Some good reading coming up in December.  My list looks a little shorter this month, which is OK – I’ve got some catching up to do from those great November books, as well as some Christmas stories.  Below the graphic, I’ve posted the blurbs for these books, and clicking on the titles will take you right to the Amazon page if you’d like to add any of these goodies to your own TBR pile!

Merry Christmas, My Viscount (Rules of the Rogue)  by Emily Windsor – Mrs Lily Mereworth’s List of Bold New Life Resolutions. To be completed by Christmas Eve, 1814.

• Burn Miss Pikesworth’s Guide to Etiquette – Achieved.
• Visit a gaming hell and win oneself lots of money – Achieved.
• Imbibe new-fangled absinthe – Preparations underway.
• Seduce a rogue – ?

Attending a Christmastide gathering is surely the best way for the most proper widow Mrs Lily Mereworth to complete her list and banish her past. After all, there will be more than a few suitable gentlemen present.
If only a shrewd, hazel-eyed viscount didn’t keep disrupting her plans…

Newly ennobled Viscount Asher Rainham has no schedule for seduction, Christmas or dallying with women. He has merely turned up for the good company, intelligent card playing and excellent brandy. But as snow swathes the land, a certain Mrs Mereworth confounds his expectations and assaults his methodical senses.
Asher, spymaster, a man who never takes risks, finds himself in need of some Rules of the Rogue…

Ghost stories on a windy night, swordplay down the Great Portrait Gallery, snapdragon in the dark – a lady and a gentleman with no thought to love… Merry Christmas.

The Lady in Red (Kindle Single) (A Season for Scandal)  by Kelly Bowen – A lady with secrets, a man with a burning desire, a love that breaks all the rules…

Lady Charlotte Beaumont has spent her whole life being ignored. By her parents, her brother, even the servants. So she was secretly able to develop her talent for painting well beyond the usual watercolors. Too bad no one will let her actually use it—women are rarely accepted into the Royal Academy. But when a connection at the Haverhall School for Young Ladies gets Charlotte her dream commission, she’ll do whatever it takes to make it work. Including disguising herself as “Charlie.”

Flynn Rutledge has something to prove. His lowly upbringing is not going to stop him from achieving his artistic dreams. This commission is the key to his future, and his partner, an unknown youth in oversized clothes who is barely old enough to shave, doesn’t exactly inspire confidence. But Charlie does inspire Flynn’s artistic passion—something he worried he might have lost forever. For all his street smarts, nothing can prepare Flynn for the shock of Charlie’s true identity. He doesn’t care that she’s a woman, but a lady of the ton is a different matter altogether.

The Lord Meets His Lady (Midnight Meetings)  by Gina Conkle – Lord Marcus Bowles has stained his family’s reputation for the last time. Only after spending a scandal-free year restoring some far-flung property can this second son return in good graces. But Marcus isn’t one to abandon a lone damsel on a dark country lane.

One stolen kiss and Genevieve Turner’s handsome midnight savior disappears. Typical. No matter, Gen is finally on the way to her new post, and hopefully to finding her grandmother as well. Instead she finds her mischievous hero is her new employer. Surely a few more kisses won’t hurt…

To the Duke, With Love: The Rakes of St. James  by Amelia Grey – There may be times when a gentleman is desperate to gain a lady’s attention, but a gentleman would never resort to desperate measures to obtain it.
―A Proper Gentleman’s Guide to Wooing the Perfect Lady

Sloane Knox, the Duke of Hawksthorn is guardian for his sweet, younger sister. Due to his misguided past as one of the infamous Rakes of St James, Hawk is hoping to avoid the Season by securing a match for her before it begins. He has the perfect gentleman in mind, but for one infuriating―and unexpectedly intoxicating―obstacle: the intended groom’s own sister, Miss Loretta Quick.

Having narrowly avoided her own arranged marriage to an unacceptable nobleman, Loretta is determined that her dear brother―a gentle, good-natured soul―should marry for love. Matching wits with Hawk may be her greatest challenge yet. . .until she realizes it may also be her greatest pleasure. For the young duke’s irresistible charm has not only begun to crumble her stubborn resolve, it has claimed her heart in true love as well. . .

Once Upon a Christmas Eve: A Maiden Lane Novella (Kindle Single)  by Elizabeth Hoyt – Adam Rutledge, Viscount d’Arque, really rather loathes Christmas. The banal cheerfulness. The asinine party games. And, worst of all, the obligatory trip to the countryside. His grandmother, however, loves the holiday—and Adam loves his grandmother, so he’ll brave the fiercest snowstorm to please her. But when their carriage wheel snaps, they’re forced to seek shelter at the home of the most maddening, infuriating, and utterly beguiling woman he’s ever met.

Sarah St. John really rather loathes rakes. The self-satisfied smirks. The sly predatory gazes. Oh, and the constant witty banter rife with double meaning. But in the spirit of the season, she’ll welcome this admittedly handsome viscount into her home. But as the snowstorm rages, the Yule log crackles, and the tension rises, Sarah and Adam find themselves locked in a fiery, passionate kiss. If love is the true meaning of Christmas, it’s the one gift this mismatched pair can’t wait to unwrap.

