Showing results by narrator "Laoise Sweeney" in All Categories

There’s something in the lake at Wren Hall. At least, that’s what the locals say. Not that Meg cares much about the rumors. When she’s asked to spend Halloween weekend at the Ireland retreat of the wealthy Wren twins, she recognizes the invitation for exactly what it is: her last, and only, chance to save her spot at Greyscott’s, the exclusive British art school she attended on scholarship until last summer. Clever, beautiful, and talented, the twins are the pride of Greyscott’s, and kindhearted Lottie Wren was once Meg’s closest friend. But not anymore.

What will the end of the world look like? Will it be an old man slowly turned to gold, flowers raining from the sky, or a hole cut through the wire fencing that keeps the monsters out? Is it someone you love wearing your face, or a good old fashioned inter-dimensional summoning? Does it sound like a howl outside the window, or does it look like coming home?

Yorkshire. 1649. Caragh has hidden her true name and her Irish identity, and since her family fled Ireland in secret they have been proud to own land of their own in England. But one morning, Caragh’s father tells her that they must leave their beloved home as it is no longer safe for them to stay. That morning, Caragh hears shots fired. When she returns to the cottage, she finds her family murdered by Lemuel Lane, a wealthy Protestant who has taken it upon himself to rid the area of anyone with Catholic sympathies.

Ella Matthews has it all. A beautiful house, a charming husband and a precious baby daughter – her life has pretty much turned out exactly as she planned. But when Ella’s mother tragically dies, her perfect life starts to crack. Her mother had been harbouring a life-long secret. Ella has a sister – an older sister – called Colleen. Excited by the thought of no-longer being an only child, Ella can’t wait to find her.

Sea State is, on the one hand, a portrait of an overlooked industry, and a fascinating subculture in its own right: ‘offshore’ is a way of life for generations of British workers, primarily working-class men. Offshore is also a potent metaphor for a lot of things we might rather keep at bay—class, masculinity, the North-South divide, the transactional nature of desire, the terrible slipperiness of the ladder that could lead us towards (or away from) real security, just out of reach...

At the illustrious Greyscott Academy, reputation is everything. For Meg, the daughter of the school's janitor, the rules are simple: keep your head down, don't step on any rich kids' toes and stay invisible until graduation. That is, until the glamorous Wren twins - the beautiful, troubled Lottie and the magnetic Sebastien - decide to take Meg under their gilded wings. But not all that glitters is gold. After a disastrous incident at Greyscott's famous Midsummer Ball, Meg finds herself on the outs.