Midnight Bride: A Novel

Description

In her award-winning historical novel The Bride Finder, bestselling author Susan Carroll bewitched readers with the legend of the St. Leger men--the descendants of a medieval sorcerer haunted by an unnatural past. Now Carroll once again conjures the unforgettable castle by the sea--a place where love is as mysterious and invincible as the family legacy. . . .

Valentine St. Leger is a healer with a wounded heart. Born with the amazing gift to eliminate the suffering of others by taking their pain into his own body, Val's gentle hands cannot change a tormenting truth: he will never marry. According to history, should he defy his destiny and wed, his unfortunate bride would be doomed to an early death. Though he aches for the one woman who knows all his secrets, he cannot return her passion. Until a night of magic transforms Val into a different man, a man with desires he can no longer resist.

Kate Fitzleger has loved Val almost her entire life and is not about to let a foolish superstition ruin her chance for happiness. Venturing into a forbidden room of the St. Leger castle to steal an ancient book of sorcery, she desperately hopes to find a powerful love potion. On All Hallow's Eve, when the spirits of good and evil mingle upon the earth, Kate tempts fate with an unholy spell that goes awry.

When Val awakens, he has no memory of the bizarre events that have changed him--the visit from an old enemy or the return of a lost heirloom that has altered his soul. All he knows is that life is for the living . . . and his fair Kate is ripe for seduction. He will tempt heaven and hell to have her--even if it means he could lose her forever.

Brimming with enchanting characters and stunning atmosphere, Valentine's Bride is a romantic masterpiece that will hold your imagination captive and provide a glimpse of a timeless world found only in dreams or the most treasured love stories.


From the Hardcover edition.

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Setting: Torrecombe, Cornwall, 1770s

Sensuality rating: 7

Hip, hip, hooray! Susan Carroll's Midnight Bride, the third in the St. Leger series, will delight readers with its piquant humor, fiery sensuality, and white-knuckled suspense. Dr. Valentine St. Leger, younger son of Anatole and Madeline St. Leger, is a gifted healer. But his gift, the ability to eradicate his patients' suffering by absorbing it himself, has left Val partially crippled after healing his brother Lance's battle wounds. That matters nothing to Kate Fitzleger, adopted daughter of the St. Leger's bride finder; Kate has loved Val all her life and will do anything--even turn to the dark arts--to make Val return her love and choose her for his bride.

But the St. Leger legend conspires against Val and Kate, promising an untimely death for any woman foolhardy enough to marry into the family. When fate intervenes in the form of a malignant stranger, Val finds himself transformed, ready to risk all--even Kate's life--to slake the passion burning for the mischievous sprite who loves him. Kate, initially thrilled by Val's passionate overtures, begins to question the changes in the man she loves. Could it be just the magic talking? Susan Carroll's suspenseful tale of the supernatural and sexy star-crossed lovers is a page-turner and sure to be another hit. Carroll's fans eagerly await each new offering; expect great things from this gifted storyteller. --Alison Trinkle

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The Huntress: A Novel (Dark Queen)

Description

In a time of intrigue and betrayal, the huntress is on a quest that could jeopardize two empires and two great queens: Catherine de Medici and Elizabeth I.

The year is 1585–and prophecy has foretold the coming of a daughter of the Earth whose powers are so extraordinary they could usurp the very rule of the Dark Queen herself, Catherine de Medici. Dispatched from Brittany to London, Catriona O’Hanlon, known as the Huntress, must find this mysterious young girl and shield her from those who will exploit her mystic abilities, which have the potential to change the course of history.

Catriona’s skill with weaponry is all she has to protect herself and her young charge from spies who snake through the courts of Elizabeth I, the Virgin Queen–including the girl’s own father, whose loyalties are stretched to the breaking point. But Catriona will soon face menacing forces and sinister plots unlike any she has ever encountered.

From Susan Carroll, the celebrated storyteller of historical fiction, The Huntress is an unforgettable portrait of power and passion–and one woman’s courage to risk everything for those she loves.

