Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

Orphaned young, H is sent to live with her doting aunt in London. H’s life is a happy one until her lecherous cousin robs her of her innocence and the plague takes away the city and the people she loves. H is cast out – friendless, pregnant and destitute – into the rapidly emptying streets of London under quarantine. Forced to fend for herself, she is determined to gain back the life she lost. H will face a villain out for revenge, find love in the most unexpected places and overcome a betrayal that she never could have foreseen.

England, 1919: Rose and Ivy board a ship bound for Australia. One is travelling there to marry a man she has never met. One is destined never to arrive. Australia, 2016: Amongst her late-grandmother's possessions, Molly uncovers a photograph of two girls dressed in First World War nurses' uniforms, labelled 'Rose and Ivy 1917', and a letter from her grandmother, asking her to find out what happened to her own mother, Rose, who disappeared in the 1960s.

Spirited, beautiful, and thoroughly unconventional, Prudence Pinsent is a remarkable young woman. One fine morning she sets out for Suffolk to join her cousin Lord Wellende for a few days hunting. On the way Prudence encounters Captain Studde of the coastguard who is pursuing a quarry of his own. Studde is on the trail of a drug smuggling ring that connects Wellende Hall with the cloistered world of Cambridge.

Two families. One cancelled flight. And a last-minute house swap. Things get desperate for strangers Harriet and Sophie when they become stranded with their families in Heathrow's Terminal 5. Each woman has her own reason for really, really, really needing the family holiday they've anticipated for months. But Iceland's volcano has other plans for them. When their flights are cancelled, the families swap houses and discover that sometimes the best things in life happen close to home.

Friends for over 30 years, Kerry and Pat’s worlds came crashing down when their teenage sons were both diagnosed with life-threatening illnesses within weeks of each other.

Narvik, 1940. After Laila awakens to the sight of warships in the fjord, it isn't long before she turns resistor to the brutal Nazi regime. She is horrified when local girls begin affairs with enemy soldiers, yet against her own principles, she finds herself falling in love with German soldier, Josef. Josef is not like the others. He becomes involved in helping her and the locals with resistance activities, risking his life on more than one occasion.

The perfect escapist listen, for all fans of Cathy Bramley and Scarlett Bailey. A Year at the Star and Sixpence is Holly Hepburn's four Star and Sixpence novellas collected together as a novel for the first time. When sisters Nessie and Sam inherit a little pub in a beautiful country village, they jump at the chance to escape their messy lives and start afresh. But when they arrive at the Star and Sixpence, it's not quite what they imagined - it's pretty much derelict, ruined by debts, and it's going to be a huge job....

The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist - all these narratives intersect at an estate called Howards End. The fate of this country home symbolizes the future of England in an exploration of social, economic, and philosophical trends during the post-Victorian era.

Virtual working - also known as remote working, telecommuting, flexible working, or homeworking - is an important and growing trend in the global employment landscape. Its popularity has increased due to globalization and outsourcing. However, unlocking the benefits of virtual work depends largely on the organizational culture, management, and leadership to support it. Virtual Leadership identifies the challenges of virtual work and explains how to develop the facilitative leadership mindset to effectively manage people remotely.

Karin and Kai are looking for a pleasant escape from their busy lives when they accept an offer to stay in a luxurious cabin in the Norwegian fjords. Instead of finding a relaxing retreat, their trip becomes a reminder of everything lacking in their own lives, and when they meet the couple from the neighbouring cabin, Karin tells a little white lie – a lie that grows ever bigger, entangling her and Kai in a nightmare series of deceits with absolutely no means of escape.

The Isle of Wight has always felt like a safe place to live for keen dog-walker and reluctant sleuth Susan. But after being involved in the investigation of a troubling crime near her old home, Susan decides to move to the peaceful village of Bishopstone. Susan loves the sense of community and immediately throws herself into village life, volunteering at the local primary school and joining the choir of St Jude’s. So, when there is an altercation at the meeting of the choir committee, followed by a shocking accident, Susan is dismayed to realise her powers of deduction may be needed again.

