The troubling message from Serena Charters' late grandmother appears in a package containing four pages of a centuries-old illuminated manuscript - a strange inheritance that hides many secrets...and has already cost many lives. Seeking answers, Serena turns to Erik North of Rarities Unlimited, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past. Without warning they are thrust together into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds - one long dead yet living on in an ancient text, the other chillingly alive and fraught with peril.

Christina Bennett had taken London society by storm. The ravishing beauty guarded the secret of her mysterious past until the night Lyon, Marquis of Lyonwood, stole a searching, sensuous kiss. An arrogant nobleman with a pirate's passions, he tasted the wildfire smoldering beneath Christina's cool charm and swore to possess her.... But the feisty and defiant Christina would not be so easily conquered. Mistress of her heart and of her fortune, she resisted Lyon's sensuous caresses.

Judith Hampton was as beautiful as she was proud and loyal. Her dear Scottish friend from childhood was about to give birth, and Judith had promised to be at her side. But there was another reason for the journey from her bleak English home to the Highlands: to meet the father she had never known, the Laird Maclean. Nothing prepared her, however, for the sight of the Scottish barbarian who was to escort her into his land...Iain Maitland, laird of his clan, a man more powerfully compelling than any she had ever encountered.

In the feuding English court, gentle Lady Madelyne suffered the cruel whims of her ruthless brother, Baron Louddon. Then, in vengeance for a bitter crime, Baron Duncan of Wexton—the Wolf—unleashed his warriors against Louddon's domain. Exquisite Madelyne was the prize he catured...but when he gazed upon the proud beauty, he pledged to protect her with his life.

Donovan International is a power to be reckoned with in the dazzling and cutthroat worldwide gem trade -- and is therefore a target for the murderous greed of unscrupulous competitors. Though a shrewd businesswoman, Honor Donovan has been effectively shut out of the dangerous family enterprise by the Donovan males -- until her favorite brother, Kyle, mysteriously vanishes along with a fortune in stolen amber.

Lara Chandler has come home to the Rocking B Ranch - though not for Carson Blackridge. Four years ago he cruelly rejected her, and her love turned to hate. But the chance to research the history of the ranch on a business footing is one she just can't pass up. Carson is waiting, though, and he is determined to show her that he's long regretted the way he treated her.

Thrice wedded, but never bedded, Mathilde Martindale has long lived in the shadow of her indomitable mother, and meekly done as she was told. Until one day she decides to become mistress of her own destiny and leave the royal court to find her own path.

When Lady Johanna learned that she was a widow, she vowed she would never marry again. Only sixteen, already she possessed a strength of will that impressed all who looked past her golden-haired beauty. Yet when King John demanded that she remarry - and selected a bridegroom for her - it seemed she must acquiesce, until her beloved foster brother suggested she wed his friend, the handsome Scottish warrior Gabriel MacBain.

In the scorching heat of the Southwestern desert, a frightened old man knows his time is quickly running out, as the bad karma of his own good fortune is finally closing in on him after 50 years.

By edict of the king, the mighty Scottish laird Alec Kincaid must take an English bride. His choice was Jamie the feisty youngest daughter of Baron Jamison. Alec ached to touch her, to tame her, to possess her forever. But Jamie vowed never to surrender to this highland barbarian. Though his kisses fired her blood, shadowed secrets from Alec's past threatened Jamie's happiness. She brazenly resisted him - until one rapturous moment quelled their clash of wills.

To escape becoming a ward of her unscrupulous uncle, Taylor Stapleton will wed Lucas Ross, a rugged American rancher. Taylor also has a secret...a precious legacy she hasn't revealed to Ross. However, as she begins to fall for her handsome new husband, Taylor dares to surrender her heart to an uncertain future.

Noble Aislinn grieves as the Iron Wolf and his minions storm through her beloved Darkenwald. And she burns with malice for the handsome Norman savage who would enslave her. . .even as she aches to know the rapture of the conqueror's kiss.

