Showing results by narrator "Elizabeth Knowelden" in All Categories

Aruna is an epidemiologist dedicated to food and avian politics. One is heaven, the other earth. The two passions blend in unexpected ways when Aruna is asked to research a handful of isolated bird flu cases reported across Indonesia. While it's put a crimp in her aunt's West Java farm, and made her own confit de canard highly questionable, the investigation does provide an irresistible opportunity. It's the perfect excuse to get away from corrupt and corrosive Jakarta and explore the spices of the far-flung regions of the islands with her three friends.

It’s a Mediterranean winter in 1888. Though Cannes glistens, it’s darker behind closed doors. A real estate crisis has ripped through the city’s storied fortunes, upending lives. Courtesan Lola Deslys has survived the ruins unscathed...until she’s drawn into the desperation of a former, and unfaithful, acquaintance. With the threat of debtors’ prison hanging over her head, Lola’s latest client is running out of time and luck. Her client has solicited Lola to reclaim an incriminating contract from the ruthless banker at the heart of the crisis.

Hazel Hughes has spent her life believing she is a Medium - someone who can talk to ghosts. But as of yet, that skill has remained frustratingly elusive. She is also suffering from a reoccurring childhood dream of someone who looks almost exactly like Hazel, but this dream version of herself is slowly going mad. Sam MacInnes is a talented surgeon who runs in the highest social circles thanks to his family's position and history. When Sam hires Hazel to assist him with his medical practice, he is immediately drawn to her intelligence, wit, and beauty.

The rite has existed for as long as anyone can remember: When the king dies, his son the prince must slay a fierce dragon and rescue a damsel to be his bride. When Ama wakes in the arms of Prince Emory, she knows none of this. She has no memory of what came before she was captured by the dragon or what horrors she faced in its lair. She knows only the story the prince tells of her rescue and her destiny of sitting on a throne beside him. It’s like something from a fairy tale. As Ama follows Emory to the kingdom of Harding, however, she discovers that not all is as it seems.

For nineteen-year-old Estelle Thompson, going to the cinema is more than a way to pass the time...it's a way out. In 1931 in Calcutta, Anglo-Indian girls like Estelle are considered half-breeds, shunned by both English and Indian society. Her only escape is through the silver screen, where she can forget the world around her. When Estelle catches the eye of a dashing American heir with connections to a major motion-picture studio, he also captures her heart. Soon, Estelle has a one-way ticket to London and a recommendation for a screen test.

The war is over, and Arianwyn has discovered the secret of the quiet glyphs, but her troubles are far from over. Her day-to-day work as Lull's witch is tricky enough: winter has set in, bringing bad weather, ice imps and befuddling Yule traditions. But when Arianwyn's grandmother is abducted by the traitor on the Council, our witch faces her greatest challenge yet.

Known as Snow White, Lady Sophie has led a sheltered life in the mountains of Bavaria. Until now. Her father, the widowed Duke Maximilian, is at last remarrying, and on the day of his historic wedding, Sophie is making her high-society debut. At the ball, Sophie charms the dashing Prince Philip, heir to the Spanish throne. But as Philip and Sophie start falling deeply in love, the king of Spain loses his temper. His wish is that Philip would marry a princess. And now, his command is Sophie’s death.

Life is looking up for Holly Darling, granddaughter of Wendy—yes, that Wendy. She's running a successful skincare company; her son, Jack, is happy and healthy; and the tragedy of her past is well behind her...until she gets a call that her daughter, Eden, who has been in a coma for nearly a decade, has gone missing from the estate where she's been long tucked away. And, worst of all, Holly knows who must be responsible: Peter Pan, who is not only very real, but more dangerous than anyone could imagine.

When Rachelle was 15, she was good - apprenticed to her aunt and in training to protect her village from dark magic. But she was also reckless - straying from the forest path in search of a way to free her world from the threat of eternal darkness. After an illicit meeting goes dreadfully wrong, Rachelle is forced to make a terrible choice that binds her to the very evil she had hoped to defeat.

Stevie Gordon is lonely, filling her time by stalking her ex-boyfriend, James Cowley. He might be married, but neither his wife nor his girlfriend knows as much about him as Stevie does. But when James’ latest mistress is brutally murdered, her body carefully posed amongst the bluebells of Thamespark, Stevie is as shocked as anyone. But with her troubled childhood taking a toll on her mind, and her heavy drinking leading to frequent blackouts, can Stevie really know she is innocent?

