“Stephanie Laurens never fails to entertain and charm her readers with vibrant plots, snappy dialogue, and unforgettable characters.” —Historical Romance Reviews, praise for the author
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- Miss Prim and the Duke of Wylde
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 8/17/23
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens explores what happens when fate tosses two people who had no intention of marrying each other into the hothouse of a noble betrothal under the avid eyes of the ton. A gentleman seeking a suitable wife is forced by fate and unhelpful circumstance to become engaged to a lady who had no idea that in selflessly assisting him she was auditioning for that part.
In the leadup to her tenth Season, Meg Cynster—known to the ton’s eligible bachelors as Miss Prim—takes to the country to ponder the question: If not marriage, then what? She has yet to find an answer when she comes upon a supremely elegant curricle, drawn by a pair of high-spirited horses presided over by an unconscious gentleman. Others present know where he’s staying, but can’t manage the horses. With no real choice, Meg accepts the responsibility and drives the gentleman home. Unfortunately, he’s too inebriated to just leave, so she rouses him enough to help him inside.
But then others arrive, and Meg learns the gentleman is none other than Drago Helmsford, the notorious Duke of Wylde—and in order to protect her reputation, she and Drago are forced to declare that they are engaged.
Although a shocking surprise for everyone, by all measures, the match is highly desirable. Meg and Drago have no option but to allow the engagement to stand until the end of the Season, when they can quietly call it off. Consequently, they have to keep the fact that their engagement is a sham an absolute secret from everyone, including all members of their families.
Through the ensuing whirl of the Season, with all eyes focused avidly on them, they duly pretend to be an affianced couple—roles that, to their surprise, come to them remarkably easily. With every member of their families and all the powerful in society being unrelentingly encouraging, both Meg and Drago, with eyes wide open, start to consider the possibility that marrying the other might just be the answer they’d each been seeking when they’d first met.
Then accidents start happening and quickly escalate to attacks, and it becomes clear that someone is intent on preventing Meg from marrying Drago. Why is unclear, but with the threat hanging over them, the Cynsters and Helmsfords rally around to ensure Meg makes it to the altar. But even after the wedding, when Drago and Meg retreat to his estate, the attacks continue until, with their hearts and future on the line, Drago and Meg risk all in a gamble to expose the faceless villain and bring the ever-present danger to an end.
- Miss Prim and the Duke of Wylde
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 8/17/23
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Time for Love
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 8/16/22
Formats: Digital Audy
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens explores what happens when a gentleman intent on acquiring a business meets the unconventional lady owner, only to discover that she is not the biggest or the most lethal hurdle they and the business face.
Martin Cynster arrives at Carmichael Steelworks set on acquiring the business as the jewel in his industrialist’s crown, only to discover that the lady owner is not at all what he expected.
Miss Sophia Carmichael learned about steelmaking at her father’s knee and, having inherited the major shareholding, sees no reason not to continue exactly as she is—running the steelworks and steadily becoming an expert in steel alloys. When Martin Cynster tracks her down, she has no option but to listen to his offer—until impending disaster on the steelworks floor interrupts.
Consequently, she tries to dismiss Martin, but he is persistent, and as he has now saved her life, gratitude compels her to hear him out. And day by day, as his understanding of her and the works grows, what he offers grows increasingly tempting, until a merger, both business-wise and personal, is very much on their cards.
But a series of ever-escalating incidents makes it clear someone else has an eye on the steelworks. The quest to learn who and why leads Martin and Sophia into ever greater danger as, layer by layer, they uncover a diabolical scheme that, ultimately, will drain the lifeblood not just from the steelworks but from the city of Sheffield as well.
- The Time for Love
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 8/16/22
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Secrets of Lord Grayson Child
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 7/15/21
Formats: Digital Audy
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns to the world of the Cynsters’ next generation with the tale of an unconventional nobleman and an equally unconventional noblewoman learning to love and trust again.
A jilted noblewoman forced into a dual existence half in and half out of the ton is unexpectedly confronted by the nobleman who left her behind ten years ago, but before either can catch their breaths, they trip over a murder and into a race to capture a killer.
Lord Grayson Child is horrified to discover that the London Crier, a popular gossip rag, is proposing to expose his extraordinary wealth to the ton’s matchmakers, not to mention London’s shysters and Captain Sharps. He hies to London and corners the Crier’s proprietor—only to discover the paper’s owner is the last person he would have expected to see.
Izzy—Lady Isadora Descartes—is flabbergasted when Gray appears in her printing works’ office. He is the very last person she wants to meet while in her role as owner of the London Crier, but there he is, as large as life, and she has to deal with him without giving herself away! She manages—just—and seizes on the late hour to put him off so she can work out what to do.
But before leaving the printing works, she and he stumble across a murder, and all hell breaks loose.
Izzy can only be grateful for Gray’s support as, to free them both of suspicion, they embark on a joint campaign to find the killer.
Yet working side by side opens their eyes to who they each are now—both quite different from the youthful would-be lovers of ten years before. Mutual respect, affection, and appreciation grow, and amid the chaos of hunting a ruthless killer, they find themselves facing the question of whether what they had deemed to be wrecked ten years before can be resurrected.
Then the killer’s motive proves to be a treasonous plot, and with others, Gray and Izzy race to prevent a catastrophe, a task that ultimately falls to them alone in a situation in which the only way out is through selfless togetherness. Only by relying on each other will they survive.
- The Secrets of Lord Grayson Child
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 7/15/21
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Games Lovers Play
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/18/21
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns to the Cynsters’s next generation with an evocative tale of two people striving to overcome unusual hurdles in order to claim true love.
A nobleman wedded to the lady he loves strives to overwrite five years of masterful pretense and open his wife’s eyes to the fact that he loves her as much as she loves him.
