Showing results for "Digital Wine" in Literature & Fiction

The first of the dead is wealthy Belle Dumont, who vanished from her home in the Minnesota woods only hours before she was to reveal startling news to her three grown children. The kids and Belle's lover deny any knowledge of this mysterious bombshell, but amateur sleuth Jane Lawless, Belle's old friend, suspects these charming folk of being less than forthright. In fact, Jane suspects coldhearted murder....

Menedemos, the young dashing sea captain, and his helper, the scholarly Sostratos, are sea-traders from the Greek island of Rhodes. Fearless sailors, they will travel any distance to make a profit or to search for rich treasures. While they trade in fineries such as wine and silk (and even, to the chagrin of many, peacocks), they live in dangerous times with pirates, thieves, and barbarians.

Late summer, 1270. Although the Simon de Montfort rebellion is over, the smell of death still hangs over the land. In the small priory of Tyndal, the monks and nuns of the Order of Fontevraud long for a return to routine. Their hopes are dashed, however, when the young and inexperienced Eleanor of Wynethorpe is appointed their new prioress. Only a day after her arrival, a brutally murdered monk is found in the cloister gardens, and Brother Thomas, a young priest with a troubled past, arrives to bring her a more personal grief.

The new vicar had never wanted a picture-postcard parish - or a huge and haunted vicarage. Nor had she wanted to walk into a dispute over a controversial play about a 17th-century clergyman accused of witchcraft...a story that certain long-established families would rather remained obscure. But this is Ledwardine, steeped in cider and secrets...a paradise of cobbled streets and timber-framed houses. And also - as Merrily Watkins and her teenage daughter, Jane, discover - a village where horrific murder is a tradition that spans centuries.

Twelve-year-old Douglas Spaulding knows Green Town, Illinois, is as vast and deep as the whole world that lies beyond. It is a pair of new tennis shoes, the first harvest of dandelions for Grandfather's renowned intoxicant, the distant clang of the trolley bell on a hazy afternoon. But as young Douglas is about to discover, summer can be more than the repetition of established rituals that hold time at bay.

Emma Chavet and her father are winemakers who stubbornly cling to the old ways. But when an unwelcome offer comes to buy their business, they must face the new realities of a Green society. This story was originally published in the Audie Award-winning METAtropolis: Cascadia.

Alexias, a young Athenian of good family, grows up just as the Peloponnesian War is drawing to a close. The adult world he enters is one in which the power and influence of his class have been undermined by the forces of war, and more and more Alexias finds himself drawn to the controversial teachings of Sokrates.

Against the backdrop of early twentieth-century Colombia, where the Catholic Church exercises total control over women, Orange Wine weaves an unforgettable story of sisterhood, love, passion, and betrayal.

I've always dreamed of a fairytale romance, but the first time around, I kiss a troll, running straight into Grizz. He's the first man I feel free with, but we don't get to ride off into the sunset. Betrayed by the man I was supposed to marry, mourning a child I'll never hold, and marked by a brutal escape—I carry the scars of a life shattered beyond recognition. I beg Grizz to release me, but he refuses to let go, making me reconsider my picture of love. Maybe my prince charming does wear leather.

Wren and Thessaly collide when they land coveted jobs at a glamorous New York City boutique wine importer. Hardworking, by-the-book Wren comes from a modest background and has everything to prove, while Thessaly hails from a family of prestigious California growers—but she is plagued by self-doubt. Thrown together at work, where they’re expected to have exquisite palates, endless tolerance for alcohol and socializing, and the ability to sell, sell, sell, they regard each other with suspicion.

A warm-hearted rural romance set among the scenic vineyards of the Margaret River from bestselling author Tricia Stringer, the authentic voice of Australian storytelling. Reserved high school teacher Keely Mitchell is more than ready for her holiday on the west coast of Australia, so when a...

Barbara Pym is one of the 20th-century's wittiest, and most underrated, novelists. Her perceptive comedies of manners, centred around the domestic lives and loves of unassuming middle-class Englishwomen, won her many devoted readers and saw her hailed as a modern-day Jane Austen. Yet she spent 15 years out of print in the 1960s and '70s, until Philip Larkin championed her work in the Times Literary Supplement. Her seventh novel was subsequently shortlisted for the Booker Prize, and writers from Jilly Cooper to Alexander McCall Smith continue to laud her talent today.

1918: A First World War battlefield becomes the cosmic battleground for two vampires, as Karl von Wultendorf struggles to free himself from his domineering maker, Kristian. 1923: Charlotte Neville watches as her father, a Cambridge professor, fills Parkland Hall with guests for her sister Madeleine's 18th birthday party. Among them is his handsome new research assistant Karl - the man Madeleine has instantly decided will be her husband. Charlotte, shy and retiring, is happy to devote her life to her father and her dull fiance Henry - until she sees Karl....

As they struggle to survive in a barbarous fantasy land, a mother and daughter attempt to shake off the bonds of female slavery and escape to freedom.

First published in the US in 1988 and in the UK in 1990, The Wine-Dark Sea contains eight unsettling stories that explore protagonists' fears and desires, at once illogical and terrifying, and culminate in a disturbing and enigmatic ending. Aickman's "strange stories" (his preferred term for them) are a subtle exploration of psychological displacement and paranoia; his characters ordinary people that are gradually drawn into the darker recesses of their own minds. For fans of the horror genre, Robert Aickman is a must read.

The beginning of Janet, Viv and Zelda’s friendship could not have been less promising. Navigating their new lives as widows, the three women venture to the same dreary bereavement group in a chilly church hall. But what bonds them is not their shared predicament, but instead how quickly they all decide to flee the depressing gathering, choosing instead to share a bottle of wine. The Three Muscat-eers is born. The women may be down but they’re not out; in their sixties but certainly not past it. They agree a mission: to find fulfilment as single women and recover their joie de vivre.

Athena Trappes thinks she's in love...until she discovers the scoundrel only wanted her as his bit on the side. Enraged, she does what any spirited Englishwoman would do: set fire to his belongings, incur his dangerous wrath, and flee - immediately. With nowhere else to turn, she seeks freedom in the wilds of Scotland. Highland Laird Symon Grant lost his wife years ago, and it's his duty to find another. Athena is not exactly what the clan has in mind for him, but Symon's heart burns with unexpected passion for the woman who would risk everything to be free.

After proving himself on the field of battle, Ramon de Segrave is appointed to the Council of Barons by Richard the Lionheart. But instead of taking his most formidable warrior on his latest crusade, the king assigns Ramon an even more dangerous task - woo and win the lady of Thistle Keep. Isabel of Camoys is a capable widow with no intention of surrendering her valuable estate. She's fought long and hard for her independence, and if the price is loneliness, then so be it.

Brenda Grant has no desire to marry. Ever since her first, horrible marriage, she's made herself into a hellion of a woman to keep men from wanting her. But the Campbells, her previous husband's family, are determined to find her a new husband. Highland Chief Bothan Gunn is smitten by the woman who won't be tamed. It takes all Brenda's willpower to resist the brawny Highlander who takes her to safety.

Christmas feels like a real gift for Lucy this year. Her cosy coastal cottage is starting to feel like home, her new pizza business is getting the locals ‘All Fired Up’, and she can’t wait to spend it with her new flame Jack, the charismatic owner of the Cocktail Campervan. Winding along the snow-dusted Northumberland coast for a whirlwind of Christmas markets and celebrations, Lucy and Jack can’t resist stealing a few kisses under the mistletoe. But there’s a twist in their romantic tale when Lucy’s ex turns up in the village.