Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Anne Dore" in All Categories

From the prolific M. C. Beaton, comes a Regency romance where love flourishes in the most unexpected places. From the top of his flawlessly groomed head to the waxed tips of his fashionable shoes, Lord Andrew Childe was every inch the perfect gentleman. But Andrew's arrogant composure was almost always shattered by the impertinent Penelope Mortimer, an achingly lovely country beauty who had a clear knack for ruffling his lordship's feathers.

Since there is no hope of my securing an eligible partner, due to sad lack of looks, I am running away.… So wrote the sixth of the famous Armitage sisters. For how could colorless Frederica withstand a Season's scrutiny after the five beauties before her had married so magnificently? Disguised as a chambermaid, Freddie found her way into the household of the fashionable Duke of Pembury. That wild gentleman was soon on to her tricks and found himself escorting the lady to London. Once on the marriage mart, the five sisters preened and primped the youngest until Freddie could not recognize herself!

Matilda, Duchess of Hadshire, is virtually a prisoner of her cruel husband, who romances his mistress right under the duchess' nose. Her only joy is dreaming of the handsome Earl of Torridon - for like her, he is trapped in a horrid marriage and longs to find true love and happiness. Though she secretly wishes for the death of her unkind husband, Matilda never could have imagined the guilt that plagues her when the illustrious duke is befittingly murdered by his own mistress!

What clever woman would want a man like Lord Harry Desire? Why, he was clearly a lummox - languid, vain, and bland. Not even his beautiful face could redeem him. But he stood to inherit a vast fortune, and that was good enough for Deirdre's father, a spendthrift vicar who arranged the match to rescue himself from imminent financial collapse. Leave it to Deirdre to contrive an escape, a quick elopement with her one true love, the dashing Guy Wentwater.

Daphne, the fourth daughter of the Reverend Charles Armitage, is beautiful - dazzlingly beautiful - but she is utterly wrapped up in her own appearance. It seems fitting when she decides to marry the exquisite Cyril Archer, who is as empty-headed and vain as she is; after all, once she is safely married, she can hide her true nature behind her beauty, never expected by anyone (least of all her husband) to do or say anything clever. Moreover, marrying Cyril will preserve her from the zealous schemes of her father.

When young widow Lady Lovelace realized she had been swindled to near-bankruptcy by her curmudgeonly cousin, she knew she would have to marry again for money. These were the very thoughts of Lord Philip, who had nothing between him and destitution but his small army pension. And so these two attractive fortune-hunters somehow found each other and, before long, popped into marriage - and into the bridal chamber - only to discover they were both virtually penniless.

Mannerling, the splendid family estate gambled away by Sir Beverley, remains the passionate desire of his daughters. Beverley himself has died and the eldest daughter, Isabella - having failed in her bid to reclaim their home - is blissfully wed. The mantle of savior then falls to the next eldest daughter, Jessica. How fortunate that the new owner of Mannerling has a marriageable son. In truth, Harry is a brutal lecher, a drunkard, and a wastrel, but Jessica, blinded by determination, vows to secure a betrothal.

It's not that Janey Sinclair isn't pleased to see her sister. It's just that being woken at 7:00 a.m. by Maxine, complete with a police escort, isn't quite how she'd planned to spend her Sunday. Even so Janey, who's just rebuilding her life after her husband disappeared, is delighted that her sister's back in the Cornish town where they grew up. When Maxine sets her sights on Guy Cassidy, an impossibly glamorous fashion photographer, Janey knows there's no limit to the mischief her sister will get up to in order to dispatch her rivals.

Maggie Macleod was weary of life with a soul sickness that ate into every fiber of her being. In a mad way, it did not seem strange to her that she should be on her way to the high court to stand trial for the murder of her husband. Her marriage seemed to have been one long, dreary desert lit by flares of cruelty. But Maggie is innocent in the matter of her beastly husband's death, and she resolves to answer the question that plagues her: Who did murder the man?

