It is the summer of 1891 and a young, beautiful bride is snatched from her wedding, leaving her guests shocked and her new husband distraught. A search is hurriedly mounted, but as each minute passes the trail grows colder. In angry desperation they turn to Scotland Yard. In Victorian London, Detective Inspector Solomon Dearborn has been crumbling under the failures of the Jack the Ripper investigation. Reluctantly he and his young assistant, Detective Sergeant Sparrowhawk, turn their attention to the missing Somerset bride. The crux of this mystery, though, is that it has all happened before . . . From Fleet Street to the moors, Dearborn and Sparrowhawk endeavour to find the truth behind this dark and difficult crime.
Don't miss this themed boxed set of four Beauty-and-the-Beast medieval romances, available for a limited time! Stolen Brides includes four full-length novels: The Rose Red Bride, Pearl Beyond Price, The Warrior, and The Beauty. In The Rose Red Bride, book two of the Jewels of Kinfairlie trilogy of medieval Scottish romances, Vivienne's night with her destined love is as magical as the tales foretell, but at dawn, he takes her captive. Erik is bent on vengeance but Vivienne quickly sees his true valor and resolves to help restore his stolen legacy herself. Will she lose her heart in the bargain? “Claire Delacroix is a shining star of the romance genre. Cleverly original, emotional and fast-paced, full of twists and turns, her books will sweep you right off your feet!”—Julianne Maclean, bestselling author, on The Rose Red Bride In Pearl Beyond Price, Kira is snatched away from her home by a grim warrior she cannot understand. When he defends her, she realizes that actions speak louder than words; when Thierry is dispatched on mission that he is not expected to survive, only Kira's knowledge can ensure his success and give them both the chance of a future. Can Kira dare to hope that the valiant warrior who has claimed her love will share that future with her? "Another dazzling Delacroix delicacy!" —Affaire de Coeur on Pearl Beyond Price In The Warrior, book three of the Rogues of Ravensmuir trilogy, the unwed and unwanted Aileen is abducted by a dangerous knight and compelled to wed him in secrecy. But when her dreams reveal truths that the Hawk has never shared and her curiosity takes her where she should not go, he fears that his beguiling new bride may be his doom. Can Aileen overcome her husband's suspicions to win his love? “Delacroix’s satisfying tale leaves the reader hungry for the next offering.”—Booklist on The Warrior “The Warrior is one more gem in the crown of this queen of medieval romance.”—Rendezvous In The Beauty, book five of the Bride Quest series of medieval romances, Jacqueline is seized on her way to a convent by a wounded knight seeking vengeance, but Alasdair has mistaken her for the daughter of his enemy. When Jacqueline discovers that her captor has returned from crusade only to find his inheritance stolen, she knows that she must help this man of honor regain what is rightfully his own. Will healing his heart cost her own? “Four stars! A tale to warm a winter’s night!”—Romantic Times on The Beauty In these Beauty-and-the-Beast romances, four wounded warriors are healed by the bold beauty of a bride they take captive—only to lose their shielded hearts to the maiden who believes in their honor. Can each persuade his stolen bride to become his willing partner—body, heart and soul?
In 1670, Lady Elizabeth and other women were kidnapped from the streets of London and shipped to Virginia Colony. The women who survived the voyage were sold to colonists seeking wives or unpaid household workers. Each one was given a piece of paper saying they were married to the man who bought them, but no ceremony was performed. Lady Elizabeth certainly never agreed to any marriage as she was engaged to a Lord back home. Unable to escape, she is auctioned to widower, Glen Maclean, who promises to send her home to England in the spring if she'll stay on his farm for the winter to cook and care for his young daughter. The fact that Liz's mother died young and Liz spent her childhood years playing in the kitchen where she learned to cook means she can do what he asks. She wants only to return home to England, but she has no option but to accept Glen's offer and pray he keeps his word to send her home in the spring. Arriving at the farm, she is shocked to see the farmhouse has only two rooms…a kitchen and one bedroom. Given no choice, she must live in the sparse conditions so unlike living in her rich father's manor. She can only hope Glen will return her to England in the spring, or that her father will send someone to rescue her.
