It's been years since they've seen each other, but Clara's love for Brendon hasn't diminished. Will Brendon recognize Clara and admit his feelings for the woman before Lord Desmond comes calling, claiming Clara for his own?Meant For MeFor years Cynthia Shaw has replied to Gabriel Baston's letters, pretending to be his fiancé, Cynthia's wretched cousin Helen. When Gabriel appears at a masked ball and mistakes Cynthia for Helen, she can't help herself and gives her innocence to the man she has loved for years. Will Lord Kennwick realize Cynthia was meant for him before it's too late? This anthology is approximately 30,000 words and is appropriate only for adults! If you enjoy these short stories, you might also enjoy Lori's other historical romances: Wild Heart, Wild Desire and A Night of Secrets. To find out more about Lori, go to www.LoriBrighton.com

    While there with Declan and Keira, and the pesky twins, Molly and Mabe Hannigan, Eireanne meets an American horseman who captures her attention.

    . .After a disastrous wedding night, proper Lady Helena Harteford fears for the fate of her new marriage. Disguised as a doxy, she tracks her husband down at a bawdy house to reason with him . . . and instead discovers the thrill of forbidden passion. An innocent ruse turns into a risky deception; how far will this once-wallflower go to win her husband's love?Unfit to be a Husband . . .Orphaned at an early age, Nicholas Morgan escapes his violent beginnings to become a successful merchant--only to discover that he is the legitimate heir of the Marquess of Harteford. His transition to the ton is rocky and made rockier when he marries above him. Torn between guilt and lust, he tries to protect his sweet, innocent wife from the demons of his past. But can he safeguard her from his own raging desires?Caught between Past and Present . . .When a dangerous nemesis rises from Nicholas' past, husband and wife must work together in order to survive. From the drawing rooms to the stews of Regency London, they find themselves caught in a game of passion and seduction. Will true love prevail? Or is Helena destined to remain . . . Her Husband's Harlot?(approximately 105,000 words or 367 pages)

    Ella Cynders is a hired companion with a romantic bent. So when she switches places with her charge--who is determined to find true love and elope--it is Ella who falls head over heals in love with the very eligible Viscount Ashe. In one masked night, the viscount and Ella find passion and romance, and then tragically are whisked apart before the midnight unmasking. Now five years later, Ella has once again found a way to steal inside the coveted ball, but can she rekindle the magic they found together before her deception is unmasked? This short story was originally published in The Mammoth Book of Regency Romance and in print is 33 pages long.

    So what do you get a man who has everything? Innocent and comely Verity Ewing plans on giving Julian her heart—the most precious gift of all.previously published in The Gifts of Christmas AnthologyThe Season for Suitors (Tallants, #3.5) by Nicola CornickAfter some close encounters with rakes in which she was nearly compromised, heiress Clara Davenport realizes that she needs some expert advice. And who better for the job than Sebastian Fleet, the most notorious rake in town? But the tutelage doesn't go quite as planned, as both Sebastian and Clara find it difficult to remain objective when it comes to lessons of the heart!previously published in Christmas Keepsakes AnthologyThis Wicked Gift (Carhart, #0.5) by Courtney MilanLavinia Spencer has been saving her hard-earned pennies to provide her family with Christmas dinner. Days before the holiday, her brother is swindled, leaving them owing more than they can ever repay. Until a mysterious benefactor offers to settle the debt. Innocent Lavinia is stunned by what the dashing William White wants in return. Will she exchange a wicked gift for her family's fortune?

