Showing results by narrator "Billie Fulford-Brown" in All Categories

Who doesn’t love a good Happily Ever After? The Cursed City is now the Blessed City, with its residents’ curses removed. Lena is now fully human, as are the rest of the giants, and together they live in peace with all the other humans in the city, all their differences now gone. And sure, Jin might have disappeared, but really, genie magic only caused trouble. At least, that’s what the magic spell in Lena’s head is telling her. But somewhere inside, she knows that this new world isn’t right, that no real Happily Ever After would take her giant heritage from her…and that Jin is in danger.

In a dissatisfied world, looking back to ancient wisdom can shed light on fresh solutions. For years, many of us have upheld the Stoic concept of ‘no pain, no gain.’ But in a time when we are burdened by the fear of failure and outsize ambitions, perhaps we should stop skirting around the edges of our problems via punishing exercise regimes, productivity apps and early morning starts. According to the pleasure-centric philosophy of Epicureanism, life can be good without great sacrifice, and temptation isn’t always the enemy.

Meet Rachel, the beautiful bride with big plans for the perfect day! The venue is a castle and the dress is designer. It’s just a shame her husband is a rat. Maddie and Sally have only one thing in common - they both love the same man! Beth is a newly single mum with a mystery baby daddy. Surely the father isn’t someone the girls all know? And then there’s Jane, the glue holding them all together, but being dumped doesn’t make her the happiest bridesmaid...especially with gorgeous flatmate Freddie complicating things.

Everyone at Coal Hill School has become obsessed with completing exciting dares posted on a strange new website, run by the charismatic vlogger Seraphin. Soon, the challenges become more dangerous and competitive, yet even broken arms and fistfights don't stop the craze for them. And then students start to disappear.... As April's fragile group of friends starts to fracture, she decides she's going to uncover the truth behind this site herself.

In her mid-30s and newly free from a terrible relationship, Tabitha Lasley quit her job at a London magazine, packed her bags, and poured her savings into a six-month lease on an apartment in Aberdeen, Scotland. She decided to make good on a long-deferred idea for a book about oil rigs and the men who work on them. Why oil rigs? She wanted to see what men were like with no women around.

Adaptation is everything. Inge Lohmark is well aware of that; after all, she's been teaching biology for more than 30 years. But nothing will change the fact that her school is going to be closed in four years: in this dwindling town in the eastern German countryside, there are fewer and fewer children. Inge's husband, who was a cattle inseminator before the reunification, is now breeding ostriches. Their daughter, Claudia, emigrated to the U.S. years ago and has no intention of having children. Everyone is resisting the course of nature that Inge teaches every day in class.

In the Old Kingdom, a land of ancient and often terrible magics, 18-year-old orphan Terciel learns the art of necromancy from his great-aunt Tizanael. But not to raise the Dead, rather to lay them to rest. He is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, and Tizanael is the Abhorsen, the latest in a long line of people who make sure the Dead do not return to life. Across the Wall, in a country where magic usually does not work, 19-year-old Elinor lives a secluded life. Her mother is a tyrant who is feared by all despite her sickness and impending death...but perhaps there is even more to fear from that.

Out of the blue, Susie Jones is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago. But when they meet, Anna's home life sounds distinctly strange to Susie and her husband Gabe. And when Anna's adoptive parents seem to overreact to the fact she contacted them at all, Susie becomes convinced that Anna needs her help. But is Anna's own behaviour simply what you'd expect from someone recovering from a traumatic childhood? Or are there other secrets at play here - secrets Susie has also been hiding for the last 15 years?

The respectable middle-class Twist family is settling in for their usual Sunday lunch. Husband and wife Roger and Becky are there, along with their daughter, Lucy, and her husband, Frank. But then they're joined by an uninvited guest. His name is John, and he knows everything about them—including their darkest secrets. After he manipulates his way into the house, John soon has them bound at their wrists and ankles. But what is the agenda of this twisted stranger?

Liverpool 1940. Alice King stands on the deck of SS Carlisle, waiting to escort a group of children to Canada as overseas evacuees. She is finally doing her bit for the war. In London, as the Blitz bombs rain down and the threat of German invasion looms, Lily Nicholls anxiously counts the days for news of her son and daughter’s safe arrival.