Lord Devlin Cader, Earl of Alverton, married Therese Cynster five years ago. What he didn’t tell her then and has assiduously hidden ever since—for what seemed excellent reasons at the time—is that he loves her every bit as much as she loves him.
For her own misguided reasons, Therese had decided that the adage that Cynsters always marry for love did not necessarily mean said Cynsters were loved in return. She accepted that was usually so, but she believed she would never be loved for herself. Consequently, after falling irrevocably in love with Devlin, when he made it plain he didn’t love her yet wanted her to wife, she accepted the half love-match he offered, and once they were wed, set about organizing to make their marriage the very best it could be.
Now, five years later, they are an established couple within the haut ton, have three young children, and Devlin is making a name for himself in business and political circles. There’s only one problem: Devlin is no longer content with the half love-match he himself engineered. No fool, he sees and comprehends what the craven act of denying his love is costing both him and Therese and feels compelled to rectify his fault. He wants for them what all Therese’s married cousins enjoy—the rich and myriad benefits of marriages based on acknowledged mutual love.
Love, he’s discovered, is too powerful a force to deny, leaving him wrestling with the conundrum of finding a way to convincingly reveal to Therese that he loves her without wrecking everything—especially the mutual trust—they’ve built over the past five years.
- The Games Lovers Play
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/18/21
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Intrigue
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/15/20
Formats: Digital Audy
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens immerses you in the simple joys of a long-ago country-village Christmas, featuring a grandmother, her grandchildren, her unwed son, a determined not-so-young lady, foreign diplomats, undercover guards, and agents of Napoleon.
At Hartington Manor in the village of Little Moseley, Therese, Lady Osbaldestone, and her household are once again enjoying the company of her intrepid grandchildren, Jamie, George, and Lottie, when they are unexpectedly joined by her ladyship’s youngest and still-unwed son, also the children’s favorite uncle, Christopher.
As the Foreign Office’s master intelligencer, Christopher has been ordered into hiding until the department can appropriately deal with the French agent spotted following him in London. Christopher chose to seek refuge in Little Moseley because it’s such a tiny village that anyone without a reason to be there stands out. Neither he nor his office-appointed bodyguard expect to encounter any dramas.
Then Christopher spots a lady from London he believes has been hunting him with matrimonial intent. He can’t understand how she tracked him to the village, but determined to avoid her, he enlists the children’s help. The children discover their information-gathering skills are in high demand, and while engaging with the villagers as they usually do and taking part in the village’s traditional events, they do their best to learn what Miss Marion Sewell is up to.
But upon reflection, Christopher realizes it’s unlikely the Marion he was so attracted to years before has changed all that much, and he starts to wonder if what she wants to tell him is actually something he might want to hear. Unfortunately, he has set wheels in motion that are not easy to redirect. Although Marion tries to approach him several times, he and she fail to make contact.
Then just when it seems they will finally connect, a dangerous stranger lures Marion away. Fearing the worst, Christopher gives chase—trailed by his bodyguard, the children, and a small troop of helpful younger gentlemen.
What they discover at nearby Parteger Hall is not at all what anyone expected, and as the action unfolds, the assembled company band together to protect a secret vital to the resolution of the war against Napoleon.
- Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Intrigue
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/15/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Obsessions of Lord Godfrey Cavanaugh
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Read by Justin Hill
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Release Date: 7/16/20
Formats: Digital Audy
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens concludes the tales of the Cavanaugh siblings with the riveting story of the youngest brother and his search for a family of his own.
The scion of a noble house brought low by a storm and the lady who nurses him back to health strive to unravel a web of deception that threatens her family and forces them to fight for what they hold most dear—family, each other, and love.
Lord Godfrey Cavanaugh has no thoughts of marrying as he drives into North Yorkshire on a plum commission for the National Gallery to authenticate a Renaissance painting the gallery wishes to purchase. Then a snowstorm sweeps in, and Godfrey barely manages to haul himself, his groom, and his horses to their destination.
Elinor Hinckley, eldest daughter of Hinckley Hall, stalwart defender of the family, right arm to her invalid father, and established spinster knows full well how much her family has riding on the sale of the painting and throws herself into nursing the initially delirious gentleman who holds her family’s future in his hands.
But Godfrey proves to be a far from easy patient. Through Ellie’s and her siblings’ efforts to keep him entertained and abed, Godfrey grows to know the family, appreciating and, ultimately, being drawn into family life of a sort he’s never known.
Eventually, to everyone’s relief, he recovers sufficiently to assess the painting—only to discover that nothing is as it seems.
Someone has plans—someone other than the Hinckleys—but who is pulling the strings is a mystery that Godfrey and Ellie find near-impossible to solve. Every suspect proves to have perfectly understandable, albeit hidden reasons for their behavior.
Until the villain, panicked by their inquiries, strikes—directly at them—and forces them both to acknowledge what has grown to be the most important thing in their lives. Together they battle to save not just themselves, not just her family, but their futures. Hers, his, and theirs.
- The Obsessions of Lord Godfrey Cavanaugh
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Read by Justin Hill
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Release Date: 7/16/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- 1750: Jacqueline
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Read by Lucy Rayner
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Release Date: 5/12/20
Formats: Digital Audy
A gentleman fleeing the bonds of loveless marriage and a lady in desperate need of a champion join forces to defend an ancient legacy.
Jacqueline Tregarth, lady and guardian of Nimway Hall, is devoted to protecting her people, the Hall, the estate’s wood, and its farms. She yearns for a husband to help her meet the challenges, but all those seeking her hand are interested only in controlling her lands. With the estate’s stream running dry and summer looming, she sets men digging to reopen an old spring. Her workers discover a dirt-encrusted ornament buried at the spot; once removed, water flows and fills the old lake—and Jacqueline realizes the ornament is some kind of ancient orb.
