Showing results by narrator "Wren" in All Categories

Carina was alone in the world and unsure of what the future held for her. Then a troupe of musicians, called "Bertie's Beauties", had an accident outside her gates and she found herself swept up in their fate as she took over from their injured pianist. Now one of the troupe, she went to perform at the Duke of Westbury's castle, never suspecting that the Duke would turn out to be the young man she had met for a few dramatic moments many years before. To hide her identity she allowed him to see her only when she was masked.

Wry, moving, beautifully observed and politically astute, this latest audiobook from one of New Zealand's finest chroniclers pinpoints universal truths through very NZ lives. Life isn't always like it appears in the movies. In 1952 Irene Sandle takes her young daughter to Motueka. Irene was widowed during the war and is seeking a new start and employment in the tobacco fields. There, she finds the reality of her life far removed from the glamour of the screen.

Josie and Jack Raeburn run riot in their father's isolated house. But as his behavior becomes more unpredictable, they are forced to leave and face a world for which they are unprepared. Jack's love for Josie has always been her safety net. However, as his world grows wilder and more dangerous, she finds herself struggling: should she escape his control, or help him? It is only when they are united again in the company of Jack's rich girlfriend Lily that she understands what she must do.

Boomtown Los Angeles, 1929: Into a world of movie lots and speakeasies comes Xas, stunt flier and wingless angel, still nursing his broken heart and determined only to go on living in the air. But there are forces that will keep him on the ground. Forces like Conrad Cole, movie director and aircraft designer, a glory-seeking king of the grand splash who is also a man sinking into his own sovereign darkness. And Flora McLeod, film editor and maimed former actress, who sees something in Xas that no one has ever seen before, not even God, who made him, or Lucifer, the general he once followed.

Since childhood, Chantel has idolized her older sister, Jett, a superstar performer. But she's seldom seen her Hollywood-based sibling. More on the shy side, Chantel is perfectly happy with her own modest singing career and quiet Missouri hometown life. But when their mother dies and Chantel's world is upended, she hopes that moving to Los Angeles will give her a fresh start - and a chance to know Jett better. But the truth is, she doesn't know Jett at all.

Australian soccer mum Sarah Calhoun keeps the terrifying secrets of her time as an overseas aid worker from everyone she loves. Until two men from Northern Ireland hunt her down - one an obsessive policeman with demons of his own, the other a brutal IRA executioner, too closely connected to her past. She is forced to return to Belfast to testify at a murder trial. But she faces an impossible choice - lie on the stand and allow a vindictive killer to run free, or tell the truth and place her children in the line of fire.

The indomitable Miss Cocks and Ethel Bromley return for Book Two in the bestselling and charmingly cosy Petticoat Police Mystery Series, inspired by one of Australia's first policewomen. Adelaide, September 1917. Six months after solving the Dora Black case, Kate Cocks and Ethel Bromley are back...

The fourth book in the best-selling Jackie French historical series that places girls centre stage. Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. History's sister, the mysterious Herstory, believes that the more you know about the past, the better you can...

This is the story of women who fought during WWI, but not as nurses or ambulance drivers. In 1917 sixteen-year-old Jean McLain is working as a post-office assistant in England. But when she wins a national Morse code competition, the British army makes a request Jean cannot refuse – to take a...

An alien consciousness arrives in a human body, and sets events in motion that disrupt the young lives of Venessa and Dan, cousins who never got along and were just beginning to navigate the adult world beyond their traumatized homes. As they investigate the source of their problems, they discover unexpected connections to their family, and to more epic cataclysms in the past and future of both humanity and the planet Earth. This story is narrated by an ensemble of actors portraying different characters and narrative voices.

No matter where she went, what she did, or how old she was, Trudy Taylor was never impressed by boys. From the time she was a little girl, boys tended to be more trouble than they were worth. As an only child, she was happy as could be to read or play by herself. Her parents moved her to the dorms during college just so they could get her out into the world more. A rare meeting at the mall changed her future when she met Gippy Baylor.

The third book in the best-selling Jackie French historical series that places girls centre stage. Ming Qong is convinced that girls have changed the world throughout history. She's faced danger and adventure when Herstory sent her to the past to witness girls' bravery in the incredible feats...

When Bella Carpenter's place of employment was closed down due to embezzlement, she moved to her grandparent's old farmhouse. Her friends scattered with the winds, and she was trying to get her life back on track. In the middle of the night, the old house became an inferno. As she was trying to escape, the house blew up and threw her several yards away.

Every 20 years, there are a handful of unexplained teenage deaths and it’s started again. With the help of his straight-talking friend Melody, they set out to get to the bottom of the alleged curse. Everybody in Black Rock has secrets and nobody wants to speak.

The Earl of Wentworth has a fiery and unpredictable temper and is about to fight a duel in Hyde Park with a Frenchman who has insulted him, when he is restrained by his friend, Sir Thomas Babbington, and a helpful Policeman. At the same time the beautiful Temia Brandon is returning home from her Finishing School in France and is longing to see her horse, Lightning, again. Temia discovers that her father has been hiding a dark secret for many years and is now being blackmailed by the odious Lord Alphonse who threatens to reveal the secret and ruin the family’s reputation.

Lord Waincliffe breaks his horse’s bridle out one day and calls at the nearest house for help so that he can ride home in safety. It belongs to Terence Stourton, a Professor of Literature, and he meets his daughter, Rosetta, who repairs the bridle for him. Not only does he think that Rosetta is the most beautiful girl he has ever seen, but he feels there is something unusual about her. Only when he returns home, does he realise that she bears an extraordinary resemblance to his sister, Dolina.

Queen Victoria sends for the Duke of Sherbourne and asks him to undertake a very secret mission on her behalf. It is so secret that only his loyal valet is told. The Duke agrees and it takes him to Greece. He visits King George who is the same age as he is and whom he has known in the past. He has been a great success as King, although he was only eighteen when he took over the throne and he is married to Princess Olga of Russia and they are extremely happy. The Duke envies them and, although he has been pursued by a great number of beautiful women in London, he has never yet fallen in love.

On a hot summer’s day in 1880 the beautiful Lady Rosella is cutting a basket of blooms in her beloved Rose Garden at her aunt’s house in Hampshire. It is her seventeenth birthday and no one remembers it except for Thomas, the gardener’s boy. Later she is driven to Winchester and has an unpleasant encounter with two raucous gentlemen in the local tavern before going on to fit her first ball gown that her aunt has given her the money for just before she died. But who is the lovely masked woman she glimpses in the mirror at the dressmakers, a glorious vision clad in rose-pink silk?

Beautiful Lady Lucilla Welton is all alone in the world, having lost both her parents in a tragic accident. She has nowhere to go and so she stays with her cruel and distant Aunt Maud, who wants to marry her off as soon as possible. An ardent suitor is at hand – the rich Texan, Harkness Jackson – but his proposal is not one Lucilla could ever contemplate. She has already met the only man who will ever find the key to her heart – but the handsome Marquis of Castlebury is enthralled by another and for him, Lucilla seems to be no more than a casual friend.

Dalma Wickham, having been in Athens to learn Greek, arrives at a British Steamer to return to London to find that they will not allow her dog, Twi-Twi, on board. Because she is turned away from the British ship, she walks round the quay and sees a most magnificent yacht. While she is admiring it, a bomb goes off at the end of the quay and the seamen leave the yacht to see what has happened. On an impulse, because she realises it is her last chance of getting Twi-Twi to England, she slips aboard the yacht and hides in one of the empty cabins.