Members’ Regency Fiction Releases for 05/2022

A pact that will change their lives forever…

Fitzwilliam Darcy is a successful young barrister with a bright future. His late uncle has guided his career, made him his heir, and even selected a bride for him—sight unseen— whom he’ll meet and marry upon her majority. Who could have predicted that making the acquaintance of Miss Elizabeth Bennet in Meryton would throw those careful plans into disarray?

Elizabeth Bennet doesn’t know what to make of “Fitz” Darcy, who intrigues and draws her notice like no other. Despite Fitzwilliam’s warnings, she allows Mr. George Darcy, Fitzwilliam’s older brother and master of Pemberley, to charm her. Little does she know that she, too, has been promised in marriage by her late father—to an unknown barrister, no less. What is she to do when her hopes to marry for love disappear in the blink of an eye?

Is George Darcy’s suit in earnest? Can this mysterious bridegroom of her father’s choosing become the husband of her dreams? With the danger of duels and deceit, what will come of the initial attraction between her and Fitzwilliam? Will she become the barrister’s bride?

Note: contains scenes with adult content.

Young widow Annabel Chalfont, Countess of Fellbridge, has two small sons to raise, a mountain of her late husband’s debts to pay off, and a secret: she’s a shadow-shaper, able to manipulate shadow as anyone else might clay. She and six other high-born ladies with equally extraordinary abilities defend England against supernatural crime—but the world knows them only as the Lady Patronesses of Almack’s, Regency London’s most exclusive social venue.

Annabel’s cousin Hartley has been shaken from his self-absorbed ways by Demetria Pouli, a bewitching Greek soprano who is taking London by storm. When a rash of jewel thefts seems to accompany her recitals, Annabel fears Demetria may not be what she seems. As it happens, she isn’t—but a happily-ever-after for Hartley and Demetria isn’t necessarily out of the question, thanks to the Ladies of Almack’s…

She was a Diamond with a few very tiny flaws—and the desire to be good.

He was a rogue with the sense to reform—and to help her to be bad.

Adelaide Devereaux flabbergasts most men she meets. She’s a Diamond, petite, mild-mannered —the perfect picture of a demure lady. She has one ambition—to kiss every man she likes until she finds one whose lips make her hear church bells chime.

In Brighton, she meets confirmed bachelor Gyles, Marquess of Heath, who is felled by her charm. Though he vows to kiss her until she’s felt the earth turn on its axis, he cannot claim her unless he fixes his parents’ refusal to accept her. They’re too high in the instep to accept a wayward Irish lass who’s the granddaughter of a notorious rascal.

Pride might stall their romance, and lust might motivate a scoundrel to try to carry Addy away, but when love is the only passion that matters, do not all objections fall before its power?

Napoleon is determined to conquer the world with his steam-powered weapons. Nothing in England can stop him … except two young lady inventors.

In 1819, France is surrounded by armies. With Russia in the north, the Karlsruhe Confederacy in the east, and a pirate kingdom in the south, Napoleon cannot break out, nor can the English Navy seem to break in. Europe teeters on the edge of a sword. Whichever side rules the air will win.

Celeste Blanchard, daughter of the Emperor’s disgraced Air Minister, is running out of time to develop an air ship that can carry his armies to England and restore her mother to glory. But on a daring and desperate test flight, she is blown off course … and washes up, half drowned, on the shores of Cornwall, in the heart of enemy territory.

Loveday Penhale, cosseted daughter of gentry, has her own inventions to build, even as pressure mounts to behave like a proper young lady and seek a husband instead of a design for a high- pressure steam engine. But when Arthur Trevelyan, heir to the neighboring estate, Gwynn Place, asks for her help in rescuing an unconscious young woman on the beach, Loveday discovers an aeronaut and an inventor as skilled as she is. Between them, a friendship blossoms, and Loveday wonders if they might even pull off the impossible and invent an air ship that will catch the eye of the Tinkering Prince Regent, who has offered a prize to anyone who can help England break the impasse. Celeste’s loyalties are torn in two. If she is caught working secretly for France, she will lose her friend, the love of an honorable man—and her life. But if Napoleon learns she has betrayed him, she will be executed on sight.

Can friendship prevail in the face of war? Or is there a third solution—one where everything hinges on the bravery and daring of a Cornish debutante and the Emperor’s aeronaut?

A sudden summer storm drives Miss Sophia Selkirk into a confectioner’s shop filled with the delicious scents of ice cream and candies. Just as she settled in with her glass dish of delectable ice cream, a shadow falls over the table: the fiancé she jilted without explanation two weeks before has appeared. Can she trust him enough to reveal the secret that sent her fleeing from the only man she has ever loved?