Primrose Hill, London. Criminal profiler Ziba MacKenzie arrives at the scene of a gruesome murder with a disturbing sense of déjà vu. Nine days earlier, another woman’s body was found: same location, same MO, same physical appearance. For the police, it’s clear a new serial killer is on the loose. But for Ziba, it’s even more sinister—because the victims look just like her. Ziba has been the focus of a killer’s interest before and knows that if she gets too close again this case could be her last.

Widowed duchess Sophie will do anything to protect her son and his inheritance. Even ask roguish Lord Nicholas Pascoe to retrieve her late husband’s diaries before the secrets they contain bring down the government and the monarchy! Sophie knows she must maintain her distance from Nicholas…only she can’t help but respond to the desire in his eyes. Their mission is treacherous, but will it prove as dangerous as their unexpected attraction?

Out of the courts of 12th-century England strode the legendary figure of Richard of England leading his knights onto the Saracen battlefields, inspired by a vision of the Holy Land. Here is the story of the Soldier-King and the Third Crusade - of his strange, ill-fated union with Berengaria, Princess of Navarre; and of his mother, the She-Wolf, Eleanor of Aquitaine, who loved her son with a frantic, possessive pride. And, above all, here is the story of the minstrel whose life was linked with that of the King - the story of Blondel, the Lute Player....

In 1450 Christine de Pisan took up the pen to defend her maligned sex. Her book, The City of Ladies, was built around preserving women's reputations from the slights and misunderstandings of history. In it the author is visited by three spirits - Justice, Rectitude and Reason - who guide her in sifting through countless lives, in search of worthy citizens. Nearly 600 years later, the historian and novelist Lisa Hilton picks up the book and promptly falls asleep, only to be visited by three great women from history: Cleopatra, Lucrezia Borgia and Catherine the Great.

It's the start of another school year at St. Ambrose. While the children are busy in the classroom, their mothers are learning sharper lessons. Lessons in friendship. Lessons in betrayal. Lessons in the laws of community, the transience of power...and how to get invited to lunch. The Hive is a wickedly funny and brilliantly observed story about female friendship, power plays, and the joys and perils (well, mainly perils) of trying to do one's part.

When smooth-talking Alex Fellows tells Jen Faraday he can predict her future – and leaves a note with a bartender for her to collect in one year’s time – she thinks it’s just a chat up line. After all, how can a man she’s known for one night see what her future holds? With her best friend heading down the aisle, and even her beloved grandfather having more romance in his life than she does, Jen knows it’s now or never. And whatever Alex’s prediction says – and how Jen wishes she knew – she’s beginning to wonder if he may play a part in her future plans…

They say I'm a murderer. Six years ago, Kate Reynolds was found holding the body of her best friend, covered in blood, and clutching the knife that killed her. I plead guilty. Kate has been in prison ever since, but now her sentence is up. She is being released. But the truth is, I didn't do it. There's only one person who can help: Private Investigator Madison Attallee, the first officer on the scene all those years ago. But there's someone out there who doesn't want Kate digging up the past.

As the year draws to an end at Primrose Hall, Pia and her Lord of the Manor fiancé Jackson are putting the finishing touches to their annual Carols by Candlelight evening. The past twelve months have not all been plain sailing – Jackson’s father Rex had a serious health scare, his long-lost brother Tom appeared unannounced, and Jackson himself had his own disaster. So the family are thrilled to finally be able to look forward to Christmas together and the event of the year – Jackson and Pia’s long-awaited wedding.

A heartbreaking and deeply compelling debut, Mrs. Sinclair’s Suitcase is a compulsive pause-resister about thwarted love, dashed hopes, and family secrets - book-club fiction at its best. Roberta, a lonely 34-year-old bibliophile, works at The Old and New Bookshop in England. When she finds a letter inside her centenarian grandmother’s battered old suitcase that hints at a dark secret, her understanding of her family’s history is completely upturned.