Showing results by narrator "Virginia Leishman" in All Categories

In her daring first novel, the youngest Brontë sister drew upon her own experiences to tell the unvarnished truth about life as a governess. Like Agnes Grey, Anne Bronte was a young middle-class Victorian lady whose family fortunes had faltered. Like so many other unmarried women of the 19th century, Bronte accepted the only "respectable" employment available - and entered a world of hardship, humiliation, and loneliness.

Acclaimed author Lori Wick is one of the best-selling Christian fiction authors in the world, with more than two and a half million copies of her books in print, including The Proposal. When Anne Gardiner slips off a ladder, she falls—quite literally—into the arms of a handsome stranger named Robert Weston. Anne’s father decides the couple must marry immediately, but Robert isn’t entirely fond of that plan.

Works by best-selling author Susan Wittig Albert have been nominated for the Agatha and Anthony awards. In The Tale of Oat Cake Crag, Miss Beatrix Potter is frustrated by distractions near her home. As the noisy test flights of a hydroplane disrupt her concentration, Beatrix investigates a string of bizarre letters threatening a friend’s reputation. Then life becomes even more complicated when the body of the hydroplane project funder is found at the foot of Oat Cake Crag.

Agatha and Anthony Award nominee Susan Wittig Albert has garnered popular and critical acclaim for her whimsical mysteries based on the life and times of Beatrix Potter. Set in the summertime splendor of 1913 England, this eighth tale finds Beatrix eager to marry her fiancé, solicitor William Heelis. But a few obstacles are still blocking the happy couple’s path to the altar - like the troubled remodeling of Castle Cottage, Will and Beatrix’s future home.

The Shadow of the Lynx follows beautiful young Nora Tamasin as she leaves her home in Victorian England. Recently orphaned, she sails toward the untamed lands of gold-rush Australia. Her journey will take her to the Lynx: the man her father designated as her guardian before he died. Rich, powerful, and commanding, the Lynx is a man who can safeguard her finances, but cannot control her heart. More than 56 million of Victoria Holt’s books have been sold worldwide. She also writes as Jean Plaidy and Philippa Carr.

The only legitimate child of Lord Byron, the most brilliant, revered, and scandalous of the Romantic poets, Ada was destined for fame long before her birth. Estranged from Ada's father, who was infamously "mad, bad, and dangerous to know", Ada's mathematician mother is determined to save her only child from her perilous Byron heritage. Banishing fairy tales and make-believe from the nursery, Ada's mother provides her daughter with a rigorous education grounded in mathematics and science.

Glowing with narrator Virginia Leishman’s finely tuned phrasing, The Djinn in the Nightingale’s Eye is the perfect introduction to A.S. Byatt, an author who continues to receive international awards and acclaim. Her wondrous fairy tales are iridescent stories full of spells, marvelous creatures, and beautiful princesses.

In this sixth volume, Miss Potter must help the denizens of Near Sawrey solve a particularly knotty problem. After a suspicious fire consumes his haystacks, Farmer Harmsworth barricades the common path through his Applebeck Orchard. Tabitha Twitchet and her Cat Council are all in a tizzy when woodland creatures claim the fire was the work of a lantern-bearing specter.

Moql's mother is Folk, one of those tiny fairies who live hidden from mere mortals, and her father is human. Young patrons will empathize as this tiny changeling experiences the fear, sadness, and danger of not belonging. Set against the backdrop of a charming medieval setting, this award-winning audiobook addresses problems that are still, sadly, quite contemporary.

It is 1907, and in her Lake Country village, Beatrix Potter is about to encounter both woodland magic and an intriguing mystery. As she helps some village children look for fairy folk, she stumbles upon evidence that a flame-haired stranger may have dangerous plans.

Set in the 16th century, Until You tells the tale of a young heroine who discovers the love of a lifetime. Beautiful Rosamund is introduced to the Earl of Glenkirk, and they immediately fall in love. Their growing passion is stifled, however, when war breaks out between England and Scotland.

Susan Wittig Albert delights mystery lovers with this series based on the life and stories of beloved English children's author Beatrix Potter. When Beatrix finds an abandoned infant, Captain Woodcock and Dimity care for the child as Beatrix and her furry and feathered friends search for its mother.

This mesmerizing, poetic novel won the 2003 National Book Award for fiction and has earned universal acclaim. Set against the beautiful but tragic landscape of post-World War II Asia, The Great Fire tells a sweeping tale of the search for new beginnings in a world ravaged by tragedy.

USA Today best-selling author Jo Goodman begins a delightful new quartet of Regency romances with Let Me Be the One. The four gentlemen of the compass club-North, South, East and West-are all unwed. Now North has fallen for the charms of Libby Penrose, an intelligent beauty with a strong determination to remain unattached. When North awakens feelings deep within Libby, whirlwind events lead to their marriage. Yet a dark secret threatens to tear their newfound happiness apart.

When Lady Tremaine petitions her husband for an end to their civil but loveless marriage, Lord Camden agrees on one scandalous condition - she must give him an heir within a year. Their early attempts to fulfill this delicate arrangement are marred by cold detachment, but soon sparks of passion and long-forgotten lust begin to be kindled anew.

Jim Crace has been called "one of the brightest lights in contemporary British fiction" by The New York Times Book Review. His novels have won a Whitbread Prize, an E.M. Forster Award, the Guardian Fiction Award, the GAP International Prize for Literature, and have been shortlisted for the Booker Prize. Far-ranging in its imagery, Being Dead is a provocative examination of mortality.

National best-selling author Rebecca Hagan Lee pushes another stubborn bachelor of the Free Fellows League toward the altar in Hardly a Husband. And obstinate Marquess Jarrod Shepherdston is not about to take the plunge without protest.

In this fifth delightful entry, Anthony and Agatha Award nominee Susan Wittig Albert re-imagines Beatrix Potter wearing her sleuthing cap as the village of Sawrey lies buried beneath a blanket of Christmas snow. While she and her animal friends investigate a puzzling death, Miss Potter wonders if she can acknowledge her fondness for Mr. Heelis and still remain loyal to her fiancé’s memory.

From nationally best-selling author Rebecca Hagan Lee comes a romance set in England during the 1790s. The Earl of Weymouth insists his son marry before going off to fight the French. Lady Tressingham insists her daughter marry as soon as possible as well. The children, however, are very resistant to the institution of marriage. But they do wed as a matter of convenience. When Griffen returns from war, though, he's a different man than before.

Eleven-year-old Nannerl is arguably the best keyboard player in all of Europe. Yet, because her six-year-old brother, Wolfie, can play almost as well as she, he receives virtually all the praise and adulation. Traveling far and wide with her family, she and her brother perform before the crowned heads of Europe. Social convention and public clamor relegate her to living life in the shadow of a prodigy. When will Nannerl ever realize her own dreams and aspirations?