Showing results by narrator "Deborah Balm" in All Categories

The Little Fox Who Got Lost is a beautiful woodland story designed to teach small children about the dangers of wandering off and what can happen if they don’t pay attention to the things their parents say. I hope you enjoy this bedtime story as much as I enjoyed writing it.

Bev may not know who she was before she showed up in the quaint village of Pigsend five years ago, but that doesn't bother her much. She's made a tidy little life for herself as the proprietor of the Weary Dragon Inn, where the most notable event is when she makes her famous rosemary bread. But when earthquakes and sinkholes start appearing all over town, including near Bev's front door, she's got to put on her sleuthing hat to figure out what—or who—might be causing them before the entire town disappears.

Bev's on the hunt to understand her mysterious past, and that means a visit to her dear friend Merv. The six-foot moleman doesn't have the answers, but takes her to the secret, underground town of Lower Pigsend, thriving with all the magical creatures seeking refuge after the war. Upon returning to the Weary Dragon, Bev is confronted by sentries from the underground town. They accuse her of stealing a magical talisman that protects the town and - even worse - have threatened to arrest Merv for building a tunnel to the surface.

The Harvest Festival is the most-anticipated event in the quaint village of Pigsend, and Bev and the Weary Dragon Inn are ready to welcome visitors from near and far. But when strange occurrences begin happening, including the destruction of Bev's beloved herb garden, Bev's got to put her sleuthing hat back on to uncover the truth.

The Galaxy Unit was relatively new to the force; it had been set up two years previously, specifically to work with cases of child abduction and murder. All of the team worked well together, handling over 30 cases at any one time. The hardest to deal with by far were those children who were taken completely randomly, by strangers for sexual exploitation, trafficking, or sometimes, to replace a lost child. These cases were rare and up until now, Rocco could count the cases she’d personally headed up, on one hand. All that was about to change for all of them, forever.

Jadren El-Adrel knows he’s a mess. He’s a cobbled-together monster pretending to be a wizard, still unable to master the magic that makes him pretty much immortal and is useless for anything else. Though he’s tried to learn to work with his familiar, Seliah, he’s still terrified to discover what might happen if he gives himself full access to the depths of her powerful magic. Some questions should never be answered.

Isobel: High-flying business woman in her mid-40s. Driven. Confident. Always puts her shining career before a nonexistent sex life. She knows exactly what she wants, but has never found a man capable of playing out her most secret erotic desires.

In Women in Business, you will discover actionable, experience-based advice on how to overcome personal and professional challenges; an exploration of the common themes that repeat themselves in each woman's experiences, and how understanding these themes can help you identify and overcome them in your own life; how having a strong "why" can give you the power to overcome any obstacle, and how one woman's "why" enabled her to make 18 months work of progress in just three months; and more.

When tragedy strikes, it leaves young Rose Herriott all alone in the world. What will become of her hopes and dreams? She lives in fear and daily torment, at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Her father proved to be a man with a charitable heart and a deep love for his favorite daughter. When a mysterious letter arrives, she realizes she is not alone as she once believed.

Lewis Milken is a dying man who has one last wish: to find out what happened to his sister nearly 40 years ago. Emma Milken supposedly died of tuberculosis while working as a governess in Spain. But Lewis believes there is more to the story. Part-time fixer Chance Yang has troubles of his own. His relationship with girlfriend Catherine Roxborough is on the rocks. But when his flamboyant former boss, Felipe Kazama, sends Lewis his way, Chance heads straight from London to Spain to search for the answers Lewis seeks.

1173, France. Eleanor of Aquitaine has been arrested for rebelling against her husband, King Henry II of England. Her loyal ladies-in-waiting, Alice and Joanna of Agen, have fled to the nunnery at Fontrevault, where they are anxiously awaiting news of their queen. Alice and Joanna struggle to adapt to their cramped new home at the Abbey. Each is secretly nursing a broken heart—and harboring unholy desires. Joanna left behind a lover, Jean, at Eleanor's court in Poitiers, and Alice has long been in love with the queen's daughter, Marie.

When Lady Seliah Phel wakes from a drugged sleep to find herself abandoned by her newly bonded wizard, she vows revenge—and to hunt him down. Tracking him through the familiar wilds of the marshlands of her home is the easy part–learning to use her nascent magical skills is something else entirely. So is facing the vast, uncaring society of the Convocation in a time of brewing war.

On the Greek island of Spetses, author Kenneth Graham is trying to finish his novel. Not impressed by the place, he wants to finish his work quickly and return to civilization. But after the local history, customs, and mysteries draw him in, Kenneth meets the enigmatic Kyria, who is unlike any woman he has ever met. His internal conflicts soon become stronger. Kyria and the island have a hold on him he does not understand, and fact and fiction begin to blend. What malign presence does the island hold, and can Kenneth get to the bottom of it?

Murder and mayhem abound in this thrilling return to the 1930s as a young woman uncovers her own connection to the power and magic of her ancient Egyptian ancestors.

Emma Hibbert will never again trust a good-looking man. They offer nothing but heartbreak and humiliation. But her conscience won't let her abandon a sinfully handsome stranger needing help—even if he ignites an unwelcome passion in her. She soon realizes she should have left him in the mud where she found him, for he has the power to ruin everything . . .

Only hours after stepping off a plane, and still reeling from the turmoil of her last assignment, agent Carrie Harris’ journey to headquarters is interrupted when the Operation Center tasks her to hunt down something so sensitive they can’t even tell her about it. Can our hero stay focused enough to see if she’s a match for the evil she’s confronted with and return what was stolen, or will Carrie lose everything she holds dear, including her life?

Everyone knows William Bredon, the earl of Pembroke, has a reputation as a captivating rogue, determined to never marry until his duty to produce an heir requires it. So when he invites Lady Hannah Rochester to dance, Hannah vows to keep her distance. Of course, Lady Hannah is not completely what she seems, either. A member of the dowager Lady Lancaster's Garden Society, she secretly spends her days solving mysteries and uncovering intrigues, and when she brings William into the fold, a sinister plot develops that brings the two closer together.

Held hostage by a desperate man, housekeeper Sarnai Ganbold is thrust into a deadly conspiracy linked to a murder thousands of miles away. After a harrowing honeymoon marked by three deaths, part-fixer Chance Yang and his wife Catherine return to London to seek solace among friends. But the couple discovers that even amidst the celebration, darkness lurks as they are caught in a web of mystery and danger—it seems they can trust no one when danger is next door.

Based on a true story, this is the tale of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of 18th-century Paris. With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves.

Devastated by the disappearance of his sister, the Earl of Stranraer has gone to extraordinary lengths to find the notorious rake responsible, and enters his household incognito to wreak his vengeance. But his enemy has an unexpected protector—the innocent but headstrong Miss Cassandra Blythe. Cassie is determined to learn the art of seduction. But she is blindsided by her body's thrilling response to the wrong man—a mysterious servant who shows up at the most inauspicious moments to spoil her lessons in love with warnings of her imminent ruin.