Showing results by narrator "Tavia Gilbert"

Frieda is one of Emily’s closest friends, a young girl she saved from Mountaintop and brought back to Whitehall. But Frieda found herself the victim of a deadly soul-destroying plot - and the true target may well be Emily herself. Now, after Emily saved Frieda from a magician who was slowly driving her mad, Frieda stands accused of attempted murder - and worse. She must now stand trial for her crimes. Worse, Fulvia - Matriarch of House Ashworth - has returned. Humiliated by Emily years ago, Fulvia burns for revenge - and the chance to regain her lost power.

The post of Head Girl of Whitehall looks fantastic on anyone's resume. It places the lucky winner on equal terms to the staff, granting them authority, power, and responsibility that no other student can even dream of possessing. Naturally, Emily doesn't want it. But when she returns to Whitehall for her sixth and final year, she discovers that the staff has elected her to the post - and refusal isn't an option. Reluctantly, she starts to carry out her new duties, unaware that deadly enemies are waiting in the shadows, preparing themselves to strike at her when her back is turned.

Emily is a teenage girl pulled from our world into a world of magic and mystery by a necromancer who intends to sacrifice her to the dark gods. Rescued in the nick of time by an enigmatic sorcerer, she discovers that she possesses magical powers and must go to Whitehall School to learn how to master them. There, she learns that the locals believe she is a "Child of Destiny" - someone whose choices might save or damn their world, a title that earns her both friends and enemies.

The necromancers have finally resumed their assault on the Allied Lands, sending a mighty army across the Desert of Death and into the Kingdom of Tarsier. Countless farms, villages, and towns have already been destroyed as the host makes its way northwards, striking deep into the kingdom's most vulnerable lands. Hundreds of thousands have been killed, thousands more will be killed when they are sacrificed for power. If the necromancers win the coming battle, it may be the beginning of the end.

You're waiting for your beloved husband to get home from work. You're making dinner, looking forward to hearing about his day. That's the last thing you remember. You wake up in hospital, with no idea how you got there. They tell you that you were in an accident; you lost control of your car whilst driving in a dangerous part of town. The police suspect you were up to no good. But your husband refuses to believe it. Your best friend isn't so sure. And even you don't know what to believe....

Thrown back in time after the spells binding Whitehall School together nearly collapsed, Emily finds herself in the days of Lord Whitehall. But everything she knows about the past is a lie. The Whitehall Commune is in hiding from a great and terrible foe, while some of the legendary founders bicker like children and others call on deadly and untrustworthy entities with agendas of their own.

The war is over. But the scars remain. Emily's New Learning has been good for Beneficence. In the years since she arrived on the Nameless World, the city has been at the forefront of technological advancement and social development. Thousands of newcomers are moving to the city, railways span the gorge and drive into Zangaria, the first steamboats are plowing the ocean wave and a whole new banking system is reshaping national and international trade. A true golden age appears to be on hand. But all is not well.

After completing her first year of learning magic at Whitehall School, Emily accepts an invitation from Princess Alassa to accompany her on her progress back to her home country of Zangaria, where the princess may meet her future husband. Alassa, who was a spoiled brat before she met Emily, wants to show off her friend - and impress potential suitors. For Emily, it is a chance to relax and explore a world very different to Earth, meet new people and come to terms with her reputation in the Nameless World.

Southern girl Verity Long is about as high society as her pet skunk. Which is why she’s surprised as anyone when the new head of the Sugarland social set invites her to join the "it" girls. But this is no social call. Verity’s new client needs her to go in undercover and investigate strange happenings at the group’s historic headquarters. But while spirits are whispering hints of murder, the socialites are more focused on Verity’s 1978, avocado-green Cadillac. And when Verity stumbles upon a fresh body, she's going to need the long-dead citizens of Sugarland to help her solve the crime.

