Book picks similar to
Crystal Web by Veronica Smith


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His Heart's Delight


Mary Blayney - 2002
    The Braedon Family Series, Book One. Morgan Braedon is not the slightest bit interested in marriage though his family thinks it’s essential to his future. Morgan needs one more year at the gaming tables to reach his financial goals and then he will walk away from gambling forever. Christiana Lambert is not the slightest bit interested in marriage to anyone but her childhood sweetheart who is fighting abroad. While he is away she is going to London to party and avoid men with marriage on their mind. Morgan and Christiana meet and plan a sham courtship to fool his family and guarantee her an escort. But love takes them by surprise and the game changes more than one life.

Sanctuary


Donna Ball - 1991
    Legend has it that their home is built on holy ground. Other legends tell of hideous beasts that roam the mountainside, Yeti-like creatures so terrifying that no one has ever dared disturb their sanctuary… until now.First there are random acts of vandalism, then small pets begin to disappear, and then men go into the woods and don’t come back. When Christy’s nightmares begin to suggest that she can actually communicate with the creatures who are wreaking such havoc on their small and vulnerable community, Laura is terrified. Because Christy’s dreams tell her that the monsters are coming for her next.And she is right.Sanctuary is a suspense-filled tale of love, courage and redemption that will take you in its grip from the first page and leave you breathless by the last. Because sometimes the real monsters are the ones you can’t escape, no matter how far you run.

The Maidstone Lighthouse


Sally Smith O'Rourke - 2003
    More curious than afraid, Susan is immediately intrigued by the ghost of this sad and beautiful girl who gazes out at the Maidenstone Lighthouse. The startling truth behind a century-old mystery emerges to shed a beacon of light on dangerous shadows in Susan's past.

Forbidden Caress: The Warrior's Captive


Colleen Faulkner - 2019
    She beholds America’s virgin shores with wonder until her cowardly fiancé abandons her in the forest when they are attacked by Indians. In the first moments she faces her captor in terror.The warrior Night Fox reaches out and touches her cheek. What fool would leave a treasure like this behind? He is bewitched by his tribe’s newest captive. Her lustrous hair is red like the fox’s, her silky skin reminds hime of the yellow wildflower. He yearns to kiss the tears from her cheeks. He wants to taste the honey of her lips.”I hate you,” Katelyn trembles so much she can barely get the words out. ”No, you don’t hate me. You fear me, but you don’t hate me.” Night Fox is so close. Katelyn has never heard a man’s husky whisper.She meets his haunting black eyes without flinching. “Yes I do,” she lies. “I hate you because you kidnapped me, because you made your slave…” I hate you because I can’t despise you the way I should.He senses her surrender to his forbidden caress. Fox pulls her close, savoring the warmth of her damp skin beneath his touch.She trembles in his grasp, unable to tear her eyes from his. She remembers the taste of his mouth on hers. “I hate you because you touch me.”“Do not be afraid.”She lets herself be drawn into his arms. No one has ever tried to comfort her, no one has ever cared. Why this man, she wonders, as she bends his head towards her. Why the enemy? BONUS This edition contains a bonus excerpt from RACHEL’S CHOICE by Judith E. French REVIEWS OF FORBIDDEN CARESS 4.09 average rating this edition, 134 ratings, 11 reviews, added by 440 people, 42 to-reads, 91% of people like it–Goodreads4.2 out of 5 stars (24 ratings)–Amazon“A LOVE STORY. I loved this story. I recommend everyone to read this book. I look forward to reading more of her.” Kattie, Goodreads“Awesome Writer!!!!! One of the best, so many struggles, but love conquers all. Must read!!!! Only in fairy tales but the world is a viciously attacking diversity place. But this is a real love story beginning to end!!! Loved it.”—Diana Crane, Goodreads ABOUT COLLEEN FRENCH Colleen French has a unique gift for capturing the essence of passion in her breathtaking tales of romance and adventure. Winner of the Delaware Diamond Award for Literary Excellence and the P.E.A.R.L. award, she is the daughter of bestselling novelist Judith E. French who first taught her how to write. Colleen has written more than 130 print novels which have sold more than 5 million copies and been translated into Bulgarian, French, German, Italian, Mandarin, and Spanish. Her Native American novels are inspired by her English, Scottish, Irish, Welsh, and Lenni–Lenape ancestry and her home near the Chesapeake Bay, where her family has lived for more than 300 years. Her books appeal to fans of Christi Caldwell, Mary Balogh, C. J. Petit, Shirleen Davies, Karen Kay, Madeline Baker, Elle Marlow, Ellen O'Connell, Vonna Harper, Judith E. French, Kathryn Le Veque, Margaret Mallory, Julie Garwood, Caroline Fyffe, Maya Banks, Hannah Howell Fiona Faris, and Alisa Adams.

Clermont


Regina Maria Roche - 1798
    One stormy night, their solitude is interrupted by a benighted traveller, a Countess who turns out to be a friend from Clermont's past.

Postcards from Last Summer


Roz Bailey - 2006
    'Postcards from Last Summer' follows the lives and loves of three girlfriends as they reconnect in the Hamptons each summer for cold margaritas, hot hookups and plenty of drama.

