Fire and Ice . . .Jack Faraday, the Marquis of Dansbury, is rich, titled, and handsome as sin. A scandalous rake who's charmed a long string of ladies, he finally meets his match in Miss Lilith Benton, known as the Ice Queen.Intent on restoring her family's good name, Lilith wants only to make a respectable marriage. So when the tempting but notorious Jack begins to woo her, she is determined to ignore him. Then their accidental involvement in a duke's mysterious death forces Jack and Lilith to become conspirators to clear their names—and suddenly cold disdain gives way to hot desire. Now Lilith may find his passionate stolen kisses too tempting to resist . . . Views: 67
Erotica/Romance. 22891 words long. Views: 67
A 36-year old widow and mother of two finds her way back to La Dolce Vita with the help of a gorgeous 25-year-old Italian immigrant, whose name just happens to be-Leonardo da Vinci. A linguist and English teacher, Ramona Elise (who Leonardo calls his "Mona Lisa") knows she shouldn't take him home, but he has nowhere to live, and barely speaks English. She really feels she ought to help… Together they experience their own renaissance, "awakening" to life and love. She helps him forge a new life in America, and he helps her to find joy again after grieving her beloved husband Picking up the pieces of her life, Ramona can finally finish her dissertation on "The Language of Love" (fascinating excerpts of which are sprinkled throughout the book!) and find a way to honor her husband's memory, put to rest a suspicion that he had cheated on her just before he died, and finally move on to a new relationship… Views: 67
Too clever for its own good in parts, but otherwise a damned good read.' Col. Sebastian Moran in the Simla Times'This anthology may be likened to a vast architectural folly imblending the idioms of the Greek, Gothic, Oriental, Baroque, Scottish Baronial and Bauhaus schools. Like one who, absently sauntering the streets of Barcelona, suddenly beholds the breathtaking grandeur of Gaudi's Familia Sagrada, I am compelled to admire a display of power and intricacy whose precise purpose evades me. Is the structure haunted by a truth too exalted and ghostly to dwell in a plainer edifice? Perhaps. I wonder. I doubt.' Lady Nicola Stewart, Countess of Dunfermline in The Celtic NeedlewomanAlasdair Gray's most playful book earned a place in this Classic Series by being in print since first published by Canongate in 1983. This completely amended edition has two new stories; also a postscript by the author and Douglas Gifford. Views: 67
Dead clients are bad for business, something that Tom Winter, head of security at a private Swiss bank, knows only too well. When a helicopter explosion kills a valuable client and a close colleague, Winter teams up with the mysterious Egyptian businesswoman Fatima Hakim to expose the truth behind their deaths. Together they follow the money trail around the world and back into the Swiss mountains, the NSA watching their every move. As they start closing in on the truth, Winter and Fatima turn from being the hunters to the hunted, finding themselves in a deadly, high-stakes race against the clock. Views: 67
The groom was supposed to say 'I do'... except Connor Haden decided he wanted the wedding planner instead! On the field, the superstar quarterback is a decisive machine, off the field he's a total playboy. Everyone was shocked—including me—when he got engaged, but the media is going to have a field day once they hear how he chose to ditch his bride! It was supposed to be the wedding of the decade, but now he's destroyed my career and my reputation. Who's going to hire a wedding planner who ended up on honeymoon with the groom? The bastard has got his sights set on me. I just need to survive two more scorching weeks in paradise without letting him win me over. Easy, right? If I can ignore his panty-melting smile and his lickable glistening abs, I'll be fine. And I'll just have to pretend not to notice the way he looks at me, or his oh so very luscious tight-end. I won't let myself fall for another bad boy, not again. Oh, how... Views: 67
Elizabeth-Anne Hale, stunning, ambitious, and sensual, arrived in New York with a dream that seemed impossible to everyone but herself. For she knew she had the brains - and the body - to make it come true... Views: 67
The seven members of the Bastion Club have served loyally in the perilous service of the Crown. Now they've banded together to support one another through their most dangerous mission of all: getting married.
When Charles St. Austell returns home to claim his title as earl, and to settle quickly on a suitable wife as well, he discovers that experience has made him impatient of the young ladies who vie for his attention—with the exception of Lady Penelope Selborne. Years ago, Charles and Penelope's youthful ardor was consummated in an unforgettable afternoon. Charles is still haunted by their interlude, but Penny refuses to have anything more to do with him.
