Showing results by narrator "Rachael Beresford" in All Categories

The last thing Eleanora Quinton expects when the dead body hits the floor, is love with the son of a duke. As society’s most capable housekeeper, Eleanora has conquered any number of social disasters. But when a dead body falls right into the middle of her mistress’ ball and her son gets kidnapped, the only person who can help her also forces her to face her most crippling fears

Prince Leopold, Duke of Albany, was the most intelligent of Queen Victoria's four sons. He was the youngest, a strong-willed, likeable character with an immense thirst for life who faced two overwhelming handicaps. One was haemophilia, then barely understood, which might have killed him at any moment, and in any case subjected him to recurring pain and disability. The other was his mother's determination to keep complete control over his life.

As a con woman who has spent her entire life fending for herself on the streets of London, Rose Wakefield knows how to scam a gentleman out of his money without ever getting caught. That's until she knocks on the wrong earl's door and is faced with Carver Ashburn Earl of Kensworth and not the notorious rake she thinks she is approaching. Carver is a good man, but even a good man will not pass up an opportunity to escape his grief. What better way to avoid his feelings than to play into a con woman's ruse and offer to marry her?

When Lady Emma Carlisle's twin sister jilts the wealthy and influential Duke of Ashford, their distraught parents pressure shy Lady Emma to marry the duke in her sister's place, dashing her hopes of a love match. Lady Emma is determined to make the best of the situation, but her new husband is cold and aloof and wants nothing to do with her. In his quieter moments, she catches glimpses of a thoughtful and intelligent man she'd like to know better. If only he weren't determined to keep her at a distance.

Viscount Gavin Turley is convinced that love matches cause nothing but trouble. Still, after months of courting, he's fallen for Miss Georgie Featherton. He's passionate about her, in fact. But words of love are not an indulgence he will allow himself. When he presents Georgie with his marriage proposal, he will lead with his head - not his heart. His qualifications as a husband are excellent, after all. What could go wrong?

Even with her privileged life, Lady Hester Stanhope knows that claiming the adventurous life she truly wants will not be easy, thanks to her eccentric father's stifling grip. With the help of her renowned statesman uncle William Pitt the Younger, she takes on the glittering, treacherous heights of London Society. Her formidable intelligence, outspoken opinions, and headstrong determination gain the favor of the beau monde's leading taste-maker Beau Brummell—and she quickly learns to bend the rules of the ton to her own advantage.

He told me I was his muse. He lied. Anton Sachov, the artist, the man who only sees in monochrome. He wants something from me. Something precious; the meadow green of my eyes, the rich mahogany of my hair, the creamy white of my skin, the stark red of my blood, even the darkness of my soul. And he will do anything to get them.

Elizabeth Ashburn is madly, deeply, irrefutably in love with her best friend. They know each other better than their own minds. There is only one problem: To him, she is Little Lizzie, and nothing she does seems to replace the idea in his mind. No matter. It is her first Season and she is determined to make a match with a gentleman - any gentleman - who will help her steal her heart back from Oliver Turner and his sea-blue eyes. Oliver Turner can remember the exact day that Lizzie grew up. And now, he cannot see her as anything besides the beautiful woman stealing his breath.

It's difficult enough for Lady Clara Stanbourne to run her London home for reformed young pickpockets without having to contend with a criminal right next door! The mysterious Morgan Pryce is obviously dealing in stolen property, and she will never allow the handsome scoundrel to lead the children astray. Pryce is very much mistaken if he believes her a delicate rose he can wilt with passionate, unspoken promises. Now if only Clara could douse the fiery yearning the charming cad ignites inside her.

Griff Knighton's found the perfect way to avoid being trapped into marriage with one of the Earl of Swanlea's daughters: He'll swap identities with his man of affairs during their next visit to Swan Park, and be free to pursue his own desires! After all, he's not about to marry some homely spinster just to claim his rightful title. But Griff didn't reckon on the brazen, voluptuous Rosalind, who could tempt even a saint into sinning, and Griff is no saint.