Simon Warren’s entire life was jolted the night before the wedding when Sophia sent a brief note informing him she could not marry him. Now, he has tracked her down to this small confectioner’s shop, where over two dishes of ice cream, they will grapple with a secret scandal from the past and discover whether their love can overcome all obstacles.

Not all storms cause destruction and chaos. Some make new paths and bring clarity. The difference is found within.

The Honorable Caroline Storme has been furious with life since she was twelve. Sent to an asylum due to a suspected mental deficiency, she has finally returned to London, not with vengeance in mind but freedom. Wanting nothing more than to pursue her passions in peace, she vows to ignore everyone around her, until she meets the one man who understands her… a big, barrel-chested sailor with tattoos and a devastating grin.

Mr. John Butler is in London to reconnect with his drunken, baron father before the man pickles himself. The family holdings are deeply in debt and decay, but he doesn’t care about them. Sailing holds his heart as well as his easy, carefree existence in Ipswich. That is until he runs into a woman in Hyde Park. There’s a quiet strength about her but also a banked fury that stokes his own… a woman with stormy eyes and a mouth that’s begging to be kissed.

When London proves too much for them both, John is quick to offer a solution: a marriage of convenience despite vehement protests from the Storme clan. It will give her freedom as well as settling his future. But his blackguard of a father threatens the hasty union that is suddenly filled with affection and primal desire, the sacrifices offered might be too high for either of them to pay once love is involved.

There was one man Lady Emma vowed she would never marry.

The rakish Duke of Warwick — brother to her very best friend.

But one chance encounter on a balcony has Lady Emma questioning all she ever believed about the duke. When her friend — and the duke’s sister — is abducted, they must work together to find her, and determine who has been threatening the Remington family.

Since his father’s murder, Giles, the new Duke of Warwick, has been trying to right his father’s wrongs and discover who is threatening them. He is also searching for the perfect wife to improve his family’s reputation — a wife who could never be the outspoken Lady Emma, who prefers to spend her time digging in the gardens.

As the secrets and mysteries surrounding the family deepen, Giles and Emma find their lives intertwine more closely than ever before. Until one fateful act leaves them one choice — love or ruination.

The Mystery of a Debonair Duke is a steamy Regency Romance.

Kidnapped: His Bride-to-Be

Penelope Ashurst is a dutiful daughter, but wishing for just one adventure before she submits to marriage to the stuffy old viscount her father has selected, she sneaks off to attend a society masked ball. There, she dances and shares a secret kiss with a handsome blond stranger. Her heart is stolen! How can she find a way to come face to face with this mystery man once more?

When Ranulph Rochefort, Earl of Monfort, meets Miss Ashurst, he realizes this goddess is the young woman picked out for him as a suitable wife. However, it’s clear Penelope has no idea he’s the one she’s been promised to. He decides not to reveal his identity but to contrive to see her again.

Only then, Penelope is abducted! Lord Percival Trane, a ne’er-do-well aristocrat, needs to marry a wealthy woman to settle his debts. When Ranulph fathoms who has taken Penelope, and that they are bound for Gretna Green, he knows he must move heaven and earth to find her. But can he reach her in time, and instead, claim her as his rightful bride?

*Reissued in a new series with a beautiful new cover!

Love Against the Odds

The Earl of Seahaven desperately wanted a son and heir but died leaving nine daughters and a fifth wife. Cruelly turned out by the new earl, they live hand-to-mouth in a small cottage.

The young dowager Countess’s one regret is that she cannot give Seahaven’s dear girls a chance at happiness.

When a cousin offers the use of her townhouse in York during the season, the Countess rallies her stepdaughters.

They will pool their resources so that the youngest marriageable daughters might make successful matches, thereby saving them all.

So start their adventures in York, amid a whirl of balls, lectures, and alfresco picnics. Is it possible each of them might find love by the time the York horse races bring the Season to a close?

Nine original stories centered on the Seahaven daughters’ Season.

Lady Jocelyn Stafford desperately needs a husband to repair her tarnished reputation. Her obvious choice is her neighbor James, a man who once fancied her. If only she hadn’t cruelly rejected his attentions when she found herself wooed by a scandalous rake with a better title.

James Margrave, Earl of Seaton, must have an heir to keep his estate from falling into the hands of his cousin, which means he has to marry. Lady Jocelyn, who still beguiles him, would be perfect if only he could forget old slights. Instead, James asks Jocelyn to help him find a suitable wife, a task she agrees to perform, hoping to redeem herself in his eyes.

