AustLit

'A chance meeting on a dark highway, a wounded heroine, a hero-in-waiting and Christmas . . .

'When Blake Ashton reluctantly returns to England for a business meeting—his first visit in ten years—he learns his partners are getting ready for a big family Christmas in the country. Ash wants none of that. He has just one plan in mind—to show his face, then immediately return to his free and easy life in the Far East.

'Making his way to Devon on a freezing dark night, he's accosted on the road by a footpad. Shots are exchanged and to Ash's horror he discovers he's accidentally wounded a girl. Ash can't leave her bleeding in the road, so he stays and tends her.

'Charlotte Underwood, in hiding from an unscrupulous guardian, is battling to support herself and her little brother. Wounded, and helpless in the hands of this handsome stranger, Charley soon realizes her heart is in danger from him too.

'Swept into a family Christmas with Max and Abby Davenham, and Abby's 'sisters of the heart'—not to mention their imperious aunt, Lady Beatrice—Charley finds the friendship and support her lonely heart craves. And as his feelings for Charley grow, Ash is forced to face up to his own past, and the reason he left England in the first place.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'When a duke denied...

'The proud and arrogant Duke of Everingham is determined to secure a marriage of convenience with heiress Lady Georgiana Rutherford. He's the biggest prize on the London marriage mart, pursued by young unmarried ladies and their match-making mamas, as well as married women with a wandering eye. He can have any woman he wants. Or so he thinks...

'...Hunts an independent lady...

'Lady Georgiana Rutherford—irreverent and unconventional—has no plans to marry. Having grown up poor, Lady George has no intention of giving up her fortune to become dependent on the dubious and unreliable goodwill of a man. Especially a man as insufferable as the Duke of Everingham, whose kisses stirs unwelcome and unsettling emotions...

'...Sparks are sure to fly

'The more she defies him, the more the duke wants her, until an argument at a ball spirals into a passionate embrace. Caught in a compromising position, the duke announces their betrothal. George is furious, and when gossip claims she deliberately entrapped the duke—when she was the one who was trapped—she marches down the aisle in a scarlet wedding dress. But the unlikely bride and groom may have found love in the most improbable of places—a marriage of convenience.'

Source: Publisher's blurb.

'Lady Rose Rutherford—rebel, heiress, and exasperated target of the town's hungry bachelors—has a plan to gain the freedom she so desperately desires: she will enter into a marriage of convenience with the biggest prize on the London marriage mart.

'There's just one problem: the fierce-looking man who crashes her wedding to the Duke of Everingham — Thomas Beresford, the young naval officer she fell in love with and secretly married when she was still a schoolgirl. Thought to have died four years ago he's returned, a cold, hard stranger with one driving purpose—revenge.

'Embittered by betrayal and hungry for vengeance, Thomas will stop at nothing to reclaim his rightful place, even if that means using Rose—and her fortune—to do it. But Rose never did follow the rules, and as she takes matters into her own unpredictable hands, Thomas finds himself in an unexpected and infuriating predicament: he's falling in love with his wife...'

Source: Publisher's blurb.