Showing results by narrator "Julie Maisey" in All Categories

Fifteen-year-old Zoe has a secret - a dark and terrible secret that she can't confess to anyone she knows. But then one day she hears of a criminal, Stuart Harris, locked up on death row in Texas. Like Zoe, Stuart is no stranger to secrets. Or lies. Or murder. Full of heartache yet humour, Zoe tells her story in the only way she can - in letters to the man in prison in America. Armed with a pen, Zoe takes a deep breath, eats a jam sandwich, and begins her tale of love and betrayal.

Liverpool 1950. When Evie Kilgaren takes over the running of the back office at Skinner and Son's haulage yard, she has no idea she is walking into a hive of blackmail, secrets and lies. Her fellow co-worker and childhood nemesis, Susie Blackthorn, is outraged at being demoted and is hell-bent on securing the affections of local heartthrob Danny Harris. Grace Harris, a singer on the D’Angelo transatlantic ocean liners, is returning home, engaged to be married. But Grace is harbouring her own shocking secrets and something valuable her fiancé very desperately wants back.

June 1944. Ginnie Travis is working in her father's furniture shop, when the continued bombing raids and her sister Shirley's untimely pregnancy force the two girls to go and stay with their aunt in Shropshire. Here Ginnie falls in love with an American, Lieutenant Nick Miller, stationed nearby. But she discovers that Nick has a fiancée back home and a heartbroken Ginnie ends the relationship. Then news of their father's death in an air raid reaches them. With the family left almost penniless and Shirley and her child to provide for, Ginnie is responsible for them all.

The compelling new Second World War novel from the author of Always in My Heart. In defending herself against her brutal husband, eighteen-year-old Ruby Clark is forced to flee London. She has no idea where Cliffehaven is, or what she will find there, but she knows that she will never be able to return home again. At first it seems she’s fallen on her feet. She gets a job at the local armaments factory, and the couple she is billeted with are kind and supportive.

In 1974, Liz Harvie – born Claire Elaine Watts – was given up for adoption by her birth mother Yvonne. Claire was just eight weeks old when her adoptive parents took her in – and renamed her Elizabeth. Although brought up in a ‘perfect’ household, the emotional – and physical – trauma of being taken from her biological mother would never leave Liz. She constantly wondered: what does my real mum look like? Will she come back for me? Why did she abandon me?

All her life, London-born Angelika has been intrigued by her mother's secret past. Now planning her wedding, she feels she must visit the remote Crete village her mother grew up in. Angie's estranged elderly grandmother, Maria, is dying. She welcomes Angie with open arms - it's time to unburden herself and tell the story she'll otherwise take to her grave. It's the story of the Nazi occupation of Crete during the Second World War, of horror, of courage and of the lengths to which a mother will go to protect her children.

Phoebe Giamatti lives with her boisterous Italian family in the heart of London's East End. Phoebe's father was killed in gang warfare and she and her family share a deep hatred for the Paxman brothers - whose lawless ways strike terror into the whole community. Despite her English mother's feckless ways, Phoebe is fiercely protective of Annie. Then just as the family are about to go to Italy for the winter, Phoebe discovers Annie is in trouble - and the Paxmans are involved.

Liverpool, World War II. Monica Eustace and Joan McDonald met as next-door-neighbours living in Mersey View in Liverpool. Their friendship is a close as ever, though they're married now, and sharing Monica's grand house on the other side of the city. But war clouds are gathering, casting a shadow over the happy future they dream of with their young husbands. Meanwhile, in London, Joan's half-sister Bella is overwhelmed with the glitz and glamour of the city while she's training as a singer - but will she forget her friends back home?

War strikes close to home for chief librarian Cordelia when her flat is bombed, and her beloved Robert is called up and sent abroad. Fortunately, her colleagues Mavis and Jane can help see her through hard times. The three friends find purpose in making the Silvertown library a friendly sanctuary for their deprived and devastated community. But sinister forces, from callous bureaucrats to crafty criminals, still lurk among the stacks.

