Am I burning with revenge? Or desire? Nicholas is finally ready to welcome his bride, Gillian. But after bringing her back to his castle from the convent, he discovers she is anything but meek and mild. She dares to talk back to and even hit the imposing, vengeful lord! Despite her rough personality, he catches himself burning with desire for her!

Endicott heirs have always taken Stark maidens for their brides.... A blood oath forged eight centuries ago bonded Helen Stark to Lord Weathersky Endicott in marriage from the day she was born. The nineteen-year-old orphan bride-to-be arrives at Cragmoore Castle eager to meet her betrothed, sensibly trading love for the security of an arranged marriage. Weathersky has other ideas—and a secret power. The handsome, brilliant Endicott heir is a warlock with mastery over everything but love. He longs to break free of the castle and live a mortal life. Helen resolves to help him without realizing the consequences of breaking the oath. Eight hundred years of supernatural rule will not be overthrown so easily.

Born in shame... All her life the ravishing Linnea de Valcourt has been reviled as the "cursed" daughter of Maindenstone Castle. Redeemed by deceit... Now, to save her beloved twin sister from a terrible fate, she will sacrifice herself by impersonating her as the bride of conqueror Axton de la Manse. Yet how is it that she feels such fiery passion when she lies with this grim despoiler of her home? A hostage to love... Revenge for years of exile has driven the magnificent Axton to possess his archenemy's daughter-little knowing that, as he imprisons her in his arms and drowns in her stormy sea-green eyes, he is throwing away the key to his soul. But Linnea's family, gathering forces to reclaim Maidenstone, will soon reveal their trickery. How can she hide from him the truth about his imposter's bride?

Moira grew to womanhood in the realm of Myr, wise in the arts of women.. and utterly innocent of the ways of men. All of that changes tonight. Moira wondered, trembling. She passes through the circle of stones into the world of men. There, she meets Wulfsun, every mesmerizing inch a man, hard muscled and tawny maned. No Viking was more feared, until he captures a maiden as beautiful as moonlit shadows, and is enslaved for all time. He would have her willing or not at all, though his blood coursed hot with wanting. And though Moira wore a golden collar of thralldom, her desire for the mighty warrior was the greater bondage.

Married By Proxy: The widowed Lady Eleanor Bayard claims her late husband's tattered and deserted castle, unaware that the enormous, beastly intruder who haunts its shadowy ramparts is the black-hearted war lord whom she married by proxy, but never met. She sets about restoring the castle and repopulating the abandoned village with the ragtag stragglers displaced by the horrors of the Black Death, a pandemic that has spared no one, leaving only tragedy and despair in its wake. Widowed In Haste: Stunned that his wife is still alive, yet believing himself damned forever for his life of war and infamy, Nicholas Bayard hides his identity from her and helps her resurrect the castle-one last penance before he enters a monastery. Yet nothing can disguise the passion he finds in Eleanor's arms. With her joy in life and her belief in renewal and miracles, in the tenacity of the human spirit, she's a temptation he cannot resist. But when she learns his true identity, she shows him that love is the greatest miracle of all. Keywords: Steamy medieval romance, Beauty and the Beast romance, Grieving father romance, bubonic plague, pandemic, pestilence, loss, survivor, proxy wedding, bride, gothic, haunted castle, ruins, warrior virgin, widow, ghost, spirit, disguise, love, guilt, penance, sacrifice, belief, miracles, generosity.

Marriage is a central concern in five of the seven extant plays of the Greek tragedian Sophocles. In this pathfinding study, Kirk Ormand delves into the ways in which these plays represent and problematize marriage, thus offering insights into how Athenians thought about the institution of marriage. Ormand takes a two-fold approach. He first explores the legal and economic underpinnings of Athenian marriage, an institution designed to guarantee the legitimate continuation of patrilineal households. He then shows how Sophocles' plays Trachiniae, Electra, Antigone, Ajax, and Oedipus Tyrannus both reinforce and critique this ideology by representing marriage as a homosocial exchange between men, in which women are objects who may attempt—but always fail—to become self-acting subjects. These fresh readings provide the first systematic study of marriage in Sophocles. They draw important connections between drama and marriage as rituals concerned with controlling potentially disruptive female subjectivities.

From fast–growing USA Today bestseller Linda Needham, a medieval historical romance between a young maiden and the powerful knight who's taken over guardianship of her castle – and of her.