Showing results by narrator "Rose Robinson" in All Categories

When Cathy and Noah first got together neither saw children in their future. Eight years later, they're happily married - and Cathy isn't so sure. With Noah's tolerance for his wife's ambivalence waning, her widowed mother in a world of her own and her best friend yearning for a second baby, Cathy feels increasingly adrift. Escaping into her work in the conservation studios of the National Gallery, she chips away at the layers of overpaint on a canvas from the collection. Will the discovery of an unexpected truth help her find the clarity she craves?

Isabel, Izzy to her friends, has got nothing left to lose when she makes the bravest decision of her life. A month living under canvas on the Yorkshire Moors with five strangers wouldn’t normally be her idea of a good time, even if there is prize money to be won at the end of it, but she’s all out of options. Joining her in this wild goose chase, being filmed for a TV show, are farmer Seb, sheltered Ruth, glamorous socialite Kanga, American Junior who has his own secret that has led him there, and mysterious and brooding Mac, who Izzy can’t help but be drawn to.

Climate emergency has spawned a one-child policy in the UK, ruthlessly enforced by a totalitarian regime. Compulsory abortion of 'excess' pregnancies and mandatory contraceptive implants are now the norm. Kai is a 25-year-old 'baby reaper', working for the Ministry of Population and Family Planning. If any of her assigned families attempt to exceed their child quota, she ensures they pay the price. Until she discovers that an illegal sibling on her Ministry hit-list is hers. And to protect her parents from severe penalties, she must secretly investigate before anyone else finds out.

Cressida Tarbet loves her job at an animal rescue centre, even if it means she’s resigned herself to scrimping to make ends meet - a lifestyle far removed from her best friend Ivo’s, in his ancestral gatehouse stuffed with antiques and art. But although their upbringings were different, Ivo has held Cress’s heart ever since she clapped eyes on him at university. The trouble is – she has never told him. So, when a mystery and a baffling crime throw Cress and Ivo together, she can’t help but wonder if fate is telling her something.

Andi Glover loves nothing more than a good book. Any book in fact because when you’re raised by unconventional parents who think school’s for squares, fiction is eminently preferable to reality. The only problem is that fiction isn’t the best way to learn about the real world. When Andi starts her new live-in job at Templewood Hall for the eccentric Lady Dawe and her enigmatic son Hugo, it’s tempting to think she’s fallen into the pages of one of her favourite gothic novels. But the plot twists at Templewood Hall are stranger than fiction.

After spending her childhood in care, Eva is desperate to find her birth parents and to get some closure on her difficult past. And so she finishes her relationship with boyfriend Gareth, leaves her home in London, and heads to Whitby in search of the family she has never known. But Eva’s close friend, Celia, is worried. Eva has stopped answering her calls and when Celia travels to London to speak to her she realises Eva has moved without telling anyone. Both women have been badly damaged by their childhoods, and Celia makes the decision to follow Eva to Whitby.

When Leah caught the train that day, it should have been the escape she longed for. A new start, away from the terrible things she had done. She had no idea how that jounrey would change her life forever... Because when the train is involved in a terrible crash, Leah is given a moment to reassess her life. Can she make amends for what she did? Can she start again?

London, 1891: Harriet Cameron and her beloved sister, Sarah, have been brought up by their father, radical thinker James. But when adventurer Henry Vincent arrives on the scene, the sisters' lives are changed forever. Sarah marries Henry and embarks on a voyage to Australia. Harriet, intensely missing Sarah, must decide whether to help her father with his life's work or to devote herself to painting.

After breaking up with her childhood sweetheart, clueless dater Rosie has found herself in a boyfriend-drought. So when she finally swipes right on a guy who seems interested, she can’t wait to meet up IRL. Until she’s left standing alone. In a bar. Ghosted. Enter Noah. Confident, funny...and a serial first dater. Offering to give Rosie a crash course in seduction, this could be just what she needs. Until her matchmaker turns out to be the best date she’s ever had - and Rosie wonders if she wants the fake dates to be the real ones after all.

