It's a scandal that 27-year-old Sarah Stanborough is still unwed. Despite her matchmaking mother's fervent wishes, Sarah refuses to encourage the eminently eligible John Phillip North, marquis of Revesne. The arrogant bounder has actually fought duels to keep her potential suitors at bay. Only one man attracts the independent spinster: handsome Edward Middleton, her young cousin's guardian, who detests the frivolous gossip and shallow flirtations of London society as much as she does.

A dashing stranger sweeps Lady Gwendolyn Rowle onto the dance floor. She is living every woman's fantasy until she discovers who her romantic waltz partner really is: Viscount Andrew Jamison - the man who killed her husband.

The Hartleys are on the brink of disaster. Viscount Mainwaring has died, unaccountably leaving his entire fortune to an American. Worst of all, Anne Hartley's future is in jeopardy. She has been forbidden from marrying the nobleman she has adored since the moment she found him thrown from his horse in Hyde Park.

Ever since Miranda Pardew haughtily rejected his shy request for a dance, Barnaby Traherne has been a resigned bachelor. Ten years later, her circumstances have changed and the still-smitten Barnaby has an opportunity to hire the now-impoverished Miranda as governess to his brother's children. Barnaby must decide if he'll hold a long-stinging grudge, or allow the spirit of Christmas into his heart.

'Tis the season when lovers' eyes shine by the light of a blazing Yule log, when a quick kiss is shared beneath the mistletoe, and when love is the most splendid gift of all. Savor the beauty and passion of Christmas with two heartwarming stories by outstanding Regency author Elizabeth Mansfield. From A Sneeze on Tuesday: A broken engagement and a miserable cold were not in Elinor's holiday plans. But her spirited heart found its own remedy: a true and lasting love.

After scandalizing London with her improper behavior and jilting two suitors, Nell Belden is about to do it again. This time she rejects the very wealthy, utterly insufferable nobleman her financially strapped guardians have been pressuring her to marry. Banished to their isolated Cornwall estate, Nell is awakened one night by an unusual apparition.

Isabelle Wareham, whilst caring for her beloved widowed father, has not seen much of the world. After his death, Isabelle finds she is no longer her own mistress but under the guardianship of her unscrupulous brother-in-law, Lord Dunsfold, who sees her as a way to improve his own fortunes. The outlook looks bleak until events throw Isabelle and the impoverished Earl of Idsworth together. However, Dunsfold is determined to force her into a more lucrative match and Isabelle will need to rise above her circumstances to reach her chance of happiness.

Hidden away in rural Devonshire, Phyllida Satterthwaite has always been considered more odd than beautiful. But in London, her oddity has made her a sensation. Far worse, it’s caught the eye of the sinister Duke of Moreland - a notorious art collector obsessed with acquiring one-of-a-kind treasures. To escape the duke’s clutches, she’s going to need a little help. Captain Arthur Heywood’s days of heroism are long past. Grievously injured in the Peninsular War, he can no longer walk unaided, let alone shoot a pistol. What use can he possibly be to a damsel in distress?

At the end of his Grand Tour, somewhere between Athens and Constantinople, Christian Selwyn, the young Earl of Hazelmere, vanished—seemingly without trace. Time passes. In London, his uncle and cousin move into his home, while his unofficial fiancée, Sophia, is left desolate and in limbo.

Horry Winwood doesn't play by the rules. So when her family are near ruin and her sister is about to enter a loveless marriage to a wealthy man to settle the family debts, young and headstrong Horry proposes to marry him instead. As her new husband's attentions fall elsewhere, Horry feels increasingly unhappy. Then she meets the attractive and dangerous Lord Lethbridge, and her days suddenly become more exciting. But there is bad blood between Horry's husband and Lord Lethbridge, and as complications and deceptions mount, the social tangle grows ever trickier to unpick.

Lovely Alice Lacey was a true incomparable, and her marriage to the Duke of Ferrant was the event of the season. Almost no one realized, however, that Alice was secretly in love with someone else - or that she had confided her feelings to a clever talking mynah bird who announces these intimacies at the moment of the couple's wedding. Now the gossip mongers are relentless. Alice's marriage started out, and has remained, cold and impersonal, and her new husband is already rumored to be taken with another woman.

Isabella Beverley is blessed with unparalleled beauty but, unfortunately, has been raised in the most snobbish and haughtiest of families. When her father gambles away their fortune - including Mannerling, the exquisite family mansion - Isabella discovers there is very little sympathy for her plight. As the eldest, Isabella is chosen to court Mr. Judd, the roguish bachelor who won Mannerling. Surely no sacrifice is too great to regain Mannerling? But tempting her away from Mr. Judd is Lord Fitzpatrick, an Irish rake who fears Isabella can never love a man as she does her home.

Annis Wychwood delights in her independence. Beautiful, rich and far too busy for love, she has turned down the advances of many a hopeful suitor. But when she becomes entangled in the affairs of a runaway heiress, she encounters the girl's guardian, the notorious Oliver Carleton. While Oliver may be a reckless and uncivil rogue, Annis can't help but be drawn towards his wild ways.

When her vile brother's wicked scheming ruins her reputation, Eleanor Chivenham is forced into a marriage of convenience. Yet there is much more to her new husband than meets the eye, and soon her heart is filled with unexpected desires.

Who could possibly throw over a woman as beautiful and vivacious as Roxana? Certainly not Alex Winslow, the Earl of Ayersley, who has spent years trying in vain to forget his unrequited love. When he learns she's been abandoned by her cad of a fiancé, he finds himself offering a shoulder for her to cry on. Comfort soon turns into a passionate kiss—and scandal when they are caught in an embrace.