Showing results by narrator "Beverley Crick" in All Categories

Bianca Tate is horrified when her sister Cathy is obliged to accept an offer of marriage from Maximilian St. James, notorious rake. Defiantly, she helps Cathy elope with her true love and takes her sister’s place at the altar. Perched on the lowest branch of his family tree, Max has relied on charm and cunning to survive. But an unexpected stroke of luck gives him an outside chance at a dukedom - and which Tate sister he weds hardly seems to matter. Married or not, Bianca is determined to protect her family’s prosperous ceramics business, even when Max shows an affinity for it.

Scarred by a dark secret, Brandan Delamar, Duke of Westbury, must concede his misdeeds have finally caught up with him. With five younger sisters to support, he must marry for money. Sunny and steadfast, Viola Beaton is no heiress. As music instructor to the duke’s sisters, she’s developed a genuine affection for the bright young ladies. Unfortunately, she’s also developed a forbidden passion for her wildly attractive employer.

After the death of his fiancée, Kai Ramsay left Scotland to roam distant lands. He has searched ancient ruins, collected priceless antiquities, and escaped certain death after being imprisoned as a spy during the Napoleonic War. Ramsay has lived on the edge of danger for years — but everything changes the day a letter arrives for him from Scotland....

Julia Lanchester is flying high. She's nesting with her boyfriend, Michael Sedgwick, and she's found her niche as manager of the tourist center in her picturesque British village. Thanks to all her hard work, visitor traffic was up - way up. Her reward is an even more hectic schedule. Michael's busy, too, traveling all over as the personal assistant to Julia's father, celebrity ornithologist Rupert Lanchester. With precious little time together, Julia's romantic weekend with Michael can't come soon enough. But the getaway is spoiled when Julia's ex-husband is found murdered.

When a tragic accident turns out to be murder, Lady Katherine finds herself embroiled in an investigation tainted by lies and deception. With conflicting witness testimony, mysterious neighbors who saw the impossible, and a secret someone would kill for, Katherine must dig into the dark side of London society to uncover the truth. Naturally, she has help. Maybe too much help. Along with her loyal maid, Harriet, her pilfering pug, Emma, and her Bow Street Runner friend Lyle, Katherine is joined by budding investigator Pru Burwick and her eccentric Scottish fiance, Lord Annandale.

Lady Daphne Forsyth is a brilliant mathematician with a burning passion for puzzles. When she learns that the library belonging to her benefactress houses the legendary Cameron Cipher - an encrypted message that, once solved, holds the key to great riches - Daphne is on the case. Unfortunately, her race to unlock the cipher's code is continually thwarted by a deliciously handsome distraction she hadn't counted on...and cannot resist.

As publisher of the weekly London ladies' gazette Heart to Heart, Krista Hart is known for her outspoken views on such unpopular issues as social reform - risking her reputation and her very safety with every controversial article. She refuses to be intimidated, although she knows full well it makes her the target of angry opposition. When she encounters a powerful Viking descendant imprisoned as a local sideshow attraction, Krista angrily demands his release.

Raised in the countryside by her overprotective uncle, Miss Mina Penny’s dream of a triumphant London season is finally here. She determined her perfect match long ago: Rafe Bentley, the wickedest rake of them all. There’s only one very large, very unyielding obstacle: Rafe’s brother Drew, the reclusive duke of Thorndon.

Sophie Wells is a successful photographer with a focus on putting the past firmly behind her. When Josh Strachan returns to the seaside town of Cornwall from the States to run his family's hotel, he can't understand why the fun, sexy girl has zero interest in letting him--or any man, for that matter--into her life. He also can't understand how he's been duped into employing Sophie's impulsive friend, Tula, whose crush on him is decidedly unrequited.

In difficult circumstances Charlotte Ward, once a famed stage actress, tries to restart her career - only to experience disaster. Against her better judgment, her estranged daughter, Rosalind, comes to her mother's rescue and moves her to a quiet English coastal village. Charlotte is grateful to get to know Rosalind after years apart. As one who has regrets about her own romantic past, it's a joy for Charlotte to see love blossom for her daughter.

