Book picks similar to
Tara's Song by Barbara Ferry Johnson


historical-romance
viking
bodice-ripper
historical

The Falcon and the Flower


Virginia Henley - 1989
    Falcon knew only blind, reckless passion as he swore to tame, at the risk of his life...The Flower.

Loki's Daughters


Delle Jacobs - 2002
    She knows their brutality first hand, having lost the men from her own family and village to their swords. When she encounters and wounds a Viking warrior one stormy night, she has every right to want him dead. Instead, she allows him shelter in her cottage. Although she fears him, his confidence and teasing manner give her pause. He acts as if she belongs to him. As if he knows her. Ronan didn’t expect Arienh to recognize him. Why should she? They were both just children when his uncle forced him into a raid against her village. But Ronan risked his life to protect the young Arienh from his marauding kinsmen. Now that the time has come for Ronan and the other warriors to choose wives, he has returned to claim the beautiful girl who captured his heart so long ago.But for men accustomed simply to taking what they want, wooing the courageous, headstrong Celtic women is easier said than done. And for Arienh, who always sacrificed her own happiness for the sake of her people, trusting—and loving—a Northman may be impossible. By turns poignant and humorous, Loki’s Daughters is a stirring tale of unlikely lovers, forged in dangerously opposite worlds yet bound together by sacrifice, strength, and undeniable passion.

Hellion


Bertrice Small - 1996
    . . .As fierce and indomitable as any man, Isabelle of Langston rules the family lands with an iron hand after her father's death. But the brazen beauty meets her match in Hugh Fauconier, bold knight and rightful Saxon heir to Langston Keep. By the king's hand, he is made her husband. Hugh's virile prowess reveals to Belle the delicious pleasures of the flesh, as their turbulent days of verbal sparring melt into nights of erotic abandon.But a treacherous plot enslaves Hugh to the evil Vivienne d' Bretagne, a sorceress whose sexual magic is as powerful as it is dark. Discovering the castle lair where her husband is enchanted, Belle is caught and rendered helpless by the twisted passion of Vivienne's brother, Guy. But not even her captor's devious ecstasy can destroy her will to free her beloved Hugh. . . ."The plot is cleverly woven into the history of the times in such a way as to make the era come to life on the written page. . . . Ms. Small once again delights and thrills."*RendezvousAn Alternate Selection of the Literary Guild(c) and Doubleday Book Club(c)

The Viking's Chosen


Quinn Loftis - 2018
    But the prophecy is also clear: General Torben will take a foreign bride — one who is a seer and healer just like his mother. The eldest princess of England is said to be just that… a beautiful, charming, and headstrong woman. But he's a Viking army general and she's an English princess — and one who is already promised to the king of Tara.Two worlds collide in this epic historical fiction centered on an undeniable chemistry that smolders against the odds. Richly written and injected with moments of humor, this action-packed romantic tale will leave you breathless.Quinn Loftis is the author of twenty novels, including the USA Today Bestseller Fate and Fury.

The Black Lyon


Jude Deveraux - 1980
    He had no match among enemies, or women ... until he met Lyonene, the green-eyed beauty whose fiery spirit matched his own. Through a whirlwind romance and stormy marriage, she endured every peril to be by his side... until jealousy and vicious lies drove her across the Irish Sea and into grave danger. One man could save her -- only the fierce Black Lyon had the courage to destroy the ruthless plot that had driven them apart and threatened the bond of love they had vowed could never be broken.

Moonstruck Madness


Laurie McBain - 1977
    She's one thing by day, something else altogether by night...After escaping the slaughter of her clan at a young age, Scottish noblewoman Sabrina Verrick provides for her siblings by living a double life, until the night she encounters the Duke, and her secret and all she holds dear is threatened...He's so disillusioned, he's completely vulnerable...With his inheritance at stake, Lucien, Duke of Camareigh, sets a trap for the Scottish beauty with the piercing violet eyes, never imagining what will happen when the trap is sprung...As their lives become irreversibly entangled, Lucien and Sabrina become each other's biggest threat, as well as their only salvation...

Bride of the Lion


Elizabeth Stuart - 1995
    But nothing could defend her from the brooding magnificence of the invader who quickened her wild Welsh blood and stole her tender soul.Robert de LangleyFaull of arrogance and outlaw vigor, the fabled Lion of Normandy would hold his old enemy's daughter hostage for his plundered lands - until he decreed that he must keep them both.Tossed between vengeance and lingering desire, war made them enemies, and passion possessed them.

Bond of Blood


Roberta Gellis - 1976
    Only marriage to the rugged Lord of Radnor awakened her tender passion, and transformed her from reluctant bride to willing lover.A giant of a man whose iron will conquered enemy forces and many a woman's heart, Cain sought her hand little knowing that the marriage bond would ally him with a family which sought his death.Against a tapestry of intrigue and treachery, the romance of Leah and Cain unfolds--a moving tale of divided loyalties and conflicts which threaten to destroy the course of their love...

