Showing results by narrator "Charlotte Anne Dore" in All Categories

Lady Arabella Danvers is happy with her life just the way it is. She is free to be herself and take care of broken and abandoned animals. Her mother is desperate for her to marry, and has decided to take things into her own hands. There is just one little problem with her plan.

It's not that Janey Sinclair isn't pleased to see her sister. It's just that being woken at 7:00 a.m. by Maxine, complete with a police escort, isn't quite how she'd planned to spend her Sunday. Even so Janey, who's just rebuilding her life after her husband disappeared, is delighted that her sister's back in the Cornish town where they grew up. When Maxine sets her sights on Guy Cassidy, an impossibly glamorous fashion photographer, Janey knows there's no limit to the mischief her sister will get up to in order to dispatch her rivals.

As one of the two remaining unmarried Beverley sisters, Belinda considers herself the last hope for Mannerling, the beloved estate gambled away by their father. Each of her four elder sisters had hoped – even schemed - to marry one of Mannerling's successive owners. But all had chosen truelove over their ancestral home. Practical and duty-bound, Belinda would woo and wed Lord St. Clair, current holder of the estate. True, he is a silly fop, hardly what she desires in a husband, but she vows to make the man love her – even at the expense of her own happiness.

She had dared turn a cold shoulder to London's prize catch. She was a precocious American upstart who thought beauty, brains, and bravery were enough to conquer London society. Well, he'd show her! Nobody spurned Lord David Manley, the most eligible bachelor in town - not publicly, not privately. He was determined that she'd soon be trembling in his arms, desperately in love with the man she had dared mock. David Manley always got his way, and Miss Molly Maguire presented a challenge he couldn't resist.

His feelings toward her were warm. She turned their conversation over and over in her mind, reading into every casual answer a double meaning, hints of a growing passion that were held in check. From the moment young Annabelle met her sister Minerva's intended, Lord Sylvester, she developed a secret passion for him that obsessed her. Now she was determined to take him away from Minerva no matter what. But she hadn't reckoned on Sylvester's best friend, Peter, who fell in love with Annabelle and decided to tame her.

Poor Lord Anselm! The dashing bachelor was forever plagued with dying relatives leaving their female children to his care. Indeed, he had squired so many a silly miss from schoolroom to marriage mart that he had sworn off women altogether.

When Lady Esme Byron happens upon a gorgeous naked man sleeping beside a secluded country lake, she can't resist the impulse to sketch him. But when her highly improper drawing is mistakenly revealed at a party, she finds her once-pristine reputation in tatters. Gabriel, Lord Northcote, may be a notorious rakehell, but he is still stunned to find himself accused of despoiling a duke's sister - especially since he's never set eyes on her.

The Misses Penelope Yarwood, Euphemia Perkins, and Letitia Helmsdale all smugly informed her that the Marquess of Cleveden was at once the most eligible and the most elusive catch in the London marriage mart. Society's most dazzling beauties had failed to win him over yet, and a newcomer like Fiona didn't stand a ghost of a chance of having him look at her twice.

It was an unfair decision - to be forced to choose between her home and her heart…When one of her sisters is attacked by Harry Devers, the lecherous son of Mannerling's present owner, Abigail Beverley puts her obsession with reclaiming the mansion on hold. It is then that Abigail meets the dashing and extremely eligible Lord Burfield, fresh back from the army and in full-time pursuit of a bride. She must be quick to grab his attention lest he be snapped up by Prudence Makepeace.

DI Sally Parker has a serial killer on her patch. One thing that sets this killer apart from the others she's hunted before: his willingness to leave DNA at each of the crime scenes. It's up to Sally and her partner, DS Jack Blackman, to find out why before the body count rises to double figures. While Sally is engrossed in the investigation, her ex-husband, Darryl, pays a surprise visit to her new home.

From the prolific M. C. Beaton, comes a Regency romance where love flourishes in the most unexpected places. From the top of his flawlessly groomed head to the waxed tips of his fashionable shoes, Lord Andrew Childe was every inch the perfect gentleman. But Andrew's arrogant composure was almost always shattered by the impertinent Penelope Mortimer, an achingly lovely country beauty who had a clear knack for ruffling his lordship's feathers.

The Beast - that was what they called her. With her plump body and rough tomboy ways, she felt more like a clown. It was hopeless. Poor penniless Tilly could only sit among the chaperons as a paid companion to the spiteful Lady Aileen. The best she could do was sit…and dream. But suddenly Philip, Marquess of Heppleford, the most eligible bachelor of all, decided he wanted her for himself, to be his wife, and they were married. His intent was to keep his freedom, fulfill the conditions of his father's will, and shock his aunts.

As far as matrimonial prospects were concerned, Lucy Bliss was told she'd make an excellent clergyman's wife. Her mother had loftier aspirations, however, for Lucy's lovely younger sister, Belinda. Belinda would marry a duke, more specifically the duke of Wardshire. Lucy was truly horrified. "Lucifer" Wardshire was rumored to be as wicked as the devil, with orgies and mistresses - and worse.

Caroline Evans is a single mom trying to raise her 15-year-old daughter, Issy, as best she can. Her ex-husband, James, was a philandering charmer, and a wealthy one at that. But Caroline couldn't put up with his cheating and left him, taking Issy with her. Now, they live in the countryside outside London, where Caroline has built a modestly successful catering business, and Issy is now at an all-girls boarding school. Things are beginning to feel normal. But then James mysteriously appears on her doorstep....

Lord Percy Hunterdon despaired: He had inherited a Gothic horror of an estate along with a pair of 15-year-old brats to marry off. It was no secret to him that finding husbands for these two vile young ladies would require the utmost expertise: the care of a governess of superior caliber.

In the fourth installment of the Daughters of Mannerling series, beautiful Rachel must choose which she wants more - true love or the Mannerling mansion. The haughty Beverley family is obsessed with regaining Mannerling, the exquisite seventeenth-century mansion gambled away by their now-deceased father, Sir Beverley. Three of the six Beverley daughters, including Rachel's twin, have failed to win back their ancestral estate - settling for love matches over Mannerling's heirs.

Four years ago, Alex, a second son, had planned a life together with Lady Patience. However, when Patience was betrothed to his brother, the heir, Alex left his family's estate and joined the military. Alex returns to assume the title Duke of Bedford when his brother unexpectedly dies. He is unprepared for both his new responsibilities and the reunion with Patience. The horrors of war are a heavy burden, and when he learns that Patience never married his brother, he is stunned.

She was an honored guest in a palatial country home. "Aunt Mabel," lovelorn columnist of Home Chats magazine, had been summoned to prevent the Duchess of Dartware's son, Paul, from a marriage worse than death. Who would have guessed that behind Aunt Mabel's acid pen and ageless wisdom lurked eighteen-year-old Sally Blane - determined to make the handsome marquess her own! But how could she compete, wearing false wrinkles and a white wig?

When young widow Lady Lovelace realized she had been swindled to near-bankruptcy by her curmudgeonly cousin, she knew she would have to marry again for money. These were the very thoughts of Lord Philip, who had nothing between him and destitution but his small army pension. And so these two attractive fortune-hunters somehow found each other and, before long, popped into marriage - and into the bridal chamber - only to discover they were both virtually penniless.

Daisy Jenkins never expected to be anything more than trespasser on the idyllic lawns of Marsden Castle. Then, suddenly, she was admitted into the magic circle of the Earl and Countess of Nottenstone, to await the arrival of the notorious Lord Chatterton, her father - a stranger whosever name was foreign to her. She was Daisy Chatterton now, adrift in a sea of aristocratic sharks who seemed both to court and mock her.