The Seduction of Lady Charity – The Baxendale Sisters

Weekenders Romance Watch

(Book Four can be read as a standalone.)

Author: Maggi Andersen
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: Amazon

 
Blurb:
Lady Charity Baxendale has long dreamed of becoming a renowned portrait painter. After she’s received two significant commissions from esteemed family members, a rakish Scottish baron commissions her to do his portrait, and she feels she is one step closer.

When Robin, Lord Stanberry, with whom Charity has had a long friendship, asks her to marry him, she must choose between marriage and her career. She refuses him, for he is heir to a dukedom, and Charity fears that not only would she be unsuited to life as a duchess but also that her burgeoning career might end before it begins. And besides, Robin has made no mention of love.


Enchanting Excerpt:
“But is that all I am to you?”

Her gaze sought his. “No, of course not. You are my very dear friend.”

Robin uncoiled himself from the chair. He leaned over her, silently removed her pencil from her fingers, and placed it beside the sketchbook on the table.

Charity watched him as if frozen, her eyes wide, as he took her hands and drew her to her feet.

“Robin…?”

His hand cupped her chin, and his mouth came down on hers.

Her heart thudding in her ears, Charity held on to his arms as they entrapped her. Like stone, they didn’t budge an inch as he purposefully slid his mouth over hers. She dropped her arms and murmured incoherently. His tongue pressed along the seam of her lips, and when she parted them, more to deter him than encourage him, his tongue dived inside her mouth.

She sagged as her breath deserted her, and she grasped his shoulders to stay upright when her knees almost buckled. The intimacy of such an act made all her senses come alive, his masculine smell, his strong body against hers, all sinew and bone and muscle, the sweet taste of his mouth, and his lips, taking possession.

“Charity!” he whispered, his breath hot against her ear.

Knowing she loved him, and how impossible that was, became almost more than she could bear. She pushed at his chest. “Let me go, please, Robin.”

Robin released her, and she sank back in the chair.

“I’ve been yearning to do that for a very long time,” he said, leaning against the desk beside her. The smile in his eyes contained a sensual flame. “I’d like you to think about that, Charity. Think what we might have, here, together.”



Website: http://www.maggiandersenauthor.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/maggiandersen
Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/maggiandersenauthor/

Christmas Fete

Weekenders Romance Watch

Author: Barbara Miller
Genre: Mainstream Romance
Buy: EllorasCave


Blurb:
When Dinah’s father inherits an estate, he decides she and her brother must go settle the matter. They arrive to find the place in need of much repair—and holiday spirit. As Dinah plans a cheerful fete for Christmas in hope of winning over the locals, she finds herself winning over someone else as well—Richard, the handsome man who lives next door.

Richard never expected to meet someone like Dinah—a woman who is headstrong and decisive. A woman he could spend his life with. Unfortunately, Richard needs a Christmas miracle to extricate himself from a tricky obligation.

If it’s a miracle he needs to be free, Dinah is determined he’ll get it—that way they can spend their Christmas fete together and everyone can enjoy their happily ever afters.


Enchanting Excerpt:

Richard wet his lips, which had gone numb. “I’m not sure how it happened.”

“You were compelled to offer for her,” Dinah whispered.

“Somewhat reluctantly. Later I suspected she manipulated me into it, but that does her an injustice. I did offer.” He saw tears sparkling on Dinah’s lashes and raised a finger to brush them away but she ducked her head.

“Should we announce your engagement during the festivities? People will hear of it soon enough.”

“Please don’t. I keep hoping something will happen to prevent it, the earth crack or a violent storm that will blow the two of us away from here, never to return. I want to be with you, only you, always. Life with Ophelia will be living a lie.”

She smiled at his fantasy. “And yet you are bound to honor your generous impulse.”

“I don’t want to. I only offered because I had never met anyone like you before, never met you, who seem to be the only like-minded soul I have ever found on this earth. You understand me.”

“I am in the same case. I never thought about marriage until I met you, someone who actually cares, who takes me seriously.”
 
He took her in his arms and kissed her, the heavy coat falling to the floor. If only this moment could go on forever. He could imagine their future life, lose himself in it, but then she dipped her head with a sigh.
 
“I am so glad we did that at least once,” she said.

 
Website: www.fallsbend.net
Contacts:
https://www.ellorascave.com/index.php/authors/index/author/slug/barbara-miller/

https://griffinslair.setonhill.edu/mymenu/faculty_vitae_index.cfm

The Rules of Engagement

 

Tantalizing Thursday

Excerpt

               The Rules of Engagement

Author: Jillian Leigh
Genre: Mainstream/Historical/Regency Romance
Buy: Amazon

Excerpt:

(Hugh Trevalyn has just proposed to the beautiful Lucy Meriwether. But now she has decided she must meet his former fiancée…)

“If you love me, you will want to put my mind at ease. You must arrange a meeting.”

