Never make a bargain with a madman…no matter how handsome.
Abandoned by her family because of a well-kept secret, Miss Charity Oakley plans to live out her spinsterhood alone in her family's country house. But when her mysterious illness begins to worsen, she wonders just how long she will live at all. When Mr. Sidney Delamar, a presumed madman and mischief-maker finds his way to town, Charity does all she can to avoid him. What she didn’t expect, however, was to find him begging for refuge at her door. Striking a bargain with a madman is a dangerous task, but so is refusing one, especially since Mr. Delamar offers something she desperately needs in return... |
What happens when a monstrous debutante meets a fierce apprentice painter? War.
If there’s one thing Michael Cavinder can’t abide, it’s vanity. As the son of an artist, he has seen a great deal of it from his father's clients. When Lady Patience Hansford, clearly fresh from London society, demands a portrait from Michael’s ailing father, she offers payment that their family desperately needs. An apprentice in the trade, Michael paints the portrait in his father’s place. When Patience’s dissatisfaction with the portrait brings her to do something unpardonable, Michael creates a new portrait—one portraying her for who she truly is. A monster. When its display in a local exhibition garners Michael’s work fame and attention, Patience seeks her revenge, pursuing the painter who ruined her reputation. What she didn’t expect, however, was to find much to like about Michael, and much less to like about the person she has become. As Michael and Patience struggle to find their places in society, games of revenge and betrayal continue from all sides, drawing them unexpectedly closer. When it comes to falling in love with the enemy…will their hearts betray them too? |
Falling in love with her sister's suitor had never been part of her plan.
After losing her parents, Elizabeth Watts and her two sisters are taken under the care of their great-aunt, who has promised them her estate upon her death. From a young age, however, Elizabeth has learned not to expect to keep things that can be taken away. An unforeseen change in the will reveals that Elizabeth and her sisters may have the estate, but only if the eldest weds Dr. Luke Pembroke, their great-aunt’s beloved physician, who needs the estate just as desperately as they do. Knowing her sister to be in love with another, Elizabeth is appalled when she begins courting Dr. Pembroke, intent to sacrifice her own happiness. Nothing if not determined, Elizabeth makes plans to sabotage the courtship. With her schemes underway, she quickly learns that her sister’s suitor is nothing if not clever—nothing except, perhaps, handsome, kind, and infuriatingly charming. When the feelings between them become impossible to ignore, Elizabeth discovers that love has a scheme all its own, and it might just be the most determined of all. |
Beauty is in the eye of the beholder...
After her grandmother’s death, Fanny Clarke will soon be left destitute. With the scars left on Fanny’s face from a house fire, her grandmother has chosen the most suitable sort of man to be her husband: A blind man. With little choice in the matter, Fanny agrees to her grandmother’s scheme. But when her new husband proves to be more vexing than she bargained for, she wonders if destitution would have been a better fate. With nearly all of his staff gone, Percy Wellington is in need of a caregiver of sorts. After losing his sight, he can no longer live properly without one, or so his cousin Harry insists. When Harry presents Percy with the idea of a marriage of convenience to a shy, agreeable woman, Percy reluctantly agrees. But it isn’t until after their wedding that Percy discovers she is anything but shy, and far from agreeable. What begins as a war of sorts, slowly transforms to reluctant understanding. Can Percy and Fanny find common ground, or even love? Or will the scars of their past prevent both their hearts from seeing clearly what is right in front of them? |
When Annette Downing and her mischievous little brothers were orphaned, Annette closed her heart off, dedicating her life to raising her brothers and protecting them from her abusive aunt. But when her wicked aunt sends them to Kellaway Manor for the summer to reform the boys’ bad behavior, Annette is reunited with the handsome Owen Kellaway, a childhood friend just as mischievous as her brothers. She soon finds her closeted heart in jeopardy in the battle between fear and desire. Does she have room in her heart for another?
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After a season in London, Charlotte Lyons is still regrettably unattached. With her family’s finances in peril, she is sent away with her sister to a bleak coastal town where she is expected to pursue a wealthy earl. She is beautiful and talented; how can she possibly fail? But when her heart is captured by someone entirely unexpected, Charlotte finds herself caught up in a web of lies and intrigue. Between hardship and sorrow, she finds more than she bargained for, and is forced to choose between the life she once wanted and a new love she never imagined.
