Showing results by author "Sandra Byrd" in All Categories

With this brilliant foray into historical fiction, Christy Award finalist Sandra Byrd delivers a fresh look at Anne Boleyn through the eyes of her lifelong friend Meg Wyatt. As Anne finds favor with Henry VIII, Meg basks in the glow of Anne’s glory. But when Anne falls out of favor, the childhood friends are plunged into a maelstrom of slander and intrigue that tests the limits of their loyalties and puts their lives - and the lives of their loved ones - in grave danger.

In the first of a brand-new series set in Victorian England, a young woman returns home from India after the death of her family to discover her identity and inheritance are challenged by the man who holds her future in his hands.

Christy Award finalist Sandra Byrd has drawn favorable comparisons to New York Times best-selling author Philippa Gregory for her Ladies in Waiting novels. The second installment in the series transports listeners to King Henry VIII’s court for a tale of intrigue featuring Henry’s last wife, Kateryn Parr.

Like Philippa Gregory and Alison Weir, Sandra Byrd has attracted countless fans for evoking the complexity, grandeur, and brutality of the Tudor period. In her latest tour de force, she poses the question: What happens when serving a queen may cost you your marriage - or your life? In 1565, 17-year-old Elin von Snakenborg leaves Sweden on a treacherous journey to England. Her fiance has fallen in love with her sister and her dowry money has been gambled away, but ahead of her lies an adventure that will take her to the dizzying heights of Tudor power.

After losing her mother, Cassidy Quinn spent her childhood summers with her gran, Helen, at her farmhouse. But after Helen passes, Cassidy learns that her home and garden have fallen into serious disrepair. Facing the loss of her legacy and in need of allies and ideas, Cassidy reaches out to Nick, her former love. She inherits not only the family home but a task, spoken with her grandmother’s final breaths: ask Grace Kim—Eunhee’s granddaughter—to help sort through the contents of the locked hope chest in the attic.

Miss Annabel Ashton is a teacher at the Rogers School for Young Ladies in Winchester when she takes a brief visit to her family home, Highcliffe Hall at Milford-on-Sea. She believes her stay will be short but soon learns that she will not be returning to the safety of the school. Instead she remains at Highcliffe at the mercy of her cousin, Edward Everedge. Annabel protests, but as the illegitimate daughter of a woman who died in an insane asylum, she has little say.

Miss Eleanor Sheffield is a talented evaluator of antiquities, but with her father's passing and her uncle's decline into dementia, the family business is at risk. In the Victorian era, unmarried Eleanor cannot run Sheffield Brothers alone. The death of a longtime client, Baron Lydney, offers an unexpected complication when Eleanor is appointed the temporary trustee of the baron's legendary collection. She must choose whether to donate the priceless treasures to a museum or allow them to pass to the baron's only living son, Harry - the man who broke Eleanor's heart.

After the mysterious death of her father, Miss Gillian Young takes a new job as the principal costume designer at the renowned Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. But while she remembers her father as a kind, well-respected man of the Police Force, clues she uncovers indicate he'd been living a double life: a haunting photograph of a young woman, train stubs for secret trips just before his death, and a receipt for a large sum of money. Are these items evidence of her father's guilty secrets? His longtime police partner thinks so.

What do you do when you've got a degree in French and absolutely no job prospects? Of course, you slide into your favorite French bakery for a café crème! When a lighthearted conversation with the manager of the local patisserie turns into a job offer, Lexi Stuart gladly accepts. She indulges in tasty pastries and wins over skeptical coworkers, but the glamour is minimal, and the pay is less than generous.

Having earned her chef's hat, Lexi Stuart bids au revoir to her glamorous and deliciously satisfying pastry mentorship to find life unexpectedly complicated. She's now in charge of a high-end catering bakery, but there's a catch: she must make this lavish bakery a successful business in just a few short months. In over her head and at a loss for creative marketing ideas, Lexi can't compose the perfect recipe for success.

Lexi Stuart is risking it all. Saying au revoir to the security of home, her job, and her could-be boyfriend, she embarks on a culinary adventure in France to fulfill her dream of becoming a pastry chef. Life in her new quaint French village should be everything she dreamed of, but settling in isn't nearly as easy as she imagined. Her optimism is greeted with both acceptance and resistance in the people and culture around her—soft and crusty at the same time— like the best baguettes.