Showing results by narrator "Heather Wilds" in All Categories

November 1919. A relaxing few weeks by the seaside with her husband, Sidney, could almost convince Verity Kent that life has returned to the pleasant rhythm of pre-war days. Then Verity's beloved great-aunt Ilse lands on their doorstep. After years in war-ravaged Germany, Ilse has returned to England to repair her fragile health - and to escape trouble. Someone has been sending her anonymous threats, and Verity's Secret Service contacts can only provide unsettling answers.

For the sake of propriety, and her younger sisters' reputations, Iris Somerset has kept her rebellious streak locked away. But though she receives a proposal from Phineas Knight, Lord of Huntington, Iris can't marry a man she knows isn't truly enamored with her. In fact, Iris no longer wants to be chosen - she wants to choose. Under the clandestine tutelage of "wicked widow" Lady Annabel Tallant, she'll learn how to steer her own marriage prospects - and discover her secret appetites.

Cedric, Viscount Sheridan, is cursed. Once the ton's golden boy, the loss of his sight has left him a reclusive shell of man, his days of womanizing, horse racing, and pistol shooting lost forever. Offered the chance to recapture a small part of his old life, he can't refuse - even if it means accepting the shocking proposal of the infamous ice maiden Anne Chessley. Still reeling from her father's death, Anne's deepest wish is to avoid the hordes of fortune hunters who will soon be beating down her door.

The marriage of the Englishman Richard Marsdon and his young American wife, Celia, slowly turns tragic as Richard withdraws into himself and Celia suffers a debilitating emotional breakdown. A wise mystic realizes that Celia can escape her past only by reliving it. She journeys back four hundred years to her former life as the servant girl Celia de Bohun during the reign of Edward VI - and to her doomed love affair with the chaplain Stephen Marsdon.

Caroline Gray’s third season in London society ends as badly as her first two - no marriage proposal, no suitor, not even a glimmer of an interested prospect. She suspects it’s because she is far too quick to speak her mind to men who are put off by her opinions, her intellect, and her unconventional ideas. Besides, Caroline thinks there will always be next season to find a husband. However, her family’s dwindling income leaves Caroline with only one choice to secure her future: a one-way ticket to sail with the fishing fleet to India, where the son of a family friend waits.

Air may not pummel, scorch, and drown like the other elemental magics, but with Arabella wielding it, it might be the strongest power. When the Queen reveals the heir to her throne will be determined by a competition rather than birthright, the first born Prince of Earth's rage quakes the palace, and Arabella feels the shock to her bones. Trials between four siblings—four elements—are bound to be quite the show. Enough to distract from escalating problems throughout the continent. Arabella will already have a new title soon, but her betrothal does not change the fact that she must compete.

Life in exile has taught the passionate Princess Amy to hate injustice, and on the enchanting English isle of Summerwind, she finds injustice personified in the powerful and wickedly handsome Jermyn Edmondson, marquess of Northcliff. Since he has stolen the islanders' livelihood, Amy decides to steal him. She kidnaps the arrogant nobleman, chains him with his own manacles, and holds him for ransom.

Evelyn Thorncroft wants to marry a duke, but she'll settle for an earl. The Earl of Hawkridge, to be precise. The only problem? Weston cannot stand the sight of her. At least, that's what he says. Their passionate kisses, however, tell a very different story. From the first moment he sees Evie across a crowded ballroom, Weston desires her. The dark-haired American is beautiful, intelligent, and charming. The only problem? She's a money-grubbing hoyden after his family's fortune. At least, that's what Weston tells himself. His heart, however, tells a very different story.

Juliet Templeton didn't embark on a risky London season in search of a fairy-tale. Fluttering hearts, yearning glances and stolen kisses are for starry-eyed debutantes, not disgraced, penniless females approaching spinsterhood. But when her quest to find a dull, respectable husband leads her to grumpy, maddening, brilliant Lord Cross, her foolish heart overrules her head, and insists on beating for him alone.

July 1831. In the midst of their idyllic honeymoon in England's Lake District, Kiera and Gage's seclusion is soon interrupted by a missive from her new father-in-law. A deadly incident involving a distant relative of the Duke of Wellington has taken place at an abbey south of Dublin, Ireland, and he insists that Kiera and Gage look into the matter.

