Showing results by narrator "Helen McAlpine" in All Categories

1889: Kitty Gray dreams of attending university and becoming a doctor, but when she is married off to Charles Maclean, one of Glasgow's richest and most eligible bachelors, her aspiration suddenly slips far from reach. Exiled to her new remote home in the Scottish Highlands, with its gargoyles, gothic arches and turrets, Kitty seeks solace in creating a restorative herb garden. Combining her medical knowledge and new-found fascination with herbalism, Kitty spends her days absorbed in a world of herbs and their healing properties until a devastating tragedy strikes...

Their rise was meteoric. Only a few years before, they had been three friends from Glasgow, trying to survive in a world of danger and dysfunction. Suddenly they were thrust on to the world’s biggest stage, accepting an Oscar in front of the watching world. That night was the beginning of their careers. But it was the end of their friendships. For two decades they didn’t speak, driven apart by a horrific secret. Until now... Their past is coming back to bite them, and they have to decide whether to run, hide, or fight.

Growing up in a convent in Glasgow, Ferelith Gallagher dreams of bigger and better things. With no money behind her and no family to speak of, she travels to Edinburgh to study to be a lawyer - a brave choice for a woman in the 1930s. And when she falls in love with a young fellow student, she thinks she's finally found a home. But after a brief and disastrous marriage, Ferelith swears she is through with love and buries herself in her studies, striving to become the first female senior advocate in Scottish history.

No evidence is yielded from the river. Unable to communicate with their silent prisoner, the authorities move Jean to the decaying Edinburgh Tolbooth in order to prise the story from her. The High Court calls in Robert Kinniburgh, a talented teacher from the Deaf & Dumb Institution, in the hope that he will interpret for them and determine if Jean is fit for trial. If found guilty she faces one of two fates; death by hanging or incarceration in an insane asylum.

Innocent in the ways of the world, an ingenue when it comes to pop and fashion, the Elect of God of a small but committed Stirlingshire religious cult: Isis Whit is no ordinary teenager. When her cousin Morag - Guest of Honour at the Luskentyrian's four-yearly Festival of Love - disappears after renouncing her faith, Isis is marked out to venture among the Unsaved and bring the apostate back into the fold.

When 23-year-old shepherdess Emma Gray breaks off her engagement, the chance to take over an isolated Northumberland farm seems just the fresh start she needs. But while the beautiful scenery certainly offers plenty of scope for contemplation, a night out with an eligible bachelor soon seems more remote than the farm itself. And once you add fugitive sheep and freak blizzards into the mix, Emma's dreams of a happy future at Fallowlees Farm quickly begin to fade.

Megan Melvick has spent years avoiding her inheritance, the dark and disquieting family estate Benbrae, now home only to her distant aristocratic father and her sister, Melissa, dying quietly in an upstairs bedroom. Trapped behind her unreliable hearing aids and vulnerable to what others want her to see, Megan is unable to find the answers she wants: why is there a new woman on her father's arm? And why has their absent mother not returned to say a final goodbye to Melissa?

From peaceful Scotland to war-ravaged Europe, two female doctors from very different backgrounds fight to succeed and survive. Upper-class Lucy Graham is expected simply to marry well. Poverty-stricken Rosie Nesbitt struggles just to get by. Both girls share the unlikely dream to become a doctor, and each will do anything to succeed. When their paths cross at a party filled with eligible bachelors, it soon becomes clear that their chosen career isn't the only desire they share.

Rachel McKenzie has trust issues. That’s what happens when your father murders your mother and gets away with it for years. Tormented by her past, Rachel seeks justice for others, investigating suspicious deaths in the remote and rugged Scottish Highlands. So, when Rachel hears about a drowned woman on the windswept island where her estranged family lives, she’s driven to investigate.

They climbed up from the streets of Glasgow to the top of the world. Now these Hollywood icons are heading for a fall. Three stars, three tales of struggle and success. Now they’re discovering that in Hollywood, happy endings don’t last for ever. Sometimes they’re just the calm before the storm.

