Showing results by narrator "Jill Tanner" in All Categories

In The Paper Garden, celebrated poet Molly Peacock explores the remarkable life of 18th-century British gentlewoman-turned-artist Mary Delany. In the 1770s, at the age of 72, the twice-widowed and nearly broke Delany turned her interest in botany into beautiful paper “mosaick” flowers still revered today.

A poor family moves to 18th-century London, where the father has been offered a job as a carpenter for a circus. His children befriend a young girl who introduces them to the great city. Their neighbor is none other than the real-life poet, William Blake.

Her brother Alec, Earl of Rawdon, has joyously wed his true love, but Genevieve Stafford anticipates no such unabashed emotion on her wedding day. The icily beautiful aristocrat is to marry Lord Dursbury, and love is not part of the bargain. But when someone frames Genevieve in a cruel scheme, the scandal shatters her engagement and her respectability. So why has Sir Myles Thorwood gallantly offered to marry her? Handsome, flirtatious Myles is her opposite in many ways, yet he understands her the way no other man ever has.

Deeply forlorn following the devastating loss of her fiancé, young New Zealand writer Veronika resettles alone in a quaint Swedish village. Her arrival is quietly observed by Astrid, an elderly, reclusive neighbor, whose companionship will be a great blessing to Veronika - if she embraces it.

NOW A MAJOR BBC DRAMA starring Romola Garai, Chris O'Dowd, Gillian Anderson, Richard E. Grant, Shirley Henderson and Mark Gatiss. 'Watch your step. Keep your wits about you; you will need them....' So begins this irresistible voyage into the dark side of Victorian London. Amongst an unforgettable cast of low-lifes, physicians, businessmen, and prostitutes, meet our heroine Sugar, a young woman trying to drag herself up from the gutter any way she can.

Matthew Bramble, a gout-ridden misanthrope, travels Britain with his nephew, niece, spinster sister, and man-servant, the trusty Humphry Clinker. In poor health, Bramble sees the world as one of degeneracy and raucous overcrowding, and will not hesitate to let his companions know his feelings on the matter. Peopled with pimps, drunkards, decadents, and con-men, Humphrey Clinker displays Smollett's ferociously pessimistic view of mankind, and his belief that the luxury of 18th-century English existence was the enemy of sense and sobriety.

The evil Unseleighe Sidhe will do anything to prevent the rise to the throne of a red-haired child destined to ascend the throne and usher in a golden age of art, music, and literature, while the good Sidhe of Elhame Avalon race against time to find the child, protect her from the dangers of the human and elven worlds, and ensure that she will become Queen Elizabeth I of England.

Gwendolen Harleth gambles her happiness when she marries a sadistic aristocrat for his money. Beautiful, neurotic, and self-centered, Gwendolen is trapped in an increasingly destructive relationship, and only her chance encounter with the idealistic Deronda seems to offer the hope of a brighter future. Deronda is searching for a vocation, and in embracing the Jewish cause he finds one that is both visionary and life-changing.

World War II has finally played itself out, and the British are leaving India. Through this vortex is spun a fictional plot of terror and politics that illustrates all-too-well the curse that still plagues India today. You can almost smell the mixture of dust, oil, and human sweat as the train pulls into Bhowani Junction.

After her two elder sisters become the scandals of Florence, Lucianna Pietro d' Angelo is in the difficult position of finding a wealthy man who will have her for his wife. She has little choice but to accept the proposal of an aging bookseller. Later, Lucianna is content with comfortable widowhood - until Robert Minton, Earl of Lisle, visits her bookshop. The Englishman is not only dashing and handsome - he's a trusted courtier of Henry VII.

Trouble, trouble, the plots do bubble! King Henry VIII has finally joined his unmerry wives in the afterlife, and the Unseleighe Sidhe, the Dark Elves, are bent on subverting the English throne and bringing back the sorrow, horror, and despair of the Middle Ages. After all, that's what made the bad old days so much fun - for them! Enlightenment's hope? A mere 14-year-old girl. A bright and adaptable 14-year-old to be sure, but still - what chance has such a young thing against the Unseleighe Sidhes tangled web of treachery and depravity? A pretty good one.

