But as her involvement brings Charlotte to the attention of men who have no qualms about who they hurt, and as Edward forges a grudging alliance with the dangerous ghosts of Charlotte’s former life, she faces a choice: to continue living in limbo, or to close the door on the past and risk her heart and her happiness on an unpredictable future.

    He meets a sword-wielding, fiery-haired temptress on the way, and he isn't prepared for the impact she has on his tightly guarded heart...nor the trouble she manages to attract.Keelan Grey had a solid plan that would save her from an arranged marriage to a cruel plantation owner until a deathbed confession from a loved one plunges her into a dark plot of deception and revenge. Desperate for help, Keelan finds an unlikely ally in the exasperating but irresistible sea captain. But while she trusts him with her life, can she trust him with her secrets?Hart's Desire is set just prior to the War of 1812, when privateers sailed the seas looking for enemy merchant ships to plunder. Hart's Desire is a story about a young woman from England, who's suddenly thrust into plantation life as the daughter of the plantation owner. Hart's Desire is rich with fascinating insights into the Low Country of Charleston, the food, the medicines and the lifestyles of the people of that time. Keelan is a very independent woman who is determined to avoid a marriage of convenience. Landon and his business partner dock their ships in the Charleston harbor for repairs. Weeks earlier the merchant fleet owner, Landon's mentor, set up a mysterious appointment with George Grey of Twin Pines plantation-Keelan's father. It is this meeting which forces Landon and Keelan's paths to cross. Keelan has been well-tutored by her father's valet, and not only can she read, write and keep the accounts for the plantation, but she can also fence and defend herself with a dagger. Romance readers will love this spunky heroine and the scoundrel who can't help but fall in love with her!"An absolutely breathtaking series!"

    King Charles II has returned from exile, but memories of the English Civil War still rankle. There are old scores to settle, and religious differences threaten to overturn a fragile peace. When Alice Ibbetson discovers a rare orchid, the Lady’s Slipper, growing in a wood belonging to Richard Wheeler, she is captivated by its beauty— though Wheeler, a Quaker, is determined to keep the flower where God intended it to grow.

    AND A PAST SHE NEVER KNEW.From far-off Tibet to England's rich countryside, this marvelously enchanting novel unfolds the incredible saga of a beautiful, young half-caste whose strange destiny pulls her into a world of love and terror--a worlds a mysterious power moves slowly toward her, threatening her sanity...and her life.

    The worst that might happen is the Indians come after his scalp. But when he runs into the beautiful Rosemary, he finds himself pitted against ruthless enemies of every kind.Kidnappers, comancheros, and renegade Apaches are on his trail - and after his blood. But most implacable of all, there is the Sonoran Desert itself, where everything that grows either bites, stings or scratches.Murphy needs all his skill with a gun if he is to survive.

    A press-and-curl costs a quarter. Records play on phonographs. And a telephone is a luxury. Meet twenty-three-year-old Taffy Bledsoe Freeman. She doesn’t need her gift of second sight to know her “mockery of a marriage” to a man twice her age is far from good. After a seven-year exile Up North, Taffy travels down-home to the small town bearing her family’s name, plotting her escape from a marriage not worth the price of a press-and-curl. She only needs to retrieve the son her husband banished to her parents’ care, before boarding a train headed for the Windy City filled with liberty and opportunity. Instead, Taffy stumbles into Roam Ellis: the man Taffy meant to marry. Twenty-six-year-old Roam Ellis is a “broad-shouldered, hard-bodied” Pullman porter riding the rails coast-to-coast, outrunning the bitter heartbreak Taffy left behind. Now, after a seven-year absence, Roam is face-to-face with his first love. Anger ignites. Old wounds are exposed. But when pain subsides, passion rises, thrusting Taffy and Roam into a hurricane of buried secrets and lies. Reminiscent of the works of Bernice McFadden, Bertice Berry, and Andrea Smith (The Sisterhood of Blackberry Corner) this Historical Romance is bathed in southern lore and sweeping imagery. Lyrical and powerful, Taffy is a story of restoration and redemption that you won’t soon forget.

