Mary Balogh's Titles

A MASKED DECEPTION

Margaret, the new Countess of Brampton, is a quiet, demure, dutiful wife by day, an alluring, masked charmer by night. Will Richard, Earl of Brampton, ever discover that the wife he is growing to love and the seductress he finds almost impossible to resist are one and the same?

THE DOUBLE WAGER

Tomboyish Henrietta Tallant recklessly wagers her beloved horse that she will entice the toplofty Marius Devron, Duke of Eversleigh, into proposing marriage within six weeks. But unknown to her, the duke, hitherto a confirmed bachelor, has also made a wager--that he will choose a bride and marry within the month.

A CHANCE ENCOUNTER

After Elizabeth Rossiter had suffered a broken heart and a ruined reputation, she left London behind and took a position as companion to the daughter of a wealthy country family. But now, to her horror, the one man in the world she hoped never to see again--Robert Denning, Marquess of Hetherington--has appeared in the neighborhood.

RED ROSE

The Earl of Raymore is as determined to marry off his newly acquired ward, Rosalind Dacey, as she is never to marry at all. They hate each other with a passion until they discover a bond in their shared love of music.

THE TRYSTING PLACE

Felicity, Lady Wren, made a marriage of duty once. Now she is a widow and is determined to make a brilliant match. She enlists the aid of Tom Russell, a neighbor and old friend, without realizing that perhaps it is a love match she should aim for this time.

THE FIRST SNOWDROP

When Viscount Merrick inadvertently compromises plain Anne Parrish, he is obliged to marry her. But he has no intention of living with her or even seeing her again after settling her on his country estate. When he arrives at his grandparents' home more than a year later for the occasion of their fiftieth wedding anniversary, he is enchanted by his first sight of a lovely stranger. Then he realizes that she is his wife....

THE WOOD NYMPH

Heartbroken at the loss of Elizabeth in A Chance Encounter, William Mainwaring retreats to his country estate and meets the unworldly Helen Wade in the woods one day. She soothes his soul until he flees in panic after seducing her. He then faces the almost impossible task of redeeming himself in her eyes.

THE CONSTANT HEART

Rebecca Shaw gave her heart once and had it broken. Now she is betrothed to the Reverend Philip Everett and is looking forward to a quiet, worthy life. But Christopher Sinclair is back--and he is free of the marriage that gave him fabulous wealth at the price of leaving Rebecca behind.

GENTLE CONQUEST

The arranged marriage between beautiful Georgiana Burton and the handsome, shy, gentle Earl of Chartleigh does not begin well and rapidly deteriorates. Georgiana decides to take fate in her own hands by devising a bold scheme to seduce her own husband.

SECRTES OF THE HEART

The marriage of Sarah Fifield and the Duke of Cranwell was a love match--until on their wedding night Sarah was forced to reveal the secret of her past. Amid great public scandal their marriage ended almost before it began. But now, several years later, they meet again in Bath.

AN UNACCEPTABLE OFFER

Jane Matthews has no great hope of contracting a dazzling match--she is not wealthy or socially prominent or beautiful. When Viscount Fairfax unexpectedly proposes marriage to her, it seems like a dream come true. Not only is he titled, wealthy, and handsome, but also she has been half in love with him for a long time. Yet the proposal is such that she feels compelled to say no. Fairfax has to learn to make her a far more acceptable offer before either of them can find true happiness.

THE UNGRATEFUL GOVERNESS

When the Earl of Rutherford tries to seduce Jessica Moore in her employer's library one night, she is blamed and loses her job. Rutherford offers her a position as his mistress, but instead Jessica enlists the aid of his own grandmother and sets out to teach him a lesson.

DARING MASQUERADE

When Nicholas Seyton plays highwayman in an attempt to regain his birthright, he kidnaps the wrong woman. When he devises another scheme under the alias of Sir Harry Tate, he encounters the same woman. Kate Mannering is attracted and infuriated by both men--without realizing that they are one and the same.

A GIFT OF DAISIES

Lady Rachel Palmer is beautiful, wealthy, and frivolous--as well as betrothed to someone else--when she meets and falls in love with the high-minded Reverend David Gower, who is devoted to a life of service and poverty. It seems like an impossible match, especially when David is so set against it.