Meanwhile, Lord Richard Devries, overly-eligible darling of the ton, fights free of kidnappers seeking to force him to offer for some lady’s hand. Escaping into the countryside, he gets lost in Balesboro Wood and stumbles on a covert scheme to divert a stream. Later, he finds his way to Nimway Hall, where the household is celebrating a spring running again.
Richard is welcomed and meets the fascinating Miss Tregarth. That his youthful hostess is disinclined to bat her lashes at him piques his interest, yet after his recent experiences, he feels safe in her company—for him, an unusual and comforting experience. Indeed, everything about Nimway Hall is calming and soothing.
Then Richard makes the connection between what he saw in the wood and the Hall’s recent water shortage and leads Jacqueline and her men to the diversion in the wood. Subsequently, he learns of the various men pursuing Jacqueline, and recognizes the danger to her and to the Hall. Although self-protective instinct presses him to travel on, his lamed horse has yet to recover, and despite all inner warnings, Richard feels compelled to step into the role of a supportive protector.
Aided and abetted by the household, the estate community, Balesboro Wood, and the ancient orb, propinquity works its magic, seducing Richard with a role into which he and his talents fit perfectly, and tempting Jacqueline to hope that her champion has finally found his way to her side. If the tales told of those snared by Balesboro Wood and sent to the Hall are true, then …
Yet true love never runs smoothly, and both Richard and Jacqueline must search within, embrace their destinies, and find the courage to seize their heart’s one true desire—all just in time to foil a dastardly plan that would wreck all they and the Hall’s people hold dear.
- 1750: Jacqueline
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Read by Lucy Rayner
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Release Date: 5/12/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Inevitable Fall of Christopher Cynster
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/19/20
Formats: Digital Audy
Christopher Cynster has finally accepted that to have the life he wants, he needs a wife, but before he can even think of searching for the right lady, he’s drawn into an investigation into the distribution of counterfeit banknotes.
London born and bred, Ellen Martingale is battling to preserve the fiction that her much-loved uncle, Christopher’s neighbor, still has his wits about him, but Christopher’s questions regarding nearby Goffard Hall trigger her suspicions. As her younger brother attends card parties at the Hall, she feels compelled to investigate.
While Ellen appears to be the sort of frippery female Christopher abhors, he quickly learns that, in her case, appearances are deceiving. And through the twists and turns in an investigation that grows ever more serious and urgent, he discovers how easy it is to fall in love, while Ellen learns that love hasn’t, after all, passed her by.
But then the villain steps from the shadows, and love’s strengths and vulnerabilities are put to the test—just as Christopher has always feared. Will he pass muster? Can they triumph? Or will they lose all they’ve so recently found?
- The Inevitable Fall of Christopher Cynster
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/19/20
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Lady Osbaldestone’s Plum Puddings
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/17/19
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens brings you the delights of a long-ago country-village Christmas, featuring a grandmother, her grandchildren, an artifact hunter, the lady who catches his eye, and three ancient coins that draw them all together in a Christmas treasure hunt.
Therese, Lady Osbaldestone, and her household again welcome her younger daughter’s children, Jamie, George, and Lottie, plus their cousins Melissa and Mandy, all of whom have insisted on spending the three weeks prior to Christmas at Therese’s house, Hartington Manor, in the village of Little Moseley.
The children are looking forward to the village’s traditional events, and this year, Therese has arranged a new distraction—the plum puddings she and her staff are making for the entire village. But while cleaning the coins donated as the puddings’ good-luck tokens, the children discover that three aren’t coins of the realm. When consulted, Reverend Colebatch summons a friend, an archaeological scholar from Oxford, who confirms the coins are Roman, raising the possibility of a Roman treasure buried somewhere near. Unfortunately, Professor Webster is facing a deadline and cannot assist in the search, but along with his niece Honor, he will stay in the village, writing, remaining available for consultation should the children and their helpers uncover more treasure.
It soon becomes clear that discovering the source of the coins—or even which villager donated them—isn’t a straightforward matter. Then the children come across a personable gentleman who knows a great deal about Roman antiquities. He introduces himself as Callum Harris, and they agree to allow him to help, and he gets their search back on track.
But while the manor five, assisted by the gentlemen from Fulsom Hall, scour the village for who had the coins and search the countryside for signs of excavation and Harris combs through the village’s country-house libraries, amassing evidence of a Roman compound somewhere near, the site from which the coins actually came remains a frustrating mystery.
Then Therese recognizes Harris, who is more than he’s pretending to be. She also notes the romance burgeoning between Harris and Honor Webster, and given the girl doesn’t know Harris’s full name, let alone his fraught relationship with her uncle, Therese steps in. But while she can engineer a successful resolution to one romance-of-the-season, as well as a reconciliation long overdue, another romance that strikes much closer to home is beyond her ability to manipulate.
Meanwhile, the search for the source of the coins goes on, but time is running out. Will Therese’s grandchildren and their Fulsom Hall helpers locate the Roman merchant’s villa Harris is sure lies near before they all must leave the village for Christmas with their families?
- Lady Osbaldestone’s Plum Puddings
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/17/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh
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Read by Justin Hill
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Release Date: 8/20/19
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens continues the bold tales of the Cavanaugh siblings as the sole Cavanaugh sister discovers that love truly does conquer all.
A lady with a passion for music and the maestro she challenges in pursuit of a worthy cause find themselves battling villains both past and present as they fight to secure life’s greatest rewards—love, marriage, and family.
Stacie—Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh—is adamant marriage is not for her. Wealthy and well-born, she needs for nothing, and with marriage off the table, to give her life purpose, she embarks on a plan to further the careers of emerging local musicians by introducing them to the ton via a series of musical evenings. Yet despite her noble status, Stacie requires a musical lure to tempt the haut ton to her events, and only one musician commands sufficient cachet—the reclusive and notoriously reluctant Marquess of Albury.
