Then he discovers a secret web site and learns that his mother and father are time travelers stuck in the past. Armed with the information he needs to find them, Adam convinces his younger siblings to join him on a rescue mission to the 1880s. While Greg, the adventurous middle brother, follows leads in the Wild West, Adam, journalist Natalie, and high school seniors Cody and Caitlin do the same in Johnstown, Pennsylvania. Like the residents of the bustling steel community, all are unaware of a flood that will destroy the city on May 31, 1889. In RIVER RISING, the first novel in the five-book Carson Chronicles series, five young adults find love, danger, and adventure as they experience America in the age of bustle dresses, gunslingers, and robber barons.

    Her new family greets her with apathy and even resentment. Only the quiet houseguest, Silas Rotherham, welcomes her company.When Aurelie decides to complete her father's unfinished serial novel, writing the family into the story as unflattering characters, she must keep her identity as Nathaniel Droll hidden while searching for the truth about her mother's disappearance--and perhaps even her father's death.Author Joanna Davidson Politano's stunning debut set in Victorian England will delight readers with its highly original plot, lush setting, vibrant characters, and reluctant romance.

     Arabella Warren has been trying to find employment as a governess for several months. But after having to leave numerous households for unsavory reasons, she has found it next to impossible to attain a position in a decent home. Then she sees an advertisement in the newspaper for a widower seeking a wife to help care for his two children. She sets out to convince the man that he needs a governess, not a wife, and that she would be the perfect lady for the job. Jonathan Graves still grieves the loss of his wife, even as he tries to create a happy home for his five-year-old twins. Knowing he will never love again, he believes the best solution is to enter into a marriage of convenience. His children will have a stepmother and he can go on loving the woman who passed away. But he is not prepared to meet the lady who will change all their lives forever. WHERE HEARTS MEET is a love story about loss, love and starting over. It contains explicit language and graphic sex scenes. It also gives hope to anyone who wonders if it's possible to love again.

    Lieutenant Austen, by all accounts an upstanding member of the elite Grenadier Guards, disappears, and his friends, searching the cloakroom of the station where they had been waiting for their trains together, find only a spray of blood on the wall above a scattering of his personal items—his train ticket among them. Scotland Yard is baffled. Has the Lieutenant, who had a hand in intelligence, been kidnapped by French operatives? Or is there some more personal grudge at work? The situation grows graver by the hour, and Lenox knows that he will have to work quickly and brilliantly to have any chance of discovering the missing soldier—and getting home in time for his own Christmas dinner.

    When the tragic death of her gamester father leaves her destitute and alone, she finds work as a governess in a merchant's household in Cheapside. Isolated from the fashionable acquaintance of her youth, she resigns herself to lonely spinsterhood until a mysterious visitor convinces her to temporarily return to her former life--and her former love.A SCARRED BEASTColonel Sebastian Conrad is no longer the dashing cavalry officer Sylvia once fell in love with. Badly scarred during the Sepoy Rebellion, he has withdrawn to his estate in rural Hertfordshire where he lives in near complete seclusion. Brooding and tormented, he cares nothing for the earldom he has inherited--and even less for the faithless beauty who rejected him three years before.A SECOND CHANCEA week together in the remote Victorian countryside is the last thing either of them ever wanted. But when fate intervenes to reunite them, will a beastly earl and an impoverished beauty finally find their happily-ever-after? Or are some fairy-tale endings simply not meant to be?

    Victoria's matchmaking plans were further complicated by the tumultuous international upheavals of the time: revolution and war were in the air, and kings and queens, princes and princesses were vulnerable targets.Queen Victoria's Matchmaking travels through the glittering, decadent palaces of Russia and Europe, weaving in scandals, political machinations and family tensions to enthralling effect. It is at once an intimate portrait of a royal family and an examination of the conflict caused by the marriages the Queen arranged. At the heart of it all is Victoria herself: doting grandmother one moment; determined Queen Empress the next.

    She doesn’t count on clashing with her handsome neighbor, whose gentlemanly manners and education are at odds with his workingman’s image. As their relationship unfolds, however, she discovers the mysterious Meriweather Holcroft is not at all what he appears to be.

    But what happened after the Queen married her handsome prince? Did they live happily ever after, or did their marriage, like so many royal marriages past and present, fizzle into a loveless round of duty?This all-new companion book by Daisy Goodwin and Sara Sheridan transports us to the private world of Victoria and Albert. Though first cousins, they could not have been more different: Victoria was impulsive, emotional, and capricious, Albert cautious, self-controlled, and logical. But together they forged a bond with each other and with their people that would change the world. Drawing on letters and diaries and fresh insights into royal history, this gorgeous book charts the constant ebb and flow of power within the couple’s surprisingly ardent and modern marriage.Sumptuously illustrated and full of rich insider detail, Victoria & Albert takes us behind the scenes of the magnificent TV drama, including fascinating, in-depth information on the actors, the props, and the costumes – and bringing an extraordinary royal marriage even more fully to life.

    She’s only gone and got married again and has flown off on honeymoon, sending Evie to stay with a godmother she’s never even met in an old, creaky house in the middle of nowhere. It is all monumentally unfair.But on the first night in her godmother’s spare room, Evie notices a strange message scratched into the windowpane, and everything she thought she knew gets turned upside down.After a ghastly night’s sleep Evie wakes up in 1814, dressed as a housemaid, and certain she’s gone back in time for a reason. A terrible injustice needs to be fixed. But there’s a housekeeper barking orders, a bad-tempered master to avoid, and the chamber pots won’t empty themselves. It’s going to take all Evie’s cunning to fix things in the past so that nothing will break apart in the future…Absorbing, brilliant storytelling from the author of The Secret Hen House Theatre, The Farm Beneath the Water and The Jasmine Green Series for younger readers.

    She escapes across the sea to the western prairies, unknowing what is ahead of her but intent that she will never again allow a man to dictate her future. He will honor his promises and hold his family together… Callum McDougall, future chieftan of the McDougall clan, is journeying to the North-West Territories to determine what has become of his missing cousin. Once his mission is complete, he will honor the family tradition and return to Scotland to lead his clan. Together in the new world, what will the future hold? Callum and Victoria fight their intense attraction to one another, as Callum must return to Scotland while Victoria vows to remain true to herself. Soon, however, they find themselves unlikely allies in their respective predicaments. With a future continents apart, will they succeed in denying their growing feelings for one another, or will love prevail? "Hearts of Starlight" is a historical romance novel of approximately 57,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    Meet Ben Steffans, a journalist posing as a wealthy industrialist who has come to the island to uncover a story about impoverished men pursuing heiresses at the famed hotel. Will a growing love between Maude and Ben be scuttled when truths are revealed in this Gilded Age romance?

