Showing results by narrator "Jessica Preddy" in All Categories

Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop, peak YBA (Tracey Emin's tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown's Loaded detonated the publishing industry, and when pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). It was the year of The Bends, the year Danny Boyle started filming Trainspotting, the year Richey Edwards went missing, the year Alex Garland wrote The Beach, the year Blair changed Clause IV after a controversial vote at the Labour Conference.

One morning, Emelie can't get out of bed. Her therapist calls it burnout. Her neighbour calls it the tiny work death. She needs to get away from the brightness of the city lights, the noise of the people, the constant demands, so she goes to the woods, pitches her tent overlooking the lake, breathes. And that's where she sees them, the Colony:

Sara Sidorova lies dying. As she hovers between life and death, she receives a visitation from Amba, the tiger god who will devour creation if he is released from the chains that bind him. Amba gives Sara Sidorova an extraordinary gift: a glimpse into the future.

A runaway bride. A handsome stranger. Two pasts to put behind them. From the best-selling author of The Lucky Dress comes a story about love, finding yourself and living your dreams. Parker is ready to marry the man of her dreams. But he isn't ready to marry her. When she's dumped moments before walking down the aisle, she didn't expect to run into the arms of a handsome stranger.

From her apartment window, Doreen Durand witnesses a horrific accident. The police want to know what she saw. Doreen doesn't want to tell them - or anyone. But when she runs away, it's straight into the fantastic world of the wealthy and mysterious Violet Cascade. With one rogue police officer in pursuit, and life becoming more bizarre by the day, Doreen is caught up in a surreal game of cat and mouse.

When the body of pregnant 15-year-old Hope Lacey is discovered in a churchyard on Christmas morning, the community is shocked, but unsurprised. For Hope lived in The Home, the residence of three young girls, whose violent and disturbing pasts have seen them cloistered away. As a police investigation gets underway, the lives of Hope, Lara and Annie are examined, and the staff who work at the home are interviewed, leading to shocking and distressing revelations...and clear evidence that someone is seeking revenge.

Twenty-nine-year-old Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It’s December, and she’s taking a room in a crumbling, but grand, Notting Hill house-share with four virtual strangers. On her first night, Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor, at a Christmas dinner hosted by her landlord. They don’t kiss, but as far as Jess is concerned the connection is clear. She starts planning how they will knock down the wall between them to spend more time together.

As friends gather for a hen weekend, they are all smiles, but cannot hide the web of tension that bubbles beneath the surface. The group was forever broken by the devastating loss of their childhood friend, Becca. The prettiest and most powerful of them all, her absence lies at the heart of this fractured friendship. Now, decades later, someone wants to expose the truth about what happened, and will stop at nothing to reveal the secrets long since buried.

Trapped in a ruined city, Elizabeth and her brother, Henry, try to avoid the dangers that seem to lurk on every street. But even when they manage to get home, they face an entirely different kind of threat. Meanwhile, hundreds of miles away, Thomas struggles to keep his brother alive. First, though, he needs to find out what happened to his father, and he also has to make a difficult decision about his ailing mother.

"Gold Dragon" is the third novel in the "Run and Hide" series by popular author JJ Marsh. After her dangerous escapades in Brazil, Ann Sheldon has had to reinvent herself once again. Now known as Olivia Lane, she has given up the peace and tranquillity of her Brazilian beach hut and moved to one of the most densely populated cities on earth – Macau. Olivia can trust no one, and must hunt down a dangerous ex-colleague who holds the answers that she so desperately needs. A fast-paced, gripping thriller from the author of the "Beatrice Stubbs" series.

Days 9 to 16 is the third title in the Mass Extinction Event series, continuing the story of a worldwide apocalypse seen from the eyes of two very different people in two different parts of the US. Finally realising that she must leave the city, Elizabeth sets out alone along a deserted road. Eventually, however, she encounters some fellow survivors, and before long she's taken to a remote farmhouse where a small community is struggling to take shape. She soon discovers, however, that this particular farmhouse hides some dark secrets.