In Brannland, terrifying beasts called Umbrae roam freely once the sun sets, so venomous that a single bite will kill a full-grown adult—and lately, with each day that passes, their population seems to double. The only people who can destroy them are immune children like Nora, who are recruited at the age of seven to leave their families behind and begin training at a retrofitted castle called Noye’s Hill. But despite her immunity, Nora’s father refused to let her go.

Emma Oxley and Nellie Yarrow have been inseparable their whole lives. Ever since they reinvented themselves, changing their names and wiping clean their digital footprints, they have made a game of following wherever the next adventure leads and challenging themselves to thefts, street cons, and mind games. Adhering to only two rules—they will only con men, and only ones who deserve it—Emma and Nellie are secure in their reputation as the most trustworthy swindlers on the European black market. Until suddenly, they must play to save their own lives.

A spin-off from the bestselling Blackthorn series by Lindsay J. Pryor, set in Lowtown, the neighbouring district to Blackthorn. The product of a brutal class system, the dark, gritty world of Lowtown will grip you and never let you go. Every few days the handsome stranger comes into the café in Lowtown for an hour at a time. Most of the time he keeps himself to himself - one drink and he leaves. Sometimes people meet with him but about what remains elusive, the edge of mystery and danger adding to his allure....

From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the magical gothic halls of the Scholomance trilogy to the fairy tale worlds of Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik's most beloved worlds. Within this anthology, we move from ancient Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages and the Black Death, and into the modern era.

In a world filled with stunning clones Mina Hart is Blemished. Her genes are worthless and that takes away her rights: her right to an education, her right to a normal life, and her right to have a child. Mina keeps a dangerous secret which she never thought she could share until she meets Angela on her first day at St Jude's School.

Centuries and centuries ago, the Vale was split in two in a war between witches. Ever since, an evil darkness has been climbing, climbing, climbing out of the Break, infecting everything it touches. The people of the Vale fight it with discs made of lightning - and with an ancient spell. Brier Skystone is the youngest, most talented lightning harvester the Vale’s ever seen. Her twin sister, Thorn, is a sensitive artist who’s braver than even she knows. And young Queen Celestyna Hightower is determined to be Mender of the Break.

In this collection of nine works of short fiction, Sarah Hall uses her piercing insight to plumb the depth of the female experience and the human soul. A husband's wife transforms into a vulpine in "Mrs. Fox", winner of the BBC Short Story Prize. In "Case Study 2", a social worker struggles with a foster child raised in a commune. A new mother runs into an old lover in "Luxury Hour". Hall has composed nine wholly original pieces - works of fiction that will resonate long after the final word is heard.

What do Christians hope for? To leave this wicked world and go to 'heaven'? For the 'kingdom of God' to grow gradually on earth? What do we mean by the 'resurrection of the body'? And how does all this affect the way we live in the here and now? Tom Wright addresses these questions in this lively and thoroughly biblical book. He describes the persistent confusion about 'the last things' in both Church and world.

After Lia’s old car breathes its last, the single mum must reluctantly take the bus to work… and face unwarranted attention from a troublesome teenager. It’s all too much to take—she’s been depressed since her fiancé’s death and even quit her beloved women’s football team. But it’s Happy Car Sharers to the rescue after her friends get her set up on the app. Mateo, meanwhile, has recently moved to town, and his long walk to the train station is a literal pain due to an ankle injury. Soon he and Lia are riding each morning with a bossy driver and a rotation of colorful fellow passengers.

Gemma is only just holding it together - she's a single parent, she's turning 40 and her seven-year-old daughter has drawn a cruelly accurate picture which locates Gemma's boobs somewhere around her knees. So when her new next-door neighbour, Becky, suggests that Gemma should start dating again, it takes a lot of self-control not to laugh in her face. But Becky is very persuasive and before long Gemma finds herself juggling a full-time job, the increasingly insane demands of the school mums' Facebook group and the tricky etiquette of a new dating world.