Victorian

Father Cade Frederic is a holy man. Brought up in the streets of Paris, he has dedicated his life to the church. But there's a monster that lingers just beneath the surface. A sickness. One that bleeds darkness and feeds on the damned....

Cecilia Bassingwaite is the ideal Victorian lady. She's also a thief. Like the other members of the Wisteria Society crime sorority, she flies around England drinking tea, blackmailing friends, and acquiring treasure by interesting means....

Charlotte Holmes is accustomed to solving crimes, not being accused of them, but she finds herself in a dreadfully precarious position as the bestselling Lady Sherlock series continues....

A chance meeting between the sheltered daughter and the forward-thinking son of rival Victorian families sparks a forbidden romance in USA Today best-selling author Mimi Matthews’s fourth book in her acclaimed Somerset Stories series....

In this queer Victorian romance, two debutantes distract themselves from having to seek husbands by setting up their widowed parents, but instead find their perfect match in each other....

Lady Honora Parker must get engaged as soon as possible, and only a particular type of man will do. Nora seeks a mate so abhorrent, so completely unacceptable, that her father will reject the match—leaving her free to marry the artist she loves....

Amelia Willoughby has been engaged to the Duke of Wyndham for as long as she can remember. Literally. A mere six months old when the contracts were signed, she has spent the rest of her life waiting. And waiting. And waiting....

When Wicked Comes Calling... When a mysterious stranger finds his way into her bedchamber and offers his help in landing a duke, Lady Felicity Faircloth agrees - on one condition. She’s seen enough of the world to believe in passion, and won’t accept a marriage without it....

Doomed to a life of unending toil, Heather Simmons fears for her innocence—until a shocking, desperate act forces her to flee...and to seek refuge in the arms of a virile and dangerous stranger....

In the summer of 1862, a group of young artists led by the passionate and talented Edward Radcliffe descends upon Birchwood Manor in rural Oxfordshire. Their plan: to spend a secluded summer month in a haze of inspiration and creativity....

Lady Guinevere Darlington has spent the last five years trying to forget the beautiful rogue who stole her heart and then crushed it under his shiny black hessian....

Raised among London’s most notorious criminals, a twist of fate landed Adelaide Frampton in the bright ballrooms of Mayfair, where she masquerades as a quiet wallflower....

The game is afoot as Charlotte Holmes returns in the Victorian-set Lady Sherlock series. Lady Ingram wants Sherlock Holmes to find her first love, who failed to show up at their annual rendezvous....

In Thorne Manor there is one locked door. Behind it lies a portal to the 21st century, and nothing is going to stop Miranda Hastings from stepping through....

Devon Ravenel, London's most wickedly charming rake, has just inherited an earldom. But his powerful new rank in society comes with unwanted responsibilities....

Savage ambition has brought common-born Rhys Winterborne vast wealth and success. In business and beyond, Rhys gets exactly what he wants....

Veronica’s natural-historian beau, Stoker, has been away in Bavaria for months and their relationship is at an impasse. But when Veronica shows up before him with his brother, Tiberius, Lord Templeton-Vane, he is lured back home by an intriguing job offer....

To escape the shackles of marriage, Nellie Young purposely ruined her reputation a long time ago. Now she dedicates herself to hedonistic pleasures only, like kissing a handsome stranger in the ocean under the moonlight....

England, 1879. Annabelle Archer, the brilliant but destitute daughter of a country vicar, has earned herself a place among the first cohort of female students at the renowned University of Oxford. In return for her scholarship, she must support the rising women's suffrage movement....

I thought I’d already lost everything, but life has a way of proving you wrong. The moment I set my scuffed sneaker on Cadieux Island for College, my fate was sealed, but there’s no way I could have prepared for what was coming....

Bookish suffragist Catriona Campbell is busy: An ailing estate, academic writer’s block, a tense time for England’s women’s rights campaign—the last thing she needs is to be stuck playing host to her father’s distractingly attractive young colleague....

