Showing results by narrator "Alex" in All Categories

Had it not been for the scent bottles, it is unlikely that Daniel Shelbourne, Viscount Reculver, and Anna Hawthorne of Hawthorne’s Porcelain would ever have met. Daniel’s late father left him an impoverished estate – which he had expected – and unexplained debts, which he hadn’t. Anna inherited a thriving business, along with the knowledge and passion required to run it.

Lady Amelia Blake has taken London Society by storm, having multiple suitors and multiple offers for her hand—yet she can accept none of them. Pining after Captain Elliot after a brief acquaintance, she could not find another man who had the same effect on her. When one of her suitors attempts to force her hand, she jumps at the chance to escape to France and help Wellington spy on her mysterious aunt. Only, she discovers her partner in this endeavor is the very man she is trying to forget. Will she be up to the task when her heart has such divided loyalties?

Everyone knows something of Shakespeare's sonnets, even if only in memorable fragments like "the darling buds of May," or "remembrance of things past," or "the marriage of true minds." For centuries these wonderfully crafted, intense lyrics have stood for something valued about youth, love, and the emotional complexities belonging to that time of life. This new recording presents all 154 of Shakespeare's sonnets, using the New Cambridge Shakespeare texts.

Kamila Hamilton had everything under control...or so she thought. She hadn't planned for the Di Bianco brothers to return and turn her world upside down. Thiago got her first kiss. Taylor always protected her. Their return makes Kami's seemingly perfect life shake. She is no longer the innocent young girl they once knew. Since they left, she's built walls and worn a mask to keep herself safe. The secrets they carry threaten to bring down those fragile walls and expose what happened so many years ago. Only they can reach the true Kami behind all those barriers.

Tragedy drove him into unwilling exile. Death demands his reluctant return. In the decade between, he has answered to many names and amassed a variety of secrets. Now the actor known to Paris as L'Inconnu must resume his real identity and become Francis Adrian Sinclair Devereux, Earl of Sarre...a man he no longer knows how to be and whose name, thanks to the malice of a friend turned enemy, remains tarnished by an old scandal. Revenge, so long avoided, slithers temptingly from the shadows.

Someone is misusing Max Brandon’s name - resulting in bills for services he never ordered and goods he did not buy. For reasons he can't begin to guess, he has become the victim of some unknown person's campaign of persecution. When the games move closer to home, almost forcing him to fight a duel...more particularly, when they draw in Frances Pendleton, a lady he never expected to see again...Max vows to catch the man behind them, no matter what the cost.

A curse from birth has doomed Vivi to die when she turns eighteen. She’s a masterful runesmith, and if she could just convince arrogant ether hunters that her family has solved runeswords’ fatal flaw, she might earn enough ether to save herself. When a rebellious spirit defies his handler to bond with Vivi, she becomes a fugitive, escaping capture only to land in an inescapable demonic prison.

George Smiley is one of the most brilliantly realised characters in British fiction. Bespectacled, tubby, eternally middle-aged and deceptively ordinary, he has a mind like a steel trap and is said to possess ‘the cunning of Satan and the conscience of a virgin’. When a Russian é...

From #1 New York Times bestselling author Kathryn Purdie comes a high-stakes fantasy duology flush with doomed romance and macabre magic, perfect for fans of Stephanie Garber and Roshani Chokshi. Bone Criers are the last descendants of an ancient famille charged with using the magic they draw...

Lady Eugenia Knight was the youngest of five, and the only daughter of a duke, so was it any wonder she was a hoyden? When she made her London debut, naturally Society - and the gossip columns - were fascinated with her. When her best friend and her brothers married, she was left to her own devices with an inattentive aunt and a childhood family friend as chaperones to navigate the perils of the ton.

From USA Today bestselling author Jeneane O'Riley comes the first in a series of deliciously dark and whimsical standalone romances. Some secrets were never meant to be unearthed. Perched on a windswept cliff, Blackwood Manor looms like a dark monument to a mysterious family. Behind its grand...

Saint is torn. What his wolf and heart want is Ada. He believes he isn't good for her, that Noah or even Huxley are a better choice, but he can't stay away. He knows he is just going to break her heart if he keeps doing this to her. When Saint witnesses Huxley kissing Ada, he wants to rip his throat out, but at the same time it would just be easy to walk away. She has all she needs, two good mates...what does she need with a third one? Especially one like him. Damaged. No one wants a mate who has a secret...not one like his. And the more he pushes her away, the better for everyone.

Swords of Haven brings together the first three novels in New York Times bestselling author Simon R. Green's beloved Hawk & Fisher series: Hawk & Fisher, Winner Takes All, and The God Killer.

For the district nurses of Victory Walk, there's been little time to bask in the triumph of D-day as London is facing a new threat - the buzz bombs. Everyone is terrified, never knowing where the next one will strike. Into this tense atmosphere, new nurse Iris must make her mark. She’s had more experience of nursing than many, but since arriving in East London from the countryside, she has struggled to fit in with the other staff. Meanwhile, Alice is facing an agonising wait to hear if her boyfriend, Joe, has survived D-day.

The Dutch Stadhouder, William of Orange, has summoned Master Mercurius—and that is never good news. Mercurius has gained a reputation for himself with William for successfully undertaking diplomatic missions. And William is now paranoid that his own subjects—and the English exiles living in the Netherlands—are plotting against him. Mercurius is sent to gather information, but he soon finds himself caught up in another mystery. Three Jewish boys have vanished, and the local magistrates are doing nothing to investigate their disappearances.

In the glittering aftermath of the Great War, Ralph Madgwick and Keppel Howland have fled the disillusionment of post-war England for the wild promise of Southern Rhodesia. Their quest for fortune in the African bush has yielded nothing but dust and disappointment—until a chance encounter changes everything… When the legendary flying ace Harry Brigandshaw spots their campfire from his biplane and invites them to his sprawling estate, Elephant Walk, the two friends find themselves thrust into a world of colonial wealth, power, and dangerous temptation.

Xend’rik. The dark continent. A land of once-proud empires that now lie in ruin. A land shrouded in mystery where monsters and dark powers stalk the jungles, where only the bravest and most foolhardy will venture. Now a band of war-weary soldiers must brave the depths of Xen’drik in search of an artifact that is the last hope to save one of their own.

After getting my heart broken, I’ve sworn off athletes forever. Then my best friend has to go and marry an NHL player, and his teammate, Colby Knight, won’t leave me alone. Colby is a master at scoring (on and off the ice), and he’s not used to being told no. So he takes my disinterest as an invitation to pursue me even harder. I ignore him…until I realize I can use his expertise to help me get my crush’s attention. But now that he’s my dating coach, and we’re spending so much time together, I’m growing more and more distracted. I mean, those dimples? Very enticing.

The compelling new best seller from the author of The Mersey Daughter and Winter on the Mersey. Alice Lake and her friend Edith have had everything thrown at them in their first year as district nurses in London’s East End. From babies born out of wedlock to battered wives, they’ve had plenty to keep them occupied. As rationing takes hold and Hitler’s bombers train their sights on London, there is no escaping the reality of being at war.

Renowned novelist and poet Thomas Hardy is best known for his fatalistic, often tragic novels set in the 'realistic dream-country' of Wessex, in south and south-west England. Drawing on his own life, he created some of the most memorable characters and stories in Victorian literature—many of which are included here. In five dramas taken from Radio 4's 'Hardy's Women' season, we meet a few of Thomas Hardy's most compelling female protagonists.