American artist Jeremy Keane refuses to return home and take over his father's business. He'd much rather sample bevvies of beauties abroad, in search of a model for the provocative masterpiece he's driven to paint. When he meets Lady Yvette Barlow at a London wedding, he realizes she's perfect for his work - and determines to capture the young heiress' defiant spirit and breathtaking sensuality on canvas.

Bow Street agent Sebastien Wolff, Earl of Mowbray, doesn’t believe in love - until a passionate kiss with a beautiful stranger in a brothel forces him to reconsider. When the mysterious woman is linked to an intrigue involving a missing Russian princess, however, Seb realizes her air of innocence was too good to be true. Princess Anastasia Denisova has been hiding in London as plain "Anna Brown". With a dangerous traitor hot on her trail, her best option is to accept Wolff’s offer of protection - and accommodation - at his gambling hall.

After three failed seasons and a disastrous jilting, Lady Dorothea Beaumont has had more than enough of her family's scheming. She won't domesticate a duke, entangle an earl, or vie for a viscount. She will quietly exit to her aunt's Irish estate for a life of blissful freedom. Until an arrogant, sinfully handsome duke singles her out for a waltz, making Thea the most popular belle of the season. The duke ruined her plans, and he'll just have to fix them.

The son of a proud naval dynasty, Gabriel Hawkins leaves the Royal Navy in disgrace and is disowned by his family. As captain of his own ship, he’s earned his living in ways both legal and illegal, and his experience makes him the best choice to ransom an aristocratic beauty captured by Barbary pirates. Having avoided the traps of convention and marriage, Lady Aurora Lawrence is horrified by the prospect of spending her life as a harem slave. Her only hope of escape is a quiet, steely captain who has a history with her captor - and who will do anything to free Rory.

Lady Henrietta Prince is far too busy for romance. She’s dedicated her life to turning her family vineyards into a profitable sparkling wine venture. But when she shares a thrilling kiss at midnight with a handsome stranger, she’s captivated...until he claims to be the distant heir to her father’s dukedom.

Miss Poppy Summers is determined to keep her family's fishing business afloat. Her poor widowed father has fallen ill, and her foolhardy brother has moved to London, leaving her precious little time to read or pursue her own dreams. But she'll do anything for her family, so she cheerfully spends mornings in her rowboat, casting her nets. The very last thing Poppy expects or wants to find tangled in them is a dangerously attractive man. Especially one with a head wound—who's convinced he's a duke.

Marlowe is a pickpocket, a housebreaker - and a better actress than any professional on the stage. She runs with the Covent Garden Cubs, a gang of thieves living in the slums of London's Seven Dials. It's a fierce life, and Marlowe has a hard outer shell. But when she's alone, she allows herself to think of a time before - a dimly remembered life when she was called Elizabeth.

A dedicated painter, Miss Sophia Hastings is far more concerned with finding the right slant of light than in finding Mr. Right. But when an overheard conversation hints at danger for another local artist, Sophia is determined to get involved, even if it means accepting help from an impossibly good-looking vicar who insists on joining her investigation and threatens to capture her heart.

Once upon a time in Mayfair a group of wallflowers formed a secret society with goals that had absolutely nothing to do with matrimony. Their most troublesome obstacle? Rogues! They call her Beastly Beatrice. Wallflower Lady Beatrice Bentley longs to remain in the wilds of Cornwall to complete her etymological dictionary. Too bad her brother’s Gothic mansion is under renovation. How can she work with an annoyingly arrogant and too-handsome rogue swinging a hammer nearby?

Penelope Weston does not like Benedict Lennox, Lord Atherton. He may be the suave and charming heir to an earl as well as the most handsome man on earth, but she can't forget how he abandoned a friend in need - nor how he once courted her sister, Abigail. He's the last man she would ever marry. If only she didn't feel so attracted to the arrogant scoundrel....