Showing results by narrator "Helen Taylor" in All Categories

One of Canada’s most acclaimed horror writers, Gemma Files presents a mosaic of interconnected stories about interconnected families. After fleeing Scotland, five clans settled in the fictional town of Dourvale in northern Ontario. Known as the Five-Family Coven, they are the descendants of witches and witch-children, none of whom were spared persecution in their native country. Now shamans, spellcasters, singers, and thieves, the members of the Devize, Druir, Glouwer, Roke, and Rusk families survive by trading their occult powers and talents.

In an inn, on the way to her first London Season, Katerina Fortune hears something that gives her a chance to escape her fate. Acting on impulse, she hires a gig and presents herself to a reclusive gentleman to offer herself as a bride. For Katerina, the eighth daughter of Castle Fortune (her Yorkshire home) has no intention of letting her father sell her to the highest bidder in town.

To the miserable atmosphere of the country house of Studham, home to the Fighting Fox family, Miss Ianthe Eames, a whirlwind, arrives. Known in London as the Fighting Foxes, Lord Edward Fox is at odds with his stepmother, Lady Fox, and her spoiled son Curtis. Studham is hardly a joyful place to live. As the Fighting Fox family await the arrival of a poor relation from France, Lady Fox is ready to berate her late arrival, Lord Edward Fox is resigned to ignoring her, Curtis is ready to patronise her - while the resident visitors are ready to sympathise.

There was no doubt about it, Felicity Oldfield’s grand London adventure had commenced. First, she had been abducted by a peer of the realm, released, then in less than a few hours she had arrived in London for the post of governess, been cast off without a sou, walked the streets of London alone, been pursued by a young gentleman, met a man of bad character who might have led her onto a path of ruination, saved by a rich and fashionable couple in their velvet-lined coach, and was even now being taken to her mad Aunt Ellingham where she expected to be treated appallingly....

Another delightful entry into the beloved Fentons series. This time a novella featuring all your favorite characters mixed up in a truly Gothic mystery complete with villains, rescued beauties, treasure and a secret society of terrible aspirations. Baron Balfour, a great giant of a man, and his new wife, who used to be Euphemia Fleet, a put-upon companion, are on their honeymoon in France when the baroness spots a villainous looking individual, just like her idea of a character from a Gothic novel. He is in the company of a frightened young beauty and Euphemia decides to rescue her.

Beth Culpepper is a lady's maid who is mistaken for a lady! Cast off and stranded at an inn in the way to London, she doesn't feel strong enough to dispute it. The handsome Marquis of Wrexham mistakes her youthful appearance as that of a gently bred schoolgirl whom he feels impelled to help. How did a good girl, proud of her position as lady's maid to Miss Sophy Ludgate, come to this?

In her previous London Season, Jocasta had tripped through ballrooms delighting an army of admirers, one of whom (Lord Robert Paxton, heir to an earldom) had been invited by her papa to a house party at her home at Castle Fortune, to continue the acquaintance. Many things had happened at the house party, including the shattering of Jocasta’s naive confidence, when Paxton had preferred her younger sister, Portia.

Soon after her twin Leonora's marriage a bereft Marguerite Fortune is going home to Castle Fortune, with only her self serving male relatives for company. But Baron Fortune, her papa, has a diversion planned on the journey…one that concerns getting his last daughter wed.

For Anabelle Baird, the fortnight’s holiday with her fiancé, Philip Ancell, in Lisbon has not been a happy one. At the Lisbon airport she has a surprise encounter with Angus Pemberton, whom she had last seen seven years ago when he left Steyne under a cloud and went to Brazil. Anabelle’s reunion with Angus and her strange meeting with Luis, a small Portuguese boy, are but portents of her involvement in a mystery which pursues her to Steyne and finds its roots there in the home of Angus’ eccentric old grandmother Lady Evelyn Pemberton.

A Baker’s Dozen - A collection of 13 classic Christmas stories.

Miss Euphemia Fleet, on her way to join her dear Felicity and her husband, is still fearing that she may be a burden to them. She meets Baron Balfour on the road, and after an accident to her only gown, finds out that she resembles his dead wife in stature when he offers her a change of clothes. But the shock of seeing Euphemia in the gown brings on an old illness, and she is forced by her kindly nature to stay with him, though his loud voice and blunt conversation terrifies her. Something stirs in Euphemia as they become acquainted....

When a dully dressed family arrive at Tremaine Towers, home of Cedric Marchmont, Earl of Tremaine, the other residents are shocked, thinking them some poor relations. The earl's family have been dubbed The Royals by his youngest sister Ophelia, for since unexpectedly becoming the family of an earl, they have been encouraged in every fashionable excess to fit their new position in society. Agatha, the countess, Charles the dandified brother, Ophelia and Queenie, the sisters, must hold themselves with new dignity, says the earl.

When Bethany is saddled with an unwanted, unrefined, and decidedly common guardian, she must polish him up before he’s fit for good society. As for Willoughby Winter, all that stands between him and his inheritance is to marry Bethany off. Can he succeed in his efforts before his past becomes known, or will she manage to distract him from his goal - by hook or by crook?

Scotland 1862. A murder, a terrifying creature, and a battle for his affections were not what Midnight Gunn expected when he journeyed to Scotland for the summer. Bodies are mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue, Midnight’s growing household is in turmoil, and someone or something lurks in the shadows, watching.

Angelique, living with the Duke and Duchess of Saith and their daughter beautiful Rosalind feels too distant from hope to want anything. And then she sees handsome, wicked Sir Rafael Villiers, and she knows her Destiny. It is time for the plain and timid Miss Torrington to remember she is also a de Chabernet, and her grandmother's daughter. But Villiers is interested in her beautiful cousin - so how can she get his attention?

The memory of her late husband's slow and painful death is fresh in Anita Stratton's mind when she finds herself confronted with the high-voltage glare of national publicity when her first novel rockets into the best-seller lists. The furor she arouses leaves her publishers, the staid and respectable firm of Beetham Brothers, as bewildered as she herself is.

Juliet's plans to wed Lord Elbourne come to naught when she discovers he's obliged to wed an heiress instead. To salvage her dignity, she enters into a ruse with the heiress's brother, whom she views as a rake. Unfortunately, he's also the most attractive man she's ever met. Cody Gryphon will do anything to see his sister Stephanie wed to Lord Elbourne, including entering into a temporary engagement with her romantic rival. Although he intends to return to Texas as soon as his sister is wed, he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Juliet's charms.

London, 1860. Midnight Gunn is no ordinary detective - born during a solar eclipse as Halley's Comet blazed a trail through the sky, his supernatural birthright is both a help and a hindrance when solving crimes. Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is the only one who knows Gunn's secret. When the body of a young aristocrat is discovered in a backstreet alley, Gredge enlists Gunn’s help in a race to discover the identity of the notorious Spring-Heeled Jack - the monster that is terrorizing London.

Stephanie Marchmont, 17 years, has been sent from London to cool her heels in a country house in Surrey, to be separated from her loving family as punishment for her putting herself in danger there once too often. But she encounters a band of footpads attacking a gentleman, and enters the fray with her customary bravery.

Where science meets spirit, supporting the journey from surviving to thriving. Roots to Thrive is a community-based nonprofit devoted to helping resilience take root—blending research-informed practices with time-tested perennial teachings.