Showing results by publisher "-emdashery books-" in Historical

To the outside world, Electra D’Aplièse seems to be the woman with everything: as one of the world’s top models, she is beautiful, rich and famous. Yet beneath the veneer, Electra’s already tenuous control over her state of mind has been rocked by the death of her father, Pa Salt, the elusive billionaire who adopted his six daughters from across the globe. Struggling to cope, she turns to alcohol and drugs. As those around her fear for her health, Electra receives a letter from a complete stranger who claims to be her grandmother.

Mr Darcy's Second Chance is a compilation of three previously published Pride and Prejudice Variations.

Melbourne, 1927. The summer flowers smell like Christmas the night Zara Dickins meets Harry Holt. Zara is wearing a dress she has designed and made herself. White organdie over a short black slip, with black embroidery and a crimson taffeta sash. It is party season and the university crowd are celebrating end-of-year exams. Zara loves dancing with the boys and flirting with them, but it's a game to her. Nothing serious. Until Harry. He plans to be a politician once he finishes law. She, a fashion designer, if she can find a way to break out of the secretarial pool.

Be obedient. Be grateful. As the neglected illegitimate son of a powerful family, Corin is expected to follow his magic-gifted brother to the palace as a servant. He’s unwilling but resigns and allows himself one night of distraction in a stranger’s arms. Corin never knew pleasure and pain could be so exhilarating, so comforting. Corin only regrets he’ll never again see the anonymous man who ruined him for anyone else. Until the next morning when Corin meets his brother’s new arranged fiancé.

As a young man, Justin Wiley was banished by his father for mysterious reasons, but now his father is dead, and Justin has been Earl of Brandon for six years. A dark, dour man, he nonetheless takes it as his responsibility to care for his half-sister, Maria, when her mother dies. He travels to her home to fetch her back to the family seat at Everleigh Park. Although she adored him once, Maria now loathes Justin, and her friend, Lady Estelle Lamarr, can see immediately how his very name upsets her.

In the wake of World War Two, the whole country is desperate for houses, with very little money available to rebuild. In the town of Rivenshaw in Lancashire, Mayne Esher has no choice but to turn Esherwood, the war-damaged stately home which has been in his family for generations, into flats. Rebuilding Esherwood won't be easy but with Judith Crossley by his side, Mayne hopes to restore it to its former glory. First, he must open it up to some of his long-suffering army friends...and it soon becomes clear that the house isn't the only thing which needs rebuilding.

A year has passed since the Sheridans fled the plague in England, but a new crisis tears Valerie and Louisa apart once again, with dire consequences. As the stranded Whitfields desperately try to return home to the 17th century, the Sheridans face a threat of a different nature. The past rarely stays in the past, and a shocking murder brings things to a head as Kit is accused of the crime, and shameful secrets are brought into the open.

London's East End, 1940: a frightened young woman gives birth to a tiny baby. Clearly alone, she refuses to hold the child: she can’t let herself bond with the baby she must give up. But sometime in the night, a terrifying air raid forces the maternity unit to evacuate, and in the chaos, mother and baby are separated…

Cornwall, 1944. When Rupert Dash is declared missing, presumed dead during the Battle of Arnhem, his wife, Florence, is devastated. She can’t accept that he has gone from her life forever, and so when she finds a poem called ‘Wait for Me’ hidden in an old book, she believes it’s a sign from her husband. A promise that he will return to her. London, 1988. Since childhood Max has suffered from a recurring nightmare. Surrounded by the horrific chaos of war, he has an urgent mission he knows he must complete.

All the ton agree: there is no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. Fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken and - according to some, particularly Gareth St. Clair - probably best in small doses. But there's something about her - something charming and vexing - that grabs one and won't quite let go. Gareth and Hyacinth cross paths at the annual - and annually discordant - Smythe-Smith musicale. To Hyacinth, Gareth's every word seems a dare, and she offers to help him out with a knotty inheritance problem he's facing.

Born in 1799, Cashel Greville Ross experiences myriad lives: joyous and devastating, years of luck and unexpected loss. Moving from County Cork to London, from Waterloo to Zanzibar, Cashel seeks his fortune across continents in war and in peace. He faces a terrible moral choice in a village in Sri Lanka as part of the East Indian Army. He enters the world of the Romantic Poets in Pisa. In Ravenna he meets a woman who will live in his heart for the rest of his days.

Stranded in India after being dismissed without a reference, governess Beatrice Layton exchanges her freedom for passage home to England, taking a position with the only family that will hire her. But Bea hasn’t reckoned for just how dreadful her new employers will be. Stuck with them at sea in increasingly desperate circumstances, she finds an unlikely champion in the injured ex-soldier traveling aboard their ship.

Desperate after her Season comes to a spectacularly disastrous end, the Honourable Miss Clara Vetry jumps into a carriage hired to take a housekeeper to Scotland. The laird of Castle CaerLaven has no interest in a wife, especially a love match - but when Caelan sees his new housekeeper, he changes his mind. Marriage to a delectable bookworm strikes him as a perfect arrangement. To his surprise, Clara refuses his proposal once . . . and again . . . yet again.

Grit, determination, and a will of steel have propelled Hudson Stone through life. No case he faced as Chief Inspector at Scotland Yard went unsolved. But nothing could have prepared the implacable investigator for inheriting a dukedom. Even more maddening than his ducal obligations is Lady Elysande Collingwood, the previous Duke of Wycombe’s betrothed. Worst of all, the debts Hudson has been bequeathed along with the title mean he needs to marry an heiress to save his estates from ruin, and the cheerful, dazzling Lady Elysande is the only one he knows.

The Dowager Countess of Stratton, Clarissa Ware, née Greenfield, has just presented her younger daughter to the ton, and the rest of her life belongs only to herself. She returns to Ravenswood, intending to spend the summer alone there. But the summer has other plans for her.

After breaking my heart and publicly humiliating me, I vow to forget his existence. He has other plans, though, and vows to make certain I don’t. The only one I can turn to for help is a man I thought to be my enemy. Drew’s best friend Sebastian who claims to be my brother. He promises me security and protection. But no one can protect me from Drew. The faster I run, the more he chases. The harder I struggle, the tighter his grip becomes.

Harriet Ashleigh, the much-loved eldest daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Darlington, knows exactly what she wants from life. Just one simple thing: the freedom to be herself. But for a young woman living in the 17th century, freedom is not such an easy thing to achieve. When her family’s future wealth and happiness are threatened, she wrestles with the realization that duty will have to be put before her precious dreams.

At eighteen, Emmeline Ballentine’s father splashed out on one London season to introduce his daughter to polite society. Sadly, for Emmeline, polite society was not terribly receptive to a city trader’s daughter. She only ever caught one gentleman’s fancy, the dishonorable Jeremy Vance who made her head spin as he singled her out for attention at the balls and assemblies. Her worldly chaperone warned her he was making a May game of her, but Emmeline had not heeded her warning. Consequently, her dreams were dashed, when at the close of the season, Jeremy announced his engagement to another.

Theodora knows in her heart that she has star quality, but sadly, no one else in her theatrical family feels the same way. When her sister leaves to get married, Theo is promptly axed from the bill and expected to take a back seat in the family business.

Norway, 1940. Liv has lived a quiet life on her family farm, dreaming of a happy life after the war is finally over. But all of her dreams vanish when the Nazi soldiers arrive in her village and a senior officer see something special in her... something that Hitler and the high command in Berlin is desperate to have at any cost. England, 1968. Agnes, although made orphan from the war, has grown up happy in the quiet wealth of the English countryside, raised by her adoring grandfather to be a perfect lady.