Returning to her childhood home, Lady Kiera Darby hopes her beloved brother Trevor and the merriment of the Hogmanay Ball will distract her. But when a caretaker is murdered and a grave is disturbed at nearby Dryburgh Abbey, Kiera is once more thrust into the cold grasp of death. While Kiera knows that aiding in another inquiry will only further tarnish her reputation, her knowledge of anatomy could make the difference in solving the case.

Edinburgh, Scotland. March 1832. Kiera and Gage have been eagerly awaiting their bundle of joy but trouble has been brewing in the form of the roguish criminal Bonnie Brock Kincaid. A new book and subsequent play features some of Kincaid's daringly heinous exploits, although he swears he had nothing to do with it or the characters which are obvious representations of Kiera and Gage. A rash of crimes break out across the city, seemingly inspired by the play and book. Then the publisher is found brutally murdered.

Anthony Hamilton cannot help it. The way he looks, the way he lives, his past-it all conspires to make him a man men fear, women desire. His name fills gossip circles in a seemingly endless, lurid drama. But he's never forgotten the only woman he's ever truly wanted. Celia Reece knew Anthony well before he forged his scandalous reputation. The young man she remembers spoke kindly to her, made her laugh, and his devilish good looks always quickened her pulse. But Celia's mother had other designs - designs that didn't include marriage to Anthony. Now, Celia is widowed.

Until the mass hysteria of the seventeenth century, accusations of witchcraft in England were rare. However, four royal women, related in family and in court ties - Joan of Navarre, Eleanor Cobham, Jacquetta of Luxembourg, and Elizabeth Woodville - were accused of practicing witchcraft in order to kill or influence the king. In Royal Witches, Gemma Hollman explores the lives and the cases of these so-called witches, placing them in the historical context of 15th-century England, a setting rife with political upheaval and war.

Marcus Reese, Duke of Exeter, has spent most of his life pulling his twin brother out of trouble. A thank you would suffice; instead, his resentful sibling forges his name to a marriage license and presents him with an unwanted wife. She's a vicar's widow with a mind of her own, and the first person in Marcus's well-ordered life to make him feel...completely out of control. Dire straits have led Hannah to the altar with a gentleman she hardly knows. Played for a fool, she's embarrassed, furious, and worse, married to an equally outraged, exasperating man.

October 1832. Kiera is enjoying the slower pace of the English countryside. She, Sebastian, and their infant daughter have accompanied her father-in-law, Lord Gage, home so that he can recuperate from the injuries he sustained in a foiled attempt on his life. But as the chill of autumn sweeps across the land, they receive a summons from an unexpected quarter. Lord Gage's estranged uncle—a member of the notorious Roscarrock family—has been murdered, and his family is desperate for answers. Despite Lord Gage's protests, Kiera and Sebastian press on to Cornwall to assist.

January 1832. After enjoying a delightful few weeks with her family, expectant mother Kiera and Sebastian Gage have been invited to the Duchess of Bowmont's Twelfth Night party in Traquair, Scotland. Though she normally avoids such fashionable, rambunctious events, Kiera is ready to join in the festive merrymaking. But upon their arrival at the opulent estate, it becomes obvious that all is not merry in their hostess's home. The family appears to be under a great strain, and someone seems determined to cause mayhem among the guests with a series of forged notes.

Unwillingly thrust into marriage to England's King Æthelred, Emma has given the king a son and heir, but theirs has never been a happy marriage. In The Price of Blood, Bracewell returns to 1006 when a beleaguered Æthelred, still haunted by his brother's ghost, governs with an iron fist and a royal policy that embraces murder.

To rescue her friend from a loveless marriage, a daring woman dons a disguise and finds herself captivated by a mysterious rake in this "perfect Regency romance" from award-winning author Anne Gracie.

On the heels of her triumphant How to Be a Victorian, Ruth Goodman travels even further back in English history to the era closest to her heart, the dramatic period from the crowning of Henry VII to the death of Elizabeth I. Drawing on her own adventures living in re-created Tudor conditions, Goodman serves as our intrepid guide to 16th-century living. Proceeding from daybreak to bedtime, this charming, illustrative work celebrates the ordinary lives of those who labored through the era.