Showing results by narrator "Harrie Dobby" in All Categories

My daughter is getting married to the man of her dreams. But will she pay for it with her life? My beautiful daughter Ellie walks down the aisle in her full-length lace dress, beaming with happiness. As she exchanges her vows with Kyle, who looks devastatingly handsome in his smart black suit, I hope this time will be different.

Paris, 1940: As the German soldiers march down the Champs-Élysées, the Bélanger twins know there is no escape – their lives are about to change forever. But while Sophie, a third-year medical student, works long days and nights saving casualties of war at the American hospital, and waits anxiously for news of her fiancé from the front line, her recently widowed twin, Adèle, is determined to enjoy her freedom. Nothing – not the bombs, the curfews or the Nazi officers sidling up to her in nightclubs – can stop her from indulging in the temptations of Parisian society.

I push open the door to the beautiful French villa and my clever, handsome husband and adorable wide-eyed children follow me inside, taking in the breath-taking view. This should be a blissful summer break, filled with sun, swimming and relaxation but the truth is very different. Because my husband has just revealed the real reason we’re here. When our friends staying at the sprawling villa greet us on the sun-soaked terrace, I smile brightly and attempt to calm my nerves.

When Anais receives a near-derelict Paris hotel in her divorce settlement, her first thought is to tidy it up and sell it immediately. All she wants is to move on and forget her disaster of a marriage ever happened. But selling it proves impossible, so she has only one option: to make it gorgeous and open by Christmas… when her funds will almost certainly run out. She’s not counting on the grumpy American bar-owner next door, Noah, coming and interfering at every moment though.

Anna Cooper and Jake Reynolds both live at a luxury London building. The only difference is that Jake lives in the penthouse, and Anna lives in a tent on the roof. When Jake finds out, he offers Anna a chance of a new life in his grandmother's childhood home in Pepper Bay, and she decides to take the opportunity to see if she really can make a fresh start somewhere else. The beauty of Pepper Bay, with its quaint shops, chocolate box cottages and all of Jake's closest friends, immediately fills Anna's heart with nothing but love.

‘If you want everyone you love to stay safe, you must walk away…’ The fortune teller told me my fate. But I ignored her. I married the man of my dreams. We made a family. A life that’s beautiful, safe and happy. I’ve pushed it to the back of my mind: what she said about the tragedy that lay ahead for me. I want to believe that we are in charge of our own fate. Looking at my two perfect, beautiful children, I refuse to believe things could go wrong for us. But as strange things begin to happen, I begin to wonder… could there be any truth behind what the fortune teller told me that day?

A saga of colony ships, shattering moons and cataclysmic war in a new Eden. Rochelle wakes from cryostasis to take up her role as engineer on the colony ark, Calypso. But she finds the ship has transformed into a forest, populated by the original crew's descendants, who revere her like a saint. She travels the ship with the Calypso's creator, the enigmatic Sigmund, and Catherine, a bioengineered marvel who can commune with the plants, uncovering a new history of humanity forged while she slept.

Jess knows it's time to move on from her best friend's couch, where she's been crashing since her boyfriend emptied out her heart, and all her savings. But when she responds to an ad in the newspaper for a lodger on a quiet Notting Hill street, Jess has no idea how life's about to change. Joan has spent too long alone with her memories of the man she walked away from one Manhattan evening years ago. Passing a bedroom door she can't bear to open, she decides to advertise for a lodger. When Jess meets Joan, she recognises a woman left behind by the world, and so she suggests a switch.

When Natalie Powers returns home for the first time in 13 years, she must convince everyone she has fully recovered from the mental illness that has seen her institutionalised for most of her young life. But instead of being welcomed back, Natalie enters a baffling world of deception. In the village of Little Downey, everybody appears to harbour a mysterious secret, including her father, Frank, the village butcher, who refuses to discuss the circumstances surrounding Natalie’s mother's disappearance. But who can Natalie trust if not her own father?

I look at where the woman was sitting. There’s a scrap of paper tucked into the gap between the seats. With shaking hands, I pick it up. The note reads: Help me. At first glance, the couple on the train look normal. She’s dressed smartly, a floral patterned bag on her lap. But her hands are clenched, her fingers white. The man with her has his arm looped through hers, but not in a comforting way. He’s holding her too tightly.