    English lords are notoriously egotistical, self-absorbed, and independent creatures. So when one of them admits that a woman has made him a better man, that admission goes against everything he’s convinced himself is possible. In this collection you will meet four such fellows! Four scoundrels of differing shades of arrogance and pride who are about to lose their hearts in the most enticing, unexpected, blindingly stubborn ways.HIS WICKED EMBRACEby USAToday Bestselling Author Lauren SmithA kidnapped Persian princess was the last thing he expected to find when Lawrence Russell went under cover for the Bow Street Runners. But with one look at her terrified eyes, he knew he had to save her. And in doing so, he knew she’d made of him a better man. Still in danger of being discovered by her obsessed captor, the half-English princess Lady Zehra is left with only one request of her handsome savior. “Take me to bed. I wish to see the stars again.”THE SECRET SCOUNDRELby Kristin Gabriel, two-time Rita winner and author of the Harlequin book made into the television movie Recipe for RevengeOne stolen vase, two captured hearts. Miss Diana Harwood was too tall to gain a fellow’s interest, and Colin Sinclair, Marquess of Thorne and Viscount Thorne, was too much of a rogue to tempt any clear-thinking maiden. But when neither can manage to win the upper hand, their only recourse is to collaborate in finding the priceless Chinese vase Thorne was hired to recover…and leave their hearts perilously unguarded.ONE DUKE OR ANOTHERBook Three of The Trevorsby USAToday Bestselling author Ella QuinnShe was perfect for him. Now all Guy Paulet, heir to the Bolton dukedom, had to do was convince Lady Aglaia to jilt his uncle, defy her father, and marry him in less than a month. After all, she absolutely could not be allowed to marry a man who had murdered his four previous wives.A SCOUNDREL AT HEARTBook Five of Ransomed Jewelsby Amazon bestselling author Laura LandonHe was blind to love. The fire that had left Lord Thomas Renfrew terribly disfigured had seen to that. Even when faced with the heart-shattering love offered by the beautiful Lady Cleora, he couldn’t see a way to unleash the passion that filled him in her presence. Until she was freed from her own prison, and took him into her heart—scars and all.

    Or it would be if the local villagers weren’t on edge because of the vampire in their midst, at least they think he’s a vampire. The fascination with the reclusive viscount disrupts the girls’ studies and Tess fights an unending battle to convince her students that monsters do not exist.Vincent Latimer, Viscount Atwood, is not a vampire, no matter what the villagers believe. He wishes the book, Wake Not the Dead, had never been written. There is a very good reason he visits his wife’s grave at night, and it has nothing to do with trying to raise her from the dead.When a storm thrusts Tess into Vincent’s path and destroys the school, both of their pasts collide.

    Bestselling regency romance author, Heather Boyd, brings readers a lively tale of reckless spending, fraudulent correspondence, and the humorous twists and turns of falling for the right rogue…London, 1813Jack, Marquess of Ettington, is at his wits’ end dealing with his twin sister’s distress. Under her name, he’s summoned Constance Grange, his vexing former ward, to London to act as his sister’s companion for the season. Although Pixie’s debt-ridden state comes as a complete surprise, what disturbs him more is his sister’s plan to find her a wealthy husband to pay off her overwhelming debts. And—despite his availability, wealth and title—he’s shocked to be overlooked for the position of Pixie’s husband.With a nickname like Pixie, Constance Grange should be used to disasters, but debt collectors pounding on the Marquess of Ettington’s door demanding payment is beyond mortifying. Given the precarious state of her finances and the previously unknown loss of her family estate, her choices are either incarceration in debtors’ prison or turning fortune hunter to secure a wealthy husband. Yet the man who comes to her rescue more times than she cares to think about is unavailable, betrothed, and her former guardian Jack—the cold-hearted marquess.

    Eight brothers and sisters, assorted in-laws, sons and daughters, nieces and nephews, (not to mention an overweight corgi), plus an irrepressible matriarch who’s a match for any of them… These are the Bridgertons: less a family than a force of nature. Through eight bestselling novels, readers laughed, cried, and fell in love. But they wanted more.And so the readers asked the author…What happened next? Does Simon ever read his father’s letters? Do Francesca and Michael become parents? Who would win in a Pall Mall grudge match?Does “The End” really have to be the end?Now, with The Bridgertons: Happily Ever After, Julia Quinn delivers eight sexy, funny, and heartwarming “2nd epilogues,” plus a bonus story about none other than the wise and witty Violet Bridgerton herself. So get to know the Bridgertons all over again—because Happily Ever After is a whole lot of fun.