After a brief visit to the Blighted Lands in hopes of recovering something useful from Shadye's Dark Fortress, Emily returns to Whitehall for her fourth year, bracing herself for the exams that will determine her future. But as she resumes her education, she discovers that the shadows of the past are hanging over the school. A teacher wants to break her, some of her friends are acting oddly, and, worst of all, a boy intends to court her.

Verity Long's new ghost-hunting career has gone to the dogs - literally. A spirit is releasing animals from their cages at the Sugarland Animal Rescue Center. It's an unusual haunting that gets even more bizarre when she uncovers a new clue in a case of a missing child. Verity vows to reunite the lost boy with his family. And when she does, Verity just might answer the age-old question: Do all dogs go to heaven?

The new grandmaster of Whitehall doesn't want Emily in his school. She's dangerous, he thinks. The only way he'll allow her to return to Whitehall is if she chooses to be a probationary student, a student who can be expelled at the slightest excuse, a student who has to work for one of the professors. Reluctantly, unwilling to leave her first true home, Emily accepts. But she rapidly discovers that she's about to be pushed right to the limit.

After her victory over Master Grey, Emily wants nothing more than to relax and give herself time to recover from the duel. Her magic, pushed to the limits, is no longer reliable, forcing her to learn to control it from scratch. Every time she delays using her magic, she risks headaches...or worse. But she must return to Whitehall to complete her fourth-year exams and bid farewell to those of her friends who are not returning for fifth year. And then, she must return to Zangaria to play her role in Princess Alassa's wedding to Jade.

When your fairy godmother threatens to enslave you with a curse - when a malevolent piper solves your rat problem but steals your children - when you seek revenge on the prince who turned you into a frog - who can you turn to in your hour of need? The band of scoundrels known far and wide as the Bastard Champions - the swashbuckling trio who travel a world of legend, seeking adventure and righting wrongs - as long as there's enough gold to be earned.

A plot is being hatched at Mountaintop Academy, a plot that threatens the lives of Emily and her friends...and the integrity of the Allied Lands. In a desperate bid to uncover the secrets of Mountaintop and recover her stolen notes, Emily goes undercover into Mountaintop, a mission that may cost her everything.

Humans expanded into space...only to find a universe populated with multiple alien species bent on their destruction. Thus was the Colonial Union formed, to help protect us from a hostile universe. The Colonial Union used the Earth and its excess population for colonists and soldiers. It was a good arrangement...for the Colonial Union. Then the Earth said: no more.

In the summer between second and third year at Whitehall, Emily accompanies Lady Barb on her rounds of the Cairngorm Mountains, bringing magical help to the locals and searching for new magicians. For Emily, tired and broken after the events of Study in Slaughter, it should be a chance to relax as well as to visit a new part of the Nameless World, to put her responsibilities aside and just be herself. But the locals aren't quite what she expects, with problems of their own, and Lady Barb is a different person away from Whitehall.

In celebration of the week-long, once-in-a-decade rite of Apert, the fras and suurs prepare to venture outside the concent's gates - opening them wide at the same time to welcome the curious "extras" in. During his first Apert as a fra, Erasmus eagerly anticipates reconnecting with the landmarks and family he hasn't seen since he was "collected". But before the week is out, both the existence he abandoned and the one he embraced will stand poised on the perilous brink of cataclysmic change.

"I'm Zoe Boutin Perry: A colonist stranded on a deadly pioneer world. Holy icon to a race of aliens. A player in a interstellar chess match to save humanity. Seventeen years old. Everyone on Earth knows the tale I am part of. But you don't know my tale: I'm going to tell it to you now, the only way I know how: not straight but true, the whole thing, to try make you feel what I felt: the joy and terror and uncertainty, panic and wonder, despair and hope."

Brimming with new ideas for magical research, Emily returns to Whitehall School for her second year of magical education, looking forward to returning to her studies. And yet things are different; her new roommates harbor their secrets, her old friends are becoming distracted by sports and games, and one of the teachers seems to dislike her. As she starts new classes, she discovers she has to work far harder to keep her place in the school. But her second year will be far more adventurous than her first.