her parents 40th-wedding anniversary at Chadwell House—the family pile. Sasha just does not fit with her rich family. Her French mother, Delphine thinks everything Sasha does is a faux pas... And siblings, Adele and Beau, are clearly the favourites, leaving Sasha surplus to requirements.