Frederick, Marquess of Albury, has fashioned a life for himself as a musical scholar, one he pursues largely out of sight of the ton. He might be renowned as a virtuoso on the pianoforte, yet he sees no reason to endure the smothering overattentiveness of society. Then his mother inveigles him into meeting Stacie, and the challenge she lays before him is … tempting. Enough for him not to immediately refuse her.
A dance of subtle persuasion ensues, and step by step, Frederick finds himself convinced that Stacie’s plan has real merit and that it behooves him to support her. At least for one event.
Stacie’s first musical evening, featuring Frederick as the principal performer, is a massive success—until Fate takes a hand and lands them in a situation that forces them both to reassess.
Does Frederick want more than the sterile, academic life he’d thought was for him?
Can Stacie overcome her deepest fears and own to and reach for her girlhood dreams?
Impulsive, arrogant, and used to getting his own way, Frederick finds his answer easily enough, but his new direction puts him on a collision course with Stacie’s fears. Luckily, he thrives on challenges—which is just as well, because in addition to convincing Stacie that love can, indeed, conquer all, he and she must unravel the mystery of who is behind a spate of murderous attacks before the villain succeeds in eliminating all hope of a happy ending.
- The Beguilement of Lady Eustacia Cavanaugh
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Read by Justin Hill
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Release Date: 8/20/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- A Conquest Impossible to Resist
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/14/19
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns to the Cynsters’ next generation to bring you a thrilling tale of love, intrigue, and fabulous horses.
Prudence Cynster has turned her back on husband hunting in favor of horse hunting. As the head of the breeding program underpinning the success of the Cynster racing stables, she’s on a quest to acquire the necessary horses to refresh the stable’s breeding stock.
On his estranged father’s death, Deaglan Fitzgerald, now Earl of Glengarah, left London and the hedonistic life of a wealthy, wellborn rake and returned to Glengarah Castle determined to rectify the harm caused by his father’s neglect. Driven by guilt that he hadn’t been there to protect his people during the Great Famine, Deaglan holds against the lure of his father’s extensive collection of horses and, leaving the stable to the care of his brother, Felix, devotes himself to returning the estate to prosperity.
Deaglan had fallen out with his father and been exiled from Glengarah over his drive to have the horses pay their way. Knowing Deaglan’s wishes and that restoration of the estate is almost complete, Felix writes to the premier Thoroughbred breeding program in the British Isles to test their interest in the Glengarah horses.
On receiving a letter describing exactly the type of horses she’s seeking, Pru overrides her family’s reluctance and sets out for Ireland’s west coast to visit the now-reclusive wicked Earl of Glengarah. Yet her only interest is in his horses, which she cannot wait to see.
When Felix tells Deaglan that a P. H. Cynster is about to arrive to assess the horses with a view to a breeding arrangement, Deaglan can only be grateful. But then P. H. Cynster turns out to be a lady—one utterly unlike any other he’s ever met.
Yet they are who they are, and both understand their world. They battle their instincts and attempt to keep their interactions businesslike, but the sparks are incandescent and inevitably ignite a sexual blaze that consumes them both—and opens their eyes.
But before they can find their way to their now-desired goal, first one accident, then another distracts them. Someone, it seems, doesn’t want them to strike a deal. Who? Why?
They need to find out before whoever it is resorts to the ultimate sanction.
- A Conquest Impossible to Resist
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/14/19
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/18/18
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens brings you a heartwarming tale of a long-ago country village Christmas, a grandmother, three eager grandchildren, one moody teenage granddaughter, an earnest young lady, a gentleman in hiding, and an elusive book of Christmas carols.
Therese, Lady Osbaldestone, and her household are quietly delighted when her younger daughter’s three children, Jamie, George, and Lottie, insist on returning to Therese’s house, Hartington Manor in the village Little Moseley, to spend the three weeks leading up to Christmas participating in the village’s traditional events.
Then out of the blue, one of Therese’s older granddaughters, Melissa, arrives on the doorstep. Her mother, Therese’s older daughter, begs Therese to take Melissa in until the family gathering at Christmas—otherwise, Melissa has nowhere else to go.
Despite having no experience dealing with moody, reticent teenagers like Melissa, Therese welcomes Melissa warmly. The younger children are happy to include their cousin in their plans—and despite her initial aloofness, Melissa discovers she’s not too old to enjoy the simple delights of a village Christmas.
The previous year, Therese learned the trick to keeping her unexpected guests out of mischief. She casts around and discovers that the new organist, who plays superbly, has a strange failing. He requires the written music in front of him before he can play a piece, and the church’s book of Christmas carols has gone missing.
Therese immediately volunteers the services of her grandchildren, who are only too happy to fling themselves into the search to find the missing book of carols. Its disappearance threatens one of the village’s most valued Christmas traditions—the Carol Service—yet as the book has always been freely loaned within the village, no one imagines that it won’t be found with a little application.
But as Therese’s intrepid four follow the trail of the book from house to house, the mystery of where the book has vanished to only deepens. Then the organist hears the children singing and invites them to form a special guest choir. The children love singing, and provided they find the book in time, they’ll be able to put on an extra-special service for the village.
While the urgency and their desire to finding the missing book escalates, the children—being Therese’s grandchildren—get distracted by the potential for romance that buds, burgeons, and blooms before them.
Yet as Christmas nears, the questions remain: Will the four unravel the twisted trail of the missing book in time to save the village’s Carol Service? And will they succeed in nudging the organist and the harpist they’ve found to play alongside him into seizing the happy-ever-after that hovers before the pair’s noses?
- Lady Osbaldestone and the Missing Christmas Carols
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/18/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Murder at Mandeville Hall
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Read by Napoleon Ryan
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Release Date: 8/28/18
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens brings you a tale of unexpected romance that blossoms against the backdrop of dastardly murder.
