A Season of Invitations – July’s Releases

A Season of Invitations continues in July with two releases from Kathleen Ryder and Lisabel Chretien.

In case you missed them, check out last month’s invitations.

A Season of Invitations

In a glittering Season of Invitations, society’s most sought-after house parties open their doors to dukes, debutantes, and dangerous secrets. From elegant estates to intimate country gatherings, each invitation promises scandal, temptation, and unexpected romance, with stories ranging from clean to gently steamy, where whispered wagers, hidden pasts, and carefully arranged matches may lead not to ruin, but to love.

Here’s a peek at the next invitations available on Kindle and Kindle Unlimited.

Coming 9th July

Snowbound with the Duke

Kathleen Ryder

A sweet romance

He’s the duke who buried his heart. She’s the woman who refuses to let it stay frozen.

Lady Charlotte Ashford never expected to find herself stranded in a snowstorm… on the doorstep of the most notorious recluse in England.

Benedict Hale, Duke of Winslow, has not set foot in London for years. He avoids society, despises Christmas, and guards his solitude with icy determination. Rumours swirl around him—of tragedy, of heartbreak, of a man who no longer feels at all.

But when Charlotte arrives—uninvited, snow-soaked, and impossible to ignore—his carefully controlled world begins to crack.

Trapped together over the Christmas season, her warmth fills his silent halls with laughter, light… and something far more dangerous.

Hope.

Because when the snow melts, Charlotte will leave.

And Benedict must decide…

Will he risk everything for love—
or lose her to the thaw?

Coming 23rd July

Yule with His Lady Novelist

Lisabel Chretien

A steamy romance

An unexpected Christmas reunion between childhood friends stirs hidden passions… and reveals long-buried secrets…

As children, Eleanor Ward and James Crawford ran wild in the woods together. More interested in climbing trees and going on fanciful adventures than learning needlepoint or dancing, Eleanor led her best friend on imagined quests to defeat dragons and evil knights. And James, entranced by her dazzling tales, followed in her wake, ready to take up any challenge she proposed.

But they could not remain children forever.

After twenty years at sea, Captain James Crawford has lost touch with his childhood friend. Now that the war with France is finally over, he wants nothing more than to enjoy a quiet retirement with his books. But when a friend drags him along to a Christmas party at a country house, James discovers that a new battle has only just begun.

Miss Eleanor Ward knows her position in society. As a poor relation dependent upon the charity of her relatives, she serves as her young cousin’s companion. But she has a secret: She has channeled her youthful daydreams to find success as one of England’s most popular gothic novelists. Now, she merely has to get through a Christmas house party… and her next novel.

James and Eleanor are shocked to be thrown together once more. But both carry secrets, and long years of separation have made them strangers. As lingering glances and charged touches awaken smoldering passion, they must lay siege to their past and break down the walls between them before they can build a future together.

Excerpt

Christmas 1815

Post-Captain James Crawford of His Majesty’s Navy, recently returned from the war, had no plans for the Christmas season, and he was perfectly content with that. It would mean a break from this particular hell.

James darted down an opulent side corridor in the Mayfair townhouse of his hosts, attempting to escape Mrs. Hobbart, who had cornered him twenty minutes earlier with tales of her three lovely, talented daughters. He had pleaded a prior engagement and fled, though he knew the excuse wouldn’t hold for long.

Everywhere he went these days, anxious mammas with lovely, talented daughters seemed to find him—at the theater, at Vauxhall Gardens, and now, at this evening’s reception in the home of the recently retired Admiral Marylebone. The event was ostensibly charitable, intended to raise funds for sailors injured during the war. The cause itself was the only inducement for James. But now, it meant yet another retreat from the allied forces of the mammas.

“Oh, Captain Crawford! Where have you run off to?” cried a shrill voice behind him.

Damn and blast! Why did the war ever have to end?

Not for the first time, James longed for his comparably less-comfortable but far simpler life at sea. He’d spent nearly twenty years fighting the French, and they were a far more straightforward enemy than women like Mrs. Hobbart.

James flung open the first door he saw and ducked inside, hoping the room beyond wasn’t occupied.

He closed the door and pressed his back to it. All was silence, save for his own beating heart. Thankfully, he was alone in what appeared to be a library. Still, he didn’t dare move. The swish of skirts and Mrs. Hobbart’s calls grew closer and closer. His heart pounded with dread at being discovered. Fortunately, the matron continued past the door, apparently never considering that James might have slipped into the library.

Once he was sure she was gone, James exhaled the breath he’d been holding. He raised and rotated his left shoulder, hoping to coax some life back into the aching joint. The surgeons had done their best to remove the French bullet lodged there, but his shoulder had never fully recovered—and the winter chill only made the ache worse.

Just a day or two more. Then, everyone will clear out of London and return home to gather with their families for Christmastide, and I can finally be left alone… to read in peace!

As the ache eased, James lifted his head and surveyed the empty library. Speak of the devil… He grinned, stepped deeper into the stacks, and began perusing the shelves. The collection was meager, yet far beyond what he enjoyed in his bachelor lodgings. The only reason he had joined a club after leaving the service had been to access to a proper library. It was one of the few pleasures he had truly missed during twenty years spent largely at sea.

This library was evidently seldom used, existing more for show than for purpose. The books—works of history, biography, and philosophy—were what one would expect in a gentleman’s collection. All were carefully dusted yet clearly untouched for years. Still, it offered a welcome respite from Mrs. Hobbart’s rhapsodies extolling her daughters’ skill on the pianoforte or with needlework.

James sank into the lone chair drawn close to the fire, grateful for its warmth on his left side. As he settled, something hard pressed against his hip. He reached down between the edge of the seat and the cushion and drew forth what appeared to be a gothic novel—a tale of horror, excitement, and peril popular with young ladies.

Suddenly, the room made more sense: the books for show, the two couches arranged in the middle of the room for conversation, and yet, this single, comfortable chair before the roaring fire. Clearly, this room was primarily occupied by a young lady of the house who was much given to reading novels. James chuckled, reminded of another young lady he had known long ago, when they were both children.

Idly curious, he opened the book to see what the young Miss Marylebone was reading. The title page proclaimed: In the Forest of Darkest Camelot: An Arthurian Romance by A Lady of Oxfordshire.

Dear old Eleanor would have loved this…

Don’t miss a single invitation this festive season.

My invitation will be sent on 29th October and is now available to pre-order.