London, 1815.
Leela Choudhury refuses to be silent.
From a hidden alley in Nightingale Court, she runs The Nightingale, an underground bookshop that trades in forbidden texts, political pamphlets, and stories society insists women should never read. When a scandalous serialized romance known as The Pirate’s Promise ignites demand across Mayfield, Leela suspects its anonymous female author is not who she claims to be.
She’s right.
Viscount Sebastian Toussaint—wealthy aristocrat, favorite of the Crown, and the last man Leela ever expected to trust—is the mind behind the novel that has women whispering, dreaming, and daring to want more. Bound together by secrecy and a shared love of literature, Leela helps Sebastian discreetly distribute his work chapter by chapter, even as the Crown and a powerful bookseller close in.
As censorship tightens and reputations unravel, Leela and Sebastian must decide whether stories can truly change the world, and whether love can survive when everything else is at risk.
In a society determined to control women’s voices, one book may prove impossible to silence.
She runs an underground bookshop, he's the anonymous author behind a scandalous pirate romance that is warping the delicate minds of female readers. As they fall in love, a censorship battle closes in. From what I can gather, this is Singh's debut.
Sparks that burn…
Hotter than a Tuscan summer!
After a haunting loss, restless Colonel Hayes Winterton accepts his father’s mission to secure a vineyard in Tuscany. Except his plans are thwarted by widow Evelisse Banfield—his stubborn, captivating competition!
Evelisse is shocked when the stoically handsome Hayes proposes a drastic solution to share the vineyard—a convenient marriage! Rather than relinquish her claim on the property, she accepts, but he will be her husband in name only. Until Evelisse realizes their business arrangement could have pleasurable benefits, as long as real feelings don’t blur the boundaries…!
Scott kicks off what is quite likely her final series for Harlequin Historical with a military hero looking to purchase a vineyard in Tuscany only to butt heads with another prospective buyer, the heroine. Then this man has the audacity to suggest they enter into a marriage of convenience so they can share the vineyard and why is she even considering this proposal?
A secret son…demands a wedding!About to inherit a dukedom, Edward Harrington’s search for a suitable bride ends abruptly when a baby is thrust into his arms! His eyes meet Beatrice Puddifoot, the enchanting serving maid he shared an all-consuming connection with. They both knew their bond could never last beyond that one perfect night. But his heir changes everything…Beatrice is used to relying only on herself. So, she’s stunned when Edward demands her hand in marriage! Her station means she’s hardly duchess material, and their union will be tarnished by scandal. Yet, while Beatrice might not belong in Edward’s world, his arms feel inexplicably like home…
Rodi's latest leans hard into the Cinderella trope. He's a future Duke looking for an acceptable bride, only to be confronted by the maid he shared one perfect night with and the consequence, a baby! She's desperate and is hoping he'll take the child in. Instead he proposes that they marry!
Her money...For his title?Lilleth Younger never imagined marrying a British nobleman she’d never met, but that’s exactly what the American heiress must do to satisfy her father’s dying wish. After rural Connecticut, arriving in riotous New York to take her vows is a shock—as is her new husband, the brooding Viscount Abberly! He’s seriously opposed to romance, but soon begins to open up under her sunny charm. Lilleth is irresistibly drawn to the compassionate man beneath the reserved facade. But having discovered all he has sacrificed to wed her, dare she hope that their marriage could ever be more than convenient?
She's an heiress used to life in rural Connecticut, he's a British Viscount who makes sacrifices to wed her (I'm guessing her money probably helps....). Arens' latest stand-alone is set against the Gilded Age backdrop of New York City and London.
A marriage gamble…Worth the risk?When irritatingly handsome Montague Donovan, Marquess of Laidley, challenges Calliope Oliver to a painting contest, the stakes are high. If he wins, Calliope must marry him, and if Calliope wins, then she will gain the artistic recognition she’s always craved—and knock the arrogant smirk off his face!Having unexpectedly become guardian to his orphaned nephew, Montague finds himself in need of a convenient wife—fast. As their competition reaches fever pitch, and he and silver-tongued Calliope bicker their way to attraction, it’s more than the wager he stands to lose—but his heart too!