THE OBEDIENT BRIDE

When Arabella Wilson makes a marriage of duty with Viscount Astor, she vows to be a docile, obedient wife. However, all her resolves are thrown to the winds when she discovers that her husband keeps a mistress. She becomes a force he must reckon with.

LADY WITH A BLACK UMBRELLA

Daisy Morrison, staying at an inn one night on her way to London, sees a gentleman being attacked by ruffians in the yard below. She charges down in her nightgown, wielding her father's large black umbrella, and routs Viscount Kincade's assailants. She then--after the viscount's departure--pays his bill and the chambermaid with whom he had spent the night. Kincade is not amused when he learns the truth! The book is a farce.

THE GILDED WEB

When the Earl of Amberley discovers Alexandra Purnell trussed up on a bed in his London town house, he knows he must marry her even though the fault lies in one of his younger brother's pranks gone awry. But Alexandra is not so easily persuaded--even after she has agreed to a temporary betrothal, and even after Amberley discovers that his heart is lost.

A PROMISE OF SPRING

When Sir Perry Lampman's dearest friend is killed in an act of brave self-sacrifice, he leaves behind a sister who will be destitute without him. Although he does not love Grace Howard, Perry offers her marriage. Even when she confesses part of her scandalous past to him, he continues to press his offer. And so begins a marriage that seems doomed to unhappiness. The fact that Grace is ten years older than Perry does not help the situation.

WEB OF LOVE

Soon after Ellen Simpson loses her beloved husband in the Battle of Waterloo she finds consolation in the arms of his friend, Dominic, Lord Eden. Consumed with guilt afterward, she tries determinedly to deny her love for him. Can he persuade her to change her mind?

THE INCURABLE MATCHMAKER

Diana Ingram is as virtuous as she is beautiful. The Marquess of Kenwood is handsome and charming--and a notorious libertine. There can be no question of any connection between the two--until Kenwood's envious friends and acquaintances goad him into wagering that he can seduce Mrs. Ingram within a month.

DEVIL'S WEB

Lady Madeline Raine and James Purnell had been both attracted to each other and repelled by each other in The Gilded Web and Web of Love. Finally James left for Canada, where he worked in the fur trade. Madeline, left alone, convinced herself that she was over him, that she liked her life just as it was. But now James is back and Madeline has to face the fact that she has been deceiving herself.

AN UNLIKELY DUCHESS

Josephine Middleton, faced with an arranged marriage to the Duke of Mitford, who has a reputation as a libertine, decides to run away to her aunt's. However, on the journey there she is rescued from an attacker by Mr. Paul Villiers. He quickly becomes her unwilling accomplice as she sets off in pursuit of the villain and her lost jewels. What she does not realize is that her hero's full name is Paul Villiers, Duke of Mitford. The book is a farce.

A CERTAIN MAGIC

Alice Penhallow and Piers Westhaven had always considered themselves to be best friends--that was until Piers called upon Alice's help and advice in his decision to marry a much younger woman. By the time they realize that it is love that is between them, it might just be too late.

SNOW ANGEL

When the widowed Rosamund Hunter and the Earl of Wetherby are stranded together in a snow storm, they indulge in a brief affair that neither expects to affect their future. But when they meet unexpectedly again, the earl is betrothed to Rosamund's niece and the affair comes back to haunt them both.

THE SECRET PEARL

The first encounter between Fleur Hamilton and the Duke of Ridgeway outside the Drury Lane Theater one night is ugly and sordid. She is a prostitute, he her customer. When they meet again, she is in his own home as governess to his daughter. His wife, the duchess, lives there too. That love should grow between Fleur and the duke seems improbable. That their love can have a future seems quite impossible.

THE IDEAL WIFE

Just after the Earl of Severn has vowed that if the plainest, dullest, most ordinary female in England were to be set before him he would marry her without further ado, Abigail Gardiner calls on him at his town house. The strong-minded Abigail is a distant cousin of the earl's and has been driven, much against the grain, to seek his aid. To do so, she has decided to dress as plainly as possible and to act the part of a dull brown mouse. The inevitable inevitably happens!

