Showing results by narrator "Casey WIthoos" in All Categories

Imogen Bates moved to the small rural town of Gibson's Find to start a new life for herself after the death of her husband. Tired of being haunted by the painful memories of her old life, Imogen set her last remaining hopes on the little town and poured her heart and savings into restoring The Majestic Hotel to its former glory. But while the female-starved town might be glad to see a young woman move in, not everyone is happy about Imogen's arrival. Imogen has never been one to back down from a challenge—especially when it concerns her last chance at happiness.

World War II is over, and Hiroshima lies in a heap of poisoned rubble when young Quaker Wesley Cunningham returns home to Almond Tree. He served as a stretcher-bearer; he’s seen his fair share of horror. Now he intends to build beautiful houses and to marry, having fallen in love with his neighbour’s daughter, Beth Hardy. Beth has other plans. An ardent socialist, she is convinced the Party and Stalin’s Soviet Union hold the answers to all the world’s evils. She doesn’t believe in marriage, and in any case, her devotion is to the cause.

Bush nurse Lara McIntyre and rural journalist Toby Paxton are thrust into the limelight when an accident puts the heart of their community in jeopardy. The small country town of Bridgefield can’t manage without their general store and post office, but Lara can’t stomach the idea of out-of-town buyers revamping it with no regard for what the residents want. She’s also unsure where Toby’s allegiances lie in this fight. Loyalties are put to the test as the locals attempt to save the shop, with personal agendas, old grudges and misunderstandings threatening their best efforts.

Violet Black and Ethan Wright are both in a coma after contracting the lethal M-fever. They have never met: I couldn't speak, but I was trying so hard to communicate and then...then.... I pushed. And something, someone, pushed back. Her name is Violet. Violet, but she is sunshine-yellow, and I need to find her because I think she might be just like me. But there is a far more serious reason for Ethan to find Violet - the sinister Foundation is trying to hunt them down.

Heico is an ornithologist fighting a losing battle to protect the birds in his beachside suburb. When a journalist asks for comment on a planned development, Heico exaggerates his reports on how many migratory birds use the site. Soon it is revealed that the proposed building is a mosque, and he finds himself embroiled in community resistance to the project. Still, he refuses to back down. Nahla, Heico’s house cleaner, is trying to find her place in a new country and a new marriage.

Welsey Cunningham grew up running barefoot through the orchards of his Quaker family farm, working with horses and dreaming of one day building himself a house on his own patch of ground above the river. The Second World War interrupted those dreams: it took Wes to New Guinea as a medic and then sent him home with healing bullet wounds in his legs. While Wes was away, life in Almond Tree continued but everyone's been changed by the war.

A clear-eyed, insightful and wildly entertaining look into the complicated, emotional world of mothers and their teenage daughters. Four mothers. Four teenage daughters. An isolated tropical paradise with no internet or mobile phone reception. What could possibly go wrong? There's tension, bitchiness, bullying, sex, drunken confessions, bad behaviour and breakdowns - and wait till you see what the teenagers get up to. How can we let our daughters go to forge lives of their own when what we most want to do is hold them close and never let them go?

Natalie King's life is full. Some might say too full. With her teaching job, a farm to run, three grown daughters who have not quite got a handle on things, a reserved husband and a demanding mother-in-law, most days she is too busy to think about whether she is happy. But her life has meaning, doesn't it? After all, she is the one person everyone depends upon. But when an odd gift from her mother-in-law—an old book in the form of stern and outdated advice for young wives—surfaces again, it brings with it memories she thought she had buried deep.

Imogen Bates moved to the small rural town of Gibson's Find to start a new life for herself after the death of her husband. Tired of being haunted by the painful memories of her old life, Imogen set her last remaining hopes on the little town and poured her heart and savings into restoring The Majestic Hotel to its former glory. But while the female-starved town might be glad to see a young woman move in, not everyone is happy about Imogen's arrival.

Someone is hiding a secret - one that could change Berry's life and alter her tragic past. As a child, Berry McCalister's family was torn apart by shocking violence. Eleven years on, she returns to the small town of Harlington, determined to confront the past and, finally, to cut all ties and sell the family farm. Complicating her desire to get out of Harlington, Berry is drawn to her childhood crush, Nate Tarant. He never knew she existed back then, but things change, and this time Nate seems to be very much aware of her presence.

