Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

It is 1940, and, as the Battle of Britain takes to the air, Hope Stapleford is recruited to join the Special Operations Executive. On her way to Scotland, she is pulled from a train and driven to spymaster Fitzroy's stately home. She is his intelligence operative, and he wants to send her to a Scottish airfield where Harvey is already stationed undercover as a mechanic. At the airbase, Hope and Harvey find a community in turmoil. Pilots talk of strange sightings in the air, and local mechanics report mysterious scratches appearing on the wings and fuselage of the aircraft.

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audio edition of Christmas on the Isle of Skye. The Isle of Skye is a magical place, especially at Christmas, and there’s no place Zac Fallon would rather be. But whilst Zac has everything he needs on Skye, there’s still something missing - and that something is a somebody called Ivy McFarlane. Ivy used to work with Zac but then spread her wings and moved to Glastonbury. Now it’s almost Christmas and Zac realises that the Ivy shaped hole in his life is too big to bear.

Italy, 1935. Alessandra Durante is grieving the loss of her husband when she discovers she has inherited her ancestral family home, Villa Durante, deep in the Tuscan Hills. The terms of the will are that she must live in the Villa Durante for at least 12 months, so, longing for a new start, she moves to Italy and sets about rebuilding her life. But the shadow of war hangs heavy over the Tuscan hills, and life will never be the same again.

Just when he'd fobbed off the last brat, another appeared to take her place! Poor Lord Anselm! The dashing bachelor was forever plagued with dying relatives leaving their female children to his care. Indeed, he had squired so many a silly miss from schoolroom to marriage mart that he had sworn off women altogether. The current ward was far and away the worst. Cheeky as only a French girl could be, Yvonne de la Falaise had surely sent her papa to an early grave with her melodramatics and mischief. Thank goodness for her governess, Patricia Cottingham, so calm, so competent.

The local society could only speculate how a pair of turtledoves would cope as the guests of the scandalous Lady Dacey. Surely she would attempt to corrupt them - an act that both Pamela Perryworth and Honoraria Goodham would see as welcome entertainment in their rigid, joyless lives. Though Mrs Perryworth is married - most unhappily - and the young Honoraria has a cloying tendency to read too much Scripture, the purity and loveliness of both ladies nonetheless inflames the senses of two notorious lords.

Lovely Alice Lacey was a true Incomparable, and her marriage to the Duke of Ferrant was the event of the Season. But almost none realised, however, that Alice was secretly in love with someone else - or that she had confided her feelings to a clever talking mynah bird who determined to announce these intimacies at the moment of the couple's wedding!

The handsome but arrogant Lord Charles Hawksborough desperately wanted to catch the infernally insolent thief who had held him up at pistol point on the King's Highway and ridden off with his family's inheritance and jewels. Hawksborough just as desperately tried not to want the piquant and penniless Miss Amanda Colby when this young lady and her twin brother came to stay at his London townhouse at the height of the social season.

Two families. One cancelled flight. And a last-minute house swap. Things get desperate for strangers Harriet and Sophie when they become stranded with their families in Heathrow's Terminal 5. Each woman has her own reason for really, really, really needing the family holiday they've anticipated for months. But Iceland's volcano has other plans for them. When their flights are cancelled, the families swap houses and discover that sometimes the best things in life happen close to home.

In 2018, 66.3 million pairs of shoes were manufactured across the world every single day. They have never been cheaper to buy, and we have never been more convinced that we need to buy them. Yet their cost to the planet has never been greater. In this urgent, passionately argued book, Tansy E. Hoskins opens our eyes to the dark origins of the shoes on our feet.

Jude is the owner of a unique antiques shop in Cambridge. She makes it her mission to match customers with the special something that they are missing, a talisman to bring them what their heart desires. Unfortunately, Jude’s life is not overflowing with love. However, when she 'inherits' a niece that she never knew existed, doubling her meagre family overnight, Jude's life is soon set to get a lot less lonely and a lot more interesting.