CHRISTMAS BEAU

Judith Easton had once jilted the Marquess of Denbigh for another man. Now she is widowed with two children, and the marquess is pursuing her again. He invites her to a Christmas house party in the country, his motive being revenge. But love--and the spirit of Christmas--conspire to spoil his plans.

A COUNTERFEIT BETROTHAL

The Earl and Countess of Clifton parted bitterly and have lived separately for many years. But now their daughter has contracted an ineligible engagement, and they are brought together in a mutual attempt to save her from unhappiness. What they do not realize is that Sophia has staged the counterfeit betrothal with Lord Francis Sutton with the deliberate purpose of reconciling her parents.

THE NOTORIOUS RAKE

Lord Edmond Waite is a libertine and rake; Mary, Lady Mornington, is something of a bluestocking. They have nothing whatsoever in common except for one shared night of passion during a severe thunderstorm. But Edmond cannot forget Mary, and soon she begins to learn that he is not quite the sleazy villain she had thought him.

BEYOND THE SUNRISE

When they first meet in England, Joana and Robert fall in love. But they are very young, and the differences in their social stations soon force them apart. When they meet again eleven years later in Portugal during the Peninsular Wars, they are both spies, apparently on opposite sides. In fact Joana is a double agent--but Robert's very life depends upon her successfully deceiving him even as passion flares between them.

A CHRISTMAS PROMISE

When the Earl of Falloden and Eleanor Transome meet, it is hate at first sight. For the earl is being forced by penury into marriage with this coal merchant's daughter, and Eleanor is being forced by her love for her dying father. The marriage begins with all the passion of intense dislike. But when Eleanor plots revenge by inviting all her loud and vulgar relatives to their home for Christmas, she has really plotted her own salvation and her husband's. For Christmas and the merry Transomes weave an irresistible spell about the unhappy couple.

DECEIVED

Lady Elizabeth Ward, about to step inside the church of St. George's, Hanover Square, for her own wedding, is suddenly whisked away by a masked horseman. Some hours later, in an escape attempt, she jumps from a carriage, bangs her head, and wakes up to the sight of the handsome Earl of Trevelyan, who claims to be her husband. She does not recognize him as her kidnapper--she is suffering from amnesia.

A PRECIOUS JEWEL

Sir Gerald Stapleton first becomes one of Priscilla Wentworth's regular clients at a high-class brothel. Then he makes her his mistress. There would seem to be no way in which their relationship can develop into a love strong enough to overcome all the social barriers that oppose them. But somehow they find the way.

COURTING JULIA

When Julia Maynard's step-grandfather dies, he leaves Julia nothing even though she has lived with him all her life and tended him in his last illness and loved him--and even though he appeared to adore her. But he does leave his precious unentailed home, Primrose Park, to whichever of his five nephews can win her hand within a month of the reading of the will. Four of them proceed to court Julia. The fifth--the new Earl of Beaconswood--does not. But then, he is the last man she would marry anyway.

DANCING WITH CLARA

Frederick Sullivan goes to Bath to find himself a rich wife in order to save himself from financial ruin. He sets his sights and his considerable charm on the plain and crippled--and enormously wealthy--Clara Danford. When she accepts his proposal, Clara is not for one moment deceived into thinking that he really cares for her. But she chooses to accept him anyway because her life has been almost devoid of beauty and Freddie is the most beautiful man she has ever seen.

TANGLED

Rebecca, Lady Cardwell, is inconsolable after her beloved husband is killed during the Crimean War. She is bitterly resentful that it is his foster brother, David, who has survived and come home. Then David asks her to marry him and, despairing of any future happiness, she accepts. But the tangled web of past secrets and future complications brings her alive again--to both pain and ecstasy.

TEMPTING HARRIET

Once, when she was a mere lady's companion, Harriet Pope had spurned the attempted seduction of the Duke of Tenby. Now, six years later, she is the wealthy, titled widow of an older man, and she is the one who sets out to seduce the duke. Yet when she succeeds, it is to the discovery that an affair is not what she wants after all. An affair, though, seems to be all Tenby can offer.

