Major Nicholas Reynolds returns from the Battle of Waterloo a hero. Once, his rakish good looks ensured he had his pick of beauties, but now his battle-scarred face exiles him from high society. Lady Isabella Knox is horrified by the cruel gossip surrounding Nicholas, but intrigued by the man whose steely glance makes her blush on the outside...and burn deep onthe inside. A few stolen kisses later this beauty knows she's lost her head -- and her heart-- to the most notorious gentleman of the ton...

     With her vast wealth, her demure face and her beautiful figure, she should be a very eligible young lady. But there is one problem – Diantha doesn’t believe in love, and she ensures that any love-struck bachelor knows it. Suitors may try their luck, but Diantha is not one to hold her tongue – something which makes her aunt, Lady Greenbourne, despair of her and her unladylike talk. Meanwhile, Rexford Lytham has inherited his uncle’s title of Earl of Chartridge and with it, the old man’s gargantuan debts. It seems that the only way to save Chartridge Abbey and its surrounding tenants is for Rex to marry a wealthy Lady. But Rex is as wary of love as Diantha is. His friends and brother, Major George Lytham, all conspire to match him with Diantha, while Lady Greenbourne believes that a sensible young man like Rex is perfect for the unromantic Diantha. Yet the two young singletons soon guessed their relations’ plot and conspired to foil it. However, Diantha is impressed by Rex’s honesty, and in turn, he is impressed by her reasoning. So they agree to marry in a union of convenience – Rex for her fortune and Diantha for his title and her freedom. But it seems Rex is hiding a dark secret, and Diantha is determined to find out what it is. While they set about fixing Rex’s estate and debts, and helping their friends and relations along the way, Diantha tries her best to get the truth out of Rex. Diantha knows it shouldn’t worry her – after all, neither of them are so unreasonable to fall in love with one another – surely? Or are they not as immune to love as either of them thought? As war looms once more over Europe, perhaps reason no longer matters… Lucy Gordon began working life on a British women's magazine, where she interviewed famous men like Sir Roger Moore, Sir Alec Guinness, Warren Beatty, Richard Chamberlain and Charlton Heston. But since 1984, she has been publishing her romance novels – twice winning the Romance Writers of America RITA Award for the Best Traditional Romance. She is now married to a Venetian artist and together, they have lived in different parts of Italy, though currently reside in her native England.

    Desperate to save her family from debtor's prison, Alicia vows to marry the first wealthy man to propose. She meets the dashing Lord Amesbury, and her heart whispers that this is the man she is destined to love, but his tainted past may forever stand in their way. Her choices in potential husbands narrow to either a scarred cripple with the heart of a poet, or a handsome rake with a deadly secret.Cole Amesbury is tormented by his own ghosts, and believes he is beyond redemption, yet he cannot deny his attraction for the girl whose genuine goodness touches the heart he'd thought long dead. He fears the scars in his soul cut so deeply that he may never be able to offer Alicia a love that is true.When yet another bizarre mishap threatens her life, Alicia suspects the seemingly unrelated accidents that have plagued her loved ones are actually a killer's attempt to exterminate every member of her family. Despite the threat looming over her, learning to love the stranger she married may pose the greatest danger to her heart.

    She's young. Timid. And entirely inappropriate for the hardships and workload she's hired to handle. And she has secrets...

     Caroline, Lady Beaumont, arrives in London seeking excitement after ten dreary years of marriage and an even drearier year of mourning. That means conquering society, dancing like there’s no tomorrow, and taking a lover to provide passion without promises. Promises, in this dashing widow’s dictionary, equal prison. So what is an adventurous lady to do when she loses her heart to a notorious rake who, for the first time in his life, wants forever? Devilish Silas Nash, Viscount Stone is in love at last with a beautiful, headstrong widow bent on playing the field. Worse, she’s enlisted his help to set her up with his disreputable best friend. No red-blooded man takes such a challenge lying down, and Silas schemes to seduce his darling into his arms, warm, willing and besotted. But will his passionate plots come undone against a woman determined to act the mistress, but never the wife?

    . .She's the mysterious niece of one of England's wealthiest dukes, and is about to encounter her first season. Knowing nothing about the workings of corsets and country dances, she's looking for any help she can find... even when it comes from the most unlikely source…London’s infamous rogue—an older Duke.Duke Wardington’s face transformed into something… dark . “Don’t fear, Miss Ott. I have no desire of you. What if I told you that I could make you the belle of the ball? In every ball. The entire season.”Amy chuckled. “Me? The belle of the ball? Impossible!”… Or was it?This catches the attention from the most unlikely, most alluring man in all of London. Lord Nathaniel Dawnton knows what he wants. Amy Ott. And… this is definitely not in a way that he could speak of in public. The scoundrel, who blackened his own soul, had met all sorts of women throughout his years, but none like Amy. He's intrigued and won't stop until he has her. “ Skip the season, and simply be with me.”Amy’s voice caught. Lord Nathaniel had proposed to her. So quickly… Nathaniel was silent. “Amy, I have no intentions of marrying you. I would want you to become my mistress instead.” …She backed away, “No.”When Nathaniel's pursuits meet the walls of Amy's strength, the young lord is ready to jump those walls blindly... But… he doesn’t realize that a jump toward Amy might mean a fall toward love... something he has been avoiding—his innermost fear … true love.But once Amy's dark secrets are out, will the fall have been worth it?

