Book picks similar to
To Love and to Honour by Emilie Loring
romance
fiction
emilie-loring
vintage
Steel
Carrie Vaughn - 2011
A thousand people would step over it and think it trash, but not her.This was the tip of a rapier.Sixteen-year-old Jill has fought in dozens of fencing tournaments, but she has never held a sharpened blade. When she finds a corroded sword piece on a Caribbean beach, she is instantly intrigued and pockets it as her own personal treasure.The broken tip holds secrets, though, and it transports Jill through time to the deck of a pirate ship. Stranded in the past and surrounded by strangers, she is forced to sign on as crew. But a pirate's life is bloody and brief, and as Jill learns about the dark magic that brought her there, she forms a desperate scheme to get home—one that risks everything in a duel to the death with a villainous pirate captain.Time travel, swordplay, and romance combine in an original high-seas adventure from New York Times bestseller Carrie Vaughn.
The Wedding Dress
Danielle Steel - 2020
From the glamorous San Francisco social scene of the 1920s, through war and the social changes of the ’60s, to the rise of Silicon Valley today, this extraordinary novel takes us on a family odyssey that is both heartbreaking and inspiring, as each generation faces the challenges of their day. The Parisian design houses in 1928, the crash of 1929, the losses of war, the drug culture of the 1960s—history holds many surprises, and lives are changed forever. For richer or for poorer, in cramped apartments and grand mansions, the treasured wedding dress made in Paris in 1928 follows each generation into their new lives, and represents different hopes for each of them, as they marry very different men. From inherited fortunes at the outset to self-made men and women, the wedding dress remains a cherished constant for the women who wear it in each generation and forge a destiny of their own. It is a symbol of their remaining traditions and the bond of family they share in an ever-changing world.
The Seven Sisters
Lucinda Riley - 2014
Each of them is handed a tantalizing clue to her true heritage—a clue which takes Maia across the world to a crumbling mansion in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil. Once there, she begins to put together the pieces of her story and its beginnings.Eighty years earlier in Rio’s Belle Epoque of the 1920s, Izabela Bonifacio’s father has aspirations for his daughter to marry into the aristocracy. Meanwhile, architect Heitor da Silva Costa is devising plans for an enormous statue, to be called Christ the Redeemer, and will soon travel to Paris to find the right sculptor to complete his vision. Izabela—passionate and longing to see the world—convinces her father to allow her to accompany him and his family to Europe before she is married. There, at Paul Landowski’s studio and in the heady, vibrant cafes of Montparnasse, she meets ambitious young sculptor Laurent Brouilly, and knows at once that her life will never be the same again.In this sweeping, epic tale of love and loss—the first in a unique, spellbinding series of seven novels—Lucinda Riley showcases her storytelling talent like never before.
Absent in the Spring
Mary Westmacott - 1944
This sudden solitude compels Joan to assess her life for the first time ever and face up to many of the truths about herself. Looking back over the years, Joan painfully re-examines her attitudes, relationships and actions and becomes increasingly uneasy about the person who is revealed to her.
On the Night of the Seventh Moon
Victoria Holt - 1972
It is a night for festivity and joyful celebration. It is a night for singing and dancing. And it is a night for love.Helena Trant was enchanted by everything she found in the Black Forest -- especially its legends. But then, on the Night of the Seventh Moon, she started to live one of them, and the enchantment turned suddenly into a terrifying nightmare . . .
Marriage Unarranged
Ritu Bhathal - 2020
‘Chick Pea Curry’ Lit, Chick Lit with an Indian twist
It all started ended with that box…
Aashi’s life was all set.Or so she thought.Like in the Bollywood films, Ravi would woo her, charm her family and they’d get married and live happily ever after.
But then Aashi found the empty condom box...
Putting her ex-fiancé and her innocence behind her, Aashi embarks upon an enlightening journey, to another country, where vibrant memories are created, and unforgettable friendships forged.Old images erased, new beginnings to explore.
And how can she forget the handsome stranger she meets? A stranger who’s hiding something…
The Pastor's Replacement Bride
George H. McVey Sr. - 2016
He slips his own letter into the packet before it is mailed out to the churches in Richmond, Philadelphia and Chicago seeking his own bride. When the stage arrives with the brides Joshua finds his didn’t make the trip. However, his heart has chosen another, his intended’s best friend. Can he help her overcome her guilt at stealing her friend's beau, or are they destined for heartache? Can he truly prove he loves her and make her The Pastor’s Replacement Bride? In Chicago, Hattie Long is about to end her indentured service as a cook's helper in one of the upscale brothels in Chi town. The gangster who owns the brothel informs her that when her service is up he will take her under his wing and show her how to please his customers and make her his star attraction. At the advice of her pastor's daughter with the same name as her tells her about a group of women going west to become mail order brides including herself. They arrange for her to join them. But on the day of departure Hattie’s friend is struck down with scarlet fever. When the brides arrive in Sanctuary her friend’s beau, Pastor Joshua Bryce, decides to court her to escape a forced marriage by the deacons. Soon trouble follows and Hattie has to escape her past. Can she finally find her happily ever after as the Pastor’s Replacement Bride?
