Showing results by narrator "Catrin Walker Booth" in All Categories

It’s Christmas Day at Wilder House, and three magical winter weddings are set to begin. But as the tables are arranged, and the food is prepared, a perfect storm hits, cutting every guest from the rest of the world. Most little girls dream of the perfect wedding. But this bride stumbles alone into the snow, her silk train dragging through dirt, her hands bloody from the murder she just committed. Now there is at least one killer roaming the unforgiving landscape surrounding Wilder House. Who else will die on Christmas Day?

All Essie ever wanted was to have a normal life but in the end she found herself drawn back to Beldam House because she just can’t stop her witchiness (although the ability to instantly chill wine is pretty awesome, even she has to admit). Into this coven of chaos stumbles gorgeous, clueless Josh, their new landlord—and he’s just discovered his tenants haven’t paid rent since the 1700s! As Josh is drawn further into the lives of the inhabitants of Beldam House, Essie is determined to keep him at broomstick’s length.

Love comes when you least expect it... Tressa Buckland likes her quiet life in Port Lowdy, with its cobbled streets and colourful terraced houses overlooking the sea. Her job at the local paper allows her to pursue her art in her free time, with no one but her tabby cat Ginger Pickles to mind her in Mermaid Terrace. But then the owner of the paper is called away on an emergency, and it's up to Tressa to run the paper for six months. Her first task: find a new part-time journalist.

Many years ago, Odysseus sailed to war and never returned. For twenty years his wife Penelope and the women of Ithaca have guarded the isle against suitors and rival kings. But peace cannot be kept forever, and the balance of power is about to break . . . A beggar has arrived at the Palace. Salt-crusted and ocean-battered, he is scorned by the suitors - but Penelope recognises in him something terrible: her husband, Odysseus, returned at last. Yet this Odysseus is no hero.

Christy Ward is the lead producer of Hindsight, a true crime podcast, and she has stumbled across an unresolved triple murder case that will make the perfect next feature. Sixteen years ago, the police were convinced that they had found their killer. But the case was unexpectedly shut down, it never went to trial and their main suspect walked free. Will Christy and her team be able to solve the case, or will they be silenced too....

Atia is an immortal who feeds on fear and nightmare. As the last of her kind, she hides in the shadows of the world to escape the wrath of the vengeful Gods. Silas is a Herald, carrying messages and ferrying the dead, as punishment for a past he can't remember. Atia would never dream of allying with someone like him, but when she breaks a sacred law and the gods send monsters to hunt her, Silas offers an irresistible deal: he'll help her take on the Gods and get vengeance for her family. But in return, she must help him break the curse that binds him and restore his humanity.

This is the story of Penelope of Ithaca, famed wife of Odysseus, as it has never been told before. Beyond Ithaca's shores, the whims of gods dictate the wars of men. But on the isle, it is the choices of the abandoned women—and their goddesses—that will change the course of the world.

How do we give a voice to those who so often remain unheard? Will You Read This, Please is a frank and impactful collection of twelve stories as told to our best British writers, based on the lived experience of people who have faced mental illness in the UK. Edited by Joanna Cannon, the Sunday Times bestselling author of The Trouble with Goats and Sheep, Three Things About Elsie and A Tidy Ending, the stories told here are powerful, resonant and heart-breaking. This is a ground-breaking and unforgettable collection, shining a light on the stigma and isolation of living with mental illness.

Innocent Phoebe has only known a life of privilege. Street-smart Paula has had to make her own way in the world. When the two girls meet as teenagers, they form a deep sisterly bond, recognising in one other a yearning for love and for lives that are different from the ones into which they were born. But when they each suffer a personal trauma, they are torn apart and set out on very different paths.

On the island of Ithaca, queen Penelope maintains a delicate balance of power. Many years ago, her husband Odysseus sailed to war with Troy and never returned. In his absence, Penelope uses all her cunning to keep the peace - but this is shattered with the arrival of Orestes, King of Mycenae. Orestes, son of Agamemnon, is mad. Wracked with guilt for putting his own mother to death, he grows ever more unhinged. But a king cannot be seen to be weak. To keep him safe from the ambitious men of Mycenae, his sister Elektra brings him to Ithaca to recover under the protection of Penelope.

