Book picks similar to
The Birthday Scandal by Leigh Michaels
historical-romance
romance
historical
audio
The Lady Risks All
Stephanie Laurens - 2012
or keep.
The Viscount and the Vicar's Daughter
Mimi Matthews - 2018
Ashton has hit proverbial rock bottom. Seeking to escape his melancholy, he takes refuge at one of Victorian society’s most notorious house parties. As the Christmas season approaches, he prepares to settle in for a month of heavy drinking…until an unexpected encounter changes his plans—and threatens his heart.A PRIM VICAR'S DAUGHTERValentine March is not the drab little spinster she appears to be. When her new job as a lady’s companion lands her smack in the middle of Yorkshire with England’s most infamous rake, she resolves to keep her head down and her eyes fixed firmly on her future—a future which most definitely does not include a sinfully handsome viscount.A MATCH MADE IN SCANDALA friendship is impossible. An affair out of the question. But when one reckless act binds them together, will two star-crossed souls discover there’s more to each other than meets the eye? Or will revelations from the past end their fragile romance before it begins?
Where Dreams Begin
Lisa Kleypas - 2000
Now, he is seeking a wife to help secure his position in the ton... as well as warm his bed in private. But not just any woman will do for one of London's most notorious rakes. When he meets Lady Holly Taylor, he surrenders to the temptation to take her in his arms and kiss her. Yet, he's pleasantly surprised to discover her fierce passions match his own.Lady Holly Taylor is destined to spend her life playing by society's rules, even when they go against her bolder instincts. But Zachary's kiss arouses her, and though his shocking offer doesn't include marriage, she is compelled to risk everything for the most forbidden passion.
The Questing
Kathryn Le Veque - 2014
Lady Diamantha de Bocage Edlington lost her husband at the Battle of Falkirk. Grieving, she is unprepared for the visit of Sir Cortez de Bretagne, King Edward’s garrison commander at Sherborne Castle. Dark and fiery from his Spanish heritage, Cortez is a knight with sultry good looks and a quick temperament. He has also come on a mission.Cortez was the last man who saw Diamantha’s husband alive and promised the dying man he would take care of his wife. He has therefore come to claim her. Horrified, Diamantha struggles to come to terms with what de Bretagne is telling her, but in her heart, resentment and hatred stir: Robert Edlington’s corpse was left upon the fields of Falkirk and de Bretagne, as the last man to see him, is to blame. Therefore, before Diamantha will become de Bretagne’s wife, she makes a demand of him: return for Robert’s body and bring him home for a proper burial. And so, the great Questing to find Robert Edlington’s body begins….
Join Diamantha and Cortez on their great journey from the fields of Dorset to the hallowed grounds of Falkirk, a journey during which they discover great and terrible things about the world, their country, and each other. From the ashes of grief rises a phoenix of great passion, and bonds are forged between Diamantha and Cortez that can never be broken.
The Memory of Us
Camille Di Maio - 2016
But when she learns of a blind-and-deaf brother, institutionalized since birth, the illusion of her perfect life and family shatters around her.While visiting her brother in secret, Julianne meets and befriends Kyle McCarthy, an Irish Catholic groundskeeper studying to become a priest. Caught between her family’s expectations, Kyle’s devotion to the church, and the intense new feelings that the forbidden courtship has awakened in her, Julianne must make a choice: uphold the life she’s always known or follow the difficult path toward love.But as war ripples through the world and the Blitz decimates England, a tragic accident forces Julianne to leave everything behind and forge a new life built on lies she’s told to protect the ones she loves. Now, after twenty years of hiding from her past, the truth finds her—will she be brave enough to face it?
The Heiress of Winterwood
Sarah E. Ladd - 2013
. . but what comes after?Darbury, England, 1814Amelia Barrett, heiress to an ancestral estate nestled in the English moors, defies family expectations and promises to raise her dying friend’s infant baby. She'll risk everything to keep her word—even to the point of proposing to the child’s father, Graham, a sea captain she’s never met.Tragedy strikes when the child vanishes with little more than a sketchy ransom note hinting to her whereabouts. Fear for the child’s safety drives Amelia and Graham to test the boundaries of their love for this infant.Amelia’s detailed plans would normally see her through any trial, but now, desperate and shaken, she examines her soul and must face her one weakness: pride.Graham’s strength and self-control have served him well and earned him much respect, but chasing perfection has kept him a prisoner of his own discipline.Both must learn to accept God’s sovereignty and relinquish control so they can grasp the future He has for planned for them.
