Louise Allen – Miss Dane and the Duke

Ebook

Hilton & Haystaff

1 February 2018

Antonia Dane wants nothing more than to restore her ruined home and neglected ancestral acres, but the duke next door – Marcus Renshaw, Duke of Allington, to be exact – wants the estate. And Antonia.

Or is Antonia simply a route to the land he covets? After all, with her dubious ancestry, her debts and her independent spirit, to say nothing of her disastrous midnight fishing expeditions, she is hardly the kind of bride dukes normally court.

He is enough to turn any woman’s head, even one belonging to suspicious Miss Dane, but instinct tells her to beware.

So what does she listen to – her head or her heart?

(This is an extensively edited and reworked version of The Unconventional Miss Dane by Francesca Shaw, published by Mills & Boon, 1997)

Lucy Coleman – The French Adventure

Ebook

Aria Fiction (Head of Zeus)

1 February 2018

Packed full of French flavour and idyllic settings this is a romantic, heart-warming and unputdownable new novel about life and love, perfect for anyone who loves Milly Johnson, Lucy Diamond and Debbie Johnson.

Suddenly unemployed and single, Anna escapes to her parents’ beautiful house in France for a much-needed recharge – and to work out what she wants to do next with her life now her carefully mapped out plan has gone out the window.

Anna gives herself 6 months to recuperate, all the while helping renovate her parents’ adjoining gîtes into picturesque B&Bs.

But working alongside the ruggedly handsome Sam on the renovation project, she didn’t expect for life to take an unexpected, if not unwelcome, twist…

Julie Caplin (Jules Wake) – The Little Café in Copenhagen

Romantic Comedy

Harper Impulse

1 February 2018 in ebook, 9 February 2018 in paperback

Welcome to the little cafe in Copenhagen where the smell of cinnamon fills the air, the hot chocolate is as smooth as silk and romance is just around the corner…

Publicist Kate Sinclair’s life in London is everything she thought she wanted: success, glamour and a charming boyfriend. Until that boyfriend goes behind her back and snatches a much sought-after promotion from her. Heartbroken and questioning everything, Kate needs to escape.

From candles and cosy nights in to romantic late-night walks through the beautiful cobbled streets of Copenhagen, Kate discovers how to live life ‘the Danish way’.

Can the secrets of hygge and happiness lead her to her own happily-ever-after?

Annie O’Neil – Reunited with her Parisian Surgeon

Medical Romance

Mills and Boon

1 February 2018

Raphael’s heart was lost… Until he found Maggie again!

Brooding surgeon Dr Raphael Boucher finds his way to Sydney and the one woman he has never been able to forget. As they work together, it’s clear that Maggie Louis is the only person who can make him feel alive again.

But Raphael must return to Paris and resolve his past before they can finally be together…

Virginia Heath – A Warriner to Tempt Her

Regency Romance

Mills and Boon

1 February 2018

In this The Wild Warriners story, shy Lady Isabella Beaumont is perfectly happy to stay in the background and let her sister get all the attention from handsome suitors following a shocking incident.

However working with Dr Joseph Warriner to help the sick and needy pushes her closer to a man than she’s ever been before.

Is this a man worth trusting with her deepest of desires?

Elizabeth Bailey – Marriage for Music, Brides by Chance Book Five

Regency Romance

Indie Published

4 February 2018

A fortune at stake if he does not marry now. Almost anyone will do.

Intrigued by the dissolute Lord Wintringham and with nothing but drudgery in store, Lily Daubney dares to contemplate his desperate offer. Sanity prevails. But Vincent’s persistence lands her in so much hot water she has no option but to marry him.

Delighted with her reward of a fine pianoforte, Lily rapidly discovers the perils of her bargain. Impossibly selfish, treading a path to perdition, Vince seems wholly irreclaimable.

Is Lily’s growing desire to reform him doomed to failure?

Or will her unexpected influence turn disaster into happiness?

Lynda Stacey – Tell Me No Secrets

Romantic Suspense

Choc Lit

6 February 2018

Can a secret be worse than a lie?