    But their close bond is soon challenged by a captivating woman; a woman Magnus wants, but Jacob gets.Devastated, Magnus seeks solace in a trip to New Orleans. After a chance meeting with Oscar Wilde, he becomes immersed in a world of depravity and brutality, inevitably becoming the inspiration for Dorian Gray. Armed with the forbidden magic of voodoo, he sets his sights on winning back the woman Jacob stole from him.Amid the trappings of Victorian society, two men, bent on revenge, will lay the foundation for a curse that will forever alter their destinies.

    Instead, she was placed in the home of the Earl of Windershire as a scullery maid while an Aunt she did not know she had, tried to find evidence that she was the daughter of the Earl. Missy learned her name was Victoria Elizabeth Grace C.H.H and that her Aunt hoped to invite her to move into her home and become the lady she was intended to be. To Missy, it meant that she would be married off to a brute of a man. Not wanting anything to do with the 'family' that rejected her and her Mum; she slipped away from Harlow House and onto a ship heading for the America's.

    She was wrong. New widow, Haley Colbrooke travels to Ashdown to meet her husband’s family and to visit his grave. The shocking news of their recent marriage is awkward enough. That her brother in-law is Lance’s identical twin is worse. Given her circumstances, she accepts the invitation to stay, which sets in motion a chain of events that will risk Haley losing all she has left. Rather than finding solace, she is drawn into past tragedies and deadly secrets. Perhaps coming to the family estate was a terrible mistake.

    He was inspired by a love of fine art, luxurious fabrics, and his vision of the female ideal, and was the first to set out to dictate new styles and silhouettes to his elite clientele— not the other way around. He hosted them in his rue de la Paix salons, which included groundbreaking sportswear and maternity departments as well as silk, velvet, and brocade rooms, and a special salon with closed shutters and gas lighting designed to allow clients to try on ball gowns in lighting conditions precisely matched to those of the event at which they would be worn.Organized chronologically and illustrated with striking ensembles, paintings, and documents sourced from both private family archives and the best fashion collections from museums around the world, The House of Worth is an inspiring tribute to the house that started it all.

    One night, while driving home in Heartsbridge, Texas, she comes across an old diner that calls to her. What she finds inside will change her life forever. Together with a woman from the past, Moira discovers how truly powerful her gift is. Hearts who have been born to the wrong time will now have the chance to find each other. Time travel is not without rules and conditions. Moira and her ancestor from the past will learn along the way that helping people find each other across the span of time comes with its own unique challenges. Can they convince the people they are destined to help that sometimes you just have to trust your heart to find the way?

    So when Argyle is murdered - the third butler to be stabbed in a week - Rose knows she must find out what really happened.Rose's investigation leads her on a journey into a hidden world of grave robbers and duelling butlers, flamboyant magicians and the city's ancient feline guardians.Knives aren't just for cutting cucumber sandwiches, you know . . .

    Until she decided, one evening, to rise from her neatly-laid dinner table, fetch an axe from the woodshed, chop her husband into pieces and bake his gristle into some pies. "That's the last time he'll criticize my pastry," she said calmly when apprehended in the act of selling her grisly wares.Although her husband had been an infamous philanderer— or as much of one as an oily, simpering blob of a man could be in a small, rural market town—nobody knew what had really happened, on that last day, to cause a deadly fissure in his wife's sanity. I was the only soul to whom she gave any clue, but the six words she once whispered into my ear left me, a girl of twelve at the time, with more questions than answers. Suffice to say, after Venetia's axe swinging rampage in the autumn of 1882, the men of Withering Gibbet took greater care of what they said and did to their wives. We had all learned some important lessons: everybody harbors dark truths; there is no such thing as "ordinary", and never buy a savory pie at the county fair, especially when the contents are described as "revelation meat".For many years Venetia was our town's sole claim to infamy. And then there was me.* * * *So begins a story of silence and noise, secrets and lies, sisters and lovers, murder and redemption. Gemma Groot grows up in the long shadow cast by an old sin, but she is about to step out of the dark and shine the light on a few startling truths about her family. With the help of a man who falls out of the sky, she will finally discover the strength she needs to revisit the past and unleash the spirit of a wronged woman. But will she find that some skeletons are better off left buried?

    Delamirie, a 1700s court case before the King's Bench against Paul de Lamerie, a silversmith. In the vein of Charles Dickens' Oliver Twist, Infants of the Brush is set in a time when London society ignored the ills of child labor. Unlike the gleeful chimney sweeps portrayed in Mary Poppins, climbing boys were forced up burning flues to dislodge harmful soot and coal ash.Egan Whitcombe is just six years old when he is sold to Master Armory for a few coins that his family desperately needs. As one of Master Armory's eight broomers, Egan quickly learns that his life depends on absolute obedience and the coins he earns.Pitt, the leader of Master Armory's broomers, teaches Egan to sweep chimneys and negotiate for scraps of bread. Broken and starving, the boys discover friendship as they struggle to save five guineas, the cost of a broomer's independence.

    With his usual insight and authority, he describes the history, geography, design and significance of each of these glories; explores their role in the national imagination; champions the engineers, architects and rival companies that made them possible; and tells the story behind the development, triumphs and follies of these very British creations.From Waterloo to Whitby, St Pancras to Stirling, these are the marvellous, often undersung places that link our nation. All aboard!

    Featuring seven novellas and novels from award-winning and bestselling authors.The Pursuit of Pleasure by Elizabeth EssexIndependent, politically-minded heiress Elizabeth Paxton has never wanted to marry, but longs for the freedom afforded to widows. The last thing she wants is dangerously attractive Captain Jameson Marlowe as a husband.The Thief Steals Her Earl by Christina McKnightThe Earl of Cartwright is determined to find out who stole from his family. When he finds out the thief is the woman he's fallen in love with, he must choose between duty and love.Secrets in Scarlet by Erica MonroeWhen a bluestocking with a scandalous past meets an idealistic sergeant, sparks fly as they work to solve a murder...but her secrets may lead to their undoing.Sleeping Beau by Lila DiPasquaInspired by the tale of Sleeping Beauty--a scorching hot historical romance novella from the Fiery Tales series. One sleeping rake, one scorching kiss, one night of unforgettable passion...The Art of Seduction by Eileen RichardsA spinster finds freedom as a theatre set painter until a chance meeting with the marquis who broke her heart has her questioning what she wants for her future.The Madam's Highlander by Madeline MartinWhat's the madam of a successful bawdy house in Edinburgh to do when she finds one of the English supported Black Watch soldiers needing to desert his post? She helps him, of course - but there's a high price to pay.Reckless Wager by Christy CarlyleVictorian propriety and passions collide when a beautiful widow makes a wager with a wounded police detective bent on solving the Ripper mystery.

