. . and the enduring mystery of love.   Traveling to France on business, Alexandra Dawson has decided to seize the opportunity to explore a mysterious piece of her own heritage—a half-burnt picture of a woman who looks eerily like her, taken more than a hundred years ago in a local castle. In the charming rural village of Chandeniers, she discovers something else too—the gruff, ruggedly good-looking heir of the crumbled chateau.   Eric Lagnel is completely uninterested in Alex’s queries, until he realizes that she may have stumbled on a way to save the building. Their unlikely partnership is a surprise. But as Alex slowly unravels the secrets of her great-great-grandmother’s photograph—and the true history of the chateau—she begins to understand that no one is ever prepared for the ways love can heal old wounds and open the hardest hearts.

    She's a bossy, fiery red-head. Her handsome brother wants to join the army and fight against Napoleon. But he's all she has and she wants him to become a diplomat instead. She gets a job with an aristocrat hoping he will provide the contacts. Needless to say, it doesn't work out exactly as any of them expects.

    Her picture-perfect relationship, the venture capital she needs to launch her fledgling company…gone. All she has now is the vacation she planned to take with her ex-fiancé—and there’s no way she’s letting that go. The last thing she expects (or wants) to find in Euphoria is love. But the sexy, confident man she meets there has her wondering if a rebound is precisely what she needs. Hawke Sterling doesn’t do romance. He’s far too jaded for that. Fairy tale, happily ever after endings just aren’t for people like him. But there’s something about Quinn that has him questioning everything. She’s smart, charming, and entirely too gorgeous for his peace of mind. Too bad the only thing he has to offer her is heartbreak. When it turns out that Hawke holds the key to Quinn’s professional success (or ultimate failure), he’ll have to decide if the cost of being with her is more than he’s willing to pay—and Quinn will need to decide if taking a second chance at love is worth the risk…___________________Read 9 holiday full-length stories from 9 of your favorite authors in this fantastic holiday collection. Each book is a standalone and sold separately by each individual author.Follow their amazing characters as they find their true love under the Mistletoe. Some tales are steamy hot, others naughty sweet, but oh…they are all soooo good!Each book is a standalone and FEATURES THE FOLLOWING AUTHORS:

    After ten years apart, two lovers are reunited only to find their long-awaited wedding threatened by the forces of magic and trickery.Susan Wiggs's : THE CHANGELINGA heartbroken man finds himself escorted by an enigmatic beauty through a world that time has forgotten. Together, they embark on a search for a past where low and tragedy go hand in hand, and magic can turn long-ago endings into new beginnings.Barbara Samuel: EARTHLY MAGICA wandering bard who has only the passion and made of his music to win the love of a beautiful woman promised to an immortal prince.Morgan Llywelyn's: TO RECAPTURE THE LIGHTA spellbinding tale of star-crossed love between an immortal beauty and an ancient enemy. But is their passion strong enough to withstand the forces destined to destroy all that they cherish? Reprint. PW.

    Unfortunately, Lady Gwendolyn, a rich Saxon widow, is none of those things.And Viking warrior Wulf Geirsson wants her desperately! One glimpse of the brazen beauty scrambling over the castle ramparts, and he knows he has to have her. Especially when she takes a tumble and lands at his feet.But Wulf quickly finds that taking Gwendolyn and keeping her are two different things. And once she decides to engage in a seductive assault of her own, he's the one captivated...

    The Brontë siblings have always been close. After all, nothing can unite four siblings quite like life in an isolated parsonage on the moors. Their vivid imaginations lend them escape from their strict, spartan upbringing, actually transporting them into their created worlds: the glittering Verdopolis and the romantic and melancholy Gondal. But at what price? As Branwell begins to slip into madness and the sisters feel their real lives slipping away, they must weigh the cost of their powerful imaginations, even as their characters—the brooding Rogue and dashing Duke of Zamorna—refuse to let them go.

    

    But she joined the WAAFs instead, together with a very mixed company of girls - all of whom had joined for very mixed reasons.

    So when he hears of her tales of bravery, he's just a little surprised. But his main concern is whether she is still alive or has been captured. Upon discovering her intention to run to her father's and to leave their affectionless marriage for good, Rory realises just how much sweet Isla means to him. Can the warrior get past his fears of being too rough for her? Though fear of capture drove Isla out, it's the fear of returning to her marriage that keeps her travelling across the unforgiving Highlands. Not that she doesn't care for her husband, but she can no longer bear desiring a man who clearly doesn't want her. Believing that he must be sharing his bed with another lass, Isla plans to beg her father for refuge from the English...and her husband. But the journey is dangerous and Rory is a determined man. Will he even let her go?

