Showing results by narrator "Emma Powell" in All Categories

Eighteenth-century Cornwall is crippled by debt and poverty while the gibbet casts a shadow of fear over the land. Yet when night falls, free traders swarm onto the beaches and smuggling prospers. Terrified by a thief-taker’s warning as a child, Jenna has resolved to be good. But when her brother asks for her help to pay his creditors, Jenna finds herself entering the dangerous world of the smuggling trade. Jack Penhale hunts down the smuggling gangs in revenge for his father’s death. Drawn to Jenna at a hiring fayre, they discover their lives are entangled. But as Jenna struggles to decide where her allegiances lie, the worlds of justice and crime collide, leading to danger and heartache.

The Beast; that was what they called her. With her plump body and rough tomboy ways, she felt more like a clown. It was hopeless. Poor penniless Tilly could only sit among the chaperons as a paid companion to the spiteful Lady Aileen. The best she could do was sit; sit and dream. But suddenly Phillip, Marquess of Heppleford, the most eligible bachelor of all - decided he wanted her for himself, to be his wife, and they were married. His intent was to keep his freedom, fulfill the conditions of his father's will, and shock his aunts.

It was ‘their’ dark secret. For twenty-two-years they kept it buried. Time hasn’t healed my wounds. Instead, they’ve festered. Their actions went unpunished. Until now... Shamed, scarred, and shunned, I watched, waited and plotted how to shatter their enviable lives. Now, finally, they will suffer as I did at their cruel hands that fateful night. Time’s up. I am here for you, Dr Claudia Harper. But first, you’ll witness your childhood friends, one by one, beg for mercy.

In the close-knit community of Carrenporth in Cornwall everyone knows everyone else’s business. Luke Carrack is only too aware of this. He’s been away for two years, but nothing has changed - from the town gossips who can’t see past the scandal of his childhood to the cold way he is treated by some of his so-called family. The only person who seems to understand is local hotelier’s daughter Cat Trevelyan, although even Luke’s new friendship with her could set tongues wagging. But Carrenporth is about to experience far bigger scandals than the return of Luke....

Cornwall, 1939. The wealthy silversmiths, the Cossentines, are poisoned at dinner: only the youngest son and daughter survive. Maurice inherits everything. Celeste, with a history of psychosis, flees, taking with her a unique silver ring and assuming a new identity. She trains as a nurse but lives in fear of being recognised. When a wounded soldier captures her heart, she yearns to confess. But dare she trust even Danny with her secret?

Jen Shaw has climbed all her life. The riskier the ascent, the better. Until she went too far and hurt the people she cares about. So she's given it all up now and checked herself into a rehab centre to prove it. Yet, when Jen awakens drugged and dangling off the local lighthouse less than 24 hours after a 'family emergency' takes her home to Cornwall, she needs all her skill to battle her way to safety. Has Jen fallen back into her old ways, or is there a more sinister explanation?

Ten women, all called Claire, are tangled up in complex power dynamics with their families, friends and lovers. Though all are different ages and leading different lives, each is haunted by the difficulty of living on her own terms and by her capacity to harm and be harmed. Claire is a teenaged babysitter left alone with a strange little girl and her imaginary friend. She is a woman trying to escape her elderly mother by employing an android carer. Claire is a young TV journalist wrecking her first big interview.

Returning from their honeymoon, John and Lydia Savidge have another mystery on their hands. As a favor to an old friend, they agree to help uncover who killed Sir Benedict Stanbury, master of Fallowfield. Could the hapless stable hand accused of the crime really be guilty? Or could it have been the suspicious solicitor or the frightened governess? Someone knows something. Someone is lying. With a surplus of suspects and an absence of alibis, the newlyweds must untangle this web of confusion and catch the killer in just three days.

Poor Lucy was living a dream. She had married a gambler, a womaniser and a drunkard. And she refused to admit that his frequent overnight absences were of any significance. The sting came when it was revealed that Lucy's parents had bought her husband for her. And then one night at a ball, Lucy met the charismatic Duke of Habard, and suddenly anything seemed possible.

Spring 1940. Kitty Williams has suffered more than her fair share of tragedy, but rather than wallowing, she's more determined than ever to do her part in the battle against Hitler. Stepping up her own war effort, Kitty leaves her hometown of Coventry and joins the Auxiliary Territorial Service (Women's Army - ATS), where she finds new friends in Di, Peggy and Mary but also new obstacles to overcome in both her professional and personal lives.

