Showing results by narrator "Sasha Higgins" in All Categories

The day of 9 Thermidor (July 27, 1794) is universally acknowledged as a major turning-point in the history of the French Revolution. At midnight, Maximilien Robespierre was planning to destroy one of the most dangerous plots that the Revolution had faced. By midnight at the close of the day, his world had been turned upside down. He was an outlaw, on the run, and himself wanted for conspiracy against the Republic. He shot himself shortly afterwards. Half-dead, the guillotine finished him off. The Fall of Robespierre provides an hour-by-hour analysis of these twenty-four hours.

A prodigy pygmy owl. A possessive firedrake. A booby-trapped castle. Gargoyles come to life. Who said magic would be ordinary? No one can access magic like Clara, but her powers are unpredictable and dangerous. She has to learn how to control them.

Georgiana Milford may be a wealthy heiress without title, but even she has her limits. It's vexing enough to be courted by every fortune-hunting noble during the Season—goodness, you'd think she was hiding a gold mine beneath her skirts! But this is not to be condoned. Because during a merry two-week party at a lord's country home, she's forced to endure her father's greatest enemy and the most wretched duke in all of England: the Duke of Despots.

Dressmaker Miss Lily Martin knows too well the sordid dealings of London's corrupt underbelly. She should have known borrowing from one of the city's most reviled moneylenders was risky. Now the loan has come due—and there's nothing standing between Miss Lily and her darling sister's ruin. Until a dashing American with flashing, defiant eyes intervenes.

Emma Manchester was a proper young lady with the soul of a pirate. For the last twelve years she’s done everything she’s supposed to do, while yearning to break the rules, and now she’s engaged to marry a respected magistrate and her future looks bland and assured, without the chance of ever sailing free. Ben Crawford was the love of her childhood, her partner in crime, until he was driven away by her harpy of a mother. Now, all of sudden he’s returned as Nick, king of thieves and ruler of a den of criminals, and she still feels the same way about him.

Chitterton Fells is all of a flutter. Along with every female member of the village Library League, Ellie Haskell has developed a veritable obsession with novels of the romance variety. The steamier, the better. But tragedy strikes when Miss Bunch the librarian is found dead between the non-fiction stacks. Then the local milkman collapses in broad daylight.

Lady Olivia Stone—Liv to her intimates—finally has the control she's longed for. She's hand raised her beloved horse from foal to filly and is ready to enter her in the St. Ledger Stakes. But her father is right about one thing: she needs a proper trainer to take her over the finish line. However, Brandon Casey is not what she had in mind. Until she meets the man ready to challenge—and inflame her—at every turn.

Leopold Beckworth, son of a London prostitute, was abandoned as a child on the docks of London at a very young age. The odds were stacked against him, and yet, relying on nothing but his cunning and eventually, brute strength, he did better than survive, he thrived. Ironically, he's amassed power most aristocrats envy—along with great wealth—all while holding little regard for society. His people are the poor, the pickpockets, and thieves of London, and amongst them, Leopold is known as the King of Bond Street.

When scandal threatens her brother, there is only one thing for Lady Caroline Rutherford to do. She'll use her wit and pluck to land a position at the paper that threatens to spread the rumors. Her family can't be ruined if the lies are kept out of print. Mr. Maxwell Black, the Earl of Helton, took ownership of the London Gazette to reestablish the paper as a legitimate source of news. Unfortunately, the paper's issues run far deeper than he ever imagined, and when help comes along, it's from a most unlikely source: a stunning debutante.

In the Rakes of Rotten Row series, the Marquess of Winterhope reigns as a master of horse racing, with his heart devoted solely to his stable of steeds. A proper gentleman in every sense, he navigates high society and intrigue with ease. He's only failed to master one last necessity: Love. When it finally thunders into his life, will he yield to its call or continue to outrun the temptations of the season? Saddle up with our hero for a scintillating ride in this sultry Regency romance!

