Showing results by narrator "Karen Cass" in All Categories

Two weeks at a stunning villa, in the South of France, was supposed to heal the rifts in this fractured family. Flaky croissants and rich, black coffee every morning before long days by the sparkling pool. Balmy candlelit dinners, once the kids have gone to bed. But Nora is shaking, as she gathers her family around the large, oak table on the terrace, at the front of the villa. Her two daughters eye her suspiciously as she tops up her wine and clears her throat to speak. But when she opens her mouth, the secret Nora came here to tell won’t come out....

When I met Malik my life changed in the blink of an eye. We were set up - Chris and Simon called it a blind date - and I suppose they could see that I was lonely, that I needed someone in my life to make it more exciting. And they were right. He was so good to me. He seemed to know exactly what I needed to feel safe and loved again. We’d talk and laugh into the night, and I haven’t had someone on my side since my divorce. But soon the honeymoon period was over. It started with my car’s tyre being slashed and strange calls at the radio station where I work.

Out-of-work actor Harriet is recuperating from a crash-and-burn affair with Damian - aka ‘Cockweasel’ - and making ends meet as a barista when she meets two rather lovely men. Tom is a regular at the café, and seems like such a nice guy. Smooth-talking DJ Richard is older, but in great shape - a real silver fox. Deciding to take a chance on both of them, Harriet doesn’t realise at first that she is actually dating father and son.

Mattie Arden has just escaped from a toxic relationship, so when she receives a letter informing her that she has inherited a house from her great-aunt Millie a few days before Christmas, it’s a welcome distraction. Except it comes with a strange proviso: if Mattie wants the house, she must fulfil Millie’s last wish and scatter her ashes over 'the boys of Christmas'. In the company of her best friend, Toby, Mattie sets out for the seaside village of Christmas Steepleton in the hope of finding out the meaning of her aunt’s bizarre request.

He needed a make-believe lover.... It was such a strange request - Gray Chalmers asking Stephanie to pose as his lover to help him resist the attractions of a beautiful but married woman. Gray knew Stephanie, knew she didn't even like being touched. Yet he insisted she come back to the village to play the part of the femme fatale. Gray had never pried into the bitter marriage Stephanie had endured to his cousin. He'd offered only comfort in the 10 years since its tragic ending. So, while she hated the pretence, she couldn't refuse.

Six Award-Winning Authors have contributed new stories to A Timeless Romance Anthology: Silver Bells. Listeners will love this collection of six historical romance novellas, all centered around the Christmas season.

Widow Gail Saunders is struggling to support her eight-year-old son, Nicky, by running a small riding school when the Earl of Savile arrives to tell her that Nicky has unexpectedly inherited money from Savile’s cousin. Gail and Nicky spend the summer at Savile Castle, where Gail falls in love with the charming Raoul, a man as far above her in social station as the sun is to the earth. To add to her troubles, someone seems to be trying to kill Nicky.

Karen could be excused for crying on her birthday, especially as it’s the first one since her husband got on a plane to the States and never came back. Then there’s the fact that her workmates were practically bribed to attend her birthday meal. But when a restaurant double booking leads to her sharing a table with single dad Elliot and his daughter, things start looking up.

At the beginning of the Second World War, medical experts predicted epidemics of physical and mental illness on the home front. Rationing would decimate the nation's health, they warned; drugs, blood and medical resources would be in short supply; air raid shelters and evacuation would spread diseases; and the psychological effects of bombing raids would leave mental hospitals overflowing. Yet, astonishingly, Britain ended the war in better health than ever before.

Deploring social injustice, Lady Deborah Claremont opens a staff agency, concealing the fact that she's a member of the aristocracy. But Deborah has become accustomed to keeping secrets. It began eight years ago in 1918 when her dashing French lieutenant was tragically killed. Amid an undercurrent of social unrest and with the General Strike looming ahead, Deborah meets two very different men: handsome Theodore Field, MP, and the charismatic union firebrand Evan Morgan.