Every time Kate Duggan looks in a mirror she is confronted by her guilt; a long, red scar reminding her that she was ‘the one to walk away’ from the car accident. Not everyone was so lucky …

On the surface her fiancé Rob is supportive – but the reality is different. He’s controlling, manipulative and, if the phone call Kate overhears is anything to go by, he has a secret. But just how dangerous is that secret?

When Kate begins work at a firm of private investigators, she meets Ben Parker.

His strong and silent persona is intriguing but it’s also a cover – because something devastating happened to Ben, something he can’t get over.

As Kate and Ben begin their first assignment, they become close. But, what they don’t realise is how close to home the investigation will bring them, or who will be hurt in the process …

Kathy Jay – Reach for the Stars

Contemporary Romance

Harper Impulse

9 February 2018

From heartbreak to the best mistake they’ll ever make…

When Layla Rivers’ boyfriend of 12 years skips out on their round-the-world trip of a lifetime – without her – she does what experience has taught her to do best, hide away in the cosy Cornish village she calls home.

But any hopes of laying low soon disappear when Hollywood’s hottest star & mutual acquaintance, the gorgeous Nick Wells, crash lands on her couch…naked!

For Nick, Cornwall is supposed to be an escape from both his problems and the limelight, yet as the stars align and disarming Layla bursts into his world, his life only gets more complicated.

Will Nick and Layla fight against the undeniable connection between them or, under the warmth of the Cornish sun, will they follow their hearts’ desires?

Jane Lovering – Living in the Past

Paranormal/timeslip

Choc Lit

14 February 2018

Do you ever wish you could turn back time?

Grace Nicholls has a few reasons for wanting to turn back the clock … although an archaeological dig at a Bronze Age settlement on the Yorkshire moors is not what she had in mind. But encouraged by her best friend Tabitha, that’s exactly where she finds herself.

Professor Duncan McDonald is the site director and his earnest pursuit of digging up the past makes him appear distant and unreachable.

But when a woman on the site goes missing, it seems that his own past might be coming back to haunt him once again.

As they dig deeper, Duncan and Grace get more than they bargained for – and come to realise that the past is much closer than either of them ever imagined …

Sheila Norton – The Pets at Primrose Cottage, Part 4: No Place Like Home

Cosy romance

Ebook

Ebury

15 February 2018

PART FOUR of a serialised novel – a charming and romantic story about living the simple life and the joy of animals.

With Emma’s past threatening to ruin her life in quiet Crickleford, she’s running out of options.

If people – especially Matt, her reporter friend – find out her secret, it might force her to leave the place she’s come to think of as home.

When flooding strikes the town while Emma is looking after an elderly couple’s dog, she has to take her biggest risk yet – but could this be the one that blows her cover for good? And if it does, can Crickleford – and Matt – ever accept Emma for who she truly is?

Note: this is part four of a four-part serialised novel. The full length paperback will be available in March 2018

Claire Dyer – The Last Day

Women’s Fiction

The Dome Press

15 February 2018

They say three’s a crowd, but when Boyd moves back in to the family home with his now-amicably estranged wife Vita, accompanied by his impossibly beautiful twenty-seven-year-old girlfriend Honey, it seems the perfect solution: Boyd can get his finances back on track while he deals with his difficult, ailing mother.

Honey can keep herself safe from her secret, troubled past and Vita can carry on painting portraits of the pets she dislikes and telling herself she no longer minds her marriage is over.

But the house in Albert Terrace is small and full of memories, and living together is unsettling.

For Vita, Boyd and Honey, love proves to be a surprising, dangerous thing.

And one day can change everything.

Lisa J. Hobman – Reasons to Leave (Reasons Part One)

Contemporary Romance

Indie Published

16 February 2018

The daughter of a single mother, and abandoned by her father, Stevie thought she had finally found a man she could trust. Aged eighteen she thought she would be with Jason forever.

Everything between them was perfect until the night of the leaver’s ball when he disappeared without trace.

Ten years on, can Stevie ever learn to trust again enough to give her heart?