The Conqueror


Brenda Joyce - 1990
    Lauded for his bravery in France, in England he was the hated enemy. Once ensconced in his new domain, Rolfe became determined to tame the Saxon beauty Ceidre, Alice’s illegitimate sister, whose spirit and sensuality made him risk treason to have her—not Lady Alice—in his bed.The PrizeMysterious and seductive, she was no lady but a spy for the rebel cause of her noble half brothers. Refusing to bow to this arrogant warrior who ignited her forbidden passion, Ceidre was swept into a dangerous liaison tied to the fate of England and kings. Yet with his kisses on her lips, his skilful hands on her body, she would have to struggle not to surrender to…The Conqueror.

Winter's Heat


Denise Domning - 1994
    She vows never to submit to this aloof and ruthless man who claims her.Rannulf of Graistan has been a woman's fool once before and has sworn to never be again, but he cannot refuse the rich estate that this marriage brings him.But a tide of treachery is rising around them and their only hope lays in daring to trust and to love unconditionally.

Lady Danger


Sarah McKerrigan - 2006
    But she’s never met a man like Sir Pagan Cameliard, the bold and powerful knight who comes at the king’s command to make a marriage alliance with Rivenloch. To save her younger sister, Deirdre tricks Pagan into marrying her instead, and now she faces a new kind of enemy who crosses swords with her by day and lays siege to her heart by night.

Odin's Shadow


Erin S. Riley - 2013
    Treachery. Revenge. Redemption. Certain themes resonate across the centuries. Odin’s Shadow is the first book in a series of three about a young Irish woman and the two Viking brothers who love her. The novel is set against the harsh backdrop of the Viking era in the 9th century, a time when the sight of a Viking longship sailing up the coast of Ireland would chill the blood of any man, woman or child. One young Irish woman, however, is not afraid of these Northmen, and a fateful encounter with one of them changes the course of her life forever. Selia is a girl on the verge of womanhood, frustrated by the confines of her gender and resentful of the freedom her brother boasts of. She is intelligent and resourceful in a time when neither is valued in a female, and longs for an escape from her sheltered existence. Selia is fascinated by the tales of Viking raids told by her maidservant, and her hunger for independence is fed through the stories of heathen ferocity she hears at the woman’s knee. A decision to sneak to the city’s harbor to view the Viking longships leads to an encounter with Alrik Ragnarson, a charismatic Viking warlord whose outward beauty masks a dark and tortured mind. With the knowledge that her father is about to announce her betrothal to a man she doesn’t love, Selia marries Alrik and within a day is on the longship bound for Norway and a new life. As Selia’s relationship with her new husband grows, her friendship with his brother Ulfrik grows as well. The tension mounts between the two men, and as Alrik’s character flaws come to light Selia begins to have misgivings about her hasty marriage. Ulfrik’s desperate love for Selia causes him to reveal a secret from the past that threatens to destroy them all, and Selia is left to make a heart rending choice between the two Viking brothers.

The King's Man


Elizabeth Kingston - 2015
    Ranulf's actions have gained him lands, title, and a lasting reputation as a hired butcher. But after years of doing his king's bidding, he begins to fear for his mortal soul and follows his conscience away from Edward, all the way to the wilds of Wales. Gwenllian of Ruardean, Welsh daughter of a powerful Marcher lord, has every reason to leave Ranulf for dead when one of her men nearly kills him. As a girl she was married by proxy to a man Ranulf murdered, only to become a widow before she ever met her groom. In the years since, she has shunned the life of a lady, instead studying warfare and combat at her mother’s behest. But she has also studied healing and this, with her sense of duty to knightly virtues, leads her to tend to Ranulf’s wounds. Saving her enemy’s life comes with consequences, and Gwenllian and Ranulf are soon caught up in dangerous intrigue. Forced together by political machinations, they discover a kinship of spirit and a surprising, intense desire. But even hard-won love cannot thrive when loyalties are divided and the winds of rebellion sweep the land.

The Silver Devil


Teresa Denys - 1978
    No woman's heart is safe from the Silver Devil. From the moment he sees the beautiful Felicia, he must have her. Overnight he changes Felicia's nightmare world of tavern drudgery into an erotic adventure as his royal mistress. He is the Duke of Cabria who holds his subjects in constant fear. He is troubled. He is ruthless. And Felicia is hopelessly in love with him - though at times he seems like the devil incarnate.…

Wishing For a Highlander


Jessi Gage - 2014
    The last thing she expects is for her wish to be granted. Magically transported to the middle of a clan skirmish in the sixteenth-century Highlands, she comes face to face with her kilted fantasy man.Tall, handsome, and heir to his uncle’s lairdship, Darcy Keith should be the most eligible bachelor in Ackergill. Instead, thanks to a prank played on him in his teenage years, he is known for being too large under his kilt to ever make a proper husband. “Big Darcy” runs his deceased father’s windmills and lives alone at his family manor, believing he will never marry.But a strangely dressed woman he rescues from a clan skirmish makes him long for more. When the woman’s claims of coming to Ackergill by magic reach the laird’s ears, she is accused of witchcraft. Darcy determines to protect her any way he can, even if it means binding her to him forever.ISBN: 978-1-941239-00-1 (alternate cover edition)