An infamous rake pursues the one woman who could change his ways in this “wonderful, lush, intelligently written” Victorian romance (All About Romance). Everyone knows about Dylan Moore—his brilliant talent and his shameless pleasure-seeking—but no one knows the torment that lies beneath his reckless veneer. Only one woman gets a glimpse of the forces that drive Dylan’s soul, a woman who haunts his dreams and evokes his passions as no other woman has. Disgraced and destitute, Grace Cheval wants nothing to do with the seductive man who desires her. When Dylan offers her a position as governess to his new-found daughter, she knows his true intentions are dishonorable. Yet she finds this charismatic man hard to resist, and she returns his passionate kisses with a fire that matches his own. Can Dylan dare hope that this proud, spirited beauty will melt the ice around his heart?
The twenty-seven stories in Leesa Cross-Smith's debut short story collection Every Kiss a War are set to the sounds of "frogs and crickets out back, steam-pulsing like a machine" and "a sad country song that hasn't been written yet." Men and women love and leave over cigarettes and shots of kitchen table whiskey. She takes us down Kentucky roads in the back of a pickup truck to both truculent and delicate women and rough, rambling men edged with gentleness. A finalist for the Flannery O'Connor Short Fiction Award and the Iowa Short Fiction Award, this collection is a ravishing war of characters laid bare as they look for the glow and fight to stay in the light. As affecting as they are sexy and romantic, these stories burn with sweetness like firecrackers and honey as you throw them back and holler for another round.
"Orlando Landucci knows all too well what darkness lies beneath Florence's dazzling splendor. And when his beloved sister is torn from him, he will stop at nothing to avenge her death. But from the moment he lays eyes on innocent Isabella Spinola, something inside him shifts. She is the kin of his sworn enemy, yet he feels compelled to protect her. With every forbidden kiss Orlando's sense of betrayal deepens, so when the time for vengeance comes, will their bond be enough to banish the shadows forever?"-- From back cover.
Shy by nature, Emma Hathaway usually leaves the drama to her rebellious cousin, Marisol. But when Emma agrees to meet with her cousin's secret lover to end the affair, she is pulled into a dangerous game. Now Emma is convinced her involvement in the scandal has put her life in jeopardy. The trouble is none of Emma's confidantes believe anyone is trying to harm her. As whispers of madness begin, Emma turns to the only person who might be able to help ... The very handsome, barely respectable Restell Gardner has gained a reputation for helping people out of compromising positions. Never one to turn away a lady in need, Restell agrees to help solve the intrigue. Sensing there is more to the green-eyed beauty than meets the eye, Restell feels himself falling for Emma. But he resists succumbing to his passion ... at least until he learns the truth about the danger that is haunting her. For if he gives in to temptation too soon, he could lose Emma forever ...
A magnificent wartime love story about the forces that brought the author’s parents together and those that nearly drove them apart Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s parents, Hanna and Aladár, met and fell in love in Budapest in 1940. He was a rising star in the foreign ministry—a vocal anti-Fascist who was in talks with the Allies when he was arrested and sent to Dachau. She was the granddaughter of Manfred Weiss, the industrialist patriarch of an aristocratic Jewish family that owned factories, were patrons of intellectuals and artists, and entertained dignitaries at their baronial estates. Though many in the family had converted to Catholicism decades earlier, when the Germans invaded Hungary in March 1944, they were forced into hiding. In a secret and controversial deal brokered with Heinrich Himmler, the family turned over their vast holdings in exchange for their safe passage to Portugal. Aladár survived Dachau, a fragile and anxious version of himself. After nearly two years without contact, he located Hanna and wrote her a letter that warned that he was not the man she’d last seen, but he was still in love with her. After months of waiting for visas and transit, she finally arrived in a devastated Budapest in December 1945, where at last they were wed. Framed by a cache of letters written between 1940 and 1947, Szegedy-Maszák’s family memoir tells the story, at once intimate and epic, of the complicated relationship Hungary had with its Jewish population—the moments of glorious humanism that stood apart from its history of anti-Semitism—and with the rest of the world. She resurrects in riveting detail a lost world of splendor and carefully limns the moral struggles that history exacted—from a country and its individuals. Praise for I Kiss Your Hands Many Times “I Kiss Your Hand Many Times is the sweeping story of Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s family in pre– and post–World War II Europe, capturing the many ways the struggles of that period shaped her family for years to come. But most of all it is a beautiful love story, charting her parents’ devotion in one of history’s darkest hours.”