Books like Guilty Pleasures by Barbara Bretton

Daphne Wade loves watching Duke Anthony Courtland work at his estate's excavation site—until he sees her only as a plain young worker. Determined to change his perception, she learns social graces to reveal her true beauty.

A gripping tale of vengeance and redemption: after her humiliation by Benedict Maxwell, Rebecca returns as a determined mother seeking to protect her son from the dangers of her past.

Convenient Bride for the King is a romance novel by Kelly Hunter that explores themes of love, duty, and destiny within a fictional setting.

One man One woman One night One big surprise Everyone in town knew Caroline and Charlie just weren't meant for each other. Like oil and water or chalk and cheese, the ex-Navy cook and the beautiful shop owner were a bad match, and although the small New Jersey town was filled with inveterate matchmakers, even the most determined of the lot had to admit this was one match that would never happen. But nobody had figured on Caroline and Charlie getting locked in a storage vault with an automatic timer set for the next morning . . . And Caroline and Charlie definitely hadn't figured on the little surprise they got a few months later when they discovered there was a baby on the way! Caroline is sure she can handle everything alone but Charlie has other ideas: a modern marriage of convenience! At first there isn't anything convenient about living with the all-male Charlie Donohue but before long Caroline's defenses are down and her husband-in-name-only is sharing her bed. Is there even the slightest chance this marriage of inconvenience could turn into the real thing?

In his wickedly brilliant first novel, Debut Dagger Award winner Alan Bradley introduces one of the most singular and engaging heroines in recent fiction: eleven-year-old Flavia de Luce, an aspiring chemist with a passion for poison. It is the summer of 1950--and a series of inexplicable events has struck Buckshaw, the decaying English mansion that Flavia's family calls home. A dead bird is found on the doorstep, a postage stamp bizarrely pinned to its beak. Hours later, Flavia finds a man lying in the cucumber patch and watches him as he takes his dying breath. For Flavia, who is both appalled and delighted, life begins in earnest when murder comes to Buckshaw. "I wish I could say I was afraid, but I wasn't. Quite the contrary. This was by far the most interesting thing that had ever happened to me in my entire life."To Flavia the investigation is the stuff of science: full of possibilities, contradictions, and connections. Soon her father, a man raising his three daughters alone, is seized, accused of murder. And in a police cell, during a violent thunderstorm, Colonel de Luce tells his daughter an astounding story--of a schoolboy friendship turned ugly, of a priceless object that vanished in a bizarre and brazen act of thievery, of a Latin teacher who flung himself to his death from the school's tower thirty years before. Now Flavia is armed with more than enough knowledge to tie two distant deaths together, to examine new suspects, and begin a search that will lead her all the way to the King of England himself. Of this much the girl is sure: her father is innocent of murder--but protecting her and her sisters from something even worse....An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, The Sweetness at the Bottom of the Pie is a masterfully told tale of deceptions--and a rich literary delight.From the Hardcover edition.

After a whirlwind courtship, Megan McLean and Jake Lockwood married each other, only to divorce one another a year later. Megan went back to her world and Jake went back to his, both determined to put their failed marriage behind them and get on with their lives, except for one small thing: the result of their short marriage which Jake knew nothing about. Jake Lockwood is back six years later, to discover he is a father.

The day had begun like any other... But before it had ended, Catherine found herself plunged into a tangle of lies and deceptions, of intrigue ... and love. She had encountered a bizarre situation that threatened to turn her life upside down. Whom could she trust? The handsome doctor who seemed able to plumb the depths of her very soul, or the unpredictable, disturbing Martin Bellec, a man whose motives were impossible to gauge? And although Catherine could not have known, her choice was a matter of life and death!

When first love failed her, it took someone special to prove love changes... It took Stacey Andersen five years to put the pieces of her life back together after her fiance walked out. As a successful businesswoman with part ownership in a small computer company, Stacey was satisfied--until Franco Borelli exploded into her peaceful world. Sophisticated and secure, Franco shook her very core, and with burning ecstasy threatened the deepest, darkest secret any woman could ever reveal!

After her husband abandons her and takes their life and belongings, Molly Chamberlain is left with an empty house and a broken heart. When Rafe Garrick, a skilled carpenter, arrives, he begins to repair both the home and Molly’s fragile spirit.