On discovering the lifeless body of an innocent ingénue, a peer attending a country house party joins forces with the lady-amazon sent to fetch the victim safely home in a race to expose the murderer before Stokes, assisted by Barnaby and Penelope, is forced to allow the guests, murderer included, to decamp.
Well-born rakehell and head of an ancient family, Alaric, Lord Carradale, has finally acknowledged reality and is preparing to find a bride. But loyalty to his childhood friend, Percy Mandeville, necessitates attending Percy’s annual house party, held at neighboring Mandeville Hall. Yet despite deploying his legendary languid charm, by the second evening of the week-long event, Alaric is bored and restless.
Escaping from the soirée and the Hall, Alaric decides that as soon as he’s free, he’ll hie to London and find the mild-mannered, biddable lady he believes will ensure a peaceful life. But the following morning, on walking through the Mandeville Hall shrubbery on his way to join the other guests, he comes upon the corpse of a young lady-guest.
Constance Whittaker accepts that no gentleman will ever offer for her—she’s too old, too tall, too buxom, too headstrong … too much in myriad ways. Now acting as her grandfather’s agent, she arrives at Mandeville Hall to extricate her young cousin, Glynis, who unwisely accepted an invitation to the reputedly licentious house party.
But Glynis cannot be found.
A search is instituted. Venturing into the shrubbery, Constance discovers an outrageously handsome aristocrat crouched beside Glynis’ lifeless form. Unsurprisingly, Constance leaps to the obvious conclusion.
Luckily, once the gentleman explains that he’d only just arrived, commonsense reasserts itself. More, as matters unfold and she and Carradale have to battle to get Glynis’ death properly investigated, Constance discovers Alaric to be a worthy ally.
Yet even after Inspector Stokes of Scotland Yard arrives and takes charge of the case, along with his consultants, the Honorable Barnaby Adair and his wife, Penelope, the murderer’s identity remains shrouded in mystery, and learning why Glynis was killed—all in the few days before the house party’s guests will insist on leaving—tests the resolve of all concerned. Flung into each other’s company, fiercely independent though Constance is, unsusceptible though Alaric is, neither can deny the connection that grows between them.
Then Constance vanishes.
Can Alaric unearth the one fact that will point to the murderer before the villain rips from the world the lady Alaric now craves for his own?
- The Murder at Mandeville Hall
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Read by Napoleon Ryan
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Release Date: 8/28/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Confounding Case of the Carisbrook Emeralds
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Read by Napoleon Ryan
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Release Date: 6/14/18
Formats: Digital Audy
A young lady accused of theft and the gentleman who elects himself her champion enlist the aid of Stokes, Barnaby, Penelope, and friends in pursuing justice, only for the investigators to find themselves tangled in a web of interfamily tensions and secrets.
When Miss Cara Di Abaccio is accused of stealing the Carisbrook emeralds by the infamously arrogant Lady Carisbrook and marched out of her guardian’s house by Scotland Yard’s finest, Barnaby Adair’s cousin Hugo Adair takes umbrage and descends on Scotland Yard, breathing fire in Cara’s defense.
Hugo discovers Inspector Stokes has been assigned to the case, and after surveying the evidence thus far, Stokes calls in his big guns when it comes to dealing with investigations in the ton—namely, the Honorable Barnaby Adair and his wife, Penelope.
Soon convinced of Cara’s innocence and, given Hugo’s apparent tendre for Cara needing to clear her name, Penelope and Barnaby join Stokes and his team in pursuing the emeralds and, most importantly, who stole them.
But the deeper our intrepid investigators delve into the Carisbrook household, the more certain they become that all is not as it should be. Lady Carisbrook is a harpy, Franklin Carisbrook is secretive, Julia Carisbrook is overly timid, and Lord Carisbrook, otherwise a genial and honorable gentleman, holds himself distant from his family. More, his lordship attempts to shut down the investigation. And Stokes, Barnaby, and Penelope are convinced the Carisbrooks’ staff are not sharing all they know.
Meanwhile, appointed Cara’s watchdog until the mystery is resolved, Hugo, fascinated by Cara as he’s been with no other, seeks to entertain and amuse her … and, increasingly intently, to discover the way to her heart. Consequently, Penelope finds herself juggling the attractions of the investigation and the Adair family’s demands for her to actively encourage the budding romance.
What would her mentors advise? On that, Penelope is crystal clear.
Aided by Griselda, Violet, and Montague and calling on contacts in business, the underworld, and ton society, Penelope, Barnaby, and Stokes battle to peel back each layer of subterfuge and, step by step, eliminate the innocent and follow the emeralds’ trail …
Yet instead of becoming clearer, the veils and shadows shrouding the Carisbrooks only grow murkier … until, abruptly, our investigators find themselves facing an inexplicable death, with a potential murderer whose conviction would shake society to its back teeth.
- The Confounding Case of the Carisbrook Emeralds
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Read by Napoleon Ryan
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Release Date: 6/14/18
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Goose
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/19/17
Formats: Digital Audy
Three years after being widowed, Lady Therese Osbaldestone finally settles into her dower property of Hartington Manor in the village of Little Moseley in Hampshire. She is in two minds as to whether life in the small village will generate sufficient interest to keep her amused over the months when she is not in London or visiting friends around the country. But she will see.
It’s December, 1810, and Therese is looking forward to her usual Christmas with her family at Winslow Abbey, her youngest daughter, Celia’s home. But then a carriage rolls up and disgorges Celia’s three oldest children. Their father has contracted mumps, and their mother has sent the three—Jamie, George, and Lottie—to spend this Christmas with their grandmama in Little Moseley.
Therese has never had to manage small children, not even her own. She assumes the children will keep themselves amused, but quickly learns that what amuses three inquisitive, curious, and confident youngsters isn’t compatible with village peace. Just when it seems she will have to set her mind to inventing something, she and the children learn that with only twelve days to go before Christmas, the village flock of geese has vanished.