Gwennore is an Elf able to track down the cause of an illness and heal it - a valuable asset to her people. But when she is thrust into the realm of the dragons, she discovers a haunted place of power and magic, plagued by an ancient curse. And then she meets the smoldering General Silas Dravenko. She's been raised never to trust a dragon, but never did making a deal with the devil feel so good. Silas has no way of saving the royal family he's served for years. But when a beautiful elf comes bursting into his world, Silas is awakened to desire in a way he's never felt before. But can he trust a sworn enemy?

Torn between a true love and family duty, Ariadne "Ari" Carfax has never been one to play by the rules. She's an heiress to the Carfax family, banished from London when Oliver Cromwell seized the throne from King Charles, who has since gained notoriety for pillaging, thieving, and ruling the Carfax Valley with an iron glove. All too soon, Ari finds herself in her family's legendary vise, forced into a marriage to Ivor Chalfont, Ari's childhood friend and confidante, against her wishes.

With An Heiress at Heart, Jennifer Delamere delivers the first in a historical romance series sure to set hearts aflame. After five years in exile for a youthful indiscretion, Lizzie Poole is given a second chance to join London society when her best friend, Ria, takes to her death bed and asks Lizzie to assume her identity. Ria wants Lizzie to carry out her final wishes, but neither knows that Lord Somerville has designs on Ria - and that maintaining the ruse will put Lizzie’s heart at risk.

Jo Beverley pens romance novels of immense appeal, as evidenced by her frequent appearances on the New York Times best-seller list. In this installment of Beverley’s Georgian Secrets trilogy, young Dorcas Caroline Froggatt rushes into marriage with a soldier who defends her honor. Supposedly killed soon after going off to war, the erstwhile groom again figures in Dorcas’ life when, years later, she attempts to marry another.

Giovanni Pietro d’Angelos selected his oldest daughter’s husband, and the marriage proved to be a disaster. He offers to give his next oldest daughter, Francesca, more latitude in choosing a husband than her sister had. But the arrogant beauty has no desire to marry, and she drives every potential suitor away.

With more than 10 million copies of her books in print, New York Times best-selling author Jane Feather is one of the biggest names in historical romance. The third novel in the Blackwater Brides trilogy finds comely Alexandra Douglas in London, reeling from news of her father’s death - and of her disinheritance. Posing as a librarian, Alex infiltrates her former home, where love awaits in the form of her stepbrother’s friend, the Honorable Peregrine Sullivan.

Inspired by the history of the Scottish Highlands, USA Today best-selling author Sue-Ellen Welfonder pens this enthralling tale. Three rival clans are battling over territory in the Glen of Many Legends. Laird of the Camerons, James, swears to lead his people to victory over the MacDonald and Mackintosh clans. But his heart sings a different tune after meeting the beautiful Lady Catriona MacDonald.

Daisy Bumgarten isn't thrilled to be trying to catch a duke's attention while dressed like a flowerpot caught in a swarm of butterflies. But, after all, when in Rome (or, in this case, London society)... Since her decidedly disastrous debut among New York's privileged set, the sassy Nevada spitfire's last chance to "marry well" lies across the pond, here in England. If she must restrain her free spirit, not to mention her rib cage, so be it. She knows she owes it to her three younger sisters to succeed. Now, under a countess's tutelage, Daisy appears the perfect duchess-in-training.

All Princess Eviana needs is an escape. Possessed of an unfortunate and unusual Embraced gift, which she’s been banned from using, she required no training. Now, her overprotective parents want her to wed. As a result, the palace is crammed with obnoxious noblemen…until Quentin, the enigmatic eagle shifter and royal spy, maneuvers several of the unsuitable suitors into revealing their most embarrassing secrets before the court.