Showing results by narrator " Katy Sobey" in All Categories

London, 1321: In a small shop in Paternoster Row, three people are drawn together around the creation of a magnificent book, an illuminated manuscript of prayers, a book of hours. Even though the commission seems to answer the aspirations of each one of them, their own desires and ambitions threaten its completion. As each struggles to see the book come into being, it will change everything they have understood about their place in the world. In many ways, this is a story about power—it is also a novel about the place of women in the roiling and turbulent world of the early fourteenth century.

Fleetwood Shuttleworth is 17 years old, married and pregnant for the fourth time. But as the mistress at Gawthorpe Hall, she still has no living child, and her husband, Richard, is anxious for an heir. When Fleetwood finds a letter she isn't supposed to read from the doctor who delivered her third stillbirth, she is dealt the crushing blow that she will not survive another pregnancy. Then she crosses paths by chance with Alice Gray, a young midwife. Alice promises to help her give birth to a healthy baby and to prove the physician wrong.

Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is. Modelling isn't a surefire route to popularity. Neither is making endless lists.

The people you love don't expect you to transform into someone else. Statistically you are more likely to not meet your Australian ex-boyfriend in Australia than bump into him there. So on the trip of a lifetime Down Under, Harriet's to-do lists are gone, and it's Nat's time to shine!

London, 1879. Della Rose scans the crowds until she finds her target. A well-dressed gentleman with a fine gold watch. Stealing it will be easy. Everyone knows she has the quickest hands in the notorious Seven Dials. The gentleman’s name is Cole Winthrop and he’s been watching her for a while, waiting to see whether the scandalous things people say about her are true. Because if they are, he needs her help. Something was stolen from him long ago. And only a thief can get it back. But to do so, Della must first learn how to walk, talk, ride and flirt like a lady.

Florence, 1943. As the bells toll in the solemn dark streets and enemy soldiers loiter by the city’s beautiful bridges, schoolgirl Gabriella is racked with guilt. She is ashamed of the crush she had on the soldier with raven-black hair, a crush that allowed a secret notebook to fall into the hands of the enemy. Faced with her brother’s haunted eyes and the prospect of never seeing her father again, Gabriella is determined to make things right. She seeks out her old schoolfriend Stefanina, an unlikely member of the Italian resistance with her beautiful curls and scarlet ribbon.

Harriet Manners knows almost every fact there is. She knows duck-billed platypuses don't have stomachs. She knows that 14 squirrels were once detained as spies. She knows that both chess and Snakes and Ladders were invented in the same country. And for once, Harriet knows exactly how her life should go. She's got it all planned out. Though her friends seem less than happy, Harriet is determined to Make Things Happen! If only everyone else would stick to the script....

To Philomena McCarthy, being a police officer means never turning your back on someone in trouble. So when a decorated detective beats his girlfriend and the case is covered up, Phil secretly helps her. But as Phil lets her new friend deeper into her life, sinister things start happening. And by the time she's truly afraid, it's already too late . . .

Harriet Manners knows many facts. And she knows everything there is to know about Paris...except what to do when you're the hottest new model at Fashion Week. Can Harriet find her je ne sais quoi, or will it be sacré bleu! on the runway? Find out in this hilarious summer-special Geek Girl novella from number one best-selling author Holly Smale.

Alex Mullins knows she is one of the lucky ones. When a fatal coach crash at her school reunion killed several of her classmates, she was saved from a grisly fate. She is haunted by what she thinks she saw that night - a vision of a skeletal woman, known by the locals as the Bonehead - a woman who brings bad luck to all that see her. Now a police officer in Gloucestershire, Alex fights to overcome the past by helping other people. But when her path crosses with someone who was there that fateful night, her new life begins to unravel at the seams.

In Second World War Bath, young, naïve wireless engineer Will meets Austrian refugee Elsa Klein: she is sophisticated, witty and worldly, and at last his life seems to make sense . . . until, soon after, the couple's home is bombed, and Will awakes from the blast to find himself alone. No one has heard of Elsa Klein. They say she never existed.

