Showing results by narrator "Jessica Whittaker" in All Categories

Growing up in the island village of Seaview, Willow always dreamed of a bigger life. Then her childhood sweetheart, Luc, betrayed her and she ran, resolving never to look back. Now, 12 years on, her glamorous London life is a mess and the island is her only option. But she's not the only one back for the summer. Luc is now a world-famous heartthrob musician, and he's finally come home to headline the Isle of Wight's annual music festival.

Phèdre has been trained as a skilled spy, courtesan and strategist under her tutor’s watchful eye. He was the first to see she’d been touched by the god Kushiel’s dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. And above all, Phèdre was taught to observe, remember and analyse – skills that may yet save her life.

Phèdre nó Delaunay is a woman touched by Kushiel’s dart, chosen to forever experience pain and pleasure as one. Her path has been a strange and dangerous one, and through it all the devoted swordsman Joscelin has been at her side. Her very nature is torturous for them both, but he is sworn to her and he has never forsaken his vow: to protect and serve.

When Izzie Dean’s beloved nan, Molly Blackshaw, passes away, Izzie returns to the Blackpool bungalow where she grew up, to say good-bye once and for all. When Izzie’s homecoming reunites her with her first love, Justin Swift, every emotion that Izzie has repressed since the day he broke her heart comes rushing to the surface. But then an unexpected discovery changes everything.

After losing her job and boyfriend, Jan Hamlin is in desperate need of a fresh start. So she jumps at the chance to rent a secluded cottage on the edge of Coleshaw Woods. Very quickly though, things take a dark turn. At night, Jan hears strange noises and faint taps at the window. Something, or someone, is out there. Jan refuses to be scared off. But whoever is outside isn’t going away, and it soon becomes clear that the nightmare is only just beginning....

Thirty years ago, in the English countryside, a commune was set up. Led by Uncle Saviour, it was supposed to be a place of love, peace and harmony. But what started out as paradise turned into hell. Now, two young children have vanished from their home in the middle of the night. Their parents are frantic; the police are at a loss. DI Ottoline is leading the search - her only clue a mask found in the woods. Could the key lie in events that took place decades ago, when a dream of a new way of life became something far more sinister?

From Vanessa Bell's Studland Beach, one of the first modernist paintings in Britain, to Paul Nash's work bearing the scars of his experience in the trenches and Martin Parr's photographs of seaside resorts in the 1980s that tackle ideas of class and deprivation, Looking to Sea embraces ideas from modernism and the sublime, the impact of the world wars and colonialism, to issues crucial to our world today like the environment and nationhood. Looking to Sea is an astonishingly perceptive portrait of the twentieth century. 

Dr Tess Carter is no starry-eyed Jane Austen heroine. After all, if your dad left without a backward glance and you found your last boyfriend in bed with another guy, you wouldn’t believe in romance either. And the voices in Tess’ head - you know, the ones that tell you you’re not good enough, not pretty enough, not clever enough - well, these voices are very loud. Very loud indeed. Especially when the proud and disagreeable son of one of her patients starts challenging her every decision.

Jane doesn’t know her new neighbours very well. She thought they were nice. She thought they were happy. She was wrong. First there’s the explosive rows. Then she catches one of them digging a grave-shaped trench in the garden.