Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Strevens" in All Categories

1939. Seventeen-year-old Nora Jennings has spent her life secure in the certainty of a bright, happy future - until one night of passion has more catastrophic consequences than she ever could have anticipated. Labelled a moral defective and sectioned under the Mental Deficiency Act, she is forced to endure years of unspeakable cruelty at the hands of those who are supposed to care for her.

With the birth of the Cicatrix Maledictum the Imperium of Mankind suffers as never before. Conflict and corruption is rife on every front and precious little hope remains, save for those who hold to their faith when faced with destruction.... Denied a martyr’s death during the battle for Ophelia VII, Sister Evangeline of the Order of Our Martyred Lady is blessed with a new and grave duty: to embark on a pilgrimage beyond the Great Rift to recover a precious and powerful artefact - the Shield of Saint Katherine.

NAMED A BEST THRILLER OF THE YEAR BY THE NEW YORK TIMES NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY ESQUIRE “Suspenseful, provocative and surprisingly tender.”—NEW YORK TIMES BOOK REVIEW “Cleverly weaves together time travel and memory games into a hard-to-put-down thriller. It’s an expertly...

In a tranquil Kentish village, Dr Sandys and his wife are preparing for Christmas with their guest, Liane 'Lee' Crauford. Festivities start badly when their party is spoiled by an enigmatic widow new to the village, and the atmosphere hits rock bottom when the pompous local nobleman and ceramic-collector Sir Henry Metcalfe unexpectedly dies. Sensing potential villains among Metcalfe's circle, Lee teams up with Detective-Inspector Hugh Gordon to discover the killer playing merry hell with her holiday in this lost vintage mystery, republished for the first time since 1952.

Billy and Dawnie may be in their seventies, but that won’t stop them taking chances or starting again. Their grown-up children have families and lives of their own, so now it’s Billy and Dawnie’s turn and a life near the sea in Devon beckons. But the residents of Margot Street (or Maggot Street as Dawnie insists on calling it), don’t quite know what to make of their new neighbours.

A captivating exploration of the role in which Queen Victoria exerted the most international power and influence: as a matchmaking grandmother. As her reign approached its sixth decade, Queen Victoria's grandchildren numbered over thirty, and to maintain and increase British royal power, she was...

Captivating Regency-era romances are the trademark of author Ann Lethbridge. Here Charles Mountford, Marquis of Tonbridge, is adamant about bringing his estranged brother, Robert, home. So he strikes a deal with his parents - Robert may return if Charles agrees to marry a proper young lady. Charles is happy to fulfill his duty - until he meets Miss Merry Draycott. The unconventional beauty isn’t exactly who his parents had in mind, yet he finds her impossible to resist.

Wallis Simpson stole the king's heart and rocked the monarchy - but she was not Edward VIII's first or only love. Before Wallis dominated his life, he adored three other women: Rosemary Leveson Gower, the girl he wanted to marry; Freda Dudley Ward, the Prince's long-term mistress; and Thelma Furness, his twice-married American lover. Each one of the three women in this book could have changed the course of history. In examining their lives and impact on the heir to the throne, Rachel Trethewey questions whether he ever really wanted to be king....

As an illegitimate child, Frederica Bracewell was treated like a servant by her uncle. But when she encounters the new gamekeeper, shy Frederica starts to feel like a true lady....

After a debauched existence, Lord Robert Mountford revels in the simplicity of a gamekeeper's lifestyle. Until temptation strikes! Frederica is a far cry from the ladies of the ton, but she may just be his undoing...and unmasking!

Jamestown, England's first real foothold in the New World, was fraught with danger - from starvation and disease to violent skirmishes between colonists and the native populations. Mortality rates were impossibly high: six out of seven settlers died within the first few years. How clear these and other perils were made to the 56 young women who left their homes and boarded ships in England in 1621, nearly 15 years after Jamestown's founding, is not known. But we do know who they were. Their ages ranged from 16 to 28, and they were deemed "young and uncorrupt".