Or are the ghosts of her past determined to stop her from ever finding true love?

Lisa J. Hobman – Reasons to Stay (Reasons Part Two)

Contemporary Romance

Indie Published

16 February 2018

Just when she has learned to trust again Stevie’s life is once more thrust into uncertainty.

Left with only the memories of her deeply passionate relationship she tries to piece together what is left of her heart. Shocking news leaves her reeling once again, as she tries to help her first love Jason’s brother, Dillon, to rebuild his life.

Will Stevie’s heart ever be mended?

And if so who will be the man worthy of her trust?

And will she ever get her happy ever after?

Emma Davies – The Little Cottage on the Hill

Contemporary Women’s Fiction

Ebook, paperback and audio

Bookouture

19 February 2018

There’s blossom in the trees and daffodils as far as the eye can see. Maddie is looking forward to a fresh start in the countryside, but there’s just one little problem…

Following a scandal at her high-flying PR agency, twenty-six-year-old Maddie flees London to help promote what she thinks is going to be a luxurious holiday retreat in the countryside. Everything is riding on her making a success of this new job…

Yet when she arrives, Maddie is horrified to find a rundown old farm in a terrible state.

The brooding and secretive owner, Seth, spent all his money on leasing the land when he fell in love with the beautiful, dishevelled farm cottages and the very romantic story behind them.

When Maddie discovers an old oil painting by the original owner’s wife, she unlocks the secret of the farm’s history and quickly realises she must start getting her hands dirty if this very special place is going to have any chance of survival.

As she and Seth begin working together, the stunning view from the top of the hill is not the only thing that’s leaving her breathless…

After weeks of hard work the dream looks like it might become a reality, until a secret from Maddie’s past threatens to snatch it all away again. Can Maddie find a way to save the business and herself?

Will she finally find a place to keep her heart within the crumbling walls of the little cottage on the hill?

Janet Woods – A Marriage Of Convenience

Historical Romance

Severn House UK and USA

20 February 2018

A swift descent on the social ladder takes Grace Ellis from doctor’s daughter to ladies maid.

Then Grace finds herself in an impossible position when her mistress dies and she finds herself faced with a future of abject poverty.

She was wondering what would become of her when Dominic LeSayers, accountant and executer of her former mistress’s will comes into her life and she learns she has inherited a fortune. However, there is a catch. Grace must wed Lady’s Florence’s ageing nephew to claim it. and he has plans of his own. Meanwhile, Grace and Dominic fall in love

Marie Laval – Little Pink Taxi

Contemporary Romance / Romcom

Choc Lit

20 February 2018

Take a ride with Love Taxis, the cab company with a Heart …

Rosalie Heart is a well-known face in Irlwick – well, if you drive a bright pink taxi and your signature style is a pink anorak, you’re going to draw a bit of attention! But Rosalie’s company Love Taxis is more than just a gimmick – for many people in the remote Scottish village, it’s a lifeline.

Which is something that Marc Petersen will never understand. Marc’s ruthless approach to business doesn’t extend to pink taxi companies running at a loss. When he arrives in Irlwick to see to a new acquisition – Raventhorn, a rundown castle – it’s apparent he poses a threat to Rosalie’s entire existence; not just her business, but her childhood home too.

On the face of it Marc and Rosalie should loathe each other, but what they didn’t count on was somebody playing cupid …

Sarah Bennett – Spring at Lavender Bay (Lavender Bay, Book 1) 

Contemporary Romance

Ebook and Audio Book

HQ Digital

22 February 2018

A season for change…?

Beth Reynolds loved growing up close to Eleanor’s Emporium – a bric-a-brac shop full of wonders on Lavender Bay.

Devastated to learn that Eleanor has died, she returns home from London immediately and is shocked to discover that the elderly lady has left the shop to her! Vowing to restore it to its former glory, she only intends to stay until the end of the season.

Although the longer she spends in the colourful seaside town, the more she falls back in love with everything she left behind… and quite possibly, with her best friend Eliza’s older brother, local chef Sam Barnes!

Why didn’t she notice he was quite this gorgeous before?

