Book picks similar to
Distant Dreams by Jenny Lykins


time-travel
romance
historical-romance
historical

Kidnapped by the Pirate


Keira Andrews - 2017
    Under the thumb of his controlling father, the governor of Primrose Isle, he’s sailing to the fledging colony, where he’ll surrender to a respectable marriage for his family’s financial gain. Then pirates strike and he’s kidnapped for ransom by the Sea Hawk, a legendary villain of the New World.Bitter and jaded, Hawk harbors futile dreams of leaving the sea for a quiet life, but men like him don’t deserve peace. He has a score to settle with Nathaniel’s father—the very man whose treachery forced him into piracy—and he’s sure Nathaniel is just as contemptible.Yet as days pass in close quarters, Nathaniel’s feisty spirit and alluring innocence beguile and bewitch. Although Hawk knows he must keep his distance, the desire to teach Nathaniel the pleasure men can share grows uncontrollable. It’s not as though Hawk would ever feel anything for him besides lust…Nathaniel realizes the fearsome Sea Hawk’s reputation is largely invented, and he sees the lonely man beneath the myth, willingly surrendering to his captor body and soul. As a pirate’s prisoner, he is finally free to be his true self. The crew has been promised the ransom Nathaniel will bring, yet as danger mounts and the time nears to give him up, Hawk’s biggest battle could be with his own heart.This May-December gay romance from Keira Andrews features classic tropes including: a tough alpha pirate too afraid to love, a plucky virgin captive half his age, enemies to lovers, first-time sexual discovery, and of course a happy ending. 85,000 words.

The Season


Sarah MacLean - 2009
    Not the best makings for an aristocratic lady in Regency London. Yet her mother still dreams of marrying Alex off to someone safe, respectable, and wealthy. But between ball gown fittings, dances, and dinner parties, Alex, along with her two best friends, Ella and Vivi, manages to get herself into what may be her biggest scrape yet. When the Earl of Blackmoor is mysteriously killed, Alex decides to help his son, the brooding and devilishly handsome Gavin, uncover the truth. But will Alex's heart be stolen in the process? In an adventure brimming with espionage, murder, and other clandestine affairs, who could possibly have time to worry about finding a husband? Romance abounds as this year's season begins!

London 2012: "What If...?"


Ian C.P. Irvine - 2012
    People the world over will identify with the story told within these pages. As the story progresses, some will feel guilty, some will cry, some will laugh, ...but all will follow the plight of James Quinn, a man who is not unlike so many of us all.The Story :Contemplating having an affair, bored with work, and convinced there must be something more to it all, James Quinn is a man just about to enter a mid-life crisis. At the pinnacle of his career, James leads a successful life. But is it the right life? Instead of a Product Manager in a Telecommunications company, should he have been a plumber, an Olympic athlete, or a stockbroker, or an artist? Life, as they say, isn't a practice run. This is it.Convinced the 'grass is greener' everywhere else, and worried that he may be missing out, James Quinn is a man full of doubts.It's not that he hates his own life. Far from it. His 'life', as others may call it, is good. It's just that, nowadays he can't stop looking at other people and wondering if, out of the thousands of different lives that he could be living, is he living the right one? What if James has got it wrong? And then there's Jane, the first girl he kissed at school, and the one that got away. What would life have been like if he had married her instead of his wife? Unable to control his curiosity he tracks her down through Facebook and discovers that she is now a beautiful woman, living in London, and unhappy in her marriage: like a moth drawn to a flame James finds himself heading for infidelity and feels powerless to stop. Then one day, during the normal underground commute to work in London, he looks up from his book and doesn't recognise the station name on the Jubilee Line, …and in a split-second, everything changes.Emerging onto a platform at "New Cross Gate North", a station that shouldn't exist, James finds that Canary Wharf has vanished. Gone. And so have Selfridges and mobile phones.Instead, James finds himself in an alternate and different London, where the city he lived in has subtly changed, and every moment is now a voyage of discovery into a new life: a new career in advertising, a new house, and a new wife: Jane-the object of all his fantasies.In this new world, James discovers that he is a flamboyant, intelligent, charismatic, successful businessman. Yet, even though he now has everything he has always dreamt of, he finds that he longs for everything else that he used to have but has now lost: his two children, Keira and Nicole, and his wife Sarah. Sarah, the woman he loved but took for granted. Convinced that both the past and present are somehow real, he realises that somewhere Sarah must be as real in this world as she was in the last. Longing to hold her in his arms again, and with no apparent way back to his old world, he sets out to find Sarah in his new world. Wherever she is. Using knowledge of her gained from their previous life together, he manages to track her down. But James realises that before he can truly be together with Sarah once again, he must first understand what went wrong between them in the other world to avoid it happening again. What is the secret that his subconscious has hidden from his conscious mind, and which made him want to turn away from Sarah and into the arms of another woman? Will it be possible for Sarah to fall in love with him again in this new world? And is it too late to find a way back to the old world, the old life, and the London he used to know?Or will he be stuck forever in this other world, yearning for the green, green grass of home…

