Showing results by narrator "Katie Villa" in All Categories

Our new home was supposed to be a chance to leave our past behind. But was moving here the worst mistake of our lives? All our friends and family were gathered, glasses raised to toast our fresh start. It should have been a night for happiness and celebration. Zac and I had worked so hard for this: our first home together, just minutes from the sea. But the dream quickly turned into a nightmare.

The white-washed Italian villa is perfect. I thought it might feel odd, living in a stranger’s house for the summer, but as my husband and children swim in the infinity pool, I start to relax. And then, in the back of a wardrobe, I find something that shatters everything.... Sparkling green eyes, square jaw, lopsided smile. A young man with his arm around a beautiful woman. The picture is old and faded, but I’d recognize him anywhere. The man is my husband.

Willow McAllister is desperate to start over. Quiet town. Blank slate. No attachments. When she meets her friendly new neighbour, Priya, it feels like a lifeline: the start of something good. And then there’s Gabe: charming, funny, easy to talk to. Maybe she’s allowed a little happiness. Maybe she can trust again. But Willow’s instincts have been wrong before. And when she discovers that Gabe and Priya share a past, the cracks start to show. Willow can’t help wondering if Priya’s arrival next door really was by chance. Because coincidences like this? They don’t feel like coincidences at all.

Tia never harmed anyone. So why does someone want to destroy her? Tia is walking home with her children, along the lakeside of their quiet, safe town, when she realizes something is wrong with her five-year-old daughter, Rosie. She seems troubled, not at all her usual happy self. But when Tia finally coaxes Rosie to open up, she wishes she hadn’t. Because her sweet daughter asks a question Tia never thought she’d hear. "Mummy, why did you kill someone?"

When Mia James is washed up on a beautiful, sun-drenched beach, she has no idea who she is or what happened to her. She doesn’t even recognize her own face–until her boyfriend, Piers, comes forward, providing her with an identity. Piers is handsome and attentive, Mia’s home is huge and stylish, and her friends are eager to help her fill in the blanks. As Mia steps into the perfect life she was living before her accident, she should feel lucky to be alive. But she struggles to adjust, lost for words around people she is meant to know and love, grasping for clues about who she is.

As I sit in her dimly lit bedroom, surrounded by flickering candles, I feel the crushing weight of my daughter’s absence. It's been two years since Layla was murdered. The police have searched tirelessly for her killer, but they've found nothing – it's like whoever did it vanished into thin air. My once-perfect marriage is falling apart, we can hardly look at each other anymore. Our ten-year-old son Gale is struggling. He’s changed since she died. He’s more secretive and also…

Marianne has a life others dream of. A beautiful townhouse on the best street in the neighbourhood. Three bright children who are her pride and joy. Sometimes her past still hurts: losing her mother early, growing up in foster care. But her husband, Simon, is always there. A successful surgeon, he’s the envy of every woman they’ve ever met. Flowers, gifts, trips to France: nothing is too good for his family. Then Simon says another woman’s name. The way he lingers on it, Caroline, gives Marianne a shudder of suspicion, but she knows it’s nothing - she can’t entertain this flash of paranoia.

When I accepted a job working as a nanny for David and Julie and their young children, I was excited to be making my own way in the world. I bonded with baby Chloe instantly and would have done anything for her. She had David's thick, dark hair and smiling eyes. I fell in love with her and was excited for my future. But when a terrible mistake led to Chloe disappearing, I was instantly blamed. With no evidence, I was let go and I returned home to rebuild my life. Twenty years later and I am still haunted by what happened.

All Emily wants for her wedding is a low-key celebration with family and friends. But with a best friend like Josie, it’s no surprise that there’s a touch of drama to the day. Meanwhile, Tara is dealing with problems of her own. In a bid to face up to her past, she sets out to make amends with her estranged father and reunite with her half siblings. Thankfully, she has James to support her when times get tough.

Each morning Livia Moretti makes her way from an apartment overlooking Florence’s famous Duomo to a nearby café, where she drinks espresso and reads the newspaper. To the crowds of tourists who pass by, nothing about Livia will be memorable. She is simply an old lady. They walk on without knowing the part she played in ensuring the future of this beautiful city. And to Livia now, those dark days feel very far away. But today, when she opens the paper, she sees a name she has not heard for a long time. A name that will bring memories flooding back.

