Showing results by narrator "Julie Maisey" in All Categories

Southern Sweden, 1990. Five lifelong friends gather for a last farewell to their childhoods and each other at an abandoned quarry. The mood is effervescent, but under the surface tensions run deep as not everyone is ready to let go—or be left behind. When dawn breaks, only four remain alive. The police rule the death a tragic accident, but not everyone is convinced, and the incident remains an open wound in the community.

After a trophy-laden and record-setting club and international career, England’s greatest ever goalkeeper, Peter Shilton, could rightly look forward to an equally successful post-playing career. But a gambling habit forged in his playing days soon spiralled into a gambling addiction: a silent, self-destructive and ruinous obsession that destroyed relationships, his mental health and very nearly himself.

When Kate Swan's overbearing father demands that she obey him by marrying a man she despises, she refuses and is cast out of her comfortable home in Whitby. Fortunately, a kindly local widow is looking for a lady companion and for the moment, Kate's future is assured. Meanwhile in Shetland, Malcolm McFadden, heir to the Garstan Estate, disagrees with his father's plan to clear the crofters from his land and turn it over to sheep. When he and Kate meet, they are instantly attracted to one other but circumstances get in the way.

Two women; two different worlds. Emma is a struggling mother who has put everything on hold. Nina is sophisticated and independent - entirely in control. When the pair meet, Nina generously draws Emma into her life. But this isn't the first time the women's paths have crossed. Nina remembers Emma and she remembers what Emma did. But what exactly does Nina want from her And how far will she go in pursuit of it?

Lori works illegally in a rented flat in central London, living in fear of police raids which could mean losing her small daughter and her dream of a new life. Freya is a student who finds she can make far more money as an escort than she could in an office; life, after all, is already a tangle of madness and dissociation. And Paula is a journalist whose long-term campaign against prostitution has brought her some strange bedfellows. After a shock change to the law, with brothels being raided by the authorities, lives across the country are fractured.

Tired of being underestimated, Annie Valentine is determined to prove to everyone that she can make her life a success. Her job as a personal shopper is brilliant, but she’s now intent on setting up a shoe and handbag empire of her own. To get there, she’ll do anything and go anywhere—the handbag factories of Italy are calling! But what started out as a fun after hours project is getting slightly out of hand. Because Annie is working around the clock to bag the perfect bargain, and her family life and relationship with adorable Ed is feeling the strain.

It is 1966, and things are changing in the close-knit Napier Road. Stephanie is nine years old, and she has plans. But everything changes when Stephanie strikes up a relationship with Mr Man, who always seems pleased to see her. When Dawn goes missing in the woods during the World Cup final, no one appears to know what happened to her - but more than one of them is lying.

The phone call to the police arrives at dusk from an isolated farmhouse, 50 miles from the city. A terrified woman's voice pleads for help. But a violent storm rages in the area, and the first available patrol only succeeds in reaching her hours later. It is too late. Something perturbing has happened, something which leaves the investigators in the dark. Just one person is able to reveal the message hidden behind this act of evil, but this person is no longer a policeman.

Louise Leighton’s life has fallen apart, all because of one fateful night. Her husband is an adulterer, her sister is his mistress and soon Louise will lose everything she owns. But she never imagined she would lose her daughter. Eighteen-year-old Brooke Leighton is missing. It’s up to Louise and the Metropolitan Police to find her. But can Louise aid the investigation without mentioning the night where all of her troubles began? If she mentions that night, she will incriminate Brooke for heinous crimes. But if she doesn’t, she may never find her daughter....

The first time Annie Sweet sees 43 Stanley Road, the house is so perfect she feels almost as if it has chosen her. She longs to move in, but with her husband increasingly distant, and her daughter wrapped up in childhood, Annie is left alone to mull over the past.