England, 1867: Miss Poppy Delamare is living a lie. To escape an odious betrothal, she fled to London where she’s been hiding as the unassuming secretary Flora Deaver....

Eloise flees her wedding to a cruel groom in a moment of sheer panic. She's certain her brother's best friend, the notorious Lord Wycliffe, is already out of town when she sneaks into his home.

Miss Charlotte Pettifer belongs to a secret league of women skilled in the subtle arts. That is to say - although it must never be said - witchcraft. The League of Gentlewomen Witches strives to improve the world in small ways....

From the moment he spies Lady Morgan Bedwyn across the ballroom, Gervase Ashford, Earl of Rosthorn, knows he has found the perfect instrument of his revenge....

Since Bridget Mitchell was two, it was just her and her father. As her father nears the end of his life, she has no idea what she will do after his death. All that she knows for certain is that she cannot live in the house she’s always been in. When Elizabeth Tandy comes into the post office where Bridget works, she tells her to come see her because she has a letter she believes was written just for Bridget—a letter to become a mail-order bride. Felix Potter is obsessed with getting married. He sends off for a mail-order bride, fully expecting the woman to be ugly as a toad when she ...

Needing to escape her mother’s world of constant dances to find her a husband, Ada Applebottom reaches out to a friend who helps people travel west as mail-order brides. All Ada wants from life is to be a farmer or rancher’s wife. She knows that’s the exact opposite of what her mother wants for her, and she can’t let her mother force her into a life that she has no desire to live. With Elizabeth Tandy’s help, she heads west to marry a rancher. Wade Kelso loves ranching, but he knows something is missing from his life. He writes a letter to a matchmaker, hoping to find just the ...

Becky Brown knew she’d made a mess of her life. Eight months pregnant, and her fiancé has been dead for almost that long. After her parents kick her out, she moves into a boarding house and helps the kindly woman there with chores for half her rent. She wants what’s best for her baby, but how on earth is she supposed to provide it? When handsome stranger, Amos Bowen, shows up at the boarding house and asks her to marry him, her first instinct is to tell him he’s lost his mind. Instead, she finds herself married to him three days later. Can this couple survive the bitterness of her ...

Beatrice Hart loves her life as a teacher in Missouri. When her parents tell her they’re moving to Creede, Colorado, she goes with them, having nothing else to do. Just before they reach town, her parents plummet to their deaths, leaving her alone to face the world and an entire town of men. When telegraph operator Arthur Jameson sees a young lady crying on a bench in town, he immediately goes to her to try to make things better. An hour later he finds himself married to her, wondering what had gotten into him. Together, two strangers try to navigate their way through marriage and life. ...

This book contains a prologue that was published in its entirety as The Escape. The prologue is only a small portion of the book. Through no fault of her own, Gwen Blue found herself embroiled in a scandal that would set Beckham, Massachusetts on its ear, and get her locked in her room for two months. When she found herself betrothed to a man she found loathsome, she wanted nothing more than to disappear. When her sisters liberated her from her room and proposed a journey to Texas to visit an old school friend, she didn't have to be asked twice. Walton Dalton always had a plan for his life....

When Toria Miller realized her only option to get away from her over-amorous employer was to escape from Beckham, Massachusetts, her first thought was to become a mail order bride. After talking to her niece, the matchmaker for the only agency in town, she chose a letter and embarked on a journey that would take her all the way to Creede, Colorado. When Toria arrived, she was excited to start her new life with her husband, the owner of the mercantile. Mortimer Jackson was blessed with the perfect wife. Now that he’s a widower, he’s convinced he needs someone just like his first wife. He...

Catherine Peartree, young woman born to wealth, lost her family in an accident and must now work in a factory to make a living. When she is offered the opportunity to move to Texas as a mail-order bride, she jumps at the chance, hoping to be able to start a new life. Her new husband, and her new home, aren’t everything she dreamed they would be, and she must learn to adjust to life as a married woman. Abner Phelps has wanted a wife for years, but none of the women in Nowhere, Texas will give him the time of day. When he approaches Edna Petunia Sanders about finding him a bride, she ...