Una and her colleague Tim are vying for a promotion in the life insurance department of a huge city financial house. So when Una's latest research - predictions about causes of death in seaside towns - fails to match the number of unusual deaths that are actually happening, she is on the back foot. There are some strange outliers in the data - death by hanging basket? - but even so, the numbers have never let her down before.

Una McMurray is puzzled. Surely, statistically, the international cat show scene shouldn't be this... lethal? Keen to make her mark in her new job in pet insurance, Una's first task is to calculate whether cat ownership extends human lifespan. Tragically, that's not the case for prizewinning cat owner Jeff Bridgely - a most improbable accident has ended his dreams of triumphing at the upcoming International Cat Show. When a second competitor dies in mysterious circumstances, the maths just doesn't add up.

Rowan Thorpe can be forgiven for living with one foot in the past. Since having to say goodbye far too young to the future she had planned, moving on still feels a daunting task. So, when historian Connor O’Keefe strides purposefully into her office and life, looking far too handsome for his own good and threatening to undermine the local legends she holds close to her heart, she is more than a little unsettled.

Hannah knows the cage intimately. Small, the size of a shopping mall parking space. A bed, a basin, a table and chair. A hatch and metal drawer through which to exchange food and other items. Then there's him. Always there on the edges of her vision, no matter how hard she tries to block him out. Every day, the same thoughts run through Hannah's mind. What if he speaks to me? What if he hurts me? What if he gets out?

On a hot midsummer day in the Surrey countryside, close friends Kristin, Vee, Bibi and Hailey are celebrating their Ladies' Team victory at the exclusive Royal Oaks Tennis Club. But when their oh-so-charming coach, Jeremy, collapses after tucking into a carefully decorated sponge cake, it seems the season isn't just ending with a championship trophy—but with a murder.

It was supposed to be Christy Sullivan’s perfect Christmas escape - a dream trip to Lapland with her family and best friend, Alix. But facing a make-or-break marriage crisis, Christy desperately needs time alone with her husband, Seb. Her solution? Alix, along with Seb’s oldest friend, Zac, can take Christy’s daughter on the planned Lapland trip, and they will all reunite there for Christmas Day. After all, what are friends for?

It was supposed to be Christy Sullivan’s perfect Christmas getaway - a trip to Lapland with her family and best friend, Alix. But facing a make-or-break marriage crisis, Christy desperately needs time alone with her husband. Her solution? Alix can take Christy’s little daughter to Lapland, and they will reunite there for Christmas Day. It’s a big ask, but what else are friends for?

When Leah Talbot crashes her car one night, she spots a light on in a nearby house and approaches, hoping that someone is home. He is. Charming, handsome, Martin Tate answers the door to the bedraggled and traumatised Leah, inviting her in. Though she’s not there for long, Leah feels an indescribable pull to the man who has helped in her hour of need. But when she returns the next morning to say thank you, it isn’t Martin who answers the door this time. It’s the police.

Author Grace Waterhouse has hit rock bottom. Her ex-husband has just had a baby with his new partner, and her latest novel is...well, the less said the better. Desperate for distraction, Grace impulsively takes on a friend’s cleaning job, parachuting herself into a new social circle including an eccentric OAP, a heartbroken 20-something and one James Brooke, an enigmatic lawyer with an unblinking stare. Add to this mix an anxious literary agent, a hairdresser who doesn’t mince words and a newly repentant ex-husband, and Grace's career break proves to be more breathless than breather.

On a dark night in 1945, the Hotel Lutetia in Paris was witness to a murder. Two women walked into the hotel, but only one left alive. The crime was forgotten to time; locked away in Room 11. A confession reawakens a mystery with long, dangerous shadows. What really happened in the corridors of the Hotel Lutetia? It all comes back to Room 11 – and the people who would kill to keep its secrets…

A state of emergency has been declared in the UK. From now on, at 8pm every night, all electricity cuts out. The Government promises it's a temporary measure. They promise they are always thinking of your safety. But for Grace, the darkness is anything but safe. Someone is coming into her house under its cover every night while she lies in bed upstairs, too terrified to sleep. Someone who knows her past, who knows why she has more reason to fear the dark than most...