Showing results by narrator "Nicola Barber" in All Categories

Paris in the 1920s: It is a city of intoxicating ambition, passion, art, and discontent, where louche jazz venues like the Chameleon Club draw expats, artists, libertines, and parvenus looking to indulge their true selves. It is at the Chameleon where the striking Lou Villars, an extraordinary athlete and scandalous cross-dressing lesbian, finds refuge among the club's loyal denizens, including the rising photographer Gabor Tsenyi, the socialite and art patron Baroness Lily de Rossignol, and the caustic American writer Lionel Maine.

When her father, Robert the Bruce, becomes King of Scotland, Marjorie Bruce becomes a princess. But Edward Longshanks, the ruthless King of England, has set his sights on Robert and his family. Marjorie is captured and imprisoned in a wooden cage in the center of a town square, exposed to wind, rain, the taunts of the townspeople, and the scorn of Longshanks himself. Marjorie knows that despite her suffering and pain, she is the daughter of noble Robert the Bruce and she will make her father, and her country, proud. For a true princess is a princess, whether in a castle or in a cage.

Hope is in short supply, but courage runs deep as the Salamancan hunters recover from a devastating loss. Jenn knows she must rally her team against the Cursed Ones, but her focus is shattered. She’s torn between passion for Antonio, who once fought by her side, and hate for the bloodthirsty vampire he’s become. His volatility is tearing apart their team...and Jenn’s trust.

When Timothy Curwen’s check bounces, Dido Hoare is amazed. Curwen had been a good customer, spending freely at her antiquarian bookshop. The morning paper says that Curwen committed suicide, but the police soon suspect murder. When Dido sets out either to retrieve the book or to obtain payment of it, her quest leads her down a twisted trail of cover-up and betrayal surrounding Tim’s death.

When Dido Hoare, antiquarian bookseller and single mother, receives a frantic call for help in the middle of the night, she rushes to her friend (and nanny's) side. Dido has no idea that she is about to enter a world where no one is what they appear to be and there is danger all around. Dido arrives at Phyllis's apartment building to find that the lights in the hallway have all been shattered and that the apartment has clearly been burglarized.

A year after the events that killed her sister and turned her into a siren, Vanessa is desperately trying to put her family back together and reclaim a “normal” life. But no matter how many times she swims, or how much salt water she drinks, she can feel herself getting weaker and weaker. She has no idea how to survive as a siren and she doesn’t want to know the truth about her newly discovered identity. It’s just too horrifying.

There once was a princess lost in a forest, terribly distraught, who stumbled upon a talking iron stove in the middle of the forest. The stove told the princess he could direct her back to her father's kingdom if she promised one thing - that she would return and marry him. She was scared, but agreed, and made her way back to her father. Her father did not want his only daughter to marry an iron stove, so they tried to trick the stove by sending first the miller's daughter, and then the swineherd's daughter. He was not tricked, so soon the king relented and sent his daughter.

To escape from bad memories and nightmares in London, antiquarian book dealer Dido Hoare takes time off to visit a childhood friend, Lizzy Waring. Lizzy lives in the picturesque village of Somerset with her husband and his family. The Warings own Monksdanes, an idyllic Georgian mansion; it appears the perfect place for an over-active London native to rest and recuperate. At first Dido is enchanted by the surroundings. But it's not long before she realizes, to her dismay, that the postcard beauty is just a faade - there's a much darker reality below the surface.

Jenn has lived and trained at Spain's Sacred Heart Academy Against the Cursed Ones. She is among the few who have pledged to defend humanity or die trying. But the vampires are gaining power, and the battle has only just begun. Forced to return home after death takes a member of her family, Jenn discovers that San Francisco is now a vampire strong-hold. As a lone hunter apart from her team, Jenn is isolated and at risk. She craves the company of her fighting partner, Antonio: his protection, his reassurance, his touch.

The Black Prince of England hungers to capture the lands of France, and Sir Hyatt Laidley is just the knight for the task. In exchange for years of faithful service, Hyatt will receive both land - and lady - of De La Noye in Acquitane. When Hyatt and his men attack, both lord and castle fall, but the young and newly widowed Aurelie is not so easily conquered. Impassioned by the subjugation of her people, Aurelie pledges to forever honor her late husband. She may be condemned to marry the English bastard, but her heart will never yield!

