Showing results by author "Cathy Maxwell" in All Categories

Society dictates that a governess should be modest, quiet, and keep to herself. She should never contradict her employer. And, above all, she must not attract the attention of any male in the household. But Michael Severson doesn't see Isabel Halloran as a governess - he sees her as a woman, one whose lush curves cannot be hidden behind a dowdy gown...and whose efforts at hiding her sparkling intelligence are betrayed by her wit.

She'd once been the toast of London, but now scandal has brought her down. Still, pretty, petted Lady Tara Davidson can't believe her new fate. She had wanted to marry for love…but her profligate father has promised her hand to none other than Breccan Campbell, the "Beast of Aberfeldy" and laird of the valley's most despised clan! Well, Tara may have to marry him, but Breccan can't make her love him…can he?

Once there were three Irish sisters—Gwendolyn, Dara, and Elise—who had to fend for themselves when their gambler of a father disappeared, leaving them with an unscrupulous cousin. Dara hatches a daring plan: they gamble what little they own to finance a London season. Her goal: to use their looks and their wits to find a duke to marry for each sister! It seems her crazy plot might work when the sisters are declared the “Incomparables” of the Season. Dukes and lords line up at their door, but bold women and scandal always go hand in hand.

They call him Lord Lyon, proud, determined - and cursed. He is in need of a bride, but if he falls in love, he dies. His fervent hope is that by marrying - and having a son - without love, perhaps he can break the curse's chains forever. Enter beautiful Thea Martin - a duke's headstrong, errant daughter and society's most brilliant matchmaker. Years ago, she and Lyon were inseparable, until he disappeared from her life without a word. Now she is charged with finding Lyon's bride - a woman he cannot love for a man Thea could love too well.

Elise Lanscarr is furious—her very own sister has married the man Elise had marked for herself. Feeling betrayed, she flees London, determined to return to the one place where everything was once as it should be: her family home in Ireland. But when her stagecoach crashes in a storm, she finds herself cast adrift in the wilds with no one to help but a rough-looking, albeit handsome, stranger—one who has obviously never been informed of the “proper” rules of society.

Twice he has been close to the altar and still no duchess. Will the third time be the charm? A duke can't marry just anyone. His wife must be of good family, be fertile, and be young. Struggling playwright Sarah Pettijohn is absolutely the last woman Gavin Whitridge, Duke of Baynton, would ever fall in love with. However, there is something about her that stirs his blood, which makes her perfect for a bargain he has in mind: In exchange for backing her play, he wants Sarah to teach him about love.

Desperation and an empty stomach forced Fiona Lachlan to agree to a plan that ended up luring the wickedly notorious duke of Holburn into trouble. Everything went terribly wrong, and now she has found herself posing as his ward! And while she swore nothing could make her desire a scoundrel, even if he was a duke, she is now drawing ever closer to the one man she cannot have....

Like many a Regency miss, Lyssa Harrell longs for love, but knows her duty lies in marriage. Still, when her father promises her hand to a dissolute but well-connected lord, she does the unthinkable...she flees to Scotland. Not to Gretna Green, but to her family-and to the castle where her mother once had been so happy. In this romantic land she will discover her heart's desire.

The Earl Claims His Wife is the latest romance from New York Times best-selling author Cathy Maxwell in her new Scandal and Seductions series, where pride clashes with passion and temptation leads to love. Preoccupied with wars and women, the earl ignored his wife. But when he finally wants her by his side, the fiery Lady Gillian won't go without a fight....

The penniless orphan of a disreputable earl, Lady Charlene Blanchard thrives on the adventure of picking the pockets of unsavory gentlemen to survive. But due to her extraordinary beauty and prized bloodlines, she is hand chosen as a potential bride for the duke of Baynton, who is on the hunt for a suitable wife to provide heirs. All Char has to do is act the part she was born to play and charm a duke she's never laid eyes on into proposing.

Is it wrong for a woman to want more? Not if she is a Spinster Heiress. They do not settle. Any young miss would be very lucky to find herself promised to a man like the duke of Camberly. However, Miss Willa Reverly has watched her friends marry for love. Camberly may be the prize of the season, but she will not be “sold” to any man. She wants his devotion or she wants nothing at all.

Every debutante aspires to snag a duke. Elin Morris just happens to have had one reserved since birth. But postponements of her marriage to London's most powerful peer give Elin time to wonder how she will marry Gavin Baynton when she cannot forget his brother, Benedict.

Sabrina Davidson, dutiful daughter, avowed spinster, thought she'd secured a place for herself in Aberfeldy society - until her hard-earned acceptance of her fate is challenged by the arrival of Cormac Enright, earl of Ballin, trained physician, soldier of fortune, and convicted felon. Mac is determined to clear his name, but first he has to find the man whose testimony sentenced him to a hangman's noose.

In New York Times best-selling author Cathy Maxwell's new novella, beautiful Jennifer Tarleton has no lack of noble suitors, but the only man who captures her attention is the one her father will never let her marry: Fyclan Morris. He's a brash adventurer, witty, courageous...and Irish! Even worse, her father blames her for their reversal of fortune. And it's a fortune - or, rather, his grandmother the fortune-teller - who foretold that Fyclan would meet "the one", a love prophesied in the stars.

This eliminates Grace MacEachin on all three counts. A hellion of the first order, the alluring, infuriating woman would be nothing more than a passing temptation to an upstanding gentleman like Richard - if it weren't for the fact that she's trying to blackmail his father! Or, as Grace sees it, trying to get justice - and maybe just the slightest hint of revenge on the family that tore her life asunder when she was just a girl. And as for Lynsted, well, the stuffy, humorless man wouldn't suffer for time spent in company more exciting than that of his company ledgers.

Miss Cassandra Holwell is too tall, too bookish, and too smart - but she does have money and a father who wants a grand title for her. Cassandra hasn’t felt a desire to marry until she meets the sinfully handsome Duke of Camberly, who captures her imagination...until Soren York, Earl of Dewsberry and her family’s sworn enemy, steps in the way.

Brandon Balfour made the mistake of trusting his heart to the exquisite, strong-willed actress, Kate Addison, with whom he shared one intimate night before fate intervened. Now a decade later, Brandon is a leading member of the Logical Men’s Society - for no woman since Kate has managed to captivate him. To Kate, the memory of that night still burns strongly, because it was followed by a stunning betrayal. A chance encounter may have brought Brandon back into her life, but that doesn’t mean Kate will ever forgive him.

Portia Maclean believes she is beyond love and marriage. Then one moonlit night, while attempting a daring masquerade in a desperate bid to protect her family, she finds herself swept off her feet by a powerful stranger. But what will he do once he discovers she has betrayed him? Harry Chattan is fighting for his family. For two hundred years, the Chattan men have been destroyed by love...and now he's come to Scotland on the hunt for a witch to break the curse.

He's inherited a title, but not a penny to speak of, so the Earl of Rochdale knows he must find a wife - preferably one tolerably pretty and good-tempered but definitely wealthy, and who will exchange her fortune for his family name. His choice: Leonie Charnock, one of the season's "Spinster Heiresses". Years before, the earl had saved the dark-eyed beauty's reputation, and she is still breathtakingly lovely, leading Rochdale to hope that their marriage will be more than in name only.

The distressed traveler Charlotte Cameron encounters on a rainy Scottish night is absolutely the worst man she could have invited into her carriage! It is Phillip Maddox, the reprehensible Duke of Colster, who brought the full weight of the ton's fury down upon her - simply because Charlotte encouraged her sister not to wed the powerful peer. And now the seductive devil responsible for her social ruin is sitting close enough to kiss....