On the Edge of the Woods


Diane Tyrrel - 2004
     It's a turn-of-the-century rambling manor in the shadows of the Sierra Nevada mountain range. And even though it will need months of renovations, nothing will stop architect Stacy Addison from buying it--not even the threatening notes...the hang-ups...the harassment. Someone doesn't want Stacy in the house. But it's not just the house, Stacy slowly realizes. Someone wants her gone-permanently.

You'll Like My Mother


Naomi A. Hintze - 1969
    For Francesca it is an introduction to terror...

Dark Desires


Eve Silver - 2005
    Damien Cole. Ignoring the whispered warnings and rumours that he's a man to fear, she takes her position at his eerie estate, where she quickly discovers that nothing is at it seems, least of all her handsome and brooding employer. As Darcie struggles with her fierce attraction to Damien, she must also deal with the blood, the disappearances ... and the murders.With her options dwindling and time running out, Darcie must rely on her instincts as she confronts the man she falling in love with. Is he an innocent and misunderstood man ... or a remorseless killer who prowls the East End streets?Note: All books in the Dark Gothic series can be read as stand-alone novels.

Master of the Moor


Emmanuelle de Maupassant - 2021
    Haunted by scandal, she’ll stop at nothing to gain what she needs, even if it means deceiving the enigmatic, yet fascinating Mallon de Wolfe.After more than twenty years in exile, Mallon de Wolfe—formidable, handsome, and with a shard of ice where his heart should be—returns to his ancestral home to confront his past.The windswept heathlands of Dartmoor are vast, barren and perilous.A place of superstition, where no man walks without the moon to guide him.As Mallon and Geneviève become entangled, do the moors hold their destruction or salvation?Master of the Moor is a gothic historical romance, featuring passionate love scenes.

Dark Angel


Tracy Grant - 1994
    Too much of an outsider for his childhood sweetheart, Caroline, who turned her back on their forbidden love to marry the wealthier, safer Jared Rawley. Taught a bitter lesson about not belonging, Adam left England as a diplomat and spy in the Peninsular War. But even then he could not escape Caroline. When he learned her husband, Jared, had betrayed crown and country, he exposed Jared as a traitor despite Caroline's pleas.Sheltered, pampered Caroline grew up and found unexpected courage in the wake of her husband's disgrace. She left her decorous life in England and followed Jared into war-torn Spain. Now a widow with a young daughter, she is trapped behind enemy lines. Adam sets out to rescue the woman who still haunts his dreams. In a landscape set with treachery and intrigue, Adam and Caroline's only hope of survival is to rely on each other. They brave bandits, enemy soldiers, and harsh terrain, but the greatest danger they face may be navigating the web of love and betrayal that still binds them together.

It Started in June


Susan Kietzman - 2018
    After a few weeks of exhilarating secret dates, Grace--forty-two and divorced--realizes she's pregnant.For Grace, whose estranged mother refers to her own teenage pregnancy as her biggest mistake, the prospect of parenthood is daunting. She's just been made vice president of a media relations company and is childfree by choice. Still, something deeper than her fear makes her want to keep the baby. She knows she can be a better, more capable parent than her mother was to her.As months pass and seasons change, Grace questions her decision to include Bradley in her plans. But they continue to navigate their complicated relationship, each struggling with what it means to make a commitment to someone. Most importantly, Grace begins trusting her instincts--maternal and otherwise--finding courage that will guide her through an uncertain future ripe with new possibilities . . .Praise for the novels of Susan Kietzman "Beautifully written and closely observed . . . captures the deep and complicated love of family. Reading this lovely novel, I felt the embrace of summer on the shoreline."--New York Times bestselling author Luanne Rice on The Summer Cottage "Readers will find themselves drawn into the tragedies and triumphs of this fictional family--distinct and yet utterly relatable." --Hartford Books Examiner on The Good Life

Lakesedge


Lyndall Clipstone - 2021
    She knows the terrifying rumors about Rowan Sylvanan, who drowned his entire family when he was a boy. But neither the estate nor the monster are what they seem.There are monsters in the woods.As Leta falls for Rowan, she discovers he is bound to the Lord Under, the sinister death god lurking in the black waters of the lake. A creature to whom Leta is inexplicably drawn…There’s a monster in the shadows, and now it knows my name.Now, to save Rowan—and herself—Leta must confront the darkness in her past, including unraveling the mystery of her connection to the Lord Under.

Madeleine: A Regency Romance Novella


Mary Lancaster - 2019
    A soldier wounded in mind and body, he has the soul of an artist and the hands of a musician.She falls in love and marries in haste...but will she live to repent? For the castle seems to have a personality of its own, and Roderick, haunted by his past, lives on the edge of insanity.Inspired by Edgar Alan Poe's Fall of the House of Usher, Madeleine is a gothic tale of mystery, danger, passion, and love overcoming all.(Note: This story was first published as part of the USA Today Bestselling Boxed set, The Midnight Hour: All Hallows' Brides, October 2019)

Let Love Come Last


Taylor Caldwell - 1949
    . . Even when, brutally overriding her refined sensibility, he imprisoned her in a mansion of overwhelming opulence, an accursed house that brought all who lived there grief. . . Even when, before her eyes, she saw him destroying their children with his misguided indulgence. . . For here was a man more powerful, more truly gigantic than any she had ever known, a man she knew she would love until death. . .