Showing results by narrator "Rachael Beresford" in All Categories

It’s 5 November, and a woman awakens to a nightmare. Bound and gagged, she lies trapped in the heart of a towering bonfire. As the smoke thickens, panic sets in–she’s moments away from being engulfed in flames. How did it come to this? Rewind eleven months: Margot, a faded TV star, and her long-suffering friend Anna watch as glamorous Liv and her flawless family move into their street. The three women soon fabricate the perfect pretence of friendship, but each harbours her own deadly secret–and newcomer Liv senses something is terribly wrong beneath the polished exteriors.

For Beth and Vince, on the brink of a break-up, their island getaway was a last-ditch attempt to save their crumbling marriage. Instead, it’s left them with a haunting memory: the discovery of a young woman’s body on the beach, and Vince’s arrest by suspicious local police. Now back in London after an alibi freed him, they’re desperate to move on—until a familiar face from that terrible night reappears on their street. One they hoped never to see again.

He's a tall, handsome knight with a secret. She's an adventurous beauty with more than a few secrets of her own. Finnula needs money for her sister's dowry, and fast. Hugo Fitzstephen, returning home to England from the Crusades with saddlebags of jewels, has money, and lots of it. What could be simpler than to kidnap him and hold him for ransom? Well, for starters, Finnula could make the terrible mistake of falling in love with her hostage.

Jacob Ashland's life has taken an unexpected turn. He's now the earl of Ashland and expected to marry. But he's done that before and had his heart ripped from his chest. When Charlotte shows up at his door needing protection, he offers to marry her - in name - only. Charlotte, an orphan, suspects her sinister cousin of terrorizing London. When her maid disappears, she fears for her own life and runs away. Lord Ashland offers marriage, and it's the perfect solution. But it isn't long before she finds herself falling for her new husband.

After years of escaping etiquette lessons in favor of the stables, Christine Devon's grand debut in London is only weeks away, though her deportment lacks the sophisticated polish she needs to achieve her goals of a lofty marriage. Desperate to take her place in society, she needs someone to instruct her in proper behavior. Thomas Gilbert, newly returned from Italy, is ready to begin his dream of founding a horse farm. But during his time away, the estate's finances have dwindled to almost nothing. A chance meeting between them may solve both their problems.

Wolves have haunted Bryn since she was a child. Now, as Bryn and Rangar return to the Baersladen, they're met with danger as a savage and cursed wolf pack terrorizes villages throughout the Eyrie....

When Lady Olivia's castle is besieged, she and her sister are taken captive and held for ransom by her father's enemy, Lord Pitt. Loyalty to family means everything to Olivia. She'll save her sister at any cost and do whatever her father asks - even if that means obeying his order to steal a sacred relic from her captor. As Lord Pitt's commander, Sir Aldric is in charge of the beautiful but feisty new prisoner. He has his hands full attempting to keep Lady Olivia out of trouble.

Girolamo Savonarola was a Dominican friar living in Florence at the end of the fifteenth century. An anti-corruption campaigner, his hellfire preaching increasingly spilled over into tirades against all luxuries that tempted his followers toward sin. These sermons led to the infamous "Bonfire of the Vanities"—a series of fires lit throughout Florence for the incineration of everything from books, extravagant clothing, playing cards, musical instruments, make-up, and mirrors to paintings, tapestries, and sculptures.

These interconnected stand-alone fairy tale retellings are set on the continent of Solstice, where dragons do their own thing, and enchanters run amok. If you enjoy strong heroines, clean romance, and fantasy worlds with a dash of intrigue, then lose yourself in the fairy tale world of The Kingdom Tales today. Box Set 1 includes Kingdom of Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Kingdom of Slumber: A Retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and Kingdom of Cinders: A Retelling of Cinderella.

