The Mutinous Contemplations of Gemma Groot

The Mutinous Contemplations of Gemma Groot PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1370301952
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 439

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Book Description
Venetia Warboys, by most accounts, a mild-mannered, generous, church-going woman, had reached her thirty-fifth year with little out of the ordinary happening in her life. 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 mypastry," 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?

The Mutinous Contemplations of Gemma Groot

The Mutinous Contemplations of Gemma Groot PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1370301952
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 439

Get Book Here

Book Description
Venetia Warboys, by most accounts, a mild-mannered, generous, church-going woman, had reached her thirty-fifth year with little out of the ordinary happening in her life. 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 mypastry," 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?

Slowly Rising

Slowly Rising PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463990293
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 362

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Book Description
Slowly Rising is a house that slumbers with one eye open—a lantern that flickers with watchful amber flame in a second floor window. But like a cat hunched before a mouse hole, it is never fully and deeply asleep. Just pretending. Once in a while it stretches; its tail languidly unfurls to give a single, sultry sweep from side to side before it lies still again. With an ear to the wall you can hear the wattle and daub vibrating with a low, throbbing purr. The woman who sings in the walls of the house is waiting. * * * * Amalie McKenna, the new lady's maid at Slowly Rising, is ambitious, hard-working and devoted to her job. Nothing can distract her and she has no time for mischief. This house might have a macabre history and more than a few wayward spirits, but Amalie is unimpressed. The supernatural has been a part of her world since before she was born and there's not much left that can surprise her, or make her heart beat faster. Gideon Jones has also come to Slowly Rising with a job to do. Unlike anything she's ever encountered before, he's a straightforward, plain-speaking, fearless cockney with rough edges and an irrepressible smile. He claims to be an ordinary valet, but Amalie doesn't believe that for a minute. Because nothing that lives within the walls of Slowly Rising is quite what it seems. * * * * Despite their differences, there is one thing the house's residents have in common: they're brave souls who came on a long journey, ready for adventure. And if they are bold enough to ignore the warning scratched into the doorframe, the menacing sentry of crows, and rumors of a man once scared to death within, then they're welcome to stay a while. At their own risk. Now the woman who sings in the walls of the house waits for you. Are you ready to step inside?

The Snow Angel

The Snow Angel PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463430980
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 267

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Book Description
It's Christmas 1877 and Anne Follyot— of little beauty and no fortune, but sturdy spirit and an excess of imagination— is invited to stay with her favorite aunt in Cornwall. She's all anticipation, waiting for the man chosen to escort her on this journey. According to her aunt, she met him before, many years ago, but Anne cannot remember him and she's positive that he must long-since have forgotten her. She's never been memorable. But J.P. Deverell, Esq. is now a grown man with a dangerous reputation, of which her aunt cannot possibly be aware. And Anne means to make the most of her aunt's mistake and this adventure. She considers herself a modern, independent woman, for whom a little scandal is well overdue. If she doesn't seize this chance now, she might never have another. As Charles Dickens wrote, "No space of regret can make amends for one life's opportunity misused." * * * * He's in no temper for eggnog and mistletoe; no mood to tolerate the painfully polite company of some plain spinster, in a carriage, for three days. It's probably a contrivance to get him home for Christmas. Remember Anne Follyot? He doesn't care to remember himself sixteen years ago, let alone recall the dull vicar's five year-old niece. He'd planned to spend his Yuletide working, alone and in peace. But a letter from his mother has guilted him into this act of begrudging chivalry, aided by the whispers of his best friend's mischievous ghost. "Bah, Humbug!" As Charles Dickens also wrote. * * * * But this journey will not turn out quite the way either traveler expects, for when these two opposites collide, so do ghosts of the past, the present and the future. It will be a holiday season with all the usual fare—peril, pandemonium, family quarrels, mulled wine and bodily injury. Certainly a Christmas adventure never to be forgotten this time. At least, by one of them.

