Tread Softly Alice

At the age of eighteen, Alice Ware is pretty, charming and impetuous. Back home in Yorkshire at the start of a new century, she is determined to seize any fresh opportunities and experiences that come her way. The arrival of a new neighbour, the elegant and scandalous Mrs Emma Cheevey, leads to visits from her two highly eligible soldier sons. Alice is instantly drawn to Matthew, the younger brother - and then Captain Steven Cheevey arrives home from South Africa, where he was part of the British expeditionary force at the Relief of Mafeking. Alice's choice is made, her future secure . . . until a reckless decision throws the lives of three people into turmoil. Reluctant to return home, she seeks refuge in the one place where she knows she will find peace, perhaps for ever. It will take a visit from the man who loves her to persuade Alice to reconsider and dare to live again.

Alice Bloom's expertise in landscape design is her ticket to the quaint villages of France, but when her beloved flowers reveal signs of foul play, she finds herself entangled in a murder that could threaten everything she’s worked for. As she sifts through layers of mystery, will Alice's green thumb help bring a murderer to justice, or will she become the next victim? A Mystery in Bloom: Ruin in the Roses (An Alice Bloom Cozy Mystery—Book 2) is the second novel in a new series by cozy mystery author Fiona Grace. The series begins with A Mystery in Bloom: Murder in the Marigolds (Book 1). The Alice Bloom series is a page-turning, charming cozy mystery that invites you into a picturesque setting, packed with humor, romance, and surprise twists and turns. You’ll be up well past bedtime as you fall in love with your new favorite female protagonist. Future books in the series are also available!

It’s 1936. Thirty-year-old Alice has given up on finding a husband. Between civil engineering and mountain climbing, her interests are so masculine, she scares men away. A poor route choice strands her—lost, hungry, and scared—next to Lon Chaney’s cabin deep in the Sierra Nevada Mountains. Jed senses a woman stumbling down the steep, inhospitable mountain behind his borrowed cabin. Her scent tantalizes and excites him. Mates are scarce these days, and if his nose is right, she’s his fated one. His and his two pack mates, that is, who are mercifully gone at the moment. Jed crafts a careful strategy, knowing the mate bond might not be enough to convince her to stay once she finds out it will link her to all three of them—forever. Alice adds Jed to her list of problems when he melts out of the shadowed darkness. At first she declines his offer of help, but he keeps talking until she ends up inside the cozy log cabin in front of a roaring fire. His skilled hands and a shot of whiskey heat her blood to molten, and her carefully tended world explodes into desperate hunger to make love with the man rubbing her weary feet. As caught up in lust as Alice, Jed takes a chance. A big one. Will mating with her before disclosing everything turn out to be a huge mistake?

A brilliant romantic comedy, set in England in the 1980s, is about a young man discovering the world and himself during his first year at university.

NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE “Utterly charming . . . a big-hearted, flawless coming-of-age tale, as scary and funny as your yearbook picture.”—People (four stars) The year is 1985. Brian Jackson, a working-class kid on full scholarship, has started his first term at university. He has a dark secret—a long-held, burning ambition to appear on the wildly popular British TV quiz show University Challenge—and now, finally, it seems the dream is about to become reality. He’s made the school team, and they’ve completed the qualifying rounds and are limbering up for their first televised match. (And, what’s more, he’s fallen head over heels for one of his teammates, the beautiful, brainy, and intimidatingly posh Alice Harbinson.) Life seems perfect and triumph inevitable—but as his world opens up, Brian learns that a little knowledge can be a dangerous thing. Praise for A Starter for Ten “Fresh, edgy and very funny . . . [David Nicholls] has a talent for droll dialogue and a wonderful sense of the ridiculous.”—USA Today “Starter for Ten has that elusive Hornby-factor. . . . It’s wincingly funny . . . a prospect to savour.”—Arena

An earthquake strikes at the heart of London, its epicenter a theatre where a lavish production of The Tempest has just opened. Thus the scene is set for Will Eaves’s gloriously deft tragicomedy of our time. Nothing To Be Afraid Of is both a lament for hope abandoned and innocence betrayed, and an exquisite comic pageant of Shakespearian vitality and compassion: an incidental theatrical history, across the twentieth century, of the art of pretence; of patience, trust and loyalty; of folly in youth and unforgivable old age. ‘Tender, playful and full of beautifully observed descriptions of growing up and growing old . . . with some terrific comic set-pieces the equal of anything in Waugh and Wodehouse. Now that’s good writing’ Daily Telegraph ‘In the case of his novel, Eaves has nothing to be afraid of. This deft, absorbing book more than confirms the promise of The Oversight. Eaves is a master of the dark arts of city fiction. He is to be read, relished and watched very closely’ Independent ‘Nothing To Be Afraid Of provides several coups de théâtre . . . [it] is a tragicomic tale of secrets, a drowned daughter, infidelity and mistaken identity . . . It is so clever, so apt, so right that you have no option but to read the novel with its built-in encore all over again. It seems even better the second time round’ Sunday Telegraph

Friend or foe? The character of Owen's old friend is called into question when he mysteriously vanishes from the king's mission after a page is murdered. York, 1367. Owen Archer and his old comrade, Ned Townley, are each leading companies of the king's men north of York to Fountains and Rievaulx abbeys respectively, on a mission to win the support of the powerful abbots for William of Wykeham becoming the Bishop of Winchester. A CRIME OF PASSION? But trouble stalks Ned Townley - Sir William of Wyndesore's men at Windsor suspect he killed a page in a jealous rage over his betrothed. Is the rumour true? SOME SECRETS MUST BE PROTECTED AT ANY COST. When Ned and a friar in his party go missing, Owen is drawn into the intrigue surrounding his friend. As further disturbing events occur, Owen uncovers a dangerous, scandalous secret that stretches to the highest level of the court. THE OWEN ARCHER MYSTERIES 1. The Apothecary Rose 2. The Lady Chapel 3. The Nun's Tale 4. The King's Bishop 5. The Riddle of St. Leonard's 6. The Gift of Sanctuary 7. A Spy for the Redeemer 8. The Cross-Legged Knight 9. The Guilt of Innocents 10. A Vigil of Spies 11. A Conspiracy of Wolves 12. A Choir of Crows 13. The Riverwoman's Dragon 14. A Fox in the Fold

As a young widow with futures to secure for her two daughters, Glenda McKinley is torn between remaining at her beloved estate Pinmuir in the Scottish Highlands, or following the plans her deceased husband made to join his brother in America. Though her inclination is to stay among all that is dear and familiar, she is forced to reconsider when her daughter Caitlin's health takes a turn for the worse and the family doctor suggests a change of scenery would do her good. The family's imminent departure for Colorado comes as a blow to Ros, the eldest girl, who has fallen in love with Clive, son of their estate manager. For her sister's sake, however, she agrees to try life on her uncle's cattle ranch and the family travel half the world away to start anew. America is a whole new world to the McKinley family, and in spite of the hospitable welcome they receive from Gordon McKinley, the scale of the country and hard realities of ranch life come as a shock to the family who pine for the things and people they left behind in Scotland. When a gentle, unassuming cowboy falls for Glenda, she has a strong incentive to stay and make a new life. But with Ros yearning for the man waiting for her back in Scotland, can the family ever find true happiness when each must pursue a different dream?