    Mary is determined to put her troubled past behind her. As a widow with two small children, she is desperate to earn enough money to look after her family. When she takes a job making hooks & eyes for the ambitious Mr. Wetherby, she thinks she's found a solution…But when Mr. Wetherby decides he wants Mary as more than a worker, she fears his intentions are dishonorable. After all, why else would he be interested in her? Following a misunderstanding, Mary abandons her job, never wanting to see him again…While Mary prepares to make another life for herself, Mr. Wetherby has other ideas. If his plan works, he could use the children to win Mary’s heart and free her from a life of poverty once and for all…Hooks & Eyes is the first book in The Ambition & Destiny Series, a Victorian Era family saga.Please Note: The book is written in UK English.

    Will’s last request is that Lucien watch over Cora, not just as a benefactor, but as a husband. When Lucien does his duty and proposes to Cora, he’s turned down flat. Over the course of the next twelve months, Lucien discovers that marrying Cora wouldn’t be any sort of duty after all, but a matter of following his heart. *Note for readers: A YEAR OF LOVE was previously published in A Timeless Romance Anthology: Silver Bells Collection, as TWELVE MONTHS.

     To follow the heart or the head—torn between two men—which future will Lady Margaret choose? Profoundly romantic and superbly riveting, The English Proposal explores the conflict between fulfilling duties and satiating desires. The English Proposal (Book 1). Sheltered on her family’s country estate, Lady Margaret, the daughter of an English Earl, is betrothed due to a family promise. Although Henry, the Viscount Rolantry, has been her best friend since childhood and she is expected to marry him, she never felt butterflies until she meets the Duke of Witherton. Against her father’s wishes, Margaret finds herself captivated by the forbidden duke. Caught between family loyalty and her own wishes, Margaret searches for a way to satisfy both her responsibilities and her longings. When tragedy strikes, Margaret finds herself seeking answers at church. But when she finally makes her choice, through her newfound faith, will she be able to live with the repercussions of her decision? Window to the Heart Saga: a recountal of the epic journey of Lady Margaret, a young English noblewoman, who through many trials, obstacles, and tragedies, discovers her own inner strength, the sustaining force of faith in God, and the power of family and friends. In this three-part series, experience new places and cultures as the heroine travels from England to France and completes her adventures in America. The series has compelling themes of love, loss, faith and hope with a exceptionally gratifying conclusion. 
Window to the Heart Saga Book 1: The English Proposal Book 2: The French Encounter Book 3: The American Conquest Releasing in May-June-July 2017

    She ran the embroidery department of her father’s famous firm Morris Co., and had a successful freelance career as a designer, maker, and exhibitor, founding the Women’s Guild of Arts in 1907 and undertaking a lecture tour in the United States between 1909 and 1910. May’s approach to embroidery was innovative and widely influential in the UK and abroad, yet her important contribution to embroidery is often overshadowed by the accomplishments of her more famous father.May Morris: Arts Crafts Designer is an attractive introduction to May’s work, with exquisite images including close-up photographs of her embroideries. The book is divided into five chapters—Sketches and Watercolors, Wallpapers and Embroidery, Book Covers and Designs, May Morris and the Art of Dress, and Jewelry and Metalwork—each of which opens with an introductory text, followed by catalog entries with extended captions. Interspersed within the chronological arrangement of objects are feature spreads highlighting particular aspects of May Morris’s work.

    After leaving the abandoned triplets in the care of the doctor's daughter, Louisa Clark, his duty should be done. So why can't he seem to stay away from the babies and their pretty caregiver? Watching the town's most eligible bachelor with the little trio reawakens Louisa's unmet dreams. She's found satisfaction in spinsterhood and caring for others, convinced that motherhood passed her by. Do she and Bo only work so well together for the children's sakes…or could they both find courage to make this sweet temporary arrangement something truly lasting?

    This bundle contains the entire Mina Murray series of 3 full length novels. If you love adventure, romance, and mystery, pick up your copy today. **This bundle includes an extended afterword from the author. 1. The Beast of London Mina Murray teams up with her former paramour Abraham Van Helsing to rescue her fiancé, Jonathan Harker, after he’s abducted from a society ball. But Mina soon realizes that Jonathan's abduction is tied to a larger threat against humanity... 2. Fortress of Blood Mina and her allies have found the Transylvanian countryside dotted with empty villages and whispers of monsters who wear human skin. As Mina prepares for the final showdown, she discovers her own shocking connection to the hidden world of vampires... 3. Realm of Night To spare humanity from the grip of looming darkness, Mina and her allies must defeat the most powerful vampire in the world...

    Nettie likes the idea, but unlike her wealthier Sunday-school friends, Nettie has only ten cents to spend. How can she possibly buy a nice gift to add to the barrel with so little money? Whatever Nettie sends will have to be made by hand, and with plenty of love. Is it possible Nettie’s small gift can make a difference in the life of a stranger in need? This edition of the 1894 classic Christian novel includes a biography of the author.

    She commanded a vast empire. She bestrode international commerce. Her citizens were living longer, profiting from civil liberties their grandparents only dreamt of, and enjoying an expanding range of comforts and pastimes. The mood of pride and self-confidence is familiar from Elgar’s Pomp and Circumstance marches, newsreels of George V’s coronation and the London’s great Edwardian palaces.Yet things were very different below the surface. In The Age of Decadence Simon Heffer exposes the contradictions of late-Victorian and Edwardian Britain. He explains how, despite the nation’s massive power, a mismanaged war against the Boers in South Africa created profound doubts about her imperial destiny. He shows how attempts to secure vital social reforms prompted the twentieth century’s gravest constitutional crisis and coincided with the worst industrial unrest in British history. He describes how politicians who conceded the vote to millions more men disregarded women so utterly that female suffragists’ public protest bordered on terrorism. He depicts a ruling class that fell prey to degeneracy and scandal. He analyses a national psyche that embraced the motor-car, the sensationalist press and the science fiction of H. G. Wells, but also the Arts and Crafts of William Morris and the nostalgia of A. E. Housman. And he concludes with the crisis that in the summer of 1914 threatened the existence of the United Kingdom – a looming civil war in Ireland.He lights up the era through vivid pen-portraits of the great men and women of the day – including Gladstone, Parnell, Asquith and Churchill, but also Mrs Pankhurst, Beatrice Webb, Baden-Powell, Wilde and Shaw – creating a richly detailed panorama of a great power that, through both accident and arrogance, was forced to face potentially fatal challenges.

    Wimbourne Books presents the third in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 3 in the series contains stories published anonymously in America and Britain between 1839 and 1896. Most of these tales are here anthologised for the very first time. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the snowy night, lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration. Includes the stories; The Deaf and Dumb Girl (1839) - The Picture Bedroom (1840) - The Haunted Manor-House of Paddington (1848) - Mabel (1849) - The Bright Room of Cranmore (1850) - Fisher’s Ghost (1853) - The Ghost at Heatherbell Abbey (1862) - The Tale of a Gas-light Ghost (1867) - Pichon & Sons, of the Croix Rousse (1868) - Haunted (1868) - The Ghost at Laburnum Villa (1870) - The Sergeant’s Ghost Story (1873) - The Bryansfort Spectre (1874) - Twelve O’clock, Noon (1877) - The Story of Clifford House (1878) - The Ghost in the Bank of England (1879) - The Carved Mantelpiece of Granton Hall (1882) - The Invisible Hand (1884) - The Old Lady in Black (1894) - Seen By the Coppice (1896).

