When passion flares between them...two indiscretions a Countess does make. A Reckless Rockwood, Constance plays matchmaker, but at what cost to her marriage? Experience taught Gideon Lethbridge, Earl of Chelmsford, women will sell themselves for money and social position. When a passionate interlude in a dark garden sets Gideon’s heart on fire, he’s furious to learn his lover is an American heiress who bought herself a title. Despite his anger at being hoodwinked by Viscountess Helstone, she’s haunted Gideon’s dreams for the past five years. Now he’s planning her seduction, and he intends to make Phoebe surrender to one wicked, sinful moment of pleasure after another. Five years ago, despair and a need for solace sent Phoebe, Viscountess Helstone, into the arms of a stranger for one fiery moment of indiscretion. Now penniless, Phoebe is the anonymous author of the Currer Chronicles mocking the Marlborough Set. When Phoebe comes face-to-face with the man she’s never forgotten, she's horrified to learn she’s ridiculed him mercilessly in her satirical serial. With Gideon determined to seduce her, Phoebe is desperate to keep her writing a secret while trying not to admit she’s been in love with Gideon for the past five years. Like most Reckless Rockwoods, the an dara sealladh is a part of who Constance Blakemore, Countess of Lyndham, is. Although her husband, Lucien, insists Constance must stop using her psychic abilities to meddle in the affairs of others. Despite knowing Lucien's feelings in the matter, she cannot abandon a friend in need. But helping a friend puts Constance’s marriage and happiness in jeopardy as well. By ignoring Lucien's request, Constance might lose the one thing that will destroy her, Lucien’s love. This book opens with an unintentional indiscretion some readers may find to be an objectionable trope. The incident is this one scene only and is available to read in the Look Inside sample. The Reckless Rockwoods Novels prominently feature original members of the Rockwood family as they meddle in their friends’ lives to ensure they find a happy ending. Constance Rockwood Blakemore, Countess of Lyndham, and her husband Lucien are featured in The Rogue's Countess. OTHER BOOKS IN THE RECKLESS ROCKWOODS SERIES and NOVELS Book 1 — Obsession (Sebastian and Helen) Book 2— Dangerous (Constance and Lucien) Book 3 — The Highlander's Woman (Patience and Julian) — Scottish setting Book 4 — Redemption (Rhea and Percy) Book 5— The Beastly Earl (Louisa and Ewan) — Scottish setting A Reckless Rockwoods Novel: Book 1 — The Rogue's Offer: Reluctant Rogues (Ophelia and Mathias; featuring Louisa Rockwood Colquhoun, Countess of Argaty ) A Reckless Rockwoods Novel: Book 2 — The Rogue's Countess: Reluctant Rogues (Gideon and Phoebe; featuring Constance Rockwood Blakemore, Countess of Lyndham)

Edgar Award-winning editor Otto Penzler's new anthology brings together the most cunning, ruthless, and brilliant criminals in mystery fiction, for the biggest compendium of bad guys (and girls) ever assembled. The best mysteries--whether detective, historical, police procedural, cozy, or comedy--have one thing in common: a memorable perpetrator. For every Sherlock Holmes or Sam Spade in noble pursuit, there's a Count Dracula, a Lester Leith, or a Jimmy Valentine. These are the rogues and villains who haunt our imaginations--and who often have more in common with their heroic counterparts than we might expect. Now, for the first time ever, Otto Penzler gathers the iconic traitors, thieves, con men, sociopaths, and killers who have crept through the mystery canon over the past 150 years, captivating and horrifying readers in equal measure. The 72 handpicked stories in this collection introduce us to the most depraved of psyches, from iconic antiheroes like Maurice Leblanc's Arsène Lupin and Sax Rohmer's Dr. Fu Manchu to contemporary delinquents like Lawrence Block's Ehrengraf and Donald Westlake's Dortmunder, and include unforgettable tales by Robert Louis Stevenson, Bram Stoker, Washington Irving, Jack London, H.G. Wells, Sinclair Lewis, O. Henry, Edgar Wallace, Leslie Charteris, Erle Stanley Gardner, Edward D. Hoch, Max Allan Collins, Loren D. Estleman, and many more.

