The Secret Lover

No woman could resist Julian Dane. Except Lady Claudia Whitney. Julian had known her since childhood, but the headstrong lass had grown into a beautiful woman. Julian vows to teach her everything he knows about passion. But Claudia, in her most innocent ardor, promises to challenge him to the most dangerous emotion of all: wild, all-consuming love. The rogue met his match in the woman he was forced to wed....

It was strictly business as Adrian Spence claimed the woman his brother desired. A hasty wedding, and Lilliana Dashell was his - sweet revenge on the father who disinherited him and the brother who let it happen. Their wedding night is a revelation as passionate, innocent Lilliana ignites fires Adrian tries desperately to deny. By day he is a stranger. By night he is the lover of her dreams, and she a shameless wanton in his arms. But Adrian is determined that no woman will ever possess him.

From New York Times best-selling author Julia London comes the second novel in her irresistibly romantic Desperate Debutantes trilogy, in which three suddenly destitute aristocratic young ladies must resort to desperate means to keep up appearances...and find the husbands of their dreams.

Fighting for her land, widowed Kerry McKinnon can't believe the handsome Arthur has come to seize her home and leave her to a terrible fate. Yet from the moment they meet, a scandalous passion ignites between them - impossible to resist. Then a crime will force Kerry to flee with Arthur to England - where a challenge to their love could drive them apart forever....

She raced across the pasture, vaulted a fence, and landed, stunned and breathless, on top of the most handsome man she had ever seen. The bemused stranger stayed to capture the fancy of the brood of orphaned children in her charge, then stole Lauren Hill's heart with a searing kiss as he left. Lauren couldn't tell him she was a widowed countess fallen on hard times. She tried to forget him - until she saw him again at a London ball. The man who haunted her dreams was a duke, out of her class...and he was pledged to another woman.

Desperate times call for daring measures as Honor Cabot, the eldest stepdaughter of the wealthy Earl of Beckington, awaits her family's ruin. Upon the earl's death she and her sisters stand to lose the luxury of their grand home - and their place on the pedestal of society - to their stepbrother and his social-climbing fiancée. Forced to act quickly, Honor makes a devil's bargain with the only rogue in London who can seduce her stepbrother's fiancée out of the Cabots' lives for good.

Widow Elizabeth Overfield and Colin Handrich, Lord Hodges, are both surprised when their sled topples them into a snowbank and they end up sharing an unexpected kiss. They know there is no question of any relationship between them, for she is nine years older than him. They return to London the following Season, both committed to finding other more suitable matches. Still, they agree to share one waltz at each ball they attend. This innocuous agreement proves to be one that will topple their worlds....

Honoria Smythe-Smith is: A) a really bad violinist; B) still miffed at being nicknamed "Bug" as a child; C) not in love with her older brother's best friend, D) all of the above.

This Regency-era tale closes best-selling author Julia Quinn's popular and critically acclaimed Bridgerton series. Gregory Bridgerton has watched love simply walk into the lives of his six siblings, so he has just been waiting for his turn. When he sees beautiful Hermione Watson, he is sure he has found his soul-mate. But then Hermione's friend Lucy informs him that Hermione's heart belongs to another.

Hugh Prentice has never had patience for dramatic females, and if Lady Sarah Pleinsworth has ever been acquainted with the words shy or retiring, she's long since tossed them out the window. Sarah has never forgiven Hugh for the duel he fought three years earlier, the one that forced her cousin into exile, nearly destroying her family. But when the pair is forced to spend a week in close company, they discover that first impressions are not always reliable. And when one kiss leads to two, three, and four, the mathematician may lose count, and the lady may, for the first time, find herself speechless.

Raised by an unloving father who told him he was actually a bastard, Gareth St. Clair, the second son of a viscount, has plenty of private demons to battle. Years later, after ironically becoming the heir to the St. Clair title when his older brother dies, Gareth still doesn't understand why his father, Lord St. Clair, hasn't publicly denounced his position in society.

When Alexander Westcott becomes the new Earl of Riverdale, he inherits a title he never wanted and a failing country estate he can't afford. But he fully intends to do everything in his power to undo years of neglect and give the people who depend on him a better life.... A recluse for more than 20 years, Wren Heyden wants one thing out of life: marriage. With her vast fortune, she sets her sights on buying a husband. But when she makes the desperate and oh-so-dashing earl a startlingly unexpected proposal, Alex will agree only to a proper courtship.

Two years after the death of the Earl of Riverdale, his family has overcome the shame of being stripped of their titles and fortune - except for his onetime countess, Viola. With her children grown and herself no longer part of the social whirl of the ton, she is uncertain where to look for happiness - until quite by accident her path crosses once again with that of the Marquess of Dorchester, Marcel Lamarr. 

When Elizabeth Hotchkiss stumbles upon a copy of How to Marry a Marquis in her employer's library, she's convinced someone is playing a cruel joke. A guidebook to seduction might be just the thing she needs - and what harm could there be in taking a little peek? Intrigued by the alluring young woman with the curious little rulebook, James Sidwell, Marquis of Riverdale, decides that there is only one rule worth following - that Elizabeth marry her marquis.

Alasdair Cynster, known to his intimates as Lucifer, decides to rusticate in the country before the matchmaking skills of London's mamas become firmly focused on him. But an escape to Devon leads him straight to his destiny in the irresistible form of Phyllida Tallent, a wilful, independent beauty who brings all his masterful Cynster instincts rioting to the fore. Lucifer tries to deny the desire Phyllida evokes, but destiny intervenes....