Home > Romance > Historical Romance > Hero, Come Back

Hero, Come Back

List Price: $5.99

Save 5.0%

You Pay: $5.69

Want this eBook?Our eBook Library Software is required to purchase and download eBooks. Download it here.

Tell a Friend

Overview

Two superstar New York Times bestsellers, Stephanie Laurens and Christina Dodd, join forces with one exciting rising star, Elizabeth Boyle, to create this sexy anthology with an exciting new theme. In an innovative new twist for anthologies, each author is reintroducing a secondary character from a previous book to star in his own story!

Editorial Reviews

Three historical romance veterans present novellas that give the spotlight to heroes who've appeared in previous books in supporting roles. In Laurens's gentle though disappointingly conflict-free Lost and Found, longtime friends are blindsided by love, but must reunite a boy with his aristocratic family before they can indulge their hearts. In The Matchmaker's Bargain, a whimsical tale that reels with delightful screwball scenes, Boyle binds her engaging heroine to a former rake-turned-recluse, who soon recognizes this sprightly girl has taught him to live again. The final entry, Dodd's The Third Suitor, a fast-paced adventure involving a hoyden heiress and a spy on vacation at the shore, delivers many thrilling twists and turns. While each story will satisfy the individual author's readers, Dodd's has the broadest reach and provides the most entertainment per page, doling out fun main characters, a sinister villain, sizzling love scenes and a marvelous ending that will make strong women cheer. (June) Copyright 2005 Reed Business Information. -- PUBLISHERS WEEKLY.

Author Information

Bio of Elizabeth Boyle

Elizabeth has written stories since childhood--including tales about her imaginary friend, an oversize Holstein by the name of John Clapper--and from there graduated to notebooks full of the usual bad adolescent poetry full of angst and dreary tales of woe that only a teenager can conjure up. After college and a stint of traveling, Elizabeth returned to writing what she loved to read: romance novels. However, she hit a small bump in the road when she discovered that aspiring writers still have to pay their rent and buy groceries, so she worked as a paralegal, compiling case profiles on insurance fraud (arsons, faked burglaries, faked accidents) and police misconduct (assaults by officers, shooting inquests). Eventually she worked for a software company investigating piracy in North America. During her time "pirate hunting," she participated in civil and criminal seizures with the FBI, U.S. Customs, and the Canadian RCMP. After years of these modern-day adventures, it is no wonder that counterfeiting, forgery, and espionage find their way into her Regency-set romances, which she now writes full-time. Writing at night and on weekends, Elizabeth completed four manuscripts before Brazen Angel won the Dell Diamond Debut Award in 1996. The story of her first sale is considered romance legend, an event she says could not have happened without the love and determination of her husband. The entire story can be found here. Since then, she has written eleven more historical romances, as well as a novella, which have made eight appearances on the USA Today bestseller list, earned a spot on the New Times Extended list, received four RITA nominations (including This Rake of Mine and His Mistress by Morning) and one win, garnered countless Romantic Times nominations, and won the praise of fans worldwide, who call her fast-paced, adventurous romances "page turners" and "keepers." Her most recent book, Love Letters from a Duke, is the third novel in her Bachelor Chronicles series. Always one for an adventure herself, Elizabeth has driven a train through the Highlands of Scotland, hitchhiked in Ireland, and carries a Cook Island driver's license in her wallet. After her hometown of Seattle, Elizabeth's top three places to explore and people-watch in are London, New York, and Las Vegas--a trio of cities where, she says, story ideas can be found on just about every corner. Traveling aside, Elizabeth's favorite place is home, where she finds her foremost writing inspiration in her die-hard romantic and hero-handsome husband, Terry, whom she considers the best birthday present she's ever received. Elizabeth and Terry used to live in a quiet Seattle neighborhood, enjoying their own romantic view of Puget Sound, ferryboats, and the Olympic Mountains. That is, until they became parents--so, while they still enjoy their Northwest panorama, "quiet" has become a term they use only with the past tense.

Bio of Stephanie Laurens

New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens began writing historical romances as an escape from the dry world of professional science. Her hobby quickly ballooned into a career with the publication of her wildly popular novels about the Cynster family. She currently has 30 novels and 4 novellas published, all of which are continually in print. All of her novels have been translated into other languages and are published around the globe. Her last 15 books have been New York Times bestsellers, many in both hardcover and mass market editions. From her home outside Melbourne, Australia, where she lives with her husband and two feline princes, Stephanie continues to pen her signature historical romances set in Regency England. Her latest work, Beyond Seduction, is the sixth book in a group of novels about the members of the exclusive Bastion Club introduced in the novel The Lady Chosen. All of Stephanie's historical romances form part of the larger "World of Stephanie Laurens."

Customer Reviews

There are no customer reviews available at this time. To add your review, Register or Sign In to your account using our free eBook Library Software.

Additional Info

Imprint

HarperCollins

Filesize

802.31 KB

Number of Pages

384

eBook ISBN

9780061160202

Excerpt from: Hero, Come Back by Elizabeth Boyle

Chapter One
London
September 1834

They were twits -- foolish, fashionable, and frivolous.

Reggie Carmarthen stood in Hyde Park beyond the end of Rotten Row, and studied the tonnish females currently gathered about the Avenue with a distinctly jaundiced eye. Especially the younger ladies, those desirous of finding a husband.

Their shrill laughter reached him. The ton was drifting back to the capital for the September and October round of balls and parties. In and about their mamas' coaches lined up along the carriageway, the unmarried young ladies chatted avidly, exchanging the latest news, every one of them hoping, soon, to feature in the latest story. Sun glanced off artfully arranged curls or was deflected by fringed parasols. The breeze flirted with full skirts, teasing the myriad ruffles currently in vogue.

Fashions had changed over the last ten years, but little else had -- he felt not the slightest wish to marry any one of the young things parading in the morning sunshine.

With an inward humph, he swung away and determinedly strolled west across the lawns, leaving the fashionable horde behind.

Despite his antipathy, he had to think of marrying. He was thirty-two. His mother had dropped hints, increasingly pointed ones, over the past decade, but she knew she could push him only so far -- after a few failed attempts, she'd refrained from pressing specific young ladies on him. This morning, however, the dam of her patience had broken, ruptured by the news of his great-uncle's failing health.

His great-uncle was the Earl of Carlisle; his father, Herbert Carmarthen, presently Viscount Northcote, was the earl's heir. Which meant he, Reggie, would, on his uncle's death and his father's accession to the earldom, step up to his father's present title.

Those facts were widely known, yet waking one morning to find himself Northcote was guaranteed, as his mother had waspishly informed him that morning, to focus the attention of every last matchmaking mama on him.

He could either exercise his prerogative and select a wife forthwith, or be inundated with candidates.

Reaching the carriageway that separated Hyde Park from Kensington Gardens, he paused. The looming threat filled his mind. Crossing the gravel, he walked into the heavily shaded walks of the gardens; in the less fashionable area there were only a few nursemaids and matrons quietly strolling.

The idea of marriage had gradually been gaining ground in his conscious mind. Visits, summer and winter, to old friends like the Fulbridges and the Ashfords were largely to blame -- impossible not to notice the satisfaction, the stability, the strength that successful marriage wrought. The Cynster twins, now Amanda Fulbridge and Amelia Ashford, had been his closest friends from childhood and had remained so through the years; the Cynster family in all its various branches numbered among his parents's closest acquaintances. If ever there was a case to be made for marriage, the Cynsters as a group exemplified all that was best, all that could be achieved in that sphere.