Days 46 to 53 is the fourth book in the Mass Extinction Event series, continuing the story of a worldwide apocalypse seen from the eyes of two very different people in two very different parts of the US. More than a month after the disaster that crippled the world, Elizabeth and Toad are struggling to survive. Soon, however, Elizabeth faces a fresh problem, as she realises that the virus might have claimed another, even younger victim. Meanwhile, Thomas discovers more survivors who are trying to reclaim the city.

Three months into her new role as a psychiatrist at a clinic in New York, Erin Cartwright is asked to evaluate the case of a man who murdered his mother and sisters at the age of 17. Found not guilty by reason of insanity and held in a maximum-security psychiatric facility for 27 years, Timothy Stern is now eligible for release. Upon learning the crime occurred in the same village she once visited as a child, Erin is on the verge of refusing to take the case.

Having been rescued from the forest, Elizabeth is shocked to find herself living with a small group of survivors. But when she's plunged into an unlikely reunion, she begins to realise that the task of saving humanity might require difficult decisions. Meanwhile, Thomas discovers the truth about another group of survivors. Old alliances are destroyed and new alliances are formed, but finally Thomas is forced to make a stand.

London, 1941: In a cramped bunker in Winston Churchill’s Cabinet War Rooms, underneath Westminster’s Treasury building, civilian women huddle at desks, typing up confidential documents and reports. Since her parents were killed in a bombing raid, Rose Teasdale has spent more hours than usual in Room 60, working double shifts, growing accustomed to the burnt scent of the Prime Minister’s cigars permeating the stale air.

Scarred by fire from infancy, with a persistent stammer, Charlotte has always been in the shadow of her glamorous theatrical parents. So it's a shock when her mother commits suicide. Left to care for her sick father in the dark maze of her childhood home, Charlotte begins to unravel. First, there's the mysterious arrival of a box of dead bees. Then buzzing noises in the attic. People are watching her. Listening to her. Everyone thinks she's losing her mind. But an old photo suggests another, more sinister possibility....

In "Black River" we re-join the mysterious and gutsy Ann Sheldon as she continues to try to forget her past and start afresh. Wanting to steer clear of any more trouble, as well as the local police inspector, Gil Maduro, Ann tries to relax and embrace her new life. When a young girl goes missing from a camp however, the services of Gil Maduro are called upon, and Ann soon joins him on an investigation which will take them deep into the Amazon as well as into even deeper trouble. The pair encounter dangerous enemies along the way and Ann struggles to keep her true identity secret.

There’s a very particular reason why Chloe Sinclair has not met her Mr Right - he doesn't exist. And the reason he doesn't exist is because the right couples in history did not get together. It now falls to Chloe to travel back in time to matchmake like her love life depended on it.... Each of Chloe’s trips revolves around the iconic Hotel Del Coronado - part historic landmark, part Californian fairy tale. Here she experiences the Victorian era, the Roaring '20s, the fabulous '50s and the '80s karaoke party of your dreams!

"White Heron" is the first thrilling instalment in the "Run and Hide" series by Welsh author JJ Marsh. Ann Sheldon is a woman with secrets - and a past that she wants to leave behind. What better place to escape than to a remote shack in the Brazilian jungle? However, when a young local boy is violently murdered, Ann finds herself drawn into the investigation and fearful that her past has caught up with her. A high octane thriller packed full of mystery, danger, and adventure.

2002, Quebec. A former schoolteacher is accused of brutally stabbing her husband—a famous university professor—to death. Detective Maxine Grant, who has recently lost her own husband and is parenting a teenager and a new baby single-handedly, takes on the investigation. Under enormous personal pressure, Maxine makes a series of macabre discoveries that link directly to historical cases involving black magic and murder, secret societies and spiritism...and women at breaking point, who will stop at nothing to protect the ones they love.