Today’s Steals and Deals at AAR…..
Well-known contemporary romance writer Adriana Herrera pens her first historical romance with A Caribbean Heiress in Paris, the story of an marriage of convenience between two ambitious, strong-willed people seeking to gain control of their lives.
Caribbean-based Dominican/Scottish heiress Luz Alana Heith-Benzan is headed to the Exposition Universelle of 1889 in the hope of selling her rum. Caña Brava has existed for three generations, and Luz is bound and determined to make sure that it lasts for many more. In light of her father’s recent death, this is a matter most urgent; none of his partners want to deal with her, declaring that they refuse to do business with a woman. Her trust fund is unbreachable, and won’t be released unless she marries. And marriage is the last thing on Luz’s mind. So she gathers her friends and fellow heiresses – Manuela and Aurora, collectively known as Las Leonas, as well as her ten year old sister Clarita – and makes the voyage to Paris. Luz has three months to sell the family’s rum. Then she bumps into an irritatingly handsome Scotsman during her first day in France, and her life changes.
James Evanston – Evan – Sinclair, Earl of Darnick (and heir to the Duke of Annan), is running from his family’s terrible reputation when he meets and sparks with Luz. He, too, has come to the Exposition to sell his booze – whiskey, a brand he’s built from the ground up with no help from his family’s dirty money, and soon he finds himself selling Luz’ rum at his booth. His mother passed away seven years before, something for which he blames his father. The Duke claimed his mother’s estate because he insisted there was no will and promptly ran the estate into the ground with no thought to the safety and security of his four children, but Evan has at last uncovered his mother’s will and had it authenticated. He learns that all the property promised to himself and his siblings has been borrowed against so many times by his father that it’s in hock to the bank. But everything else – the house, the land on which he’s built the distillery and – will only become his when he marries.
Thus the two business associates agree to a marriage of convenience so they can lay their hands on the hard cash they need. Naturally, it’s all about business. Well, at least at first. Now if only Evan can tell Luz the truth about his messy family’s history…
A Caribbean Heiress in Paris has all of the lovely, character-driven warmth one expects from Adriana Herrera, with a strong feminist punch and a sparkly, lively connection between our hero and our heroine.
Get it at Amazon for 2.99 here.
This HR by Julia Justiss is a DIK.
Hal is an unusual hero, with a noticeable flaw: an embarrassing stutter controlled by a stilted speech pattern. This impediment led to his being teased and tormented as a child and strained his relationship with his beautiful and fashionable mother, who wanted a fashionable, socially adept son. Instead, she has a large, astute, and tongue-tied businessman and she has not been silent about her disappointment in him. As a consequence, he feels awkward around all good-looking women, tending to become mute in their presence, and avoids them whenever possible.
When Hal was picked on as a child, his best friend Nicky (hero of The Wedding Gamble) stood up for him, so he feels obligated to look after Nicky’s recently widowed (and distressingly lovely) sister-in-law when his friend is out of the country. Hal’s memory of Elizabeth’s beauty makes him reluctant to take on the task but his duty to his friend prevails and his offer of aid arrives at an opportune time.
Elizabeth Lowery’s household is in disarray; the servants want their pay and a disreputable bill collector has made nasty threats. Her husband always looked after the finances and his cousin, who has taken ill, handled the household, leaving her with little to do but paint. Now she must manage everything and feels ill-equipped to deal with the problems. Hal’s offer to look over the finances and take care of the bill collector comes as a welcome relief. Hal also befriends her son, David, a lonely child who longs for his father, much as Hal did at a similar age. His understanding of the child and his wish to make thing right for him allows Hal to speak more frankly and frequently with Elizabeth.
Elizabeth tentatively begins to take control of her life. She makes mistakes, (one of which caused me to call her an idiot for a little while), but continues to grow more confident and self-aware. Her painting is more than just a hobby, it is her vocation. Hal recognizes that she is very talented and encourages the pursuit of her gift. The romance between them blossoms slowly. His shyness, self-doubts, and personal prejudices against attractive women hinder his pursuit. As for Elizabeth, she feels guilt for an attraction to another man so soon after her husband’s death and also needs to be sure that she feels more than gratitude for Hal’s helping her and her son. At the same time, another man, a friend of her husband’s who has disreputable plans for her, offers quite different advice. As a result of her confusion, she mistrusts her own judgment.
It’s at Amazon for 1.99 here.
