The Brides of London

Fans of Bridgerton will love these two Regency romances for the price of one, featuring two best friends, each determined to advertise for love.

The Bittersweet Bride: Widow Theodosia Cecil needs a husband and needs one fast to protect her land, so she places an anonymous ad in the paper. She's delighted she spends her remaining weeks exchanging flirtatious letters with the perfect man... Until she meets him and realizes he's the son of the man trying to steal her land.

The Bashful Bride: When sparks fly between timid heiress Ester Croome and a handsome actor, they're quick to elope. But when she discovers there is so much more to him than meets the eye, in order to save the marriage the shiest woman alive must publicly woo the most desirable man in England . . . her husband.

"The Bittersweet Bride charms, entertains, delights, and, best of all, satisfies my craving for a great happily ever after." - NYT Bestselling Author, GRACE BURROWES

"A riveting, beautifully written, exquisitely detailed historical romance. Riley's characters are unique, realistic, and compelling, and readers won't want to put the book down before reaching Theodosia and Ewan's happily ever after." - ALYSSA COLE, author of An Extraordinary Union

"Riley's novel is as bittersweet as the title suggests -- deftly weaving issues of class and race into a complex second-chance love story" - SARAH MACLEAN - Washington Post Click for Article

"Vanessa Riley delivers an intriguing, tension-filled premise. In The Bittersweet Bride, an unlikely couple torn apart by past betrayal and prejudice are drawn back together in a compelling story of undying romance and second-chance love." -- JULIE KLASSEN, Author of The Maid of Fairbourne Hall

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The Bittersweet Moment

About This Book

Genre: Historical Romance / Regency Romance / Prequel

Setting: Regency England

Tropes: Fish out of water, class difference, second son, ambitious working heroine, tortured playwright, forbidden attraction

For readers who love: Regency romance, ambitious working heroines, class-crossing attraction, tortured heroes breaking free from difficult families, first love, new beginnings, and seeing where a sweeping romance begins.

Continue Their Story: The Bittersweet Bride

A free short story of beginnings. This is  a prequel to the Advertisements for Love Series.

A second son must find his place in the world, but can he trust his heart and not the heavy-handed antics of his father, the Earl of Crisdon.

A second son must find his place in the world, but can he trust his heart and not the heavy-handed antics of his father, the Earl of Crisdon. Ewan Fitzwilliam needs his life to change. Unwilling to follow in the footsteps of his abusive father, he gathered the strength to break free. Saving a young flower picker from troubles upon his father's estate may prove the opportunity he needs to become a man of honor. Theodosia wants a better life, and she intends to build a flower business that caters to the perfumers in Town, but can she trust a rich man's son to teach her better diction to impress potential clients? Or will she learn a different lesson, succumbing to the dangerous attraction she feels for the tortured playwright?

Below are the 4 books in The Advertisement for Love series:

Each book in the series is STANDALONE:
* The Bittersweet Bride
* The Bashful Bride
* The Butterfly Bride
* The Bewildered Bride

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The Bittersweet Bride

About This Book

Genre: Historical Romance / Regency Romance

Setting: Regency England

Tropes: Second chance romance, enemies to lovers, first love, widow heroine, returning soldier, newspaper advertisement, secrets and betrayal

For readers who love: Emotional second chances, first loves reunited, widowed heroines protecting their families, scarred soldiers returning home, newspaper courtships, bitter secrets, hard-won forgiveness, and love that survives years of separation.

Try Next: The Bashful Bride

Widow Theodosia Cecil needs a husband to help protect her son. The former flower seller turned estate owner posts an ad in the newspaper, and no one is more surprised than she when her first love, the man she thought dead, reappears.

Widow Theodosia Cecil needs a husband to help protect her son. The former flower seller turned estate owner posts an ad in the newspaper, and no one is more surprised than she when her first love, the man she thought dead, reappears. Ewan Fitzwilliam has been at war for six years. Now, the second son of a powerful earl is back, but his beloved Theo needs a husband and will not consider him. She believes Ewan left her - in desperate straits - so she denies the feelings she still harbors for the handsome, scarred soldier. Theo and playwright Ewan must overcome bitter lies and vengeful actions that ruined their youthful affair. Theo must reveal her deepest secret in order to reclaim the love that has long been denied.