The Duke and I
Julia Quinn - 2000
From their earliest days, children of aristocrats learn how to address an earl and curtsey before a prince—while other dictates of the ton are unspoken yet universally understood. A proper duke should be imperious and aloof. A young, marriageable lady should be amiable… but not too amiable.Daphne Bridgerton has always failed at the latter. The fourth of eight siblings in her close-knit family, she has formed friendships with the most eligible young men in London. Everyone likes Daphne for her kindness and wit. But no one truly desires her. She is simply too deuced honest for that, too unwilling to play the romantic games that captivate gentlemen.Amiability is not a characteristic shared by Simon Basset, Duke of Hastings. Recently returned to England from abroad, he intends to shun both marriage and society—just as his callous father shunned Simon throughout his painful childhood. Yet an encounter with his best friend’s sister offers another option. If Daphne agrees to a fake courtship, Simon can deter the mamas who parade their daughters before him. Daphne, meanwhile, will see her prospects and her reputation soar.The plan works like a charm—at first. But amid the glittering, gossipy, cut-throat world of London’s elite, there is only one certainty: love ignores every rule...
Undone by the Duke
Michelle Willingham - 2013
She designs sensual lingerie for the most exclusive dressmaker in London, although she has never known a man’s touch.A Duke in disguise…Wounded and stranded in Scotland, Jonathan Nottoway, the Duke of Worthingstone, is avoiding the murderous scandal that darkened his family name. As his wounds heal, he spends several sensual nights with the beautiful seamstress who knows nothing of his true identity.A passionate awakeningCan a woman trapped by her emotional scars be able to love a duke, when it means abandoning her safe world to embrace the life of a duchess?
The Practice House
Laura McNeal - 2017
Aldine’s sister converts and moves to America to marry, and Aldine follows, hoping to find the life she’s meant to lead and the person she’s meant to love.In New York, Aldine answers an ad soliciting a teacher for a one-room schoolhouse in a place she can’t possibly imagine: drought-stricken Kansas. She arrives as farms on the Great Plains have begun to fail and schools are going bankrupt, unable to pay or house new teachers. With no money and too much pride to turn back, she lives uneasily with the family of Ansel Price—the charming, optimistic man who placed the ad—and his family responds to her with kind curiosity, suspicion, and, most dangerously, love. Just as she’s settling into her strange new life, a storm forces unspoken thoughts to the surface that will forever alter the course of their lives.Laura McNeal’s novel is a sweeping and timeless love story about leaving—and finding—home.
How to Dance with a Duke
Manda Collins - 2012
But the rules of her father’s exclusive academic society forbid her entrance unless she weds one of its members. To clear her ailing father’s name of a scandalous rumor, Cecily needs to gain admission into the Egyptian Club—and is willing to marry any old dullard to do it.Lucas Dalton, Duke of Winterson, is anything but dull. He’s a dashing and decorated war hero determined to help Cecily—even if that means looking the other way when she claims the dance card of Amelia Snow, this season’s most sought-after beauty. But Lucas has a reason for wanting Cecily to join the Egyptian Club: His brother went missing during one of Lord Hurston’s expeditions to Egypt. An alliance with the explorer’s bluestocking daughter could bring Lucas closer to the truth about what happened…or it could lead him to a more dangerous love than either he or Cecily could have imagined…
The Courtesan Duchess
Joanna Shupe - 2015
1. Learn the most intimate secrets of London’s leading courtesan.2. Pretend to be a courtesan yourself, using the name Juliet Leighton.3. Travel to Venice and locate said husband.4. Seduce husband, conceive an heir, and voilà, your future is secure!For Julia, the Duchess of Colton, such a ruse promises to be foolproof. After all, her husband has not bothered to lay eyes on her in eight years, since their hasty wedding day when she was only sixteen. But what begins as a tempestuous flirtation escalates into full-blown passion—and the feeling is mutual. Could the man the Courtesan Duchess married actually turn out to be the love of her life?
