Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlin" in All Categories

To her friends, Amber leads the perfect life with her successful marriage, her powerful job in London and her immaculate style. But as more of her friends fall pregnant, and her best friend, Dylan, announces his decision to adopt a baby with his gay lover, Amber's carefully structured world begins to fall apart. Intricately crafted and sensually evocative, Something I'm Not is a sharp, contemporary novel that discusses the way the psychological scars of the past pass through the generations of a family.

They say there's no place like home. It's where the heart is....Meet the little boy who believes in miracles. Meet the mother who loves to bring babies home from the newborn aisle of her supermarket. Meet the husband who carves a longed-for baby out of ice as a gift for his wife. Meet the widow who is reminded of romance whilst standing at the kitchen sink. In this prize-winning short story collection, Carys Bray weaves together moments of joy, heartache, sadness and unwavering love as told through 17 very different notions of home.

Sophia Beaumont-Brown was an 'it' girl. But now she's in the papers for all the wrong reasons. She's single, sofa surfing and not speaking to her family; only her grandmother has any faith left in her. From her hospital bed, Tilly Beaumont sends Sophia letters about her life: dispatches about wartime England, about family secrets and, finally, about the most beautiful thing she ever owned - a necklace of the most incredible pearls. If Sophia's prepared to listen, she'll unlock the secret story of generations of incredible women.

You shared your life online. Now how will you get it back? Twitter. Facebook. WhatsApp. Google Maps. Every day you share everything about yourself - where you go, what you eat, what you buy, what you think - online. Sometimes you do it on purpose. Usually you do it without even realising it. At the end of the day, everything from your shoe size to your credit limit is out there. Your greatest joys, your darkest moments. Your deepest secrets. If people want to know everything about you, all they have to do is look. But what happens when someone starts spilling state secrets?

Dark times lie ahead for Special Agent Ren Bryce and the Rocky Mountains Safe Streets Task Force in the heart-stopping new thriller from the best-selling author of Darkhouse and Blood Loss. In her most shocking case yet, FBI Special Agent Ren Bryce takes on a depraved serial killer fueled by a warped sense of justice. A master of evasion, each life he takes ramps up Ren's obsession with finding him.

In the tradition of Rachel Cusk's A Life's Work or Maggie O'Farrell's The Hand That First Held Mine comes a complex, tender and gorgeously written novel of parenthood, love and marriage that is impossible to put down. Cambridge 1963. Charlotte struggles to reconnect with the woman she was before children, and to find the time and energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, cannot face the thought of another English winter.

The whole of society knows there isn’t a redeemable bone in Riordan Barrett’s sinfully sexy body. Suddenly Riordan finds himself not only an earl…but father to two young wards! His only experience is in the art of irresponsibility. This rake needs help--and hiring a pretty young governess won’t be such a hardship! Sweet, innocent Maura Caulfield is seemingly unaware of Riordan’s disreputable ways. But it won’t stay like that for long. He’ll show her just how much fun sinning can be…

Damascus, Syria, 2009. Carrie Mathison is leading an operation to capture or kill al Qaeda terrorist, Abu Nazir. But arriving at the compound where he was supposed to be in hiding, they find it empty. Carrie is sure that someone is leaking CIA information to the enemy and has betrayed their operation, seriously threatening American interests in the Middle East. To expose the double agent, her boss, Saul Berenson, devises an elaborate ruse that will send her on the most dangerous mission of her life.

FBI Agent Ren Bryce finds herself entangled in two seemingly unrelated mysteries. But the past has a way of echoing down the years and finding its way into the present. When Special Agent Ren Bryce discovers the body of a young woman in an abandoned car, solving the case becomes personal. But the more she uncovers about the victim's last movements, the more questions are raised. Why was Laura Flynn driving towards a ranch for troubled teens in the middle of Colorado.

Twenty-five-years ago, four-year-old Justin Manning disappeared. Two months later his body was found in a shallow grave in the woods, shocking the small town of Dove Point. Janet Manning has been haunted by her brother’s death since the day she lost sight of him in the park. Now, a detective and a reporter are asking questions, raising new suspicions and opening old wounds. But if the man jailed for the murder is innocent, who did kill Justin?

