Nvengaria Series by Jennifer Ashley

Welcome to Nvengaria, a land where magic happens, shape-shifters are real, and fairy tales come true. England 1819 Wallflower Penelope Trask believes nothing will ever happen in her village of Little Marching, Oxfordshire. Handsome princes only sweep in and carry off innocent maidens in the fairy tales she collects, never in real life. Prince Damien of Nvengaria is tired of living inside a fairy tale... moreWelcome to Nvengaria, a land where magic happens, shape-shifters are real, and fairy tales come true. England 1819 Wallflower Penelope Trask believes nothing will ever happen in her village of Little Marching, Oxfordshire. Handsome princes only sweep in and carry off innocent maidens in the fairy tales she collects, never in real life. Prince Damien of Nvengaria is tired of living inside a fairy tale. His entire life has been ruled by prophecy, magic, and avoiding being assassinated by his mad father and the head of the Council of Dukes. When his father dies, he inherits a kingdom divided, his opposition led by Grand Duke Alexander, who will do anything to keep the monster's son from ruling Nvengaria. To make good his claim to the throne, Damien must fulfill a prophecy that reunites the lines of the original two princes of Nvengaria, best friends who'd carved a kingdom out of wild lands near the Transylvanian mountains. Damien's task—to bring back the Princess of Nvengaria, her line lost centuries ago. The price of disappointing the people, Alexander promises, will be Damien's execution. Damien tracks down the long-lost princess to the village of Little Marching in England, where nothing remotely interesting ever happens. He will have to convince the lovely Penelope that he is no charlatan, and that Damien's life and his kingdom depends on her facing danger with him. Along the way, the prophecy says, they will fall in love. And the prophecy is never wrong ... Note: The Nvengaria series is paranormal historical, the books loosely based on well-known fairy tales: Penelope and Prince Charming—Cinderella The Mad, Bad Duke—Beauty and the Beast Highlander Ever After—Snow White and the Seven … Highlanders The Longest Night—Little Red Riding Hood (and the Big, Bad Wolf) less

London, 1820 Miss Meagan Tavistock doesn’t believe the talisman her friend purchases from a so-called witch is truly a love spell—that is, until the love spell backfires, catching her in it with the handsome, ruthless Grand Duke Alexander, ambassador to England from the far-off kingdom of Nvengaria. The last thing Alexander needs is to be swept into a wild love-spelled frenzy with an innocent miss... moreLondon, 1820 Miss Meagan Tavistock doesn’t believe the talisman her friend purchases from a so-called witch is truly a love spell—that is, until the love spell backfires, catching her in it with the handsome, ruthless Grand Duke Alexander, ambassador to England from the far-off kingdom of Nvengaria. The last thing Alexander needs is to be swept into a wild love-spelled frenzy with an innocent miss. He has problems of his own—memory losses, strange and terrible dreams, and a shape-shifting logosh called Myn following him around. Alexander is honorable enough to ensure Meagan is not ruined by their love-spell induced encounter. He thinks to marry her, conquer his seeming madness, and carry on with his task of intimidating King George of England for the good of his beloved Nvengaria. What he doesn’t figure into the equation is Meagan—a very determined and lovely young woman who seeps into his every thought. Meagan is resolved to have a real marriage and a real family, and to see that Alexander does too. She will ensure Alexander takes up his duties as her husband and father to his nine-year-old son, even if she has to resort to some very Nvengarian intrigue to accomplish it. Alexander admires her resilience, but the secret he harbors about himself and his past is sure to endanger her and his son, two people he swears to protect and love even at the cost of his own happiness and quite probably his life. Welcome back to Nvengaria, a land of intense beauty and wild magic, where shape-shifters are real and fairy tales might just come true. Each Nvengarian story is based loosely on a well-known fairy tale: Penelope and Prince Charming—Cinderella The Mad, Bad Duke—Beauty and the Beast Highlander Ever After—Snow White and the Seven Highlanders The Longest Night—Little Red Riding Hood (and the Big, Bad Wolf) less

Scotland 1820 When Zarabeth of Nvengaria is in danger, her cousin Prince Damien knows there's no safer place he can send her than to his old friend Egan MacDonald and his castle in the remote Scottish Highlands. Egan has loved Zarabeth since the day she kissed him in her father’s house five years ago, his young friend having blossomed into a beautiful woman... moreScotland 1820 When Zarabeth of Nvengaria is in danger, her cousin Prince Damien knows there's no safer place he can send her than to his old friend Egan MacDonald and his castle in the remote Scottish Highlands. Egan has loved Zarabeth since the day she kissed him in her father’s house five years ago, his young friend having blossomed into a beautiful woman. Since then, Zarabeth married, but she recently discovered that her husband was a treacherous plotter, ready to overthrow her cousin Damien and take over Nvengaria. She slips away at great risk to herself and informs Damien, who sends her to Scotland, in the company of a half-logosh called Valentin to protect her, out of reach of her cruel and vengeful husband. Egan finds Zarabeth a rigid shell of a woman. He undertakes to strip away the layers she’s been forced to wear, to expose the true, spirited, beautiful Zarabeth he’d known. At the same time, Zarabeth is determined to show Egan how much she cares for him—has always cared for him. She also comes to life in the castle whose beams are likely to fall on her, and which is supposedly under a curse, where Egan’s cousins, sister, nephews, and neighbors swarm at will, returning joy and laughter to Zarabeth’s world. Egan’s nephew Jamie is determined to marry Egan off so Jamie won’t have to inherit, and recruits Zarabeth to help him. Zarabeth falls in love with Castle MacDonald and its inhabitants and never wants to leave—curse or no curse. Zarabeth grows interested in the curse and its history—anything magical fascinates her. She herself has a magical gift, inherited from her Nvengarian mother—she can read thoughts, which was how she learned of her husband’s treachery. But there is one person she’s never been able to read—Egan MacDonald, the Mad Highlander, the man she’d give her heart to, and her entire life if he wished it … Nvengaria series, Book 3. This is a full-length novel. less

Mary Cameron, a Highland widow with a son, doesn’t believe she is destined to find passion in her life until she meets Baron Valentin, a Nvengarian bodyguard who had been sent to Scotland to protect a princess. When Valentin was hurt in the course of his duties, Mary nursed him and learned his secret—that he was one of the shape-shifting peoples of the Nvengarian mountains, able to take the form of a wolf... moreMary Cameron, a Highland widow with a son, doesn’t believe she is destined to find passion in her life until she meets Baron Valentin, a Nvengarian bodyguard who had been sent to Scotland to protect a princess. When Valentin was hurt in the course of his duties, Mary nursed him and learned his secret—that he was one of the shape-shifting peoples of the Nvengarian mountains, able to take the form of a wolf.Valentin departed Scotland once the princess married Mary’s brother, and Mary hasn’t seen him since. Now he’s back, sent to keep an eye on the Nvengarian ambassador to England, who might be plotting to overthrow Valentin’s tiny kingdom.Valentin hasn’t changed—tall, dangerous, handsome, mysterious—and he wants Mary.Mary has been put in charge of a young lady, daughter of a late friend, and that daughter has proved a handful. Mary and the young lady are invited into the household of the very ambassador Valentin has been sent to watch, and danger soon follows. The ambassador’s wife insists on learning every custom of an English Christmas, no matter how obscure, keeping Mary running, as do the threats to the lives of all present. Mary and Valentin don’t have much time to explore what they might have had.But Valentin’s people believe that the person one spends the night with on the longest night of the year—the winter solstice—will remain in one’s life forever. Valentin is willing to put this theory to the test, to discover whether he and Mary will surrender to the magic of The Longest Night … less