Showing results by narrator "Bianca Amato" in All Categories

Java Island, 1941. Six-year-old Rita Vischer cowers in her family’s dug-out bomb shelter, listening to the sirens and waiting for a bomb to fall. Her charmed life on Java—living with other Dutch families—had always been peaceful, but when Holland declares war on Japan and the Japanese army invades Indonesia, Rita’s family is forced to relocate to a POW camp, and Rita must help care for her little brother, Georgie.

Wild and beautiful, spoilt and wilful, Sovay finds that her cosseted life in rural England has not prepared her for life as a highway robber, for defending the honour of her family or for trying to save herself from corruption and evil. As Sovay becomes more and more embroiled in adventures she could scarcely have imagined, a story of dark intrigue, thwarted passions, and sinister intentions is revealed to her. Will she be able to survive, and if she does so, at what cost?

From ensorcelled princesses to a frog that speaks, an enchanting collection of fairy tales from the Newbery Medal-winning author.

It’s 1915 and war continues to rage across Europe, but at home in England, the members of the Women Police Volunteers are more accepted and their numbers continue to grow. However, founding member, Dorothy Peto is frustrated at being consigned to office duties and training recruits. Then, early one morning, her friend Margaret finds a dead body in the garden next door.

With men departing to fight for king and country, women have new opportunities at home. Dorothy Peto and her fellow suffragettes propose forming the Women’s Police Volunteers to assist police keep order. At first, the suggestion is derided, yet the force is stretched thin. As Dorothy and her friends train and organize to help refugees fleeing the war and guide terroried Londoners to shelter during the Zeppelin raids, the ‘ladies in blue’ gain a grudging acceptance. During one nightly bombing raid, Dorothy discovers the body of a beautiful Belgian refugee in Seven Dials.

Emily and her husband, Colin Hargreaves, have accompanied her dear friend Ivy Brandon on a trip to Pompeii. When they uncover a corpse and the police dismiss the murder as the work of local gangsters, Emily launches an investigation of her own. She seems to be aided by the archaeologists excavating the ruins, including a moody painter, the enigmatic site director, and a free-thinking American capable of sparring with even the Duke of Bainbridge. But each of them has secrets hiding among the ruins.

Emily and Colin Hargreaves make it a rule to spend as little time as possible with her parents in Kent, but are unable to refuse Lady Catherine Bromley’s invitation to join them for a pre-Christmas party that includes the family of Ala Kapur Singh, a powerful Punjabi maharaja who has come to England after receiving the Order of the Star of India.

While war and revolution continue to ravage Europe, Dorothy Peto embraces her new role at Scotland Yard as she and several detectives investigate a series of jewel thefts. Then Dorothy is tasked with assisting the inscrutable Inspector Derwent and the charming Colonel Cartier to find a missing French aristocrat. Their enquiries take them to a country house in Yorkshire, that’s been converted to a hospital for wounded soldiers and was the last place the Frenchman visited. However, the more questions they ask, the more questions they have.

In the aftermath of a deadly outbreak - reminiscent of the 1962 event of mass hysteria that was the Tangayika Laughter Epidemic - a city at the tip of Africa is losing its mind, with residents experiencing hallucinations and paranoia. Is it simply another episode of mass hysteria, or something more sinister? In a quarantined city in which the inexplicable has already occurred, rumors, superstitions, and conspiracy theories abound.

All Betty Widdershins wants is an adventure - one that takes her far away from Crowstone, the gloomy island where she's always lived. But instead of an adventure, Betty and her sisters, Fliss and Charlie, are given of a set of magical objects, each with its own powers: a scruffy carpet bag, a set of wooden nesting dolls, and a gilt-framed mirror. And these magical objects come with their own terrible secret: The sisters' family is haunted by a generations-long curse that prevents them from ever leaving their island - at the cost of death.