And will their spring fling be enough to convince her to stay?

Sarah also has the following books being released in audio format on 2 February 2018:

• Sunrise at Butterfly Cove
• Wedding Bells at Butterfly Cove
• Christmas at Butterfly Cove

Margaret Kaine – Ring of Clay

Saga

Hodder & Stoughton

22 February 2018

Despite an early life marked by tragedy and hardship, Beth Sherwin dreams of staying on at school and even going to university – a heady ambition for a Potteries girl in 1956. Then a brutal encounter leaves her pregnant at seventeen.

Unwilling to break her widowed mother’s heart, Beth bears her secret alone and gives up her baby daughter for adoption.

It seems her desperate gamble has succeeded. She finishes school, takes on a challenging job and meets Michael, charming eldest son of the wealthy Rushton family. But when he asks her to marry him, Beth faces a dilemma.

Does she dare tell Michael her secret, and risk losing him for ever? And even if he stands by her, can she bear the certainty that the brutal monster who fathered her child will be at her wedding.

Margaret also has these other sagas being released on the same date:

• Ribbon of Moonlight
• Roses for Rebecca
• Friends & Families
• A Girl of Her Time
• Rosemary

Lesley Field – Betrayal

Ebook and Print

Crooked Cat Books

27 February 2018

If Jessica had known that her life was about to be shattered she would never have returned home early.

Betrayed in the cruellest of ways, and disillusioned with her legal profession, she abandons the life she thought she had.

Staying with her cousin in another city, circumstances force Jessica into a hotel for a few nights.

There, she meets Grey, and she abandons her inhibitions in a one night stand – a night of passion where she discovers a connection between them that can’t be denied. But she leaves before he wakes, knowing she will never see him again.

Settled into a new job, in a new town, the one person she thought never to see again comes back into her life, and offers her a new start, but a discovery threatens to destroy any future happiness.

Has she been betrayed again? Can she trust again? And what will she do when the one person she wants is in danger…

Helen McCabe – Two Girls

Paperback and ebook.

Independently Published

Set in Victorian England with a background of the gloving industry in Worcester, England, two girls, lovely Lizzie Vyne, daughter of the wealthy mill owner, Caleb Vyne and beautiful Hester Lee, one of his glove workers come from very different stations in life.

Unknown to either young woman in this provincial Midland town, the Vyne and the Lee families are inextricably and historically linked.

Eventually, in spite of their parents’ efforts to keep them apart, the girls and their siblings make each other’s acquaintance, which leads to romance and forbidden love.

Cover to be revealed.

Noelene Jenkinson – Outback Treasure

Contemporary rural/outback romance

Amazon/Createspace

Wrongly disgraced and her career damaged, palaeontologist Darcy Manning must expose a fossil smuggling syndicate to clear her name and reputation. But how to resist sexy country boy and fellow fossil hunter, Mitch Beaumont, on Matilda Station in outback Queensland along for the ride?

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Releases from January 2018

June Davies – The Warmsleys of Pedlars Down

Historical Family & Romantic Suspense

Paperback

F.A.Thorpe

1 January 2018

Pedlars Down, on the wild Lancashire coastline, has been home of the Warmsleys since the 1500s. The brown and white, timber-framed manor house is a real part of the family. Where Warmsleys always come back to. The old home is at the heart of Ben, Rachel, Edward and Jonas’s story, which here begins c.1807-8 . . .

Since girlhood, Rachel Warmsley has devoted her life to caring for her widowed father and younger brothers, keeping house for them at Pedlars Down while fighting to preserve the free school in Pedlars Down village, founded amongst great opposition by her late mother.

When handsome Hugh Armstrong comes courting, Rachel falls in love for the first time.

But on the night of the summer ball at his elegant riverside mansion, her happiness is cruelly shattered when she witnesses a shocking revelation . . .

