Showing results by narrator "Willow Nash" in All Categories

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audiobook edition of One Magical Christmas. When Annie Berry collides with Nik Knoll in a car park on the day of her sister’s wedding, it feels like all of Nik’s Christmases have come at once. Annie seems like just the sort of woman he’d like to get to know, and the chance nature of their encounter is almost like, well...Christmas magic. But Nik has a secret, and he has to be sure that he can trust Annie before he tells her. The problem is that this secret has a Christmas deadline, and time is running out....

Bath, 1911. Passionate suffrage campaigner Esther Stanbury works as a window dresser in Pennington's Department Store. She has hopes for women's progression and will do anything to help secure the vote. Owner of the prestigious Phoenix Hotel, Lawrence Culford has what most would view as a successful life. But Lawrence is harbouring shame and resentment. When Esther and Lawrence meet, their mutual understanding of life's challenges unites them. Can they overcome their pasts?

Christmas should be the happiest time, but at Pennington’s dramas are seething beneath the surface. For Cornelia Culford, a divorce hearing looms where she could lose custody of her sons to her unfaithful husband. For Stephen Gower, being head of security at Pennington's is the perfect refuge from a tragic past at Scotland Yard. But soon Joseph Carter and Elizabeth Pennington beg him to help solve the murder of Joseph's first wife, now that the killer has struck again.

Nessa Vivian is determined to keep her parents' business afloat, but Pear Tree Farm near the backwater Cornish village of Polgarth didn't do well as farm, and it's not faring much better as a camp site. Maybe it’s due to Nessa's habit of taking in troubled runaways, like ex-soldier Crispin, for next to nothing. Or perhaps her highly strung sister, Lowena, is right - caravans named after Beatles' songs and homegrown pears are not enough to turn the farm into a tourist haven.

1918 Italy. When a deadly blizzard traps Fiona Figg and Kitty Lane in the Dolomite Mountains, it’s all downhill from here. Their hotel is snowed-in, and no one can get in or out. Then a man is found dead in his locked hotel room – and the killer is still on the premises. But with no murder weapon and too many suspects, their investigation is treading on thin ice.

Minimalism is not just a series of actions but also a total mind-set shift. It recognises that modern-day abundance has not increased our level of happiness - in fact we are less happy than generations before despite having more - and it argues that embracing less will allow us to live more fully. This handbook gives us the tools to achieve this complete life-changing mental shift, teaching us how to search for items and thoughts that add value to our lives and how to get rid of nonessential physical and mental clutter.

Constance Wilde's marriage has ended. Oscar is in prison and she has fled to Italy with their children to escape London gossip and public disapproval. Here she reflects on her marriage to Oscar, the confusing difference between his private and public self and whether she always knew that their marriage was founded on a different kind of love. Despite her family's warnings, her frustration with her impossible husband's spending and drinking, his affairs and his prison sentence, Constance remains loyal and loving.

Bath, 1912. When Miss Pennington sends Amelia Wakefield to study the department stores of New York, she couldn't be more excited. Meeting Amelia on board the Titanic, Samuel can't help wondering what painful history has made the beauty so reserved. But he already has too many responsibilities for love. Ruby Taylor’s priority has been making sure her little brother is safe. But when that means accepting Victoria Lark's offer of sanctuary, Ruby's secrets are under threat of being revealed....

In stark contrast to her own childhood during the last days of the Raj in India, the spectacular beauty surrounding their home, Rathgarven in Ireland, has proven to be a happy place for Kathleen O'Sullivan and her husband, James, to raise their four children. But Kathleen is no stranger to heartbreak, and when the family is faced with losing everything, she knows they will need to adapt to survive. Even if that means leaving their beloved home and moving to Australia to start afresh.