Thrown together by tragic circumstances some years previously, Meg and Clarrie's hard-won friendship eventually brought them both some sense of peace. But how deep do their feelings run and how long can their happiness last? The outbreak of war brings a new set of concerns and emotions, especially with the arrival of the evacuees who come to share their home and lives. Can they unite to form a bond powerful enough to sustain them through the darkest days of war?

Two women, centuries apart. One endless nightmare tearing Wales apart – and only they can stop it. Sunday Times bestselling author Barbara Erskine returns to Hay in the year that marks the 30th anniversary of her sensational debut bestseller, Lady of Hay. Hay-On-Wye, 1400 – War is brewing in...

Present day: When thirty-six-year-old Robyn Willoughby discovers an exquisite yet blood-stained Tudor map in her father’s antique map shop, desperate for a distraction from her problems, she decides to investigate. But as Robyn delves into the mystery, she finds herself caught up in a centuries-old secret—one that will change her life forever.

When Princess Matilda is eighteen years old, tragedy strikes the royal family, and she becomes the only child of the king of England - the de facto heir to the throne. As her dying father persuades the barons to pledge allegiance to her, Matilda returns to England - but the lords and clergy do not like an independent woman. And Matilda is nothing if not headstrong. When the old king dies, the country is plunged into instant chaos. So begins a fierce battle between cousins that will go down in history as a time called 'The Anarchy'.

Forty-something single mother Cara Shelley is very content running the Happy Huffkin café in the grounds of a quirky stately home. But her daily routine is shaken up by the arrival of a guest at Tanton Towers: the flamboyant Lady Izzy. Ten years ago, Lady Izzy's nephew, the former chair of the local ghost society, died after a ghost hunt in the Towers' spooky subterranean grotto. Now, she plans to commemorate his life—and death—with a fresh hunt in the very same place. But the morning after the event, Cara makes a horrifying discovery.

Moira Martingale’s comprehensive study, Cannibal Killers: The Impossible Monsters, was originally written in 1993, when the Internet was in its infancy, when few homes had computers and when the character Hannibal Lecter from the book and movie The Silence of the Lambs was regarded as an entirely fictional character, with no real-world counterparts or inspirations. The book demonstrated that this was an erroneous assumption.

Uniquely disturbing and deeply erotic, this collection confirms Sarah Hall as one of the greatest writers of her generation. From the heathered fells and lowlands of Cumbria with their history of smouldering violence, to the speed and heat of summer London, to an eerily still lake in the Finnish wilderness, Sarah Hall evokes landscapes with extraordinary precision and grace.

Sophia James pens historical romances that crackle with passion and intrigue. The third Wellingham brothers novel, One Illicit Night tells the tale of Lord Cristo Wellingham, whose world is forever altered after a salacious evening with the normally chaste Lady Eleanor Bracewell-Lowen. Cristo longs for a return engagement, even as Eleanor swears off such reckless behavior to preserve her image in London’s high society. Yet she’s all too aware that a powerful man such as Cristo could ruin her reputation if she doesn’t yield to his desires.

Merryn Burton is excited to travel down to Cornwall to start her first big job for the London art dealers she works for. But as soon as she arrives at Pencradoc, a beautiful old mansion, she realises this will be no ordinary commission. Not only is Pencradoc filled with fascinating and possibly valuable artwork, it is also owned by the Penhaligon brothers - and Merryn’s instant connection with Kit Penhaligon could be another reason why her trip suddenly becomes a whole lot more interesting....

In 18th-century Venice, Minguillo Fasan, heir to a fortune, contrives to dispatch of his sister, Marcella, condemning her to the fate of a nun. But Marcella Fasan is tougher than Minguillo imagines, and, aided by a servant, a painter, a skin-obsessed doctor, a Scottish merchant and a cigar-smoking pornographer, she pitches her wits against her brother….