Enemies to Lovers over...painting? He needs a convenient wife, she's looking to knock him down a peg and finally receive some recognition for her artistic abilities. This is the second book in The Unconventional Oliver Sisters trilogy.
When the world silences her, he gives her the courage to strike back.When Viscount Jonathan Davenport discovers a mystery woman fighting off a group of bandits with only her fists and wits, he immediately knows she belongs at The Silk Knuckles Saloon. If only he could convince her to speak, or learn to read the notes she pens to him; only then they might come to know one another.Lady Genevieve is on the run from her abusive father when a handsome stranger inserts himself into her life, offering her a fresh start. As much as she wants to talk to him, her throat refuses to work. Still, he seems to understand her, offering her everything she has ever dreamed of.When Genevieve’s highly publicized fight leads a dangerous individual to their door, Jonathan and Gen must work together to save her from her haunting past.
The second book in The Silk Knuckles Saloon series, features a heroine with selective mutism on the run from an abusive father. He's a Viscount who meets her while she's fighting off a group of bandits and offers her a fresh start.
Lady Lydia Cavendish did not expect her recently departed father to leave her everything. Yet what seems a miracle, offering freedom from her controlling brother Rupert’s whims, soon turns into a stranglehold. Because there’s one condition: she must get married first, with Rupert’s consent. And quickly, if Thornleigh Hall is to outlast its debts. As heiress, the responsibility for the estate rests heavy on her shoulders.Assistant to the groundskeeper, Thomas Brooks, keeps to himself. More tolerated than accepted by the other staff, a life of tending flowers has been enough since his beloved sister departed for a brighter future in London. When he stumbles across an injured, distraught Lydia in the twilit forest, his only impulse is to help.What begins as a chance meeting soon blooms into a delicate connection. As Lydia repays Thomas’s kindness by reading him his sister’s letters, something quiet grows in the stolen hours. But her impending nuptials to Rupert’s best friend loom large. Soon, both of them are caught inside a tangled and conflicted net. Between duty and attraction, safety and freedom, which will win out?And is it truly worth risking it all for love?
She is looking down the barrel of marriage to her controlling brother's BFF and he's an assistant to a groundskeeper when they meet and fall in love. This is the first novella in the multi-author A Society of Scandal series that is "aiming to highlight the joy of reading historical romance and escaping to the past in this wondrous genre whilst cherishing openness, inclusivity, and equality."
A boxer no proper lady should ever root for…
Drew Sutton has built his reputation with quick fists, quicker smiles, and enough knockouts to keep all of Seattle talking. But while society dismisses him as a rough-edged pugilist, Drew’s true talent lies far from the ring—in cultivating prize-winning blooms. His foremost contender? A loud-mouthed spinster with wild curls and a grin that never fails to send his pulse racing. Their rivalry has always been good sport—until he unthinkingly transforms their private feud into the scandal of the summer. Now it’s war over dahlias, but Drew can’t shake the feeling that the only thing worth winning has nothing to do with horticulture.A spinster determined to leave him flat on the canvas…Cecelia Townsend has cultivated her competition with Drew Sutton as carefully as her prize dahlias. There’s something delicious about the man who tends fragile shoots with bruised knuckles, and she’s long enjoyed their harmless flirtation. But when their rivalry becomes the city’s favorite spectator sport—complete with public sparring and brazen wagers—the stakes turn dangerously real. Then there’s the kiss. One reckless, soul-shaking kiss that changes everything. Now Cecelia is consumed by a far more perilous Victory—and the Fighting Florist himself—will be hers by summer’s end.
And oh look, here's the second novella dropping in the same month! He's a boxer with a passion for gardening and she's his competition. What starts out as a rivalry soon turns into a delicious scandal. Oh, and it takes place in Seattle!
