Aboard her privateering ship, The Seaflower, Captain Imena Leung is the law. Ashore she answers only to her liege, Duke Maxime. They are a powerful couple, with an intense attraction neither can disguise nor deny. As a nobleman, Maxime is destined to wed strategically, so his seductive advances must be purely for pleasure. And what self-respecting pirate denies herself any pleasure? Their delicious dalliance is prolonged when Imena is forced to abduct Maxime to thwart a political plot against him. At sea, with a stunningly virile man bound and held in her private quarters, Imena can imagine—and enact—any number of intoxicating scenarios. The heat between captain and captive is matched only by the perils that beset The Seaflower and her crew. Violent storms, marauding corsairs and life-or-death sex games on a desert island—how fortunate for the seemingly insatiable lovers that danger and desire go hand-in-hand.

“A highly colorful, swashbuckling read, one that will give you new respect for Britain’s first Elizabeth.” —Seattle Times An illuminating revisionist biography about Queen Elizabeth I and her merchant-adventurers who terrorized the seas, extended the Empire, and amassed great wealth for the throne. Extravagant, whimsical, and hot-tempered, Elizabeth was the epitome of power, both feared and admired by her enemies. Dubbed the "pirate queen" by the Vatican and Spain's Philip II, she employed a network of daring merchants, brazen adventurers, astronomer philosophers, and her stalwart Privy Council to anchor her throne—and in doing so, planted the seedlings of an empire that would ultimately cover two-fifths of the world. In The Pirate Queen, historian Susan Ronald offers a fresh look at Elizabeth I, relying on a wealth of historical sources and thousands of the queen's personal letters to tell the thrilling story of a visionary monarch and the swashbuckling mariners who terrorized the seas to amass great wealth for themselves and the Crown.

Governess Miss Viola Winslow is quite familiar with the rules of society, and her place in it. Still, it hasn’t stopped her from being horribly in love with the Duke of Huntington for years. But while the duke knows little of her foolish passions, the same cannot be said of Viola’s charge—a precocious fourteen-year-old obsessed with her governess’s secret romance. As a confirmed bachelor with no interest in marriage, the Duke of Huntington prefers his estate at Moorcliff Castle to the hustle, bustle, and utter nonsense of London society. He’s far more content with a glass of excellent whiskey and the calm of the country. Until his peace is shattered by the enchanting Miss Viola, and her injured young charge. Unable to travel or leave, Miss Viola has no choice but to remain at Moorcliff—where avoiding the duke is all but impossible. Somewhere between late night run-ins and a fake date in the most unlikely of places, their chemistry stops feeling one-sided. But when he discovers the secret she’s been hiding all along, there’s nothing that will save them from scandal. Each book in the Renegade Dukes series is STANDALONE: * Cinderella and the Duke * The Governess and the Duke

From piracy to nunnery via murder, the scaffold, and rescue by Queen Elizabeth, Pirate Queen tells the sensational story of Grace O'Malley, terror of the seas.

Analyzing the rise and subsequent fall of international piracy from the perspective of colonial hinterlands, Mark G. Hanna explores the often overt support of sea marauders in maritime communities from the inception of England's burgeoning empire in the 1570s to its administrative consolidation by the 1740s. Although traditionally depicted as swashbuckling adventurers on the high seas, pirates played a crucial role on land. Far from a hindrance to trade, their enterprises contributed to commercial development and to the economic infrastructure of port towns. English piracy and unregulated privateering flourished in the Pacific, the Caribbean, and the Indian Ocean because of merchant elites' active support in the North American colonies. Sea marauders represented a real as well as a symbolic challenge to legal and commercial policies formulated by distant and ineffectual administrative bodies that undermined the financial prosperity and defense of the colonies. Departing from previous understandings of deep-sea marauding, this study reveals the full scope of pirates' activities in relation to the landed communities that they serviced and their impact on patterns of development that formed early America and the British Empire.

Seduced by a Pirate is an original, RITA-award winning e-novella from New York Times bestselling author Eloisa James. 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, since 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! Seduced by a Pirate and a long novella, With This Kiss, can be found in print in Eloisa's collection, As You Wish. Seduced by a Pirate includes three chapters of a companion novel, The Ugly Duchess.

On a calm moonlit night, as the scent of jasmine and pine embraced the island of Ascension, the pirate prince Lazar di Fiori returns with lethal grace to avenge what was stolen from him: his kingdom, his birthright, his soul. . . . Allegra Monteverdi, the daughter of Lazar's sworn enemy, proves an uncommonly powerful adversary. She throws herself on his mercy, her courage and beauty touching his cold, unforgiving heart. He agrees to spare the lives of her family--but only if Allegra sails away with him as his captive. For his quest for vengeance still burns fiercely, and he will settle for nothing less than Allegra's body and soul. Alone at sea with this dark, intriguing man, moving between seduction and fear, Allegra gazes into eyes as deep and mysterious as the night and sees who this pirate really is. Lazar--the prince of her childhood dreams. Though he was rumored to be murdered years ago, she always believed someday he would return. But it will take more than her love for this pirate prince to bring peace to her beloved home. For Lazar must face the demons of his shattered past--if he is to forge the destiny that is theirs to claim. . . .

'One of the best fantasy book series of the past decade' TIME No masters. No limits. No regrets. Aelin Galathynius takes her place as queen in the fourth book of the #1 bestselling Throne of Glass series by Sarah J. Maas. Celaena Sardothien has embraced her identity as Aelin Galathynius, Queen of Terrasen. But before she can reclaim her throne, she must fight. She will fight for her cousin, a warrior prepared to die for her. She will fight for her friend, a young man trapped in an unspeakable prison. And she will fight for her people, enslaved to a brutal king and awaiting their lost queen's triumphant return. Everyone Aelin loves has been taken from her. Everything she holds dear is in danger. But she has the heart of a queen - and that heart beats for vengeance. In this fourth book in the #1 New York Times bestselling Throne of Glass series, no one will escape the queen's wrath.