He willingly promises to take care of Fred’s sister and mother—after all, he has been quietly in love with Fred’s sister, Meg, for years.After a gruelling retreat across Spain, Jon finally returns to find England in the grip of a snowy winter. Thoughts of Meg have kept him going, but when he reaches her home, it is not Meg who meets him at the door but her cousin Rupert. Jon is devastated to learn that Rupert and Meg are to be wed in two days’ time.Despite Rupert’s efforts to keep them apart, Jon manages to talk to Meg, who does notnot want to marry her cousin. Meg suggests that she would be safe from Rupert’s threats if she married Jon instead.Without hesitation, Jon sets off through the icy conditions and deep snow to get a marriage licence before Rupert can force Meg to marry him. But d

    Despite her initial resistance, she is ensnared in a steamy love affair with the young, noble aristocrat, Dimitri. However, as the daughter of a chieftain warrior, Siwhetta is defiant, passionate, and determined to return to her homeland. Dimitri, on the other hand, enamored of this nubile, ebony beauty is possessive and takes what he wants, and thus far, his eyes are set on Siwhetta. Intent on possessing her, he will stop at nothing to get her into his arms even if it meant breaking every rule in the book.Disclaimer: Please note that this book includes information that may be upsetting to some persons. ExcerptSiwhetta inhaled and looked into his cobalt eyes and pointed out calmly, “I am a slave and you are the slave master’s grandson.” Siwhetta repeated then began to sob. “This is not what I want. I would like to experience true love like my parents did. One day, I would like to live a normal life again. I don’t want this!” She began pushing at him again. Defeated, Dimitri rolled on his back next to her on the ground. He looked at the canopy of trees hanging over their heads. There was no doubt that he cared for her. He wished he knew how he could make her trust him. “I will take you home with me.”Horrified, Siwhetta gasped then turned to look at him. She searched his eyes curiously.As if he knew that she doubted him, he repeated: “I will take you home with me.”Siwhetta sat up with relief, heart palpitating. She finally felt like there was hope; that she could finally have a life of freedom again; a chance to fall in love; a chance to have a family; to start a new life somewhere new. Tears of joy finally ran down her cheeks. “I can finally be free again?” she placed her hand on her chest in disbelief. “Maybe,” she paused, biting on her lower lip then whispered in awe, “maybe someday go back home?” Dimitri tensed, he scowled. “You will remain with me.”As if wounded, Siwhetta grimaced then lowered her head in confusion. She lifted her chin proudly and with blazing eyes yelled, “I would never!”Dimitri said, firmly, “You will remain with me.”

    His estate is off-limits to everyone. Why would the Beast of Chestwick allow the mindless fools of society to infiltrate his private world when he has greater things to worry about, like getting back to the war front.But Diana doesn’t give up easily, and when she meets the earl after trespassing on his land—the two share a brief but soul-awakening kiss. Suddenly Diana and Randal are forced to rethink their solitary ambitions...love is a riddle that only two hearts can solve together. Read free in Kindle Unlimited!Ladies of RiskAn Earl UnmaskedThe Duke of AcesKing Takes Queen

    A man that sends shudders down her spine at the very sight of him. So, when she reads Inez Pollard's advertisement for The Mail Order Bride Express, she promptly applies and is accepted. On her way to Silver Ridge, Colorado, she is confident that she has left her troubles behind. But has she? Ross Pollard is a man with a lot on his mind. And his mother's crazy scheme to bring brides to Silver Ridge is just another problem for him to deal with. The last thing he needs to complicate his life is romance, but when he sets his eyes on Hannah Stillman, all of his resistance is bound to melt. Hannah’s Dilemma is the first book in a brand new Mail Order Bride Series from Mary L. Briggs, author of the popular novella The Stagecoach Bride and The Chance Creek Brides Series.

