Bøger af Martha Keyes

She dreams of marrying a nobleman. Too bad he's only pretending to be one.Cecilia Cosgrove's beauty opens doors and hearts everywhere she goes. With a marquess courting her, the status and wealth her family is counting on her to obtain is finally within her reach-until she meets Jacques Levesque, the French nobleman who immediately pegs her as affected and superficial. While piqued and offended, Cecilia secretly begins to wonder whether he might not have a point. Poor French émigré Jacques Levesque has been disguised as a French nobleman for almost as long as he can remember, trying his hardest to keep his head down in a society obsessed with rank and high birth. But when Cecilia Cosgrove comes into his life, he finds it hard to maintain his façade-or to want to. While Cecilia struggles between the desire to please others and the wish to pursue her own course, Jacques's interest in her provokes a powerful enemy intent on taking him down. With love, acceptance, and the future on the line for them both, Cecilia and Jacques must decide whether a life lived behind a mask is any life at all.

All that stands between him and freedom? Turning her hatred to love.Elizabeth Innes has a tongue too sharp for her own good, and she is never more ready to employ it than when faced with the MacKinnons. With just one piece of evidence connecting their clan to a near-deadly attack, she is determined to prove the laird guilty and see him brought to justice. So, when chance throws her in the company of one of the MacKinnon men, she resolves to take advantage of the opportunity to glean more information. Malcolm MacKinnon has long lived under the thumb of his cousin and laird, Angus, who keeps a secret with the power to ruin him. With his mother and siblings entirely dependent upon Angus's capricious generosity, he cannot afford to offend his cousin. When Angus proposes a way for him to finally be free of his shackles, Malcolm is more than ready to oblige. All he must do is help Angus seek revenge upon the rival, neighboring clan. The way to do it? Gain the trust-and love-of one of their young women.As Malcolm and Elizabeth pursue their goals, they find their tasks much more difficult than anticipated, with challenges to their loyalties at every turn. Both must decide how far they are willing to go for revenge-and love.

Summer on the seaside . . . a perfect place for romance.Join us for three novellas in one collection:The New Countess by Josi S. KilpackDiane knows why the earl asked her to marry him; he needed a mother for his daughter, an heir for his title, and a hostess to assist with his position in Parliament. With two sons of her own, and no security to speak of, she never thought twice about accepting his proposal. Summering at his holiday cottage at the sea was meant to be reward for a busy first year as the new countess, and a time for her to rest before their baby is born. She is expecting lazy days on the beach with the children, simple meals, and keeping her own schedule. When the earl surprises her with a visit, she does her best not to resent the intrusion. When she learns that he came for the sole purpose of being with her and getting to know her better, she realizes that perhaps this marriage can be more than she expected. Is she ready for him to know her and love her and explore this new possibility together? She wants to be, but it is not an easy thing to let go of expectations and open up to an entirely new way of life.Mishaps and Memories by Martha KeyesJudith Jardine's one chance at a brilliant match is doomed from the start when she is ignored and then mocked by the ton's most sought-after gentleman. Under a gloomy cloud of failure, Judith is exiled to a seaside cottage to spend the summer helping her sister-and living a life far below the one she experienced for her week in Brighton. When she discovers the man responsible for her misfortune unconscious on the beach, she heeds her better impulses and has him brought to the cottage to be seen to. But James Carlisle has no recollection of who he is, what happened to him, or how he has wronged her, and Judith sees the opportunity to teach him a valuable lesson-unless the deception and her feelings get the best of her first.Moonlight Summer by Heather B. MooreOscar Rosewell's life is not lacking in many things even though he lives on the fringes of society due to his father's ruined reputation. He's sworn off having any personal relationships with ton members-his only interest lies in keeping his business thriving. He's content with his day-to-day anonymity, and business keeps his heart from getting exposed. It's safer that way. Until Oscar meets Miss Dorothea Atkinson. A woman capturing his interest is a rare thing, but Miss Atkinson is nearly engaged to a man of her parents' choosing. Would it be wrong to wish for something to go terribly wrong between the couple? Soon, Oscar learns that wishing can become a reality, but often, the price is an even heavier thing to pay.

A lady intent on refusing the fortune she desperately needs. A gentleman caught up in a smuggling scheme. Kate Matcham needs a fortune or a husband. She wants neither. With a tainted inheritance in the balance, she receives one offer to become a scoundrel's mistress and another offer of a marriage of convenience. Before resigning herself to a choice, she accepts the invitation to visit a childhood friend, considering it a last hurrah before embarking on a bleak future. The visit goes sideways when she falls for the gentleman her friend intends to marry, a man well out of Kate's league--and one who seems to be hiding something. Smuggling has overtaken the county, and it seems that everyone is complicit in the trade that killed her father. One by one, her options dwindle as she struggles against her strengthening feelings for a duplicitous man, a determination not to hurt her friend, and keeping the promise she made long ago: to stand up to the people who killed her father.

