For Tansy, however, the choice was never hers. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Tansy is caught in a sizzling kiss with Christophe Desmarais. The next night, Tansy’s mother introduces her to the life she has been raised for: as a beautiful quadroon in Old New Orleans, Tansy is meant to be a rich white man’s mistress. She is as she should be, biddable, loyal and submissive. But is this all there is? As Tansy matures, she wearies of telling herself that her narrow life is enough, yet she is terrified to leave behind security and plenty to become a self-reliant, independent woman.Christophe Desmarais was, like Tansy, born to a mixed-race mother and a rich white father, but as a shrewd card-player, a talented violinist, and a respected teacher, he creates his own life. The attraction between him and Tansy has never abated, only been pushed down and unacknowledged. When he sees Tansy discovering there is more to her than being pretty and pleasing, he allows himself to hope that she will become her own woman. Maybe then the two of them will have a chance at a life together.Multiple award-winning author Gretchen Craig returns with an unconventional novel about loyalty, independence, and love.

    Tracing the stories of two quite diffrent girls: Ellen Docherty, in Liverpool, bringing up her younger sister and brother single-handedly, and Maggie McVeigh, in the Dublin tenements, finding a better life working for the Nolan family, and falling in love with Liam, the eldest son, RAINBOW'S END follows two girls on their struggle for happiness. But the First World War changes everything -and unearths a long-buried link between the families.

    So when the childless Tysons, owners of Kendal's shoe factory, offer to adopt her son, Callum, and employ Kate as his nanny, she seizes the chance to ensure he has a better life.To be so close to her son, yet no longer be his mother, is bittersweet. But Kate is not prepared for the jealousy the new arrangement provokes in Eliot Tyson's brother, Charles, who sees Callum as a direct threat to his inheritance… The first heart-rending instalment of The Poor House Lane Sagas are perfect for fans of Rosie Goodwin and Dilly Court

    Even the selfless physician who saves him cannot soften the boy's hardened spirit. Angry with the world and desiring vengeance against those who caused his parents' suicides, Hachiro feels rejection almost everywhere and reacts in kind. This anger he forges into an amazing skill with a sword. He becomes the most famous swordsman in the city. Many deaths are due to Hachiro’s reputation, until he seeks solitude and redemption by leaving the capital.The love of women proves even less kind than the cut of a sword. His obsession with a forbidden passion forces Hachiro to join the war between two powerful clans where he finds another dangerous woman and treachery.When at last he returns home, he finds Kyoto in ruin and his beloved master dead. In the midst of the tragedy of this ravaged city, he discovers his redemption, something he had given up hoping for. But first he must face the danger of losing all when a secret enemy sets his trap.

    Perfect for fans of Dilly Court, Maggie Hope and Nadine Dorries. 1903. As Rob Berkeley comes home to Berry Edge, ten years after his brother's terrible death, he brings with him memories that Faith Norman, his dead brother's fiancée, would rather forget. Rob, driven by guilt, is determined to bring the family business, the foundering steelworks, back to full strength. But every time he sees Faith, he is remained of the part he played in her bereavement and the debt he owes her and Berry Edge. The secrets he hides from the community around him could threaten his very future, and jeopardise his growing feelings for Faith . . .

    Was she killed outright, or did she choose to leave?Determined to find out the truth, Jean embarks on a mission to discover what really happened to her mother, but she is not prepared for the web of family secrets and lies that her investigation uncovers. Will she find any answers? And will they be the ones she was hoping for? An enthralling saga of love and heartache in 1950s Liverpool, perfect for fans of Pam Howes and Kitty Neale.

