As delicate and beautiful as the tender blossoms of the Oregon spring, she is shunned by a town that misinterprets her affliction. But cruelty cannot destroy the love Annie holds in her heart. Alex Montgomery is horrified to learn his wild younger brother forced himself on a helpless "idiot girl." Tormented by guilt, Alex agrees to marry her and raise the baby she carries as his own. But he never dreams he will grow to cherish his lovely, mute, and misjudged Annie; her childlike innocence, her womanly charms and the wondrous way she views her world. He becomes determined to break through the wall of silence surrounding her; to heal... and to be healed by Annie's sweet song of love.

    She believes her betrothed is a generous and noble man who has been longing for her. But the handsome man waiting for her at the altar is a dark, brooding stranger who rushes her into marriage, then abandons her at his country estate. Only the passion of Michael's kiss gives her hope that theirs can be more than a marriage of convenience. A man's need... With scandal shadowing his past, Michael, the Devil of Darfield, had no need for a wife. Remembering only the little hellion who made life miserable for him aboard her father's ship, he resents the agreement he made to marry her so he could save his ancestral home. Though determined to ignore her, he cannot stop thinking about his lovely violet-eyed bride. Her beauty tempts him. Her charm bedevils him. He tries to drive her away until he almost loses her. Then he vows to regain her love—before it is too late....

    . . .PRINCE OLAF OF NORWAY—Lord of the Wolves, the golden Viking warrior who came in his dragon ship to forge a great kingdom in the Emerald Isle.PRINCESS ERIN—Daughter of the Irish High King, the ebony-haired beauty who swore bitter vengeance on the legendary Norseman who had brought death and destruction to her beloved homeland.Yet, in the great Norse and Irish alliance against the invading Danes, it was her own father who gave her in marriage to her most hated enemy. Bewitched by Olaf's massive strength, seduced by his power, still Erin vowed that neither the wrath of his sword nor the fire of his kiss would sway the allegiance of her proud and passionate heart.

    Julia strikes out on her own to gain independence, traveling to the Midwest to marry an aging shopkeeper and care for his mother. Julia finds her new home rough and uncivilized after the sophistication of a big city, while closely held secrets threaten to ruin Julia’s one chance at love. Jake Shelling was sixteen and grew up quick when his parents died from influenza on the South Dakota prairie. Left with a half-cleared farm and two young sisters, he spent little time on his own needs . .till now. At thirty-five, he figured it was high time to have some sons and a mail order bride would suit him just fine. No expectations of love, just a helpmate from sturdy stock, ready for farm life. Will fate and chance play a trick on Julia and Jake?

    Not if they value their life. But when Meredith Hayes overhears a lethal plot to burn the Archer brothers off their ranch, a twelve-year-old debt compels her to take the risk.Fourteen years of constant vigilance hardens a man. Yet when Travis Archer confronts a female trespasser with the same vivid blue eyes as the courageous young girl he once aided, he can't bring himself to send her away. And when an act of sacrifice leaves her injured and her reputation in shreds, gratitude and guilt send him riding to her rescue once again.Four brothers. Four straws. One bride. Despite the fact that Travis is no longer the gallant youth Meredith once dreamed about, she determines to stand by his side against the enemy that threatens them both. But will love ever be hers? Or will Travis always see her merely as a short-straw bride?

    Sarah McGowanHer roots were deep in the Texas soil. But her secret shameful love for her sister's husband kept her from happiness.Pride and their love of the Texas land threw them together in an unlikely marriage. Then, as unexpectedly as a spring flood, long pent-up passion exploded in a storm that was to consume them both...

    An American heiress and graduate of Lady Grantham's finishing school, she's been groomed since birth to marry an English title—the grander the better. So when the man chosen for her, the forbidding Earl of Dunnley, seems to hate her on sight, she understands that it can't matter. Love can have no place in this arrangement.Andrew Hargrave has little use for his title and even less for his cold, disinterested parents. Determined to make his own way, he's devoted to his life in Italy working as an archaeologist. Until the collapse of his family's fortune drags him back to England to a marriage he never wanted and a woman he doesn't care to know.Wild attraction is an unwanted complication for them both, though it forms the most fragile of bonds. Their marriage of convenience isn't so intolerable after all—but it may not be enough when the deception that bound them is finally revealed.