She was an honored guest in a palatial country home. "Aunt Mabel," lovelorn columnist of Home Chats magazine, had been summoned to prevent the Duchess of Dartware's son, Paul, from a marriage worse than death. Who would have guessed that behind Aunt Mabel's acid pen and ageless wisdom lurked eighteen-year-old Sally Blane - determined to make the handsome marquess her own! But how could she compete, wearing false wrinkles and a white wig?

She had dared turn a cold shoulder to London's prize catch. She was a precocious American upstart who thought beauty, brains, and bravery were enough to conquer London society. Well, he'd show her! Nobody spurned Lord David Manley, the most eligible bachelor in town - not publicly, not privately. He was determined that she'd soon be trembling in his arms, desperately in love with the man she had dared mock. David Manley always got his way, and Miss Molly Maguire presented a challenge he couldn't resist.

Alice Lovesey is a poor, mistreated scullery maid whose desperate plea for help miraculously summons Wadham Hall's rakish eighth duke - summons him from the dead! Though caught up in the delights of being newly materialized, the duke promises to return the favor by helping Alice become a lady of quality. But does Alice's heart stand a ghost of a chance now that she has lost it to a restless spirit?

Lord Percy Hunterdon despaired: He had inherited a Gothic horror of an estate along with a pair of 15-year-old brats to marry off. It was no secret to him that finding husbands for these two vile young ladies would require the utmost expertise: the care of a governess of superior caliber.

In the fourth installment of the Daughters of Mannerling series, beautiful Rachel must choose which she wants more - true love or the Mannerling mansion. The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite seventeenth-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters, including Rachel's twin, have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over Mannerling's heirs.

Will the last Beverley daughter marry for Mannerling?

Lizzie is the sixth and youngest daughter of the late Sir Beverley, the patriarch who gambled away their beloved estate, Mannerling. Each of Lizzie's sisters had been entrusted by their ambitious mother to cast lures for the various owners of their former home. Instead, each one married for love. Now it's Lizzie's turn to save Mannerling. But the new owner, the Duke of Severnshire, is far too arrogant for Lizzie's heart. And while the duke has no intentions toward the saucy chit, her curt dismissal of him is perplexing - no woman has ever refused him.

It was an unfair decision - to be forced to choose between her home and her heart…When one of her sisters is attacked by Harry Devers, the lecherous son of Mannerling's present owner, Abigail Beverley puts her obsession with reclaiming the mansion on hold. It is then that Abigail meets the dashing and extremely eligible Lord Burfield, fresh back from the army and in full-time pursuit of a bride. She must be quick to grab his attention lest he be snapped up by Prudence Makepeace.

She was a bewitching young girl, that pretty Polly Marsh, and she knew it. She also knew that beauty could be her passport into the castles where she had always known she belonged. So she set her sights on a duke and joined the firm of Westerman’s as a stenographer. Surely one of that noble family would notice her, and then all her dreams would come true! The trouble with pretty Polly Marsh was that she just didn’t know her place.

It seems as if there will be no need to find a husband for Diana, the fifth daughter of Charles Armitage, the hard-drinking huntsman and country vicar. For Diana shares her father's passion for the hunt, secretly posing as a man in order to participate in a sport that is considered too vulgar for a lady in Regency England. Her four elder sisters have married well, but Diana fears she will never be as desirous to wed a man as she is to be one. She was born to have a man's freedom to do and say what she wishes, to move about without restraint - or so she thinks until, disguised as David Armitage, she gets a bitter taste of tawdry town life.

The Beast - that was what they called her. With her plump body and rough tomboy ways, she felt more like a clown. It was hopeless. Poor penniless Tilly could only sit among the chaperons as a paid companion to the spiteful Lady Aileen. The best she could do was sit…and dream. But suddenly Philip, Marquess of Heppleford, the most eligible bachelor of all, decided he wanted her for himself, to be his wife, and they were married. His intent was to keep his freedom, fulfill the conditions of his father's will, and shock his aunts.

Margerie Croft yielded up her virginity before her wedding and then fled from her eager suitor, knowing that she could not marry a man she did not love. Now she is viewed as soiled goods, fit only for the role of courtier's plaything. Virgil Elton is King Henry VIII's physician, working on a tonic to restore his sovereign's flagging libido. But first it must be tested.