    Lady Patricia Spencer of London inherits the family fortune--which includes a Keep in Scotland, a mysterious medallion that can bring hope of a better life to so many if put into the right hands. Lady Patricia is thrown into a world of secrets, greed, cruelty, danger,travel and love--though finding love was not part of the plan. The force that drew them together was seen by everyone but them. Will she honor her grandmother's legacy to make her wealth count? Will she give hope to those who have none--at her own great expense?

    Wimbourne Books presents the fifth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 5 in the series spans the years 1872 to 1901 and includes stories from a wide range of male authors; British, French and American. Includes tales by Henry James, Arthur Conan Doyle and Rudyard Kipling. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the stormy night arrives, lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration. Includes the stories; No Living Voice (1872) – Thomas Street Millington; Lady Kitty (1876) – Walter Besant & James Rice; The Ghostly Rental (1876) – Henry James; The Transferred Ghost (1882) – Frank Richard Stockton; Apparition (1883) – Guy de Maupassant; Selecting a Ghost (1883) – Arthur Conan Doyle; No. 11 Welham Square (1885) – Edward Masey; The House of Strange Stories (1886) – Andrew Lang; By Word of Mouth (1887) – Rudyard Kipling; A Set of Chessmen (1890) – Richard Marsh; The Haunted Mill (1891) – Jerome K. Jerome; The Haunted Station (1892) – Hume Nisbet; Pallinghurst Barrow (1892) – Grant Allen; The Man Who Was Not on the Passenger List (1892) – Robert Barr; The Saving of a Soul (1893) – Sir Richard Francis Burton; No 252. Rue M. le Prince (1895) – Ralph Adams Cram; Colonel Halifax’s Ghost Story (1897) – Sabine Baring-Gould; The Haunted Burglar (1897) – William Chambers Morrow; How Love Came to Professor Guildea (1900) – Robert Hichens; The Case of Vincent Pyrwhit (1901) – Barry Pain.

     Top Five Things Rae Sutherland Worries About 1. Keeping her self-run business in the black 2. Problematic relationship with her mother 3. Lack of ability to tell people to "Take a hike" 4. Sad, pathetic love life 5. Finally meeting the Most Perfect Guy only to have the Most Awful Thing happen Top Five Things Rachel Sutherland Worries About 1. Impending marriage to the Earl of Mayne 2. Problematic relationship with her Mama 3. The grand, imposing Earl of Mayne himself 4. Fear of complete and utter failure 5. This blasted affliction that she just cannot shake off When a cosmic hiccup joins the two women together, Rae Sutherland finds herself in 1840's England. Armed with only her wits and knowledge gleaned from British period films, Rae must now find a way to live the rest of her life in a foreign place and a foreign time. It's Victorian sensibilities versus L.A. sass! First order of business: Ensure that her secret identity is never found out. Second and third orders of business: Keep out of the way of that arrogant, domineering, sinfully sexy earl.

    Now the book comes to life as the perfect gift for any Stella Montgomery fan. Children,listen and take heed,As this little book you read.All your evil ways amend,Or you will meet a dreadful end.From the bestselling world of Stella Montgomery comes an illustrated alphabet of startling cautionary tales for the discerning young reader.Filled with uncommon facts for the novice conversationalist, prudent advice for house and garden, and rigorous lessons in etiquette and manners, A Garden of Lilies will transform any wayward child into the very picture of Victorian decorum and grace.PRAISE FOR A GARDEN OF LILIES 'From the black hardcover with the title debossed in gold, surrounded by a bouquet of lilies to the marbled endpapers and detailed sketches of Victorian life, this is a visual delight.' - ReadPlus.comACCLAIM FOR WITHERING-BY-SEA AND WORMWOOD MIRE:Indie Awards - Winner 2015, Shortlisted 2017Australian Book Industry Awards - Winner 2015, Shortlisted 2017CBCA Awards - Honour Book 2015, Notable Book 2017Davitt Awards - Winner 2015, Shortlisted 2017Prime Minister's Literary Awards - Shortlisted 2015ABA Booksellers' Choice Awards - Shortlisted 2017Australian Book Design Awards - Shortlisted 2017Aurealis Awards - Shortlisted 2015

    But Henry is not a man who tolerates dishonestly from his staff, and after her deception is discovered Kelly's bottom is bared for a painful, embarrassing spanking.The stern punishment only increases Kelly's desire to know more about her handsome employer, but after she is caught snooping through his personal effects she is promptly stripped naked for an even more shameful chastisement. Despite her sore bottom, however, she is deeply aroused by Henry's firm-handed dominance, and when he claims her properly his masterful lovemaking leaves her spent and satisfied. But will their blossoming romance be enough to keep her by his side, even if it means leaving her old life behind forever?Publisher's Note: A Strict Gentleman includes spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don't buy this book.

    She ignores a sign prohibiting entry, but her curiosity turns to shock when she steps through a door within the abandoned estate and is transported back to the Victorian era.It quickly becomes apparent that in this version of the past, she is the governess for Lord Radley's two young nephews. Seeing no obvious way back home, she decides to make the best of things, but she soon discovers that her employer believes in strict discipline for his staff.It isn't long before her stubbornness earns her a thorough, humiliating spanking, but in spite of her embarrassment the stern chastisement leaves her intensely aroused. As time passes she finds herself yearning more and more for Lord Radley to take her in his arms and claim her properly, but will he ever see her as anything more than a disobedient servant in need of correction?Publisher's Note: Head of Household contains spankings and sexual scenes. If such material offends you, please don't buy this book.

    Plus: a bonus Sybil Ingram story is included! In December 1873, Sybil’s former dressmaker, Clara Graves—now a baroness—invites Sybil and Roderick to celebrate Christmas at Gravesend Hall, notorious for being cursed. Anxious for her old friend, Sybil is quick to accept. Though Clara insists that nothing is wrong, once the revelers are snowbound, there are cries in the night and an eerie phantom lady walking the halls. But though Sybil is ready to come to grips with a ghost, not all is as it seems...and when she and Clara team up to solve the mystery, they find a way to bring a heartbroken young mother the best Christmas gift she could imagine. Bonus story: In “When Soft Voices Die,” Sybil encounters an unusual ghost in a Hudson River Valley home just after the events of Nocturne for a Widow.

