Showing results by narrator "Susan Duerden" in All Categories

Though she can't afford the coal to heat her drafty Mayfair mansion, Felicity Langley still clings to her dream of marrying a duke - one she's had since her very first curtsy. After all, she's been promised to the very lofty duke of Hollindrake for the last four years. Now all she has to do is meet him. But what Felicity doesn't realize is that she has met her duke - he's the altogether too handsome man who Felicity has just mistaken...for her new footman!

Julia Lovat walks away from her seven-year affair with Michael with a broken heart and his final gift to her - an antique book full of secrets. The book is the diary of Catherine Treganna, who was kidnapped by pirates and sold into slavery in Morocco 400 years ago. When Julia travels to Morocco to discover Cat's fate, she is quickly lost in an exotic and vibrant land. Her guide is Idriss, a man so charismatic and beguiling that their meeting feels like destiny. And so, in the heat and dust, two love stories, separated by four centuries, entwine and blossom....

Poppy's Place is up and running, but Isla is frustrated by the time it's taking to rehome the cats. Then, she has a purr-fect idea - they could host a cat adoption event on Valentine's Day, to match the perfect cat with the perfect owner. But just as the plans for the Great Cat-acular are coming together, disaster strikes - Poppy's Place is flooded! Can Isla come up with a plan to relocate their big event and save the day?

Chef Charlie Hunter's arrival in the beautiful Chilterns is the fulfillment of a long-held dream: to open her own restaurant in an idyllic countryside location. The Old Forge sits on the village green (complete with duck pond and flint-faced houses) and seems just the place for the high-quality cooking she wants to be known for. But instead of rural peace and a chance to lick her wounds, Charlie finds something ugly stirring under the chocolate box perfection. When a prominent local builder is found dead in suspicious circumstances, Charlie the outsider becomes a suspect.

A little over 10 years ago, Janine Marsh and her husband gave up their careers in London to chase the good life in the countryside of northern France. Having overcome the obstacles of starting to renovate her dream home - an ancient, dilapidated barn - and fitting in with the peculiarities of the locals, Janine is now the go-to expat in the area for those seeking to get to grips with a very different way of life. In this book, Janine regales us with the delights and dramas of a year attempting to live the rural idyll.

When the rakehell Lord Jack Tremont kissed Miranda Mabberly, mistaking her for his mistress, neither realized his reckless act would cost Miranda reputation, fiance, and future. Years later, hiding incognito far from London as a teacher at Miss Emery's Establishment for the Education of Genteel Ladies, Miranda has made a respectable life for herself. When a penniless, much humbled, though still damnably attractive Jack arrives at the school to escort a rebellious young niece home, Miranda tries to avoid him only to tumble into his arms, reawakening a desire that is anything but proper.

Eloisa James's dazzling new Georgian-set series continues with the Wildest hero them of all.... The handsome, rakish heir to a dukedom, Lord Roland Northbridge Wilde - known to his friends as North - left England two years ago, after being jilted by Miss Diana Belgrave. He returns from war to find that he's notorious: polite society has ruled him 'too wild to wed'. Diana never meant to tarnish North's reputation, or his heart, but in her rush to save a helpless child, there was no time to consider the consequences of working as a governess in Lindow Castle.

Disguised as the mysterious beauty Lisette, Lady Elfled Malloren anticipates only fun and flirtation at the Vauxhall Gardens Masquerade. Instead, the dark walkways lead to an encounter with treason, a brush with death, and a night of riotous passion with her family's most dangerous enemy - the elusive Fortitude Ware, earl of Walgrave. His control is indisputable, his power unquestionable, his attraction undeniable. And after just one night, Elf knows she will never forget the man she should not love.....

Science fiction is a portal that opens doors onto futures too rich and strange to imagine. Fantasy takes us through doorways of magic and wonder. For more than a decade award-winning editor Jonathan Strahan has sifted through tens of thousands of stories to select the best, the most interesting, the most engaging science fiction and fantasy to thrill and delight readers.