Texas Destiny


Lorraine Heath - 1997
    The tall cowboy at the station wasn't Dallas. He was Houston, Dallas's brother, sent to escort her on the rugged three-week trek to the ranch where Dallas waited. Brought up in war-ravaged Georgia, Amelia thought Dallas's letters made Texas sound like heaven, a place for her dreams to grow with the right man beside her.And his only love...By all appearances, Houston Leigh would hardly be considered the "right man." The war he survived had scarred him inside and out, and he was little competition for his handsome brother. But from the moment Houston met Amelia, he knew she possessed the courage this wild land needed. She had eyes that could see past his wounded face to his soul. And he would fight any man—except his brother—for her heart. Now he and Amelia were riding down dangerous trails, sleeping under the stars, and God help them, they were falling in love.

Journey to Yesterday


June Lund Shiplett - 1979
    Suddenly she was no longer contented wife of a brilliant architect. Instead she had been spirited away to the nineteenth-century American frontier - and into the arms of a handsome, virile man whom she could not tell the truth about herself, and who made her forget who she really was and what she should not do.

Treasured


Crystal Jordan - 2008
    This display is about her favorite subject, James Morrow, a famous pirate who mysteriously disappeared without a trace.Becca touches the pirate s antique sword, and finds herself on a ship in the middle of a sword fight, saving the sexy captain from being stabbed in the back literally. Once the smoke clears, the man who claims he s her husband is more than eager to reward her for her timely assistance.James Morrow knows very little about the woman he was forced to marry five years ago, but the woman who saved him doesn t fit the portrait he s painted of her in his mind. She s strong, brave, and submits to his every dark desire. She seems the perfect woman for a pirate, but he makes his living among the dishonest and disreputable trust isn t a commodity he trades in."

The Girl in the Steel Corset


Kady Cross - 2011
    except the "thing" inside her.When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch...Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on even if it seems no one believes her.

Kaitlyn and the Highlander


Diana Knightley - 2018
    She means everything — the future, love, a home, but in loving her, he wants to live. He needs to survive. Kaitlyn Sheffield’s awesome life has fallen apart. She had a career and a fiancé, but then their breakup video went viral and now she's embarassed, world-wide.Then she meets Magnus, a mysterious stranger, who arrives during a storm. It doesn’t take long before their stories entwine, and their lives change forever.But she may not be prepared for the danger of tying her life to his.For Magnus, protecting Kaitlyn, his home, the future, is everything. He has to keep her safe, but how can he protect her when he’s not of this time? "You make me feel like I want tae live, yet I am dust. Tis nae fair tae bind ye tae my life when I am nae alive anymore.” —Magnus, 1702 "He was the past. And it broke my heart to think about what that meant. That in the history of the world there was a Magnus Campbell and now there was a Kaitlyn Campbell and once they loved each other, but now he was nothing more than a grave.” —Kaitlyn, 2017 A contemporary romance with a dash of history and a bit of SciFi, Kaitlyn and the Highlander is the first book in the Kaitlyn and the Highlander series.If you love mysterious, sexy, hunky heroes with desperate hearts and romantic thoughts, heroines with courage who are also very ordinary disasters, and love stories that encompass all time, then you’ll love this romantic series. Read on as Kaitlyn and Magnus fall in love by picking up a copy of this book today.

This Time Love


Mary Ellen Boyd - 2021
    She loves her work, loves making old things new.Then she purchases a very unique mirror. And suddenly finds herself in a country party in 1810 England.Thrust into this new world with nothing but the mirror and her wits, Grace has to learn to fit in and quickly. She takes a risk, and trusts the truth to a larger-than-life old man who matches the stories passed down from her grandmother.She's desperate to find a way back home. What she doesn't need is to fall in love.Who is this woman, and how did she get here?Garrett Atherton, Earl of Fairfax and determined bachelor, is definitely not enjoying his own country party, a sop to his parents’ demand he finally wed. However, when a mysterious woman who strongly resembles one of the wealthiest families in England appears, uninvited and spouting odd opinions, his whole world flips upside down.No one seems to know her or where she's from. Worse, she claims to be from the Americas.Yet she is the only woman in the Marriage Mart ever to intrigue him. He may lose his heart just in time to lose her forever.

