Fleeing a treacherous suitor, Alys Weston disguises herself as a man to take a position as manager of an isolated estate, but her masquerade is threatened by the arrival of the notorious, seductive Reginald Davenport
Jonathan Lindsay was surprised when he was confronted by the ever-passionate Miss Janey Hilton. Her love for lost causes drew him to her, along with her astonishing beautfy and forceful ways. But the scoundrel in him made a big mistake by wagering that he could seduce the naive miss! The joke was soon on him when the unthinkable happened—the determined bachelor Jonathan fell in love! Baffled by his sudden emotion, he knew he had to call off the wager. But would it be too much, too late, when Janey discovered his horrendous deception?
A woman holds the key to one man’s destiny in this classic Regency romance from the legendary New York Times bestselling author. Disinherited and disgraced, Reginald Davenport’s prospects cried for a dire end. But fate has given him one last chance at redemption—by taking his rightful place as the heir of Strickland, his lost ancestral estate. Davenport knows his way around women, yet nothing prepares him for his shocking encounter with Lady Alys Weston. Masquerading as a man in order to obtain a position as estate manager of Strickland, Alys fled a world filled with mistrust and betrayal. She was finished with men—until Strickland’s restored owner awakens a passion she thought she would never feel. A passion that will doom or save them both . . . if only they can overcome their pasts . . . Praise for Mary Jo Putney “Putney’s endearing characters and warm-hearted stories never fail to inspire and delight.” —Sabrina Jeffries “A complex maze of a story twisted with passion, violence, and redemption. Miss Putney just gets better and better.” —Nora Roberts “A gifted writer with an intuitive understanding of what makes romance work.” —Amanda Quick “No one writes historical romance better.” —Cathy Maxwell “Dynamite!” —Laura Kinsale
In the first half of the eighteenth century, a new comic plot formula dramatizing the moral reform of a flawed protagonist emerged on the English stage. The comic reform plot was not merely a generic turn towards morality or sentimentality, Aparna Gollapudi argues, but an important social mechanism for controlling and challenging political and economic changes. Gollapudi looks at reform comedies by dramatists such as Colley Cibber, Susanna Centlivre, Richard Steele, Charles Johnson, and Benjamin Hoadly in relation to emergent trends in finance capitalism, imperial nationalism, political factionalism, domestic ideology, and middling class-consciousness. Within the context of the cultural anxieties engendered by these developments, Gollapudi suggests, the reform comedies must be seen not as clichéd and moralistic productions but as responses to vital ideological shifts and cultural transvaluations that impose a reassuring moral schema on everyday conduct. Thoroughly researched and elegantly written, Gollapudi's study shows that reform comedies covered a range of contemporary concerns from party politics to domestic harmony and are crucial for understanding eighteenth-century literature and culture.
In this Regency-era romance, a young widow finds herself charmed by a notorious rake she struggles hard to resist. The last person Molly Morgan wants to come to her rescue is the handsome yet infuriating Beau Russington. The young widow does her utmost to avoid scandalous rakes like Russ, but his dangerous allure shakes up her quiet country life. The sparks between them could be explosive, if Molly only dare surrender . . .
Essays by Sandra Brown, Jayne Ann Krentz, Mary Jo Putney, and other romance writers refute the myths and biases related to the romance genre and its readers.