    Clare manages, by using her wits, beauty, and courage, to climb to the highest position a woman could achieve in Restoration England—that of favorite mistress of the Merry Monarch, Charles II. From whores and highwaymen to courtiers and noblemen, from events such as the Great Plague and the Fire of London to the intimate passions of ordinary—and extraordinary—men and women, Amber experiences it all. But throughout her trials and escapades, she remains, in her heart, true to the one man she really loves, the one man she can never have. Frequently compared to Gone with the Wind, Forever Amber is the other great historical romance, outselling every other American novel of the 1940s—despite being banned in Boston for its sheer sexiness. A book to read and reread, this edition brings back to print an unforgettable romance and a timeless masterpiece.

    Fleeing her fanatical republican family, Molly O’Dowd arrives nearly penniless in London at the end of the nineteenth century. Plunged into the world of East End gambling houses and brothels, Molly invests what little money she has in a typing course, her only way out. This investment will lead her on the path to establishing herself as a woman of power and means.From the rough-and-tumble world of the London docks to the luxurious hotels and restaurants of the fashionable West End, Molly captures the temper of the times – the unrest of the labouring classes, the courage of the suffragette movement, the ravages of the First World War. Molly wins and loses in the tempestuous world of the capital but her energy and determination never flag and tides change when she meets a man who could match her in business… and in love. This rags-to-riches historical romance is perfect for fans of Lily Graham, Natalie Meg Evans and Fiona McIntosh.

    When Japanese forces invade Hong Kong, young Kate is forced into an internment camp - and her life is changed forever. An evocative read. Renita D'Silva, bestselling author of Monsoon Memories.

    Nevertheless, I am sure of this much: My little story has become your history. You won't really understand your times until you understand mine."" So begins the account of Agnes Shanklin, the charmingly diffident narrator of Dreamers of the Day. And what is Miss Shanklin's "little story"? Nothing less than the creation of the modern Middle East at the 1921 Cairo Peace Conference, where Winston Churchill, T. E. Lawrence, and Lady Gertrude Bell met to decide the fate of the Arab world-and of our own. A forty-year-old schoolteacher from Ohio, Agnes has come into a modest inheritance that allows her to take the trip of a lifetime to Egypt. Arriving at the Semiramis Hotel just as the Peace Conference convenes, Agnes enters into the company of the historic luminaries who will, in the space of a few days at a hotel in Cairo, invent the nations of Iraq, Syria, Lebanon, Israel, and Jordan. As Agnes observes the tumultuous inner workings of nation-building, she is drawn more and more deeply into geopolitical intrigue and toward a personal awakening. With graceful and effortless prose, Mary Doria Russell illuminates the long, rich history of the Middle East through a story that brilliantly elucidates today's headlines. Dreamers of the Day is a memorable and passionate novel.

    Her husband, Leon, lies in a nursing home after a stroke that has left him paralysed; her grown-up children are gone. In her anguish Ruby appeals for help to a half-remembered figure from her colonial Indian girlhood - Sister Benedicta. Gradually the events leading up to Leon's stroke are revealed and a woman emerges whose capacity to love, hope and understand are far greater than she realises.

    His mother’s question haunts every choice. Are you a stupid or a clever? Will you find a way to lift your family out of Johannesburg’s poor inner city, to buy a house in the suburbs, to bring your aunts and cousins from Lithuania? Isaac’s mother is a strong woman and a scarred woman; her maimed face taunts him with a past no one will discuss. As World War II approaches, then falls upon them, they hurtle toward a catastrophic reckoning. Isaac must make decisions that, at first, only seem to be life-or-death, then actually are.Meanwhile, South Africa’s history, bound up with Europe’s but inflected with its own accents—Afrikaans, Zulu, Yiddish, English—begins to unravel. Isaac’s vibrant, working-class, Jewish neighborhood lies near the African slums; under cover of night, the slums are razed, the residents forced off to townships. Isaac’s fortune-seeking takes him to the privileged seclusion of the Johannesburg suburbs, where he will court forbidden love. It partners him with the unlucky, unsinkable Hugo Bleznick, selling miracle products to suspicious farmers. And it leads him into a feud with a grayshirt Afrikaaner who insidiously undermines him in the auto shop, where Isaac has found the only work that ever felt true. And then his mother’s secret, long carefully guarded, takes them to the diamond mines, where everything is covered in a thin, metallic dust, where lions wait among desert rocks, and where Isaac will begin to learn the bittersweet reality of success bought at truly any cost.A thrilling ride through the life of one fumbling young hero, The Lion Seeker is a glorious reinvention of the classic family and coming-of-age sagas. We are caught — hearts open and wrecked — between the urgent ambitions of a mother who knows what it takes to survive and a son straining against the responsibilities of the old world, even as he is endowed with the freedoms of the new.

