Showing results by narrator "Emma Gregory" in All Categories

Going from princess to pauper wasn’t exactly the fairy-tale ending Penelope Hastings believed in as a kid. She grabs at the opportunity to work at Camp Firefly Falls - home of her most treasured childhood memories and the haven where her spoiled heart expanded and her perspective changed after an encounter with an older boy. Now, she’s hoping that the camp can work its magic one more time and help her craft a new life.

Day one. As my eyes adjust to the darkness, I slowly start to recognise my surroundings: the small hole in the door and a narrow window allowing only a small chink of light. The jewellery given to me by my loving husband is gone and I am wearing someone else’s clothes. The room is exactly as the first woman described. And the second. And the third… It’s then I know, I am the fifth woman to be taken.

The Bradleys see the world as a place where miracles are possible, and where nothing is more important than family. This is their story. It is the story of Ian Bradley - husband, father, math teacher, and Mormon bishop - and his unshakeable belief that everything will turn out all right if he can only endure to the end, like the pioneers did. It is the story of his wife Claire, her lonely wait for a sign from God, and her desperate need for life to pause while she comes to terms with tragedy.

This collection of short stories from E. M. Forster contains six tales that were initially written between 1903 and 1912. Many of these stories, including the modern classic 'The Machine Stops' - which is set in a world where humanity lives underground and relies on a giant machine to provide its needs - deal with science fiction and supernatural themes.

On the surface, Anna Witherall has the perfect life. Married to her university boyfriend David, she has an enviable job, beautiful home, and gorgeous three-year-old twin daughters, Stella and Rose. Their competent and capable nanny, Maria, is practically part of the family. But beneath the veneer of success and happiness, Anna is hiding a dark secret, one that threatens to unravel everything she has worked so hard to create. Only one thing is certain: to protect her children, she must betray them.

Pearl Street, Liverpool, Christmas 1942. Despite the drama and tragedy of the War, the street’s spirit and friendship in adversity binds them together. Since her husband was injured, Eileen has worried about the growing distance between them. Lena Newton longs for a baby but with her husband posted in the Navy, it's looking unlikely. And Kitty has hidden away since she discovered her lover was married, too ashamed to return in disgrace with her baby.

A brother sent away. A sister in a loveless home. A father ruthlessly murdered. Ricky and Leonora Bates are brother and sister, best friends, allies in a loveless family. They are a constant disappointment to their domineering father. He views Ricky’s quiet bookishness as weakness and Leonora’s feisty intelligence as unbecoming. Then Ricky is sent away to a boarding school in South Africa to “toughen him up”. And Leonora is stuck dealing with her dysfunctional parents on her own. The unthinkable happens. Leonora’s father travels to South Africa to bring Ricky home. Disaster strikes.

Dan's life has fallen apart at the seams. He's lost his house and his job, and now he's going to lose his family, too. All he's ever wanted is to keep them together, but is everything beyond repair? Maria is drowning in grief. She spends her days writing letters that will never be answered. Nights are spent trying to hold terrible memories at bay, to escape the pain that threatens to engulf her. Jack wakes up confused and alone. He doesn't know who he is, how he got there, or why he finds himself on a deserted clifftop, but will piecing together the past leave him a broken man?

On the first warm day of spring, in a seemingly unprovoked attack, a young mother is stabbed. At the same time, her five-year-old daughter is snatched. As part of the Violent Crimes Taskforce, DI Erica Swift and her team are assigned with finding the person responsible for the stabbing and to locate the missing child. But as Erica digs deeper, she uncovers a disturbing motive behind the attack. When another child is taken and with time running out, she needs to solve the case before many more lives are lost.

Susan Knight has a good life. So she turns a blind eye to the gambling winnings her husband, Donny, puts through the books at her salon. After all, he needs some way to unwind. At work, he is headteacher at Second Chance, an alternative provision school for kids who have nowhere else to go. Being the headteacher gives Donny respect, money and charm. But respect can be lost, money can be stolen and charm can only go so far.

Quiet streets hide the worst crimes Manchester’s Manor Estate is the kind of place people want to live – smart houses, neighbours who look out for you. But what if you don’t want to be seen? Behind the tidy front gardens and glossy painted doors it seems everyone’s got something to hide...

Beverley Wilson has always loved the Beatles, but kissing a poster goodnight isn’t really an option when you’re a 50-something mum of three. So when she decides it’s time to get back into the dating game, she turns to a dating agency for help. But the long and winding road to real love is littered with dating disasters–the pantyhose pervert being the real low point, and in Bev’s opinion, it’s all too much. But meeting fellow Beatles fan Scott Smith changes everything.

He considers himself an artist. His medium is murder. Someone is killing young women, strangling them in their beds, and arranging their bodies in a certain way after death. The police have no witnesses and the killer has left no clues. When a second victim is discovered, DI Erica Swift finds herself on the hunt for another serial killer. Lara Maher is living with a man who controls her every move. He treats her like a precious possession, and their shared past ties her to him. But now something has changed, and his increasingly volatile moods terrify her.

Lust, power, revenge: the gripping gangland thriller from Karen Woods – the writer to show you the dark side of Manchester. Two women – one too innocent, one who knows too much. They have secrets, but none as lethal as those they uncover when they get caught up in turf wars between two strip...

This is a story from the Dragon Tales collection.

The many journals which reported Browning’s untimely death all spoke of her as the greatest woman poet in English literature. The highly respected Edinburgh Review expressed the prevailing view when it said that she had no equal in the literary history of any country: “Such a combination of the finest genius and the choicest results of cultivation and wide-ranging studies has never been seen before in any woman", and the esteem in which she is held has never dimmed with her poetry still widely studied and admired today. Collected here are 16 of her most beautiful, haunting, and renowned poems.

Two massacred families, with signs of ritual killings. A nine-year-old-child, abandoned in the snow. As Liverpool holds its breath, DCI Eve Clay hunts a sadistic killer who knows more about her past than she does. Her search will take her deep into the tunnels beneath Liverpool, boarded up and forgotten since World War II. There, deep underground, she will come face to face with true evil for the first time.

Heather has lucked out. She has a beautiful house, a happy marriage to James Jessop, with two sons — and she’s just won the lottery. £29 million! Natalie has never quite kept up, but she’s finally in a relationship with a new boyfriend, Nick. She’s been best friends with Heather since they were bullied at school. But will her friend’s new fortune change their friendship? The Jessops’ comfortable life dissolves into chaos. Heather starts receiving anonymous, hateful messages. She begs Natalie to escape with her to Spain, but away from the spotlight in London, things go from bad to worse.

Betrayal, family loyalties, secrets: not all gangsters live in the East End. Two families run this part of Manchester: the Johnsons and the Bennetts. With the head of the Johnson family banged up, the Bennetts have made their move. But power comes at a price. Now Charlie Johnson is out of prison and he wants his empire back. But the Bennetts have had a taste of the money and the control. Charlie’s sons want to strike now and destroy their rivals, but Charlie wants to wait. He has a personal score to settle.

This Valentine's Day, Roxy Squires is waiting for the phone to ring …Roxy is famous. At least, she used to be. She's a good-time TV presenter and, OK, so things haven't been going so well recently, but she knows her big break is just around the corner. What she's really looking for is someone to propel her back to the big time. Enter Woody, one-time pop star and Roxy's ultimate dream date, now working as her window cleaner. He's the answer to her prayers – but for some reason, he doesn't want to be famous any more. And it turns out that they're not the only celebs in the village.