Showing results by narrator "Claire Storey" in All Categories

Brought to you by Penguin. Blackpool, summer 1942. Meet the Ballroom Girls: Sylvia, Pearl and Joy. Three girls dancing through the turbulence of WWII. Sylvia is the spoiled only child of an ambitious mother, Lorna Ellis, who runs a dancing school in Blackpool. Approaching 21, Sylvia is under...

Real life doesn’t play out like a movie. Electric connections mostly mean you’ve got static in your jumper. Camila Moore knows that; she’s not daft. She has two teenage boys and bills to pay, plus the only man she’s ever been with has traded her in for a gym bunny. Returning to work’s the answer, but when she finds herself in the wrong room and wrong place at the wrong time, the last thing she expects is to be promoted out of obscurity into the arms of Harriet Imogen Pearson, media darling, hotshot entrepreneur, and notorious lesbian playgirl.

Alex would like to believe she’s a woman who has it all. Or that’s what she tells everyone, including herself. But this is far from true. Actually she’s on the cusp of losing her home, her dream career as a writer is in tatters, her ex won’t speak to her, and her mother’s gone forever. But then a chance meeting with a stranger named Hope gives her the opportunity of a lifetime, when Hope jokes that perhaps Alex should take over her job in a cafe while she goes travelling.

Everyone in the village loves Joni Blackwood. She is beautiful and bold, and it's no surprise to anyone when on the annual village bonfire, she is crowned 'queen' of the festivities. After all, despite fierce competition from the charity-giving and churchgoing mothers in the village, she has won this honour five years in a row.

Sound interesting? The author thinks so too! Listen to Anna Karenina, a literary masterpiece by Russian novelist Leo Tolstoy.

As the plane surges up into the clouds, Stevie finds herself clutching the hand of the stranger sitting in the seat next to her. It is a moment that will change everything. But Ned is heading to see his dying mother, and Stevie is returning to France to escape a terrible loss in her past. Neither of them can think about that tiny flame that just flickered between them. But then their paths keep crossing, leading them both to the same beautiful community garden in a small French village; run by a mysterious old man named Zach – a man with many of his own secrets.

Brought to you by Penguin. 1929. Holcombe Hall, Lancashire Holcombe Hall’s enigmatic owner has passed away, and now as the roaring twenties come to an end the upstairs and downstairs residents of Holcombe Hall begin a new era. Parlour maid Florrie Bickerstaff has always endured the quick...

When Cassie Hunt learns that her beloved Aunt Aggie is dying, she rushes back home to be with her during her final days. For as long as Cassie can remember Aggie has spoken about the forgotten world that exists just below their feet, in the tunnels and catacombs of the mysterious Sand House. But on her deathbed, Aggie reveals a terrible secret that she’s buried as deep as the tunnels beneath the old house, and when excavation work begins on the site, Cassie is the only one who can help keep the truth hidden.

This tale transports listeners to a consequential precipice in Catherine’s life. One where she discovers her voice and begins to understand the needs of her own heart—and how fragile that heart may be—transforming her into the antagonist listeners know and loathe in Jane Austen’s cherished Pride and Prejudice.

When DI Tessa Marsden is called to a road traffic accident, she is disturbed by the crime scene she must investigate. She now has a double murder to contend with; two dead girls from the same village. Realizing the murders aren’t linked, Marsden summons the help of the Connection Investigation Agency. When it is discovered that one of the murdered girls was pregnant, the case takes an unexpected turn. Can DI Marsden, with the input of Kat and Mouse, solve the case before another body appears?

New York City, 1919. Lillie Mead mourns the love she lost in the war. But when a wealthy British friend offers her a reporting job across the pond, she hopes accepting will help her rebuild her life. She barely has time to unpack before she’s assigned the scoop of a poisoned socialite’s death. As the clues take a turn for the scandalous, Lillie unearths shocking skeletons in the victim’s closet. But she never expected the threads of the beloved woman’s life to weave with hers. Can Lillie expose the truth before her own death makes the front page?

As soon as you first see the house, a former hotel in a picturesque enclave of the Cypriot hills, you know this abandoned resort is the perfect home for you – with breath-taking views, a refreshing pool, and peace and quiet, away from the rest of the world. A place to recover and grow. But paradise isn’t cheap, and as the debts mount, you could lose everything you've worked so hard for. Until someone makes you an offer: to keep your home, all you have to do is take a life.

Early one morning, in the grounds of Chatsworth, a body is discovered by one of the estate groundsmen. DI Marsden and DS Granger battle through snow-covered roads to begin their investigation. Meanwhile, at the Connection Investigation Agency, Doris, Kat and Mouse are busy juggling their caseloads, while trying to show their new trainee receptionist the ropes.

Deacon Katerina Rowe had a quiet life before she discovered her husband’s criminal activities. Now Leon is on the run, and Kat has started a private investigation business with her good friend Beth, who goes by Mouse. It’s plenty for any Deacon to handle—let alone one who’s heavily pregnant. When a widow asks Kat and Mouse for help, the sleuthing duo find themselves searching for the birth mother of the widow’s husband. But when it becomes clear that the widow isn’t telling the whole truth, Kat and Mouse are drawn into a deadly chase where nothing is what it seems.

December, 1919. Clever crime reporter Lillie Mead hoped to celebrate a peaceful Christmas in the English countryside. But when a close friend's colleague turns up dead, Lillie knows there'll be little festive spirit until she unwraps this mystery. Following the clues to the wintery Scottish Highlands, she hopes to stop the killer cold before the next body hits the snow. But after she connects the victims to a clandestine wartime committee, she puts herself firmly in the murderer's sights.

1943. Lidia De Angelis has kept a low profile since Mussolini’s laws wrenched her from her childhood sweetheart. But when the Germans occupy Venice, she must flee the city to save her life. Lidia joins the partisans in the Venetian mountains, where she meets David, an English soldier fighting for the same cause. As she grows closer to him, harsh German reprisals and her own ardent patriotic activities threaten to tear them apart.

Lady Fleur Osborne knows several things to be true: her father would likely continue to turn away every suitor at the door, her sister could very well end up unmatched by fault of her clever mouth alone, and that Fleur herself is perfectly happy to say good riddance to the marriage mart, sealing her spinsterhood with her own stamp of approval.

Duckton-by-Dale has never been your average quintessential English village. And as preparations for the annual pantomime and winter solstice reach fever pitch, you just know that things are going to get even more bizarre! With new visitors bringing mystery, suspicion, flamboyance, and lust, past secrets and current desires will be revealed, bringing a dramatic conclusion to the Duckton-by-Dale series. Expect humor, paranormal happenings, fun and laughter, and of course a large dose of romance in this bestselling lesbian romantic comedy series. Merry Christmas one and all.

Blackpool, November 1942. Wartime worries fail to dampen the glitz and glamour of the ballroom in the run-up to Christmas. After all, life is for living. Newlywed Pearl's bliss is cut short when her beloved Bernie is called up into the Army. Will dancing at the Tower Ballroom take the edge off her heartache or will it throw temptation her way? Unexpected news of an inheritance presents Joy with a different dilemma. Should she move to Scotland in line with her parents' final wishes or stay in Blackpool to dance with Tommy, the man she loves?

Susan Quinn, a teacher at St Wilfred's All-Girls School, and Jenna James, a ski instructor in the French Alps, are about to find out. As an invisible bond draws the two women closer, will they appreciate each other for who they are now, not who they once were? One Foot onto the Ice, is a fast-paced romance set in the sunny ski resort of Morzine, where the young cast of students and teachers search for excitement on the slopes, with some finding it a lot more easily than others.