Eveline Armstrong is fiercely loved and protected by her powerful clan, but outsiders consider her "touched." Beautiful, fey, with a level, intent gaze, she doesn't speak. No one, not even her family, knows that she cannot hear. Content with her life of seclusion, Eveline has taught herself to read lips and allows the outside world to view her as daft. But when an arranged marriage into a rival clan makes Graeme Montgomery her husband, Eveline accepts her duty -unprepared for the delights to come.

Mourning the death of his father and gravely injured at the hands of the English, Jamie Fraser finds himself running with a band of mercenaries in the French countryside, where he reconnects with his old friend, Ian Murray. Both are nursing wounds, both have good reason to stay out of Scotland, and both are still virgins despite several opportunities to remedy that deplorable situation with ladies of easy virtue.

Cora, Lady Dane, gave up her dreams of happily ever after a long time ago. Now newly widowed, the young mother is determined to finally live on her own terms... until a devastating betrayal shatters her hopes for the future. Faced with the prospect of losing her beloved children to overbearing relatives, Cora needs the help of the one thing she swore she'd never have again: a husband.

After centuries of conflict, a peace treaty has finally been drawn between the warring Saxons and Norse—largely due to the wisdom and bravery of the legendary Viking leader Wolf Hakonson and the noble warrior Lord Hawk. Hawk and Wolf each married women from warring clans to unite the Saxons and Norse. But for all its blessings, the promise of peace will remain fragile—unless it can be sealed forever by a third and final marriage between these two proud clans.

Welcome to a world of chivalry and honor, of danger and desire, of legend, and of love…. These four original novellas bring to life all the romance and adventure of the Middle Ages, with the common thread of a rich medieval tapestry woven through each tale by an acclaimed master of historical romance….

Growing up behind the impenetrable walls of an English fortress, young Magdalen does not know that she is the illegitimate daughter of a powerful English prince and his murdered French mistress - or that she has been a pawn in the struggle between England and France ever since she slipped from her dying mother's womb. All she knows is that she longs for excitement. And then one day, as if in answer to her prayers, the splendid figure of Guy de Gervais, a true knight in shining armor, rides into her cloistered world and spirits her away.

Shapechangers. They were the Cheysuli, a race of magical warriors gifted with the ability to assume animal shape at will. For centuries they had been allies to the King of Homana, treasured champions of the realm. Until a king’s daughter ran away with a Cheysuli liege man and caused a war of annihilation against the Cheysuli race. Twenty-five years later the Cheysuli were hunted exiles in their own land, feared for their sorcery, their shapechanging.

At the flower-bedecked altar, the first touch of their hands ignited an all-consuming passion. Gavin Montgomery looked deep into her golden eyes and burned with desire for her...but his heart had been pledged to another. Humiliated and alone in a strange castle, Judith resolved to hate this husband who took her body but rejected her love...never admitting her fear of losing him.

Beautiful Lady Emily dreams of the rapture of love and the joys of marriage. The youngest daughter of an English lord at war, she is shaken by the arrival of a mysterious stranger to her father's castle. Could this breathtaking man be Emily's yearned-for lover? Indeed, Draven de Montague, earl of Ravenswood, has come for Emily...but romance has nothing to do with it.

They call him the Beast - a hardened mercenary whose heart seems as cold as his icy blue gaze. They do not know his true name: Niall Braewick, son of the Laird of Kincaid. It has been years since he escaped into the forest the night his father was murdered. Now he has returned, ablaze with a vengeful hunger. He will gain the MacClaren chief's trust, gather his clan, and take back his lands. And take the MacClaren's daughter as well....

Lady Della despises all things Viking. They may rule the land, but they will never rule her. Unfortunately, her father doesn't seem to agree. To prove his continued allegiance to the Viking king, the Ealdorman of Strathfeld betroths his only daughter to a respected Viking Lord - a warrior whose legendary prowess isn't reserved for the battlefield. Fighting the newfound craving in her body and the unwelcome fire in her heart, Della must choose between everything she knows to be true and the one thing she never expected...