    When Amelie plays matchmaker with two anonymous lonely hearts, she also decides to secretly observe the couple’s blind date. To her surprise, the man who appears for the rendezvous is Harold Radcliffe—a grieving widower and a member of Amelie’s book club.Police detective Michael Baker has been struggling ever since his best friend and brother-in-law died in the line of fire. Because he knows the dangers of his job, he has vowed never to marry and subject a wife and family to the uncertainty of his profession. But when he meets Miss Hampton, he is captured by her innocence, beauty, and her quick mind.When a woman’s body is pulled from the river, Michael suspects the woman’s husband—Harold Radcliffe—of foul play. Amelie refuses to believe that Harold is capable of such violence but agrees to help, imagining it will be like one of her favorite mystery novels. Her social connections and clever observations prove an asset to the case, and Amelie is determined to prove Mr. Radcliffe’s innocence. But the more time Amelie and Michael spend together, the more they trust each other, and the more they realize they are a good team, maybe the perfect match.They also realize that Mr. Radcliffe is hiding more than one secret, and when his attention turns toward Amelie, Michael knows he must put an end to this case before the woman he loves comes to harm.

    In a churchyard, villagers gather on the night when the ghosts of those who will die in the coming year are thought to be seen. Here, where the estuary leads out to the sea, superstitions still hold sway.Standing alone is the taxidermist's daughter. At 17, Constantia Gifford lives with her father in a decaying house: it is all that is left of Gifford's once world-famous museum of taxidermy. The stuffed animals that used to grace every parlour are out of fashion, leaving Gifford a disgraced and bitter man.The bell begins to toll and all eyes are fixed on the church. No one sees the gloved hand pick up a flint. As the last notes fade into the dark, a woman lies dead.While the village braces itself against rising waters and the highest tide of the season, Connie struggles to discover who is responsible, but finds herself under suspicion. Is Constantia who she seems - is she the victim of circumstances or are more sinister forces at work? And what is the secret that lies at the heart of Gifford House, hidden among the bell jars of her father's workshop?Told over one summer, The Taxidermist's Daughter is the haunting new novel from the bestselling author of Labyrinth, Sepulchre, Citadel and The Winter Ghosts.

    Real mermaids don't have fins. Summoning ocean currents at will and feeling the auras of those around her are Candeon capabilities completely wasted at high school. When the memory of an underwater battle surfaces in her dreams, Haelo realizes there is more to her story than she thought. And Dagger, the only other Candeon at school, might have the answers she needs. Haelo is about to discover that high school is poor preparation for the alarming future set out before her.

    She wants a Christmas like the ones she enjoyed as a child. Except she's twenty-four years old and the life she enjoyed as a child no longer exists for her. Her mother has died and her two brothers were killed in the wars against Napoleon. Her father has married a shrew who only wants to see her married to a man who smells like a pig, and her best friend is set to marry a Naval Officer in the the spring and she fears she will never see her again. Her father spends his days holed up in his office and rarely comes out because he can't even stand the woman he's married. And then one day, everything changes. She goes to her favourite reading spot on the sprawling estate of Whitney Park and sits on the bench in the Greek Temple Folly. While there, Edward Rochester, The Duke of Whitney spies her and believes that he has seen his very own Christmas Nymph. He goes out to introduce himself to her and before he knows it he's proposing to her - knowing only one thing - his Christmas will not be happy unless he's married the woman who has besotted him - Caroline, his Christmas Nymph.

    After his uniform and possessions raise suspicions, MI5 operative and family friend Ben Cresswell is covertly tasked with determining if the man is a German spy. The assignment also offers Ben the chance to be near Lord Westerham’s middle daughter, Pamela, whom he furtively loves. But Pamela has her own secret: she has taken a job at Bletchley Park, the British code-breaking facility.As Ben follows a trail of spies and traitors, which may include another member of Pamela’s family, he discovers that some within the realm have an appalling, history-altering agenda. Can he, with Pamela’s help, stop them before England falls?Inspired by the events and people of World War II, writer Rhys Bowen crafts a sweeping and riveting saga of class, family, love, and betrayal.

    Still single at twenty-three, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father’s house.When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father’s trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape. As Benjamin’s rising career whisks them both away to exotic Morocco, Sibylla is at last a citizen of the world, reveling in her newfound freedom by striking her first business deals, befriending locals…and falling in love for the first time with a charismatic and handsome Frenchman.But Benjamin’s lust for money and influence draws him into dark dealings, pulling him ever further from Sibylla and their two young sons. When he’s arrested on horrible charges, the fate of Sibylla’s family rests on her shoulders, as she must decide whether she’ll leave him to his fate or help him fight for his life.