Best of
Historical-Romance

2001

Before the Dawn


Beverly Jenkins - 2001
    Ryder Damien is not about to welcome this beauty with open arms, however, especially since Leah was the one who won the affection of Ryder's late father and now may inherit, his considerable wealth. But when she stands before him in the flesh -- proud, vulnerable, and intoxicatingly lovely -- desire replaces hatred in Ryder's heart. Yet can passion survive this wild land and its dangerous men...and the most breathtaking peril: untamed love?

Dream of Me/Believe in Me


Josie Litton - 2001
    They know that their only hope for peace is to persuade the Saxon Lord Hawk to unite his noble family with theirs — in a bond sealed forever by the sanctity of marriage. Together these three men will strive to overcome centuries-old rivalries and hatred. Each will unite in marriage with an extraordinary woman who has her own special gift — and her own dreams of bringing about an end to war....Book OneIn Dream of Me we meet the Viking leader Wolf Hakonson as he embarks on a mission to kidnap the Lady Cymbra, a legendary beauty Wolf mistakenly believes is the cause of war. Instead he discovers that she is a gifted healer who will challenge him to confront his deepest yearnings — and together they will become soul mates who forge a future blessed by peace. Book TwoThe drama continues in Believe in Me, when the Saxon Lord Hawk, brother of Cymbra, seeks to strengthen the alliance by wedding a Norse noblewoman. But Lady Krysta arrives bearing many secrets — including her gift for seeing what others cannot. And as an unexpected love ignites, only Krysta can sense the looming danger that threatens the peace — and Hawk as well.Now, discover Josie Litton....

The Crusader


Kathryn Le Veque - 2001
    Rory Osgrove is in charge of her first archaeological dig. A Biblical Archaeologist by degree, her target is a holy relic of unimaginable power. But what she discovers instead is the tomb of a long-buried Crusader, one of the thousands who came to this desert land in search of glory and riches. Deterred from her original goal, Rory is fascinated by the English knight and the journal buried with him. Reading the pages of the ancient diary, she comes to know a man of power and honor, entrusted by Richard the Lionheart with a mission of astonishing importance.Sir Kieran Hage was no ordinary Crusader and, as Rory discovers, nor is he really dead. Eight hundred years later, Kieran’s mission must be completed, but there is an ancient evil that follows him and is still determined to see him fail. Now Rory begins the adventure of a lifetime, where time has no meaning, where honor is strength, and where only true love endures.

The Promise


May McGoldrick - 2001
    Once in the New World, Rebecca begins her new life --- as a mother ...TO CHERISHTen years later, the Earl of Stanmore learns of the fate of his family. He sends to the colonies for his young heir so he can raise him as a peer of the realm. With no intention of forsaking her vow, Rebecca returns to England with James to face a future without her beloved charge. But she must also face her tumultuous past ...TO LOVEAt first glance, the formidable Stanmore sends Rebecca reeling. But beneath his coldly attractive facade and seeming indifference to his son's plight, emotions roil. For there is more to Stanmore and his motives than meets the eye. The enigmatic lord has his own promise to keep --- and a passion for Rebecca that cannot be denied ...

Chase the Lightning


Madeline Baker - 2001
    It was a spirit horse, Trey had been told, one that would always carry him away from danger. And if ever he'd needed such an animal, now was the time. With a bullet in his back and posse in his trail, he wouldn't last long unless the words of his Apache grandfather came true.FROM THE LAWAmanda couldn't believe her eyes when the beautiful white stallion appeared in her yard with a wounded man on its back. Dark and ruggedly handsome, the stranger fascinated her. He had about him an aura of danger and desire that excited her as her law-abiding fiance never could. But something didn't add up. Trey seemed bewildered by the amenities of modern life; he wanted nothing to do with the police; and he had a stack of 1863 bank notes in his saddlebags. Then one soul-stirring kiss made it all clear --- Trey might have held up a bank and stolen through time, but when he took her love it would be no robbery, but a gift of the heart.

