Book picks similar to
The Moon in the Water by Pamela Belle
historical-fiction
historical
romance
fiction
The Queen's Bastard
Robin Maxwell - 1999
In this exquisite sequel to The Secret Diary of Anne Boleyn, Robin Maxwell fashions a stunning fictional account of the child switched at birth by a lady-in-waiting who foresaw the deleterious political consequences of a royal bastard. Set against the sweeping, meticulously rendered backdrop of court intrigues, international scandals, and England's battle against the Spanish Armada, The Queen's Bastard deftly juxtaposes Elizabeth and Leicester's tumultuous relationship with the memoirs of the adventurous son lost to them -- yet ultimately discovered.
Our Lizzie
Anna Jacobs - 1999
She makes an ill-advised marriage in order to escape her harsh home life. However, she quickly discovers that she has married a selfish and violent man. His beatings are ceaseless and she finds herself compelled to run away. With the help of some suffragettes, she escapes to Manchester, where she finds work in a munitions factory for a while. Sam manages to find her and drags her home. It is only when his violence causes her to lose their unborn baby that Lizzie really finds the strength to make things change, and to find happiness with a man who loves her.
The Chieftain's Choice
Elaine Manders - 2019
She is the daughter of a notorious traitor who decimated the clan during a post-Jacobite uprising. Having grown up lonely and unloved, she’s astonished when the dying and much revered chieftain of Clan Carmichael chooses her to wed his younger son. She’s perplexed when the older son and heir, Gavin Carmichael, arrives to claim her as his bride. Hasn’t her beautiful cousin, Vanora, the heiress of Gilmour Hall, boasted since girlhood she will marry Gavin to enjoin their bordering lands? Gavin expects nothing more from his arranged marriage to Alana than a compliant wife who will produce the future heir and an escape from her malicious, deceitful cousin. He underestimates Vanora’s schemes, however. Trouble erupts between the Carmichael and Gilmour clans. With rumors swirling of tainted blood and witchcraft, Alana becomes a prisoner in her own home. Attacks on his wife stir Gavin’s protective nature, and his feelings quickly turn to love. But it will take a higher power to save Alana from the evil hidden behind the walls of Gilmour Hall.
Her Rebel Heart
Alison Stuart - 2014
She can shoot and wield a sword as well as any man and anything she needs to know about siege warfare she has learned from a book...but no book can prepare her for what is to come.Everything Captain Luke Collyer knows about siege warfare - and women - he has learned from experience. When he is sent by Sir John Felton to defend Kinton Lacy Castle against the Royalists, he will be up against a formidable force.He had not reckoned on that force being Sir John’s daughter, Deliverance.Deliverance will not give up her command lightly and Luke will have to face a challenge to his authority as fierce as the cavalier foe outside the walls.As betrayal surfaces, they must learn to trust each other and uncover the traitor within the castle walls before it is too late for the castle... or their hearts.
Nine Coaches Waiting
Mary Stewart - 1958
When lovely Linda Martin first arrives at Château Valmy as an English governess to the nine-year-old Count Philippe de Valmy, the opulence and history surrounding her seems like a wondrous, ecstatic dream. But a palpable terror is crouching in the shadows. Philippe's uncle, Léon de Valmy, is the epitome of charm, yet dynamic and arrogant, his paralysis little hindrance as he moves noiselessly in his wheelchair from room to room. Only his son Raoul, a handsome, sardonic man who drives himself and his car with equally reckless abandon, seems able to stand up to him. To Linda, Raoul is an enigma, though irresistibly attracted to him, she senses some dark twist in his nature. When an accident deep in the woods nearly kills Linda's innocent charge, she begins to wonder if someone has deadly plans for the young count.
The Promise Keeper
Lisa Norato - 2014
Rumors circulate he was once a pirate and had been imprisoned. Lured by the secrecy, Iris rows out to the light to meet the solitary keeper. He's a curmudgeon who remains as mysterious as ever, until confusing dreams haunt her, causing Iris to suspect they share a past connection. Jonathan Mayne sailed with Captain Moon's family as a young cabin boy during the earliest years of Iris's life. A grown woman, Iris holds no memory for her childhood friend, who now guards the bay from a lonely lighthouse tower. When a shipwreck survivor bent on revenge washes up on the shores of the Moon family mansion, will Johnny be able to protect Iris from her dead mother's secret while keeping a promise to her father never to expose it?
Fatal Majesty: A Novel of Mary, Queen of Scots
Reay Tannahill - 1998
Mingling a poet's passion with an historian's insight, Tannahill chronicles an era of easy violence, desperate actions, and the grand, often terrifying, designs of those who would dominate it.