    So she heads west across a vast and dangerous land -- with no intention of honoring her agreement to become the mail-order bride of a rugged Arizona rancher.But Lucas Holt needs a wife -- any wife -- if his plan to destroy his most hated enemy is to succeed. And this gullible Eastern lady would do quite nicely. However, their separate schemes to use one another are complicated by raw, aching passion. For Lucas's beautiful, unsuspecting pawn was not supposed to be so irresistible alluring. And freedom-loving Sharisse never dreamed she could ever desire one man so much!

     Edwina Ladoux hoped becoming a mail-order bride would be her way to a better life, but as soon as she arrives in Breakheart, Colorado, and meets Declan Brodie and his four rambunctious children, she realizes she's made a mistake. Luckily, Edwina and Declan agreed on a three- month courtship period, which should give them time to get the proxy marriage annulled. Except that as the weeks pass, thoughts of annulment turn into hopes for a real marriage-until Declan's first wife suddenly returns.

    and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger.A lusty adventurer married to the sea, Captain Brandon Birmingham courts scorn and peril when he abducts the beautiful fugitive from the tumultuous London dockside. But no power on Earth can compel him to relinquish his exquisite prize. For he is determined to make the sapphire-eyed lovely his woman... and to carry her off to far, uncharted realms of sensuous, passionate love.

    But long ago he promised his mother he would get married "if not before, then on the eve of my twenty-eighth birthday". Reminded by his sister, a duchess, that his next birthday is his twenty-eighth birthday, Michael realizes he has much to do in the three weeks he has to keep his promise – not the least of which is to secure the only woman he has ever considered for a wife – the younger daughter of his business partner and the very woman his sister has just hired to be a governess! The duchess will rescind her offer of employment to Olivia Waterford, but there's no time for courtship, no time for banns to be read, and certainly no time to wait for a wedding to be planned once Michael proposes. His sister has the perfect plan, though. In order to meet his mother's deadline and ensure a quick marriage, she insists Michael must ruin Olivia! Olivia has felt affection for her father's business partner since the day he rescued her from a rake. But since the gentleman never showed a romantic interest in her during his frequent visits to her family's home in Shipley, imagine her shock when he climbs into her bed and is discovered by her father! Ruined, indeed! Now married and living in London, Michael is sure Olivia despises him for what happened, while Olivia is quite sure her husband has feelings for her sister and simply wandered into the wrong bedchamber that fateful Tuesday night. Will a week be enough time for Michael to court his new wife and convince her of his affections? Or will he regret his last-minute efforts to accomplish too much in too little time? Only time will tell in "Tuesday Nights".

    1. Learn the most intimate secrets of London’s leading courtesan.2. Pretend to be a courtesan yourself, using the name Juliet Leighton.3. Travel to Venice and locate said husband.4. Seduce husband, conceive an heir, and voilà, your future is secure!For Julia, the Duchess of Colton, such a ruse promises to be foolproof. After all, her husband has not bothered to lay eyes on her in eight years, since their hasty wedding day when she was only sixteen. But what begins as a tempestuous flirtation escalates into full-blown passion—and the feeling is mutual. Could the man the Courtesan Duchess married actually turn out to be the love of her life?

    Original.

    But his stolen kiss scatters her senses and, quicker than a whirling dust devil, they're wed!To her relief, Tucker's keen to fix the marital slipup--and then he tells her the deed she holds belongs to him, and him alone. Maybe she shouldn't rush to have their marriage annulled. No man, no matter how good-looking, is going to swindle Skylar out of the one thing she yearns for most--a home.

    She is now a rich, brilliant barrister, living in London's classiest district. Yet when Meghann agrees to defend Michael Devlin, a notorious Irish nationalist -- and the boy she once loved -- she comes face-to-face with the true power and spirit of her heritage and a passion she cannot deny.