Bøker av Christina Dudley

All's fair in love and peace...1774. In the decade-long respite from war with France, the English flooded the Continent. And like a siren, Ancien Régime Paris beckoned, promising elegance, adventure, and love. From kitchens to ballrooms, delight your palate with Georgians in Paris, four clean and sweet romance novellas to be enjoyed in any order.¿¿¿¿He's marooned without a penny. She's in hiding to protect her virtue. As servants in the same Parisian household, can love be found between the schoolroom and the scullery?Charles Ellsworth is a young Englishman on his triumphant Grand Tour when the dissolution of his family fortunes and his own recklessness leave him stranded and in debt. He enters service as a tutor in the household of M. Tremblay, with nothing but his wits and the kindness shown him by an elderly maid to depend on.Pretty Jeanne Martineau played ingenue roles with a traveling theatre company before the manager absconded with the receipts. Now she works as a maid for the rakish M. Tremblay to avoid starvation, but escaping his groping hands requires she don the disguise of a hideous old woman.When Charles glimpses Jeanne without her disguise, he quickly falls for the lovely young woman, but how can she reveal the truth without them losing everything to M. Tremblay's terrible ire and desire?

A wary widow. A dashing gentleman. When their sons cross paths, two lone parents discover love needn't be sought to be found.Winchester, England, 1812. Unexpected widowhood leaves Miranda Ellsworth a wealthy woman in the prime of life, but she is too busy with her son and stepdaughter and too leery of fortune hunters to marry again. So when her boy's schoolmate entangles her with his charmer of a father, she is determined to keep her distance, no matter the unfamiliar emotions which assail her.As a younger man, Colin Wolfe married to please his family. But now that heaven has called his wife onward and his son has gone to school, he intends to enjoy his liberty. The only problem is, his son seems to prefer another family to his own, and Colin can't stop thinking about the quiet woman at the center of it.Avoiding each other proves impossible when Miranda must play chaperone to her stepdaughter and the dean's flirtatious granddaughter, but she refuses to compete with younger women for Colin's attention. Can Colin convince the respected Miranda he has her best interests at heart and that his admiration has grown into far, far more?Miranda at Heart is the 5th book in the beloved Ellsworth Assortment series. Each story can be read on its own or in order.

She craves respectability. He's honorable to a fault. When their hearts harmonize, can they avoid a scandal to form a perfect pairing?Florence Ellsworth reluctantly lives in the shadow of her family's notoriety. Mortified that her widower father is on the hunt for his fourth wife, she accepts an engagement to a staid clergyman in the desperate hope for propriety. But she's unprepared when her sire's newly hired attorney proves to be young, sincere, and handsome.Robert Fairchild feels a bit awkward in society. Aware of how his modest background is perceived, the humble lawyer is surprised by his longings when he gains the confidence of his client's lovely daughter. But with her already betrothed to another, he dares not be dishonorable by confessing his interest and losing her respect.Disturbed by her growing feelings for the charming solicitor, Florence works all the harder to find the appeal in her sober intended husband. Meanwhile Fairchild is inadvertently pulled into a lady's schemes and fears any chance with the object of his affection has been forever lost.Will they find a way out of their tender traps to capture happily ever after?Tempted by Folly is the delightful first book in The Ellsworth Assortment clean Regency romance series. If you like sparkling personalities, witty dialogue, and endearing couples, then you'll adore Christina Dudley's swoonworthy novel.