Surrender To Ruin (Sinclair Sisters Book 3)  by Carolyn Jewel – Her beauty is divine. His heart yearns for another. Will attempted revenge result in true love?

Emily is the last unmarried Sinclair sister. For all her spellbinding beauty, she’s never been able to clear a certain man from her head and her heart. He’s made it clear there’s no hope, and now he’s about to marry her best friend.

The Earl of Bracebridge knows how to hold a grudge. The former prizefighter turned disreputable nobleman hoped to marry Emily’s sister until she was forced to wed another. After his hopes for a suitable marriage are dashed once again, he seizes the chance to settle the score with Thomas Sinclair by eloping with Emily and consigning them both to a union without love.

Emily knows Bracebridge loves another, but every time they’re alone, sparks fly. Can Bracebridge get past his heartbreak to realize the perfect woman didn’t get away, she’s already his wife? 

Lady Isabella’s Ogre  by Emily Larkin – She’s one of London’s beauties … He’s London’s ogre. 

Lady Isabella Knox enjoys her independence. She collects strays—dogs, kittens, runaway brides—but she has no intention of collecting a husband.

Major Nicholas Reynolds returns from the Battle of Waterloo a hero. He’s had enough of soldiering; all he wants now is a bride … but his scarred face sends young ladies fleeing—literally.

When a slip of her tongue brands the major an ogre—and his chances of marriage disintegrate—Isabella sets out to undo the harm she inadvertently caused. How better to revive the major’s marriage prospects than for the two of them to indulge in a make-believe flirtation? They both know it’s not real, so where’s the danger?

But Isabella is soon in over her head—and so is Major Reynolds.

A Regency romance featuring a beauty, an ogre, a runaway bride, several kittens, and a dog.

Please note: 1. Lady Isabella’s Ogre is a new version of Beauty and the Scarred Hero, which was published under the penname Emily May. The last few chapters have been rewritten. Some things are the same, some are different…  2. This edition is currently only available in North America. Apologies to everyone who’s not in North America! I hope to be able to release this book worldwide in the future. 

A Match Made in Heather  by Anna Harrington – WHEN HIGHLAND HEARTS COLLIDE…
Arabel Rowland was the laird’s daughter, courted by sons of dukes and as wild and untamed as the Highlands around her. Garrick McGuiness was nothing more than a penniless, nameless Scot working in the Rowland stables with nothing to offer but his heart. On the eve when they were to elope, Arabel is forced to make a decision that changes both of their lives—one that drives them apart for a decade.
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SPARKS ARE SURE TO FLY!
Ten years later, Garrick is now Earl of Townsend and surprised to receive word of an inheritance from the Rowlands—and simply stunned to learn that he must share that inheritance with the one woman he hoped never to see again. His plan is to fulfill the will’s requirement, take the money, and never return to Scotland again. But when the deadly secret that came between them is revealed, he finds himself experiencing the Highlands—and his feelings toward Arabel—in a way he never did before.
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Fate tore them apart, but now he’s back in her life with status, money and a title. Can they let go of past hurts and find love?

The Pretender: Games People Play  by Helen Kay Dimon – They say it takes a thief to catch a thief, and Harrison Tate is proof. Once a professional burglar, he now makes a lawful living tracking down stolen art. No one needs to know about his secret sideline, “liberating” artifacts acquired through underhanded methods. At least until one of those jobs sees him walking in on a murder.

Gabrielle Wright has long been estranged from her wealthy family, but she didn’t kill her sister. Trouble is, the only person who can prove it is the sexy, elusive criminal who shouldn’t have been at the island estate on that terrible night. She’s not expecting honor among thieves—or for their mutual attraction to spark into an intense inferno of desire.

Under the guise of evaluating her family’s art, Harris comes back to the estate hoping to clear Gabby’s name. But returning to the scene of the crime has never been riskier, with their hearts and lives on the line.

If Ever I Should Love You: A Spinster Heiresses Novel (The Spinster Heiresses)  by Cathy Maxwell – Once upon a time there were three young ladies who, despite their fortunes, had been on the Marriage Mart a bit too long. They were known as the “Spinster Heiresses” . . . 

He’s inherited a title, but not a penny to speak of, so the Earl of Rochdale knows he must find a wife—preferably one tolerably pretty and good-tempered, but definitely wealthy, and willing to exchange her fortune for his family name.

His choice: Leonie Charnock, one of the season’s “Spinster Heiresses.” Years before, the earl had saved the dark-eyed beauty’s reputation, and she is still breathtakingly lovely, leading Rochdale to hope that their marriage will be more than in name only.

However, Leonie doesn’t want to be anyone’s wife. Nearly destroyed by the secrets in her past, Leonie agrees to their union with one condition: there will be a wedding but no bedding. But it’s a condition the new Countess Rochdale isn’t sure even she can keep . . .

Happy Reading!