Showing results by author "Julie Johnstone" in All Categories

Nathaniel Ellison, the powerful Duke of Scarsdale, has sworn never to fall in love. The bitter marriage of his parents taught him one hard lesson—love makes fools of men. When the time comes, Nathan intends to marry only for duty… never for love. Then he meets Sophia Vane. Sophia is nothing like the polished ladies of London society. She's a tavern girl with fierce determination, sharp wit, and a desperate plan to escape the cruel father who controls her life—and save her young brother before it's too late.

When Murieall Buchannan asks for my protection, I offer her the only thing I have left—a bargain carved from sin. MurieallI stole a witch’s magic goblet to save my mama’s life and paid for my folly with a curse that binds me to the dead. The voices never stop. Their grief claws at my mind, and now people whisper I’m mad. My betrothal has been shattered, my reputation destroyed, and time is running out to break the curse before I lose everything. The witch’s answer to my pleas for forgiveness is as cruel as it is impossible: I must make the wickedest Scot in the Highlands feel again.

Lord Trent Rutherford’s past has left him guarded, jaded and perfectly content to spend the rest of his life moving from one meaningless affair to the next. Until he meets Lady Audrey Cringlewood, an innocent beauty who makes him question everything he believes. His devilish demeanor guards more than a wounded heart. Behind his swagger lie secrets he’d rather forget than face, but the price of forgetting may be his second chance at life.

Legendary warrior Lachlan MacLeod has never encountered anything or anyone he could not conquer. But when his younger brother confesses his love for Bridgette MacLean - the only woman Lachlan has ever wanted - Lachlan turns away from the beautiful Scottish lass, vowing to be no more than her friend. Yet his need for Bridgette enslaves him and may well prove to be the one thing he cannot defeat.

Brus Stone can't recall his life before being rescued at the age of five and brought to live with the Northern Watch. Told his mother abandoned him, he's about as willing to give his trust to a woman as he is to hand his sword to his enemy during battle. When he's tasked with accompanying some highlanders through the treacherous lands he helps patrol, he encounters a bonny lass who proves to be as brave as any warrior he's ever met. He's surprised and wary by his pull to her and steels himself against lowering his guard.

Ian McCaim is used to following in his brother’s footsteps — even if it takes him to medieval Scotland. When he finally completes the time travel ritual, the magic lands him next to Hightower Castle and his big brother, Greyson, is there to greet him. As soon as the rest of the family returns to Hightower, the McCaims can finally go home, but in the meantime, Greyson has a task for Ian: Charm the man whose son is fated to play a pivotal role in the Scottish War of Independence. An easy task — or at least it would be if Ian were capable of behaving himself.

A bargain born of desperation ignites into passion as one lord's quest to save his family leads to the discovery that he can never settle for less than love. Forsaken, abandoned, and duped, Miss Jemma Adair has no other recourse but to request her grandfather's help to avoid living on the streets. His asking price? She must marry a neighboring lord's odious son. Thankfully, there is a way out of her dilemma - ensuring the rake never asks for her hand.

Lady Frederica Darlington isn’t prim, obedient, or appropriately dispassionate as a proper lady of the aristocracy should be. Nor is she interested in securing a husband, whether rake, rogue, duke, or lord. Freddy wants to live as she pleases in a place she feels she belongs, and for a unconventional lady, the bohemian world of Covent Garden seems the perfect spot. She has a plan to achieve her goal, but when one of her secret missions goes awry and the King of the Underworld rescues her, danger never looked so enticing.

Desperate times call for desperate measures, and no one is more desperate than Highlander Alasdair MacRae. His clan is on the verge of disaster thanks to continuous raids from the lying, thieving, murdering MacKenzies. Their latest strike has left Alasdair’s family on the precipice of starvation, and his brother badly wounded. The time has come to hit back, and what better blow to deliver than to kidnap his enemy’s daughter and use her to negotiate much-needed peace.

Lady Eve Sotherby dreams of escaping her horrid life in England, yet she has nowhere to run. So when she spies a posting for a companion in the Highlands, she seizes the chance to disappear. She’s heard tales about the barbaric Highlanders, of course, but no one can be worse than the beast she once foolishly agreed to wed. And never mind that she doesn’t meet any of the requirements for the position: must have no family, must love the cold, and must know the healing arts.

