Stories by @devahutiraichaliha

The Gresham Chronicles

Julia Hollis' opulent life in Victorian London crashes to pieces when her husband passes away. Worse, she is told by his bankers that he gambled away their fortune. Now, the family's hope rests on The Larkspur, an old abandoned coaching inn in the quaint village of Gresham. Driven by dread and her desire to provide for her children, Julia decides to turn the dilapidated inn into a lodging house. But can she--who was accustomed to servants attending to every need--do what needs to be done and cope when boarders begin arriving? And then an eligible new vicar moves into town... Love is in the air. As the wedding of Julia Hollis and Vicar Andrew Phelps approaches, the quaint English village is caught up in a stir of excitement and the promise of an event to remember. Andrew's daughter Elizabeth is being courted by a handsome young curate. But the man she once loved suddenly appears at her door, wanting to prove he's now worthy of her affection. Who will win the hand of the vicar's daughter?

Dangerous Alliance

Lady Victoria Aston has everything she could want: an older sister happily wed, the future of her family estate secure, and ample opportunity to while her time away in the fields around her home. But now Vicky must marry—or find herself and her family destitute. Armed only with the wisdom she has gained from her beloved novels by Jane Austen, she enters society’s treacherous season. Sadly, Miss Austen has little to say about Vicky’s exact circumstances: whether the roguish Mr. Carmichael is indeed a scoundrel, if her former best friend, Tom Sherborne, is out for her dowry or for her heart, or even how to fend off the attentions of the foppish Mr. Silby, he of the unfortunate fashion sensibility. Most unfortunately of all, Vicky’s books are silent on the topic of the mysterious accidents cropping up around her…ones that could prevent her from surviving until her wedding day.

Tidelands

The story of a poor, uneducated midwife named Alinor who is tempted by a forbidden love affair--but all too aware of the dangers awaiting a woman who dares to step out of the place society carved for her.

The Botanist's Daughter

In Victorian England, headstrong adventuress Elizabeth takes up her late father's quest for a rare, miraculous plant. She faces a perilous sea voyage, unforeseen dangers and treachery that threatens her entire family. In present-day Australia, Anna finds a mysterious metal box containing a sketchbook of dazzling watercolours, a photograph inscribed 'Spring 1886' and a small bag of seeds. It sets her on a path far from her safe, carefully ordered life, and on a journey that will force her to face her own demons.

Orgullo y Prejuicio

Pride and Prejudice is an 1813 romantic novel of manners written by Jane Austen. The novel follows the character development of Elizabeth Bennet, the dynamic protagonist of the book, who learns about the repercussions of hasty judgments and eventually comes to appreciate the difference between superficial goodness and actual goodness. A classic piece filled with comedy, its humour lies in its honest depiction of manners, education, marriage and money during the Regency era in Great Britain. Mr Bennet of Longbourn estate has five daughters, but because his property is entailed it can only be passed from male heir to male heir. Since his wife also lacks an inheritance, Mr Bennet's family will be destitute upon his death. Thus it is imperative that at least one of the girls marry well to support the others, which is a motivation that drives the plot. Jane Austen's opening line--"It is a truth universally acknowledged, that a single man in possession of a good fortune, must be in want of a wife"—is a sentence filled with irony and sets the tone for the book. The novel revolves around the importance of marrying for love, not for money or social prestige, despite the communal pressure to make a good (i.e., wealthy) match.

The Queen's Vow

Young Isabella is barely a teenager when she and her brother are taken from their mother’s home to live under the watchful eye of their half-brother, King Enrique, and his sultry, conniving queen. There, Isabella is thrust into danger when she becomes an unwitting pawn in a plot to dethrone Enrique. Suspected of treason and held captive, she treads a perilous path, torn between loyalties, until at age seventeen she suddenly finds herself heiress of Castile, the largest kingdom in Spain. Plunged into a deadly conflict to secure her crown, she is determined to wed the one man she loves yet who is forbidden to her—Fernando, prince of Aragon. As they unite their two realms under “one crown, one country, one faith,” Isabella and Fernando face an impoverished Spain beset by enemies. With the future of her throne at stake, Isabella resists the zealous demands of the inquisitor Torquemada even as she is seduced by the dreams of an enigmatic navigator named Columbus. But when the Moors of the southern domain of Granada declare war, a violent, treacherous battle against an ancient adversary erupts, one that will test all of Isabella’s resolve, her courage, and her tenacious belief in her destiny.

After the Puce Empress

While on a stormbound flight to Shanghai, a mysterious old man from Manchuria thrusts a strange object into the hand of Jocelyn Osgood, the well-known Flight Attendant with Valkyrian Airways. When the old man inexplicably disappears, he leaves Jocelyn with a clue to the whereabouts of an antique Chinese treasure - one that holds the very secret to pure magic. With advice from Cairo Jim, Jocelyn embarks upon a search for the Puce Empress. But Gordon Slenderhead, that renowned prestidigitator, is also after the Empress, and his devious desire is all-consuming...

