Duke of Disrepute


Book Description

Who doesn't love a duke? How about five of them?Welcome to bestselling author Alexa Aston's new Regency romance series, the Dukes of Distinction! These five aristocrats all come with nicknames Polite Society has bestowed upon them. Renown. Charm. Disrepute. Arrogance. Honor.A beautiful widow at the mercy of selfish relatives . . .A duke broken by a terrible secret . . .Lady Elise Ruthersby is with child when her husband is killed, and the family awaits the birth to see who will be the new earl. A daughter arrives, relegating Elise to the status of a servant as she becomes the unpaid governess to her two nephews.Weston Wallace, the Duke of Treadwell, learns a devastating secret about his fiancée the night before their wedding, causing him to break their engagement. He becomes London's most notorious rake, with a rule that he only beds a woman once.When Elise and her daughter are trapped in a carriage struck by a flaming tree in a perilous storm, Weston rescues the pair. Years of cynicism fall to the wayside as he becomes captivated by the beautiful widow and her enchanting daughter. Weston decides he must marry the woman who has thawed his cold heart without scaring her away because of his vile reputation.The two strike a bargain where Elise will help Weston navigate the Marriage Mart during the upcoming Season if he will help her find a husband. Little does the unsuspecting widow know that London's most infamous womanizer has already decided who his duchess will be.Can the Duke of Disrepute convince Elise that he's a changed man-due to love?Find the answer in The Duke of Disrepute, Book 3 in the Dukes of Distinction.Each book in Dukes of Distinction is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.Dukes of Distinction Series OrderDuke of RenownDuke of CharmDuke of DisreputeDuke of ArroganceDuke of Honor




Duke of Renown


Book Description

Who doesn't love a duke? How about five of them?Welcome to bestselling author Alexa Aston's new Regency romance series, the Dukes of Distinction! These five aristocrats all come with nicknames Polite Society has bestowed upon them. Renown. Charm. Disrepute. Arrogance. Honor.A woman with a broken heart . . .A soldier who never dreamed he'd become a duke . . .Phoebe Smythe, Countess of Borwick, suffers a tragic miscarriage when she learns her husband and young son have been killed in a carriage accident. The grieving widow retreats to an isolated cottage on the coast of Cornwall, where she finds a smuggler who's washed ashore, blood leaking from a bullet wound.Captain Andrew Graham returns home from the Napoleonic Wars after the death of his older brother, finding his father on his deathbed. Soon he becomes the Duke of Windham and must deal not only with numerous responsibilities but his wayward half-brother, who has amassed a mountain of debt and then shoots Andrew so he can become the new duke.Andrew awakens to an angel of mercy, Mrs. Smith, a middle-class widow who nurses him back to health. She thinks he's a criminal, which amuses him, but he soon falls in love with her beauty and spirit. On the day he decides to ask for her hand in marriage, she disappears and he has no way to find her-until he spies her across a London ballroom.Though her heart belongs to the Cornish smuggler she left behind, Phoebe places herself once more on the Marriage Mart. She yearns to be a mother again-which means finding a husband.What will Phoebe do when she learns that her Mr. Andrew is none other than the famous Duke of Renown?




Unmasking the Duke's Mistress


Book Description

Shocking surprises await a duke when he steps inside a London brothel in this Regency romance series opener. With trembling hands Arabella dons the mask of Miss Noir for her first night at Mrs. Silver’s House of Pleasures. Thinking of her young son, she prepares to smile prettily at the next gentleman who enters. . . . Dominic Furneaux, Duke of Arlesford, is stunned to see that the woman who shattered his heart has fallen so low. He offers her a way out—by making her his mistress! The temptation to reacquaint herself with Dominic’s body is hard for Arabella to resist, but Dominic needs only to look into the eyes of her son to uncover Arabella’s deepest secret . . .




Duke of Charm


Book Description

A woman unjustly imprisoned . . .A duke jilted at the altar . . .Lady Samantha Wallace has been in love since childhood with her brother's best friend, the Duke of Colebourne, but George only sees her as a little sister. She weds a viscount who is George's opposite, only to find herself trapped in a miserable marriage. When she becomes a widow, she is held against her will and finally escapes, vowing to live life her own way and never be controlled again.George is jilted at the altar and becomes one of London's most scandalous rakes, bedding women left and right. After years of being the Duke of Charm, though, George is tired of his meaningless existence and decides he is ready for a change-which includes finding Sam, who is now a widow, and asking her to be his duchess.Fate brings George and Samantha together at a house party, where their desire for one another ignites in a torrid encounter. Yet Samantha refuses to wed George. Determined to learn Sam's secrets and make her his, George will do whatever it takes to fight for the woman he's always loved in secret.Will Samantha be able to escape the past that still haunts her and find happiness with the Duke of Charm?Find the answer in The Duke of Charm, Book 2 in the Dukes of Distinction.Each book in Dukes of Distinction is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.Dukes of Distinction Series OrderDuke of RenownDuke of CharmDuke of DisreputeDuke of ArroganceDuke of Honor




Mistress to the Marquis


Book Description

She may grace his bed, but she will never wear his ring They whisper her name in the ballroom's shadows—the marquis's mistress! It will take all of Alice Sweetly's renowned acting skills to play this part: smile until it no longer hurts, until they believe your lie, until you believe. Pretend he means nothing. If the Marquis of Razeby thinks he can let his mistress go easily, he is so very wrong. Each night she appears before a rapturous Covent Garden audience, taunting him with her beauty. But Razeby must marry, and while Alice could grace his bed she can never grace his arm.




