Book picks similar to
Love in the Dark by Barbara Cartland
romance
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November of the Heart
LaVyrle Spencer - 1993
Lorna’s father, Gideon, an avid sailor, is determined to claim victory for his own White Bear Yacht Club in the next summer regatta. Having recently suffered defeat at the hands of the rival club, Gideon is willing to do almost anything to win back the prize he sees as his. Jens, pressed into service as a waiter as an elegant family dinner party, overhears Gideon’s lament, and is sure his boatbuilding skills can be put to use on behalf of his employer. Brazenly crossing the boundary between servant and master by offering to design and build a boat that is sure to win the race. Jens incites Gideon’s ire but piques his interest too. With Lorna’s help, he convinces Gideon to finance the project.Grateful for her intervention yet wary of jeopardizing his chance to build the boat of his dreams, Jens nevertheless is powerless to face of Lorna’s growing interest in the boat and him. He soon finds himself eagerly awaiting her visits to the boatshed, and stars teaching her about the craft of boatbuilding, as well as the craft of love.Despite the rigid caste system which keeps them apart, Lorna and Jens are drawn inexorably together, and begin an affair as fresh and innocent as the summer itself. But the repercussions of their passionate idyll soon separate them against their shame to endure loneliness where it is always “November of the heart.”
Fortune Favors the Wicked
Theresa Romain - 2016
When injury ends his naval career, the silver-tongued libertine can hardly stomach the boredom. Not after everything—and everyone—he’s experienced. Good thing a new adventure has just fallen into his lap… When courtesan Charlotte Perry learns the Royal Mint is offering a reward for finding a cache of stolen gold coins, she seizes the chance to build a new life for herself. As the treasure hunt begins, she realizes her tenacity is matched only by Benedict’s—and that sometimes adversaries can make the best allies. But when the search for treasure becomes a discovery of pleasure, they’ll be forced to decide if they can sacrifice the lives they’ve always dreamed of for a love they’ve never known…
Libertine's Kiss
Judith James - 2010
William never knew that Elizabeth’s act of charity cost her greatly. Once Cromwell’s men discover that Elizabeth gave aid to one of Charles’ cavaliers, they seize her family’s estates, thus forcing Elizabeth into an unwanted marriage in order to survive.As a widow, Elizabeth arrives in the Merry Monarch’s court hoping to convince the king to restore her lands. William, now Earl Rivers and the court’s official poet, knows he must help his old friend. He knows exactly how to repackage Elizabeth so that she can capture the king’s attention, but what this infamous libertine doesn't expect is that he will fall in love with his new creation instead.
Yours Until Dawn
Teresa Medeiros - 2004
Abandoned by the fiancée he adored, the man who once walked like a prince among London's elite secludes himself in his family's mansion, cursing his way through dark days and darker nights. Prim nurse Samantha Wickersham arrives at Fairchild Park to find her new charge behaving more like a beast than a man. Determined to do her duty, she engages the arrogant earl in a battle of both wit and wills. Although he claims she doesn't possess an ounce of womanly softness, she can feel his heart racing at her slightest touch. As Samantha begins to let the light back into Gabriel's life and his heart, they both discover that some secrets -- and some pleasures -- are best explored in the dark ...
In for a Penny
Rose Lerner - 2010
Young Lord Nevinstoke enjoys every moment of his deep-gaming, hard-drinking, womanizing life. Then his father is killed in a drunken duel, and Nev inherits a mountain of debts and responsibilities. He vows to leave his wild friends and his mistress behind, start acting respectable—and marry a rich girl. Penelope Brown, a manufacturing heiress, seems the perfect choice. She’s pretty, ladylike, good at accounting, and looking for a marriage based on companionship and mutual esteem, not love. In fact, the only rash thing she’s ever done in her life is accept Nev’s proposal. When the newlyweds arrive at Nev’s family estate, they discover that all the respectability and reason in the world won't be enough to handle a hostile next-door neighbor, mutinous tenants, and Nev’s family's propensity for scandal. In way over their heads, Nev and Penelope have no one to turn to but each other—but to their surprise, that just might be enough.
Her Sudden Groom
Rose Gordon - 2011
With a loophole that allows him to marry another without consequence before the thirtieth anniversary of his birth, he has only four weeks to find another woman and make her his wife. Being the logical scientist he is, Alex decides to take his friend's advice and treat his quest for a bride just like a science experiment... Caroline Sinclair is still trying to scrape her jaw off the floor after hearing her cousin, Lady Olivia's, latest announcement when the object of their conversation, Alex Banks, Olivia's intended, arrives for what Caroline assumes is a bout of drawing room chitchat with his betrothed. But when an experiment is mentioned, Caroline, who cannot resist a science experiment any more than she can deny her lungs air, volunteers to help before she even knows what his latest experiment is!
Unveiled
Courtney Milan - 2011
At Parford Manor, he intends to take his place as the rightful heir to the dukedom and settle an old score with the current duke once and for all. But instead he finds himself drawn to a tempting beauty who has the power to undo all his dreams of vengeance….Lady Margaret knows she should despise the man who's stolen her fortune and her father's legacy - the man she's been ordered to spy on in the guise of a nurse. Yet the more she learns about the new duke, the less she can resist his smoldering appeal. Soon Margaret and Ash find themselves torn between old loyalties - and the tantalizing promise of passion….
