After Dark With The Duke

Sparks fly when a daring diva clashes with an ice-cold war hero in the newest thrilling romance in USA Today bestselling author Julie Anne Long’s Palace of Rogues series. She arrives in the dead of night, a mob out for blood at her heels: Mariana Wylde, the “Harlot of Haywood Street,” an opera diva brought low by a duel fought for her favors. But the ladies of the Grand Palace on the Thames think they can make a silk purse from scandal: They’ll restore her reputation and share in her triumph...provided they can keep her apart from that other guest. Coldly brilliant, fiercely honorable, General James Duncan Blackmore, the Duke of Valkirk, is revered, feared, desired...but nobody truly knows him. Until a clash with a fiery, vulnerable beauty who stands for everything he scorns lays him bare. It’s too clear the only cure for consuming desire is conquest, but their only chance at happiness could lead to their destruction. The legendary duke never dreamed love would be his last battleground. Valkirk would lay down his life for Mariana, but his choice is stark: risk losing her forever, or do the one thing he vowed he never would...surrender.

Hester lives as a companion to the marquise at Barroughby Hall. Compared to her beautiful sisters who lead flamboyant lives, Hester is plain, has no plans to get married and has been living like she’s retired. One day, Adrian, the stepson of the marquise, known as the scandalous “Dark Duke,” and his stepbrother, Elliot, return. There is no chance that a plain woman like her would ever be noticed by either of them—that’s how Hester feels when a miracle occurs. Both beautiful men are passionately after her.

“A fresh voice that stands out….Delicious and delightful!” —Karen Hawkins Romance superstar Amanda Quick calls Julie Anne Long, “a fantastic writer,” and says, “her writing glows.” Suzanne Enoch calls Long’s work, “warm, witty, and fabulous!” This rapidly rising star of historical romance dazzles once again with What I Did For a Duke—the next fabulous installment in her sensual and emotionally charged Pennyroyal Green series. This Regency delight focuses on a dark duke with a sinful reputation and his determined efforts to seduce and ruin the innocent sister of his enemy—only to fall victim himself to the gentle lady’s good nature and passionate soul. What I Did For a Duke follows Long’s delightful I Kissed an Earl, continuing the colorful feud between the Eversea and Redmond families, and it’s one of the most scandalously entertaining love stories in many a season.

Young, tender, and highly impressionable, Lady Regan can't help but be intrigued by her brother's wayward friends—the wickedly charming Lords of Vice. One man in particular, the dashing Lord Hugh Mordare (known simply as "Dare" among the ton), utterly captivates her—in spite of his reputation as a notorious womanizer. But when she steals an innocent kiss from Dare, Regan is swiftly packed off to boarding school, safely away from danger...and desire. Five years later, Regan returns—a proper lady and ravishing beauty. Miss Swann's Academy for Young Ladies has taught her how to behave in polite society. But all the training in the world cannot extinguish her love for Dare. Now, she hopes to beat the master of seduction at his own game—by daring Dare to love her in return. This time, both of their hearts are on the line...and winner takes all.

Violet knows that her father's best friend, the Duke of Ravensthorpe, is the most powerful man in all of London with a reputation for sin. But nothing can stop Violet from wanting to shed her wallflower ways and fulfill her darkest, most forbidden desires...even if it means seducing a man twice her age. "Shupe is a true queen of filth, expert at spinning heartfelt love stories alongside tantalizingly wicked scenarios." -Entertainment Weekly Note: My Dirty Duke was originally published in the Duke I'd Like to F... anthology.

As the daughter of a famed author, Isolde Ophelia Goodnight grew up on tales of brave knights and fair maidens. She never doubted romance would be in her future, too. The storybooks offered endless possibilities. And as she grew older, Izzy crossed them off. One by one by one. Ugly duckling turned swan? Abducted by handsome highwayman? Rescued from drudgery by charming prince? No, no, and . . . Heh. Now Izzy’s given up yearning for romance. She’ll settle for a roof over her head. What fairy tales are left over for an impoverished twenty-six year-old woman who’s never even been kissed? This one.

Who would ever say no to the master story tellers when they have to offer their darkest tingling Christmas mysteries and horror tales as a holiday present: The Silver Hatchet (Arthur Conan Doyle) What the Shepherd Saw: A Tale of Four Moonlight Nights (Thomas Hardy) Markheim (Robert Louis Stevenson) The Wolves of Cernogratz (Saki) Mustapha (Sabine Baring-Gould) The Story of a Disappearance and an Appearance (M.R. James) The Christmas Banquet (Nathaniel Hawthorne) The Ghost's Touch (Fergus Hume) Glámr (Sabine Baring-Gould) The Ghosts at Grantley (Leonard Kip) A Terrible Christmas Eve (Lucie E. Jackson) Ghosts and Family Legends (Catherine Crowe) The Ghost: A Christmas Story (William Douglas O'Connor) Thurlow's Christmas Story (John Kendrick Bangs) The Mystery of My Grandmother's Hair Sofa (John Kendrick Bangs) The Abbot's Ghost; or Maurice Treherne's Temptation (Louisa M. Alcott) Old Applejoy's Ghost (Frank R. Stockton) Wolverden Tower (Grant Allen) The Christmas-Eve Vigil (James Bowker) Told After Supper (Jerome K. Jerome) The Box with the Iron Clamps (Florence Marryat) Joseph: A Story (Katherine Rickford) The Story of the Goblins Who Stole a Sexton (Charles Dickens) The Ghost of Christmas Eve (J. M. Barrie) The Dead Sexton (Joseph Sheridan Le Fanu) Uncle Cornelius His Story (George MacDonald) The Grave by the Handpost (Thomas Hardy) Number Ninety (Bithia Mary Croker) At Chrighton Abbey (Mary Elizabeth Braddon) The Haunted Man (Charles Dickens) Doctor Marigold's Prescriptions (Charles Dickens) The Christmas Carol (Charles Dickens) The Black Bag Left on a Door-Step (Catherine L. Pirkis) Between the Lights (E. F. Benson) Transition (Algernon Blackwood) The Kit-Bag (Algernon Blackwood)

Since his notorious wife died in mysterious circumstances, rumours about James, the handsome Duke of Trent, have scandalized society. Now, he must marry again – but finding an eligible woman willing to overlook his past won't be easy. Defiantly single, Lady Alethea Sinclair has already turned down six offers of marriage. She prefers living on her own terms and refuses to answer to any man. Yet when Alethea meets the seductive and enigmatic Duke she finds herself strangely drawn to him. Intrigued by Alethea's defiance of society's expectations, James is instantly taken with the willful beauty and soon they are enjoying a playful flirtation. And when circumstances force them into a comprising situation, he does the honourable thing and marries her. But adjusting to the constraints of marriage doesn't come easily to the rebellious Alethea and, despite their growing feelings for each other, the Duke's troubled past keeps getting in the way. Can they learn to trust each other and give love a chance before it's too late? A steamy Georgian romance about desire, the importance of staying true to yourself and the power of the past to cast a shadow on the present.