Members’ Regency Fiction Releases for 12/2021

A Gift for the Duke’s Illegitimate Daughter – Kathy L Wheeler

Miss Alexandra Blessing, the Duke of Winsome’s illegitimate daughter longs for anonymity and a home of her own where her younger half-siblings don’t commandeer every moment of her day. Escape is imminent—right after her family’s annual Christmas fete.

But Alexandra is missing from the ball, and Theodore Millburn must find her before he loses something important: his chance for love.

The Merry Widow’s Christmas Adventure – Amanda McCabe

Annabelle, Lady Ranstruther, after a year of lonely widowhood is ready for new love—and she knows exactly who she wants—her wild friend, the gorgeous William, Lord Deansley. She fears he doesn’t want her, until they meet again at the exclusive, discreet gaming hell la Sous Rose, at Christmas.

Will it mean a future of love—or the end of all her dreams?

He lost her once. He can’t bear to lose her again.

Michael Cranfield, the Earl of Morsley, has been hopelessly in love with the girl next door, Lady Anne Astley, ever since they were fourteen years old.

This made it particularly jarring when she went and married someone else when his father sent him on a secret mission for the Crown in the wilds of Canada.

Now Anne is a widow, and Michael has a second chance to be with the woman he loves. He’s determined to marry Anne, take her back to Canada (where’s he’s spent the past four years training to be Governor General,) and wrap her up in cotton gauze so he’ll never have to be parted from her.

Anne still cringes when she recalls the day she learned with absolute certainty that Michael only saw her as a friend. But she isn’t the biddable girl Michael remembers, not any more. She’s found that being a widow, answering to no one, and running her London charity precisely as she sees fit suits her just fine. She does want to remarry because she’s always yearned for a large family, but only if she can find a husband who will support her in the charity work that means everything to her.

And if Michael Cranfield thinks she’s going to give up her charity to move to Canada, or let him boss her around, then he’d better think again!

What price will Michael be willing to pay to be with the woman he loves? What’s an Earl Gotta Do?

SOMEONE WANTS HER DEAD, BUT THEY’LL HAVE TO KILL HIM FIRST

An innocent trip to the book store propels Lady Harriett Beresford into danger when a stranger—warning of peril from the Fat Man—collapses on her doorstep. Dead. She rushes to find aid, and when she returns, the dead man is gone. No one believes her.

Alex Muir, Baron Rockingham, has been charged by his honeymooning closest friend to watch out for his sister while he’s away. When Harriett turns to Alex for help, he’s skeptical. The exuberant young lady has always had a flair for the dramatic. But when someone attempts to kill her, his protective instincts kick in. She cannot go back to her home. She must stay with him.

Together, they seek the identity of the Fat Man, learn of a plot against the regent, and fight against their own searing attraction to one another.

The banns have been called, the date is set, but he’s falling fast and hard for the wrong woman.

When her parents announce they intend to break their promise to remain in London society for another year, Charlotte Waters is also given an ultimatum—make a suitable match immediately or start packing her trunks. Since leaving England is the last thing she wants, Charlotte puts aside her foolish longing for love and throws herself into the hunt for any proposal of marriage with the help of her good friends. However, her persistent infatuation for an engaged earl proves a great distraction when it becomes clear that his life is in peril…and Charlotte is the only one who’s noticed.

Winston Bell, Earl of Hurlston, has his position in society, a loving mother, loyal friends, and an arranged marriage he’s willing honor for duty, if not love—until a sweet, brave, and normally blushing wallflower puts herself in danger to save his life. His gratitude slowly blossoms into an attraction to a woman he shouldn’t long to seek out at every turn. But when another attempt is made on his life, Charlotte Waters is fighting right by his side again, transforming attraction to deep desire. Can he prevent falling further under the spell of a woman he shouldn’t want?

Lady Katherine Moncrieffe, only child to the Earl of Indicott-Barrow, is a bluestocking miss who has thrown all her energy into curating a valuable collection of books for her father’s library with one exception—a rare volume of poetry that shows her mother in a scandalous light. A meeting with the man who owns the book fires her interest and excites her imagination. Too bad romance is a disappointing endeavor best left to the younger set.

Nathaniel Harkness, Viscount Satterfield, has a long history of being a rogue. At the age of forty, the lifestyle has grown stale, but to give it up means doing his duty to his neglected family and title. When an obscure book of poetry turns up in his study, he hopes to sell it at auction, but a pretty librarian with russet hair in search of that very volume changes his mind. Perhaps he’s found a new bedmate, and just in time for Christmas.

With desire crackling between them, the two match wits for rights of the book… and neither of them is above employing seduction to get what they want. All too soon, the battle grows into a wickedly sensuous game of cat and mouse. After nights spent sharing personal histories amidst the sheets, an likely romance blooms that drives them closer to something they’ve spent the last few years denying they’d ever wanted again.