A gentleman's impulsive wager to marry a stranger. A young woman's determination not to marry the man she wants. When Isabel Cosgrove is informed by her father that he lost her hand in marriage while playing cards with Charles Galbraith-the gentleman she's been admiring from a distance for years-she is filled with dismay. How can she agree to wed a man whose reason for marriage is part-revenge, part-indifference? Intent on avoiding a painful union where her regard cannot be returned, she concocts a plan. Charles Galbraith didn't intend to become engaged as a result of a drunken wager at cards, but after the woman he loves spurns him, what does it matter whom he marries? But even Miss Cosgrove, the fiancée he won by wager, seems intent not to marry him-a fact that both relieves and piques him. She instead suggests a plan that has the potential to temporarily appease her father's demand of marriage while also winning back the love of the woman Charles truly wants. But when Charles and Isabel are thrown into the midst of a brewing scandal and another man's potential disinheritance, their plan begins to unravel thread by thread, challenging what Galbraith thinks he wants-and just how much more time with him Isabel's heart can stand.

The lines around the friend zone are blurrier than everStephanie "Stevie" JacobsMarriage to an A-list actor has its perks, but no one ever tells you about the drawbacks-paparazzi infesting your life like cockroaches after the divorce, for one. So when my longtime friend Troy offers me the empty side of his duplex while I get back on my feet again, the only possible answer is, "How soon can I come?"I've never seen Troy as anything but a friend, but when the gossip columns pin down my location, they're determined to make more of things between us, despite my assurances he's dating someone. The media are a tenacious bunch. Heck, they almost have me convinced, which is totally crazy. Right?Troy SheppardMy friendship with Stevie has survived a lot, including the day I caught the crazy bug and told her I wanted to be more than friends. Thankfully, that's far behind us. I'm here for Stevie-as a friend-now that she needs a soft place to land away from the gossip-hungry tabloids.There's just one problem: I may have seriously underestimated the power of the paparazzi-and possibly my feelings. Both seem bent on bringing the past into the present, but there's no way I'm going down the road to rejection a second time.

"...A delightful, quick read and a clean romance."Lawrence Debenham has finally escaped his dictatorial parents-even if it's only to the estate they expect him to rehabilitate and grace with a wife. But he has his own plans: inviting his friends to stay and doing as he pleases. He will do whatever it takes to show his parents he is the master of his own fate. Eleanor Renwick has taken care of her younger brother since their mother's death two years ago. Responsible and deliberate, she is unprepared for the accident they meet as they travel to their new home. They are taken in by a handsome, amusing gentleman to his run-down estate where she finds herself relying on him in the care of her energetic young charge. Eleanor discovers herself confronting a growing desire for companionship from a man who is anxious to avoid marriage. Lawrence, abruptly challenged by Eleanor's calm example of duty, feels a fast-increasing regard for her, forcing him to decide just how much he is willing to sacrifice to teach his parents a lesson.

He jilted her sister. She will never forgive him for it. Can her anger survive a snowing in and a Christmas truce? Emma Caldwell doesn't hate anyone-except for Hugh Warrilow, the man who jilted her older sister and left like a coward to join the army. Men are clearly not to be trusted, and Emma is determined not to give her heart to one. No, a marriage of convenience is the very thing to suit her. Hugh Warrilow has been secretly in love with Emma Caldwell for years, so when the time comes to live up to both families' expectations and marry her sister, he can't find it in himself to do it. Disgraced and misunderstood, he joins to fight Napoleon on the Continent, hoping he will forget Emma and be forgotten by everyone he has disappointed. An injury brings Hugh home-just in time for Christmas and the snowstorm that leaves him trapped under the same roof as Emma. How will he explain that his unforgivable act was motivated by how desperately he loved her? Her icy reception doesn't leave him the chance, nor does it offer much hope for the season's expectation of peace on earth and goodwill to men. Book 2 in the Belles of Christmas series, Goodwill for the Gentleman is a standalone Regency holiday romance. The series can be enjoyed in any order: Unmasking Lady Caroline by Mindy Burbridge Strunk, Book 1 Goodwill for the Gentleman by Martha Keyes, Book 2 The Earl's Mistletoe Match by Ashtyn Newbold, Book 3 Nine Ladies Dancing by Deborah M. Hathaway, Book 4 A Duke for Lady Eve by Kasey Stockton, Book 5

