Showing results by narrator "Melissa Vaughan" in All Categories

All Marnie wants is somewhere to call home. Mourning lost years spent in a marriage that has finally come to an end, she needs a fresh start and time to heal. Things she hopes to find in the rural west Lancashire village her mother always told her about. With nothing but her two green thumbs, Marnie takes a job as a gardener, which comes with a little cottage to make her own. The garden is beautiful - filled with roses, lavender and honeysuckle - and only a little rough around the edges. Which is more than can be said for her next-door neighbour, Ned Mars.

Nineties girl band Breathe were the girls every teenage girl wanted to be – until the lead singer, Enola, went missing at the height of her fame and was never found. Conspiracy theories abounded, and the people closest to her came under suspicion; her boyfriend Max, her manager, her stepdad, and even Angel, the lead singer of rival girl band Attitude. But no evidence of any wrongdoing was ever found and, bar various unverified sightings of her over the years, no trace of Enola has ever been found.

Camford, 1920. Gilded and glittering, England's secret magical academy is no place for Clover, a commoner with neither connections nor magical blood. She tells herself she has fought her way there only to find a cure for her brother Matthew, one of the few survivors of a faerie attack on the battlefields of WWI which left the doors to faerie country sealed, the study of its magic banned, and its victims cursed.

Denise wants to help women unlock the power of adaptability. She wants to show you how to be your own life-coach and how to meet the demands of the different roles we take on in life. With her guidance and utilising the seven lessons she has taken from her time on and off the track, she hopes women can reach their full potential, develop tools to pick themselves up and own their multifaceted identities at work and beyond.

Kim Jacobs believes that she is happily married, until her husband tells her he is leaving her. Forced to re-evaluate her life on the same day that her son leaves for university, Kim is shocked to find herself sleeping in the spare room of his college flatshare. She never imagined her prime would be spent with a bunch of man-babies, but amongst the empty pizza boxes and unwashed laundry, Kim can feel something starting to happen. Can her unlikely new housemates help her realise that maybe the best is yet to come?

1918, London. Twenty-year-old Emily Burdon has been training as a nurse at St. Marylebone Infirmary, learning on the job as she tends to patients from the crowded poorhouses that ring the hospital as well as wounded soldiers returning from the war. She pours her heart into her nursing while she waits for happier times - peace in Europe and the return of her childhood sweetheart, Lewis, from the Western Front. But when the deadly Spanish Flu arrives in London on the heels of the war, Emily’s faith and courage are put to the test.

Katarina Johnson-Thompson has never had it easy. Born a child of two worlds - her mother's working-class Liverpool, and her father's idyllic Bahamas - she was never supposed to be world champion. In Unbroken, she tells her story as she never has before. Her narrative, rich with challenges overcome and dreams pursued with relentless determination, serves as a powerful reminder that the human spirit is capable of extraordinary feats.

Eddie can eat a wheelie bin as easily as a cheeseburger–a talent that gets her sent to the School of Doom with its motto, ‘Be the Worst'. But Eddie's neither beastly nor hopeless. And when she and her new friends are plunged into mortal danger, she must try her best to prove it.

Livia Denby is on trial for attempted murder. The jury have reached a verdict. Two years earlier, Livia was a probation officer in Yorkshire, her husband Scott a teacher. Their children, Heidi and Noah, round out a happy family until the day Scott's brother dies. Grief and guilt leave Scott seeking answers, a search which takes him into the world of conspiracy theories. As his grip on reality slides, he makes a decision which will put the family on a collision course with tragedy.

At the psychologist's clinic of an NHS hospital, Noah needs help with procrastination, Bill compulsively lies, Steph is coping with rejection and their therapist, Dr Natalie, is dealing with her own emotional crisis, breathing into a paper bag between patient sessions. In this lively and honest memoir of training to be a psychotherapist, we meet the patients grappling with mental health issues, from OCD and addiction to self-deception and self-harming, and see how Dr Natalie helps them understand and change these attempts to self-soothe.

When an American-style residential camp is set up in the grounds of an English stately home, the teenage camp counsellors are looking forward to a fun summer of activities. But right from the outset, things don’t feel quite right at Camp Miller. Rumours circulate of a tragedy that took place in the grounds and there are unexplained sightings of a ghostly presence.

