Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

Rosie Phillips could be forgiven for not being immediately won over by Tanner Bryant. After all, their first meeting involves him knocking a tray of prawn cocktail over her very expensive dress at a charity event in the grounds of Lucerne Lodge. But little does Rosie know how pivotal that awkward first meeting will be, or how the Lodge will become the unexpected backdrop for a summer spent finding out who she really is, and who she could be.

In A Clergyman's Daughter, Orwell leads us through a landscape of unemployment, poverty and hunger, where Dorothy's faith is challenged by a social reality that changes her life.

The Missing Ingredient is the first book to consider the intrinsic yet often forgotten role of time in creating the flavors and textures we love. Through a series of encounters with ingredients, producers, cooks, artisans, and chefs, acclaimed author of The Chef’s Library Jenny Linford shows how, time and again, time itself is the invisible ingredient in our most cherished recipes.

She was a madam in a brothel, then a gangster's moll. Now Annie Carter owns the East End of London, and God help anybody that crosses her…. It's 1970, London, and there's a killer on the loose. When gang boss Annie Carter gets a call, suddenly it's personal. A close friend of hers is the latest victim, and another is in the frame for the murder. With the hated Delaney gang still causing trouble, and NY mob boss Don Constantine Barolli's family making no secret of the fact that they hate her, she senses a feud blowing up in all their faces very soon.

On August 12th each year, members of the upper class retire to their country estates for grouse-shooting season. Frances Wynn, the widowed Countess of Harleigh however, is expecting to spend a quiet few months in London. Instead, she's immersed in a shocking mystery when a friend, Mary Archer, is found murdered. Her cousin Charles is in the spotlight for the murder, along with dozens of others. It seems Mary had countless notes hidden in her home, detailing private indiscretions of society's elite.

Sisters Molly and Beth Winters thought the remote clifftop house would be the perfect place to hide away after their mother’s brutal murder. They were wrong. Because someone from the girls’ past has already found their safe house and he is watching and waiting in the shadows ready to make them pay. Their new home should have been the place the sisters were safe. But no place is safe forever.

Here today. Dead tomorrow? Last night I almost died. A fire consumed the hotel room where my best friend, Emily, and I slept. Emily was killed. But I can't afford to cry, to grieve. It was meant to be me. And he'll be coming for my daughter next. The press thinks it was me that died. At best that gives me 24 hours. Twenty-four hours to find Polly and disappear. Twenty-four hours to stay alive.

Number one best-selling author Jill Mansell talks with sensitivity and optimism about love, loss and new beginnings in To the Moon and Back. Not to be missed by fans of Jojo Moyes and Veronica Henry. When Ellie Kendall tragically loses her husband, she feels her life is over. But eventually she's ready for a new start - at work, that is. She doesn't need a new man when she has a certain secret visitor to keep her company.... Moving to North London, Ellie meets neighbour Roo, who has a secret of her own.

Julia and Lauren are sisters, but definitely not best friends. They rarely even speak to each other. But when Lauren's fortieth birthday is ruined by her latest boyfriend dumping her, Julia feels a sudden and unexpected burst of sympathy, and offers to go with her on the special holiday he'd paid for as a birthday present. Unfortunately the holiday turns out not to be a glamorous hotel in a holiday hotspot, but a self-catering cottage in a tiny village called Deepcombe, in the middle of Dartmoor. And it's January.

In Australia, Simone has been widowed for four years and is ready to make a more interesting life. Her friends are driving her mad introducing her to eligible men; her busy daughters are just the opposite, wanting her available for babysitting. When she is offered a house swap with a couple in the UK she takes it, not without some trepidation. In the UK, Russ has just taken possession of his new house and wants only peace and quiet after a few months of rehab following a serious injury. Can these two help one another avoid meddling friends and relatives and build new lives?

Venice, 1943: The world is at war, and Stella Jilani is leading a double life. By day, she works in the lion’s den as a typist for the Reich; by night, she risks her life as a messenger for the Italian resistance. Against all odds, Stella must impart Nazi secrets, smuggle essential supplies and produce an underground newspaper on her beloved typewriter. But when German commander General Breugal becomes suspicious, it seems he will stop at nothing to find the mole, and Stella knows her future could be in jeopardy.

Art dealer Ruby Lambert is on a mission to lose her baby weight ahead of her sister Olivia’s wedding in six months’ time. To add fuel the fire, Ruby has also been ‘honoured’ with the unenviable task of being head bridesmaid. So determined not to let Olivia down, she signs up to a swanky new diet and fitness club, The Bluebell Booty Busters. Uncertain of what to expect, Ruby meets Harry Small, a wealthy local businessman who joins Booty Busters, after pressure from his wife, who’s worried about his health and growing waistline.

Clemmie has a problem: she's had almost as many jobs as she's had birthdays and her love life is on the critical list. But with the big 3-0 looming, she's determined to transform herself from unemployed singleton to loved-up success.

Laura Hardy is recovering from a traumatic car crash. The incident proved fatal for her mother, and whilst Laura's life was spared, she is left injured, weak and grieving for her loss. Her brother, Edward, resolves that accommodating Laura at his family home, Four Winds, will provide the respite she so desperately needs. But as soon as she steps foot over the threshold, she is assailed by feelings of choking and terror, engulfed by a sense of despair.

Susannah was a successful writer for Tomorrow magazine, but the new managing editor - the dynamic Hazard Maine - made it clear that he thought she was cheating her way to the top. It didn't help their working relationship, either, that Susannah found him devilishly attractive. So attractive that she allowed him to believe the worst of her, so that she wouldn’t be tempted to fall in love with him! Why, when he despised her, did he insist on singling her out?

Charley would do anything to keep her wages coming in to support her impoverished sisters and nephews -even if that meant working in Italy for the demanding and commanding Duke Raphael Della Striozzi. Raphael couldn’t see how a woman so artistic would be seen dead in her cheap high-street clothes. It was straight off to a designer boutique for her! But it was in Raphael’s bedroom that Charlotte’s complete transformation took place - from shy, dowdy virgin to confident, beautiful...mistress!

1657. The youngest daughter of Oliver Cromwell, 18-year-old Frances is finding her place at England's new centre of power. Following the turmoil of Civil War, a fragile sense of stability has returned to the country. Her father has risen to the unprecedented position of Lord Protector of the Commonwealth, and Frances has found herself transported from her humble childhood home to the sumptuous palaces of Hampton Court and Whitehall, where she dreams of romance.

Abbey Carter, her boyfriend Sam and their trusty canine companion, Lady, relish living in the picturesque village of Wishwell at the edge of their beloved Primrose Woods. The woods and the country park are full of activity as the festive season approaches. Lizzie Baker is flat out at the Treetops café, serving all sorts of winter warmers, festive goodies and lashings of hot chocolate. And when her daughter and grandchildren arrive to stay, the run up to Christmas is set to be even more magical than she had expected.

The dowager Viscountess Wingate needs someone to sponsor her niece, Kate, for presentation to Queen Victoria. Frances—who understands society's quirks and constraints as only an outsider can—is the perfect candidate. Kate is charming and intelligent, though perhaps not quite as sheltered as she might first appear. More worrying to Frances is the viscountess's sudden deterioration.

Walking through London's West End after a night at the theatre, Amory Ames and her husband, Milo, run into old friends, the wealthy investor and former actor Gerard Holloway and his wife, Georgina. When Holloway invites them to the dress rehearsal of a new play he is directing, Amory readily accepts. However, she is shocked to learn that Holloway has cast his mistress, actress Flora Bell, in the lead role.