What happens next in this brilliantly crafted novel of literary suspense will change Emma Smith’s life forever—and ignite a dark, erotic drama of suspicion, loss, and awakening.In the year 1898, Emma makes a New Year’s resolution: to become a better person. So, under the tutelage of her novelist husband, she begins an innocent correspondence with Chance Wood, a man serving his sentence for the murder of his wife. But from the beginning, in words that shock and intrigue her, Chance dares Emma to unveil her unspoken thoughts and desires. And when Chance receives a pardon, Emma is set dangerously free. She will use her freedom—and Chance’s—to pursue the fantasies that have been swirling dizzily around her. Slowly, recklessly, Emma exchanges all that was familiar and safe for her new, dangerous double life. As the risks mount and a friend turns blackmailer, Emma cannot stop her fall. For once she has given in to her truest, basest desires, she cannot avoid the ones that come next.…

      A Christmas Hope   “Very much recommended . . . a wonderful story.”—Historical Novel Review   Claudine Burroughs dreads the holiday season. She feels she has nothing in common with her circle of wealthy, status-minded friends, and the only time she’s remotely happy is when she is volunteering at a women’s clinic, a job her husband strongly disapproves of. When Claudine meets a charming poet at a Yuletide gala, her spirits are finally lifted—until he is accused of killing a fellow guest. Believing in his innocence, Claudine vows to do her utmost to help. But it seems that hypocritical London society would rather send an innocent man to the gallows than expose the shocking truth about one of their own.   A New York Christmas   “A perfect present for [Anne Perry’s] readers.”—RT Book Reviews   Jemima Pitt, the daughter of Thomas Pitt, head of Britain’s Special Branch, is crossing the Atlantic for the first time. Her companion, Delphinia Cardew, is to marry in a grand Manhattan affair that will join together two fabulously wealthy families. But a shadow darkens the occasion: Missing from the festivities is Delphinia’s disgraced mother—and the groom’s charismatic brother has asked Jemima to help him find her and forestall the scandal that will surely follow if the prodigal parent turns up at the wedding. From Hell’s Kitchen to Fifth Avenue, from the Lower East Side to Central Park, Jemima trudges through snowy streets, asking questions but getting few answers—and never suspecting that she is walking into mortal danger.From the Trade Paperback edition.

    The only thing you need to know is that Wild Cards is set in our world, and an alien virus has been infecting people in rare outbreaks. It kills 90% of victims, makes ugly monsters of 9% (Jokers) and gives 1% random superpowers (Aces).A very personal short story that I'm proud of and want to find a wider audience for.There is a sequel story free on the Tor website, The Visitor: Kill or Cure.

    She beholds America’s virgin shores with wonder until her cowardly fiancé abandons her in the forest when they are attacked by Indians. In the first moments she faces her captor in terror.The warrior Night Fox reaches out and touches her cheek. What fool would leave a treasure like this behind? He is bewitched by his tribe’s newest captive. Her lustrous hair is red like the fox’s, her silky skin reminds hime of the yellow wildflower. He yearns to kiss the tears from her cheeks. He wants to taste the honey of her lips.”I hate you,” Katelyn trembles so much she can barely get the words out. ”No, you don’t hate me. You fear me, but you don’t hate me.” Night Fox is so close. Katelyn has never heard a man’s husky whisper.She meets his haunting black eyes without flinching. “Yes I do,” she lies. “I hate you because you kidnapped me, because you made your slave…” I hate you because I can’t despise you the way I should.He senses her surrender to his forbidden caress. Fox pulls her close, savoring the warmth of her damp skin beneath his touch.She trembles in his grasp, unable to tear her eyes from his. She remembers the taste of his mouth on hers. “I hate you because you touch me.”“Do not be afraid.”She lets herself be drawn into his arms. No one has ever tried to comfort her, no one has ever cared. Why this man, she wonders, as she bends his head towards her. Why the enemy? BONUS This edition contains a bonus excerpt from RACHEL’S CHOICE by Judith E. French REVIEWS OF FORBIDDEN CARESS 4.09 average rating this edition, 134 ratings, 11 reviews, added by 440 people, 42 to-reads, 91% of people like it–Goodreads4.2 out of 5 stars (24 ratings)–Amazon“A LOVE STORY. I loved this story. I recommend everyone to read this book. I look forward to reading more of her.” Kattie, Goodreads“Awesome Writer!!!!! One of the best, so many struggles, but love conquers all. Must read!!!! Only in fairy tales but the world is a viciously attacking diversity place. But this is a real love story beginning to end!!! Loved it.”—Diana Crane, Goodreads ABOUT COLLEEN FRENCH Colleen French has a unique gift for capturing the essence of passion in her breathtaking tales of romance and adventure. Winner of the Delaware Diamond Award for Literary Excellence and the P.E.A.R.L. award, she is the daughter of bestselling novelist Judith E. French who first taught her how to write. Colleen has written more than 130 print novels which have sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into Bulgarian, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish. Her Native American novels are inspired by her English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and Lenni–Lenape ancestry and her home near the Chesapeake Bay, where her family has lived for more than 300 years. Her books appeal to fans of Christi Caldwell, Mary Balogh, C. J. Petit, Shirleen Davies, Karen Kay, Madeline Baker, Elle Marlow, Ellen O'Connell, Vonna Harper, Judith E. French, Kathryn Le Veque, Margaret Mallory, Julie Garwood, Caroline Fyffe, Maya Banks, Hannah Howell Fiona Faris, and Alisa Adams.