DARK ANGEL

Jennifer Winwood, newly arrived in London and betrothed to a handsome man she adores, is bursting with happy expectations. But she gets caught in the middle of a nasty feud between her fian and the Earl of Thornhill when each decides to use her to hurt the other. When the dust settles, she finds herself forced to marry the earl in a union that seems to have nothing but bitterness and despair to offer both of them.

CHRISTMAS BELLE

Jack Frazer arrives at his grandparents' home for Christmas. He has resigned himself to announcing his betrothal to the young lady his grandmother has picked out for him. The family has always entertained itself with amateur theatricals, but this year his grandmother has an unexpected treat for them--the presence as an honored guest of the famous actress, Isabella Gele, Comtesse de Vacheron. The last time Jack saw her was nine years before when he had loved her passionately. But she had been a struggling actress then and his mistress--and she had abandoned him without a word of farewell.

LONGING

Si Jones is the illegitimate daughter of a wealthy English mine owner and a Welsh coalminer's daughter. She was educated in a fine English school. But she turned her back on her English heritage, married a coalminer, and went to work in the mines herself after his death. Now she is engaged to another Welshman, leader of the revolutionary movement of the workers against the tyranny of the English owners. But one of those owners, the Marquess of Craille, has just inherited and come to live in Wales. And he seems sympathetic to his workers. When Si becomes his daughter's governess, she gets caught very firmly between two worlds--and two loves.

LORD CAREW'S BRIDE

Love has not been kind to Samantha Newman, but friendship has. When her emotions are rubbed raw by the reappearance in her life of a villain who had broken her heart some years before, she turns with gratitude to the kindly Hartley Wade, with whom she had developed a warm friendship when she mistook him for a gardener during a visit to the country. She accepts his proposal, expecting a quiet, safe, undemanding marriage. She does not know that Hartley is the Marquess of Carew and that he loves her passionately--and believes she returns his feelings.

HEARTLESS

"Life has taught Lucas Kendrick, Duke of Harndon, that a heart is a decided liability. Betrayed by his brother, rejected by his fiane, Luke fled to Paris, where he became the most sought-after bachelor in fashionable society. Ten years later, fate has brought him back home, to the rescue of the very people who had once shunned him. Luke is amused by the advice that a wife will make his takeover of both the title and the family estate smoother, but amusement turns to desire once he sets eyes upon Lady Anna Marlowe. Unbeknownst to Luke, Anna is also no stranger to pain, but her suffering can't be so easily overcome, not when her tormentor stalks her to the very doors of Bowden Abbey. Luke and Anna, each made fragile by the past, must learn to trust both each other and their love if they are to have any chance for a future together." Publishers Weekly

THE FAMOUS HEROINE

When Lord Francis Kneller first sees Cora Downes, she is tripping over her own feet, shrieking, and laughing rather too loudly. His conclusion is that she is a frightful young lady. When Cora first sees Lord Francis, he is wearing a bright satin turquoise coat with silver and turquoise striped waistcoat and silver knee breeches and copious amounts of lace. She immediately thinks of peacocks. Cora has a habit of getting herself into dreadful scrapes, and Lord Francis always seems to be close enough to get her out of them--at the cost of compromising her once too often. Soon this ill-assorted pair is forced into a marriage neither of them has sought. The book is a farce.

TRULY

When they were children, Geraint Penderyn and Marged Evans were close friends. But years have passed since then. Geraint is now the Earl of Wyvern and Marged hates him more than any other man on earth. She blames him for her husband's death, and both she and all the other inhabitants of the Welsh village where she lives blame him for oppressing his people. Geraint has to devise some scheme to convince his people that really he is on their side. A masked savior, a man dressed as a woman named Rebecca, rides out at night to lead his people in rebellion against the toll gates that are destroying them all. He is a daring and commanding figure, and Marged is soon deeply involved with him, though she has never seen his face. Beneath the disguise he is, of course, her friend-turned-foe, Geraint.

