Desperate Duchesses (40 page)

Authors: Eloisa James

Tags: #Fiction, #Romance, #Historical, #General

BOOK: Desperate Duchesses

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And final y, if you happen to be a chess aficionado, the matches played by Jemma, Elijah and Vil iers are al master matches. Though I wasn’t able to depict every move, if you’d like to know more about the matches themselves, please come to my website (www.eloisajames.com) and check out the Inside Take for
Desperate Duchesses.

Acknowledgments

With profound thanks to my research assistant, Franzeca Drouin, who labored far beyond the cal of duty on this book. Without her perspicuity, enormous knowledge, and excel ent research skil s, it would be a flimsy shadow of itself. Further thanks to the large circle of researchers whom she consulted about various issues ranging from the French language to signet rings.

In addition, my assistant, Kim Castil o, made my life much easier with her organizational skil s. Thank you both! Final y…a quick thanks to the wonderful readers who frequent my Bul etin Board. I can’t wait to see what you think of my
Desperate
Duchesses
!

About the Author

Author of twelve award-winning romances, ELOISA JAMES is a professor of English literature who lives with her family in New Jersey. Al her books must have been written in her sleep, because her days are taken up by caring for two children with advanced degrees in whining, a demanding guinea pig, a smel y frog, and a tumbledown house. Letters from readers provide a great escape! Write Eloisa at [email protected] or visit her website at www.eloisajames.com.

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GLORIOUS ACCLAIM FOR

NEW YORK TIMES
AND
USA TODAY

BESTSELLING AUTHOR

ELOISA JAMES

“O
ne of the brightest lights in our genre.”

Teresa Medeiros

“S
he writes with a captivating blend of charm, style, and grace that never fails to leave the reader sighing and smiling and falling in love.”

Julia Quinn

“C
all her ‘the historical Jennifer Crusie’…James gives readers plenty of reasons to laugh.”

Publishers Weekly

“S
he’s a gift every romance reader should give herself.”

Connie Brockway

“[
J
ames] forces the reader into a delicious surrender.”

USA Today

“R
omance writing does not get much better than this.”

People

By Eloisa James

DESPERATE DUCHESSES

PLEASURE FOR PLEASURE

THE TAMING OF THE DUKE

KISS ME, ANABEL

MUCH ADO ABOUT YOU

YOUR WICKED WAYS

A WILD PURSUIT

FOOL FOR LOVE

DUCHESSS IN LOVE

Copyright

This is a work of fiction. Names, characters, places, and incidents are products of the author’s imagination or are used fictitiously and are not to be construed as real. Any resemblance to actual events, locales, organizations, or persons, living or dead, is entirely coincidental.

DESPERATE DUCHESSES. Copyright © 2007 by Eloisa James. All rights reserved under International and Pan-American Copyright Conventions. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of HarperCollins e-books.

Microsoft Reader April 2007 ISBN 9-780-0614-4397-8

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