In this memoir, Mandy Sayer recounts the fascinating years she spent performing on the streets of New York and New Orleans with her father. Gerry Sayer was a jazz drummer, a beguiling Irish charmer with a million stories and an insatiable love for jam sessions and all-night parties. Mandy grew up captivated by his outrageous tales even after he left the family for good and her mother descended into the distance of drink. She learned to tap-dance and they set off together to satisfy their grand ambitions on the toughest stage in the world - New York.

Tales of fugitive lives: dazzling portraits of women and men on the run from their present, their past, their future and from themselves.... Holding a discerning mirror to seemingly ordinary lives, James captures recurring themes of love, betrayal, passion and guilt to show just how vulnerable and intricate the human heart really is.

Blending the popular genre of crime fiction with the art of the short story, Crime and Other Pastimes reveals the interconnecting lives and deaths of unforgettable characters within an inner-city community. After the corpse of a newborn baby is discovered in a nearby laneway, an adopted girl being raised in a funeral home finally appreciates the sanctity of her own life. A drug dealer goes missing, and his many clients plot an outrageous plan to ensure his safe return, with comically fatal results....

A wonderful collection of nursery rhymes and childhood songs, verses and curiosities. Here you have international favourites like ‘Humpty Dumpty’ and Irish favourites like ‘Janey Mac’. There are great songs to sing, from ‘Mocking Bird’ to ‘Are Ye Right There, Michael?’. Rhymes to bounce baby on the knee, like ‘Horsie, Horsie’, rhymes that are just fun and nonsense, like ‘Hickory, Dickory, Dock’ and ‘Skinny Malink’.

The beautiful Snowy Mountains are Kylie Harris' home. An expert, daring skier, Kylie once dreamed of instructing the rich and famous who come to the Victorian Alps each winter. But when tragedy strikes, she is forced to reassess her life. In the wilds of Papua New Guinea, Kylie, now an aid worker, is reunited with the man she believes is her soul mate. But it turns out happiness is an elusive gift. Heartbroken, Kylie is convinced she will never again love so deeply. Can she find the courage to let go of her past?

In 1928 Evie Woodward is running from a past she barely understands. A widow with a young son, she agrees to become partners with Daniel Roxburgh in a Psychic Detective Agency. But their bogus investigations soon take on a very real turn. Daniel lives his life in the shadows of Melbourne’s gangster world. He’s a dangerous man, but he’d do anything for Evie. Just as happiness is in their grasp, an investigation in a house called Blue Waters goes very wrong. Evie’s past is catching up with her, and Daniel may not be able to save her.

The relationship between trauma and mental health is now widely recognised, but survivors and professionals alike remain confused about how to best treat it. In Reclaim, through a series of case studies and expert analysis, Dr Ahona Guha explores complex traumas, how survivors can recover, and the nature of those who perpetrate harm.

On the morning of her wedding, 24-year-old Beth Shaw drives down the peninsula to the Portsea Hotel. She is uneasy and confused because she has just learnt something devastating about her fiancé, Jordan, that completely changes her view of him. As Beth’s old schoolmates and her relatives arrive for the big day at the bayside idyll, Beth contemplates her childhood in suburbia. She worshipped the school relay runners, one of whom was Jordan’s high school sweetheart. Painful memories of earlier disloyalties and betrayals resurface.

After more than ten years away, Australian soap star Ellie Hughes returns to the small country town of Hope Junction, determined to remain anonymous while caring for her injured godmother, Matilda. But word spreads fast in the tight-knit community. It isn't long before the people of Hope are gossiping about the real reason for Ellie's visit and why she broke the heart of golden boy Flynn Quartermaine all those years ago. Soon Ellie and Flynn are thrown back together again, forced to deal with the unresolved emotions between them. For Ellie is not the only one with secrets.

Winter 1852. Adam has just returned from the Californian goldfields and is heading for Bendigo in Victoria, the new El Dorado. He comes across Ella, injured, penniless and with only the clothes she is wearing. Adam is the son of a convict with the determination and intelligence to ‘better’ himself. Despite her current circumstances, it is obvious to him that Ella is a lady, and although Adam might believe himself as good as any man, the class divide remains.