Showing results by narrator "Ruth Urquhart" in All Categories

Helen Harper presents Book 3 in the Thrill of the Hunt series.

Yeah, I'm a treasure hunter. No, I'm not rich. Or busy. Or successful. Not yet. I'm doing my very best at making a living in my newfound career. I've got magic, a pair of brownie sidekicks, and enough ambition to fill every chilly corner of Edinburgh castle. What I don't have is any actual treasure to hunt. However, when a young girl asks me for help, I end up embroiled in a deeply dangerous search for an ancient magical artifact. Unfortunately, I'm not the only one who wants to find it.

Talented in magic, the young elven woman Ruethwyn didn't fit in in her hometown but was scheduled to attend the most renowned academy of magic in the kingdom and was even building up the courage to confess her love in the hope it might be returned. That all ended in a dragon's fire. Resvarygrath the Gilded destroyed Ruethwyn's village, killed her parents and teacher, and stole away the young women of the village. Maimed by the dragon's flames, Ruethwyn was spared by a curious dark elf who gave her a chance; she had two years to rescue her beloved or risk losing her forever.

In Deverry, the volatile history of humanity continues as a dashing young king journeys to his throne in disguise, fulfilling an ancient prophecy. In the Westlands the exiled lord Rhodry travels anonymously as a silver dagger—a mercenary—as he did in his youth, following a destiny that will take him from the grassy plains of the elven peoples to the hills and towns of Deverry, where dark forces are gathering.

Eighteenth-century Scotland is famed for generating many of the enlightened ideas which helped to shape the modern world. But there was in the same period another side to the history of the nation. Many of Scotland's people were subjected to coercive and sometimes violent change, as traditional ways of life were overturned by the "rational" exploitation of land use. The Scottish Clearances is a superb and highly original account of this sometimes terrible process, which changed the Lowland countryside forever, as it also did, more infamously, the old society of the Highlands.

Derryth MacClaren is on the run - having been sent from her castle home to avoid capture by the vicious nobleman known as the Wolf, who has vowed revenge against the Clan Kincaid. When a surprise attack leaves her vulnerable, Derryth ends up in the hands of an enemy warrior who claims her, with the Wolf's blessing, as his prize.

It's been almost a year since the magical apocalypse closed off the city of Manchester from the rest of the world. The vampires, werewolves and humans within the city all now live together in relative harmony...but trouble is brewing on the horizon. Supplies are starting to run out and, despite their best efforts to grow crops and create a sustainable future, everyone knows that it will be an uphill battle. Still, the magic swirling in the city air is an incredible bonus. Charley, the most magical of them all, is determined to do whatever she can to help out her new community.

When she arrives on Ellis Island as a 17-year-old Irish immigrant, Rose Nolan is looking for a land of opportunities; what she finds is far from all she'd dreamed. Stubborn and tenacious, she refuses to give up. Left alone to fend for herself and her younger sister, Rose is thrust into a hard-knock life of tenements and factory work. When the devastating Triangle Shirtwaist Factory Fire of 1911 rushes into Rose's life, her confusions are brought to an all-too-painful head. To whom and to what can she turn when everything around her is in ashes?

Writing together for the first time, New York Times best-selling authors Lynsay Sands and Hannah Howell present the darkly passionate story of two men sworn to conquer the hunger that pounds in their blood - and the women who may be their only salvation.

The story of the Highland clans of Scotland is famous, the names celebrated, and the deeds heroic. Having clung to ancient traditions of family, loyalty, and valor for centuries, the clans met the beginning of their end at the fateful Battle of Culloden in 1746. Alistair Moffat traces the history of the clans from their Celtic origins to the coming of the Romans; from Somerled the Viking to Robert the Bruce; from the great battles of Bannockburn and Flodden to Bonnie Prince Charlie and the Jacobite Risings; and from the Clearances to the present day.

As the daughter of the richest man in England, Allegra Morgan attracts a number of fortune hunters willing to overlook her flawed pedigree to gain her enormous wealth. Her most ardent suitor is the arrogant but impoverished Quinton Hunter, duke of Sedgwick, who has little to offer a prospective wife except his grand title. Allegra decides that if she must marry, she might as well be a duchess. So she agrees to the match with one condition: her husband must never ask for her love. She has seen the misery love can cause and has vowed to give her heart to no man.

Ironcross Castle was called cursed by the Highlanders. Its most recent lairds had perished in accidents, falls, or fires. The newest owner, Gavin Kerr, did not fear death. It was feeling that he dreaded - the pain of betrayal and loss. Now, he arrived at the castle to hear of hauntings and cults and to be drawn to the portrait of beautiful Joanna MacInnes, who died here amid a furnace of flame. And looking at her, Gavin desired her, feeling an impossible longing to take her in his arms.

A Croft in the Hills captures, in simple, moving descriptions, what it was really like trying to make a living out of a hill croft near Loch Ness fifty years ago. A couple and their young daughter, fresh from city life, immerse themselves in the practicalities of looking after sheep, cattle and hens, mending fences, baking bread, and surviving the worst that Scottish winters can throw at them. Their neighbors are few, but among them they find the generosity and community spirit that has survived in the Highlands for generations.

The immortal Dartayous, a powerful Druid Warrior, is given one mission - keep Moira alive to fulfill the prophecy. But with each passing day the burning desire he feels for her eats away at the wall surrounding his heart.

Grieving after the death of his younger brother, Hugh Castle, the Earl of Monnow, finds evidence to suggest it was not an accident, but a failed attempt to kill him. He vows revenge, planning to take advantage of the rumor that he is also dead to uncover the murderer. But Hugh doesn't count on meeting another desperate adventurer, Helen Archer. She has lost the fabled Peckham Necklace at Hugh's home, Ormsby, and risks censure if she doesn't find it. So together, Helen and Hugh hatch the perfect plan.

Five days before her wedding to Detective Inspector Tom Mallory, Kate Hamilton finds her friend Sheila in need of her help. Sheila, a soon-to-be bride herself, needs Kate’s help to get Carl Curtis, her fiancé, out of Venezuela. His passport was taken from him by the authorities, and they say he owes them money. Carl says it’s a bribe, but he’s unable to leave unless it’s paid. Sheila decides to sell her grandfather’s coin collection, including a valuable gold coin presented by Queen Victoria to her great-grandmother. Among her grandfather’s stored possessions is a letter from the Queen.

Lynsay Sands and Hannah Howell return to the windswept Highlands of 16th-century Scotland in the captivating story of identical twin brothers trapped between the curse that has been their legacy and the two women whose love is their destiny.

Leigh Welles has not set foot in on the island in years, but when she finds herself called home from a disappointing life on the Scottish mainland by her father's unexpected death, she is determined to forget the sorrows of the past and start fresh. Fellow islander Iain MacTavish, a RAF veteran with his eyes on the sky and his head in the past, is also in desperate need of a new beginning. A young widower, Iain struggles to return to the normal life he knew before the war. But this October is anything but normal. This October, the sluagh are restless.

Gregor MacLachlan has much to hide. Not only has he made a name for himself as a man with a sword for hire, but no one knows his true identity as that of the laird of MacLachlan's son. Banished from his home, Gregor has been content with his life, never relying on anyone or anything - until Fiona.

It's 1911, and Lily's plans for her factory are not progressing as fast as she would like. Maria, her sister Rosa, and friend Leonie are still working at the Triangle Shirtwaist Factory. Maria and Conrad have agreed it's pointless finding new jobs when they will soon be joining Lily's factory. Rosa can think of nothing but her upcoming marriage, and Leonie worries how she is going to look after her four siblings when their mother falls very ill.