THE PLUMED BONNET

When the Duke of Bridgwater picks up Stephanie Gray in his carriage one day, she is wearing a fuchsia colored cloak and a bright pink, garishly adorned bonnet. He draws his own conclusions about her and listens to her story about being on her way to claim an inheritance with a great deal of amusement. By the time he realizes that she is telling the truth, it is too late--he has compromised her virtue and must marry her.

INDISCREET

When Viscount Rawleigh attends a house party in the country, he plans to amuse himself with a beautiful young widow from a nearby village. He refuses to believe she is unwilling until it is too late. For her part, Catherine Winters has been living quietly in the village for several years, trying to keep a secret that could yet destroy her. She dare not give in to her attraction to the viscount. As her world falls apart, Rawleigh has to try to make amends and win her love at the same time, while Catherine has to face up to her past and take a hand in rebuilding her life once more.

THE TEMPORARY WIFE

The Marquess of Staunton cold-bloodedly advertises for a governess for his non-existent children, chooses the plainest and dullest applicant, and offers her marriage. His only motive is to anger his estranged father, who has chosen a different bride for him. After he has presented her to his family, he plans to establish her somewhere with a great deal of money and never see her again. Charity Duncan agrees to the strange bargain because she is desperate for money to help support her brothers and sisters. But when she meets his family and recognizes the pain behind the estrangement, her warm heart cannot remain aloof. And when Staunton realizes that his temporary wife is in fact neither plain nor dull, his cold heart stirs to new life.

SILENT MELODY

Lady Emily Marlowe has never forgotten Lord Ashley Kendrick, who went to India when she was very young and married someone else there. She is engaged to another man when Ashley returns, widowed and alone and desperately unhappy. Emily's love is revived, but Ashley harbors a deep, dark, dangerous secret, and she can neither hear not speak.

A CHRISTMAS BRIDE

To please his father, Edgar Downes, a wealthy merchant, agrees to choose a well-born bride by Christmas. He picks out a suitable young lady, but then finds himself caught up in an unconsidered passion for a widow his own age. Helena, Lady Stapleton, is hiding a deeply troubled past behind a cool, seductive, cynical exterior. Edgar takes his bride home for Christmas, but all the magic of the season is necessary to bring Helena pardon and peace and to bless their marriage.

UNFORGIVEN

Moira Hayes and the Earl of Haverford share a past that began with love but ended in bitterness when each apparently betrayed the other. Now, eight years later, they meet again, and fate, in the form of a winter storm, rekindles their passion, but not their love. Forced into marriage, they each have to learn to confront and forgive the past so that they can have the chance for a future together.

THEIF OF DREAMS

Cassandra Havelock, Countess of Worthing, is happily looking forward to the independence that will come on her twenty-first birthday. But a mysterious and attractive stranger, claiming to be a dear friend of her late father, makes his appearance at her birthday ball and soon snares her heart. Too late she realizes that she has been duped by a villain. Or is there more to Nigel Wetherby than villainy?

IRRESISTIBLE

The widowed Sophia Armitage has a chance encounter in Hyde Park with three friends she had known during the Peninsular Wars when she was there with her husband. The three men remember her only as a dear comrade, but soon Nathaniel Gascoigne is seeing her in a different light. Sophie, though, harbors a dark secret she can confide to no one--least of all Nathaniel. His friend Eden, Lord Pelham, meanwhile, is engaged in his own volatile, humorous love story with Lavinia Bergland, Nat's prickly ward.

THE LAST WALTZ

Gerard Percy, the new Earl of Wanstead, has recently returned from Canada to take up residence at Thornwood Hall. The only fact that mars his happiness is that the former owner's widow still lives there with her two children. And that widow, Christina, once upon a time jilted Gerard in order to marry his wealthier cousin--and sent him running off, broken hearted, to Canada to seek his fortune.

ONE NIGHT FOR LOVE

Neville Wyatt, Major Lord Newbury, impulsively marries Lily Doyle, the ethereal, untutored daughter of his sergeant in order to save her from danger and then watches her die the next day. Back in England, now the Earl of Kilbourne, Neville is about to marry another woman when Lily herself appears, miraculously restored from the dead. But is it a happy miracle? Can two people from such completely different worlds possibly find happiness together?

