In the shadow of the world's first cotton mill, 30,000 souls trapped by poverty are fighting for survival as the British Empire is built upon their backs.Thieves and prostitutes keep company with rats in overcrowded lodging houses and deep cellars on the banks of a black river, the Irk. Gangs of 'scuttlers' stalk the streets in pointed, brass-tripped clogs. Those who evade their clutches are hunted down by cholera and tuberculosis. Lawless drinking dens and a cold slab in the dead house provide the only relief from this filthy and frightening world.Former Manchester Evening News journalist Dean Kirby takes readers on a hair-raising journey through the alleyways, gin palaces and underground vaults of the nineteenth century Manchester slum considered so diabolical it was re-christened 'hell upon earth' by Friedrich Engels in 1845. Enter Angel Meadow if you dare..

    Not only can I see and feel people’s emotions, I can use this information to look into their minds and find their deepest darkest secrets. Now they want me to interview someone new, a dangerous serial killer that has never broken.Until now.When I journey to Carcoza city I know the trip is a mistake. America’s new capital is a rough jewel in a desert of blood, a boiling pot of murder, sin, and far worse. My target is Lucas Vancino, an incredibly dangerous alpha vampire locked behind bars for the murder of thirty women.He claims he was set up, and after seeing past that roiling wave of lust raging through his vampire mind, I see something else too, something that worries me.I think I believe him, but it doesn’t really matter, it just so happens I picked the worst day of the year to enter this deadly prison.As a thousand rioting prisoners battle to the death all around us the dark alpha takes me and we escape into the depraved city of Carcoza, a fugitive vampire on the run with his hostage. Before long those fierce red eyes of his turn on me, and I find myself unable to look away…He wants me to submit. He wants me to obey. He says I’m his.The scariest thing?I’m starting to think he might be right.Publisher’s Note: Punished contains strong sexual scenes, submissive themes, and a powerful alpha vampire with a playful dark side. You have been warned.

    This book contains first hand accounts of life in the workhouse, enabling you to see the workhouse through the eyes of people who experienced it.CONTENTSFOODI am fond of gruelSaltless gruel and dry breadSweetened gruel and diarrhoeaSour gruelSICKNESSRaw, festering soresThe tramp with diarrhoeaAsking for the doctorBATHING, UNDRESSING AND DRESSINGDirty looking bathsOur clothes were taken from us“Hurry up, women”Wet clothesThe condition of the clothesCONDITIONS AND PEOPLEDo I look like a prostitute?We were “only tramps”Coming into contact with other men’s fleshThirst“Your neighbour breathed right into your face”Being woken up throughout the nightPunished for being cheekyBEDS AND BEDDINGThe wire mattressThe wire pillow – a cruel inventionDirty blankets and hard bedsLABOURPicking oakumStone-breaking in Paddington work houseA NIGHT IN A WORKHOUSEYou’ve missed your gruelA stain of blood bigger than a man's handFilthy anecdotesThe swearing clubChecking for liceThree fourths of a pint of gruel in a yellow basinMilling with the crank-handleTHE CRAWLERS: THE WOMAN UNABLE TO GET ADMISSION TO THE WORKHOUSEA CHILD'S MEMORIES OF BEING PUT IN THE WORKHOUSE

    Historically accurate, it is a story of murder and betrayal, of a failed rebellion, and the love of a national scandal.  Charles Trevelyan was Secretary of the Treasury, and Director of the Famine Relief Programme at a time when famine raged and antipathy in English politics towards the plight of those affected raged equally. Kathryn, Charles' daughter, likewise felt no sympathy until the very scale of the tragedy became apparent. Joining the underground, she preached insurrection, stole food for the starving, and became the lover of the leader of the rebellion. She became known as Dark Rosaleen, the heroine of banned nationalist poem, was branded as both traitor and cause celebré. This is her story.

     After her fiancé’s death, Brenna Keelin travels to England, stumbles up hidden stairs in a cathedral and comes out in 1871 Yorkshire. To keep from starving, she becomes a servant in a great estate. More than anything she wants to return to her modern life, especially in time for her sister's wedding, but falling in love has changed everything. Lord Garren Buntingford left Scotland to take over an earldom. He has a lot to learn about the subtleties of being an aristocrat—and a title he never wanted. He desires to return to his vast farm and family in Scotland until a beautiful housemaid is injured by a horse and he carries her back to the estate where she works in his arms. Brenna must hide the truth about where she is from and find her purpose for being sent through time before the stairs will open again. But soon discovers that her calling is to help Lord Garren marry an aristocratic wife. Her heart is torn between fulfilling her call and a desperate passion for a braw Scotsman that society says she can never have. Both must choose between the home they long for and a forbidden love, between duty and devotion, the upstairs and the downstairs, all under the roof of Dunstable Park House.

