Showing results by narrator "Helen Taylor" in All Categories

At the age of just 20, Francine has been working for 10 years. From the meanest streets that Victorian London possessed, she traveled Europe, learning how to survive and even prosper. Now back in London, in the new Edwardian era, she runs an agency saving young ladies from false suitors. With the help of her friends - ex-governess Miss Philpott, her footman fiancé Gilbert, and the feisty, tiny ex-kitchen maid Tilly - Francine changes all the lives she touches.

London 1818: Destitute, disillusioned, and desperate, Lady Rosalind Marlowe sets the tongues of Regency London wagging when she becomes the "Mayfair Thief". Targeting only those who had won large sums of money from her father, bleeding him dry and causing him to take his own life, she decides to teach them a lesson. She takes something valuable from each, leaving her calling card with a bible quote behind. On her last outing, she is caught red-handed.

When Bethany is saddled with an unwanted, unrefined, and decidedly common guardian, she must polish him up before he’s fit for good society. As for Willoughby Winter, all that stands between him and his inheritance is to marry Bethany off. Can he succeed in his efforts before his past becomes known, or will she manage to distract him from his goal - by hook or by crook?

A Baker’s Dozen - A collection of 13 classic Christmas stories.

Hugh Brandforth, the seventh Earl of Ormsley, returns to his estate after wasting several weeks searching for a bride. He is looking forward to some much-needed rest and recreation. All is not as he left it, however, and within the space of an hour, he finds himself berated by his old nurse, assaulted by an eccentric termagant, and subjected to the disrespect of her coachman.

Lady Lewisham is an independent woman of means who has just emerged from her year of mourning. But as a young, beautiful, single widow (with an intelligent mind to boot), it seems she is a target for unwanted attention from ill-fitting suitors and mindless tittle-tattle from the gossip-mongers. Little does Sophie know, however, that when she encounters the handsome but devout bachelor Sir Philip Bray, her life is about to change. Could Sir Philip be the hero she thinks she does not need or want?

Angelique, living with the Duke and Duchess of Saith and their daughter beautiful Rosalind feels too distant from hope to want anything. And then she sees handsome, wicked Sir Rafael Villiers, and she knows her Destiny. It is time for the plain and timid Miss Torrington to remember she is also a de Chabernet, and her grandmother's daughter. But Villiers is interested in her beautiful cousin - so how can she get his attention?

Seven years ago, Miss Hayes’ world was turned upside down when she lost her father, her betrothed, and any prospect of a comfortable future. Too proud to live upon the charity of others, she became a teacher at Miss Wolfraston’s Seminary for Young Ladies. She has no wish to reenter the society that turned its back on her. But she has spent five years nurturing her pupil, Miss Charlotte Fletcher, and when she is asked to be her companion for the summer, her affection for the young lady overcomes her reservations.

Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is a changed man, and not for the better, it seems. The prime suspect in a terrible crime he did not commit, Gredge launches an impassioned defense. The problem is that he does not know if he is guilty or innocent. Midnight Gunn must uncover the cause of Gredge’s unsettling behavior before the inspector loses his mind, his job, or very possibly his life. It is a task that must be conducted with the utmost caution, as Midnight’s own conduct comes under close scrutiny from all directions, putting him and those he loves at risk.

Juliet's plans to wed Lord Elbourne come to naught when she discovers he's obliged to wed an heiress instead. To salvage her dignity, she enters into a ruse with the heiress's brother, whom she views as a rake. Unfortunately, he's also the most attractive man she's ever met. Cody Gryphon will do anything to see his sister Stephanie wed to Lord Elbourne, including entering into a temporary engagement with her romantic rival. Although he intends to return to Texas as soon as his sister is wed, he finds it increasingly difficult to resist Juliet's charms.

Big Cats opens with "Charlotte", in which a young girl with a broken pelvis spies on her voluptuous neighbor during a long, hot summer night, setting the tone of irrepressible curiosity and yearning that is evident throughout the collection. In "Get Away from Me, David", a bank manager tries to overcome his haunted past as he deals with the aftermath of a minor earthquake and the body of a customer who died in the lobby.