All she needs is a little bit of change. She'll have to fight him for it.Georgiana Paige is on the shelf after eight full Seasons in London and not a single offer of marriage. When the opportunity to act as companion to her spinster aunt presents itself, she jumps at the chance to escape the Marriage Mart and embark on a new adventure. Upon her eventful arrival in the tiny Yorkshire village, though, she finds herself confronted with a man who both piques her interest and provokes her pride.A lowly country vicar, Samuel Derrick would do anything to keep his coarse but idyllic parish the way it is. When change arrives there in the form of multiple new tenants straight from London, he vows to fight against their meddling. He is unprepared, though, for Georgiana Paige and the way she forces herself into the inner workings of the parish. His past experience tells him to keep the woman at arm's length, but his heart-and her determination to stay involved-won't allow for it.As the village fights against the industrialization and poverty sweeping the North, Samuel and Georgiana find themselves working to pull the village together, even as those around them seemed determined to pull it apart. But how can two people who have lived such disparate lives bring anything together when they are fighting against their own desires for change and love?The Road through Rushbury is a stand-alone sweet regency romance novel, book one in the Seasons of Change series. Books in the series include: Book One: The Road through Rushbury by Martha KeyesBook Two: The Last Eligible Bachelor by Ashtyn NewboldBook Three: A Forgiving Heart by Kasey StocktonBook Four: A Well-Trained Lady by Jess HeilemanBook Five: coming soon by Deborah M. HathawayBok Six: coming soon by Sally BrittonBook Seven: coming soon by Jennie Goutet

1794 ScotlandFor more than twenty years, the Lowland village of Craigmuir has been untouched by smallpox, leaving the people vulnerable to a painful lesson on the price of belonging, belief, and survival.Isla Findlay belongs nowhere. The daughter of a disgraced woman and the Highlander who abandoned them both, she tries to be a dutiful niece to the uncle who has taken her in, blending into the village as best she can. But when a young Highlander's arrival in the area coincides with an outbreak of dreaded smallpox, it stirs up questions about Isla's past and forces a confrontation between the beliefs she holds and the community she wants to belong to.Dr. Graeme MacNeill killed the only patient he ever had: his own father. The only way he can think to atone is to cut all ties from the Lowland world his father hated-including his education as a physician-and embrace the Highland heritage he used to be ashamed of. He travels to Craigmuir to sell the unwanted estate he has inherited from an uncle and return home, but fate-and the red-headed young woman he encounters in the village-have no intention of letting him leave things so easily behind.

It started as a marriage of convenience, but falling in love has made it anything but convenient.Fresh from the humiliating annulment of the love match she always wanted, Lady Anne Vincent meekly agrees to the marriage of convenience her father has arranged. She feels hopeful that this marriage can be one of cordial indifference, protecting her from the hurt she knows so well.Tobias Cosgrove isn't meant for marriage, free spirit that he is. And yet, as the only son, marry he must. He is thus relieved when his father reveals his future wife to be the calm, collected Lady Anne Vincent, for he is confident she won't plague him with neediness or hysterics like so many of the other young women in society.But when Lady Anne's past reappears on their doorstep, she and Tobias are forced to confront whether a marriage of convenience is the type of marriage they wish for after all.

The arrangement may well be suitable, but is it bearable? As the new Earl of Lismore, it is Sandy Duncan's duty to save both his family and Lochlarren Castle from impending ruin. He has always known he must marry well, but his father's deathbed revelation of a slew of other debts creates an unexpected urgency to the situation. With his last breath, Sandy's father extracts a promise from him to accept the match he has arranged: a marriage to the daughter of a low-born but wealthy English merchant.While Juliana Godfrey has never had the recognition of Society's most elite, she has been able to take comfort in what she does have: money-and she has that in spades. Her father's newest ambition to marry her into the aristocracy, however, could provide her with both things. The fact that the Duncans are Scots-and Highland ones, at that-is not ideal, but an earldom simply cannot be refused.Despite being the face of the Duncan family's salvation, Juliana's reception at Lochlarren Castle is less than warm. As for the earl, he is bewildered to find his prospective bride arrogant and condescending, evidently expecting her future family to be barbaric. In spite of such shaky foundations, however, the match must proceed, bleak as the future may be to both participants. Will first impressions stand against the intimacy marriage brings, or are money and title all Sandy and Juliana can truly hope for from their union?***Enjoy the other books in the multi-author Castles & Courtship series, which can be read in any order: An Amiable Foe by Jennie GoutetTo Know Miss May by Deborah M. HathawayA Heart to Keep by Ashtyn NewboldA Noble Inheritance by Kasey StocktonThe Rules of Matchmaking by Rebecca ConnollyA Suitable Arrangement by Martha KeyesAn Engagement with the Enemy by Sally BrittonCharming the Recluse by Mindy Burbidge Strunk