Showing results by narrator "Mary Sarah" in All Categories

London, October 1886: Trapped in a troubled marriage, Lucy Lawrence is ripe for an adventure. But when she meets the enigmatic Phineas Stone, over the body of her husband in the mortuary, her world begins to fall apart. When her late husband's secrets spill from the grave and her life is threatened by the leader of London's most notorious gang, Lucy must find the strength to rise to the challenge. But who can she trust, and how is she to stay out of the murderous clutches of London's most dangerous criminal?

Life for Victoria Lacey should be perfect. And it is - perfectly boring. Agree to marry a lord who has yet to inspire a single, solitary tingle? Why, of course. Smile as though this is not the thousandth time he's mentioned hounds and hunting? It's all in a day's work for the oh-so-proper sister of the Duke of Blackmore. Surely no one would suspect her secret longing for heart-racing, head-spinning passion. Except, perhaps, a dark stranger...on a terrace...at a ball where she should definitely not be kissing a man she has only just met.

Miss Grace Weston has read countless books involving courtship and romance. Putting her knowledge into practice, she offers her assistance in finding a match for her sister, declaring herself an expert in romance. She is well-read on the subject, after all. When a bargain between sisters is struck, Grace is unable to resist a challenge. She must prove her expertise by gaining a proposal, one she plans to reject, from the man whose fleeting flirtation left her heart in ruin years before: Lord Ramsbury, the next Earl of Coventry. But Lord Ramsbury's pride does not take well to rejection.

After being jilted by her fiance, Dulcie Mainwaring despairs of ever finding true love. For a distraction, she goes to a publishing conference, where she meets Viola Dace, a dramatic woman who refuses to live without romance, as well as Aylwin Forbes, an editor whom Viola adores. The fact that Aylwin is married doesn't stop Viola. When her amorous pursuit prompts Aylwin's wife to leave him, the academic heartthrob is wide open to Viola's romantic attentions. That is, until Dulcie's 18-year-old niece moves in with Viola, and the young girl soon catches Aylwin's roving eye.   

School in the Kentucky hills goes from August to the last Friday before Christmas. After that the snows are too high, and later, the thawing rivers too full, for the Fairchild children, and their neighbors, the Wattersons, the Sawyers, and the Huffs to make it safely to the little school house in the woods. Now that Althy is 14, Mr. Fairchild has other plans for the long winter months. Learn, along with Bonnie, Debbie, Chris, and Emmy, what it is like to have school at home in the early 1900s.

Dutch-American storyteller Hilda Van Stockum provides us with another episode in the life of the Mitchell family, this time taking on life as it comes in a truly unforgettable Canadian summer.

England, 1334 - In the second book of The Feud series, Baron Magnus Verdun is a warrior whose handsome face gives little indication of the darkness he struggles to contain. While pursuing the murderous brigands who plague his lands, he becomes the unwitting savior of the woman the king has decreed he wed - the reckless Lady Thomasin, whose very presence threatens his carefully ordered life. And more so when she proves outspoken beyond what is required of a dutiful wife.

When Lydia's father tells her he's obtained a husband for her, Mr. Thornton, she doesn't know whether to laugh or cry. She'd only met the man once before, and he'd immediately left her stranded in a ballroom after asking her to dance. How could she marry a man who already deemed her forgettable? Edward Thornton has succumbed to the allure of gambling one too many times, to the point where he loses his house in a game of cards. But when the man who won his house offers him a deal he can't refuse, he agrees to marry the man's daughter in exchange for a chance to redeem himself.

Belinda and Harriet Bede live together in a small English village. Shy, sensible Belinda has been secretly in love with Henry Hoccleve - the poetry-spouting, married archdeacon of their church - for 30 years. Belinda's much more confident, forthright younger sister Harriet, meanwhile, is ardently pursued by Count Ricardo Bianco. Although she has turned down every marriageable man who proposes, Harriet still welcomes any new curate with dinner parties and flirtatious conversation. And one of the newest arrivals, the reverend Edgar Donne, has everyone talking.

