Showing results by narrator "Laurence Bouvard" in All Categories

When Martina Torres arrives in the glamorous and vibrant metropolis of Hong Kong, newly married to her high school sweetheart, the world seems to be her oyster. But looks can be deceiving. Adrift in a foreign city, with no job and no friends, Martina chafes in her new role as Expat Wife. But her luck changes when she meets Veronica Hawkins. Beautiful, sophisticated, and very, very rich, Veronica is the epitome of Old Hong Kong--the last surviving member of a British mercantile dynasty that built the city during its colonial heyday.

I first start worrying about my beautiful daughter Lennie when she claims her imaginary friend told her not to trust me or her father, Nathan. And as she retreats further into her own world and pushes us away, it feels like we are losing our little girl. Then one evening I see a shadowy figure in Lennie’s bedroom window, and I begin to worry her friend isn’t imaginary at all…

Nga-Yee, a librarian, lives a quiet life with her 15-year-old sister, Siu-Man. After a difficult, impoverished upbringing and the deaths of their parents, they are finally finding a bit of stability. Then one day, Nga-Yee comes home to find her teenage sister has jumped to her death. Was it suicide, or was she pushed? And does it have anything to do with a recent trip on the Hong Kong subway which left Siu-Man silent and withdrawn? Nga-Yee cannot rest until she knows the truth about her sister - even if that means tracking down her sister's friends one by one and making them confess.

It’s the Christmas holidays at last, and Pimpa and Armando are ready for another adventure! The sun is shining and Pimpa decides to go for a walk in the snowy woods, where she meets Max the snowman. Max has a cold head, so Pimpa lends him Armando’s hat. But a sudden gust of wind blows it away... Join Pimpa and Max as they try to get the hat back. But don't worry - Max might have a few tricks up his sleeves to make things a lot easier.

Mia Allen has never adjusted to living in England. She misses the States , but her husband Kit loves the sense of community. Like Mia, Kit's boss Charlie is looking for more excitement in her life. So when she and her husband are invited to dinner, she jumps at the chance to make new friends. The increasing attraction between all of them is intense. Can any of their relationships survive this unconventional arrangement?

Introduce your children to the wonderful world of Shakespearean comedies with these abridged stories, written especially for children. Filled with sound effects, music and fun, your children will come away with a newfound love for these classic stories!

Overworked? Exhausted? Powering between career, family, and friends and frazzled and libido-less as a result? No wonder you're moody! But as New York psychiatrist Julie Holland explains in her radical and eye-opening new book, the first step to overcoming the lows is to accept that being testy is in our nature - we were made to be Moody B--hes. Being a successful modern woman is hard, and for so many of us the constant flux in our hormones and the dips and dives our mood swings take make it that much harder.

A deadly enemy will rise again.... Ella Praeger has always felt like an outsider. So when she is called to join the ranks of The Group, a force for good operating in the shadows, her world shifts. She is gifted a purpose - and a dangerous legacy. Years ago, The Group rid the world of one of its most powerful criminal masterminds. Yet when a child washes up on a beach in Greece, a mysterious symbol tattooed on its heel, it is a clear warning: impossibly, Athena Petridis has returned to reclaim her empire.

Living alone in New York, Frannie teaches creative writing to a motley bunch of students, and secretly compiles a dictionary of street slang: virginia, n., vagina; snapper, n., vagina; brasole, n., vagina. One evening at a bar, she stumbles upon a man, his face in shadow, a tattoo on his wrist, a woman kneeling between his legs. A week later a detective shows up at her door. The woman's body has been discovered in the park across the street. Soon Frannie is propelled into a sexual liaison that tests the limits of her safety and desires.

In 1968, into the beautiful, spare environment of remote coastal Labrador in the far north-east of Canada, a mysterious child is born: a baby who appears to be neither fully boy nor girl, but both at once. Only three people share the secret – the baby’s parents, Jacinta and Treadway, and a trusted neighbour, Thomasina. Together the adults make a difficult decision: to go through surgery and raise the child as a boy named Wayne.

