Betrothed since they were children, Gilbert Baring-Gould, Earl of Kerr, and the Honorable Emma Loudan are not quite what one would call a perfect match. The whole Ton knows him to be a complete rakehell, hardly the ideal spouse for a lady.
When he horrifies the Ton by announcing that he won’t go through with the marriage until Emma is carrying his child — or did he say that she was already carrying a child? — the gossips (and Emma) go wild.
Obviously she should hand this Beelzebub his ring back directly. But curiosity, and a strong wish to teach her brazen-faced fiancé some manners, demand that she beat him at his own game.
So she does.
It’s the story of a reluctant bridegroom (engaged since childhood, and hasn’t seen his fiancée in years), a bride who’s losing her patience, and a wild night in which the said bridegroom meets a wicked, delicious Frenchwoman…or is she?
You are cordially invited to a ball party kidnapping…
Taran Ferguson, laird of his clan, is determined that his ancient (if not so honorable) birthright be secured before he dies. When both his nephews refuse to wed, he takes matters into his own hands, raiding an English lord’s Christmas ball and making off with four lovely potential brides (and one very irate duke). When his nephews, the Comte de Rocheforte and the Earl of Oakley, arrive for their annual holiday visit, they are drawn into a matchmaking party, of sorts. Among the unwitting guests are:
• Miss Fiona Chisholm, a beauty with a scandalous past.
• Lady Cecily Tarleton, a lovely heiress—but she’s English.
• Miss Catriona Burns, a lady with no name or fortune, so clearly someone made a mistake!
As the snow piles up outside the highland castle, and the guests are forced to pass the time together, the initial dismay turns to unanticipated attractions and then irresistible passions — and indeed, there might be one LADY MOST WILLING to marry a Scottish lord.
A novel in three parts, as fresh and charming as the Highland air, written by three of the very best writers of historical romance.
Hugh Dunne, the Earl of Briarly, needs a wife, so his sister hands him a list of delectable damsels and promises to invite them—and a few other gentlemen—to her country house for what is sure to be the event of the season. Hugh will have time to woo whichever lady he most desires. Unless someone else snatches her first.
The invitation list includes:
• The always outspoken Miss Katherine Peyton.
• The impossibly beautiful (and painfully shy) Miss Gwendolyn Passmore.
• The widowed Lady Georgina Sorrell (who has no plans to marry, ever).
And your hostess, Lady Carolyn Finchley, an irrepressible matchmaker with romantic plans for every last one of them—especially THE LADY MOST LIKELY to marry an eligible Earl.
The Lady Most Likely is an utterly charming concoction, a novel written in three parts by three very good friends: Julia Quinn, Connie Brockway, and myself. We wrote this novel on a visit to New Orleans, sitting around madly plotting and writing during the day, then eating fabulous food at night. I think this novel is even more fun to read than an average romance–because you have all the delight of our three voices both separately, and woven together.
Having made a fortune, Thorn Dautry, the powerful bastard son of a duke, decides that he needs a wife. But to marry a lady, Thorn must acquire a gleaming, civilized facade, the specialty of Lady Xenobia India.
Exquisite, headstrong, and independent, India vows to make Thorn marriageable in just three weeks.
But neither Thorn nor India anticipate the forbidden passion that explodes between them.
Thorn will stop at nothing to make India his. Failure is not an option. But there is only one thing that will make India his.
The one thing Thorn can’t afford to lose–his fierce and lawless heart.
Gabrielle Jerningham cherishes the portrait of her betrothed, the perfect Peter Dewland…until she meets his commanding older brother Quill. But it is Peter to whom she has been promised. And how can she possibly transform her voluptuous, outspoken self into the poised gentlewoman Peter requires?
