Showing results by author "V. J. Banis" in All Categories

The year is 1870. Torn from the protective community of American missionaries in China, young, innocent teenager Lydia Holt has no idea of the harsh realities she will soon face. Forced into a loveless marriage to a sadistic Chinese nobleman, Lydia escapes her cruel confines and flees to San Francisco, only to meet the man she once trusted with her life - a man who now threatens to destroy the cosmetics empire she has established and rules with an iron hand.

Maggie came with her sister Rebecca to Heather House to recover from the drowning deaths of their two husbands. They thought a few months in the country would be wonderful therapy. But the house seems to be haunted by the ghost of its one-time owner, Heather Lambert, who (it is said) waits in the tower room for the return of her errant husband. When Maggie discovers the portrait of Heather hidden in the cellar, the woman from the past seems to come alive for her.

Young Christmas Channing returns to Jeff because he tells her that his life's in danger, that he's being poisoned with arsenic by his wife. But when she arrives at Morgan House, she doesn't find what she expects - only David, the strange, secretive brother-in-law; Mary, Jeff's cunning, crafty spouse; and Jeff himself, the handsome but vastly changed young man whom she'd once loved, but does not now understand. Chris is lost, confused, and swept into a powerful undertow of danger, panic, and past love.

In the mysterious bayou country of Louisiana, Jennifer Hale, orphaned and destitute in the wake of the Civil War, arrives at Darkwater full of hope, but the cold reception she receives alarms her. So do the screams of Alicia, the dying mistress of the plantation, who appears to be suffering from a psychosomatic illness that causes her to choke uncontrollably. Perhaps even more frightening is Jennifer's dangerous attraction to Walter Dere, her handsome employer. But her fear is forgotten when Alicia's death frees Walter to propose to Jennifer.

Jennifer's dream vacation in sunny Portugal has suddenly turned into an unending nightmare! The two brothers she encounters are bound by the same strange family heritage: a fascination with fire. Jennifer is attracted to both Neil and Philip Alenquer, but one of them is lying about the tragedy that has taken place in their castle overlooking the Atlantic.