When her marriage breaks down, Mel moves back to her hometown to live with her twin, Abbie. Mel just needs some space so she can recover from a painful separation and get ready to begin a new phase in her life. But something is wrong with Abbie - where she used to be outgoing and gregarious, now she’s sullen, hostile and secretive. Even more disturbing, Mel is being followed by a sinister man she has never seen before. She doesn’t know what he wants, but she’s pretty sure it’s nothing good. And Mel is right to be worried.

When Justin walks out on Alice on their honeymoon, with no explanation apart from a cryptic note, Alice is left alone and bewildered, her life in pieces. Then she meets Evelyn, a visitor to the gallery where she works. It's a seemingly chance encounter, but Alice gradually learns that Evelyn has motives, and a heartbreaking story, of her own. And that story has haunting parallels with Alice's life. As Alice delves into the mystery of why Justin left her, the questions are obvious. But the answers may lie in the most unlikely of places...

As a widowed mother of three, new love seems impossible for Freya - until she meets Duncan, and suddenly she feels alive again. While Freya’s older children are less than welcoming, six-year-old Sophie helps Duncan find his place in the family - but even Sophie harbours fears that threaten to overshadow any chance of a new start. The past is hard to leave behind when pictures of Freya’s idolised late husband hang in every room, and the more Duncan tries to find the source of Sophie’s anxiety, the more he is convinced that Reuben was not the perfect husband and father Freya remembers.

Meghan Smith has always been a protective mother. Her baby son, Harry, has a life-threatening condition and is never far from her sight. But on the evening of her wedding anniversary, as she and her husband celebrate in the garden with friends, Harry disappears from his cot without a trace. In an instant, the perfect life she always longed for is in tatters, her family exposed to interrogation and accusation in the glare of media attention.

When 15-year-old Nathaniel Braddick discovers a cold storage wallet with over two billion dollars of Bitcoin, he embarks on a path of revenge against the Black Ghost, who killed his parents when he was a child. His deadly plot sets off a turbulent spiral of mayhem, threatening to destroy all caught in its path.

Gracie Mueller is a proud mother of two and devoted wife, living with her husband Randy in upstate New York. Her life is complicated by the usual tedium and stressors and she’s settled down comfortably enough. But when Randy’s failing career as a real estate agent makes finances tight, their home goes into foreclosure, and Gracie feels she has no choice but to return to the creatively illegal and high-stakes lifestyle of her past in order to keep all that she’s worked so hard to have. Gracie has a lot to hide about where she’s from, who she is, and who she’s been.

Stephanie Patrick thought her double life was over. But a call from her past throws her back into the world where international crime and terrorism meet. The target is Koba: a Russian criminal with influential connections, whose true identity remains a dangerous secret. From New York through Europe to Moscow, Stephanie tracks Koba. But in a game of betrayal where trust is weakness and violence is routine, one false move could prove fatal....

Coventry, 1939. Days before the outbreak of World War II, a terrorist bomb explodes on a busy street, killing and maiming innocent civilians. A man is hanged on the evidence given by a young witness. As time goes on, the witness doubts her recollection of events, but her testimony has already had far-reaching consequences. Over sixty years later, in the wake of the 7/7 London bombings, Sara returns to her childhood home to find that her sister, Polly, missing for more than ten years, has finally come back too.

London, 2012. With her adoring fiancé, financial independence and a close-knit group of friends, Erika should have life all figured out - but she can’t shake the feeling that there’s something missing. And when she stumbles upon a reminder of her past one day, she’s confronted with a part of her life she’s spent almost twenty years trying to forget. 1995. Smart, tenacious Niamh is in her second year at Oxford University. Unlike her best friend Erika, she’s shy and feels like she doesn’t belong....

Nothing about Mariah Clinton’s passion for archery or her work as a sous-chef in contemporary London prepares her for the moment she’s pulled into another time—and another life. One minute, she’s stepping into McQuivey’s Costume Shop to rent a medieval gown. The next, she’s standing in a castle kitchen in twelfth-century Nottingham—with no idea how she got there or how to return to modern time. Forced to pose as a kitchen servant, she must draw on ingenuity and courage to survive in a world in which she shouldn’t exist.