When Gabby’s shocking décolletage plunges to her waist at her first ball, Peter is humiliated. But Quill comes to the rescue, to the peril of his heart. An accident years before has left Quill plagued by headaches–the kind that grows more excruciating with strenuous exercise. Needless to say, this hardly bodes well for siring progeny. But the very sight of Gabby leaves Quill breathless. One forbidden kiss and Quill vows to have her, headaches–and Peter–be damned! But it will take a clever man–and a cleverer woman–to turn the tables on propriety and find their way to true love…
To her legions of adoring suitors, it comes as quite a shock when Lady Sophie York rejects an offer of marriage from the dashing, rakish Patrick Foakes in favor of amiable but dull Bradden Chatwin. He may be an earl, but it is Patrick’s stolen kisses that sear her lips.
When Patrick, in disguise, scales a ladder to retrieve his friend’s fiancée, he never expects the elopement to be his own. Neither does Sophie, Braddon, or the rest of the tattling ton. One hasty wedding later, the passionate innocent and the sophisticated rogue play out their own intricate dance as Sophie masters what it takes to keep a man where he belongs. And Patrick learns the ultimate lesson in love.
Reckless desire sends Charlotte Daicheston into the garden with a dashing masked stranger. He’s powerful, unforgettable, a devastatingly handsome footman who lures her–not against her will–into a grand indiscretion at a masquerade ball. Then he vanishes.
Several years later, after Charlotte has made her dazzling debut in London society, they meet again. But the rogue is no footman. He’s rich, titled, and he doesn’t remember Charlotte. Worse, he’s the subject of some scandalous gossip: rumor has it, the earl’s virility is in question.
Charlotte, who knows all too intimately the power of his passion, is stunned by the gossip that has set society ablaze. At last, there can be a storybook ending…unless, of course, Charlotte’s one mad indiscretion had not been with him at all…
Helene, the Countess Godwin, knows there is nothing more unbearably tedious than a virtuous woman. After all, she’s been one for ten long years while her scoundrel of a husband lives with strumpets and causes scandal after scandal. So she decides it’s time for a change–she styles her hair in the newest, daring mode, puts on a shockingly transparent gown, and goes to a ball like Cinderella, hoping to find a prince charming to sweep her off her feet… and into his bed.
But instead of a prince, she finds only her volatile, infuriatingly handsome… husband, Rees, the Earl Godwin. They’d eloped to Gretna Green in a fiery passion, but passion can sometimes burn too hot to last.
But now, Rees makes her a brazen offer, and Helene decides to become his wife again… but not in name only. No, this time she decides to be very, very wicked indeed.
It is whispered behind the fans of London’s dowagers and in the corners of fashionable ballrooms that scandal follows willfully wild Lady Beatrix Lennox wherever she goes. Three years before, the debutante created a sensation by being found in a distinctly compromising position. Now, the ton has branded her as unmarriageable, her family has called her a vixen, and Beatrix sees no reason not to go after what–and who–she wishes.
And she wants Stephen Fairfax-Lacy, the handsome Earl of Spade. Beatrix, with her brazen suggestions and irresistibly sensuous allure, couldn’t be more different from the earl’s ideal future bride. Yet Beatrix brings out a wildness in the earl he has tried to deny far too long. Still, he’s not about to play love’s game by Lady Beatrix’s rules. She may be used to being on top in affairs of the heart, but that will soon change.
The Woman
Lady Henrietta Maclellan longs for the romantic swirl of a London season. But as a rusticating country maiden, she has always kept her sensuous nature firmly under wraps — until she meets Simon Darby. Simon makes her want to whisper promises late at night, exchange kisses on a balcony, receive illicit love notes. So Henrietta lets her imagination soar and writes…
The Letter
A very steamy love letter that becomes shockingly public. Everyone supposes that he has written it to her, but the truth hardly matters in the face of the scandal to come if they don’t marry at once. But nothing has quite prepared Henrietta for the pure sensuality of…
The Man
Simon has vowed he will never turn himself into a fool over a woman. So, while debutantes swoon as he disdainfully strides past the lovely ladies of the ton, he ignores them all… until Henrietta. Could it be possible that he has been the foolish one all along?