    This is a collection of four sizzling historical stories, written by Virginia Henley, Sally MacKenzie, Victoria Dahl and Kristi Astor.

     England 1819 Wallflower Penelope Trask believes nothing will ever happen in her village of Little Marching, Oxfordshire. Handsome princes only sweep in and carry off innocent maidens in the fairy tales she collects, never in real life. Prince Damien of Nvengaria is tired of living inside a fairy tale. His entire life has been ruled by prophecy, magic, and avoiding being assassinated by his mad father and the head of the Council of Dukes. When his father dies, he inherits a kingdom divided, his opposition led by Grand Duke Alexander, who will do anything to keep the monster's son from ruling Nvengaria. To make good his claim to the throne, Damien must fulfill a prophecy that reunites the lines of the original two princes of Nvengaria, best friends who'd carved a kingdom out of wild lands near the Transylvanian mountains. Damien's task—to bring back the Princess of Nvengaria, her line lost centuries ago. The price of disappointing the people, Alexander promises, will be Damien's execution. Damien tracks down the long-lost princess to the village of Little Marching in England, where nothing remotely interesting ever happens. He will have to convince the lovely Penelope that he is no charlatan, and that Damien's life and his kingdom depends on her facing danger with him. Along the way, the prophecy says, they will fall in love. And the prophecy is never wrong ... Note: The Nvengaria series is paranormal historical, the books loosely based on well-known fairy tales: Penelope and Prince Charming—Cinderella The Mad, Bad Duke—Beauty and the Beast Highlander Ever After—Snow White and the Seven … Highlanders The Longest Night—Little Red Riding Hood (and the Big, Bad Wolf)

    . .and a partridge in a pear tree . . . In Coventry's Christmas, Rebecca Hagan Lee offers a charming new story. With Christmas approaching, Amabel Thurston is ordered from the family home by her father's widow and must seek the protection of her guardian, Deverel Brookfield, eighth Marquess of Coventry. Unfortunately, the Devil of Coventry has little use for Christmas and even less for proper young ladies. In the never-in-print Star of Wonder, Lynn Kerstan brings her special brand of magic to the page when an exotic and dangerous stranger arrives to disrupt the meager Christmas of Stella Bryar, who has struggled to support the family retainers in the wake of her father's death.Allison Lane's newest Christmas treat is A Christmas Homecoming. When prodigal son Alex Northcote returns from a six year absence to take control of the family estate, he must run a gauntlet of possible brides, who have all been installed for a holiday house party by his determined grandmother. Avoiding the trap would have been so much easier, if the guest list hadn't included a quiet widow, who once jilted him for another. In the classic Home for Christmas, Alicia Rasley gives us a Christmas with a bit of intrigue. When Verity receives an unexpected invitation from her estranged father to spend the holidays at his Cornwall estate, she accepts with delight. But, ever mindful of her father's attention to propriety, she must scramble to find a husband and "father" for her fatherless child. Could a handsome and enigmatic stranger solve all her problems?

    To protect her family, to protect herself, she is determined to find the men before they find her. The last thing she wanted was an entanglement with a duke that threatens her very survival... Hardened long ago, the last thing the Duke of Dunway wanted was an entanglement with a chit of the ton. But in the flash of a pistol, his fate is altered as he finds himself honor-bound to protect Lady Augustine from, of all things, herself.

    Nevertheless, his mother is playing matchmaker and has invited potential brides to visit the family estate. Geoffrey resigns himself to playing host to a gaggle of husband-hunters more interested in his title than in him—until he unexpectedly meets one notable and intriguing exception. Miss Liliana Claremont has no interest in being an earl’s wife, least of all Wentworth’s—the son of the man she believes murdered her father. Liliana is determined to find evidence of the crime, but her behavior rouses the earl’s suspicions as well as her own undeniable attraction to a man she thought was her enemy. As Geoffrey and Liliana explore their growing passion for one another, the truth behind their fathers’ enmity threatens to destroy their newfound love…

    When the alluring lady he surprises under the mistletoe is not who he expected—but a long-lost love with a score to settle—it’s clear that this will be a Christmas he won’t soon forget!