Showing results by narrator "Avita Jay" in All Categories

Horry Winwood doesn't play by the rules. So when her family are near ruin and her sister is about to enter a loveless marriage to a wealthy man to settle the family debts, young and headstrong Horry proposes to marry him instead. As her new husband's attentions fall elsewhere, Horry feels increasingly unhappy. Then she meets the attractive and dangerous Lord Lethbridge, and her days suddenly become more exciting. But there is bad blood between Horry's husband and Lord Lethbridge, and as complications and deceptions mount, the social tangle grows ever trickier to unpick.

On a private island off the west coast of Scotland, the Agarwals gather for a much-awaited family reunion…Raj, the patriarch and business tycoon, who has six weeks to decide how to split his petrochemicals empire between his three children. They’ve all got secrets that they would die to protect. But only one of them is capable of murder.

In the brief golden years of King Edward VII’s reign, Rosie McCosh and her three very different sisters are growing up in an eccentric household in Kent, with their neighbours the Pitt boys on one side and the Pendennis boys on the other. But their days of childhood adventure are shadowed by the approach of war that will engulf them on the cusp of adulthood. When the boys end up scattered along the Western Front, Rosie faces the challenges of life for those left behind.

Penguin presents the unabridged, downloadable, audiobook edition of The Tea Planter's Wife by Dinah Jefferies, read by Avita Jay. Nineteen-year-old Gwendolyn Hooper is newly married to a rich and charming widower, eager to join him on his tea plantation, determined to be the perfect wife and mother. But life in Ceylon is not what Gwen expected.

Is it a break? Or is it a blip? Liv and Adam are in love. Liv and Adam are supposed to be getting engaged. Until Adam accidently suggests they take a break. And Liv starts thinking.... Friends, family and bystanders all have opinions, and one complication leads to another as Adam and Liv try to muddle through in this hilarious, heartwarming comedy. Are they split up - or are they on a break? What exactly are they allowed to get away with? And, most importantly, what do Liv and Adam really want?

He promised to love her forever, but forever is running out…. 1943: in the ruins of Blitzed London, Stella Thorne and Dan Rosinski fall in love. Sixty years later Dan sends a letter to the house where they shared a brief yet perfect happiness. But Stella has gone, and the letter is opened by Jess. She is captivated by the story of a love affair that burned so bright. Can she help Dan find Stella before it is too late?

Elena and Adam are housesitting in Wimbledon and are instantly seduced by their new upscale surroundings. Sophia and Finn are their beautiful, enigmatic neighbours who invite them into their world. When Sophia proposes a wicked game to Elena whereby they will swap partners in secret, it's not long before Elena starts to experience a sexual awakening that blossoms into an illicit love affair. But Sophia's plans are far more complex and dangerous than Elena could ever have imagined.

As DI Nicola Tanner investigates what appears to be a series of organised killings, her partner, Susan, is brutally murdered, leaving the detective bereft - and vengeful. Taken off the case, Tanner enlists the help of DI Tom Thorne to pursue a pair of ruthless killers and the broker handing out the deadly contracts. As the killers target their latest victim, Thorne takes the biggest risk of his career and is drawn into a horrifying and disturbing world in which families will do anything to protect their honour.

Punk rocker, bird nerd and book lover Rob Bell had a full, happy life. He had a loving wife, a big-bottomed dog named Daisy and a career as a respected science journalist. But beneath the carefully cultivated air of machoism and the need to help other people, he struggled with mental health and a drug addiction that began as a means to self-medicate his illness. In 2015, he ended his life in New Zealand on a winter's night.

Aderyn's ancestral bird is a swan. But she has not transformed for years, not since witnessing the death of her mother. With the benevolent shelter of her mother and her father now lost, Aderyn is at the mercy of her brutal uncle, the King, and his royal court. Driven by revenge and love, she must venture into the malevolent heart of the Citadel in order to seek the truth about the attack that so nearly destroyed her, to fight for the only home she has ever known and for the land she has vowed to protect.