    Fine story-telling." —Chicago TribunePequot Landing, Connecticut, is not the place—nor is this the time—for love. Yet Aurora Talcott and Sinjin Grimes are struck with it as if by a thunderbolt—only to be violently separated by their feuding elders and catapulted to opposite ends of the earth: she to aristocratic England, and he to the trading hongs of Macao and the pirate seas of China. And left behind at home, growing stronger from her own desperate struggle, is Georgiana, the hired girl whose secret story entwines the fates of them all....Selected by the Book-of-the-Month Club.

    Now her six-year-old niece, Summer, is having the same dream, and Jude is frightened for her.A successful auctioneer, Jude is struggling to come to terms with the death of her husband. When she's asked to value a collection of scientific instruments and manuscripts belonging to Anthony Wickham, a lonely 18th-century astronomer, she leaps at the chance to escape London for the untamed beauty of Norfolk, where she grew up.As Jude untangles Wickham's tragic story, she discovers threatening links to the present. What have Summer's nightmares to do with Starbrough folly, the eerie crumbling tower in the woods from which Wickham and his adopted daughter Esther once viewed the night sky? With the help of Euan, a local naturalist, Jude searches for answers in the wild, haunting splendour of the Norfolk forests. Dare she leave behind the sadness in her own life and learn to love again?

    An abandoned orphanage. A strange collection of very curious photographs. It all waits to be discovered in Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children, an unforgettable novel that mixes fiction and photography in a thrilling reading experience. As our story opens, a horrific family tragedy sets sixteen-year-old Jacob journeying to a remote island off the coast of Wales, where he discovers the crumbling ruins of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children. As Jacob explores its abandoned bedrooms and hallways, it becomes clear that the children were more than just peculiar. They may have been dangerous. They may have been quarantined on a deserted island for good reason. And somehow-impossible though it seems-they may still be alive. A spine-tingling fantasy illustrated with haunting vintage photography, Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children will delight adults, teens, and anyone who relishes an adventure in the shadows.

    These crumbling castles all share a common appearance and history. They inspire curiosity, fear, and even a few urban legends.Chloe Adams came to Birch Harbor, a small college town in the U.P., to escape the stigma of mental illness. Her new roommate Sam Klingeman, came to drink her weight in vodka and find a hot guy with a trust fund. Between Chloe's developing relationship with campus hockey hero and floor RA, Seth Maird, trying to be the voice of moderation for Sam, and her new position as teacher's assistant for the eccentric Dr. Willard, she's stayed busy enough to keep the past firmly behind her.But the voices return...and this time, she's not the only one that can hear them.The beautiful old dormitory she lives in is hiding a secret. A secret that will uncover a dark plot 200 years in the making. Will Chloe be able to hold onto the new life she's worked so hard to build, will she relapse into a world of her own making, or will she, perhaps, fulfill the legacy she was born into?

    But he is not a man who runs from danger, and when he chances upon an enchanting gypsy maiden in the woods hounded by bandits, he leaps to her defense. Now, surely, there is but one place for the injured and unconscious lovely to properly recuperate: in his bed. Sabrina is shocked when she awakens in an opulent bedchamber, nursed in every way by a dashing gentleman. She knows she must leave the haven of Anthony's home at once, even though her life is still in grave danger—though a different kind of peril awaits her in the viscount's arms. If Sabrina surrenders to this handsome rogue, she will be an outcast. Yet does she dare ignore the future that's written on his palm—the promise of a shared lifetime of love and ecstasy?

    However, when he weds Lady Margaret Beauchamp, it appears that she has other ideas about who should be in charge. Thomas finds that his patience as a gentleman is sorely tried and tested. Lady Margaret is of a peevish and sour disposition, and she has as low an opinion of her new husband as she has a high opinion of herself! In fact, she is downright furious to find herself married to a mere 'Sir', no matter how well- connected Thomas might be. Margaret dislikes almost everyone and almost everyone, it seems, dislikes her. Sparks fly from the very beginning of their marriage. Margaret quickly discovers that she has misjudged her new husband – he is not the easygoing milksop she first took him to be. When she defies him the moment he carries her across the threshold, she is stunned by his swift reaction in tossing her over his knee. Being soundly spanked was not quite the response she was expecting from the polite man who had courted her so shyly before their nuptials. Despite her hateful behavior, Thomas deeply loves his new bride. He has absolutely no doubt that he'll be able to uncover the loving woman he knows lies deep inside the shell that Margaret presents to the world. Under his strict discipline and passionate lovemaking, he hopes to remove the stinger from the wasp that is his bride and find his sweet honey bee. In this sexy Georgian romp, we meet familiar characters from the prequel story 'His Colonial Rose' co-authored by Vanessa Brooks and Beth Bennett. This is a standalone tale and you do not have to have read 'His Colonial Rose' to enjoy this book. Disclaimer: Sir Thomas's Bride is a book of deep passion with elements of harsh discipline and explicit sexual scenes, including figging. If any of these offend you, please do not purchase this book.