Laura Strickland
1) Cinder-Ugly
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From the moment Cindra is born, misshapen and ill-formed in face and body, her beautiful mother hides her away, allowing the world to see only her other three perfect children. Cindra, raised by an aged nurse and assigned humble duties in the kitchen, receives little affection and plenty of abuse from both her mother and sisters. Starved for beauty, she longs most of all for love. Prince Rupert, newly returned from an education outside the kingdom...
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For most of her life, Becca Monroe's been running. The urge to see what lay beyond the next horizon took her away from Donner's Mountain and the man she loved. Now, back for what will surely be her grandfather's last Christmas, she's caught in a tangle of unresolved emotions that leave her torn between the impulse to flee and the desire to stay. Jack Donner never stopped loving Becca, even though she deserted him. Better than anyone else, he knows...
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All her life Polly Bridger has perceived a miraculous light in others. She sees it in her parents who sacrifice everything to keep her safe, and later in the eyes of young Albert Coward who offers her both solace and love. Victorian London is not an easy place for a girl to survive. Polly does not want to end up like so many other girls, earning her bread on the streets. But when Albert is sentenced to jail for thievery and her choices are few, Polly...
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Brutally dispossessed during the Highland Clearances, Tam Sutherland comes to the hiring fair at Oban, Scotland hoping to find a job for the season. But his maimed right hand, inflicted by the same cruel factor responsible for his parents' deaths, means he's one of few men available when the beautiful woman makes her surprising announcement: she's looking not for a hand but a husband, not just for the season but forever. Annie MacCallum is under threat...
5) Last Orders
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Buffalo Police Sergeant Brendan Fagan, investigating a series of grisly murders spurred by clashes between humans and automatons, only wants to save his city. The last thing he needs in his life is a rule-bending, steam-cannon-toting, unpredictable female like Ginny Landry, a woman who could possibly bring down his career and the one woman he quite likely can't resist. Ginny means to settle the estate of her mother, an infamous madam, quickly and...
6) Off Kilter
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James Kilter has few illusions about himself. Maimed in a boiler accident when young and routinely reviled by those he encounters, he's no prize for any woman. He's content working security for a good friend until he sees Catherine Delaney disembark from an airship one May afternoon. Her fragile beauty calls up all his protective instincts. But will she accept a monster as her defender? Having traded her own safety to save her young sister, Cat Delaney...
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Milo Digsby remembers life before he rode the orphan train to Clabber Mills, Indiana, including the farm back in England where his father worked so hard. He's always done his best to get along, but now as a grown man he's being asked to give up the one thing he refuses to abandon-his name. Jessica Downing is the new schoolteacher in Clabber Mills, though she prefers her ancestral vocation of fortuneteller and witch. Milo stirs her instincts and her...
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Daughter of a Viking berserker and a Celtic slave, Gyda Tolljursdottir is part warrior and part Seer. When her Sight gives warning of darkness and danger coming from the sea, she vows to defend her Faroe Island home, whatever it takes. Norse shaman, Lodvar Haraldsson has come from Iceland seeking his destiny, and the woman who has long whispered to his heart. Though he neither trusts nor respects the jarl he follows, he'll trade far more than his...
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Following the disastrous defeat of the clans at Culloden, Scottish Chief's son Diarmad Ramsay makes his dying father a promise. Diarmad will play the part of Bonny Prince Charlie in an effort to help the true Prince escape the Highlands. With only the fiery Mara MacIvor for guide and with danger on his heels, he must risk all for a Cause in which he no longer believes. Mara MacIvor considers Ramsay a poor substitute for her beloved Prince. Ramsay...
10) Ask Me
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Alone on Valentine's Day, Leo Rankin attends the library's Blind Date With a Book event hoping for something he can take to bed with him that night, and finds himself competing against Gerri Webb for the last remaining book. Wild child Gerri is not his usual type. Yet he feels an immediate, sizzling attraction and agrees to share the book and its accompanying bag of candy hearts. The whole idea of a Blind Date With a Book is to go off genre, so Gerri...