April McVey hasn’t a romantic bone in her body. So how has she found herself at the door of Mrs Hart’s Marriage Bureau, job application in hand? Matchmaker Martha hopes the lively Irish girl will breathe fresh air into a business struggling to keep with the times amid the tumult of 1930s Britain. So when lonely widower Fabian arrives at the bureau, the pair’s matchmaking skills – and professionalism – meet their first true test.

It's May 1945, and at 3:00 p.m., Nurse Kitty Longthorne listens, together with the other surgical staff at South Manchester's Park Hospital, to Winston Churchill's broadcast on the radio. Germany has signed a declaration of complete surrender. The war is over in Europe, and that day is to be celebrated as VE Day. The mood in Park Hospital - still full of wounded American soldiers - is jubilant and hopeful, though Kitty is anything but.

When 15-year-old Nathan discovers that his older brother, Al, has taken his own life, his whole world is torn apart. Convinced that his brother was in trouble, Nathan decides to retrace Al’s footsteps. As he does, he meets Megan, Al's former classmate who is as determined as Nathan to keep Al's memory alive. Together they start seeking answers, but will either of them be able to handle the truth about Al’s death when they eventually discover what happened?

"There’s a gap where my sense of place should be. It’s quite a useful one sometimes. It allows me to sit on the cusp of an opinion." Following a move to the Netherlands, a young woman dissects the developments of her new life: awkward exchanges with the people she meets, days spent alone freelancing in her apartment, her confrontation with boredom and unease. In her newfound isolation, she develops an unusual friendship with Colette, a woman she neither likes nor can keep away from.

Seventeen-year-old Jess wakes from an emergency heart transplant to discover she's being haunted by the disgruntled ghost of her donor - teenage socialite, Tilly. And she won't leave Jess in peace until they unravel the mystery surrounding her death. Their investigations take them deep into Tilly's luxurious heiress life - from private schools to Swiss banks and high-end hotels. But the clues lead somewhere darker than either of the girls could have imagined. And if Jess can't solve the murder in time, her own life may be at risk... A hilarious, heart-racing murder mystery like no other.

All of Gemma's dreams come true when she's asked to step into the role of Puddleducks Playgroup leader. She knows the place better than anyone and is determined to prove she's the right person for the job. Nothing is going to spoil this opportunity for her... Until she meets Joe Balls, the newly appointed head of reception at the neighbouring infant school. An ex-banker more comfortable with numbers than nursery rhymes, Joe has this annoying habit of interfering with Gemma and her plans for the playgroup.

Will they find their happy-ever-after in Lilacwell?Eva needs a change. After a tragic miscarriage and breaking up with her unsupportive boyfriend, she is desperate for a new start somewhere peaceful, where she can focus on her pottery.In The Cobbled Courtyard of Lilacwell, she meets the mysterious Fitz, a carpenter who similarly escaped to the tiny village a few years ago.But can you ever really run away from your past? Eva and Fitz – two wounded souls – will need to help each other heal to find love and happiness once more.A charming cosy romance for fans of Holly Martin and Suzanne Snow.

It's 1949, and Nurse Kitty Longthorne is still hard at work at Manchester's Park Hospital. The one-year-old NHS is inundated by the nation's sick and dying, made worse by a crippling labour shortage. Now engaged, Kitty and James adore each other, but once they marry, she will be expected to leave the job that means so much to her. When she is offered the trip of a lifetime - a voyage by sea to Barbados to recruit nurses to join Park Hospital's ranks - adventurous Kitty is desperate to go.

At the psychologist's clinic of an NHS hospital, Noah needs help with procrastination, Bill compulsively lies, Steph is coping with rejection and their therapist, Dr Natalie Cawley, is dealing with her own emotional crisis, breathing into a paper bag between patient sessions. In this honest, often poignant and frequently funny memoir about training to be a psychotherapist, we meet the patients grappling with mental health issues. From OCD and addiction to self-deception and toxic relationships, Dr Natalie helps them understand and change these attempts to self-soothe.