For centuries, weavers of Amberdale like the Dearborne family have woven broadcloth by hand and displayed it at the cloth halls where buyers can judge its quality. But in the last few years, a milling process has been perfected to make broadcloth more quickly and at lower cost. The Stockton family owns one of the area mills, employs many local people, and lives alongside the weavers in an uneasy alliance. At the age of ten, Kate Dearborne and her best friend Frederica Pennington secretly giggle over young Henry Stockton, and Frederica declares she will marry him. Following that statement, Frederica informs Kate they can no longer be friends, for Frederica’s father has become a mill owner and friendship with a weaver’s daughter is now forbidden.
Eleven years later, England is at war with Napoleon’s army, and broadcloth is needed in quantity for uniforms and Kate has learned the weaver’s trade well enough to take over her father’s business. However, Silas Dearborne has traditional views, and since his own son betrayed him by taking a job at the Stockton mills, he will pass the business on to John Whitby, his journeyman. Silas’s dream is that Kate will marry John, give up her foolish notions of weaving, and become the lady of the house.
After three years of fighting in the war, Henry Stockton arrives home from the Iberian Peninsula yearning for the peace and stability of the home he left. Instead he returns to turmoil. A mix-up on the battlefield resulted in the army declaring him dead. No one expected his return, and he faces a mixture of reactions to his arrival.
At home, his grandfather William is pleased but displays a paranoia that demands a new unquestioning loyalty to everything concerning the mill. Additionally, Henry learns that his sister Mollie has been sent to London in order to hide her scandalous (she’s unwed) pregnancy. Adding to Henry’s dismay, his grandfather’s heart has hardened, and the elder man has encouraged enmity between the cloth millers and the weavers.
Since the heir to the Stockton mill has returned, unease ripples through the community. Some weavers hope – a hope Kate shares – that Henry’s return may signal a change of attitude and more cooperation with the weavers. But others, including Kate’s father, insist that Henry is painted with the same brush as his grandfather. Best stay with your own people, Silas advises. Loyalty to the weavers is your world. But Kate watches Henry’s re-entry into the community with interest and yearns for something different in her future.
It’s at Amazon for 2.99 here.
Marguerite Kaye’s research glimmers in a well-told, engrossing and tender story from her Matches Made in Scandal series, about a courtesan who’s never (really) been kissed seeking to leave behind a past she had no say over, and a man running from a (possibly) falsified betrothal. In From Courtesan to Convenient Wife, Ms. Kaye has crafted a lovely romance between two individuals who are not precisely your typical romantic pairing.
When The Procurer approaches Lady Sophia Acton’s abode, she has a specific mission in mind for the scandalous young lady. The Procurer’s life’s work basically involves providing a second chance to women who have been wronged in some way; she offers temporary business contracts to the highly skilled yet friendless, and sets them to solving problems posed to her by her – usually very well-to-do – clients. Since Lady Sophia recently suffered a spectacular social fall from grace that’s left her nearly impoverished, she doesn’t have many options left to her when the Procurer arrives on her doorstep.
The Procurer’s mission for her is simple: she must be willing to pose as the wife of the handsome and much-pursued wine merchant Jean-Luc Bauduin. She will not be required to sleep with the client, but she must furnish her own complete loyalty to the man and act the part of his beloved in public and in front of his servants – and after her task is completed she will have enough money to restart her life in permanent comfort and see a full restoration of her own honor as the beloved wife of a respected man. How can she resist? Sophia has been hiding from the world ever since a disaster with her previous ‘employer’ resulted in his blackening her name, and anything is better than living an obscure life trickling down the social ladder and bitterly missing her lost family.
Jean-Luc has no idea that his new wife has a scandalous past as a courtesan. At this point all he wants is to be convincingly enough married to avoid the marriage suit of another. Comtesse Juliette de Cressy has descended upon him with the claim that they were affianced as children and at the same time declares that Jean-Luc is the lost fourth son of the Duc de Montendre, spirited away from the aristocracy during the Terror to live among ordinary vintners. Jean-Luc has no memory of this and, having lied about the existence of a previous wife, must now live his fiction with Sophia at his side. While the ersatz husband and wife set out together to prove that Juliette’s marriage contract is a falsehood, they must battle Juliette’s impassioned insistence that she’s in the right, the ever-expanding shadow of their pasts and a powerful undercurrent of attraction running between them. Is the Procurer right, and are Jean-Luc and Sophia truly destined for one another? Or will the weight of the past tear their fragile bond apart?
Get it at Amazon for 1.99 here.
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