Showing results by narrator "Katy Sobey" in All Categories

Hamburg, 1938. Fifteen-year-old Asta is hurrying home from school with her twin brother, Jurgen. The mood in the city is tense - synagogues have been smashed with sledgehammers, and Asta is too frightened to laugh as she used to. But when she and Jurgen are stopped in the street by a friend, her world implodes further. Her Jewish parents have been dragged into the streets by German soldiers, and if she and Jurgen return to their house, they will be taken, too.

Surrounded by beautiful gardens in the glorious Sussex countryside, Summerhayes House seems like a true hidden paradise, but behind its polished floors and perfect green lawns is a family divided. The Summer family’s beloved home is under threat, and 19-year-old Elizabeth Summer finds herself caught in the heart of the crisis.

Are you stuck in a rut? Do you feel plagued by negative thoughts and emotions every day? Gill Hasson, the best-selling author of Mindfulness and Emotional Intelligence, is back to help you move on from those pesky negative emotions and focus on the positive instead. Gill's practical and reassuring approach to the benefits of positive thinking will have you applying it to your own life every day.

My name is Cally Louise Fisher and I haven't spoken for thirty-one days. Talking doesn't always make things happen, however much you want them to. Cally Fisher saw her mum bright and real and alive. But no one believes her, so Cally's stopped talking. A mysterious wolfhound always seems to be there when her mum appears and now he's started following her everywhere. But how can Cally convince anyone that Mum is still with them, or persuade Dad that the huge silver-grey dog is their last link with her?

Will is sleepwalking through life - he’s working in a dead-end job and volunteers at a crisis line, hiding behind the phone and helping others to avoid sorting out his own life, which is stuck in a rut. Annie thought she had a five-year plan all figured out with her steady job and even steadier boyfriend. But when everything starts falling apart, she reaches out for help and just needs someone to listen. Will enjoys talking to the woman who calls herself Pia, and together they start to encourage each other to do brave things and rebuild their lives.

Grace's Mum has found a lump. Her world totally falls apart when she is sent to live with her grumpy old granddad in Yorkshire while her mother goes into hospital to get better. But when Grace meets Rainbow Girl Megan and her pig, Claude, even the school bullies don’t seem so bad. Soon they begin to hatch a plot that will help Grace finally get to see her mum…

Sophie Arundel is stranded in a parallel universe, stuck in a grand house in an alternate 1925 England. Thankfully, she has her faithful dog, Charlotte. Oh, and Hugo Harrington who is stranded too—and Sophie’s fallen for him, head over heels.

With little over 12 weeks until race day, three women are trying their hardest to focus on their ultimate goal - to run 26.2 miles. For Hannah, it seems near impossible, her first attempt leaving her pained, sweaty and full of regret. But intent on winning back her husband, Hannah is determined to at least try. Malika signed up to the race after finding a running medal of her friend Abbie's, who died only a few weeks before. She once promised Abbie she would run a race with her and she plans to keep that promise.

Navigating life as a young autistic person with ADHD isn't always easy. Luckily, Sarah Boon is here to share her own experiences, helping you to explore how autism and ADHD overlap and identify the strategies that will make day-to-day life easier. With chapters focused on adulting, relationships and communication, emotional wellbeing, and mental health, navigating the workplace and more, this book offers practical, tried-and-tested guidance to help you understand your autism and ADHD and overcome some of the hurdles that adulthood may throw your way.

When Eden turns the key in the red door of Four Winds Cottage, the clifftop house where she used to holiday as a child, she is overwhelmed with bittersweet memories. She lost her mother recently, and she’s hoping Seaglass Bay will heal her broken heart. The villagers welcome Eden with open arms, but she can’t help but notice that life is tough for them when the holidaymakers go home. Her mother always gave so much to those around her, and Eden is determined to follow in her footsteps.