The only thing standing in the way of her winning Mr. Wright was Mr. Entirely Wrong.Out of all the swains she collected, Miss Lily Ellsworth knew Mr. Gilbert Wright was the one she would choose in the end. Rich, well-connected, dashing, daring, he was exactly the sort of man to turn heads, even if he hadn't much of one himself. Lily didn't mind-a dim husband would be more easily controlled than a clever one. And after seeing how her father chose his several wives, Lily sometimes doubted clever men even existed.There was the new curate of St. Eadburh's, of course, but Mr. Simon Kenner might be altogether too clever for comfort. Where every other gentleman of Lily's acquaintance thinks her an angel, Mr. Kenner shows an alarming tendency to catch her out. And where every other gentleman envies Mr. Wright's favor with her, Mr. Kenner thinks his cousin is making a colossal mistake.Between these two opponents, will either gain the whip hand, or will love defeat them both?¿¿¿The Belle of Winchester is a clean Regency romance and second of The Ellsworth Assortment.¿¿¿

Scandal makes its own rules...Harriet Hapgood has always delighted in arranging the lives of others, while generally doing as she pleased. And after having thwarted her cousin Caroline's engagement the previous summer, what better way to pass a dull winter than in helping Caroline to a new husband? Her cousin sets her sights on the glittering Mr. St. John Rotherwood, so Hetty cheerfully puts her shoulder to the matchmaking wheel.St. John Rotherwood didn't always glitter.A magnificent inheritance has catapulted the erstwhile impoverished Oxford mathematics tutor to the top of London society, where he finds himself eagerly pursued as a matrimonial prize. This apotheosis has not been an unqualified blessing, however. The attention is wearisome, and his formerly humble mother has been transformed by ambition. Is it nostalgia for his university days that draws St. John to Miss Hapgood, sister of his former pupil?Hetty feels the lure of the season's most eligible bachelor, but when an evening's lark leads to scandal, she discovers society has laws as rigorous as any found in mathematics.She could let Mr. Rotherwood rescue her, but if the world breaks her will, will it also break her heart?¿¿¿A Fickle Fortune is a clean, traditional Regency romance and the sixth in the Hapgoods of Bramleigh series, which has been called "sparkling" and "swoon-worthy" by Austenprose and Austenesque Reviews.

An unladylike young lady. A young man with something to prove. Let the games begin.Tomboy Miss Araminta Ellsworth and her dearest friend Aggie were the most backward graduates Mrs. Turcotte's Seminary for Young Ladies ever produced, more interested in batting and bowling than sewing and simpering. How then could Araminta ever have predicted Aggie's unprecedented passion for the reprobate Mr. Francis Taplin? If Minta is going to keep her friend's person and fortune out of Taplin's dangerous hands, she'll need to think of something-fast.Mr. Nicholas Carlisle has always lived in his stepbrother Francis's shadow: at school, at university, and in his family's prospects. So when Miss Ellsworth approaches him for aid, she finds a willing accomplice. Nicholas fashions a new personality for her, transforming her into Francis's ideal. To this he adds a counterfeit courtship, to stir his brother's competitive side.Their scheme succeeds.Wildly.But the victory might cost them the only prize worth winning-their own chance at love.¿ From the author of the beloved Hapgoods of Bramleigh series called "sparkling" and "swoon-worthy," Minta in Spite of Herself is a clean Regency romance and the third book of The Ellsworth Assortment. ¿

He's paid to make promises he'll never keep. She dreads nothing so much as empty words. But when he's hired to win her for another, will feigned fondness become literal love?Tyrone Ellsworth's career as a literary lover-in-lieu began at university, where he found amusement and steady spending-silver in writing poetry, love letters and offers of marriage for fellow Oxonians. So when schoolmate Gareth Boulton purchases his pen in order to win the wealthy Miss Agatha Weeks, what could be the harm? The task will be all the easier, in fact, because Tyrone has known her for years as his sister's dearest friend.Miss Agatha Weeks has never felt for any young man what she felt for the one who broke her heart years earlier. And while she doesn't pine for him any longer, she has begun to doubt there are any worthy, honest young men left. But then suddenly there are two! Mr. Gareth Boulton, whom she dismissed earlier as a callow fortune hunter, begins to reveal new depths in his pursuit of her. And Tyrone Ellsworth-thoughtful, scholarly, kind, comfortable through long acquaintance-if Tyrone cannot be trusted, no one can.Murder will out, however, and so will mendacity. Can the deceiver escape the consequences of his own deception, or will the beloved deceived be lost to him forever?¿ A Scholarly Pursuit is the 4th book in the clean Regency romance series The Ellsworth Assortment. Each book can be read as a stand-alone or in order. ¿