Patsy Cline is becoming best friends with another girl! It looks like Penelope is going to lose Patsy to Vera Bogg...forever. So Penelope starts a secret museum full of things that remind her of the people she loves, in case she loses them, too. Lizzie Maple, who loves adventures, is on board to help.But other people seem to think 'taking their things for a museum' is the same as 'stealing'... and Penelope is suddenly in a whole lot of trouble!

In 1922, Christian, a young artist, travels to Weimar to begin his studies at the Bauhaus, where the avant-garde confronts conservative elements around it. With postwar Germany in turmoil, while the Bauhaus attempts to explore radical ways of thinking and living, Christian finds that love will change him forever. And in 1970s London Duncan uses his inheritance to establish the country's first gay bookshop in the face of opposition from the neighbours and victimisation by the police.

When 17-year-old Stella Whittaker is offered the chance to study at the Academy of Music in Vienna it's a dream come true, made possible by old family friends, Rainer and Marthe Kraus, who offer her a place to live. Seduced by the elegant beauty of the city, Stella explores the magnificent palaces, gardens, and fashionable coffeehouses, and after a chance meeting in an art gallery, falls in love with Harri Reznik, a young Jewish doctor.

Maisie Mae's life is complete and utter chaos! She has five stinky brothers, and has to share a bedroom with the terrible twins. They think it's funny to put snails under her duvet, fish-food in her sandwiches and hide her favourite things in the rabbit hutch. What Maisie really, really, really wants is a room where there are No Boys Allowed! And she'll do anything to get it...

How do you know where you belong? In June 1988, Elizabeth Kelly's parents think she belongs at home in Ireland. Her boyfriend is certain of it. Unwilling to settle down just yet, she decides to spend the summer in Boston with her college friends. But the next four months change all of them, especially Elizabeth. Quiet and dutiful at home, she surprises herself and everyone else by falling for Danny Esposito, a restless charmer with a troublesome family.

In Delhi a small baby lies alone and abandoned. The product of IVF and surrogacy, she had been so coveted - until she was born with a fatal illness. Thousands of miles away in London, Kate and Ben are desperate for a baby. As Kate suffers another miscarriage, she knows something has to change. But will her desire for a baby stop at nothing...?

Hannah French has always wanted more from life than her sleepy village in Devon can offer. And there are two men who are willing to give her that escape: William and Ralph Lawlor. They are brothers but their bloodline is all that they have in common. When events in Hannah’s life take a devastating turn, will somebody come to her rescue or will she have to accept that hope is all she has left?

In a small Kent town in the 1950s, a bewildered little girl is growing up. Ostracised because of her colour, she tries her best to fit in, but nobody wants anything to do with her. A nanny climbs the steps of a smart London address. She’s convinced that her connection to the family behind the door is more than professional. And on the walls of an English stately home, amongst the family portraits, hangs an eighteenth-century oil painting of a mysterious black woman in a silk gown.

Like every child in Is-Land, all Astra Ordott wants is to have her Security Shot, do her National Service and defend her Gaian homeland from Non-Lander 'infiltrators'. But when one of her Shelter mothers, the formidable Dr Hokma Blesser, tells her the shot will limit her chances of becoming a scientist and offers her an alternative, Astra agrees to her plan. When the orphaned Lil arrives to share Astra's home, Astra is torn between jealousy and fascination.

Autumn 1940, World War Two: Bombs are raining down, destroying the cities of Britain. The evacuations begin, and soon children are being taken to the country for safety. Teacher Eve Parkins is in charge of one such group. The children are scared and Eve does her best to calm them, but the truth is that she too is haunted by a personal tragedy she cannot put behind her. Their destination is Eel Marsh House. Desolate and forlorn, it is situated on a causeway and is sinking into the treacherous tidal marshes that surround it. Far from home and with no alternative, Eve and the children move in.