Showing results by narrator "Rachael Beresford" in All Categories

He told me I was his muse. He lied. Anton Sachov, the artist, the man who only sees in monochrome. He wants something from me. Something precious; the meadow green of my eyes, the rich mahogany of my hair, the creamy white of my skin, the stark red of my blood, even the darkness of my soul. And he will do anything to get them.

When uptight British bookshop owner Emily Bartlett goes to Las Vegas to get over a humiliating breakup, she's expecting to make a few mistakes. But when she meets Ruby Knight, a pessimistic American C-list TV actress with designs on a movie career, she makes a whopper. The pair get so incredibly drunk together that they end up getting accidentally married. In the cold light of day, both women are shocked to find themselves wedded to a virtual stranger. But maybe it's not such a big mistake?

In the fifth edition of his best-selling Very Short Introduction work, Manfred B. Steger considers the major dimensions of globalization: economic, political, cultural, ideological, and ecological. He looks at its causes and effects, and engages with the hotly contested question of whether globalization is, ultimately, a good or a bad thing.

Stolen as a baby by an egotistical enchanter, Aurelia has spent her entire life locked in a tower, her impractically long hair serving as a vessel in which her captor can store his magic. Every day is predictable—at least, until Cyfrin's manner and experiments take an inexplicable turn. Now Aurelia's biggest challenge is convincing her fellow prisoner—the only mother she's ever known—that she's strong enough to handle the truth behind the enchanter's strange behavior. The trouble is, she'll first need to convince herself.

Abigail Mercer was thrilled at being reunited with Spencer Law, whom she met once and later married by proxy. But now Viscount Ravenswood denies all knowledge of their union! Too many witnesses have made it impossible for the secretive Spencer to reject his bride without causing a scandal. So he has proposed a marriage in name only until they can locate his mysteriously absent younger brother - who is responsible for everything! - and untangle this messy affair.

Mary Anning was only 12 years old when, in 1811, she discovered the first dinosaur skeleton - of an ichthyosaur - while fossil hunting on the cliffs of Lyme Regis, England. Until Mary's incredible discovery, it was widely believed that animals did not become extinct.

Lady Virginia Macon, the recently widowed baroness of Heatherton, has an impossible decision to make. Her late husband's unscrupulous brother demands guardianship of her sons. The courts are on his side, unless she marries someone willing to stand in her late husband's place. Locking her heart away and devoting herself to her children is the only way Virginia can countenance such a decision. Wearied by the world, Lucas Calvert, wealthy earl of Annesbury, is tired of being alone. When he learns of Virginia's plight, he knows he can save her and her sons.

Viscount Gavin Turley is convinced that love matches cause nothing but trouble. Still, after months of courting, he's fallen for Miss Georgie Featherton. He's passionate about her, in fact. But words of love are not an indulgence he will allow himself. When he presents Georgie with his marriage proposal, he will lead with his head - not his heart. His qualifications as a husband are excellent, after all. What could go wrong?

Iris Bennington is furious when she discovers her younger brother is following the instructions found in the advice columns on How to Be a Gentleman. The so-called "advice" is more likely to turn her brother into a scoundrel. Iris decides to locate the author and confront him. Merritt Steel, the Earl of Ashby, cannot help but be amused by the slip of a woman who comes calling. Unwilling to let such a delightful potential conquest go, he proposes a wager: bring him anyone off the street and he can pass them off as a gentleman. It's a bargain she readily accepts—but with a twist.

All that clever, passionate Ravenna Caulfield wants is to stay far away from high society's mean girls. All that handsome, heroic Lord Vitor Courtenay wants is to dash from dangerous adventure to adventure. Now, snowbound in a castle with a bevy of the ton's scheming maidens all competing for a prince's hand in marriage, Ravenna's worst nightmare has come true. Now, playing babysitter to his spoiled prince of a half-brother and potential brides, Vitor is champing at the bit to be gone.

He’s an unrepentant sinner, East End rogue, and devoted charmer of anything in petticoats. But Rafe Sutton has one small problem: he cannot seem to recall what happened between himself and one delectable, surly governess. He woke in her bed with the devil’s own headache and no memory of the evening before. Now, he’s on a mission to unravel the mystery, for the sake of his pride and for the honor he had not previously believed he possessed.

Beloved famous British actress Tamsyn Harris is in her early fifties and works hard to prove she's still got "it", despite her age. That means never revealing she's a lesbian, for fear it would threaten her acclaimed career. After an on-set incident blows up, she disappears to a retreat to lay low for a while.

Between her regular job in Afterlife Arrivals, training for her second job with IA, her community service on The Bus of Death, GA meetings, taking care of her housemates, and every other ghostly commitment in between, Bridget Sway is already stretched pretty thin. Then, her best friend, Sabrina, drops a bombshell. Sabrina thinks she was murdered. And, in the afterlife, murdered dead people usually turn into homicidal maniac dead people. Despite that, Sabrina thinks if they can work out who killed her, then she might be able to get the closure she needs.

Harriet Wheatley is the mastermind behind the Ladies of Virtue's quest to rehabilitate the gentlemen of the ton. So when it comes to selecting her own target, she knows who to choose: Oliver Weeks, Marquess of Davenport—the most extravagant wastrel in all of London. Known for his opulent lifestyle, Oliver isn't surprised by Harriet's confrontation. It's obvious Harriet longs for any way to take him down a notch. She says she'll help him find a bride, but he knows it's only because it gives her the excuse to chastise his indulgent ways.

As women seek to cultivate an understanding of their lives, a mythological model can provide a tool for self-discovery and realizing individual potential. The Circle of Nine presents nine archetypes that represent different, but equally important, aspects of the feminine psyche. They portray both the life of the individual and the story of woman as a whole - a circle of ever-changing patterns that is a source of wisdom and inspiration.

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was the most intelligent of Queen Victoria's four sons. He was the youngest, a strong-willed, likeable character with an immense thirst for life who faced two overwhelming handicaps. One was haemophilia, then barely understood, which might have killed him at any moment, and in any case subjected him to recurring pain and disability. The other was his mother's determination to keep complete control over his life.

Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants. Behind the velvet curtains of horse-drawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. Brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries.

She can pour tea, manage a household, and sew a modest gown. In short, Eleanor Caulfield is the perfect vicar's daughter. Yet there was a time when she'd risked everything for a black-eyed gypsy who left her brokenhearted. Now he stands before her - dark, virile, and ready to escort her on a journey to find the truth about her heritage.

Princess Wren is not the crown princess. Everyone else might think her six older brothers are dead, but she knows the truth. They're very much alive, and her oldest brother will absolutely assume the throne. Once he becomes a little less feathered . . . and beaky. The trouble is, that requires Wren to fulfill the terms of the curse that transformed her brothers into swans—which means she can't speak a word to a living soul. For six years.

Death is not what Bridget Sway expected. Not at all. The afterlife is a mess of bureaucracy littered with nonsensical rules. It's a fashion disaster for a uniform and a job that doesn't pay. It's a heinous communal living situation with housemates who have no concept of privacy or personal space. And it's a handsome parole officer who is a stickler for those nonsensical rules that no one has bothered to explain. As if all of that wasn't bad enough, someone has stuffed a dead ghost in her locker...and the afterlife police are ready to pin the murder on her.