From the USA Today–bestselling author, one night leads to shocking consequences in this thrillingly intense second romance in the Stolen Brides series. Dutiful heiress Sophie has never challenged her gilded existence, even agreeing to a loveless arranged marriage at her father’s command. Until she meets ruthless, gorgeous, Sicilian billionaire Renzo. Their one passionate night awakens unimaginable desires in Sophie, but also leaves her pregnant and trapped in an engagement to the wrong man . . . When Renzo uncovers her scandalous secret, he’ll stop at nothing to legitimize his child—including storming Sophie’s wedding and stealing her away to his castle in Sicily as his own bride. She may be exchanging one marriage of convenience for another, but could Renzo be the one who will finally set her free? “Passionate, sexy, sometimes over the top—classic Harlequin Presents drama unfolds here . . . an enjoyable and entertaining romance.” —Harlequin Junkie Don’t miss the first Stolen Brides book, Kidnapped for His Royal Duty, by New York Times–bestselling author Jane Porter.
This book explores the history of Russian peasant bride theft - abduction, capture - from the adoption of Christianity in Kievan Rus in the late tenth century to the very early twentieth century. It argues that bride theft in eighteenth and nineteenth century Russia was practised in large part by, but not exclusively by, Old Believers, the schismatics who rejected the Church reforms of the mid-seventeenth century and shunned contact with the Orthodox Church; and that the point of bride theft, where the bride was often a willing party, often married secretly at night by an Orthodox priest acting illegally, was to absolve the bride and her parents of the responsibility for engaging in a formal Orthodox ritual which Old Believers regarded as sinful. The book also considers how bride theft originated much earlier in Russia and was a continuing tradition in some places, and how all this fitted into the Russian peasant economy. Throughout the book provides rich details of particular bride theft cases, of Russian peasant life, and of Russian folklore, in particular bridal laments.
The original Big Sky Brides, all in one place! Adventure and romance together in high-speed pursuit of Happily Ever Afters throughout the universe. If you’ve been looking for love in all the wrong galaxies, find your alien mate with the Intergalactic Dating Agency! ALPHA STAR She just wanted a quiet place to hide from the world. Instead, she found adventure with a sexy alien seeking his mate and a once-in-a-lifetime chance for a cosmic love… Recovering from a traumatic concussion, Zoe Nazario fears she’ll never trust her own senses again. So when she stumbles over a shiny chrome cube, she laughs off its chirpy announcement that she’s the lucky bride of an alien prince. Aliens? Love? Yeah, no. Better to be dazed and confused—and alone—than desperately delusional. Sinclarion “Sin” Fifth-Moon Jax feels most at home roaming the infinite stars with his cybernetic enhancements and princely privilege to protect his misfit spaceship crew. But his imperial great-grandmother, despairing of his free-flying ways, demands he settle down to claim his solar system inheritance—and the Big Sky Intergalactic Dating Agency has already identified his perfect match in Sunset Falls, Montana, Earth! Grudgingly resigned to seizing the woman of his destiny, Sin instead gets an innocent Earther girl—who rejects him utterly. But when he realizes an interstellar menace is stalking his reluctant bride, he can’t just leave her behind…even if his five mating rings threaten to lock with desire when she’s near. The small-town Earther girl and the arrogant alien prince must join forces to survive a vast and treacherous universe, but what happens when they find that Sin’s inheritance might be a lie—and so is his perfect match with Zoe? RED SHIFT Unmated drakling shifters are one of the hottest threats in the universe, as everyone knows…everyone except this one drakling with amnesia and the innocent Earther girl trapped with him! Banished from his homeworld for refusing a mate that would tame his fiery beast, Honey the drakling followed his wandering prince into battle and then—more terrifying yet—into courtship. But then espresso-induced amnesia leaves him marooned in the backwater wilds of Big Sky Country, Montana, Earth, lost and alone but for a female with hair as dark as the night skies and hidden sparks in her eyes. Tisha Beauchamp just wanted a weekend in her granny’s remote cabin with her girlfriends to figure out her life plan. No one said a thing about an early snowstorm or invading aliens! And now she’s stuck in the mountains by herself—until her one-woman pity party gets crashed by a