Showing results for "Maddie" in Literature & Fiction

When Lizzie Stevens was eighteen, life took a wrong turn. While her best friends Harriet and Anna went interrailing across Europe, Lizzie stayed behind—shunted into a dusty bank job and a sensible life that never quite got back on track. Now sixty-four, freshly divorced from terminally dull Freddie and wondering how she ended up here, Lizzie is unexpectedly reunited with the friends who left her behind. This time, she's not missing the train. Their plan? A gloriously reckless rail adventure across Europe.

When retired Jill Parker wins an all-expenses paid Mediterranean cruise for two she is thrilled! At 63 life in retirement has got a little bit bland for Jill and this might be just the holiday she and husband Eddy need to get the sparks back in their marriage. But when Eddy admits he would much prefer to build his patio and look through the latest DIY magazine, Jill is left with only one other option – her sister Diana. Diana has become rather reclusive since her husband, Caspar died, but perhaps this is the push she needs to bring some excitement back into her life, too?

Clover Harrington might be sixty-one, but she’s still bossing it in the corporate world and can still run rings around her younger colleagues. And then she is made redundant…. Devastated and now suddenly the wrong side of sixty Clover doesn’t know what to do with her life or her corporate wardrobe! What does she wear if not red lippy and a power suit?! Rather than offer her any support, her partner, Jack announces he's off on a golfing weekend, leaving Clover completely adrift. Desperate to get away from it all, Clover decides to visit her cousin Zoe in the gorgeous Italian Lakes.

Sisters Kitty and Jenny haven’t spoken since a very disappointing Carvery lunch. Kitty, sixty-two, thinks Jenny is turning grey. Jenny, sixty-six, thinks Kitty needs to grow up! So when both sisters inherit a farmhouse in rural France, it gives them the perfect chance to heal the rift between them. Except the farmhouse is a wreck, the garden is terrorized by a flock of chickens, not to mention a donkey with a serious flatulence problem!

Divorced and on a deadline, bestselling novelist Bea Pinkerton has a serious case of writer's block. With her agent breathing down her neck, Bea will do ANYTHING to avoid writing another word. So an invite to a reunion with her old school friends at a beautiful chateau in France is Bea’s perfect chance to escape. Surely here, relaxing with old friends and drinking cold fizz, Bea will find inspiration? But as soon as Bea arrives, she realises this is not going to be the peaceful getaway she anticipated.

Newly single at sixty, Elin Anderson decides it’s finally time for an adventure of her own. With her marriage to tedious Tom now officially over, Elin plans to visit the family she hasn’t seen in years. First stop: Australia! But going home is harder than Elin thought. Everywhere she turns Elin sees brightness and colour, which only makes her own life seem even more drab and beige. How has she let herself fade away? Determined to have some fun, Elin reluctantly agrees to join The Silver Surfers – a group of seniors who travel the coast, only caring about their next big adventure.

All she wanted was a lovely family Christmas with perfect turkey and luxury crackers. Instead, daughter Sara announces she’s getting divorced...and where is the fizz? And son, John and perfect wife Vanessa announce they are leaving for New York… and are the vegetables organic? And not one of them has made her a cup of tea! So Joy decides she’s going to leave them all to it and head to France to visit her younger sister Isobel - a break from it all is just what she needs!

We’re Kris and Mads—sisters, readers, and the creators behind a thriving book and screen club that explores the stories that shape us. On this podcast, we deep dive into the books we’re reading, the shows and films we’re watching, and the bigger themes behind the stories we love. We interview authors, talk with fellow creators, and share honest conversations about storytelling, creativity, and what it means to live a full, meaningful life. Our mission is simple: Share meaningful stories. Seek what matters most. Be joyfully authentic. And empower people to be free and aim high.

Maddie died. Piper refused to accept it. One blood ritual later and Maddie is back—undead, starving and nothing close to resembling human. Despite her deceased girlfriend reeking of rotting flesh, Piper decides she’ll do anything to keep her zombie girlfriend: lie to suspicious neighbors, outwit a nosy cop, and make sure the apartment complex’s missing-person flyers don’t point to their kitchen. As scraps of the old Maddie surface, so do the hunger pangs. The body count begins to pile up, and Piper has to decide what she's willing to do to keep her girlfriend fed.