MORE THAN A MISTRESS

When Jane Ingleby interrupts a duel in London's Hyde Park, Jocelyn Dudley, Duke of Tresham, gets shot in the leg, and Jane, late for work at a milliner's workshop, loses her job. She is angry enough to demand a new job of Jocelyn, and he is angry enough to give her one--as his nurse. He vows to make her believe that starvation would have been a better option. However, the dangerous duke, whose will no one has ever dared cross, is soon vowing that just once in his life he is going to have the final word in his frequent verbal battles with Jane. And soon too he is offering her a different job--as his mistress.

NO MAN'S MISTRESS

Lord Ferdinand Dudley lives passionately, recklessly. And he is accustomed to getting what he wants...that is, until he appears at the door of Pinewood Manor, attempting to claim his rightful estate, and is met by the bewitching fury of Viola Thornhill. She refuses to cede him the home she calls her own. He refuses to leave. So the contest begins between these two foes to force one to acknowledge the other's claim. Nor will they acknowledge the passion brewing between them. But Viola knows it is a game she cannot afford to lose. Marriage is out of the question and she will be no man's mistress.

A SUMMER TO REMEMBER

A year after being abandoned at the altar during the wedding she had dreamed of all her life, Lauren Edgeworth is in London to spend a quiet couple of months with her aunt, Elizabeth, Duchess of Portfrey, during the latter's confinement. Christopher "Kit" Butler, Viscount Ravensberg, is in London getting into every imaginable wild scrape and fast becoming one of London's most notorious rakehells. But now he has been summoned home in order to become betrothed to a woman chosen by his father, who banished him for life just three years before. Desperate to do things on his own terms, Kit hastily searches for a bride to take home with him, someone his father cannot possibly object to, someone above reproach, someone dull, respectable, prim, and perfect. One of his friends suggests Lauren but then adds that Kit is surely the very last man she would accept for a husband. The challenge proves irresistible, and Kit wagers that he will have wooed and wed Lauren within six weeks...

Novellas:

"Playing House" in A Regency Christmas II, 1990, ISBN 0-451-16791-0

"Golden Rose" in A Regency Valentine, 1991, ISBN 0-451-16890-9

"The Best Christmas Ever" in A Regency Christmas III, 1991, ISBN 0-451-17086-5

"A Waltz Among the Stars" in A Regency Valentine II, 1992, ISBN 0-451-17167-5

"The Treasure Hunt" in A Regency Summer, 1992, ISBN 0-451-17401-1

"The Dark Rider" in Full-Moon Magic, 1992, ISBN 0-451-17457-7

"The Porcelain Madonna" in A Regency Christmas IV, 1992, ISBN 0-451-17341-4

"The Substitute Guest" in Tokens of Love, 1993, ISBN 0-451-17342-2

"The Wrong Door" in Rakes and Rogues, 1993, ISBN 0-451-17639-1

"The North Tower" in Moonlight Lovers, 1993, ISBN 0-451-17722-3

"No Room at the Inn" in A Regency Christmas V, 1993, ISBN 0-451-17723-1

"The Anniversary" in From the Heart, 1994, ISBN 0-451-17854-8

"The Best Gift" in A Regency Christmas VI, 1994, ISBN 0-451-18254-5

"The Forbidden Daffodils" in Blossoms, 1995, ISBN 0-451-18249-9

"Precious Rogue" in Dashing and Dangerous, 1995, ISBN 0-451-40531-5

"The Surprise Party" in A Regency Christmas VII, 1995, ISBN 0-451-18014-3

"Guarded by Angels" in Angel Christmas, 1995, ISBN 0-451-40628-1

"The Betrothal Ball" in Love's Legacy, 1996, ISBN 0-8439-4000-X

"The Heirloom" in Timeswept Brides, 1996, ISBN 0-515-11891-5

"The Wassail Bowl" in A Regency Christmas Feast, 1996, ISBN 0-451-19046-7

"The Bond Street Carolers" in A Regency Christmas Carol, 1997, ISBN 0-451-19387-3

"A Handful of Gold" in The Gifts of Christmas, 1998, ISBN 0-373-83372-5

"Precious Rogue" in Captured Hearts, 1999, ISBN 0-451-40883-7