Sid Jones loves hanging out in the graveyard with her best friend Zen—they are desperate to see a real-life ghost! But when Sid accidentally summons a 300-year-old pirate from the dead, it opens the door to the HALFWAY HOUSE—a magical inn FULL of lost souls from across the ages, all trapped there by a sinister landlord. There are more ghosts that Sid could ever have imagined—and they’re all sure Sid is there to save them! (Sid’s sure there’s been some kind of mistake.)

Sid Jones has always known she is different, but after accidentally freeing a 300-year-old pirate ghost (using a gel pen and a chocolate bar), Sid realises that she has actual MAGIC! Sid starts to use her magic to free more ghosts, who have all been trapped by the sinister innkeeper. But then a mysterious sickness strikes the people of Fathom. Can Sid and best friend Zen solve the mystery, save the town and free the ghosts?

It all started with a silly prank, a play and a dance—a love so enduring, so indestructible that it would survive against all odds. Elizabeth Sorrill is the junior matron at Foxton's élite School for Boys. Blessed with the kind of beauty others only dream about, her attractions prove irresistible to Alexander Belmayne, the seventeen-year-old son of the Lord Chief Justice. But their passionate affair is shortlived as bitter lies and scandal force them apart.

Lady Tiffany Worthington has always had a special talent for making the world around her come to life – whether she wants it to or not – but it’s only with the arrival of her mysterious great aunt Esme on the eve of the Battle of Waterloo that she learns she’s a witch … and that the magic she’s long feared is actually a gift to be embraced.

Meet Ivy. She's not just a hot mess, she's a walking disaster. The only man in her life is the pizza delivery driver and she puts more effort into binge-watching Netflix than her dead-end job. But that was the old Ivy. Because last night she switched her phone off, peeled the salami from last night's drunken takeaway off the carpet and made a list. A list that changed everything.

Claudine Rafferty is rich, reckless and beautiful. So when she throws herself into an arranged marriage with the eminently eligible but notorious François de Lorvoire, everyone in Paris is amazed. Determined to cope with François' cruelty and indifference, Claudine soon finds herself driven to find love in the arms of Armand St Jacques, one of her husband's vignerons. But all is not what it seems in the de Lorvoire family. As Claudine learns more of Francois' sinister past, she also inherits some of his most dangerous enemies.

It's the summer of 1947, and peacetime has brought new challenges to Barsetshire. Beliers Priory, once a military hospital during the War, has now become a flourishing preparatory school for boys run by Leslie and Philip Winter. When Charles Belton is hired as the new school master, six young people are thrown together in a web of flirtations and misunderstandings: Charles and his elder brother, Naval Captain Freddy Belton; Susan Dean, now Red Cross Depot Librarian, and her glamorous sister Jessica, an actress in thrall to the theatre; pragmatic Lucy Marling and her brother Oliver.

When a barrow-wight shows up on Greta and Varney's doorstep one night with an 11-year-old girl who's been newly - and forcefully - bitten and turned, it's up to Greta and her vampiric friends to find out who did this to her, and why.

Edgewood Rectory may be set in an ancient landscape, but the Grantly family are very much of their time. Caught up in the uncertain world that has emerged since the outbreak of peace, the Rector and Mrs Grantly are bewildered by the challenges facing their eldest children: Eleanor, longing for more excitement than can be found in the Red Cross Library; and Tom, struggling to readjust to student life at Oxford after his military service.

Marisa Rosso is struggling. Since the death of her beloved grandfather back home in Italy, she can't seem to find a way out of her grief. She's a registrar and knows losing grandparents is a natural part of life, so why does she feel so lost? When she hears a hospital is recruiting in Mount Polbearne, a tiny and remote tidal island off the Cornish coast, Marisa thinks she has found the perfect retreat. Perhaps some solitude is just what she needs to combat her homesickness and rediscover her equilibrium. But Mount Polbearne is a far cry from the sleepy little place she was imagining.