Showing results by narrator "Helen Taylor" in All Categories

Alexander Wraxall, sixth Marquess of Eagleton, worries he may be cursed. Those close to him tend to die, and he believes he is, in part, responsible for their deaths. When he receives a packet of letters from a relative he thought long dead, he embarks on a journey that will change his life forever. Since washing up on the shores of Lake Garda, Nell Marsdon has put her nightmarish history behind her and, in the house of Angelica Montovani, has found some peace. It is shattered by the arrival of the Marquess of Eagleton, a man who represents everything she has learned to despise.

Emma Woodhouse needs a dragon. Her life depends on it. But Emma’s dragon is claimed...by Elizabeth Darcy. When Emma Woodhouse meets newlywed Elizabeth, a brush of their gloved hands unmasks the Darcys’ fantastic secret. Emma has discovered Yuánchi, the deadly dragon coveted by both Emperor Napoleon and England’s secretary of war. Secrets are nothing new for Emma. She has her own: a deathbed promise and a clever plan to achieve it. The Darcys’ power, forbidden to her, might even help.

Viscount Derriford likes to keep a low profile. He avoids ton parties and the ladies who frequent them whenever possible, preferring to spend time with his fellow bachelors. A predictable, undemanding existence suits him perfectly. Marriage has never been part of his plans; he is convinced he could never make any woman happy. However, when his aunt dies, leaving him a property in Somerset, this safe, untrammelled existence is threatened by a condition attached to his inheritance. He must accept all invitations proffered by the local gentry.

In an inn, on the way to her first London Season, Katerina Fortune hears something that gives her a chance to escape her fate. Acting on impulse, she hires a gig and presents herself to a reclusive gentleman to offer herself as a bride. For Katerina, the eighth daughter of Castle Fortune (her Yorkshire home) has no intention of letting her father sell her to the highest bidder in town.

Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is a changed man, and not for the better, it seems. The prime suspect in a terrible crime he did not commit, Gredge launches an impassioned defense. The problem is that he does not know if he is guilty or innocent. Midnight Gunn must uncover the cause of Gredge’s unsettling behavior before the inspector loses his mind, his job, or very possibly his life. It is a task that must be conducted with the utmost caution, as Midnight’s own conduct comes under close scrutiny from all directions, putting him and those he loves at risk.

One of Canada’s most acclaimed horror writers, Gemma Files presents a mosaic of interconnected stories about interconnected families. After fleeing Scotland, five clans settled in the fictional town of Dourvale in northern Ontario. Known as the Five-Family Coven, they are the descendants of witches and witch-children, none of whom were spared persecution in their native country. Now shamans, spellcasters, singers, and thieves, the members of the Devize, Druir, Glouwer, Roke, and Rusk families survive by trading their occult powers and talents.

In her previous London Season, Jocasta had tripped through ballrooms delighting an army of admirers, one of whom (Lord Robert Paxton, heir to an earldom) had been invited by her papa to a house party at her home at Castle Fortune, to continue the acquaintance. Many things had happened at the house party, including the shattering of Jocasta’s naive confidence, when Paxton had preferred her younger sister, Portia.

Cyril, Anthea, Robert and Jane are "the sort of people that wonderful things happen to." And the children have yet more adventures ahead of them. Following up on "Five Children and It" and "The Phoenix and the Carpet", they once again meet the wish-granting Psammead fairy. This time, he guides them to an ancient Amulet that will help them find their hearts' desire, but it is only half an amulet, and the search for the other half will have them whizzing about through time.

Dignified, reserved, and every inch the gentleman, Laurence Westerby, the fifth Viscount Carteret, finds his ordered and predictable world turned on its head when a mysterious lady steps into his private parlor. He thinks her spirited, reckless, and undoubtedly in need of his protection. Confident, frank, and used to managing her own affairs, Miss Cassandra Fenton does not like the role of damsel in distress. Laurence seems determined to help her out of her immediate difficulties, however. His chivalry reminds her of all the reasons she is so unsuited to marriage.