    This is not an Austen sequel, but tells the story of Alvey, one of the two girls, who agrees to impersonate the other in order to find herself a refuge where she can complete the novel she has always wanted to write. The Deception proves all too easy, as the family she meets are in desperate need of her help. With the conspiratorial assistance of Louisa's elder sisters, Alvey becomes a member of the troubled Winship family in a rambling Northumberland household. After many complexities and entanglements, she wins their affections to such an extent that as the deception gradually unravels, Alvey is begged by the family to stay on, to the shock of the returning Louisa. Aiken vividly evokes the ambiance of the great country house of the Regency period in a part of the English countryside she knew well from childhood visits.

    17-year-old Muriel Dearlove has weathered the Blitz unscathed, earning her keep in Miss Chapman's grocery shop. But with her sweetheart Bill away fighting and and her friends conscripted into the WRENs and WAAF, life has become tedious for Muriel. Then one day an old friend returns from a stint in the Land Army. She is rosy cheeked and looks healthier than ever, thanks to the outdoor work she has been doing on Northumberland's farms, and she comes with tales of dances with the troops stationed nearby and high jinks with her fellow Land Girls. Desperate for the chance to broaden her horizons, Muriel signs up to become a Land Girl. But getting back to the land is not all about making hay in the sunshine. Back-breaking work and rising before dawn are the least of their troubles when disagreements between town girls and locals arise, and their warden, Mrs Hubbard, is a hard-nosed slave-driver. Then Muriel meets Ernst, a German prisoner of war. And now Muriel has a choice to make. In fraternizing with the enemy, she breaks the law, but to never see Ernst again would break her heart.

    and desire... Edmund Fitzhugh was willing to thrust his head back into the matrimonial noose to protect Julianna from her wicked stepbrother. But the maiden was betrothed to his nephew, gone to sea. So their forbidden union was secretly a marriage in name only. Yet sharing his home with the much younger beauty fueled a passion he'd thought long buried...Julianna Ramsey was at sixes and sevens! Who would have thought that Edmund's gentle care could ignite in her a woman's ardor that far eclipsed her girlish fancy for his absent nephew? And what of the day when her fiancé would return? Would she then have the courage to choose love over duty?

    Thanks to some deliciously scandalous—and infamous—stories, she has a pretty good idea of what she's missing as a spinster. Is even a short flirtation too much to ask for?Tristan, Lord Burke, recognizes Joan at once for what she is: trouble. Not only is she his best friend's sister, she always seems to catch him at a disadvantage. The only way he can win an argument is by kissing her senseless. He'd give anything to get her out of her unflattering gowns. But either one of those could cost him his bachelor status, which would be dreadful—wouldn't it?

    

    . . but will love get a second chance?Lily O’Brien left Eureka Springs to start her cosmetics line in New York, and she doesn’t ever plan to move back. There are too many memories in her hometown—especially of Sawyer McCall, her high school boyfriend who broke her heart and left her scared to love again. Lily thinks she’s over him until she runs into him at her sister’s book signing. Try as she might to fight it, there are definitely still feelings there.Sawyer has been waiting for five long years for the day when Lily would come back to Eureka Springs again. Letting her go was the hardest thing he ever did, and there hasn’t been a day during those five years when he hasn’t thought of her. But when he asks Lily out, she turns him down flat. Not that he blames her. If he can only get a chance to explain why he broke up with her, he’s hopeful he can make things right.As Lily begins to let her guard down and she and Sawyer spend time together, it becomes clear that their attraction is stronger than ever—but can she forgive the hurt from the past and find a place for him in her future?

    She surprises herself by buying a beach house in need of repairs that reminds her of her childhood home. As an elite fitness trainer, she travels to her clients’ locations and never stays in one place for long. Can her handsome neighbor finally bring home to her heart?After a tragic loss, Jason Carrington became a hermit. But when his lovely new neighbor needs his help with repairs, he finds himself spending a lot of time with her and gradually falling for her. However, she doesn’t intend to stay—or open herself for love. Will the truth behind her secret bring them closer—or tear them apart?

    A replacement nanny who helps change his life… Since his beloved wife, Larissa, died of a brain tumour five years earlier, Jonathon Montgomery has immersed himself in his project development company because he doesn’t know how to handle his grief.The problem is, he has three young children who also desperately miss their mum. Now they miss him, too.When the children’s nanny resigns two weeks before Christmas, he panics and immediately places a job advertisement for a replacement.For the first time in her life, Ruth Taylor finds herself alone after her adult son leaves the nest to explore the world. She’s made some mistakes in her life, but this time she trusts God to lead her as she applies for the position of nanny to three young children.As Ruth slowly endears herself to the children and to Jonathon, a Christmas miracle is waiting to happen.But can Jonathon truly learn to love again? Can he embrace the Christmas spirit and allow God back into his heart? And can a long-lost dream finally come true for Ruth?   Her Compassionate Billionaire is Book 4 in The Billionaires with Heart Christian Romance Series, a series of stand-alone books that are both God honoring and entertaining.

    51 pages of summaries and analysis on Year of Wonders by Geraldine Brooks.This study guide includes the following sections: Plot Summary, Chapter Summaries & Analysis, Characters, Objects/Places, Themes, Style, Quotes, and Topics for Discussion.