Showing results by publisher "Bolinda audio" in Historical Fiction

Steam clouds rise off the water as a ferry approaches a jetty in ancient China. Onboard is Hudan, one of the mysterious Wu who reside on the sacred mountain of Li Shan. The Wu have been living in isolation for decades, while the arrogant Shang emperor and his enchantress have ruled the land. It has been a terrible time for the common people and the noble Ji brothers - Dan and Fa - are keen to bring the emperor's reign of terror to an end. They are told a Wu prophecy has predicted the fall of the emperor, but first they must journey to Li Shan to learn the truth.

Hampshire, 1900. With the sudden death of her father, the life of 15-year-old Harriet Benson changes forever. Forced from her home to escape the advances of her leering stepbrother Norris, Harriet is sent into service to provide for the family. Arriving at the grand Dalton House, she meets the owners' crippled son Joseph, with whom friendship soon blossoms. When circumstances force Joseph to leave the family home, Harriet is happy to accompany him and break free from the controlling influence of her stepmother.

Lord Robert Gresham has given up all hope that the beautiful and independent Flora Jennings will ever take him seriously. He heads to an exclusive country house party to forget about the beauty haunting his thoughts. Too bad the lady in question has no intention of being forgotten.

Swept up by Hollywood in the 1950s, larrikin Australian actor Randy Storm had the looks, charm and talent to take on the world. But by the 1990s he's forgotten, burned out after a life of movie star excess. When producer Michael Matthews meets the once-great Randy Storm, he is surprised to find a man who is at peace with himself. Both he and researcher Janie Callendar set out to discover the source of this inner peace. Meanwhile his agent Ariel Margoles sees a chance for Randy to be a star once more in the hottest Hollywood film of the year.

Living among the Sachakan rebels, Lorkin does his best to learn about them and their unique magic. But the Traitors are reluctant to trade their knowledge for the Healing they so desperately want, and while he assumes they fear revealing their existence to the world, there are hints they have bigger plans. Sonea searches for the rogue, knowing that Cery cannot avoid assassination forever, but the rouge's influence over the city's underworld is far greater than she feared. His only weakness is the loss of his mother, now locked away in the Lookout.

As warriors, seafarers, diplomats and traders of the Isles of southern Armorica, the Veneti conducted trade freely from Albion to Byzantium, unhindered for eons. But persuaded and later blackmailed into Roman governorship, their livelihood comes under threat, and some of their kin make the grave error of taking Roman soldiers hostage. Their druid decrees that a great sacrifice is needed to secure the favour of the Gods – and defeat the Romans, who are sure to retaliate.

During World War I, the ancient manor house of Greyladies in rural Wiltshire is requisitioned for a hospital. Living in Swindon, Phoebe Sinclair is unaware of any connection to Greyladies and the Latimers. She loses her job when her German employers are interned because of the war. When Phoebe is posted to the hospital at Greyladies, she feels she's come home. But Frank is still pursuing her and Corin has his own problems. With obstacles at every turn, can Phoebe find happiness and embrace the role of mistress of Greyladies?

The wind is whispering in Woody Creek. Change is in the air. It's 1958 and Woody Creek is being dragged kicking and screaming into the swinging '60s. Jenny's daughters, Cara and Georgie, are now young women. They have inherited their mother's hands, but that is where their similarity ends. Raised separately, they have never met. A mistake from Cara's teenage years looms over her future, but she believes emphatically in the white-wedding and happily-ever-after myth. Georgie has seen enough of marriage and motherhood. She plans to live her life as her grandmother did, independent of a man.

At 17, Veronica O'Shay is happier running wild on the family farm than behaving in the ladylike manner her mother requires, and she despairs both of her secret passion for her brother's friend Jack Murphy and what promises to be a future of restraint and compliance. But this is 1913 and the genteel tranquillity of rural Beecroft is about to change forever as the O'Shay and Murphy families, along with their friends the Dwyers, are caught up in the theatre of war and their fates become intertwined.

Manda Scott's Boudica will tell the extraordinary, resounding story of Britain's first and greatest warrior queen, the woman who remains one of the great female icons. AD 57: much of Britannia has been under Roman occupation for more than 10 years, and tribes pay costly tithes to the emperor in return for the right to continue living on their own lands.

