In this Western historical romance set in 1800s Texas, a preacher's daughter reluctantly agrees to marry a wealthy playboy . . . even if it means risking her heart. The moment Lauren Holbrook walked into the Texas mansion, she knew she'd been tricked. Instead of asking her to become a secretary, wealthy matriarch Olivia Lockett proposes a scandalous offer: to marry Jared Lockett, her rebellious son and heir to the dynasty, in name only. Lauren can't know Olivia's real motive, but she's achingly aware of her feelings for Jared. Now, in spite of terrible risks, she has to trust her reckless husband. She has strong feelings for him . . . but are they strong enough?

"I assure you that the most winning woman I ever knew was hanged for poisoning three little children for their insurance money." Sherlock Holmes to Dr. Watson in The Sign of Four. Early 1902 - On the eve of Newgate Prison's demolition, Watson spies Holmes leaving a public sale of the prison's miscellany in the company of a beautiful stranger and in possession of an unusual trophy: the death mask of a woman who, more than twenty years earlier, had been executed for the murder of her three children. Holmes agrees to satisfy Watson's curiosity about the memento by recounting the decades-old history of its subject. Late December, 1878. A young Sherlock Holmes is living in a modest room at Montague Street, dividing his time between the lecture halls and the laboratories, "...studying all those branches of science which might make me more efficient". At the shop of the eccentric, old bookseller, Brodie, Holmes is introduced to the beautiful Violet Rose Turner, the young mistress and protégé of Professor James Moriarty, and the mother of his three children. When a house fire takes the lives of Moriarty's children, it is presumed to be accidental until Miss Turner's suspicious conduct prompts a further investigation, which reveals that the children had been poisoned before the fire was deliberately set. Miss Turner is charged with the murders; as her trial proceeds, Holmes sets out to prove her innocence, yet each of his discoveries seems only to confirm her guilt even as the court-room testimony assures her conviction. Not until the sentence is carried out does Holmes happen upon a scrap of evidence that sets off "...that mixture of imagination and reality which is the basis of my art" and leads to the exposure of a brilliant and sinister deception. Hidden Fires is equal parts complex puzzle, Victorian era thriller, and an "origin story" that explains familiar elements of Holmes' background and character: a distrust of women that exempts the "Violets" who are always treated chivalrously; an acquaintance with the "street urchin" Wiggins; the acquisition of a priceless Stradivarius; and the real inspiration for that bullet-marked V. R. above his sitting room mantle. Join Watson as Holmes recounts "...one of the most extraordinary narratives of my friend's career - indeed, one which may have shaped what he was to become."

Eden Marlow finds himself pursued by Ramsay Maclean, who must marry her in order to keep his Scottish estate, and although Eden is determined to avoid him, she is gradually drawn to him

Shortlisted for the Boardman Tasker Award for Mountain Literature Elemental, fierce and full of wonder, the Cairngorm mountains are the high and rocky heart of Scotland. To know them would take forever, to love them demands a kind of courageous surrender. In The Hidden Fires, Merryn Glover undertakes that challenge with Nan Shepherd as companion and guiding light. Following in the footsteps and contours of The Living Mountain, she explores the same landscapes and themes as Shepherd's seminal work. This is a journey separated by time but unified by space and purpose, a conversation between two women across nearly a century that explores how entering the life of a mountain can illuminate our own. An Australian who grew up in the Himalayas, her early experiences of the Scottish hills and weather left her cold. But gradually acclimatising and with an approach like Shepherd's, that is more mountain wandering than mountaineering, she discovers the spark that sets the hills and herself on fire. Through Glover's deepening encounter, the wild majesty and iridescence of the Cairngorms is revealed in this beautiful evocation of landscape, place and identity. 'Merryn Glover's The Hidden Fires is not just brave, it is remarkable' – Sir John Lister-Kaye

The explosive international bestseller where history, romance, and the paranormal collide. A phone call from an old friend sets immortal book dealer Giovanni Vecchio back on the path of a mysterious manuscript he's hunted for over five hundred years. He never expected a young student librarian could be the key to unlock its secrets, nor could he have predicted the danger she would attract. Now he and Beatrice De Novo follow a twisted maze that leads from the archives of a university library, though the fires of Renaissance Florence, and toward a confrontation hundreds of years in the making. Elizabeth Hunter's books are delicious and addicting, like the best kind of chocolate. She hooked me from the first page, and her stories just keep getting better and better. Paranormal romance fans won't want to miss this exciting author! —Thea Harrison, NYT bestselling author Ms. Hunter's writing voice is simply addictive, and her ability to make you actually care about her characters is going to take her very far in the publishing world. —The Romanceaholic

"Rooted in the history of the only secessionist town north of the Mason-Dixon Line, [this novel] tells a story of redemption amidst a war that tore families and the country apart"--Dust jacket flap.

How can you live in the present when you’re trying to bury the past?