Book picks similar to
Escapade by Joan Smith


regency
romance
regency-romance
historical

A Poor Relation


Carola Dunn - 1990
    One day, Rowena Caxton was the proud owner and mistress of a large estate. The next, she had lost everything and was forced to take up residence with her only remaining family. Her days became an endless round of fetch and carry, though she would not complain. She was relieved, however, when the arrival of the new Earl of Farleigh interrupted the routine and caused a flurry of excitement in the neighbourhood. She could well understand the excitement generated by the handsome and erudite earl. But she constantly cautioned herself against her runaway heart. After all, what interest could such a man have in a poor relation?

Lord Sidley's Last Season


Sherry Lynn Ferguson - 2009
    For two years she's been engaged to a naval lieutenant, now due home within weeks. But before she weds, Marian accepts her cousins' invitation to join them in town for the social season. Lady Formsby has generously arranged for Marian to study with the masters at the Royal Academy. As a dedicated painter, Marian can be relied upon to provide steady, sensible company to her impulsive younger cousin Katie, who has been relishing her debut. All of London is thrilled with Napoleon's abdication and the celebratory visits of foreign princes. Yet Lord Sidley's return from the war has created an equal sensation. The earl's looks, charm, and dashing reputation intrigue both cousins. Katie vows to marry Sidley, and indeed, as the last of his family, he must choose a bride. But there is another reason for the widespread fascination with Lord Sidley's Season. And Marian soon discovers how easily plans, and hearts, can be overturned.

A Lady's Point of View


Jacqueline Diamond - 1989
    When she accidentally cuts the prince’s friend Beau Brummell at a ball, the scandal sends her packing to the countryside. Her faulty eyesight causes her to enter the wrong coach, which delivers her to the estate of handsome Lord Bryn. He mistakes her for the governess who was due to arrive from London.Preferring work over a life of isolation, she goes along with the erroneous impression, and can’t help adoring his mischievous orphaned niece and nephew. When Meg begins falling in love with the handsome lord just as he’s about to become engaged to another woman, however, she can’t see a way out of her dilemma.This is a lighthearted tale in the traditional Regency style—no sex, but plenty of romantic complications and a happy ending. It has been lightly revised since its original print publication.

Sylvester


Georgette Heyer - 1957
    And of course she must be able to present herself well in high society. But when he is encouraged to consider Phoebe Marlow as a bride, Sylvester is taken aback by the coltish woman who seems to resent him...The first time Sylvester met Phoebe, he found her dull and insipid. Phoebe, was a hoydenish country miss with literary aspirations. And when she was snubbed by the Duke, and she thought he was insufferably arrogant. In fact, she deemed him the most arrogant rake she'd ever met. In secret, she'd fashioned the villain and a knave in her romance novel unmistakably after Sylvester!Phoebe meets none of Duke's criteria for a fiancee. But when Phoebe ran away, she got his attention and fancy. Intrigued Sylvester decides that if Petruchio could tame Katherine, he had no doubt he could tame Phoebe. And when a series of unforeseen events leads them to be stranded together in a lonely country inn, they are both forced to reassess their hastily formed opinions, and they begin to discover a new-found liking and respect for each other, and they find striking up an unusual friendship.Phoebe discovers that the duke isn't the villian she first thought. And Sylvester stumbles upon something he never dared hope for... But what Sylvester doesn't know is that Phoebe has just published a novel - a novel in which all London will recognize him. But how could she guess her book would be a scandalous success? Or that the man she had cast as a villain would become the heartbreaking hero of her dreams?

Miss Lockharte's Letters


Barbara Metzger - 1998
    Soon all who set her willy-nilly on this path to perdition as a penmanship teacher will learn that in her final hour she forgave them. All except him. But why wait for Judgment Day to tell Viscount Stanford she thinks he is the most heinous of humans? Let her death be a burden to him forever. But the burden, it appears, is on her. For not only has she cheated death, but now the very same man who ruined her life has—albeit, reluctantly—come to her rescue. Certainly, not even the angels above could have predicted the chaos that will ensue—nor the magic of unexpected love...

A Proper Companion


Candice Hern - 1995
    Why, just about anyone would make a more suitable match...even her own paid companion, Emily Townsend! But if her dear, practical-minded Robert were to back out of the betrothal, the tongues of the ton would never stop wagging...At the very least, the dowager decides, she will extract a promise from her grandson to find Emily a husband. But when the handsome, rakish earl comes to know the charms of Emily Townsend, he suddenly regrets his hasty engagement-and is sorely tempted to win her hand for himself.