    Using the knowledge left by his father, the Plague Doctor, he seeks to unlock the secrets of the universe, but weakness of the flesh won’t be ignored. The sordid overtures of his nymphomaniac sister, combined with his own perverse desires, soil his subjects before revelation can be found.Now the return of Philip’s father is imminent. Judgment is at hand, and if the fate of his mother taught him anything, it’s that one mustn’t disappoint the Plague Doctor.

    Jekyll & Mr. Hyde describes the mysterious relationship between a respectable and affable doctor and his brutal associate. Set in the grimy streets of Victorian London, this tale of murder, split personality, and obscure science, with its chilling final revelation, became an instant horror classic when it was first published in 1886 and has enthralled and terrified generations of readers ever since..

    She would be a "friend" who would try to protect her from another scandalous involvement--like the one back in France.Alain was a generous and thoughtful employer. Victorine a bright and amusing companion. But Tamaris could not help wondering about the significance of the gold and enamel snake Victorine wore around her neck. Nor could she stop thinking about the fact that someone had been going through her belongings and leaving strange objects among them.Then one day Alain was forced to reveal the true story of Victorine's past. A past, Tamaris suspected, that would soon gain on the future and place everyone at Rancho del Sol under a shadow of constant fear..

    Death stalks these streets in the form of a hired killer named Rawhead--a shadowy yet powerful figure desperate to control a ruthless mob family called The Priesthood. He will stop at nothing to invade their inner sanctum.Author Billy Dye has finally found success after years of struggle. But now Rawhead, his childhood friend turned maniacal assassin, has reentered his life and involved him in a plot to take over The Priesthood and wrest control of the Manchester underworld. Nobody is safe in this action-packed, violent, and often hilarious crime novel.David Bowker is the new voice of British crime and the most original author to burst on the scene in years.

    Too much of an outsider for his childhood sweetheart, Caroline, who turned her back on their forbidden love to marry the wealthier, safer Jared Rawley. Taught a bitter lesson about not belonging, Adam left England as a diplomat and spy in the Peninsular War. But even then he could not escape Caroline. When he learned her husband, Jared, had betrayed crown and country, he exposed Jared as a traitor despite Caroline's pleas.Sheltered, pampered Caroline grew up and found unexpected courage in the wake of her husband's disgrace. She left her decorous life in England and followed Jared into war-torn Spain. Now a widow with a young daughter, she is trapped behind enemy lines. Adam sets out to rescue the woman who still haunts his dreams. In a landscape set with treachery and intrigue, Adam and Caroline's only hope of survival is to rely on each other. They brave bandits, enemy soldiers, and harsh terrain, but the greatest danger they face may be navigating the web of love and betrayal that still binds them together.

    The most overrated night of the year, right? I have to get through an evening of enforced fun, drink all the prosecco and talk about new beginnings. But I don’t want new beginnings. I want my old beginning back. It’s been ten days, two hours and forty-three minutes since Tansy got dumped. Two heartbreaking weeks since Renzo, who made her weak at the knees and dizzy with excitement, found out Tansy’s secret – and ended it on the spot. Since then, she’s spent every evening scrolling through their old photos, drunk texted him twenty-six times (he stopped reading after five), and lost count of how many packets of Kleenex she’s cried her way through. That’s where Operation Get Renzo Back comes in. She ropes in a new wing-woman, maxes out her credit card and accidentally-on-purpose bumps into him at every opportunity. Oh, and she finds a fake boyfriend, as you do… But while she’s busy pretending, Tansy’s plan is thrown a major curveball. She has to learn the hard way that it’s not her, it’s him – and that sometimes, a break-up can end up being the making of you. A fresh, funny and fabulous novel for anyone who has been dumped, got a post-break-up haircut, stalked an ex on Facebook, and then realised they were WAY better off without them. Fans of Sophie Kinsella and Lindsey Kelk will love this laugh-out-loud read.

    Taking matters into her hand, she places an ad in the newspaper hoping to entice a willing stranger. But when she begins to fall for the small-town chef, she realizes how much she wants him to love her and not her money. Dwight Williams needs fast cash to save the family restaurant. When he sees Nina’s monetary offer for a husband, he goes for it. He’s determined to save the legacy his dad left him, but can he let it go to prove his love for her? Can Nina and Dwight find true love, once money has entered the equation?