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Omens are not good at the end of AD 59 for the Dumnonii tribe in southern Britannia. There's war in the east, and the harvest has failed again. To improve the outlook, widower Chief Allaed agrees to remarry, to the first woman of the tribe to bring him a sprig of the holy mistletoe on Solstice morning. Catti, daughter of the high druid, has long admired Allaed from afar. Mistletoe being scarce this year, she plans a clever substitution. But when her...
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A year ago, Magnus Tolljursson helped repel a treacherous attack from his father's enemies, and discovered he carries the berserker's seed of madness. Now he must sail to the settlement from whence those attackers came, and fulfill a promise to a friend. He doesn't know what he'll find in Husavik and never suspects he may lose his heart. In her father's absence, Embra Fritisson has been engaged in a desperate battle to keep leadership of the settlement....
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Captured by Gaels in a vicious raid, Caledonian shaman Tally is taken by force to the western kingdom of Dal Riada, where he falls into the hands of the Celtic chief's daughter, Alanna. Having lost every freedom, and fearing he may also lose his faith, he makes the goddess a sacred promise. If she sustains him, he will live for her and one day make it back home. Alanna, daughter of one of the three most powerful men in the area, has refused every...
14) The Reiver's Cub
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Ten years ago, Bess Mowatt promised to guard her newborn cousin from his father, Aleck Maxwell. Called the Reiver Wolf, Maxwell is the scourge of the Scottish marches, and no fit guardian for a child. But when the keep where Bess and the boy live suddenly comes under Maxwell's protection, she has nowhere to hide. Aleck doesn't quite believe the tale he was told, that his son died at birth. His head tells him one thing, and his heart another. While...
15) The White Gull
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When the trawler White Gull was lost in a storm off the coast of Lobster Cove, Lisbeth O'Shea's husband, Declan, was lost along with it. At least that's what Lisbeth believes until, a year later, she hears Declan's voice in the night and sees him haunting the shore near their tiny cottage. Then she wonders… Has grief affected her mind? Or is someone playing a cruel trick? Town blacksmith Rab Sinclair has loved Lisbeth ever since he arrived in Lobster...
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When a spell to rid Regis Towne of rats goes awry, Marquell and Grandfather Rat are transformed into men. Marquell wants no part in playing servant to the wizard responsible for destroying his family and friends, but the mage promises to return him to his true form if he serves for a fortnight. Meanwhile Marquell must navigate the world of his lifelong enemies and survive the selfish demands of the wizard's vain fiancée. Many injustices are heaped...
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From a young age, Tansy Bellrose Gant has been getting into trouble and wanting what she should not have. Just because she can make certain things happen by wishing doesn't mean she's a witch. But when she rashly curses a neighbor, her fellow villagers tie her to a stake at the crossroads and threaten to send her to the Royal Commission for trial. Malcolm Montgomery is a man carrying an unbearable burden of guilt and obligation. The last thing he...
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Fenady Clark's dream of owning an ice cream parlor has inspired her through some of life's hardest challenges. Just when the grand opening's within reach, that wicked rogue, Sebastian Bane, opens shop and starts serving Fenady's designer flavors, all renamed. She suspects he's using black magic to poach her recipes, and if she weren't a good witch instead of a bad witch, she'd whip up a spell and retaliate. Sebastian's come all the way from England...
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Jenny Withers has never asked for much. Following a tragic childhood in England, she arrived in America only to be sent west on the orphan train and passed from one caregiver to another. Now grown and widowed, she might build a fulfilling future, but only if she finds the courage to stand up for her true desires. Robert MacKenna hopes what Jenny desires is him. A man with a broken past and a restless spirit, he has trouble settling at anything. He's...
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When town undertaker Gus Wright accepts delivery of a client's fancy casket, he certainly doesn't expect to find a beautiful young woman hidden inside. And when she throws herself on his mercy, his gentlemanly nature kicks in. He offers assistance despite his suspicion there's trouble brewing. On the run from a heist, Phoebe Corbet has a fortune in jewels following her, along with just a few pesky problems. If she can use Gus Wright as a refuge until...