Sasha Adams has it all. Fulfilling career, loving family, great friends, and . . . Who's she kidding? She lives at home with her aging mother, Fleur. She works as a massage therapist, and spends all her time with her best friend, Bobbi. But damn it, she's happy. Well, okay, maybe not happy, but she's content. It's enough. Until the well-meaning but meddlesome women in her life, Fleur and Bobbi, team up and enter Sasha into a writing competition with the potential to change her life.

On a dark and stormy December night, my family are gathered at an isolated hotel in the English countryside. We're reuniting for the first time since the accident that shattered our lives ten years ago. It's a time for love and forgiveness. But more than one guest has an ulterior motive. As the clock strikes midnight, one member of our party is found dead at the foot of the grand marble staircase. Everyone is a suspect. But which one of us is a killer?

Even with her privileged life, Lady Hester Stanhope knows that claiming the adventurous life she truly wants will not be easy, thanks to her eccentric father's stifling grip. With the help of her renowned statesman uncle William Pitt the Younger, she takes on the glittering, treacherous heights of London Society. Her formidable intelligence, outspoken opinions, and headstrong determination gain the favor of the beau monde's leading taste-maker Beau Brummell—and she quickly learns to bend the rules of the ton to her own advantage.

He told me I was his muse. He lied. Anton Sachov, the artist, the man who only sees in monochrome. He wants something from me. Something precious; the meadow green of my eyes, the rich mahogany of my hair, the creamy white of my skin, the stark red of my blood, even the darkness of my soul. And he will do anything to get them.

Margaret Pole is no stranger to fortune's wheel. From her childhood as firstborn of the heir apparent of England, she was brought low as the daughter of a traitor. After years of turmoil as the Tudor dynasty made its roots, Margaret finds favor with her cousin, King Henry VIII. Will the remnant of the York dynasty thrive under this tempestuous king or will Margaret discover that there is a price to pay for having an excess of royal blood? Step into Tudor England....

After the death of her miserly cousin Antony North, Millicent Boarder is determined her family should never be poor or vulnerable again. To protect them, she conceals her cousin's death and assumes his identity. Now she must face the ton and the world as Mr. North and accept the price she must pay for her family's safety - she will never be loved.

Imagine waking up one day to discover that you have forgotten everything about your life. Your only link with the past, your only hope for the future, is your identical twin. Now imagine, years later, discovering that your twin had not told you the whole truth about your childhood, your family, and the forces that had shaped you. Why the secrets? Why the silences? You have no choice but to begin again. This has been Alex's reality: a world where memories are just the stories people tell you, where fact and fiction are impossible to distinguish.

Stolen as a baby by an egotistical enchanter, Aurelia has spent her entire life locked in a tower, her impractically long hair serving as a vessel in which her captor can store his magic. Every day is predictable—at least, until Cyfrin's manner and experiments take an inexplicable turn. Now Aurelia's biggest challenge is convincing her fellow prisoner—the only mother she's ever known—that she's strong enough to handle the truth behind the enchanter's strange behavior. The trouble is, she'll first need to convince herself.

As a con woman who has spent her entire life fending for herself on the streets of London, Rose Wakefield knows how to scam a gentleman out of his money without ever getting caught. That's until she knocks on the wrong earl's door and is faced with Carver Ashburn Earl of Kensworth and not the notorious rake she thinks she is approaching. Carver is a good man, but even a good man will not pass up an opportunity to escape his grief. What better way to avoid his feelings than to play into a con woman's ruse and offer to marry her?

Nicholas Eastwood is finally about to get everything he ever wanted. As a reward for his service to the Crown, he has been offered the title of marquess. All he has to do is stay scandal-free until the papers are signed. There's just one problem: His ex-lover, presumed dead, is remarkably alive.

In spite of being a nameless orphan, Merletta is determined to win the prestigious rank of record holder. And she has no intention of letting a little thing like universal disdain stop her. Lord Heath knows nothing of mermaids, but coming from the noble House of Dragonfriend, he's no stranger to magic. Except, in spite of having a dragon for a best friend, Heath is the only magic-less member of his family. Not that he covets the power around him. All he wants is to defuse the growing tension between the power-wielders and their royal cousins.