Showing results by narrator "Amy Soakes" in All Categories

Big, sexy men who don’t relate well to kids need not apply.... Ben Harland is, by his own admission, a bit of a grouch. He doesn’t do soppy chick flicks or cozy home and family. He sure doesn’t need any more drama in his world. But life has a way of biting him in the ass. Cue insta-daddyhood to an eight-year-old girl who lands on his doorstep and an out-of-control attraction to Stewart Island's hot school teacher. Kezia Murphy plays her widow card well. When you don’t trust people not to let you down, you don’t get involved.

Anemone's certain fate has it in for her, until a huge man bursts into her house, insisting he's been woken from his centuries-long sleep to be her personal protector.

Ryan "West" Westlake belongs on the island. It's in his blood and who he is. Nobody can deny that. When Piper Harland walked out of his life years ago, West let her go. He'd never stand in the way of a woman and her dreams. But now that she's back, their past smacks him right in the face. With tempers flared and desires heightened, West just might realize what he lost so long ago. Piper would do anything for her brother - even if means going back to Stewart Island - the one place she swore she'd never go again.

New problems bring new opportunities. After escaping the attack on Varna, Rav, Ari, and friends begin converting an ancient arena into a home defensible against the Weatherblight. For the first time in his life, Ari understands what it means to be a part of a real community. But establishing a new frontier town brings with it a new set of responsibilities. He’s needed as a leader, a cornerstone of the newly growing settlement. He’s needed as a man, to give comfort and intimacy to the women he loves. He’s needed as Lord Stoneblood.

More than a month after Ari’s dramatic departure from Cliffhaven, he still remains adrift. During the long journey south back to Ethereal Tower, he thinks of nothing so much as what he could have done differently to save Kerys and Eva, the two women he loved most. The loss of them affects him like an unhealed wound, painful and prone to tearing open at the slightest touch. He’s left with empty questions, a dormant sword, and a fast dwindling lifespan. Oh, and Rin. Of course, Ari has never been the type to give up easily.

In the hours just before dawn, blasphemous curses echo throughout the stone manor. A knife clatters to the floor, and a feisty young widow is bound, blindfolded, and led to the marriage altar. The king couldn't possibly have sanctioned this farce of a marriage, could he? After all, she alone transformed a few mud huts and starving serfs into a flourishing town, never once hesitating to pay generous taxes to his royal kingdom.

What's your name, sweetheart? That was the first thing. I wasn't his sweetheart, and he should have already known my name. But, that was the moment I became caught in Tyler Lohan's sight. He was wonderful and complicated, and I'd spent my life trying to hate him for being the golden boy who had everything so easy. However, as with all things, Tyler wasn't the person he appeared to be from the outside, and once I saw him - the real him - I fell, and I don't think I ever got back up.

Since her mother died, Rochelle has known nothing but bad luck. Barely scraping through her studies in-between working two jobs while living with her soon-to-be ex-boyfriend—if he’d only listen to her long enough to hear her say it’s over—it’s all she can do to keep it together.

If she can’t bond with a dragon she’ll be expelled for good.... After three unsuccessful terms at Alveria’s Dragon Akademy, 17-year-old tamer trainee Mari has one last chance to bond with a dragon. If she fails, her dream of joining the Dragon Guard alongside the troubled Crown Prince, will be over for good. And that is not something she's willing to accept. Prince Kai has been stuck in his dragon form for two years, making any normal public life impossible.

A new evil creeps across the land of Torvald and its Three Kingdoms, where folktales are nearly all that remains of the glorious dragons’ victorious past. Inyene, a ruthless noblewoman of the Northern Kingdom, enslaves villagers and plunders valuable resources to power mechanical dragons. With them, she’ll conquer her rivals’ territories, ascend the high throne, and unite the realms under a single crown.

This collection contains a mixture of stories about ghosts and contacts from spirits, some by celebrated authors, together with essays on psychical research. As Joseph French notes in the preface, even for the skeptic, tales of ghostly activity retain a distinct fascination. The widespread interest in psychic phenomena in the early twentieth century proved to be a significant stimulus to literary production.

This collection of 35 short poems was first published in 1927, and is a sequel to When We Were Very Young, which was the first anthology of verse dealing with the domestic adventures of Christopher Robin and Winnie the Pooh.

When a mysterious sickness spreads throughout the land and monsters terrorize Alveria, tamer trainee Mari Asadottier and Prince Kai Afkarr-Younger might be the only ones who can stop it. But after three unsuccessful terms at Alveria’s Dragon Akademy, 17-year-old Mari only has one last chance to bond with a dragon. And after two years stuck in his dragon form, Prince Kai’s draconian instincts are growing as powerful and uncontrollable as his magic, leaving him unable to claim his ill father’s throne when Alveria needs him most.

February 1933: When her aunt gifts her 200 pounds, 20-year-old Nancy Wake embarks on a world cruise. Afterward, she becomes a journalist and finds work in Paris. The city is glamorous, brimming with journalists, artists, and refugees. While travelling across Europe on assignments, she catches the eye of wealthy industrialist Henri Fiocca, and destiny intervenes. But as clouds of war swarm over Europe, German troops are on the march. Horrified when she witnesses Nazis whipping Jews on Vienna’s streets, Nancy vows to stop them if she ever has the chance.

As with many of Ostrovsky's plays, the target of the author's satire is the merchant class and the inevitable corruption associated with mercantile endeavors. In Ostrovsky's bitterly realistic world, all personal encounters end in transactions, some humourous and some tragic.

A central theme of Ostrovsky's plays is the inevitable struggle between the demands of personal morality and and those dictated by social propriety. In this grim drama, the dramatist sketches a tragic incident arising from the conflict of two social classes: the petty tradesmen and the nobility. From the coarse environment of the first emerge honest, upright natures like Krasnov, the earnest shokeeper; from the superficial, dawdling culture of the second come weak-willed triflers like the ineffectual landowner, Babayev.

In his short life, Australian poet Barcoft Boake completed 30 poems, the most famous of which is the pastoral lament, "Where the Dead Men Lie", which was first published in the The Bulletin in December, 1891. This collection was prepared and edited by critic and anthologist, A. G. Stephens, who also appended a detailed memoir of the poet.

Two goblins, a snarky treasure map, and the hilarious quest for a lost gem. Magic never caused so many problems. Sounds straightforward enough. But Sneath and Clutter aren't your usual goblins, and the map has plans of its own. Join the brothers on their hilarious adventure as they bumble through caves, almost drown in an icy lake, and are chased by nasty, magical villains. And all for the love of gold and jewels.

No sooner has Narissea successfully recovered the Stone Crown and used its power to fend off Inyene, the evil metal queen, she discovers the crown can’t be removed. And it’s consuming her mind with its poisonous whispers. Irrational commands and uncharacteristic rage burst forth before she considers their impact. Unwittingly, dragons across the land are enslaved by forced obedience to her every word.

In the early Renaissance, a captain born in a noble family must choose. Will he marry the child bride his father has chosen or the woman who has captured his heart? The doctor's assistant is brave, learned, and handles a weapon like a man. Unfortunately, her beauty is beyond compare, and without a dowry, she attracts the attention of a powerful man who would have her as his mistress.