A Good Debutante's Guide to Ruin
Sophie Jordan - 2014
. .
Declan, the Duke of Banbury, has no interest in ushering Rosalie Hughes, his stepsister, into society. Dumped on him with nowhere else to go, he's determined to rid himself of the headstrong debutante by bestowing on her an obscenely large dowry . . . making her the most sought-after heiress of the Season.
. . . is about to become the only one he wants.
But Rosalie isn't about to go along with Declan's plans. Surrounded by fortune hunters, how is she supposed to find a man who truly wants her? Taking control of her fate, Rosalie dons a disguise and sneaks into Sodom, a private club host to all manner of illicit activity—and frequented by her infuriatingly handsome stepbrother.In a shadowed alcove, Declan can't resist the masked temptress who sets his blood afire . . . any more than Rosalie can deny her longing for a man who will send her into ruin.
The Duke's Holiday
Maggie Fenton - 2014
And he always gets what he wants. Until he meets Astrid Honeywell. And a giant pig. And a crooked castle in the middle of Yorkshire. Astrid Honeywell, staunch bluestocking, has struggled for years to keep her family together by running the estate and family brewery after her father's death. She is not about to let the tyrannical Duke of Montford steal away all she has worked for because of some antiquated contract between their families. So when the priggish Duke comes to call, she does everything in her power—including setting the family pig on him—to drive him away. She didn't expect him to be so... well, infuriatingly attractive. Every time he scowls at her, she has the most improper desire to kiss him—and a whole lot more. Montford can't decide whether to strangle Astrid or seduce her. The one thing he knows for a fact is that he must resist his powerful attraction for her at all costs. He has a very proper, very demure fiancée waiting for him back in London, after all. But when Astrid is kidnapped by a disgruntled suitor and whisked off to Gretna Green, Montford will do anything to get her back. Will these two drive each other to Bedlam... or can they make it to the altar without killing each other? Includes a fiery heroine, mistaken identities, errant livestock, pompadours, drunken declarations, a touch of smex, and enough witty banter to sink a ship. NOTE: This is a sexy historical romance. Recommended for 18+ due to adult content.
Promise Me Heaven
Connie Brockway - 1994
Lacking the skills to seduce the rich lord, Cat seeks out a legendary rake to school her in the art of desire. But when she finally tracks down Thomas Montrose—now retired—she dismisses him as “over the hill.”Once a rake of mythic notoriety, Thomas is happy to forget his dissolute past and tend his country estate, until, that is, his peace is disrupted by a charming and infuriatingly dismissive miss. While he may no longer seduce women, he has certainly not forgotten how to make them surrender to his charms…and he’s only too happy to prove Cat wrong. So the master seducer promises to teach her his scandalous secretsBut Thomas never dreams his beautiful student could send him to the edge of temptation…or that witnessing her dazzle every lord who crosses her path would make him insanely jealous. Now he must act quickly—and overcome the secrets of his past—before he loses forever the woman to whom he’s already lost his heart.
A Proper Scandal
Esther Hatch - 2019
And though taken in as an orphaned child by the vicar and his wife, her unsurpassed beauty makes it impossible for her to remain in the vicar’s household—with two daughters of their own about to enter Society, the vicar and his wife see Grace as nothing but competition. Thankfully, Grace’s estranged Aunt Bell has agreed to take her in to her home in London. But Grace soon learns her situation has just gotten much worse.It takes only a moment’s acquaintance for Grace to ascertain that her aunt has married a detestable rake. And Aunt Bell, recognizing the danger of having her lovely niece too near her husband, gives Grace an ultimatum: the young woman has two weeks to find a man to marry, after which she will be turned out. With no experience in the art of attracting a husband, Grace quickly realizes that a worthy suitor might not be so easy to ensnare.