Showing results by narrator "Gemma Dawson" in All Categories

Brought together at the start of the London social season, Lady Georgina and Lord Vane are immediately at odds. The Lord’s cool countenance annoys Georgina to no end, while Lord Vane has no desire for his orderly routine to be upended by the passionate Lady Georgina. Forced together while under quarantine, will they overcome their mutual dislike? Are they destined to be at each other’s throats…or lips?

London, July 1889. Eight months have passed since the horrific murder of Mary Jane Kelly. The residents of Whitechapel have begun breathing easy again - daring to leave windows open and walk about at twilight. But when old Alice McKenzie is found dead, throat slashed from ear to ear, the whispers begin once more: Jack the Ripper is back. Constance Piper, a flower seller with a psychic gift, was a friend to both women. With the supernatural help of her late mentor and her more grounded ally, police detective Thaddeus Hawkins, she uncovers links between the murders and a Fenian gang.

The beautiful Irish witch Alainn O'Brien and her husband Killian, a handsome warrior chieftain, have been in love most of their lives. While danger has followed the gifted witch and her sovereign guardian ruthlessly and relentlessly, their love and commitment have always saved them. But now, finally returned to their castle, they and the other witches and guardians must face what may be their greatest challenge yet—the long-predicted battle between light and dark magic. Who'll live to see the battle and who'll live through it?

Meet the daughters of King Arthur's descendant, Merlin Pendragon: Averil: She may be the lord's eldest - and illegitimate-daughter, but Averil knows her dazzling beauty can buy her what she wants most: marriage to a great and powerful lord. Maia: As the legitimate heiress with a hefty dowry, Maia can have any man she chooses, namely Emrys Llyn, a descendant of Lancelot and the Lady of the Lake. Junia: As charming as she is irrepressible, Junia is the lord's youngest daughter. Junia is content to roam the countryside, where she can be alone with Richard de Bohun.

Newlyweds Lucy Lawrence and Phineas Stone arrive at the glittering shores of Lake Como, Italy, not to enjoy a romantic honeymoon but to answer a frantic plea for help. Phin's brother-in-law—the charismatic Count Luca Carmosino—has vanished without a trace from his Belle Époque villa, and the couple find themselves thrust into a world of stolen diamonds and smuggling rings.

July 1969. While men are walking on the moon, life in London for 16-year-old Jane takes unexpected turns. On the point of falling in love with her best friend Karl, she discovers that there's more to her father's spectacular girlfriend than at first meets the eye. In the sweltering heat of a fast-moving evening, other revelations quickly follow, reconciling Jane with her father but also reopening wounds from the past, laying bare raw emotions kept suppressed for too long.

Her Majesty’s Revenue and Customs are on the warpath in the village of Balfour, and the local shop owners fear that their financial sins are about to catch up with them. Meanwhile, Abbey Glen’s new Whisky Masterclass is a resounding success...until the latest group of students starts to drop dead in the night and Abi Logan fears that what they are really offering is a Masterclass in Murder. Missing money, dead bodies, and a whistle blower who may not be as virtuous as he appears leave Abi scrambling for clues in the dark. Will Abi find the killer before the inevitable happens?

After years in Wonderland, Alice has returned to England as an adult, desperate to reclaim sanity and control over her life. An enigmatic gentleman with an intriguing job offer too tempting to resist changes her plans for a calm existence. Soon, she's whisked to New York and initiated into the Collectors' Society, a secret organization whose members confirm that famous stories are anything but straightforward and that what she knows about the world is only a fraction of the truth.

Allies, once inseparable, splinter until they break apart. An insidiousness carves its way through Wonderland, challenging the land's very existence. Battle lines will be drawn as pages, long languishing in darkness, are finally illuminated. Swords will clash, blood will be spilled, and lives will be lost. For what is written can still be erased.

Alison Quinn, Countess of Waxwold, is content with her bookish life - until she's summoned to be a lady-in-waiting to the Queen of Tremontane's mother for six months. Even the prospect of access to the Royal Library doesn't seem enough to make up for her sacrifice, but Alison is prepared to do her service to the Crown. What she's not prepared for is Prince Anthony North, Queen Zara's playboy brother, who's accustomed to getting what he wants - including the Countess of Waxwold.

