Julia Franklin has narrated 88 audiobooks on Listento.it by 50 authors, with an average listener rating of 4.3★ across 2,514 ratings. The most-rated is A New Earth.
A Time to Remember
Summary
The first book in a heartwarming new Lancashire-based series by beloved and best-selling saga writer Anna Jacobs, set at the end of World War Two. 1945 - the war in Europe is over. It should be a time of utter joy and celebration. Most women can't wait for their men to return, but in the small town of Rivenshaw in Lancashire, Judith Crossley fears having her husband back in the house. He'd grown into a bully and a drunkard, and on the occasions he'd come home from leave, he'd hit her. He wasn't a good father, either. Luckily Judith has found an unlikely ally, a friend to turn to - Maynard Esher, from an old aristocratic family on the other side of town. But Judith knows that when her husband returns, she and her children will be back in the firing line again. She decides that for the children's sake, she must leave her husband. But with the house rented in his name and other accommodation scarce, where on earth can they go?
©2019 Anna Jacobs (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Limited
The Railway Girls
Summary
The first novel in the utterly brilliant Railway Girls series. Perfect for fans of Nancy Revell and Ellie Dean. In February, 1922, at the western-most entrance to Victoria Station in Manchester, a massive plaque was unveiled. Beneath a vast tiled map showing the lines of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway network, a series of seven bronze panels recorded the names of the men of the Lancashire and Yorkshire Railway who gave their lives for King and Country in the Great War - a total of 1,460 names. In March, 1940, a group of women of varying ages and backgrounds stands in front of the memorial, ready to do its bit in this new World War.... Mabel is determined to make a fresh start as a railway girl where no one will know the terrible thing she did and she can put her guilt behind her. Or is she just running away? Meanwhile, Joan will never be as good as her sister, or so her gran keeps telling her. A new job as a station clerk could be just the thing she needs to forget her troubles at home. And Dot is further into her 40s than she cares to admit. Her beloved sons are away fighting, and her husband - well, the less said about him the better. Ratty old sod. She is anxious to become a railway girl just like her dear mam - anything to feel she is supporting the sons she prays for every night. The three women start off as strangers but soon form an unbreakable bond that will get them through the toughest of times....
©2020 Maisie Thomas (P)2020 Penguin Audio
A Riviera Retreat
Summary
From the best-selling author of Villa of Sun and Secrets. Take time out to find what makes you happy.... When retreat owner Amy offers three lucky competition winners a holiday on the Cote d’Azur, she has no idea that this act of kindness will have life-changing repercussions on her own life and those who join her.... Young entrepreneur Chelsea is still grieving the tragic loss of her mother and has just been subjected to a very public relationship breakup. She needs to get away and lick her wounds. MP’s wife Victoria is at a crossroads in her life now that the children have left home. Much to her husband's shock, she realises she has ambitions of her own and is desperate to reconnect/find her own identity. She needs some ‘me time’. Recently widowed, Matilda is assessing life without her beloved husband. Their dream had always been to retire to France. Can she find the courage to follow their dream on her own? Over the course of the 10 days they spend together, the four women, despite their differences, support and bond, making memories and forming friendships that will last for years. A heart-warming, uplifting novel, perfect for fans of Jill Mansell and Fern Britton.
©2019 Jennifer Bohnet (P)2019 Bloomsbury Publishing Plc
The Surplus Girls
Summary
Manchester, 1922. Belinda Layton is a surplus girl. One of the many women whose dreams of marriage perished in the Great War, with the death of her beloved fiancé, Ben. After four years of mourning, she finally feels ready to face whatever her future holds without him. But Ben's family can't countenance her putting him to rest, while all her own family care about is getting hold of her meagre factory wages. When Belinda joins a secretarial class to try to better herself, little does she imagine that it will open up a whole new world to her. For not only does she learn to type, but she meets the beguiling bookshop owner Richard Carson....