Every household in the village is now missing the centerpiece of their Christmas feast. But how could an entire flock go missing without the slightest trace? The children are as mystified and as curious as Therese—and she seizes on the mystery as the perfect distraction for the three children as well as herself.
But while searching for the geese, she and her three helpers stumble on two locals who, it is clear, are in dire need of assistance in sorting out their lives. Never one to shy from a little matchmaking, Therese undertakes to guide Miss Eugenia Fitzgibbon into the arms of the determinedly reclusive Lord Longfellow. To her considerable surprise, she discovers that her grandchildren have inherited skills and talents from both her late husband as well as herself. And with all the customary village events held in the lead up to Christmas, she and her three helpers have opportunities galore in which to subtly nudge and steer.
Yet while their matchmaking appears to be succeeding, neither they nor anyone else have found so much as a feather from the village’s geese. Larceny is ruled out; a flock of that size could not have been taken from the area without someone noticing. So where could the birds be? And with the days passing and Christmas inexorably approaching, will they find the blasted birds in time?
- Lady Osbaldestone’s Christmas Goose
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Read by Helen Lloyd
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Release Date: 10/19/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Greatest Challenge of Them All
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 7/13/17
Formats: Digital Audy
Lord Drake Varisey, Marquess of Winchelsea, eldest son and heir of the Duke of Wolverstone, must foil a plot that threatens to shake the foundations of the realm, but the very last lady—nay, noblewoman—he needs assisting him is Lady Louisa Cynster, known throughout the ton as Lady Wild.
For the past nine years, Louisa has suspected that Drake might well be the ideal husband for her, even though he’s assiduous in avoiding her. But she’s now twenty-seven and enough is enough. She believes propinquity will reveal exactly what it is that lies between them, and what better opportunity to work closely with Drake than this latest mission with which he patently needs her help?
Unable to deny Louisa’s abilities or the value of her assistance and powerless to curb her willfulness, Drake is forced to grit his teeth and acquiesce to her sticking by his side if only to ensure her safety. But all too soon, his true feelings for her surface sufficiently for her, perspicacious as she is, to see through his denials, which she then interprets as a challenge.
Even while they gather information, tease out clues, increasingly desperately search for the missing gunpowder, and doggedly pursue the killer responsible for an ever-escalating tally of dead men, thrown together through the hours, he and she learn to trust and appreciate each other. And fed by constant exposure—and blatantly encouraged by her—their desires and hungers swell and grow…
As the barriers between them crumble, the attraction he has for so long restrained burgeons and balloons, until goaded by her near-death, it erupts, and he seizes her—only to be seized in return.
Linked irrevocably and with their wills melded and merged by passion’s fire, with time running out and the evil mastermind’s deadline looming, together, they focus their considerable talents and make one last push to learn the critical truths—to find the gunpowder and unmask the villain behind this far-reaching plot.
Only to discover that they have significantly less time than they’d thought, that the villain’s target is even more crucially fundamental to the realm than they’d imagined, and it’s going to take all that Drake is—as well as all that Louisa as Lady Wild can bring to bear—to defuse the threat, capture the villain, and make all safe and right again.
As they race to the ultimate confrontation, the future of all England rests on their shoulders.
- The Greatest Challenge of Them All
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 7/13/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- An Irresistible Alliance
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 5/11/17
Formats: Digital Audy
With his older brother’s betrothal announced, Lord Michael Cynster is freed of all familial expectations. But the allure of his previous hedonistic pursuits has paled. Then he learns of the mission his brother and his fiancée have been assisting with and volunteers to help by hunting down a hoard of gunpowder now stashed somewhere in London.
Michael’s quest leads him to the Hendon Shipping Company, where his sole source of information is the fetchingly attractive Miss Cleome Hendon. When Michael asks about the carters who transported the gunpowder, Cleo offers him a bargain: she will lead him to the carters he seeks, but only if he agrees to include her as an equal partner in the mission.
But their investigation proves dangerous, and the further they go in tracing the gunpowder, the more deaths they uncover. Soon Michael and Cleo find themselves tangled in a fight for their lives—one that forces them to face what has grown between them, to seize and defend what they both see as their path to the greatest adventure of all: a shared life, a shared future, a shared love.
- An Irresistible Alliance
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 5/11/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Lady by His Side
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/09/17
Formats: Digital Audy
Sebastian Cynster knows time is running out. If he doesn’t choose a wife soon, his female relatives will line up to assist him. Yet the current debutantes do not appeal. Where is he to find the right lady to be his marchioness? Then Drake Varisey, eldest son of the Duke of Wolverstone, asks for Sebastian’s aid.
Having assumed his father’s mantle in protecting queen and country, Drake must go to Ireland in pursuit of a dangerous plot. But he’s received an urgent missive from Lord Ennis, an Irish peer—Ennis has heard something Drake needs to know and insists Drake attend an upcoming house party at his Kent estate so he can reveal his information face-to-face.
Sebastian has assisted Drake before and, long ago, had a liaison with Lady Ennis. Drake insists Sebastian is just the man to be his surrogate at the house party—the guests will imagine all manner of possibilities and be blind to Sebastian’s true purpose.
Unsurprisingly, Sebastian is reluctant, but Drake’s need is real. And with only more debutantes on his horizon, Sebastian allows himself to be persuaded.
His first task is to inveigle Antonia Rawlings, a lady he has known all her life, to include him as her escort to the house party. Although he’s seen little of Antonia in recent years, Sebastian is confident of gaining her support.
Eldest daughter of the Earl of Chillingworth, Antonia has abandoned the search for a husband and plans to use the week of the house party to decide what to do with her life. There has to be some purpose, some role, she can claim for her own.