An unusual love. Two broken hearts. What difference does 10 years make? Annika Rose has always been different. Sensory overload is a constant problem for her. She has a hard time reading people and feels lost in social situations. She's a brilliant chess player but can't pull an outfit together to save her life. In her last year of college, she's the weird girl whose only real friend is her roommate, Janice. Then, one day, Jonathan joins the chess club and is immediately captivated by the mysterious girl whose attention is completely fixed on her game.

When Leah and her husband, Clay, move from Seattle to Maine, she envisions a vibrant new neighbourhood packed with families - playmates for her twins, new friends she can confide in and bond with. But while Clay works long hours to establish his brewery, Leah is left alone each day in a nearly deserted housing development where the only other occupants are aloof and standoffish.

Aiming to make a fresh start in life, Sydney agrees to tutor the teenage daughter of an affluent couple during a summer spent in their New Hampshire cottage. But when the Edwards' two grown sons arrive, Sydney finds herself caught up in a web of old tensions and bitter divisions. As the brothers vie for her affections, the fragile existence Sydney has rebuilt is threatened.

In the year 2737, Earth is mostly depopulated in the wake of a massive supervolcano, but civilization and culture are preserved in vast orbiting ringstations. Tem, the nine-year-old son of a ringstation anthropologist and a Happdal bow-hunter, wants nothing more than to become a blacksmith like his uncle Trond. But after a rough patch as the only brown-skinned child in the village, his mother Car-En decides that the family should spend some time on the Stanford ringstation.

Miss Goering, an eccentric, impulsive New York heiress, resides in her house and tries not to be unhappy. Mrs Copperfield, an anxious, dutiful married woman, has a great fear of drowning, of lifts, of intruders in the night. Two serious ladies, nothing is natural for them and anything is possible. For Mrs Copperfield - a trip to Panama, where she abandons her husband for love of a local prostitute. For Miss Goering - a move to a squalid little house on an island and a series of sordid encounters with strangers.

Why is it that the behaviour of teenagers can be so odd? As they grow older, young children steadily improve their sense of how to behave, and then all of a sudden, they can become totally uncommunicative, wildly emotional and completely unpredictable. We used to think that erratic teenage behaviour was due to a sudden surge in hormones, but modern neuroscience shows us that this isn't true.

A global thriller presenting an apocalyptic vision of a world on the brink of despair and destruction. What would you do if the world was brought to a standstill? If you heard deafening static followed by the words 'my children. Do not be afraid'? Would you turn to God? Subscribe to the conspiracy theories? Or put your faith in science and a rational explanation? The lives of all 26 people in this account are affected by the message. Most because they heard it. Some because they didn't.

Vittoria, as she's known in Italy, is a small-time model and actress, recognisable but hard to place. Even though she's married to fading writer Frank Paris, Vittoria knows that she's really Vicki Wilson from Texas and that her deepest loyalty is to her brother, Johnny, who's been there for her from childhood, when he dealt decisively with the unwanted attention she got from other boys. Guided by Johnny, Vittoria enters the upper circles of Roman society. Before long, she's mingling with the high rollers, corrupt senators, and powerful movers.

In the city that's become a symbol for the death of the American dream, a nightmare killer is unravelling reality. A terrifying new thriller from Lauren Beukes, award-winning author of The Shining Girls. Detective Gabi Versado has hunted down many monsters during her eight years in Homicide. She's seen stupidity, corruption and just plain badness. But she's never seen anything like this.

At a New England boarding school, a sex scandal is about to break. Even more shocking than the sexual acts themselves is the fact that they were caught on videotape. The tape triggers a chorus of voices - those of the men, women, teenagers, and parents involved in the scandal - that details the ways in which lives can be derailed or destroyed in one foolish moment.