Dignified, reserved, and every inch the gentleman, Laurence Westerby, the fifth Viscount Carteret, finds his ordered and predictable world turned on its head when a mysterious lady steps into his private parlor. He thinks her spirited, reckless, and undoubtedly in need of his protection. Confident, frank, and used to managing her own affairs, Miss Cassandra Fenton does not like the role of damsel in distress. Laurence seems determined to help her out of her immediate difficulties, however. His chivalry reminds her of all the reasons she is so unsuited to marriage.

Rookie antiques dealer, Angel Drake, has just made her first deal. She thinks it’s a good one. But the price is higher than she knows. Now she’s implicated in the biggest string of antiques robberies the country’s ever seen. An inherited shop and a new life in the country - the dream Angel loves is in serious danger. She’s out on a limb with nowhere to go, and if there’s any chance of keeping her new home and business, she must find a way to catch the real thieves, and fast. The odd customer wouldn’t hurt either.

Lady Georgianna Voss bids adieu to her friend Marianne with a heavy heart. Before their friendship blossomed, she had been a stranger to affection. She returns to her home uncertain of her reception. She has spurned the advances of the eligible but dull man her mama wished her to marry. Having witnessed the cold, unhappy union between her parents, she is not at all eager to follow their example. Enraged, Lady Westbury sends Georgianna to her impoverished aunt, hoping that she will realize just how much a lady needs a wealthy husband, regardless of her feelings for him.

Scotland 1862. A murder, a terrifying creature, and a battle for his affections were not what Midnight Gunn expected when he journeyed to Scotland for the summer. Bodies are mysteriously disappearing from the city morgue, Midnight’s growing household is in turmoil, and someone or something lurks in the shadows, watching.

She is past the age of falling in love - he does not think he is capable of it. Miss Katherine Lockhart is a woman of sense and reason. She has managed her brother’s household in an efficient manner for years. When he marries she finds her position in his household increasingly untenable and is sent to Helagon, his property in Cornwall. She finds a derelict house, an untamed landscape, and a man with a wild past. Harry, Viscount Treleven has a zest for life and an irrepressible sense of humor.

London, 1860. Midnight Gunn is no ordinary detective - born during a solar eclipse as Halley's Comet blazed a trail through the sky, his supernatural birthright is both a help and a hindrance when solving crimes. Detective Inspector Arthur Gredge of Scotland Yard is the only one who knows Gunn's secret. When the body of a young aristocrat is discovered in a backstreet alley, Gredge enlists Gunn’s help in a race to discover the identity of the notorious Spring-Heeled Jack - the monster that is terrorizing London.

Viscount Derriford likes to keep a low profile. He avoids ton parties and the ladies who frequent them whenever possible, preferring to spend time with his fellow bachelors. A predictable, undemanding existence suits him perfectly. Marriage has never been part of his plans; he is convinced he could never make any woman happy. However, when his aunt dies, leaving him a property in Somerset, this safe, untrammelled existence is threatened by a condition attached to his inheritance. He must accept all invitations proffered by the local gentry.

Robin and Eleanor meet in 1811 at the British estate of Eleanor’s rich aunt Clara. Robin is about to leave to fight in the Napoleonic Wars, and her aunt rules out a marriage between them. Everyone Eleanor knows, including Robin, believe they’ve always lived in these times. But Eleanor has strange glimpses of other eras, dreams that aren’t dreams but memories of other lives. And their time jumps start as their romance deepens. Robin fights in the Boer War, the First and Second World Wars, in Vietnam and Iraq.

Alexander Wraxall, sixth Marquess of Eagleton, worries he may be cursed. Those close to him tend to die, and he believes he is, in part, responsible for their deaths. When he receives a packet of letters from a relative he thought long dead, he embarks on a journey that will change his life forever. Since washing up on the shores of Lake Garda, Nell Marsdon has put her nightmarish history behind her and, in the house of Angelica Montovani, has found some peace. It is shattered by the arrival of the Marquess of Eagleton, a man who represents everything she has learned to despise.