Love was a stranger to this little rope dancer until Telor came along, the wandering minstrel whose love for her made his songs sweeter and more passionate. An exquisite novel of historical romance during the golden age of chivalry, from the bestselling author of A Tapestry of Dreams.

    . . The first book in Barbara Bretton's beloved Home Front Series It's June 1943. From New York to California, families gather to send their sons and husbands, friends and lovers off to war. The attack on Pearl Harbor seems a long time ago as America begins to understand that their boys won't be home any time soon. In Forest Hills, New York City, twenty-year-old Catherine Wilson knows all about waiting. She's been in love with boy-next-door Doug Weaver since childhood, and if the war hadn't started when it did, she would be married and maybe starting a family, not sitting at the window of her girlhood bedroom, waiting for her life to begin. But then a telegram from the War Department arrives, shattering her dreams of a life like the one her mother treasures. Weeks drift into months as she struggles to find her way. An exchange of letters with Johnny Danza, a young soldier in her father's platoon, starts off as a patriotic gesture, but soon becomes a long-distance friendship that grows more important to her with every day that passes. The last thing Catherine expects is to open her front door on Christmas Eve to find Johnny lying unconscious on the Wilsons' welcome mat with a heart filled with new dreams that are hers for the taking. "This generation of Americans has a rendezvous with destiny." --Franklin Delano Roosevelt ˃˃˃ A Desert Island Keeper - All About Romance Harlequin Award of Excellence4.5 stars - RT Top Pick! ˃˃˃ And the story continues with Stranger in Paradise (Home Front - Book 2) Buy your copy now!

    Part Apache brave and part Mexican grandee, Cade has a past and a secret. But he possesses the power and passion to command all in his path.Lily welcomes Cade into her struggle against treachery and terror—and discovers a love worth risking everything to keep.

    But an attraction develops as Tess Summar fights to save her reluctant patient's life. When she is attacked for her actions on his behalf, the brave rescues her and together they retreat into their love.

    But their perilous passion had just begun . . . Hauntingly beautiful Perry McLain was desperate to escape the powerful Union Army captain who pursued her, seeking vengeance for her rebellion. Yet, her vow to save the handsome Hunter Kirkland plunged her deep into enemy territory . . . and into the tortuous flames of desire. To Hunter, weak with fever, she was nothing but an alluring dream visiting him in the darkness . . . a sultry vision he could embrace only in the heat of his own imagination. Yet the memory of her warm caresses, the urgent ecstasy of her closeness refused to fade in the morning light. He did not realize that underneath the dirt-caked, boyish clothes of his daytime companion was the body of the woman whose nighttime passion he craved . . . .

    But when a hardened Texas gunslinger comes swaggering into the saloon where she works, she can’t resist falling beneath the seductive spell of his midnight-black hair and glittering obsidian eyes.Santiago Zamora stopped believing in fairy tales—and happily ever afters—a long time ago. The last thing the reluctant bounty hunter needs in his life is a tart-tongued beauty who sings like a dying nanny goat, has a cat who insists on sleeping in his hat, attracts catastrophe wherever she goes, and makes his pulse pound with a dangerous desire he had hoped never to feel again.When Russia tricks Santiago into helping her track the villain with the power to destroy all of her dreams, Santiago must fight the temptation to surrender to a spell of a different kind—one woven of passion and tenderness…and the irresistible hope that it might not be too late for him to find a happily ever after of his own—in Russia Valentine’s arms.

    Sarah Conway was something else again. She was every inch an Eastern lady, yet she was determined to make Lone Bluff her home.Jake was annoyed to find himself playing guardian angel to this tantalizing innocent--even more disgusted to find he liked it. Little did he suspect that beneath Sarah's ladylike demeanor beat the heart of a frontier woman ant that her body yearned for his hard embrace, her heart for his words of love .. . .

    Her father, Patrick, has just been executed for treason against the British Crown. Her aunt, Lady Elizabeth Sinclair, is eager to marry her off rather than bear the expense of sheltering a turncoat's daughter. And when a handsome young patriot named Philip Riordan enters her life, Cass knows he is destined to complicate matters further. Riordan wants her to enter the spy game, to provide valuable information about her father's plot against the monarchy in order to save the king's life. But the intelligence game is never a simple one, and even a heart as jaded as Cass's may not be safe from the charms of Philip Riordan, renowned cad, Member of Parliament . . . and die-hard loyalist.

