Showing results by narrator "Lillian Rachel" in All Categories

Miss Charlotte despises the man she's supposed to marry. Of course, she hasn't actually met the Earl's son, but from the letters they've exchanged, he's exactly the sort of overbearing brute she can't stand. Not at all like that handsome, witty, romantic stranger she met at the bookshop. She agrees to meet this intriguing stranger in the garden at midnight, not realizing that the man she's agreed to meet...is the same man she's vowed to hate.

Captain Dylan Blake has spent the last decade fighting for his country. Desperate for a little peace, he sells his commission and returns to England but soon finds himself angry and adrift in London Society. When an old nemesis challenges him to a wager - he must get Lady Natalia Sinclair to dance with him twice in one evening - he is willing to play along. As the lines between the wager and attraction blur, can Dylan and Natalia find the courage to take the biggest gamble of all - love?

When the dashing spy finds the painfully shy wallflower alone in the library...Miss Lydia has been mistaken for many things. A part of the draperies, for example. And once...a potted fern. But she's never been mistaken for a spy before. Until now. But now a ridiculously handsome Viscount has come in her life, who's as cryptic as he is charming. And he seems intent on wooing the world's most timid wallflower.

Her reputation tarnished and her prospects all but gone, the School of Charm's headmistress has nothing left to lose. At least, that's what Miss Farthington believed. But now she's being pursued by a man as charming as he is clever, and she's realized that she was wrong. She still has something very dear left to lose...her heart.

Everyone knows the headmistress is destined to be a spinster. Well . . . everyone but the Marquess of Ainsley. The Marquess isn't certain why the elegant and resourceful Miss Grayson is so determined to remain unmarried. But he means to change her mind over the holidays. How will he coax the refined beauty out of her shell?

Miss Prudence has worked diligently to become the perfect wife for the lord she's meant to marry. There's only one flaw left—music. But when her aunt hires the handsome lord next door to help, Prudence's quest for perfection is ruined. How is the dutiful debutante expected to survive music lessons when her tutor is the boy who'd teased her mercilessly as a child? And now he's at it again. Poking fun and provoking her into rash actions.

Surely Lord Paul is teasing Mary yet again when he suggests that they marry for convenience. The childhood enemies have never been able to be in the same room together without tempers flaring. How could they possibly be married? But when Lord Paul comes to her rescue and saves Mary from near scandal, she may have no choice but to accept his hand. Which is awful. Obviously.

As the generating force of its plot, Twelfth Night uses a device which has since become a staple in comedy: gender confusion. Viola and her twin brother Sebastian, are shipwrecked on the coast of Illyria, a country ruled by the melancholy Duke Orsino. The twins are separated and Viola is led to believe that her brother has perished. She disguises herself as a male under the name of Cesario and makes her way to the ducal court, where Orsino employs her as a messenger, to communicate his love to the reclusive lady, Olivia—who is not willing to return his affection.

Quinton Errington is perfectly happy teaching at Cambridge, with his elder brother carrying the duties of being the duke of Wesley. But when a trip to celebrate his brother’s last week of bachelorhood ends in tragedy, Quinton, now the duke of Wesley, would give anything to have his brother back. Now, under the most heartbreaking of circumstances, Wesley's would-be bride, Catherine Greatheart, is left wanting. Her only protection left, her grandmother, has fallen ill, and Catherine has nowhere left to turn but to the family she was so close to being part of.

There's no love lost between this shy wallflower and society's most formidable duke. The Duke of Mandrick has made it clear he's only aiding Felicity's successful entrance into society because he's taken pity on his friend's poor country relation. Luckily for Felicity, her chaperone Lady Greta has agreed to tutor her in the art of flirtation. And since the coldhearted duke is the last man to fall for her charms, he's the perfect man to practice on.

In 1916, Chris returns home from a French hospital to his country estate just outside London. The nature of his injuries at the front has caused him to suffer from amnesia. Awaiting him at home are his devoted wife, whom he does not remember, and his cousin, Jenny, whom he remembers only as a childhood friend. For Chris, the last 15 years have not happened and he believes himself still in love with a woman named Margaret, the poor innkeeper's daughter he courted many years before.

Writing to her only friend from her deathbed, Mathilda finally reveals the history that led to her isolated life of despairing melancholy. Of her mother dying in childbirth, her father's confession of his incestuous desire and subsequent suicide, and her relationship with a handsome young poet that fails to reverse Matilda's emotional withdrawal or prevent her lonely death. The haunting and relentlessly self-examining voice of Mary Shelley's protagonist is a bare narrative of trauma of a brave woman's failed search for love, atonement, and redemption.

Plagued by misfortune, Ingrid Norling treks into the woods to clear her head. She emerges a monster-slayer, the shaken executioner of a creature so ferocious that even the king's strongest warriors could not destroy it. In a land that reveres swords and worships strength, this accidental heroism earns Inge an audience at court and an ill-fated prize: King Halvard impulsively adopts her and names her as his heir.

Madame Pratolungo is a close companion to Lucilla Finch, a young woman who has been blind since birth. Madame Pratolungo records the narrative of Lucilla's trials from falling in love with Oscar Duborg, her wealthy and shy neighbor, to ending up in a romantic entanglement between Oscar and his brother Nugent. When Lucilla temporarily regains her sight thanks to Herr Grosse, mistaken identities and manipulative schemes are there to greet her.

Can Adelynn and Baze overcome the obstacles and lies that separate them . . . or is redemption just out of reach? After escaping Ireland’s most sinister criminal, Baze and Adelynn Ford realize they must change tactics if they want to survive, but it’s not an easy task given the rift that’s forming between the couple. Baze’s past traumas are tainting the hard decisions he faces in both his family and career, while Adelynn does the unthinkable: using her gift to plunge into Shay O’Sullivan’s mind. It works—she discovers his hiding place.

Three years ago Melisende’s husband, Simon, went off with Lord Barnard and his men to join King Phillip of France on the Third Crusade. Now Lord Barnard is dead and his son, Lord Charles, has come home from the crusades with the last of their men - and Simon is not among them. Lord Charles claims Simon died saving his life. Melisende suspects there is more to the story. Left to fend for herself and her two young children, Melisende is determined to discover what really happened to Simon at the battle for Acre.

Two women, one ancient Egyptian harem, and the daring decision that changed the course of history. In the opulent court of Egypt’s tenth dynasty, Princess Hagar has always known her destiny. One day, she will marry the Crown Prince Merikare and become the Great Royal Wife, the most powerful woman in Egypt. But dark dreams afflict Hagar the moment she hears of the latest addition to Pharaoh’s harem: The stunning, iridescent Sumerian, Sarai. Princess Hagar feels a powerful presence around the Sumerian woman.

Abandoned by her allies, the Republic of Venice holds out as the last beacon of resistance against the hobgoblin armies. Armed with new weapons the Southern Horde drives upon the floating city by land and sea. The Northern Horde drives deep into the heart of Europa and all fall before it. The Horde is vast beyond measure. Assassin daggers lurk in every shadow. Necrotic evil seeps and infects.

The King is dead. Chaos reigns… A life of messy politics and war was never what Brianna planned. Now she has to navigate a world where everyone seems set against her while trying to fix the country’s problems. She must show no weakness, for only then can she marry the man she loves and take her place as queen. But while Spirit-Beasts and Borderland nobility argue over alliances, Queen Geraldina works to take everything Brianna loves, and she has been playing this game for a long time.

Some things are better left in the past, but Eliza has spent years running from hers. When the man who upended her life re-enters it in the most unexpected way, Eliza must decide if reacquainting herself with Nicolas is worth the heartache.