A Loveliness of Ladybirds

A Loveliness of Ladybirds PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463857852
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 556

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Book Description
Ladybird, ladybird, fly away home… Ten years ago, at ‘The Brindle Horse’ Hotel, Amarinda Siddaway ran barefoot out of the fog, with a bloody knife in her hand and a children’s rhyme on her lips. Tangled with rumors of lurid scandal, an illicit love affair with a young man a dozen years her junior, and a missing corpse, the mystery of Mrs. Siddaway seemed destined never to be solved. Tried for murder and acquitted, the scarlet woman disappeared from the world just as thoroughly as her alleged victim. But was she truly innocent, or did she get away with murder? Now, a decade later, a very similar crime has been committed, once again at the same hotel. Can it be nothing more than simple coincidence that several characters involved in the first incident are present at the scene of the second? Another woman with a bloody weapon in her hand; another nursery rhyme, and another missing dead man. Some folk might think that old ghosts are to blame. Or is it the ladybirds again? A spinning weathervane on a boathouse roof points in turn to all four directions of the compass. And four letters, sealed with red wax, stamped with the image of a ladybird, are out in the world, linking both crimes with a curious, winding chain. And there is only one man with the patience and wisdom to unwind it. Only one man can connect the clues and stop that weathervane spinning. Detective Inspector Deverell is not fond of coincidences or the supernatural. But whatever is going on at ‘The Brindle Horse’, he’ll get to the bottom of it. Fortunately, he has the eager amateur sleuth and creator of remarkable cakes, Miss Lucy Greenwood, to help him out.

The Snowdrop

The Snowdrop PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463423518
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 261

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Book Description
He was once a boy abandoned, left to make his own way in the world. She was a girl stifled by the demands of her family and constrained by the strict customs of Victorian society; a bird caged and without hope. Raised in two disparate worlds, with one fortune rising while the other tumbled, they might never have known each other. But when a disreputable old rogue dies unexpectedly and in spectacular, explosive style, a chain of remarkable events is destined to draw these two strangers close— to the bemusement of one and the disgust of the other. The last Will and Testament of Sir Mungo Lightfoot Mayferry McClumphy has gone astray, and a large number of claimants are fighting over a vast fortune. She wants nothing to do with it, her grieving heart bereft of hope. He is in the thick of it, a man of ruthless perseverance and— in her eyes— a dark, mercenary, unfeeling heart. Drawn together one Christmas, these two “Mortal Enemies” will have to find a way to put aside the strife and be civil. Whether or not they can survive the season remains to be seen. If they also find hope and love along the way, it will surely be a Christmas miracle.

The Crollalanzas

The Crollalanzas PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463224701
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 523

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Book Description
“I have seen the day I am to die. And I have seen the man who will murder me— he who will, one day, snuff out my flame. It is an odd thing to foresee one’s departure from life and the face of the man with the means to bring it about. I can only hope I have some time yet before he comes to find me. But what is worse: knowing one’s fate in advance and worrying over it, at the cost of all present and possible joys, or being ignorant of what is to come and waking each day without that cloud above; to be allowed excitement without restriction; to live without limitation, until the very end?” So writes Truzia Crollalanza inside me: her diary. She had a vision, you see, and she knows the face of her cursed enemy as well as she knows her own reflection. And that is before they ever meet in person. Unfortunately for Truzia, this man—the harbinger of her doom— turns out to be far more amusing and tempting company than she expected. Her life, and her death, are about to become complicated. *** In Renaissance Venice, the sisters Crollalanza are raised by their mother to walk with their heads high, question everything, settle for nothing and always fight for justice. But as women ahead of their time, they are curiosities to their gossiping neighbors, and a dangerous— even deadly— menace to the men who would control them. Some claim these prideful women keep dark secrets and strange customs. In their presence, more than one flying flower pot has struck a man’s head. Entirely, it seems, by its own power, without the ladies’ hands being seen to propel it. They ought to be stopped; their outspoken ways must be suppressed, before other women are encouraged to rebellion. Everybody knows the world is best managed by men. But these eccentric females are determined to manage their own affairs, including love, magic and vengeance. Now they embark upon a journey to a new land, a new life, and it’s wise not to get in their way. You might find yourself trapped in the privy, thrashed about the kneecaps by a flying ladle, or elf-locked by an inexplicable desire. All this wickedness you will find confessed within me: the youngest sister’s diary. If you can believe what you read within my pages. She does, after all, enjoy story-telling, games and trickery. Here, in this new country, she tries to outrun the fate she long ago foresaw, while living every moment she has left to its fullest. And I, her diary, try to keep up with it all, in… The Partially Comical and Oft-Times Tragical History of Three Sisters and a truffle pig, told with select examples of drollery, dignified into scenes by way of dialogue, arranged for the pleasure and benefit of all curious persons. Modernized, henceforth, in spelling and punctuation. The main of it translated, for better or worse. The like never before published (mayhap with reason sound, if good profit be the aim).

