Showing results by author "Sandra Sookoo" in All Categories

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.

Lily Henderson’s greatest passion is knowledge. Christopher Farnsworth thrives on order and decorum. But her penchant for suffragette rallies and logical reasoning soon clashes with his quiet, controlled ex-military lifestyle over a bowl of potato soup. The two agree to a wager, and matchmaking - or, rather, romance - is the intended outcome. The premise? A suitable match by Easter.

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.

It's the year 1776, and Captain Caleb Haslet has come home to Portsmouth, Rhode Island, after two years at sea chasing pirates and keeping British ships from the fledgling American nation. He wants nothing more than to settle into domestic life and finally claim the new bride duty had forced him to leave behind. Though she now has her own life defending her property from British soldiers, as well as doing charity work which provides prisoners with basic creature comforts, Abigail Haslet is both excited and anxious that Caleb thinks to take up where they left off.

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.

Miss Evelina Aston is the youngest child of a viscount. Through no fault of her own, she’s fallen headfirst into the scandal of the Season. With her father on the brink of bankruptcy, when she’s caught alone and in a compromising position with an earl, he calls for an immediate proposal. It doesn’t matter that the man she’s being forced to wed is a rake high on the instep, she has no say in the proceedings.

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.

Caroline Montmorency, 10 years an assumed widow, is on the verge of having her sea-faring husband declared legally dead. While the country is embroiled in a maritime war with England, all she wants is to wed her longtime friend Paul Douglas and begin life anew. But those plans are broken when her husband unexpectedly returns.

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.

With only her reprobate, now-dead husband to judge by, Marjorie Attler doesn’t trust men. The crumbling manor house by the sea is a fresh start, but when a privateer appears in her bed - while she’s sleeping - he introduces her to a passion she’d only dreamed. Then he challenges her legal claim to the property and her justified distrust intensifies. Ownership of the house aside, they have bigger matters to square with.

If she were honest with herself, Lady Nora Peacock is done with marriage and romance. They only proved a disappointment. Having suffered through a lukewarm union of twenty years, the last thing she wants is another husband. However, after a sensual dance with a stranger, she wouldn’t mind entering into a torrid affair.

Widowed Lillian Fernsby has been buffeted by life’s ills, and the grief is sometimes unrelenting. Keeping sadness at bay by making merry or being an outrageous flirt is all well and good, but what she really wants is to marry again. So, when her brother’s best friend comes back into her life to protect her from a unidentified stalker, she’s intrigued by the mystery and challenge he represents. A flirtatious game of cat and mouse begins between them and desire builds, but so does danger.

Lady Amelia Jane Coventry-Smythe wants nothing more than to shut herself away to mourn in private all the people she lost from her life over the years. Unfortunately, peace is not hers, for the one man she never hoped to see again has just landed in her parlor by mysterious circumstances, with an invitation to her Christmastide house party in hand, and her addiction to him flares anew.

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.

Inspector William Storme is a Bow Street Runner who’s working a series of gruesome murder cases. His dying mother wishing to see him settled adds to the anxiety his position brings. So when he courts a pretty young lady, and she agrees only if he’ll let her accompany him on cases, everything seems to work out fine until the attraction begins and he’s forced to compete with another man for her attention.

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.

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.

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.

Five years of widowhood and the imminent marriage of her son as well as her daughter nearing college age have left Josephine Prescott at loose ends. When a golden-haired rogue, 13 years her junior, propositions her, she immediately dismisses him. She’s a proper Victorian lady after all, yet a lady can only protest so much.