Showing results by narrator "Bea Holland" in All Categories

Ollie Spencer has started a new life in the idyllic Cornish seaside town of Port Karadow. Throwing herself into her job at the town’s bookshop, A New Chapter, is one way to make friends. The shop is glitzing up for first Christmas and Ollie hopes her inspired ideas will give the shop the edge it needs to dazzle the town. But far from being the Sugar Plum fairy the place needs, Ollie is fast becoming its Christmas pudding. With the bookshop’s success at stake, Ollie turns to twinkly-eyed café owner Max for help.

From Sunday Times bestselling author Simon Kernick - the UK's answer to Harlan Coben - come two electrifying novellas and three gripping short stories published in book form for the very first time. Fans of David Baldacci, Stuart MacBride and Peter James will not be disappointed.

Emma Harte is now 80 years old and ready to hand over the reins of the vast business empire she has created. To her favourite grandchild, Paula McGill Fairley, Emma bequeaths her mighty retailing empire with these heartfelt words: ‘I charge you to hold my dream.’ A towering international success, this is the powerfully moving tale of one woman’s determination to ‘hold the dream’ which was entrusted to her, and in so doing find the happiness and passion which is her legacy.

Linnet O’Neill, great-granddaughter of Emma Harte, finds herself following in the footsteps of the original woman of substance as she battles to save the family business. She and Emma’s other great-granddaughters are tested to the limit as the final chapter in the extraordinary story of the Harte family draws to a dramatic close....

It is two years before the outbreak of World War 1, and the Oakley family are typical of their time. Andrew has been clerk at a City solicitors for twenty years. Alice, his wife, keeps the home fires burning. Their sons plan on becoming skilled apprentices. And Mabel, their daughter, says she would rather die than go into domestic service like her cousin. She is going to go to train as a secretary. Andrew Oakley little imagines, as he sets off for work one February morning, that their lives are about to change in the most dramatic and tragic fashion.

Librarian Thea Rush was looking forward to exploring the beautiful Cornish town of Port Karadow with her best friend. But when she is dumped for a better offer, Thea isn’t sure if she can survive the three-week holiday on her own. Her holiday doesn’t get off to the best start when she arrives at her rented cottage to discover a noisy building site next door, and a grumpy (and handsome!) builder, Ben, in charge. When a series of mishaps and misunderstandings throw Thea and Ben together, she discovers there is more to him—and to the town—than she thought.

Includes exclusive access and interviews with Prince Harry. Once a reckless rebel, now a respected role model, Prince Harry is one of the world's most popular royals and the force behind giving the British royal family a 21st-century makeover. How has he done it? Harry: Conversations with the Prince is a three-dimensional look at what Harry is really like, both on and off royal duty. It is written by distinguished journalist and author Angela Levin, who accompanied Prince Harry on many of his engagements and had exclusive access to him at Kensington Palace.

Set in Yorkshire, Hong Kong and America, this remarkable novel continues the story of an unorthodox and endlessly fascinating family. As the spirit of Emma Harte lives on in her granddaughter, Paula O’Neill, an engrossing drama is played out in the glamorous arena of the wealthy and privileged, underscored by a cutthroat world of jealousy and treachery. Paula must act with daring and courage to preserve her formidable grandmother’s glittering empire from unscrupulous enemies - so that Emma’s precious dream lives on for the next generation.

Wedding Planner Ellie Moon is dreaming up the most beautiful bespoke wedding for Charlie and Daniel, owners of Cornwall’s favourite cream tea bus. Even though her own life has been turned upside down and she’s had to rent out her charming Cornish cottage with its climbing roses and lavender beds, Ellie is determined to give them a day to remember. Her new tenant, handsome Mechanic Jago, keeps popping up around the picture-postcard seaside village of Porthgolow.

