Showing results by narrator "Lucy Rayner" in All Categories

This collection includes all three books in Serena Valentino's Villains trilogy: Fairest of All: A Tale of the Wicked Queen, The Beast Within: A Tale of Beauty's Prince, and Poor Unfortunate Soul: A Tale of the Sea Witch.

American heiress Emma Dunster has always been fun-loving and independent, with no wish to settle into marriage. She plans to enjoy her Season in London in more unconventional ways than husband hunting. But this time Emma's high jinks lead her into dangerous temptation. Alexander Ridgely, the Duke of Ashbourne, is a notorious rake who carefully avoids the risk of love until he plants one reckless kiss on the sensuous lips of this high-spirited innocent and condemns himself to delicious torment.

If you could change your fate, would you? Merida understands that as princess of Clan DunBroch, she has certain obligations—but that doesn’t mean she has to like it. Especially when one of those obligations means losing her freedom by becoming betrothed to a man she has never met. Merida balks at this tradition, but her mother Queen Elinor insists that Merida must do this to embrace her role as future queen.

When a suitor tells Arabella he's willing to overlook her appalling bluestocking tendencies on account of her looks and fortune, she decides to take a break from the Marriage Mart. During an extended stay in the country, she never expects to meet Lord John Blackwood, a wounded war hero who intrigues her like no other man.

Throughout the Villains series, the Odd Sisters have meddled in the lives of the Wicked Queen, The Beast, Ursula, Maleficent, and Mother Gothel, changing the course of fate for the greatest villains ever known. Now, it's time for their reckoning.

Since they were children, cousins Kate and Cecelia have been inseparable. But in 1817, as they approach adulthood, their families force them to spend a summer apart. As Cecelia fights boredom in her small country town, Kate visits London to mingle with the brightest lights of English society. At the initiation of a powerful magician into the Royal College of Wizards, Kate finds herself alone with a mysterious witch who offers her a sip from a chocolate pot.

Duty-bound to seek revenge, Broderick MacConnaway, son of the Thane of Dunkeld, lives haunted by memories of his lost wife, Aisling. Forming an alliance with the Lochlann family presents its own trials, but if the marriage allows him to fulfill his vengeance, then so be it. Even if the guilt over Aisling prevents him from ever loving again.... But when sinister intentions surface and Amabel is captured before she has a chance to reveal them, Broderick is forced to see past the deceptions and begin another campaign of vengeance.

Ireland, 1845. To Briana Walsh, no place on earth is more beautiful than Carrowteige, County Mayo. The small farms that surround the centuries-old Lear House are managed by her father, agent to the wealthy, reckless Sir Thomas Blakely. Tenant farmers sell the oats and rye they grow to pay rent to Sir Thomas, surviving on the potatoes that flourish in the remaining scraps of land. But when the potato crop falls prey to a devastating blight, families Briana has known all her life are left with no food, no resources, and no mercy from the English landowner.

In the first full-scale biography of Mary Stuart in more than 30 years, John Guy creates an intimate and absorbing portrait of one of history's most famous women, depicting her world and her place in the sweep of history with stunning immediacy. Bringing together all surviving documents and uncovering a trove of new sources for the first time, Guy dispels the popular image of Mary Queen of Scots as a romantic leading lady - achieving her ends through feminine wiles - and establishes her as the intellectual and political equal of Elizabeth I.

What is the story of the dark fairy, Maleficent? Why does she curse the innocent princess? What led to her becoming so filled with malice, anger, and hatred? Many tales have tried to explain her motives. Here is one account, pulled down from the many passed down through the ages. It is a tale of love and betrayal, of magic and reveries. It is a tale of the mistress of all evil.

Aurora has always enjoyed her simple life. She loves to explore the beautiful woods surrounding her quaint cottage. She even likes living with her bumbling yet well-meaning aunts. But when Aurora discovers a dark secret about her past, her whole world turns upside down. Will she be able to save herself from an imminent curse?

The options for the penniless daughter of a deceased earl are few indeed in Regency England. So, following the suspicious death of her father and the discovery that she and her much younger sister have been left without income or home, Lady Caroline takes a post as a lady's companion to the wealthy widow Frogerton. Just as Caroline is getting accustomed to her new position, her aunt, Lady Eleanor Greenwood, invites her and her employer to a house party in the countryside to celebrate her youngest daughter's birthday. But all is not well at the Greenwood estate.

The handsome but arrogant Lord Charles Hawksborough desperately wants to catch the infernally insolent thief who held him up at pistol point on the King's Highway and rode off with his family's inheritance and jewels. Hawksborough tries just as desperately to not want the piquant and penniless Miss Amanda Colby when this young lady and her twin brother come to stay at his London townhouse during the height of the social season.

Former FBI agent Kendra Donovan's attempts to return to the 21st century have failed, leaving her stuck at Aldridge Castle in 1815. And her problems have just begun: in London, the Duke of Aldridge's nephew Alec - Kendra's confidante and lover - has come under suspicion for murdering his former mistress, Lady Dover, who was found viciously stabbed with a stiletto, her face carved up in a bizarre and brutal way.

It's been a decade since Kate and Cecelia foiled Napoleon's plot to reclaim the French crown. The cousins now have estates, children, and a place at the height of wizarding society. It is 1828, and though magic remains at the heart of the British Empire, a new power has begun to make itself felt across England: the steam engine. As iron tracks crisscross the countryside, the shaking of the locomotives begins to disrupt the workings of English magic, threatening the very foundations of the Empire.

Sixteen-year-old Juliet Moreau has built a life for herself in London - working as a maid, attending church on Sundays, and trying not to think about the scandal that ruined her life. After all, no one ever proved the rumors about her father's gruesome experiments. But when she learns he is alive and continuing his work on a remote tropical island, she is determined to find out if the accusations are true. Accompanied by her father's handsome young assistant, Montgomery, and an enigmatic castaway, Edward - both of whom she is deeply drawn to - Juliet travels to the island, only to discover the depths of her father's madness.

On a fateful flight, a balloonist makes a discovery that changes her life forever. A telegraph operator finds an unexpected companion in the middle of the Amazon. A doctor is beset by seizures, in which he is possessed by a second, perhaps better, version of himself. And in Regency London, a bare-knuckle fighter prepares to face his most fearsome opponent, while a young mother seeks a miraculous cure for her ailing son. At times funny and irreverent, always moving and deeply urgent, these stories cap a 15-year project.

I’m so looking forward to meeting Aunt Maura, my mother’s twin sister who lives on the rugged west coast of Ireland. With my own mother dying so suddenly, and my sweet baby daughter arriving, I need family around me. But instead of arriving at Maura’s house safe and sound, I wake up in hospital, badly injured. Then I remember the crash. Where is my baby?

Anne, Duchess of Brittany, is the love of King Louis XII of France's life. Too bad he's already married. While his annulment proceedings create Europe's most sensational scandal of 1498, Anne returns to Brittany to take back control of her duchy that her late husband, Charles VIII, King of France, had wrested from her. At age 21, Anne is sovereign ruler of Brittany as well as Europe's most wealthy widow. But can she maintain Brittany's independence from France if she accepts Louis's offer to make her Queen of France once more?

Julius Strathclyde has been dragged through to an alternative earth. Now, training as a quantum curator, every ancient book, every stolen gem, and every lost masterpiece lies at his fingertips. It's incredible. But he has some problems: he can't get home, priceless artifacts are being stolen, and someone is trying to kill him. Oh, and he can't get a decent cup of tea anywhere. Following the disastrous Faberge assignment, Neith Salah is blinded by grief and rage. She's hardly a stable companion, but she's the only one he trusts.