Showing results by narrator "Anna Parker-Naples"

At age 20, Molly Shakespeare knows a lot. She knows Descartes and Kant. She knows academia and Oxford. She knows that the people who love you leave you. She knows how to be alone. But when Molly leaves England's gray skies behind to start a new life at the University of Alabama, she finds that she has a lot to learn - she didn't know a summer could be so hot, she didn't know students could be so intimidating, and she certainly didn't know just how much the folks of Alabama love their football.

Lylah and her friends can't wait to spend a night out together. Partying is the perfect way to let loose from the stress of life and school, and Lylah hopes that hitting the dance floor with Chace, her best friend, will bring them closer. She's been crushing on him since they met. If only he thought of her the same way.... The girls are touching up their makeup, and the guys are sliding on their coats when the doorbell rings. No one is there. An envelope sits on the doormat. It's an anonymous note addressed to their friend Sonny. A secret admirer? Maybe. They all laugh it off.

Just as merchant's daughter Felicity Mayson is spurned once again because of her meager dowry, she receives an unexpected invitation to Lady Blackstone's country home. Being introduced to the wealthy Oliver Ratley is an admitted delight, as is his rather heedless yet inviting proposal of marriage. Only when another of Lady Blackstone's handsome guests catches Felicity's attention does she realize that nothing is what it seems at Doverton Hall.

Around the corner from the elegant townhouses on Albion Place is Britannia Mews, a squalid neighborhood where servants and coachmen live. In 1875, it's no place for a young girl of fine breeding, but independent-minded Adelaide Culver is fascinated by what goes on there. Years later, Adelaide shocks her family when she falls in love with an impoverished artist and moves into the mews. But violence shatters Adelaide's dreams. In a dangerous new world, she must fend for herself-until she meets a charismatic stranger and her life takes a turn she never expected.    

Cluny Brown refuses to know her place in society. Last week, she took herself to tea at the Ritz. Then she spent almost an entire day in bed eating oranges. So, to teach her discipline, her uncle, a plumber who has raised the orphaned girl since she was a baby, sends her into service as a parlor maid at one of England's stately manor houses. While everyone around her struggles to keep pace with a rapidly changing world, Cluny continues to be Cluny, transforming those around her with her infectious zest for life. 

One night, she stole his kiss. Now, he is determined to steal it back. Edmond Dunsworth, Duke of Cromwell, is bankrupt. The solution to his problem: a wife with a sizable dowry. Not worried in the least, Edmond takes his pick. After all, what woman could resist his charms? Anna Hanford, a merchant's daughter, is faced with a difficult choice: allow her sister to marry the duke and see her happiness shattered...or marry the duke herself. Determined to ensure her sister's future, Anna makes her choice. After all, isn't marriage just a minor inconvenience?

In England's Regency era, manners and elegance reign in public life - but behind closed doors treason and deception thrive. Nicholas Langdon is no stranger to reserved civility or bloody barbarity. After suffering a battlefield injury, the wealthy, well-connected British officer returns home to heal - and to fulfill a dying soldier's last wish by delivering his coded diary.

In Victorian London's cesspool of crime and disease, a series of murders remains undiscovered until a cholera victim is found floating in the city's drinking water supply. Dr. Anton Kronberg, England's best bacteriologist, is called upon to investigate and finds evidence of abduction and medical maltreatment. While Scotland Yard has little interest in pursuing the case, Kronberg pushes on and crosses paths with Sherlock Holmes.

Hampton Hall's new owner has the villagers of St. Hampton Heath all aflutter - all except Lavinia Ellison. The reverend's daughter cares for those who are poor and sick, and the seventh Earl of Hawkesbury definitely does not meet that criteria. His refusal to take his responsibilities seriously, or even darken the door of the church, leave her convinced he is as arrogant and reckless as his brother - his brother who stole the most important person in Lavinia's world.

Leorah Langdon has no patience for Regency society's shallow hypocrisy and unnecessary rules, especially for women. She's determined to defy convention by marrying for grand passion instead of settling for a loveless union like her parents - or wedding a stuffy, pompous gentleman like Edward, the Viscount Withinghall. But when a chance meeting in the countryside leads to Leorah and Withinghall being discovered in his overturned carriage, the ensuing gossip may force them together.