©2020 Polly Heron (P)2020 Soundings
The House of Hopes and Dreams
Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The House of Hope and Dreams by Trisha Ashley, read by Julia Franklin. From the Sunday Times best-selling Trisha Ashley, this novel will more than satisfy romantic comedy fans. And it also contains recipes! When Carey Revell unexpectedly becomes the heir to Mossby, his family’s ancestral home, it’s rather a mixed blessing. The house is large but rundown and comes with a pair of resentful relatives who can’t be asked to leave. Still, newly dumped by his girlfriend and also from his job as a TV interior designer, Carey needs somewhere to lick his wounds. And Mossby would be perfect for a renovation show. He already knows someone who could restore the stained glass windows in the older part of the house…. Angel Arrowsmith has spent the last 10 years happily working and living with her artist mentor and partner. But suddenly bereaved, she finds herself heartbroken, without a home or a livelihood. Life will never be the same again - until old friend Carey Revell comes to the rescue. They move in to Mossby with high hopes. But the house has a secret at its heart: an old legend concerning one of the famous windows. Will all their dreams for happiness be shattered? Or can Carey and Angel find a way to make this house a home? Heartwarming, witty and quirkily original, Trisha Ashley's The House of Hope and Dreams will delight both old fans and new listeners alike.
©2018 Trisha Ashley (P)2018 Random House Audiobooks
A Widow's Courage
Summary
Lancashire 1934. Three years after her husband's sudden death, Stella comes into some money unexpectedly and decides to make a new start in the country. She settles on Ellin Valley, where she quickly begins to make friends. She falls in love with a cottage in Birch End, but an unscrupulous man wants it too. Will she be able to buy her dream home? Life has changed drastically for local handyman Wilf Pollard as well. When tragedy strikes, Wilf is left as the only support of his two young children. But his friends rally round to help so that he can pull his life together and take up an exciting new job with a well-respected builder. Some of the local council are eager to deal with the squalid conditions of the Backshaw Moss slum, but others will stop at nothing to keep their profitable rents. And Stella's dream cottage is threatened by their plans to build yet more cheap housing. Can Stella, Wilf and the residents of Birch End pull together to make sure good triumphs over evil?
©2020 Anna Jacobs (P)2020 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Open House
Summary
Open House is a deliciously engaging romantic novel from Jill Mansell, author of over 20 Sunday Times best sellers including The One You Really Want and Miranda's Big Mistake. For fans of Sophie Kinsella and Marian Keyes. Nell O'Driscoll has known Marcus Kilburton for years - according to her diary, she even had a crush on him as a teenager. When he decides to open Kilburton Castle to the public, Nell takes a job as his assistant - and soon sparks are flying between them. But is Nell free to pursue Marcus when a figure from her past refuses to let go? Meanwhile, Nell's best friend, Hetty Brewster, has other problems. Her husband has abandoned her for a bitchy but successful writer. Now the press is full of stories about the frumpy, boring wife losing out to a younger, slimmer model. But Hetty's about to get her chance for sweet revenge - if she can stop being a nice person long enough to take it!
©2003 Jill Mansell (P)2006 Isis Publishing Ltd
It's Now or Never
Summary
When twins Annie and Lauren attend their older sister Chelsea’s 40th birthday party at the Dorchester Hotel, they wonder why their lives are so different. Why is Chelsea’s devoted husband twirling her round the dance floor, while Annie’s husband has gone fishing and Lauren’s lover is at home with his wife and children? There and then, they decide it’s time to turn things around. To go all out for what they want, to start living again. The question is: have they left it too late?
©2010 Carole Matthews (Ink) Ltd (P)2013 Isis Publishing Ltd
Dangerous Minds
Summary
When she receives a wedding invitation from one of her former patients, forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget is more than a little alarmed. Highly intelligent and manipulative, Jerome Barclay suffers from a severe personality disorder. Although she has never been able to prove it, Claire believes him to be highly dangerous, responsible for at least three suspicious deaths - and she fears for the safety of his new bride. What's more, Jerome seems to know rather too much about Claire's personal and professional lives, including intimate details concerning her other patients. What sinister game is he playing? With no proof as to Jerome's possibly murderous intentions, Claire's hands are tied. Can she prevent a tragedy unfolding? And is Claire herself at risk?
©2016 Priscilla Masters (P)2017 Soundings
Guilty Waters
Summary
Cécile Bellange is a worried mother. Her 18-year-old daughter, Annabelle, and her friend, Dorothée, left Paris for a summer holiday in England, but the only contact from them is a postcard sent from Rudyard Lake in Staffordshire three months ago. Meanwhile, in England, brothers Martin and James Stuart find a note from two French girls, inviting the finder to meet them at Rudyard Lake. Their enquiries lead them to Mandalay, a guesthouse where the girls stayed, and its owner, creepy Mr Barker. Arriving in England, Cécile Bellange meets Detective Joanna Piercy, who is looking into the girls' disappearance. Soon Joanna must answer two important questions: what is the anxious Mr Barker trying to hide, and where are Annabelle and Dorothée?