Goddess
Kelly Gardiner - 2014
Tempestuous, swashbuckling and volatile, within two years she has run away with her fencing master, fallen in love with a nun and is hiding from the authorities, sentenced to be burnt at the stake. Within another year, she has become Mademoiselle de Maupin, a beloved star at the famed Paris Opéra. Her lovers include some of Europe's most powerful men and France's most beautiful women. Yet Julie is destined to die alone in a convent at the age of 33. Based on an extraordinary true story, this is an original, dazzling and witty novel - a compelling portrait of an unforgettable woman. For all those readers who love Sarah Dunant, Sarah Waters and Hilary Mantel.
Lady of the Butterflies
Fiona Mountain - 2009
Her father, a stern but loving Puritan, once a distinguished soldier in Cromwell's army, fears for his daughter in the poisonous aftermath of the war, and for her vulnerability as an heiress. But above all he fears and misunderstands her scientific passion for butterflies. The girl is Eleanor Glanville, destined to become one of the most famous entomologists in history, bequeathing her name to the rare butterfly which she discovered, the Glanville Fritillary. But not before she had endured a life of quite extraordinary vicissitude. Two marriages and an all-consuming love, which proved her undoing, a deep friendship with one of the great scientists of the day and finally, a trial for lunacy (on the grounds that no sane person would pursue butterflies). The dramatic events of her life are played out against the violent events of the Monmouth Rebellion and the vicious controversy over whether or not to drain the Somerset marshes (what is now the M5 motorway runs across Kings Sedgemoor Drain - one of the first great ditches which reclaimed the land for farming and destroyed this precious natural habitat).
Stone Devil Duke
K.J. Jackson - 2014
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.
Bargaining With a Rake
Julie Johnstone - 2012
Now, faced with an unwelcome marriage that will chain her to London and the secret slowly killing her, she’s desperate to save herself and the sister she adores. Salvation comes in the form of an American shipping tycoon, and all she must do is seduce him into marrying her. But Gillian’s scheme hits a snag when she makes a bargain with a notorious rake, Alexander Trevelle, Lord Lionhurst. He agrees to help her win the hand of his American friend, if she’ll assist him with exacting revenge against her unwanted fiancé. But the price of the pact may just be their hearts.
The Wardrobe Mistress
Natalie Meg Evans - 2017
Perfect for fans of Gill Paul and Lucinda Riley.
London 1945. A young war widow steps aboard a train in search of a new life. Clutching the key to a mysterious inheritance, Vanessa Kingcourt can no longer resist the pull of the old Farren Theatre - an enchanted place seeped in memories of her actor father. Now owned by troubled former captain Alistair Redenhall, The Farren is in need of a Wardrobe Mistress and a new lease of life. With no experience and no budget for supplies, Vanessa must use her intuition to create beautiful costumes from whatever scraps of silk and thread survived the blitz. It's a seemingly impossible task, but a welcome distraction as she struggles to resist her blossoming feelings for Alistair. What Vanessa discovers could unravel family secrets sewn deep into the very fabric of the London theatre scene . . . but will she repeat the same terrible mistakes her father made? And can she dare to love a man who will never be hers?
Once a Mistress
Rebecca Hagan Lee - 2001
Determined to honor the outrageous request, Drew returns home to bury his father and is stunned to find living on the grounds of Swanslea Park the one woman whose charms he could never resist. Kathryn Stafford abandoned Drew at the altar six years before and vanished in a cloud of mystery. She had hoped her feelings for him would fade, but when she comes face-to-face with the gorgeous new marquess, she discovers they have only deepened. Drew is determined to keep his distance from the woman he believes to have been one of his father’s mistress. But every yearning glance and sizzling touch draws him closer to Kathryn…and to the scandalous secret that drove them apart. Book 1 of the “Mistresses of the Marquess” Series, which includes ONCE A MISTRESS, ALWAYS A LADY and EVER A PRINCESS. “An emotional, sensual tale!”—Romance Reviews Today “Once a Mistress is filled with passion and tenderness. Will bring a smile and a few tears to its readers.”—Romantic Times “Tender, enthralling romance straight from the heart!”—Eloisa James, New York Times bestselling author “Rebecca Hagan Lee warms my heart and touches my soul. She’s a star in the making!”—Sabrina Jeffries, New York Times bestselling author “Rebecca Hagan Lee taps into every woman’s fantasy!”—Christina Dodd, New York Times bestseller “Rebecca Hagan Lee is a writer on the rise!”—Romantic Times
The Duchess
Danielle Steel - 2017
Fast delivery through DHL/FedEx express.
Lord of the Far Island
Victoria Holt - 1975
However, when the son of a powerful London family asks for her hand in marriage, her world is opened up to untold wealth and social position. She never imagined that such an unlikely dream would come true. Despite these wonderful new developments in her life, Ellen continues to be wracked b the bad dreams that have haunted her since childhood. What is the meaning of the lifelong nightmare—the image of an unfamiliar room, a door opening and behind it a dreadful presence? Perhaps it is a message urging her to uncover the secrets of her long-lost family—the secrets of the ancient home of the Kellaways on the Far Island, off the wild coast of Cornwall.