Showing results by narrator "Siobhan Waring" in All Categories

London, 1814: Mary Godwin and her stepsister Jane Clairmont, both sixteen, possess quick minds bolstered by an unconventional upbringing, and have little regard for the rules. Mary, whose mother famously advocated for women's rights, rejects the two paths that seem open to her-that of an assistant in her father's bookshop, or an ordinary wife. Though quieter and more reserved than Jane, Mary's imagination is keen, and she longs for real-world adventures.

For eighteen year old Lena O'Sullivan, life is predictable and dull. A future of hard work, marriage to a local boy, and a family of her own one day is all she has to look forward to. People from her background know not to expect too much, but Lena yearns for something different. Malachy Berger was different, for him, the world is at his feet. An only child of a wealthy, if peculiar father, a large inheritance, a beautiful house and a fine education are his due. Nobody is in favour of Lena and Malachy’s friendship, but why not? What harm are they doing? Why is everyone so dead set against it?

Liesl Bannon has never felt like she was truly at home anywhere, not since her mother placed her and her brother Erich on the last Kindertransport out of Berlin in 1939. She’d been so much more fortunate than most Jews, saved from the horrors of the Nazi regime. Being adopted by Elizabeth and Daniel Lieber meant she and Erich spent the war in Northern Ireland, safe and loved, but Liesl always knew something was missing. When an opportunity to return to Berlin to represent her university presents itself, she is so torn. 

Handsome, charming Conor O’Shea has had enough of driving and guiding tours of Ireland. So when an opportunity to renovate and run the magnificent but rundown Castle Dysert as a five-star resort presents itself, he grabs it with both hands. But problems arise almost immediately when his business partner appears to have more on her agenda than just business.

Life is calm and fairly predictable. Until something unthinkable happens in our sleepy backwater. A crime, but not like anything I've ever seen before. It's a complete mystery. And it's up to me to solve it.

Life as manager of the magnificent resort of Castle Dysert on Ireland’s wild Atlantic coast is never dull, and Conor O’Shea’s life to date has taught him to be prepared for the unexpected. Even he however, is not ready for the gang from Bubbles O’Leary’s bar in New York. A motley crew, from spinster sisters of a certain age, to exhausted social workers, they are all in Ireland for one reason. The fact that this bunch of unusual people arrive during Ireland’s biggest matchmaking festival just adds to the intrigue.

Kilteegan Bridge, Ireland 1974. Eli’s need to do his best by his patients is a cause for a bitter divide in the community. Emmet seems hell bent on going down a path in life his parents dread but they’re unable to stop him. Jack’s life and liberty are in grave peril as his secret faces exposure, while Emily’s troubles are, it seems only just beginning with the return of someone she would much rather had disappeared forever. And Maria must decide, is blood really thicker than water, and should family always come first, no matter the cost?

Carmel, a forty year old Irish woman is living a life that’s fine, not exciting or awful, just fine. She has a house, a husband, it’s all ok. She never had kids, but that’s just life, right? She knows she should be grateful. She’s better off than a lot of people. Then one day, out of the blue, she gets a Facebook message, from a total stranger. With information that could transform her life, for better or for much worse.

Once upon a time, Monroe Sinclair was Brodan Adair's best friend, but now he's a stranger and one of Hollywood's leading men . . . It took Monroe Sinclair eighteen years to return home to Ardnoch after a fateful night that devastated her friendship with Brodan Adair. Only a daughter's guilt could lure her back to the Highlands and the assumption that Brodan Adair rarely ever sets foot in their hometown. She can handle seeing the rest of the Adairs so long as she can avoid her ex-best friend and the only man she's ever loved.

It had been thirteen years, but my heart skipped a beat. My brain was bursting with things I wanted to say—many of them contradictory—things I had thought I might say if I ever saw him again. So, I said nothing. He pulled a leather bag out of an inside pocket of his cloak, opened the drawstrings, and turned it upside down over a display tray on the counter. A flood of rubies—smooth but uncut—poured out. "I need you. There's probably a whole mountain full of them. But I can't find the vein myself. Come with me, and we'll split the take."