If controlling her heart was difficult before, resisting a stronger, battle-hardened Charles is well nigh impossible, yet Penelope has vowed she won't make the same mistake twice, nor will she marry without love. But when a traitorous intrigue draws them together, then ultimately threatens them both—will Penny discover she has a true protector in Charles, her first and only love, who now vows to make her his own?
From Publishers Weekly Regency romance juggernaut Laurens shows signs of fatigue in the third book of her Bastion Club septet (after The Lady Chosen and A Gentleman's Honor ). Lord Charles St. Austell, earl of Lostwithiel, is one of the seven noble members of the Bastion Club ("a last bastion against the matchmakers of the ton") who served as spies during the Napoleonic wars and who still do a bit of investigating for the Crown when they're not braving eager ladies on the marriage mart. At his country estate, Charles encounters old friend (and old flame) Lady Penelope Selborne, who's up to her neck in intrigue. Penny's late brother may have been involved in schemes to smuggle secrets to France during the war—schemes that seem to be continuing with new sources even after his death. The novel features all the steamy sensuality for which Laurens is known, but the sex scenes lack the spark typical of her best work; Penny and Charles spend far too much time staring longingly at each other, dutifully denying their own urges. The unwieldy spy plot, meanwhile, progresses with agonizing slowness as the two interrogate every suspicious newcomer in town. Dedicated fans will probably stick with Laurens through the remaining four Bastion Club titles, but she's going to have to pick up the pace if she's to keep others intrigued. Views: 67
With local democracy undermined at every turn, anger with political
impotence creates a hunger for change and a fledgling political party
struggles to establish itself in Portsmouth. Slowly, Whitehall begins to
wake up to the threat. Today, Portsmouth, tomorrow? Views: 67
Editorial Reviews "Loving Eve is indeed hot. I had to check my screen for melted spots. I felt like I was right there with Eve, suffering her anxiety and overwhelming passion as she was wooed by the men in her life." –Whipped Cream Reviews "Slow and Wet is pure erotic thrills! Ms. Hardt creates magic with a scandalous book that is bubbling with passion, smoking hot lust, and love... In this quick plot format, the author doesn't scrimp on her character development, plot, or action, demonstrating her ability to create a fantastic, titillating story that will leave the reader breathless!" –The Romance Studio "I know when I open a book by Helen Hardt, I'm in for a treat. This book was no exception. It's steamy from the first page. I needed a cool shower after reading... If you want a story with an ending you won't see coming and lots of white-hot sex, you need to read Primal Instinct."... Views: 67
Amazon.com ReviewThis scholarly analysis of our modern celebration of Christmas pulls together a thoroughly convincing case for the widely accepted notion that it is a 19th-century creation, indeed a deliberate reformation and taming of a holiday with wilder pagan origins. Christmas was set at December 25 in the fourth century, not for any biblical link with Christ's birth, but because the church hoped to annex and Christianize the existing midwinter pagan feast. This latter was based on the seasonal agricultural plenty, with the year's food supply newly in store, and nothing to do in the fields. It was a time of drinking and debauchery from the Roman Saturnalia to the English Mummers. The Victorians hijacked the holiday, and Victorian writers helped turn it into a feast of safe domesticity and a cacophonous chime of retail cash registers. From Publishers WeeklyChristmas in America hasn't always been the benevolent, family-centered holiday we idealize. The Puritans of the Massachusetts Bay Colony so feared the day's association with pagan winter solstice revels, replete with public drunkenness, licentiousness and violence, that they banned Christmas celebrations. In this ever-surprising work, Nissenbaum (Sex, Diet, and Debility in Jacksonian America), a professor of history at the University of Massachusetts, conducts a vivid historical tour of the holiday's social evolution. Nissenbaum maintains that not until the 1820s in New York City, among the mercantile Episcopalian Knickerbockers, was Christmas as we know it celebrated. Before Washington Irving and Clement Clarke Moore ("A Visit from St. Nicholas") popularized the genteel version, he explains, the holiday was more of a raucous festival and included demands for tribute from the wealthy by roaming bands of lower-class extortionists. Peppering his insights with analysis of period literature, art and journalism, Nissenbaum constructs his theory. Taming Christmas, he contends, was a way to contain the chaos of social dislocation in a developing consumer-capitalist culture. Later, under the influence of Unitarian writers, the Christmas season became a living object lesson in familial stability and charity, centering on the ideals of bourgeois childhood. From colonial New England, through 18th- and 19th-century New York's and Philadelphia's urban Yuletide contributions, to Christmas traditions in the antebellum South, Nissenbaum's excursion is fascinating, and will startle even those who thought they knew all there was to know about Christmas. Illustrations. Copyright 1996 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 67
