The Collected Works: The Lady Most Likely and The Lady Most Willing
Three bestselling authors. Two delightful novels. One terrific collection!
From Julia Quinn, author of the Bridgerton series, now streaming on Netflix—writing along with close friends and popular authors Eloisa James and Connie Brockway—comes THE LADIES MOST… a duo of cleverly crafted novels, The Lady Most Likely and The Lady Most Willing, together for the first time.
From four beloved writers—Eloisa James, Christi Caldwell, Janna MacGregor, and Erica Ridley—come four original stories that tell a hilarious tale of a Christmas house party that serves up love and scandal in equal measure!
The Duke of Greystoke’s Christmas Revelry is famous throughout the British Isles for its plays, dancing, magical grotto… not to mention scandals leading to the marriage licenses he hands out like confetti.
But not everyone welcomes a visit from Cupid.
Lady Cressida, the duke’s daughter, is too busy managing the entertainments—and besides, her own father has called her dowdy. Her cousin, Lady Isabelle Wilkshire, is directing Cinderella and has no interest in marriage. Lady Caroline Whitmore is already (unhappily) married; the fact that she and her estranged husband have to pretend to be together just makes her dread the party all the more. But not as much as Miss Louisa Harcourt, whose mother bluntly tells her that this is her last chance to escape the horrors of being an old maid.
A house party so large that mothers lose track of their charges leads to a delightful, seductive quartet of stories that you will savor for the Season!
Three enchanting short stories in a single volume!
A Midsummer Night’s Disgrace
Eloisa revisits the scintillating world of the Essex Sisters with a story featuring a young lady, Cecilia Bellingworth, who has decided she would rather ruin her reputation than endure further speculation about whether her children will be “silly,” like her brother, Billy. After two failed seasons, Cecilia decides she will dress as she likes (in a scandalous red dress!) and flirt outrageously (with a scandalous pianist!). Fortunately, a gorgeous musician at the Duchess of Ormond’s house party presents the perfect candidate for scandal…
Previously published in the Essex Sisters Official Companion Guide (e only).
At Midnight
Elias Hempleworth-Gray has one thing and one thing only of value—his title, Earl of Leyton. Determined to leave England and the scandal of his gambler father behind, Elias hopes to turn his fortunes around and come back a respectable man to claim the only woman for him, Miss Penelope White. But Penny has other plans for the man she has loved all her life…plans that include a masquerade, a stolen kiss and a lost shoe.
Previously published in the Fairy Tale sampler (print only).
Ever After
When she was sixteen, Miss Violet Leighton spent one blissful month romping around her family estate with Rothwell Talcott…thirty days of shared kisses, culminating in a very illicit afternoon in a berry patch. As Rothwell leaves for his grand tour, he gives his word of honor that he will return for her. Four years and seven refused proposals later, Violet is about to give up and marry when he finally returns. Now the Duke of Cambridge, Rothwell wants to make her his duchess. But how can Violet trust the man who stole her virtue—and then broke her heart?
Previously published in The Ugly Duchess (print only).
No Eloisa James fan should miss these enchanting short stories!
With This Kiss and Seduced by a Pirate, appear together in the print bundle, As You Wish.
From New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James come two stunningly sensual stories in which gentlemen who rule the waves learn that true danger lies not on the high seas, but in the mistakes that can break a heart…and ruin a life forever.
With This Kiss
Lady Grace Ryburn is in love with a dashing young naval lieutenant, Colin Barry, but she turns away, thinking that Colin is in love with her sister.
Should Colin throw propriety to the wind, imitate his pirate father, and simply take what he most desires?
RITA-Award Winning Novella, Seduced by a Pirate
Sir Griffin Barry is one of the most feared pirates on the high seas, piloting the Flying Poppy, a ship he named after the wife whom he fondly (if vaguely) remembers, given that they were together only a matter of hours.
What happens when a pirate decides to come home to his wife…if she is his wife, given that the marriage was never consummated? And what happens when that pirate strolls through his front door and is met by… Well, that’s a surprise!
A Fool Again is the story of Genevieve, who once made a dash to Gretna Greene to marry, but was caught by her father. Now, a few years later, the story opens at the funeral of her elderly husband (not the man she ran away to marry)…and that’s all I’m going to say, besides to tell those of you who enjoyed Fool for Love that the hero of this story is Darby’s brother, Tobias.
In my own life, I would love to think that I’ve only discarded, rather than lost, the men of my past. But there was one man who got away. He was funny, handsome, startlingly intelligent, imaginative in all right ways: my model for Tobias. We once had a wildly romantic picnic in the rain, under a tarp, eating melon and drinking white wine (watch for a picnic in the rain that turns into something altogether wonderful in my novella!). The great thing about writing fiction is that the Tobiases of our lives come back… I do hope you enjoy A Fool Again.
Betrothed since they were children, Gilbert Baring-Gould, Earl of Kerr, and the Honorable Emma Loudan are not quite what one would call a perfect match. The whole Ton knows him to be a complete rakehell, hardly the ideal spouse for a lady.
When he horrifies the Ton by announcing that he won’t go through with the marriage until Emma is carrying his child — or did he say that she was already carrying a child? — the gossips (and Emma) go wild.
Obviously she should hand this Beelzebub his ring back directly. But curiosity, and a strong wish to teach her brazen-faced fiancé some manners, demand that she beat him at his own game.
So she does.
It’s the story of a reluctant bridegroom (engaged since childhood, and hasn’t seen his fiancée in years), a bride who’s losing her patience, and a wild night in which the said bridegroom meets a wicked, delicious Frenchwoman…or is she?