“Why, it is quite impossible,” he said, fervently hoping, but not expecting, that she would take him at his word.

“All things are possible when a man desires to make them so,” she whispered, her hands curling around his back and coming to rest lightly on his buttocks. Any exasperation he’d felt now evaporated in a dreamy haze of imagining all the ways he would make love to her if he only had the chance. “Do you desire to make this possible?” she went on in a husky voice. “Do you desire me?”

“God, yes,” he said on a groan.

The Rules of Engagement

Jillian Leigh

Long ago, Hugh Trevalyn invented a fiancée to fend off marriage-minded females. Now he must procure the perfect girl to play the part.

Who better than Amelia Grant, his oldest and dearest friend? She alone might understand—and forgive—his moment of madness upon beholding the beautiful Lucy Meriwether, a moment that resulted in Hugh’s first real proposal of marriage and Lucy’s vow to meet his ex-fiancée in the flesh. However, as the proposed conversation snowballs into an elaborate charade involving Hugh’s rakish cousin, scandal, and inappropriate kisses, as Hugh risks Amelia’s friendship to win Lucy’s hand, a wise reader has to wonder: What exactly are the rules of engagement? And, after the battle, whose heart will be won?

The Rules of Engagement

The Toymaker

Kay Springsteen

Lady Ivy, daughter of the Duke and Duchess of Wythorpe, is tired of the succession of suitors her parents have shown her. With Christmas approaching, her parents arrange for her to meet the Duke of Greenbriar. But Ivy's already met the man of her dreams... and he's a toymaker. The Duke of Greenbriar has a secret — he’d rather make toys. As Phillip Green, he travels about, making certain no child goes without. He loves Lady Ivy, but she has no idea who he is. Phillip plans his own coming out. How will Ivy react when she learns the truth?
 
The Toymaker

No Job For A woman

Sherry Gloag

Julian Fanshaw answers a call for help from his life-long friend Lord Worth to help keep his friend’s widowed sister, Deborah, safe from her increasingly vindictive neighbours. It doesn’t take long to realise him or Freddie long to realise the Grangers aren’t using her as a long-promised act of revenge against them; but are playing a deeper and far more sinister game of their own. 

Deborah Stavely is determined to overcome the increasing harassment from her neighbour without calling on her brother for help. So she is not pleased when Freddie intervenes and involves his friend, Julian Fanshaw.

Circumstances demand Julian and Deborah learn to work together and Julian dares to dream that he might gain the love of the only person he’s ever given his heart to.

But will Deborah live long enough to discover that by releasing everything she values, she will gain everything her heart desires?

No Job For A woman

Racing with the Wind

Regan Walker

Hugh Redgrave, the Marquess of Ormond, was warned about the ingénue the Prince Regent called “the Swan.” Fortunately, he sought no bride. His work lay on the continent, where he’d become legend by stealing war secrets from Napoleon. Lady Mary Campbell was a bluestocking hellion, an ill-advised match by every account, who was more interested in politics than a husband. Already she had assisted her statesman uncle in Paris, and swore to return to the court of Louis XVIII no matter the danger.

Racing with the Wind

His Desire (Montclair Chronicles 2)

Rita Bay

After the war with Napoleon, Lord William Montclair is determined to find a wife who will bear the children he needs and accept what he offers—marriage without love.
 

Georgiana Janson, an impoverished soldier’s widow, fell in love with Will when he was a patient in the field hospital. Will sets her up nicely, but Georgi can’t accept what he offers—love without marriage.

 

When her circumstances change, Georgi must decide what she wants in her life. Too late, Will discovers what he needs most in his. Will his campaign to court and win the love of his life succeed?

His Desire
Bookstrand

The Unexplored Heart

Marilyn Celeste Morris

Impoverished but proud Vanessa Danforth is forced from her mother’s home by her new stepfather’s treachery in 1860s England.

After graduating from stenographer’s school, she accepts a position at the estate of famed world explorer, Harrison Courtland.

Made a widower by his wife’s tragic death in the Himalayas, Courtland has retreated into his work….while Vanni forges friendships with his daughter Katrin and the handsome physician from the neighboring estate.

As Vanni encourages Courtland to unearth the ancient ruins at the edge of his property she discovers not only a stunning secret and a hidden treasure, but also her own heart’s desire.

The Unexplored Heart

Amazon

An Inheritance for the Birds

Linda Banche

Make the ducks happy and win an estate!

Poor Regency gentleman Kit can't believe the letter from his late great-aunt's solicitor. In order to inherit her estate, he must win a contest against her companion, Angela. Whoever makes his great-aunt's pet ducks happy wins.

What an idiotic idea. But Kit needs the money. Of course he’ll compete.

Equally poor Angela never expected her former employer to name her in her will. And she intends to win, too.

The ducks quack in avian bliss as Kit and Angela do their utmost to make the ducks—and themselves—happy.

An Inheritance for the Birds