Showing results by narrator "Sophie Dora Hall" in All Categories

As if my mum breaking her hip and being rushed to hospital isn’t shocking enough for one day, now in her post-operative delirium, she’s just told me I’m not her daughter. That she has never been able to have children. The nurse reassures me that people are often confused after a trauma. But I know this woman so well and I can tell there’s a grain of truth in what she says. Which begs the questions: Who am I? Where did I come from? When I dig into the truth, I suddenly stir up a hornet’s nest of secrets, lies – and possibly a crime so unfathomable – that stretches back decades.

Mum passed recently. It was sudden and unexpected. On the cusp of adulthood, my twin sister, Skye, and I are left with decisions to make that will change our lives forever. As identical twins, we’d normally stick together like glue, but anger and grief gets the better of us and we push and pull in different directions. At an impasse, each of us stubbornly gets our wish. Finding myself alone and without the other half of me, I’m desperately lonely. I need a friend. But, when I find that special someone, I know I’ve made a terrible mistake and trusted the wrong person.

Laura wants to shake things up. She’s thirty-eight, and has been living in her parents’ house since her divorce last year. Her siblings seem to have got their lives together: successful careers, happy marriages, beautiful children. Laura’s determined to prove herself. And buying the beautiful Pennycress Inn in the idyllic Cotswolds village of Meadowfield could be just the way to do it. But getting the inn ready for its first guests proves easier said than done!

When Molly Wilson and her two children are forced to leave their old lives behind, will a small rundown shop in the middle of Payton-On-The-Water, a quiet village in the English countryside, offer the fresh start they need? Desperate to immerse herself and her family into village life, Molly begins to host regular Knit and Natter meetups, but she fears she is taking on too much and the reality that she is totally alone is ever present.

When Jenny has the chance to leave her days of sofa surfing behind and move to the beach to run her best friend’s ice cream parlour, she jumps at the opportunity. With no relevant experience, she’s certainly kept busy with learning new skills to manage the ice cream parlour at the same time as juggling motherhood and trying to settle into their new home. But when Nick, her best friend’s ex, comes into her life, ill feelings quickly turn to friendship, leaving them both wanting more.

While many regard her marriage with admiration and a touch of envy, Jane Lytton quietly reaches the shocking conclusion that her relationship with Michael, a successful banker with little time for her – or the nitty-gritty of family life – is failing. Even daring to contemplate leaving Michael is daunting. With no obvious outward signs of any marital problems, family and friends greet news of the predicament with a mixture of anger and uncomprehending sympathy. Forced to accept that she is alone, Jane takes drastic steps that veer her life off course.

When Chrissy Marsden moves her children and menagerie of pets into Corner Cottage, she hopes to put her divorce behind her and have the fresh start she’s been longing for. Just as she feels she is finally getting her life back on track, with a chance encounter at the school gates re-igniting her passion for sewing, a surprise pregnancy throws everything into turmoil. When she is asked to alter a wedding dress, she realises her hobby could become something she could turn into a real career, and an invite to a client’s wedding could be all she needs to bring romance back into her life.

When Kim Reynolds learns how unhappy her daughter is, she realises the perfect remedy is a completely fresh start. Giving up the corporate job she’s worked towards her entire life, Kim is determined to make Berry Grove Bed & Breakfast a success, but more importantly, she’s determined to support her daughter Mia as she settles into her new life. But when Danny, Kim’s childhood sweetheart, turns up, buried feelings and a complicated secret threaten to jeopardise their newly discovered peaceful lifestyle.

After years of juggling long hours at work, studying for her dream vocation and struggling for money, Sadie realises it’s finally time for change. Following her dream to become a florist, Sadie Locke moves her two daughters, Lily and Poppy, into The Flower Shop on Serendipity Lane. But on discovering that her ex-husband’s friend and divorce solicitor, Alex Marshal, works next door, Sadie feels her hopes of a fresh start quickly slipping away. When they’re pushed together at a mutual friend’s wedding, will Sadie and Alex be able to rekindle a lost friendship?

When Pippa’s aunt leaves her a cafe by the beach, it doesn’t take her long to jump at the chance of a new start. Waving goodbye to mounting debt, threatening bailiffs and never-ending shifts at a job she hates, she and her young son, Joshua, prepare for their new life. But as Pippa strives to make her new business a success, the arrival of her ex makes her question everything. Will she succumb to his charms, or will Joe, the local plumber, be able to repair Pippa’s heart?

