Urban Historical

They are icons of the literary world whose soaring works have been discussed and analyzed in countless classrooms, homes, and pubs. Yet for most listeners, the living, breathing human beings behind the classics have remained unknown - until now. In this utterly captivating audiobook, Dr. Elliot Engel, a leading authority on the lives of great authors, illuminates the fascinating and flawed members of literature's elite. In lieu of stuffy biographical sketches, Engel provides fascinating anecdotes.

Set in 1450 Paris, this thrilling supernatural suspense novel follows the harrowing journey of an Italian merchant and the beautiful widow of a French duke as they battle wolves and the Inquisition. From Wall Street Journal best-selling author Michael Wallace, The Wolves of Paris has been hailed for its superb plot and gripping, pause-resisting action scenes.

The Mage-Emperor has another chance at life. He failed before, he will not fail again. An 80-year-old Mage-Emperor is murdered by his closest companions because of his own vanity and thirst for power. He is reborn into a fantasy Japan-like world as a baby. Using his vast knowledge of magic and strategy from his previous life, he aims to become this new world's most powerful warrior: the Kensei.

For years, Broc has watched over her, protected her-and hidden his love for her. But when his beautiful Sonya finds herself in a hopeless situation, the Highlander flies to her side to save her. Unfortunately, before the Druidess can thank him, Broc is captured by his enemy and destined for eternal pain. Sonya vows to help her noble warrior, though he is imprisoned in a mountain of pure evil-bound in chains of the darkest magic.

Hidden away from the world by his mother, the powerful sorceress Heloise Oliver, Pierce has grown up working in her restaurant in Desolation Point. One day, unexpectedly, strangers pass through town on the way to the legendary capital city. "Look for us," they tell Pierce, "if you come to Severluna. You might find a place for yourself in King Arden's court."

Richard Whitestone is an Elemental Earth Master. Blaming himself for the death of his beloved wife in childbirth, he has sworn never to set eyes on his daughter, Suzanne. But when he finally sees her, a dark plan takes shape in his twisted mind - to use his daughter's body to bring back the spirit of his long-dead wife.

With their enemy pushed back to their last stronghold, Illume and his team march into the heart of darkness itself to face an enemy...an enemy unlike anything they’ve previously faced. Still looking for the traitor in his ranks, our Plane Walker hopes to bring an end to tyranny before his hidden enemy can take his last Life.

The battle has been won, but the war is far from over. With her greatest ally at death's door, it's up to Lily Singer to make things right. Troublemaking witch friend and talking cat in tow, she must pursue her father as he seeks to discover an ancient evil and steal its power for himself. But her father isn't the only one seeking that power. When a queen of the fae gets involved and Sebastian's past comes back to haunt him, the three friends have to think fast and act faster to defeat legends that are, unfortunately, no longer in the past.

In a world where an industrial revolution is powered by magic, Tyen, a student of archaeology, unearths a sentient book called Vella. Once a young sorcerer-bookbinder, Vella was transformed into a useful tool by one of the greatest sorcerers of history. Since then she has been collecting information, including a vital clue to the disaster Tyen’s world faces.Elsewhere, in an land ruled by priests, Rielle the dyer’s daughter has been taught that to use magic is to steal from the Angels.

In the wake of their Aunt Amity's suicide, Scott and Madeline Madden are summoned to Caveat, the eerie, decaying mansion in the Hollywood hills in which they were raised. But their decadent and reclusive cousins, the malicious wheelchair-bound Claimayne and his sister, Ariel, do not welcome Scott and Madeline's return to the childhood home they once shared. While Scott desperately wants to go back to their shabby South-of-Sunset lives, he cannot pry his sister away from this haunted "House of Usher in the Hollywood Hills" that is a conduit for the supernatural.

Malcolm of Dunroch is a newly chosen Master, a novice with extraordinary and dangerous powers. But he has already broken his vows, and a young woman's death is on his hands. Malcolm is determined to fight his darkest desires, denying himself all pleasure until fate sends him another Innocent, the beautiful book-seller Claire Camden.

In 1939, Lavender flees London to escape the German bombs and her shattered marriage. Settling in a small town, she pulls together a makeshift orchestra to help cope with the times.

In 1892 New Fiddleham, New England, things are never quite what they seem, especially when Abigail Rook and her eccentric employer, R. F. Jackaby, are called upon to investigate the supernatural. First, a vicious species of shape-shifters disguise themselves as a litter of kittens, and a day later their owner is found murdered with a single mysterious puncture wound.

Essex Sinclair understands her family’s heightened senses are a result of a long-ago pact between the Sinclairs and the powerful Raven family, but has always struggled to feel worthy of bearing the legendary Sinclair name. Unlucky in love, Essie has resolved to live a quiet, solitary life as a healer and leave passion to the young and foolish. When Max Huntington falls into her herb garden, a bullet hole in his side, her only intention is to heal him quickly and send him on his way. Then she touches him, and from that moment on, fate steps in with dangerous consequences for both.

England, 1917. Reeling from the death of her fiancé, Stella Marcham welcomes the opportunity to stay with her pregnant sister, Madeleine, at her imposing country mansion, Greyswick - but she arrives to discover a house of unease and her sister gripped by fear and suspicion. Before long, strange incidents begin to trouble Stella - sobbing in the night, little footsteps on the stairs - and as events escalate, she finds herself drawn to the tragic history of the house.

As they blunder towards doom, Warlock Holmes and Dr. John Watson find themselves inconvenienced by a variety of eldritch beings. Christmas brings a goose that doesn't let being cooked slow it down; they meet an electricity demon, discover why being a redhead is even trickier than one might imagine, and Holmes attempts an Irish accent. And, naturally, Moriarty is hanging around...in some form or other.

Inara, sick of playing the pawn, has decided to up her game. But not all of her new decisions have been positive, and one misstep can have far reaching consequences. Will Inara play nicely, or bring down the entire family in her fury? When you've already lost everything that matters...Inara devoted more than 200 years of her life to serving Alamecha. She gave up on her epic love. She lost her best friend. She protected her sisters, even as they stole her birthright. Her siblings made error after error, and Inara patiently cleaned up their mistakes.

Jo, the firstborn, The General to her 11 sisters, is the only thing the Hamilton girls have in place of a mother. She is the one who taught them how to dance, the one who gives the signal each night, as they slip out of their father's townhouse and into cabs that will take them to the speakeasy. Together they elude their controlling father. Meanwhile, they continue to dance, until one night when they are caught in a raid, separated, and Jo is thrust face-to-face with someone from her past: a bootlegger named Tom whom she hasn't seen in almost 10 years.

She was born with a secret. She swore to never reveal it. But will love test that oath? Gemma is a time spirit. She can travel through history in a blink. What if people knew her powers? Would they try to abuse her gift? Life as a high school loner isn't so bad. But will Harrison change all of that? He seems to like her and falling for him is impossible to resist, but can she keep her secret? Breaking her oath will have dire consequences.

Lord Yamada is called away - one last time - from his newly restored estates in Kamakura to help Prince Kanemore ensure that Princess Teiko's son, Takahito, inherits the Chrysanthemum Throne. Unfortunately, assuming the throne proves to be the easy part. Yamada must then help Takahito renounce that throne in such a way as to hobble the power of the Fujiwara clan forever!