Historical Romance Families

New York Times best-selling author Hannah Howell is a master of Scottish historical romance. In Highland Hero, she shares four of her finest short stories featuring heroes as wild and captivating as the Highlands themselves.

Heartbroken and hoping for a new start, Abi Howes takes a summer job in rural France at the Château Bellevue. The old château echoes with voices from the past, and soon Abi finds herself drawn to one remarkable woman’s story, a story that could change the course of her summer - and her life. In 1938, Eliane Martin tends beehives in the garden of the beautiful Château Bellevue. In its shadow she meets Mathieu Dubosq and falls in love for the first time, daring to hope that a happy future awaits.

Sixty-two-year-old Arianna arrives in the South of France for a two-week artists' workshop full of anticipation but burdened by guilt. Back home in Toronto, she has been living with the devastating diagnosis of her husband's dementia and the heartbreak of watching the man she has loved for decades slip away before her eyes. What does her future hold without Ben? Before her is a blank canvas.

Ira Levinson is in trouble. At 91 years old, in poor health, and alone in the world, he finds himself stranded on an isolated embankment after a car crash. Suffering multiple injuries, he struggles to retain consciousness until a blurry image materializes and comes into focus beside him: His beloved wife, Ruth, who passed away nine years ago. Urging him to hang on, she forces him to remain alert by recounting the stories of their lifetime together - how they met, the precious paintings they collected together, the dark days of WWII and its effect on them and their families.

A daring WWII pilot who grew up among the clouds, Juliet Caron’s life was one of courage, adventure - and a love torn apart by war. Every nook of her Cornish cottage is alive with memories just waiting to be discovered. Katherine Henderson has escaped to Cornwall for Christmas, but she soon finds there is more to her holiday cottage than meets the eye. And on the eve of Juliet’s 100th birthday, Katherine is enlisted to make an old lady’s final Christmas wish come true....

Annora MacKay senses a disturbing evil in Dunncraig Keep, the estate acquired by her cousin, a cruel and ruthless man. Only her affection for the tiny girl he claims is his daughter stops her from fleeing. Then a mysterious woodcarver arrives at the castle, and she cannot stop thinking - or longing - for him. Once a laird, now an outcast, James Drummond wants what was stolen from him - his good name, his lands, and his child.

Fall in love again - with the second novel in the Bride saga. Sophia has successfully controlled every man in her orbit until she meets Ryder Sherbrooke, a man she senses is different from the others - a man she sees as one of hell’s own sons.

At the advanced age of 26, the independent, wealthy and imminently practical Isabella Latham has no expectation of marriage. But, good-hearted and dutiful, Isabella accompanies her two young country cousins to oversee their London debut...only to find that it's she who is attracting suitors...all of whom do seem to have quite an excess of creditors!

Widowed Lady Sylvia Elton is out to save young ladies from the terrible fate of love and marriage. Her former husband has retained his reputation as an honorable and loving man in death, but Sylvia has privately mourned his lies and infidelity. Joined by two equally scorned and cast-off friends, Sylvia establishes the Mismatch Society. With each new liberated member, the scandalous circle wreaks havoc on the romantic prospects of London’s frustrated male peerage. But nothing prepares Sylvia for the Viscount St. John, a familiar face and her most formidable challenger.

On 21 January 1804, Anne Sharpe arrives at Godmersham Park in Kent to take up the position of governess. At 31 years old, she has no previous experience of either teaching or fine country houses. Her mother has died, and she has nowhere else to go. Anne is left with no choice. For her new charge—12-year-old Fanny Austen—Anne's arrival is all novelty and excitement.

It's 1848, and preparations are underway for Annie Gibson's wedding to Bilsden's wealthy millowner, Frederick Hallam. But not everyone is as pleased as they are. Frederick's daughter, Beatrice, is horrified at the prospect of a new attractive stepmother arriving at the house on Ridge Hill. Even Annie's own family feels threatened. The only person who seems pleased is Tom, Annie's brother. Soon, however, real troubles begin to pile up for the Gibsons.

With Christmas approaching, the Brogan family of London's East End are braving the horrors of the Blitz. With the men away fighting for King and Country and the ever-present dangers of the German Luftwaffe's nightly reign of death and destruction, the family must do all they can to keep a stiff upper lip. For Jo, the youngest of the Brogan sisters, the perils of war also offer a newfound freedom. Jo falls in love with Tommy, a man known for his dangerous reputation as much as his charm.

Alice Pendelbury believes everything in her life is pretty much in order - from her good friends to her burgeoning career. But even Alice has to admit it’s been an odd week. Not only has her belligerent neighbor, Mr. Daldry, suddenly become a surprisingly agreeable confidant, but he’s encouraging her to take seriously the fortune-teller who told her that only by traveling to Turkey can Alice meet the most important person in her life. What’s more, the peculiarly insistent Mr. Daldry has even agreed to finance Alice’s trip - one that against all reason seems to be predestined.

Her father’s prodigal ways have forced the extremely lovely Alexandra Ashmore into an engagement with a strange man in a strange land: a man blind to the effect her unearthly beauty has on other men, and which has earned her the title "the English Witch"! So when she’s kidnapped by another love-struck suitor, Alexandra assumes she’s truly doomed to a loveless marriage with her captor.

Orphaned as a child, Arabella Hampton was the unwanted and unloved charge of a cruel aunt and neglectful uncle. The only light in her young life was the kindness of the Jonquil family, and she clung to the childish dream of someday living with them at Lampton Park. Now, years later, that opportunity is presented to Arabella in a most unexpected way: She is to be the lady’s companion to the dowager countess. As she takes up residence at the estate, the young woman soon finds that life at the Park is far more complicated than she imagined.

In 1846 a baby girl is born to a young Irish fisherman and his wife. It is the second year of the Great Hunger and the young couple choose to remain in Ireland, while family and friends are leaving. Their story takes place in the fishing village of Blackrock, Dundalk, but with the cities of Liverpool and Sunderland playing a critical part in their lives. Is their love for each other and their homeland enough to sustain them, or will they be forced to join the one and a half million who emigrate?

On a bitterly cold day in 1904, the Deravenel family's future changes forever. When Cecily Deravenel tells her eighteen-year-old son Edward of the death of his father, brother, uncle, and cousin in a fire, a part of him dies as well. Edward and his cousin Neville Watkins are suspicious of the deaths. They vow to seek the truth, avenge the deaths, and retake control of their family's business empire. As he grows into a handsome, charismatic man, Edward is torn between duty and desire. There are women in his life for whom he'll risk everything—and one woman who might destroy him.

Nine years ago Richard Allen fled England when his avaricious father, the Earl of Manford, betrothed him to Julia Miller, the young daughter of London’s wealthiest merchant. Having seen how his father’s ambition ruined his older brother’s prospects for happiness with an arranged marriage, free-spirited Richard takes to the sea, determined to live his own life. In the Caribbean, he joins a band of treasure-hunting pirates and adopts the persona of a Frenchman named Jean Paul.

In the tradition of his beloved first novel, The Notebook, number-one New York Times best-selling author Nicholas Sparks brings listeners the remarkable story of two couples whose lives intersect in profound and surprising ways.

For childhood friends Leo Kelly, Jane Devlin, and newly ordained "Packy" Keenan, the summers they spent at the lake together were times of pure magic. And no summer was more enchanting than the summer of 1948 - until a tragic car wreck killed two of their friends.