The legendary Emma Harte, heroine of A Woman of Substance, returns.... At the centre of this sweeping saga stands Paula O'Neill, beloved granddaughter of Emma and the guardian of her vast business empire. Paula believes that all that Emma left to the family is secure. However, beneath the surface sibling rivalry and discontent are beginning to flare.

Sally never meant to cave her husband's head in with a skillet. Or at least she didn't until suddenly, she did. But Sally isn't the only woman in town being pushed to breaking point. When coincidence brings four strangers together, a surprising solidarity is formed. So can they find the best way to bury their husbands - and get away with it?

It is 1951, and at number six Sycamore Street fifteen-year-old Edie Green is lonely. Living alone with her eccentric mother - who conducts seances for the local Ludthorpe community - she is desperate for something to shake her from her dull, isolated life. When the popular, pretty Lucy Theddle befriends Edie, she thinks all her troubles are over. But Lucy has a secret, one Edie is not certain she should keep. Then Lucy goes missing.

Cynthia and Alex have always been like sisters. Living and working for years on Cynthia's mother's sprawling farm, they've raised their families together. It was the perfect life until the fateful night that Alex finds Hannah, one of Cynthia's eighteen-year-old twins, inexplicably murdered in her own home. Soon Alex's life is spiralling out of control as she questions everything she knows and everyone she trusted. And when local detective, Stefani Warner starts investigating Hannah's murder, one prime suspect quickly rises to the fore: Daniel, Alex's nineteen-year-old son.

Two years ago, Ben Fenton went camping for the night with his brother Leo. When Ben woke up, he was covered in blood, and his brother had gone. Days later, Ben was facing a charge of murder. Ben's girlfriend Ana has always sworn he was innocent. And now, on the hottest day of a sweltering heat wave, a body has been unearthed in Ana's village. A body that might be connected to what really happened between Ben and Leo that fateful night.

The play date started well. The children happy in one room while their mothers relaxed and drank wine in another. But then the stranger appeared at the window. And then he was inside the house. And then he grabbed the knife... Alice only means to stop him. She doesn't mean to hit him so hard. She didn't mean to kill him.

Your wife has lied since the day you met. So has your brother. You love them both, but can you trust them? Twelve years ago, Nick’s brother Rob was caught in a storm out at sea and drowned. His body was never found. When Nick met Susie at his brother’s funeral, he thought it was destiny at play. Then Rob suddenly appears on television. He is a hero. He has brought down a terrorist who opened fire on dozens of restaurant diners. Everyone wants to know who Rob is, but he’s vanished a second time, without a word.

Two suburban women. Two dark secrets. The almost perfect murder. Everybody needs good neighbours.... Melissa and Hester have lived next door to each other for years. When Melissa's daughter was younger, Hester was almost like a grandmother to her. But recently they haven't been so close. Hester has plans to change all that. It's obvious to her that despite Melissa's outwardly glamorous and successful life, she needs Hester's help.

Fern Carlile has a lot on her plate. It's a good thing she loves her big, imperfectly perfect family, because she's the one who washes their pants, de-fleas the dog and runs her own business. A hearty meal is the one thing that brings the Carliles together - but over the course of a year, the various courses also pull them apart. Around the table sits an eight-year-old militant feminist, a pair of teenage accidental parents, and a cantankerous OAP. Fern's husband needs an extra seat for his spectacular midlife crisis.

A horrific car crash in Belize has devastated Helen Pengilly’s family, leaving her daughter in a coma and her husband Michael missing. Alone and terrified, Helen’s memory is dragged back to that day 22 years ago. To protect their family, Helen and Michael both said they would forget what happened. But now it seems that there is someone who will stop at nothing to make them remember....

The Iremongers are a mean and cruel family, robust and hardworking, living in the Heaps, a vast sea of lost and discarded items. A storm is brewing over Heap House. The Iremongers are growing restless and the whispers are getting louder. When Clod meets Lucy, a girl newly arrived from the city, everything changes. The secrets that bind Heap House together begin to unravel to reveal a dark truth that threatens to destroy Clod's world.