    Fiction, Poetry & Essays included:*Sister Witch essay by Alice Hoffman*My DIY Banishing Spell For the Noisiest Croissant in Town: A Whimsical Tale by Laren Stover*Incantations - Poetry by Kim Malinowski*Fairie Knitting: The Night of the Witch - A Fairy Tale by Alice Hoffman*Land Protection Charm & What you Need to Cast a Spell to Rid a House of Unease Poetry by Juleigh Howard-Hobson*Making Witch Bottles with My Mother Poetry by Kailey Tedesco*The Wind in His Heart - An excerpt by Charles de Lint*A Dream of Muddy Waters - An excerpt from the book Confessions of An American Mystic: Stories of Faith and Fiction by River Jordan*The Rules of Magic - An excerpt by Alice Hoffman

    Or for travelers that want to experience old London.Have you ever wanted to walk in the footsteps of your favorite romance heroine? See grand historic settings from best-loved novels? Or just learn the fascinating backstories of these intriguing places from Almack's to White's to Bedlam and more from the comfort of your own home.Now you can! Author Sonja Rouillard has combined her love of travel and romance fiction to create an entertaining book that's perfect for a cozy fireside read at home or for planning that grand London excursion.For the Armchair Traveler . . .* everything you want to know about the places from your treasured historical romance novels * discover which buildings still exist and what they are now * read love stories from real-life heroes and heroines that frequented these old places * with Then & Now pictures of what the buildings looked like in the past compared to now * and featuring romance excerpts from Jane Austen to Georgette Heyer to today s best-selling authors. For the London Adventurer . . .* everything you need to explore the old London that still exists hiding within the modern city * sleep like a princess in a 900-year-old castle or on an antique four-poster bed in the heart of London * enjoy a delicious authentic Afternoon Tea * with prices ranging from Governess on Holiday to King s Ransom, there's something for everyone * featuring easy to read maps of Mayfair and St. James's neighborhoods* and ~ for the guys activities that will especially interest your man too!* plus insider tips to get the most from your travel budget.So, take a walk in the footsteps of your favorite heroine whether on a grand, once-in-a-lifetime adventure to London or from the comfort of your own home with a warm cup of tea at your side.

    After all, how can he join in when his heart still reels from the tragic loss of his wife and little children just eight Christmases prior? Yet somehow, in one mystical moment, Beckett's niece draws him out of his dark place. And in her eyes he begins to see a future he could never have imagined.One Mystical Moment was originally published in the anthology, The Nutcracker Reimagined.

    His father happens to own the most successful shipping company in all of Maryland. On the eve of his final departure to the Caribbean before he takes over the company, Ginny and Spencer wed in secret. She awaits his promised return, holding on to the belief that he will be back before the moon wanes twice. As time passes, and Spencer does not return, Ginny finds herself slowly losing her grip on reality. Everyone else believes Spencer is dead, and when Ginny discovers she is carrying his child, her options are limited. Her parents insist she marry another man for the sake of her baby. Soon, Ginny finds herself all alone in a place she does not recognize, full of faces she does not know, and a child no one else seems to care for. But things are not exactly what they seem, and Ginny begins to search for answers, trusting no one. Why have her parents disowned her? Who are all these strange people? Why won't anyone speak her name? And what happened to the previous mistress no one dare mention? As her world begins to crumble around her, can Ginny hold onto her sanity, or will it completely fade away beneath the light of the inconstant moon?

    When Stella finds Evelyn one morning apparently dead from an accidental--or perhaps intentional--poisoning, she is shocked and horrified. But it is nothing compared to her horror when Evelyn reawakens. Stella believes her friend's body is animated by something evil. Is Stella insane, or has a spirit of darkness actually taken possession of Evelyn?When originally published in 1896, The Statement of Stella Maberly was subtitled 'Written by Herself' and presented as the real-life confession of a possibly mad woman, but the identity of the book's true author, F. Anstey (1856-1934), famous for his oft-filmed bodyswap novel Vice Versa (1882), was soon revealed. This first-ever scholarly edition of Anstey's lost classic features a new introduction and notes by Peter Merchant, plus the first-ever appearance of unpublished manuscripts pertaining to the novel, including a 1916 screenplay for a never-produced film version, An Evil Spirit.

    Left with few options, she is forced to enter the workhouse and suffer the habitual injustices commonplace to that sad institution. Her beauty and naivety a target for the unscrupulous master of the workhouse and Edward Wells, the owner of the local textile mill, Emma will be compelled to make the difficult decision between the safety of her brother and sister, and her own virtue.Gideon, Lord de Monthaut, is instantly smitten the moment he sees Emma, despite the fact that she is on the arm of one of the most notorious blackguards in Manchester society.Will Emma find it possible to rise above her circumstances and find love? And in the process learn the true Proof of Virtue?

    Wimbourne Books presents the sixth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 6 in the series spans the years 1854 to 1901 and includes stories from a wide range of female authors, from both sides of the Atlantic. Includes tales by Ellen Wood, Mary Elizabeth Braddon and Margaret Oliphant. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the stormy night arrives, lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration. Includes the stories; The Sixth Poor Traveller (1854) – Eliza Lynn Linton; The Italian’s Story (1859) – Catherine Crowe; Bring Me a Light! (1861) – Jane Margaret Hooper; The Eleventh of March (1863) – Amelia B. Edwards; The Haunted Grange (1864) – Frances Browne; The Ghost At The Rath (1866) – Rosa Mulholland; The Truth, the Whole Truth, and Nothing but the Truth (1868) – Rhoda Broughton; Reality, or Delusion? (1868) – Ellen Wood; Lady Farquar’s Old Lady (1873) – Mary Louisa Molesworth; The Pride of the Corbyns (1875) – Isabella Banks; At Ravenholme Junction (1876) – Mary E. Penn; The Shadow In the Corner (1879) – Mary Elizabeth Braddon; The Open Door (1882) – Margaret Oliphant; The Invisible Tenants of Rushmere (1883) – Florence Marryat; The Last of Squire Ennismore (1888) – Charlotte Riddell; Let Loose (1890) – Mary Cholmondeley; The Prior’s Cell: A Ghost Story (1892) – Darley Dale; The Shadow On the Blind (1894) – Louisa Baldwin; The Tyburn Ghost (1896) – Wilhelmina FitzClarence; The Summoning of Arnold (1901) – Alice Perrin.

    Concluding the story directly after the shocking events of Penny Dreadful's season three TV finale.

