Showing results by narrator "Gemma Lawrence" in All Categories

North Atlantic Ocean, 1942. Fifteen-year-old Connie is leaving war-torn England for the safer shores of America, looking after a nine-year old orphan boy with sad blue eyes. But the ocean is rife with Nazi vessels. And when their boat is torpedoed, in the fear and chaos Connie can’t stop thinking about handsome Jack, who stayed behind in London. Will the orphans survive, and will Connie ever be reunited with her first love? Back in London, 16-year-old Jack desperately misses Connie, his brave, kind friend, after their tearful goodbye when her ship set sail.

Meet Suzie Callaghan: French teacher, newly single, newly heartbroken. After an awful break-up, she heads to Mallorca for a much-needed holiday with her cousins, expecting sun, sangria, and siestas. She isn’t expecting to fall in love–especially not with the handsome Spaniard who rescues her when she gets separated from her group during an ill-judged midnight skinny dip. But what starts as a steamy holiday romance built on white lies and mistaken identities turns into something more complicated when “Carlos” shows up at the school she works at.

An evil stalks London, blown in from the tropics. A group of merchants are dying one by one. The elementary choice to investigate these mysterious deaths is, of course, the team of Holmes and Dr. Watson. But the unique gifts of their housekeeper, Mrs. Hudson, and her orphaned assistant Flotsam, will also be needed to solve the case.

When a priceless ruby known as the Malabar Rose vanishes while being guarded by Sherlock Holmes and his assistant, Dr. Watson, the formidable Mrs. Hudson sets out to give a lesson in criminal deduction for her most famous and logical of tenants, the master sleuth himself.

He was everything I wanted, but I should have known better. After all we've been through, he still didn't trust me with the truth. Now he's offering me the deal of a lifetime: his heart. All his secrets. Him. Forever. But at what cost? His enemies are still coming for us, and this time, we'll have to fight together. To save what we've built. To show that love like ours can't be destroyed.

I would. And I did. Because living without Gregory Ryans is unthinkable. I'm ready to put my faith in the law, but he's doing what he does best: buying a contingency plan. He tells me I'm his light, his one bright spot in all the darkness that surrounds him. But his past is creeping forward from the shadows, and the secrets he's guarded with his life are destroying him.

Eldest sister Frances is about to marry her childhood sweetheart. But with Marcus Danby now a fighter pilot, his fate hanging in the balance. Will he return from war for their happy ever after? Meanwhile youngest daughter Emily is swept off her feet by a dashing young officer, but does she really know him? Brother Daniel has joined up, but not before falling in love with a local kitchen girl Alice. Against the backdrop of war is there hope of a future for them?

Brought to you by Penguin. A brand new saga from the author of A Christmas Miracle on Sanctuary Lane! Richmond, Surrey, 1940. Overhead, the Battle of Britain rages. Below, at the Poppy Factory, disabled WWI veterans assemble remembrance wreaths while working on a secret wartime project...

Lily Baker wants more from life. Working at the local cinema, she saves her pennies so she can have a chance to get ahead. After she’s attacked one night while locking up the cinema, she loses her heart to her dashing rescuer…But this lovely man is as different from her as can be. When the town is divided, pitting the wealthy elite against the poor working class folk like Lily, she finds her allegiance is torn.

1950, Stretton Village, Cambridgeshire. Emily's troubles continue as she tries to manage the Vanbrough estate, which has been left in trust for her son. Is there hope she can find new love and happiness? Frances has survived a fate worse than death but can she find a new life in Cornwall? Daniel is home with his family. Can he make a go of things and what will happen when the past comes back to haunt him? Connor is all grown up. A chance meeting could lead to love, fame and fortune. But opportunities don’t come without peril…

Helen Macdonald is a falconer and poet. She keeps a goshawk called Mabel. As a child she fell in love with a rare book of intense nature writing, J.A. Baker's The Peregrine, which records a winter watching wild peregrines on the Essex coast. Her new play brings her birds and his together. Baker...

It's 2013. You're a teenager squinting at your laptop in the dead of night, flicking between iTunes and YouTube and PirateBay. Endless reams of artists unspool at the click of a button. New forms of musical discovery open up before your very eyes. This evolving digital landscape exists beyond...

Mia is telling me a story. It’s about a princess, who lives in a castle, on a street that bears a remarkable resemblance to ours. About a kind old lady who’s the queen. I’m distracted for a moment by her little hand softly slipping into mine. My daughter. My angel. But then she says something that pulls me from my reverie. She says that the queen doesn’t treat the princess well. She punishes her and doesn’t let her eat anything…Helen, my neighbour, has been so good to me. And more importantly, she’s so good with the children. Surely this is just another story of Mia’s, just make believe.

When a sudden reassignment gives Lily Baker only three days to report to mysterious Bletchley Park, she’s confused but excitedly answers duty’s call. Learning the reputed madhouse is actually the clandestine home of Allied codebreakers, Lily walks a fine line between guarding British secrets and protecting her heart. But when she overhears that a spy could be hidden among the eclectic mix of codebreakers, she is determined to uncover which of her new friends is the traitor.

Lexi is already an oscar winning documentary director at just 30-years-old. But when she is asked to ditch her current project in exchange to film Rebel Heart - a reunited boy band - she is disappointed to say the least. She didn't work this hard to follow a boy group on tour and document their every manufactured move. But after meeting Aidan, the unofficial 'head' of the band, something new stirs inside her. She thinks he's egotistical, entitled, and impulsive. Equally, Aidan thinks Lexi is high-strung, secretive, and emotionally devoid.

England, 1940. Only given two days leave after barely escaping Nazi troops in Paris, Lily Baker visits her fiancé’s family and is dismayed to learn he’s still missing in action. And going from an exciting overseas telephonist post to a routine office assignment leaves her bored… until the Blitz begins. Joining the Air Raid Protection service, Lily’s perilous new role puts her on the chaotic frontlines of deadly shelling and scared crowds turning hostile. But despite her heroism, she is plagued by guilt when she starts feeling attracted to a fellow A.R.P. member.

1938, England. When Lily Baker's mother finds a way for them to leave their run down part of town, and finally esape her aggressive father, Lily is feeling positive about a fresh start at a new life. While her mother will be a housekeeper, Lily has a chance to work in a factory, though she has even bigger dreams - and the tenacity to achieve them. But Lily’s father isn’t going to let go that easily, and she lives in fear of him ruining everything – the life she is building for herself. Will Lily and her mother find the strength to begin all over again?

I’ve always walked the straight and narrow, following the rules, never straying from my chosen path. Until Mr. Sexy Bazillionaire CEO Gregory Ryans walked into my life. It was only supposed to be business, but one brush of his wicked lips against my skin changed everything. I can’t deny what this man inspires in me. I’ll do anything he asks, even help destroy the enemies from his past. But he’s hiding more than he's telling me.

England, 1941. Reunited briefly with her husband-to-be before he returns to fighting, Lily Baker now finds her mundane army office work dreary. But when her boss asks her to keep watch on the happenings at the depot, she quickly suspects a new weapons supplier of fraud. As she trains her sharp eye on the potential cheat, she agrees to help an unmarried colleague with an unexpected pregnancy. But when, without evidence, she is accused of being the one with child, she faces hard decisions.

It's summer in London, and things are quiet. But while Holmes and Watson chafe at their inactivity, a train, carrying a vital encoded communication, is entering a tunnel in an obscure region of the Balkans – never to be seen again. The case of the disappearing train is only the beginning of the nation's difficulties. The missing message must be found and decoded, and a diplomat's wife must be rescued from the clutches of a pernicious blackmailer.