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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

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.

She was nothing more than retaliation against his enemies, until she became the woman he could not live without. Set on revenge, Highland warrior Graham MacLeod abducts Isobel Campbell, never anticipating his enemy's daughter would awaken an irresistible hunger in 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.

Callum, the Marquess of Kilgore, long ago accepted that he was no saint. So when he’s offered a shameful bet - to seduce the lady some have dubbed the “Ice Queen” and recover the land he foolishly gambled away - he agrees. Yet, as he comes to know Lady Constantine, he realizes this kind and pure woman deserves far better than a reprobate like himself. Now, he would do anything to protect her from the scandal he helped create, even ruthlessly pushing her away. It seems he hasn’t fallen quite as far into sin as he thought....

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.

In the rugged Highlands, a proud warrior is about to fall. Highlander Brus MacLeod doesn't want the betrothal forced upon him, and he certainly does not intend to take the woman as his wife, no matter who commands it. He has every intention of driving the unexpectedly feisty lass to break the marriage contract and has no plans to let her into his head, bed, or heart. But then the funny, warm slip of a woman invades his home, his life, his soul, and he finds himself unable to forget her, even when she seems to have utterly forgotten him.

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.

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.

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.

The potential of a dazzling future dangles just within reach for Brodee and Patience, but dangers they never conceived consume them, threatening their fragile, newfound trust. Their only hope of survival is to shed their meticulously crafted masks and relinquish the pain of the past to embrace the promise of healing, enduring love.

Dark days have come to medieval Scotland, and fierce warrior Robert the Bruce would do anything to release his country from English rule - and not just because he’s the rightful heir to the Scottish throne. As the bloody war rages on, enemies on both sides of the fight surround him, and Robert must dance a dangerous line between truth and deception. One misstep could topple his nation and cost him his life, yet one woman tempts him - and threatens his mission - as no other ever has.

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.

I came to Campbell castle to destroy them, not to fall in love. The witch’s goblet promised any wish, any power. I stole it to avenge my murdered family. But magic always comes with a price and every time I use my gift, I’m in danger. And the Campbell laird, Ross—fiercely honorable, maddeningly protective, and impossible to ignore—was never part of my plan. Posing as a healer was supposed to bring me closer to my adversaries. Instead, every secret I uncover pulls me closer to Ross—and to the truth about who really betrayed us both.

Laird Liam MacLeod is not lacking for lasses who wish to marry him. As chief of one of the few remaining stable and wealthy clans in the Highlands, the scheming misses are more than plentiful; too plentiful, in fact, for a man who desires to marry for love. Given the opportunity to escape to London for the holidays, Liam takes it with a halfhearted expectation that perhaps English ladies will be different.