wild, red-haired man with no memories, strange dragon-ish tattoos, and a scorching touch… Though he has forgotten his name, his beast, and the freedom of space, the feverish urge to claim Tisha grows stronger with every night under the pale light of Earth’s solitary moon. But if he finds his way back to his ship and himself, how can he burn forever with his bold, bright Earther girl? DARK MATTER While it is a verifiable reality that the universe is vast and strange, no one in all those lightyears could ever love an emotionless, soul-sucking space vampire. Unless there are deeper truths out there somewhere… The secretive, ancient species of the vrykoly were designed to pilot the deathly cold distances of space, and Ivan has never known anything else; even his dreams have always been black and empty. Though he guides the Sinner’s Prayer to a neglected little planet to find brides from the Intergalactic Dating Agency, Ivan dispassionately considers bonding and mating to be irrational pursuits. But when his captain and first officer find incandescent love with the extraordinary females of Earth, this vrykoly is forced to wonder if he was—dare he say it?—wrong. After the tragic death of her first love, Montana river guide Delaney Nazario thought she’d be alone forevermore. So she quietly signed up with the Big Sky matchmaking outpost in Sunset Falls, hoping an alien will whisk her away. Instead it was her two roommates who found their mates—also staving off an attack by interstellar mercenaries trying to kidnap Earth women. Now Del is being guarded by a silent, hulking, scary vrykoly—who might be the only being in the universe she could never, ever date. But while there are deeper truths in the universe, there is also secret menace. And Big Sky’s only hope is a space vampire who’s never felt anything and an Earther girl who feels too much. AFTER BURN When Vaughn Quaye’s older sister goes missing in Big Sky Country, she’s willing to risk everything to hunt down the only man who seems to know anything about the mysterious mail order bride agency that closed under suspicious circumstances. Except Vaughn is risking more than her life–she’s discovering a universe of danger and desire she never knew existed. Dejo Jinn, sole proprietor of Jinn Data Recovery, just wants to steal–no, sorry, not steal, recover–the data left behind at the abandoned Intergalactic Dating Agency when it was forced to close after mistakenly losing some brides. He has no interest in revealing his extraterrestrialness to a clueless if distractingly curvy Earther, but after they are attacked and she sees his green blood, his secret is outed. Now reluctant partners, he’ll have the chance to steal–sorry, recover–the valuable data and she’ll get her sister back. Assuming they don’t end up dead. Or worse yet, end up dating. __________ For readers who love: alien mail order bride science fiction romance intergalactic dating agency fated mates prince royalty mercenary starship captain dragon shifter shapeshifter ginger cinnamon roll space vampire alpha male warrior strong woman heroine action adventure fast read fun steamy happily ever after HEA first love and books by Ruby Dixon, Honey Phillips, Tana Stone, Anna Hackett, Celia Kyle, Zoey Draven, Suzanne Wright, Celeste King, and Ava Ross.
The sheikh will have his bride and he’ll do everything to claim her in this royal romance by USA TODAY bestselling author, Caitlin Crews! Stolen in her bridal gown… Taken as the sheikh’s wife! When Hope Cartwright is kidnapped from her convenient wedding, she should feel outraged. But whisked away by Cyrus Ashkan, the sheikh she’s been promised to since birth, Hope feels something far more dangerous—desire! Cyrus refuses to ignore his royal duty—he’s determined to marry innocent Hope, even if he finds her unsuitable in every way. But secluded together in his opulent desert fortress, their unwanted attraction burns hotter than the sun. Hot enough to burn down this mighty king’s every defence, if only Cyrus will allow it… From Harlequin Presents: Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds. Read all the Innocent Stolen Brides books: Book 1: The Desert King's Kidnapped Virgin Book 2: The Spaniard's Last-Minute Wife
Violet Knowlton is betrothed to the sensible, if tedious, Sir Godfrey Maitland. When Godfrey escorts her to a fencing demonstration, she looks forward to the adventurous diversion, but everything changes when she realizes the swordsman displaying his skill-and dashing good looks- is none other than her childhood friend Kit. Soon the flames of their forbidden past ignite into a passion neither can refuse. Although Violet has been promised to another, Kit remains her first and only love. He vows he will possess her, no matter what stands in his way...
