Showing results by narrator "Sarah Ovens" in All Categories

When Mollie and Peter go to buy their mother a birthday present, they discover the most extraordinary thing: a magical wishing-chair! The Wishing-Chair takes them on some wonderful adventures - to a giant's castle to rescue a new pixie friend, to the Land of Dreams and even to a disappearing island! Who knows what might happen next?

On an island off the coast of Ireland, guests gather to celebrate two people joining their lives together as one. The groom: handsome and charming, a rising television star. The bride: smart and ambitious, a magazine publisher. It’s a wedding for a magazine or for a celebrity: the designer dress, the remote location, the luxe party favors, the boutique whiskey. The cell phone service may be spotty and the waves may be rough, but every detail has been expertly planned and will be expertly executed.

When troublesome Scarlet mysteriously disappears from Rookwood School, terrifying Miss Fox invites her quiet twin sister Ivy to ‘take her place’. Ivy reluctantly agrees in the hopes of finding out what happened to her missing sister. For only at Rookwood will Ivy be able to unlock the secrets of Scarlet’s disappearance, through a scattered trail of diary pages carefully hidden all over the school.

The festive season isn't always happy for Tori Spring and her brother, Charlie. And this year's going to be harder than most. I used to think that difficult was better than boring, but I know better now.... I’m not going to think about the past few months, about Charlie and me and all of the sad. I’m going to block it all out just for today. 'Happy Christmas,' I say.

It’s been hundreds of years since King Arthur’s reign. His descendant, Arthur, a future Lord and general gadabout, has been betrothed to Gwendoline, the quick-witted, short-tempered princess of England, since birth. The only thing they can agree on is that they despise each other. They’re forced to spend the summer together at Camelot in the run up to their nuptials, and within 24 hours, Gwen has discovered Arthur kissing a boy and Arthur has gone digging for Gwen's childhood diary and found confessions about her crush on the kingdom's only lady knight, Bridget Leclair.

Annabel, Esther, Tanya, and Chloe are best friends—or were, as children. Despite drifting apart in adulthood, shared secrets have kept them bonded for better or worse, even as their childhood dreams haven’t quite turned out as they’d hoped. Then one day they receive a wholly unexpected—but not entirely unwelcome—invitation from another old friend. Poppy Greer has invited them all to her extravagant bachelorette party: a first-class plane ticket to three days of white sand, cocktails, and relaxation on a luxe private island in the Bahamas.

Mollie and Peter are home for the summer holidays, and they long to see their pixie friend Binky and their magic Wishing-Chair. They can't wait for lots of new and exciting adventures, but then the Wishing-Chair is stolen by some very cheeky characters. Whatever will the children do?

Old friends Renée and Flo couldn’t be more different. Flo wants to be invisible, Renée wants to be a somebody. But old friendships are magnetic. In their early twenties, and on the cusp of the rest of their lives, Renée and Flo both fly home to Guernsey: to the island where it all began. Back in the place of their youth, yet spreading their wings into adulthood, will they flail and fall? Or will growing up be the making of them?

At Montverre, an ancient and elite academy hidden high in the mountains, society's best and brightest are trained for excellence in the grand jeu—the great game—an arcane and mysterious competition that combines music, art, math, poetry, and philosophy. Léo Martin once excelled at Monteverre, but lost his passion for scholarly pursuits after a violent tragedy. He turned to politics instead, and became a rising star in the ruling party, until a small act of conscience cost him his career. Now, he has been exiled back to Monteverre, his fate uncertain.

Esther is a middle child, in her own mind a pale reflection of siblings who are bright, shining stars. She’s content to go back to school, do her best, hang out with her friends, and let others take care of things. But her best friends aren’t at school when she gets there. Why didn’t they tell her they wouldn’t be coming back? But stuff like that happens. And it’s bad luck that her new teacher makes Esther the butt of all kinds of jokes. Mrs. Pollock is rumored to be an ogre - and maybe she is one. Could be. Then things go from unfortunate to outright dangerous.

This superlative collection of children's stories brings together a feast of fantastic fiction, read in full by a host of top narrators and with a comprehensive track listing for ease of listening. Comprising everything from fairytales for little ones to thrilling adventures for pre-teens, these unabridged readings are ideal for families to keep, treasure and dip into as their children grow.

In Belle and Joni's world, there are two options for girls: One, follow the rules of the Doctrine like Belle: apply your Mask, work hard to be crowned at the Ceremony, be a Pretty. Or two, fight the rules like Joni: leave your face bare, work hard to escape to the Education, be an Objectionable.

When young Anna inherits a dilapidated once-grand hotel from her Great Aunt Mathilde, she's determined to restore it to its former glory. But this is no ordinary hotel - all of her staff and guests are animals! Anna soon rises to the challenge. Whether it's a flamingo, a penguin or a hippo knocking at the door, Anna is ready to welcome them all - with the help of her trusty sidekicks T Bear the doorman, Squeak the friendly elevator mouse, and Lemmy the lemur receptionist.... As she soon finds out, though, running an animal hotel is no easy task.

Mollie and Peter are home for half-term, and the Wishing-Chair is ready to whisk them away to magical lands! They'll meet a mysterious witch's cat, visit the Land of Wishes and even find gold at the end of the rainbow. But best of all, a certain jolly somebody needs help delivering presents - or Christmas might not happen!

The Midnight Forest. The Fanged Creature. Two fortune-telling cards that spell an untimely death for 17-year-old Clara. Despite the ever-present warning from her fortune-teller grandmother, Clara embarks on a dangerous journey into the deadly Forest Grimm to procure a magical book—Sortes Fortunae, the Book of Fortunes—with the power to reverse the curse on her village and save her mother.

Every marathon runner’s journey is different. You might have caught the bug after experiencing that adrenaline rush of completing your first 5k; it might be a desire to finally cross something off your bucket list; or, perhaps it was a bit of an absentminded afterthought while watching TV, crisps in hand, and a niggling voice saying ‘maybe I could do that’–it was for Vassos, at least. However far along you are in your journey, How to Run A Marathon shows us that absolutely anyone can take those first steps to defeating the distance.

When Charlie’s longed-for brother is born with a serious heart condition, Charlie’s world is turned upside down. Upset and afraid, Charlie flees the hospital and makes for the ancient forest on the edge of town. There Charlie finds a boy floating face-down in the stream, injured, but alive. But when Charlie sets off back to the hospital to fetch help, it seems the forest has changed. It’s become a place as strange and wild as the boy dressed in deerskins.

Claire and Matt are no longer together but decide that it would be best for their daughter, Scarlett, to have a "normal" family Christmas. They can’t agree on whose idea it was to go to the Happy Forest holiday park or who said they should bring their new partners. But someone did - and it’s too late to pull the plug. Before you know it, their holiday is a powder keg that ends where this novel begins - with a tearful, frightened call to the police.

Paddington Bear tries to buy a birthday present, the animals of Brambly Hedge set off to the seaside. A greedy queen insists on having the biggest tree in the world, but will Cinderella get to go to the ball?

Guernsey, 1940. As war storms through Europe, Churchill orders the evacuation of all military personnel from the island. Boats ferry soldiers and vulnerable young children to England, leaving their parents and loved ones behind to face the invading German army on their own. One of the few remaining policemen on the island, Jack must protect not only his friends and family, but also the woman he loves: Johanna, a Jewish nurse from Germany, whose secret faith could prove fatal to them both.