Showing results by narrator "Charlie Sanderson" in All Categories

Eighteen-year-old Beth Sutton is abducted and held prisoner in a basement. Dependent on her captor for everything, she slowly builds a relationship with the man responsible for her imprisonment. But her abductor is guilty of more than just kidnap, and she has the evidence to prove it. If she escapes from the basement, Beth's toughest challenge will be dealing with the memories. How will she ever overcome her trauma?

Nine is an orphan pickpocket determined to escape her life in the Nest of a Thousand Treasures. When she steals a house-shaped ornament from a mysterious woman’s purse, she knocks on its tiny door and watches it grow into a huge higgledy-piggeldy house. Inside she finds a host of magical and brilliantly funny characters, including Flabberghast - a young wizard who’s particularly competitive at hopscotch - and a hideous troll housekeeper who’s emotionally attached to his feather duster. They have been placed under an extraordinary spell.

Sera is usually a good girl. (Except for one wild night in the back seat of a stranger's car!) But what happens when that bad boy turns out to be her new boss? And what happens when he wants more than one night...and he can be very persuasive...?

Everyone thinks that Lin is the cutest panda in the world. So much so that they ship her off to the local zoo, away from her beloved brother, to be ogled at by the masses. But Lin HATES being cute, and now she will do everything in her power to prove that she's the baddest, meanest, most un-cute animal in the zoo.

Penny is hell-bent on revenge on the man who caused her to flee France as a fourteen-year-old with little more than the clothes on her back. She lost everything, her friends, her home and her family. Stifled by the restrictions of her father's family, she aches to contribute more to the war effort. A brush with death puts her face all over the newspapers and almost breaks her heart in the process.

1850. When Opal Sharp finds herself and her younger siblings suddenly orphaned and destitute, she thinks things can get no worse. But soon three of them - including Opal - are struck down with the illness that took their father from them, and her brother Charlie is forced to make an impossible decision. Unable to afford a doctor, he knows the younger children will not survive. So, unbeknownst to Opal, Charlie takes their younger siblings to the workhouse, where he knows they will at least be fed and have a roof over their heads. Opal is heartbroken and struggles to forgive him.

Once a normal-ish woman, mental illness wasn’t something that Sadie really thought about, but when the three evils - anxiety, panic and depression - creep into her life, Sadie wonders if she will ever see the light again. With her best friend, Aldo, by her side, can Sadie crawl out of the impossibly dark hole and take back control of her life?

Lottie Brooks is 11 ¾, and her life is already officially over - not only is she about to start high school without any friends or glamorous swooshy hair, she's just discovered she's too flat-chested to wear a bra! She might as well give up now and go into hibernation with her hamsters Sir Barnaby Squeakington and Fuzzball the Third.

When 11-year-old Edie Winter finds a mysterious box on the London Underground, she's amazed to discover that it's home to a family of Flits—tiny winged people. But Impy, Speckle and Nid need Edie's help. Not only do they need supplies (rice crispies, sugar sprinkles, digestive biscuits and raisins) and someone to look after them, but their brother Jot has run away and they need Edie's help to find him.

Foxlowe is a crumbling old house in the moors - a wild, secluded, and magical place. For Green, it is not just home, but everything she knows. Outside, people live in little square houses, with unhappy families and tedious jobs. At Foxlowe, Green runs free through the hallways and orchards, in the fields and among the Standing Stones. Outside, people are corrupted by money. At Foxlowe, the Family shares everything. Outside, the Bad is everywhere. At Foxlowe, everyone in the Family is safe - as long as they follow Freya's rules and perform her rituals.

As I stare at the girl, I feel my heart pound inside my chest. There she is, my daughter, right in front of me after all this time. I have to reach her, to hold her, before I lose her all over again. I have experienced what no mother should: I have lost my child. Many years ago, after my divorce, my daughter moved in with her father, and then went missing. For years, I searched everywhere for my darling girl, but she had vanished without a trace. But even on my darkest days, when my heart felt truly broken, I kept a hope alive inside—a hope that my little girl would find her way back to me.

Nine and her friends are headed to the mortal realm in search of the only thing that will shake a very tricky witch off their tail: a priceless stargold locket. It lies hidden in the Nest of a Thousand Treasures, guarded by Nine's old foe – the formidable gangmaster of all the thieflings in London. Even if Nine can get her hands on the locket, the friends must find a way to release its power – and for that they must travel through the World Between Worlds to the lighthouse on the Isle of Illusion, where nothing is quite as it seems…

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.

Every year on the same day, on the anniversary, I receive a single black rose. Thirteen years of dark petals, jagged thorns, dredging up memories I’ve tried to forget. I’ve packed up my life. All my belongings are carefully sealed, my suitcases ready for my big move. I’m just days away from a new life abroad with my boyfriend, Ben. No one knows the real reason I’m desperate to leave. My best friend, Lena, is throwing me a leaving party. A celebration, to say goodbye. Champagne to toast my farewell. Speeches, full of fond memories. No one knows what I’m running from.

Warwickshire, 1875 Emerald Pritchard has lived a privileged life with her parents and her younger sister, Abigail, in the stately Astley House on the outskirts of Nuneaton. But all that suddenly changes when her father disappears leaving the family in debt. They are forced to throw themselves on the mercy of Emerald's uncle who begrudgingly allows them to live in a small cottage within the grounds of his farm.

Birdie dreams of becoming a professional artist, but the constraints of society demand she marries well. In order to fulfil her dreams, she makes a deal with her parents: to let her spend a year at the St. Agnes School of Art in Cornwall, after which she will return home and marry the insufferable but influential and wealthy Charles Bonham, as per her parents' wishes. Birdie however, has no intention of ever going back. Free of responsibility for the first time, she finds herself surrounded by a crew of bohemian artists who show her just how dizzying independence can be.

'There's an empty notebook lying on the table in the moonlight. It's been there for an age. I keep on saying that I'll write a journal. So I'll start right here, right now. I open the book and write the very first words: My name is Mina and I love the night. Then what shall I write? I can't just write that this happened then this happened then this happened to boring infinitum. I'll let my journal grow just like the mind does, just like a tree or a beast does, just like life does. Why should a book tell a tale in a dull straight line?'

Adopted at birth, for years Lu has secretly dreamt of finding her birth mother, but childhood bullying has left her with a lack of confidence. When a tragic accident changes her life forever, it sets her on a mission to get in contact with her birth mother and find out the reasons behind her adoption. When she tracks down her mother in Cornwall, there is an emotional reunion, and the pair begin to form a relationship. But is everything as wonderful as it appears, or has Lu walked into a nightmare?

Helping animals, having fun! The best-selling Animal Ark series has been reimagined for a new generation of children and collated in this beautiful collection featuring titles one through four!

Since the death of her parents, orphan Ann Felton has had to struggle to survive. The grimy and gruelling Black Country is no place for a girl all alone, and Ann is relieved when she gets work at The Bell public house. Victoria Beckett and Viscount Richard Wyndham grew up with silver spoons firmly in their mouths, and neither can understand Ann's struggles. But before long Ann will change both their lives forever.