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Growing up in a dreary coastal town, Lucy Abbot has secretly dreamt of a perfect and exciting romance, missing the childhood summers spent in the countryside with her cousins and their charming neighbor, Nicholas. After Lucy learns that Nicholas has been married in the six years of her absence, she is heartbroken and more determined than ever to move beyond her past and claim her independence.
Lonely and confined, Lucy grasps an opportunity to return to the estate of Rosewood at her cousin’s invitation, hoping the escape will lift her spirits, keeping her departure secret from her protective parents. But just as her journey is finally underway, her carriage is besieged by highwaymen with a familiar man leading them. Struggling through past heartbreak and fearing for her life in the present, Lucy can’t help but wonder—could this mysterious outlaw be exactly the person she has been searching for? |
A mistaken identity, a forbidden romance, and a pair of gold satin slippers...When Aiden Notley’s stepfather, the Marquess of Aveley, sells Aiden’s childhood home and moves to Gravesend, his future looks bleak. Treated as an indentured servant and mourning the loss of his mother, Aiden finds new hope in an apprenticeship in town—a chance to take up his own trade as a shoemaker.
Lady Katherine Golding, heiress of Silverbard, is tired of fortune hunters. When her father, the Duke of Chatham, moves the family to Gravesend, Kate is relieved to escape the trouble of her unwanted suitors and experience adventure in a new place. But in Gravesend the fortune hunters are plenty, the adventures are few, and her growing affection for a servant, Aiden Notley, is more than troubling. The chance encounter that brings Aiden and Kate together forms an unlikely friendship—even upon the rocks of mistaken identity. With a ball steadily approaching and Aiden’s unscrupulous stepbrothers scheming for Kate’s fortune, the possibility of happily ever after feels far out of reach. But all could change at the strike of midnight… |
When Sir Edmund catches Miss Selina in a forbidden courtship at the frost fair, she asks for his silence. But he has a request to make in exchange, and it may cost Selina her carefully guarded heart.
For Selina Ellis, a crowded fair held on the frozen surface of the Thames is the perfect opportunity to meet with her secret suitor—the son of her family’s solicitor—without being caught. But when an acquaintance from her childhood, Sir Edmund, discovers their courtship, a bargain is struck. In order for Edmund to keep her secret, she must convince her mother to allow him to stay in their home for Christmastide, where he will be close enough to keep watch on her and her secret suitor…a man of whom he strongly disapproves. Though he hadn’t planned on staying in London longer than his grandmother’s funeral, Sir Edmund cannot leave an innocent young woman like Selina in the grip of a man as manipulative as Mr. Skinner. Loyal to his new purpose, he sets out to thwart Selina’s efforts to marry Skinner, unleashing a rivalry between himself and Selina. When she matches his subterfuge with ease, and Skinner threatens to destroy all he has, Edmund must take a new approach—one with more risks than it’s worth. As Selina’s feelings for Edmund shift from enmity to friendship, her uncertainty grows. She must choose whether love is worth sacrificing her pride. And Edmund must choose whether the price of his silence is worth losing his heart. |
Going near mistletoe with a charming earl is dangerous…and so is falling in love with him.
Deemed a spinster, Olivia Lockwood has found a new purpose in life: to help her cousin Esther shine. A companion, a friend, and a chaperone, Olivia takes great care to help Esther navigate the often treacherous roads of society, and to see past the false charms of the earl, Lord Whitfield, who is bent on securing Esther’s hand—and dowry—in marriage. Olivia knows the heartbreak that flirtatious men can cause, so when Esther’s parents force her to attend the Christmas masquerade ball knowing Lord Whitfield will be in attendance, Olivia will stop at nothing to keep him away from her cousin...even if it means she must impersonate her. Andrew Dawson, the Earl of Whitfield, cannot back down from a challenge, nor can he bear to disappoint his family. When his friend dares him to steal a kiss under the mistletoe, he sees no better choice than the woman his parents intend for him, Miss Esther Lockwood. His attempt, however, is greeted by a most unwilling miss, one with more pluck than he remembered seeing in Esther. Intrigued and hopeful, he chooses to spend the holidays at his country estate where he will have the chance to discover more about the woman he plans to marry. But when he finds himself drawn to her fiery cousin instead, he questions his ability to meet his family’s expectations. As Olivia continues to hide her identity and heart, Lord Whitfield hides his true feelings. Torn between loyalty and desire, will they both claim love for themselves, or will they do as they have always done—leave it behind? |