Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

Thirteen-year-old Clementine Merlyn lives with her mom, her aunts, and her cousin Mirabelle at Number 15 Pendragon Road. The Merlyns are a family of witches, but because of an ancient falling out with the other branch of the family, the Morgans, they only have powers for a single month of the year: October. And this October may be the one that Clemmie gets her magic. It should be exciting, except that magic is the reason that Mirabelle never talks to her anymore, Aunt Flissie leaves at the end of every September and doesn't come back until November, and Aunt Temmie...well, is long gone.

Anwen Sedge, an eleven-year-old Meadow Witch apprentice, lives with her grandma in a rural village that hasn't seen giants since the Great Beanstalk War. So when a giant falls right onto them, it's quite a surprise. And it's an even bigger surprise when they discover that the giant was dead BEFORE he hit the ground. Anwen, her grandmother, and Anwen's rival, Cerys, will have to plant a magic beanstalk and send a message to the giants in the Sky Kingdom.

Twelve-year-old Flick adores Jack and loves solving puzzles with him. But Jack is soon to flee the family nest, and Flick worries she'll lose her partner in crime. During his gap year in Peru, tragedy strikes when an earthquake devastates the region and no one knows what has happened to Jack. Flick and her family are thrown into the horrible unknown. She finds a key on a fine gold chain and a note with the initials SF in his room, and clings to the hope that SF (whoever that is) might hold the clue to finding her brother.

From the Waterstones Book Prize shortlisted author of A Boy Called Hope and The Boy Who Sailed the Ocean in an Armchair. Mabel has a suitcase full of worries - it turned up just after her dad disappeared and before her mum started dating Gavin. She worries about big things and little things and shoves them into her suitcase until it’s so full it might explode....

Who took Lucia Blix? Lucia went home from school with her new friend Josie for a playdate. Later that evening, Lucia's mother, Elisa, dropped her overnight things round and kissed her little girl goodnight. That was the last time she saw her daughter. The next morning, when Lucia's dad arrived to pick her up, the house was empty. No furniture, no family, no Lucia. Have you seen Lucia?

Kate Hardy's world seems to be making some kind of sense at last. The Sardine's finally safe from her idiotic ex, things seem to be going well with Mike and she's looking forward to celebrating Christmas with the important people in her life. Mike's buying her beloved lighthouse and is due to get the keys any day now. Kate just wishes she could muster the courage to ask him what his plans are for the old place–instead of changing the subject every time he brings it up. And then there's Bernard–who's come all the way from Canada.

The sun is shining as Rachel and her gorgeous beau, Tom, prepare to tie the knot at Primrose Farm. It takes a village to pull off the perfect country wedding, and Rachel couldn’t be more grateful for her friends and family as they roll out the haybales and string up the bunting - all she needs to do is focus on her happy ever after. But no wedding is without drama. A face from the past is looking to stir up trouble in the village, and there’s a secret following Rachel all the way up the aisle.

Bronte Mettlestone's parents ran away to have adventures when she was a baby, leaving her to be raised by her aunt Isabelle and the Butler. She's had a perfectly pleasant childhood of afternoon teas and riding lessons - and no adventures, thank you very much. But Bronte's parents have left extremely detailed (and bossy) instructions for Bronte in their will. The instructions must be followed to the letter, or disaster will befall Bronte's home. She is to travel the kingdoms and empires, perfectly alone, delivering special gifts to her 10 other aunts.

Demelza loves science - she loves it so much that she stays up late to work on her inventions. But she soon discovers she’s also inherited a distinctly unscientific skill: spectre detecting. Like her grandmother, she can summon the ghosts of the dead. When Grandma Maeve is kidnapped, Demelza and her pasty-faced best friend, Percy, must leap into action to solve the deadly mystery.

Adam and Polly Fitch face a bleak future after being sold for just five shillings to Miss Reed's orphanage by their bullying father. But the orphanage does have one advantage - a merry band of children who soon form their own kind of family - and they're all determined to escape the clutches of the wicked Miss Reed. Can Adam, Polly and their band of friends survive life with only each other to rely on?

Life is tough for Ella Bancroft. After her father, Thomas, is wheelchair-bound by an accident at the tube works, the responsibility for keeping a roof over their head falls to Ella. Ella’s mother died when she was 10, and her sister, Sally, lives with her no-good, work-shy husband Eddy, so is no help at all. If she and her father are to keep the bailiffs from the door, then Ella must earn a living. But Ella is resourceful as well as creative and soon discovers she has a gift for millinery.

A chilling, compulsive debut about group mentality, superstition and betrayal - and a utopian commune gone badly wrong. We were the Family, and Foxlowe was our home. There was me - my name is Green - and my little sister, Blue. There was October, who we called Toby, and Ellensia, Dylan, Liberty, Pet and Egg. There was Richard, of course, who was one of the Founders. And there was Freya. We were the Family, but we weren't just an ordinary family. We were a new, better kind of family.

When three figures arrive at Harper's window in a flying canoe, informing her that she is due to start her apprenticeship, Harper discovers she is a Spectacular - a magical performer, gifted special powers from the stars.

Heartbroken by a recent split, with her 30th birthday looming, she loses her job and her home in the same morning because of two swaggering, dishonest men - the boss who sexually harassed her and the flatmate sleeping with her behind his fiancée's back. But all Em can think about is catching a flight to attend her sister's wedding and see her dying mother. With a record-breaking heatwave, and a serial killer making the streets unsafe, London is completely gridlocked. Em's life has always been full of men getting their own way, and today the city teems with them standing between her and home.

February, 1929. The Regent Hotel in Birmingham is a place of deception and glamour. Behind its six-storeyed façade, guests sip absinthe cocktails on velvet banquettes, while the hotel's red-jacketed staff scurry through its lavish corridors to ensure the finest service is always at hand. In the early evening, a psychoanalyst checks in under a pseudonym: Nora Dickinson. Nora is young, diligent and ambitious. Though she doesn't see herself as a liar, she is travelling with an agenda.

Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard's YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future and learning to find love in all its forms. Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She's back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they're about to leave for university.

Maddy can't find her voice. With her grief over Nan's death, her struggle for Mum's attention, and the mystery of the strange woman Dad keeps meeting, it's easier to keep everything locked up inside. But as terrible, tangled secrets bring Maddie's whole world crashing down, it seems only bad boy Kieran Black can give her the confidence to speak up.

A documentary crew have come to the zoo, to film every day life with the animals. The only thing is that the reality is a bit boring so they ship in some animal actors. Lin and her best friend Fu are less than impressed with the prancing lion that wants to take centre stage. And the smaller animals in the zoo, the mites, are fed up of being overlooked.

Emma and I did everything together – including getting kidnapped. As teenagers, we were both taken but only I survived. I promised myself that I would tell my story, and Emma’s story, when the time was right. Now here we are. I’m on the cusp of launching my true crime novel which is predicted to be a huge bestseller.

Waiting for Ted charts the destruction of Rosalind and Ted’s relationship at the hands of an expensive chaise longue. Rosie comes from a wealthy, upperclass background. She dreams of being a traditional housewife to her big strong working man, cooking, tending the house and instagramming her perfect life. But she also needs to fill her house with things that she can Instagram, so when Ted bans her from spending any more of her father’s money on her ‘work’ as an interior design influencer until she’s actually earning, she begins to scheme.