Snow is falling and there’s romance in the air. Curl up for a cosy Christmas by the fire at Seaview Cottage... When thirty-year-old Lily Ambrose’s latest relationship ends in disaster, she remembers happy childhood holidays in the seaside town of Shipley and decides it’s the perfect place for a fresh start. But when Lily arrives, the town’s spirits are as low as her own: the local celebrity due to turn on the Christmas lights has gone on a cruise instead. Keen to prove herself, she calls in a favour and secures gorgeous reality star Ollie.

Ingrid is desperate to sell up and move on. Recently widowed, she no longer needs the large house or the treasures (and tat) collected by her late husband, Tommy, an auctioneer. Then there’s the debt he left her with, too. So, she jumps at the chance to downsize and move to Willowbrook on a temporary lease. She’ll open a pop-up shop for just one year – to dispose of Tommy’s accumulated goods – and then move on. No getting embroiled in village life. But Ingrid hasn’t reckoned on Willowbrook’s extrovert local ladies. Or handsome local craftsman Joel, with whom there’s a definite attraction.

London's luxurious Hotel du Barry has been left unscathed by WWI, and the party has just begun: tainted love, murderous desires and gin - it's The Grand Budapest Hotel with a dash of Gatsby. When a laughing baby is found amongst the Hotel du Barry's billowing sheets, tucked up in an expensive pair of ladies' bloomers and neatly pegged to the laundry line, the hotel staff resolve to keep the child.

Madeleine Frank's life is turned upside down when a natural disaster claims the life of her beloved husband. Fleeing from the Florida Keys to Bath to start afresh, Madeleine begins rebuilding her life and sets up a psychotherapy practice. But she's unaware that another force of nature is about to sweep in.

The Whitstable Pearl restaurant has been busy all summer while Pearl’s detective agency has brought few interesting cases - until a prospective client calls. Christina Scott confides that seven years ago she had the perfect life with a seaside home, a confirmed pregnancy and Steven, a loving husband - until one morning, she woke to find herself alone. Christina’s husband had vanished, taking nothing with him but his car - which was later found abandoned at the beautifully mysterious Oare Marshes.

Pearl receives a surprise present from her mother, Dolly - an early summer break at a riverside manor house that has been recently transformed into an exclusive hotel - the newly named Villa Pellegrini. Pellegrini - the Italian word for pilgrims - reflects the fact that the building lies on the old Pilgrims Way into Canterbury, and Pearl is looking forward to the break. But when she discovers that she’s actually booked in for a cookery course from the Italian celebrity chef, Nico Caruso, she begins to think again.

Georgia Driffield is passionate, willful, resourceful, intelligent but often foolhardy, as she grows from girl to woman in the years between the two wars. It is not until she discovers the extraordinary life of her great-great-grandmother, Chantal, that she finds a way which will reconcile her to her adoption, reunite her with her adoptive parents and, unexpectedly, help her discover the true meaning of love.

Cynny Barlow is just eighteen when she falls helplessly in love with the dashing Ralph Clinton, an ambitious and talented actor visiting her home town for the summer. However, when Ralph is talent-spotted by a film producer, he puts everything behind him and leaves for the big time, with no idea that Cynny is already pregnant. Whilst her daughter Suzie is a toddler, Cynny can see no way out of her life of drudgery, working at the grocer's during the day, and as a barmaid in the evenings to make ends meet.

Madison Miller has everything – beautiful, talented and just a little bit naïve; she’s the small-town girl who swept to victory on America’s hottest talent show to become the nation’s sweetheart. She’s also head-over-heels in love with the man who’d masterminded her career – the head-spinningly powerful, lethally attractive Brett Silverman. But there’s trouble in paradise…Jess has bolted from her approaching wedding and a dead-end job in London to chase dreams of being a fashion designer in New York.

Rose Gregory has suffered a devastating blow, a double bereavement from which months later she is still reeling. Sanctuary and rest are prescribed by her doctor. But when she arrives at her refuge, a dank and decaying monastery, she finds it is not the haven promised. Despite the veneer of calm contemplation, the monastery turns out to be a hotbed of intrigue and disharmony. Rose witnesses bullying and cruelty and ultimately in defence of the vulnerable turns to violence herself.