The Shadow of the Wind

The Shadow of the Wind (Spanish: La sombra del viento) is a 2001 novel by the Spanish writer Carlos Ruiz Zafón and a worldwide bestseller. The book was translated into English in 2004 by Lucia Graves and sold over a million copies in the UK after already achieving success on mainland Europe, topping the Spanish bestseller lists for weeks. It was published in the United States by Penguin Books and in Great Britain by Weidenfeld & Nicolson and Orion Books. It is believed to have sold 15 million copies worldwide, making it one of the best-selling books of all time.

Le Cid

Le Cid is a five-act French tragicomedy written by Pierre Corneille, first performed in December 1636 at the Théâtre du Marais in Paris and published the same year. It is based on Guillén de Castro's play Las Mocedades del Cid. Castro's play in turn is based on the legend of El Cid. An enormous popular success, Corneille's Le Cid was the subject of a heated polemic over the norms of dramatic practice known as the Querelle du Cid (Quarrel of The Cid.) Today, Le Cid is widely regarded as Corneille's finest work, and is considered one of the greatest plays of the seventeenth century.

White Mughals

The true story of a love affair that took place in early nineteenth century Hyderabad, between James Achilles Kirkpatrick and Khair-un-Nissa Begum. The book is a richly detailed narrative non-fiction work that blends biography, political history, and romance. Its core focus is on the cross-cultural relationships between British East India Company officers and Indian nobility.

Cymbeline

Cymbeline /ˈsɪmbɪliːn/, also known as The Tragedie of Cymbeline or Cymbeline, King of Britain, is a play by William Shakespeare set in Ancient Britain (c. 10–14) and based on legends that formed part of the Matter of Britain concerning the early Celtic British King Cunobeline. Although listed as a tragedy in the First Folio, modern critics often classify Cymbeline as a romance or even a comedy. Like Othello and The Winter's Tale, it deals with the themes of innocence and jealousy. While the precise date of composition remains unknown, the play was certainly produced as early as 1611.

The Winter's Tale

The Winter's Tale is a play by William Shakespeare originally published in the First Folio of 1623. Although it was grouped among the comedies, some modern editors have relabelled the play as one of Shakespeare's late romances.

The Two Gentlemen of Verona

The Two Gentlemen of Verona is a comedy by William Shakespeare, believed to have been written between 1589 and 1593. It is considered by some to be Shakespeare's first play, and is often seen as showing his first tentative steps in laying out some of the themes and motifs with which he would later deal in more detail; for example, it is the first of his plays in which a heroine dresses as a boy. The play deals with the themes of friendship and infidelity, the conflict between friendship and love, and the foolish behaviour of people in love.

Sylvester (The Wicked Uncle)

Sylvester, or the Wicked Uncle is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer. First published by Heinemann, London and Putnam, New York in 1957, it is the story of intelligent and desperate Phoebe who ends up marrying the man she has run away from home to avoid, and whom she has caricatured as the villain in her novel. The book features gentle mockery of the Gothic novel genre and also features Heyer's characteristic strong heroine, with a desire for independence (in Phoebe's case, as a writer), who marries on her own terms. The story is set in 1817-1818

Faro's Daughter

The beautiful but poor Deborah Grantham presides over her aunt's gaming house in Georgian London. Here she meets Max Ravenscar, who is determined to prevent his young cousin Lord Mablethorpe from contracting an inappropriate marriage to Grantham. Incensed by the idea that she would exploit an innocent, Deborah decides to take her revenge on Ravenscar, which eventually leads to the pair falling in love.

Cotillion

Cotillion is a Regency romance novel by Georgette Heyer that was released in 1953. It is one of the most light-hearted of Heyer's romances, avoiding the mystery, intrigue, and sensational events present in many of her novels. The story is set in 1816.

The Black Moth

The Black Moth (1921) is a Georgian era romance novel by the British author Georgette Heyer, set around 1751. The Black Moth was Heyer's debut novel, published when Heyer was nineteen. It was a commercial success. The story follows Lord Jack Carstares, an English nobleman who becomes a highwayman after taking the blame during a cheating scandal years before. One day, he rescues Miss Diana Beauleigh when she is almost abducted by the Duke of Andover. Jack and Diana fall in love but his troubled past and current profession threaten their happiness.

Lorna Doone

Lorna Doone: A Romance of Exmoor is a novel by English author Richard Doddridge Blackmore, published in 1869. It is a romance based on a group of historical characters and set in the late 17th century in Devon and Somerset, particularly around the East Lyn Valley area of Exmoor. In 2003, the novel was listed on the BBC's survey The Big Read.

Arabella

Arabella is a Regency romance novel written by Georgette Heyer. It records the plight of a relatively poor girl from the English gentry who captures the attention of a very wealthy man by claiming to be an heiress; although he disbelieves her, he is amused by her presumption and character. The story is set in the spring of 1817.

Dragon Seed

Dragon Seed is a novel by Pearl S. Buck first published in 1942. It describes the lives of Chinese peasants in a village outside Nanjing, China immediately prior to and during the Japanese invasion in 1937. Some characters seek protection in the city while others become collaborators. This story focuses less on the details of the attack and more on the characters’ reactions to the events in Nanking.[1] The Nanking Massacre (commonly called the Rape of Nanking) involved months of horrific violence by the Imperial Japanese Army as they conquered the city; the novel takes place during these events. Buck opines in the novel that Japanese troops passing through China feel no responsibility for their conduct as they won’t be present to be confronted after the violence is over.