Dear Reader, Here is the first of my new "Brides" trilogy, in which three unconventional young women vow they will never marry—only to be overtaken by destiny. Bride #1 is the outspoken Portia.... It's bad enough that seventeen-year-old Portia Worth is taken in by her uncle, the marquis of Granville, after her father dies. As the bastard niece, Portia knows she can expect little beyond a roof over her head and a place at the table. But it truly adds insult to injury when the Granvilles' archenemy, the outlaw Rufus Decatur, hatches a scheme to abduct the marquis' daughter—only to kidnap Portia by accident. Portia, who possesses more than a streak of independence as well as a talent for resistance, does not take kindly to being abducted—mistakenly or otherwise. Decatur will soon find himself facing the challenge of his life, both on the battlefield and in the bedroom, as he contends with this misfit of a girl who has the audacity to believe herself the equal of any man.... Warmest wishes, Jane Feather P.S. Phoebe, the "awkward" one, will be next, in The Accidental Bride. Watch for it in early 1999.

The tale of an awkward young woman perched reluctantly on the verge of marriage. Soon she finds herself truly falling in love with her intended, and in the process discovers a daring new attitude within herself. Three unconventional women take a vow never to marry, only to find themselves overtaken by destiny. The "accidental" bride is Phoebe, the awkward one, who stumbles into romance, adventure, and passion when she falls under the spell of the intimidating—and very sexy—widower of her older sister. For four years, Cato, the Marquis of Granville, had been just another man—the uninteresting, somewhat intimidating husband of Phoebe's older sister. But then her sister died, and Phoebe seemed a reasonable substitute. Her forced engagement to him should have been quite a cold-blooded arrangement... except that one day Phoebe looked at Granville—really looked at him—and saw what she'd never seen before: he was darkly, breathtakingly attractive. Once she'd noticed, she couldn't seem to stop noticing, and suddenly Phoebe was disastrously in love. It would be nothing short of torture to be married to Granville, knowing he didn't love her and never would. After all, Phoebe was not the kind of woman men fell in love with—Phoebe with her untidy hair, her rumpled clothes, and her fingers forever ink-stained from the poetry she wrote. When running away does not solve her problems, Phoebe decides to try something a little different—something that involves a little change in wardrobe, a daring new attitude, and a bit of brazen seduction. Granville is about to discover that his awkward Phoebe is woman enough even for him....

Dear Reader, In my Brides Trilogy, three unconventional young women vow never to marry, only—one by one—to be overtaken by destiny. Scholarly Olivia is most certainly The Least Likely Bride... One moment Lady Olivia Granville is strolling along a path, her nose buried in a tome of Greek philosophy; the next she is plunging down a rocky cliff. When she regains consciousness, she is naked and unwittingly trapped on a pirate ship. Her captor, though, is no ordinary pirate. Wickedly handsome, disturbingly mysterious, the gray-eyed master of the Wind Dancer is both a physician and an artist, and admits to making his living from the sea. Most disconcerting of all, when he turns his glittering eyes on her, he sees not the stammering, hopelessly bookish young girl Olivia has always been, but a passionate, beautiful woman who can, if she chooses, embark on the adventure and the love of a lifetime. I invite you to share in Olivia's passionate, enchanting adventure. Warmest wishes, Jane Feather