Meddling In A Game Of Hearts comes naturally to Louisa Rockwood, Countess of Argaty who, with help from her sisters and brother Percy, ensures Ophelia and Mathias find the sensual, steamy HEA they deserve. A Reckless Proposal — Ophelia Templeton’s dead husband, Viscount Havenstock, convinced her she was incapable of passion. When her father wagers and loses their home to the Earl of Thornbury, she presents him with a rash proposal. The return of her home in exchange for the challenge of teaching her to feel passion. Unfortunately, she’s propositioned the wrong man. A Counter Offer — Mathias Gilchrist has always protected the interests of his brother, the Earl of Thornbury. When Ophelia mistakes him for his brother, he thinks she’s one more in a long line of women eager to be a countess. Despite his initial impression, Mathias is intrigued by Ophelia, and he makes her a counter offer in a game of seduction and passion. Ophelia and Mathias never dreamed the stakes for happiness would be this high, but with the help of the Reckless Rockwoods, they'll find their HEA. OTHER BOOKS IN THE RECKLESS ROCKWOODS SERIES and NOVELS Book 1 — Obsession (Sebastian and Helen) Book 2— Dangerous (Constance and Lucien) Book 3 — The Highlander's Woman (Patience and Julian) — Scottish setting Book 4 — Redemption (Rhea and Percy) Book 5— The Beastly Earl (Louisa and Ewan) — Scottish setting The Reckless Rockwoods Novels prominently feature different members of the Rockwood family as they meddle in their friends’ lives to ensure they find a happy ending. The Reckless Rockwoods Novels: Book 1 — The Rogue's Offer: Reluctant Rogues (Ophelia and Mathias; featuring Louisa Rockwood Colquhoun, Countess of Argaty ) Book 2 — The Rogue's Countess: Reluctant Rogues (Gideon and Phoebe; featuring Constance Rockwood Blakemore, Countess of Lyndham and her husband, Lucien) The Reckless Rockwoods series and the Reckless Rockwoods Novels are steamy Victorian historical romance books filled with suspense, intrigue, ghosts, psychics, the paranormal, villains, highlanders, and alpha males who succumb to the love of a woman. Five siblings descended from Highlanders, whose motto is to never refuse a challenge no matter what the reason. Whether it’s scandalous passions, wicked seductions, wanton pleasures, meddling in the love affairs of friends, or tragedy, each of these stories focuses on the hero/heroine finding their sensually spicy HEA. “...sexual tension as scorching as the desert...” — SYLVIA DAY, #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLING AUTHOR “Monica Burns writes with sensitivity and panache.”— Sabrina Jeffries, NYT bestselling author

Society gossip has kept Lady Juliet Boyd out of the public eye since the suspicious death of her husband. Although she's been persuaded to accept an invitation to a summer house party, all she really wants is a quiet life, free from the attentions of any man. But there she meets the scandalous Sebastian St. Claire, who makes her feel things, want things, need things she's never experienced before. Starved of affection, Juliet finds his lovemaking irresistible. But does he really want her—or just the truth behind her disgrace?

A chance encounter late one night, a captivating stranger’s heady kiss, and Lady Eleanor Acton falls in love. Yet this fascinating rogue is entirely ineligible, and now she fears blackmail. Will plunging headlong with Leander Campbell into mystery and intrigue break her heart? Must desire yield to honor and duty? Or can love find a way? Regency Romance by Julia Ross writing as Jean R. Ewing; originally published by Zebra

Fans of Mary Balogh, Ella Quinn, and Bridgerton will fall in love with the charismatic characters and glittering detail of Jane Ashford's bestselling Regency romances: A reluctant earl flees from his new role A willful lady yearns to escape her family's strict rules They may find refuge in each other The missing Earl of Ferrington doesn't want to be found... At the end of the London season, Harriet Finch reluctantly returns to her wealthy grandfather's country house. His rigid opinions for how she should live and whom she should marry sparks Harriet's rebelliousness. Yearning to reclaim her freedom, Harriet goes for a long walk and a handsome rogue from the nearby Travelers camp catches her eye. Little does she know, the rugged Traveler she's flirting with is the missing Earl of Ferrington in disguise. Will this intriguing man, who goes by "Jack" tell Harriet the truth about who he is for the sake their blossoming relationship? Or will he keep his distance altogether? Time is running out, and the earl can't hide forever... "Impossible to put down... The story crackles with clever dialogue and humorous scenes." —Historical Novel Society for The Duke Who Loved Me "An irresistibly sweet literary confection." —Booklist for Earl to the Rescue "Complex characters, subtle romance, and all the sparkling wit and flirtatious banter of a Georgette Heyer novel." —Publishers Weekly for A Duke Too Far

No one interested in fashion, style, or the high-flying intrigues of café society will want to miss Christopher Petkanas’s exuberantly entertaining oral biography Loulou & Yves: The Untold Story of Loulou de La Falaise and the House of Saint Laurent. Dauntless, “in the bone” style made Loulou de La Falaise one of the great fashion firebrands of the twentieth century. Descending in a direct line from Coco Chanel and Elsa Schiaparelli, she was celebrated at her death in 2011, aged just sixty-four, as the “highest of haute bohemia,” a feckless adventuress in the art of living—and the one person Yves Saint Laurent could not live without. Yves was the most influential designer of his times; possibly also the most neurasthenic. In an exquisitely intimate, sometimes painful personal and professional relationship, Loulou was his creative right hand, muse, alter ego and the virtuoso behind all the flamboyant accessories that were a crucial component of the YSL “look.” For thirty years, until his retirement in 2002, Yves relied on Loulou to inspire him, make him laugh and talk him off the ledge—the enchanted formula that brought him from one historic collection to the next. Yves’s many tributes shape Loulou’s memory, as if everything there was to know about this fugitive, Giacometti-like figure could be told by her clanking bronze cuffs, towering fur toques, the turquoise boulders on her fingers and her working friendship with the man who put women in pants. But another, darker story lifts the veil on Loulou, a classic “number two” with a contempt for convention, and exposes the underbelly of fashion at its highest level. Behind Yves’s encomiums are a pair of aristocrat parents—Loulou’s shiftless French father and menacingly chic English mother—who abandoned her to a childhood of foster care and sexual abuse; Loulou’s recurring desperation to leave Yves and go out on her own; and the grandiose myths surrounding her family. Loulou felt that her life had been kidnapped by the operatic workings of the House of Saint Laurent, and in her last years faced financial ruin. Loulou & Yves unspools an elusive fashion idol—nymphomaniacal, heedless and up to her bracelets in coke and Boizel champagne—at the core of what used to be called “le beau monde.”