Showing results by narrator "Jilly Bond" in All Categories

49-year-old Tilly Thomas would never have known any different if she hadn’t unexpectedly turned up at hubby Robin’s office to surprise him with an off-the-cuff evening at the theatre. Instead, the surprise is on Tilly when she interrupts Robin and his young PA in a compromising situation.

France eagerly awaits the day the young king, Louis XV, comes of age and breaks free from the rule of his ministers. The country hopes Louis will bring back glory and prosperity to France. However, he is too preoccupied with the thrills of hunting and gambling to notice the power struggle going on in his own court. Soon the king is introduced to the pleasures of mistresses, and a succession of lovers follows.

When you don't know The Rules it's hard to stay safe. After a traumatic incident, Aster finds that her blood work comes back with some unusual readings. Unsurprising, as she's the last of an alien race called the Kibsu. But Aster doesn't know this. Immediately, Aster finds herself the focus of a hunt, with her mortal enemies, the Trackers, on one side, and the American government on the other. There seems to be nowhere she can run. But help often comes from the most unexpected quarter.

Wallis Simpson, the twice-divorced American woman for whom Edward VIII abdicated in 1936, ended her life as the prisoner of her lawyer who would not allow anyone - friend, foe or journalist - to visit her in her Paris flat. Rose Tremain takes this true story and transforms it into an imaginative and ironic fiction. Her thesis is that Wallis, gaga and bed-ridden, has forgotten the king who gave up an empire for love of her. The other stories in this magnificent collection range over a variety of themes, equally original and unexpected.

Dutiful daughter Arabella Shelley is bitterly unhappy at home with her tyrannical father. Both her sisters have run away and the future looks bleak until handsome Rafe Calne, Viscount Hadleigh, sweeps her off her feet. A few weeks, later pregnant and abandoned, Bella sets out to force Viscount...

IN WARTIME, THE RULES OF LOVE CHANGE … 1854. Britain is fighting a gruesome war. There has been no news of Lucy Gray since she eloped with handsome and impetuous Captain Charlie Harvington and embarked with him to the Crimea. Dorothea Gray will risk anything to heal the rift with her little...

From the day she was born, Charlotte won the hearts of her subjects and yet behind the scenes she was used, abused and victimized by rivalries-between her parents; between her Father (the Prince Regent, later George IV) and (Mad King) George III: between her tutors, governesses and other members of her discordant household; and ultimately between the Whigs and the Tories. Her death in childbirth-the result of medical incompetence-was followed by an unseemly scramble to produce a substitute heir.

In this exciting adaptation of the novel by H.G. Wells set in 1900, we join the eccentric professor Cavor and the rakish free loading Charles Bedford on their extraordinary journey to the moon in a huge metal sphere resplendent with drape curtains, gentleman’s arm chairs and brass fittings. Once upon the moon’s surface they discover more than they bargained for—within the centre of the moon there is life! Taken prisoner by the calculating Selenites, our heroes and their crew are soon subjected to mind experiments and terror.

Edward the Second has been barbarously murdered in Berkeley Castle on the orders of his wife Queen Isabella and her lover, and 15-year-old Edward the Third is now king. Young Edward has already fallen in love with Philippa of Hainault and, to prevent him enquiring into the details of his father’s death, Isabella allows the marriage to take place. While some suggest that Edward has a claim on the French throne, he is reluctant to pursue it.

Fifteenth-century Spain is rent with intrigue and threatened by civil war. Here, the young Isabella becomes the pawn of her half-crazed mother and a virtual prisoner at the licentious court of her half-brother, Henry IV. At just sixteen years old, is she already fated to be the victim of the Queen's revenge, the Archbishop's ambition and the lust of lecherous Don Pedro Girón?

Lizzy Baxter is thrilled when her family moves to Cornwall-she's always loved the beach. Lizzy doesn't realise, but she has a special connection with the sea-and the mystical mermaids and silver dolphins who swim there. But there's much more to the beautiful blue-green world than magic. The veil sea queen is plotting to steal something precious-something that belongs to Lizzy. The Mermaid Curse is a perfect blend of fantasy and reality.

Eve was just eight years old when, as a Jewish girl in a Berlin school, the rumblings of the Nazis' rise to power began to threaten everything she knew. Fortunately, her parents managed to get the family out of Germany and start a new life in London. The horrors of war were just a part of the past - until the day when Eve inherited a treasured family notebook that hid an amazing secret.

Stranded in France, Meg finds passage to England with injured soldier Major Ross Brandon. Ross's dark, searching eyes are those of a man with the weight of the world on his shoulders... It would be wrong to fall for Ross. But when he offers her a job as his temporary housekeeper she can't refuse - and soon sensible Meg is scandalously tempted to move from servants’ quarters to the master's bedroom!

Forgot to include AI for Penny For Your Secrets by Anna Lee Huber (design): The Great War may be over, but for many, there are still obstacles on the home front. Reconciling with her estranged husband makes Verity sympathetic to her friend Ada's marital difficulties. Bourgeois-bred Ada, recently...

Each month best friends Claudia, Sal, Ella and Laura meet for drinks, celebrating 45 years of friendship. Sal had spent a lifetime building her career, but she hadn't banked on the one thing over which she had no control. Claudia loved her urban existence. But, as many women will know, other people's needs always seem to come first. Ella is ready to try something different. But she hadn't bargained on quite such a radical change. And Laura succumbed to the oldest cliché in the book.

Anna Fehrback is not yet 21, the picture of innocent beauty-and a deadly assassin with seven kills to her name. Recruited by the Nazis under threats of reprisals against her family, she has served as a double agent in the war, secretly spying for the British. Now, as France falls to Germany, she faces a new mission: go to Russia and assassinate Stalin.

Cliff's End Cottage is a local landmark. Perched on the South Devon coast, its garden has begun slowly toppling into the sea, yet the elderly and infamously stubborn owner, Stella, refuses to leave her home. When Holly, a young journalist and single mum struggling to make ends meet, decides to interview Stella about her life, at first she's given short shrift. However, helped by a slice or two of cake and a couple of friendly cats, a tentative friendship begins to develop between the two lonely women.

Germany, 1945: The Third Reich has collapsed and MI6 are retiring beautiful but deadly Anna Fehrbach, aka the Countess von Widerstand. But Anna is still wanted by the Russians for an attempt on the life of Stalin, and when they trace her to her Scottish refuge where she's under the care of her MI6 handler and lover Clive Bartley, Anna escapes the only way she knows how: She shoots her way out....

When the entire village is invited to a garden party for a mysterious announcement, nobody expects it to end with a man being thrown to his death. In a race against the clock, Julia must juggle her blossoming romance with DI Brown whilst interpreting her lodger's strange behaviour to uncover the truth behind the untimely death. With members of her family in the frame, will Julia like what she discovers?

When Alessandro Marchese strides into the headquarters of his latest acquisition, one person is particularly struck by his awesome presence. Cassie's new boss is the man who left her pregnant with twins and now it seems he's forgotten her altogether. But the Italian is more affected by Cassie than he lets on.... Now Alessandro needs just one more thing to complete the picture - Cassie, with his wedding ring on her finger.