Showing results by narrator "Saskia Maarleveld" in All Categories

In London in the mid-1920s, a young Australian and her aunt are each on a journey of self-discovery - one by attempting to swim the English Channel, the other to rediscover the woman she used to be. It's 1925, and 15-year-old Catherine Quick longs to feel once more the warm waters of her home, to strike out into the ocean off the Torres Strait Islands and swim, as she's done since she was a tiny child. But with her recent move to London, where she lives with her aunt Louisa, Catherine feels that everything she values has been stripped away.

June 1946. As the residents of Winthrop Island prepare for the first summer season after the sacrifice of war, a glamorous new figure moves into the guest cottage at Summerly, the idyllic seaside estate of the wealthy Peabody family. To Emilia Winthrop, daughter of Summerly’s year-round caretaker and a descendant of the island’s settlers, Olive Rainsford opens a window into a world of shining possibility. While Emilia spent the war years caring for her incapacitated mother, Olive traveled the world, married fascinating men, and involved herself in political causes.

When they found themselves trapped on Earth, Richard, Brains, and Helen befriended Janet and Steve, a brother and sister growing up in a poverty-stricken estate, and taught them the basics of magic before discovering that sinister forces were slowly moving against them. Now, Richard and Brains have taken Janet back to Mystic Albion to study magic, while Helen and Steve remain behind to track down the rogue magicians and stop them before it is too late.

When Harriet McKenna’s own relationship goes up in smoke, her ruthless boss Alex Katona challenges her to take a leaf out of his book and embark on an illicit affair with him! This means being at his beck-and-call beyond office hours and in return Alex promises to show Harriet how pleasurable life can be...

Rafe Palazzo takes what he wants with no regrets. Arianna (Ari) Lynn Harlow has led a charmed life until tragedy strikes her family. He’s looking for a no-emotions attached mistress, she’s looking for redemption. They aren’t a pair that should ever work, but undeniable attraction and devastating tragedy brings them together in the city by the bay where he fights to keep their relationship nothing more than an enjoyable way to meet his needs, and she battles to not lose herself in him.

While there are plenty of resources available to establish healthy sleeping patterns for babies and toddlers, there's very little guidance for parents who want to help their preschool and elementary school children (ages 3-10) sleep well. However, parents can be effective sleep coaches for their children once they know what to do. Become Your Child's Sleep Coach meets that need by giving you a simple plan to coach your children to be wonderful sleepers, as well as methods to deal with bed wetting, sleep walking, night terrors, and other sleep issues.

The Nightbirds were once their city’s best-kept secret, but now the secret’s out. What’s more, they can do feats of magic no one has seen in centuries. They’re like the Fyrebirds of old: the powerful women who once moved mountains, parted seas, and led armies. Some say that when four join together, they become a force that shakes the earth and sends magic rippling through it. It does seem as if something has awoken in Eudea, but the four girls responsible don’t want the world to know the full extent of what they can do—at least not yet.

Persephone May has been alone her entire life. Abandoned as an infant and dragged through the foster care system, she wants nothing more than to belong somewhere. To someone. However, Persephone is as strange as she is lonely. Unexplainable things happen when she’s around - changes in weather, inanimate objects taking flight - and those who seek to bring her into their family quickly cast her out. To cope, she never gets attached, never makes friends. And she certainly never dates.

Ancora's survival came at a great cost, and the reconstruction is an endless task for those who remain. Jacob and Alice explore what's left of the Lowlands, discovering the lost journals of Charles von Atlier in the rubble. Between those leatherbound covers, Jacob finds a secret that could help him rebuild Ancora, but first, it will lead him back to the desert city of Midstream.

From the time she was a young girl, Luisa Voekler has loved solving puzzles and cracking codes. Brilliant and logical, she's expected to quickly climb the career ladder at the CIA. But while her coworkers have moved on to thrilling Cold War assignments--especially in the exhilarating era of the late 1980s--Luisa's work remains stuck in the past decoding messages from World War II. When Luisa Voekler discovers a secret cache of letters written by the father she has long presumed dead, she learns the truth about her grandfather's work, her father's identity, and why she has never progressed.

