Showing results by narrator "Gemma Lawrence" in All Categories

Sophy Pemberton is struggling to cope with the pressures of becoming a new mother. Her nine-month-old son never settles in her arms, and the unrelenting tiredness from late-night feeds is all consuming. So, when Liv Granger from the mother and baby group offers her services as a nanny, Sophy is overcome with relief. Now she can finally get some sleep. She can stop failing at being a mother. But Liv has a secret. She didn’t become Sophy’s nanny by accident.

Aspiring writer Mab has hit rock bottom. She's stuck in a dead-end job, her landlord's on the warpath and her love life is in tatters. But just as she makes a life-changing decision, fate chooses to deliver the man she's been waiting for. Leo has inherited a crumbling old shop in the heart of their sleepy market town and plans to turn it into a cosy haven of books and chocolate – and he wants Mab's help. Soon, Mab finds herself swept up by gorgeous Leo's enthusiasm for the renovation, despite his disapproving, glamorous fiancée.

Eldest sister Frances is about to marry her childhood sweetheart. But with Marcus Danby now a fighter pilot, his fate hanging in the balance. Will he return from war for their happy ever after? Meanwhile youngest daughter Emily is swept off her feet by a dashing young officer, but does she really know him? Brother Daniel has joined up, but not before falling in love with a local kitchen girl Alice. Against the backdrop of war is there hope of a future for them?

Grace has returned to London after twenty years abroad to manage her dying mother's affairs. When she receives a blank Mother's Day card in the post, she is confused and unsettled. Who could have sent it to her and why? She isn't a mother. Another Mother's Day card arrives. Then come the silent phone calls. Haunted by disturbing flashbacks, Grace starts to unravel. Someone is out to get her. Someone who knows what she has done. Someone who will make her face the past she has run from for so long.

Sworn off romance, instead the love of Blue's life is the beautiful Isle of Siskin. Her home from birth, her community and now her job with the wildly successful podcast Only on Siskin. When the peace on Siskin is threatened with being destroyed forever, Blue knows she has to act. There are secrets from the past that may be able to save the future of the island, and only Blue can get to the bottom of them.

As the bombs fall, three women are forced to remake their lives… When the uniform factory is reduced to rubble in a devastating air raid, Amanda, Maisie and Bethan are left without work, and without the sense of safety they once clung to. Shocked by the devastation she sees around her, Amanda signs up as an ambulance driver, putting her life on the line to save those in the poorest areas of the East End. Meanwhile, Maisie and Bethan find work in the heart of Petticoat Lane, trying to scrape pennies together to put dinner on the table.

Growing up in a quiet, middle-class suburb outside of Amsterdam, childhood best friends Anna and Olivia had their whole lives ahead of them. But every parent's worst nightmare came true when the teenagers fell in with the wrong crowd. Eleven years their senior, Ryan was charming and good-looking...

Daisy’s hero is Florence Nightingale, and she hopes to one day become a nurse just like her. But as a girl growing up in the East End of London in 1912, it seems like all her future holds is dropping out of school to work a tough job in a factory for very little money.

When Megan loses her beloved husband, Rick, in a tragic car accident, she feels like it’s her own life that has ended. She feels too young to be a widow. Walking around the house that had been their home – so quiet without him – nothing feels the same. But at his funeral, she sees a face she doesn’t recognise. A heavily-pregnant young woman, with a sweet heart-shaped face that is somehow a little familiar. This stranger introduces herself as Emily, Rick’s estranged sister. She explains how she’s been searching for her brother for years, but she knows she’s too late now.

The Holiday meets Lost in Austen, with a sprinkling of Bridgerton steam… 'A fun, fresh take on a Regency romcom that had me alternately cackling and swooning from the first page right up to the last' VIRGINIA HEATH 'If, like me, you're desperately searching for something to scratch that...