    After the deaths of her actor parents, left at age five with an alcoholic aunt, she ends up in a the Catholic orphanage of Saint Mary's to be cared for by the nuns. Now, approaching her nineteenth birthday, she is a hired as governess to two motherless children living in a stately home in the wilds of Yorkshire. Identical twins, Jacques and Jacqueline are also androgynous, magical, and clever enough to spook Veronica with their macabre fascinations.When she meets their gorgeous father, Rafe de Grimston, Veronica is both attracted and repulsed by him. A mixture of tenderness and menace, dark secrets shadow his eyes, torment, and dread of his own nature.Belden House proves to be wilder than Veronica could have dreamed. A mysterious bell tolls, wolves prowl the grounds, and under the full moon, a lady appears in an antique yellow gown whose eyes run red at the sight of Veronica.What is the nature of the curse on Belden House? What is the source of the anguish that drives Rafe de Grimston away? What of the old church, Saint Lupine's, with its wolfish shrine? Who is the lady in yellow?Veronica is faced with choices no one as young and inexperienced as her should ever have to make. Shall she do what she must to save those she has grown to love, and destroy her own soul?Or does she flee, and allow evil to devour them all?Formerly a well-received Novella, this Victorian Gothic Thriller is now revised and expanded to a full length NovelRevised and Expanded 2013

    The Haunting of a Duke Communing with spirits has been both gift and curse to Emme Walters. Now it's made her a killer's target. Emme knows why the Dowager Duchess of Briarleigh invited her to a house party--to investigate whether the duke, Rhys Brammel, murdered his wife years ago. But Emme never imagined she would fall in love with the brooding duke. Branded by society as a possible killer, Rhys is suspicious of Emme and her alleged "gift." Then a late night encounter creates awareness of her other, more attractive, aspects. When Emme's life is threatened, Rhys becomes her protector. Emme and Rhys find passion and peril as they join forces to solve the mysteries at Briarleigh. She made him believe in spirits, but can she make him believe in love?.The Redemption of a Rogue Lord Michael Sutherland, Viscount Ellersleigh, is infamous amongst the ton for his powers of seduction and his prowess as a lover. Running from his own ennui and a lover who fancies herself his future wife, Michael retreats to the country and a crumbling, haunted castle won in a game of chance... a castle occupied by an innocent and oh so tempting young woman, Miss Abbigail Barrows. But country life proves to be anything but quiet. At a debauched house party, Michael finds himself confronted with an unfortunate quandary, marry Abbigail, an innocent, or hang for murder. Residing at Blagdon Hall, Michael's faced with the dilemmas of seducing his new wife, who seems to be impervious to his charm, and unraveling the mystery of Blagdon Hall's resident ghost and the nefarious goings on at the neighboring estate. The Enticement of an Earl Spencer, Lord Wolverston and newly named Earl of Kinraven, intended to find peace in the wilds of Scotland, far from the torment of wanting the one woman he believed he could never have. But his inheritance has come with a price he had not foreseen... a curse that is slowly driving him mad. He sends a desperate plea for help to his friend, the Duke of Briarleigh, but that plea is intercepted by the last person he wishes to see... the Duke's sister-in-law, Miss Larissa Walters, the women he left England to escape. Larissa has struggled to put her past behind her and to overcome the abuses she suffered at the hands of Lord Moreland to whom her stepfather had owed a gambling debt. Spencer had saved her then, and now, she knows it is time to return the favor. She sets out on her own to show him, and perhaps herself, that she has the courage to face her fears... and to love him as he deserves. But all is not as it would seem at Kinraven. There is darkness there—plotting, lurking, waiting in the shadows to destroy whatever happiness they may find. Can love truly conquer all, or will the darkness consume them both?Read the complete Dark Regency series:The Haunting of a Duke (Book 1)The Redemption of a Rogue (Book 2)The Enticement of an Earl (Book 3)A Love So Dark (Book 4)A Passion So Strong (Book 5)A Heart So Wicked (Book 6)An Affair So Destined (Book 7)

    from an internationally renowned author.This haunting tale follows two cursed families in a saga of romance, black magic, and music set in an ancient abbey where the lines between the past 500 years and the present are blurred into oblivion. The handsome, mysteriously compelling owner of Beauregard Abbey, Nicholas Beauregard, must help Zuleika Rathbone as she traces the path of a murderous ancestor, rousing an unimaginable evil centered around a mystical violin. An unlikely romance amidst the havoc wreaked by practitioners of the dark arts takes the reader deep into the thrilling world of the occult.

    And he knew just the way. He would take his own captive -- Amberlie de Fontaine, the brown-eyed Norman beauty who was now lady of his former keep. And once he had stolen her away, he would not scruple over stealing a fiery kiss or two from this dark and enchanting hostage...He was her only desire...Amberlie knew she should despise Tedric of Woodrose. After all, he had kidnapped her, and worse, it was almost certainly Tedric who had killed her husband in one of his many attempts to regain his land. But the tall, blond Saxon warrior was not the savage she had expected. And try as she might, it was not hate but passion she felt in his presence; passion that stirred her as never before. He had taken her by force, but she would give herself freely to the sweet ecstasy of his tempestuous embrace...