She sees patterns in everything. Except the trap closing around her.Charlotte Sinclair has spent her days in the quiet of her father's study, where secrets live in ink and paper rather than in the eyes of men who would kill to keep them. When the Crown requires a codebreaker inside the Black Rose Society, she is the only one who can unravel the cipher that threatens Parliament itself. But infiltrating a treasonous network demands more than a brilliant mind. It demands a man of experience, nerve, and dangerous capability to keep them both alive.Major Adrian Blackwood is precisely that man — spy, gentleman, and keeper of secrets he has never dared speak aloud. He needs her gift for ciphers. She needs his cover. Together, they will pose as sympathizers within the Society's inner circle, navigating masked balls, forged documents, and midnight rendezvous along the fog-laden Thames.What neither anticipated was a traitor within the Society determined to see them hanged for theft — or a blackmailer who knows precisely which ghosts will bring Adrian to his knees.As they race to unmask a catastrophic plot against Parliament, their careful professional partnership begins to feel perilously like something more. With assassins on their trail, their reputations in ruins, and the Black Rose closing in from all sides, Charlotte and Adrian must expose the real villain before Westminster falls — and before the web of deception they have built together destroys everything they have come to hold dear.In a world of shadows and shifting allegiances, the most dangerous secret is not the one their enemies carry. It is the one they are keeping from each other.
The second in The Shadow of the Black Rose series is being marketed as a mystery, but it sounds like there's plenty of romance in the back cover blurb. She's a codebreaker who is teamed up with a military man, a spy, gentleman and all around keeper of secrets. To ferret out the plot, they most pose as sympathetic traitors and a couple.
Desperate to save her sisters, Miss Darcy Whitley travels to London seeking Sebastian, the Earl of Raine, whose connection to them could secure their futures. Yet his cold indifference suggests he could cast them aside at any moment.Unwilling to trust their future to his mercy, Darcy accepts a secret commission within London’s most scandalous pleasure palace. Behind a mask and under the name Red, she paints intimate scenes of desire meant to tempt and ensnare all who dare to look.She never expected to find him there.In society, Sebastian is controlled, aloof, and untouchable. Within Aphrodite, he is wickedly indulgent, dangerously charming, and irresistibly sensual.Darcy should fear and avoid him. Instead, his allure draws her in, tempting her to forget every caution she holds dear. Because if Sebastian ever unmasks Red, the cost of her deception may be more than she can bear.
This is the fifth book in the Sins & Sensibilities series. She's looking for protection and security to save her sisters but doesn't entirely trust the hero, so she accepts a job painting scandalous portraits at a notorious pleasure palace - so what is he doing there?! Oh honey, he's an Earl, this is a historical romance, of course he's there....
Annabelle Bradford was born on the sea and, as an infant, was claimed by pirate captain Reid Courtney as part of the spoils of seizure. Though she lives in London, she spends every summer aboard her godfather’s ship, exploring the ocean and embracing the freedom the horizon offers.But when her godfather is kidnapped by a rival captain who is hunting for lost Spanish treasure, Annabelle must set sail on the most dangerous mission of her life—but first she’ll have to break a pirate out of prison.Captain Hawke has vowed to never return to the cursed Isla de Plata, not even if the lovely but arrogant Lady Bradford practically demands it of him in exchange for his freedom. When she also promises him a ship of his own once Captain Courtney is rescued, Hawke reluctantly agrees to sail with her and her crew.Though Annabelle and Hawke initially clash over who will captain the ship, as they travel through storms and dangers toward the mysterious Devil’s Triangle, the lady’s heart begins to soften toward the charismatic pirate captain. But what if he doesn’t love her back? What if when they are done, he simply sails over the horizon without her?Annabelle knows how to navigate both the ballrooms of London and the waves of the ocean, but finding her way to true love may prove to be the most difficult journey of all.
She's off to save her kidnapped godfather, but for that she first needs to break a pirate out of prison - which would be our hero. One small fly in the ointment, even though she can get him his freedom, he's not all that keen to return to the island where her godfather is being held captive.
Happily ever after isn’t for the working class.
