Publisher and Editorial Service
Bestselling author Elizabeth Johns was first an avid reader, though she was a reluctant convert. It was Jane Austen's clever wit and unique turn of phrase that hooked Johns when she was "forced" to read Pride and Prejudice for a school assignment. She began writing when she ran out of her favorite author’s books and decided to try her hand at crafting a Regency romance novel. Her journey into publishing began with the release of Surrender the Past, book one of the Loring-Abbott Series. Johns makes no pretensions to Austen’s wit but hopes readers will perhaps laugh and find some enjoyment in her writing.
Johns attributes much of her inspiration to her mother, a retired English teacher. During their last summer together, Johns would sit on the porch swing and read her stories to her mother, who encouraged her to continue writing. Busy with multiple careers, including a professional job in the medical field, author and mother of small children, Johns squeezes in time for reading whenever possible.
Rhys Godfrey, Lord Vernon, and Lady Beatrice Chalcroft, daughter to the Duke of Loring, had been betrothed since childhood in an arrangement made by their fathers. Unlike most arranged marriages, Vernon had loved Beatrice since the first time he saw her. The season they should have been married found the relationship severed by jealousy and pride.
Beatrice was sent away from home to reform her spiteful behavior, and Vernon was hurt and determined to forgo love.
Lord Vernon decides to move on with an unemotional marriage of convenience.
Lady Beatrice finds herself reduced from a duke’s daughter to a life of service in Scotland trying to learn the ways of the less privileged.
Will the two find their way back together again? Or will Vernon choose another bride first? Will Beatrice be able to humble herself and reform her shrewish spoiled ways?
At nineteen, Lady Lydia Markham was beautiful, bookish and naïve. Her sheltered, loveless upbringing had not educated her in the ways of the beau monde, or the men who inhabited it. So when she met Nathaniel, Lord Fairmont, it was all too easy to be swept away by his rakish charm and good looks. She was devastated when he did not propose marriage, but joined Wellington’s army instead.
Six years of battle has changed Nathaniel: older, wiser, the conqueror of the addictions that drove his misspent youth, he’s avowed to start afresh. But a chance meeting with Lydia unnerves him; she is so very keen to speak to him, yet he cannot fathom why. Has she waited for him all these years? He is unfit for her and is focused on making amends for another’s life that he ruined, and he urges her to forget him.
Nathaniel’s indifference leaves Lydia heartbroken, but she reaffirms her vow to begin anew. Unfortunately, she needs Nathaniel's assistance. If ensuring his aid means following him to the Continent, where he’s gone to fight Napoleon with the Household Guards, then so be it. But will he help once he knows her secret?
Andrew Abbott is the last man standing: all of his friends have succumbed to the leg shackles of marriage. Now that he has sold out of the Army, he’s unsure how he wants to spend the rest of his life. His father proposes sending him back to restore their burned-out plantation in America. But just as he’s set to leave, he meets the woman of his dreams.
Gwendolyn Lambert's family was reduced to penury after her father was disgraced and then killed in a duel. Gwen and her invalid mother have survived on a mere pittance in the city of Bath. Her mother's cousin, the Dowager Duchess of Loring, is determined to see Gwen taken care of and restored to her rightful place. But Gwen does not care for Society because her family have been so treated ill by it.
However, the savvy Dowager has a few tricks up her sleeve—including Andrew, her handsome and charming grandson. Unfortunately, she hasn’t counted on him being sent to America, or on Gwen's father's family coming back into the picture. The entire Loring-Abbott clan becomes involved in a scheme to bring Andrew and Gwen together. But will they be able to overcome being separated by oceans, storms and the interference of scheming mamas?
The Dowager Duchess of Loring, had finally married off all her grandchildren and was now uncertain what her future held. When she accompanies her grandson and his new wife on a trip to Italy, a chance encounter with a past love turns her world upside down.
For over thirty years, Luca Faranese, Conte de Salerno, has tried to forget about the woman who stole his heart. Fate gives them a second chance, but will their love be enough to keep them together forever the second time?