Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

As the youngest of four unmarried vicar's daughters, Frederica feared her destiny was to die of boredom in the sleepy village of Barton Sub Edge. Her looks were deemed unfortunate, and her wilful manner labelled her difficult. She never dreamt the arrival of a stranger would be a twist to her fate. But Frederica and the worldly gentleman from the city, Lord Granton, had something in common: boredom. So it was that the two formed a secret friendship.

Narvik, 1940. After Laila awakens to the sight of warships in the fjord, it isn't long before she turns resistor to the brutal Nazi regime. She is horrified when local girls begin affairs with enemy soldiers, yet against her own principles, she finds herself falling in love with German soldier, Josef. Josef is not like the others. He becomes involved in helping her and the locals with resistance activities, risking his life on more than one occasion.

He needed a make-believe lover.... It was such a strange request - Gray Chalmers asking Stephanie to pose as his lover to help him resist the attractions of a beautiful but married woman. Gray knew Stephanie, knew she didn't even like being touched. Yet he insisted she come back to the village to play the part of the femme fatale. Gray had never pried into the bitter marriage Stephanie had endured to his cousin. He'd offered only comfort in the 10 years since its tragic ending. So, while she hated the pretence, she couldn't refuse.

When Juliet Montague's husband disappears, so does she. As far as the conservative Jewish community in which she lives is concerned, she is invisible. She does her best to conform to their rules, but then on her thirtieth birthday she does something unexpected. Instead of the fridge she has scrimped for, she impulsively spends her savings on a portrait of herself.It is the first in a series of portraits that punctuate Juliet's adult life as she joins London's lively post-war art scene and proves to be an astute spotter of talent.

Edgar Allan Poe arrives in London to meet his friend C. Auguste Dupin, in the hope that the great detective will help him solve a family mystery. For Poe has inherited a mahogany box containing sheathes of letters that implicate his grandparents in some of London’s most heinous crimes - those committed by the so-called London Monster who, for two years, terrorised the city’s streets.

It was clearly no accidental drowning. When a young immigrant girl is found in the watery depths of Holbaek Fjord, a piece of concrete tied around her waist and two mysterious circular patches on the back of her neck, Detective Louise Rick is called to investigate. The girl's name was Samra, and Louise soon learns that her short life was a sad story. Abused by her father, it becomes clear that he would be capable of killing Samra if she brought dishonour to the family.

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.

Aimed at HR practitioners and managers, Employee Engagement offers a complete, practical resource for understanding, measuring and building engagement. Grounded in engagement theory and an understanding of psychology combined with practical tools, techniques and diagnostics, this book will help you assess and drive engagement in your organization. Case studies include British Gas, Capital One, Asda, Ministry of Justice, Mace and RSA.

Rush hour, London. A packed commuter train is torn apart in a collision. Picking through the carnage, ex-special forces profiler Ziba MacKenzie helps a dying woman who passes on a cryptic message: He did it. You have to tell someone. When a corpse is found bearing the gruesome signature of a serial killer dormant for twenty-five years, Ziba is pulled into the hunt for the perpetrator. As the body count rises it becomes clear he’s on a new spree. But what’s brought the London Lacerator back after such a long hiatus?

A boy has disappeared from his school. Heloise Kaldan heads over there to look into it. At the schoolyard she runs into her close friend Erik Schäfer, the outspoken investigator on this case. The boy, Lukas, doesn't show up, but his phone does. It reveals that Lukas is obsessed with pareidolia: the psychological phenomenon that makes us see faces in random things. One particular photo of a barn door that looks like a face catches their attention. Is this where Lukas is?

Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House, a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it. Whilst exploring the grounds, she stumbles across an old diary, and within its pages she meets Allie, an Australian nurse who worked in France during the First World War. Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth, but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters.

There’s a world of difference between making a living and having a life. Balancing the demands you face every day can feel like being trapped in a frustrating maze, but there is a way out: you can take control and live the life you want to live - and love your work at the same time.Live Life, Love Work, from bestselling NLP expert and coach Kate Burton, is full of ideas for reviewing your priorities and re-charging your energy levels.

Sienna had been swept off her feet by the handsome, powerful Greek, Alexis Stefanides. 'I shall imprint myself on your heart and body so that you will never forget me,' he'd said once he'd won her heart. She'd been chosen - not for love but in vengeance for the wrong he believed her brother had done his sister. Too late the truth came out - too late to save Sienna's whole world from exploding in pain. Still deep in shock, Sienna found herself married to Alexis, with her mind instinctively fearful of her body's intimate cravings....

Growing up in a poverty-stricken, fatherless household, Dorothy Jordan overcame her humble beginnings to become the most famous comic actress of her day. Beginning her career on the Dublin stage, she moved on to the playhouses of Leeds and York before achieving fame performing at Sheridan's famous theatre on Drury Lane. It was there that Dorothy caught the eye of the Duke of Clarence, later to become King William IV.

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.

An isolated Tuscan farmhouse on the edge of an ancient wood is the perfect setting for a late September holiday. As a group of old friends from university and their families gather to relax and unwind, all are hoping it will be a chance to put the tragic events of the previous year behind them. There were six of them once; now they are five. Watching the British visitors arrive from her own terrace is Anna Viola, whose family has lived for centuries in the crumbling red-brick farmhouse above Il Vignacce.

Martin, who has always been drawn to the ocean, moves his wife, Alexandra, and their two young children into his family's idyllic summer cottage in the picturesque island village of Orust, on the west coast of Sweden. Martin begins to cultivate a mussel farm, where he soon runs into trouble with the locals. One January weekend, when Martin is distracted by a ringing phone, he discovers that in those few moments, his young son has gone missing and his little red bucket is bobbing in the waves. Though his body is never found, it's ruled an accidental drowning.

It was a wild and passionate night - a night that drives beautiful Fenella to marry a stranger and begin the most hair-raising adventure of her life. Moments before, Fenella finds her blond fiancé, Max, with another woman, and in a blind fury she rides with the stranger through the Canadian wilderness to the magistrate's office - to become Mrs. Gail O'Shean. Then they part forever, or so she thinks. Try as she might, Fenella cannot forget Gail's handsome face and beautiful eyes. Max wants her back desperately.

The disregard of a dying woman's bequest, a girl's attempt to help an impoverished clerk, and the marriage of an idealist and a materialist - all these narratives intersect at an estate called Howards End. The fate of this country home symbolizes the future of England in an exploration of social, economic, and philosophical trends during the post-Victorian era.

At 16, Courage Bingham had been innocent and unawakened, but her body had been passionately responsive when she felt strong, youthful hands caress her in the dark of her family's summerhouse. Shame and guilt had tormented her ever since, combined with an equally aching need for this unknown - unseen - stranger. Now, Courage worried that her senses were playing tricks on her. Gideon Reynolds, her harsh-featured, merciless new boss, could arouse her as only one other man ever had.