An Undeniable Rogue
Annette Blair - 2002
What she needs is a husband, and she knows well enough that romance and matrimony aren't always compatible. While providing for her twins and the child she now carries is paramount, wedding a virtual stranger—even a wealthy one, like Gideon St. Goddard, Duke of Stanthorpe—is no light matter.Sabrina knows the friend who arranged the union would not promise her to a true scoundrel, but one look at her future husband convinces her that he is a shameless rogue. A shockingly handsome and desirable one, at that. Why has he agreed to marry her? When Gideon flashes that wicked, seductive smile, the reason hardly matters, but the chance that he'll steal her heart becomes all too real...
The Visions of Ransom Lake
Marcia Lynn McClure - 2002
And somehow, young Vaden managed to be ever in his way-either by accident or because of her own unique ability to stumble into a quandary.Yet the enigmatic Ransom Lake would involuntarily become Vaden's unwitting tutor. Through him, she would experience joy and passion the like even Vaden had never imagined. Yes, Vaden Valmont stepped innocently, yet irrevocably, into love with the secretive, seemingly callous man-Ransom Lake.But there were other life's lessons Ransom Lake would inadvertently convey to her as well. The darker side of life-despair, guilt, heartache. Would Ransom Lake be the means of Vaden's dreams come true? Or the cause of her complete desolation?
A Bed of Spices
Barbara Samuel - 1993
Rica could never give in to her father's wishes and marry the man her twin sister loved. Another man, a stranger, set her blood racing and understood her bold, searching heart. Yet he was denied her forever.She set him afire with forbidden desire...Son of a wealthy Strassburg merchant, and determined to become a physician, Solomon had come to study the herbalist's art. It was there, in a wild garden, that he first set eyes on Rica. Her golden-haired beauty and bold spirit bewitched him. As plague ravaged Europe, he struggled against his passion, risking his life for the woman he longed to hold in his arms forever on...A Bed of Spices.
Ravished
Amanda Quick - 1992
Moving from the cozy confines of a tiny seaside village named Upper Biddleton to the glittering crush of a fashionable London soiree, Quick offers an enthralling tale of a mismatched couple poised to discover the rapture of love.There was no doubt about it. What Miss Harriet Pomeroy needed was a man. Someone powerful and clever who could help her rout the unscrupulous thieves who were using her beloved caves to hide their loot. But when Harriet summoned Gideon Westbrook, Viscount St. Justin, to her aid, she could not know that she was summoning the devil himself. . . . Dubbed the Beast of Blackthorne Hall for his scarred face and lecherous past, Gideon was strong and fierce and notoriously menacing. Yet Harriet could not find it in her heart to fear him. For in his tawny gaze she sensed a savage pain she longed to soothe . . . and a searing passion she yearned to answer. Now, caught up in the Beast’s clutches, Harriet must find a way to win his heart–and evade the deadly trap of a scheming villain who would see them parted for all time.RAVISHED is a retelling of the classic tale, Beauty and the Beast.
Saving Meg
Jayne Davis - 2021
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
Goddess of the Hunt
Tessa Dare - 2009
But first she needs some target practice. So she turns to her brother’s best friend, Jeremy Trescott, the Earl of Kendall, to hone her seductive wiles on him before setting her sights on another man. But her practice kisses spark a smoldering passion–one that could send all her plans up in smoke.Jeremy has an influential title, a vast fortune, and a painful past full of long-buried secrets. He keeps a safe distance from his own emotions, but to distract Lucy from her reckless scheming, he must give his passions free rein. Their sensual battle of wills is as maddening as it is delicious, but the longer he succeeds in managing the headstrong temptress, the closer Jeremy comes to losing control. When scandal breaks, can he bring himself to abandon Lucy to her ruin? Or will he risk his heart and claim her for his own?
Lion's Bride
Iris Johansen - 1996
After her caravan is destroyed, Thea is rescued by blustery knight Lord Ware and carried (pressed up against his hard, unyielding armor) to his desert fortress, Dundragon. Ware, hunted by the Knights Templar because he's discovered the secret of their Lion Throne, must protect Thea from the deadly consequences to anyone who gets close to him. Thea, an ambitious career woman, must stop Ware from running roughshod over her big plans. Together the feisty lovers battle crusaders, Muslims and their own misguided agendas before settling down in the Scottish Highlands to breed lusty little bairn
Mistress of Pleasure
Delilah Marvelle - 2008
Her only desire in life is to remain independent, free from men and the shackles of marriage. But when Maybelle lays eyes on Edmund Worthington, the Duke of Rutherford, at a soir e, and hears of his scandalous reputation, she decides he's the perfect person for her to have a tryst with no strings attached.IT MUST BE GIVEN.Unbridled passion has again muddied Edmund Worthington's family name. After his very public dalliance with the strikingly beautiful and sensual Maybelle, his mother insists he marry her. But much to the Duke's surprise, Maybelle scoffs at his proposal. Never has he encountered such a brazen—and maddeningly irresistible—woman. But when Maybelle's grandmother falls ill, forcing Maybelle to take over the operation of her school, Edmund devises a plan to make her his. He enrolls in the school, where no one other than Maybelle must give him expert lessons in carnal pleasure.