Showing results by narrator "Laurel Laurel" in All Categories

Single-minded and spoilt, Undine Spragg arrives in New York determined to procure for herself a social status to match her family’s wealth. Ambition, greed and an arresting beauty soon secure her path to marriage...and also to divorce. The Custom of the Country is a sophisticated commentary on both, touching on the implications for a woman of ending a marriage at a time when the author herself was navigating that situation. As the mismatched Undine and Ralph travel to Europe, Wharton contrasts the pecuniary motivation of the nouveau riche in America with European tradition.

Darkness rises. But so do I. The false queen has taken everything from me. My throne, my people, and worst of all, my mate. Her dark curse has stolen Tarron’s mind and compels him to try kill me. I’ll do anything to cure him and stop her. When a prophecy tells me to go find the Dragon Bloods, I know I’ll be walking into a deadly situation. It won’t stop me. Together, my friends and I will face hell itself to save the Unseelie Fae from the false queen. The question is...can we? Revolution is on the horizon, and it’s time for a new queen.

A collection of radio readings of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s fiction - plus two bonus programmes. Over the years the BBC has broadcast readings of many of F. Scott Fitzgerald’s novels, novellas and short stories. This collection includes some of his most famous works alongside various lesser-known tales, including three 'lost stories' (first published in 2017 and with an introduction written by editor Anne Margaret Daniel).

Six people find a thick cream envelope on their doorstep. Inside is an invitation to spend 24 hours in a crumbling manor house and be in with the chance to win a portion of one million dollars. The catch: Beechwood Castle was the site of one of the most horrific murders in modern history. The smell of blood, decay and death still hangs heavy in the air. Six people walk into the house. One of them is an imposter, all of them are traitors, which of them will survive the night?

Mental illness though can still carry a stigma. A case of ‘you’re not trying hard enough’, ‘or knuckling down and getting on with it’. But in more recent decades mental issues have come to be recognised as an illness, a disease rather than an affliction. We all remember horror stories of lobotomy’s and electric shock being used to ‘cure’ what society viewed as anti-social behaviour but illness, mental or physical is very real. Depression, schizophrenia, breakdown, psychosis are alarming events to have or to witness.

After One Hundred Winters confronts the harsh truth that the United States was founded on the violent dispossession of Indigenous people and asks what reconciliation might mean in light of this haunted history. In this timely and urgent book, settler historian Margaret Jacobs tells the stories of the individuals and communities who are working together to heal historical wounds - and reveals how much we have to gain by learning from our history instead of denying it.

With a scarlet-fever epidemic raging throughout London, a rogue baron on the loose, a new baby keeping him up at night, and a kingdom to run, the last thing David has time for is a trip to the 21st century. But as he should know by now, time waits for no man, not even the king of England.

These affirmations are great to listen to before bed, first thing in the morning, on a coffee break, at the beach, or any time you need a daily dose of inspiration! By listening to these affirmations, we are bombarding our subconscious minds with powerful, positive statements that will move us toward our goals automatically. In essence, by listening to these affirmations over and over, we are actually reprogramming our mental computer to achieve more health, more wealth, more love, and more happiness right now!

At a glance, life is perfect for Del Bellator. She's getting the hang of her magic, the shop she runs with her friends is thriving, and she has a hot almost-boyfriend in the form of were-demon Roarke Fallon. But nothing is ever as it seems.

My heart doesn’t beat, it ticks. It’s been that way since I was 16 years old and I caught my sister in bed with my boyfriend. I gave my heart to a boy who didn’t deserve it, then spent the next few years indulging in hard drugs and even harder sex. Life is easier when you don’t get attached. Casual. No commitments. That’s the rule. At least it was before he came along.

As both a modern man and medieval king, David is committed to transforming medieval England into his own version of Avalon. Not everyone supports his ideals, however, and having offended the pope by welcoming Jews and heretics into England, David is summoned to Canterbury to explain himself.

Acius, the darkest fallen angel in the world, knows what I am. And he wants me to be his queen, to be his puppet. He’ll stop at nothing, which leaves me with only one choice. Kill him. Normally, my prey run from me. But he’s the hunter too. When he delivers word of his plan to destroy Magic’s Bend with an enormous serpent, it’s obviously a trap meant to ensnare me. But I have no choice. To save my town, I must skirt the edge of death. I must outrun him and outwit him, or we will all lose our homes, our lives. Everything.

November 1291. Meg and Llywelyn gather their family at Rhuddlan Castle to celebrate their seventh anniversary and David's 23rd birthday. But the joyful reunion goes grievously awry when an old enemy raises the banner of rebellion, followed immediately by an even more catastrophic betrayal by an old friend. Meanwhile, facing war at every turn and still haunted by his decision to leave Cassie and Callum in the modern world, David chooses a dangerous path forward, one that will either change the course of the future forever or burn his world to ashes.

When we think of the forces driving cancer, we don’t necessarily think of evolution. But evolution and cancer are closely linked, for the historical processes that created life also created cancer. The Cheating Cell delves into this extraordinary relationship, and shows that by understanding cancer’s evolutionary origins, researchers can come up with more effective, revolutionary treatments.

Muscles. Mandy’s work was supposed to be regulated to muscles. Well, muscles and ligaments and tendons...and general body health and - Sigh. She was blabbering as usual, but muscles combined with lips that were way too kissable and a pair of sharp blue eyes that pierced right through all of her carefully erected defenses had a way of doing that to a girl. Blane was her fantasy - literally her nightly fantasy. He was sexy, strong, talented, and normally she would have thrown herself at his feet and begged for a night - or, cough, more - showing him exactly what that fantasy was.

Two species lived in peaceful coexistence on the planet Demoth until a deadly plague wiped out millions of the winged Ooloms while leaving humans untouched, helpless to do more than ease the suffering of their alien friends and neighbors. Faye Smallwood saw the horror firsthand, caring for the plague victims in her fahter's hospital. She was there when he discovered the cure that made him famous. She was also there when a freak accident killed him.

Baltimore, 1966. When Maddie Schwartz, having recently left her husband of over 20 years, helps Baltimore police find a murdered girl, her assistance leads to a job at the city’s afternoon newspaper. Working at the newspaper offers Maddie the opportunity to make her name, and she has found just the story to do it: a missing woman whose body was discovered in the a city park lake. Cleo Sherwood was a young African American woman. No one seems to know or care why she was killed except Maddie - and the dead woman herself.

Is it possible for books to dream? For books to dream within books? Is there a literary subterranean that would facilitate ingress and exit points through these dreams? These are some of the questions posed by David Keenan's masterly fifth novel, Monument Maker, an epic romance of eternal summer and a descent, into history, into the horrors of the past; a novel with a sweep and range that runs from the siege of Khartoum and the conquest of Africa in the 19th century through the Second World War and up to the present day.

Bracken Casey. Our hometown’s playboy. My brother’s best friend. The man I love. He doesn’t do girlfriends. He doesn’t do commitments. And he doesn’t see me as anything more than his best friend’s little sister. Until one night changes everything. A drunken kiss leads to a drunken screw. Now he can’t keep his hands off of me, and I can’t say no. Rules are set: No one can find out. It can’t lead anywhere. But rules were always meant to be broken. And that’s exactly what we are doing. Breaking them all. Something bad is bound to happen.

With the sudden disappearance of Iannis, the Chief Mage, Solantha has erupted into pandemonium. Citizens are rioting in the streets, the Mages Guild is on a misguided warpath, and shifters and humans are fleeing the city in droves. Ridden with guilt, Sunaya defies the Mages Guild and goes off in search of Iannis, trekking into dangerous, uncivilized territory to try and make things right.