©2014 Priscilla Masters (P)2016 Soundings
The Orphans of Ardwick
Summary
Random House presents the audiobook edition of The Orphans of Ardwick by Emma Hornby. After a cold, hard winter on the streets, three orphan children are about to give up hope when an unexpected turn of events brings them to the doorstep of a grand house in Ardwick, Manchester. Taken in by the firm but kind-hearted cook, the young friends can hardly believe their luck. But behind Bracken House’s impressive façade lies a household steeped in troubles and mystery, with residents above and below stairs battling their own demons and dark secrets. Not everyone is happy about the new arrivals, and soon the orphans’ safety is in danger. If they want to stay in the first home any of them have known for years, they must unravel the past and bring hope to the future. Will they succeed? Or will they come to regret ever leaving the mean slum streets they once called home?
©2019 Emma Hornby (P)2019 Random House Audiobooks
Our Polly
Summary
The second installment in the breathtaking Kershaw Sisters series. There is no love like a mother's for her child.... Little Billy, Polly's son, is the light of her life. It's for his sake that she puts up with an unkind mother-in-law and life on an isolated farm. When Billy is knocked down by a car, his father is killed attempting to save his life, and Polly, cast off by her husband's family, is left with a child who may never walk or talk again. Polly turns to her own family, the Kershaws, for support, but they are unable to outmanoeuvre the malicious Dr Browning-Baker, who is determined to have Billy taken away from his mother, depriving him of the exercises and stimulation that are his only hope. Forced to flee to the Fylde coast, Polly and Billy find that their future may lie with another damaged family - an ex-army captain whose First World War marriage was a terrible mistake, and his daughter, who has never recovered from the hostility of the mother she loves. But danger threatens their fragile happiness....
©2019 Anna Jacobs (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
A Time to Rejoice
Summary
The heartwarming third instalment of the Rivenshaw series from best-selling saga writer Anna Jacobs. After a stray bomb scored a direct hit on his childhood home in Hertfordshire, the only thing that has kept Francis Brady going while he works day and night salvaging what he can from the rubble is the thought that soon he'll be joining wartime friends Mayne, Daniel and Victor as electrician in their new dream building firm in Lancashire. But things are not going to plan: Mayne isn't answering any of his letters; Francis' wife is having a change of heart about moving up north - and her parents seem set on destroying his reputation.... A lot of marriages are breaking up in these times of change, and Francis is loathe for his to be one of them.... But how can he turn down the opportunity of a new life and career in Rivenshaw? Meanwhile in Rivenshaw itself, newly married Mayne and Judith's plans to convert Esherwood house into flats have come to an abrupt halt. While clearing out the house in readiness for the rebuild, they've discovered that someone has been stealing valuables and hiding them in the old Nissen hut. But who hid them there - and are they planning on returning for them? And are they also responsible for something else found in the shelter: a body, buried in a shallow grave.... With so much going against them, can these four friends ever turn their dreams into reality?
©2019 Anna Jacobs (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Escape to the Country
Summary
Journalist Eleanor McCartney leads a glamorous life in London exposing the sordid secrets of famous celebrities for Hot Gossip! magazine. But her perfect life is a sham. So when her world collapses, she has to reluctantly head home to her mum and friends in the quiet country village of Cranley. Willow Tree Hall is still in the midst of extensive renovations under the careful eye of Eleanor's best friend, Annie, and her fiancé, record producer and future Earl of Cranley Sam Harris. With a recording studio now in the grounds of the estate, it should be the perfect place for global singing sensation Tom Kingsley to hang out. But Tom is burnt out after a gruelling worldwide tour and is escaping the paparazzi after yet another scandal. Eleanor cannot believe her luck. A story on the world's biggest superstar would be the ticket that gets her job and glamorous life back in London. But soon both Eleanor and Tom begin to fall under the spell of Willow Tree Hall. Eleanor begins to wonder whether she can really betray his trust. And does she really want her old life back, or is home really where the heart lies? As a heat wave soars, friendships are made, truths are told and, with the help of a stray dog, perhaps love can be found as hearts are healed. By escaping to the country, maybe Eleanor and Tom have found their new beginning....