The girls of Dressmaker’s Alley are busier than ever and Lady Diane’s business continues to thrive. New recruit Janice Williams is one of the new seamstresses Miss Susie hires to cope with the work but on the day of her interview, Janice is injured in a roadside accident that will change her life forever. Poor Winnie Collins’ pregnancy is beset with problems and under Doctor’s strict orders she is confined to bed rest. How will she cope when there is so much to do?

Assassin’s Creed: Gold follows Aliyah Khan, a card shark and hustler who’s been dealt a rough hand in life. Surviving through her smarts and street scams, Aliyah struggles to get by until she loses big time to a mysterious older man, Gavin Banks. Her only option to repay Banks is to become an Assassin. During her training, Banks tells Aliyah of the centuries-old battle between the Assassins and Templars, imploring her to help him decode a secret message inscribed on an illegal form of currency during the Great Recoinage of 1696.

Courtney is a worrier - she's worried about everything, from her mum and dad's constant fights, to her Gran being ill, to the fact that her best friend, Lois, suddenly seems to be more interested in growing up and hanging out with mean girl Bex than with her. But then one day, during a particularly bad argument kicked off by her dad's discovery of a pig in their lounge (don't ask...), Courtney begins to feel a bit funny...a bit woozy...a bit like a dream is coming on - and then when she wakes up everything is better!

In the bustling heart of London’s East End, Maisie, Amanda and Bethan work long hours at the uniform factory. The pay is poor, the shifts relentless and the bombs fall far too close for comfort ­– but these three women refuse to give in to despair. For when not at the factory, the girls spend their days on the markets of Petticoat Lane, trying to source material in order to make dresses ­– doing their best to bring any small amount of joy in these troubled times. When a chance encounter leads them to a bundle of parachute silk, they decide to think bigger.

In the heart of Dressmakers' Alley, Madame Pauline’s sweatshop is rumoured to be a particularly unpleasant place to work. Filled with seamstresses paid a pittance who turn a blind eye to what darker activities are hidden behind locked doors. Young Winnie Brown is keen to prove her value to the Women Movement and secures a job as a seamstress to investigate the whispers of some unsavoury goings on. Her concerns are soon justified when she hears a desperate cry for help.

Violet Veil is ready for her next big case, and with trouble afoot at the Grecian Theatre, Violet and her dog, Bones, are hot on the trail. But just who is the mysterious fortune-teller, Lady Athena, whose predictions keep coming true? Is it all just a case of smoke and mirrors? Or is there something more sinister going on? 

SELECTED FOR THE BBC RADIO 2 BOOK CLUB | WINNER OF THE MSLEXIA NOVEL COMPETITION 1759, Ipswich. Sisters Peggy and Molly Gainsborough are the best of friends and do everything together. They spy on their father as he paints, they rankle their mother as she manages the books, they tear barefoot...

The third title in this breakout new detective series, from the author of the spine-tingling Scarlet and Ivy series. When a large diamond goes missing from Silvershell Manor, who better to get to the bottom of the mystery than detective Violet Veil and her dog Bones. But nothing is quite as it...

It is spring in Baker Street, and London is preparing itself for the wedding of the year. It will be an international spectacle in which the young and popular Count Rudolph Absberg, a political exile from his native land, will take the hand of the beautiful and accomplished Princess Sophia Kubinova. A lot depends on the marriage, for it is hoped that the union will ensure the security and independence of their homeland. When the princess subsequently disappears in dramatic circumstances, members of the British establishment are quick to call on Mr. Sherlock Holmes.

Ruth's tireless research into the disease that killed her young daughter had an unexpected outcome: the discovery of a vaccine against old age. Just one jab a year reverses your biological clock, guaranteeing a long, healthy life. But Ruth's cure was hijacked by her colleague, Erik Grundleger, who hungers for immortality, and the SuperJuve—a premium upgrade—was created, driving human lifespan to a new high. The wealthy elite who take it are dubbed Supers, and the population begins to skyrocket. Then, a perilous side-effect of the SuperJuve emerges, with catastrophic consequences.