Showing results by narrator "Julie Maisey" in All Categories

Amidst the Luftwaffe’s relentless bombings, Isla Donahue finds solace in her love for Rory, best friends Meg and Sophie, and her rewarding work with the WAAF. Until one day, without any warning, cruel figures from the girls’ past return to threaten the world they have worked so hard to build. To add to Isla’s turmoil, Rory is convinced that a ghost from his previous life has followed him to Liverpool intent on settling old scores. With her friends scattered by a war that shows no sign of ending, can Isla draw on her grit and determination to build a brighter future?

When a young writer accepts a job at a university in the remote English countryside, it's meant to be a fresh start, away from the bustle of London and the scene of a violent assault she is desperate to forget. But a vicious debate about violence against women inflames the tensions and mounting rivalries in her creative-writing class. When a troubled student starts turning in chapters that blur the lines between fiction and reality, the professor recognizes herself as the main character in his book - and he has written her a horrific fate.

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?

Fearne Dixon hates Christmas. As the long-suffering wife of the Ellsbury Christmas Market’s manager, she’s sick to the back teeth of it and it’s still only November. But then the bodies start piling up, an old rival arrives back in her life, and Fearne reaches breaking point.

May 1942: Kitty Pargeter loves the life she’s leading as a talented young pilot, serving her country. But tragedy strikes when she is forced to crash-land and is badly injured. She is taken to a specialist hospital in Cliffehaven, where she must come to terms with the disabling injury that threatens her career. Then comes the shattering news that her beloved brother has been shot down and presumed dead. And she wonders if she’ll be able to find the courage and fortitude to carry on.

With the echoes of war reverberating around London, Cordelia, Mavis, and Jane are delighted to be blessed with some good news: the King and his Queen will be making a visit to the East End. As excitement builds, so does their apprehension. With each passing day, the threat of destruction from air raids increasingly plagues their worried minds. But with Christmas on the horizon, their morale is at an all-time high, and the girls are determined to display to their esteemed guests all they have done with the library – and with so little.

Liv has a lot of secrets. For her, home is the picturesque town of Ålesund, perched on a fjord in western Norway. One night, in the early-morning embers of a great party in the basement apartment she shares with two friends, Liv is watching TV, high on weed, and sees a python on an Australian nature show. She becomes obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, the Burmese python, becomes the apartment's fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she feels extremely protective, like a caring mother, and she is struck by a desire that surprises her with its intensity.

Cliffehaven, May 1944. The tension is rising for Peggy Reilly and the inhabitants of Cliffehaven as the planes continue to roar above the town, and there is still no news of the long-awaited Allied invasion into France. There seems to be no end in sight of this war, which has scattered her family and brought conflict right to the door of Beach View Boarding House, but Peggy cannot work miracles, and the toll of the war is beginning to weigh on her slender shoulders.

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.

June 1940. Despite losing her mother at a young age and her father away on important war work, 17-year-old Rita Smith has plenty of people to turn to in the close-knit community of Cliffhaven. Until Italy sides with Germany and Rita's closest friends and neighbours are interned as enemies of the state. As war rages across Europe, Rita is more determined than ever to do her bit for the war effort. Although she is forced to give up her dream of joining the WAAF, she volunteers as a fire warden.

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.

Personal shopper Annie Valentine is back! Older and bolder! Fashion guru Annie is struggling to cope with her hectic life. With the demands of two older children, plus four-year-old twins, her marriage to Ed is in a romance-free rut and she’s clinging by a couture thread to her job as the nation’s favourite fashion fixer. And where is Svetlana, her multi-millionaire friend, when Annie needs her? Busy with an expensive mid-life crisis, that's where!

Meet Annie Valentine: stylish, savvy, multi-tasker extraordinaire. As a personal shopper in a swanky London store, Annie can be relied on to solve everyone's problems...except her own. Because as a busy single mum to two kids, Annie’s realised there’s a gap in her life as well as her wardrobe. But with her heart still hurting from losing the love of her life, Annie’s discovered that finding the perfect partner is turning out to be so much trickier than finding the perfect pair of shoes!

A murder investigation unearths the brutal history of a village where innocence has a shifting meaning if you are alive. Or dead. When psychotherapist Alexis Cosse is found murdered in the playground of the sleepy northern village of Burrowhead, the local police force of Georgie, Trish and Simon investigate. Georgie starts to realise something bad is lurking under the soil in Burrowhead, while someone (or something) equally threatening is hiding in the strange and haunted cave beneath the cliffs.

Summer 1983: four-year-old Billy chases a rabbit in the fields behind his house. But when his mother goes to call him in, Billy has disappeared. Never to be seen again. Today: Veronica is a bereavement counsellor. She's never fully come to terms with her mother's suicide after her brother Billy's disappearance. When a young man walks into her group, he looks familiar and talks about the trauma of his friend's disappearance in 1983. Could Billy still be alive after all this time?

Anna Fekete returns to the Balkan village of her birth for a relaxing summer holiday. But when her purse is stolen and the thief is found dead on the banks of the river, Anna is pulled into a murder case. Her investigation leads straight to her own family, to closely guarded secrets concealing a horrendous travesty of justice that threatens them all. How long will it take before everything explodes?

Back then, all I remember was laughter and joy. I was the first-born child, and I remember so clearly my parents’ joyful faces as I held my little sister, Phoebe, for the first time. But then one devastating day, everything changed, when Phoebe died. And it tore us all apart. Then the third daughter – baby Bea – was born. It was meant to be the start of us healing. Becoming a family again. But the truth was, nothing would ever be the same again.

She’s hit the big time...hasn’t she? Personal shopper, Annie Valentine, is presenting her own popular TV fashion series. But despite this being Annie’s dream job, success isn’t all it’s cracked up to be and suddenly Annie is feeling the pressure! Especially as boyfriend Ed is left at home looking after their brand-new twin babies, whilst Annie comes to terms with fame. And as Annie gets more and more sucked into the celebrity showbiz world, she feels like she’s losing more and more of who she really is. Could the big break she’s always wanted, actually be a big mistake?

When widowed Amelia Smith takes a fallen soldier into her household, she is shocked to discover he has no idea who he is. Determined to help him recover his memory, she embarks on a journey that will change and endanger them both. Working out whom and what he is brings back painful memories to Marco. The only constant in his life is his burning desire to take revenge on those who tried to steal everything from him. As his memories return, he needs Amelia Smith's calm good sense more than he ever anticipated.

As the Japanese begin their assault on Singapore, Sarah Fuller is forced to leave her parents and fiancé, Philip, behind. The long journey to England is fraught with danger, and Sarah and her sister Jane don’t even know if their great-aunt is alive, let alone waiting for them. They arrive in Cliffehaven, on the south coast of England, and here Sarah must find work to support them both. When the Women's Timber Corps takes over the local estate, Sarah enlists as a lumberjill.