Showing results by narrator "Emma Powell" in All Categories

Of all the weavers of magic, there is none like Lord Dunsany. During his long lifetime he wrote more than 60 books including novels, plays, poetry collections and most memorably, innumerable exotic and fantastical short stories. Here is the very best of Dunsany's extraordinarily evocative tales of Faerie, of dreamworlds and of magic.

1938. As England awaits the outbreak of war, Juliet Winterton journeys from the Mediterranean to the Essex countryside to begin her life as the beautiful young wife of a London jeweller. But beneath her husband's intelligence and ambition lies a cruel and ruthless man. And when dashing politician Gillis Sinclair comes to stay at Marsh Court, Juliet is drawn to his irresistible charm. So begins a passionate affair that will have consequences far beyond anything Juliet imagines.

The ponies of Pemberley Stables have been bound by magic, and each of them is trapped in time. Can two brave girls help get them back? Sparkle the white pony has been magicked to be messy and can’t stop rolling in mud. But can Olivia and Eliza help break the spell that is binding her and give her a magical makeover in time for the royal wedding?

Million Love Songs sees Sunday Times Top Three best seller Carole Matthews at her most fabulous. Feel-good and full of emotion, Carole will make your heart sing with this glorious listen. After splitting up with her cheating ex, Ruby Brown is ready for a change. She's single again for the first time in years, and she's going to dive into this brave new world with a smile on her face and a spring in her step. The last thing she's looking for is a serious relationship.

Evelyn Pendragon is spirited but lonely and largely ignored by her parents, whose attentions are taken up with her brother, Nicholas: the expected heir to the family’s Cornish estate and the one who will carry on the Pendragon name. Stifled by her aristocratic existence, Evelyn finds companionship in an unlikely place when she befriends Drake Vennor, an apprentice gardener on the estate. But when Evelyn’s life is thrown into turmoil by a tragedy, she realises just how much she has come to rely on Drake.

Summer has arrived and it's over a year since strangers Abigail and Edward bought Winfield Hall at auction and restored it together. Now, two new tenants are about to join them at their beautiful Georgian home. Workaholic Harry Freeman has forgotten what it is to relax so when he meets healer, Aura Arden, and learns to meditate with her, he can't believe how good he feels and he soon finds himself falling for her. But, with her bare feet and crystal beads, Aura's not a big hit with Harry's old-fashioned parents, and he finds himself torn between the people he loves most in the world.

Coworkers Ruby and Harry are in love - but they’re married to other people. They decide to tell their spouses that their marriages are over and to start a new life together. Ruby has wanted to leave her controlling husband for a while, so she tells him she’s leaving and waits at the hotel where she and Harry are to meet. But Harry never shows up. Suddenly, Ruby has lost everything.

Poor little Susie. A beautiful dreamer, she imagined herself happy in a rose-covered cottage, only to find herself mistress of a great damp castle and wife to the elderly Earl of Blackhall. Luck, not the lecherous earl, contrived to spare her, and by her wedding night she was transformed to a wealthy young widow. But her trials had just begun.

Before Ellen, things were easier and less complicated. They were either good or bad, right or wrong, black or white, and I understood the difference. Since Ellen, everything has been coloured in shades of grey. From the author of The Secrets Between Us, part of the 2012 Richard and Judy Summer Reads, comes this dark, thrilling novel that is perfect for your book group. It's set 20 years ago against a backdrop of dreamy Cornish summers, a place where childhood friendship becomes young love, where love becomes obsession, and where obsession ultimately ends in betrayal and a tragic death.

Sally was an honoured guest in a palatial country home. Aunt Mabel, the lovelorn columnist of Home Chats magazine, had been summoned to prevent the Duchess of Dartware's son, Paul, from a marriage that others believed a fate worse than death. Who would have guessed that behind Aunt Mabel's acid pen and ageless wisdom lurked the real 18-year-old Sally Blane, determined to make the handsome marquess her own! But how could she compete, wearing false wrinkles and a white wig?

