Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Worthing" in All Categories

Olivia Bingham has bad luck with men. She’s been ghosted more times than she can count, but this Christmas she’s finally met someone really special online: Fraser Douglas, a Scottish chef working at an idyllic hotel in the Highlands. He’s sweet and sensitive, thoughtful and funny – not to mention incredibly good looking. But just when she thinks things couldn’t be going any better, Fraser’s dating profile vanishes, and Olivia fears the worst.

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective. Jenny Starling is working at The Spindlewood Inn for the weekend. It’s hosting a Regency Extravaganza, involving historical costume, amateur dramatics and food. Leading actress of the amateur dramatic society and reputed man-eater Rachel Norman portrays a doomed noblewoman. But when she turns up actually drowned in the pond, there’s suddenly a murder to investigate. There’s been plenty of trouble at the idyllic country inn.

My name is Lucy Townsend. I was born on Friday the 13th, and I was the 13th girl living in the big house. Unlucky for some. But I was the fortunate one. I escaped. The only one who made it out alive. And now, 20 years after that fateful night, the secrets of the past and what happened in that house are pulling me back. I might not be so lucky this time.

On Emilia Morris's thirteenth birthday, her mother Rachel moves into a tent at the bottom of their garden. From that day on, she never says another word. Inspired by her vow of silence, other women join her and together they build the Community. Eight years later, Rachel and thousands of her followers around the world burn themselves to death.

Meet Jenny Starling: travelling cook and reluctant amateur detective. Please note this book was first published as Just Not Cricket under Faith Martin’s pen name Joyce Cato. Jenny Starling is doing the catering for the village cricket match. But she’s not expecting one of the players to turn up dead. Everyone from the village has turned out to watch the match, and with this being the club’s centenary, Jenny Starling has been hired specially to provide her stunning food for the event.

Ella is in the business of making brides’ dreams come true with yards of white tulle, delicate lace and sparkly sequins. But Ella’s own love life couldn’t be further from a fairy tale. Recently dumped by her boyfriend and with her best friend’s wedding only months away, Ella feels more alone than ever so she finally accepts her friends’ offers to set her up on a blind date. But a mix up on the night throws her into the path of Kit, instead.

The night my mum disappeared, after a panicked 3am phonecall, I knew something was wrong. The police tried to reassure me. There had to be a logical explanation they said – perhaps she’s taking a break after the tragic death of my father. But I know my mum. Or do I? She would never leave without telling me. Or would she? The harder I look, the more I discover deep, dark family secrets I was not privy to. Worrying secrets I was never meant to know. Which means my parents have lied to me my whole life.

For travel blogger Fiona, Japan has always been top of her bucket list so when she wins an all-expenses paid trip, it looks like her dreams are coming true. Until she arrives in vibrant, bustling Tokyo and comes face-to-face with the man who broke her heart 10 years ago, gorgeous photographer Gabe. Fiona can’t help but remember the heartache of their last meeting but amidst the temples and clouds of soft pink cherry blossoms, can Fiona and Gabe start to see life - and each other - differently?

July knows 18 things about her mother. But not the truth. Summer, 1995. On her tenth birthday, July's teacher sets the class a project to find out about a relation they don't know. It's easy for July to choose her subject. She doesn't remember her mother, who died when she was small, and her father refuses to talk about her. Ever. The only memories she has of her are flashbacks from the accident that claimed her mother's life. But then she receives the note: 'She didn't die in a car accident.'

At the end of the Second World War, Dottie Tanner locked away the past, blocking out the heartache she experienced as a special operative working alongside the Resistance. Sixty years later, Dottie remains independent and proud of everything she has achieved, but time is running out. Watching the V.E. Day Celebrations on television reignites a flame. After a lifetime of resisting the lure of France, she decides to face her demons.

October 1943. Nancy Dalton, working at the RAF base at Scampton in Lincolnshire, has been holding vigil for the Lancaster bomber pilots whose missions seem endless. But her watchfulness has not prevented her own pilot brother from failing to return. In the midst of mourning him, fresh recruits arrive to continue the war effort, among them charismatic Canadian Steve Allard. The months ahead will be long and hard, with danger a constant companion, and although both Steve and Nancy never intend to complicate wartime life with romance, their attraction becomes impossible to ignore.

