Showing results by author "Dorothy Koomson" in Literature & Fiction

A seriously entertaining collection of feelgood stories guaranteed to put the smile back on your face written especially by 10 best-selling novelists. From a hilarious race against time to a moment of unexpected eavesdropping, from righting wrongs in rural India to finding joy in unlikely places, these stories are all rich in wit and humour, guaranteed to lift your spirits and warm your heart.

Profiler and therapist Kez Layon is slowly getting used to her new job working in a behavioural sciences unit with some of the worst people she has ever met. She regularly plots an escape but knows she is there for the foreseeable future. Then she is called in to work on the case of April Manga. Twenty-five-year-old April was twelve when she witnessed her controlling and abusive father brutally murder her mother. Rather than go to prison, her well-connected father was given the chance of life in witness protection with a new name and erased background. April was put into care.

Libby has a nice life with a gorgeous husband and a big home by the sea. But over time she is becoming more unsure if Jack has ever loved her – and if he is over the death of Eve, his first wife. When fate intervenes in their relationship, Libby decides to find out all she can about the man she hastily married and the seemingly perfect Eve. Eventually Libby stumbles across some startling truths about Eve, and is soon unearthing more and more devastating family secrets.

Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Friend by Dorothy Koomson, read by Jennifer Saayeng, Angela Griffin, Christina Cole, Shelley Conn, Susy Kane and Sam Dillon. What secrets would you kill to keep? After her husband's big promotion, Cece Solarin arrives in Brighton with their three children, ready to start afresh. But their new neighbourhood has a deadly secret.

It's been 18 months since my husband was murdered and I've decided to finish writing The Flavours of Love, the cookbook he started before he died. Everyone thinks I'm coping so well without him - they have no idea what I've been hiding or what I did back then to protect my family. But now that my 14-year-old daughter has confessed a devastating secret, and my husband's killer, who was never caught, has started to write to me, I know it's only a matter of time before the truth about me and what I've done will be revealed.

In 1988 two girls with identical names and the same love of ballet meet for the first time. They seem destined to be best friends forever and to become professional dancers. Years later, however, they have both been dealt so many cruel and unexpected blows that they walk away from each other into very different futures - one enters a convent, the other becomes a minor celebrity. Will these new 'invisible' lives be the ones they were meant to live, or will they find that kind of salvation only when they are reunited 20 years later?

What would you do for the friend who broke your heart? Best friends Kamryn Matika and Adele Brannon thought nothing could come between them - until Adele did the unthinkable and slept with Kamryn's fiance, Nate. Worse still, she got pregnant and had his child. When Kamryn discovered the truth about their betrayal she vowed never to see any of them again.

Nova Kumalisi would do anything for her closest friend, Mal Wacken. She owes him her life. So, when he asked her to be the surrogate mother for him and his wife, in spite of her fears about how it would alter their friendship, Nova agreed. Eight years later, Nova is bringing up their son alone, and she and Mal don't speak. Months into the pregnancy, Mal's wife changed her mind about the surrogacy agreement. Already suspicious of how close Nova and Mal were, Stephanie realised her strained marriage was in serious trouble when she found a text from her husband to Nova.

Profiler and therapist Kes Lashibi is shocked when she finds a baby on the backseat of her car, with an unsigned note asking her to take care of him. Kes has a pretty good idea who the mother is - Brandee, a popular social media star with a troubled background, who once lived in Kes's house. Recently, the seemingly bright and bubbly Brandee's videos changed in tone before she completely dropped out of the limelight. Kes is beginning to understand why. And if the internet rumours are true, Brandee's life could be in real danger.

Tamia Challey is horrified when her husband, Scott, is accused of something terrible - but when she discovers who his accuser is, everything goes into free fall. Backed into a corner and unsure what to think, Tamia is forced to choose who she instinctively believes. But this choice has dire consequences for all concerned, especially when matters take a tragic turn.

When Kendra Tamale returns to England from Australia, she rents a room from Kyle, a divorced father of two, and begins a new job. She's looking forward to a fresh start and a simple life. But then she bumps into the man who shares her awful secret, and things fall apart. The only way to fix things is to confess to the terrible mistake she made all those years ago. But that's something she swore never to do.

Verity is telling lies. And that's why she's about to be arrested for attempted murder. Serena has been lying for years. And that may have driven her daughter, Verity, to do something unthinkable. Poppy's lies have come back to haunt her. So will her quest for the truth hurt everyone she loves? Everyone lies. But whose lies are going to end in tragedy?

Do you have any idea what the people you know are capable of? Best-selling author of All My Lies Are True, Dorothy Koomson, asks how well you can really know your neighbours.

On Kamryn's thirty-second birthday she receives a card from Adele, the woman who betrayed her and she vowed never to speak to again. Adele has contacted Kamryn because she is desperate - she needs someone to take care of her precious daughter, Tegan, and she's running out of time. Kamryn loves Tegan, but can she really put aside all the hurt and pain of the last few years to rescue Adele when she needs her most?

Pieta has a secret. Ten years ago, Pieta was kidnapped by a man calling himself The Blindfolder who said he wouldn't kill her if she kept her eyes closed for 48 hours. She never told anyone what happened to her, vowing to move on with her life. But when The Blindfolder starts hunting down his past victims, Pieta realises she may finally be forced to tell her deepest secret to stay alive....

After departing London to follow her heart's desire to become a psychology lecturer, Ceri D'Altroy vows to leave her matchmaking ways behind her for good. Unfortunately, all she seems to do is inspire the new people she meets to change their lives. There's Ed, who's decided to declare his love to a woman who is way out of his league; Mel and Claudine, two long-term friends who are now tempted to start an illicit affair; and Gwen, the chain-smoking head of department who has a deep, dark secret she only wants to share with her new employee.

Cleo Forsum is a best-selling novelist turned scriptwriter whose TV series The Baking Detective is a huge success. Writing is all she's ever wanted to do, and baking and murder stories have proved a winning combination. But now she has decided to walk away from it all—including divorcing her husband, Wallace—before her past secrets catch up with her. As Cleo drafts the final ever episodes of the series, people she knows start getting hurt. And it's soon clear that someone is trying to frame her for murder.

As teenagers, Poppy Carlisle and Serena Gorringe were the only witnesses to a tragic event. Amid heated public debate, the two seemingly glamorous teens were dubbed 'The Ice Cream Girls' by the press and were dealt with by the courts.Years later, having led very different lives, Poppy is keen to set the record straight about what really happened, while Serena wants no one in her present to find out about her past.

From the best-selling author of The Ice Cream Girls, The Woman He Loved Before, and My Best Friend's Girl, an emotional story about love, identity, and the meaning of family. ‘Where are you coming from with that accent of yours?’ he asks. ‘Nowhere,’ I reply. ‘I’m from nowhere.’ ‘Everyone’s from somewhere,’ he says. ‘Not me,’ I reply silently. Clemency Smittson was adopted as a baby, and the only connection she has to her birth mother is a cardboard box hand decorated with butterflies.

When Kendra Tamale returns to England from Australia she rents a room from Kyle, a separated father of two, and begins a new job. She's looking forward to a fresh start and a simple life. Kyle's six-year-old twins, Summer and Jaxon, have other ideas and quickly adopt Kendra as their new mother - mainly because she lets them eat marshmallows for breakfast. Kendra eventually becomes a part of their lives, even though she's hiding a painful secret that makes her keep everyone - especially children - at arm's length.