The British Army has taken control of Michilimackinac Island and its fort, forcing the Americans to swear an oath of loyalty to the crown in order to retain their land. Pierre Durant is a fur trader who returns after being away from the island for years, only to find the family farm a shambles and those he cares about starving and at the mercy of British invaders. Torn between the adventurous life of fur trading and guilt over neglecting his defenseless mother, Pierre's drawn deeper into the fight against the British and into a relationship with Angelique MacKenzie, a childhood friend.

Amy's grandmother, Lady Mairead, insists that Amy must read while she resides at Lennox House - but not in the usual way. It turns out that Amy is a book jumper, able to leap into a story and interact with the world inside. As thrilling as Amy's new power is, it also brings danger: someone is stealing from the books she visits, and that person may be after her life. Teaming up with fellow book jumper, Will, Amy vows to get to the bottom of the thefts - at whatever cost.

From the Cajun swamp cabins to the great river plantations of the Mississippi and the glittering night spots of Jazz Age New Orleans, Bayou sweeps listeners into the mysterious and fascinating Louisiana delta and into the hearts and lives of four indomitable women: Olivia, a headstrong Cajun beauty, Celisma, a fiercely loyal mulatto slave, Manon, the toast of New Orleans, and Zoe, a convent-bred Creole who seeks and finds her destiny on her own terms.

Ewan Fairchild, Viscount Clayton, has been busy ticking off the boxes for a bright future. Become a rising star in Parliament? Check. Find a lady he intends to marry? Check. Make his stables the envy of every man in London? Check, thanks to the prize Arabian thoroughbred he's just won at auction. Clayton's on his way to having it all and won't change course for anyone - not even the beautiful young woman next door.

Miss Penny is a middle-aged spinster living a cheerful, contented life, complete with perfect housekeeper, in an idyllic English village. Into this stable life comes Miss Plum, whom Miss Penny saves from drowning herself in a duck pond and takes into her quiet, orderly home. The villagers embrace the perpetually weepy, forlorn young woman - at first. But soon her welcome wears thin.

Furious at being tricked into marrying a woman who keeps a hedgehog in her pocket, Derek couldn't get away from Eleanor fast enough after their vows were read. It's been a year since he's seen her, and he has no plans to change that anytime soon - until his scheming cousin shows up and declares the union a sham. Now Derek has exactly one month to woo a wife he never desired and consummate a marriage he never wanted.

Lady Juliana Kinthorpe is no longer the fanciful young woman who embraced the notions of romance and chivalry nurtured at Queen Eleanor's Court of Love. Wed to a desperately bitter man, she is forced to steal from the knight who betrayed her husband during the Holy Crusade. But even to save her sister, can she do the unthinkable? That which will cost her dignity, her heart, and perhaps her soul?

Fresh off the battlefield, Captain David Ellsworth has returned home to discover the shocking and unwelcome news that he's the new Earl of Elmwood. Though David had no idea he was in line for a title, he and his sister must now navigate the snark-infested waters of the London ton. He knows how to be a soldier, an officer, and a brother, but he hasn't a clue how to be an earl. David will need all the help he can get. Even if it comes from the undeniably beautiful woman...who is the darling of the world he detests.

In Before He Hunts, victims are turning up dead in FBI Special Agent Mackenzie White’s home state of Nebraska - all shot in the back of the head, and all bearing the card “Barker Antiques.” The same card her father’s murderer left on his body years ago. With a sudden urgency in the present, the time has finally come for Mackenzie to face her ghosts, to face her darkest past, and to find her father’s killer. But her trip back down memory lane may take her to places she’d rather not see, and to discoveries she’d rather not find.

Lacey Doyle has made a drastic change: She has walked away from the fast life of New York City and settled down in the quaint English seaside town of Wilfordshire. Fall has arrived in Wilfordshire, bringing with it fall festivals of food, charming holidays, and refreshing return to simple normalcy. To celebrate their new proposal, Lacey and Tom finally get a romantic countryside trip together, and Lacey is thrilled to stumble upon a rare painting in the most unexpected place - a shack on the side of the road. But Lacey has no idea how rare and valuable his painting actually is.

In a cruel game where surviving a terminal diagnosis marks you for death, FBI Agent Rachel Gift delves into the shadows to thwart a murderer targeting the reborn. Can she solve the cryptic riddles and stop the cycle of survival turned slaughter, or will the next twist of fate be her own?