Members’ Regency Fiction Releases For August 2023

Xander Hughes, London’s biggest rake, suddenly becomes the Duke of Brockbank and guardian to two nieces he has never met. He decides he must turn over a new leaf and become a sober, responsible duke and starts by hiring a Miss Fennimore, a governess for the girls. Soon, Xander wonders if she might make for an even better duchess.

Willa’s parents were the toast of London’s theater world until Theodosia Fennimore murdered her playwright husband and leaped to her death. Not wishing to become an actress like her mother, Willa supports herself as a companion and governess, finding her latest post is to instruct a duke’s two unruly nieces.

As Willa falls in love with the orphaned girls, she finds herself also tumbling into love with the Duke of Brockbank. She’s been warned that the duke was a wild rogue before he inherited his title, but Willa only knows the caring man who meets his duties head on and spends an inordinate amount of time with his nieces, who aren’t so terrible after all.

After Brockbank offers marriage to Willa, she dreams of a new life filled with love and happiness. The only thing standing in her way is the secret of her past. If Willa shares her background, she fears she might lose Xander forever.

Will Xander reject Willa when he learns of the scandal involving her parents—or will this rule-breaking duke flout the rules of Polite Society yet again and make a most inappropriate woman his duchess?

On the day he’s to wed the woman of his dreams, Richard Harwood, the 6th Duke of Bentley, is summoned by the Prince Regent. The prince and Britain’s Home Secretary suspect the family of his prospective bride, the powerful Beresfords, of plotting to overthrow the government. Bentley is encouraged to go ahead with the wedding but to say nothing to his wife about her traitorous relatives. He’s to quietly investigate.
In her first Season, lovely Emily Beresford, has the good fortune to win the heart of the kingdom’s most sought-after matrimonial catch, the handsome Duke of Bentley. From the moment they met, the two have been hopelessly in love. So why does this man she adores abandon her on their wedding night?
Bentley’s inquiries keep stealing him away from this woman he craves with every aching breath, his wife. These same inquiries point to a plot so sinister it threatens everything he loves, especially his duchess. . .

A thing of beauty can be a joy forever.

But beauty lies…

Lord Archie Carrington knows a beauty when he sees one. Barmaids and countess alike fall beneath the charm of the youngest-ever editor of Edinburgh’s sharpest political and literary quarterly. So when he sets out to write an exposé on the new Lord Advocate, the clever Scotsman devises a plan to charm his opponent’s shy portraitist daughter out of her smock—and her family secrets.

in the eyes of the beholder.

But Maisie Conway knows a rogue when she sees one and although she agrees to paint Lord Carrington’s portrait, she rebuffs all of Archie’s attempts at flirtation and familiarity. That is, until Archie offers to pose nude as a life drawing lesson and Maisie cannot resist the opportunity to uncover all of his manifest charms. Posing leads to passion, but soon they find themselves working at cross purposes. As Archie and Maisie follow the dictates of their desire, will they learn to trust one another, or will the dark secrets surrounding them cost them their only chance to achieve true love?

When a lady snubs love and romance in favor of being ruined, all hell will break loose.

Lady Katharine “Kitty” Gibson is the youngest child of the Earl of Armestead. At six and twenty, she wants no part of living a fairytale and desires love even less. She has dreams for her life that do not include romance, but tolerating a man long enough to be ruined would be a lovely addition and might allow her past society’s dictates that domestication and a good match is all she should aspire toward.

Mr. Reginald Healy made his first fortune with the East India Company and his second importing beautiful silk fabric and selling it first to ladies in American then to the beau monde in London. All he has ever wanted is to be respected as a gentleman instead of the “earl’s fool” he’s been nicknamed. When he purchases a rundown manor house in the countryside and furthers his acquaintance with a winsome blonde who is not in his usual style, his dream shifts to include a wife and possible family.

While Reginald tries his best to be more to Kitty than a gentleman with benefits, she thinks him endearing and a tad embarrassing. He’s not much changed from when he’d proposed to her ten years prior, but the longer his clumsy attempt at wooing continues, romance creeps in to mar her lovely no-strings-attached affair. Terrified and confused, she sets out one night to flee into obscurity, but as Reginald gives chase, unexpected peril on the road makes them both face their biggest fears and has the capacity to show them both that falling in love can be whatever they need it to be.

All Miss Sophie Everett wants is to see her beloved cousin happily married to the man she loves, and she’ll do whatever it takes to make it happen. When a prime opportunity for matchmaking presents itself in the form of a country house party, she contrives to spend the week sowing the seeds of romance…until a fellow guest arrives with ideas of his own. Soon Sophie finds herself butting heads with the most stubborn man she’s ever known. A man who once owned her heart…

James Halloran, the Earl of Dearborn, is in need of an heir, but first he must find a wife. He thinks he’s found precisely what he wants: a girl possessed of both beauty and breeding, one who will make few demands and never touch his heart. The perfect countess. Unfortunately, the girl’s cousin—the maddening Miss Everett—does not share his enthusiasm for the match, and vows to prevent it, no matter the cost…

As their feud turns to friendship, sparks fly and passions ignite. But secrets, long kept hidden, threaten to destroy their future before it’s even begun…

Behind the scenes, drama cuts both ways…

For Samantha Billings, nothing can go right. Ever since she inherited her father’s business as head carpenter for Drury Lane Theatre, she has been fighting off problems from creditors to unending rain. When an inspector of the carpentry guild announces he will stop her work unless she hires a master carpenter, Samantha fears she may lose everything – but she resolves to overcome, one way or another.

