Showing results by narrator "Billie Fulford Brown" in All Categories

The heir to the Land should be strong. Fierce. Ruthless. At least, that’s what Beau’s father has been telling him his whole life, since Beau is the exact opposite of what the heir should be. With little control over his future, Beau is kept locked away, just another pawn in his father’s quest for ultimate power. That is, until Beau meets a girl who shows him the secrets his father has kept hidden.

A girl known only as Brat has no family, no home, and no future until she meets Jane the Midwife and becomes her apprentice. As she helps the short-tempered Jane deliver babies, Brat—who renames herself Alyce—gains knowledge, confidence, and the courage to want something in life for the first time.

Ema Vašková has always felt different. In a family of famous scientists, there’s not much room for superstition or omens—but they seem to follow Ema wherever she goes. It doesn’t help that she appears to predict events before they happen, and has a peculiar fear of shadows... When Ema is sent to stay with her eccentric uncle in Prague, she fears she’ll lose the chance to ever fit in. But then she meets Silvie—a girl who finally sees Ema for the extraordinary girl that she is. Soon the girls are meeting for secret midnight adventures and facing Ema’s fears together.

Wil, the exiled princess of northern Arrod, must do what she never thought possible: return home to discover the origins of her own curse. But home is very different from how she left it - Wil’s unpredictable elder brother Baren is now king, leading a war against the Southern Isles. And with time running out, Wil must navigate the dangerous secrets within her family to find the truth.

Tristan Wydrick, sworn enemy of House Daired, is back from the dead. Possessed by a ghast and sharing its shadowy unlife, he commands not only the soul-sucked ghastradi but also the monstrous Tekari forces bent on Arle’s destruction. As their enemies begin amassing, desperate Arleans look to their greatest defenders. But Aliza and Alastair Daired, along with their dragon Akarra, are far from home, trapped in the icy northern wastes by Wydrick’s treachery.

Wilhelmina Heidle, the fourth child and only daughter of the king of the world's wealthiest nation, has grown up in the shadows. Kept hidden from the world in order to serve as a spy for her father - whose obsession with building his empire is causing a war - Wil wants nothing more than to explore the world beyond her kingdom, if only her father would give her the chance. Until one night Wil is attacked, and she discovers a dangerous secret. Her touch turns people into gemstone.

Maud has grown up in a house made of gingerbread, wanting nothing more than to be a witch like Mother Agatha. But just like all of Agatha's gingerbread creations—from the magical house to the chocolate mousse squirrel—Maud will turn back into crumbs if anything ever happens to Agatha. This seems unthinkable…until Hansel and Gretel, a pair of witch hunters, push Agatha into the cottage's oven.

You will not believe what you are reading - even though it all feels so real. Only a man like Smilin’ Jack could monetize civil war. After the infamous business tycoon launches a hit TV show that pits American and Confederate gladiators in brutal battles, his grisly spectacle draws the attention of psychopaths across the nation.

We’re standing on the threshold of a new way of living, so why not make it vegan? It’s time to revolutionize the world - just by becoming the most authentic vegan version of you. As everyone stumbles out of lockdowns, many are searching for healthier ways to live their lives. With Rebel Vegan Life: A Radical Take on Veganism for a Brave New World, author and activist Todd Sinclair shows how vegan values are the only way forward in a post-pandemic world.

The Battle of North Fields is over - or so Aliza Bentaine, now a Daired, fervently wants to believe. But rumors are spreading of an unseen monster ravaging the isolated Castle Selwyn on the northern border of the kingdom. When she and Alastair are summoned from their honeymoon by the mysterious Lord Selwyn, they must travel with their dragon Akarra through the Tekari-infested Old Wilds of Arle to answer his call. And they are not alone on this treacherous journey. Shadowing the dragonriders is an ancient evil, a harbinger of a dark danger of which the Worm was only a foretaste.