Trying to build her fledgling shop and keep her young son and cat fed, Dido Hoare, London's most intrepid antiquarian bookseller, needs some good luck. Her break comes when the aged and daunting Clare Templeton Forbes, the ex-lover of a celebrated American modernist poet, offers Dido her prized personal library - a bookseller's dream come true.

Alphege was born the son of a King, whose mother died in childbirth. His father remarried a new queen who also bore him a child. The queen desired for her son to be the rightful heir, so from the very beginning she looked for ways to rid the kingdom of Alphege. One day, Alphege went on a journey to visit his aunt in a far-off land and an evil fairy cast a spell on him that turned him into a green monkey. His father soon died and the queen's son became the new king. Years passed by until the kingdom discovered the truth of the green monkey that appeared in the kingdom.

There is a fine line between love and sacrifice. Antonio would do anything for his beloved fighting partner Jenn. He protects her, even suppresses his vampire cravings to be with her. Together, they defend humanity against the Cursed Ones. But tensions threaten to fracture their hunting team and his loyalty - and his love - is called into question.

There once was a fisherman who sold all his catches to the king. One day, the fisherman caught a golden crab, which he set aside instead of selling it to the king. Much to the surprise of the fisherman and his wife, the golden crab could talk! He requested that the fisherman go to the king and tell him that he wished to marry his youngest daughter.

Antiquarian bookshop owner Dido Hoare has a lot on her mind these days. In her second appearance, Dido is trying to run her store, juggling single motherhood with her infant son Ben, worrying about her aging father, Barnabas, and her on-again, off-again relationship with a married police officer. The last thing she needs is to find Tom Ashe, a homeless man with whom she has struck up an odd friendship, apparently deathly ill on her doorstop.

Anne Gifford's dowry - or lack thereof - is of no concern to Sir Dylan DeFrayne. Wrapped in each other's arms, what more could they possibly need? Yet the young lovers' passion can never be sanctioned - the DeFraynes and Giffords have been sworn enemies for decades. Lest more blood be shed, the two must keep their affair a secret…and plot their elopement. Clad in threadbare hand-me-downs, Anne never expects the powerful and aged Brennan Forbes to remember her face, let alone propose marriage.

It's the dawn of the 22nd century, and the world has fallen apart. Decades of war and resource depletion have toppled governments. The ecosystem has collapsed. A new dust bowl sweeps the American West. The United States has become a nation of migrants - starving masses of nomads who seek out a living in desert wastelands and encampments outside government seed-distribution warehouses. In this new world, there is a new power.

A manuscript of a brief lecture Lewis Carroll once gave, Feeding the Mind discusses the importance of not only feeding one's body, but one's mind, as well. He wittily puts forth connections between the diet of the body and mind, and gives helpful tips on how to best digest knowledge in the brain. Lewis Carroll (1832-1898) was an English author, best known for his works Alice's Adventures in Wonderland and Through the Looking-Glass. He is prized for his ability to deal with word play, logic, and fantasy.

In love and war, some oaths are meant to be broken.… Riding into the arena under the furling blazon of the blue falcon, Sir Conan de Corbney accepts a token from the young beauty Lady Chandra, sparking a romance foretold long ago. That is, unless Conan’s mother can help it. Colluding with her son’s rival, Sir Tedric, Lady Udele secretly arranges a more lucrative marriage for her son and weds him to Edwina - Chandra’s older sister - while Sir Tedric claims the fiery Chandra for himself. Thus begins the star-crossed lovers’ quest, amidst treachery and betrayal, for the path back to each other’s arms.

Their love was meant to be. When Megan Rosenberg moves to Ireland, everything in her life seems to fall into place. After growing up in America, she's surprised to find herself feeling at home in her new school. She connects with a group of friends, and she is instantly drawn to darkly handsome Adam DeRÍs. But Megan is about to discover that her feelings for Adam are tied to a fate that was sealed long ago - and that the passion and power that brought them together could be their ultimate destruction.