When Lexi Davies discovers that her father has sold the fishermen’s cottages that she lives in and runs as holiday lets, she is furious and heartbroken. Lexi realises that her whole future at her beloved cottages is now over. New owner, handsome Scottish entrepreneur Oliver Whimsy arrives on the island in a blaze of glory and immediately upsets the locals. When he offers Lexi her old job, she’s unsure whether to accept but needing a roof over her head for the winter, she finds herself stuck between a rock and a hard place. Pride does not pay the bills.

When Sacha Collins, cafe owner and sundae-maker extraordinaire, meets Italian archaeologist, Alessandro Salvatore in Rome, she's grateful to him for being her tour guide. Now he’s turned up in the seaside village where she lives and is setting up a gelateria in direct competition to her retro Summer Sundaes Café. She's only been running her café for two years since taking over from her father. Until now the only other shops on the boardwalk have been a wool shop, an antique shop and a second-hand book shop.

When Megan loses her beloved husband, Rick, in a tragic car accident, she feels like it’s her own life that has ended. She feels too young to be a widow. Walking around the house that had been their home – so quiet without him – nothing feels the same. But at his funeral, she sees a face she doesn’t recognise. A heavily-pregnant young woman, with a sweet heart-shaped face that is somehow a little familiar. This stranger introduces herself as Emily, Rick’s estranged sister. She explains how she’s been searching for her brother for years, but she knows she’s too late now.

After a difficult break-up, Poppy is keen to put the past behind her and what’s better than some relaxing time with her aunt in the picturesque Cornish village of West Par? But life at her aunt Flora’s Dogs’ Home is anything but relaxing. When a poor little pup is stranded at the gates, Poppy takes them for a check up at the local vet, hoping against hope they'll be fine. And there she meets Mack: the vet who is so charming and experienced with the dogs, but selfish and – dare she say it – money-grabbing with his clients.But underneath that cold exterior, she's sure there's more to the story.

Although dog trainer Sally is relatively new to Wagging Tails, the team she works with have quickly become her family and the dogs her friends. But when Andy, the one that got away, turns up for a brief respite from the city, she is at a crossroads. As tempting as a life with him is, she loves her home of West Par, and anyway, she has responsibilities here. Number one on that list is ensuring the dogs' home stays in business. A developer has been sniffing around wanting to buy the land, and the team is worried.

Bookkeeper Megan has always lived life by a set of very rigid rules, but with impending divorce papers on the horizon, she throws herself into a new challenge. She finds solace and purpose in her volunteer work at a dogs’ home but with finances tight, and soon-to-be ex-husband Lyle controlling her purse strings, she might have to trade the work for something more permanent. But spending her time in the fresh countryside air, Megan discovers a glimmer of hope for a new beginning, finding strength, love, and the promise of a brighter tomorrow – and maybe, even possibly, a new romance.

Bella is happiest running her tiny antique business from the front room of her cottage on the boardwalk. To ensure she has enough income coming in, she also rents out two of her bedrooms and is hiding a secret crush on one of her lodgers.

When artist Jools Jones’ new man, Finn Gallichan, leaves the Boardwalk to go travelling for several months she’s not too worried. She has her paintings to keep her busy and helps her grandmother run their second-hand bookshop, Boardwalk Books. She’s happy to wait for Finn’s return, to pick up where they left off, as absence makes the heart grow fonder – right? She’s soon drawn into helping Alan Hidrio trace a copy of a book he wrote years before and meets glass artist Marius Arnesen, who, fascinated by her paintings, offers her a place in an art exhibition.

Travel writer Holly Merriweather knows a fresh start is just what she needs. The break-up with her childhood sweetheart and collapse of their artisan cheese business definitely didn’t help in that department. So Holly’s thrilled to score her dream job at an iconic travel book publisher. She’s ready for sunsets in Marrakech, cocktails on the French Riviera and gondola rides through the Venetian canals. And she’s had enough of men. She’s putting herself and her career first. But of course her new colleague — and the boss’s son — Jack is drop-dead gorgeous.

Portia Fortescue has traded in the hustle and bustle of London to help renovate a magnificent French manor house on the beautiful island of Jersey with her boyfriend Charlie. But what they hoped would be a blissful escape to the chateau turns out to be more of a DIY SOS. As the winter snow sets in, the stress of restoring the derelict building begins to take its toll on their relationship. Portia has known heartbreak before, but thought she’d found her happy-ever-after with Charlie. Then, just as all seems lost, Portia and Charlie discover the warmth of the Boardwalk community.