Dr Rea Dharmasena is devastated when she loses out on her dream research job to her med-school rival, Dr Julia Stone. When it comes to light that Julia got the job using Rea's own cutting-edge research, Rea just can't let it go. Until finally, just after a life-changing medical discovery, Julia is found dead. Now Rea has the dream job she's always wanted. A job she would kill for.

What goes through a woman's head while she's having sex? Women on Top of the World is a collection of 51 first person testimonies by 51 women from around the globe, from all ages and from all walks of life. Searingly honest, they reveal their innermost thoughts and feelings during sex to writer Lucy-Anne Holmes. The result is an incredible compendium of true disclosures that are funny and sad, shocking and tender.

Luke is a prisoner condemned for a murder he didn't commit. Abi is a fugitive desperate to free him before magic breaks his mind. But as the Jardines tighten their grip on a turbulent Britain, brother and sister face a fight greater than their own. New alliances and old feuds will remake the nation, leaving Abi and Luke questioning everything - and everyone - they know. And as Silyen Jardine hungers for the forgotten Skill of the legendary Wonder King, the country's darkest hour approaches.

Married to a soldier who has returned from Afghanistan injured in body and mind, Stella Carey leaves the house every evening. During her nursing shifts, Stella writes letters for her patients to their loved ones - some full of humour, love and practical advice, others steeped in regret or pain - promising to post them after their deaths. Until one night Stella writes the letter that could give her patient one last chance at redemption, if she delivers it in time....

In a small town, three mothers wave goodbye to their children at the school gates. Naomi has lived in Exton Cross since she was born, and she knows everything there is to know about everyone. Aleema hates it here. It’s been three years and she’s yet to make a single friend. And she’s sure the other mums whisper about her behind her back. Kelly is an outsider. New to the town, she arrives with nothing but her son—and a dark secret. By the end of the school day, one of their children will be missing. And rumours will swirl that one of them knows why.

Jarlath 'Jar' Costello's girlfriend, Rosa, committed suicide when they were both students at Cambridge. Jar is obsessed with the idea that Rosa is still alive and is tormented by disturbingly real sightings of her. When a startling discovery convinces him more than ever that these are not just hallucinations, Jar is thrust into the heart of a larger intrigue that may finally shed some light on Rosa's death.

Fifteen years ago, three 16-year-old girls meet at Wescott, an exclusive private school in India. Two, Sabah and Noor, are the most popular girls in their year. One, Alia, is a new arrival from England who feels her happiness depends on their acceptance. Before she knows it, Sabah and Noor’s intoxicating world of privilege and intimacy opens up to Alia and, for the first time, after years of neglect from her parents, she feels she is exactly where, and with whom, she belongs. But with intimacy comes jealousy, and with privilege, resentment....

21-year-old Lucy feels content with her life in Hertfordshire—not least because she lives next door to Tom and Jamie, two very different brothers for whom she has equally great affection. But her comfortable life is turned upside down when Tom decides he must travel to Spain to fight for the Democratic party in the bloody Spanish Civil War. He is quickly followed by Jamie, who, much to Lucy's despair, is supporting General Franco and his Fascist party.

Sam and Hannah have only the holidays to find 'The One’...which is their lobster.... Instead of their summer holidays being epic, Sam and Hannah’s summer holidays is turning out to be very awkward.... They must navigate social misunderstandings, the plotting of well-meaning friends, and their own fears of being virgins to find happiness. But fate is at work to bring them together, and in the end it all boils down to love.

Weathering critical scorn, Lady Audley's Secret quickly established Mary Elizabeth Braddon as the leading light of Victorian 'sensation' fiction, sharing the honour only with Wilkie Collins. Addictive, cunningly plotted and certainly sensational, Lady Audley's Secret draws on contemporary theories of insanity to probe mid-Victorian anxieties about the rapid rise of consumer culture. What is the mystery surrounding the charming heroine?