Showing results by author "Sandra Sookoo" in All Categories

Miss Louisa Harcourt’s life isn’t exactly what she’d envisioned for herself. Widowed by the war, she returned home to protect her younger brother from domestic threats, but that put her into the soup as well. After constantly rebuffing unwanted attentions, she’s wearied of living in fear. Knowing something must be done, she hires someone who can teach her the skills she needs to defend herself - a champion in fisticuffs - but her trust in men has been dented.

The honorable Olivia Beaumont, eldest daughter of Viscount Hereford, wants revenge. Following an ill-advised game of faro with a powerful duke, her father lost everything and then suffered a fatal heart attack. Now, she wants that duke to pay and suffer as much as her father did. But the only way she can do that is to enlist the help of the most shunned man in the ton: the disgraced duke of Skeffington.

Three months have passed since Lady Emmaline Darling left her lover and fellow adventurer, Miles. Not certain she’s in love with him, they’re bonded in a miraculous way - she’s enceinte. Yet, despite his promises to write and make plans, there’s been nothing but silence. When she discovers he’s lied and has been out of pocket on a secret mission for the Crown, she’s convinced she can go it alone despite the scandal - and he can’t be trusted enough to know her secret hope.

It’s the Christmastide season, and the Hawkins family is at their country estate in Kent. Emmaline, the Countess of Archewyne, is excited, for it’s her first Christmas with her little family, as well as one of the few she’s spent in England. Passing his leisure time with his loved ones gives Miles Lawrence Hawkins, the fifth Earl of Archewyne, great pleasure, as does anticipating their faces when they open his gifts.

Colin Rowley, Viscount Hartsford, has been given an offer too good to ignore: If he comes home to Lancaster Hall and his family by Christmas morning, he’ll win a coveted racehorse as well as an estate. Trouble is, recollections attached to his ducal father’s castle leave him haunted, especially those regarding the first girl he’s ever loved, the one who rejected him.

Recently retired from the Royal Navy, much acclaimed Captain Bartholomew Grayson has come home to London. He’s looking forward to the Christmastide season, especially now that he’s adopted his 10-year-old former cabin boy. The waif needs a family, and Bart wants to recapture the joy of his own childhood. Too bad the fly in the ointment is a strong-willed harridan with a tart mouth intent on stealing his cargo.

In the hunt for relics of infinite value, perhaps the greatest treasure of all is family. Three months after the birth of his son, Miles Lawrence Hawkins, the fifth Earl of Archewyne, is attempting to acclimate to fatherhood, but he longs for adventure. Someone is masquerading as the heir to a powerful and ancient ducal title with the anonymous backing of other members of the ton, and Miles is asked to investigate. It would mean leaving his wife and child, yet he refuses to return to London without them.

Lady Christiana Tremaine lives in the kingdom of Vesance, but ever since her father remarried, her stepmother - Lady Tremaine - has stripped her of everything befitting her station, has reduced her to that of a maid, and forced her to answer to the slur of Cinderella. Though the life of drudgery is horrid, she carries hope circumstances will change, especially when she remembers dancing with the prince who stole her heart. A chance meeting with that same man strengthens her resolve to change...if she can survive that woman’s deadly machinations.

Evan Michael Sedgewyck, ninth Earl of Coventry, is doomed to walk the earth as a dragon-shifter, but it’s his actions that have caused his own personal hell. Beastly half aside, he’s been a widower for seven years, and the moment he decides to attend a ball and perhaps enter the Marriage Mart again, he stumbles into a woman he once thought dead - his wife. Yet the anger he carries doesn’t diminish.

Mrs. Ava Southerly, apothecary assistant and widow, lives in fear. She’s become an expert at hiding to keep second-sight visions at bay. In the year 1885, such things as witches surely don’t exist anymore, regardless of her ancestry. If she doesn’t emotionally engage her heart, those otherworldly powers will stay dormant and the people she cares for won’t be hurt, but she longs for acceptance and romance.

Oliver Darrington - Viscount Tralsburg - wants nothing more than to hide out at the family property in Brighton until he can secure a seaworthy ship and return to adventuring the world. However, being handed his former mistress’ child isn’t part of that plan. Neither is the sudden longing for his pretty Italian neighbor.

