Showing results by narrator "Imogen Church" in All Categories

Lo Blacklock, a journalist who writes for a travel magazine, has just been given the assignment of a lifetime: a week on a luxury cruise with only a handful of cabins. The sky is clear, the waters calm, and the veneered, select guests jovial as the exclusive cruise ship, the Aurora, begins her voyage in the picturesque North Sea. At first Lo's stay is nothing but pleasant: The cabins are plush, the dinner parties are sparkling, and the guests are elegant. But as the week wears on, frigid winds whip the deck, and gray skies fall.

During the languid days of the Christmas break, a group of 30-something friends from Oxford meets to welcome in the New Year together, a tradition they began as students 10 years ago. For this vacation, they’ve chosen an idyllic and isolated estate in the Scottish Highlands - the perfect place to get away and unwind by themselves. They arrive on December 30, just before a historic blizzard seals the lodge off from the outside world. Two days later, on New Year’s Day, one of them is dead.

April Clarke-Cliveden was the first person Hannah Jones met at Oxford. Vivacious, bright, occasionally vicious, and the ultimate It girl, she quickly pulled Hannah into her dazzling orbit. Together, they developed a group of devoted and inseparable friends—Will, Hugh, Ryan, and Emily—during their first term. By the end of the year, April was dead.

Nurse Gemma Tate is heartbroken when she hears that one of her young charges at the Foundling Hospital has been killed. She knows that police inspector Sebastian Bell will work tirelessly to uncover the truth, but obstructed by the curt matron, he’ll need her help navigating the cloistered world of the orphanage.

When she stumbles across the ad, she’s looking for something else completely. But it seems like too good an opportunity to miss - a live-in nannying post, with a staggeringly generous salary. And when Rowan Caine arrives at Heatherbrae House, she is smitten - by the luxurious “smart” home fitted out with all modern conveniences, by the beautiful Scottish Highlands, and by this picture-perfect family. What she doesn’t know is that she’s stepping into a nightmare - one that will end with a child dead and herself in prison awaiting trial for murder.

Hours later, the man’s cold body lies in the city mortuary, alongside the woman he couldn’t save. And his sister, unconventional nurse Gemma Tate, tracks down troubled police inspector Sebastian Bell to unravel the truth. Sebastian has enough pressure to solve the murder of an aristocratic heiress without Gemma meddling in his case. But the cryptic sentences she brings him from her brother’s notebook could be a crucial lead. If only they knew what “milky way” meant.

Lyla is in a bit of a rut. Her post-doctoral research has fizzled out, she’s pretty sure they won’t extend her contract, and things with her boyfriend, Nico, an aspiring actor, aren’t going great. When the opportunity arises for Nico to join the cast of a new reality TV show, One Perfect Couple, she agrees to try out with him. A whirlwind audition process later, Lyla finds herself whisked off to a tropical paradise with Nico, where the two of them will compete against four other couples in order to win a cash prize. But not long after they arrive, things start to go wrong.

Tom, my husband, is always watching, controlling my every move. He chooses my clothes, my hairstyle, even instructing what and how much I’m allowed to eat – just ten measly mouthfuls. I’ve become isolated from those I love, forbidden to work and stuck at home to fulfil his every whim. My identity along with my life is long gone. I am slowly suffocating but I know Tom will never, ever let me leave alive. A chance encounter with Savannah changes everything. Tom couldn’t tear his eyes away from her. Could she be my saviour?

The perfect neighborhood can be the perfect place to hide… Who wouldn’t want to live in Brighton Hills? This exclusive community on the Oregon coast is the perfect mix of luxury and natural beauty. Stunning houses nestle beneath mighty Douglas firs, and lush backyards roll down to the lakefront. It’s the kind of place where neighbors look out for one another. Sometimes a little too closely…

The summer in question started out with hot, fun-filled days and new friendships. We had just turned thirteen and had our whole lives ahead of us. But that was before her. Before we became known as the Hixton Five and our lives become defined by one night. It’s hard to believe twenty years have passed since she was locked away. But now she’s free and strange things have started to happen. When I close my eyes, the creeping anxiety and fear is overwhelming and all too real. Because the monster is back, and I know she has a score to settle with us.