“Susan Carroll writes sparkling dialogue and exquisite prose.”
–Teresa Medeiros, author of After Midnight

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The Night Drifter: A Novel

Description

The eldest son and heir to Castle Leger, Lance St. Leger is plagued by an infernal restlessness that cannot be appeased, perhaps because the family legacy of strange powers is most pronounced in Lance's own dubious gift. He calls it night drifting--his ability to spirit into the night while his body remains behind. And it is on one wild night that he finds Rosalind, a young, sheltered widow who mistakes Lance's "drifting" soul for the ghost of Sir Lancelot. Lance teases and tempts her, fills her with a yearning her chivalrous phantom knight cannot satisfy. But in this place imbued with both true love and otherworldly magic, a new dire portent vows to come full circle. As a murderous enemy challenges the St. Leger power, Rosalind must tempt magic herself to save her beloved from the cold depths of eternal damnation.

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Setting: Cornish coast of England, 1800s

Sensuality: 7-8

Susan Carroll's newest historical will make a believer out of the most pragmatic soul! Carroll acquaints readers with Lancelot St. Leger, the son of Anatole and Madeline St. Leger--the perfectly matched main characters from her bestselling novel, The Bride Finder. Lance, a cynical soldier just home from battle, is unwilling to shoulder the responsibilities of the family's holdings, which his role as elder son requires. Instead, he focuses his attention on recovering the recently stolen icon of St. Leger power, a magnificent sword called the Bride Finder. Lance's talent for "night drifting"--letting his spirit leave his body to roam free--which he uses to search for the stolen sword, also leads him to Rosalind, a naive young widow who believes him to be the ghost of Lancelot from King Arthur's Round Table. By day, Lance's scandalous reputation and far-from-chivalrous behavior provoke Rosalind, but by night his portrayal of the ghostly gallant Sir Lancelot woos the romantic long hidden inside her. When the St. Leger's Bride Finder declares Rosalind to be Lance's soul mate, the fun begins! Add a meddling ghost, a secret enemy bent on destroying the St. Leger power, a sensuality rating of 7-8, and The Night Drifter becomes a read you won't want to put down. --Alison Trinkle

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The Silver Rose: A Novel

Description

From Brittany’s fog-shrouded forests to the elegant dark heart of Paris’s royal court, one woman must challenge a country’s destiny–and her own dangerous fate.

France, 1585. She is the youngest and most powerful of the “Sisters of Faire Isle,” women known far and wide for their extraordinary mystical abilities. Skilled in healing and able to forecast the future of those around her, Miri Cheney has returned to her ancestral home to take refuge from a land devastated by civil war–and to grieve for her family, driven to exile. But she cannot hide from the formidable new power threatening to seize control of France from the dread “Dark Queen,” Catherine de Medici–a diabolical woman known only as the Silver Rose. Miri has no choice but to turn to the one man she distrusts as much as she desires: Simon Aristide, the charismatic witch-finder who is now himself the hunted, and who has reluctantly made an unholy pact with Catherine. Miri must defy throne and family to save all that she loves most–and command a future greater than she could ever imagine.

Vibrant with stunning historical detail, alive with characters as richly passionate as they are compelling, The Silver Rose is a sweeping, exquisitely wrought tale from a mesmerizing storyteller.

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Twilight of a Queen: A Novel

Description

As war and treachery loom, an ambitious man’s mission threatens to topple two dazzling realms and their formidable rulers: Catherine de Medici, the Dark Queen, and Ariane, the Lady of Faire Isle.

It is 1588, and as the Spanish Armada prepares to besiege England, Paris balances on the brink of revolution. To maintain her grip on the throne and on the dark magic that has become her obsession, Catherine de Medici turns to Louis Xavier, a ruthless corsair who was schooled in the dark arts and has mastered piracy along the Spanish main. But Louis’s basest instincts are held in check by the kindness of Lady Jane Danvers, a British exile whose innate sense of honor is but one facet of her complex and passionate nature.

On Faire Isle, Ariane Cheney, unaware of the escalating threat from the Dark Queen, struggles with the task of protecting the daughters of the earth and their vast store of ancient magical wisdom. Weak and desperate for an advantage, the ailing Catherine makes a devil’s bargain that will cast a shadow over all.

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The Bride Finder

Description

Chosen by the Bride Finder, a man blessed with amazing insight, Madeline Breton has come to Cornwall to meet her new husband, the enigmatic Anatole St. Leger. But her dream of happiness soon diffuses in his overpowering shadow. Anatole knows only too well the legacies that to him have been more curses than gifts. But as Madeline embarks on an odyssey both otherworldly and undeniably real, she and her husband fall hopelessly in love--until she sees a haunting vision of murder and a terrifying enemy emerges to threaten both their lives. . . .

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