Showing results by narrator "Penelope Rawlins" in All Categories

At 23 Alice Hare leaves England for New York. She becomes fixated on Mizuko Himura, a Japanese writer living in New York, whose life story has strange parallels to her own and whom she believes is her "Internet twin". What seems to Mizuko like a chance encounter with Alice is anything but - after all, in the age of connectivity, nothing is coincidence. Their subsequent relationship is doomed from the outset, exposing a tangle of lies and sexual encounters as three families across the globe collide.

One day changes Jody's life forever. She has shut herself down, haunted by her memories and unable to trust anyone. But then she meets Abe, the perfect stranger next door, and suddenly life seems full of possibility and hope. One day changes Mags' life forever. After years of estrangement from her family, Mags receives a shocking phone call. Her brother Abe is in hospital, and no one knows what happened to him. She meets his fiancée, Jody, and gradually pieces together the ruins of the life she left behind. But the pieces don't quite seem to fit....

Sophia Beaumont-Brown was an 'it' girl. But now she's in the papers for all the wrong reasons. She's single, sofa surfing and not speaking to her family; only her grandmother has any faith left in her. From her hospital bed, Tilly Beaumont sends Sophia letters about her life: dispatches about wartime England, about family secrets and, finally, about the most beautiful thing she ever owned - a necklace of the most incredible pearls. If Sophia's prepared to listen, she'll unlock the secret story of generations of incredible women.

Gorgeous Rico D'Angelo is single-handedly saving the world, one disadvantaged teen at a time. The opening of his charity café should be enough for him to finally put the regrets of his childhood behind him, but even as the ribbon is cut on opening day it's not enough. Until new hire Neen Cuthbert walks through the door and offers an unexpected blast of sunshine! She's had her fill of misguided do-gooders, but something tells her Rico is different.

A brave, tender novel about who we want to be...and who we really are. Cambridge, 1963. Charlotte is struggling. With motherhood, with the changes marriage and parenthood bring, with losing the time and the energy to paint. Her husband, Henry, wants things to be as they were and can’t face the thought of another English winter. A brochure slipped through the letterbox gives him the answer:

Things are looking up for Penny Robinson. She's kicked her gambling addiction and even started her own business: Princess on a Shoestring, an all-inclusive service for brides-to-be. Penny's got it all under control, that is until a rival planner decides to take her down - one hard-won bride at a time. And when a romantic weekend away has some unexpected consequences, Penny's expectations for her career are brought back down to earth with a bump.

When Sheikh Zahir Ra’if Quarishi took a Western woman as his wife, it caused outrage amongst his people. And marrying Sapphire Marshall turned out to be the biggest mistake of Zahir’s life. Cold and untouchable as her jeweled namesake, Sapphire fled the kingdom before sharing the marriage bed, leaving Zahir to face the shame alone – and his bank account five million dollars lighter….

Twenty-five-years ago, four-year-old Justin Manning disappeared. Two months later his body was found in a shallow grave in the woods, shocking the small town of Dove Point. Janet Manning has been haunted by her brother’s death since the day she lost sight of him in the park. Now, a detective and a reporter are asking questions, raising new suspicions and opening old wounds. But if the man jailed for the murder is innocent, who did kill Justin?

When newlywed Penny begins some casual wedding planning, she only wants to help women afford the big day of their dreams. But taming bridezillas turns out to be a full-time occupation, and what began as a hobby becomes a nightmare. Soon Penny is struggling to keep her day job and prevent her own marriage from collapsing: Tired, stressed, and knee-deep in ivory satin, is Penny's life and livelihood hanging by a thread?

Abandoned at the altar, Rosalind Shaw descends into the kind of depression which involves her watching too much daytime TV. After several inebriated months, Ros relocates to St Albans and begins a new life, as part-owner of a bookshop. However, just when Ros begins to feel that life might be improving, her rather hairy neighbour, Daniel, knocks on her door with a bunch of flowers and some rather distressing news....

