Showing results by narrator "Daphne Kouma" in All Categories

'Made me reframe the whole way I look at winter' Nicola Elliott, founder of NEOM and author of The Four Ways to Wellbeing Are you feeling it too? The genuine urge to bunker in, a growing need for rest, a deep desire to seek comfort? As the days become shorter and the cold descends, hibernation...

A dazzling, shocking novel that speaks to our times, drawing on the 16th-century case of the witches of Warboys. Alice Samuel might be old and sharp-tongued, but she's no fool. Visiting her new neighbours in her Fenland village, she suspects Squire Throckmorton's household is not as God-fearing...

Orphia dreams of something more than the warrior crafts she's been forced to learn. Hidden away on a far-flung island, her blood sings with poetry, and her words can move flowers to bloom and forests to grow... but her father, the sun god Apollo, has forbidden her this art. A chance meeting with a young shield-maker, Eurydicius, gives her the courage to use her voice. After wielding all her gifts to defeat one final champion, Orphia draws the scrutiny of the gods. Performing her poetry, she wins the protection of the goddesses of the arts.

An Instant USA Today Bestseller! "Perfect for reading in the garden…and readers who’ve loved the fairy-adjacent historical romances of Robin McKinley or Mercedes Lackey will find themselves right at home.”—The New York Times "The perfect escape for A Court of Thorns and Roses and The...

Since their parents died, Cassie and Sam only have each other. And now Sam is in trouble. Sam has got involved with the wrong guys and he owes them money. When he is found beaten and bloody, Cassie knows these people will stop at nothing. Sam has one week to find nineteen thousand pounds. There’s only one way to make that much money that fast: DareMe—a new social media craze that is sweeping the nation, where players film themselves completing reckless dares for money.

Tragedy strikes as family ties unwind. A hot summer is approaching and not much will stir up the Levantine rhythm of the city of Bari. However, a disappearance of a local fisherman and the arrival of two characters to the police station leads Chief Inspector Lolita Lobosco deep into a far...

Oliver Twist is the story of workhouse orphan Oliver, who must survive the harsh streets of Victorian London. Featuring famous villains such as the Artful Dodger and Fagin, this classic tale has been retold and adapted for ages 6 and up.

East Prussia, 1944. When the war comes to 12-year-old Agnes’ village, she finds herself stuck between two terrifying armies. Every man she’s ever known has been forced to fight for the Nazis, and as the Red Army approaches every innocent woman and child is made to leave their home. Then tragedy strikes and she and her brother, Dieter, find themselves alone in vast, isolated woodland, and Agnes must protect Dieter at all costs....

Two teenagers, a Greek Cypriot and a Turkish Cypriot, meet at a taverna on the island they both call home. In the taverna, hidden beneath garlands of garlic, chili peppers and creeping honeysuckle, Kostas and Defne grow in their forbidden love for each other. A fig tree stretches through a cavity in the roof, and this tree bears witness to their hushed, happy meetings and eventually, to their silent, surreptitious departures. The tree is there when war breaks out, when the capital is reduced to ashes and rubble, and when the teenagers vanish.

As we sit drinking wine by the river and I gaze into his dark brown eyes, I know I have finally met the man of my dreams. I have been hurt before, but this time will be different. He has a terrible past, and everyone tells me he can’t be trusted, but they don’t know what I know. I know deep down that together we can overcome anything. Because sure he has secrets, but who doesn’t? But now a man is dead. And the police are knocking on my door. Was trusting him the biggest mistake I could make? I don’t know where to go or who to turn to. What if I am next?

"I would do anything for you to get well again, baby girl." It’s a promise. Even though I know it means asking her father for help, going back there, risking everything. Whatever the cost, there’s no hesitation in my mind. Because that’s what you do when you’re a mother. You put your child’s life before your own.

'Delicious and utterly absorbing... This is a book to be relished and savoured. I can't recommend it enough' GILL THOMPSON, author of THE CHILD ON PLATFORM ONE 'Historical fiction at its finest. Antoinette Chanel will capture your heart' ANN WEISGARBER, author of THE PERSONAL HISTORY OF RACHEL...

In the Soviet Union in 1973, there is perhaps no greater honor for a young girl than to be chosen to be part of the famed USSR gymnastics program. So when eight-year-old Anya is tapped, her family is thrilled. What is left of her family, that is. Years ago her mother disappeared. Anya’s only confidant is her neighbor, an older woman who survived unspeakable horrors during her ten years in a Gulag camp—and who, unbeknownst to Anya, was also her mother’s confidant and might hold the key to her disappearance. 

Italy, 1943. With war blazing through Europe, nowhere is entirely safe – not even the remote hills of the Tuscan countryside. It's here that Italian partisans, including thousands of women, risk their lives to provide Jewish refugees with an escape route to Switzerland. And it's here, too, that Gianna Conti travels to join the Italian Resistance in the wake of her brother Matteo's death at the hands of German soldiers. While delivering weapons and intelligence for partisans, Gianna meets Tazio Napoli, an American working undercover for the Office of Strategic Services.

France, 1918: when Sophia, the rebellious daughter of a distinguished German general, witnesses a dramatic battle in the skies that leaves an English pilot without a plane and under the misapprehension that Sophia is on his side, she finds she has no choice but to agree to assist him in his attempt to avoid capture. He joins her in the family car she has stolen, trailed by both the German Army and a staff officer under strict instructions from Sophia's father to bring her home.

Italy, 1938: When Stella arrives in Florence, it’s love at first sight. She is wowed by the rolling hills dotted with olive trees, the buttermilk villas with shuttered windows and terracotta roofs that glow gloriously in the sunlight. Even the breeze holds the scent of freedom - freedom from England, where the shadow of her past haunted her.

Andi Futura, her older brother and their parents are about to become the first family in space… and she’s sharing everything she learns while living aboard a space station with YOU! Discover what life in space is really like in this fascinating listen authored by real-life astronaut Samantha Cristoforetti.

Paris, 1940. Clutching a delicate silver dove-shaped brooch–the last gift from her beloved Otto, with a message of love engraved in the back–Lally flees her home in Paris. With her closest friend by her side, she dodges the Nazi gunfire echoing all around the city streets. But as they become more and more desperate during the darkest days Europe has ever known, one must make a terrible sacrifice for them both to survive…

Piano teacher Marina Meyer is delighted when her mother offers to help buy her own place in London, even though it means returning to Spain to sell the family holiday home. Cala Turquesa may be beautiful, but it also holds painful memories of Marina's father, who tragically died there in a boating accident. When Marina befriends turtle-saving vet Mati, it's hard to believe she could have stayed away so long. And then there's handsome property developer Agustín, who has set his sights on more than just the real estate.

London, 1835. To high society, Estella is the perfect lady. However, her fair face hides dark secrets – what has she done with her husband? And will her past crimes come back to haunt her? Desperate to escape her troubled life, she visits her friend, Lady Taykall. But when a servant girl...