Showing results by narrator "Fiona" in All Categories

Mia knows stress. She’s dealt with it her whole life. So when she gets an opportunity to run a psychology study to help her get into grad school, it should be no problem dealing with the prickly guy she suddenly finds herself paired with. The one she had a secret crush on last year. The one who refuses to let anyone close. The one she’s discovering by the day may have a softer side than he lets anyone else see...

This short novel, set after the events of The Book of Deacon, follows the blessed and cursed life of Jade Rinton. Stripped of her family and kept in a tall tower by a fierce dragon due to the scheming of a mysterious stranger, Jade seems to be living in a twisted fairy tale. She soon learns, though, that fate has its own ideas of who should play each part, and that family is where you find it.

"Keep calm and carry on." That's what Katherine Bateson's father told her, and that's what she's trying to do: when her father goes off to the war, when her mother sends Kat and her brother and sister away from London to escape the incessant bombing, even when the children arrive at Rookskill Castle, an ancient, crumbling manor on the misty Scottish highlands.

Meet the members of the Equinox Society: Claire, a caustic but compassionate demonologist; Amanda, a witch who wants to help; William, an occultist living in a haunted brownstone; and other ordinary people who share a fascination with the bizarre and otherworldly. Their reports explore private fears and personal demons, offering glimpses of the nightscape all of us inhabit. A troubled vampire who stalks an abandoned shopping mall. A dead teen who emails from the past. An arsonist who starts real fires with her dreams.

Orphaned at birth to labor in a workhouse, Oliver Twist is barely ten when he flees for London. There he befriends young Jack Dawkins, who educates the innocent Oliver in the ways of survival. When Jack draws Oliver into a gang of juvenile pickpockets, tutored by the unscrupulous Fagin, Oliver’s corruptive influences grow. But for a boy taught only wrong, Oliver must hold on to what he knows is right.

A satirical romp through the lives of 20-something queer ne'er-do-wells in Wales. Caroline and her Dom live out their normal lives among the poverty, alcoholics, and street preachers of Swansea. But when Dom and his straight roommate fall in love - a passionate, secret, nonsexual love - their lives are transformed into a queer chaos. The battle between preachers and drag queens, skinheads and sex workers, boyfriend and girlfriend, is set to change the city forever in an inventive story that embraces queer life today.

Grief was gnawing at me, trapping my body in a cycle of pain with no offer of relief, making me restless and not letting me go. I desired liberosis, to care less about things. I desperately sought inner and outer liberation. I was having sleepless nights. My soul knew the solution, but my body was not listening until the moment came when I just longed to leave. I wished to free myself from this situation, wipe it from my being, and surround myself with the wilderness.

In 1956, a small group of evangelical Christian missionaries and their families journeyed to the rainforest in Ecuador intending to convert the Waorani, a people who had never had contact with the outside world. The plan was known as Operation Auca. After spending days dropping gifts from an aircraft, the five men in the party rashly entered the “intangible zone.” They were all killed, leaving their wives and children to fend for themselves.

An intimate three-volume collection of moving letters from the private writings of three of the most popular writers of the 19th century, presented in a dramatised setting.

With revenge on her mind, 21-year-old Domino Vincent travels to the glamorous five-star Harbor Hotel in Montenegro, determined to beat its playboy owner, Luca Moretti, at his own game. When he suggests a bet she can’t refuse, Domino finds herself playing for so much more than her family’s honor and, in return, getting far more than she ever bargained for. What started out as a gamble turns into a month-long forfeit as her enemy’s captive. Instead of being desperate to escape, she is strangely drawn to the brooding billionaire and his dangerous past.

This summer is going to be different. This summer you are going to amaze yourself with just how good it can get. You will notice the heat less, have more fun, and find it easier to dress in a way that makes you happy too. Don't let another year go by when you just tolerate summer instead of really getting the most out of it. Life is too short!

