Donovans (Keyes)

Elena MacKinnon has spent the last seven years training to become a proper English lady. When her childhood friend, Captain Theo Donovan, returns from serving in the Navy, he brings along with him Elena's humiliation for the ill-advised and ardent love letter she wrote him before his departure, which he ignored entirely. Elena hopes to simultaneously stifle his memory of the letter and make him regret overlooking her, showing him just how fine an English lady she can be. The only problem? She is not English but a proud Scot-and her heart may be more enamored with Theo than ever.

Diana Donovan was raised aboard a naval ship on a steady diet of war strategy, so when her orphaned friend, Lucy, is denied a perfectly respectable love match by her controlling guardian, Diana sees an opportunity to put her battle knowledge to use in service of a deserving friend. But Marmaduke Russell is not the middle-aged curmudgeon Diana is expecting. He is a maddeningly cool unmarried gentleman who seems uniquely able to parry her tactics-and infuse her with even more determination to win. As battle ensues, though, it becomes clear that there may be more hearts in the balance than just Lucy's. The Art of Victory is the first in Martha Keyes's The Donovans regency-set romance series. Each book can be treated as a standalone.

When Rebecca Russell's brother marries, she finally has the opportunity she has been dreaming of: to leave the seclusion of her reclusive grandfather's home and enter into society. But when her inexperience has her making blunders and courting embarrassment, help comes from an unexpected source: the brooding, irritable brother of her chaperone. Valentine Donovan is a rake, mountains of gaming debt and all. With his only hope for financial relief tied up in the Admiralty Court, he must temporarily rely on his father's charity-and all the strings attached to it. His father demands Valentine show evidence that he is changing his ways, so when the engaging but naïve young woman living with his sister presents a plan, he can't refuse the opportunity to fulfill some of his father's requirements, albeit reluctantly. But Valentine is unprepared for Rebecca's guileless optimism and how impossible he finds it to say no to her increasingly onerous requests-requests that put both their hearts and reputations in danger. “A Confirmed Rake” is the second in Martha Keyes's “The Donovans” regency-set romance series. Each book can be treated as a standalone.

Phineas Donovan is possessed of a sharp intellect. Fresh from Cambridge, he obtains a generous live-in position as tutor for the son of the wealthy Lord Bettencourt. If he can prove his value, he has hopes of being given the patronage of his employer, allowing him to take up a position as vicar. There, he can pursue his intellectual endeavors in peace and relative financial comfort. In her humble but informed opinion, Lady Sarah Danneville is possessed of an even sharper intellect. If anyone should be tutoring her younger brother, it is she, not the reserved, bespectacled gentleman her father has employed to do the job. He is not fit to instruct a Danneville of Bettencourt. But as Sarah works to undermine him, Mr. Donovan shows more pluck than she expects, not to mention that he harbors a secret hobby that would be laughable if it weren't so dreadfully unsophisticated. If she can use this secret against him, she can finally persuade her father she is more than bait to lure a prosperous match. Now, if only she can avoid being drawn into the dearth of sophistication, and Mr. Donovan's eyes, herself.