Showing results by narrator "Esther Wane" in All Categories

Brenna Seagrave doesn't want to be a countess. She prefers her life of danger and disguise as a spy for the kingdom of Andar, but the Andari court isn't quite ready for a countess who engages in espionage. Feeling trapped, Brenna accepts an invitation to a mysterious estate, where she hopes to connect with the mother she's never had a chance to know. But nothing is quite as Brenna expects.

Once upon a time Gabrielle Price wrote and published an extraordinary novel. But 20 years on her literary star has dimmed, her "work of genius" is all but forgotten, and no further novels have materialised. She now lives an unremarkable life: middle-aged, living alone in the sleepy village she grew up in, and working as a housekeeper for the local vicar. Her lonely existence is dominated by memories of her best friend Madeleine, who died young, in tragic and mysterious circumstances.

Snow has always lived under the shadow of her cruel stepmother, with only her beloved father and her childhood friend - the huntsman, Alexander - to make life bearable. When her father dies, she should be crowned queen, but instead she finds herself fleeing for her life. With no allies, no skills, and no food, her future could be over before it has truly begun. But there's more at stake than just one life. If Snow can't claim her throne, her kingdom faces destruction. Snow has to make a choice: focus on her own salvation or put everything on the line - even those she loves the most.

Uncover the methods of megastars like Oprah Winfrey, Earvin "Magic" Johnson, and Sir Richard Branson, who make the world a better place through purposeful - and highly successful - business strategies. The stellar authorial team shares in candid detail the setbacks and achievements they experienced building successful enterprises and charities - with purpose.

Listeners will discover lost and forgotten women who wrote horror every bit as effectively as their male contemporaries. They will learn about their lives and careers, the challenges they faced as women working in a male-dominated field, the way they overcame those challenges, and the way they approached the genre - which was often subtler, more psychological, and more disturbing.

A young writer is brutally attacked in her home and left for dead. For her sister, Nina Bergmann, it's the beginning of a nightmare that will threaten to destroy her marriage, her job and ultimately her life. As she sets out to unravel the truth about what really happened to her sister, Nina comes face-to-face with inner demons she believed long since banished and discovers that her sister's past and that of the once-divided city are intertwined in unimaginable ways. The Wall may be gone, but its legacy still haunts Berlin.

My heart is thumping with fear as I stare out at the snow-capped mountains. This ski trip to the French Alps was meant to be a chance for me and my two sisters to put the past behind us after years of not speaking. Instead, I'm expecting the police to knock on the door of our chalet. I'd planned for our families to get to know each other, sipping hot chocolate while laughing together around the fireplace. I didn't think our winter getaway would end in murder.

I gasp out loud as I step through the door of the beautiful country hotel. My hands fly to my mouth in shock as I see the room is filled with my friends and family, my grown-up daughters and grandchildren at the center, gathered to celebrate my special birthday. Everyone raises their glasses to toast me. I should be enjoying the moment, but I'm on edge and I can't relax. Who organized this surprise party? How did they know I was going to be here?

Tatiana, a half-demon/half-human, was orphaned as a child by a horrific war between the demon and human kingdoms. A human Duke took her in, but only so that he could take advantage of her special skill: Tatiana can speak Shadowtongue, the native language of demons, unspeakable by anyone devoid of demon blood. Despite the abuse she receives from the Duke's family, she works hard as an interpreter between the kingdoms, in hopes of maintaining peace and winning her family's affection.

Tom is a successful author, but he’s struggling to finish his novel. His main distraction is an online admirer, Evie, who simply won’t leave him alone. Evie is smart, well read, and unstable. She lives with her father, and her social-media friendships are not only her escape - they’re everything she has. When she’s hit with a restraining order, her world is turned upside down, and Tom is free to live his life again, to concentrate on writing. But things aren’t really adding up.

The fire crackles gently in the grate as my partner Finn fills my glass with red wine. Looking into his sparkling blue eyes, I feel a tug on my heart. Finn is my boss, and no one can know how hard we’ve fallen for each other. We thought this lighthouse keeper’s cottage on the wild Irish coast would be the perfect secret getaway. Then there’s a knock at the door…

In an arctic world that's getting colder every day, Lyriana's only hope of survival is to get her little brother Zave and herself to the fabled Orphan's Garden. It’s rumored to be the one place in the world not controlled by deadly Winter Spirits or ruled by the tyrant Giant king. In Orphan’s Garden, healing trees will melt away Winter’s pains, and Lyriana and Zave can live safely in the warmth of Spring. If the garden exists, they must find it. They won’t live much longer without it.

Joan, once a singing star of the 1940s and 1950s, now ekes out a lonely, impoverished existence—until a chance encounter promises a comeback concert and an album. Her sister Kathleen is a successful medical researcher who has been offered the directorship of a prestige institute in Los Angeles in her retirement but is facing divorce after her husband's affair. In their old age, Joan and Kathleen draw closer together. Until a figure from Joan's past threatens everything they've built.

With her secrets uncovered and her power-mad brother bent on her execution, Princess Oria has no sanctuary left. Her bid to make herself and her new barbarian husband rulers of walled Bára has failed. She and Lonen have no choice but to flee through the leagues of brutal desert between her home and his—certain death for a sorceress, and only a bit slower than the blade.

Once Princess Oria spun wicked daydreams from the legends of sorceresses kidnapped by the barbarian Destrye. Now, though she’s come willingly, she finds herself in a mirror of the old tales: the king’s foreign trophy of war, starved of magic, surrounded by snowy forest and hostile strangers. But this place has secrets, too—and Oria must learn them quickly if she is to survive.

The sorceress Oria has finally come into her own—able to wield the power of her birthright and secure in the marriage she once believed would bring her only misery. But the past she escaped still chases her, and the certainty of war promises to destroy everything she’s fought to have.

No longer a princess and not yet a queen, the sorceress Oria welcomes the rush of power the ancient mask brings her—though the obsessive connection to it frightens her and alarms her barbarian husband, Lonen. But retreat is not an option. She must wrestle the magic to prevent an annihilating war, even if she must make the ultimate sacrifice.

Princess Oria has one chance to keep her word and stop her brother’s reign of terror: She must become queen. All she has to do is marry first. And marry Lonen, the barbarian king who defeated her city bare weeks ago, who can never join her in a marriage of minds, who can never even touch her—no matter how badly she wants him to.

The mansion of larger-than-life business magnate Titus McAvoy hums with the energy of his servants Nessa and Aoife, two Irish maids bonded through their journey to America, and a dream of escape. When preparation for one of Titus's famous parties sends the pair to the beach, Aoife stumbles upon a strange find on the shoreline. She instinctively pockets it, unaware that it is the key to her and Nessa's freedom. Ambergris holds more worth than silver or gold.

When Juliet Carlisle returns home to her family's gorgeous, crumbling manor house in the English countryside, she doesn't expect to stay long. But she's intrigued by the new cookery school being launched on the grounds… that is until she meets the guy who's been hired to run it. Though undeniably handsome, disgraced celebrity chef Léo Brodeur immediately strikes Juliet as bossy and rude. Juliet has enough troubles in her life without adding a snooty French chef to the mix.