When a series of attacks put James’s life in danger, an immediate marriage becomes critical. Jocelyn is willing and available. But can he trust a woman who once broke his heart and is it fair to wed her when she might become the next victim?

A self-assured earl who doesn’t like rules. A poised beauty mature beyond her years. Neither thinks they want or need love . . .

Major Owen Hasbury is the new Earl of Danbury and ready to work his way through the women of the ton. Bluestocking Louisa Goulding’s one rule is to avoid rogues at all cost. When the pair meets, she calls him out as a rake, irking Owen and yet intriguing him at the same time.

Yet they become friends—with Owen teaching the quiet beauty how to kiss, realizing the perfect woman is right before him.

Can Owen convince Louisa that he has changed—or will he lose her to another at the house party they attend together?

Alexander, Viscount Sturmbridge is a spy. He’s betrayed, abducted, and tortured by a friend, Rodney Littleton. After recuperating in the country, he returns to London. He wants justice! No, he demands justice for every injury he suffered.

Miss Helen Littleton assumes the responsibility of providing for her mother and sister after the death of her gambler father. When Sturm is assigned to protect her family, she is less than pleased. Men can’t be trusted. Especially a charmer like Sturmbridge.

Sturm is no happier than she is! Her brother betrayed him. Ordered his execution. Only fear of retribution kept thugs from killing him.

When Sturm escorts the Littleton ladies to a musicale, he learns he doesn’t know what fear is until someone you care for is in danger. Helen is accosted. A stranger with a blade to her back demands she pass on to her brother a message. The Society wants it’s list back. What list? The pair reluctantly agree joining forces will protect Helen’s family and bring down The 1804 Society.

Neither wants to acknowledge their feelings for the other. Will Sturm succumb like his friends before him to the lure of life with the blunt and beautiful Helen? Not if he can help it!

Will two stubborn Highlanders ignore what their senses already know?

Will he sense the love in front of him despite the loss of his sight?

Will she overcome her wariness of men to embrace the man he’s become?

1st Lieutenant Simon Demarest, late of the Royal Navy, is no longer the man he used to be. The man he used to be led boarding parties with little more than an ax and a blood-curdling cry sure to stop a slaver’s crew in their tracks. The man he used to be could dance all night with the prettiest girl in the room.

The man he is now cannot even read a book for himself. Instead, he must sit like an invalid – well, he is an invalid – and listen while some dried-up spinster reads to him. Still, there’s something odd about the spinster – her scent. Her aura lingers long after the times she reads to him. And Miss MacKenzie’s scent is one he used to know so well, that of a warm, aroused woman. He can barely make sense of her words for her overwhelming essence. She gives off the pheromones of someone who’s slept all night cradled in nothing more than a field of lavender…whilst pleasuring herself.

Aileen MacKenzie has had quite enough of men, thank you very much, from her father who decided she should assume her dead mother’s duties as chatelaine, cook, housekeeper and everything else in his cavernous, drafty manse out on the moor near Inverness, to her dratted, interfering eight brothers.

She’s her own woman now, owner of the subscription library in the heart of Inverness, thanks to an elderly aunt’s bequest. She really doesn’t need the money Dr. MacCloud offers her to read to his blind patient. But there’s something about this stubborn invalid, something she can’t resist. And what kind of Christian woman would she be to turn her back on a fellow Highlander in need?

In this spicy Regency historical romance a sheltered baron’s daughter and a celebrated duke agree on a marriage of convenience but he has a secret that may ruin it all.

She is desperate to escape…

When Miss Annabel Ridley learns her betrothed has been unfaithful she knows she must cancel the wedding. The problem is no one else seems to agree with her, least of all her father. With her wedding day approaching, she must find a way to escape her doomed marriage. She seeks out the Duke of Halmesbury to request he intercede with her rakish betrothed to break it off before the wedding day.

He is ready to try again…

Widower Philip Markham has decided it is time to search for a new wife. He hopes to find a bold bride to avoid the mistakes of his past. Fate seems to be favoring him when he finds a delicious young woman in his study begging for his help to disengage from a despised figure from his past. He astonishes her with a proposal of his own–a marriage of convenience to suit them both. If she accepts, he resolves to never reveal the truth of his past lest it ruin their chances of possibly finding love.

Can be read as a standalone book or as part of the Inconvenient Brides series.