Duke of Arrogance


Book Description

A woman spurned by the ton . . .A duke harboring an appalling secret . . .Life radically changes for Arabella Jennings, the daughter of an Oxford don, when her father becomes the Earl of Barrington. She's an intellectual who would rather be discussing Shakespeare's works but now finds herself navigating the vicious waters of Polite Society.Jonathan Sutton's twin dies, making him the new Duke of Blackmore. Pledging to live for both himself and Arch, Jon becomes one of London's leading rakes, breaking rules and bedding women as his brother would have done had he lived.Jon meets Arabella the first night of the Season and decides this woman, so different from every conquest he's made, might help him from the abyss he's sunk into.Can a bluestocking with a quick wit tame the disreputable Duke of Arrogance-and save his soul?Find the answer in The Duke of Arrogance, Book 4 in the Dukes of Distinction.Each book in Dukes of Distinction is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.Dukes of Distinction Series Order:Duke of RenownDuke of CharmDuke of DisreputeDuke of ArroganceDuke of Honor




A Duke's Temptation


Book Description

**This is a Read Pink edition. In October 2010, Penguin Group (USA) launched a new initiative in support of Breast Cancer Awareness Month. This October, we are pleased to continue the program with a donation of $25,000 to the Breast Cancer Research Foundation(r) and are presenting eight beloved titles in special Read Pink(tm) editions: The Perfect Poison, by Amanda Quick The Border Lord's Bride, by Bertrice Small With Every Breath, by Lynn Kurland Danger in a Red Dress, by Christina Dodd Early Dawn, by Catherine Anderson The Secret History of the Pink Carnation, by Lauren Willig A Duke's Temptation, by Jillian Hunter Tribute, by Nora Roberts The Duke of Gravenhurst, the notorious author of dark romances, is accused of corrupting the morals of the public. But among his most devoted fans is the well-born Lily Boscastle, who seeks employment as the duke's personal housekeeper. Only then does she discover scandalous secrets about the man that she never could have imagined.




Duke of Honor


Book Description

A woman who falls in love with a man she's never seen . . .A duke harboring a secret he can never reveal . . .Sebastian Cooper, Marquess of Marbury, chooses to leave England and fight in the Napoleonic Wars for a decade. He comes home to find his father has died and assumes his role as the new Duke of Hardwick.When Lady Hadley Hampton's parents die, she is made a ward to the Duke of Hardwick, a man estranged from his only son. She reads Sebastian's letters aloud to her guardian and over the years falls in love with the dashing war hero.When Sebastian arrives home, he is astounded that Hadley has been managing his father's affairs and is angry this beautiful stranger knows so much about him when he didn't even know she existed. Sebastian fights his growing attraction to Hadley, believing she deserves much more than the broken, scarred man he has become.Will Hadley be able to tear down the walls surrounding Sebastian's heart and help the Duke of Honor finally heal?Find the answer in The Duke of Honor, Book 5 in the Dukes of Distinction.Each book in Dukes of Distinction is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.Dukes of Distinction Series Order:Duke of RenownDuke of CharmDuke of DisreputeDuke of ArroganceDuke of Honor




When Novels Were Books


Book Description

A literary scholar explains how eighteenth-century novels were manufactured, sold, bought, owned, collected, and read alongside Protestant religious texts. As the novel developed into a mature genre, it had to distinguish itself from these similar-looking books and become what we now call “literature.” Literary scholars have explained the rise of the Anglophone novel using a range of tools, from Ian Watt’s theories to James Watt’s inventions. Contrary to established narratives, When Novels Were Books reveals that the genre beloved of so many readers today was not born secular, national, middle-class, or female. For the first three centuries of their history, novels came into readers’ hands primarily as printed sheets ordered into a codex bound along one edge between boards or paper wrappers. Consequently, they shared some formal features of other codices, such as almanacs and Protestant religious books produced by the same printers. Novels are often mistakenly credited for developing a formal feature (“character”) that was in fact incubated in religious books. The novel did not emerge all at once: it had to differentiate itself from the goods with which it was in competition. Though it was written for sequential reading, the early novel’s main technology for dissemination was the codex, a platform designed for random access. This peculiar circumstance led to the genre’s insistence on continuous, cover-to-cover reading even as the “media platform” it used encouraged readers to dip in and out at will and read discontinuously. Jordan Alexander Stein traces this tangled history, showing how the physical format of the book shaped the stories that were fit to print.




Disrupting the Duke


Book Description

Accused of something they never did. Five boys banished from their homes in disgrace, to the place where they find the brothers of their heart-and build new family ties that will last a lifetime. A brash army major who surprisingly becomes a duke. A lady who has no interest in ever wedding. An attraction that leads to passion . . . and love . . . Cool, moody, and irresistible Donovan Martin finds himself the new Duke of Haverhill after his father and brother drown in a carriage accident. The womanizing Donovan decides to work his way through the numerous beauty of the ton because he has no intention of settling down. Until he encounters a most unusual woman-who informs him she never plans to wed. Wynter Day wants to maintain her independence and never become subservient to any man. Besides, no man has ever sparked her interest romantically. Then the new Duke of Haverhill crashes into her life, causing Wynter to reconsider her stance on marriage. A sprained ankle brings the pair closer together, with Wynter spending the Christmas holidays with Donovan and his friends. Sparks ignite and Donovan sees a future with Wynter. Then tragedy strikes, separating the couple, perhaps for good. Will their stubbornness keep them apart-or will Donovan and Wynter let go of the ghosts of the past and take a chance on love? Find the answer in Disrupting the Duke, Book 3 in Dukes Done Wrong. Each book in Dukes Done Wrong is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order. Dukes Done Wrong Book #1: Discouraging the Duke Book #2: Deflecting the Duke Book #3: Disrupting the Duke Book #4: Delighting the Duke Book #5: Destiny with a Duke