Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

Constance Harding's comfortable corner of the Home Counties is her own little piece of heaven. Her time is spent party-planning (disastrous) and matchmaking for her son Rupert (catastrophic). But she's about to learn that her perfect home conceals scandal that would make the vicar blush. As her family falls apart, Constance embarks on an extraordinary journey. From Ibiza to Argentina, Constance discovers a wider world she thought it was too late to find....

Leningrad in 1952: a city recovering from war, where Andrei, a young doctor and Anna, a school teacher, are forging a life together. Summers at the dacha, preparations for the hospital ball, work and the care of 16-year-old Kolya fill their minds. They try hard to avoid coming to the attention of the authorities, but even so their happiness is precarious. Stalin is still in power, and the Ministry for State Security has new targets in its sights.

Perfect Positive Thinking is essential reading for anyone who wants to feel optimistic and enthusiastic. Written by a professional life coach, with years of experience in the field, it gives practical advice on how to overcome negative feelings, explains how to deal with problems like anxiety and self-doubt, and provides helpful tips on how to gain energy, motivation and a sense of purpose.

Ellen Thomas, experienced war correspondent, returns to Afganistan’s dangerous Helmand Province on assignment, keen to find the murderer of her friend and translator, Jalil. In her search for justice in a land ravaged by death and destruction, she uncovers disturbing truths. Hasina, forced by tradition into the role of wife and mother, lives in a village which is taken by the British Forces. Her only son, Aref, is part of a network of underground fighters and she is determined to protect him, whatever the cost.

With Tullor safely behind glass at the Sealife Centre,and no news of evil Queen Taran,Lizzy almost believes that her troubles are over.Only she can't help thinking that it's not like Taran to give up.When her sister,Rose,starts behaving strangley,Lizzy wonders whether Taran might be up to her old tricks.Before long it's a race against time as Taran's final,terrifying plot to gain total power unfolds.

Sisters-in-law Kate, Heather, and Olivia are all hiding something. It's not easy being part of the high-achieving Fox family: the expectations and demands of their husbands and children; the jealousies and rivalries; and the endless Sunday lunches. So when mysterious Sasha enters their lives, bloodied from a painful divorce, buried frustrations rush to the surface. Three sisters-in-law. One devastating divorcee. Whose husband is about to play with fire?

Taran, the evil mermaid Queen, is determined to get her hands on the silver pearl that will make her more powerful than ever. Only Lizzy, Kes, and their friends from the undersea world can stop her. But when Taran takes a very special hostage, Lizzy and Kes are faced with a terrible choice. Must they give up the precious pearl!? Or do they have the courage to challenge Taran and defeat her?

Tina returns for her brother's wedding to the Fenland village where she grew up. A moment of panic about her 10-year-old daughter triggers a vision of her best friend, Mandy Baker, who went missing without a trace at the same age three decades ago. The more Tina replays events and relives her tempestuous upbringing, the more she believes she knows what happened to Mandy and who was responsible.

This book is the flip to How to Be Happy; a book which offers a reassuring and empowering guide to finding positivity and inner strength, it helps individuals to understand that it is not what happens to them, it is the way that they react and respond. Happiness guru Liggy Webb is here to help us all find positivity and inner strength to cope with stressful situations.

London, 1702. When her husband is lost at sea, Mary Burton Gulliver, midwife and herbalist, is forced to rebuild her life without him. But three years later when Lemuel Gulliver is brought home, fevered and communicating only in riddles, her ordered world is turned upside down. In a climate of suspicion, poverty and violence, Mary is caught in a crossfire of superstition and fear driven by her husband’s outlandish claims of the wonders he has seen, and it is up to her to navigate a passage to safety for herself and her daughter, and the vulnerable women in her care.

England, 1943. Lost in fog, Pilot Vee Katchatourian is forced to make an emergency landing where she meets enigmatic RAF Airman Stefan Bergel and then can't get him out of her mind. In occupied Poland, Ewa Hartman hosts German officers in her father's guest house while secretly gathering intelligence for the Polish resistance.

In this hilarious sequel to the hugely popular Barking Up the Wrong Tree, Sally Stick and her shaggy best friend Fetch discover plenty more mysteries to solve. Like, is there a beaver loose in the town? Who is the handbag thief? And, most importantly, why does Uncle Bob's house always smell of biscuits? Somehow, despite the accidents, misunderstandings and general confusion that dog the hapless pair wherever they go, they always get results. And they have a lot of fun along the way!

This is the story of a sleepy town called Suds. A place where stories fill the air of children who keep turning grey and disappearing without a trace. Poppy and Erasmus are certain there's something peculiar going on in Suds, and they're determined to unravel its secrets. But when they discover the answers might lie in the dark and twisting woods, can they find the courage to creep inside and solve this riddling mystery?

Has Ella met her match? The glamour of the French Riviera quickly turns sour as she is caught up in an investigation that will have repercussions on both sides of the channel. When her mother telephones from France with news of her imminent arrest, Ella rushes to her aid, along with her aunt and an eccentric friend. But what starts as a simple disappearance quickly turns to murder, and Ella finds herself embroiled in a mystery that is far more complex than she’d anticipated.

When the crime scene is pure coincidence and there’s no evidence, how can you prove it was murder? Ella Bridges faces her most challenging investigation so far when the vicar dies suddenly at the May Day fete. But with evidence scarce and her personal life unravelling in ways she could never have imagined, she misses vital clues in the investigation. Working alongside Scotland Yard, will Ella manage to unearth the clues needed to catch the killer before another life is lost? Or will personal shock cloud her mind and result in another tragedy?

Migrants and millionairesses, refugees and aristocrats all looking for a way to improve their lives. After WW1 a world of opportunity was opening up for women.... Before convenient air travel, transatlantic travel was the province of the great ocean liners and never more so than in the glory days of the interwar years. It was an extraordinary undertaking made by many women. Some traveled for leisure, some for work; others to find a new life, marriage, to reinvent themselves or find new opportunities. Their stories have remained largely untold - until now.

Organised. Neat. Lonely. Kathy Simmonds is alone at Christmas this year, after her beloved husband John passed away a few months ago. She keeps her home spick and span, struggling with her grief for a family she has lost or lost touch with. But a chance phone call from Battersea Dogs and Cats Home opens the door to something new. She meets Scruff, a messy Jack Russell with a heart of gold who has been left for dead on the streets of London.

Stick and Fetch are on holiday, but even in a rickety old seaside hotel there are plenty of crimes to solve and mysteries to unravel. Such as, who is Major Mayhem? Why is that door frightened? And where could the small-bottle-of-shampoo robbers be hiding? This lovable pair is on the case and undeterred despite plenty of mishaps, misdeeds and misunderstandings along the way. A fun-filled adventure featuring two hapless investigators with a lot of hair.

Arlington Park is an ordinary English suburb. Over the course of a single day, the novel moves from one household to another, revealing its characters: Juliet, enraged at the victory of men over women in family life; Amanda, warding off thoughts of death with obsessive housework; Solly, about to give birth to her fourth child; Maisie, struggling to accept provincial life; and Christine, the optimist and host of a dinner party where the neighbours come together.

Early on a grey November morning in 1941, only weeks after the German invasion, a small Ukrainian town is overrun by the SS. Deft, spare and devastating, Rachel Seiffert's new novel tells of the three days that follow and the lives that are overturned in the process. Penned in with his fellow Jews, under threat of transportation, Ephraim anxiously awaits word of his two sons, missing since daybreak. Come in search of her lover, to fetch him home again, away from the invaders, Yasia must confront new and harsh truths.