Best friends Marine Duval and Kate Sanders have trained at the Paris Opera Ballet School since childhood, where they've formed an inseparable bond forged by respective family tragedies and a fierce love for dance. When the body of a student is found in the dorms just before the start of their final year, Marine and Kate begin to ask themselves what they would do to win the ultimate prize: to be the one girl selected to join the Opera's prestigious corps de ballet.

It is 1887, and Alma Rosales is on the hunt for stolen opium. Trained in espionage by the Pinkerton Detective Agency - but dismissed for bad behavior and a penchant for going undercover as a man - Alma now works for Delphine Beaumond, the seductive mastermind of a West Coast smuggling ring. When product goes missing at their Washington Territory outpost, Alma is tasked with tracking the thief and recovering the drugs. In disguise as the scrappy dockworker Jack Camp, this should be easy.

Matthew and Hannah were just playing in the woods, a little way from home. But now he's tying Hannah to a tree. And she has never been so terrified. Patrick is there too, hidden, watching. He can't move. He can't take his eyes off Matthew's gun. Years later, in New York City, leading adult lives they never would have imagined, the three will meet again. With even more devastating consequences.

Mars Xi is a living weapon, a genetically manipulated psychic supersoldier with a body count in the thousands, and all she wanted was to be left alone. The last time MEPHISTO came for Mars, they took one of her friends with them. That was a mistake. A force hasn't been invented that can stop a voidwitch on a rampage, and Mars won't rest until she's settled her debts.

Time grows short to secure the desert city of Midstream. Fel struck a devastating blow, and it’s only a matter of time until their next attack. Out of options, Jacob turns to the abandoned works of Charles von Atlier to create a Titan Mech. The towering machine may be just the weapon they need to protect the city. But Mordair’s thirst for power is escalating. As King of Fel, he is taking full advantage of his alliance with the kingdom across the sea. Together, they’re preparing a siege on Belldorn sure to split their enemies’ focus.

In 1949, Lloyd Wilkinson Petrie has returned as a trustee to live in the long-defunct boarding school that he had attended as a child. There he is preparing a memoir. He writes, with faltering recall, of the subtle anti-Semitism that pervaded the school's ethos and of his fascination with the Egyptian archaeological adventures of his distant cousin, Sir William Matthew Flinders Petrie. Memories return, too, of the passions of a boyhood friendship with named Ben-Zion Elefantin, a mystifying older pupil who claims descent from Egypt's Elephantine Island.

Turning to online dating each with their own reasons, four women download an app, hoping to swipe their way to love and happiness. But not everyone is who they seem online. Hidden behind a perfect smile and charming humour, he appears to be the perfect date. But the night he has planned is unlike any other. The clock is ticking, and for one woman, this date might just be her last....

The Nameless World is a place of magic and mystery, of kings and princes and magicians and merchants and rebels, fighting for supremacy or power or even just to carve out a place for themselves in a world of wonders and terrors, a world forever changed by a traveler from our world…

Solveig and her shieldmaiden have finally made it to Waterstone, a fabled city hidden in a world of frost by ancient magic. Shrouded from the Enemy’s gaze, they are safe to rest and regroup—or so they think. Sol suspects their hosts are not as benevolent as they seem. Whispers race through the halls, hinting at self-serving agendas and secret plots. So, as Sol attempts to harness her awakened magic, she must fight for her voice to be heard or risk being used like a pawn in the greater game.

Candle Enys is no longer human. A demon owns her soul, and the only way to set things right is to travel to the one place no human should ever go: the Night Nation. Where the dead roam, and spirits flood the sky. Where monsters hold court and the very land itself might wake at any moment. With her wings, her magic, and her wits, Candle must find the demon and kill him, all the while contending with the denizens of the Night. New friends, foes, and complicated family history await—if only she can catch her breath.