The Taming of Shaw MacCade: Historical Romance


Judith E. French - 2001
    . . Sizzling . . . Superbly written . . . Fast paced. Get ready for a fabulous ride!" ~Astrid Kinn, Romance Reviews TodayWestern Romeo and Juliet Feud Explodes on the Missouri Frontier in The Taming of Shaw MacCade by Judith French-- Missouri, 1849 --Four years ago, the rough and ready Shaw MacCade left Missouri, his family, and a bitter centuries-long feud with the Raeburns to search for gold in California. Now, he's returned, seemingly from the grave, determined to find and take vengeance on his brother's murderer.The last thing Shaw expects is to confront the fiery Rebecca Raeburn and to feel a fierce rekindling of his attraction to the daughter of his life-long enemy. Worse, Rebecca's father is the prime suspect for the murder of Shaw's brother.But old love won't be denied and passion soon flares placing Shaw and Rebecca squarely in the middle of the battle between families and fight to survive and be together.Publisher's Note: No one brings together unlikely strangers and brings the past alive like Judith French. Fans of Elizabeth Keysian, Erica Ridley, Emilia Ferguson and Elliee Atkinson as well as readers of early American romance will enjoy The Taming of Shaw MacCade.". . . A heartwarming love story that's sure to please any reader." ~Jennifer Russell, Romance Reader's ConnectionDon't Miss These Titles From Judith French:The Irish RogueThe Taming of Shaw MacCadeDefiant LoveTender FortuneBold SurrenderBy Love AloneMEET JUDITH E. FRENCH:Judith E French is the author of more than sixty novels translated into a dozen languages and sold around the world. Her publishers include Ballantine, Kensington, Harlequin, Harper-Collins and ePublishing Works. Many of her novels are set in Colonial America, and she is known for her strong characters and adventure-packed tales of the Middle Colonies. Descended from early Maryland Scottish and English settlers and Lenni Lenape and Nanticoke First People, Judith has spent a lifetime researching the history of the multi-cultural and rich heritage of the Chesapeake Bay Region. Oral storytelling is embedded in her blood and bones; every generation in her family has produced at least one spinner of tales. Following that tradition, Judith's oldest daughter, Colleen Faulkner is also bestselling and award winning novelist. Judith lives with her husband and several spoiled dogs in an 18th century farmhouse that has been in her family for 250 years.

More Than a Mistress/No Man's Mistress


Mary Balogh - 2001
    When a young servant, Jane Ingleby, interferes with his duel, causing him to get shot, the duke enlists her as his nurse. But Jane, far too bold and far too beautiful for her own good, questions the duke’s every move, scolds his bad manners, and touches his soul. When he offers to set her up in his London town house, love is the last thing on his mind. And hers. Their arrangement is strictly business- until suddenly everything changes…No Man's MistressFerdinand Dudley is accustomed to getting what he wants…that is, until he appears at the door of Pinewood Manor, attempting to claim his rightful estate, and is met by the bewitching fury of Lady Viola Thornhill. She refuses to cede him the home she calls her own. He refuses to leave. So the contest begins between these two foes to force one to acknowledge the others claim. Nor will they acknowledge the passion brewing between them. But Viola knows it is a game she cannot afford to lose. Marriage is out of the question and she will be no man’s mistress…

Master of Desire


Kinley MacGregor - 2001
    The youngest daughter of an English lord at war, she is shaken by the arrival of a mysterious stranger to her father's castle. Could this breathtaking man be Emily's yearned-for lover? Indeed, Draven de Montague, Earl of Ravenswood, has come for Emily...but romance has nothing to do with it.In the Tender Embrace of an Enemy...Draven would never have entered the home of his most hated adversary had not the King himself ordered him to take in his foe's daughter for a year to forge bonds of peace between their two feuding houses. Worse still, here is a lass whose exquisite loveliness could tempt Draven to betray his sworn vow never to let another close to his heart. Emily knows the searing heat of her passion could burn down the defenses of this proud warrior. But will the surrender of the sweet nectar of his lips and his bold, sensuous caress ignite a blaze so hot it consumes them both?