    One last adventure abroad with her botanist uncle and his family, and then she will do as her parents bid and wed the proper (and boring) viscount her mother has selected as Lily's ideal husband.James Huntington is on a mission. Retrieve his grandfather's lost journals from the wilds of Tunisia, and win the estate and fortune he so desperately needs. This quest will be the making of him--or his ruin.Thrown together on a botanical expedition, James and Lily's attraction is immediate, and impossible. Despite every reason to keep their distance, the two find themselves inexorably drawn together as they race to reach a hidden valley before their enemies can bring all their dreams crashing down.      *Formerly published as PASSIONATE by Kensington Books

    One mission. Enemies everywhere.May 1944. When spy Elisabeth de Mornay, code name Cécile, notices a coded transmission from an agent in the field does not bear his usual signature, she suspects his cover has been blown– something that is happening with increasing frequency. With the situation in Occupied France worsening and growing fears that the Resistance has been compromised, Cécile is ordered behind enemy lines.Having rendezvoused with her fellow agents, Léonie and Dominique, together they have one mission: help the Resistance destabilise German operations to pave the way for the Normandy landings.But the life of a spy is never straightforward, and the in-fighting within the Resistance makes knowing who to trust ever more difficult. With their lives on the line, all three women will have to make decisions that could cost them everything - for not all their enemies are German.

    Spencer is a naval officer with roots deep in New England's upper crust. They meet during World War II at an Officer's Club dance, and Spencer might have been dissuaded if he saw just one engagement ring on her finger, but instead, he sees four.The courtship is easy, Rida wins him and wears his ring alone. But Rida is a wild card, and Spencer's family can't accept her unconventional approach to marriage, motherhood, and life.Even Rida's four daughters struggle to understand her, but for them it becomes a quest--to untangle the mystery of their stubborn, off-beat, clear-sighted, loving, and above all mesmerizing mother.Award-winning author Cynthia Voigt has penned a novel for readers who grew up loving her Newbery Award-winning novels for children and young adults. By Any Name features an indelible woman who sees lines as meant to be crossed, changing the lives of all who come into contact with her indefatigable spirit.From the award-winning author of Homecoming and Dicey's Song comes a heartfelt adult novel perfect for readers of Judy Blume.

    . . A man from the past . . . A war to defy all odds. Will love allow them to find the freedom they’re both searching for? Olivia Blake loves her job. Restoring art and discovering the history behind it is a regular--and well loved--part of her simple life. So, when her boss presents her with a damaged portrait of a British soldier from the American Revolution, she jumps at the chance to work on it. When her journey to discover who the man was is cut short by a bad car accident, Olivia surfaces in the icy waters of the Delaware River, staring at George Washington as he crosses with his army. Panicked, she flees into the woods and right into the arms of a very surprised British soldier--the man from the painting. **** August Bancroft has no idea that the woman he saved from the American Rebels is from the future, or that the man who traveled through time with her is not their friend. All he knows is that he feels compelled to protect her, even if it means sacrificing his honor in the end. Torn by the political leanings of the time and his own personal beliefs, August struggles to find what freedom means for him. Threats lurk close by, though, and there is no time to argue when danger reveals itself.

    Scandals Bride and A Rogues Proposal.