Showing results by narrator "Laurence Bouvard" in All Categories

The task should be easy for Laura Parker. After all, Gabriel Santos is outrageously good-looking, it's for one night only, and he is offering her a million dollars.... There are just three things to consider, however: 1. They've already had one steamy, unforgettable night together in Rio. 2. Laura's been in love with Gabriel ever since. 3. Gabriel's never wanted children, but he's not aware he's the father of Laura's baby....

From the critically acclaimed author of Absolution comes a nail-biting story of the utter failure of the American dream, and the greatest fears that lurk in every one of us. Poplar Farm is being carved up; a mini-massacre replicating the destruction of lives and societies taking place all over America. When the developer is driven insane by the failure of his artistic vision, Julia and Nathaniel arrive from Chicago and buy up the home in a foreclosure sale. They move into the half-finished house, yet violence lies just beneath the surface of this land, and simmers deep within Nathaniel.

Meet the utterly irresistible Miss Petitfour (an odd name but possibly descended from bakers of tiny delicious cakes). She loves baking and making and dancing with her cats, but most of all she loves to fly.

When five brothers move into the abandoned mansion next door, Sophie Gracewell's life changes forever. Irresistibly drawn to bad boy Nic, Sophie finds herself falling into an underworld governed by powerful families. When Sophie's own family skeletons come to life, she must choose between two warring dynasties - the one she was born into and the one she is falling in love with.

Spontaneity may be in her blood, but walking down the aisle to wed a stranger is the riskiest thing Sara Darling’s ever done. But to adopt her infant niece, she’ll first need to say an "I do" of convenience to war-traumatised soldier Jake Martin. She thought she could resist his rugged charm, but before long Sara needs their ready-made family as much as he does....

Allie Crawford has the life she always dreamed of - she's number two at a high-profile PR firm; she has two kids she adores; and her husband, Wade, is handsome and heroic and everything she thought a man was supposed to be - running a successful news magazine and, best of all, he provides the stable yet exciting New York City life Allie believes she needs in order to feel secure and happy.

Upstate New York, 1980s. The farm stood at the foot of the hill. Around it an aching emptiness of fields and wind. Within, a weight, a sense of being occupied with more than its inhabitants. The Clares got it cheap. George knew why, though he didn't let on -­ he didn't want to give Catherine any excuses. He'd given her an easy excuse to get married. He wasn't prepared to give away much more. Catherine, at home with their young daughter, has the feeling they're not alone.

An utterly charming and tender story of the disparate tenants of a Brooklyn brownstone and the community they form around their ageing landlord when their home is suddenly threatened. Within a charming if dilapidated Brooklyn brownstone live a family of sorts: beautiful agoraphobe Adeleine, who surrounds herself with the past....

Margo hasn’t been back to Lake Moss since her friend went missing. But as she returns, the news breaks. Her hometown’s swimming hole has been Jessie’s grave for fifteen years. Digging out her old diary, and steeling herself to face unfriendly ghosts from her past, Margo sets out to help a documentary crew as they return to investigate the infamous case the police bungled.

Alva, a widow, states a preference for plain ordinary pleasures—only to get drunk and flirtatious and pass out in a strange bed when she is asked out for the evening. Sadie, a spinster, goes to a holiday resort complete with pine groves, marshmallows and respectable clientele—to bring her nervous sister home, but she instead comes to an eerie end herself.

1890: When Katharine and her husband, Anselmo, set sail to Brazil to reap the spoils of the rubber boom, it seems as if they cannot fail. But when Anselmo dies suddenly on the treacherous waters of the Amazon, a pregnant Katharine must decide whether or not to continue her husband's dream, alone. Meanwhile her sister, Mabel, is struggling to support their family back in London. Navigating new worlds in the upper class, she discovers that life as a housemaid has its own dangers, and Mabel soon learns that the whims of men can prove deadly.

It starts with a plane crash. There are survivors: a teenage girl and her little brother. They are running from something. But what? Then the men arrive. They are hunting the girl and boy. And...and that's all we can tell you.... A thrilling story of survival, hope and a love beyond all understanding, from the award-winning author of Satellite.

Born in 1934, the daughter of a Jewish mobster, Arlyne Brickman (then Weiss) grew up on Manhattan’s Lower East Side. She idolised gangster’s moll Virginia Hill and aspired to the same glamorous life. Addicted to the rush of danger and lawlessness, Brickman became involved with a succession of wiseguys, including Joe Colombo and Bonanna hitman Tony Mirra. But when a crew of loan sharks threatened her daughter, she turned informant.

Northern Finland, 1952, at the height of the Cold War with its neighbour the Soviet Union. A misunderstood, flawed, whip-smart Finnish woman police detective, Hella Mauzer, while fighting against prejudice and political interference, investigates a murder on the Finno-Russian border. But that is just the beginning of her involvement. In fact, the locals have been the victims of a crime so evil it is beyond anything any of them could have ever imagined.

So. We were Americans abroad. We weren’t the doomed travellers in a Paul Bowles novel, and we weren’t the idealists or the malarial, religion-damaged burnouts in something by Greene; but we were people far from home nevertheless. Our naivety didn’t have political consequences. We had GPS in our smartphones. I don’t think we were alcoholics. Our passports were in the same drawer as our collection of international adapters, none of which seemed to fit in Brazilian wall sockets. My husband was in the chrysalis stage of becoming a rich man, and idealism was never my vice.

Vittoria, as she's known in Italy, is a small-time model and actress, recognisable but hard to place. Even though she's married to fading writer Frank Paris, Vittoria knows that she's really Vicki Wilson from Texas and that her deepest loyalty is to her brother, Johnny, who's been there for her from childhood, when he dealt decisively with the unwanted attention she got from other boys. Guided by Johnny, Vittoria enters the upper circles of Roman society. Before long, she's mingling with the high rollers, corrupt senators, and powerful movers.

The hardscrabble Chase women - Mary, Hannah, and their mother Diane - have been eking out a living running a tiny seaside motel that has been in the family for generations, inviting trouble into their lives for just as long. Eighteen-year-old Mary Chase is a force of nature: passionate, beautiful, and free-spirited. Her much younger sister, Hannah, whom Mary affectionately calls 'Bunny', is imaginative, her head full of the stories of princesses and adventures that Mary tells to give her a safe emotional place in the middle of their troubled world.

Soon, we'll be able to predict everything. We'll predict weather patterns, traffic jams. We'll predict who is going to run countries. Laurence Walker wants to be President of the United States. He's a sure thing: adored by the public, ex-military, a real family man. A good man. But then ClearVista, the world's foremost prediction software, tells the world his chances. And not only will he not be President, but it predicts that he's going to do the worst thing he can imagine.

1926: Florrie Daniels is moving to Hollywood to become a screenwriter while Ethel Wild is trying to catch up to her husband in Nevada before he's able to start divorce proceedings. 1952: B-list movie star Louise Wilde learns she's inherited screenwriter Florence Daniels' entire estate. She is baffled, and her confusion only grows when she discovers photographs of Ms. Daniels with her mother, who died when Louise was six. She drives east hoping her father can provide some answers....

Hollywood, 1975: Tragedy sends troubled film star Vivien Lockhart into the arms of Giovanni Moretti, and it seems her fortunes have finally changed. Until she meets his sister and learns that dark shadows haunt her new husband's past.... Tuscany, present day: Everyone in London is searching for Lucy Whittaker - so Lucy needs to disappear. But her new home, the crumbling Castillo Barbarossa, is far from the secluded paradise it seemed.