What if the truth about a famous painting was not what it’s been told to be? What if it was not even the original work and a different painting had inspired its creation? The story of a painting… The motivation behind the work, Flaming June—Romanticist painter, Lord Frederic Leighton’s magnum opus—a woman sleeping in a chair. Hauntingly beautiful, but with its inspiration locked away in the mystery of times past. 1812... Burdened with family skeletons and agonizing guilt, an unwilling Lord Rothvale, one Graham Everley, returns from a long sojourn in Ireland to attend to the obligations awaiting him in England. The last thing he imagines to find is his destiny, but find her he does. Imogene Byron-Cole, a girl as lovely as her past is tragic. Graham can’t walk away from her, and so he marries her instead, in spite of an increasingly tangled web of troubles that threaten to destroy the very foundation of his entire existence. As Graham and Imogene start out on their journey together, they express their love through a series of portraits. The art ensnares them completely, and in the end, becomes their salvation, bearing them through their deepest pain of loss, and inspiring a masterwork. [This is a historical romance novel intended for readers 18 years and older due to content and language.]

Fast horses fill his days. Fast women fill his nights. Racing horseman, Clive Gravelle, has never given the idea of settling down much thought at all. And why should he? His life is satisfying just as it is. Or, he would say so, even if it isn’t really true. But ideas do change. New acquaintances are made. Love finds a way of pushing in, becoming something very unexpected—a forbidden dream to a man like Gravelle. He won’t ever fall in love with a woman again. Then he finds Cariss Wilton. Beautiful, lovely, sweet, unspoiled, Cariss Wilton. She comes gently into his life, although the effect is anything but gentle for him because Cariss is someone he can never have. She is innocent, and far too young. A girl so faraway and above the debauched world in which he’s lived his life, that he couldn’t possibly entertain the notion of dragging her down with him. But Cariss is far stronger than she looks, and she definitely knows the difference between good and evil. Clive Gravelle just needs to be persuaded that he is so much more than an expert predictor of winning horseflesh, and a scandalous cad with the ladies. Will the innocent tame the rogue? Maybe she already has, but he just hasn’t realized it yet.

Colin & Elle (year 1813)