Showing results by narrator "Lorna Bennett" in All Categories

Izzie Jenkins never expected to find herself living in a gorgeous oasis in Tuscany, but when life gives you Villa Limoncello, you say thank you and bake treats to celebrate!Izzie and debonair chef Luca Castelotti are officially setting up shop together, but when their inaugural "Pasta and Painting" venture is sabotaged and one of their guests poisoned, they’re forced to turn detective. Because if they can’t find the culprit, they’ll be out of business before they’ve even begun....

Here is a celebration of the bizarre and beautiful, and a marriage of unlikely worlds. From a reverence of the dead to the sacrifices the living make to unspeakable gods, from clockwork dreams to tales of merciless revenge, Kiernan blurs the artificial lines of genre, and shows us a world where there is no division between the light and dark.

When Isabella Jenkins is unceremoniously fired from her fancy London job, she escapes to Tuscany. A few weeks hiding amongst rolling hills and grapevines at Villa Limoncello sounds exactly like the distraction she needs. But Italy holds emotional memories for Izzie and with a hapless handyman, a matchmaking village matriarch and a gorgeous - if infuriating - local chef named Luca Castelotti, her quiet Italian getaway turns into an unending cacophony of chaos. Suddenly Izzie finds herself on a mission to pull off the wedding of the century.

With Christmas around the corner, Izzie Jenkins is ready to kickstart the new Snowflakes and Christmas Cakes course at Villa Limoncello with chef and business partner Luca Castelotti. However, secrets are stirring with their latest guests, and when nasty accidents keep befalling the group, it looks like Izzie will have to turn detective once more to protect the Villa’s fledgling reputation.

Royal Lodge is one of a scattered group of dwellings, mansions, forts, and follies in the southern recesses and environs of Windsor Great Park which have served royal pleasures and private needs ever since the carefree days of Charles II. It has been the home of artists and courtiers and farmers and foresters, the picnic pavilion of queens and the private abode of two kings. Meticulously researched, royal chronicler Helen Cathcart paints a vivid picture of the evolving architecture, changing decor, and esteemed inhabitants of Royal Lodge from earliest days through to the mid-twentieth century.

When prodigal daughter Heather Evans returns to her family home after her mother's baffling suicide, she makes an alarming discovery - stacks and stacks of carefully preserved letters from notorious serial killer Michael Reave. The Red Wolf, as he was dubbed by the press, has been in prison for over 20 years, serving a life sentence for the gruesome and ritualistic murders of several women across the country, although he has always protested his innocence. The police have had no reason to listen, yet Heather isn't the only one to have cause to re-examine the murders.

In this detailed biographical study of Katharine, Duchess of Kent, Helen Cathcart tells an enchanting story of a Yorkshire soldier squire's daughter who grew up to become an admired and popular member of the Royal Family. In this intimate and illuminating account, Cathcart charts the first forty years of the Duchess's life, from her birth during a snowstorm at the family home, Hovingham Hall, and wartime childhood through to schooldays at Castle Howard and early career working in a children's home.

It’s 1940, and Sarah Goldstein is hiding in plain sight as Ursula Haller, the Shirley Temple of Nazi high society. She helps the resistance by spying on Nazi generals at cocktail parties in Berlin, but she yearns to do more. Then the spy she works for, the Captain, gets word of a German doctor who’s gone rogue in Central Africa. Rumors say the doctor is experimenting with a weapon of germ warfare so deadly it could wipe out entire cities. It’s up to the Captain and Sarah to reach the doctor and seize this weapon - known as “the Bleeding” - before the Nazis can use it.

Fifteen years ago, teenage Erin had an affair with her teacher that led to tragedy and changed her life. Today, she’s a married woman who keeps to herself and stays close to home, still scarred by the experience. When she’s attacked while running in the park, Erin doesn’t tell her husband - but she does confide in Nick, the man who came to her rescue. Then letters start to arrive, making references to her past and leaving her even more unnerved. When a neighbor reports that someone’s been watching her house, her world starts to crumble.

