Book picks similar to
The Duke's Ward by Samantha Lester


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The Forsaken Maid's Secret


Faye Godwin - 2019
    Discovered by the police, Bincy is taken to an orphanage, where she learns that Mama is not the only person who doesn't want her. In truth, nobody wants her, and Bincy is forced to cling to the orphanage bully Mae for comfort. As the years pass, Mae forces Bincy to do everything she demands, from picking on the younger girls to giving up her meager allotment of food. When Bincy is betrayed by Mae, she's sent to work in a manor house as a scullery maid. That's where Bincy meets two young men: Judd, the street urchin who comes into the cellar to scavenge for food, and Henry, the charismatic young master of the house. Despite Judd's warnings, Bincy finds herself falling for Henry. But when Henry demands more from her than she's willing to give, Bincy has to make a choice: give herself to him or face her greatest fear of being alone and discarded once more.

IN WINTER'S GRIP: A 1940s' Mystery Thriller


Gordon John Thomson - 2014
    The action of this period romantic mystery takes place in the city of Newcastle-upon-Tyne two years after the end of the war, as Britain is caught in the grip of the worst winter in a thousand years. As blizzards rage and the country grinds to a frozen standstill, on Tyneside a young German woman, Elsa Platten, goes on trial for her life, accused of deliberately burning a man to death... Alexander Galbraith is the lawyer hired to defend her, a man undergoing a personal crisis of his own, since his vengeful wife, Virginia, has discovered evidence of a homosexual affair and is threatening to ruin him... Jack Raisbeck is the owner of the Tyneside shipyard where the murdered man, a Dutchman called Jeroen van Rijn, worked. Jack is a physically scarred and cynical survivor of the war in the North Atlantic but his developing romantic relationship with Elsa in the months before the murder has rejuvenated him. Yet, as Elsa begins her trial, Jack is also struggling to keep his shipyard business alive, beset with a rebellious workforce led by union leader Ernie Wilmot, and with the financial future of his yard hanging in the balance after a recent arson attack and an act of embezzlement by his former chief accountant, George Hetherington. As the evidence against Elsa unfolds in the course of the trial, she re-lives her past life in Germany and Holland: the rise of the Nazis and the invasion of Holland, her subsequent betrayal and deportation to the East, and her escape and struggle to survive the fall of Berlin. Jack and Alexander Galbraith both believe in Elsa’s innocence but that belief is strongly tested as the evidence against her grows. The trail to find the truth leads both men in unexpected directions. For Jack it leads to a confrontation with his brother-in-law on a frozen cliff top, and to other disturbing family revelations. For Galbraith it is something even worse - he has to make the ultimate choice between preserving his own career and reputation, or saving his client from the hangman...

The Willow Pool


Elizabeth Elgin - 2000
    But before Meg can take her first steps into the unknown alone, she must look to her past. Why, she wonders, did her mother wear a wedding ring but never marry? Why, for instance, does the tallyman never call at No. 3 Tippet's Yard to collect any rent? He does everywhere else. With Ma gone, Meg must go back to her roots to uncover her 'family tree'. However, the process of simplfying her life leads to unforseen complications. But there's always Kip, reliable and loving, to pick up the pieces of her unsolved life and love.

Adam's First Wife (The Law Wranglers Book 5)


Ron Schwab - 2019
    Spared by the attackers—for now—is Adam Laurent, the owner of the Bar P . . . but only until his first wife, Lilith, can calculate how to best claim the land as her own upon his death. As they are given to being tangled up in such cases, the Rivers and Sinclair law firm finds itself representing Adam's second wife in the land grant matter. And, when Josh Rivers gets deputized to help investigate the incident at the Bar P, it is no longer just a legal matter—Josh’s life is on the line, too. Action, adventure, and romance abound, in Adam's First Wife, the fifth novel in the popular Law Wranglers series!