    Sprinting through the rain, she comes upon the only oasis in the storm, a dark castle with stone wolves at that gate. She doesn’t want to enter but she doesn’t have much choice. With her brother trapped in their carriage, she needs help. But the man she finds inside the castle… it’s not clear if he’s her angel or a devil. Lord Gavin deWolfe knows his old castle is off-putting, in fact, he prefers it that way. After the loss of his wife, he wishes to shut out the world. That is until a wet and pathetic girl lands in a puddle on his floor. He’ll help her and then send her on her way. The problem, her brother’s too injured to travel and she is no girl after all. She’s all woman and she stirs feelings in him he thought long dead. Read for FREE with Kindle Unlimited!

    But when the ancient fae magic causes a disruption in reality, she’s unexpectedly pulled back in time to 1850. Kaitlyn is thrilled to spend time in the past and eager to try it all, including the harmless flirting with the wealthy men who visit Twickenham Manor. Though her mind belongs in the twenty-first century, as she spends time with a handsome Baronet she wonders if finding love in the past is really a possibility. Cyrus told himself the real reason he came to England was to help keep Kaitlyn safe as a promise to her mother, but he soon discovers that there’s more to his best friend’s younger sister than he remembers. When he finally gets a chance to explore where a relationship might lead, he finds himself in the past where there are others willing to sweep Kaitlyn off her feet. Will Kaitlyn give him a chance to prove his love, or will he lose out to a genuine Victorian gentleman?

    ARMENTROUT will love this deliciously dark fae series.Cliff has turned from captor to lover, but I want a protector in this new, dark world.It's the one thing he won't give me, besides freedom.Keeping me tied to him, he leads the way through the darkness to find the rest of his unit.I have other plans. Plans to die before we reach the others.But with Cliff watching my every move, any form of freedom I can scrape up will be the biggest fight of my miserable life.Second box set of the Dark Fae: Extinction series, books 3 - 5. This completes the series. See content warnings inside!

    This Boxed Set of cozy historical mysteries is the perfect gift for readers of any age and is a welcome companion to Pilfered Promises, the fifth book in the series. Maids of Misfortune (over 1400 reviews, 4.2 stars) introduces Annie Fuller, a young widow who runs the O’Farrell Street boarding house and supplements her income by giving financial and domestic advice as Madam Sibyl. When one of Madam Sibyl’s clients dies in mysterious circumstances, Annie goes undercover as domestic servant to find out the truth about his death. Against his better judgment, Nate Dawson, the Voss family lawyer finds himself drawn into helping in her investigations, alternatively fascinated and frustrated by Annie’s independent nature. Uneasy Spirits (over 600 reviews, 4.3 stars) finds Annie Fuller and Nate Dawson, assisted by the boarding house maid, Kathleen, delving into the world of 19th century Spiritualism in order to expose a fraudulent trance medium. She will soon find there are as many secrets as there are spirits swirling around the séance table. Some of those secrets will threaten the foundation of her career as Madam Sibyl and the future of her relationship with Nate Dawson, and, in time, they will threaten her very life itself. In Bloody Lessons (over 350 reviews, 4.4 stars), Annie Fuller has been called in by her beau, Nate Dawson to find out who has been sending poison pen letters about the teachers of San Francisco. The case becomes personal when they discover that Nate’s sister, Laura, may be one of the teachers under attack. In Deadly Proof (over 350 reviews, 4.3 stars) Annie helps her fiancé, Nate Dawson, with a troubling case—defending a female typesetter who is accused of killing her employer. Complicating matters, Nate’s sister decides to take the investigation into her own hands.