Plant magic is a perennially popular subject, but in most books on the topic, listeners must wade through eye remedies and cold cures to get to the actual magical powers attributed to the plants. In Treadwell’s Book of Plant Magic, author Christina Oakley Harrington—founder of the renowned occult Treadwell’s Books in London—focuses on the lore and learning of plant magic.

DNA Never Lies is the first in a series of novels featuring Karen Copperfield, investigative genealogist. Karen helps people make sense of sometimes dark family secrets revealed by DNA tests as they ask: 'what happens when nothing you believed is true?'

The eldest son of Queen Elizabeth II and Prince Philip, the Duke of Edinburgh, Prince Charles has been heir to the British throne since he was three years old. In this lively and illuminating account, royal biographer Helen Cathcart charts the first thirty years of Prince Charles's life, from his birth at Buckingham Palace in 1948 and rugby-playing schooldays at Gordonstoun, through his undergraduate years cycling to lectures at Trinity College, Cambridge, and subsequent military career in the Royal Air Force and the Royal Navy.

Sandringham, the much-loved Norfolk retreat of Queen Elizabeth II, has been the private home of four generations of monarchs since 1862, when Queen Victoria and Prince Albert bought the country estate for their eldest son Albert Edward, Prince of Wales. Written with warmth and wit, Helen Cathcart charts a hundred years of royal domestic history at Sandringham, from earliest days through to celebrated visitor attraction. A blend of narrative history and family chronicle, Sandringham commemorates the centenary of one of the best-known private country houses in the world.

Born on Christmas Day, 1936, Princess Alexandra's birth was almost overshadowed by the abdication of her uncle, King Edward VIII. Yet public affection for this new addition to the Royal Family has only grown during a lifetime of dedicated royal service. In this biography, Helen Cathcart chronicles the first thirty years of Princess Alexandra's life, from the tragic death of her father when she was just five years old to her wartime childhood at Badminton living with her grandmother Queen Mary.

Antony Armstrong-Jones, photographer, designer and film-maker, gained worldwide attention when he married Queen Elizabeth II's younger sister, Princess Margaret in 1960—the first non-aristocrat to marry into the Royal Family for 400 years. How did a "commoner" come to marry a princess, a woman whom he had long admired from afar? In fact, "Tony" descended from Welsh gentry, the son of a barrister and a society hostess. His family shared a long-established link with the Mountbatten arm of the Royal Family.

Here is the first full story of the Queen's racing enthusiasms and the first authentic account of Her Majesty's personal experience as a racehorse owner and racegoer, told with the help of trainers, jockeys, and others. This exhilarating volume traces the early years of the Queen's racing story, from childhood horse-lover to ebullient racegoer and owner of one of the finest string of racehorses in the world.

In this impressive volume, Helen Cathcart guides the listener through the public galleries, state apartments, and private rooms of royal abodes, pointing out the historic furniture and bespoke ceramics, the royal portraits, and of course the Old Masters that adorn the tapestried walls. Here is the pencil sketch by Michelangelo, the watercolor by Queen Victoria's daughter Princess Louise, the first edition Lewis Carroll in the Royal Library, and the Faberge Easter eggs, among many other treasures.

As her pregnancy progresses, Annie grows anxious about what happened to her mother, wanting to ensure history doesn’t repeat itself. Her quest for more information, though, leads only to frustration. The medical records no longer exist, her mother’s family are estranged, and even her father can’t fill in the blanks. Then Annie comes across three long-hidden photographs. But these clues to the past raise more questions than answers—and make Annie wonder what’s real and what isn’t...

Two women are missing already, snatched by a prowler in the night. Brilliant psychologist Christine Radcliffe fears she may be next—or at least that’s what she tells Detective Alan Jameson. But Jameson already has the prime suspect in his sights, and it’s someone much closer to Christine than she wants to admit. Who is she protecting? Meticulously crafted to deliver twist after breathtaking twist, this book was originally published as The Desire of the Moth.

Set in 1890 Victorian England, Dark Persuasion tells a romantic story of regret, restitution, forgiveness, and redemption. It is a triangle of deceit and love fueled by emotions of selfish pursuit, guilt, and surrender among three people who are prisoners of their past.