    She'd been raised to bake in her parents' bakery, and after their deaths, she had planned to carry on the family tradition. Devastated to find out she was losing her family's business, she needed something to do to support herself. When she received a letter from her twin sister's husband in Arizona Territory, suggesting she come out to be the bride of his best friend who was opening a restaurant, it seemed like the perfect solution to her problems. Tripp had gone to the best culinary school in the country, and he knew exactly how to create the perfect meal. He spent hours and hours coming up with just the right menu for his restaurant, only to be told he couldn't get a loan for it unless he married. When his best friend came up with the solution of sending for his baker sister-in-law, it only made sense. Her ideas of the perfect menu were different than his, though. Would the two be able to stay together long enough to convince the bank he was a good risk? Would Sadie be able to convince Tripp that the two of them belonged together after all?

    They are joined there by slaves fleeing cruel plantation owners. One such slave is Calida, who once saved the life of the war chief Panther, and who witnessed her master murder his wife. Soon, Panther and Calida are deeply in love--with enemies closing in on both sides.

    Two passionate travelers, united by need, threatened by pasts they could not outrun ...Lydia Bryant --- voluptuous and russet-haired, fleeing from a secret shame, vowing that never again would a man, any man, overpower her ...Ross Coleman --- dark, brooding and iron-willed, with the shadow of a lawless past in his piercing eyes, sworn to resist the temptation of his wanton longings ...Fate threw them together on the same wild road, where they fought the breathtaking desire blazing between them, while the shadows of their enemies grew longer. As the wagon train rolled west, the danger to them drew ever closer, until a showdown with their pursuers was inevitable. Before it was over, Lydia and Ross would face death ... the truth about each other ... and the astonishing strength of their love ...

    Before long I'll be dancing on the coals." The highwaymen were the frying pan; the handsome young Apache who saved her from them was the fire; and the coals? Gaetan.Rage against the enemies of his people has consumed Gaetan from boyhood. The only use he ever found for any white was to test the sharpness of his knife. Forced by his brother to endure Katherine's company, Gaetan tries to deny what he sees—the white woman has a man's temper and a lion's courage. She has an Apache heart.In spite of hate, distrust and fear, surviving in the rugged country of southern Arizona and northern Mexico forges a strange bond between Katherine and Gaetan. When the bond turns to love, can they admit it? Can they bear the consequences?

    She had heard of the devastatingly good looks and unpardonable passions of this man exiled to India by his uncle, Lord Raven, for his scandalous behavior. She had been warned to beware of him by the mistress of Ravenswalk, the ravishing and ruthless Lady Jacqueline Raven.Now Nicholas Daventry had returned to Ravenswalk . . . to claim the legacy he said was his by birth . . . to wreak the vengeance he said was his due . . . and to plunge Georgia into a dizzying, dazzling vortex of desire, as she discovered that she was now the stranger—in a world of love that this man she did not know knew so very well.

    ANY MAN." She had blood on her dress and trouble in her eyes when she walked into Cavey Davey's tavern and roused Dr. Cain D'Alessandro from his drunken stupor. The sight of Ana, "The Duchess" --- beautiful, icy, desperate --- almost sobered him. She looked like a whore and spoke like a lady ... who had just committed murder. She had money, and they both needed to escape. So Cain D'Alessandro agreed to pose as her husband on the dangerous trip through Panama to California. But Ana hadn't reckoned on a full ship of sailors --- or the perilous trip through the Panamanian wilderness. All she had was Cain, an intimate stranger forced to abandon his liquor to save them both. Suddenly he was a threat, capable of seeing her weakness and offering his strength. And all he asked for in return was her love, something she'd never given to any man before ...

    Now he is bound by duty to get an heir. Unfortunately, to get the heir, he must find a wife. As luck would have it, he gets caught in a scandalous situation not of his doing, and the next thing he knows, he's married...and to a lady whose family is reported to desire money above all else.Miss Claire Lowell wanted to get married. But she never intended to marry a gentleman who felt trapped into it, and she certainly never thought her family would have a hand in the scandal that forced Lord Roderick's hand in marriage. Can love find a way to thrive under such conditions or will her father's eagerness to see her married off to an earl condemn her to a loveless marriage?