Showing results by narrator "Naomi Barton" in All Categories

“Haven’t you heard about the virus?” When her BFF asks this question at the bus stop, there was no way 10-year-old Emilia could know that the global pandemic of COVID-19 was about to turn her life upside down. Based on true events, this story follows the journey of Emilia, who lives in South Korea with her teacher mother, where they both enjoy their international school community. Life is wonderful until the rapidly spreading global pandemic of COVID-19 prompts her mother to take Emilia from her home in Korea to her home in New Zealand.

Her mother dead from a drug overdose, 13-year-old Olivia is rescued by Cathie Tulloch, her mother's friend throughout the years they were held captive in Japanese prison camps in Sumatra in WWII. Welcomed into the Tulloch's remote family home in the Australian tropics, introverted Olivia is claimed by dramatic, generous, controlling Cassandra Tulloch as her sister and best friend. Moving to the UK at 18, Olivia finds her independence, and partner Ben. But in 1970, after five years away, she is homesick, and ready to fulfill her long-held dream: to make a family of her own.

In a German Pension (1911) was Katherine Mansfield’s first published collection of short stories. Many of these works had been previously published in the British weekly magazine, The New Age, which also featured work by figures including G. K. Chesterton, H. G. Wells, and George Bernard Shaw. The word “pension" in the title refers to a European guest-house.

This collection of short stories, by celebrated New Zealand writer Katherine Mansfield, was first published in 1920. Many of Mansfield’s short stories explore New Zealand landscapes and identity, and her work has been a shaping force in the short story genre.

The Dove’s Nest and Other Stories is a collection of both finished and unfinished short stories written by Katherine Mansfield. The collection was published posthumously, not long after Mansfield’s death in 1923, by her husband, John Middleton Murry.

Set in the forest in northern New Zealand, Mila is a young woman descended from healers. A family death causes her terrible guilt and sets her on a path away from home and to the distant city. Her friend Tommy, the quirky boy next door who makes models from bones, helps to bring her home, where she belongs.

New Zealand-born Pania Hayes has won the hearts of her Californian crowds. But after her husband’s untimely death, the opera singer realizes fame and fortune mean nothing without loved ones to share it with.

The Garden Party and Other Stories was published in 1922. A collection of fifteen short stories, it explores themes including life and death, gender and family roles, relationships and duty.

Fourteen-year-old Sid Everett longs for the excitement and glory of being a famous jockey. Despite having nothing but an old farm horse, he dreams of riding to victory with his name in the headlines and money in his pockets.

When traveling singer Graysie Castellanos inherits a rundown mine, she thinks it’s her golden opportunity to provide her adopted daughter with a happy childhood and a prosperous future. But their bright new beginning crumbles underfoot when the townsfolk of the Sierra Nevada mining town start dropping dead of mysterious causes.

Earth as a new Dungeon World means opportunities and dangers galore. One of the enduring aspects of the System is the Shop, an interdimensional series of stores that compete for the opportunity to service clients and make a profit doing so. New clients on a new Dungeon World mean rare and heretofore unseen items and massive profits. No surprise that the vultures have arrived, searching for easy marks.

Troubled teen Faith Marsden was one of several girls abducted from Crawton, a country town known for its picturesque lake and fertile farmland. Unlike the others, she escaped, though sixteen years on she still bears the emotional and physical scars. Zoe Haywood returns to Crawton to bury her estranged mother Lillian. As she and Faith rekindle their high-school friendship, they discover notes left by Lillian that point to two more young women who recently disappeared from Crawton.

New York, 1847. Elanora dreams of marrying her childhood sweetheart Eustace. The proposal on her 21st birthday is everything she hoped for, until her fiancé’s father dispatches him to the West Indies. After the promise of a white Christmas with the man she loves evaporates, she stumbles upon a secret that could tear Eustace’s family apart....

Nothing bad ever happens in the small seaside town of Castle Bay - until the body of missing tourist Bethany Haliwell is found in the bush, buried in a shallow grave. News crews and journalists from all over the country descend as old secrets are dragged up and gossip is taken as gospel. Among them is Miller Hatcher, a reporter battling her own demons, who arrives intent on gaining a promotion by covering the grisly murder. Following an anonymous tip, Miller begins to unravel the mystery. When another woman goes missing, she finds herself getting closer to the truth. But at what cost?

California, 1868. Isabella Wilmington’s dream of taking center stage feels empty without her long-lost twin brother cheering her on. When a bullet cuts through the crowd, she’s convinced the murderous act is a warning shot against her search for her missing sibling. Determined to crack the case, she tags along with a rugged ex-soldier who’d rather keep her out of harm’s way than put her on the frontlines of a dangerous investigation.

On a perfect summer's day, at a school picnic beside a lake, four-year-old Gemma Anderson goes missing, leaving a family devastated and a community asking questions. Seventeen years later, Gemma's older sister Stephanie is practising as a psychiatrist. A new patient's revelations force her to re-examine the disappearance. Why are their stories so similar? Unable to let the matter rest, Stephanie embarks on a journey to find out what really happened to Gemma on that long-ago afternoon.