    Give a guy a private lingerie show and suddenly everyone in town is talking about you. Again. But Mallory wants to stay in Starlight Hill permanently, the one place she feels safe, even if the only men interested in her now are SLs (stripper lovers.) His contract with the U.S. Army complete, Ranger Liam Turlock is stateside again, and must decide whether he’ll re-up for another four. He’s been invited for a stay in Starlight Hill and some much needed R&R. Liam suspects this is just the Turlocks’ intrusive way of fixing him up. They’ve got their choices lined up for him and he’s not interested in any of them. When Liam meets Mallory while hiding behind a rack of banana hammocks at the Tatas and More lingerie shop (don’t ask) he has an idea. He and Mallory will pretend to date so that 1. Mallory can repair her good time girl image; and 2. Liam can get his family off his back. So for now, or at least until Liam goes back home to Colorado, he and Mallory are a thing to anyone who asks, especially anyone with the last name of Turlock. But fake has never been so real… **ORIGINALLY PUBLISHED AS 'FOREVER MY GIRL' IN 2016, PART OF THE ST. HELENE VINEYARD KINDLE WORLD. INCLUDES A NEVER BEFORE PUBLISHED EPILOGUE.**

    Instead, I mucked around on the low rungs of the ladder, taking piecemeal work that earned me a reputation as a Ms Fixit.But when a dead police officer (don't ask) seeks my help to solve a murder, I find myself investigating a crime of paranormal proportions. A situation that's not improved when I wake one morning sprouting a set of long-desired wings—vampiric in nature.Now the dead cop's partner wants us to team up and investigate the very bats who turned me. If I don't die in the hunt for justice, I might very well perish when he stakes my "bat-daddy."I'm all for solving crime… just not at my expense. But if I don't help, who knows what the man will get up to on his lonesome? Better the devil you know than waking up one morning with a wooden splinter through the you-know-what.

     “This is an important as well as an entertaining story and should be a must-read for those bored with traditional Victorian fiction, those concerned with the unfolding historical role of women and those who just love a great story based on truth and told with utter believability and real compassion.“ Crime Review January 1822: A child is found dead on wasteland in London's Liberty of Norton Folgate. Adah Flint, the Liberty's Searcher, must examine the little girl's body to determine her identity and discover the cause of death. MEET ADAH FLINT AND DISCOVER THE UNTOLD STORY OF THE SEARCHERS Adah's search for the truth takes her through the cosmopolitan backstreets of early 19th century London, with its inns and prisons, street markets and prostitution, cruelty and compassion. Written by Australian history professor T.J. Alexander and based on real characters and a true crime. This novel takes readers into the long-forgotten world of the women searchers who once played an important role in the solving of crimes, and eventually into the twenty-first century, where mysteries are resolved and new enigmas unfold. A MYSTERY WHICH WILL ENTRANCE AND HAUNT YOU.

    Since the age of 15, he has sacrificed his happiness and placed his dreams on hold to make sure the one he cleaved to the most lived out their dream. Being a producer under his best friend's record label came with a lot of perks… except true love. His desires for love went beyond the lyrics he wrote. He craved it like the air he breathed. Landon Carter had it all. The money, cars, clothes and a plethora of women. Being COO of a major record label, Landon has seen first-hand the lengths women will go to just to attach their name to his. Tired of the lies and deceit, he takes his heart off the market and hardens it instead. Set out on being struck by Cupid's arrow, Andre opened himself up for love unlike his best friend Landon. Only thing, well person, stopping him is a Kenyan beauty by the name of Dafina whose own insecurities cause Andre to rethink if the fight for true love is worth it. Being the scrooge of love, Landon thought the black ice surrounding his heart would never melt. That is… until he meets an unlikely spirit housed in the woman he least expects that causes him to rethink the true of meaning love.

    The mayor of Chicago will be assassinated at the end of the week, and she is stuck in the year 1893. What she doesn’t know is how she landed 100 years back in time, or why Peter Hastings, the man trying to help her, shares some eerie similarities to her dead husband.When Joey, perhaps unwisely, revealed the year of her origins it didn’t sit well with her host. Her effort to convince him by predicting the mayor’s murder only made matters worse. Now her sanity is in question, and everything she does puts it further into doubt. One of the few bright spots in the whole situation is William, Peter’s five year-old son, but he is a stark reminder that she left a son of her own back in 1993. Stuck in the past and desperate to return to her own Chicago, Joey stumbles her way through a time when women had a barely-audible voice, and very few options. Armed with nothing but her wits, Joey must navigate the rigid waters of the Victorian era while she tries to prevent a murder and find her way home.