Series Details
Darkly serious & wonderfully entertaining.
Loyalty, betrayal, and treachery collide in this darkly serious yet wildly entertaining turn-of-the-century family drama.
When three different suitors vie for her affection, Elzira’s quiet country life turns chaotic. Duty and desire clash, family bonds are tested, and their once peaceful parish starts to fracture when traditions and hypocrisies are challenged.
The St. Magloire series introduces a lively mix of unforgettable characters. A maddening priest. An obnoxious old woman. Mean girls. Frustrated parents. Disloyal siblings. A rich young widower with a dark past. A one-eyed orphan boy. A stalker with a death wish. A younger sister with the grace of a runaway train. A thief on the run. A milk-delivery boy who does more than deliver milk. A pack of roughneck lumberjacks who live by their own brand of justice. And a wealth of other memorable townies.
Book One: Come What May
Book Two: The Bartered Bride
When Elzira’s father blindsides her with an arranged marriage to Theo — a love-sick farm boy cursed with a possessive mother — she must choose between obedience and defiance.
Meanwhile, we get a glimpse of Xavier and Luc.
Xavier, a lumberjack with big dreams, leads a lonely and dangerous existence. But it’s not all work and no play, and he encounters plenty of misadventures in the untamed wild.
Luc has wealth and prestige, but behind his polished exterior lurks a cruel obsession and a hidden agenda.
After her ruined engagement to Theo, Elzira’s reputation is tainted, and her future looks dismal. When Luc, a wealthy widower, asks for her hand, she reluctantly chooses duty over desire and prepares to embark on this loveless marriage. She will play the dutiful wife and cling to the hope that she’ll find happiness down the road.
But Luc has other plans.
Book Three: A Cry of the Heart
During Luc and Elzira's brief engagement, Luc oversteps the line of propriety, and things spin out of control. To save face, he spreads vicious lies and marries another.
While Elzira drowns in a swirl of adversity and family conflict, a serendipitous turn of events unfolds, and long-buried secrets will come to light.
Book Four: Unexpected Expectations
After six months of insanity, the last thing Elzira needs is another pretty boy to complicate her life. Xavier is ambitious - and unmarried, and he'd like to keep it that way. When the two meet, the unexpected happens. The attraction is immediate, sexual. Keeping their love at bay ignites a fiery passion … and the honeymoon sizzles. As winter approaches, Xavier and Zira find work at the lumber camp. While Xavier resumes his duties as a foreman, Zira works in the kitchen, where the hours are long and the work grueling. When a spiteful former beau barges into her cabin, he does not encounter the mild-mannered milkmaid of long ago. Elzira fights back with hilarious results.
Book Five: A Bittersweet Live
The land is unforgiving, the summers are scorching, and the long winters harsh and deadly. While Xavier eeks out a living, Elzira gives birth to twenty children. Amid enduring poverty and backbreaking labor, there are times of joyous celebrations. But their lives are all too often overshadowed by devastating losses and unimaginable sorrow that threaten to crush them both.
Inspired by a true story.
Book Six: The Truth Behind the Lies
After Luc marries Marguerite (Book 3), she all but disappears from public life. Very few know the truth, and they're not talking. Luc is a beast, but Marguerite has her own dirty secrets that must never see the light of day if she is to survive this marriage. When Luc's mistress pays Marguerite a visit, things get ugly. Marguerite is terrified of Luc, but she's not about to kowtow to her husband's whore. What unfolds is both comical and heartbreaking. Will Marguerite recover from her traumatic marriage to Luc? Or will the priest drag her back into the cesspool they once shared? How long can Luc's mistress cuckold her husband before her maid spills the beans?
INCLUDES a BONUS NOVELLA - Luc, The Early Years. We get a glimpse of Luc's disturbing childhood, his disruptive influence at a boarding school, and his early days as a white-collar cutthroat.