Joanna Rowntree thinks she will die of a broken heart when her one true love marries another - until not one but two fascinating newcomers appear on neighboring estates. As the roughhewn Jonathan Erland and the polished Sir Rollin Denby engage in a heated competition for her hand, Joanna realizes her heart is alive and well - but to whom will she give it?

Classic regency romance from beloved author Jane Ashford. Brash and handsome, Sir Justin Keighley is all wrong for a proper young lady like Margaret Mayfield. Everyone knows he is shocking in his opinions, arrogant in his manner, and completely without respect for the common decencies of civilized society. Margaret absolutely will not marry him - no matter what her parents say.

From the incomparable Jane Feather, author of national best sellers Vanity, Violet, and Valentine, comes this enthralling new romance of daring deception and forbidden passion...Juliana drew the line at becoming a harlot. She had already begun the week as a bride...and ended it as a murderess.

Anna Karenina is one of the most nuanced characters in world literature, and we return to her and the novel she propels again and again. Remarkably, there has not yet been an examination of Leo Tolstoy specifically through the lens of this novel. Critic and Professor Bob Blaisdell unravels Tolstoy’s family, literary, and day-to-day life during the period that he conceived, drafted, abandoned, and revised Anna Karenina. In the process, we see where Tolstoy’s life and his art intersect in obvious and unobvious ways.

Bordeaux, 1894. Minerva Hawkins is a corset maker with nimble hands, a defiant spirit—and a secret that could upend an entire noble lineage. When blackmailed by the cold and calculating Superintendent Raeburn, who claims she's heir to a Scottish earldom and her mother is captive in his asylum, Minerva is desperate. She turns to the only man daring enough to help: Étienne Sansecours, a former criminal with a past as dangerous as her future.

Freya Bauer's revolutionary fervor has dimmed with age, but just as she's about to hang up her DedSec mask, she's recruited for one last mission to Berlin . . . with her ex-husband of all people. Yet upon her arrival in Germany, a series of betrayals mean she's suddenly unable to distinguish between friends and foes. Meanwhile, Freya's past has caught up with her—in the form of a mysterious hitman determined to take out the Bauer family in London.

After 17-year-old Felicita’s dearest friend Ilven kills herself to escape an arranged marriage, Felicita chooses freedom over privilege. She fakes her own death and leaves her sheltered life as one of Pelimburg’s magical elite behind. Living in the slums, scrubbing dishes for a living, she falls for charismatic Dash while also becoming fascinated with the vampire, Jannik. Then something shocking washes up on the beach: Ilven's death has called out of the sea a dangerous wild magic.

Miss Penelope Monckton, just returned from nursing with Florence Nightingale's in Crimea, has come to the country estate of one of the most scandalous men in England, Lord Rickarby—nicknamed Rakerby—to collect a bequest from his late wife, her childhood friend Millie. But something about Millie's death doesn't sit right with Penny. A celebrated painter, Joss, Lord Rickarby, knows Miss Penelope Monckton only from the letters she sent to his late wife during her time nursing in a war zone.

In the summer of 1990, young sisters Caroline and Joanna are sent to stay with their Great Aunt Dora in the idyllic Gloucestershire village of Witchwood. Still reeling from their father’s tragic death and their mother’s grief, Witchwood offers a welcome escape—but the shadowy woods hide dark secrets that bring their innocence to a distressing end. Caroline, volatile and longing for attention, becomes fixated on Dean Fry, the handsome local bad boy. When a body is found in the woods, the village becomes a cauldron of suspicion.

Newlywed, Rhianwyn Mulryan is blissfully happy. But a magical pact she made with three close friends foretells the impending end of her enchanted life. Over the next year, as the seasons change, the women will exchange lives. With the first transformation, Rhianwyn will experience her friend Selena's life as a harlot where she'll need to fend off the cruel brothel owner and evade a mysterious murderer. Worse still, until she's herself again, Rhianwyn must battle the powerful attraction to her husband, Broccan—or risk destroying everything she loves most.