Married for a Highland Debt: A Steamy Scottish Medieval Historical Romance (Highlands’ Partners in Crime)


Olivia Kerr - 2021
    

In Compromise with the Earl


Ava MacAdams - 2021
    Still, she pretends to wear her reputation of a hoyden like a badge of honor.Cheated on and humiliated across every acre of the Ton, Oswald Bristol, the Earl of Tennesley, needs to find a timid wife this time. But relying on a matchmaker seems more than ridiculous to him.Except, an odd thing happens when the man who has spent his life being proper overhears a lady of loose morals calling him a bore. Determined not to let this slight pass, he takes it upon himself to prove her wrong. Even if that means putting her in greater danger than he realizes.

Secrets of the Heart


Gilda O'Neill - 2008
    They hoped it would be over by Christmas... Britain is at war and the proximity of the docks means that life in and around London's Turnbury Buildings is hard and dangerous. Chances are taken, people have secrets, hearts are broken. And feelings about foreigners are running high. Sixteen-year-old Freddie Jarrett is secretly seeing a girl from the local Chinese community - a relationship that would be frowned on by both families, despite the fact that they all support the fight for freedom from oppression. And his sister Grace has her own secret to hide. A secret that no one outside the immediate family must ever know. As the threat of the Luftwaffe looms over the docks, the community is threatened with being torn apart by prejudice, fear and separation, and the disturbing loss of stability that brings with it the feeling that it is only what happens today that counts for anything...

The Maid's Christmas Wish


Annie Shields - 2020
    

Highlander's Battle of Hearts: Scottish Medieval Highlander Romance


Kenna Kendrick - 2021
    

The Tormented Duke and his Widow: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel


Olivia T. Bennet - 2021
    

On A Train Bound For Nowhere


Susan Leigh Carlton - 2017
    Unadopted and nearing the maximum age for the Foundling Home, Mary Catherine is given a choice by the mother superior, and decides to take the orphan train looking for a future. Trace Jennings is a shy young man who lost his father in the Civil War. Raised by his mother, he lives on a ranch in Helena, Montana. Raw from a disastrous mail order marriage, romance is not on his agenda. Faced with the obstacles life has dealt them, can Mary Catherine and Trace find romance and have a life together?

Her Rightful Inheritance


Benita Brown - 2002
    Now eighteen, Lorna Cunningham is eagerly awaiting the day when she can leave the Newcastle house in which she's known only heartache. The Arabian ancestry of the father she has never known has meant that she has been nothing more than an unwelcome guest in her grandmother's home, forced to take second place to her spoilt cousin, Rose, who has wanted for neither love nor material comforts.Lorna takes comfort from her growing friendship with bookseller Edwin Randall, who shares her love of reading and inspires her with his passion to improve the terrible conditions of the Newcastle slums. But their relationship is overshadowed by Lorna's infatuation with the handsome and charismatic Maurice Haldane - the man Rose is determined she herself will marry and who has the power to change all their lives for ever...

A Duke's Devilish Plan: A Historical Regency Romance Book


Emily Honeyfield - 2021
    

Owen Oliver


Lena Kennedy - 1991
    He only stops travelling when he reaches Kent and there his life is dramatically altered, when he is adopted by a loving old lady and her roguish son Tom.

The Stolen Street Girl


Nell Harte - 2021
    Now, she must learn to survive.Forced to be both mother and father to her siblings after Ada’s mother turns to gin, and no longer able to scour the banks of the Thames as mudlarks, Ada turns to picking up cigarette butts from the filthy streets and repurposing the tobacco into a saleable item.Assisted by Elijah the son of a stonemason the Blair family manages to keep a roof over their heads, until their mother’s addiction spirals out of control and they find themselves out on the street.Desperate for safety, Ada takes a risk and is befriended by the well to do Mr Beauregard. But not all things are as they seem and soon Ada is torn from her family and thrown into a world of corruption she could not have imagined.When a chance meeting with Elijah reveals the truth, Ada’s life is at a crossroadsCan Ada leave behind the new life she now finds herself in? Will Elijah ever forgive her for what she has become? Or should Ada let the past remain behind and leave her family in peace.Nell Harte writes sweet and clean Historical Romance.