A diamond of London’s glittering ballrooms
must travel to the ends of the earth to find love…

It’s 1825, and Lady Lydia Howick has accepted that the love of her life, Royal Marine Captain George Neville, has been killed in action with the Men of the Squadron in fierce fighting on West African Sherbro Island. She’s moved on with her life until one day while at a Royal Academy exhibition of art from the Holy Land, she sees her supposedly dead lover in a group of figures painted in a desert caravan scene.

She can’t rest until she’s sure he’s not suffering as a slave in the Middle East.

George Neville no longer considers himself worthy of the title of Royal Marine ever since being taken captive during an action against slavers. Once his captors realized his strength and abilities in battle, they forced him to be one of them, promising his eventual freedom if he helped enslave others. They held the threat of punishment of child slaves over his head if he did not obey orders.

After four horrific years in the slave trade, he’s certain he’s unworthy of anyone’s love, let alone that of Lady Lydia. He refuses to sully her with the weight of his sins.

How can she forgive him? More importantly, how can he forgive himself?

At times, there is nothing better to soothe the storms within than to be among family.

It’s the Christmastide season, and the Storme family has gathered for the holiday in the Derbyshire countryside. Now that the men have ironed out personal problems and have ushered romance into their lives, they’re ready to mend fences with their estranged cousins. For the first time in twenty years, they’ve come together with hopes of recapturing the happy times they knew as children. Unfortunately, soothing familial ties isn’t as easy as enjoying plum pudding, rum punch, or stealing pastries from Cook’s kitchen.

When two mysterious letters are found inside a writing desk, penned by their fathers before both men died, the visit takes on a more special meaning. Amidst long held secrets and horrible truths coming to light, there’s a scavenger hunt afoot at Hadleigh Hall. By the end, the Storme brothers, and their new brides, as well as the Storme cousins might just come to understand each other better in order to grasp a deeper meaning to the season, and a new appreciation of family.

Believing herself abandoned by her fiancé in the wilds of Northern Wales, actress Babbie Crispen and her crippled son struggle to find shelter on a frigid night before Christmas. A strange man locals call the Wicked Scot finds them near death on a snow-covered hillside. He brings them to his castle, a place of both terrifying and wonderful magic so powerful it changes all their lives.

When one believes in love, they will embrace …

Jacqueline Holbrooke refused to become the latest match in her uncle’s mad matchmaking scheme. She watched her sisters and cousins fall victim to his madness. Yet, if she were honest with herself, they weren’t victims, but just as mad as their uncle. Madly in love. An emotion Jacqueline fought to keep from embracing. However, the dashing viscount she shared scandalous trysts with kept breaking down the barriers guarding her heart.

Griffen Kincaid carried on an affair with an innocent lady for the past three years. With every secret rendezvous, she wrapped her spell tighter around him. He waited with patience for Jacqueline to accept his offer. However, every time she rejected his suit. When her family learned of their affair, he must prove himself worthy of her love. Griffen set out to woo Jacqueline, enticing her into a scandalous bet to win her affections.

A lady who allowed her fears to keep her from finding happiness. A gentleman whose past behavior could ruin his chance at winning his true love’s heart. Will Jacqueline and Griffen allow the obstacles in their path to tear their fragile love asunder? Or will they embrace the seduction of their love?

If you enjoy scandalous romances filled with stolen kisses and unwavering love, then you’ll love Jacqueline and Griffen’s seductive love affair.

Is the holiday season a perfect setting for a second chance at love?

After secretly arranging Lydia and Wickham’s marriage, Mr Darcy encouraged Bingley to return to Jane. While his friend is now happily married, Darcy regrets not having the courage to pursue Elizabeth in the autumn. As 1812 draws to a close, Darcy rallies his spirits to spend the Christmas holiday with Lady Catherine.

Elizabeth Bennet wanted to show Darcy that her feelings for him had changed, but he never returned to Hertfordshire and she fears Darcy could never tolerate being brother-in-law to Wickham. For a change of scene and with the hope of lifting her spirits, Elizabeth accepts an invitation to visit Charlotte Collins and her new baby at Christmas.

Lady Catherine’s New Year’s Eve masquerade ball is the social event of the season and, amid the festivities and mistletoe, both Darcy and Elizabeth hope for a reason to make their affections known. But will her ladyship’s interference, the sudden appearance of her scheming nephew, and Elizabeth and Darcy’s insecurities prevent them from finding happiness during the holiday season?

Sometimes fate doesn’t give you what you want because something better is in the offing.