Summer Campaign


Carla Kelly - 1989
    Surely her husband-to-be, the right Reverend Andrew Littletree, would not condone her leaving the safety of home for the perils that this place posed for so lovely and desirable a young lady. Surely tongues would wag about what she was doing with so eminently attractive and intriguingly unattached a gentleman as the major. But Onyx's worry was not what her fiancé would think or what the world would say. Rather it was what she would do if Jack Beresford took her in his arms…

A Duke in Shining Armor


Loretta Chase - 2017
    Most are upstanding members of Society. And then there’s the trio known as Their Dis-Graces.Hugh Philemon Ancaster, seventh Duke of Ripley, will never win prizes for virtue. But even he draws the line at running off with his best friend’s bride. All he’s trying to do is recapture the slightly inebriated Lady Olympia Hightower and return her to her intended bridegroom.For reasons that elude her, bookish, bespectacled Olympia is supposed to marry a gorgeous rake of a duke. The ton is flabbergasted. Her family’s ecstatic. And Olympia? She’s climbing out of a window, bent on a getaway. But tall, dark, and exasperating Ripley is hot on her trail, determined to bring her back to his friend. For once, the world-famous hellion is trying to do the honorable thing.So why does Olympia have to make it so deliciously difficult for him . . . ?

The Wooing of Miss Masters


Susan Carroll - 1991
    His insolence was infuriating. How dare he deem her a Long Meg with unremarkable eyes! She wouldn't go to his ball if he got on his knees and begged.But the duke was not to be bested by this brazen hoyden. No, he had a few ideas of his own....

My Fair Princess


Vanessa Kelly - 2016
    Now, in a delightfully witty new series, she introduces The Improper Princesses—three young women descended from royalty, each bound for her own thrilling adventure . . .Despite being the illegitimate daughter of a prince, Gillian Dryden is happily ignorant of all social graces. After growing up wild in Italy, Gillian has been ordered home to England to find a suitable husband. And Charles Valentine Penley, the excessively proper, distractingly handsome Duke of Leverton, has agreed to help transform her from a willful tomboy to a blushing debutante.Powerful and sophisticated, Charles can make or break reputations with a well-placed word. But his new protégée, with her habit of hunting bandits and punching earls, is a walking scandal. The ton is aghast . . . but Charles is thoroughly intrigued. Tasked with taking the hoyden in hand, he longs to take her in his arms instead. Can such an outrageous attraction possibly lead to a fairytale ending?

A Beginner's Guide to Rakes


Suzanne Enoch - 2011
    Will she remarry? What will she do with her late husband’s fortune? Society is shocked by her announcement—at the Grand Ball, of all places!—that she plans to open an exclusive gentleman’s gaming club in the family mansion. But no one is more stunned than the Marquis of Haybury, Oliver Warren.Years ago, Oliver and Diane shared a private indiscretion. Now Diane threatens to reveal Oliver’s most ungentlemanly secrets…unless he agrees to help her. A notorious gambler—and rake—Oliver is overqualified to educate Diane in the ways and means of running her establishment. But striking a deal with Diane might just be the biggest risk Oliver has ever taken. This time, the only thing he has to lose is his heart…

The Lady Most Likely...


Julia Quinn - 2010
    And then, because he refuses to tear himself away from the stables where he trains Arabian racehorses, she invites all those ladies to a house party, along with some other bachelors, of course. So who will Hugh choose? The Botticelli-esque, enchanting Gwendolyn? The outspoken, delightful Katherine? If he doesn't work fast, he'll lose those ladies to his closest friends, and then where will he look for a wife? Perhaps, just perhaps, toward a lady who's not on a market at all, and would require a great deal of persuading...

Noble Intentions


Katie MacAlister - 2002
    This time he intended to marry a quiet, biddable woman who would not draw attention to herself or cause scandal. Gillian Leigh's honest manner and spontaneous laughter attracted him immediately. It mattered little that she was accident-prone; he could provide the structure necessary to guide her.But unconventional to the tips of her half-American toes―toes that one of them was constantly tripping over―his new bride turned the tables on him, wreaking havoc on his orderly life. And worse, demanding he surrender his heart. Perpetually one step behind his beguiling spouse, Noble suffered a banged-up head, a black eye, and a broken nose before he realized Gillian had healed his soul and proved that their union was no heedless tumble, but the swoon of true love.

The Jewelled Snuff Box


Alice Chetwynd Ley - 1959
    Their stage coach is unable to continue its journey through the storm and its passengers are forced to get out and walk to a nearby inn. Jane comes across a unconscious man, the victim of a beating, lying half dead in the snow. The events that follow will change Jane's life.What is the significance of the ornate jewelled snuff box?

The Truth About Lord Stoneville


Sabrina Jeffries - 2009
    Now each faces a daunting ultimatum: marry by year's end—or kiss their inheritance good-bye.In the two decades since a tragic "accident" took the lives of his parents, Oliver Sharpe, the Marquess of Stoneville, has survived the scandal surrounding that fateful night by living as an unrepentant rakehell. And with his grandmother vowing to disinherit him if he doesn't settle down and wed, he plans to fulfill the bargain in true Sharpe style—by bringing home a fake fiancée from a brothel! But his scheme is derailed when he rescues an American beauty in a dire predicament instead. Maria Butterfield came to London to track down her groom-to-be, who's gone missing, but her engagement won't stop Oliver from getting what he wants: her, in his bed. His rebellious masquerade may call his grandmother's bluff, but it's soon made all too real—by a love that tempts him to be a hellion no more.