Showing results by narrator "Susan Duerden" in All Categories

Mary Masterton is a desperate woman. Facing the advances of loathsome suitor she can’t imagine marrying, she is short on choices. She convinces a handsome stranger, the victim of a head injury, that they are engaged. Left with no memory of his previous life, the man has no reason to doubt her. The man’s signet ring is the only clue to his true identity as the Duke of Avalon. Determined to reclaim his past, he begs Mary to accompany him on a journey to track down the meaning of the ring. Once more Mary finds herself in a hopeless situation....

Giles has a golden touch - investments, horses, connections, but when he falls...hard for Suzanna, she turns him away, despite the passion sparking between them. At wit's end, Giles wagers her that not only will she marry him, but he'll make her fall in love with him. If Suzanna wins, she gains a sizable fortune for her favorite charity but she faces a loveless marriage to a titled man.

Julian Huntly, Earl of Melville, is being forced into marriage to a proper woman by his dead father. If he doesn't wed before he's thirty, he will lose everything. Even worse, the workers counting on him will be in danger. But he has a year to have one last great adventure before being shackled to someone for the rest of his life. Miss Elaina Bantham has had an exciting existence away from Society as she's traveled the globe and uncovered treasures with her aunt and uncle. It has been a wonderful distraction from her disastrous come out years ago.

After being forced into a brief marriage with an elderly earl, Celia Dorsett is ready to embrace her freedom, and take a lover. A masquerade with the demimonde sounds like the perfect way to find a companion for the evening without revealing her identity. But days after the most perfect evening of her life, she comes to realize her Lord Desire is none other than Christopher Sinclair, Viscount Stormont, her younger brother's best friend. The man who sits with her at the breakfast table nearly every morning making her laugh.

We wish you a steampunk Christmas.... Changed forever after tragedy, a woman must draw strength from her husband's love. A man learns that love isn't always what you expect. A thief steals the heart of a vengeful professor. And an American inventor finds love Down Under. Enjoy Victorian Christmas with a clockwork twist in these four steampunk novellas.

On the eve of Princess Sophia’s wedding, the Scandinavian city of Skyggehavn prepares to fete the occasion with a sumptuous display of riches. Yet beneath the veneer of celebration, a shiver of darkness creeps through the palace halls. A mysterious illness plagues the royal family, threatening the lives of the throne’s heirs, and a courtier’s wolfish hunger for the king’s favors sets a devious plot in motion.

Tormented at home and bullied during her studies abroad, second-born Iona of Wessett hides in the quiet corners of her father's castle. Her art and music provide refuge, but her cruel sister Lisenn ever lurks like a monster stalking its prey. Such has been her life for 20 years. However, a promise of reprieve and retribution arrives when the neighboring kingdom of Capria proposes an alliance between their new crown prince and Wessett's heir to the throne. The treaty will rid Iona of the toxic Lisenn, and the potential groom is none other than her erstwhile bully, Jaoven of Deraval.

Along the southern coast of England, atop the White Cliffs of Dover, stands a castle. And at that castle's old keep is an orphanage. Delphi Keep has seen many youngsters come and go through its gates, and Ian Wigby and his sister, Theodosia, are happy to call it home. Life has always been simple at the Keep, and the orphanage safe, until one day, Ian and Theo find a silver treasure box. And within the box, a prophesy. Three thousand years ago a great Greek oracle wrote of a quest.

When a young British girl, born and reared in India, loses her neglectful parents in an earthquake, she is returned to England to live at her uncle's castle. Due to the loss of his wife ten years before, her uncle is very distant and, once again, the girl finds herself ignored. As she grows accustomed to the house and its inhabitants, she begins exploring the estate and discovers a garden, the doors of which have been locked.

As she is seventh in line to the throne, sixteen-year-old Lady Margaret Clifford knows her marriage should be an important one. Which is why she is shocked to learn her father has agreed to entertain a proposal from a mere knight. Sir Andrew Dudley is a court favorite and joins the ranks of the Duke of Northumberland's family who are attempting to secure politically advantageous marriages. With the boy-king Edward VI failing to secure a marriage of his own and produce an heir, it is clear the Dudleys are plotting a path to the throne.