Though Clara Fletcher’s life was recently upended, following her best friend all the way to Scotland was hardly any trouble. What troubled her, beyond her constant headaches, was wondering whether Harry would come with them.Harry Stanton, the staid, always proper butler, had been the rock upon which Clara stood since the moment she’d arrived to take up her position in her friend and employer’s household. By day, they ran the house side by side. Each night, they slept the same way. Clara had never been good at that—sleeping. Something about the past that lingered like her headaches wouldn’t allow it, unless she was lying next to him. It was a daring impropriety, but the only one they could allow, as domestics in the same household could never marry and keep the positions they so cherished. Acting on their long-held but still-silent feelings wouldn’t be worth the risk.Moving to Kinloss would be a new beginning for all of them, but the roads they traveled to get there were eerily familiar to Clara. Scotland was her home. Or at least, it had been. Edinburgh was where she’d buried her secrets, and nearly from the minute they’d arrived, the mail coach had carried those secrets right to their little village.Clara was an author. An accomplished one, though the impact of her work was previously unknown, even to her. In the bright eyes of a villager’s daughter, Clara begins to see the revolutionary difference her inexpensive pamphlets of whimsical, educational stories for children are making. But the name on the papers grasped in her tiny hands isn’t Clara’s own.Now, she has a choice to make. She can either give up control of her own life’s work or do the thing she’s quite possibly the worst at: asking for help. More importantly, whichever path she treads—will Harry follow?
A below stairs romance featuring a heroine with a secret writing past and a butler. Oh, and it sounds like our heroine suffers from migraines. Seriously, this back cover blurb is kind of a mess but there's enough here for me to check out a sample.
Lord Damian Wynd had control of his world and his life. As the second born, it was his responsibility to manage the family import business, Trade Wynd. His days were spent on the docks overseeing the unloading of ships or in his offices not far away, which left Damian with little else in his life. An emptiness gnawed at him, but he had no time to determine the cause, let alone fill it. Nor was it as important as keeping order of all he supervised. However, his carefully balanced world is soon overturned when he spies a young woman sneaking away from one of their newly arrived ships.Miss Georgiana Wylde had always had an adventurous soul, though limited in what she could pursue, grounded, intelligent, and knew what was expected of her. However, when her sister disappears in pursuit of an English rogue, Georgie must go after her before all is ruined, although she fears that it may be too late.Damian’s first intention is to send Georgie back from whence she came, but her determination and fear for her sister pulls at something deep in his chest that might very well be his heart.Georgiana had not expected that the most difficult and pragmatic gentleman in all of England would come to her aid. Further, she does not even like him, nor does he care for her. Yet, as their search takes them from the docks in Southampton throughout England and beyond, she finds herself coming to care, even love, the one gentleman who should be completely wrong for her.
The second book in The Wynd Brothers series, he's the second born managing the family's import business and she's looking for her impetuous sister before the family reputation is ruined beyond repair.
She has a secret that requires a husband.Kitty Larson is in a predicament. She and her sisters have recently inherited their parents’ successful bookshop and printing press, along with its secrets. Unfortunately, her uncle is trying to obtain steal their wealth by becoming their guardian. Desperate to prevent this, Kitty reaches out to the proprietor of the Lyon’s Den in hopes of arranging a marriage. Marrying with the right stipulations will put an end to her uncle's schemes.He needs a wife to avoid scandal.Oliver's father, the Marquess of Everly, has died and Oliver returns to England after enduring the war on the Continent. Now he's the new marquess, and the responsibility of the family falls on him. So when he discovers his family is broke, there is no time to be upset. He must replenish the family coffers whatever the cost, even if that means marrying a stranger for her wealth, though he'd always expected to marry for love. He approaches Mrs. Dove-Lyon, known for handling situations discreetly and quickly. His family is one of the most respected families of the ton, but if their financial situation is discovered, their name and their legacy would be destroyed.Will this marriage of convenience become more or will scandal ruin everything?The need to marry, a book, and a game bring Kitty and Oliver to the altar. But what starts as a marriage of convenience quickly becomes something altogether different. With every lingering touch and kiss, they both realize they are losing their hearts. Unfortunately, Kitty has a secret about the source of her wealth that could bring scandal to the Everly name much worse than the situation that caused Oliver to marry her. When he finds out, will their unexpected love match survive?
She needs a husband to protect her inherited bookshop and printing press from a dastardly uncle. He's a newly minted Marquess who needs to marry an heiress when he finds the family coffers bare, but he needs to do so discreetly because if word gets out about his financial situation, well it won't be good. Part of a long-running Lyon's Den continuity series, we have another messy back cover blurb, but intriguing enough to get me to check out a sample.
Whew! Another month full of possibilities for your TBR. Hopefully you've found something worth checking out. Happy shopping, and reading!