When 29-year-old Annie Trebarwith receives an unexpected letter from a great-aunt she’s never known, she leaves her shoebox-size flat in London and catches a train to the rugged Cornish coast. Salt Bay is beautiful, and Annie begins to kindle a bond with her great-aunt Alice. Even though there is zero phone signal and the locals - including the gorgeous but brooding Josh Pasco - can be decidedly grumpy at times, Annie starts to feel at home in Salt Bay.

Belle Wilde loves December. Yes, she’s just lost her job, and Christmas is not a good time to find yourself ‘financially challenged’. And yes, her parents are still going on about the fact that she really should have it all together by now. But Belle believes that in December, magic can happen. Rory Walters hates December. Whilst it looks like his life is together, he’s still reeling from a winter’s night five years ago when his life changed forever. Now back at home, he’s certain that this will be yet another Christmas to endure rather than enjoy.

Amelie has lived in Cornflower Cottage since she was born. She did her homework at the scrubbed kitchen table and helped her mum hang washing from the line on the old oak tree in the garden. And when her beloved parents died, Cornflower Cottage became Amelie’s armor against the world. The trouble is that Cornflower Cottage is too big for just her. With a broken boiler and a leaking roof, Amelie knows she must do something to make ends meet.

When Emma’s useless fiancé tells her a lie she cannot forgive, she decides enough is enough. She leaves him, quits her dead-end job, and travels hundreds of miles away to Honeymoon in the Dorset countryside, to help her friend Tia turn the old train station into a boutique hotel. Tia has told Emma that it will be a project, but when Emma arrives in Honeymoon and sees a weed-choked crumbling ruin, her vision of an idyllic life in Dorset begins to disintegrate. But when she meets twinkly-eyed builder Aiden, she can’t help but feel that the stars have for once aligned.

Lied to her whole life, Vega Jane broke away from the only home she'd ever known in search of the truth. She has battled monsters, with her best friend, Delph, alongside her, only to arrive in a place that's even more dangerous. The people there are enslaved and don't even know it. It's time for Vega and Delph to take up the fight against a cunning new enemy - and their success or failure will decide the fate of the whole world.

From much-loved author Shirley Hughes comes a thrilling World War II novel for children aged 10 and up. It is 1944, and Florence, Italy, is occupied by Nazi German forces. The Italian resistance movement has not given up hope, though - and neither have Paolo and his sister, Constanza. Both are desperate to fight the occupation, but what can two siblings do against a whole army with only a bicycle to help them? In extraordinary circumstances, people are capable of extraordinary things.

It is 1942 and Eva Adami has boarded a train to Auschwitz. Barely able to breathe due to the press of bodies and exhausted from standing up for two days, she can think only of her longed-for reunion with her husband Michal, who was sent there six months earlier. But when Eva arrives at Auschwitz, there is no sign of Michal and the stark reality of the camp comes crashing down upon her. As she lies heartbroken and shivering on a thin mattress, her head shaved by rough hands, she hears a whisper. Her bunkmate, Sofie, is reaching out her hand....

When Grace and Lola meet for the first time, it's at a home for young unmarried mothers. Consumed by the dark secrets that brought them there, the two forge an unlikely friendship. When the time comes, Grace is forced to give her daughter away, while Lola's parents take her son in to raise as their own. Seeking refuge after running away from home, Grace finds safety in Lola's family.

Stockport, 1944. Alice seems to have it all, but the truth is her marriage isn't as solid as it seems. Busy running her husband's family shop while he's at war, everything changes when she meets handsome Louis, fresh in from Guernsey with young evacuee twins Gabriela and Philip. Factory heir Sophie is thrilled to be getting married—if only her mother her mother didn't disapprove! She's marrying for love, but her mother is convinced Tony is marrying for money. Is there more to her concern than Sophie realises?

When Rosie inherits the café on Marigold Marina, following her husband’s tragic death, she is determined to pour her heart into his dream. But when Kit, the owner of a bookshop barge, starts to come by regularly, she finds it difficult to ignore his dark eyes, disheveled curls, and warm smile. And just as Rosie starts to hope, letting herself open her heart a second time, she discovers the shocking secret that the husband she loved for so many years kept hidden from her.