    When he rebuffs her clumsy advances, Isabella leaves for London, determined to find the man of her dreams and soothe her bruised ego.Michael Linfield, Duke of Blackmore is a legendary, fearsome, war hero; famous for reducing debutantes and their mothers to floods of tears with just one glance. The brooding, giant of a man is hiding a secret however - a debilitating stammer that has haunted him since childhood. When the delightful Miss Peregrine proposes a marriage of convenience to him - with no benefits - Michael is so startled that his stammer reappears and all he can manage to reply is "N-n-no".When news of Isabella's success in London soon reaches his ears, Michael is determined to go to town and win her as his own, if only she'll give him a second chance at love.The Duke’s BrotherCan a Duke's bastard win the heart of a lady?Plucked as an orphan from the slums of St. Giles' by his half-brother the Duke of Blackmore, Sebastian Black soon rises to become one of the richest men in London, and a notorious rake to boot. His time at Eton has left him with a healthy disregard for the aristocracy - that is until he inadvertently becomes involved in the affairs of the prim, proper and snooty Aurelia St Claire.Aurelia's brother, Lord Theodore Epsom, was reported missing after Waterloo, but she is convinced that she has sighted him alive and well in London. The pair join forces to try to discover exactly what happened to Theo and as their sleuthing takes them into London's murky back alleys, they discover that they aren’t so different after all.Can two people overcome their prejudices, their foibles - or even their very history - to find love?A Lady Like No Other“Would my lady care to dance?”“My lady would rather eat a live chicken.”Beautiful, titled, and wealthy to boot, Lady Lydia Beaufort was expected to have a spectacular London Season. There was just one problem; the eccentric daughter of the Earl of Galway had no intention of becoming the ton’s darling. Especially if it involved humouring the awful herds of fortune hunters and greedy second sons, intent on making her their bride.All Lydia wanted was to be left alone in peace, to read her beloved Lord Byron. That is until an incorrigible rogue of a Marquess burst into her life, and turned all her ideas about love upside down.Charming, congenial, and ever so handsome, Gabriel Livingstone, Marquess of Sutherland could have his pick of any of the season’s debutantes, but the only rose he longed to pluck, was the very thorny Lady Beaufort. Just when he thinks he might finally have won her heart, fate, in the form of an Italian Count, a mischievous Gypsy and a political assassination plot, gets in his way.Can this mismatched pair find their happily ever after?

    Seven years later, that promise is broken, and the Maasai must choose between war with a powerful enemy and a perilous trek to the land allocated them by the government. Ole Sadera has risen from village scapegoat to leadership of his people. Now, they look to him for answers, while he struggles with betrayal and rapid change - and his desire for another man's wife. British administrator George Coll arrives in East Africa to face impossible choices of his own. How can he do the job he has been given and stay silent? And how can he ask the woman he loves to share an uncertain future? The Maasai gather to make their historic decision...and an Empire holds its breath.

    Determined to protect her independence, she will do anything to avoid marriage to her insistent neighbor—and every other man for that matter. She will even venture beyond the comforts of home to traverse the disreputable shipyards of Inverness in search of a man reckless enough to set her plan in motion, a plan she hopes will ensure that she never need utter the words “to honor and obey.”To all the world, Nathan Campbell is fearless, strong, irresistibly sexy and when not tracking down thieves for a price, he can generally be found in a tavern, too far into his cups and draped by women vying to welcome him into their beds. But if they were to look beyond his devilishly charming smile to his eyes, they would see that he was hollow inside, and no amount of coin, drink, or women could fill the void in his heart.Both Elora and Nathan will see the other as a means to achieve their worldly goals—but what if within their wounded hearts beats more? What if dreams lie in wait? Dreams that can only be realized when unleashed by a passion too powerful to contain and impossible to deny.

    The men of the Maclean Clan are fierce warriors. From the battle of Flodden Field to the waters off the Spanish Coast, they fight to protect their homes and those they love. In this spellbinding Scottish Highland series, the Maclean brothers find unexpected romance with women who heal and stir their souls.  Beloved Imposter: Felicia Campbell has set a plan in motion to escape her wedding to the lecherous old Earl of Morneith—but she’s interrupted when she’s abducted. Her fury turns to curiosity when she discovers her captor is the handsome Rory Maclean, her clan’s hated enemy. And Rory, who has sworn never to love again, finds himself daring to care for the fiery captive who could save his broken soul . . .  Beloved Stranger: Lachlan Maclean rode with King James IV of Scotland to free his country from English tyranny. In the slaughter at Flodden Field, he’s thrown from his horse and awakes to the beautiful visage of Kimbra Carlton, a border woman whose husband was killed by a Scot, leaving her to fend for her daughter alone. Now, she can neither let the wounded Lachlan die nor let anyone know his heritage. But perhaps in healing him, she may heal her own heart . . .  Beloved Warrior: Patrick Maclean spent years enslaved aboard a Spanish galleon. But after he leads his fellow oarsmen in an uprising, he finds himself in charge of not only the vessel but also a fetching young passenger: Juliana Mendoza, the ship owner’s niece. Juliana was bound for a wedding and a man she never wanted. But the more she comes to know Patrick and his honorable clan, the more she realizes that only she can decide her fate . . .