—Arianna Huffington, president and editor-in-chief, the Huffington Post Media Group “In this panoramic and gripping narrative of a vanished world of great wealth and power, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák restores an important missing chapter of European, Hungarian, and Holocaust history.”—Kati Marton, author of Paris: A Love Story and Enemies of the People: My Family’s Journey to America “How many times can a heart be broken? Hungarians know, Marianne Szegedy-Maszák’s family more than most. History has broken theirs again and again. This is the story of that violence, told by the daughter of an extraordinary man and extraordinary woman who refused to surrender to it. Every perfectly chosen word is as it happened. So brace yourself. Truth can break hearts, too.”—Robert Sam Anson, author of War News: A Young Reporter in Indochina “This family memoir is everything you could wish for in the genre: the story of a fascinating family that illuminates the historical time it lived through. . . . Informative and fascinating in every way, [I Kiss Your Hands Many Times] is a great introduction to World War II Hungary and a moving tale of personal relationships in a time of great duress.”—Booklist (starred review)
DESIRE HAUNTS HER Rumors of madness and murder lurk within the crumbling walls of Manorbrier Castle. But Emma Parrish is not easily put off. She accepts a position no one else dares, as governess to the son of Lord Anthony Craven, the castle’s dark master. Her presence stirs up shadows and threat. She feels unseen eyes watching her. Eerie laughter haunts her. And the seductive pull of Anthony Craven lures her. DARK SECRETS DRIVE HIM The secrets of Anthony Craven’s shadowy past lurk behind the locked doors of the estate’s forbidden Round Tower. Mysterious lights flash there in the night. The servants whisper warnings of death. And Anthony himself warns Emma that there is only danger to be found in his sensual embrace. EVIL IS ONLY A BREATH AWAY Powerfully drawn to the dangerously alluring Anthony, Emma finds herself unable to deny her deepest yearnings. But even as she succumbs to the master of Manorbrier, she is touched by the whisper of evil that rises from the secrets of his past.
Guilt Kept Them Apart It's been five years since Lady Jennette Selby's fiancé died. Each courting season since has been filled with suitors eager to win her affection. But Jennette's guilt has prompted her to swear off marriage. For her secrets are as dark as she is beautiful, and the accidental death of her fiancé was tainted by a forbidden attraction. . . Passion Brought Them Together Matthew Harris, the new earl of Blackburn, has been scorned by the ton for unintentionally killing Lady Jennette's fiancé. Forced to sell his estates and abandon his tenants if he does not marry a wealthy, respectable woman, Matthew turns to Lady Jennette to help him find a suitable wife. But sharing such close quarters only re-ignites an all-consuming desire neither can resist--even as every shadow of the past threatens to tear them apart. . . Praise for Christie Kelley and Every Night I'm Yours. . . "Sometimes becoming a fallen woman isn't as easy as it sounds. Oh! My!" --Kasey Michaels, New York Times bestselling author "Her appealing characters, sexual tension and charming story will enchant readers." --Romantic Times
"Now, after one dark kiss from a dangerous boy, I can steal someone's soul, or their life. If I give in to the constant hunger inside me, I hurt anyone I kiss. If I don't, I hurt myself"--P. [4] of cover.
Andy is a fast runner. But not fast enough to outrun Auntie Elsie. When Auntie Elsie breaks her leg and stops coming to visit, Andy begins to miss Aunt Elsie and her sloppy kisses. Then one day, a taxi pulls by the gate and out come two crutches. Now it's Andy's turn to get Aunt Elsie.
DISCOVER THE UNFORGETTABLE TIKTOK SENSATION THAT HAS CAPTURED MILLIONS OF HEARTS 'This book is breathtakingly, heartbreakingly beautiful. You will cry ugly tears' 5***** READER REVIEW 'So moving that it left me sobbing but at the same time filled my heart. Beautiful, tragic, heartbreakingly wonderful' 5***** READER REVIEW 'It is without a doubt the biggest ugly cry I have ever had from a book' 5***** READER REVIEW ________ Two hearts. One love story. An ending you will never forget . . . Rune Kristiansen and Poppy Litchfield met as children and swore to be friends forever. As teenagers, their friendship grew into a love that promised to last a lifetime. But their worlds were shattered when Rune was sent home to his native Norway. Two years later, Rune is back, and Poppy is ready for their happy ever after to begin. But the boy who returns is not the Rune she remembers. What happened to turn her sweet, thoughtful Rune into this brooding stranger? And will the secret Poppy is carrying bring them closer together or separate them forever? Discover the story that will break your heart and make you believe true love really does last for eternity . . . ________ 'I have read books that have had me ugly crying in the past but I honestly don't think I've read a book before this one where tears flowed in every single chapter' 5***** READER REVIEW 'The most heartbreaking, soul-shattering yet beautiful book I have ever read . . . I sobbed. I mean ugly crying' 5***** READER REVIEW 'One of the most beautiful and most heartbreaking books I have ever read' 5***** READER REVIEW 'Rune couldn't have been more perfect, nor Poppy more perfect for him' 5***** READER REVIEW
