A PopSugar and BookBub Best Romance of 2022!
A London heiress rides out to the wilds of the English countryside to honor a marriage of convenience with a mysterious and reclusive stranger.
Tall, dark, and dour, the notorious Captain Jasper Blunt was once hailed a military hero, but tales abound of his bastard children and his haunted estate in Yorkshire. What he requires now is a rich wife to ornament his isolated ruin, and he has his sights set on the enchanting Julia Wychwood.
For Julia, an incurable romantic cursed with a crippling social anxiety, navigating a London ballroom is absolute torture. The only time Julia feels any degree of confidence is when she's on her horse. Unfortunately, a young lady can't spend the whole of her life in the saddle, so Julia makes an impetuous decision to take her future by the reins-she proposes to Captain Blunt.
In exchange for her dowry and her hand, Jasper must promise to grant her freedom to do as she pleases. To ride-and to read-as much as she likes without masculine interference. He readily agrees to her conditions, with one provision of his own: Julia is forbidden from going into the tower rooms of his estate and snooping around his affairs. But the more she learns of the beastly former hero, the more intrigued she becomes…
Eine Liebe gegen alle Vorurteile!
Evelyn Maltravers sieht ihre einzige Chance, die Aufmerksamkeit heiratswilliger Gentlemen auf sich zu ziehen, darin, mit ihren Fähigkeiten als Reiterin aufzufallen. Sie sucht den Schneider auf, der auch einige berühmte Londoner Kurtisanen mit spektakulären Reit-Outfits versehen hat. Ahmad Malik besitzt ein besonderes Talent, die Schönheit jeder Frau zu betonen. Schon bald keimen zarte Gefühle zwischen ihnen auf. Doch als Sohn einer indischen Mutter hat Malik es nicht leicht, in der englischen Gesellschaft Fuß zu fassen. Kann Evelyns Traum, die Standesunterschiede und Vorurteile der Gesellschaft gegen alle Widerstände zu überwinden, wirklich wahr werden?
Teil 1 der BELLES OF LONDON
A PopSugar, Oprah Daily, and BookBub Most Anticipated Romance of 2022!
Victorian high society's most daring equestrienne finds love and an unexpected ally in her fight for independence in the strong arms of London's most sought after and devastatingly handsome half-Indian tailor.
Evelyn Maltravers understands exactly how little she's worth on the marriage mart. As an incurable bluestocking from a family tumbling swiftly toward ruin, she knows she'll never make a match in a ballroom. Her only hope is to distinguish herself by making the biggest splash in the one sphere she excels: on horseback. In haute couture. But to truly capture London's attention she'll need a habit-maker who's not afraid to take risks with his designs-and with his heart.
Half-Indian tailor Ahmad Malik has always had a talent for making women beautiful, inching his way toward recognition by designing riding habits for Rotten Row's infamous Pretty Horsebreakers-but no one compares to Evelyn. Her unbridled spirit enchants him, awakening a depth of feeling he never thought possible.
But pushing boundaries comes at a cost and not everyone is pleased to welcome Evelyn and Ahmad into fashionable society. With obstacles spanning between them, the indomitable pair must decide which hurdles they can jump and what matters most: making their mark or following their hearts?
A WORLD-WEARY RAKE
After years of unbridled debauchery, Tristan Sinclair, Viscount St. Ashton has hit proverbial rock bottom. Seeking to escape his melancholy, he takes refuge at one of Victorian society's most notorious house parties. As the Christmas season approaches, he prepares to settle in for a month of heavy drinking . . . until an unexpected encounter changes his plans-and threatens his heart.
A PRIM VICAR'S DAUGHTER
Valentine March is not the drab little spinster she appears to be. When her new job as a lady's companion lands her smack in the middle of Yorkshire with England's most infamous rake, she resolves to keep her head down and her eyes fixed firmly on her future-a future which most definitely does not include a sinfully handsome viscount.
A MATCH MADE IN SCANDAL
A friendship is impossible. An affair out of the question. But when one reckless act binds them together, will two star-crossed souls discover there's more to each other than meets the eye? Or will revelations from the past end their fragile romance before it begins?
A PROUD BEAUTY
When the tragic death of her gamester father leaves her destitute and alone, society beauty Sylvia Stafford finds work as a governess in a merchant's household in Cheapside. Isolated from the fashionable acquaintance of her youth, she resigns herself to lonely spinsterhood . . . until a mysterious visitor convinces her to temporarily return to her former life-and her former love.
A SCARRED BEAST
Colonel Sebastian Conrad is no longer the dashing cavalry officer Sylvia once fell in love with. Badly scarred during the Sepoy Rebellion, he has withdrawn to his estate in rural Hertfordshire where he lives in near complete seclusion. Brooding and tormented, he cares nothing for the earldom he has inherited-and even less for the faithless beauty who rejected him three years before.
A SECOND CHANCE
A week together in the remote Victorian countryside is the last thing either of them ever wanted. But when fate intervenes to reunite them, will a beastly earl and an impoverished beauty finally find their happily-ever-after? Or are some fairy-tale endings simply not meant to be?