All I want for Christmas is...a new Geek Girl story! Harriet Manners knows a lot about Christmas. She knows that every year Santa climbs down 91.8 million chimneys. She knows that Rudolph the red-nosed reindeer was almost definitely a girl. She knows that the first artificial Christmas trees were made out of goose feathers. But this Christmas is extra special for Harriet, because four days ago she had her First Ever Kiss. Now she just needs to work out what's supposed to happen next....

Best seller The Oyster Catcher is Jo Thomas' first irresistibly feel-good novel, set on the coast of Ireland. Dooleybridge, County Galway: the last place Fiona Clutterbuck expects to end up, alone, on her wedding night. But after the words 'I do' have barely left her mouth, that's exactly where she is - with only her sequinned shoes and a camper van for company. One thing is certain: Fi can't go back. So when the opportunity arises to work for a brooding local oyster farmer, Sean Thornton, she jumps at the chance.

Annie Trebarwith is happily settled in Salt Bay with her beloved great-aunt Alice and gorgeous boyfriend Josh Pasco. Snow is in the air, and Christmas is just around the corner. But when the father she’s never met, aging rock god Barry, turns up with the half-sister Annie didn’t know existed, life suddenly gets complicated. Barry and Storm are soon clashing with the entire village, and their antics are even driving a wedge between Annie and Josh.

After yet another failed romance, twenty-six-year-old Callie Fulbright is giving up on love. She’s determined to throw all her efforts into her very own, brand-new café: the Cosy Kettle. Serving hot tea, cherry tarts and a welcoming smile to the friendly locals proves to be the perfect distraction, and Callie feels a flush of pride at the fledgling business she’s built. But her new-found confidence is soon put to the test when her gorgeous ex reappears in the quaint little village.

Brooke is delighted when Oliver decides to rent her old family home with his three-year-old son, Finley. Finally someone to bring happiness to the run-down house across the street. They seem like the perfect tenants, but Brooke is a little unnerved when they move in with just a single bag between them. Where are their belongings?

An intense and inspiring story of sporting triumph, from World, Commonwealth and National racing champion and Olympic silver medalist Lizzie Armitstead. On the eve of the 2016 Olympic Games, the biggest moment of her life, Lizzie Armitstead's career was throw n into turmoil. After being cleared to ride the Games at the final hour following a successful court appeal to overturn an alleged missed drugs test, the ensuing leak and backlash threatened to engulf her.

Art expert Emma Lindhal is anxious when she's asked to appraise the antiques in the infamous manor house of one of Sweden's wealthiest families, on the island of Storholmen, where a young woman was murdered nine years earlier, her killer never found. As she goes about her painstaking work and one shocking discovery yields clues that lead to another, Emma becomes determined to uncover the secrets of the house and its occupants. When the lifeless body of another young woman is found in the icy waters surrounding the island, Detective Karl Rosén arrives to investigate.

VE Day 1945: as victory bells ring out across the country, war bride Ellie Burgess’ happiness is overshadowed by grief. Her charismatic Newfoundlander husband Thomas is still missing in action. Until a letter arrives explaining Thomas is back at home on the other side of the Atlantic recovering from his injuries.

Maude is the daughter of witches. She spent her childhood running wild with her best friend, Odette, weaving stories of girls who slayed dragons and saved princes. Then Maude grew up and lost her magic—and her best friend. These days, magic is toothless, reduced to glamour patches and psychic energy drinks found in supermarkets and shopping malls. Odette has always hungered for forbidden, dangerous magic, and two weeks ago she went searching for it. Now she’s missing, and everyone says she’s dead. Everyone except Maude.

Abandoned by her beloved Cleopatra and an indifferent father, young Arsinoe must fight for her survival in the bloodthirsty royal court when her half sister, Berenice, seizes Egypt's throne. Even as the quick-witted girl wins Berenice's favor, a new specter haunts her days - dark dreams that have a habit of coming true.