Over a series of encounters, he promises Penelope the financial security she craves, but at what cost? Skilled in the art of flirtation, Edgar is not without his charms, and Penelope is attracted to him against her better judgment. Initially, as Penelope grows into her own in the burgeoning early Women’s Suffrage Movement, Edgar exerts pressure, promising to use his power and access to help her advance. But can he be trusted, or are his words part of an elaborate mind game played between him and his wife? During a glittering age where a woman’s reputation is her most valuable possession, Penelope must decide whether to compromise her principles for love, lust, and the allure of an easier life.

    When the tragic death of her gamester father leaves her destitute and alone, she finds work as a governess in a merchant's household in Cheapside. Isolated from the fashionable acquaintance of her youth, she resigns herself to lonely spinsterhood until a mysterious visitor convinces her to temporarily return to her former life--and her former love.A SCARRED BEASTColonel Sebastian Conrad is no longer the dashing cavalry officer Sylvia once fell in love with. Badly scarred during the Sepoy Rebellion, he has withdrawn to his estate in rural Hertfordshire where he lives in near complete seclusion. Brooding and tormented, he cares nothing for the earldom he has inherited--and even less for the faithless beauty who rejected him three years before.A SECOND CHANCEA week together in the remote Victorian countryside is the last thing either of them ever wanted. But when fate intervenes to reunite them, will a beastly earl and an impoverished beauty finally find their happily-ever-after? Or are some fairy-tale endings simply not meant to be?

    Expected from birth to adhere to decades of tradition, he plans to marry a proper young woman from a good family. But when a beautiful, and completely unsuitable, woman snags his heart, he begins to realize that to get what you want, sometimes you have to break the rules.Linnie Connor dreams of the independence of running her very own bakery. And while she may be allowed to be a marquess’ childhood companion, the baker's daughter never ends up with the handsome nobleman. Determined to achieve at least one of her dreams, Linnie makes plans to leave her sleepy village for London, intent on purging him from her heart. And yet, when an invitation to the Marsden annual ball arrives, she can't refuse her one chance to waltz in his arms.It will be a night that stirs the flames of forbidden desires and changes their lives forever.

    Until she decided, one evening, to rise from her neatly-laid dinner table, fetch an axe from the woodshed, chop her husband into pieces and bake his gristle into some pies. "That's the last time he'll criticize my pastry," she said calmly when apprehended in the act of selling her grisly wares.Although her husband had been an infamous philanderer— or as much of one as an oily, simpering blob of a man could be in a small, rural market town—nobody knew what had really happened, on that last day, to cause a deadly fissure in his wife's sanity. I was the only soul to whom she gave any clue, but the six words she once whispered into my ear left me, a girl of twelve at the time, with more questions than answers. Suffice to say, after Venetia's axe swinging rampage in the autumn of 1882, the men of Withering Gibbet took greater care of what they said and did to their wives. We had all learned some important lessons: everybody harbors dark truths; there is no such thing as "ordinary", and never buy a savory pie at the county fair, especially when the contents are described as "revelation meat".For many years Venetia was our town's sole claim to infamy. And then there was me.* * * *So begins a story of silence and noise, secrets and lies, sisters and lovers, murder and redemption. Gemma Groot grows up in the long shadow cast by an old sin, but she is about to step out of the dark and shine the light on a few startling truths about her family. With the help of a man who falls out of the sky, she will finally discover the strength she needs to revisit the past and unleash the spirit of a wronged woman. But will she find that some skeletons are better off left buried?

    She is harassed by unwanted suitors desiring both her body and her fortune. Sheridan turns to Elijah Kincaid for his protection, except he is determined to run from her perceived fragility, instead of toward her willing arms. Determined to show him she is the right woman with whom to build a future rich with love and family, she boldly sets out to court and seduce a man as untamed and savage as the land itself.

    With her upcoming wedding to the fabulously wealthy, but oh-so proper Duke of Kirwood, she’ll soon be the perfect duchess. But the accidental discovery of an old book offering lessons about the pleasures to be had in the bedchamber sparks Penelope’s desire to experience true passion before settling down into marriage again. Who can Lady Perfect trust to be her tutor?A rake without redemption...Reviled for gambling away his family’s fortune, Viscount Weymouth is just days away from debtor’s prison when he receives a mysterious summons and a most improper offer. In exchange for teaching her lessons in sensual pleasure, Penelope will give Weymouth the money he needs to reclaim his heritage. But will twenty-one nights really be enough to satisfy their need for each other?

    A story of a seventeen-year-old girl named Emma Derkin and five other girls, who just like every young girl back then, wanted to find the best possible husband at the debutante ball. The events unfold during the Victorian era in a girls' school dormitory.We are privy to follow the girls as they painstakingly prepare for the ball, as well as to watch the relationships that are formed between the girls. And, of course, the main event, the coming out ball, for which everyone has been getting ready. But love is unpredictable, and fate never fashions things the way we imagine it. This book is not just meant primarily for young girls and fans of Jane Austen novels, but the topic is equally enjoyable for every adult woman.

    John, Lady Kingston, submits to her husband's attentions. She can never dare admit she yearns for more...until her friend Selina, Lady Beaumont, initiates a conversation about what she does with her own husband in the bedroom.But Selina is bored with her intimate life and suggests that she and Evaline seduce their husbands. She will begin while Evaline will hide in the bedroom to watch. Evaline and Selina do more than make a pact, however. They give in to unspeakable desires and soon they are exploring each other's bodies as they always dreamed.When Evaline is forced to confess her misdeeds to her husband, Lord Kingston, he is shocked, but also aroused. The admission changes everything he believed about his wife--for the better. Now, whatever Evaline demands, he happily delivers.Evaline and Selina realize they are falling in love--with each other--yet they still love their husbands. What are the two women to do?When Selina's husband catches all of them together in bed, he flies into a jealous rage and forbids them from ever seeing each other again. Now, it's up to Lord Kingston to issue the ultimatum to Beaumont: come to their bed or lose them forever. Kingston must show his former friend that he has nothing to fear...and everything to gain.