She lives for her art. He has adored her as long as he's known her. When her masterpiece goes missing, can love take its place?England, 1814. Edith Hapgood only has eyes for art. As the darling pride of her family, she has been encouraged in her passion for painting, making it easy for her to overlook other objects of affection. But her distant cousin, one of her chief friends and companions from the age of eleven, has no intention of being forgotten as the creative world opens to her.Lionel Hapgood has long struggled to keep his feelings for Edith secret and his head down while he finishes his degree and she pursues her artistic studies. But an ardent young man can only stand so much, and when he impulsively declares himself, he loses what he has so carefully built.As Edith grows as an artist, her own brush has something to teach her as well. Her portrait of Lionel, captured on the fateful day he spoke his love, not only attracts admiration and danger, but reveals to her the true state of her feelings. When it goes missing, so does a piece of her heart.Will the loss of her celebrated portrait lead to the loss of the one she learns to hold even dearer?The Purloined Portrait is the endearing fifth book in The Hapgoods of Bramleigh clean Regency romance series. If you like talented heroines, devoted heroes determined to save the day, and adventures in Bath and London, you'll adore Christina Dudley's delightful tale.

Clever and capable, she's been trusted with her family's future. But can masterful Margaret manage her own unruly heart?With her two older sisters married, governing family affairs has fallen to capable Miss Margaret Hapgood, leaving little time for thoughts of marriage. But a trip to Bath to find her uncle a wealthy bride throws her in the path of a handsome recuperating soldier, who is equally determined to keep his mother's fortune out of grasping hands.Book 4 in the award-winning Hapgoods of Bramleigh series of Regency romances called "enchanting" and "sparkling" by Austenprose and Austenesque Reviews.

The most important things in life can only be learned in the School for Love.At age thirty, the kindly and helpful Miss Rosemary DeWitt assists the vicar with the parish school, burying her disappointment that life seems to promise nothing more. But a chance encounter with an unknown, brooding gentleman sets her on a new path-one which might lead where her heart never dreamed.Though Hugh Hapgood was trapped for years in an unhappy marriage, the sudden loss of his wife only spells further disaster. Left with three motherless children whom he hardly knows, Hugh finds everyone about him wants to choose him a second wife, including his own children. But will the fates allow Hugh to have the woman his own heart chooses?¿School for Love is the delightful third book in The Hapgoods of Bramleigh clean Regency romance series. If you like stern heroes undone by love, a cast of winning characters, and frothy escape into another time and place, you'll love Christina Dudley's heartwarming tale.¿

She's beautiful but practical. He's charismatic and disreputable. When duty conflicts with love, will their hearts win?Somerset, England, 1808. Elfrida Hapgood keeps her eyes on the prize. Born to a penniless squire, she's determined to follow common sense and marry an upstanding and steadfast gentleman. So when her brother-in-law's handsomely rakish sibling attempts to woo her, she rigidly ignores the flutter in her chest.Frederick Tierney enjoys a flippant and frivolous life. But when he needs to escape a vengeful former mistress, the lovely older sister to his sibling's bride strikes him as an apt solution. Yet despite his efforts, he's shocked to discover the oh-so-proper lady is impervious to his charms.In spite of herself, Elfrida begins to like the well-dressed man-about-town until an unsavory encounter reignites her doubts. And when Frederick realizes he has truly fallen for the alluring woman, he struggles to prove there's more to him than his reputation.Will this unlikely pair take a chance at forever?A Very Plain Young Man is the enchanting second book in The Hapgoods of Bramleigh clean Regency romance series. If you like heroes with chequered pasts, playful tales, and clever turns of phrase, then you'll adore Christina Dudley's comedy of manners.