The Secret Mistress

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER While Lady Angeline Dudley’s pedigree dictates that she must land a titled gentleman, the irrepressible beauty longs for a simple, ordinary suitor. So when Edward Ailsbury, the new Earl of Heyward, defends her honor with unmatched civility, Angeline thinks that she has found true love. Persuading the earl is another matter entirely. From her unconventional fashion sense to her hoydenish antics, Angeline is the last woman on earth for Edward. And yet a stolen kiss awakens something primal within him. Naturally, being a gentleman, he does the right thing after compromising a lady: He offers marriage. The proposal is born of duty, but will Angeline cause Edward to forget about decorum behind closed doors, where sensuality and seduction play wicked games? For a proper wife by day can become a husband’s secret mistress by night, when delicious desire rules. Includes Mary Balogh’s “Now a Bride,” featuring extra scenes from her Mistress series.

Lady Angeline Dudley's longs for a simple, ordinary suitor with a kind heart and good nature, so when Edward Ailsbury, the new Earl of Heyward, rescues her with unmatched civility from the advances of a scoundrel, Angeline thinks that she has found her true love. However, Edward has his future neatly mapped out and hopes to wed his steadfast companion, a woman who shares his values of loyalty, respect, and decorum Angeline is the last woman on earth for Edward and yet a stolen kiss in the moonlight awakens something deep and primal within him. He offers marriage but Angeline knows that Edward's proposal is born of duty, not love. However, deep down she believes that Edward's dedication to convention will melt behind closed doors, where sensuality and seduction play wicked games. For a proper wife by day can become a husband's secret mistress by night, when delicious desire rules.

One more night… Tricked into believing Luis Angel Martinez was committed to marrying another woman, and convinced he had drawn her into being his secret mistress, Shontelle had ended their affair, declaring he'd been no more to her than an interesting Latin lover. Two years on, Luis wasn't married and he was the only man who could get her brother's tour group out of danger…in exchange for one more night with her. But what would it be—a night of truth, love or vengeance?

When Ella and Matt meet at their mutual friends' wedding, they fall for each other. But they have their own circumstances, and they know that in the end, they'll need to say goodbye. And neither of them are interested in a long-distance relationship. So they make a deal: one passionate week together, and then it's over. Ella and the short-tempered Matt butt heads by day, but their chemistry in bed leaves nothing to be desired. The days they spend together are so sweet, they seem like a dream. But as the day of their parting draws closer, Ella gradually feels an emptiness growing inside her heart. "Now that I know this feeling," Ella muses to herself, "perhaps I should take the plunge." What will she decide in the end?

Jan Prebble was for 42 years the mistress of John Prebble, the writer acclaimed in Scotland for his histories of Glencoe, Culloden and The Highland Clearance, while elsewhere his best known work is the block buster film, Zulu for which he wrote the script. This is not an autobiography written in chronological order but a series of snapshots of a great hot-fired love affair, portraying with humour and feeling some of the difficulties of being a mistress in the days when unmarried couples were not acceptable, the ruses they had to adopt and the extraordinary situations they found themselves in. More than that it takes in not only Jan’s own celebrity-interviewing life as a Fleet Street journalist, DJ-protecting days as PRO to Capital Radio and finally her time working for the Prince of Wales, but also fascinating examples of John’s unpublished letters, serious and flippant, historical and romantic. It includes untold stories behind his many books and a vivid description of how an author feels when he finishes writing one. The whole story is enhanced by tales of John’s sense of fun unexpected perhaps in a man who wrote so eruditely about history.

At the Logical Men’s Society—an exclusive bachelor’s club—brandy flows like water, bawdy stories abound, and a gentleman tempted to marry is always persuaded to reconsider . . . Brandon Balfour made the mistake of trusting his heart to the exquisite, strong-willed actress, Kate Addison, with whom he shared one intimate night before fate intervened. Now a decade later, Brandon is a leading member of the Logical Men’s Society—for no woman since Kate has managed to captivate him. To Kate, the memory of that night still burns strongly, because it was followed by a stunning betrayal. A chance encounter may have brought Brandon back into her life, but that doesn’t mean Kate will ever forgive him. She’s vowed to make him pay—even as she realizes the promises of the young love they once shared are still etched upon her heart . . . Loving her exiled him. Trusting him ruined her. And now, a clash of passions threatens everything each of them ever desired.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Mary Balogh's The Secret Mistress. Born a commoner, Hannah Reid has been Duchess of Dunbarton since she was nineteen years old. Now her husband is dead and, more beautiful than ever at thirty, Hannah has her freedom at last. To the shock of a conventional friend, she announces her intention to take a lover—and not just any lover, but the most dangerous and delicious man in all of upper-class England: Constantine Huxtable. Constantine’s illegitimacy has denied him the title of earl, so now he denies himself nothing. Rumored to be living the easy life of a sensualist on his country estate, he always chooses recent widows for his short-lived affairs. Hannah will fit the bill nicely. But once these two passionate and scandalous figures find each other, they discover that it isn’t so easy to extricate oneself from the fires of desire—without getting singed.