The Mesmerist


Pam McCutcheon - 2001
    . . five people inexorably drawn to the items inside . . . each sent to the past where they must accomplish a task and find their own path to true love with the help of a magical matchmaker determined to bring soul mates together, even across time. On the eve of her wedding, dog trainer Gina Charles finds her fiancé in flagrante delicto with her maid of dishonor, so she flees to a hotel in a nearby town. Unfortunately, her room already has another occupant—a ghost with compelling dark eyes who cuddles up to her in the middle of the night. Gina reluctantly agrees to help the ghostly mesmerist, Drake Manton, learn how he died. When her investigation leads her to the burned-out Chesterfield hotel, Gina finds a hope chest in the ruins and is drawn to the melted dueling pistol inside. When she touches it, she and her faithful terrier hurtle back in time to 1883 where she comes face-to-face with the very alive, very sexy mesmerist. Now all Gina has to do is prevent Drake’s fiery death so she can return to her own time. Or will she give up her life in the future for a lifetime of love in Drake’s arms? Originally published as Enchantment by Zebra Ballad.

Another Dawn


Deb Stover - 1998
    The night of his execution brings Sofie, a beautiful young doctor who will pronounce him dead, and a benevolent priest to his side. When a freak explosion throws him back to another century along with Sofie, who has lost her memory, he sees a chance for a future in the past--Another Dawn he was never meant to see. As long as Sofie never remembers who he is, of course--or does it really matter a century in the past? Even as his feelings for her grow even stronger than his need to protect her in this strange world...? A man with no future and a woman with no past!

Tail of the Moon, Vol. 1


Rinko Ueda - 2003
    Frustrated with Usagi's lack of progress, her grandfather sends her to marry Lord Hanzo and have lots of ninja babies. But the lord has no interest in her or her childbearing potential! The path to love is never easy, and Usagi has some unexpected competition. It seems that another ninja clan wants to welcome Lord Hanzo into the family, and they've sent the beautiful and talented Yuri to win herself a wedding. Usagi won't be daunted by her rival's looks and skills, but will Lord Hanzo's secret feelings for an off-limits princess be enough to send her away in despair?

Cinnamon and Gunpowder


Eli Brown - 2013
    He will be spared, she tells him, as long as he puts exquisite food in front of her every Sunday without fail.To appease the red-haired captain, Wedgwood gets cracking with the meager supplies on board. His first triumph at sea is actual bread, made from a sourdough starter that he leavens in a tin under his shirt throughout a roaring battle, as men are cutlassed all around him. Soon he’s making tea-smoked eel and brewing pineapple-banana cider.But Mabbot—who exerts a curious draw on the chef—is under siege. Hunted by a deadly privateer and plagued by a saboteur hidden on her ship, she pushes her crew past exhaustion in her search for the notorious Brass Fox. As Wedgwood begins to sense a method to Mabbot’s madness, he must rely on the bizarre crewmembers he once feared: Mr. Apples, the fearsome giant who loves to knit; Feng and Bai, martial arts masters sworn to defend their captain; and Joshua, the deaf cabin boy who becomes the son Wedgwood never had.Cinnamon and Gunpowder is a swashbuckling epicure’s adventure simmered over a surprisingly touching love story—with a dash of the strangest, most delightful cookbook never written. Eli Brown has crafted a uniquely entertaining novel full of adventure: the Scheherazade story turned on its head, at sea, with food.

The Lady and the Lionheart


Joanne Bischof - 2016
    Raised amid the fame and mystique of the Big Top, Charlie Lionheart holds the audience in the palm of his hand. But while his act captivates thousands, it’s away from the spotlight where his true heart lies. Here he humbly cares for his pride of lions as if they were his brothers, a skill of bravery and strength that has prepared him for his most challenging feat yet—freeing an orphaned infant from the dark bondage of a sideshow. A trade so costly, it requires his life in exchange for hers, leaving him tarnished by the price of that choice.As the circus tents are raised on the outskirts of Roanoke, nurse Ella Beckley arrives to tend to this Gypsy girl. All under the watchful eye of a guardian who not only bears a striking resemblance to the child, but who protects the baby with a love that wraps around Ella’s own tragic past, awakening a hope that goodness may yet reign. When their forbidden friendship deepens, Charlie dares to ask for her heart, bringing her behind the curtain of his secret world to reveal the sacrifice that gave hope to one little girl—boldly showing Ella that while her tattered faith is deeply scarred, the only marks that need be permanent are his own.Just then a child in the row behind Ella cried out, “Look, Mama!”Charlie, dressed in his center ring finery, strode into the arena, as strong and strapping as ever. Face powdered and painted with two jagged teardrops under his eyes, he walked with stoic authority, tall boots forging a fresh trail straight toward his audience. Ella didn’t know a single man could hush a packed house with no words, but…then there was Charlie Lionheart.

Hourglass


Myra McEntire - 2011
    Plagued by phantoms since her parents' death, she just wants the apparitions to stop so she can be normal. She's tried everything, but the visions keep coming back.So when her well-meaning brother brings in a consultant from a secretive organization called the Hourglass, Emerson's willing to try one last cure. But meeting Michael Weaver may not only change her future, it may also change her past.Who is this dark, mysterious, sympathetic guy, barely older than Emerson herself, who seems to believe every crazy word she says? Why does an electric charge seem to run through the room whenever he's around? And why is he so insistent that he needs her help to prevent a death that never should've happened?