In ancient Ireland, an island ruled by kings and druids, the nuns of Saint Brigid are fighting to keep their monastery alive. When the bones of Brigid go missing from their church, the theft threatens to destroy all they have worked for. No one knows the danger they face better than Sister Deirdre, a young nun torn between two worlds.

Every lady has a secret. A secret so humiliating, embarrassing, scandalous, or disgraceful that you haven’t told a soul—not your closest friends, family, lovers, or doctors. There is so much shame surrounding hiding secrets, and, frankly, enough is enough. The truth is, there is power and freedom in releasing those dirty little secrets out into the big, bad universe. It gives you that same sweet relief as taking off an underwire bra at the end of a long, crappy day. That’s why Keltie Knight, Becca Tobin, and Jac Vanek—hosts of the LadyGang podcast—set their secrets free.

Their first meeting could have been better. He ran into her and her hot coffee and raced off with a burn and a snarl. Their second meeting should have been better. He lay naked, face down on her massage table while she stared at him in horror. Being attracted to Mr. Tall, Dark, and Rude hadn't been on her agenda. Shelby just wants him out of her massage clinic before he recognizes her or she says something obnoxious before jumping that sexy body, which wouldn’t be professional, at all. But when Shelby Vanzant and Shane Collins meet again, third time's the charm.

Kate Fullerton, talented tea designer and now co-owner of The Tea Chest, could never have imagined that she'd be flying from Brisbane to London, risking her young family's future, to save the business she loves from the woman who wants to shut it down. Meanwhile, Leila Morton has just lost her job; and if Elizabeth Clancy had known today was the day she would appear on the nightly news, she might at least have put on some clothes. Both need to move on.

Noosa Heads, 1987: Newly divorced Cynthia has returned to her home town from Los Angeles to reconnect with her 19-year-old daughter, who is pregnant and determined not to listen to her mother's advice. Cynthia's former best friend, Lorraine, has been stuck mowing lawns as part of a business she shares with her husband - his dream, not hers. When Cynthia convinces Lorraine to join the local Sunshine Gardening Society, they meet young widow Elizabeth, and rootless, heartbroken Kathy.

Wendy Darling has a perfectly agreeable life with her parents and brothers in wealthy London, as well as a budding romance with Booth, the neighborhood bookseller's son. But one night, while their parents are at a ball, the charmingly beautiful Peter Pan comes to the Darling children's nursery, and - dazzled by this flying boy with god-like powers - they follow him out of the window and straight on to morning into Neverland, an intoxicating island of freedom.

Across the ruins of Ferron, the rotstorm ever rages. From its nightmarish depths, demons and goblins and rust-folk have struck forth and claimed the Northern Marches as their sanctuary. Through the Undal Protectorate, the land is gripped in a Claw Winter, a frozen mirror of the punishment laid down to the west. Abandoned on the island of Riven, Floré and her comrades must find their way back to the Protectorate. Floré's daughter Marta is hidden somewhere in the north, dying from the skein-magic she cannot yet control. And now, a centuries-old problem threatens to cause new problems for Floré.

I must write this account, and when I have finished, I will burn it. Buried deep within the archives of a convent in medieval France is an untold story of love, loss, and wonder, and the two girls at the heart of it all. Dolssa is an upper-crust city girl with a secret lover and an uncanny gift. Branded a heretic, she’s on the run from the friar who condemned her mother to death by fire, and wants Dolssa executed, too. Botille is a matchmaker and a tavern-keeper, struggling to keep herself and her sisters on the right side of the law in their seaside town of Bajas.

With its old-world glamour, sprawling seaside grounds and air of possibility, the Duchess Hotel might just be the place to help four women rediscover who they are and bring some spark back to their lives. When Joan decides to pick up a brush and start painting for the first time in decades, she inspires Frances and Kirrily - and, eventually, Alison - to join her. Over canvas, conversation and creativity they will learn that you should always hold onto your dreams and that new friends can give you the courage to live life on your own terms.