Royal Expectations

When your first girlfriend is the only one you’ve ever loved, how can anyone compete?

Princess Teddy Buckingham has felt the pressure of her destiny since she could first understand it, and finding someone to love when you’re an object of interest to the whole country is nearly impossible. Teddy learned that the hard way when her childhood sweetheart broke her heart by leaving when the attention became overwhelming.

Summer Fisher congratulates herself on dodging a bullet as she watches Princess Teddy’s latest love affair hit the news. Teddy was her first love, and now that Teddy’s been with woman after woman, it appears Summer made a lucky escape. It doesn’t help that Summer is a friend and PA to Teddy’s sister Anna. She has tried to keep her distance as much as she can, but it isn’t easy.

Queen Georgina instructs Teddy to work with Anna on a project that will launch Teddy as the new Princess of Wales. As Summer and Teddy are forced to work together, their feelings for each other resurface. Teddy’s royal profile gets stronger, and so does the public scrutiny that broke them apart. Will life under the microscope make love impossible?

My Forever Girl was previously published in Still Not Over You: Romance Novellas (Bold Strokes Books, 2020).

As the oldest daughter of a baroness with a quite superior attitude, Bronte de Lacey was brought up in privilege and expected to follow a traditional path. Make a good marriage and settle down to the business of making a family. But making a family isn’t what Bronte wants at all. Instead, she’s dedicated her life to saving animals as an animal rehabilitator. The Rosebrook village trust may give her the chance to finally live the life she wants and help others in the process.

Griffin Harris was brought up by her single mother in a poor housing estate. Finding out she is the sole heir of a large English estate catapults her from poverty to riches in one day. Her good-for-nothing father was never part of her life, so Griffin resents the money but uses it for her mother’s comfort while she travels the world, wandering, hoping to find her true place. When an old friend asks for a favor, she agrees to help restart a brewery in Rosebrook. It seems like a fine, and temporary, idea to Griffin.

When Bronte comes to the village, Griffin is drawn to her strength. Their connection creates a safe haven for the wanderer. But when Griffin discovers the truth about her father, all she wants to do is run.

Poppy King wants to save the world, but if she can’t do that, then she’ll save her own little corner of it. The realities of a career in the fashion industry leave her disillusioned and, after years working with UNICEF to improve the working conditions of families exploited by the unethical garment industry, Poppy returns home to start her business degree and create her own ethical clothing brand.

Undercover reporter Casey James has spent her career exposing the worst vices of humanity. After witnessing so much corruption, greed, and death, she’s losing sight of who she truly is. When Casey is tasked with a royal exposé on the court of Denbourg, she only has one way in, the Crown Consort’s sister, Poppy. 

Poppy meets Casey during her night classes and is instantly annoyed, distracted, and intrigued. When they’re grouped together for a class assignment, Poppy’s enthusiasm for life and love may just save Casey’s soul. But will she ever forgive Casey for using her to expose royal secrets?

For Veronica Clayton, the sudden death of her mother has turned her naturally bright and happy-go-lucky view of the world bleak. As the Police Protection Officer for the Queen’s children, she has purpose, but for the next six months, the Queen’s family is the focus of a documentary on royal life. The last thing Clay wants is a camera pointed in her face.

Katya Kovach, a refugee to Britain, knows all about death and grief. She saw her family shot in front of her and has never recovered from those dark memories. Now trained at London’s most prestigious childcare school, she’s happy as the nanny to Queen Georgina and Queen Bea’s children.

Clay is usually good-natured, but the rule-oriented Katya is not only a pain, but annoyingly beautiful, and they find themselves facing the awkward reality that everyone else is a couple except them while their every move is being filmed. Loss has defined both their lives, but guarding their hearts may prove to be the biggest heartbreak of all.

Old flames die hard in these tales of a second chance at love with the ex you’re still not over. Stories by award winning authors Jenny Frame, Carsen Taite, and Ali Vali.

In My Forever Girl by Jenny Frame, when tragedy tore their family apart, Brayden and Faith’s marriage ended in divorce. Four years later, they’re thrown together on a cruise by their friends. Can the spark that refused to die reignite the fire of their love?

In Double Jeopardy by Carsen Taite, Katie James didn’t plan on being a runaway bride. Twice. But when the gorgeous, accomplished, former love of her life, Emma Reed, reappears in her life the week of her wedding, will Katie risk everything for another chance with the woman who might be her soul mate?

In On the Rocks by Ali Vali, whiskey distiller Preston Maxwell still has no idea why her college sweetheart, Hayley Wyatt, disappeared from her life right after collecting her diploma. But when Hayley shows up to work on the advertising campaign that will take her business to the next level, Preston isn’t letting her get away a second time.