When a friend is forced to consider a marriage of convenience, Lady Amelia Staunton is determined to rescue her. But her plans trap her in an illicit seduction, and Amelia must marry him herself. Malcolm's all-consuming kisses and devilish humor might make up for her lost freedom, but she believes he will force her to abandon the Gothic romances she yearns to write. Since she can't escape him, she must distract him from her secret.

Reeling from a brutal attack that leaves her flatmate dead and her badly injured, Lisa Fulbrook flees to the countryside to recuperate. With only vague memories of the event, she isolates herself from her friends and family, spending her days wandering the hills with her dog, Riley. She is plagued by vivid flashbacks and tormented by questions: how did the assailant know them? Why were they attacked? And what really happened that night?

After discovering that her fiancé, Timmy, has been less than faithful, Evie is faced with a dilemma of the heart - she must try to mend their relationship or otherwise cut all ties and move on. Moving on from a first love is never easy, though, and it's further complicated by the fact that Timmy's mother is the headmistress at Evie's school and can't hear a bad word said against him.

Edith Fairchild, deserted by her feckless husband, Benedict, eight years before, has established the thriving Spindrift artists' community by the sea and found deep and lasting love with Pascal. They have accepted that they cannot marry, but when Benedict returns unexpectedly to Spindrift House, all Edith and Pascal's secret hopes and dreams of a joyous life together are overturned. Benedict's arrival shatters the peaceful and creative atmosphere of the close-knit community.

As far as matrimonial prospects were concerned, Lucy Bliss was told she'd make an excellent clergyman's wife. Her mother, however, had loftier aspirations for her lovely younger sister Belinda. Belinda would marry a duke. More specifically, the Duke of Wardshire. Lucy was truly horrified. Lucifer Wardshire! Why, he was rumoured to be as wicked as the devil, with orgies and mistresses and worse! As the London Season unfolded, Lucy couldn't decide who was more abominable, her vulgar mama or the arrogant yet disconcertingly handsome duke.

Molly had dared to turn a cold shoulder on London's prize catch. She was a precocious American upstart who thought beauty, brains, and bravery were enough to conquer London society. Well, he'd show her! Nobody publicly (or privately!) spurned Lord David Manley, the most eligible bachelor in town. He was determined that soon she'd be trembling in his arms, desperately in love with the man she had dared to mock. David Manley always got his way, and Miss Molly Maguire presented a challenge he couldn't resist!

Everyone remembered the summer of ’39 as golden and strange. Golden because it was the driest on record; strange because people were burrowing holes and roofing them with iron. Waiting for the bombs.... In the Hampshire town of Markham, Georgia Kennedy wakes on her husband’s last day in Civvy Street and feels elated. Conventionally married to the pompous Hugh, she discovers liberation during the war. Like other women, she embraces the camaraderie previously held back by gender and class.

After a family tragedy, Janey Carhart was forced from her comfortable life as a captain’s daughter into domestic service. Determined to make something of herself, Janey eventually finds work as a lady’s maid at the imposing Bosvenna Manor on the edge of Bodmin Moor but is soon caught between the two worlds of upstairs and downstairs as she cares for her mistress. Desperately lonely, Janey catches the attention of two men - James Brockenshaw and Daniel Kellow. James is heir to the Bosvenna estate. Daniel Kellow is a neighbouring farmer with a dark past.

Emmie Weaver has it all–a handsome fiancé and students who love her. So why does she feel so lost? When Emmie's estranged grandfather dies, leaving her a barge in Starry Cove, it's a welcome chance to hit pause. But as soon as she arrives in the Cornish village, it's clear this won't be the relaxing break she was expecting. Her grandmother wants nothing to do with her and Jago Moon, a handsome yet hostile town bad boy, is inexplicably determined to not let her boat touch water.

It was time for a vacation from the magical mayhem. Camping, that's what we all agreed on. Nothing fancy, just a chance to relax. Nothing could go wrong, not when our party consisted of wizards, shifters, vampires, and necromancers. All there to protect my young child. But things have gone wrong, and before we'd even burned the sausages I found myself alone, and that was just the start of this nightmare.