©2018 Alison Sherlock (P)2019 W. F. Howes Ltd
Missing You
Summary
Fen works in a bookshop and is devoted to her young son, Connor, but she keeps herself to herself. Haunted by guilt and a terrible secret, Fen lives a compromised life, isolated from her family, far from home and too afraid of the past to risk becoming close to anyone. She is constantly looking over her shoulder, knowing that one day the truth will catch up with her. Sean, on the other hand, is enjoying a seemingly perfect life. He has a successful career, lives in his dream home and adores his beautiful wife, Belle, and their six-year-old daughter, Amy. That is until the day Belle announces she has found someone else and wants Sean to move out. Circumstance throws Fen and Sean together. Slowly their quiet friendship turns into something much deeper and the joy they find in one another eventually gives them the confidence to trust and love again. But will the past tear them apart just as they find happiness?
©2010 Louise Douglas (P)2014 Pan Macmillan Publishers Ltd.
The Deceiver
Summary
Forensic psychiatrist Dr Claire Roget finds it impossible to refuse when she receives a desperate phone call from an old acquaintance, obstetrician Charles Tissot. One of his patients, Heather Krimble, alleges that Tissot seduced her at a party and that he is the father of her unborn child. His career on the line, Charles begs Claire to expose Heather's fragile mental state and discredit her wild claims. With a history of making similar false allegations, her two previous babies having suffered unexplained cot deaths, Heather's accusations would appear to be nothing more than the result of a damaged mind. But as Claire delves further, it becomes clear that Charles hasn't been telling her the whole truth.
©2017 Priscilla Masters (P)2018 Soundings
The Hanging Wood
Summary
When Orla Payne was seven years old, her brother, Callum, mysteriously vanished from the Hanging Wood in the Lake District. Shrouded in complicated family matters and with no clear leads, the case was eventually dismissed. His body was never found. Twenty years of frustration and depression later, Orla is desperate to find out the truth. On historian Daniel Kind's recommendation, she contacts Cold Case Review detective Hannah Scarlett, who sets about seeking justice for brother and sister.
©2011 Martin Edwards (P)2011 Soundings
A Daughter's Journey
Summary
Book one in beloved author Anna Jacobs' brand-new Birch End series. Jo Melling has arrived in Birch End from Australia, still grieving her father's recent death. She's not intending to stay long, but after tracking down her distant family, Jo becomes more involved in village life than she could ever have imagined - and suddenly in danger, too. Jo also finds herself drawn to Nick, a handsome newcomer to the village. Nick had planned to settle in Birch End and start a business, but as he grows closer to Jo, he realises he may have to choose between his dreams and a chance at love. Meanwhile, the new local council are faced with some tough decisions of their own. It's time to take a stand against the poor conditions in Backshaw Moss, the nearby slum, but some councillors want things to stay as they are - and will go to any lengths to make sure they get their way.... Will the decent people of the valley win a brighter future for themselves? And can Jo find a way to stay with Nick in a place she's grown to love?
©2019 Anna Jacobs (P)2019 Hodder & Stoughton Ltd
Old Sins, Long Memories
Summary
GP Lizzie Browne moves from London to a small coastal town looking forward to a quiet life, but when she finds a murdered patient on her first day it seems that perhaps Stibbington is not so quiet after all. DCI Adam Maguire and colleague Steve Grayson welcome this break from their normal routine, except that there seems to be no apparent motive for anyone to kill a harmless young dropout. But Lizzie’s peace is to be further shattered when a second body is found in her own garden. Against her will and better judgement, she falls deep into the pit of the mystery and finds herself immersed in the murky waters of Adam’s case.
©2014 Angela Arney (P)2015 Soundings
Crooked Street
Summary
Jadon Glover is good-looking, professional, reliable and a perfect husband, according to his wife. So when he fails to return home one night, she rings the police, certain that something has happened to him. DI Joanna Piercy and DS Mike Korpanski are sceptical: there is no such thing as a perfect marriage. As the investigation proceeds, it soon becomes apparent that Jadon Glover has been keeping dark secrets from his wife. And as the police pursue their house-to-house enquiries, they unearth other secrets. But whatever else has been going on among the inhabitants' quiet, desperate lives, it's clear that at least one of them knows what really happened to Jadon....
©2016 Priscilla Masters (P)2018 Soundings