Showing results by narrator "Susan Duerden" in All Categories

Harry Potter has been heralded as one of the most popular book series of all time, and the philosophical nature of Harry, Hermione, and Ron's quest to rid the world of its ultimate evil is one of the many things that make this series special. The Ultimate Harry Potter and Philosophy covers all seven titles in J.K. Rowling's groundbreaking series and takes fans back to Godric's Hollow to discuss life after death, to consider what moral reasoning drove Harry to choose death, and to debate whether Sirius Black is a man or a dog.

Anna lives with foster parents, a misfit with no friends, always on the outside of things. Then she is sent to Norfolk to stay with old Mr. and Mrs. Pegg, where she runs wild on the sand dunes and around the water. There is a house, the Marsh House, which she feels she recognizes - and she soon meets a strange little girl called Marnie, who becomes Anna's first ever friend. Then one day, Marnie vanishes. A new family, the Lindsays, move into the Marsh House.

Lady Philippa Knolles has loved Captain Thomas "Dash" Dashwell since he first stole a kiss from her on a smuggler's beach near Hastings. Now after what seems like a lifetime of waiting, Pippin is offered a chance to renew her scandalous affair with Dash. But the man from that first heady kiss and the man she rediscovers all these years later are hardly the same. Tucked away in the back of her closet is a red dress, the one she wore long ago to win his heart....Could it have enough memories left inside it to rekindle a passion she's never forgotten?

When confirmed bachelor Peregrine Perriam is named heir to Perriam Manor, he discovers that he only has a month to persuade a stranger to the altar. Otherwise the property will be lost and his line will be cursed—forever. Having survived her parents' tormented marriage, Claris Mallow prefers poverty to any husband. When a high-born stranger demands her hand, she drives him off at pistol point. Then Perry finds weapons of his own, and the reluctant lady is compelled to accept his proposal.

Only a desperate mission could bring Leona Montgomery face-to-face with the scoundrel whose dangerous sensuality once sent her fleeing from his arms. But she has underestimated Christian, Marquess of Easterbrook. As irresistible as ever, his past swathed in mystery, Christian has his own plans for the woman he has waited seven years to claim. Yet once desire reignites, bringing a dangerous secret into the open, Leona will find herself bound to the seductive nobleman in ways she could never have imagined.

Susan Elia MacNeal introduced the remarkable Maggie Hope in her acclaimed debut, Mr. Churchill's Secretary. Now Maggie returns to protect Britain's beloved royals against an international plot - one that could change the course of history. As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5.

Maggie Hope has come a long way since she was Mr. Churchill’s secretary. In the face of tremendous danger, she’s learned espionage, sabotage, and reconnaissance. But things are different now that she has so much to lose, including the possibility of a family with John Sterling, the man who’s long held her heart.

After leaving the army and falling out with his family, the Honorable Catesby Burgoyne is drowning his sorrows when he comes across a woman being attacked by thugs. A fight is just what he needs, but little does he realize the lady he rescues will change his life. For Prudence Youlgrave is not just the victim of ruffians. Her life has been made a shambles by her selfish brother and brutish fiancé. But she has a bold and courageous spirit Catesby can't resist, and before he knows it, he finds he has rescued her again by marrying her himself.

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine. Fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder. For more than a decade award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has sifted through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.

England, 1942. The Nazis' relentless Blitz may have paused, but London's nightly blackouts continue. Now, under the cover of darkness, a madman is brutally killing and mutilating young women in eerie and exact re-creations of Jack the Ripper's crimes. What's more, he's targeting women who are reporting for duty to be Winston Churchill's spies and saboteurs abroad. The officers at MI5 quickly realize they need the help of Special Agent Maggie Hope to find the killer dubbed "the Blackout Beast". A trap is set.