Across a Moonswept Moor


Julie Moffett - 2001
    Then a midnight visit to Celtic holy ground slid her into the seventeenth-century—and into the arms of the most gorgeous male she had ever seen. But after one clash with the stubborn man, Fiona longed only for her twentieth-century comforts.Instead she found herself pressed against Ian Maclaren, galloping across moonswept moors to escape death. The hot-blooded barbarian ordered her about as if she were a soldier. But his kisses left no doubt he thought of her as a woman, and soon she knew she would trade a thousand bubble baths for one of his sensual massages and give up chocolate to melt in one of his passionate embraces. For although she had traveled across three centuries into the past, it had taken only a moment for her heart to recognize she had met her match.

The Gold Coin / The Silver Coin


Andrea Kane - 2001
    The books follow the saga of a pair of beautiful identical cousins enmeshed in a web of passion and deceit.

At the Mile End Gate


Sally Worboyes - 2001
    . . The war is over and the soldiers are coming back to the bomb-ravaged East End. Tom Smith is one of the thousands who are returning home. It's been an eventful war, what with a spell of desertion, and Tom can't wait to see his wife Jessie, their son Billy and the new baby daughter he hasn't even laid eyes on.But life back home wasn't easy either, especially when Jessie's army pension was stopped. So when she was told to put Emma-Rose into a home for her own good, she thought it was best. But how will Tom take the news? There is worse to come, when Tom learns that Jessie's old boyfriend has been helping her during the war.A compelling family saga set in the aftermath of the Second World War, from the author of Time Will Tell and Where Sparrows Nest.

The Seasons Will Pass


Audrey Howard - 2001
    Her family is gone and her own life hangs by a thread after a desperate season seeking work. By the time Lew and his kindly neighbors have nursed Clare back to health, he is hopelessly in love with the frail Irish girl. But though she will always care for Lew, another man comes between them. Martin Heywood, a rich, young farmer sweeps Clare off her feet; however, he cannot marry a mere servant girl, even if it breaks both their hearts.

The Wild One


Elaine Barbieri - 2001
    It was the shining legacy of Thomas McBride to his five living heirs. But along with the fertile acres and herds of cattle, each would inherit a history of scandal, lies and hidden lust that threatened to burn out of control.The Wild One...would never return to the Circle M until the old man was dead. But an unusual clause in Tom McBride's last will and testament brought him home early, to face the scheming stepmother who'd ruined his life, to find the one girl who could tame his heart and reawaken his faith in the healing power of love.

Whispers of Heaven


Candice Proctor - 2001
    . . . After years of schooling in England, Jesmond Corbett finds little has changed on her family’s estate along the sea-battered coast of Tasmania. Betrothed since childhood to a wealthy neighbor, Jessie comes home determined to conform to the expectations of her family and the society in which they live. But nothing in Jessie’s life has prepared her for the mysterious stranger who works in the stables, a man with searing eyes who haunts her dreams and awakens passions she never knew existed.Irishman Lucas Gallagher arrived on the island in chains, a convict sentenced to a lifetime of slave labor for the English gentry. For four years he has lived a dead man’s existence, using every spare moment to plan his escape. But when he meets Jessie, she touches his cold, angry heart. And although their love has no future, he finds himself unable to deny the longings of his battered soul– longings that threaten to destroy what may be his last chance to reach for freedom. . . .

A Trace of Memory


Elizabeth Bailey - 2001
    What if rescue only makes things worse?The girl wakes, in unremembered surroundings, to find she is injured, her gown dirtied and torn. What happened to bring her to this is a mystery. Moreover, she does not know who she is.Finding a damsel in distress in his grounds, the Earl of Wytham is prompt to the rescue. Yet Charles cannot rid himself of the suspicion this is one more ploy to inveigle him into matrimony.As Elaine—called so for want of any other name—recovers snatches of her past, questions mount. Is she married or merely a mistress? Why has no one come to claim her? Convinced she is not free, Elaine dare not give in to her heart.Can Charles overcome his doubts and indulge his growing attraction to Elaine? Or will the truth arrive too late?