There was only one way she could guarantee her future ... and she knew that she would take it. Bella Tucker has come a long way. Born illegitimate and banished to the London slums by her vindictive stepmother, at six Bella is rescued by her grandfather and brought up as a member of the aristocratic Richmond family. Her future seems assured when she falls passionately in love with Charles Hardy, heir to the wealthy Hardy estate – until her grandfather’s death changes everything...

Thisbe Chisholm wants to be a writer. It’s 2007, a time of digital revolution and skyrocketing property prices, but she’s an old-fashioned girl. She longs only to tell the stories written on her heart. While her best friends, Penny and Jane, and her darling boyfriend, John, seem set for stellar careers in their chosen fields, Thisbe works nights as a hostess at a glitzy harbourside Sydney club - a job she despises but has paid the rent for the last three years since university graduation.

Lord Sebastian Gresham is a battle-tested soldier and brilliant strategist. Yet all his life he’s had to hide his complete failure to decipher letters. In his own mind, he’s just stupid. Lady Georgina Stane is beautiful, witty, and brilliantly intelligent. Sebastian thinks it's a miracle that he’s found the perfect bride. He's head over heels in love, proud as a peacock and terrified. If she finds out his secret, will he lose her love forever?

After an absence of 20 years, Charlie O'Reilly returns to the goldmining town of Maiden's Creek. Despite her bitter memories, she's determined to prove her worth as the new matron of the hospital. The anonymity of the town also provides an escape from the unwanted attentions of a man who can bring her nothing but trouble. The town has also left its scars on Danny Hunt. Despite his wealth and success as a criminal lawyer in Melbourne, his childhood memories have left him with questions his parents are reluctant to answer.

As his arms wrapped her in a tight embrace she swayed against him, savouring the moment. There had been times during the past years when she had wondered if she would ever see him again, would ever be enclosed in those same arms. So many men hadn’t come home. After four years facing the horrors of the trenches in France, Frank Carmody returns to make a life for himself and his wife, Nina. But it’s now 1919 and everything has changed.

Paris, 1940. With its cheerful, pink-painted walls, St Agnes Orphanage is the only place that Lucie has ever felt truly safe. Fleeing the German occupation of Paris broke her heart, so when she is separated from her sisters on the road, she makes the terrifying decision to return. The orphanage is unrecognisable – the walls painted stark white, the ivy and wisteria that once clambered over them cruelly destroyed. Lucie's heart stops when she sees the red and black Nazi flags hanging from the windows. She'd dreamt of the warmth of St Agnes every night, but her home has new owners.

Paris, 1899. Emma Lacasse has been estranged from her older sister for nearly 20 years, since Caroline married a wealthy American and left France. So when Emma receives a request from Caroline to meet her, she is intrigued. Caroline invites Emma to visit her in New York, on one condition: Emma must tutor her shy, young niece, Isadora, and help her prepare for her society debut.

1942, Amsterdam. The Nazi occupation has shattered the lives of inseparable best friends Hannie and Sonja. The canals and rainy cobbled streets they once strolled down are now patrolled by soldiers day and night, who arrest people at will and beat those who resist. Hannie can’t stand by and watch the lives of the innocent be destroyed by the evil occupiers. At great danger to herself, she joins the underground resistance, where she meets the charming and mysterious Jan. She covers her bright red hair to avoid detection by the Nazis while distributing fake IDs.

As a teenager in Chicago, May always dreamed of travelling the world. So when she falls in love with George Turner, she can’t wait to return to London as his wife. Two beautiful daughters follow, but George isn’t the husband he promised to be. Ten years on, May is wondering if she’s made a terrible mistake. The Great War has been declared in Europe, and all around, brave young men are being called up to serve. George, banned from conscription himself, has taken to the bottle, and May suspects he’s seeing other women, too.

A story of love and optimism told against a harsh Australian landscape. Snow was one of the drifters and wanderers of Australia in the '30s whose home was the open road; Dancy, a hard-bitten young woman, had been deserted on the track. Their story, and that of the motley crowd of battlers that travelled the roads looking for work or avoiding it, is told with compassion and humour in this rich, human tale of life in the raw.