Captain Elias Frampton is a man without purpose. Five months after being jilted, he’s ready for a new chapter of his life. Undecided about whether he should return to the sea or find a position in England, he embarks on a trip up the Cornwall coast, but his coach is caught in a winter storm squall, forcing him to take the last room at a posting inn of a fishing village. It’s just the place for him to gain a new perspective.

Miss Helen Everly’s dreams for her life are all but forgotten. She cares for her ailing father as well as running the Brown Hart Inn he owns because that’s all she’s known. It’s a good life and a happy one as long as she can find something positive in each day. Yet it’s also a lonely life. Men in the small Cornish village keep the sea as a mistress and aren’t the marrying type. Yet Christmastide is a time for miracles, and she’s not above sending up a prayer for hers.

As Elias and Helen are thrown together by unique circumstances and they enter into an odd friendship, they both try to ignore the sparks flying between them due to past disappointments. But during traditional Christmastide entertainments and a few stolen kisses, they come to discover everything they’d previously believed about romance had been wrong and that love is so much sweeter when it arrives unexpectedly.

Spencer Burnett, Viscount Stiles, once swore he’d left England for good. Yet after five years of self-imposed exile in West Africa, he’s no longer the same spoiled, selfish boy who ran away from a domineering father, a disappointed grandmother, and a decidedly unwanted wife. Proving himself to the family he abandoned will be no easy task, but Spencer no longer shies away from a good fight. He hardly expects his formerly docile wife will be the hardest to convince. But when Philadelphia refuses to accept his apologies—or to allow him back into her bed—Spencer finds himself tempting her into a bargain he cannot afford to lose.

Philadelphia Burnett’s desires were once as vast as the sky. But now, after suffering one devastating loss after another, the only thing she allows herself to want is a home. When Delphie’s estranged rake of a husband returns from a five-years’ absence to claim the estate promised to her, Delphie resolves to fight him every step of the way. Beechcombe Park will be a sanctuary for her, and for the wayward Audley cousins she promised her sister she’d always protect. She cannot, will not, suffer even one more loss.

Especially not the loss of her heart…

A series revolving around four siblings (seasoned characters) who are summoned to the English countryside by their parents at Christmastide. Each of the four siblings find unexpected romance during the holiday season. Done in the style of Hallmark movies, you’ll find all the feels and happy romance of couples falling in love during the holidays, as well as a meddling, romantic-at-heart duke who only wishes that his children find the same happiness he has.

Her mind kept telling her to stop loving him, but her heart couldn’t let him go.

Renowned author Lady Alicia Hartley has lost her muse after a bad review. She blames it all on the author JC Melrose. A chance encounter with a handsome, witty Justin Caulfield has her heart racing, and her muse seemingly back. Is he her savior or her worst nightmare?

He didn’t see the turbulent ocean. He was too busy dealing with a different tempest.

The recently retired Captain Justin Caulfield is facing his own demons. As gifted author JC Melrose, his stories honor men who died at the hand of one man. His only focus is to avenge their deaths, that is, until he meets and falls in love with Lady Alicia.

The two authors take on a writing challenge to determine the better writer. While researching the story, she is captured by Justin’s nemesis. Can Lady Alicia turn this mystery into an award- winning story? Can Justin save his own real-life heroine? Can they both overcome their own challenges for a happily ever after?

A vicar trying to save his own soul. A widow who yearns for children. A darkness that can only be dispelled with the healing power of love . . .

William Finchley becomes the new Duke of Sommersby, even while he carries a secret from childhood that eats at his soul. He swears never to wed—until he meets a remarkable woman.

Widow Victoria Samuel longs for a husband who will give her children—and falls in love with Finch, who weds her—and then abandons her without telling her why.

Can Victoria be the light to the darkness in Finch, and can he find the courage to win Victoria back and find the healing power of love changes everything?

The clever Camellia Swift can’t stand living at home with her new stepfamily, who mock her incessantly. To find some peace, Lia flees to a cousin’s home in a snowy, picturesque valley near Wales, hoping for a Christmas miracle. Amid the sleigh rides and snowy nights, this reluctant wallflower meets a man who makes her believe love might be real. But Phineas Ryder isn’t exactly a gentleman. He’s got a shadowed past and a mysterious secret, and no lady should even dream of marrying him. Naturally, Lia is completely intrigued. And also naturally, she consults with her dear friends from Wildwood Hall for advice.

But even as Lia and Finn are drawn together, the legendary ghosts of Wyemont Castle interrupt the holiday festivities. They have their own plans for the guests…ones that could lead to tragedy. Camellia and Finn have just one moment to unlock the secret…the stroke of midnight on Christmas Eve, when the past and present will become one. Filled with old ghosts and new love, this is a charming and haunting story for the holidays!