These interconnected stand-alone fairy tale retellings are set on the continent of Solstice, where dragons do their own thing, and enchanters run amok. If you enjoy strong heroines, clean romance, and fantasy worlds with a dash of intrigue, then lose yourself in the fairy tale world of The Kingdom Tales today. Box Set 1 includes Kingdom of Beauty: A Retelling of Beauty and the Beast, Kingdom of Slumber: A Retelling of Sleeping Beauty, and Kingdom of Cinders: A Retelling of Cinderella.

Lady Virginia Macon, the recently widowed baroness of Heatherton, has an impossible decision to make. Her late husband's unscrupulous brother demands guardianship of her sons. The courts are on his side, unless she marries someone willing to stand in her late husband's place. Locking her heart away and devoting herself to her children is the only way Virginia can countenance such a decision. Wearied by the world, Lucas Calvert, wealthy earl of Annesbury, is tired of being alone. When he learns of Virginia's plight, he knows he can save her and her sons.

Edgar Award winner Otto Penzler returns with a new anthology of exhilarating mysteries, assembling Victorian society's lords and ladies and most miserable miscreants. Behind the velvet curtains of horse-drawn carriages and amid the soft glow of the gaslights are the detectives and bobbies sniffing out the safecrackers and petty purloiners who plague everything from the soot-covered side streets of London to the opulent manors of the countryside. Brush off your dinner jackets and straighten out your ball gowns for these exciting, glitzy mysteries.

I shouldn't want her - but damn, I need her. As my best friend, she's off limits, right? Wrong. After discovering her boyfriend's cheating, Molly shows up at my doorstep broken and alone. She's been my rock since my world collapsed, and now the tables are turned, it's my turn to support her. But something's changed, and how I'm feeling about her is against all the rules. She needs a shoulder to cry on; not another man to break her heart.

With eleven younger sisters, Princess Zinnia usually has little choice but to be responsible. But if she had her way, she'd spend her time exploring the seashore and cavorting with the dragons often found there. When she sees one of those dragons flying mysteriously over her castle one night, the temptation to sneak out after it is too strong to resist. Except, by the time she realizes she doesn't recognize this dragon, she's already witnessed something much bigger than she was ready for. And now she's trapped, her sisters along with her.

Arabella Caulfield, one of three orphaned sisters, has clung to an ancient gypsy prophecy as the only way to save her family from endless heartbreak. Now she has 12 days to reach a remote French castle and fulfill her destiny: to marry a prince. Along the way, Arabella meets Lucien Westfall, decorated naval captain and the new Duke of Lycombe. She thought he was a pirate. He thought she was a governess. Two wrongs have never made such a scandalously perfect right.

He's a tall, handsome knight with a secret. She's an adventurous beauty with more than a few secrets of her own. Finnula needs money for her sister's dowry, and fast. Hugo Fitzstephen, returning home to England from the Crusades with saddlebags of jewels, has money, and lots of it. What could be simpler than to kidnap him and hold him for ransom? Well, for starters, Finnula could make the terrible mistake of falling in love with her hostage.

In a blossoming garden located far outside all worlds, a group of aging Greek gods have gathered to discuss the nature of existence, the mystery of mind, and whether there is a transcendent God from whom all things come. Turning to Eros, Psyche asks, "Do you see this flower, my love?"

Merletta is out of time, and so are the triple kingdoms. She can't outswim her mistakes, and if she can't expose the Center's lies, so many will pay the price. Matters of the heart have no place—whether on land with Heath, or in her underwater search for her family. Heath has accepted that there's no simple way for him and Merletta to be together. With the wrath of the dragons hanging over Merletta, and the increasingly desperate need to clear Percival's name, Heath has never felt more torn between worlds.

While fleeing an arranged betrothal to a heartless lord, Lady Isabelle becomes injured and lost. Rescued by a young peasant man, she hides her identity as a noblewoman for fear of reprisal from the peasants who are bitter and angry toward the nobility. Cole Warwick cannot turn his back on a person in need and soon finds himself falling for Izzy, the gentle and beautiful runaway who is mending in his cottage. As the leader of an imminent uprising against the nobility, he tries to resist his growing feelings for Izzy.