Showing results by publisher "Orion" in Literature & Fiction

Italy, 1964. Maria Domenica is the eldest daughter in the Carrozza family from the tiny southern village of San Giulio. At 16, Maria's life is limited to the confines of her mother's rural kitchen (where she bakes bread every morning, the way the Carrozza women always have), and the Caffe Angeli, a place of friendship, strong espresso and famous ricotta sfolgliatelle. Her parents have high hopes for their beautiful first-born, but she has other plans.

Meet the women of Buckhead - a place of expensive cars, huge houses, and competitive friendships. Shannon was once the queen bee of Buckhead. But she's been unceremoniously dumped by Bryce, her politician husband. Crystal has stepped into Shannon's old shoes. A young, innocent Texan girl, she simply has no idea what she's up against. Olivia has waited years to take Shannon's crown as the unofficial queen of Buckhead. Jenny owns Glow, the most exclusive salon in town. Jenny knows all her clients' secrets and darkest desires.

It's an incendiary moment for St Oswald's school. For the first time in its history, a headmistress is in power, the gates opening to girls. Rebecca Buckfast has spilled blood to reach this position. Barely 40, she is just starting to reap the harvest of her ambition. As the new regime takes on the old guard, the ground shifts. And with it, the remains of a body are discovered.

Lucy Albright is far from her Long Island upbringing when she arrives on the campus of her small California college and happy to be hundreds of miles from her mother-whom she's never forgiven for an act of betrayal in her early teen years. Quickly grasping at her fresh start, Lucy embraces college life and all it has to offer. And then she meets Stephen DeMarco. Charming. Attractive. Complicated. Devastating.

The death of Alexander the Great was the signal to begin the greatest war in human history - a war that swept like a firestorm from one end of the known world to the other, as his former generals fought like jackals to make his vast empire their own. By 305 BC, the most powerful players in this deadly game faced each other across the Mediterranean: Ptolemy, the master of Egypt, and Antigonus One-Eye, master of Asia. And between them, the island of Rhodes, a strategic fortress city that neither could afford to cede to the enemy.

When Emily wakes from a coma following an accident that nearly kills her, she finds herself agreeing to move from London to the wild moors of Devon with her husband Freddie. A fresh start is exactly what their marriage needs. As their car pulls up to Larkin Lodge, their dream country home, Emily's heart sinks. Outside, everything is covered in an icy gray mist. Inside, the air is filled with dust and abandonment. And then she finds the empty suite on the second floor.

After saving her family farm from falling into disrepair Framboise, a secretive widow, lives a quiet life splitting her time between home and the creperie where she brings her mother's recipes to life. When her nephew approaches her to exploit her family's culinary legacy, Framboise is forced to confront her dramatic childhood at the heart of the German Occupation of France.

Arimnestos of Plataea was one of the heroes of the Battle of Marathon, in which the heroic Greeks halted the invading Persians in their tracks, and fought in the equally celebrated naval battle at Salamis. But even these stunning victories only served to buy the Greeks time, as the Persians gathered a new army, returning with overwhelming force to strike the final killing blow. For the Greeks, divided and outnumbered, there was only one possible strategy: attack. And so, in the blazing summer of 479 BC, Arimnestos took up his spear one final time at the Battle of Plataea.

Raffaella Moretti, by far the most beautiful girl in the southern Italian town of Triento, is about to marry the only boy she has ever loved. It seems that nothing but happiness lies in store for her. Yet, just one year later, she is a widow, and has taken a job as housekeeper in the Villa Rosa, working for a young American. As Raffaella struggles to recapture her lost happiness she starts looking for ways to help those around her to do the same.

An action-packed tale of betrayal and revenge set amid the war between Alexander the Great's generals and climaxing in the most spectacular battle of the ancient world. Satyrus and Melitta, twin heirs to a rich kingdom on the Black Sea, become desperate fugitives when their mother, the Scythian warrior-princess Srayanka, is cut down in a savage act of betrayal. Accompanied by their tutor, the Spartan Philokles, they must make a perilous journey west, pursued by ruthless assassins, to find sanctuary with the army of their father's closest friend, Diodorus.