When Gia Landon is tricked into a London season by her father, she is pleased to have found a friend who shares her love of horses in the Duke of Roxburghe. The surly Scot enjoys living in London and hates the country, while Gia despises everything about society.

Lady Tabitha Hampton has the memory of an elephant. But this talent fails to help the twenty-seven-year-old bluestocking attract the attention of a single wealthy suitor. With three sisters of marriageable age, a sickly father, and a series of bad investments that left them impoverished, Tabitha's marriage could save or ruin her entire family. Arthur, the Duke of Collingford, needs a wife but not just any lady will do. Arthur's future duchess must be perfect in every way-fair of face, impeccable manners, with enough social influence to impact his parliamentary projects.

As in the original novel, the story follows two relationships: the tragic adulterous romance of Anna Karenina and Count Alexei Vronsky, and the much more hopeful marriage of Nikolai Levin and Kitty Shcherbatskaya. These four, yearning for true love, live in a steampunk-inspired 19th century of mechanical butlers, extraterrestrial-worshiping cults, and airborne debutante balls.

This novel take on the history of wine reveals that, whether by adding toxic sweeteners or passing off counterfeit bottles, wine fraud is abundant—and as old as wine itself. Vintage Crime will intrigue even the most sated of wine drinkers with its juicy tales of deception, raising interesting questions along the way: what counts as wine, why do we drink it, and what makes a wine truly authentic?

Big business is booming and state institutions are thriving thanks to advances in genetic engineering, which have produced a compliant population free from addictions. Violent crime is now a rarity. Mayhew McCline, a major corporation that analyzes global trends, has hired a genius: Jayna. A brilliant mathematical modeler, she has the ability to produce accurate predictions that are both good for the world and good for the bottom line. Her latest coup: finding a link between northeasterly winds and violent crime.

Responsible for the care of an opium-addicted uncle, George's life poses dangers to a bride that he'll never risk. It's why he avoided the independent and kind Lady Jane last year, despite her brother's request he protect her during her season. His neglect no doubt led to Jane's tattered reputation. In reparation, he's sent preapproved suitors to the house party to ensure she marries well, not to a man whose life is a nightmare.

A new year and a new season means a new Lillian Clarke. She's transformed herself from wallflower to incomparable. But she's no Cinderella. She's washed her hands of love and of Lord Devon, her own charming prince who barely knew she existed. She'd rather be the fairy godmother, helping invisible debutantes gain the attention they deserve on the marriage mart. But even though she's booted Lord Devon from her heart, he's not done with her. His sudden appearance at her home and inexplicable teasing threaten to distract her from her debutante dreams.

Griffin Lockhart holds the key to his family's fate. Since his brother Liam failed to reclaim the priceless heirloom that could save their ancestral Scottish estate, it's now up to Grif to find it—among the lords and ladies of fashionable London society. Disguised as a Scottish earl, Grif attends the most glittering balls, hunting for the woman who is rumored to possess his family's treasure. Along the way he catches the eye of Anna Addison, a highborn young woman whose sharp tongue and even sharper wits have limited her marital prospects but enable her to detect Grif's deception.

Lady Sarah Hampton would rather sew up a wound than tend to her own heart. Or matrimonial prospects. When the small hospital she's been volunteering at faces financial peril, she seeks to save them the best way she knows how—one dare, one wager, and one foolish rake at a time. No matter the risk to herself. If her friend's irritatingly handsome and brutish brother doesn't stand in her way.

Lady Edith knows the sting of unrequited love, and now she wants only one thing—to marry a man who desires her or to never marry. But at the season's end, her father threatens to provide a husband if she cannot secure one herself. When a family friend saves her from the unwanted advances of one of their suitors, she falls a little bit in love. With his auburn hair and radical ideas about women, Griffin Paxton, the Earl of Eastern, is perfect. Except he doesn't want her back.