Showing results by narrator "Anne Hancock" in All Categories

Elizabeth Ann is being carefully brought up by her Aunt Frances. Aunt Frances shares in all Elizabeth Ann's fears and slights, walks her to and from school each day, and conscientiously follows the most modern theories on child-rearing. She is the original helicopter parent. Not surprisingly, at nine years old Elizabeth Ann is timid and shy, friendless, and completely dependent on her doting aunt. Then an emergency occurs, and the fearful little girl is temporarily sent to other relatives who live on a farm in Vermont.

A stormy night. A seemingly deserted farmhouse in the north of England. A young farmer returns to find a well-dressed woman seated at his desk, dead from a gunshot wound. John Leslie is completely mystified. Who is she? The police identify her as Mrs. Draycott, a visitor to the area. And since John cannot provide a plausible alibi, he is charged with her murder.

Grace Livingston Hill’s three novels about nineteenth-century small-town America remain relevant a century after they were first published. The timeless themes include the powerful influence of gossip, the importance of faith, and the precious gift of true friendship.

Cyril Gordon, an intrepid Secret Service Agent, has completed part of his mission in obtaining a coded message vital to the nation's security. But desperate men are pursuing him and with the help of a handy cab and a disguise, he makes his escape. The cab deposits him at a church where, astoundingly, everyone seems to be waiting for him to complete a wedding party, certain he's the missing best man.

Cowboy musician Tyler Garrett has a once-in-a-lifetime chance to put aside his rough-and-tumble rancher's lifestyle and realize his dream. He's on the road to Dallas to record a demo when that dream gets kicked sideways by a beautiful woman on the run. Leah Benson will do whatever it takes to keep her daughter safe. But when her dangerous past catches up with her, she needs a hero - and luckily for her, Tyler Garrett was born and bred for the role.

Shirley Hollister is desperate. She, her ailing mother, and her four siblings are being forced out of their cramped city apartment. Where to go on her meager stenographer's salary? On a whim, she takes a trolley ride into the countryside and spies a barn: spacious, full of light, and surrounded by God's wondrous nature. Her new landlord, Sidney Graham, is intrigued by this lovely young woman and her plans to turn his abandoned barn into a home.

Beau Garrett may look rough around the edges, but under that exterior beats a heart of gold - a heart that was broken when his high school sweetheart disappeared days before graduation. Years have passed, but Beau's never forgotten the fiery-haired girl who left him high and dry.

Faithfully nursing her ill father for five years has derailed Marion Warren’s plans for further education. When no will is found after their father’s death, her brother Tom decides to sell their family home in the city and move his young family to a Vermont farm. Naturally, Marion will always have a home with them—where she can help with housework and the children’s schooling. Marion’s dream of taking classes and enjoying the city’s cultural offerings evaporates until, armed with only her faith, a meager purse and a quaking heart, she dares to make other plans.

Miss Marilla Chadwick has been preparing a celebration for her nephew Dick's return from the war. Her young neighbor, Mary Amber, has agreed to help but she isn't excited by the prospect. She remembers the child Dick from years before as nasty and unfeeling but it means a lot to sweet Marilla to welcome her "war hero" in style. When a telegram from Dick arrives turning down the invitation, Marilla hides it and her disappointment from her friend, pondering what to do next. Then she sees a tall, young soldier walking down the road toward her house and hatches a plan.

Elsie Hathaway has it all: beauty, brains, and a strong work ethic. Taken in by her aunt's loving family after her mother's death, Elsie has had every advantage and earned every honor her school bestows. Her older brothers and her father remained in the family home and over the years their visits to each other were sporadic. But one day she drops by unannounced and discovers that this is the place where she is needed most.

Aunt Crete has spent a lifetime of toil catering to the needs of her family, especially her waspish sister, Carrie, and social-climbing niece, Louella. When a telegram from a nephew from out west announces his imminent arrival, mother and daughter hasten a trip to the shore to escape the "country cousin" who they are sure will shame them.

Cornelia Copley's plans to finish college and get her degree in interior decoration are thwarted when she is unexpectedly called home due to her mother's illness. Heartbroken at the interruption and not understanding why her father can't see how important her education is, Cornelia soon finds there is plenty of trouble at home: Her mother has had a breakdown and is in a sanitarium; her father has lost his job and taken a lower position; and her brother Carey is going with a wild crowd.

Jane is broke, she's just lost her job and her landlady has kicked her out. When an amorous young man approaches her on a park bench it soon becomes clear that he has mistaken her for her cousin Renata. Their mothers were identical twins and even though Jane has never met her, Renata's fiance insists they too are identical. He's desperate. It seems Renata sleepwalked into a meeting of her father's friends and overheard their criminal plans. She's lied about hearing anything but they doubt her story and are holding her prisoner.

In the novel Little Women, Mr. March goes off to war. But in real life, it was Jo March (Louisa May Alcott herself, an avowed abolitionist) who traveled to Washington to nurse Northern soldiers. This is Alcott’s memoir but she chose to use the pseudonym “Tribulation Periwinkle” to tell her story. Despite the subject matter, her account is full of amusing anecdotes as she makes her way alone from Concord, Massachusetts to DC, trying to finagle a free ticket and convinced she will drown during the journey.

The engagement of effervescent Mally Lee to handsome, well-connected Roger Mooring is not going well. They quarrel constantly and Mally's idea is to spend time apart and delay the wedding. She has no money of her own and hopes to find a job, which materializes when Sir George Peterson hires her to be a governess to his daughter. She happily heads to London and all is well until Sir George and his odious secretary, Paul Craddock, accuse her of the theft of a diamond brooch and an important paper.

Patty Merrill, newly returned from college, overhears her mother and sister bemoaning her presence. Hurt and confused, and not able to reach her father abroad, Patty spontaneously boards a train for New York. Her pampered life hasn't prepared her for earning a living but she happens on a position as a companion to an old lady. John Treeves has returned from the war in Europe, disillusioned and heartbroken. His mother has died and it was her last wish that he travel to their favorite spot in the mountains to have a tryst with God and attempt to rekindle his Christian faith.

Sixteen-year-old Effie Martin is in trouble. No one in her family understands her, some mean girls refuse to invite her to their picnic, her clothes are a mess, and she's mad at the world. Impulsively, she hops on her bike and soon finds herself in the middle of a drama where she saves the day. Her heroic act becomes a turning point in her life.

Ramona Ortegna, foster child of Señora Moreno, is much loved by all who live and work at the Moreno Ranch, except the Senora herself who cannot bring herself to think of the girl as anything but a mixed blood child. Half white, half Indian, Ramona had been adopted by Senora's sister who then entrusted the child to her upon her death. Already embittered by the loss to the Americans of much of her Southern California land as the result of the 1846 Mexican-American War, the pious old woman is also distraught by the near destruction of California's Catholic Missions.

Zach Garrett is home from war, haunted by PTSD, trying to fit in to what has become an alien world. With the holidays fast approaching, his uncle Big Jim Garrett offers him a place on the family ranch. Zach isn't sure he's up for a noisy, boisterous Garrett Christmas...until he meets beautiful Stephanie Gale, and all his protests go up in flames. Firefighter and EMT Stephanie Gale is ready for anything. She's got her life under control...until she locks eyes with Zack and realizes her heart's in a whole new kind of danger.

Orphaned cousins Jane and Lucilla, both 19, receive the exciting news that their guardian is at last allowing them to leave boarding school. But their rosy future is thwarted when they find he has made some bad investments and fled, leaving them with a cottage in the English countryside and a modest bank account.