Meet Annie Valentine: stylish, savvy, multi-tasker extraordinaire. As a personal shopper in a swanky London store, Annie can be relied on to solve everyone's problems...except her own. Because as a busy single mum to two kids, Annie’s realised there’s a gap in her life as well as her wardrobe. But with her heart still hurting from losing the love of her life, Annie’s discovered that finding the perfect partner is turning out to be so much trickier than finding the perfect pair of shoes!

As a primary school teacher, Ava Lam is familiar with the 'buddy bench': a rainbow painted bench where sad or lonely children can sit to show they need a friend. But are buddy benches just for kids? Ava might have assumed so—until she finds herself sobbing her heart out on a park bench and a kind stranger sits down next to her. The stranger, Dr Sam Stone, has a house, an impressive job and he's even training for a marathon. But whilst Sam appears to have everything figured out, it seems he needs a sympathetic ear just as much as she does.

In the late '80s, our Rachel was having a boss time as a podium dancer at the Pleasuredrome, Birkenhead. Fast forward several years, and she's married, with the kids she's always dreamed of, but the body she's always dreaded. To make things worse, her husband, Trevor, begins to show his true controlling colours and Rachel blames herself, spiralling into depression. Until she discovers running.

On board the superyacht Perseus, moored in the glamorous harbour in Antibes, Freya Addison is settling into her new role as hostess. The other crew members all like Freya, she is calm and diligent and a hard worker, but what they don’t know is that Freya has a secret and an ulterior motive for being on board. Because Freya isn’t here to travel the world in style. She has her sights set on one thing only, bringing down the owner of the yacht - the rich and arrogant Julian Falcon. A man who ripped the heart out of Freya’s family.

Liv has a lot of secrets. Late one night, she sees a python on a TV nature show and becomes obsessed with the idea of buying a snake as a pet. Soon Nero, a baby Burmese python, becomes the apartment's fourth roommate. As Liv bonds with Nero, she is struck by a desire that surprises her with its intensity. Finally she is safe. Thirteen years later, in the nearby town of Kristiansund, Mariam Lind goes on a shopping trip with her 11-year-old daughter, Iben. Following an argument, Mariam storms off, expecting her young daughter to make her own way home...but she never does.

Richard and Bookey Peek hadn't planned on adopting a warthog, any more than one would plan a tidal wave or a tornado, but at Stone Hills, natural disasters have a way of happening when you least expect them. Through Zimbabwe's darkest days, Stone Hills has become a world in itself: a place where you might share your shower with an owl, and a place where a warthog relinquishes her place on the sofa to return to the wild.

Disowned and disinherited by his aristocratic family, Jack Llewelyn survives on his wits and his ability to nurse officers returning from the Napoleonic Wars. He is prepared to go to any lengths to clear his name, but fate, and the Duke of Diable Delamere, have different plans for Jack. Soon he will be hunting a missing spy, discovering old family secrets, and risking his life pursuing a woman who has changed beyond recognition.

Lily Grace has escaped the confines of the Scottish village where she grew up, and is at college in Newcastle. She loves her student life and hopes to stretch her wings even further by working on a cruise ship. The only cloud on the horizon is the blunder she made when she kissed her lecturer. Then a trip to Ireland for a family funeral changes everything. There she meets student Dara Ryan, and her brother Declan is smitten by the gorgeous Ava. Lily and Dara fall in love but she is fearful that a long-distance love affair is doomed.

Paramedic Abi Quinn is hailed as a hero by the patients she saves with the London Ambulance Service, but a secret she’s kept since she was a teenager now threatens to shatter that perfect illusion. When her daughter Rose goes missing while studying at Brighton University, and ghosts from her past return to haunt her, Abi’s caught in a race against time to untangle the web of lies she set in motion over 20 years ago.

Emily is raising two tiny feminists, building her freelance career and navigating life as a newly single mum - and feels like she's failing horribly. Tania just wants her other half to do his fair share - as long as it's done her way. But being right isn't nearly as much as fun as being in it together.... Helen has almost got family life sorted: a routine that suits them all, most days. Until her own mum turns up and turns calm into chaos.