Aidan Edwards has always been fascinated by the life of his great-great-uncle Robert. A trip to Hartsford Hall and an encounter with Cassie Aldrich leads him closer to the truth about Robert Edwards, as he unravels the scandalous story of a bright young poet and a beautiful, spirited aristocrat in the carefree twilight of the 1930s, before the Second World War. But can Aidan find out what happened to Robert after the war - or will he have to accept that certain parts of his uncle’s life will remain forever shrouded in mystery?

1944, Covent Garden. The mini Blitz has begun, with so much fear in the air best friends Sukie and Pattie are desperate to help in any way they can. Joining the mobile canteen workforce a few days a week, Sukie tries to bring a little bit of cheer to those devastated by the bombings, while Pattie finds herself drawn towards the returning evacuees searching for their families. What they both want more than anything is for the war to be over, but one wish will help them see that sometimes love, hope and happiness is always there, you just need to look hard enough.

A link had been forged the day Claire saved the heir to the desert kingdom of Omarah from assassins. Otherwise, she wouldn't have agreed to masquerade as the infant's mother - and Raoul D'Albro's unwanted wife. Raoul was prejudiced against Claire. And as long as his eyes burned with contempt for her, Claire felt shielded from his powerful masculinity. 'Even if you were my type,' he assured Claire coldly, 'your evident greed and the fact that you have a lover would be sufficient to kill my desire for you.' Raoul was wrong - in this and more!

Rhys Forester, the new duke of Claremont, lives his life by four words: Enjoy all, regret nothing. He’s devoted to the pleasure of his wild soirees, reckless behavior, and shocking the ton with his interests in trade. The debts that come with his title don’t fit the carefree lifestyle he’s created, and when he’s forced to return to his family’s estate, he’s also forced to confront his one and only regret: the beautiful girl he left behind.

Former child star Lily Thane is now a struggling 30-something actress. Her old stage-school buddy, Adam Harker, is on the brink of making it big, but he needs an appropriate red-carpet companion to seal the deal and Lily fits the bill. Soon after signing on the dotted line, Adam's dark side starts to surface and their perfect fauxmance turns toxic. But when Adam winds up dead in a swimming pool, Lily is the only person who cares enough to find out why. She's convinced someone was out to get Adam—and now they're after her.

After a lifetime of living for her friends, family, even strangers, Lady Lucy Westmont knows something must change or she’ll lose herself forever. An invitation to visit her free-spirited and scandalous aunt in the wild Scottish countryside is the perfect opportunity to discover how to live the life she wants. James Pembroke just learned that not only is he the new Earl of Rossbury, he’s also inherited his late uncle’s debts and a manor house deep in Scotland.

Austria, 1938. After years of hardship, Ella is full of hope for a better future for Austrians, and when Hitler marches into Linz, she can’t help but become swept up in the euphoria of her boyfriend, Max. But she soon realises her mistake. When she witnesses a woman being shot in the street and a childhood friend’s Jewish department store is closed down, she knows she must do something. It’s a dangerous time to be a resistor, especially when her fascist boyfriend proposes to her.

Louise Anderson's heart pounds as she approaches the imposing castello. Only the Duke of Falconari can grant her grandparents' dying wish - but this is the same man who said arrivederci without a backward glance after their night of unadulterated passion.... Caesar can't believe the woman who almost ruined his precious reputation still fiercely fires his blood. Discovering that their union created more than just salacious memories, he agrees to grant Louise's request...in exchange for a demand of his own.

Based on two lectures Woolf delivered at the University of Cambridge, A Room of One’s Own compellingly argues for women’s intellectual freedom and the importance of financial independence. It is still considered one of the most powerful pieces of feminist writing to this day. Published in 1929, A Room of One’s Own asserts a simple message: in order for women to reach their full creative potential, they must have their own money and space with which to do it with.

When I met Malik my life changed in the blink of an eye. We were set up - Chris and Simon called it a blind date - and I suppose they could see that I was lonely, that I needed someone in my life to make it more exciting. And they were right. He was so good to me. He seemed to know exactly what I needed to feel safe and loved again. We’d talk and laugh into the night, and I haven’t had someone on my side since my divorce. But soon the honeymoon period was over. It started with my car’s tyre being slashed and strange calls at the radio station where I work.