It was the job she had dreamed of since childhood. But on her very first day, when an unnerving encounter drags up memories Sophie Greenwood would rather forget, she wonders if she has made a mistake. A fatal mistake. What is her ambitious young assistant really up to? And what exactly happened to Sophie's predecessor? When her husband and daughter are pulled into the nightmare, Sophie is forced to confront the darkest secrets she has carried for years.

Elsbeth Munford is set to marry the man she loves until an accident destroys her life. Her beauty tainted by ugly scars, Ellie resigns herself to a life of spinsterhood. Frederick Lancaster, brother to the Marquess of Elmridge, returns home from war. A hero in the eyes of others, he is haunted by nightmares. Unable to make his peace with the past, Frederick retreats into the dark until his brother dies and he not only inherits his title, but with it the obligation to produce an heir. When two damaged souls find themselves tied to one another, will they pull each other under?

Alexia D'Clere didn't ask to be Protector of the Spear, but after her dying mother gave her the tiny metal object and made her promise to keep it safe, she had no choice. Orphaned at age eight, she began to take over the running of her parents' castle with the help of a trusted steward. Yet when a plot to murder her was revealed, a friar whisked her away to live hidden in the forest. There she learned to shoot expertly with a bow and arrow and hone her skills to see into the spirit realm.

Twenty-five years ago Katie ran away from home and never came back. But now she's suddenly reappeared in her best friend Olivia's life - in the form of a chilling confession. Olivia's father-in-law, wracked with guilt, says he murdered her all those years ago. Tom suffers from Alzheimer's and his story is riddled with error and confusion. Except for one terrifying certainty: he knows where the body is buried.

Lady Charlotte Featherington is destined for great things on the marriage market. After all, as the beautiful daughter of a marquess, she should have her pick of the eligible nobility when she debuts. She, however, has love at the top of her list of marriageable attributes. And her romantic heart falls hard for one particularly dashing, attentive suitor. Sadly for Charlotte, her noble father intends her betrothed to be someone far more dull. William Hartwell may be a duke, but he knows he was Charlotte's father's pick, not the young lady's own choice.

After being cruelly jilted by a lord who claimed to adore her, Miss Payton Peppiwell swore her future husband would be as ordinary as she. Now if only her family would listen to her. Then she meets Mikhail Konstantinovich, an untitled horse breeder, in a highly improper and scandalous encounter. Never had Payton expected to be so attracted to the dark, intriguing man, who seduces her to recklessness with a mere stare.

As far as rash decisions go, it was formidable. But Lady Jocelyn Rathbourne's will remains strong. If the only way to save her family's estate and reputation is by aiming a small pistol at the Duke of Calydon, then so be it. For Lady Jocelyn demands satisfaction - and she will have it at any cost. Even if it means demanding the hand of the intense and foreboding Duke himself....

Julia Packett has barely laid eyes on her daughter, Susan, since leaving her with her well-heeled in-laws following the loss of her husband in World War I. Now 37, Julia's lack of prospects hasn't dimmed her spirit or her appetite for life. But when Susan asks her to come to France for the summer to persuade her grandmother to allow her to marry, she sets sail with the noblest intentions of acting the paragon of motherhood. Once there, however, Julia sees that her priggish but lovely daughter is completely mismatched with a man much more suited to herself: a charming, clever playboy.

Eleanor Blackwood discovers a woman's body in the same spot in the woods where her mother was strangled eighteen years previously. But before the police can get there, the body vanishes. Is Eleanor's disturbed mind playing tricks on her again, or has her mother's killer resurfaced? And what does the number on the dead woman's forehead signify?

Alone after the tragic loss of her parents, Felicity finds herself in a relationship with volatile and troubled Jay. Reluctantly drawn in to a twisted revenge plan against Jay's former best friend, Felicity soon becomes trapped, and as Jay turns increasingly controlling and abusive she questions everything he has told her about his past and his former girlfriend Sammie. But when she wants to expose the truth she comes up against an even greater threat: Someone obsessed and dangerous. Someone who has always been in the background of Jay's life. Someone who will do anything for him.