Victorian Society

In 1903, tensions between Britain and Germany are starting to loom over Europe, something that has not gone unnoticed by Lady Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves. An agent of the Crown, Colin carries the weight of the empire, but his focus is drawn to Italy by a series of burglaries at his daughter’s palazzo in Florence - burglaries that might have international ramifications. He and Emily travel to Tuscany where, soon after their arrival, a stranger is thrown to his death from the roof onto the marble palazzo floor.

The Duke's Children is the sixth and final audiobook in the Palliser series. Plantagenet Palliser, the Duke of Omnium and former Prime Minister of England, is widowed and wracked by grief. Struggling to adapt to life without his beloved Lady Glencora, he works hard to guide and support his three adult children. Palliser soon discovers, however, that his own plans for them are very different from their desires. Sent down from university in disgrace, his two sons quickly begin to run up gambling debts.

Lady Myrtle McQuoid has always felt a little forgotten, and this season is no exception. When her boisterous family vacates their London townhouse for the country, Myrtle finds she’s been left behind. But she just needs to stay warm, keep her belly full, and distract herself until her relatives realize their mistake and turn back to collect her. Surely that won’t take long.

In The Adventuress, Emily and husband Colin have come to the French Riviera for what should be a joyous occasion - the engagement party of her lifelong friend, Jeremy, duke of Bainbridge, and Amity Wells, an American heiress. But the merrymaking is cut short with the shocking death of one of the party in an apparent suicide. Not convinced by the coroner's verdict, Emily must employ all of her investigative skills to discover the truth and avert another tragedy.

On a quest to distract her lifelong friend Jeremy from his recent heartbreak, Lady Emily organizes a holiday in Greece. As a lover of all things Greek, she quickly finds herself occupied with tours of ancient ruins, lively debates with Margaret, a devoted Latinist, and slightly more scandalous endeavors with her dashing husband, Colin Hargreaves. But the pleasantries are brought to an abrupt halt when a man long believed dead greets the party at their island villa. Lord Philip Ashton, Colin's childhood best friend and Emily's first husband, has returned.

When her overprotective family tries to curtail her activities, spirited debutante Fiona Garrity decides marriage is her surest way to freedom. All she needs is an accommodating—and preferably not too perceptive—husband with his own hobbies so that he will not interfere with hers. Destiny puts her into the path of a scholarly earl. He would be the perfect candidate…if only his gray eyes were not so magnetic, and his virile nearness didn’t affect her in such a stimulating manner….

After an odd encounter at a grand masquerade ball, Lady Emily becomes embroiled in the murder investigation of one of the guests, a sometime actress trying to pass herself off as the mysterious heiress and world traveler Estella Lamar. Each small discovery, however, leads to more questions. Was the intended victim Miss Lamar or the imposter? And who would want either of them dead?

Emily and Colin Hargreaves make it a rule to spend as little time as possible with her parents in Kent, but are unable to refuse Lady Catherine Bromley’s invitation to join them for a pre-Christmas party that includes the family of Ala Kapur Singh, a powerful Punjabi maharaja who has come to England after receiving the Order of the Star of India.

When former lovers Hawker and Mrs. Peabody are paired on a spy mission over the holidays, the pair battle a deadly enemy…and a desire that neither can deny. As they surrender to passion, secrets emerge that could destroy their chance at happiness. Can they work together to vanquish their foes and win the love of a lifetime?

Really, it's too much to expect any normal man to behave like a staid accountant in order to inherit the fortune he deserves to support the lifestyle of an earl. So when Derek Saunders's favorite elderly aunt and her ill-conceived - and possibly fraudulent - Lady Travelers Society loses one of their members, what's a man to do but step up to the challenge? Now he's escorting the world's most maddening woman to the world's most romantic city to find her missing relative.

Perpetually unattached Lady Cassia McQuoid has accepted her fate as a spinster. But how can she be expected to lead a life confined to drawing rooms and royal balls when there’s a vast, exciting world to explore? Cassia can find but one solution: she masquerades as a thrill-seeking lad and stows away on a ship bound for open waters. Adventure awaits. So does notorious privateer Nathaniel Ellsby.

The utterly charming Emily Leverton has a dark past and is determined to leave it behind in her respectable new role as a governess. But when she is recruited by a secret network of governesses who spy on the ton, it may just be a way to redeem the dark secrets of her past. An ex-solider turned railroad magnate, Zach hunts killers for the Metropolitan Police by day and dutifully attends balls at night. In neither world has he met a woman with the brazenness to mock him.

Sourcebooks is bringing the internationally acclaimed New York Times bestseller back for a new generation of listeners. Jennie Churchill was not merely Winston’s mother. She was the most captivating and desired woman of her age. Originally from Brooklyn, Jennie became the reigning queen of British society. Beautiful and defiant, she lived with an honesty that made her the talk of two continents.

Ladies of London’s High Society are known for their social graces and poise. Vivian Kirby boasts neither of these enviable qualities, though she does offer impressive conversation on chemical compositions. Unfortunately, it appears that not many men want a brilliant wife. So it is that Vivian finds kinship with a group of young women who embrace each other’s differences: The Blue Orchid Society.

For years, Elizabeth Miller has dreamed of opening a school for underprivileged girls in London’s East End. But despite her best efforts, she soon discovers that the cost of running the fledgling school may spell disaster for the endeavor. In desperation she turns to the one man she’d rather avoid: Lord Charles Chatsworth, a rich and carefree flirt whose scandalous reputation she despises.

Harry Armstrong has spent years in Egypt. Now, he’s back in England with a new title and a new purpose: penning his exploits. But his efforts are overshadowed by London’s favorite writer about Egypt - a woman they call "The Queen of the Desert". Worse, her stories - serialized in newspapers and reprinted in books - are complete rubbish. Miss Sidney Honeywell didn’t set out to deceive anyone. It’s not her fault readers assumed her tales were real! The earl of Brenton challenges her to travel to Egypt to prove her expertise.

Love. Passion. Duty. The ties that bind, but can they set you free? In the opulent world of 19th-century England, where reputation and decorum are everything, Lady Cecilia Harrington's heart beats to a different rhythm. As the Duke of Harrington's daughter, her life is mapped out with lavish balls, couture gowns, and an impending engagement to Lord Ashworth, London's most eligible bachelor. However, beneath the glimmering chandeliers and behind the velvet curtains, a forbidden romance begins to kindle.

Brilliant mathematician Frankie Turner knows how to calculate the odds. So when her sister goes missing and all leads point to an exclusive gambling hell, her best bet is to play governess-under-cover for London’s most notorious gambler…who just happens to also be the town’s most ineligible bachelor. When her snooping uncovers a sinister plot to entangle women the ton deems troublemakers, Frankie can’t rely solely on her secret network of governess spies—she needs to win over devilishly handsome Jasper Jones to get his help. All without gambling away her heart.

The Bronx, 1891. Virginia Loftin, the boldest of four artistic sisters in a family living in genteel poverty, knows what she wants most: to become a celebrated novelist despite her gender and to marry Charlie, the boy next door and her first love. When Charlie proposes instead to a woman from a wealthy family, Ginny is devastated; shutting out her family, she holes up and turns their story into fiction, obsessively rewriting a better ending.

Things are looking up in Riverford, Texas, in June 1898. Czech immigrant, Sarah Novak, is finally graduating from teacher's college. Surely she will now put aside all that foolishness about being a professional woman and marry Lee Logan. After all, what young woman could ask for more? Lee is a handsome, young banker who will take his new bride off to bustling Fort Worth, Texas, and give her a life of luxury.