For Oliver Chow, nothing can go wrong. In London for the first time ever, he is celebrating his new status as a master carpenter and looking for the adventure of a lifetime. When he happens upon a woman carpentress in distress, he is happy to help – even if it is in name alone.

Thrown together to thwart the guild’s inspector, Samantha and Oliver discover that sometimes, a little drama behind the scenes can have a surprisingly happy outcome.

The Duke’s Guard: The men in black who have sworn an oath to protect the Duke of Wyndmere and his family from enemies that would stop at nothing to discredit and destroy him!

“Lass, ye need to trust someone in yer hour of darkness…let it be me.”

Aiden Garahan is tasked with protecting the duke’s new ward. He promises to protect her with his life. The lovely young woman, with auburn hair and quiet gray eyes is no child, but a petite, curvaceous beauty. His reaction to her is unexpected and unwanted.

Miss Emily Montrose may be small in stature, but she is no shrinking violet! When a runaway carriage tragically cuts her father’s life short, she is thrust into chaos as the duke’s ward. Her life is turned upside down when rumors and a wager challenges all comers to win her hand. Emily’s life is threatened as the wager increases and unscrupulous men see her as a prize.

Aiden must cut through the lies to the truth. He guards her valiantly and vows to protect her to the last beat of his heart, while she steals it away, one glance at a time…one caress at a time. Aiden faces a battle he never imagined…one that pits his heart against his honor!

Danger stalks in the night, but it will have to challenge The Duke’s Defender before he will let harm come to those he has sworn to protect with his strength, his honor, and his heart.

What harm could one night of pleasure do?

Cybil Bythesea is imprisoned in a marriage that ended ten years ago. That’s when she fled the cruelty of her husband, Lord Falstone, and took refuge at her father’s estate in Northumberland. Since then, her family’s money has kept the villain at bay, and she’s been able to pursue her creative passion—writing. But freedom, true freedom, has been beyond her grasp.

Except for her clandestine liaisons with Will.

Will Chisolm is haunted by the past, the tragedy of his family’s eviction from their ancestral Highland farm, then his own foolish descent into political radicalism. Even now that he’s gained wealth and respectability as the manager of a set of spinning mills in Glasgow, he’s burdened with more responsibility and guilt than anyone knows.

But there’s something about Cybil—a lightness, a kinship that, at least temporarily, makes all Will’s troubles fade away. It’s a dangerous game. Cybil is his employer’s sister, the wife of his political enemy and for the last four years, his lover.

She’s also with child. Will’s child. And their world, their lives, will never be the same.

London, 1814: Mary Godwin and her stepsister Jane Clairmont, both sixteen, possess quick minds bolstered by an unconventional upbringing, and have little regard for the rules that other young ladies follow. Mary, whose mother famously advocated for women’s rights, rejects the two paths that seem open to her—that of an assistant in her father’s bookshop, or an ordinary wife. Though quieter and more reserved than the boisterous Jane, Mary’s imagination is keen, and she longs for real-world adventures.

One evening, an opportunity arrives in the form of Percy Bysshe Shelley. At twenty-one, Shelley is already a renowned poet and radical. Mary finds their visitor handsome and compelling, but it is later that evening, after the party has broken up, that events take a truly intriguing turn. When Mary comes downstairs in search of a book, she finds instead a man face down on the floor—with a knife in his back.

The dead man, it seems, was a former classmate of Shelley’s, and had lately become a rival. What was he doing in the Godwins’ home? Mary, Jane, and Shelley are all drawn to learn the truth behind the tragedy, especially as each discovery seems to hint at a tangled web that includes many in Shelley’s closest circle. But as the attraction between Mary and the married poet intensifies, it sparks a rivalry between the sisters, even as it kindles the creative fire within . . .

When two disillusioned people accidentally meet, finding a common bond in scandal will give them back hope.

The Honorable Laurence Bannerman lingers in London to avoid joining his family at his father’s country estate in Surrey to celebrate Christmastide. As the third son and a fourth sibling, nothing was ever expected of him, so his behavior has been quite scandalous. That is until he meets a woman who makes him long for a wife and wish for a change… but dogs don’t change their spots, do they?

Miss Eleanor Comerford hasn’t exactly been a darling of the beau monde. Though Christmastide brings with it naught but guilt and regret, there is the glimmering hope her family might forgive her past transgressions and take her back into their fold. Pretending to be someone she’s not is tiring, but when her path crosses that of a stranger, a plan begins to form… for she still dreams of belonging.

Forced to share the same traveling coach, when Eleanor asks Laurence to enter into a fake engagement with her to lend legitimacy to her story, he agrees merely to protect her and see her safely home. Perhaps a friendship would stave off loneliness during the journey north. As they come to know each other, hurts and secrets from their pasts bubble to the surface, and with acceptance comes a budding romance. Only with a holiday miracle will they have the chance to realize they never needed lies or proper images to grasp love… for they were worthy of it all along.