Showing results by narrator "Kristin Atherton" in All Categories

From ‘The Manchester Marriage’, in which a husband, supposedly drowned at sea, returns to find his daughter, to the two sisters who are comically adrift after the death of their domineering father in ‘The Daughters of the Late Colonel’, and a young girl who enlists the help of a sorceress to win back her boyfriend in ‘The Goodness of Saint Rocque’, Standing Her Ground showcases nine groundbreaking women writers.

On a beautiful spring day, a small village in Western Germany wakes up to an omen: Selma has dreamed of an okapi. Someone is about to die. But who? As the residents of the village begin acting strangely (despite protestations that they are not superstitious), Selma's granddaughter Luise looks on as the imminent threat brings long carried secrets to the surface. And when death comes, it comes in a way none of them could have predicted...

Four young lovers escape into the woods outside Athens, each hoping to find true love and happiness. Instead, they find fairy mischief and love potions! Everyone is confused about who likes who—and has the Queen of the Fairies fallen in love with a donkey?

Two men, seemingly unconnected, are discovered dead in a holiday boat on the Norfolk Broads, having apparently committed suicide together. Local journalist Alex Devlin, planning an article on the dangers of internet suicide forums, starts digging into their backgrounds. But Alex’s investigation soon leads her to a much darker mystery - one that will hit closer to home than she could possibly have imagined and place the lives of those she loves in terrible danger.

When her daughter, Ellie, brings home a new boyfriend, Clare can’t put her finger on why she feels troubled by it. Is it because he’s attractive and closer to her in age? Or maybe she’s just jealous because all of her own husband’s passion seems to go into maintaining his wine cellar. Ellie’s colleague, Anna, is feeling restless, too. She’s much younger than her husband and is still in her prime, and definitely isn’t ready for crosswords and comfy slippers.

For Maddie Lincoln, returning to her childhood home was an opportunity to retake control. Instead, she becomes trapped in an ancient struggle between mythic forces. A struggle in which her life—or death—might be the deciding factor. Pursued through Nottingham's mist-shrouded streets, Maddie is drawn into Eventide: a realm where legends walk and perception shapes reality. As the hidden dangers of Eventide bleed into the material realm, Nottingham falls under the sway of a vengeful, malevolent queen. It falls to Maddie to stop the chaos from spreading.

A romance between a Roman general and the Queen of Egypt was never going to be easy. Marc Antony has abandoned his duties since he has fallen in love with Cleopatra. But as war looms, their union shifts from difficult to doomed...

Fans of Sheila O’Flanagan, Amanda Prowse and Jojo Moyes will love The Lost Wife, the compelling story of a woman’s deepest secrets, and the friends and family who must learn to live without her. When Ellie Moran passes away, she leaves her newborn son and husband Ed behind her. Their marriage was perfect, their lives everything they had hoped for. So why was Ellie keeping secrets from Ed? Knowing he can never ask his wife the truth, Ed is struggling to cope.

Beth and Tom Hardcastle are the envy of their neighbourhood—they have the perfect marriage, the perfect house, the perfect family. When the police knock on their door one evening, Beth panics. Tom should be back from work by now—what if he’s crashed his car? She fears the worst. But the worst is beyond imagining. As the interrogation begins, Beth will find herself questioning everything she believed about her husband.

Helena, a low-born girl, is desperately in love with Bertram, a nobleman. When she is allowed to choose anyone in the kingdom to marry, she chooses Bertram. He swears he will never be her husband. Can Helena ever convince Bertram to love her back?

A party of English people is aboard the Euphrosyne, bound for South America. Among them is Rachel Vinrace, a young girl, innocent and wholly ignorant of the world of politics and society, books, sex, love and marriage. She is a free spirit half-caught, momentarily and passionately, by Terence Hewet, an aspiring writer who she meets in Santa Marina. But their engagement is to end abruptly, and tragically. Virginia Woolf's first novel, published in 1915, is a haunting exploration of a young woman's mind.

A task a day to cure a broken heart. Esmé Peel is approaching thirty with some trepidation, but hope in her heart. If she can just get her long-term boyfriend Andrew to propose, she will have ticked everything off her 'things to do by the time you're 30' list. She didn't reckon on finding another woman's earring in her bed however, and soon she finds herself single, homeless and in need of a new plan. Her best friend Carys gives her the perfect present – The Single Girl's Calendar – which has a different cure for heartbreak every day:

Victoria Langley needs to find a refuge when her husband leaves her. She finds it, in the shape of Seafall Cottage on a Cornwall clifftop. The unkempt cottage in the village of Tregollan is a perfect place to recharge - particularly when she finds a fascinating diary from 1905. Victoria determines to solve the secrets the diary contains, but locals blank her when she asks about its author, Tilly Asprey. In walks a handsome lawyer with a missing piece of the puzzle. Now Victoria knows that Tilly's story is just like hers.

At a run-down brothel in Caudal, Spain, the prostitutes are collecting stray dogs. Each is named after a famous male writer: Dante, Chaucer, and Bret Easton Ellis. When a john is cruel, the dogs are fed rotten meat. To the east, in Barcelona, an unflappable teenage girl is endeavouring to trace the peculiarities of her life back to one woman: Alba Camb, writer of violent short stories, who left Caudal as a girl and never went back.

A shipwreck separates twins Viola and Sebastian on the shores of an unknown land. Viola disguises herself as a male servant, but soon falls in love with her master. He is in love with a countess, who in turn falls in love with Viola! And it only gets more complicated when Sebastian turns up...

Newly single lawyer Gwen Baker needs a family Christmas to bury her woes, with festive films, country walks and a mountain of chocolate. Her teenage crush Dev is back in their small village as well – and it turns out he’s just as kind, funny and good-looking as she remembers. But then Gwen wakes up to discover it’s Christmas all over again. She’s trapped in a snowy Groundhog Day. But would repeat meet-cutes with Dev really be so bad for a heart that needs mending?

Jonathan the Magic Pony is a brilliant magician. With one wave of his wand, he can make anything disappear and then come back again. It's fool-proof. Failsafe. Always works. Except...when Jonathan magics away Sarah's bear, it doesn't come back! And every wave of his wand causes even more chaos.

It’s the beginning of December, and the town of Port Landon is covered with snow and glowing with festive cheer. Working at the Port diner, Kait Davenport is counting down to Christmas the same way she does every year, serving fruitcake and cinnamon-flavoured coffee. But when she unexpectedly runs into her high school sweetheart, Branch Sterling, she knows this Christmas is going to be different.

Herbs are the most liberating and confidence-boosting of ingredients: grow some and you feel like a proper gardener, bring some into the kitchen and you feel like a proper cook. They allow you to experiment and bring individuality to your cooking while, at the same time, anchoring you in sound culinary tradition because herbs are often responsible for those key flavours that 'make' a dish. Not only that but they are a step on the road to a more self-sufficient, homegrown, organic way of eating.

Their battles of wits are legendary, but Benedick has sworn off women and Beatrice has vowed that she will never marry a man. It's a good job that they don't like each other then... or might they be persuaded with a little help from their friends?