The close-knit community on Unholy Island is protected by ethereal wards, keeping the unusual residents and their secrets safe from prying eyes. But the island is more than a sanctuary for the magically-inclined and the not-quite-human, and when the mayor goes missing, the ramifications threaten the whole world…

Seven-year-old Beatrice has gone missing. Her mother Claire’s whole world has been turned upside down in just one moment, and she can’t stop shaking. She’s desperate to find her precious daughter, but nothing about the day she disappeared makes sense.

Two-and-a-half-year-old Holly is playing happily in a pink, plastic playhouse, while her mother Rachel sips coffee and chats with a friend nearby. It should be an ordinary day for all of them. But, in the blink of an eye, it turns into every family’s worst nightmare. Holly is taken by a stranger and never found. Nine years later, Rachel is living a quiet life in Dorset. She’s tried to keep things together since the traumatic day when she lost her eldest daughter.

She’ll do anything for you.... My name is Alex, and my world has been shattered. My husband has left me. My children won’t speak to me. My friend Carrie is the only person I have. She’s the only one I can trust to keep all my secrets. She’d never do anything to let me down. Would she? This dark, gripping psychological thriller will have you holding your breath until the very last minute.

Since Faye met her gorgeous Aussie boyfriend Dan, they’ve traveled all over the world to meet in amazing, crazy, and romantic locations. They’ve eaten gateaux in a chateau, chocolate torte in a moonlit port, and even had stolen kisses in a sparkling Christmas market. Neither of them wanted to settle down… until now. When Dan asks Faye to marry him and to move to Australia it throws a real spanner in the works. Faye’s daughter Emma needs her here, so moving to the other side of the world - even for a hunk like Dan - simply isn’t an option. Is it?

Jay and I have only known each other a short while, but whenever I gaze into his gorgeous brown eyes I know he’s the one. His little house by the deep forest’s edge is perfect for the two of us—no internet, no phone signal, and no neighbors. I’m about as far from my past as I could be. Warm in Jay’s arms, I can persuade myself it’s ok that he disappears for hours when he thinks I’m asleep at night, returning the next morning, glittery eyed and tense. I won’t question him, I can’t challenge him. I need our relationship to work. Because I have secrets too.

From the moment I meet my new mother-in-law in her beautiful country house, she makes it clear I’m not welcome. Lilian Fletcher hates me for marrying her precious boy on a golden beach far away from her. Starting our marriage living in the Fletchers’ family home is a nightmare. Then I discover Seb was married before and his first wife is dead. I wonder why the man I love didn’t tell me the truth. And I wonder what happened to her: the woman who came before me. How did she die?

Lizzie Beaumont has it all: a great career, a wealthy fiancé, and the wedding of her dreams just months away. But when her fiancé puts work before her again, she sets off for a week in the picturesque town of Hope Cove. She’s hoping for time away from the chaos to find herself. When the gorgeous guy next door asks her for decorating help, Lizzie finds herself all too eager to please. The week she expected to drag suddenly flies by, and before she knows it, she has to return to her other life.

Lizzy Beresford is at home alone when she finds a chilling letter in her kitchen. Someone has been into her home - someone who wishes Lizzy harm. In her little country cottage, with her doting boyfriend, not far from the close-knit village, Lizzy can’t imagine who might want to hurt her. But when the threatening letters keep coming, she starts to suspect everyone around her. Desperate, Lizzy reaches out to her sister, Emma. They haven’t spoken in years, not since the argument that tore them apart. But Emma says: ‘I’ve been receiving letters too....’

Scarlett Mercer dreams of starting her own publishing company. But with no way to finance university, she might be stuck working in her aunt’s café indefinitely. When a chance encounter leads her to an extreme solution, she’s desperate enough to go through with it. Even if it means marrying a guy she’s only just met. What she doesn’t factor into her plans is how easily she gets overwhelmed. Soon, she’s struggling to navigate university life while living with a guy she barely knows.