Showing results by narrator "Verona Westbrook" in All Categories

Fitzwilliam Darcy is in a difficult situation. His father is pressing him to propose marriage to the last woman in the world he would wish to take as his wife. With a fortnight to announce his betrothal, he makes the acquaintance of Elizabeth Bennet, who is in a predicament of her own. Could Darcy be willing to consider Elizabeth as a solution to his problem and to hers? And can Elizabeth ascertain enough of Darcy's character to trust him upon nothing but a first impression?

As Britain settles into a short-lived peace, the characters of Pride and Prejudice pick up very nearly where the novel left off, in a new series of stories focused on love and family. Elizabeth Bennet finds the joy of her marriage and honeymoon are followed by the demands of becoming Mrs. Darcy, all while helping her shy new younger sister come out into society.

One night, to decide his entire life's happiness. Chastened by Charles Bingley following Mr. Bennet's untimely death, Fitzwilliam Darcy determines he will offer marriage to Elizabeth Bennet, but she marries another. Years later, a widowed Elizabeth is mistress of Longbourn, and has vowed she will never marry again. A house party at Netherfield brings them back together, but Darcy will have to win more than her heart if he is to have any chance at making her mistress of Pemberley.

As the “Year Without a Summer” threatens estates across Britain, Elizabeth and Georgiana both go on journeys that take unexpected turns – journeys that will threaten the lives of those they hold dear. Three of Elizabeth’s sisters find their lives changed by childbirth, while on Pemberley’s grounds, a surprising romance emerges. A story of love and family, and the third installment of the Constant Love series.

It’s Christmastime at Pemberley, and Lizzy is nervous to be hosting her first event. Her family is coming, and so is Lady de Bourgh. An unexpected and unwelcome guest also arrives. How can Wickham have the courage to show his face at Pemberley? Even worse, what is he doing to make poor Lydia so miserable? Lizzy and Fitzwilliam must unravel the details and deal with machinations that threaten their first Christmas together while helping to find Lydia a second chance to move past her marriage mistake and be happy.

The preparations for Elizabeth’s birth and the beginning of Georgiana’s married life do not go as smoothly as either of them would wish, and they must each consider an alternate legacy for Pemberley as they encounter opposite sides of the same "what if?" Meanwhile, for the first time, Mary Bennet finds herself romantically interested in a man, but will her own character and his family get in her way?

As the daughter of a duke, Lady Annalise Palmer should be living a charmed life. But appearances can be deceiving - her father's ensured that her entire life has been filled with heartache and hardship. Happiness is an elusive emotion, and love is nonexistent. She has no reason to believe she’ll find either. Ryan Simms, the marquess of Cinderbury, has been alone nearly his whole life. After his father died, he was abandoned by his grandfather and left in the care of his wicked stepmother. From a young age, he learned not to trust a lady and never to fall in love, especially.

Drugged and supposedly drowned by the mother who should have loved her, six-year-old Gwendoline is dredged from the Saltwick River. Poverty-stricken but rich in love, Mr. and Mrs. Paul love the tiny child as their own, until hard times and tragedy drive them to the workhouse. From this slavery, Gwendoline flees her present horror, only to run headlong into her unknown past, with consequences that tumble through the generations.

Fascinated upon a first acquaintance, the earl of Matlock is a determined suitor, but Rebecca Fairchild is not so certain. The earl is kind, yet he is always so frustrating and stubborn! He is not what she had planned or what she ever imagined in a partner. Other ladies have also laid claim to the handsome Lord Matlock despite his preferences. Can he convince Rebecca he is her future, or will other forces stand in the way of their happily ever after?

Mrs. Hudson is possibly the most famous landlady in literature. Presiding over 221B Baker Street, she saw many clients, villains, and Baker Street Irregulars during the tenancy of Sherlock Holmes and Dr. Watson. This series of columns, thoughts, recipes, and memoirs are from a long-running column in the Sherlockian journal Canadian Holmes. In it, the author, Wendy Heyman-Marsaw, puts herself in Mrs. Hudson's shoes.

In 1900s London, Francine is a ladies' maid, cast off without a character. But she is anything but a victim. Francine has a mission, to help other women survive their prescribed fates, and when she meets another cast-off - poor starving governess Miss Philpot - she transforms her into an independent woman. If she finds romance, so much the better.

Esther Whitton has gladly spent the last few months enjoying the quiet calmness of a Yorkshire winter, devouring books and attempting to keep herself from falling for a man she knows she can never have. But when her Great-uncle Danby announces they're all going to London for the season, she decides it's time to step out of her comfort zone and follow her heart before it's given away to another.

Thomas Bennet unexpectedly outlives his wife and must make his way in a new life. Can he use the opportunity to become a better man, or will he let this chance pass him by?

Penny's story is the fourth in Brian L. Porter's award-winning Family of Rescue Dogs series. It features a tiny terrier, abandoned in a particularly cruel manner and her subsequent adoption and life with the author and his family. From being attacked and needing emergency surgery to days out at the coast chasing seagulls and living in stately homes, Penny's life in Brian's pack of rescue dogs has never been anything but interesting and eventful.

Country House Collection documents the development of stately homes in England with a trajectory from Medieval times to a burgeoning of the neo-classical style of building in the early to mid 18th-century. The grand houses that appeared in rural locations manifested statements of a ruling class composed of self-made landowners, merchants and families of historic lineage and title.

When savage family sickness, and the unscrupulous embezzling steward, Mr. Craven, steals the Boone's family fortune, he snatches Sandra Boone’s idyllic childhood from her innocent hands. The heartbroken child finds herself in a place she never thought possible – destitute and begging on the dirty, dangerous streets for her next meal. When opportunity opens the door for a life of servitude to a wealthy family, Sandra, crushed by the harshness of her unfair years, finally thinks fortune may be turning her way. Instead, a fire of controversy unfolds, forcing her to flee.

Cv/VAR 154 publishes a study of photography and art in which authors Marina Vaizey and Anne Blood consider the historical impact of photography from pioneers Hill and Adamson, William Fox Talbot, and Louis Daguerre to contemporary practitioners such as Andreas Gursky and Boris Mikhailov. The documentary power and graphic clarity of the medium challenged and persuaded artists such as Degas, Sickert, Andy Warhol, and Richard Hamilton, and innumerable creative voices. The volume includes biographical details of leading figures and a guide to national collections and study centres.

Author, critic and traveler, Marina Vaizey, in her third lockdown essay, reflects on the books of figures in the changing façade of English society and the establishment. Missing people, even with telephones and emails. And music and theatre even with the incredibly generous digital provision.

Both men and women enjoy thrillers, mystery, and crime. Yet it may still feel not quite respectable, somehow a guilty (sorry!) pleasure. Do these novels so often categorized as genre offer something the literary novel does not? The market is enormous, perhaps the largest in publishing. It is a cliché which may be true that only the Bible – say - outsells Agatha Christie. And then there are films and television, either original or adapted from novels.

Elias, the handsome Duke of Westhampshire, has courted many women, but not for long. He doesn’t believe in commitment and flits from woman to woman, until he lays eyes on beautiful maid, Maria. Thinking her an easy target, he is shocked when she refuses his advances which angers, yet intrigues, him. Can the duke change his rake ways and open his heart? Will Maria be able to ever trust him?