Gemma Tate has a new job and a new address. She is putting her past—her memories of nursing in the Crimean war—behind her. But when Jacob Harrow, a journalist with ties to Crimea, is found brutally killed, Gemma is pulled into the investigation. Police inspector Sebastian Bell works alone. But when all signs point towards a dark secret Harrow brought back from the war, he realizes he needs Gemma’s help to untangle the mystery. But raking up the past has devastating consequences when Gemma’s friend, another nurse from Crimea, is found murdered in her boarding house.

My wedding was the perfect whirlwind of a day. The happiest I’d ever been. That was until I discovered my beloved husband, Ryan, tucked away in a compromising summer house clinch with Liza, his best friend’s wife. Reeling with this ultimate betrayal, my world in freefall, with nowhere to turn, I flee my own wedding unable to face anyone, not even my family. I just want to escape this nightmare. With our flight, to our luxury honeymoon leaving in a matter of hours, could ten blissful days of Cretan Island life, minus my cheating husband help me figure out my future?

When Hannah and Jasper move to Silverbanks, a luxury gated neighbourhood, it’s a dream come true. This house, with its floor-to-ceiling glass doors, direct access to the sandy beach, and close-knit, caring community, will be the perfect place to raise their precious daughter, Pia. And then Hannah meets her next-door neighbour. The flicker of recognition in his eyes only lasts for a second, but it’s enough. Suddenly, her safe haven has become the most dangerous place she could be. Unless she does something about it.

Emma loves her husband Leo and their young daughter Ruby: she’d do anything for them. But almost everything she's told them about herself is a lie. And she might just have got away with it, if it weren’t for her husband’s job. Leo is an obituary writer; Emma a well-known marine biologist. When she suffers a serious illness, Leo copes by doing what he knows best – researching and writing about his wife’s life. But as he starts to unravel the truth, he discovers the woman he loves doesn’t really exist. Even her name isn’t real.

Since its publication, Quidditch Through the Ages has been one of the most popular books in the Hogwarts library. Read by Harry Potter, Hermione Granger, and many more, it is the essential guide to the wizarding world's favourite game.

Leonora, known to some as Lee and others as Nora, is a reclusive crime writer, unwilling to leave her nest of an apartment unless it is absolutely necessary. When a friend she hasn't seen or spoken to in years unexpectedly invites Nora ( Lee) to a weekend away in an eerie glass house deep in the English countryside, she reluctantly agrees to make the trip. Forty-eight hours later, she wakes up in a hospital bed injured but alive, with the knowledge that someone is dead.

Getting snowed in at a luxurious, rustic ski chalet high in the French Alps doesn’t sound like the worst problem in the world. Especially when there’s a breathtaking vista, a full-service chef and housekeeper, a cozy fire to keep you warm, and others to keep you company. Unless that company happens to be eight coworkers…each with something to gain, something to lose, and something to hide.

Clara receives a nutcracker from her godfather Drosselmeyer on Christmas Eve. That night she dreams the nutcracker is fighting with toy soldiers against the army of the Mouse King. Clara helps the nutcracker and it transforms into a prince. Together they travel to the land of sweets and celebrate a wonderful sweet festival with the Sugar Plum Fairy. It was all just an amazing dream - or was it...?

Tanya Byron shares powerful stories inspired by her years of training as a clinical psychologist. The Skeleton Cupboard is professor Tanya Byron's account of her years of training as a clinical psychologist, when trainees find themselves in the toughest placements of their careers. Through the eyes of her naive and inexperienced younger self, Tanya shares remarkable stories inspired by the people she had the privilege to treat. Gripping, poignant, and full of daring black humour, this book reveals the frightening and challenging induction faced by all mental health staff.

I look at our neighbours gathered in the garden for our annual summer barbeque, sipping chilled wine and smiling at my two daughters sprawled on the grass. I go inside to help refill glasses and then I hear it. A shrill scream that stops me in my tracks. I race outdoors to silence, a sea of bewildered faces. My first thought is for my girls, but they are there unhurt. With relief, we push the chilling sound to the back of our minds, returning to our drinks and conversations like it never happened.