    Charles Dickens was born in an age of great social change. He survived childhood poverty to become the most adored and influential man of his time. Throughout his life, he campaigned tirelessly for better social conditions, including by his most famous work, A Christmas Carol. He wrote this novella specifically to “strike a sledgehammer blow on behalf of the poor man’s child”, and it began the Victorians’ obsession with Christmas.This new book, written by one of his direct descendants, explores not only Dickens’s most famous work, but also his all-too-often overlooked other Christmas novellas. It takes the readers through the seasonal short stories he wrote, for both adults and children, includes much-loved festive excerpts from his novels, uses contemporary newspaper clippings, and looks at Christmas writings by Dickens’ contemporaries. To give an even more personal insight, readers can discover how the Dickens family itself celebrated Christmas, through the eyes of Dickens’s unfinished autobiography, family letters, and his children’s memoirs.In Victorian Britain, the celebration of Christmas lasted for 12 days, ending on 6 January, or _Twelfth Night_. Through Dickens and Christmas, readers will come to know what it would have been like to celebrate Christmas in 1812, the year in which Dickens was born. They will journey through the Christmases Dickens enjoyed as a child and a young adult, through to the ways in which he and his family celebrated the festive season at the height of his fame. It also explores the ways in which his works have gone on to influence how the festive season is celebrated around the globe.

    Wimbourne Books presents the fourth in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 4 in the series spans the years 1835 to 1869 and includes stories from a wide range of male authors; English, Irish, Scottish and American. Includes tales by Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne and Washington Irving. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the stormy night arrives, lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration. Includes the stories; The Gray Champion (1835) – Nathaniel Hawthorne; The Fortunes of Sir Robert Ardagh (1838) – Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu; Guests from Gibbet-Island (1839) – Washington Irving; Ghost Gossips at Blakesley House (1841) – William Mudford; The Grimsby Ghost (1842) – Thomas Hood; The Miniature (1844) – John Yonge Akerman; The Legend of the Weeping Chamber (1851) – Bayle St. John; The Ghost of Pit Pond (1854) – Dudley Costello; The Pot of Tulips (1855) – Fitz-James O’Brien; The Ghost in the Bride’s Chamber (1857) – Charles Dickens; The Yellow Gown (1858) – George John Whyte-Melville; The Ghost’s Forfeits (1858) – James Hain Friswell; The Haunted and the Haunters (1859) – Edward Bulwer-Lytton; Experiences of Farthing Lodge (1864) – Thomas Wilkinson Speight; The Painted Room at Blackston Manor (1864) – John Berwick Harwood; The Spectral Coach of Blackadon (1865) – Thomas Quiller Couch; The Botathen Ghost (1867) – Robert Stephen Hawker; The Ghosts at the Grange (1867) – George Manville Fenn; The Shadow of a Shade (1869) – Tom Hood; Uncle Cornelius, His Story (1869) – George MacDonald.

     London, 1853. Annie Stride is a beautiful, flame-haired young woman from the East End of London. She is also a whore. On a bleak January night Annie stands on Waterloo Bridge, watching the icy waters of the Thames writhe beneath her as she contemplates throwing herself in. At the last minute she's rescued by a handsome young man. Her saviour, Francis Maybrick Gill, is a talented artist. He takes Annie as his muse, painting her again and again and transforming her from a fallen woman into society's darling, taking her far away from her old life. But there is darkness underpinning Annie's lavish new lifestyle. In London and in Florence, prostitutes are being murdered. There's someone out there who knows who Annie really is - and they won't let her forget where she came from...

    After Lorna Buchanan returns from her trip to India, she looks forward to a quiet life as a teacher in St. Ann's College. Instead, she gets tangled in a mystery involving murder and ancient, druidic practices. After Lorna is sacked by the tyrannical head teacher, she is recruited to solve the murder of Mr. Findhorn, a railway conductor. Liaising with Police Sergeant Caswell, their search for the murderer takes them deep into the world of deception, greed and age-old rituals. But is there something supernatural behind the crimes, or are they driven by a completely different motive? Praise for THE MALVERN MYSTERY: "I truly appreciated the author's historical details... An interesting and entertaining novel." - Amazon customer "I sincerely hope that this could be the start of a series." - Amazon customer

    Young Prince Ayron was worried about his hairdo until the Queen summoned him to dine with her privately. His father’s kingdom was in danger and he had to escape immediately.Mr. Dulles, the Royal housekeeper, brought Ayron to the Rock of Prayer and watched him leap off into an unknown world. The legendary Phoenix caught his fall and took him to the slumbering White Forest, whose enchanting beauty hid a dark secret. Its inhabitants rejoiced to see him, for they knew that he was the one they had been waiting for. The boy who came to break their curse.The Laurel trees who lived deep inside the forest also rejoiced when they heard of Ayron’s arrival. They fell madly in love with him as soon as they beheld his emerald green eyes, which reflected the former glory of the White Forest. They made a pact together to keep him, even at the cost of their lives.Join Ayron on his unforgettable adventures to an unknown world, where the spirits of nature come to life.

    Continues the story directly after the shocking events of Penny Dreadful's season three TV finale.

    Well-rounded characters and lots of plot twists. I can't wait for the next instalment in the Shaking the Tree series." Five star review Florence lives like a Princess attending dinner parties and balls away from the gritty reality, filth and poverty of Victorian London. However, her world comes crashing around her when her father suffers a spectacular fall from grace. She must abandon her life of luxury, leave behind the man she loves and sail to the far side of the world where compromise and suffering beyond anything she can imagine await her. When she is offered the opportunity to regain some of what she has lost, she takes it, but soon discovers that not everything is as it seems. The choice she has made has a high price attached and she must live with the heart-breaking consequences of her decision. This novel is part one in the 'Shaking the Tree' series.

    Each of its civilian members has been enlisted for their unique skill or exceptional knowledge in a particular field. They’ve previously been featured in The Case of The Curious Client and The Case of The Lonesome Lushington novels. The Bow Street Society Casebook is a series of mini mysteries by award winning author, T.G. Campbell. In this volume, the opening three instalments have been brought together for the very first time. Two previously unpublished mysteries, and notes from the author explaining her inspiration behind the series, are also included. An illusionist, medical doctor, veterinary surgeon, architect, freelance journalist, solicitor, artist, cabman, secretary, and newspaper journalist are all called upon by the Society’s clerk, Miss Rebecca Trent, to investigate a plethora of peculiar puzzles. From a sweet-shop owner who believes he’s losing height at an alarming rate to the mysterious disappearance of a woman from inside a carriage. From a beloved family pet being the subject of a bizarre accusation, to a conversation with a dead man, to an unjust dismissal from a toy makers. Each Bow Street Society member must draw upon their knowledge and expertise to solve these baffling problems once and for all…

    Amanda Beresford uncovers the dark deeds of a man whom society trusts. This is a girl with a love of the simple pleasures in life, but Amanda soon discovers the adult delight of having not one, but two handsome admirers. Each man is compelling in a different way; one is as light as the other is dark, but which of these two gentlemen represents good and which evil? Join Amanda as she moves from the freedom of her lighthearted girlhood into the darker confusion of full womanhood while living in the hypocritical era of Victorian England. A place where ladies cover their pianos’ legs for fear of being considered indecent while their husbands, at the other end of town, are fondling the real thing! Publisher’s Note: This book contains elements of power exchange, old-fashioned discipline, and explicit scenes. If any of these offend you, please do not purchase.