Life for Elsie is difficult as she struggles to cope with her alcoholic mother. Caring for her siblings and working long hours at Swift's jam factory in London’s Bermondsey is exhausting. Thankfully her lifelong friendship with Dot helps to smooth over life’s rough edges. When Elsie and Dot meet Millie Swift, they are nervous to be in the presence of the bosses’ daughter. Over time, they are surprised to feel so drawn to her, but should two East End girls be socialising in such circles?

January 1941: As Charlie Barton tiptoes silently out of the house one cold winter morning to go off and fight for his country, his wife, Audrey, is left to run the family bakery on her own. Times are tougher than ever, but at the Barton Bakery in Bournemouth, Audrey is determined as always to serve the town with love, loaves and cakes, even as the town is reeling from the struggles of the Blitz. Audrey’s brother, William, has returned from battle with serious wounds. His fiancé, Elsie, is waiting for wedding bells, but William is a changed man, and will her hopes be in vain?

When Daniel Davenport saves Maddie Lockett and her young brother, Tom, from drowning, an immediate bond is forged between them. But Daniel is an aspiring doctor and son of a wealthy manufacturer whilst Maddie is a potter’s daughter from a poverty-stricken area of the Potteries. Even a friendship between the two could be frowned upon, let alone anything more....

Pregnant, Mary Jane Starlings secret wedding to Paddy Redfern ends in disaster when her fiancé is murdered on the way to the church. Paddy’s wayward twin ‘Red’ intercepts Mary Jane and warns that they must flee Ireland for fear of reprisals from her family, never to return. Too young and terrified to question Red’s motives, Mary Jane, is hurriedly escorted to Liverpool where she quickly discovers Red’s good Samaritan act is a sham when he abandons her homeless and destitute.

Renie, the youngest sister, is living with the newly married Nell, happy in her waitressing job at the King’s Head Hotel. But a shadow falls over her the day Mr Judson arrives as assistant manager. Feeling increasingly harassed by him and also eager to escape from Nell’s unpleasant husband, Renie is delighted when she is offered a new job in London.

Peace has finally been declared in the Far East, but for those living at Beach View Boarding House, the news brings mixed emotions. Peggy Reilly is devastated that her husband, Jim, will not be coming home for Christmas. And Sarah and Jane, who have lived at Beach View throughout much of the conflict, dread what they will find when they go back to Singapore. Life in Cliffehaven is in a whirlwind of change as the men return from the war and Peggy’s evacuee chicks begin to spread their wings and start new lives in different corners of the world.

She was your responsibility. And now she's missing. Charlotte is looking after her best friend’s daughter the day she disappears. She thought the little girl was playing with her own children. She swears she took her eyes off them for only a second. Now, Charlotte must do the unthinkable: tell her best friend, Harriet, that her only child is missing. The child she was meant to be watching. Devastated, Harriet can no longer bear to see Charlotte. No one could expect her to trust her friend again. Only now she needs to.

Following the death of her father, Ruby Swift and husband, Archie, finally move back into Ashland Hall. As the Great War rages, fathers and sons take the king's shilling and head off to fight the unknown enemy, not knowing what horrors lie ahead. With Ned Kincaid in the navy, Archie signs up to the volunteer constabulary and nurses Anna Cassidy and Ellie Harrington enlist to do their bit for king and country. It’s not long before the true cost of war is brought closer to home.

When Shelley Woodhouse wakes up in hospital from a coma, the first thing she says is that her husband must be arrested. He’s the reason she’s in here. She knows it. She remembers what he did. Clearly as anything. But there are things Shelley has forgotten too, including parts of her childhood. And as those start to come back to her, so do other memories. Ones with the power to change everything.

The 13th heartwarming novel in the Beach View Boarding House series, from Sunday Times best-selling author Ellie Dean. As the war continues to keep her family far away, Peggy Reilly must continue to look after her girls at the Beach View Boarding House and maintain hope that this dreadful war will soon be over.

You're on your honeymoon at an exclusive couples-only resort. You receive a note warning you to 'beware of the couple at the table nearest to yours'. At dinner that night, five other couples are present and none of their tables is any nearer or further away than any of the others. It's as if someone has set the scene in order to make the warning note meaningless - but why would anyone do that? You have no idea. You also don't know that you're about to be murdered.