Showing results by narrator "Virginia Ferguson" in All Categories

Author Julia Harbour's debut novel reintroduces us to Adele, Jane, and Rochester in the Gothic drama we know so well. As the classic story moves forward, secrets are revealed. A heritage is denied. Passions smolder. Danger looms! Heartbreak and joy intertwine as Adele's journey reaches its startling culmination.

An escaped convict! A Contessa who is not what she seems! What are the mysteries of the Whitaker Theatre company? And –– could a baby be on the way? Where is the doctor???

One man. One instrument . A wealth of music. A biography of the brilliant and tormented Polish composer Chopin, set against the rich historic background of the era.

Fourteen-year-old Elizabeth Bennet thought Fitzwilliam Darcy, her friend Georgiana's brother, was the most wonderful, handsomest man in the entire world. When he went to India to fight Britain’s enemies, she made him promise to write her along with Georgie regularly. There wasn't anything improper, since Georgiana and she had sworn to be sisters. When Elizabeth and Georgiana learned that Fitzwilliam was captured, they kept writing letters to him, so that when he was released, he would know that he had not been forgotten by those who loved him.

Elizabeth planned to never remarry. She had married Mr. Collins to protect Jane when Mr. Bennet died. But would her memories of how he hurt her keep her from finding love with Mr. Darcy? Elizabeth was only 15 when Mr. Bennet died. His heir, Mr. Collins, was an awful, ugly man who mistreated the servants. Elizabeth would never let her dear Jane marry him. Never. Jane was beautiful, kind, and good. She deserved to marry someone she loved. Elizabeth convinced Mr. Collins to choose her instead.

November 1283. Prioress Eleanor’s cousin, the earl of Ness, visits with his wife, Eda. When his unloved spouse is murdered in the priory chapel with his knife, he becomes the prime suspect. Another murder follows. Eda’s quiet priest is killed in the same chapel. Eda had many enemies, so what connection could there be between a ruthless woman and a pious man who cared nothing of earthy things? Crowner Ralf insists the crimes fall under the king’s law and that Prioress Eleanor lacks objectivity because of her cousin’s involvement.

Anton Pavlovich Chekhov (1860-1904) was a Russian playwright, writer, and doctor. Known best for his plays, he had also written a great multitude of short stories for and about people of all ages and all walks of life. Life as It Happens is a selection of just such stories and novellas. From sad to ridiculous, to dramatic, to funny, by way of tragic or bittersweet - there is something here for everyone.

A Christmas Surprise: Lord Robert, the Viscount of Marchwood, throws a Christmas Ball every year, and this year his daughter, Lady Audrey, has just turned 18. With the Marchwood family fortune all but gone, Lord Robert is keen to secure her a prosperous match. But when a handsome, masked stranger threatens to steal Audrey's heart, will it prove to be a good or bad Christmas surprise?

In the 1940s, Veronica Lake stirred a nation of filmgoers into a frenzy with her memorable screen performances and famous hairdo draped over one eye. The sultry blonde bombshell rocketed to stardom for Paramount Pictures only for it all to spiral out of control and be over in a flash. By age twenty-nine, Veronica was washed up with her career on the ash heap of movie history.

Now, Emma is a back-to-school PhD student with bigger and better things to worry about. That is, until one night, exhausted, slightly tipsy, and on her way home from a party, the glaring white light of a car comes crashing toward her, changing her life forever. Instead of waking up in a 21st-century hospital, she finds herself waking up in the backwaters of London, Victorian England, 1881.

February, 1603. In Richmond Palace, London, the last Queen of the Tudor dynasty, Elizabeth I, is dying. As Death hovers at her elbow, waiting for her to obey his call, the aged Queen looks back on her life, and on the trials, victories, and sorrows which brought her, eventually, to the throne of England.

Beautiful, titled, and wealthy to boot, Lady Lydia Beaufort was expected to have a spectacular London Season. There was just one problem; the eccentric daughter of the Earl of Galway had no intention of becoming the ton’s darling. Especially if it involved humoring the awful herds of fortune hunters and greedy second sons, intent on making her their bride. All Lydia wanted was to be left alone in peace, to read her beloved Lord Byron. That is, until an incorrigible rogue of a Marquess burst into her life and turned all her ideas about love upside down.

When Elizabeth’s best friend told her that she was in love, Elizabeth decided to do everything she could to forward the match between Caroline and Charlie’s friend Mr. Darcy. After all, Elizabeth and Caroline Bingley had always been the dearest of friends since they were tiny children, and whenever they were apart they wrote reams and reams of paper in correspondence.

When Princess Guendolen’s privileged existence is shattered by tribal war and the threat of rape impends, she is left with no choice but to surrender her virginity to a lowly commoner. The spoiled sovereign expects a night of torment and shame. Instead, her unlikely bedfellow introduces her to a world of carnal delights.

Russian literature is not normally associated with short form. So, here is a delicious little miniature from the master of storytelling Alexander Kuprin, a tiny slice of life, skillfully presented and highly engaging.

Having traveled much and tried his hand at many jobs, Alexander Kuprin ran into all sorts of people over the course of his tumultuous life. Human Types is a selection of sketches from the vast gallery of portraits he had created as part of his writing.

Literary critic, E. A. Koltonovskaya, described the literary style of novelist Maria Krestovskaya as follows, “Her pen, for all its feminine agility, is often remarkable for its nearly masculine reticence. She has none of the chaotic flood of thoughtless emotions, which so frequently plagues the works by female writers. She does not like lyrical diversions and allows her characters to speak and act for themselves. Even during the most dramatic scenes, her tone remains restrained. Her formulation of women’s issues gives one the sense of a broad, universal foundation...."

At the age of 19, Queen Victoria's granddaughter, Princess Elizabeth of Hesse, stepped into the glittering court of the Romanovs, beginning a journey that would lead her from the shimmering ballrooms of St. Petersburg to the back streets of Moscow. Through intrigues, assassination, war and revolution, to the tragedy of her own horrific murder, she remained true to her calling to bring beauty into the world. Based on the true story of "the most beautiful princess in Europe", this novel is written in tribute to a remarkable and courageous woman.

Five-year-old Sarah doesn’t understand why she’s afraid. But she is. Frightening things keep happening in their new home. A century earlier, a servant girl with dreams of fame and fortune collided with the house’s mistress - a British aristocrat bent on securing her place in proper society. The tension between these women began with small things, built to prickly pressure, and then exploded into raging mayhem, tearing the entire household apart. Fury, vengeance, and hatred infuse the very walls of Crawley House.

In the Metfield of the 1930s, you could do all of your shopping without leaving the village, have a choice of pubs and "spend happy evenings helping to dig potatoes and listening to the old boys". If this sounds too idyllic to be true, Evelyn Whiting's charming memoir of growing up in this Suffolk community is quick to remind us that making a living from the land was hard and tedious work in those days. There was no electricity and water came from the sky, or from the pond.