Returnings

The Blue Devil, war hero Ronan Trevelyan, returns to Boscawden with his fiancee, Miss Bodleigh, and a cold. Returnings, unlike most romantic novels, begins with a wedding. Courtship and conflict filled the previous novels in the Liberty Bodleigh series and continues in the third.

After a bucolic interlude, Devil returns to the military. Liberty joins him in Belgium where they join in the social pleasures before the battle of Waterloo. Liberty wishes to see her friends, Peggy and Edith happily married and watches their relationships with interest. Then the great battle changes everything.

Waterloo brings tragedy to friends and family. They move on to Paris, then London and, finally back to Boscawden in new positions. The continue to meet new chalenges with aplomb. Can one not like a lady who calls a scondrel a cabbage-headed son of a cucumber?

252 pages

Young widow Annabel Chalfont, Countess of Fellbridge, has two small sons to raise, a mountain of her late husband’s debts to pay off, and a secret: she’s a shadow-shaper, able to manipulate shadow as anyone else might clay. She and six other high-born ladies with equally extraordinary abilities defend England against supernatural crime–but the world knows them only as the Lady Patronesses of Almack’s, Regency London’s most exclusive social venue.

In the second installment of The Ladies of Almack’s series, all of London is enthralled by E.C. Spruce’s latest three-volume novel, The Fifty Shades of Udolpho…until the third volume begins vanishing from bookshops and bedside tables alike, leaving readers dangling and desperate to know what happens next. The Lady Patronesses of Almack’s investigate, with unexpected results–and an unexpected new friendship for Annabel…or perhaps two friendships, if she’ll only admit it…

Running into the arms of a handsome, powerful laird will either be her greatest folly or a profitable gamble.

Donovan Ewan Campbell-Ainsley, Earl of Hollandbane, and the current sitting Laird of Lyon Castle is not best pleased when scandal lands on his doorstep in the form of a pretty but long-in- the tooth woman trailing nothing but tittle-tattle. Though he’s half-Scottish and lives in London, he spends the summers and autumns at his castle in the Highlands for reasons he wishes to keep to himself. Yet she’s in immediate danger, and he’s nothing if not a gentleman.

The Honorable Emma Radcliffe is no stranger to scandal, but when she can’t go through with her nuptial ceremony, she flees the church. Who cares if it’s her third broken engagement? When a friend encourages her to hide in Scotland, that’s when the trouble really begins. The moment she lays eyes on the laird, she knows he’ll be the perfect man with whom to keep her father, family, and her angry fiancé at bay.

It takes next to no time to hatch a haphazard plan: they’ll pretend an engagement. It will silence his family’s blather for him to find a bride as well as remove her from immediate responsibility. There’s one problem: neither of them expected to actually like the other. As the days go on, the fiction grows larger until desire can no longer be denied, but unless they both come to terms with why they’re hiding from the truth, a happily ever after between them will be forever out of reach.

There’s no such thing as perfection but being stuck in the Scottish Highlands with a shot at a dream comes close.

Caelan Stewart—Lord Everly—only son to the Earl of Breckenridge, is in Scotland on a hunting holiday, but when an accidental tumble on a hike gives him a badly sprained ankle and injures his wrist, the remainder of his holiday looks dull… until two red-haired scamps play Halloween tricks on him while he’s preoccupied by their attractive mother.

Widowed two years and still battling grief, American Clara Snyder needs a distraction. Spending several weeks on an estate in the Highlands that will end with a lavish ball on All Hallows Eve might be just the thing. She barely settles into life there with her two small children when an intriguing Scotsman literally falls at her feet… and feelings she thought long dead come alive again.

As Caelan fills his time by bedeviling the intriguing widow and planning a few Samhain tricks, she falls under his spell. Desire grows, as does the bond between him and her children. But he’s not keen on offering up his heart again after the violent death of his first betrothed while Clara is leery of loving someone else for fear they’ll leave. The only way to a happily ever after is to jump in with eyes wide open… and a bit of innocent, ghostly manipulation won’t hurt either.

When Miss Sophia Lightbourne’s spoiled sister runs away from home, there’s only one thing Sophia can do: follow her to London to try to save Kitty from being ruined.

Problem number one: Kitty doesn’t seem to care if she’s ruined.

Problem number two: Augustus Alleyne, the strugglng portrait painter whose help Sophia needs. Yes, he’s handsome and witty… but she very much suspects that he’s a rake!

Yet as they follow the trail of destruction and broken hearts left by the heedless Kitty, their connection grows passionate. Does what happens in London stay in London? Sophia tells herself that it does. But her heart is telling her otherwise. Saving Kitty is getting more complicated by the day… especially when Alleyne makes Sophia want to fall into ruin herself.