Lady Melanie Rutherford has spent the last year avoiding society's harsh glare. After a devastating family tragedy, she's become more comfortable in the shadows than in the spotlight—until a scandal threatens to destroy her family for good. Desperate to protect her loved ones, she makes a shocking proposal to the Duke of Malum: a fake betrothal to quiet the gossips. The Duke of Malum thrives on defying society's expectations. With a mysterious past, a dangerous reputation, and a brothel to his name, he's the last man anyone would expect to play hero.

The Earl of Standish couldn't have a worse name. He's not in good standing anywhere, but with luck and the right bride, that should all change. As the Duke of Crossing's overlooked daughter, Lady Marigold Hathaway's prospects are limited, at best. So when Lord Standish comes to her with a shocking proposition, she can't help but consider it. When everyone has always wanted her older sister, why would this handsome earl suddenly want her?

Lady Gardenia has no desire to marry the horrid duke her father has chosen for her, but since her sister's escape, the Duke of Crossings is more domineering than ever. So when Nia is faced with vowing to love, honor, and obey during her wedding ceremony, she is presented with one final choice: marry the horrible Duke of Dewberry, or reach for freedom and run away from her own wedding. And if she runs, where on earth will she go? Perhaps the Baron of Westcott can be of assistance . . .

Ellie Simons stands to inherit her Uncle Merlin's huge English country house. But on three utterly bizarre conditions. One: she must lose sixty-three pounds (rude!). Two: she must marry the fake fiance she's been passing off as her true love all weekend. And three: she must catch whoever killed Uncle Merlin in the first place.

Chloe is serving a life sentence. In her own home. Ever since the horrific day her mother died, Chloe's life has been anything but normal—more like a carefully constructed prison. Her father hasn't let her go to school, have friends, or leave the house alone. As she grows up, Chloe begins to question the motives behind her dad's obsessive control. What would happen if she broke one of his many rules? And what exactly is he hiding under the overgrown grass in the back garden?

Lady Madalene Ramsbury has been summoned home from Miss Bell’s Finishing School to some unfortunate news. In three weeks, she is to be married to a man she’s never met. Rather than face a life she does not want; she flees from her own engagement party and elicits help from a most unlikely source. Society’s golden boy, Everett, the Marquess of Northampton, was outraged when a young woman suddenly appeared in his curricle. Was she attempting to trap him into an unwanted marriage? It would be just like some overzealous mother to put her up to such a ploy.

Focused on a career in medicine and not on romance, Willa Duvall is thrown slightly off course during the summer of 1865 when she discovers a never-opened love letter in a crack of her old writing desk. Compelled to find the passionate soul who penned it and the person who never received it, she takes a job as a nurse at the seaside Crestwicke Manor. Everyone at Crestwicke has feelings—mostly negative—about the man who wrote the letter, but he seems to have disappeared. With plenty of clues but few answers, Willa's search becomes even more complicated when she misplaces the letter.

Haunted by her past, Lady Caroline Martindale fled England for the solace of her godmother's palazzo in Venice. But if Caro was hoping to escape the charms of marriage-minded men, she's come to the wrong place. And she'll resort to extreme measures to spurn the advances of a dangerously determined Venetian marquis. Though most of his friends have married off, Gervais, Earl of Huntley, remains bent on eluding the parson's mousetrap. But his convictions begin to falter when he arrives in Venice and meets his match in the alluring Lady Caro.

Miss Alice Wright should be content. After all, her knowledge of herbal lore helps so many in her village. Yet she longs for more. For Alice dreams of becoming a famed parfumier in London, celebrated for her fine scents . . . even as her family's past warns her of the perils of ambition. But when Alice collides—quite literally—with a charismatic gentleman in a field of lavender, her perfume-filled dream is suddenly within reach.

Baldwin, the Viscount of Mountgarret, was content with his life. Unexpectedly, his childhood friend dies, leaving him his most prized treasures: his two young daughters. Baldwin’s priorities begin to shift as he arrives home and meets his wards’ infuriatingly stubborn governess. His interest is piqued by the mystery surrounding her, but she’s only a governess. He certainly can’t pursue her. Can he?