From the dragon-filled Temeraire series and the magical gothic halls of the Scholomance trilogy to the fairy tale worlds of Spinning Silver and Uprooted, this stunning collection takes us from fairy tale to fantasy, myth to history, and mystery to science fiction as we travel through Naomi Novik's most beloved worlds. Within this anthology, we move from ancient Greece and Rome, through the Middle Ages and the Black Death, and into the modern era.

Meet Rachel, the beautiful bride with big plans for the perfect day! The venue is a castle and the dress is designer. It’s just a shame her husband is a rat. Maddie and Sally have only one thing in common - they both love the same man! Beth is a newly single mum with a mystery baby daddy. Surely the father isn’t someone the girls all know? And then there’s Jane, the glue holding them all together, but being dumped doesn’t make her the happiest bridesmaid...especially with gorgeous flatmate Freddie complicating things.

With global warming out of control, large swathes of North America have been struck by famine and drought and are now known as the Desert. A young woman sets out across this dry, hostile landscape, gradually building an arcane apparatus she believes will bring rain to the parched earth. Jesse lives alone, far from civilization. Once, he too made rain, but he stopped when his abilities caused fatalities, bringing down not just rain but scorpions, strange snakes, and spiders.

Adaptation is everything. Inge Lohmark is well aware of that; after all, she's been teaching biology for more than 30 years. But nothing will change the fact that her school is going to be closed in four years: in this dwindling town in the eastern German countryside, there are fewer and fewer children. Inge's husband, who was a cattle inseminator before the reunification, is now breeding ostriches. Their daughter, Claudia, emigrated to the U.S. years ago and has no intention of having children. Everyone is resisting the course of nature that Inge teaches every day in class.

Orphan. Thief. Witch. Twelve-year-old Quicksilver lives as a thief in the sleepy town of Willow-on-the-River. Her only companions are her faithful dog and partner in crime, Fox - and Sly Boots, the shy boy who lets her live in his attic when it’s too cold to sleep on the rooftops. It’s a lonesome life, but Quicksilver is used to being alone. When you are alone, no one can hurt you. No one can abandon you. Then one day Quicksilver discovers that she can perform magic. Real magic. The kind that isn’t supposed to exist anymore.

The world is on the brink of war when Elizabeth Mowbray breaks her engagement with a tea planter in India and returns home to the English countryside. Desperate to escape a stifling life under her parents’ roof, she moves to London seeking adventure and excitement.

Out of the blue, Susie Jones is contacted on social media by Anna, the girl she gave up for adoption fifteen years ago. But when they meet, Anna's home life sounds distinctly strange to Susie and her husband Gabe. And when Anna's adoptive parents seem to overreact to the fact she contacted them at all, Susie becomes convinced that Anna needs her help. But is Anna's own behaviour simply what you'd expect from someone recovering from a traumatic childhood? Or are there other secrets at play here - secrets Susie has also been hiding for the last 15 years?

In the Old Kingdom, a land of ancient and often terrible magics, 18-year-old orphan Terciel learns the art of necromancy from his great-aunt Tizanael. But not to raise the Dead, rather to lay them to rest. He is the Abhorsen-in-Waiting, and Tizanael is the Abhorsen, the latest in a long line of people who make sure the Dead do not return to life. Across the Wall, in a country where magic usually does not work, 19-year-old Elinor lives a secluded life. Her mother is a tyrant who is feared by all despite her sickness and impending death...but perhaps there is even more to fear from that.

Liverpool 1940. Alice King stands on the deck of SS Carlisle, waiting to escort a group of children to Canada as overseas evacuees. She is finally doing her bit for the war. In London, as the Blitz bombs rain down and the threat of German invasion looms, Lily Nicholls anxiously counts the days for news of her son and daughter’s safe arrival.

Emma Oxley and Nellie Yarrow have been inseparable their whole lives. Ever since they reinvented themselves, changing their names and wiping clean their digital footprints, they have made a game of following wherever the next adventure leads and challenging themselves to thefts, street cons, and mind games. Adhering to only two rules—they will only swindle men, and only ones who deserve it—Emma and Nellie are secure in their reputation as the most trustworthy swindlers on the European black market. Until suddenly, they must play to save their own lives.