"The Bittersweet Bride charms, entertains, delights, and, best of all, satisfies my craving for a great happily ever after." - NYT Bestselling Author, GRACE BURROWES

"A riveting, beautifully written, exquisitely detailed historical romance. Riley's characters are unique, realistic, and compelling, and readers won't want to put the book down before reaching Theodosia and Ewan's happily ever after." - ALYSSA COLE, author of An Extraordinary Union

"Riley's novel is as bittersweet as the title suggests -- deftly weaving issues of class and race into a complex second-chance love story" - SARAH MACLEAN - Washington Post Click for Article

"Vanessa Riley delivers an intriguing, tension-filled premise. In The Bittersweet Bride, an unlikely couple torn apart by past betrayal and prejudice are drawn back together in a compelling story of undying romance and second-chance love." -- JULIE KLASSEN, Author of The Maid of Fairbourne Hall

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The Bashful Bride

About This Book

Genre: Historical Romance / Interracial Regency Romance

Setting: Regency England

Tropes: Fan girl meets a star, friends to lovers, fish out of water, shy heiress, famous actor, elopement, escape from an arranged marriage

For readers who love: Shy heroines finding their courage, famous actors and secret admirers, interracial Regency romance, whirlwind elopements, Shakespeare, abolitionist history, family secrets, and couples fighting to build a marriage on their own terms.

Try Next: The Butterfly Bride

When a newspaper advertisement for a bridegroom nets London's most famous actor, a shy, sheltered heiress risks all to be with him in a mad dash to elope, escaping her overbearing family's plan for an arranged marriage. But does the actor with the voice of honey have far too many secrets to make a safe happy match?

Entertainment Weekly - MAUREEN LEE LENKER  May 30, 2018  Vanessa Riley crafts a highly historically accurate Regency interracial romance heavy on plotting and crisp detail.

A friend's newspaper advertisement for a groom nets the most famous actor in London, Arthur Bex. Shy heiress Ester Croome proposes to elope with the handsome man, who she's secretly loved for two years, in order to escape an impending engagement arranged by her overbearing family. Trying to outlive the shadow of his villainous uncle, Bex needs to marry quickly - to a woman of good character. And smart, beautiful Ester fits the bill. But a harrowing trip to Gretna Green and dangerous abolition rallies prove to be a more treacherous stage than either imagined. Infatuation and a mutual love for Shakespeare might not be enough to bind a couple looking to outrun the chains and secrets of family and the past.

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The Butterfly Bride

About This Book

Genre: Historical Romance / Regency Romance

Setting: Regency England

Tropes: Friends to lovers, social butterfly heroine, reluctant widower, marriage of convenience, newspaper advertisement, heroine in danger, romantic suspense

For readers who love: Friends-to-lovers Regency romance, vivacious heroines, reluctant widowers, convenient marriages, newspaper matchmaking, danger and suspense, and romance with a killer threatening the happily ever after.

Try Next: The Bewildered Bride

A social butterfly mistakenly awakens in the arms of a reluctant widower and seeks a convenient marriage via a newspaper advertisement to hide from a determined killer...

"This book wrapped my heart from page one and didn't let it go until long after I finished The End. Vanessa Riley is a true and unique talent you should not miss." - LAURIE ALICE EAKES, Author of True as Fate

"Infused with sumptuous historical descriptions and brimming with vivid, memorable characters, The Bittersweet Bride is a powerful and poetic gift for fans of Regency romance." - LENORA BELL, author of How the Duke was Won

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The Bewildered Bride

About This Book

Genre: Historical Romance / Black Regency Romance

Setting: Regency England

Tropes: Second chance romance, reunion romance, revenge, secret marriage, secret heir, hidden child, marriage of convenience, presumed dead

For readers who love: Black Regency romance, intense second chances, lovers reunited after years apart, secret marriages, hidden identities, revenge plots, family secrets, remembered passion, and couples fighting through betrayal to reclaim a love they thought was lost.

Try Another: The Bittersweet Bride

Wycliff wants nothing short of annihilation of his enemies and Ruth's surrender in his arms.
#2ndchance #reunion #revenge.

Ruth Croome, a Blackamoor heiress, was supposed to get married in a gorgeous wedding gown, made from her father's exquisite fabrics. Instead, they eloped to Gretna Green and upon returning, their carriage was beset by highwaymen and she witnessed the murder of her new husband. Now, four years later, with a child, she wants to move on with her life. A marriage of convenience will do. Ruth already had a love for the ages.

Adam Wilky is really the heir to the Wycliff barony—which he never told Ruth. Too much danger. So many secrets. When he was nearly beaten to death and sold into impressment, he thought Ruth had died, too. Ready for revenge, he finally returns and discovers Ruth alive—with a son who could only be his-and she is furious to discover he lied to her. Now it'll take more than remembered passion if he hopes to win his reluctant wife back

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All Vanessa Riley's Books

View Vanessa's Bookshelf - All of her publications to date.

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