Heart of Mercy
Sharlene MacLaren - 2013
She lost hermother at a young age and was only sixteen when herfather was killed in 1880, in a brawl sparked by a familyfeud spanning several generations. Yet Mercy neverdoubts the presence and provision of her heavenly Father.When a house fire claims the lives of her two best friends,leaving their two young sons as orphans, Mercy offers tobe their guardian. It seems simple enough, until the judgemandates that the boys be placed with a married couple.Samuel Connors is a man adrift. Despite the success ofthe blacksmith business he inherited from his father, hesenses a void unaffected by material rewards. His motherkeeps nagging him to find a wife, but the only womanwho comes to mind is Mercy Evans. What would shewant to do with the man whose father is now serving alife sentence for the murder of hers?Mercy is determined to do whatever it takes to wincustody of the Watson boys. But marry a mortal enemyof the Evans family? God alone can give her the heart togo through with it.
The Secret Wife
Gill Paul - 2016
Linked by one of the world’s greatest mysteries...Love. Guilt. Heartbreak.1914: Russia is on the brink of collapse, and the Romanov family faces a terrifyingly uncertain future. Grand Duchess Tatiana has fallen in love with cavalry officer Dmitri, but events take a catastrophic turn, placing their romance—and their lives—in danger...2016: Kitty Fisher escapes to her great-grandfather’s remote cabin in America, after a devastating revelation makes her flee London. There, on the shores of Lake Akanabee, she discovers the spectacular jewelled pendant that will lead her to a long-buried family secret...Haunting, moving and beautifully written, The Secret Wife effortlessly crosses centuries, as past merges with present in an unforgettable story of love, loss and resilience.Perfect for fans of Kate Morton and Dinah Jefferies.
The Tuscan Child
Rhys Bowen - 2018
Badly wounded, he found refuge in a ruined monastery and in the arms of Sofia Bartoli. But the love that kindled between them was shaken by an irreversible betrayal.Nearly thirty years later, Hugo’s estranged daughter, Joanna, has returned home to the English countryside to arrange her father’s funeral. Among his personal effects is an unopened letter addressed to Sofia. In it is a startling revelation.Still dealing with the emotional wounds of her own personal trauma, Joanna embarks on a healing journey to Tuscany to understand her father’s history—and maybe come to understand herself as well. Joanna soon discovers that some would prefer the past be left undisturbed, but she has come too far to let go of her father’s secrets now…
The Secret Life of Violet Grant
Beatriz Williams - 2014
Vivian Schuyler, newly graduated from Bryn Mawr College, has recently defied the privilege of her storied old Fifth Avenue family to do the unthinkable for a budding Kennedy-era socialite: break into the Mad Men world of razor-stylish Metropolitan magazine. But when she receives a bulky overseas parcel in the mail, the unexpected contents draw her inexorably back into her family’s past, and the hushed-over crime passionnel of an aunt she never knew, whose existence has been wiped from the record of history.Berlin, 1914. Violet Schuyler Grant endures her marriage to the philandering and decades-older scientist Dr. Walter Grant for one reason: for all his faults, he provides the necessary support to her liminal position as a young American female physicist in prewar Germany. The arrival of Dr. Grant’s magnetic former student at the beginning of Europe’s fateful summer interrupts this delicate détente. Lionel Richardson, a captain in the British Army, challenges Violet to escape her husband’s perverse hold, and as the world edges into war and Lionel’s shocking true motives become evident, Violet is tempted to take the ultimate step to set herself free and seek a life of her own conviction with a man whose cause is as audacious as her own.As the iridescent and fractured Vivian digs deeper into her aunt’s past and the mystery of her ultimate fate, Violet’s story of determination and desire unfolds, shedding light on the darkness of her years abroad . . . and teaching Vivian to reach forward with grace for the ambitious future––and the love––she wants most.
The Girl You Left Behind
Jojo Moyes - 2012
Sophie Lefèvre must keep her family safe while her adored husband, Édouard, fights at the front. When their town falls to the Germans, Sophie is forced to serve them every evening at her hotel. From the moment the new Kommandant sets eyes on Sophie’s portrait—painted by her artist husband—a dangerous obsession is born. Almost a century later in London, Sophie’s portrait hangs in the home of Liv Halston, a wedding gift from her young husband before his sudden death. After a chance encounter reveals the portrait’s true worth, a battle begins over its troubled history and Liv’s world is turned upside all over again.
The Lost Madonna
Kelly Jones - 2007
Thirty years after leaving Florence with a broken heart, Suzanne Cunningham is back, determined to solve the mystery of what happened to a priceless painting from her past-and to the man who forever changed the course of her life.
A Matter of Magic
Patricia C. Wrede - 1998
Having grown up a waif in the dirty streets of London, Kim isn’t above a bit of breaking-and-entering. A hard life and lean times have schooled her in one lesson: steal from them before they steal from you. But when the magician catches her in the act, Kim thinks she’s done for. Until he suggests she become his apprentice; then the real trouble begins.Kim soon finds herself entangled with murderers, thieves, and cloak-and-dagger politics, all while trying to learn how to become both a proper lady and a magician in her own right. Magic and intrigue go hand in hand in Mairelon the Magician and The Magician’s Ward, two fast-paced novels filled with mystery and romance, set against the intricate backdrop of Regency England.