Consequently, on hearing Sebastian’s request and an explanation of what lies behind it, she seizes on the call to action. Suppressing her senses’ idiotic reaction to Sebastian’s nearness, she agrees to be his partner in intrigue.
But while joining the house party proves easy, the gathering is thrown into chaos when Lord Ennis is murdered—just before he was to speak with Sebastian. Worse, Ennis’s last words, gasped to Sebastian, are “Gunpowder. Here.”
Gunpowder? And here? Where?
With a killer continuing to stalk the halls, side by side, Sebastian and Antonia search for answers, and all the while, the childhood connection that has always existed between them strengthens and blooms into something so much more.
- The Lady by His Side
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 3/09/17
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Lord of the Privateers
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 12/27/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Can true love die? Or, neglected, does it lie dormant until the object of true desire is again within reach? Denied, does passion smolder, like embers waiting for the right conditions to flare into an all-consuming conflagration?
New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens delivers the thrilling conclusion to the acclaimed Adventurers Quartet series, a passionate Regency-era drama played out on the high seas and in the sweltering heat of tropical jungles, reaching a scintillating climax in the glittering ballrooms of Mayfair.
The eldest of the Frobisher brothers and widely known as the lord of the privateers, Royd Frobisher expects to execute the final leg of the rescue mission his brothers have been pursuing. What he does not expect is to be pressured into taking with him his emotional nemesis, childhood sweetheart, ex-handfasted bride, and current business partner, Isobel Carmichael. But is it Isobel doing the pressuring or his own restless, unfulfilled psyche?
Isobel, resolute, determined, and an all but unstoppable force of nature, has a mission of her own: find her cousin Katherine and bring her safely home. And if, along the way, she can rid herself of the lingering dreams of a life with Royd that still haunt her, then well and good.
Neither expects the shock that awaits as they set sail aboard Royd’s ship, much less the new horizons that open before them as they make port in London and then embark on a full-scale rescue and assault on the mining compound buried in the jungle.
Yet even with the support of his brothers and their ladies and all the rescued ex-captives, Royd and Isobel discover that freeing the captives is only half the battle. In order to identify and convict the backers behind the illicit enterprise—and thus protect the government from catastrophic destabilization—they must return to the ballrooms of the haut ton and, with the help of a small army of supporters, hunt the villains on their home ground.
But having found each other again, having glimpsed the heaven that could be theirs again, how much are they willing to risk in the name of duty?
Learn the answer and revel in the action, drama, intrigue, and passion as the Frobishers—with help from Wolverstone, the Cynsters, and many familiar others—steer the adventure to a glorious end.
- Lord of the Privateers
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 12/27/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Truth about Love
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 8/23/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Bold, passionate, and possessive, the Cynster men let nothing stand in their way when it comes to claiming the women of their hearts.
Gerrard Debbington, Vane Cynster’s brother-in-law, is one of London’s most eligible gentlemen. Uninterested in marriage, his driving passion is to paint the fabled gardens of Lord Tregonning’s Hellebore Hall, an opportunity that is now at hand—if Gerrard agrees to create an honest portrait of Tregonning’s daughter as well.
Gerrard chafes at wasting his talents on some simpering miss, only to discover that Jacqueline Tregonning stirs him as no other. Certainly, she is beautiful, but it is her passionate nature that strikes sparks with Gerrard’s own, igniting desire, sweeping them into each other’s arms, and convincing Gerrard that he has found his ideal soul mate—the lady he must have as his wife.
But something is horribly wrong at Hellebore Hall. Evil and lies are reaching out to ensnare Jacqueline, and Gerrard will have to move heaven and earth to protect the remarkable woman who, for him, personifies the truth about love.
- The Truth about Love
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 8/23/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Daredevil Snared
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 6/28/16
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author of the beloved Cynster novels, Stephanie Laurens takes you on a fresh journey with the Adventurers Quartet, a daring Regency-era adventure laced with mystery, tropical heat and passionate romance.
He has something to prove
Captain Caleb Frobisher, hedonistic youngest son of a seafaring dynasty, wants to be taken seriously. Seizing the next leg of the covert mission his brothers are pursuing, he acts decisively and effectively in securing the mission’s objectives. But responsibility has taken root, and he remains in the jungle to ensure the mission’s ultimate goal.
She will risk everything
Katherine Fortescue fled a life of poverty and came to Freetown as a governess, only to be kidnapped and forced to oversee the child workforce at a mine. Guarded by well-armed, well-trained mercenaries, the captives have lost all hope of escape. Then Katherine meets a handsome man—a captain—and he brings the sweet promise of rescue.
Together they will face the future
The sadistic mercenary who runs the mine has other plans, but Caleb’s true strength lies in extracting advantage from adversity, and through the clashes that follow, he becomes the leader he was always destined to be. The sort of man Katherine can trust—with her body, with her life, and with her love.
Race with the Adventurers Quartet as these passionate daredevils lead the way to the stunning and dramatic conclusion.
- The Daredevil Snared
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 6/28/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- A Buccaneer at Heart
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 4/26/16
Formats: Digital Audy
Unexpected love—plus passion, intrigue, and danger—challenge our hero to embrace his true nature.
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens continues the Adventurers Quartet, a riveting blend of Regency-era high seas adventure, a mystery shrouded in the heat of tropical jungles, and the passionate romances of four couples and their unexpected journeys into love.
After a decade of captaining diplomatic voyages for Frobisher Shipping alongside covert missions for the Crown, Captain Robert Frobisher decides that establishing a home—with hearth and wife—should be his next challenge. But an unexpected mission intervenes. Although Robert sees himself as a conservative businessman-cum-diplomat and this mission is far from his usual sphere, it nevertheless falls within the scope of his abilities. As matters are urgent, he agrees to depart for West Africa forthwith. To Robert, his way forward is clear: get to Freetown, determine the location of a slavers’ camp, return to London with the information, and then proceed to find himself a wife.
