Showing results by narrator "Jenny Sterlin" in All Categories

Alessandra Cecchi is not quite fifteen when her father, a prosperous cloth merchant, brings a young painter back from northern Europe to decorate the chapel walls in the family's Florentine palazzo. A child of the Renaissance, with a precocious mind and a talent for drawing, Alessandra is intoxicated by the painter's abilities.

Lieutenant Michael Thorpe is a forbidden temptation for Lady Hannah Chesterfield. Etiquette demands Hannah ignore the shivers of desire his wicked gaze provokes, but he's the only man to recognise her restless spirit, and her unawakened body is clamouring for his touch. Thrown together by scandal, defiant Hannah joins Michael on an adventure to uncover the secret of his birth - could this common soldier really be a prince?

Award-winning author Imogen Robertson continues the acclaimed series she began with Instruments of Darkness. Set in London during the Revolutionary War, Anatomy of Murder follows unlikely forensic investigator Mrs. Harriet Westerman and reclusive anatomist Gabriel Crowther as they try to solve the mysterious death of a man dragged from the murky depths of the Thames River.

One of the great novelists of British literature, Thomas Hardy caused quite a stir when this powerful novel was first published. Michael Henchard, down on his luck and drunk, sells his wife and child to a sailor for five guineas. As time goes by, Henchard becomes Mayor of Casterbridge—but he cannot escape the tragedy of his past.

Although Katherine Mansfield was born in New Zealand in 1888, she spent much of her short life in England and on the Continent. As she wrote about the privileged worlds she encountered there, her stories quickly attracted literary attention. Prelude was hand-published by Leonard and Virginia Woolf at their Hogarth Press. Readers today still applaud the grace with which Mansfield fuses image, mood and meaning. Here are ten of Katherine Mansfield’s extraordinary tales.

To save her family, Mairey Faelyn must give herself in marriage to her sworn enemy, the powerful and ruthless Lord Rushford. Already a wealthy man, Rushford seeks a treasure that only Mairey can reveal, for she knows the family secret that leads to a hidden fortune. Now Mairey must decide whether to protect her vow of silence or enlighten her husband, who is beginning to feel more like her true love than her adversary.

It's 1914, and a bold, young American called Mary Russell is about to experience a rather dynamic change of life. Deep in the rural English countryside, she meets a retired beekeeper by the name of Sherlock Holmes. Although many years have passed since he astonished Watson by solving Scotland Yard's most baffling crimes, The Great Detective is still very much in possession of his excellent faculties. Surprisingly for both of them, he sees Mary's untapped potential for his old line of work.

USA Today best-selling author Jo Goodman continues her dazzling Regency romance series that began with Let Me Be the One. Returning to the men of the Compass Club, Goodman unfolds the tale of the dashing young South: the Earl of Southerton. South has been assigned to a murder case, and he suspects that the stunning actress India Parr may be connected. There is only one way to get her to confess.

Can someone really disappear without a trace? Artist and young mother Sandra Gilles disappears without trace after leaving her three-year-old daughter, Charlotte, with a friend. Her lawyer husband, Naz Malik, is devastated - but he's also the prime suspect in a murder investigation.

With her debut novel, A Grave Talent, Laurie R. King became the first novelist since Patricia Cornwell to win prizes for Best First Crime Novel on both sides of the Atlantic. Few authors dare to touch the classic canon of Sherlock Holmes mysteries, but in this charming and suspenseful series, Edgar award-winner King succeeds with triumphant originality. Mary Russell and her husband, Sherlock Holmes, are now on their sixth thrilling outing together.

Young Clodagh Brown loves to climb, especially the giant electrical pylons that form a neat row outside her parents’ home. When this obsession breeds tragedy, her shamed family sends her to London for college. As a respite from insufferable classes, she begins climbing atop the local houses with her unique band of friends. But it is a practice that lands the group in a kidnapping scandal - and leads to a terrifying climax on the rooftops. Grasshopper is a meticulously crafted novel - a sharp and textured thriller....

When a new highway threatens to bypass the town of Rossmore and cut through Whitethorn Woods, everyone has a passionate opinion about whether the town will benefit or suffer. But young Father Flynn is most concerned with the fate of St. Ann’s Well, which is set at the edge of the woods and slated for destruction. People have been coming to St. Ann’s for generations to share their dreams and fears, and to speak their prayers. Some believe it to be a place of true spiritual power, demanding protection; others think it’s a mere magnet for superstitions, easily sacrificed.

In Unmasked, Henley fashions a tale of desire and intrigue set amid England’s 17th-century royal court. When Velvet Cavendish and Greysteel Montgomery are betrothed by their parents, the union seems doomed from the start. Not only is the impetuous Velvet averse to Montgomery’s swaggering charms, but she favors Charles Stuart, the exiled heir to the throne.

Duncan Kincaid and Gemma James find themselves drawn into a web of deceit and treachery that has its roots in the turmoil of 1939, as Britain and Germany hover on the brink of war. Gemma learns that her friend Erika Rosenthal lost a valuable brooch during her escape from Berlin. Now that heirloom has turned up at auction, and Erika asks Gemma's help in discovering its whereabouts for the last 50 years.

Award-winning author Dame Muriel Spark is internationally renowned for her witty and engaging tales of life. Short and sophisticated, Reality and Dreams follows the career of self-centered, middle-aged film director Tom Richards. As he turns colorful incidents from his life into glittery, cinematic fiction, his foreboding dreams become all too real. Tom is passionately directing his latest film when he falls from a crane on the set. Awaking in a semi-conscious fog in a hospital room, he suddenly must deal with a comic, surreal procession of doctors, nurses, and out-of-work relatives.

In All I Ever Needed, Jo Goodman tells the tale of East, the handsome Marquess of Eastlyn, who finds love in the most unexpected place. Through witty repartee and magnetic attraction, East wins over the lovely Lady Sophie Colley.

Solly's life stinks. He lives with Ma and Pa Scubbins in a rundown cottage outside of the village of Boring, and works as a delivery boy for their laundry service. But his luck soon changes when Ma lets slip a little secret: Solly was left on their doorstep as an infant, with a silver spoon in his mouth. Solly sets out to find his spoon with the help of some ragamuffin friends he picks up along the way. But will Solly ever find his spoon and his real parents?

Though she cannot entirely discount the effects of the head injuries they were both suffering at the time, Mary Russell is delighted by Sherlock Holmes’ proposal of marriage. After all, they have become partners in crime, and she has recently come into her inheritance: what remains but to confirm the union with her mentor-turned-partner through a piece of paper? Russell’s pragmatic side tells her to head straight to the registry office - until Holmes surprises her with a sentimental wish to be married in the chapel of his ancestral manor. There’s just the small issue of ownership: the house is not exactly his, and he is most definitely not welcome there.

Award-winning author Peter Høeg has captured a worldwide audience with his novels of compelling, solitary heroes and powerful landscapes. Smilla’s Sense of Snow received international praise for its subtle emotional nuances and startling visions of the frozen northlands. Now, Høeg turns his attention to England and a wanderer from an even stranger world. Madeline Burden, beautiful wife of a renowned British zoologist, is not surprised when she learns that her husband is holding a stray ape in his laboratory.

Virginia Henley's historical romances have won praise for their ability to "illuminate and entertain" ( Publishers Weekly). It is 1322, and the Marcher lords are rebelling against King Edward II. Lady Brianna de Beauchamp, daughter of a powerful Marcher, knows she should not involve herself in the battle. But when she meets dangerously handsome Wolf Mortimer, who has the gift of second sight, she cannot deny her passions.