Emmy and her little sister Dani are sleeping in their bedroom upstairs. Their parents are in the kitchen. A knife is jammed to their mother’s throat. Their father has a stack of kitchen plates balanced on his back. The intruder rasps, ‘Don’t be breathing too hard now. I reckon smashing plates is the sort of noise that’ll wake a child. Have them coming down to see what’s going on. There can’t be witnesses ...’ What Detective Maddie Ives will find in that nice family kitchen will horrify even this most hardened cop. And she knows the victim ...

After staking their claim on the untamed frontier, brothers Heath, Luke, and Aaron Jackson build a thriving cattle ranch through strength, hard work, and sheer determination. As the ranch rapidly grows, the nearby town experiences a boom of its own, assisted by the railroad’s westward expansion.

A tale of obsession and desire . . . The city of Larzeg glitters around its famous Nectar Performance House, where violinist Kasia has worked her fingers to the bone to chase one dream: becoming Perla, the theatre’s prestigious concertmaster. When the current Perla mysteriously dies during a...

“You know what people really need? Somebody who will listen hard and then find a way to tell them, ‘It’s not all your fault. It’s going to work out fine. Don’t give up.’” So advice columnist ‘Dear Lily’ Brown deeply believes. But Lily could write a letter to herself, asking what to do about an ex-husband who still wants her dating advice, how to redecorate the family home she’s kept exactly the same since her parents died tragically young, how to move on with her strangely becalmed life...and what to do when your wild-child estranged sister storms back into town.

Nearly two decades after she left Halfway, Nebraska, Audrey Porter returns to the small town she once called home following the death of her beloved grandmother. With Nana gone, she must protect the family farm from her opportunistic mother. It isn't long before she is reminded of all the reasons she moved away. Though she no longer lets the small-town gossips bother her, ignoring the rekindled feelings she has for her teenage crush proves more difficult.

With the threat of war growing more real by the day, Henry Jackson faces an impossible choice. Virginia is divided, with half the state poised to secede, leaving the Jackson family farm teetering on the border that will divide the north and south. He accepts the government’s promise of land and a fresh start in the untamed western territories to protect his wife and their three boys.

From bestselling author Maddie Martinez comes a deliciously dark sapphic retelling of The Phantom of the Opera drenched in Polish folklore–perfect for fans of Ava Reid, Catherynne M. Valente, and S.T. Gibson. A tale of obsession and desire… The city of Larzeg glitters as bright as its famous...

An unstoppable killer stalks the city, leaving a mounting body count in his wake. As panic and fear grip Pittsburgh, the FBI is brought in to assist the local police with the manhunt, hoping to prevent further bloodshed. Retired Pittsburgh K9 Handler Maddie Castle is pulled into the manhunt. She has experienced the killer's deadly handiwork firsthand. He left her crippled in both body and spirit.

Maddie Graves is psychic and can see ghosts. When she returns to her home in Blackstone Bay following her mother's death, she has more to do than find peace with her past, she also has to try and reclaim the future she discarded when she left town after graduation. Her former best friend Nick Winters has been bitter since she walked away without a backward glance. A murder mystery throws them back together, and Maddie must decide if she can trust Nick with her biggest secret - and her heart.

Siobhán O'Sullivan's hopes for a quiet Irish Christmas are dashed when the local Santa turns up dead in a carnival dunk tank of hot cocoa. Now, instead of hunting down holiday gifts, she's pursuing a heartless killer. Seems the dead Santa was no angel either, stealing neighborhood dogs to guide his sleigh. But was it his holiday antics - or worse - that led to his death by chocolate?

Stocking stuffers like handknit scarves make the coziest of Christmas gifts—unless they're used as accessories for murder! When grinchy thefts steal the good cheer at a local nursing home, Siobhan O'Sullivan manages to identify one missing item before the tractor parade—a hideous shamrock scarf wrapped around a very dead body. The festivities go cold at Pans 'N' Pancakes the instant a diner dies while knitting a brilliant green scarf. Suspects pile up when frosty-tempered Carys Walnutt is found strangled by a handmade scarf auctioned at Arborville's tree-lighting ceremony.