Helen J Rolfe – Christmas at Snowdrop Cottage

Women’s fiction

Paperback

Createspace

10 January 2018

Full of sparkling festive magic, Little Woodville is all set for Christmas…

Belle Nightingale hasn’t celebrated Christmas properly since she lost touch with her Gran and left the tiny village in the Cotswolds behind two decades ago. But back in Little Woodville to sell up and move on to start a new business venture with her boyfriend,

Belle finds herself wondering whether her own dreams have been pushed aside in her quest to please everyone else.

The cosy cottage, nostalgia and her tenant Sebastian’s ties to her own family, bring a lot of emotions to the surface for Belle, particularly when she begins to form a bond with Sebastian who isn’t the old man she was expecting, but a tall, dark and ridiculously handsome man her age and with a very kind heart. When the snow blankets the tiny village and Belle comes up against a community that pulls together to look after their own, she begins to discover the true meaning of Christmas and wonders whether it’s time to confront the past in a last attempt to bring her family back together.

Grab a hot chocolate and escape to the quaint Cotswold village and the thatched cottage where the perfect recipe for Christmas may just contain a whole lot of love, friendship and kindness.

And it may just be everything Belle is looking for.

Lizzie Lane – A Wartime Friend.

Paperback

Ebury Publishing,

11 January 2018

After escaping a train bound for a death camp with a trusty German Shepherd dog, a girl wakes to find she has no memory of her former life.

Lily is fostered by the kind RAF pilot who found her and his wife, Meg.  It is not long before their lives are disrupted once again by the war and, with their home in ruins, they are forced to flee to the country. In the Somerset countryside, Lily is reunited with Rudy, the heroic German Shepherd.

However, it soon becomes clear that Rudy is not just her companion, he is protecting her too, and someone wants both him and the child out of the way…

Annie Burrows – The Marquess Tames His Bride

Regency Romance

Harlequin Mills & Boon

25 January 2018

“He’s announced his betrothal – now there’s no going back!

Cold eyed, cold hearted Lord Rawcliffe isn’t going to let anything stand in the way of his hunt for the killer of his closest friend.

Not even having to go, unexpectedly, on honeymoon!”

Margaret Mounsdon – Island Magic

Romance

Ebook

Self-published on Amazon

28 January 2018

Vanessa is duped into taking her sister’s place on a luxury yacht then finds she is the prime suspect when a valuable ring goes missing.

Jayne Castel – Barbarian Slave (The Warrior Brothers of Skye, Book 2)

Historical Romance

Winter Mist Press

31 January 2018

He takes her as his warprize—but she enslaves his soul.

Pict and Roman culture collide in this epic Historical Romance set in Dark Ages Scotland.

Lucrezia is the wife of a Roman soldier posted on the northernmost reach of the Empire.

Locked in an unhappy marriage upon a desolate outpost, her hopes for happiness are slipping away. However, her life changes forever in the winter of 467 AD. Barbarians from the north band together and attack Hadrian’s Wall.

Tarl mac Muin is a Pict warrior with a thirst for battle and glory. He’s part of the Barbarian Conspiracy that will change history. But when he takes Lucrezia as his slave, he sets off a chain of events that neither of them could have foreseen.

In an epic adventure that starts at the Roman fort of Vindolanda at Hadrian’s Wall and takes Lucrezia north to the wild shores of the Isle of Skye—she discovers love and happiness when she least expects it. Only, a shadow from the past risks ruining everything.

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The list of RNA Members’ New Releases is compiled each month by Sheila Riley. Sheila joined the RNA in 2004 as a new writer. Since then she has written best-selling sagas as Annie Groves. She’s a member of the North-West Chapter of the RNA and loves to catch up with writer friends at the regular Southport lunches.

The email address for new releases is:

releases@romanticnovelistsassociation.org.

Please note our slightly amended rules which will apply from March 2018

The cut off date for inclusion in the following month’s list is the 27th of the month. Due to the large volume of releases, we are only able to include one post per release, even if other formats are released later. Please use the following format in this order when sending details of your new release to Sheila:

• Author Name and Name of Title (all on one line)
• Genre
• Format(s)
• Publisher (Whether traditional or independent)
• Date (e.g. 27 January 2018)

Please also send a cover jpeg and a short blurb (maximum 150 words).