Showing titles in Victorian

The third book in Beverley Watts's dazzling Shackleford and Daughters series of Victorian romantic comedies...

One scandal, one season, one shy baron, and a heart that doesn’t want to follow the plan. With her family insisting that she have a season to find a husband, Veronica Smith has one mission: restore her family’s reputation with a match that dazzles society. After her sister’s scandalous elopement with a dockworker, Veronica convinces her parents to send her to Bath instead of London.

When Amelia Drake is forced to marry her father’s business competitor, Kyle Grayson, she thinks things can’t get worse. Despite their undeniable attraction to each other, Kyle has been wounded, and guards his emotions as closely as she guards her secrets. She vows to make the best of her arrangement with her handsome new husband, but can she ever trust him enough to share the truth about her past or forgive his own dark revelations? Will the warm, passionate man he conceals behind his staunch business demeanor show himself before their secrets tear them apart?

The handsome Earl of Somersby may just be the most eligible bachelor in London, but has no interest in a wife. As a member of the Brotherhood, Bennett Haile is far more vested in his duties protecting the Queen from would-be assassins. For now he has the perfect tool with which to lure out the villains—a young woman with an uncanny likeness to the queen. Evelyn Marrington is about to live out every country girl's dream—becoming royalty. As danger threatens from every side, Bennett realizes that his protégée isn't just placing her life in his hands . . . she's stealing his heart.

Strange, twisted carvings and hideous gargoyles adorn the palazzo of the great Scarletti family. But a more fearful secret lurks within its storm-tossed turrets. For every bride who enters its forbidding walls is doomed to leave in a casket. Nicoletta knows all too well the curse that plagues...

When Maddie Fraser's father was killed fighting for Bonnie Prince Charles, the spirited Scottish lass swore to avenge his death. Hooded and disguised, she led a series of daring raids against the forces of the Crown - vowing to love no man until the English invaders were driven from her native soil. 

West Country beauty Hannah Heywood may be quiet with fashionable strangers, but when it comes to animals in need, she has no trouble finding her voice. Newly arrived in Bath for her very first season, all she desires is to find one like-minded gentleman. A man of warmth and compassion, as sensitive to animals as he is to people. But if such a man exists, he dare not approach her. Not with the tall, blond, and menacing Viscount St. Clare standing in the way.

Meg Swift has a tiny problem with stealing. What else is she to do when her uncle triples the estate rents? She learns how to mend roofs, plant turnips—and how to steal. She's too busy for her godfather's parade of single gentlemen at the Cinderella Ball. Dougal Black has just been plucked from a millhouse as the last of the Thorncroft duchy bloodline. And if he's not married by the end of the year, the Prince of Wales will choose his bride for him. But Dougal doesn't know the rules of this new world. Luckily, Meg does.

As an innocent girl, Madeline Sedgewick learned that nothing comes without a price - even desire. Five years later, now widowed and deeply in debt, she's certain that the stranger who bought her last husband's notes of credit will demand swift, steep repayment. But she never imagines her creditor will be Brock Taylor, her baseborn former stable-hand turned newly wealthy entrepreneur - the man who stole her virginity and her heart. She's even more stunned when he says that he'll forgive her debts only if she becomes his wife.

This collection includes The Accidental Mistress, The Incorrigible Courtesan, and The Delectable Tart.

With the justiciary understaffed, a series of horrifying occult murders to be investigated, and a young student who is flying - literally - off the rails, magical law enforcer Stephen Day is under increasing stress. And his relationship with his aristocratic lover, Lord Crane, is beginning to feel the strain. Crane chafes at the restrictions of England's laws, and there's a worrying development in the blood-and-sex bond he shares with Stephen. A development that makes a sensible man question if they should be together at all.

In the sordid streets of Victorian London, unwanted desire flares between two bitter enemies brought together by a deadly secret. Crusading journalist Nathaniel Roy is determined to expose spiritualists who exploit the grief of bereaved and vulnerable people. First on his list is the so-called Seer of London, Justin Lazarus. Nathaniel expects him to be a cheap, heartless fraud.

Lord Vere is used to baiting irresistible traps. As a secret agent for the government, he's tracked down some of the most devious criminals in London, all the while maintaining his cover as one of society's most harmless - and idiotic - bachelors. But nothing can prepare him for the scandal of being ensnared by Elissande. Forced into a marriage of convenience, Elissande and Vere are each about to discover that they're not the only ones with a hidden agenda.

Christine Daaé ventures into the underground world of The Phantom of the Opera, a mysterious man named Erik who brought her fame and ecstasy as The Angel of Music. Now she must learn to trust her teacher as a man if she is to survive the cutthroat intrigues of the opera above. Despite the horror of Erik's face and the darkness of his past, Christine is drawn to the man who awakens her soul with his music…as well as her desire.

Phillipa, Duchess of Dorsett is not your average demure lady in society. For behind her charming smile, she hides a secret and a wicked reputation. Tasked by Queen Victoria to protect the innocent, she's recruited the most formidable women of the ton - The Queen's Deadly Damsels. Lady Olivia Smithwick sold her soul to save her daughter, and in return has made an enemy of the Duchess. As they attempt their mission, together and alone, their simple deal becomes dangerously complicated.

How can a newly minted duke escape title-seeking debutantes? Lie, of course! Lady Honoria Bell never recovered from her broken heart. Fending off suitors her marquess father forces in her path, she’s put aside hopes of marriage. However, word of a house party hosted by the new, eligible Duke of Burwood brings a renewed gleam to her father’s eye. But regardless of the new duke’s appeal, Honoria knows he won’t fill the void Drake Merrick left. If there’s one thing Drake Merrick knows, it’s that aristocratic women care more about a title than they do love.

Lady Gwendolyn Bounds survived smallpox at the age of eight to go on to do…nothing. Outcast by society because of the scars that mark her face, Gwen has convinced herself that a future as a spinster spent aiding her mother in her doddering years will be enough even as her heart knows it is not. Somewhere there is a second chance out there. She just never thought it would be with a sheep farmer from Yorkshire.

Lady Andromeda Barrington is the most unsuitable young lady in London. At least in the Duke of Granby’s opinion. Granby doesn’t care for bastard relatives or tainted pedigrees and Andromeda possesses both. Nor does he like opinionated young ladies who enjoy hurling insults in his direction. Andromeda is, in short, the most annoying creature he’s ever met. When she arrives, uninvited, to a house party given at his estate, Granby can’t decide whether to kiss Andromeda senseless or send her packing. Andromeda is the victim of infatuation and bad luck.

Soon after her twin Leonora's marriage a bereft Marguerite Fortune is going home to Castle Fortune, with only her self serving male relatives for company. But Baron Fortune, her papa, has a diversion planned on the journey…one that concerns getting his last daughter wed.

Stacie - Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh - is adamant marriage is not for her. Wealthy and well-born, she needs for nothing, and with marriage off the table, to give her life purpose, she embarks on a plan to further the careers of emerging local musicians by introducing them to the ton via a series of musical evenings. Yet despite her noble status, Stacie requires a musical lure to tempt the haut ton to her events, and only one musician commands sufficient cachet - the reclusive and notoriously reluctant Marquess of Albury.