Showing results by narrator "Anne Hancock" in All Categories

Fun-loving socialite Tasha Endicott is stranded at a deserted small-town train station on her way to a house party. Caught in a fierce blizzard and poorly dressed for the weather (she loses a bejeweled party slipper in the snow), she's saved from certain death when minister Thurley MacDonald appears and carries her home to his mother. Thurley is a minister, and he and his loving mother adhere to strict interpretations of the Bible. It is a strange but intriguing world to Tasha, and when it's time for her to leave, she finds her own life somewhat vacuous.

Faithfully nursing her ill father for five years has derailed Marion Warren’s plans for further education. When no will is found after their father’s death, her brother Tom decides to sell their family home in the city and move his young family to a Vermont farm. Naturally, Marion will always have a home with them—where she can help with housework and the children’s schooling. Marion’s dream of taking classes and enjoying the city’s cultural offerings evaporates until, armed with only her faith, a meager purse and a quaking heart, she dares to make other plans.

"A Simple Soul" is the perfect Gustave Flaubert short story: a tale told in spare, straightforward language full of richly observed details. The "soul" is Felicite, the exemplary servant of the austere Madame Aubin. Orphaned and illiterate, Felicite devotes her life to her mistress and Madame's two children. Her kindheartedness extends to her nephew and a local beggar, but it is seldom reciprocated.

Cornelia Copley's plans to finish college and get her degree in interior decoration are thwarted when she is unexpectedly called home due to her mother's illness. Heartbroken at the interruption and not understanding why her father can't see how important her education is, Cornelia soon finds there is plenty of trouble at home: Her mother has had a breakdown and is in a sanitarium; her father has lost his job and taken a lower position; and her brother Carey is going with a wild crowd.

Shirley Hollister is desperate. She, her ailing mother, and her four siblings are being forced out of their cramped city apartment. Where to go on her meager stenographer's salary? On a whim, she takes a trolley ride into the countryside and spies a barn: spacious, full of light, and surrounded by God's wondrous nature. Her new landlord, Sidney Graham, is intrigued by this lovely young woman and her plans to turn his abandoned barn into a home.

Ramona Ortegna, the foster child of Señora Moreno, is much loved by all who live and work at the Moreno ranch, except Señora herself, who cannot bring herself to think of the girl as anything but a mixed-blood child. Half white, half Indian, Ramona had been adopted by the Senora’s sister who then entrusted the child to her upon her death. Already embittered by the loss to the Americans of much of her southern California land as the result of the 1846 Mexican-American War, the pious old woman is also distraught by the near destruction of California’s Catholic missions.

Mrs. Blencarrow is a lovely middle-aged widow with five adoring children and a comfortable income with which to raise them. She holds a position of admiration and respect in her strictly Victorian village society. But the good lady who seems beyond reproach has a secret, and not all her neighbors wish her well. When one of them stumbles upon incriminating information, Mrs. Blencarrow stands to lose everything she holds dear ... Originally published in 1890 by Margaret Oliphant, a keen and prolific chronicler of the strict laws and customs of her time.

The Lycett-Landons are a well-to-do Victorian family living in a large, comfortable house across the river from bustling Liverpool. The father, Robert, is a partner in a thriving business; his wife Eleanor has the care of the house and six children to occupy her; and Horace, the eldest, is looking forward to moving to London to work in the family firm. But trouble is brewing. The London office is in distress, and Robert must go there often to straighten things out. When the length of his visits becomes more extended, his family worries that he has taken ill and doesn't want to concern them.

"Collision!" is the only explanation Gail Desmond hears as the ocean liner lists toward the sea. In the chaos that follows, she finds herself alone on deck with a stranger who lashes her to a makeshift raft. Moments later, she finds him floating unconscious and hauls him aboard.

Patterson Greeves, a noted scientist and academic, is retiring to his family manse to write a book. But on arrival, he finds two letters, one from each of his daughters, announcing their imminent arrival. One plans to visit and the other to live with him. He panics: though a man of many accomplishments, he has been an abysmal and absent father.

