English Historical Fiction

Louis L'Amour said that the West was no place for the frightened or the mean. It was a "big country needing big men and women to live in it", This volume presents eight of L'Amour's ever-popular short stories - history that lives forever.

Duty-bound to seek revenge, Broderick MacConnaway, son of the Thane of Dunkeld, lives haunted by memories of his lost wife, Aisling. Forming an alliance with the Lochlann family presents its own trials, but if the marriage allows him to fulfill his vengeance, then so be it. Even if the guilt over Aisling prevents him from ever loving again.... But when sinister intentions surface and Amabel is captured before she has a chance to reveal them, Broderick is forced to see past the deceptions and begin another campaign of vengeance.

Everyone wants handsome adventurer John Huxley to settle down - family, friends, London society. Everyone except John. He's evaded too many scheming title huntresses to trust in happily ever after. Now, a vow made to a dying friend has him locked in a land dispute with a stubborn Scot who offers one way out: Win the Highland Games. John likes a challenge, but this one's impossible. Still, with training from the Scot's stepdaughter, victory might be within reach.

Viscount Torrington is the hottest commodity in town as London's matchmaking season begins. But the viscount only has eyes for the penniless Widow Carrington, who has recently been accused of murder.

Acclaimed, best-selling author Lori Wick’s The Proposal is a moving tale of Christ’s love at work in early 19th-century London. William Jennings is not married and likes it that way. But when a relative passes away, he is suddenly guardian of three young children. This unexpected development provides him a male heir without the bother of a wife, yet the children quickly become more than he can handle. Finding help from a truly remarkable woman, he learns to see the world in a completely different light.

Returning from Europe, Ann learns she is to marry a man of her father’s choosing once they arrive in New York. Refusing, she runs away, although she can’t go far on a steam ship. Only as far as the stateroom of a very handsome soldier. There’s only one guaranteed way to save a woman from a bad marriage, and that’s to marry her himself. Ann is surprised Robert will go to such lengths to protect her, but stunned when she won’t just be marrying him, but his fellow soldier, Andrew, as well.

Peter Holstein writes his popular series of adventure novels under a pen name. With European politics boiling and his own neighbors suspicious of him, Peter debates whether it might be best to change his name for good. When Rosemary shows up at his door pretending to be a historian and offering to help him trace his family history, his question might be answered. But as the two work together and Rosemary sees his gracious reaction to his neighbors' scornful attacks, she wonders if her assignment is going down the wrong path.

It's the early 1980s in Belfast. Sean Duffy, a conflicted Catholic cop in the Protestant RUC (Royal Ulster Constabulary), is recruited by MI5 to hunt down Dermot McCann, an IRA master bomber who has made a daring escape from the notorious Maze prison. In the course of his investigations Sean discovers a woman who may hold the key to Dermot's whereabouts; she herself wants justice for her daughter who died in mysterious circumstances in a pub locked from the inside.

The indomitable Amelia Peabody and her husband, known to many as "the Father of Curses", are into archaeology and mischief again. This third in the series brings the reader once more into Egypt and the shady world of black market antiquities. The winter excavation season has hardly yet begun when Amelia stumbles onto what looks suspiciously like a ring of thieves.

When a marriage proposal appears imminent for the beautiful - if rebellious - Lady Rose Summer, her father wants to know if her suitor's intentions are honorable. He calls on Captain Harry Cathcart, the impoverished younger son of a baron, to do some intelligence work on the would-be fiance, Sir Geoffrey Blandon.

Fiona does not remember the years before she came to the priory on the Isle of Skye. Only the gentle Prioress knows the truth about the spirited, red-haired lass's true birth. So it is in a simple cowl and peasant's dress that she emerges from the island's mists and faces the famed warrior chief of the Highlands, Alec Macpherson. Alec has served King James with his sword. Now he would give his very soul to protect this beautiful girl from the intrigue that swirls around her. But Fiona wants his heart as well, and willingly he gives it.

Frances Hadley has managed her family's estate for years. So why can't she request her own dowry? She'll have to go to London herself and knock some sense into the men interfering in her life. With the nonsense she's dealt with lately, though, there's no way she's going as a woman. A pair of breeches and a quick chop of her red curls, and she'll have much less to worry about....

Lanning “Lanny” Budd spends his first 13 years in Europe, living at the center of his mother’s glamourous circle of friends on the French Riviera. In 1913, he enters a prestigious Swiss boarding school and befriends Rick, an English boy, and Kurt, a German. The three schoolmates are privileged, happy, and precocious - but their world is about to come to an abrupt and violent end. When the gathering storm clouds of war finally burst, raining chaos and death over the continent, Lanny must put the innocence of youth behind him.

Raised as an orphan by her aunt, Chariline has only been told a few pieces of her parents’ tragic love story. Her beautiful dark skin is proof that her father was Cushite, but she knows nothing else. While visiting her grandfather before his retirement as the Roman official in the queen’s court, Chariline overhears that her father is still alive, and discovering his identity becomes her obsession. Both her grandfather and the queen have reasons for keeping this secret, however, and forbid her quest. So Chariline sneaks on the ship of a merchant trusted by friends.

On a summer evening in 1931, Lilly Blackwood glimpses circus lights from the grimy window of her attic bedroom. Lilly isn't allowed to explore the meadows around Blackwood Manor. She's never even ventured beyond her narrow room. Momma insists it's for Lilly's own protection, that people would be afraid if they saw her. But on this unforgettable night, Lilly is taken outside for the first time - and sold to the circus sideshow.

Rowley Knight, Duke of Knighton, is too busy being a duke to bother with such nonsense as love. With three heirs, he is in no hurry whatsoever to succumb to the lures of the leg-shackles. He is content managing his siblings and estates, and avoiding society whenever possible. If he can only find someone to manage his young sister, life can go back to its proper order.

On his way to his betrothal, young Lord Penric comes upon a riding accident with an elderly lady on the ground, her maidservant and guardsmen distraught. As he approaches to help, he discovers that the lady is a Temple divine, servant to the five gods of this world. Her avowed god is the Bastard, "master of all disasters out of season", and with her dying breath she bequeaths her mysterious powers to Penric.

Glass Ferry, Kentucky, is bourbon country. Whiskey has been a way of life for generations, enabling families to provide and survive even in the darkest times. Flannery Butler's daddy, Beauregard "Honey Bee" Butler, entrusted her with his recipes before he passed on, swearing her to secrecy. But Flannery is harboring other secrets too, about her twin sister Patsy, older by eight minutes and pretty in a way Flannery knows she'll never be. Then comes the prom night when Patsy - wearing a yellow chiffon dress and the family pearls - disappears along with her date.

When Donaldina Cameron arrives at the Occidental Mission Home for Girls in 1895, she intends to teach sewing skills to young Chinese women immigrants, but, within days, she discovers that the job is much more complicated than perfect stitches and even hems. San Francisco has a dark side, one where a powerful underground organization - the criminal tong - brings Chinese young women to America to sell them as slaves. With the help of Chinese interpreters and the Chinatown police squad, Donaldina becomes a tireless social reformer to stop the abominable slave and prostitution trade.

Anthony Blake is in love with his best friend's sister, Sophia Elliot. But his plans to court her are put on hold when he is forced to resume his role as an undercover spy for the Crown. A secret document listing the names of the entire network of British spies - including his own - has been stolen. To protect Sophia, Anthony cuts off all ties to her and exchanges his life as an honorable earl for the facade of a flirtatious playboy.