Romance Retold

She wants him back. He'll have anyone but her. Jilted years ago when his fortunes fell, Solomon Kennett has returned to England with a grand fortune from his years in the West Indies. He is intent on an advantageous match--with anyone but the woman who spurned him two years ago. When his intended is kidnapped and taken to Gretna Green, he feels honor-bound to go after her despite his growing reservations over the match. Mercy Marcotte knows she doesn't deserve another chance with Solomon, but when her cousin elopes with another man rather than accept his suit, she cannot abandon him to humiliation. Reunited on the road, lingering chemistry wars with old resentments. The past divided them, but the present insists on entangling them once more. With a web of divided loyalties and ulterior motives ensnaring them all, tensions mount and passions ignite. Will their shared history and hurt pride eclipse second chances? Or will love's spark prevail on this chase to reclaim what they've lost?

Can a ruse turn to romance? No one stands in doubt of Edith Donne's opinion on marriage-or of her ability to ward it off using nothing but her stinging wit. With the fortune her aunt has left her, Edith has no reason to marry and certainly no intention of it. When she inadvertently overhears that her lifelong archrival is in love with her, she is stunned, but she has no compunction in setting him straight. Elias Abram trusts no woman, but he can bandy words with the best of them-and Edith Donne is undoubtedly the best. Her razor-sharp tongue has been a constant companion and a welcome challenge since their prank-filled childhood days. But when Elias is given to believe that Edith is secretly in love with him, his world is flipped on its head, forcing him to reconsider everything he thought he knew. Soon realizing they have been duped by their conspiring friends, Edith and Elias resolve to turn the tables on them in the most shocking manner they can concoct-the ultimate revenge. But what's to be done when the lines between charade and reality begin to blur?

Love lessons have never gone so awry Miss Ruth Hawthorn helps support her fatherless family the only way she can: doling out love advice in a local newspaper column under an assumed name, The Swan. When she receives a lucrative request for an in-person consultation from someone signed "O," her brother persuades her to go to London with him, teaching him what he needs to know in order to survive the short appointment. But when "O" moves up the time of the rendez-vous and Ruth's brother is nowhere to be found, she is forced to take matters into her own hands. Philip Trent, Lord Oxley, knows precisely which woman will best fill his late mother's shoes as the viscountess-now all he needs is a little help winning her over, swarmed as she is by suitors. Ashamed of his ineptitude with women but determined to succeed, Philip secretly enlists help. The youthful, bespectacled Swan seems like the last person capable of providing such help, but Philip finds in the young man both a friend and a confidant, with a surprising understanding of love. Philip's choice of woman is proving more difficult than anticipated, though, and Ruth's ongoing disguise and frequent meetings with him are taxing her conscience-and her heart. With more secrets than Ruth can manage and a heart long since lost to her most important client, she faces the threat of discovery and ruin-a prospect somehow eclipsed by the heartbreak she will face when those secrets are inevitably discovered by the man she loves.