Showing results by narrator "Lo Carmen" in All Categories

Ashley "Ash" Cooper is still reeling after her recent divorce, throwing all her energy into her job in the city. When she's seated next to one of her mother's friends at a family party, falling in love is the last thing on her mind. After losing her husband many years ago, Gloria Young rebuilt herself as a single parent. Now that her daughters are both at university, she's perfectly content with her quiet life in the village of Murraywood. An unexpectedly enjoyable evening with a friend's daughter pushes Gloria into exploring a new side of herself.

Vivian Barrera, a professional woman focused on her company's success, doesn't know what to think when her sometimes-lover and long-time business partner Jack hires someone without her permission. The only thing she does know is that she doesn't like the newcomer. April Hawkins is determined to make her new job work. Left as the sole provider for her niece, she just wants to keep her head down and collect her paycheck. That proves to be difficult when one of her bosses seems to hate her and the other seems to like her a little too much.

Hop in, buckle up, and get ready to RIDE with Elmo! He’s driving around in the Elmobile, which can magically turn into ANYTHING – a train, a helicopter, a giant spring, or even a banana!

After years of wild adventures overseas, Miss Sophie Everton is in no hurry to return home to the boring strictures of the ton. But she's determined to reclaim her family's fortune - even if she has to become a spy for the Prince Regent to do it. Before she can get her first assignment, she lands right in the lap of the dark and dashing Duke of Rockeforte. She's faced hungry tigers that didn't look nearly as predatory.

Six hours. That’s how long seven-year-old Sophie Lewin was missing. Found seventeen miles away on a desolate road, she has no memory of the incident, and the police have no leads. But one thing is certain: Sophie has not been the same since.

Lysandra Keates is running out of options. Her father is dead, her mother is ill, and her efforts to find respectable employment have ended in failure. With her small savings bleeding away, she swallows her pride - and her terror - and turns to Vivien Manning, an infamous courtesan, to match her with a wealthy protector. For years, Viscount Andrew Callis has lived a monastic existence at his country estate, hardening his body against the snobbish, lazy young man he once was...

Plain, respectable Lizzie is in the devil of a fix. After catching sight of something she was not supposed to, her whole family is torn apart by the ensuing scandal. Lizzie's steadfast principles means she cannot deny the evidence of her own eyes and as a consequence finds herself thrown out onto the street! Her only ally in her time of need comes from a very unexpected quarter indeed....

A mistress should never be foolish enough to fall in love with her protector, nor trust him with her financial future. Mariah Desmond did both, and now her dearly departed protector has left her with nothing.Forced to seek another protector, she's determined that this time, she'll lead with her survival instinct-not her heart. But when she attends one of Vivien Manning's infamous parties, the familiar face of her late lover's best friend throws her for a loop.

In the Dream House is Carmen Maria Machado's engrossing and wildly innovative account of a relationship gone bad, and a bold dissection of the mechanisms and cultural representations of psychological abuse. Tracing the full arc of a harrowing relationship with a charismatic but volatile woman, Machado struggles to make sense of how what happened to her shaped the person she was becoming. And it's that struggle that gives the book its original structure: each chapter is driven by its own narrative trope - the haunted house, erotica, the bildungsroman....

Mina's well-ordered life is thrown into disarray when her father drops a bombshell on his deathbed: She has a brother she never knew of. Not only that, he is on his way to rescue her from the collapse of their school under a mountain of debts. A wild journey across country later, Mina finds herself thrown at the feet of the brutish William Nye, prize-fighter and owner of a disreputable inn, The Merry Harlot. Respectable Mina is appalled to find herself obliged to wed this surly stranger.

How to seduce an estranged husband - and banish debt! - in four wickedly improper, shockingly pleasurable steps.... 1. Learn the most intimate secrets of London's leading courtesan. 2. Pretend to be a courtesan yourself, using the name Juliet Leighton. 3. Travel to Venice and locate said husband. 4. Seduce husband, conceive an heir, and voila, your future is secure! For Julia, the Duchess of Colton, such a ruse promises to be foolproof. After all, her husband has not bothered to lay eyes on her in eight years.

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities. And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one....Now Izzy's given up yearning for romance. She'll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished 26-year-old woman who's never even been kissed?

As one of the world's most hated celebrities, I'm used to unwanted attention. But when I woke up one morning to find a mysterious man had broken into my house, I knew I needed security, fast. Enter "The Angels," my three ex-military bodyguards. Having three gorgeous men guarding me 24-7 sounds like a dream come true, but it turns out to be a nightmare. They're always here, watching me. Caring for me. Protecting me. They tell me to ignore them and go about my business, but I can't even think with them so close. The spark is too intense.

Miss Evie Cole isn't one to take a threatening letter too seriously. To her, the much greater danger lies in losing her heart to the retired assassin sent to protect her.

Fact: Drawing under a male pseudonym, Maggie is known as Lemarc. Her (his!) favorite object of ridicule: Simon Barrett, earl of Winchester. He's a rising star in Parliament - and a former confidant and love interest of Maggie's who believed a rumor that vexes her to this day.

On the night of the Parkhurst ball, someone had a scandalous tryst in the library. Was it Lord Canby, with the maid, on the divan? Or Miss Fairchild, with a rake, against the wall? Perhaps the butler did it. All Charlotte Highwood knows is this: It wasn't her. But rumors to the contrary are buzzing. Unless she can discover the lovers' true identity, she'll be forced to marry Piers Brandon, Lord Granville - the coldest, most arrogantly handsome gentleman she's ever had the misfortune to embrace.

Shesheshen is a shapeshifter, who happily resides as an amorphous lump at the bottom of a ruined manor. When her rest is interrupted by hunters intent on murdering her, she constructs a body using a metal chain for a backbone, borrowed bones for limbs, and a bear trap as an extra mouth. However, the hunters chase Shesheshen out of her home and off a cliff. Badly hurt, she's found and nursed back to health by Homily, a warmhearted human, who has mistaken Shesheshen as a fellow human

What kind of woman ventures into London's most notorious pleasure club? An outsider like Graciela, the Duchess of Autenberry, snubbed time and time again by society because of her Spanish roots. Ela longs to take a lover for a single wild night, and within the walls of Sodom there are gentlemen to suit every forbidden taste. If only she were not so drawn to the smoldering Lord Strickland...a dangerous man who sees beyond her mask and could ruin her reputation with a mere whisper.

One of the many engineers that keep Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it's her dream to help it flourish. Then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend: an undine, a dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.

On the cusp of her first London season, Miss Madeline Gracechurch was shy, pretty, and talented with a drawing pencil but hopelessly awkward with gentlemen. She was certain to be a dismal failure on the London marriage mart. So Maddie did what generations of shy, awkward young ladies have done: She invented a sweetheart.