Mire House is dreary, dark, cold, and infested with midges. But when Emma Dean inherits it from a distant relation, she immediately feels a sense of belonging. It isn't long before Charlie Mitchell, grandson of the original owner, appears claiming that he wants to seek out his family. But Emma suspects he's more interested in the house than his long-lost relations. And when she starts seeing ghostly figures, Emma begins to wonder: Is Charlie trying to scare her away? Or are there darker secrets lurking in the corners of Mire House?

Penny has big dreams for her wedding day. When Mark finally pops the question, it’s the best moment of her life. Until Penny checks her wedding fund and is horrified to discover that she’s somehow gambled away £10,000 playing online bingo! Working under the pretense of surprising Mark with her plans on their big day, operation ‘Don’t Tell the Groom’ rolls into action, with surprising, hilarious and moving results.

Since she was found as a baby, floating in the Thames one foggy night, the web-toed Pearl has been brought up in a brothel known as the House of Mermaids. Cosseted and pampered there, it is only when her 14th birthday approaches that Pearl realises she is to be sold to the highest bidder. Meanwhile, the orphaned twins, Lily and Elijah, have shared an idyllic childhood, raised in a secluded country house with their grandfather. But when Lily and Elijah go on a visit to London, a chance meeting with Pearl will have repercussions for all of them, binding their fates together in a dark and dangerous way....

Hazel Dobson is pleased when she gets temp work at Gough Associates - an architectural company based in a beautiful manor house in Norfolk. The owner Jonathan Gough has a tragic past, despite his wealth and good looks, and has been left with the responsibility of two young sons. There’s a real chance that they could be happy together but some people just don’t want Hazel and Jonathan to be happy…

It's up to the servants of No. 67 Clarges Street to hatch a scheme... and arrange a match! "Oh, to be as beautiful as Euphemia!" sighs plain Jane Hart when she joins her sister at No.67 for the Season, as then Lord Tregarthan might notice her... as she has noticed him and forever lost her heart. And while it is Euphemia's fate to flit her way through balls and into the arms of a marquis, Jane's is to stay at home... until the Downstairs staff transform the plain Miss into the Season's sensation and send her waltzing into a daring liaison with the man of her dreams!

Love comes home to A House for the Season.When the Duke of Pelham returns to his town house at 67 Clarges Street he is grimly determined to find himself a suitable wife, and love will have nothing to do with his selection.The duke's search is soon disrupted by the arrival in town of Miss Jenny Sutherland - a beautiful but hugely spoilt country girl whose vanity is overwhelming. In fact it was her guardian who brought her to London in the hope her ward will get the put-down she so sorely deserves.

Appearances can be very deceptive...At first, Emily Goodenough and her father, Sir George, are exactly what the servants at No.67 Clarges Street are hoping for: respectable tenants to usher in an uneventful Season. But all is not what it seems and it's not long before Rainbird the butler uncovers their secret: Sir George is an ex-butler and his 'daughter' a runaway chambermaid.Rainbird's resolve is tested, however, when he learns of villainous Sir Edward Kirby's plot to unmask the pair and force his attentions on Emily.

He's just not the marrying kind... Lord Guy Carlton, late of His Majesty's Regiment and weary from the war in France, has only wine, women and song in mind when he rents No.67 Clarges Street for the season. He certainly has no desire for a serious attachment - and as for marriage: never! But Lord Guy Carlton didn't factor in the lovely but very proper Miss Esther Jones. Although one of the richest women in England she is also one of the most innocent which could make her an unwilling victim of the philandering lord.

How do you hold on to a love that is slipping away from you? How do you cope when every kiss is a countdown to goodbye? The first time Molly kissed Ryan, she knew they'd be together forever. But now, six years later, when Ryan kisses her, Molly realises how many of them she wasted - because the future holds something which they never could have predicted....

Out of Sight. When a teenage girl is found beaten and raped in the grounds of a derelict asylum, FBI agent Ren Bryce is called in to assist. But she is soon diverted to a missing persons’ case when an eleven-year-old girl and her teenage babysitter vanish without a trace from their hotel room. Out of Mind. Faced with conflicting evidence and inconsistent witnesses, Ren works obsessively to unravel the dark family secrets at the heart of the case, before it’s too late…