My Lord Pirate


Laura Renken - 2001
    My family name and our honor are those things dearest to my heart. But when our enemies accused us of treason, I did the only thing I could...I took to the seas and have never ceased my quest to regain my good name...The opportunity for revenge and redemption has just presented itself. In a mysterious plot I have managed to kidnap the intended fiancee of my greatest foe. Unfortunately, I didn't anticipate her beauty or courage....I find myself thinking of her constantly and wondering if this marriage of convenience could ever become more. Someone should tame this passionate enchantress and who better than a rake and a pirate, a man with nothing else to lose...-- Talon Drake

His Fair Lady


Kathleen Kirkwood - 2001
    . .During the murderous assault on the village of Vaux, little “Ana” lost all she knew. Suddenly, out of the burning wreckage, a young man appeared and rescued her from the horrors of the night. He proved to be a squire in a company of knights, on their way to join the Crusades. At a neighboring village, he delivered her into the care of a peasant couple who promised to love her. Before departing, he gifted her with something to remember him by . . . the silver cross from around his neck.A wrong to be righted . . .After a decade of fighting in the east, Sir Royce de Warrene returns to England a celebrated knight. But he soon discovers the terrible mistake he made on that long-ago night. The orphan girl was no peasant child, but an heiress of noble blood — Lady Juliana Mandeville — and he deprived her of her birthright. He is charged with a quest — to find her at once and restore her to her grandfather — by order of the king!Love to be fulfilled, fated long ago . . .Now grown to womanhood, the stunningly beautiful and saucy “Ana” refuses to believe the knight when he disrupts her wedding day, intent on taking her from those she loves and to deliver her to strangers at the English court. She grips the silver cross she wears, wishing her gallant squire could rescue her once more. Although she cannot remember his face clearly and never knew his name, she has not forgotten the night he saved her so long ago.

Once An Angel: (Jewels of the Sea)


Tammy Hilz - 2001
    In the 1760s, three English sisters take to the high seas and find adventure and romance.

Desert Bloom


Ronda Thompson - 2001
    Especially Grady Finch, the rugged foreman of the WC Ranch, who, even though devastatingly handsome, is tactless. Lilla fears the heat is getting to her when she dreams of Grady's hands upon her--but she soon learns that anything, even love, can bloom in the desert.

The Surgeon's Apprentice


Sara Fraser - 2001
     But at that time medicine was still a primitive, brutal business, and James’s cherished ideals about the role of the doctor, and the dignity of the medical establishment, are soon shown up as hollow illusions. James falls in love with Liddy Landser, the young and beautiful daughter of one of his patients. But Liddy’s father, proprietor of a local salt mine, is in financial trouble, and his futile attempts to save the business and family name by entrusting his debts to Edward Harcourt, a man with an equal appetite for power and for female flesh, sink them all into penury and disgrace. Sara Fraser is a pseudonym for Roy Clews, a one-time Marine Commando and Foreign Legionnaire who has travelled and worked all over the world.

The Mystery Kiss


Judith A. Lansdowne - 2001
    Now a widow, she returns to London for the Season to present her stepdaughter. For Althea's sake, she endures the cutting remarks, the cruel snubs--until she discovers an ally, a mysterious gentleman who lingers in the shadows whispering words of encouragement. Soon, she is a woman of confidence and poise--and the talk of the ton! Fleur is now determined to uncover the identity of the man who has captured her heart. HIS HEART'S DESIREIntrigued by spirited Fleur and angered by her treatment at the hands of his peers, Atticus Charles Howard, the Earl of Hartshire, becomes her secret protector. Always nearby when bitter tears are her sole companion, he shares his worldly wisdom and watches with pride as Fleur blossoms. And a magical kiss is all it takes to convince this man who has loved and lost before that he wants much more than stolen whispers in the evening shadows...

The Ranger's Bride (Harlequin Historical)


Laurie Grant - 2001
    But the scandal her divorced status would create paled beside the shocking fact that she’d allowed the rugged Rede Smith into her home, heart and deepest desires.