Showing results by narrator "Esther Wane" in All Categories

Daniel Sullivan needs a wife; the bank insists they will only finance his business if he gets married. What's he to do when the woman he's interested in is promised to another?

Heavily pregnant Lady Ottilia Fanshawe should not really be traveling. But when her sister-in-law dies, she goes with her husband Francis to comfort her brother and her two nephews. And of course it's not long before the services of her alter ego, Lady Fan, are required.

Mary Ryan leaves the orphanage and heartbreak behind and follows her friend Katie to Clover Springs to become a mail order bride. She's nervous, but reminds herself that Davy Sullivan must be a nice man or Katie wouldn't have recommended him.

Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life. Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. But to join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders.

Tisaanah bargained away her own freedom to save those she left behind in slavery. Now, bound by her blood pact, she must fight the Orders' war—and Max is determined to protect her at all costs. But when a betrayal tears apart Ara, Max and Tisaanah are pushed into an even bloodier conflict. Tisaanah must gamble with Reshaye's power to claim an impossible victory. And Max, forced into leadership, must confront everything he hoped to forget: his past, and his own mysterious magic. All the while, darker forces loom—far darker, even, than the Orders' secrets.

A Dance of Silver and Shadow: In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale The Twelve Dancing Princesses, there's a lot more at stake than worn out dancing slippers. A Tale of Beauty and Beast: In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale Beauty and the Beast, Beauty will have to use all of her strength and intelligence if she is to outwit her enemies, break a curse, and find true love. A Crown of Snow and Ice: In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale The Snow Queen, one princess is ready to burn down everything in her path.

The second set of interconnected stand-alone fairy tale retellings from the Four Kingdoms series includes The Princess Pact: A Twist on Rumpelstiltskin, A Midwinter's Wedding: A Retelling of The Frog Prince, and The Princess Game: A Reimagining of Sleeping Beauty....

In the wake of a crushing defeat, Tisaanah and Maxatarius have been ripped apart. Tisaanah is desperate to rescue Max from his imprisonment, even as her people's fight for freedom grows more treacherous. But within the walls of Ilyzath, Max's mind is a shadow of what it once was . . . leaving his past a mystery and his future at the mercy of Ara's new, ruthless queen. Meanwhile, in the Fey lands, Aefe has been dragged back into this world by a king who vows to destroy civilizations in her name. But even as her past returns to claim her, her former self is a stranger.

The Princess Companion: This retelling of the classic fairy tale The Princess and the Pea reimagines the risks and rewards that come when one royal family goes searching for a true princess. The Princess Fugitive: In this reimagining of the classic fairy tale Little Red Riding Hood, the girl in the red hood has been swallowed up by the wolf and must decide if she's willing to fight for her freedom. Happily Ever Afters: Sarah and Evelyn have already risked everything to help Ava win a crown. But they soon learn that a coronation is a beginning.

The first three fairy tale retellings from the Return to the Four Kingdoms series: The Secret Princess: A Retelling of The Goose Girl, The Mystery Princess: A Retelling of Cinderella, and The Desert Princess: A Retelling of Aladdin. These interconnected fairy tale retellings each feature a different heroine who finds herself friendless in a strange land and who must fight to save her new home and win her happily ever after.

Clare Cassidy is no stranger to murder. A high school English teacher specializing in the Gothic writer R. M. Holland, she teaches a course on it every year. But when one of Clare’s colleagues and closest friends is found dead, with a line from R. M. Holland’s most famous story, “The Stranger”, left by her body, Clare is horrified to see her life collide with the story lines of her favorite literature.

1796, England. When Lady Ottilia Fanshawe finds herself launched into a river and fighting for her life, she becomes convinced someone pulled her under the water. And when a dead body washes up on the riverbank, her theory becomes a certainty. Lady Fan recognizes the dead woman as someone connected to one of her past cases. Had the woman been spying on her? Was she Lady Fan's attacker? If so, why was she killed? Lady Fan is desperate to unravel the mystery but her dedicated husband, Francis, is determined to keep her out of harm's way.

At the height of the Second World War in England, twenty-two-year-old Nina Woodrow joins the British Royal Air Force and rebels against her careful upbringing by embarking on an illicit affair with an officer. She risks losing everything for Guy Nicholson: her comfortable home, her childhood friends, and, especially, the love of her father, an enigmatic widower.

Twenty-nine-year-old workaholic Libby Dewitt lives by the motto "if you fail to plan, you plan to fail." She's finally about to start her dream life with her fiance, Richard Tomy. Together, they're the perfect power couple - right down to the fact that he's agreed to use their honeymoon to help further her career in mergers and acquisitions. But 10 minutes before the wedding, her dreams dissolve via text message. Libby escapes to Paradise Bay alone. She's got two goals for her trip: devise a plan to get Richard back and convince resort owner Harrison Banks to sell his property.

A horse race in trousers on Rotten Row. Visiting a gaming hall in a dress that would make her mother faint. Sneaking an invitation to a masquerade ball attended by only the wickedest, most debauched members of society.... None of these things are scaring off bookish but strong-willed Amelia Bishop's stuffy, egotistical fiance.

One dark and stormy night, lost and alone, Alyssa finds herself knocking on the door of a castle. After a lifetime spent in the deep forest, Alyssa has no idea what to expect on the other side. What she finds is two unruly young princesses and one very handsome prince. When Alyssa accepts the job of Princess Companion, she knows her life will change. What she doesn't know is that the royal family is about to be swept up in unexpected danger and intrigue, and that she just might be the only thing standing between her kingdom and destruction.

There's an underground black market for arcane things. Akin to the trade in rhino horns or tiger bones, this network traffics in remains of gryphons, faeries, goblins, and other fantastic creatures. When her fiance Vince goes missing, Angela Gough, an American criminology student, discovers he was a part of this secretive trade. It's a big-money business-shadowy, brutal, and sometimes fatal. As the trail leads her deeper into London's dark side, she crosses paths with a crime lord whose life is dedicated to collecting such relics.

Unemployed mill worker Zoe Hart jumps at the opportunity to emigrate to British Columbia in 1863 to find a better life and be reunited with her brother, who fled from home after being accused of a crime. Pastor to miners in the mountains, Abe Merivale discovers an abandoned baby during a routine visit to Victoria and joins efforts with Zoe, one of the newly arrived bride-ship women, to care for the infant. While there, he's devastated by the news from his fiancee in England that she's marrying another man.

Yoga instructor Hadley Jones has loved Chase Williams since high school. Fifteen years later, she still does. And while he hasn't popped the question yet, she knows it's only a matter of time. Little does Hadley know Chase has been busy making wedding plans - just not with her.

When Daisy dreamed of leaving home on an adventure, she never imagined ending up trapped in a tower, cut off from the world and invisible to others. The years pass slowly, leaving Daisy desperate to reclaim her old life, however dull. But her captor has bigger plans, and Daisy knows she can’t just rescue herself. She has to shatter her captor's enchantments forever. When opportunity comes, however, it arrives in an unexpected guise. Young and handsome, Prince Xander has come to rescue a princess from a tower. Instead, he finds himself battling at Daisy's side for the fate of a kingdom.