Bespoke

Bespoke PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 0463483057
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 501

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Book Description
He's been sent from Scotland Yard to solve a case of blackmail in the Yorkshire Dales; she's just opened her own business in York baking bespoke cakes. He wants a peaceful life; she's aiming for revolution. He likes to keep both feet on the ground; she dreams of scandalizing the neighborhood on a bicycle. He prefers to fade in with the wallpaper; she's proud to be a black sheep that stands out in the crowd. He's never getting married again—most women ought to be stamped on the forehead with a danger warning and clapped into handcuffs. She thinks men are simply an obstacle to her ambitions and if it's true that the way to a man's heart is through his digestive system, that explains why a great deal of gaseous waste frequently finds its path out of the wrong end. The two of them might appear to be mismatched flavors in an unlikely recipe, but when blackmail turns to murder, it's the start of a remarkable partnership in crime-solving. And a match made in chocolate. It's late Victorian England and the world may be on the cusp of change, but is it quite ready for this pairing? They're not even prepared for it themselves. Nevertheless, some wayward kind of chemistry keeps drawing them together and it can't be blamed entirely on the cake. Or the corpse in the conservatory.

Slowly Fell

Slowly Fell PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher: Twisted E-Publishing LLC
ISBN: 1370122438
Category : Fiction
Languages : en
Pages : 371

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Book Description
Do you believe in witches? Adam Wyatt will tell you that he certainly doesn't believe. He's the solemn, sensible blacksmith of Slowly Fell and he keeps his distance from females entirely for his own tranquility of mind, not out of any fear of mischievous magic. In his opinion, the great number of souls lost forever to the village pond can be blamed on carelessness and unlucky accident; nothing to do with a witch’s curse. The Dowager Lady Bramley, widow of the local squire, also denies a belief in witchcraft. Or ghosts. Although she's lately enjoyed long discussions with her dear departed husband, who is intent on luring her to Slowly Fell, a place that haunts her dreams—a village with a macabre history, and a connection to her family that she would rather not remember. Admiral Wetherby did not believe in witches either, until madness caused him to burn down his house and all his possessions, sending himself up in smoke with it. And now his daughter, practical, level-headed survivor, Sarah Wetherby, arriving in Slowly Fell to look after the vicar's sick wife, doesn't know what to think about witches. She is not a young woman prone to fanciful ideas, but she loves a good mystery, and there is certainly something going on in Slowly Fell. Sarah has begun to suspect that she's lived here before. Certain sights around the village are familiar— the house where a reclusive old woman resides in grand, but lonely splendor; the pond where a family of accused witches once met their deaths in the ducking-stool, and even the gruff manners of that handsome bachelor blacksmith seem to her familiar as old friends. Or something more. But in Slowly Fell, nothing and nobody is quite what they seem.

The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne

The Wicked Wedding of Miss Ellie Vyne PDF Author: Jayne Fresina
Publisher:
ISBN: 9781402266003
Category : Diamonds
Languages : en
Pages : 0

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Book Description
By night Ellie Vyne fleeces unsuspecting aristocrats as the dashing Count de Bonneville. By day she avoids her sisters' matchmaking attempts and dreams up inventive insults to hurl at her childhood nemesis, the arrogant, far-too-handsome-for-his-own-good, James Hartley. Original.

Poetry and Philosophy from Homer to Rousseau

Poetry and Philosophy from Homer to Rousseau PDF Author: S. Haines
Publisher: Palgrave Macmillan
ISBN: 9781403944184
Category : Literary Criticism
Languages : en
Pages : 214

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Book Description
This accessible and jargon-free book features readings of over 20 key texts and authors in Western poetry and philosophy, including Homer, Plato, Beowulf , Dante, Chaucer, Shakespeare and Rousseau. Simon Haines presents a thought-provoking and theoretically aware account of Western literature and philosophy, arguing that the history of both can be seen as a struggle between two different conceptions of the self: the 'romantic' (or dualist) vs the 'realist' or ('extended').