Erich Bannon is happy in the small Irish village he has thought of as home since he arrived as a terrified, traumatised seven year old, one of the last Jewish children to escape Berlin in 1939. Now at twenty-three, it feels like all of his friends are drawn to The Promised Land, and he can understand why, but Israel is not for him. One by one, they leave, and Erich is bereft. He feels lost but a chance encounter with an Irish Catholic girl gives him hope.

After a very long week, I just want to go home and put my feet up, when a dramatic, decades-old secret is revealed. It shocks everyone in the family to the core, and it feels like everywhere I turn, where once there was trust and honesty, now there are nothing but lies.

If you want to disappear, start again, make a new life, a small Irish village is probably not the wisest place to go, since anonymity is not something we do well here. The arrival of someone new is always a cause for twitching curtains and whispered conversations. But here, like everywhere, people have their secrets, and as the local sergeant I’m expected to have my eyes peeled for anything unusual. And I do. Usually. Until I don’t, and the consequences are potentially fatal.

Lena Kogan is thrilled when her son Emmet invites her to the opening of his first building in San Francisco. It’s awkward that she will be staying with Emmet’s father Malachy Berger, but he’s in a serious relationship now, and anyway, he knows how Lena feels about Eli, so surely they can just be friends. Her sister Emily, is less adventurous. She's happy to stay at home with her family and a thriving business, that is until her daughter Nellie drops another bombshell on her about what she plans to do next. A move nobody could have anticipated and few support.

As rebel, soldier, hero, and spy, Kenneth Wilding had never known defeat. But nothing can save his heritage when he returns from the wars to an empty title and a ravaged estate. Nothing - until a stranger offers a devil's bargain: financial salvation in return for Kenneth's special subversive skills. Reluctantly Kenneth enters the household of the greatest artist in England to unmask a terrible crime. Instead, he discovers something infinitely more dangerous: a tantalizing new way of life and an irresistible woman. Everything he has always wanted - and can never have.

Honed by danger and haunted by the past, Lord Michael Kenyon finds it easy to risk his life for his country’s sake. But in the shadow of Waterloo, he faces a far more dangerous threat - the loss of his heart to the beautiful battlefield nurse who saves his life yet can never be his. Called a saint for her virtue and selfless courage, only Catherine Melbourne knows the tragic flaw at the core of her spirit. Then fate offers Catherine a fortune, a title, a heritage for her daughter - if Michael will impersonate her husband on a visit to a wild Cornish island. 

A cool master of sensuality, Rafael Whitbourne, the Duke of Candover, earned his rakish reputation in the silken boudoirs of London’s highborn ladies, never giving away his hand or his heart. Then a vital mission for his government takes Rafe to Paris to work with the Countess Madga Janos, “the most beautiful spy in Europe”. He is appalled to discover that the smoky eyed temptress is no Hungarian countess, but the deceitful doxie who betrayed him a dozen years earlier - the only woman he ever loved, and the only one he’s ever despised.

When a home aide arrives to assist a rambunctious family at a crossroads, simmering tensions boil over in this “witty, exuberant debut” (People) that is an “absolute delight from start to finish” (Sarah Haywood, New York Times best-selling author) perfect for fans of Where’d You Go, Bernadette and Evvie Drake Starts Over.

Francine Thwaite has lived all her fifty-five years in her family's ancestral home, a rambling Elizabethan manor in England's Lake District. No other living soul resides there, but Francine isn't alone. There are ghosts in Thwaite Manor, harmless and familiar. Most beloved is Bree, the mischievous ghost girl who has been Francine's companion since childhood. When Francine's estranged sister, Madeleine, returns to the manor after years away, she brings with her a story that threatens everything Francine has always believed.

If Aisling O’Mara hadn’t winged her way home to the Emerald Isle to take over the running of the family guesthouse, she’d never have met Marcus and her heart wouldn’t have been broken. She’s been trying to put her life back together since he left, but now he’s back and says he’s sorry. Can she trust him again?