Showing results by narrator "Jessica Preddy" in All Categories

Decades tend to crest halfway through, and 1995 was the year of the Nineties: peak Britpop, peak YBA (Tracey Emin's tent), peak New Lad (when Nick Hornby published High Fidelity, when James Brown's Loaded detonated the publishing industry, and when pubs were finally allowed to stay open on a Sunday). It was the year of The Bends, the year Danny Boyle started filming Trainspotting, the year Richey Edwards went missing, the year Alex Garland wrote The Beach, the year Blair changed Clause IV after a controversial vote at the Labour Conference.

"Gold Dragon" is the third novel in the "Run and Hide" series by popular author JJ Marsh. After her dangerous escapades in Brazil, Ann Sheldon has had to reinvent herself once again. Now known as Olivia Lane, she has given up the peace and tranquillity of her Brazilian beach hut and moved to one of the most densely populated cities on earth – Macau. Olivia can trust no one, and must hunt down a dangerous ex-colleague who holds the answers that she so desperately needs. A fast-paced, gripping thriller from the author of the "Beatrice Stubbs" series.

A wife, a mother, a killer. One wrong decision, one terrifying night, leaves student Elizabeth with a stark choice – kill or be killed. And the consequences of that choice will shape her whole life. Now a wife, a mother, and a lawyer, she must find a way to out run her past, protect her family and live with her secret. But is it really possible to live a happy life with such a huge shadow cast by the past? And as it becomes clear that someone else knows her secret and is hunting her down, time is running out for Elizabeth to keep her family safe.

In "Black River" we re-join the mysterious and gutsy Ann Sheldon as she continues to try to forget her past and start afresh. Wanting to steer clear of any more trouble, as well as the local police inspector, Gil Maduro, Ann tries to relax and embrace her new life. When a young girl goes missing from a camp however, the services of Gil Maduro are called upon, and Ann soon joins him on an investigation which will take them deep into the Amazon as well as into even deeper trouble. The pair encounter dangerous enemies along the way and Ann struggles to keep her true identity secret.

Maine, 1997. As the people of Fort Meadow Beach celebrate the Fourth of July, four-year-old Daisy Wright disappears and is never seen again. Maine, Present Day. Fired from her job and heartbroken, Peyton Winchester moves back home for the summer. Bored and aimless, she finds a renewed sense of purpose when an ad for a journalism course reminds her of a path not taken. Returning to life in her hometown brings back all kinds of memories—including Daisy's vanishing when she was a young girl herself.

Nina has her life just as she wants it: a job in a bookstore, a kick-butt trivia team, a world-class planner and a cat named Phil. When the father Nina never knew existed suddenly dies, leaving behind innumerable sisters, brothers, nieces, and nephews, Nina is horrified. They all live close by! They're excited to meet her! She'll have to Speak. To. Strangers. And as if that wasn't enough, Tom, her trivia nemesis, has turned out to be cute, funny, and deeply interested in getting to know her. It's time for Nina to come out of her comfortable shell.

Scarred by fire from infancy, with a persistent stammer, Charlotte has always been in the shadow of her glamorous theatrical parents. So it's a shock when her mother commits suicide. Left to care for her sick father in the dark maze of her childhood home, Charlotte begins to unravel. First, there's the mysterious arrival of a box of dead bees. Then buzzing noises in the attic. People are watching her. Listening to her. Everyone thinks she's losing her mind. But an old photo suggests another, more sinister possibility....

The secret to Brooks’s success as a Manhattan gym owner? Being motivated to disprove everyone who ever doubted him. So he’s not about to let a perky newcomer like Izzy tarnish his reputation. Even if watching her lead a salsa class on his premises gets his own heartbeat raised. Every time influencer Izzy slams Brooks in her fitness blog, her book sales soar. But when their escalating media feud forces them to be up-close-and-personal for two weeks, she realizes there’s much more to Brooks than that lean and muscled body.

Ava Langston knows exactly what she wants: her very own café and a life free of complicated relationships. But her plans go awry when her long-distance dad phones insisting she hop on the next plane to Costa Rica to meet his brand-new wife. Ava has no intention of jetting to Latin America to acquire a stepmother - until, that is, her father offers her head honcho status at a beachfront café. The lure of frothing cappuccinos in a land where the coffee beans grow proves irresistible.

Florist Rosie Duncan's life couldn't be better, she has a flourishing business on New York's Upper West Side and fantastic friends. Moving to Manhattan to escape her heartbreak was the best decision she ever made. For the past six years, Rosie has kept her heart under lock and key – despite the protests of her inner circle. But then, a blossoming friendship with publishing hot-shot Nate thaws her resolve, sparking a blizzard of emotions. Meanwhile, her brother arrives in the Big Apple, hiding a secret – and she is forced to confront questions she has long been trying to ignore.