Khamsin Coruscate, Princess of Summerlea and summoner of Storms, has spent her life exiled to the shadows of her father's palace. Reviled by her father, marriage to Wintercraig's icy king was supposed to be a terrible punishment, but instead offers Kham her first taste of freedom - and her first taste of overwhelming passion. As fierce, indomitable Wynter weathers even Khamsin's wildest storms, surprising her with a tenderness she never expected, Kham wants more than Wynter's passion - she yearns for his love.

To bring a generations-old feud to an end, the gallant warrior, Laird of Forbes must return the long-lost daughter of his now dying enemy to Scottish soil. But what if the young child perished in infancy 17 years ago and there is, sadly, no daughter to return? A warrior improvises…and finds a beautiful imposter to bring back to his native land. The beautiful Rose Gunther has decided to be neither impressed, nor scared by the arrogant Scotsman who whisks her away from her English convent. But try to resist her attraction to the powerful Leith she may, she can’t deny how utterly helpless she is in resisting his sensual touch.…

Powerful and dangerous Highlander Dair Sinclair was once the favored son of his clan, the Sinclairs of Carraig Brigh. With Dair at the helm, Sinclair ships circled the globe bringing home incredible fortune - until one deadly mission drives him mad. When a pagan healer predicts that only a virgin bride can heal his son's body and mind, Dair's father sets off to find the perfect wife for his son. At the castle of the fearsome McLeods, he meets lovely and kind Fia MacLeod.

His surcoat still bloody from battle, William FitzAlan comes to claim the strategic borderlands granted to him by the king. One last prize awaits him at the castle gates: the lovely Lady Catherine Rayburn. Catherine risked everything to spy for the crown. Her reward? Her lands are declared forfeit and she is given this choice: marry FitzAlan or be taken to the Tower. Catherine agrees to give her handsome new husband her body, but she's keeping secrets, and dare not give him her heart.

He was known throughout the kingdom as Hawk, legendary predator of the battlefield and the boudoir. No woman could refuse his touch, but no woman ever stirred his heart - until a vengeful fairy tumbled Adrienne de Simone out of modern-day Seattle and into medieval Scotland.

Escaping an arranged marriage, 17-year-old Ismae finds sanctuary in the St. Mortain convent, where the sisters worship the gods of old. There, Ismae learns that the God of Death has special plans for her—a destiny that will one day compel her to betray the man she loves.

The future of Britain is at stake. In the turbulent times of the Dark Ages, the despotic Uther Pendragon, High King of Celtic Britain, is nearing death, and his kingdom is being torn apart by the squabbling of minor kings. But only one man can bring the Celts together as a nation and restore peace - King Arthur. Artorex (Arthur) doesn't yet seem like the great man he will grow into. We meet him as a shy, subservient twelve-year-old living in the foster home of Lord Ector, who took in Artorex as a babe to protect him from murderous kin.

In the scorching heat of the Southwestern desert, a frightened old man knows his time is quickly running out, as the bad karma of his own good fortune is finally closing in on him after 50 years.

The troubling message from Serena Charters' late grandmother appears in a package containing four pages of a centuries-old illuminated manuscript - a strange inheritance that hides many secrets...and has already cost many lives. Seeking answers, Serena turns to Erik North of Rarities Unlimited, a reclusive manuscript appraiser with a passion for the past. Without warning they are thrust together into the center of a lethal firestorm that rages between two worlds - one long dead yet living on in an ancient text, the other chillingly alive and fraught with peril.

Orphaned at 13, Grace Silva clawed her way out of poverty and violence to become one of the most respected judges on the federal bench. Grace believes in the rule of law, lives it, breathes it. She has always been buttoned up and buttoned down. Except once.

The phenomenal New York Times best-selling author Elizabeth Lowell brilliantly displays her incomparable talents in a story of treachery, greed, conspiracy, and murder that will hold the reader spellbound until the final word.

Reba Farrall was lost - until a kindly old gentleman took her under his wing and helped heal her shattered spirit. Now her dearest friend is gone, leaving her with a doubting, broken heart...and half-interest in a California gem mine. But Chance Walker has burst into Reba's life - a daring adventurer who believes in nothing except the priceless uncut stones for which he searches the earth.