Showing results by author "Sandra Sookoo" in All Categories

Caroline Montmorency, 10 years an assumed widow, is on the verge of having her sea-faring husband declared legally dead. While the country is embroiled in a maritime war with England, all she wants is to wed her longtime friend Paul Douglas and begin life anew. But those plans are broken when her husband unexpectedly returns.

With only her reprobate, now-dead husband to judge by, Marjorie Attler doesn’t trust men. The crumbling manor house by the sea is a fresh start, but when a privateer appears in her bed - while she’s sleeping - he introduces her to a passion she’d only dreamed. Then he challenges her legal claim to the property and her justified distrust intensifies. Ownership of the house aside, they have bigger matters to square with.

The Honorable Francis Hildebrand Storme—Brand to those closest to him—didn’t come out of the Navy unscathed. Though he’s a handsome, gallant officer, the loss of an eye doesn’t exactly appeal to the ladies. Being the third son means he’s never had expectations placed upon him, so he’s played the rake to the hilt. Why the hell should he settle down or act like a proper gentlemen when there’s no need?

There is only one path to true love, no matter how fate, fortune, or destiny play. Lady Isabella Fortescue has tired of trying to bring a man up to scratch. At 31, she’s put herself on the shelf and is glad for it, except she wants to have one splendid folly to call her own before that happens. But the unorthodox arrival of a horribly rude man makes her think even a scandal isn’t possible. Captain Peregrine St. John has sworn off women - indefinitely.

Fearless and impulsive, Lady Anne Eliza Lewis, daughter of the Earl of Doverton, is not the usual ton lady. Nor does she want to be, for she's worked the bulk of her adult life at being a balloonist. Well-read Benedict Giles Urquhart, Viscount Worthington is a man who values peace and order over all else in his life. When a freak accident with a crashing hot-air balloon spooks his horse and throws Benedict, his placid life takes an abrupt turn, to say nothing of the distracting and unrepentant woman manning it.

A proper gentleman. A desperate lady. One little indiscretion that will change their lives. Carew Harcourt Fitzwilliam—Duke of Edenthorpe—is dreadfully dissatisfied with his life. Engaged since childhood to a woman unsuited to him, he feels trapped and hopeless. What he needs is a distraction. Too bad a possible jewelry heist comes with his best friend’s sister, now a beauty he can’t banish from his mind.

Five years of widowhood and the imminent marriage of her son as well as her daughter nearing college age have left Josephine Prescott at loose ends. When a golden-haired rogue, 13 years her junior, propositions her, she immediately dismisses him. She’s a proper Victorian lady after all, yet a lady can only protest so much.

Lily Henderson’s greatest passion is knowledge. Christopher Farnsworth thrives on order and decorum. But her penchant for suffragette rallies and logical reasoning soon clashes with his quiet, controlled ex-military lifestyle over a bowl of potato soup. The two agree to a wager, and matchmaking - or, rather, romance - is the intended outcome. The premise? A suitable match by Easter.

Miss Evelina Aston is the youngest child of a viscount. Through no fault of her own, she’s fallen headfirst into the scandal of the Season. With her father on the brink of bankruptcy, when she’s caught alone and in a compromising position with an earl, he calls for an immediate proposal. It doesn’t matter that the man she’s being forced to wed is a rake high on the instep, she has no say in the proceedings.

In 1888 London, Miss Eleanor Redding, possessed of a beastly, grouchy attitude, works for Western Union Telegraph Company. It gives her a certain independence and a place to hide from her disappointing past in America. When she accidentally intercepts a Morse-coded message alluding to clandestine and nefarious activity, she accepts the challenge with alacrity. It will take her mind off the fact that she’s once more alone for the Christmas holidays. Why couldn’t a man look past her prickles and scars to fight for her?

Miles Lawrence Hawkins, fifth Earl of Archewyne, is alone and the last of his line, save for a young daughter, and he’s made peace with that.... Yet unexpectedly finding an attractive female thief in his library gives him doubts. Drawn into the lady’s insane plot to retrieve various stolen mummies from around London - including the British Museum - he accompanies her merely to see what will happen next. Being captivated by her quest and intrigued by her talent for skirting the law is a much needed distraction from the stress of his own life’s misfortunes.

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.

Stubborn hearts might be the last to fall, but when the hard tumble comes, it'll last forever. Jonathan Banshire, Viscount Trewellain, has become a bitter, sarcastic lord and against anything remotely smacking of romance. Though engaged to a woman whose hand he'd won in a game of cards years ago, he hasn't thought of her in years. But he's also a king's agent, and as his duty to the Crown, he's being sent to Spain to track down a missing peer. He goes to escape his personal life.

If she were honest with herself, Lady Nora Peacock is done with marriage and romance. They only proved a disappointment. Having suffered through a lukewarm union of twenty years, the last thing she wants is another husband. However, after a sensual dance with a stranger, she wouldn’t mind entering into a torrid affair.

The Honorable Caroline Storme has been furious with life since she was twelve. Sent to an asylum due to a suspected mental deficiency, she has finally returned to London, not with vengeance in mind, but freedom. Wanting nothing more than to pursue her passions in peace, she vows to ignore everyone around her, until she meets the one man who understands her…a big, barrel-chested sailor with tattoos and a devastating grin.

Inspector William Storme is a Bow Street Runner who’s working a series of gruesome murder cases. His dying mother wishing to see him settled adds to the anxiety his position brings. So when he courts a pretty young lady, and she agrees only if he’ll let her accompany him on cases, everything seems to work out fine until the attraction begins and he’s forced to compete with another man for her attention.

Alistair Forsythe, the 12th Earl of Reardon, is the most sought-after man in the ton this Christmastide season. Handsome, of good character, and possessing a large fortune, he finally intends to do his duty to his title after being in India for years. In the market for a wife, he can now easily have his pick of any woman, yet none of them have snared his interest—not since Carole, but she is beyond his reach.

It’s the Christmastide season, and the Hawkins family is at their country estate in Kent. Emmaline, the Countess of Archewyne, is excited, for it’s her first Christmas with her little family, as well as one of the few she’s spent in England. Passing his leisure time with his loved ones gives Miles Lawrence Hawkins, the fifth Earl of Archewyne, great pleasure, as does anticipating their faces when they open his gifts.

Lady Christiana Tremaine lives in the kingdom of Vesance, but ever since her father remarried, her stepmother - Lady Tremaine - has stripped her of everything befitting her station, has reduced her to that of a maid, and forced her to answer to the slur of Cinderella. Though the life of drudgery is horrid, she carries hope circumstances will change, especially when she remembers dancing with the prince who stole her heart. A chance meeting with that same man strengthens her resolve to change...if she can survive that woman’s deadly machinations.

Sometimes the sweetest things in life don’t have anything to do with dessert. Gwynn Flannigan wants respect from her father and freedom from her big, loud family. The icing on her cake would be to win a decorating competition hosted by her favorite food magazine writer. Cole Marshall's one outlet from the stress of business life is writing his Cooking in the Buff feature. Who cares if he never has time for fun? The answer for them both lies in the deep freeze at Sweet Endings, the struggling ice cream shop Gwynn manages and the one property Cole needs to secure a big promotion.