Isla Palmer is crazy about cats - super-in-love crazy - but her vet-nurse mum has never let her have one. Then Isla meets Poppy, a gorgeous cat in need of a loving home, and comes up with the perfect way to convince Mum. It's not long before Poppy has transformed life at the Palmers - everyone is happier, especially Gran, and even Isla's older sister, Tilda, admits she likes having Poppy around. But Poppy isn't the only one in need of a home, and soon their house is full of cats. With Mum at her wits' end, Isla needs to come up with a plan and fast!

Her Aunt Allegra said, "A young lady with a fortune is subject to all sorts of untoward attentions by the worst sort of vagrants." It is a lesson Tabitha Timmons, a penniless spinster, has never needed to heed. That is, until she is left a vast fortune payable only upon her marriage to the very respectable Mr. Barkworth - a match that offers little chance of discovering exactly what her aunt means by "untoward attentions." But the same can't be said when the Duke of Preston happens along Tabitha's path....

Lady Hermione Merryhew, daughter of an impoverished marquess, already has her share of problems. The last thing she needs is an intruder in her bedroom, especially not a fugitive thief. She should scream, but the shabby rascal is a man from her past. Six years ago, at her first ball, dashing Lieutenant Mark Thayne failed to steal a kiss, but succeeded in stealing a little of her heart. She's older and wiser now. She can't toss him to the wolves. Besides, she wants that kiss. Now Viscount Faringay, Mark has never forgotten Lady Hermione, but he mustn't involve her in his dangerous life.

Susan Elia MacNeal introduced the remarkable Maggie Hope in her acclaimed debut, Mr. Churchill's Secretary. Now Maggie returns to protect Britain's beloved royals against an international plot - one that could change the course of history. As World War II sweeps the continent and England steels itself against German attack, Maggie Hope, former secretary to Prime Minister Winston Churchill, completes her training to become a spy for MI-5.

A long time ago, when the earth was flat, beautiful, indifferent Gods lived in the airy Upperearth realm above, curious passionate demons lived in the exotic Underearth realm below, and mortals were relegated to the middle. Uhlume, Lord of Death, second of the Lords of Darkness, King of Shadow and Pallor, makes an unusual bargain, which sets in motion an intricate sequence of events that entangle men and gods, queens and kings, sorcerers and witches, and lowly wanderers.

The Christmas season brings strange guests to the medieval nunnery of St. Frideswide's. They bear with them the badly mangled body of a villager, swearing they found the drunken fool lying in a ditch. But Meg, the victim's wife and a scullery maid of the cloister, thinks there are far fouler deeds afoot. As the players rehearse for the nativity, ancient scandals lick at their heels and dark desperation haunts Meg's steps as she finds cruel feudal laws threatening to strip away the lands that would support both her and her sons in the wake of her husband's death.

On some level deep inside, Laura Bateman knows something is wrong. That her relationship with her son is not what it should be. That it is based on lies. But bad things have happened to Laura. Things that change a person. Forever.

Maggie Hope has come a long way since serving as a typist for Winston Churchill. Now she's working undercover for the Special Operations Executive in the elegant but eerily silent city of Paris, where SS officers prowl the streets in their Mercedes and the Ritz is draped with swastika banners. Walking among the enemy is tense and terrifying, and even though she's disguised in chic Chanel, Maggie can't help longing for home.

A vast conflict, one that has encompassed hundreds of worlds and solar systems, appears to be finally at an end. A conscripted soldier is beginning to consider her life after the war and the family she has left behind. But for Scur - and for humanity - peace is not to be.

When Arabella Barstowe is kidnapped, she believes her life and virtue are forfeit—until she's rescued by the notorious rogue Captain Rose. Bella never expects to see him again. But years later she learns the wicked truth behind her abduction, and she seeks out the only man who can help her take revenge.

On leave from his Highland regiment, Captain Liam Lockhart comes to London on an urgent mission: to repossess the stolen family heirloom that could save his ancestral estate. He never dreamed it would involve surrendering his heart, but the beautiful and scandalous socialite Ellen Farnsworth sets his Highland blood aflame with a will as strong and reckless as his own. Though bound to Liam by a soul-searing passion, duty impels Ellen to commit a terrible betrayal.