Showing results by narrator "Rachael Beresford" in All Categories

For Miss Phoebe Lockswell, fashionable London tea parties and balls aren't her style. Instead, she prefers to tinker tirelessly with a clockwork diffuser she's built from scratch. If only she can get the invention to work on command, she might earn her way out of an arranged marriage to a repugnant member of the House of Commons.

A lady seeking forgiveness for her past, Lady Viola Haversham is determined to put her past where it belongs. A woman forging a new path in life, Mrs. Ruby Jakeston is tired of others taking care of her. A girl lost and in search of a place to belong, Lady Ellington is on the brink of losing the only home she's ever known. A trio of women holding out hope for three different holiday miracles: Christmas ever more.

I watch him watching us, imagining how he would take me. I send him the message with my eyes. This is who I am. I am Veronica Franco. I am a COURTESAN. I court the cultural elite for fame and fortune, giving my body to many. And I'm good. So very good. After all, I was taught by my mother, and mother always knows best. How else to please the future King of France than with the imaginative use of Murano glass? How else to fulfill the desires of all yet keep my sense of self-worth?

While the elusive Secret Symphony of Giovanni St. John captivated the world's fascination, it left his daughter closed away in the Silent House; she, the one who holds the fullness of truth about the ninth symphony. Now Aria St. John is determined to not only break free of the loss that has defined her, but to honor her father through one final gift in his last days.

This magical fantastical story is about a house for sale which, when cleared, reveals cracks in the walls and ground floor which cannot be explained. We find that underneath the house is a lake inhabited by a sea dragon, Zadie, and her friends and slaves. She has a Tall Ship, and she yearns to return to warmer times and Utopia. Her slaves are "fish people" who have to live partly in the water below and partly in the house, which they enter via the cracks.

The veil is sealed for 30 days and Izzy is looking for distractions to help her forget about Aethan. When a strange dragon and rider appear in Eynsford, Izzy and Isla travel with Emerald to another world. There, they discover the mystical city of Millenia; home to to a band of renegade dark faeries, Ubanty, and dragons. Unable to return, Izzy is forced to battle pirates, assassins, and the advances of the devastatingly handsome Turos. But at home, the shadow of war is marching across the land. Santanas is back and gathering an army, and Izzy is needed.

Ember's defiance has always been a frustration to the rest of her island community. But even she didn't expect to be selected as the next sacrifice, years before another is due. She can't help but wonder if it relates to the strange new ability that's just begun to stir within her. She doesn't intend to go down without a fight—in fact, the chance to confront the monster demanding sacrifices is a more welcome path than the marriage her parents had arranged to a local farmer.

Die Aldridge. The painted words pierced Nicole's soul like the fatal stab of a dagger . . . Nicole Aldridge whisks her father into hiding to protect him from merciless blackmailers who have threatened his life for refusing to throw a race. With Nick forced to give up his career and go into hiding, Nicole, an expert rider who grew up at her father's knee, disguises herself as a boy to compete in the celebrated Epsom Derby and answers an ad addressed to her father by Dustin Kingsley, the Marquis of Tyreham.

Jael Hawkins is a troublesome girl. Everyone says so. When yet another relative tires of her, she is banished to Moon Hollow with the family's other black sheep. There, her aunt and uncle make her feel welcome for the first time, and she meets the intriguing Sebastian Westwood, in whom she senses a kindred spirit. But something is not right at Moon Hollow. Wails echo in the corridors at night, and a ghostly figure roams the riverbank in the moonlight.

Kate agrees to an arranged marriage with the mysterious Thomas Westwood to save her family's estate, but not everyone welcomes her at Wishwood, her husband's crumbling manor. The family members talk about a curse, lights move through the ruins at night, and Kate's maid won't spend the night in the house. Thomas is hiding something from Kate as well, but as she grows closer to him, a series of accidents makes her suspect that someone is willing to kill to keep Wishwood's secrets buried in the past.

Merletta is out of time, and so are the triple kingdoms. She can't outswim her mistakes, and if she can't expose the Center's lies, so many will pay the price. Matters of the heart have no place—whether on land with Heath, or in her underwater search for her family. Heath has accepted that there's no simple way for him and Merletta to be together. With the wrath of the dragons hanging over Merletta, and the increasingly desperate need to clear Percival's name, Heath has never felt more torn between worlds.

Merletta has survived her second-year test, but its revelations have once again upended everything she thought she knew. With so much at stake, it's hard to remember why she once cared so much about passing the program. It's time to show her true colors and face whatever comes . . . but yet again, she's failed to predict the Center's next move. And the consequences are disastrous for more than just her.

Merletta's enemies may think they've bested her, but she's always been a survivor. Now she has a choice to make—protect herself, or expose the Center's lies? The question only becomes more complex when she learns she's not the only one to have paid the price for her flight to Vazula. Meanwhile, Heath finally has the chance to bring the two factions of his family together. Except he can't seem to care about anything after losing Merletta. Then, just as his stirring magic ignites hope he hadn't dared to hold, a trip to Kyona threatens to overset Valoria's fragile peace.

After over forty years of interpreting birth charts, astrologer Andrea Taylor has made a revolutionary discovery: your rising sign represents more than how you appear to the outside world-it is tied to your most recent past life. This book explores each rising sign, its significance in your natal chart, and how it's connected to the south node, which is a common past-life marker.

Ariana Caldwell has grown up in the shadow of a secret family tragedy, at the heart of which lay Trenton Kingsley. Forced to marry a man she had been led to hate-and fear-Ariana is helplessly caught in the renewed fury of an ancient feud. But despite the danger, her husband's unaccountable torment only draws Ariana closer, and her instincts will not allow her to retreat. Caught between Trenton's brooding desire and her brother's imperious demands, Ariana is on an odyssey for the truth . . . consumed by the promise of a passionate, overwhelming love.

Yorkshire, 1367. Lady Azalais disguises herself as a minstrel to travel through war-torn France and ransom her father. Her brother plans to marry her to his brutish friend but Azalais, disillusioned with coarse and lustful men, hopes her father will let her become a nun instead. As an impoverished knight, Sir William must fight for his living—unless he can forge a life through his love of song. When offered a mission to protect a talented musician through France, Will seizes the chance to test his dream of becoming a minstrel—a dream that will prevent him from ever marrying.

In spite of being a nameless orphan, Merletta is determined to win the prestigious rank of record holder. And she has no intention of letting a little thing like universal disdain stop her. Lord Heath knows nothing of mermaids, but coming from the noble House of Dragonfriend, he's no stranger to magic. Except, in spite of having a dragon for a best friend, Heath is the only magic-less member of his family. Not that he covets the power around him. All he wants is to defuse the growing tension between the power-wielders and their royal cousins.

France, 1367. Rafeu, Vicomte Bruniquel, is deeply, insanely in love—and he's about to meet the lady of his heart for the first time. Unfortunately for him, lovely English widow Eglantine avoids charismatic French knights like the plague. Bitter experience has taught her that love is an illusion. She will not be deceived again, so she bars her castle to all suitors and creates an English garden paradise in detested France.

After the battle of Najera, Spain, Garit rescues a damsel in distress, Zhila tries to stab him. Then she persuades him with a kiss and a dagger to take her to France. Now Zhila is faced with an impossible task: she must seduce Garit into destruction without losing her own heart or letting him marry his castle. The wild minstrel dancer must make a stony English knight break all his rules for her, or her little sister will suffer a fate worse than death.