Already in Freetown, Miss Aileen Hopkins is set on finding her younger brother Will, a naval lieutenant who has mysteriously disappeared. Determined and resolute, Aileen is not about to allow anyone to turn her from her path. But all too quickly, that path grows dark and dangerous. And then Robert Frobisher appears and attempts to divert her in more ways than one.
Accustomed to managing diplomats and bureaucrats, Robert discovers that manipulating a twenty-seven-year-old spinster lies outside his area of expertise. Prodded by an insistent need to protect Aileen, he realizes that joining forces with her is the surest path to meeting all the challenges before him—completing his mission, keeping her safe, and securing the woman he wants as his wife.
But the villains strike and disrupt their careful plans—leaving Robert and Aileen no choice but to attempt a last throw of the dice to complete his mission and further her brother’s rescue. Compelled to protect those weaker than themselves and bring retribution to a heartless enemy, they plunge into the jungle with only their talents and inner strengths to aid them—and with the courage of their hearts as their guide.
The first voyage is one of exploration, the second one of discovery. The third journey brings maturity, while the fourth is a voyage of second chances. Continue the journey and follow the adventure, the mystery, and the romances to the cataclysmic end.
- A Buccaneer at Heart
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 4/26/16
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Lady’s Command
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 12/29/15
Formats: Digital Audy
#1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens presents the first book in the Adventurers Quartet, a riveting blend of Regency-era high-seas adventure.
How does marriage work? If convention is set aside and is no longer there to guide … what then?
The instant Captain Declan Frobisher lays eyes on Lady Edwina Delbraith, he knows she’s the woman he wants as his wife. The scion of a seafaring dynasty accustomed to success, he discovers that wooing Edwina is surprisingly straightforward—not least because she makes it plain that she wants him as much as he wants her.
Declan’s vision of marriage is of a gently-reared wife to grace his arm, manage his household, and bear his children. He assumes that the household, children, and wife will remain safely in England while he continues his life as an explorer sailing the high seas, and he gets his wish—up to a point. He and Edwina are wed, but the rest of his vision doesn’t turn out the way he expected.
Even before the knot is tied, Edwina shatters the illusion that her character is as delicate, ethereal, and fragile as her appearance suggests. Far from adhering to orthodox mores, she and her ducal family are even more unconventional than the Frobishers. Beneath her fairy-princess exterior, Edwina possesses a spine of steel—one that might bend but will never break. So mere weeks into their honeymoon, when Declan is required to sail to West Africa, Edwina knows she must accompany him.
A secret mission with unknown villains flings unexpected dangers into their path as Declan and Edwina discover that making an unconventional marriage work requires something they both possess: bold and adventurous hearts.
- The Lady’s Command
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Read by Steve West
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Release Date: 12/29/15
Formats: Digital Audy
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- The Tempting of Thomas Carrick
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 2/24/15
Formats: Digital Audy
What happens when fate, love, and passion collide?
The #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephanie Laurens returns to Scotland with a tale of two lovers irrevocably linked by destiny and passion.
Thomas Carrick is a gentleman driven to control all aspects of his life. As the wealthy owner of Carrick Enterprises, located in bustling Glasgow, he is one of that city's most eligible bachelors and fully intends to select an appropriate wife from the many young ladies paraded before him. He wants to take that necessary next step along his self-determined path, yet no young lady captures his eye, much less his attention—not in the way Lucilla Cynster does, even though she lives miles away.
For over two years, Thomas has avoided his clan's estate because it borders Lucilla's home, but disturbing reports from his clansmen force him to return to the countryside—only to discover that his uncle, the laird, is ailing, a clan family is desperately ill, and the clan healer is unconscious and dying. Duty to the clan leaves Thomas no choice but to seek help from the last woman he wants to face.
Strong-willed and passionate, Lucilla has been waiting—increasingly impatient—for Thomas to return and claim his rightful place by her side. She knows he is hers—her fated lover, husband, protector, and mate. He is the only man for her, just as she is his one true love. And, at last, he's back. Even though his returning wasn't on her account, Lucilla is willing to seize whatever chance fate hands her.
Thomas can never forget Lucilla, much less the connection that seethes between them, but to marry her would mean embracing a life he's adamant he does not want.
Lucilla sees that Thomas has yet to accept the inevitability of their union. But how can he ignore a bond such as theirs—one so much stronger than reason? Despite several unnerving attacks mounted against them, despite the uncertainty racking his clan, Lucilla remains as determined as only a Cynster can be to fight for the future she knows can be theirs. And while she cannot command him, she has powerful enticements she's willing to wield in the cause of tempting Thomas Carrick.
- The Tempting of Thomas Carrick
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Read by Matthew Brenher
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Release Date: 2/24/15
Formats: Digital Audy
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- Captain Jack’s Woman
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Read by McAllister Lee
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Release Date: 1/01/14
Formats: Digital Audy
They meet in a clash of swords, drenched in the moonlight of Britain's rugged eastern coast: Captain Jack, his handsome features etched in silver and shadow, his powerful physique compelling "Kit" Cranmer to surrender. He is her dream lover come vividly alive, and his command of the smuggling gang is absolute. His all-knowing gaze penetrates her disguise as the male leader of a rival gang with frightening ease, and his "punishment" with kisses leaves her maidenly modesty in tatters. Suddenly Kit finds she's only too delighted to explore with Jack the pleasures conventionally reserved for married ladies—little knowing what dangerous forces she's unleashing, for even as Kit revels in midnight gallops and cottage rendezvous, Captain Jack is laying a gentle trap that will curtail her freedom and bind her to him with a ring, a promise—and ties of devotion and desire.
- Captain Jack’s Woman
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Read by McAllister Lee
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Release Date: 1/01/14
Formats: Digital Audy