    A story of a seventeen-year-old girl named Emma Derkin and five other girls, who just like every young girl back then, wanted to find the best possible husband at the debutante ball. The events unfold during the Victorian era in a girls' school dormitory.We are privy to follow the girls as they painstakingly prepare for the ball, as well as to watch the relationships that are formed between the girls. And, of course, the main event, the coming out ball, for which everyone has been getting ready. But love is unpredictable, and fate never fashions things the way we imagine it. This book is not just meant primarily for young girls and fans of Jane Austen novels, but the topic is equally enjoyable for every adult woman.

    John faces a new life, in a new land, as she boards the merchant ship from England to America. Her father has arranged for her marriage in New Orleans – to her dismay. She has no desire to be there. Everything and everyone she loves is in England. The chief-mate seems friendly enough, but then she meets Captain Gregory Smythe, who neither needs nor wants women aboard his ship. And he’s quite vocal about it. It’s ‘hate at first sight.’
Gregory is unhappy at the thought of having to be responsible for not one, but two ladies, especially after finding out that privateers have recently sunk two merchant ships off the coast of the Carolinas.
 On top of that, females aboard a vessel with an all-male crew are trouble; everyone knows that. And when food goes missing and a stowaway is found hidden in his very own cabin, he realizes trouble follows Arabella wherever she goes. When the only two women booked for passage realize they are destined to marry the same man, it all seems to come apart. And that is just the beginning of their troubles! Publisher's Note: This Victorian romance contains scenes of discipline and explicit themes.

    After discovering his wife in a compromising way, which will he want to do more?READER ADVISORY: This story contains many elements of BDSM, bondage, and submission. This story is only for readers who enjoy wicked levels of erotica.Reading Parts I-V first is recommended.

    Continues the story directly after the shocking events of Penny Dreadful’s season three TV finale, featuring Ethan Chandler, Sir Malcolm Murray, Ferdinand Lyle and Lily! Written by Penny Dreadful TV series co-executive producer Chris King with interior art by Jésus Hérvas (Sons of Anarchy).

    Writing a book about the young family, she is desperate to discover who murdered them, and is doing all she can to research the past when the recluse who owns the house refuses to allow her to visit. But her quest for information causes her to be haunted by a violent male ghost who will stop at nothing to thwart her efforts – and another, equally determined to protect her and discipline her reckless behavior. Can the handsome new owner of the island, American billionaire Brandon Clifford, who wants nothing more than to steal her heart, provide her with the answers she seeks to solve the mystery? Publisher's Note: This is a dark romance, filled with mystery, violence, explicit scenes and discipline. If any of these offend you, please do not read it.

    Continues the story directly after the shocking events of Penny Dreadful's season three TV finale.

    De la Croix's newest book is a humorous historical fantasy that showcases the follies of heteronormative, misogynistic, repressive life.

    On some occasions, they represented themselves as Molly's Sons, sent by their mother, to carry out justice; on others, a man attired as a woman, introducing herself as Molly Maguire, demanding redress for wrongs inflicted on her children. The raiders might stipulate the maximum price at which provisions were to be sold, warn against the eviction of tenants, or demand that anevicted family be reinstated to their holding. People who refused to meet their demands were often viciously beaten and, in some instances, killed-offences that the Constabulary classified as outrages. Catholic clergymen regularly denounced the Mollies and in 1853, the district was proclaimedunder the Crime and Outrage (Ireland) Act. Yet the outrages continued.Then, in 1856, Patrick McGlynn, a young schoolmaster, suddenly turned informer on the Mollies, precipitating dozens of arrests. Here, a history of McGlynn's informing, backlit by episodes over the previous two decades, sheds light on that wave of outrage, its origins and outcomes, the meaning andthe memory of it. More specifically, it illuminates the end of outrage--the shifting objectives of those who engaged in it, and also how, after hunger faded and disease abated, tensions emerged in the Molly Maguires, when one element sought to curtail such activity, while another sought, unsuccessfully, to expand it. And in that contention, when the opportunities of post-Famine society were coming into view, one glimpses the end, or at least an ebbing, of outrage--in the everyday sense of moral indignation--at the fate of the rural poor. But, at heart, The End of Outrage is aboutcontention among neighbours--a family that rose from the ashes of a mode of living, those consumed in the conflagration, and those who lost much but not all. Ultimately, the concern is how the poor themselves came to terms with their loss: how their own outrage at what had been done unto them andtheir forbears lost malignancy, and eventually ended. The author being a native of the small community that is the focus of The End of Outrage makes it an extraordinarily intimate and absorbing history.

    And being a Maid Of All Work means that she has to do... well, ALL the work, obviously! Cleaning, dusting, scrubbing, washing - there's SO much to do in a Victorian country house. But when a priceless jade necklace belonging to the lady of the house disappears, Jane turns accidental detective (with the help of her best friend, a pigeon called Plump...) - can she solve the mystery of the missing jewels before it's too late?

    Campbell. The Bow Street Society is a fictional group of amateur detectives operating in 1896 London. Each of its civilian members has been enlisted for their unique skill or exceptional knowledge in a particular field. They’ve previously been featured in The Case of The Curious Client and The Case of The Lonesome Lushington novels in addition to the first Bow Street Society Casebook mystery, The Case of The Shrinking Shopkeeper In The Case of The Winchester Wife, Captain Bennett Winchester, a retired merchant seaman, seeks the Society’s help following a most baffling incident with his wife at King’s Cross railway station. Mr Samuel Snyder, a Hansom cab driver by profession, and Miss Georgina Dexter, an artist, are asked to investigate by the Society’s clerk, Miss Rebecca Trent. It soon becomes apparent, however, that their commission is not as simple as it seems…

    Campbell. The Bow Street Society is a fictional group of amateur detectives operating in 1896 London. Each of its civilian members has been enlisted for their unique skill or exceptional knowledge in a particular field. They’ve previously featured in The Case of The Curious Client and The Case of The Lonesome Lushington novels, in addition to two other Bow Street Society Casebook mysteries: The Case of The Shrinking Shopkeeper and The Case of The Winchester Wife. In The Case of The Perilous Pet, the Bow Street Society is hired by solicitor Mr Treaves following the death of his friend, Sir Thomas Russell. Though considered an accident by most, Sir Russell’s son believes otherwise. It’s therefore up to Society members Dr Rupert Alexander, a veterinary surgeon, and Mr Bertram Heath, an architect, to test the feasibility of a bizarre accusation and finally uncover the truth…

    As the population grew, the city developed a seedy underbelly just below its surface. Illegal saloons, prostitution and sports gambling challenged the image of the Puritan City. Daughters of the Boston Brahmins posed for nude photographs. The grandson of President John Adams was roped into an elaborate confidence game. Reverend William Downs, a local Baptist pastor, was caught in bed with a married parishioner. Author Robert Wilhelm reveals the sinful history behind Boston’s Victorian grandeur.