The Scarmados are the most famous family in Britain, notorious for throwing lavish parties funded by their media and shipping empire. Now, head of the family Mattia is about to retire, and he's taken his four children and his new young wife Belle on the maiden voyage of one of his luxury cruise ships. The tabloids are buzzing: is he about to announce his successor?

Krystle didn’t have a normal childhood and longed for warm family Christmases with presents under the tree. Now she makes sure everyone else has the perfect Christmas she never had. With her festive business booming, she decides to celebrate by renting a secluded house in the Lakes, with a plan to make this the ultimate yuletide getaway. But fate immediately throws a spanner in the works in the form of a broken-down car, a flooded river and Max; a man who despises Christmas. Krystle becomes determined to show Max the joys of the holiday. Can she melt Max’s Grinch-like heart?

Walking disaster Saffron and her perfectionist twin sister Georgia have only one thing in common—they are both obsessed with battle royale video game Sole Survivor. While working at a brand new high tech escape room complex, Saffron poses a question to the resident AI: which high school stereotype would survive the longest in a real life version of Sole Survivor? She is convinced a rebel like her would beat a know-it-all like Georgia. Unbeknown to her, the AI decides to determine the answer to her question by testing it out for real.

Born in Germany in 1922, Colin Anson's (Claus Ascher) childhood was marked by the trials of Nazism. His father was arrested by the Gestapo in 1937 and transported to Dachau, where he died shortly after. Colin, aged just seventeen, escaped to Britain in the Kindertransport. As soon as he was old enough, Colin volunteered in the Pioneer Corps. Then, in 1942, he was recruited for the elite commando unit X-Troop. Colin took part in the invasions of Sicily and Italy in 1943, where he sustained a near-fatal injury. But just months later, he returned to duty.

Children are not passive victims of oppression, but their resistance and struggle for equality has been largely ignored by the wider social justice movement—until now. In this groundbreaking manifesto, Eloise Rickman argues that it's time to stop viewing children as less than adults and start fighting for their rights to be taken seriously. Radical, compassionate, and profoundly hopeful, this powerful new book signals the start of a long-overdue conversation about how we treat children. It's Not Fair is a call to embrace children’s liberation and the possibility of a better, fairer world.

What happened to Elisa Lam, found dead in a water tower atop a hotel roof? Who were the two men who came to see her, and what was in the mystery box they gave her? Why did the location of her gravestone match the zip code of a bookstore miles away? Why did a man write the Fibonacci sequence as a clue and tell a stranger he was 'Looking for the Beast' before he disappeared in the barren plains of a desert? Find many more head-scratching puzzles in Tales of Mystery Unexplained.

Germans at Meat is a short story by Katherine Mansfield: Bread soup was placed upon the table. "Ah," said the Herr Rat, leaning upon the table as he peered into the tureen, "that is what I need. My 'magen' has not been in order for several days. Bread soup, and just the right consistency. I am a good cook myself"-he turned to me. "How interesting," I said, attempting to infuse just the right amount of enthusiasm into my voice.

Tilly dreams of having a pony of her own. One that only she can ride to stardom. Will her wishes come true when she joins Silver Shoe Farm Stables? Tilly learns all about World Horse Welfare and, when she visits their rehabilitation centre, she falls in love with gentle giant, Goliath, the shire horse. What can she do to help find him a new home?

Nina's life sounds great on paper. Or, more precisely, in her author bio. But, in reality, the farmhouse is crumbling, her gambling ex-husband has run away with all their money and Nina is just about keeping their (leaking) roof over her children's heads. But then her agent and best friend, Alice, gives her some life-changing news: her very first novel, Written in the Stars, has been picked up by a film producer in Hollywood. And before she knows it, she's flying her out to LA to meet the producers!

Tilly dreams of having a pony of her own. One that only she can ride to stardom. Will her wishes come true when she joins Silver Shoe Farm Stables? Tilly is off on the trip of a lifetime to the Kentucky Horse Trials. She’s so excited. While she's there she meets Free Spirit, a wild mustang, with whom she feels an instant connection, that she knows will last forever.