Scotland, 1912: When Maud and Daisy travel to Clachan Castle on the Isle of Mull to investigate the theft of a valuable statuette, at first the case seems straightforward. But when their prime suspect, bad-tempered fellow guest Mr Tremain, is found dead in his bed, the detective duo realise the castle is under attack… At first, it appears the murder is impossible. All the doors and windows to the room were locked from the inside, and there was no way for the killer to escape.

Two weeks, four friends and one big bucket list of secrets to unravel. Val Murray and her best friend, Josie, had been planning a ‘Thelma and Louise’ bucket-list-style holiday. Now Josie is gone, and Val needs to make the trip before it’s too late. But Val doesn’t want to do it alone, so she enlists the help of her nieces, Carly and Carole, and their best pal, Jess, who jump at the chance to join Val on a trip of a lifetime. What Val doesn’t realise is that Carly, Carole and Jess are all at turning points in their own lives, nursing crushing secrets, lies and betrayals.

Join Valentina Wynter in the final book of The Skye Sisters Trilogy as she embarks on a summer journey that will change her life forever… Over the Sea to Skye is a moving tale of resilience, self-discovery, and the bonds that tie us together, set against the breathtaking backdrop of the Isle of Skye.

At just five years old, Dana learned that there was no one she could trust. Most devastating of all, even her own mother betrayed her and in the most unimaginable way. For years, Dana and her younger sister suffered at the hands of one of Britain's largest ever-known paedophile rings. And their mother did nothing to protect them. Only now is Dana's nightmare coming to an end as she crusades to put her abusers behind bars. In June 2007 the truth was finally exposed. Dana bravely testified against her own mother.

The year 1819, Isle of Mull, Scotland: When Allan MacDougall tells his sweetheart, Harriet Campbell, he loves her on the eve of his departure to the New World, it breaks her heart. Because there is no way for her to go with him. She promises to wait for him, even though it could be years before they are reunited. They vow to write, but when crucial letters go astray, they feel further apart than either could have imagined.

Growing up as a schoolmaster's daughter in rural Scotland, Kirsty Robertson has always dreamt of following in her father's footsteps. When her father dies, she becomes even more determined to make him proud. Dedicated to her career, Kirsty knows she can't let love get in her way. She spurns the advances of her friend, Jamie, a farmhand. But she finds herself increasingly drawn to Hugh, the laird's son, whose family she knows would never approve of him marrying a poor schoolteacher. When World War I breaks out and Hugh leaves to fight, Kirsty knows her future is in question once more.

Helen Grant is a mystery to her daughter. An extrovert with few friends who has sought intimacy in the wrong places; a twice-divorced mother-of-two now living alone surrounded by her memories, Helen (known to her acquaintances as 'Hen') has always haunted Bridget. Now, Bridget is an academic in her forties. She sees Helen once a year, and considers the problem to be contained. As she looks back on their tumultuous relationship - the performances and small deceptions - she tries to reckon with the cruelties inflicted on both sides. But when Helen makes it clear that she wants more, it seems an old struggle will have to be replayed.

Sometimes hope is the most dangerous thing of all. When their brother dies, sisters Freya and Tamsin lose the one thing that connected them. But when Tamsin goes missing a year later, Freya is determined to find her. Guided by a trail of diary entries, revelations are unveiled about the grief that drove Tamsin to the edge of a cliff - and into the arms of a mysterious stranger... A man who promised hope but demanded sacrifice.

If someone took away your perfect life, how far would you go to get it back? Ellen's family is her world. So when her husband leaves her for another woman, she is almost destroyed. But not quite, because Ellen has a plan, a way to make those who have hurt her suffer. Leila is the other woman. She finally has everything she ever wanted. But Leila's brother has come back into her life, raking up a past that needs to stay buried. One of them will pay for their actions with their life, but which one?

From the best-selling author of the Sarah Midnight Trilogy comes an instant classic - a beautiful and poignant love story about letting go and moving on. Eilidh Lawson’s life has hit crisis point. Years of failed fertility treatments, a cheating husband and an oppressive family have pushed her to the limits. Desperate for relief, she seeks solace in the only place she’s ever felt at home - a small village in the Scottish Highlands.