Christmas 1926: the Forbes family are hosting a celebration at Eden Hall. Eighteen-year-old Daisy is preoccupied by a sense of change. Overnight, her relationship with Stephen Jessop, the housekeeper’s son, has shifted, and every encounter seems fraught with tension. Before the festivities are over, Daisy has received a declaration of love, a proposal and a kiss - from three different men. Unable to bear the confusion, she flees to London. By the following summer, Daisy has bowed to the persistence of the man who proposed to her.

My mother lied to me. My family is not my own. If it wasn’t for the genealogy test, I would never have known I was the child of another woman. Now I’m learning that I have four brothers I have never met. And one of them is a serial killer. My brother is taunting me to play his vicious game – solving his clues before he spills more blood. Who can I trust? How can I find and stop him before it is too late? And what if it is me he really wants?

Escaping failure as an undergraduate and a daughter, not to mention bleak 1970s England, Martha marries Kit - who is gay. Having a wife could keep him safe in Moscow in his diplomatic post. As Martha tries to understand her new life and makes the wrong friends, she walks straight into an underground world of counterespionage.

Kai, a carefree once-successful musician is invited by his new Russian girlfriend, Zina, to join her family's Caribbean holiday. Impulsively accepting he learns that Zina is the daughter of a Russian oligarch, Stepan Pirumov and that the trip is aboard his yacht, the Zinaida, moored in St Thomas in the US Virgin Islands. The crew consists of Captain Marius Falk, the first mate, Erin Wade, and a hastily assembled staff, including a chief stewardess Marissa from Miami, a chief engineer from Lagos and a personal trainer from Los Angeles. All know how to behave around the very rich.

On the twenty-fifth anniversary of Tania's death, five university friends reunite at a luxurious country hotel to commemorate the life of their dear friend. Always the outsider, Jeannie has thrown everything into making the weekend a success. With two kids and busy work schedules, Keren is looking forward to some time alone with husband, Adam. Facing a messy divorce and bankruptcy, a few nights away is just the escape Johnny needs. Saira has enough on her plate trying to co-parent with her ex-partner and would prefer to be as far away from the event as possible if she hadn't promised Keren.

Have you ever wanted to be someone else? Vanessa has always found it easy to pretend to be somebody different, somebody better. When things get tough in her real life, all she has to do is throw on some nicer clothes, adopt a new accent and she can escape. That's how it started: looking round houses she couldn't possibly afford. Harmless fun really. Until it wasn't. Because a man who lived in one of those houses is dead. And everyone thinks Vanessa killed him.

As a man holds his wife's fragile hand, he recounts a journey like no other... Daniel and Olivia are destined to be together. At least, Daniel thinks this the night he sees Olivia across a sea of people. As he backpacks through Australia, Daniel and Liv continue to cross paths, yet never speak. Until one night, Liv joins Daniel for a drink. And that night everything changes. Back in London, stuck in a monotonous routine, Daniel finds himself daydreaming of the woman with amber eyes and fiery hair.

Would you give up your husband to save your best friend's life? Bonded by their traumatic childhoods, Flora and Sophie are inseparable friends who married brothers. What they could not have anticipated was their mother-in-law, Cecelia. Disappointed that her children have married beneath them, Cecelia takes every opportunity to belittle and taunt her daughters-in-law. When Cecelia learns that Flora and her son are moving away, her wrath escalates, and Flora’s world begins to fall apart.

Singleton Dot Riley’s grandmother, Nanny Flo, is on her deathbed, surrounded by family and distraught at the thought of Dot being all alone in the world. Desperate to make Flo’s final moments happy ones, Dot invents a boyfriend - plumping in panic for her childhood friend, Felix, a firm favourite of Flo, but whom Dot hasn’t actually seen for 15 years. But when Flo makes an unexpected recovery a few weeks before a family wedding, Dot is faced with a dilemma. Should she tell her frail grandmother that she lied and risk causing heartache and a relapse?