Robin and Eleanor meet in 1811 at the British estate of Eleanor’s rich aunt Clara. Robin is about to leave to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and her aunt rules out a marriage between them. Everyone Eleanor knows, including Robin, believe they’ve always lived in these times. But Eleanor has strange glimpses of other eras, dreams that aren’t dreams but memories of other lives. And their time jumps start as their romance deepens. Robin fights in the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, in Vietnam and Iraq.

Captain Charles Bassington of the 13th Light Dragoons is famed for his good luck, high spirits, and devil-may-care attitude. He escapes serious injury at Waterloo only to succumb to an inflammation of the lungs. When he returns home to recuperate, cracks begin to appear in his cheery façade. Lady Selena has adored Charles all her life, but when she receives a letter from him suggesting his friend Lord Carteret would make a good husband, she is forced to put aside childish dreams that he might one day love her.

When Bethany is saddled with an unwanted, unrefined, and decidedly common guardian, she must polish him up before he’s fit for good society. As for Willoughby Winter, all that stands between him and his inheritance is to marry Bethany off. Can he succeed in his efforts before his past becomes known, or will she manage to distract him from his goal - by hook or by crook?

Handsome and charismatic, Miles Gilham, Earl of Allerdale, has a reputation for being a little wild. After spending months running his father’s estate in Yorkshire to make amends for disgracing his family the year before, he reluctantly returns to Town. He has promised his mother that he will find a bride this season, but his heart is not in it. The only eligible lady that amuses him is not looking for a husband and is the sort of headstrong girl that would make an uncomfortable wife.

Lady Georgianna Voss bids adieu to her friend Marianne with a heavy heart. Before their friendship blossomed, she had been a stranger to affection. She returns to her home uncertain of her reception. She has spurned the advances of the eligible but dull man her mama wished her to marry. Having witnessed the cold, unhappy union between her parents, she is not at all eager to follow their example. Enraged, Lady Westbury sends Georgianna to her impoverished aunt, hoping that she will realize just how much a lady needs a wealthy husband, regardless of her feelings for him.

Seven years ago, Miss Hayes’ world was turned upside down when she lost her father, her betrothed, and any prospect of a comfortable future. Too proud to live upon the charity of others, she became a teacher at Miss Wolfraston’s Seminary for Young Ladies. She has no wish to reenter the society that turned its back on her. But she has spent five years nurturing her pupil, Miss Charlotte Fletcher, and when she is asked to be her companion for the summer, her affection for the young lady overcomes her reservations.

Scotland 1862. A murder, a terrifying creature, and a battle for his affections were not what Midnight Gunn expected when he journeyed to Scotland for the summer. Bodies are mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue, Midnight’s growing household is in turmoil, and someone or something lurks in the shadows, watching.

Marianne’s brief time at Miss Wolfraston’s Seminary for Young Ladies is coming to an end, which is a relief for both of them. She has disconcertingly open manners and a liveliness that Miss Wolfraston deplores. When her aunt invites her to join her in Cheltenham for the summer, these traits inevitably lead her into a series of scrapes. After being disappointed in love seven years ago, Lord Cranbourne has acquired the reputation of being dangerous, heartless, and selfish.

She is past the age of falling in love - he does not think he is capable of it. Miss Katherine Lockhart is a woman of sense and reason. She has managed her brother’s household in an efficient manner for years. When he marries she finds her position in his household increasingly untenable and is sent to Helagon, his property in Cornwall. She finds a derelict house, an untamed landscape, and a man with a wild past. Harry, Viscount Treleven has a zest for life and an irrepressible sense of humor.

At the age of just 20, Francine has been working for 10 years. From the meanest streets that Victorian London possessed, she traveled Europe, learning how to survive and even prosper. Now back in London, in the new Edwardian era, she runs an agency saving young ladies from false suitors. With the help of her friends - ex-governess Miss Philpott, her footman fiancé Gilbert, and the feisty, tiny ex-kitchen maid Tilly - Francine changes all the lives she touches.

Lady Lewisham is an independent woman of means who has just emerged from her year of mourning. But as a young, beautiful, single widow (with an intelligent mind to boot), it seems she is a target for unwanted attention from ill-fitting suitors and mindless tittle-tattle from the gossip-mongers. Little does Sophie know, however, that when she encounters the handsome but devout bachelor Sir Philip Bray, her life is about to change. Could Sir Philip be the hero she thinks she does not need or want?