Showing results by narrator "Fiona Hardingham" in All Categories

If you were one of King Henry VIII's six wives, who would you be? Would you be Anne Boleyn, who literally lost her head? Would you be the subject of rumor and scandal like Catherine Howard? Or would you get away and survive like Anna of Cleves? Meet them and Henry's other queens - each bound for divorce or death - in this epic and thrilling novel that reads like fantasy but really happened.

With her trademark lyricism, Maggie Stiefvater turns to a new world, where a pair are swept up in a daring, dangerous race across a cliff—with more than just their lives at stake should they lose.

Sixteen-year-old Aurora wishes she were anyone else. Mistreated by her adopted family and bullied at school, she believes things can’t get any worse. But when she’s kidnapped and dragged through an ancient tapestry into the magical world of Avalonia, she soon discovers that some dreams can easily turn into nightmares.

As an expert baker, Rosaline Palmer is a big believer in always following the recipe. She's lived her life by that rule - well, except for when she dropped out of college to raise her daughter, Amelie. Now, with a paycheck as useful as greaseproof paper and a house crumbling faster than biscuits in tea, she's teetering on the edge of financial disaster. But where there's a whisk there's a way...and Rosaline has just landed a spot on the nation's most beloved baking show.

As the recently promoted assistant to the Tate's Modern Collections keeper Diana Gilden, Lily helps plan a world-class Picasso exhibit to honor the passing of the great artist—and she's waited her whole life for this moment. The opening is beyond anyone's expectations—the lighting, the champagne, the glittering crowd, and the international acclaim—until Lily does the unthinkable. She stops in front of a masterpiece and hears her own voice say, "It's a forgery." The gallery falls silent.

When Stella Montgomery returned to the Hotel Majestic cold and wet but exhilarated by adventure, the Aunts were furious. Now they are sending Stella away to the old family home at Wormwood Mire, where she must live with two strange cousins and their governess. But within the overgrown grounds of the mouldering house, dark secrets slither and skulk, and soon Stella must be brave once more if she's to find out who -- or what -- she really is ...

For psychological profiler Hanne Lagerlind-Schön, life is good. She and her partner, investigator Peter Lindgren, have just returned from a dream holiday in Greenland, and the symptoms of her early onset dementia seem to be under control. Then they are asked to go to the small, sleepy industrial town of Ormberg to investigate a cold case: 10 years earlier a five-year-old girl's remains were found in a cairn near the town. With her dementia creeping back again, Hanne starts to keep a diary noting down everything she is likely to forget.

Magic is fading from Wales—choked off by King Offa’s Dyke, the enemy earthworks that spans the entire border. Even the dragons have disappeared. And now an attack is imminent. Prince Taliesin would love to watch magic die. Prince Dafydd fears it, and the throne. But when their father promises the crown to whichever son can destroy the dyke and restore magic to Wales, the brothers are forced into an uneasy rivalry.

Claire grew up in a small town, far from the glitz and glamour of London. Ridiculed by her stepmother, Linda, and harboring a painful crush on her brother’s best friend, she has begun to outgrow the life laid out before her. On the cusp of adulthood in the late 1960s, Claire yearns for the adventure and independence of a counterculture taking root across the world.

Stella Montgomery is in disgrace. The Aunts have sent her to Wakestone Hall, a grim boarding school where the disobedient are tamed and the wilful are made meek. But when a friend disappears, Stella is determined to find her -- no matter the danger ...

In the long hot summer of 1939, Britain is preparing for war. But on a riverside farm in Suffolk there is excitement of another kind: Mrs Petty, the widowed farmer, has had her hunch proved correct that the strange mounds on her land hold buried treasure. As the dig proceeds against a background of mounting national anxiety, it becomes clear though that this is no ordinary find.

You may think you know the story. Penniless orphan Jane Eyre begins a new life as a governess at Thornfield Hall, where she meets one dark, brooding Mr Rochester – and, Reader, she marries him. Or does she? Prepare for an adventure of Gothic proportions, in which all is not as it seems, a certain gentleman is hiding more than skeletons in his closets, and one orphan Jane Eyre, aspiring author Charlotte Brontë and supernatural investigator Alexander Blackwood are about to be drawn together on the most epic ghost hunt this side of Wuthering Heights.

Rina Veraiin has youth, beauty, and strength. She is a born warrior, able to outride any man, deal death with her fierce blade, and command awesome and mysterious forces granted to her by a set of magical tattoos. Now as the newly minted duchess of Klaar, Rina confronts a menace that threatens her world in a divine conflict that will push her newfound abilities to their limits.

Zombies. It is seven months since the outbreak. The world is in ruins. Britain is a radioactive wasteland peopled by the undead. The few survivors cling to the hope that they might wake up tomorrow. For most, that is all they have left. But Nilda has something more, the chance that her son is alive.

Ember St. George is a dragon. At least she was before her adoptive father - a powerful but accident-prone magician - turned her into a human girl to save her life. Unfortunately, Ember’s growing tendency to burst into flames at certain temperatures - not to mention her invisible wings - is making it too dangerous for her to stay in London. The solution: ship Ember off to her aunt’s research station in frigid Antarctica. Though eccentric Aunt Myra takes getting used to, Ember quickly feels at home in a land of ice storms, mischievous penguins, and 24-hour nights.

Bone Criers are the last descendants of an ancient famille charged with using the magic they draw from animal bones to shepherd the dead into the afterlife - lest they drain the light from the living. Ailesse has been prepared since birth to become their matriarch, but first she must complete her rite of passage: to kill the boy she’s destined to love. Bastien’s father was slain by a Bone Crier, and he’s been seeking revenge ever since. Now, his vengeance must wait, as Ailesse’s ritual has begun and their fates are entwined - in life and in death.

Bridging Infinity puts humanity at the heart of these vast undertakings - as builder, as engineer, as adventurer - reimagining and rebuilding the world, the solar system, and even the entire universe. This continuation of the award-winning Infinity Project anthology series features bold new stories from Stephen Baxter, Elizabeth Bear, Gregory Benford, Zachary Brown, Pat Cadigan, Kameron Hurley, Scott Lynch, Vonda N. McIntyre, Hannu Rajaniemi, Allan Steele, and many more.

Against all odds, Roh survived the harrowing Queen’s Tournament, but now something far deadlier awaits her: a formidable quest for the three magic birthstones of Saddoriel. The gems have been scattered across the realms – and only when Roh retrieves them can she take her place as queen. But surrounded by hostile companions and tormented by the dangerous secret she carries, Roh begins to realise that the pursuit of power may prove more destructive than she ever imagined.

After facing heartbreaking betrayals and jaw-dropping revelations in Akoris, Roh must steel herself once more and continue her quest to win the cyren throne. But with poison lingering in her body and a new, unpredictable companion at her side, the trek to the mysterious territory of Csilla becomes more perilous. Dangerous schemes are afoot—ones that threaten not only the homeland Roh intends to rule, but all of cyrenkind. As her journey stretches across the realm, Roh must navigate the dark web of her own ambition and master her new magic. Will she triumph against the trials ahead?

Identical twins Fifer and Thisbe Stowe have amazing yet uncontrollable magical abilities. They're naturally more gifted than even their brother, Alex, the head mage of Artimé, could hope to be. But when they accidentally use their magic in the jungle of Artimé to strike down a beloved creature, Alex is furious and threatens to lock them away until they can learn to control their power.