A proper gentleman. A desperate lady. One little indiscretion that will change their lives. Carew Harcourt Fitzwilliam—Duke of Edenthorpe—is dreadfully dissatisfied with his life. Engaged since childhood to a woman unsuited to him, he feels trapped and hopeless. What he needs is a distraction. Too bad a possible jewelry heist comes with his best friend’s sister, now a beauty he can’t banish from his mind.

The Honorable Caroline Storme has been furious with life since she was twelve. Sent to an asylum due to a suspected mental deficiency, she has finally returned to London, not with vengeance in mind, but freedom. Wanting nothing more than to pursue her passions in peace, she vows to ignore everyone around her, until she meets the one man who understands her…a big, barrel-chested sailor with tattoos and a devastating grin.

Sometimes, the greatest truths of life come on a midnight clear. Major Cecil Stapleton is struggling with his new life as a civilian after nearly 20 years in the military. Wounds received in the Battle of Toulouse left him angry, disfigured, and sent him home to England. All he wants now is to retire to the country and be left alone, especially since it’s the Christmastide season. Finding his old lover in his cottage leaves him at sixes and sevens...and perhaps wanting more. Widow Sarah Presley has worked hard to conceal her existence in the Buckinghamshire countryside.

Can wearing sexy stilettos win the heart of a demon, or will it cause Heaven to protest? Anne Jenkins never bought into the concept of a heaven or hell, but when she’s rescued from a runaway horse hurtling toward a steep ravine by a guy who claims he’s a demon, her freak detector goes off. When she demands proof, the leather-clad biker sets some local wildlife on fire. She starts to believe in a hurry. IRS agent Gregg Carter, bound to the Devil for all eternity for an audit gone wrong, seizes the opportunity to take possession of Anne’s soul as a way to please his boss.

Sir Sebastian George Sutcliffe, Baron Wimsley, is a wolf shifter. He’s come to London to demand answers from his half-brother, the Duke of Manchester. On his way to see that austere personage, he spots a shooting star and makes a desperate Christmastide wish. He hopes that it will help him survive his miserable life, but the delicate beauty he finds in Hyde Park might just change everything.

The most powerful form of magic is free will. Averell Woode is a huntsman’s daughter, hidden away in an enchanted tree from the evils of the world. Though she’s skilled in all things forest-related, she yearns for life beyond the trees. A chance meeting with a stranger seems the perfect opportunity to stretch her wings, and she falls for the charm he wields, especially when an exciting adventure has come to her very doorstep. Devon James Quinn Lansdowne, the spare prince of Annanvale, is trying to avoid anything that smacks of palace life.

Sometimes the sweetest things in life don’t have anything to do with dessert. Gwynn Flannigan wants respect from her father and freedom from her big, loud family. The icing on her cake would be to win a decorating competition hosted by her favorite food magazine writer. Cole Marshall's one outlet from the stress of business life is writing his Cooking in the Buff feature. Who cares if he never has time for fun? The answer for them both lies in the deep freeze at Sweet Endings, the struggling ice cream shop Gwynn manages and the one property Cole needs to secure a big promotion.

Mr. Jasper Winslow, the once meek and mild second son of a viscount, is a chocolatier who specializes in fine French chocolates, which helped him put the pain of his lost love behind him. He’d made peace with his life… until a chance meeting with the woman he would have wed reminds him that his heart hasn’t forgotten. Strong-willed and independent, Miss Evangeline Bradenwilde wants to be seen in Victorian-era society as more than the connections she can make through marriage.

All Morgan Davidson wants is a chance to reconnect with her 15-year-old niece - sans digital dependency. She books a cabin for Christmas week in rural southern Indiana, but contracting a case of the warm fuzzies for a handsome ranger isn’t part of the plan. Carter Poole, single dad and park ranger, has simple tastes. He’s not on Facebook, doesn’t let his five-year-old son play video games and spends a lot of time outdoors. When he’s sent to investigate mysterious tracks, he meets Morgan, and a spark ignites between them. He invites her to share the holiday with him and his son.