Christmas has always meant something special to Merry - even without a family of her own. This year, her heart might be broken but her new candle business is booming. The last thing she needs is another project - but when her hometown's annual event needs some fresh festive inspiration, Merry can't resist. Cole loves a project too - though it's usually of the bricks and mortar variety. As a single dad, his Christmas wish is to see his kids again, so getting the new house finished for when they're all together is the perfect distraction.

8-year-old Rose Barclay refuses to talk after the shocking death of her nanny in the midst of her parents' acrimonious divorce. Attorney Stella Hudson is determined to help Rose speak, and discover what really happened. As Stella unravels the secrets of the Barclay family, the past and present collide with shocking consequences. Everyone is a suspect in the nanny's murder. Even Rose. Is the person Stella's supposed to protect the one she may need protection from.

Three years ago police officer Georgina Ioannau was murdered, her killers never brought to justice. Now the prime suspects have been shot dead within hours of their return to the UK. Has someone finally taken the law into their own hands? Seeking out the truth will force Kate Daniels to confront her own past mistakes, and put her career, and her team's lives, on the line.

A strange darkness is growing in the Ward. A man who would burn kingdoms to the ground is raising an army unlike any seen before, bent on uprooting the foundations of the world. And only Corayne - a pirate's daughter and the last of an ancient lineage - can stop him. Alongside an unlikely group of reluctant allies, Corayne finds herself on a desperate journey to complete an impossible task, with untold magic singing in her blood and the fate of the world on her shoulders.

In the snowy market town of Wetherly, Merry is about to take on her biggest project yet, the arrival of a new baby. She has always dreamed of being a mother, particularly as she lost her own mother at such a young age. Everyone is so excited, so why is Merry feeling terrified? And why is she struggling to open up to business partner and best friend Nell, whose help she needs at the thriving candle shop more than ever?

They were born in the middle of a battle, into a world at war. And from their first moments of life, twins Satyrus and Melitta were fighting for survival. Their father, a Greek mercenary, was cut down not long after they had taken their first breath; their Scythian mother was cruelly murdered when they were still children.

Arimnestos of Plataea is a man who has seen and done things that most men only dream about. Sold into slavery as a boy, he fought his way to freedom - and then to everlasting fame: standing alongside the Athenians at the Battle of Marathon where the Greeks crushed the invading Persians. Sometimes, however, a man's greatest triumph is followed by his greatest sorrow. Returning to his farm, Arimnestos finds that his wife, Euphoria, has died in childbirth, and in an instant his laurels turn to dust. But the gods are not finished with Arimnestos yet.

Trapped between his unfulfilling career, a dwindling grasp on reality and his childhood memories, Jay Mackintosh takes the snap decision to buy a derelict French farmhouse, running from London to the village of Lansquenet. Returning to his childhood haunt, Jay is forced to confront a ghost from his past, a secretive widow and the terrible secret she's hiding.

A divided world must rally, an unstoppable enemy must be defeated, and the fate of the world rests on a blade's edge. Andry, a former squire, fights for hope amid blood and chaos. Dom, a grieving immortal, strives to fulfill a broken oath. Sorasa, an outcast assassin, faces her past when it returns with sharpened teeth. Valtik, an old sorceress, summons a mighty power. And Corayne, a pirate's daughter with an ancient magic in her blood, steps closer to becoming the hero she's destined to be.

It is supposed to be a dream. James and I have been trying for years. But now it is starting to feel like a nightmare. Doctors don't ask questions, or care about how you're feeling. They just tell you what to do. They never listen. Mam and James don't understand either. James thinks I'm being anxious and Mam says it'll pass. It always does. That's what she did when Dad died. I've never felt more alone. Or scared. Then I joined an online group for mothers. A sisterhood, really. They might be on a screen, but sometimes it feels like they know me better than James.