Showing results by narrator "Deborah Balm" in All Categories

Headstrong Emma of Ashford is marrying Lord Alan, the man of her dreams, when her wedding is interrupted. A woman claims to be his long-lost betrothed. But is she truly the woman thought dead since she was a child? Emma is visited by a ghost. Is this spirit the long-dead Carlyn who has come to help Emma declare the other woman an impostor? Or just another deception? Can Alan and Emma defy the king and family to find the truth of the woman's identity? Can their love be saved?

Formed of audio transcripts of covert recordings and team member journal entries, this book documents Operation Dawn Wolf, an eyes-only covert operation to identify and terminate the perpetrators of ongoing [redacted] of the highly secret Special Operations candidate-selection process. The transcripts document the progression of covertly recruited 2Lt [redacted] (now known as Carrie Harris, a.k.a. candidate Corra Hughes) through the agency’s Special Operations selection process [redacted].

When Lanzarote anti-corruption activist Celestino is T-boned on a lonely road, he knows the collision was no accident. Wounded and fearing for his life, he hides in an abandoned fishing village, waiting for a chance to make it home. Meanwhile, his wife Paula is distraught and sets out to look for him. Paula’s search for her husband quickly descends into mayhem, danger, and intrigue.

Sarah Jardin has been quite dreadfully in love with David Rochester her whole life. As the youngest of five daughters, her family and society neglect her. She's outspoken, brash, and terribly ungraceful. In short, not at all a lady . . . until she's taken under the benevolent wing of Lady Lancaster and invited to join the Young Ladies Garden Society. But Sarah's new life—filled with the mysteries and intrigues of high society—is interrupted by an unexpected scandal. Her scandal. I

Excited to meet her husband's family on their honeymoon, Catherine crosses paths with new acquaintances, young and old, as they journey from London to northern coastal China. However, the couple's celebrations are marred when ghosts of the past come back to haunt the Yangs, as three naked dead bodies are discovered in a nearby seaside derelict - three people the honeymooners had only just met.

Betrayed by her fiancé and her best friend, Lady Diana Haversham's reputation is left in ruins, and she is unjustly cast out by her family. Left with little choice, she agrees to pretend to be a courtesan to protect her benefactor's secret. What she didn't count on was meeting temptation in the form of one Lord Lucas Blackthorn. Lucas is fascinated by the shameless Diana, whom his friends claim is his perfect counterpart. He can't stop thinking about her sultry smile and captivating eyes, but what draws him most is the sharp mind she reveals—and the certainty she's hiding something.

London, 1727. When Miss Eden Lowther catches the eye of Lord Percival Falloure, Marquess of Tavistoke, she's delighted, for his wicked lordship is anything but boring. The canny coquette who declined five suitors the season prior sets out to capture the infamous "Terror of the Ton" for keeps, but the man she finds behind the façade isn't at all what she expects.

Only hours after stepping off a plane, and still reeling from the turmoil of her last assignment, agent Carrie Harris’ journey to headquarters is interrupted when the Operation Center tasks her to hunt down something so sensitive they can’t even tell her about it. Can our hero stay focused enough to see if she’s a match for the evil she’s confronted with and return what was stolen, or will Carrie lose everything she holds dear, including her life?

Based on a true story, this is the tale of Adélaïde Labille-Guiard’s fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of 18th-century Paris. With a beautiful rival who’s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves.

An apparent suicide and an apparent case of stalking bring two very different investigators together. This isn't an ordinary day's work for them, especially when personal feelings start to emerge. And the deeper their investigations go, the harder it gets to uncover the truth. From London to Shanghai, this thrilling and surprising mystery will take you on a journey that keeps you guessing until the very end.

Lady Katherine Wilson never expected to inherit a horse farm, but she embraces the gift and the opportunity to continue her grandmother's legacy. She decides to breed the farm's mares, but only one stud will do. Unfortunately, the stallion belongs to the Marquess of Holton, and they've never gotten along well.

When she hears about a council incentive offering the promise of free flights to the person who clocks the most volunteering hours at the local care home, she’s got her plan set. But she doesn’t plan on bonding with the old ladies, going after the village bad boy and trying to persuade Elsie not to become a Nun. Soon, she’s questioning who her real friends are and whether her old life is one she wants to return to. Can the village win her over and will she win the chance to leave it behind? Will she even want to?

New recruit Agent Carrie Harris is deployed on assignment at last. As the weeks go by, still not knowing her purpose and with nothing other than the mundane to report, will Carrie keep focused when the tedious veneer cracks to reveal the deplorable reason for her dispatch? Can she be ready to act, ditching the temptation to make her cover story real, or revert to be the honed, ruthless operator again? Will she make the right choices or be sucked into a different life, distracted by a passion which threatens to overwhelm her?

Lady Bryce has a gift. She can enter dreams and persuade her will onto others. It has served her well, especially in eliminating unsatisfactory suitors of her father's choosing. But when she encounters Lord Rowland, she wants him more than anything and decides to visit him in his sleep and make him desire her above all others. When she has driven Rowland to the edge of longing, she extracts a promise that he will marry her. As time passes, Bryce and Rowland fall in love. But will their love be able to conquer all once Bryce’s secret is revealed?

Nikolas Whitworth is handsome, charming. And a traitor. He can outwit and out-con any Englishman - and any Englishwoman. When his debts are called in, a savior appears, the criminal mastermind known only as the Tailor. Nikolas is bought and sold; his future, no longer his. But when a beguiling thief picks his pocket, Rosalyn Devereaux steals more than his coin. The Tailor notices her skills, and demands Rosalyn enlist in his cause. With every moment beside Rosalyn, Nikolas changes from a life of lies, to a man with conviction.

Isobel: High-flying business woman in her mid-40s. Driven. Confident. Always puts her shining career before a nonexistent sex life. She knows exactly what she wants, but has never found a man capable of playing out her most secret erotic desires.

When tragedy strikes, it leaves young Rose Herriott all alone in the world. What will become of her hopes and dreams? She lives in fear and daily torment, at the mercy of her cruel stepmother. Her father proved to be a man with a charitable heart and a deep love for his favorite daughter. When a mysterious letter arrives, she realizes she is not alone as she once believed.

Emily Moss cannot stand the roguish Alexander Bredon. As this season's most desired debut, she could have any man she wants. Unfortunately, Lady Lancaster pairs her up with none other than the incorrigible man himself. With mutual dislike and contempt, Alex would rather be doing anything other than escorting the high and mighty Emily, until a secret about her falls into his lap. Suddenly, he realizes there may be more to the lady than he originally thought. Perhaps the only thing that can keep them from killing each other is falling for each other instead.

Hope Stuckeley has lusted after the handsome and charismatic Michael Ashmore, the Viscount Lichfield, for ages—never mind that she's never actually spoken to him. When the two join forces to investigate a London stock market scandal, pretending he is courting her gives her the chance to prove she's more than the bookworm he takes her for.

The Galaxy Unit was relatively new to the force; it had been set up two years previously, specifically to work with cases of child abduction and murder. All of the team worked well together, handling over 30 cases at any one time. The hardest to deal with by far were those children who were taken completely randomly, by strangers for sexual exploitation, trafficking, or sometimes, to replace a lost child. These cases were rare and up until now, Rocco could count the cases she’d personally headed up, on one hand. All that was about to change for all of them, forever.