A wedding is in her future

Miss Sophie Payton might be engaged, but she’s not in love. The only man who ever captured her heart was Phillip Grayson—a soldier who was slain a year ago. But when her stepmother decrees that Sophie will marry Phillip’s cousin, the new Duke of Harlowe, Sophie’s in no position to refuse.

A funeral is in his past

The ton thinks Phillip Grayson died a hero on the battlefields of Europe, but he’s very much alive. While he spent the last year recuperating from his grave injuries in secret at his friend’s estate, his brother was murdered, his cousin took over the title of duke, and the woman he loved —the one he dreamed of every night—apparently moved on without him.

But the duke is back

Phillip has returned to London intent on reclaiming his brother’s title and making the people who killed him pay. He doesn’t understand how Sophie could have betrayed him; she can’t forgive him for letting her believe he was dead. And yet neither can deny that the attraction between them burns hotter than ever. Nothing is as it seems, but perhaps the truth can save them…if it doesn’t kill them first.

Harriet Linfield is a lady novelist who has been disillusioned by love. She sets out to write more realistic tales about the emotion when she returns home to Linfield Court for the summer. Vowing to avoid any romantic entanglements along the way, she focuses instead on her writing and her plan to turn the estate she inherited from her uncle into a refuge for orphans.

Oliver, Viscount Wentford, is determined to restore his family fortunes. But his plans for the estate he inherited are in direct opposition to the wishes of Harriet, his new neighbour. Upon meeting her, Oliver is amused when, in response to his provocative comments, she informs him that she intends to make him the villain of her next book. But his amusement swiftly turns to dismay when circumstances align to show him in that exact light.

When an enemy comes back into Harriet’s life, she sees that love isn’t as clear-cut as the romantic tales she pens. But will the viscount manage to discard his villainous mantle to become Harriet’s real-life hero?

Constance Lysander needs a husband. Or, so society says. She’s about to give birth to her late husband’s child—a man who left her with zero money, and two other wives she didn’t know about. Thankfully, she has her Aunt by her side, and the two other wives have become close friends. But still—with a baby on the way, her shipping business to run, and an enemy skulking about, she has no time to find the perfect match.

Enter Jonathan, Earl of Sykeston. Returned war hero and Constance’s childhood best friend, his reentry into society has been harsh. Maligned for an injury he received in the line of duty, Jonathan prefers to stay out of sight. It’s the only way to keep his heart from completely crumbling. But when a missive from Constance requests his presence—to their marriage ceremony—Jonathan is on board. His feelings for Constance ground him, and he’ll do anything to make her happy, though it means risking his already bruised heart.

With Constance, Jonathan, and the new baby all together, it’s clear the wounds—both on the surface and in their relationship—run deep. But when the nights come, their wounds begin to heal, and both come to realize that their marriage of convenience is so much more than just a bargain.

She’s a duchess in all but name

Philippa Kirkpatrick has been raised at Carlyle Castle by her doting guardian, the Duchess of Carlyle. Preoccupied with the succession of the dukedom and the duke’s health, the duchess has left the estate in Philippa’s hands—and Philippa is determined not to let her down.

He’s not a duke at all…

The arrival of a new estate steward should be a relief, but instead it threatens to upend everything. William Montclair is handsome, brash, and scandalously bold. The horrified duchess wants to sack him on sight. Philippa is just as shocked…but also, somehow, charmed.

But could he be her hero?

Carlyle cannot be her home forever, but Philippa is determined to leave it in good hands. She means to teach Will how to run the estate properly and love Carlyle as she does. The more time she spends with Will, though, the more she likes him… trusts him… even loves him. Unfortunately, she’s also more and more certain that Will is keeping secrets that could break her heart.

At eighteen, Lady Amelia Colvin managed to find, and then lose, her one true love in a matter of days. Lose being a euphemism for “he escaped with undue haste to the Continent at the first opportunity.” After years of suppressing her romantic side and honing her practicality, she’s on the verge of marrying her good friend, for convenience’s sake.

Lord James Danforth, one of His Majesty’s more successful spies, returns to England after three years to capture a home-grown assassin. A man of few words but much passion, he has always regretted his decision not to marry Amelia. While tormented by her recent engagement, James is determined to behave as the proper gentleman is he—until suddenly he finds himself thrown into a triangle of romance, suspicion, and betrayal with Amelia and her fiancé.

As these two fiercely loyal individuals—he to his country, she to her friend—race to save the prime minister’s life, can they also reawaken their once burgeoning love and learn to trust one another?