Immediately after the death of the aunt who raised her, Joyce Radway's cousins treat her like a servant. They even attempt to block her from taking exams to qualify as a teacher and earn her own living. Angered by their constant demands, she impulsively grabs her hat and purse and runs to her aunt's grave to weep and rest. But she's not alone; thieves are using the cemetery to hide stolen goods, and she's heartsick to discover their leader is a man she once knew and admired.

Cloud of Spruce, the ancestral home of the Lesley clan, is situated amid orchards and spruce woods with a perfect view of Prince Edward Island harbor. Six-year-old Marigold Lesley is sure that the sound of the wind through the trees is the whispers of fairies; that just over the hill is a beautiful Hidden Land; and that her friend Sylvia—who no one else can see—will always be waiting to play with her. Marigold lives with her understanding mother, her curmudgeonly Old Grandmother, and her strict Young Grandmother who doesn't approve of imaginary friends.

Elsie Hathaway has it all: beauty, brains, and a strong work ethic. Taken in by her aunt's loving family after her mother's death, Elsie has had every advantage and earned every honor her school bestows. Her older brothers and her father remained in the family home and over the years their visits to each other were sporadic. But one day she drops by unannounced and discovers that this is the place where she is needed most.

Adam Bates, the Land King of Hartley, Indiana, rules his 16 children with a firm hand and a tight purse. All work tirelessly on the family farm until the sons, at 21, are given 200 acres of land with a house and barn (they pay the taxes while their father holds the deeds). The daughters, at 18, get a term at Normal School to train as schoolteachers, a position they hold until they marry. Kate, the youngest, has always bristled at her father's preference for his sons but eagerly awaits her chance for further education. Her father has other plans.

Zach Garrett is home from war, haunted by PTSD, trying to fit in to what has become an alien world. With the holidays fast approaching, his uncle Big Jim Garrett offers him a place on the family ranch. Zach isn't sure he's up for a noisy, boisterous Garrett Christmas...until he meets beautiful Stephanie Gale, and all his protests go up in flames. Firefighter and EMT Stephanie Gale is ready for anything. She's got her life under control...until she locks eyes with Zack and realizes her heart's in a whole new kind of danger. 

Famed author E. Nesbit ( The Railway Children) brings 20 of Shakespeare's plays to life in language that children can understand. They are entertaining narratives that describe the Bard's main characters and often intricate plots. Each story provides a concise overview for anyone about to experience a Shakespeare play for the first time.

The intrepid private nurse/investigator is charged with the care of two young boys in a home full of conundrums. Both parents are fearful but refuse to leave their home and won't say why. The rugs have been rolled up and the furniture piled into the middle of each room. Their anxiety is catching, as Miss Adams too furtively watches for danger as she searches for clues. Why, she wonders, do they lock every door in the house? And who or what is the menace that terrifies them?

Elza is content with her life in the demi-monde, an actress and courtesan in the glittering society of France's First Empire, but when her former lover is arrested for treason, she’s blackmailed into informing on her friends and associates. She has one alternative - to become the secret agent of the most feared man in Europe, Napoleon Bonaparte! Elza must rely on her wits, her courage, her beauty, and her growing talents as a medium she must triumph - or die!

Sixteen-year-old Effie Martin is in trouble. No one in her family understands her, some mean girls refuse to invite her to their picnic, her clothes are a mess, and she's mad at the world. Impulsively, she hops on her bike and soon finds herself in the middle of a drama where she saves the day. Her heroic act becomes a turning point in her life.

A great building boom spread across America in the 1920s and the Fawcett Construction Company of New York has many projects in the pipeline. Carol Berkley, private secretary to the company's president, keeps track of them all and is particularly concerned about the lack of progress in a building out west. When two men who appear to have something to do with the project arrive to talk to her boss, she overhears them discussing plans to swindle the company. Their scheme is to share the spoils with the project's engineer, Philip Duskin.