Tudor Fiction

Nine stories as hot and sweet as steaming cocoa on a December night! Collecting the erotic holiday "gift" stories from Circlet Press into one anthology, Jingle Balls has a little something for everyone, some gay, some straight, some lesbian, some kinky, some out of the (gift) box, with stories by Laura Antoniou, Kal Cobalt, Andrea Dale, Roxanne Rhoads, Elizabeth Schechter, and more!

One moment, Emmie is writing her high school history paper; the next, she is lost in 16th century England, where she meets a dreamy but dangerous Tudor king who is destined for a dreadful fate. Able to travel back to her own time but intensely drawn to King Nick and the mysterious death of his sister, Emmie finds herself solving the murder of a young princess and unravelling court secrets while trying to keep her head on her shoulders, literally.

She has just turned eighteen, is starting a vet science degree and has defied her mother by moving to her own place in the city. She has a boyfriend and a job at the local pub. Her future seems set. Then Joy meets Mick Harris. Charismatic, talented and wild, Mick is the lead singer in a band that is going places - fast. He is everything Joy's life is not.

Felicity Bloom has always felt responsible for her younger sister, so when an offer of even greater responsibility comes from Fairy Land, she doesn't hesitate. Celebrations at Castle Enfys abruptly turn to terror when an old adversary threatens the realm once again.Can Felicity embark on the Blooms' most dangerous quest yet to find a golden arrow? And will she have the courage to face her past and put right her future? Valor, forgiveness and intrigue unite in this enthralling adventure.

After leading a raid in Afghanistan, elite operative John Stratton is contacted by an old friend in military intelligence with a curious message about being hunted by an assassin. When the officer vanishes, Stratton gets drawn into a desperate race to secure a missing nuclear warhead, stolen from the Pakistan military. Against an unknown enemy, he conducts a terrifying search for the bomb - from a Taliban hideout a few miles outside Bagram Air Base to the crowded streets of Manhattan.

The house was built in the Old Queen's time: built for an Elizabethan pirate who was knighted for the plunder he brought home. It survived many eras, many reigns: it saw the passing of Cromwell and the Civil War. It became rich with an Indian Nabob and poor with a 20th century innkeeper. It saw wars, and lovers, and death. Children were born there, both heirs and bastards. It had ghosts and legends and a history that grew stranger with every generation.

Cold-blooded murder has transformed Simon Puttock's official obligation into something horrid, and he will need the able assistance of his friend, Sir Baldwin Furnshill, to draw a criminal out. A former Knight Templar, Sir Baldwin knows much of duty and servitude and of evil freely indulged in the name of godliness or greed. Now, justice must be served, even if their search exposes extortion, foul corruption, rule by fear, and killers willing, even eager, to shed more blood.

It is mid-winter, 1943. Britain is gripped by intense cold and in the darkest days of the war. There is no escape from the conflict - it has snaked into every part of everyone's lives. RAF officer Paget is heading home for Christmas on a train slowly dragging itself west, laden with the tanks and guns that will be taken across the Channel when the invasion begins. Sergeant Harris sits in a freezing hut on Salisbury Plain, wishing he can stop teaching green troops and see some real action.

1938: As Hitler sets his sights on the Sudetenland, not everyone in Britain is willing to appease him. Convinced that the fürher’s land hunger is insatiable, the head of the SIS recruits Cal Jardine to help him prove that Czechoslovakia is threatened with invasion. Before heading undercover to Prague, however, Jardine must first extricate himself from France, where his attempts to smuggle guns to Spain have been held up by a group of fanatical fascists. Finally arriving in Czechoslovakia, working undercover for the SIS proves no less dangerous.

In 1972, 18-year-old Frederick Boyle arrives by ship in the heat Montevideo, Uruguay. Equipped with a phrase book and a few pesos, he quickly finds himself renamed Ramon Bolio. Uruguay is a country on the brink of dictatorship, and Ramon finds the world around him is changing rapidly. Then one night he discovers the tango and begins the long process of becoming a Milonguero – a master of the dance.

