Miss Annabel Bradley needs a husband before she is officially an old maid. At the ripe age of twenty-five, she has been virtually “shelved” by the ton. Anna is eager to begin a family, and though she’s been reared on a healthy diet of adventure novels, she is willing to settle for any suitable match as long as she can begin the family she has always wanted. Anna knows exactly with whom she wants to share her life, her lifelong friend Lane Mason. Growing up on neighboring estates, Anna and Lane couldn’t be more perfect for each other, and even though they both know their marriage would provide an easy companionship, Lane has a secret that forces him to keep Anna at arm’s length. Despite loving Anna since they were teenagers, he can’t in good conscience marry her without first finding a solution to his problem. Anna isn’t willing to wait forever, and when another lord of the peerage shows interest in her, Anna must decide whether to follow her heart or take what might be her only chance for a family, but after Lane and Anna are kidnapped, both make life-changing decisions that seal their fates.
Love’s Misadventures has all the hallmarks of a romance lover’s dream. The wealthy, most-desired gentleman of the season, Lord Devon is the hunky blonde heartthrob, unafraid to come to the rescue of his lady love but sensitive enough to pack the perfect picnic. Annabel embodies the smart, ahead-of-her-time heroine who doesn’t want to settle for a loveless marriage but will do whatever she must to protect her family, and even though the novel has that comfort-food feel, it gives the reader with one huge surprise. Lane is a virgin. Not only is Lane inexperienced in the ways of love, but he also isn’t even sure he can perform his “husbandly duties.” While it is entirely typical to find this trait in the female protagonist, seeing it in the hero makes this novel a standout.
The friendship between Lane and Annabel will leave the reader touched and a little envious. So often, the plot of romance novels has lust that evolves into love, but Love’s Misadventures begins with friendship, a lasting friendship, that is put through so many challenges. Like a horse in a race, Lane doesn’t realize how fortunate he is to have found the love of his life in his best friend until he stands to lose her to another man, and Anna will sacrifice respectability to find love in the arms of the man who knows her better than anyone in the world.
In Cheri Champagne’s first novel in the Mason Siblings Series, readers will find the love and fire they expect from a historical romance but with refreshing twists that make the novel all its own.
Love’s Misadventures won First Place in the CIBA 2017 CHATELAINE Awards for Romantic fiction.
A savage civil war is consuming the Primordial tribes. With heavy losses for both Spirit and Flesh Clans, each side is taking extreme measures to secure Cathair and the mysterious forests and mountains surrounding it. Controlling Avery and Cayden Tiernan would ensure that victory. Born the children of royals from both clans and meant to unify the land, the twins have always been exceptional. It isn’t until much later that they learn they are Spirit Shields, godlings returned to Earth to help mankind and nature.
Texas transplant Franki Amato has only lived in New Orleans for only a year and a half, but she has already seen some pretty strange things. As a private investigator for Private Chicks, she has had her share of oddball cases and clients, but this one is blood-curdling – a vampire serial killer is stalking The Big Easy. With Halloween only days away, the initial robberies of local blood banks by a caped figure seem more prank-like than serious until a fraternity member of Delta Upsilon Delta is found drained of blood in one of the city’s above-ground crypts with the message “Campari Crimson” scrawled on the wall in his own blood. Franki wants nothing to do with the cryptic case, but when a psychic gives Franki a chilling impromptu reading from a restless spirit who claims someone drained and drank his blood and then warns her the same thing is going to happen to her brother Anthony, Franki fears she will be drawn in anyway. Her fears are confirmed when Josh Santo, a multi-millionaire millennial, hires Franki to find the real culprit after he is accused of the thefts. Josh’s bizarre behavior of dressing up as infamous self-proclaimed NOLA vamp Compte Jacques de Saint Germain – all while living in the house belonging to the bloodsucker – attracts the attention of Detective Wesley Sullivan and Franki thinks Josh may be more guilty than innocent. As the case escalates with yet another killing, Franki faces danger at every turn and finding the killer becomes entirely too personal. The Crescent City on the eve of a blood moon Halloween, what could possibly go wrong?
Grace Johnson dreams of a life bigger than the one expected of a woman in the early nineteenth century. At twenty-two, she should be hoping for marriage and a home of her own. Instead, after a childhood spent privately acting for her mother, Grace secretly longs for a life in the spotlight, a place on a London stage, embracing the roles of Shakespeare’s greatest heroines. Alas, she fears her dream will never come true. Not only is Grace overly tall, clumsy, and what some would call plain, her father, a harsh man, blames her for her mother’s death. When his temper and drunkenness cause him to beat Grace, she finds herself alone on the dark streets of London’s theatre district, where a young man named Ned Plantagenet rescues her.
A surprise bequest, a cryptic benediction, and a box of long-lost letters thrust Freya Gibson in the middle of a life-changing mystery. As the personal assistant to successful novelist Patrick Underwood, Freya never takes a vacation. She believes herself content to be surrounded by the hustle and bustle of London, keeping Patrick on track and reigning in her newly discovered and completely uncertain feelings for her boss.