As weather turns toward spring, thoughts turn toward love…and those of us who
adore lushly romantic period drama sigh and miss "Downton Abbey" anew. What to
do, but search for Downtonesque-books to fill that yearning?
We begin in the Victorian era with Meredith Allard's WHEN IT RAINED AT HEMBRY
CASTLE. Wealthy American Daphne accompanies her father Frederick to England
to visit his dying father, the 8th Earl of Staton. Discovering after
their arrival that her cousin Richard, the earl's heir, has no interest in
either the title or the estate he is to inherit, Daphne's father feels compelled
to remain after his father's death and run the estate for the unreliable new
earl. Daphne is drawn into the aristocratic life by her grandmother, the
dowager countess, who wants to turn her into an English lady and wed her to a
titled husband. Although Daphne finds Edward Ellis, an enterprising young
journalist—and grandson of Hembry Castle's butler—far more fascinating that the
aristocrats her grandmother recommends, Edward doesn't travel in the same
society as the residents of Hembry Castle—and is supposed to marry another girl.
Love, duty and destiny clash as Daphne tried to untangle the complex web of
conflicting interests and emotions.
Spanning events in both World Wars is Alix Rickloff's SECRETS OF NANREATH HALL.
Red Cross nurse Anna Trenowyth survives the hazardous evacuation from Dunkirk at
the beginning of World War II only to learn that her adoptive parents have been
killed in an air raid. She soon faces additional trauma when she discovers her
next nursing assignment will take her to a hospital set up inside a place she
barely remembers—Nanreath Hall, the home of her biological mother, who died when
Anna was six. A parallel storyline presents her mother's story in pre-World War
I England. A typical aristocratic daughter, Lady Katherine Trenowyth is
expected only to marry well. Her acceptance of that conventional future begins
to weaken after she meets bohemian painter Simon Halloway, who sweeps her into
an exotic and exciting world far different from her family's. But choosing to
be different has a price, and Katherine ends up destitute and alone. Drawn back
to the setting of her mother's life, Anna must decide how much of the past she
dares uncover—and whether trying to reestablish ties with the family she lost is
worth the cost.
Ireland and Australia are settings shared by Rosemary McLoughlin's TYRINGHAM PARK. Life at the
luxurious Irish estate changes forever the day eight-year-old Charlotte's
two-year-old sister Victoria goes missing. Her mother, Lady Edwina, seems to be
distraught, but with his war office work deemed too important to be left, her
father cannot return home. Abandoned for the most part to the care of her
malicious nanny, Dixon, made well aware that both her mother and Dixon would
have preferred Charlotte, rather than Victoria, to have been the child lost, she
grows up finding what solace she can from the other servants. When she later
reaches outside the family, hoping to find love and acceptance at last, she
discovers that the long shadow of Victoria's loss still has the power to affect
her life.
McLoughlin gives us a sequel in RETURN TO TYRINGHAM PARK. This time the tale begins in
Australia with a doctor's fateful decision. After delivering twins to a poor
farmer's wife who already has seven children, the doctor impulsively decides to
secretly keep one child to replace his wife's stillborn baby. The only witness
to this act is a mentally defective man whose testimony won't be believed, so
after the doctor and his wife leave Australia for Ireland, the deception remains
undiscovered. As heiress to her aristocratic mother's wealth, the stolen twin
can expect a life of privilege and luxury, while the farm child looks forward to
hard work and grinding poverty. But truth will out, as the doctor's guilt,
family ties, buried secrets and social manipulation combine to bring the
far-reaching events set in motion by that one act to a tumultuous conclusion.
Ready to return to the world of maids and chauffeurs, luxurious manor houses and
grand drama? Grab one of these stories and immerse yourself in a bygone world
of privilege and glamor!
Real, intense, passionate historical romance
After twelve years as a vagabond Navy wife, an adventure that took her from
Virginia Beach, VA, to Monterrey, CA, to Tunis, Tunisia to Oslo, Norway and
back, Julia Justiss followed her husband to his family's East Texas
homeland. On a hill above a pond with a view of pasture land, they built an
English Georgian-style home. Sitting at her desk there, if she ignores the
summer heat, she can almost imagine herself in Jane Austen's Regency
England.
In between teaching high school French and making jaunts to visit
her three children (a Seabee in Gulfport, MS, a clothing buyer in Houston and a
mechanical engineer in Austin, TX) she pursues her first love—writing
historical fiction.
Series: Regency Silk & Scandal | Hadley’s Hellions | Ransleigh Rogues
Hadley's
Hellions
The courtesan's courtship
Pursuing a role in Parliament, Christopher Lattimar needs a virtuous marriage
to make society overlook his roguish past. When beautiful and disarming Ellie
Parmenter offers to reform and refine him, he's too tempted to say no.
Once a courtesan, Ellie knows a thing or two about polishing a diamond in the
rough. She has no designs on Christopher—or any man in search of a wife—but
their best- laid plans begin to tumble once lessons in respectability turn to
seduction…
Hadley's Hellions
Four friends united by power, privilege and the daring pursuit of
passion!
Romance Historical
[Harlequin Historical Romance, On Sale: September
1, 2017, e-Book, ISBN: 9781488021695 / eISBN: 9781488021695]
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