After the British military lose an officer to Taliban insurgents in Afghanistan, a desperate race begins to find his killers. Little do the assailants know that the precious information they have stolen could bring down the entire network of Western intelligence in the Mid-East. But then one of them is captured by US troops and flown to the States for interrogation. And so begins a nail-biting, claustrophobic and explosive thriller that will ultimately lead British operative John Stratton to the Styx penitentiary, America's undersea prison.

Lord Simon James Winston, seventh Marquis of Breckinridge, can have anything he wants, except the woman he loves. After Chandra, his lover of two years, spurns his marriage offer, he does his best to forget her. When friends discussed the services of Madame Eve one night over cards, it seems like just the thing to get him over his heartbreak.

In a time when women have few options for their futures, bluestocking wallflower Llysa Hamilton has aged out of the marriage mart. With offers for her hand unlikely, she enlists Madame Eve's 1Night Stand service to find the perfect man for one passionate night. Wolfe Thane, Duke of Foxhaven, has never lacked for anything, but he's bored with his entitled life. Winning a 1Night Stand voucher in a poker game appears to offer a perfect, commitment-free opportunity to add spice to his sex life.

It is 1588, and King Philip of Spain has assembled a great fleet and army to crush the English and end Queen Elizabeth's reign.

One man who has inside knowledge of this event is the young Henry Gresham. His good looks, youth, and wealth are the envy of some at court, so his position as spy for Walsingham further endangers his life.

In the dark days of King James I, a man must know his enemies to survive. To Henry Gresham, gentleman, scholar, courtier, and spy, William Shadwell is invaluable. A thief, informer, double-dealer, and pimp, he may not be the most moral of men, but he is one of Gresham's best sources. When Shadwell is murdered, Gresham's enquiries uncover a plot so audacious it is scarcely believable.

It's 1980: recession and unemployment have hit Britain, a royal wedding is on the way, and the whole country is wondering Who shot JR? As Jack returns for his fourth year at Ragley-on-the Forest School, there's a definite chill in the air. Village schools are being closed down all over the place - will his be one of them? As school life continues - Vera, the school secretary, has to grapple with a new-fangled electric typewriter, Ruby celebrates 10 years as the school cleaner, and the village panto throws up some unusual problems. Jack wonders what the future holds....

UN surgeon Rachel Forester is posted at a remote medical clinic deep in the jungle of the Democratic Republic of the Congo. With violence escalating in the region, Dr Forester risks her life by remaining to tend an injured child while the rest of her team evacuates. On the cusp of her final desperate chance to leave, a soldier is carried into the camp by three other members of his unit, his condition so critical, his airlift must take priority over hers.

When successful Sydney lawyer Miranda McIntyre searches for something old to go with her wedding dress, she remembers an antique necklace from her childhood. Her mother’s denial of its existence only deepens Miranda’s curiosity, but the discovery of a faded wedding photo and an old newspaper clipping reveal long-buried family secrets. Who is the woman in the photo? And why are these keepsakes hidden in her mother’s closet? Miranda’s quest for the truth takes her on a road trip, south to the idyllic seaside village of Pelican Point.

When beautiful and successful Susan Harris jumps from the roof of her apartment building, she sets a tremor through her New York City mothers’ group that forces them all to look at one another with new cynicism: How could this have happened right under their noses? To one of them? Between her death and the harrowing private school admission season on the horizon, these women are forced to explore the hard truths about themselves.

Forty years ago, Exeter's Cathedral Close was the scene of a vicious ambush. Afterwards, the bodies left lying in their blood bore witness to the conflicts tearing at the heart of the cathedral itself. Today, in 1323, murder is again polluting the Cathedral Close - but this killer is not so easily caught. The victim, Henry Potell, was feared and hated; he held secrets that some wished to keep hidden....