How can she dare to imagine he loves her... when all London calls her The Ugly Duchess? Theodora Saxby is the last woman anyone expects the gorgeous James Ryburn, heir to the Duchy of Ashbrook, to marry. But after a romantic proposal before the prince himself, even practical Theo finds herself convinced of her soon-to-be duke's passion. Still, the tabloids give the marriage six months. Theo would have given it a lifetime... until she discovers that James desired not her heart, and certainly not her countenance, but her dowry.

The second immortal volume in this dark and fantastic series, Fangs is a scintillating and sinister collection of vampire stories and part of the now legendary vampire archives. Including Clive Barker, Anne Rice, Arthur Conan Doyle, and many, many, more...Featuring: Bloody fangs, dark and foreboding crypts, mysterious nighttime apparitions, and languid ladies.

Along the southern coast of England, atop the White Cliffs of Dover, stands a castle. And at that castle's old keep is an orphanage. Delphi Keep has seen many youngsters come and go through its gates, and Ian Wigby and his sister, Theodosia, are happy to call it home. Life has always been simple at the Keep, and the orphanage safe, until one day, Ian and Theo find a silver treasure box. And within the box, a prophesy. Three thousand years ago a great Greek oracle wrote of a quest.

In a Balkan country mending from war, Natalia, a young doctor, is compelled to unravel the mysterious circumstances surrounding her beloved grandfather’s recent death. Searching for clues, she turns to his worn copy of The Jungle Book and the stories he told her of his encounters over the years with “the deathless man.” But most extraordinary of all is the story her grandfather never told her - the legend of the tiger’s wife.

Lady Rebecca is determined to find a husband on her own terms, rather than marry any of the aging suitors her greedy aunt and uncle foist upon her. Her chance comes at the Kingsborough Ball, where she meets several potential grooms...yet no one compares to the dangerously handsome Daniel Neville. Notorious rake and heir to the Marquess of Wolvington, Daniel Neville is in need of a bride, but finding a lady who's willing to accept his past is an entirely different matter.

Lucy Derrick is a young woman of good breeding and poor finances. After the death of her beloved father, she is forced to maintain a shabby dignity as the unwanted boarder of her tyrannical uncle, fending off marriage to a local mill owner. But just as she is on the cusp of accepting a life of misery, events take a stunning turn when a handsome stranger - the poet and notorious rake Lord Byron - arrives at her house, stricken by what seems to be a curse, and with a cryptic message for Lucy. Suddenly her unfortunate circumstances are transformed in ways at once astonishing and seemingly impossible.

Fashion is many things. It is self-expression, big business, trend-setting, a lifestyle choice. But however you see fashion, it relies on one simple characteristic: the incredible speed with which clothes make their journey from the drawing board to the High Street hanger. Fashion is fast. Fast fashion influences the types of garments we have in our wardrobes.

That Nelda Roundheels had been murdered would have been of little interest to anyone - except that her body turned up in the bishop of Winchester's bedchamber with a letter to the bishop, from the king's most important enemy, rolled up in her breastband. The bishop and his knight, Sir Bellamy of Itchen, realize immediately that the purpose of putting the body in Winchester's bedchamber is to embarrass and discredit the bishop. And the reason for this attack on Winchester is his calling of a convocation to chastise the king for acting high-handedly against the bishop of Salisbury.

Delilah, the very proper widowed Lady Hargate, and Mr. Samuel Russell, previously acquainted during one unforgettable night in New York City when caution - and clothing - were thrown to the wind, will choose to pretend they have never met before when they wind up at the same wedding months later in England.

Lady Tabitha Hampton has the memory of an elephant. But this talent fails to help the twenty-seven-year-old bluestocking attract the attention of a single wealthy suitor. With three sisters of marriageable age, a sickly father, and a series of bad investments that left them impoverished, Tabitha's marriage could save or ruin her entire family. Arthur, the Duke of Collingford, needs a wife but not just any lady will do. Arthur's future duchess must be perfect in every way-fair of face, impeccable manners, with enough social influence to impact his parliamentary projects.