I’m so happy that some of my favorite authors have made the list and I would just like to thank all of them for an outstanding job! And now, without further ado, here they are!
“The Forbidden Rose” by Joanna Bourne (Berkley Sensation)
Bourne (The Spymaster’s Lady) returns to the French Revolution for her latest romance, this time matching up an English spy and a French aristocrat. Marguerite de Fleurignac, a noblewoman who smuggles émigrés to England, encounters William Doyle in the charred remains of her chateau outside of Paris. She needs sanctuary and agrees to let him escort her through the French countryside. Though she pretends to be Scottish and he claims to be French, no one in this book seems able to keep secrets: William knows Marguerite’s identity, she and the French secret police both know he is hunting her father, and everyone, including the secret police and the British, knows everything about the smugglers. Nonetheless, the romance is sweet, and once William and Marguerite admit their love, the ensuing adventure story is everything a spy thriller should be. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
“The Iron Duke” by Meljean Brook (Berkley)
After the Iron Duke freed England from Horde control, he instantly became a national hero. Now Rhys Trahaearn has built a merchant empire on the power-and fear-of his name. And when a dead body is dropped from an airship onto his doorstep, bringing Detective Inspector Mina Wentworth into his dangerous world, he intends to make her his next possession. But when Mina uncovers the victim’s identity, she stumbles upon a conspiracy that threatens the lives of everyone in England. To save them, Mina and Rhys must race across zombie-infested wastelands and treacherous oceans-and Mina discovers the danger is not only to her countrymen, as she finds herself tempted to give up everything to the Iron Duke
“The Heir” by Grace Burrowes (Sourcebooks Casablanca)Burrowes debuts with a luminous and graceful erotic Regency. The earl of Westhaven is determined to avoid his father’s marital machinations by remaining in sweltering London while Society departs for the country. Westhaven takes great pleasure in his well-run household until his new housekeeper, Anna Seaton, mistakes his intentions toward a chambermaid and knocks him flat with a fireplace poker. Anna is too educated and polished to have been born to service, but she makes a tender nurse. As their affections grow, Westhaven believes he’s found a candidate for marriage who would please him and satisfy his father, but Anna refuses Westhaven’s proposal. Her hidden background contains ugly obligations, and she’s determined to keep outrunning them even as he tries to change her mind. Burrowes turns familiar tropes into a refreshing and captivating love story that will have readers eagerly awaiting the planned sequels. Copyright PWxyz, LLC. All rights reserved.
“Barely a Lady” by Eileen Dreyer (Grand Central/Forever)
Romantic suspense author Dreyer (Nothing Personal) makes a highly successful venture into the past with this sizzling, dramatic Regency romance. Olivia Grace is the betrayed, disgraced ex-wife of Jack Wyndham, the earl of Gracechurch. When Olivia finds Jack on the battlefield at Waterloo, inexplicably dressed in a French uniform and missing his memories of the past five years, they are taken in by Lady Kate, a dowager duchess who is no stranger to scandal. To aid Jack’s recovery, Olivia must bury her own anguish and anger over their divorce and pretend to still be his loving, passionate wife. Readers will love the well-rounded characters and suspenseful plot, and will cheer on intelligent, resourceful Olivia and Lady Kate as they take on disparaging men, backstabbing relatives, and stealthy assassins in their quest to protect Jack and create their own happiness in the midst of war. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
“Trial by Desire” by Courtney Milan (HQN)
Readers will be blown away by Milan’s second historical romance, following her excellent debut, Proof by Seduction (2010). At the outset, Lady Kate Carhart’s marriage is perfect in every way except one: her husband, Ned, doesn’t love her. Ned is always the perfect gentleman, but Kate wants a bit more passion and a lot less politeness from her new spouse. Just as Kate is about to set her plan to seduce Ned into motion, however, he announces that he is leaving the country on business. Now, after three years apart, Kate is certain that she has successfully gotten Ned out of her system; but when he unexpectedly returns home, Kate discovers she isn’t quite as over him as she believes. Milan deftly incorporates realistic historical grit in her coverage of the Opium Wars, social candor in her treatment of domestic violence, and stunning emotional depth in the mesmerizing plot, and the result is an exquisitely sensual and unforgettable romance by one of the genre’s incandescent new stars. –John Charles
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