Tired of being remembered only for her misdeeds as part of the demon horde, Ernestine Miller agrees to go out West to marry a banker in need of a wife. When she arrives in Montana, she discovers her groom has met with a fatal accident, and she has two choices. She can either find a way to support herself or go back home in shame. So she uses her former fiancé’s home to start a boarding house, happy to have a use for her superior cooking skills. When Clifford Solomon moves to Prairie Dog, Montana, he’s thrilled to find a boarding house where he and his business partner can stay. It ...

Jessamine Stewart has felt rejected for most of her life. Now she is being sent away by the woman who has been her surrogate mother for the past six years. She moves to Texas to start a school and marry a stranger as his mail-order bride. When she arrives, it seems that all has worked out for the best, but it doesn’t take long for her to realize that he’s not attracted to her. Robert Samuels has a well-ordered routine. He eats at the diner in town three times per day, and he works five days a week at his very own barber shop. When he sends off for a mail-order bride, he expects the ...

Francis knew something needed to change immediately. He was only sixteen, but he understood that his family couldn’t keep living on bread and beef jerky. In town one day, he noticed an advertisement for a mail order bride, and sent off a letter…after signing his older brother’s name. He’d just make sure to tell Andrew that his fiance was coming before she arrived. What could go wrong? Tracy had lived in an orphanage since she was just a few months old. She only had a month before she turned eighteen and had to find a new place to live, complete with employment or a wedding ring. ...

Gretchen Jensen has been in love with the same person for years. There are only two problems standing in the way of her marriage to him. She’s pregnant, and he’s dead. Most of the people in her town won’t even talk to her, because the woman who was to be her mother-in-law has shunned her. Unable to see beyond her love for him, she refuses to marry the mail order groom who has traveled across the country to be her husband. Reginald Lindon left town at a moment’s notice, but he took time to leave his fiancée a letter to let her know that he would return in six months. He entrusted ...

Mary Brown is forced to start over in Beckham, Massachusetts, when the love of her life is killed out West. She has no desire to be in the town where they grew up together and memories of him will flood through her at every turn. After five years as a cook, her employer suggests she become a mail order bride to a man who has no desire to find love…only a life partner. Unsure if she’s making a mistake, she sends a letter in reply to the ad, unsure if she’ll be able to handle marriage to a stranger after expecting a life of love. William Jones has always known he’d marry his love, but...

Gertrude Miller is well-known for her cooking, working for the diner there in Beckham, Massachusetts. When she spots an old crush eating with his new wife, she realizes that there is no chance she will ever be able to find love there in Beckham, where everyone remembers her as a member of the demon horde. After some serious thought, she goes to her sister Elizabeth and asks to be sent west as a mail order bride. Douglas Charleston wants nothing more from life than regular meals. When he writes a letter to a matchmaker in the east, he makes it clear that he’s not worried about looks or age...

When Millie's friend, Berta, elopes instead of fulfilling her obligations to be a mail order bride, she decides to take her friend's place and be the best mail order bride a man has ever seen. Of course, she can't exactly cook, and she enjoys meddling in other people's lives under the guise of "helping them," but surely, her future husband won't mind that. Connor waits excitedly for his Berta to get off the train in Idaho, knowing that she is the answer to his prayers. She's an excellent cook and a hard worker, just what he needs for his restaurant. He's confused when Millie gets off the ...

When Doris Miller gets completely fed up with her younger siblings and knows she needs a break, she does the only thing she knows to do. She goes to her sister Elizabeth to ask to be matched as a mail order bride. Doris needs to forget all about her past as a member of the demon horde and go where no one else remembers it either. This book was previously published in the anthology "Pistols and Poplin." Harvey Butler knows that his children are terrors. He knows he's not doing the right thing by them since their mother died, but he has no idea what to do with them. Instead, he spends all his...