    There is a man who could save her, but there would be a price to pay. A high price...Wealthy, powerful Edward Murray has long fancied Teresa, but when she dares to hope that he might agree to become her benefactor, she quickly finds herself in far over her head. Edward is no gentle, soft-hearted lover. He expects Teresa to work for Mistress Caro at the club, where she will be his to train, his to punish, and his to enjoy in any way he pleases.But even as she is forced to pay her debts in the most shameful manner imaginable, Teresa cannot help wondering if what Edward offers her is much more than just a clean financial slate. Is a romance with him a foolish dream, or could it be that he is exactly the man--and the master--she has always needed?Publisher's Note: The Virgin's Dilemma is a stand-alone novel with the same Victorian-era setting as Punishing Lady Jane. It includes spankings, sexual scenes, intense and humiliating punishments, and more. If such material offends you, please don't buy this book.

    Hensley shows how the modern state's anguished relationship to violence pushed writers to expand the capacities of literary form.The Victorian era is often imagined as an "age of equipoise," but the period between 1837 and 1901 included more than two hundred separate wars. What is the difference, though, between peace and war? Forms of Empire unpacks the seeming paradoxes of the Pax Britannica's endless conflict, showing that the much vaunted equipoise of the nineteenth-century state depended on physical force to guarantee it. But the violence hidden in the shadows of all law --the violence of sovereign power itself--shuddered most visibly into being at the edges of law's reach, in the Empire, where emergency was the rule and death perversely routinized.This book follows some of the nineteenth century's most astute literary thinkers--George Eliot, Charles Dickens, Wilkie Collins, A.C. Swinburne, H. Rider Haggard, and Robert Louis Stevenson among them--as they wrestled with the sometimes sickening interplay between order and force, and generated new formal techniques to account for fact that an Empire built on freedom had death coiled at its very heart. In contrast to the progressive idealism we have inherited from the Victorians, the writers at the core of Forms of Empire moved beyond embarrassment and denial in the face of modernity's uncanny relation to killing. Instead they sought effects--free indirect discourse, lyric tension, and the idea of literary "character" itself--that might render thinkable the conceptual vertigoes of liberal violence. In the process, they touched up to the dark core of our post-Victorian modernity.Drawing on archival work, literary analyses, and a theoretical framework that troubles the distinction between "historicist" and "formalist" approaches, Forms of Empire links the Victorian period to the present and articulates a forceful vision of why literary thinking matters now.

    Why did Victorian women of letters desire to learn ancient Greek, a "dead" language written in a strange alphabet and no longer spoken? In the words of Elizabeth Barrett Browning, they wrote "some Greek upon the margin—lady's Greek, without the accents." Yet in the margins of classical scholarship they discovered other ways of knowing, and not knowing, Greek. Mediating between professional philology and the popularization of classics, these passionate amateurs became an important medium for classical transmission.Combining archival research on the entry of women into Greek studies in Victorian England and America with a literary interest in their translations of Greek tragedy, Prins demonstrates how women turned to this genre to perform a passion for ancient Greek, full of eros and pathos. She focuses on five tragedies—Agamemnon, Prometheus Bound, Electra, Hippolytus, and The Bacchae—to analyze a wide range of translational practices by women and to explore the ongoing legacy of Ladies' Greek. Key figures in this story include Barrett Browning and Virginia Woolf, Janet Case and Jane Harrison, Edith Hamilton and Eva Palmer, and A. Mary F. Robinson and H.D. The book also features numerous illustrations, including photographs of early performances of Greek tragedy at women's colleges. The first comparative study of Anglo-American Hellenism, Ladies' Greek opens up new perspectives in transatlantic Victorian studies and the study of classical reception, translation, and gender.

    Wimbourne Books presents the seventh in a series of rare or out-of-print ghost stories from Victorian authors. With an introduction by author Alastair Gunn, Volume 7 in the series spans the years 1857 to 1901, contains ghost stories set at or around Christmas, and includes stories from a wide range of authors including Sabine Baring-Gould, Charlotte Riddell and Florence Marryat. Readers new to this genre will discover its pleasures; the Victorian quaintness, the sometimes shocking difference in social norms, the almost comical politeness and structured etiquette, the archaic and precise language, but mostly the Victorians’ skill at stoking our fears and trepidations, our insecurities and doubts. Even if you are already an aficionado of the ghostly tale there is much within these pages to interest you. Wait until the dark of the snowy night (preferably on Christmas Eve), lock the doors, shutter the windows, light the fire, sit with your back to the wall and bury yourself in the Victorian macabre. Try not to let the creaking floorboards, the distant howl of a dog, the chill breeze that caresses the candle, the shadows in the far recesses of your room, disturb your concentration. Includes the stories; The Wedding-Ring (1857) – Miles Gerald Keon; All Alone on Christmas Day (1858) – James Hain Friswell; The Ghost in the Clock Room (1859) – Hesba Stretton; The Ghost in the Double Room (1859) – George Augustus Sala; The Spectre’s Visit (1859) – Anne Sarah Bushby; Glámr (1863) – Sabine Baring-Gould; The Ghost Detective (1865) – Mark Lemon; Hertford O’Donnell’s Warning (1867) – Charlotte Riddell; The Brown Lady (1869) – Frances Cashel Hoey; The Phantom Flash (1870) – William Wilthew Fenn; Christmas Eve at a Cornish Manor-House (1878) – Clara Venn; The Ghost of Charlotte Cray (1879) – Florence Marryat; The Curse of the Catafalques (1884) – F. Anstey; Number Ninety (1886) – Bithia Mary Croker; A Mysterious Portrait (1888) – Mark Rutherford; The Spectre of Barrochan (1889) – J. E. P. Muddock; The Old Portrait (1890) – Hume Nisbet; Old Applejoy's Ghost (1897) – Frank Richard Stockton; Jerry Bundler (1897) – W. W. Jacobs; Bills, M.D (1901) – John Kendrick Bangs.

     When Parsons Belvray was eight, her mother was killed in an accident, and so was she--almost. Her grieving father saved her by having her soul placed in the body of a Fanarlem--an artificial girl brought to life by magic. But most Fanarlem are created for slave labor, not to live a privileged life as the daughter of one of the wealthiest men in the High Sorcerer's Palace. Now a young woman, Parsons has never known romance and struggles for respect, yearning for a more important role, but the only person who pays her any attention at all is the famous Peacock General. Dennis is a vampire, strong and fast with a dangerous taste for blood--and a great loneliness. It's hard to find true love when you want to suck the life out of every woman you meet. It doesn't help that his blood has anti-aging properties and he's been tortured and treated like a human experiment by the palace sorcerers. When the Peacock General asks Parsons to hold the keys to his prison, she may also find the key to his heart. This is part one of a two-part story.