Showing results by narrator "Beverley Crick" in All Categories

Miss Clara Marie Stanton's family may be eccentric, but they certainly aren't insane. London, England, 1860: When Clara's ex-fiancé begins to spread rumors that her family suffers from hereditary insanity, it's all she can do to protect them from his desperate schemes, society's prejudice, and a lifetime in an asylum. Then Clara's grandfather Drosselmeyer brings on an apprentice with a mechanical leg, and all pretense of normalcy takes wing.

She knows how to steal a kiss. Alex Harland, Earl of Melton and dedicated rake, never pictured himself as an agent of inquiry. But the thrill of investigation is a challenge he now embraces. When he’s asked to pursue the Nightjar, a notorious thief who is reclaiming France’s crown jewels, the case throws him into the path of the beautiful and equally elusive Emmy Danvers, reminding him of the only puzzle he’s never solved: the identity of the mysterious woman who once stole a kiss from him - and left him wanting so much more....

With the summer days getting shorter in the seaside village of Nairn, the annual bagpiping competition at Ramsey Castle promises to be quite the end-of-season blowout. Paisley has snagged a special invitation from the dowager countess, who wants to showcase her cashmere goods in the castle gift shop, and she's brought her son Brody, Grandpa, and their black Scottish terrier Wallace.

American artist Jeremy Keane refuses to return home and take over his father's business. He'd much rather sample bevvies of beauties abroad, in search of a model for the provocative masterpiece he's driven to paint. When he meets Lady Yvette Barlow at a London wedding, he realizes she's perfect for his work - and determines to capture the young heiress' defiant spirit and breathtaking sensuality on canvas.

There’s something magical about a kiss… When he accepts a job as Maximilian St. James’s valet, Kit Lawrence doesn’t expect it to last. But then he meets Jennie Hickson, maid to the new Mrs. St. James, and suddenly he’s hoping to be near her for the rest of his life…

Miss Sophie Kendall is happiest arranging the secret meetings of the Debutante Underground, a group of women who come together to discuss the weekly advice column The Debutante’s Revenge. What makes Sophie most unhappy is her impending march down the aisle to a man she does not love. But her family’s finances are in increasingly dire straits.

After more than a decade separated from his home and family, the Earl of Heathbrook returns to his London townhouse to face a new test: reclaiming guardianship of his younger brothers. His reputation as a rakehell, it seems, has followed him from detention inside Napoleon’s France and caused his own father to block Heathbrook’s rightful custody in his will. However, the clever rogue concocts a plan to restore respectability and rescue his siblings . . . by finding a “fiancée” with no strings attached.

Despite being the illegitimate daughter of a prince, Gillian Dryden is happily ignorant of all social graces. After growing up wild in Italy, Gillian has been ordered home to England to find a suitable husband. And Charles Valentine Penley, the excessively proper, distractingly handsome Duke of Leverton, has agreed to help transform her from a willful tomboy to a blushing debutante.

Manager of a tourist center in a quaint British village, Julia Lanchester finds herself with more ideas than time. Her boss is the Earl Fotheringill himself, but apart from him, she doesn't mix well with the aristocracy. Unfortunately, toxic mold forces her from her cottage and into one of the earl's countless spare rooms at the Hall. She tries to get a handle on her overload of work, while she finds herself arguing with dinner guests, chaffing at the sudden interest the earl's son has in running the estate, and missing her new beau, Michael Sedgwick.

When a tragic accident turns out to be murder, Lady Katherine finds herself embroiled in an investigation tainted by lies and deception. With conflicting witness testimony, mysterious neighbors who saw the impossible, and a secret someone would kill for, Katherine must dig into the dark side of London society to uncover the truth. Naturally, she has help. Maybe too much help. Along with her loyal maid, Harriet, her pilfering pug, Emma, and her Bow Street Runner friend Lyle, Katherine is joined by budding investigator Pru Burwick and her eccentric Scottish fiance, Lord Annandale.

Miss Lily Hartley is the anonymous mastermind behind the ton’s latest obsession: The Debutante’s Revenge, a tell-all advice column for young ladies. To keep her identity hidden, Lily delivers her columns disguised as a boy - which is well and good, until she lands in the middle of tavern brawl. As luck would have it, a devastatingly handsome duke sweeps in to rescue her.

The reigning queens of Regency romance return with another delightful Christmas collection of three sparkling holiday romances, as stranded travelers find merriment, mistletoe, and holiday romance awaiting at a quaint country inn.

Rosamund Carrow has spent years learning the law by assisting her barrister father, despite the frustrating truth that the profession is closed to women. When he dies unexpectedly, necessity compels her to disguise herself as a man so she can step into the courtroom to finish his cases. She's willing to put her reputation at risk, but she never expects that the greatest peril will be to her heart.

It's the Christmas season in London, but the holiday festivities don't deter Lady Katherine from investigating a death that happened months earlier. Since the victim was a maid, investigative resources were sparse, and the police hastily wrote it off as a random killing. But Lady Katherine and her friends believe it was nothing short of premeditated murder, and they vow to seek justice.

When Ned meets governess Phoebe Baker, he becomes intent on gaining her affections. Phoebe wants nothing more than to keep her head down, teach her students, and go unnoticed-especially by the Earl of Ashby. But his rakish secretary has the infuriating habit of constantly crossing her path. Yet Phoebe cannot deny that her pulse quickens in Ned's presence. If this prim-and-proper governess lets her heart rule, will fate intervene where Ned's luck has forsaken him?

Leighann Dobbs and Harmony Williams present Book 5 in the Lady Katherine Regency Mysteries.

The third book in USA Today bestselling author Lenora Bell sexy School for Dukes series is a Dracula-Northanger Abbey mash-up, with a dash of James Bond’s Miss Moneypenny. Ready. Raised in the countryside by her overprotective uncle, Miss Mina Penny’s dream of a triumphant London season is...

Miss Fiona Hartley’s huge dowry should have ensured that finding a husband would be quick. True, she’s a tad older than the average debutante and spends too much time sketching brutally honest character portraits. She desperately needs a husband, so she can access her dowry, lest the man blackmailing her reveals a secret that would ruin her family. So desperate in fact, that she’s willing to do the unthinkable - propose marriage to the most surly, irritable gentleman in town.

Why does the powerfully built, golden-haired Lord St. Evert dress like an overdone dandy? His outlandish wardrobe belies the hard unyielding lines of his face. Whoever he is, he's ruining Elizabeth Hampton's desperate scheme to secure a rich husband. Terribly vexing, to arrive at the most fashionable breakfast party of the season wearing a perfectly stunning Chinese silk gown, only to discover that Lord St. Evert is clad in unmentionables cut from identical cloth.

When Edwin Barlow, the Earl of Blakeborough, agrees to help his best friend's impetuous ward, Lady Clarissa Lindsey, in her time of need, he knows that he's in for trouble. He's been hunting for someone to wed, and she'll just get in the way. Although captivated by the witty, free-spirited beauty, he fears that she'd be all wrong as a wife...if she would even take such a gruff cynic for her husband. Yet he wants nothing more than to have her for his own.