After years of playing the rogue to hide a dark family secret, the Duke of Aversley feels tainted beyond redemption and cynical beyond repair. Never does he imagine hope will come in the form of a quirky, quick-witted lady determined to win the heart of another aristocrat. Thanks to a painfully awkward past, Lady Amelia De Vere long ago relinquished the notion she was a flower that had yet to blossom.

No one desires retribution against their enemy more than Highlander Cormac MacLean. Yet his foe has the favor of the king, and Cormac lacks irrefutable proof of the man’s nefarious deeds, so revenge must be planned with calculated care. But when Cormac’s hot-headed brother impulsively attempts to kidnap their enemy’s stepsister, Cormac finds himself fleeing with the wounded beauty after she sustains an injury trying to protect him.

In order to save the man she loves from the enemy bent on destroying her, Lady Whitney Rutherford sheds her identity and escapes her past, making a new life for herself as Mr. Roger Wentworth, missing person locator extraordinaire. But when Whitney's best friend from her old life comes up missing and there is every indication the girl was taken by the debauched members of a secret club, Whitney dons a new disguise and infiltrates the club, determined to unravel the mystery and save her friend. She never expects to encounter Drake Sutherland - the man who still has her heart.

Lillianna de Burgh knows all about the legend surrounding the women in her family - that true love awakens the gift of sight within them. But given the horrific betrayals the power has brought her ancestors, she wants no part in true love or the supposed gift. Avoiding her fate seems simple enough since men have proven time and again that they wish to use her, not cherish her, even her own kin. Thankfully, when she flees England to escape her evil uncle, she finds herself in the company of a seemingly hard-hearted Highlander who thinks the legend is nothing more than a myth.

Highland warrior Cameron MacLeod's mission for the king has just gone dangerously awry, and the best chance he has of saving it is the fair-haired beauty he encounters during the ambush. Injured during the battle, the enchantress has lost her memory, but Cameron harbors one of her. Long ago, a seer foretold that this woman had the power to destroy him. He's confident he's not so weak as to succumb to her charms, but the mysterious woman soon proves herself brave, guileless, and after one foolish, searing kiss, impossible to resist.

Highlander Rory Matheson knows what he wants—a biddable wife. So when an edict from the king demands Rory choose a bride by Winter Solstice from the twin daughters of his clan’s greatest enemies—The MacLeods, he knows the moment he meets the sharp-tongued, headstrong Lillith that he’ll definitely not be picking her. Not only is she far from the docile wife he craves for peace, she’s unpredictable and dangerous—she put an arrow in his shoulder! Yet, he cannot keep away from the oddly enticing lass who stirs his desire.

Betrayed by her father, Marsaili Campbell risks her life to recover what he has stolen from her. But when she's kidnapped and wagered away, she has no one to help her escape other than the very man she's spent the past three years trying to forget; Highland warrior Callum Grant. She once gave her heart and her innocence to the handsome Scot, only to regret her naive decisions. Still, with more enemies than she can battle alone, she needs an ally, even if she must hide the truth of her circumstances from him. Laird Callum Grant thrust his clan into war for the love of a woman, only to lose her forever. But when the woman he believed dead appears at his clan’s tourney in dire trouble, there’s no denying Marsaili has been alive all this time. With his clan weakened from the years of raids and battles, however, he cannot afford to do anything that would ruin the betrothal he’s made to secure his clan’s future. Yet he can’t turn away from the woman who once beguiled him body and soul.

When his older brother disappears before his eyes, Greyson McCaim is determined to find him, even if he has to travel back in time. Because, it turns out their “crazy” father was right. Their mother didn’t leave them willingly. She’s a time traveler, and someone pulled her back to her original home in medieval Scotland.

Lady Guinevere Darlington has spent the last five years trying to forget the beautiful rogue who stole her heart and then crushed it under his shiny black hessian. Humiliated by the blighter with the unforgettable brogue and left to weather the wagging tongues of the ton alone, she started a secret society that delivers justice to ill-intentioned rakes, and she managed to avoid having to wed - until now. But while her time is up, her determination is not. If she must take a husband, she’ll do so on her own terms.

Known as the king maker, Ada MacQuerrie yearns to wed for love and not the magical gift she possesses. But her ruthless stepbrother doesn’t care what she wants. He just needs her to marry one of his treacherous allies. When an attempt to escape his control and save those she loves goes awry, Ada is forced to choose a husband from the miscreants who’ve come to align themselves with him.