Kirsty was an ambitious young actress until her career was nearly wrecked by one blistering review from arrogant drama critic Drew Chalmers. Furious and resentful, Kirsty vowed she'd take her revenge on him. And exposing his affair was the perfect way to do it. But when Drew turns the tables on her, Kirsty is forced to pretend to be engaged to him. Now, Kirsty must learn to play the part of Drew's lover...to perfection!

Here today. Dead tomorrow? Last night I almost died. A fire consumed the hotel room where my best friend, Emily, and I slept. Emily was killed. But I can't afford to cry, to grieve. It was meant to be me. And he'll be coming for my daughter next. The press thinks it was me that died. At best that gives me 24 hours. Twenty-four hours to find Polly and disappear. Twenty-four hours to stay alive.

Everyone thinks Lexi is crazy when she falls in love with Hollingsworth House, a crumbling old Georgian mansion in Yorkshire – and nobody more so than her husband, Dylan. But there’s something very special about the place, and Lexi can sense it. Whilst exploring the grounds, she stumbles across an old diary, and within its pages she meets Allie, an Australian nurse who worked in France during the First World War. Lexi finally realises her dream of buying Hollingsworth, but her obsession with the house leaves her marriage in tatters.

Craft shop owner Mandy Vanes has always enjoyed a commitment-free singleton lifestyle – in fact, she’s well-known for her wild ways in her small seaside town on the coast. But when local teenager Nick Crossten turns to her for help, Mandy has the opportunity to prove she can be a responsible adult - although things get tricky when gin distillery owner Graham Frankley comes to town with some unexpected news. Could this mean that Mandy the party girl is finally ready to grow up?

Soundings and Choc Lit present the audio edition of Christmas at the Little Beach Café. Five years ago at Christmas, solicitor Justin Sadler made the decision to leave his comfortable existence behind and move to the coast. Since then, he’s tried his best to ignore the festive season and, as he sits in the little beach café and reflects on that fateful night when his life was turned upside down, he expects his fifth Christmas alone to be no different to any of the others since he made his escape.

The Irish Classics Collection is a wide-ranging collection of 9 classic works of fiction and poetry by Irish authors, read by an award-winning cast of narrators. Included here are stories by some of the greatest writers of all time, including James Joyce; Bram Stoker; Oscar Wilde; W.B. Yeats; Elizabeth Bowen; and more.

In lucid and energised prose, Emily Mayhew summons the four horsemen of the apocalypse; the collective threat to humanity bearing the names of war, pestilence, famine and death. As they began in Revelations and have remained in human consciousness ever since, spanning time and space and evolving as new scientific discoveries and advancements in technology alter the world.

Will they find the courage to follow their dreams? St. Ives, 1916. Jess Morgan always hoped to become a celebrated silversmith, but when the men return from war, she's forced to return to her job as a seamstress. All she can cling to is the memory of that delicate, unique silver clasp she created for a society bride. Rachel Bellamy served as an ambulance driver on the front line during the Great War, but now it's up to her to save the family home and picturesque harbour from her wealthy brother-in-law, before it's too late.

Moments after she is born, tiny kitten Tallulah, with her bright eyes and silver and white fur edged with gold, is whisked away from her father Solomon and dumped in the hedge like rubbish. After a tough start to life, neglected and abandoned, Tallulah eventually finds a new home with the Lee family and forms a special bond with their daughter Tammy. But Tammy has a terrible secret and Tallulah must do all in her power to keep the family safe.

With her last pennies in her pocket, Elizabeth Wareham arrived in Greece to fight for what was hers. But her adversary, Ilios Manos, was like a man carved from mythology. Ilios would take her body if he had to - he was in that kind of mood. But the flicker behind her eyes belied an innocence he couldn't ruin. So he'd take the next best thing - he was a man in need of a wife.... He would show her mercy, and she would take his name!