Inspired by the remarkable life of Dorothy Peto, the Metropolitan Police’s first female superintendent. In 1914, the idea of a female police officer is dismissed as absurd, but to a small group of determined women, not impossible.

The Turn of the Screw is a fireside tale of evil and mystery. Filled with extraordinary drama, Henry James' story has been widely popular ever since its publication in 1898. It also inspired a film, a play, and an opera. A governess has been hired to care for two orphaned young children in their uncle's English country home. But soon after she meets the boy and his sister, the governess begins to see fearful apparitions.

Victory for the Shadari rebels has come at a terrible price. Hardship, superstition, and petty feuds poison King Daryan's young reign, and entire families are vanishing without a trace. Help is nowhere to be found, for their Nomas allies have troubles of their own and the Mongrel, plagued by the sins of her violent past, has disappeared.

She was tainted. Once known as the Mongrel, Lahlil only had one purpose: to reap blood and carnage for those who paid the right price. When the Shadari called upon Lahlil to lead the rebellion against Norlanders - telepathic and bloodthirsty invaders who conquered their lands and enslaved their people to the mines - she delivered. Then she ran. Now, Lahlil must return to Shadar to save the person she loves the most and rebuild. She finds a kingdom that has devolved to political discord and an old enemy's ships sailing just beyond the horizon.

What magical beings inhabit Earth’s waters? Some are as almost-familiar as the mer-people; some as strange as the thing glimpsed only as a golden eye in a pool at the edge of the Great Desert Kalarsham, where the mad god Geljdreth rules; or the unknowable, immense Kraken, dark beyond the darkness of the deepest ocean, who will one day rise and rule the world. Here are seven tales from the remarkable storytellers Robin McKinley and Peter Dickinson. Vividly imagined and written, they transform the simple element of water into something very powerful indeed.

Growing up on Forge's streets has taught Kyra how to stretch a coin. And when that's not enough, her uncanny ability to scale walls and bypass guards helps her take what she needs. But when the leader of the Assassins Guild offers Kyra a lucrative job, she hesitates. She knows how to get by on her own, and she's not sure she wants to play by his rules. But he is persistent - and darkly attractive - and Kyra can't quite resist his pull.

Despite her checkered history with law enforcement, Johannesburg private investigator Jade de Jong is attempting to operate on the right side of the law, confining herself to low-profile cases. But her remarkably attractive new employer, Ryan Gillespie, has tasked her with finding a missing security official after a break-in at his nuclear energy plant. The target of her search is Carlos Botha, a skilled operative and a threat to national security.

Livia Blackburne gathered sterling reviews for her fast-paced YA debut, Midnight Thief. In this thrilling sequel, Kyra employs her preternatural thieving skills to preserve a shaky alliance with the Palace. Keeping her newly discovered heritage a secret, Kyra must embrace her Makvani blood to save the city from her Demon Rider kin and their bloodthirsty wildcats.

Though happy to be back on her home planet of Mars, Arabella’s peace is shattered when she receives distressing news. Her long-absent fiancé Capt. Prakash Singh, commander of the Honorable Mars Company airship Diana, has been taken as a prisoner of war on Venus, the very planet where the exiled Napoleon has fled. Desperate to rescue Singh any way she can, Arabella pays off the gambling debts of a rakish privateer captain in order to arrange passage on his vessel. But when they’re captured by a French squadron and taken to Venus, Arabella finds herself reunited with Singh.

Finally and truly husband and wife, Arabella Ashby and Capt. Prakash Singh are lauded as heroes in England after defeating Napoleon at the Battle of Venus. When they are invited to the Brighton palace of His Royal Highness the Prince of Wales, a Martian- and Venusian-inspired architectural marvel, the mechanically-bent Arabella finds herself drawn to the prince’s steam-powered Merlin chair and two-wheeled Draisine. But the Prince has motives other than mere entertainment for their visit. He offers Singh a great opportunity, divulged under a cloak of secrecy.