    Perfect for the fans of Jo Cox and Rosie Goodwin. The boom years immediately after the Great War bring nothing but happiness for wealthy industrialist Wigmore Stratfield-Whyte and his wife Clarissa – until tragedy robs them of their greatest treasure. Many years later, an horrific fatal accident brings young Meg Chandler, a spirited farmer's daughter, into their lives. Meg wants nothing to do with them, but Clarissa is drawn irresistibly towards the bereaved girl and will move heaven and earth to help her. Will Meg allow Clarissa into her own shattered life, and can the two share a future happiness together? And will Meg's new acquaintances bring her the contentment she craves – or seek to destroy her? Set in the Kent countryside in the years leading up to the Second World War, this compelling saga tingles with drama, tension and an overwhelming sense of love.

    He also grew up observing the powerful and tender love shared by his parents. Determined to find that same kind of love in his own life, he is holding out for a woman who can see more in him than a marriage that will give his future wife prestige and great wealth. After more than a decade of searching for the right woman, Erich may have finally found a love beyond anything he’d imagined. But his happiness and the stability of the country is at risk when a long-dormant evil comes to the surface in Horstberg, threatening his life and that of his young nephew, who is Erich’s heir. While Erich tries to remain confident that he will live long enough to claim his right to serve his country, he is haunted by premonitory dreams that imply his life will come to a tragic end. As a force of extremist revolutionaries force Horstberg to the brink of war, the entire du Woernig family must flee into hiding for the sake of their own survival. Only when everything is on the line does Erich come to fully understand what truly matters. Please note that Book Five, the final book in the Horstberg Saga will be available for preorder on April 6th and will be released May 4th.

    Quinn and his new bride Felice are aboard the steamboat Sultana going up the spring-flooded Mississippi River toward Illinois to meet the Funeral Train, when their honeymoon vessel stops at Vicksburg and takes on a pathetic human cargo of 2,000 sick and ragged survivors of the hellish Andersonville prisoner-of-war camp, kept alive only by their desire to get home. Quinn's lot is not thrown in with some of the unluckiest veterans of that awful war. While he is interviewing them about life in the notorious prison, the Sultana, carrying five times its lawful number of passengers, explodes after midnight. Quinn is blown overboard with the emaciated veteran Robb Macombie, and in the worst night of his life proves himself a better man than he had ever imagined he could be."--Dust jacket.

    As Tommy's stay in hospital turns from weeks into months, Polly's mother, Ada, becomes increasingly anxious as to how she will make ends meet. In an attempt to help out, Polly takes a job as a flowerseller, and when she sells a buttonhole to Charles Denholme, a member of the Liverpool gentry, she sets in motion a chain of events that changes her life forever...

    Volume 2. Introduction / by Loren D. Estleman --The hound of the Baskervilles --The valley of fear --His last bow : The adventure of Wisteria Lodge : The singular experience of Mr. John Scott Eccles ; The tiger of San Pedro ; The adventure of the cardboard box ; The adventure of the red circle ; The adventure of the Bruce-Partington plans ; The adventure of the dying detective ; The disappearance of Lady Frances Carfax ; The adventure of the devil's foot ; His last bow --The case-book of Sherlock Holmes : The adventure of the illustrious client ; The adventure of the blanched soldier ; The adventure of the Mazarin stone ; The adventure of the three gables ; The adventure of the Sussex vampire ; The adventure of the three Garridebs ; The problem of Thor Bridge ; The adventure of the creeping man ; The adventure of the lion's mane ; The adventure of the veiled lodger ; The adventure of Shoscombe old place ; The adventure of the retired colourman.