Daisy Jenkins never expected to be anything more than a trespasser on the idyllic lawns of Marsden Castle. Then suddenly she was admitted into the seemingly magic circle of the Earl and Countess of Nottenstone, where she awaited the arrival of the notorious Lord Chatterton; her father - a stranger whose very name was foreign to her. She was suddenly Daisy Chatterton, surrounded by aristocratic sharks who seemed to both court as well as mock her. And why did the elegant Duke of Oxenden offer his protection to this newcomer who made him laugh at the very word love?

Maggie Macleod was weary of life with a soul sickness that ate into every fiber of her being. In a mad way, it did not seem strange to her that she should be on the way to High Court to stand trial for the murder of her husband. Her marriage seemed to have been one long dreary desert lit by flares of cruelty.

When war is declared in September 1939, Rosie Mitchell reluctantly returns from London to the Somerset mining town of Hillsbridge to be with her widowed mother. She had fled to the city some years earlier to escape the heartache and shame of a disastrous end to her relationship with the man she has always loved, and still does. Now she will once more be brought face to face with him, and with her rival and childhood friend, Anne Hastings.

Looking up at the departures board in Heathrow airport, her flight to New York boarding soon, she knows that getting on that plane changes everything. Her life in London has grown stale, her relationship with boyfriend Dom has run its course, and New York has always been her dream. But it’s a risk – she’ll miss her parents, her friends, her job. What if Bea could live both lives? In one she goes back home for Christmas, and in another she heads to the Big Apple.

It’s December and Jax Hudson doesn’t mind the cold. He’s still wearing shorts and walking barefoot on the beach. He’s looking forward to spending Christmas with his girlfriend until she unexpectantly calls time on their relationship. Alone and feeling very sorry for himself, Jax accepts an invitation to a Christmas Eve party and bumps into Phoebe Bishop who is still mortified about kissing him in the summer. As the first snow flurries delight the party guests, the festive joy soon turns to disaster when a snowstorm knocks out the island's power.

Raised in the grandeur of Muntham Court, young Millicent has always felt like the black sheep of her family. Between a vindictive mother and a conceited older sister, her only ally is her doting father, Charles. Brought up in the traveller community and always on the move, Lena’s life has never been settled, but it has always been happy thanks to the support of her loving mother. When it is revealed that Lena is Charles’s illegitimate daughter, Milly finally has a chance at true sisterhood.

Chrissie loves London, her job as an events manager and her daughters Scarlet (loud, vegan, activist) and Ruby (quiet, musician, boffin). She even loves her husband, Rob, despite him deciding to cycle across Africa. For a year. But Chrissie is stressed and overworked, so when her mum calls her home to Devon to help with the struggling family vineyard, she is almost relieved. Chrissie gives herself a year: if she can make it until then, maybe they can celebrate as a family with their own fizz? But adjusting to West Country life takes more than she bargained for....

Childhood friends and cousins Leo and Alice had imagined their whole lives playing out on their beloved Devon beach. But one night when they are teens, sitting on the sand beneath the stars, Alice tells Leo a secret that must never be shared with anybody else...then packs her bag and flees. Leo is left to build his own life - without Alice. He surrounds himself with other family and friends and on the whole is content and fulfilled. But he is left with a sense of what - or who - is missing.

Cecile has been raised to a life of privilege at Polruan House, by her widowed father and aunt. Now she's of age, they are determined that she make a proper match, but Cecile's heart belongs to their coachman, Sam - most definitely not suitable marriage material. When Sam turns to his friend, smuggler Zach Carver, for help eloping with Cecile, Zach tells of a recent encounter with Lise, a beautiful but poor girl in St Ives, who is the mirror image of Cecile.

Cornwall, 1895. Grace Kellow is a young woman with a strong sense of who she is and where she comes from. As the daughter of a well-respected Cornish dairy owner Daniel Kellow, her existence in the village of Trehale is comfortable and peaceful. But then handsome Talek Danning comes striding over Hel Tor, and soon after his arrival Grace is hit with a revelation that leaves her questioning her identity and her place in the Trehale community. In her hour of need, Talek and his sister, Amelia, offer Grace sanctuary - but wherever Grace runs, her secret will follow....