Chronically single Kate is winning at life. She's finally saved enough to live alone in her dream home, she has a great group of friends, and she has—at last—perfected the ultimate chocolate cake. So what if her love life is dead on arrival? When she finds out one of her oldest friends Andy is travelling abroad and needs her help, she decided to drop everything and fly out to him. Only problem is, Daniel, the mutual friend she blames for Andy's wild lifestyle, is coming with her. It's the first holiday abroad she's been able to afford in years, and she has to spend it with him?!

Maurice, a small-town librarian, dies one Monday morning in a fiery car crash. Finding himself in a very unexpected afterlife, he befriends Kit, who knows more than he should about Heaven - and about Maurice's life on Earth. Meanwhile, Maurice's daughter Andy struggles to come to terms with the death of her ineffectual father. Tasked with preparing his eulogy, she starts writing letters to him, trying to make sense of her family's history.

Australian cowgirl Bridie Willis travels to Montana to escape the pain of losing her father. Headstrong and determined, she plans to spend the summer alone photographing wild animals. Instead she finds herself saddled with a stubborn cowboy as a back-country guide. Ethan Morgan has been shaped by a childhood spent on the run. Cautious, steady and conservative, he is tasked with ensuring the beautiful, risk-taking cowgirl doesn't ditch him or come to any harm.

Detective Sergeant Megan Taylor once lost her heart to a man who was too charming, and she isn’t about to make the same mistake again - especially not with sexy defence lawyer Scott Armstrong. But when Scott wants something, he goes for it. And he wants Megan. One day she’ll see him not as a lawyer but as a man...and that’s when she’ll fall for him. Isn’t a man innocent until proven guilty?

What if you couldn’t get away from the one who got away? Unlucky in love Jess is following her dream and moving to London. It’s December, and she’s taking a room in a crumbling Notting Hill house‐share with four strangers. On her first night Jess meets Alex, the guy sharing her floor. They don’t kiss under the mistletoe, but as far as Jess is concerned, the connection is instant. She lets herself imagine how their relationship will grow over the following year. But when Jess returns from a Christmas holiday, she finds Alex has started dating someone else.

University student Matt Pine has just received devastating news. Nearly his entire family have been found dead while holidaying in Mexico. The local police claim it was an accident, but the FBI aren't convinced - and they won't tell Matt why. The tragedy thrusts his family into the media spotlight again. Seven years ago, Matt's older brother, Danny, was sentenced to life in prison for murdering his teenage girlfriend. Danny has always sworn he was innocent, and last year, a true-crime documentary that claimed he was wrongfully convicted went viral.

Katharine Smyth was a student when she first read Virginia Woolf's modernist masterpiece To the Lighthouse in the comfort of an English sitting room, and in the companionable silence she shared with her father. After his death - a calamity that claimed her favourite person - she returned to that beloved novel as a way of understanding her own grief. Smyth's story moves between the New England of her childhood and Woolf's Cornish shores and Bloomsbury squares, exploring universal questions about family, loss and homecoming.

When Eve's husband is appointed housemaster at his old boarding school, Cleeve College, she gives up her life in London to join him. But the isolation and loss of autonomy threaten both her happiness and her marriage. The arrival of Fen, an enigmatic artist and wife of the new Classics teacher, is a welcome distraction. Fen doesn't play by the rules, and she and Eve enter into a game of escalating dares, disrupting the delicate balance of school life. Then, the morning after Hazard Night, a tradition that allows the students to run wild and play pranks for one day, a body is found.

Mila's back in Nashville, two years since the fallout with Blake and on a mission to put the past behind her. Goodbye family drama, Hollywood crises...and Blake. Enter reality—Blake is home too, with a brand-new girlfriend in tow. Luckily Mila's family ranch serves as a distraction, but even there, tensions are sparked when she meets the hot new stable hand. It's impossible to forget what happened between her and Blake, and their buried feelings erupt to the surface. Can they try one last time, or has it been too long since they were on the same path?

When an onslaught of revelations brings chaos to Mila’s life, her A-list parents jet from LA to join her in Tennessee. But they bring marital conflicts with them, leaving Mila distraught, betrayed, trapped. In the explosive fall-out, Mila can’t help but question everything she ever knew about her family and herself. The one person she can trust is Blake - and so she turns to him for a summer of freedom and fun. Their flourishing relationship grows stronger, more intense, but Blake has crises of his own...featuring a guitar, a pushy mom and a clingy ex.