Showing results by narrator "Julia Franklin" in All Categories

Grandmother Ruth Sutton writes to the man she hates more than anyone else on the planet: the man who she believes killed her daughter Lizzie in a brutal attack four years earlier. In writing to him Ruth hopes to exorcise the corrosive emotions that are destroying her life, to find the truth and with it release and a way forward. Whether she can ever truly forgive him is another matter - but the letters are her last, best hope.

When Gabrielle Newman throws her cheating husband out, Stu cares more about the money than the break-up, getting more than his fair share from their house sale. An unexpected bequest offers Gabrielle a new start and she tries to leave the past behind, heading north with Des Monahan, the private investigator sent to find her. Meanwhile, Stu has got entangled with organized crime in Eastern Europe and is desperate to pay his gambling debts. Gabrielle needs Des's help to protect herself and her inheritance. She's very attracted to Des - but dare she trust any man again?

Librarian Pru Pearce is preparing for her wedding to police detective Andy Barnes. But after one of her Women's Institute friends suffers a suspicious accident at Rookery Grange, a home for the elderly and infirm, Pru and the other ladies are on alert. And when one of the residents is asphyxiated with a pillow, no one can rest easy.

Thinking of her young son, Arabella dons the mask of Miss Noir for her first night at Mrs Silver's House of Pleasures and smiles prettily at the next gentleman who enters.... Dominic Furneaux, Duke of Arlesford, is stunned to see that the woman who shattered his heart has fallen so low. He offers her a way out - by making her his mistress!

Newly single and unemployed, Cleo Moon ups sticks and moves to the gloriously rustic hamlet of Lovers Knot. With its host of mad but delightful neighbours, she very soon feels at home, especially when she finds The Most Beautiful Boy in the World slumped on her doorstep - the drop-dead-gorgeous and achingly-upper-class Dylan Maguire. But when she is given the taxing task of organising the annual Harvest shindig, things start going horribly wrong for Cleo.

Andee Lawrence is in heaven. Well, the South of France to be exact. Ex-detective Andee has swapped freelance investigation and a broken marriage for two months in Provence, renovating a beautiful villa with the new man in her life. Pottering around a small picturesque town on an early summer's day, she is at peace. But her world is about to be shattered. 'Remember me?' Two words spoken by a woman from the back of a car that say so much yet reveal so little.

Staffordshire, 1911. Money is in short supply for Ginnie Jones’ family, and she is sent to Haddon Workhouse. When she meets Clara and Sam, she hopes that she has made friends for life...until tragedy strikes. Three years later, Ginnie finds work as a mouldrunner at the Potteries, but never stops thinking about her friends. When Sam and Ginnie are reunited, their bond is as strong as ever, until Sam is sent to fight in the war. Can Ginnie find the joy that she’s never had?

In Honor-Bound Groom, Alexander del Castillo and Loren Dubois have been betrothed almost all their lives - thanks to an agreement made between their old-fashioned dads. But playboy Alexander never really gave the matter any serious thought - until now. With some recent bad press and his family’s wine empire to uphold, Alexander thinks a wedding will help turn things around. Yet convincing Loren to be his bride may not be as easy as he had hoped.

June 1998: Elodie Marshall has committed a terrible crime. But when she's deemed unfit to plead, she is sentenced to living within the confines of a mental health facility . . . Present day: Amateur detective Pru Pearce and her friends from the Winterbottom Women's Institute are about to embark on their annual getaway. The 1960s Butlins-style Harmony Hollows Resort has caught their attention for a few reasons, including the northern ballroom championships and the unsolved double murder from 1983.

Dan Riley is a major in the British Army. After a six month tour of duty in Afghanistan, he is coming home to the wife and young daughters he adores. The outside world sees those reunions as a taste of heaven after months of hell.But are they? Can a man trained to fight adjust again to family and domestic life? And how will the family cope, if he can't?

The Dangerous Lord Darrington is not a man to be welcomed into a house of unprotected women! He may be an earl, but even in the wilds of Yorkshire Beth Forrester has heard tales of the incorrigible rake that make her toes curl… Unexpectedly hosting such a scandalous celebrity is only the first of Beth’s problems. Now the wicked Lord Darrington has found out about the dark secret she will do anything to protect. How to buy a rake’s silence? There is only one way - with her body!

Queen Victoria, a woman of diminutive stature and superabundant temperament, gave her name to something more than an age. Elizabeth Longford's classic biography won the James Tait Black Memorial Prize when it was first published in 1964. The author's grasp of the era's politics, and her understanding of the problems which confront a woman who is not only a queen but also a mother of a large high-spirited family, make this audiobook unique to this day.

Susie Moran is a success. She has founded and run her own highly profitable company, and now her three daughters are all involved in the business. Rooted in the traditions of the Stoke-on-Trent potteries, and producing charming, useable objects of distinctive design, Susie is justly proud of her family and her achievement – and has no intention of letting it change. But what of the men in the family? Susie’s husband, a musician and artist, has always seemed happy to take a back seat.

France, 1152. A beautiful woman is escaping through France, leaving behind two young daughters and a shattered marriage. This woman is Eleanor, Duchess of Aquitaine, and her sole purpose is to marry the man she loves, Henry Plantagenet, a man destined for greatness as King of England. Theirs is a union founded on lust which will create a great empire. It will also create the most notoriously vicious marriage in history.

On midsummer's day, Phoebe Bowler - star-sign demon - should have returned home a happy new bride. Instead, she's been jilted at the altar. In need of sympathy, she could turn to her neighbour, Rocky Lancaster, but with problems of his own he's turned into Mr Grumpy. That is until Essie Rivers arrives on the scene, and then Phoebe and Rocky's paths seem destined to collide with a very big bump. Essie knows far more about astrology, personology, numerology - any "ology" you care to mention - than Phoebe.

The majority of Vernon Lee’s work was essays and studies on art and history, but this little-known essay’s sense of places lends itself more to poetry than nonfiction. As Lee guides us through an enchanted wood, it gives us an insight into the inspiration behind Lee’s supernatural stories.

Curiosity about a murder that took place in an 18th century folly draws father and daughter team Peter and Georgia Marsh to attend a summer gala in honour of Jane Austen at Stourdens, a Georgian mansion in Kent. Robert Luckhurst, the murdered former owner of Stourdens, was an avid collector of Jane Austen memorabilia, and his collection is thought to contain secrets about the novelist that still remain to be revealed.

Chrissie knew that Richie had loved her for all the twenty-three years they’d been together, loved their three daughters and their house in Highgate and their happy, chaotic existence. Richie gave her everything, except the one thing that would have made her life perfect. She even had a sparkling ring - but it was not a wedding ring, and did not bring with it the security of marriage. That belonged to Margaret, back in Newcastle where Richie had started off as a musician, before he became famous.

Leanne and her teenage daughter, Abby, have recently been forced to move from London back to Kesterley-on-Sea, to Ash Morley Farm, where Leanne grew up. Leanne's husband Jack, Abby's father, killed himself over a year ago, and the pair are still reeling from the shock waves caused by the tragedy. Also living at Ash Morley farm is Leanne's mother, Wilkie, who is a rock for everyone, and family friend Klaudia and her two children.

Charlotte Goodman is living the dream. Surrounded by family, friends and a stunning vineyard overlooking the ocean, it would be difficult for anyone to believe that she has a troubled past. However, haunted by the theft of a young girl, Charlotte begins to realise the enormity of something she did many years ago and soon finds herself having to make the most harrowing decision any woman would ever have to face.