In hard times, I tend to gravitate toward books with happy endings. This used to mean a stack of traditional mystery novels, but with the current trend of lots of graphic violence in mystery/thriller novels, I’m increasingly turning to romance novels when I want a happy ending. I’m excited to report that we have LOTS of titles by one of my favorite romance writers, Lisa Kleypas, in our digital collection.

I’m a fan of historical romance novels, and we have one of my favorite historicals, Devil in Winter, available as an e-book. The heroine, Evie Jenner, is in great danger from her deceased mother’s family, who plan to marry her to a cousin and then kill her to obtain the fortune she will inherit when her father dies in a few weeks. The only way Evie can escape these evil people is to marry – and marry a man smart and ruthless enough to protect her.

Sebastian, Lord St. Vincent, is a duke’s heir with no business or income of his own and a father who has recently run through all the dukedom’s money. He needs to marry an heiress and soon. Evie appears at Lord St. Vincent’s house one evening and proposes a marriage of convenience. They are slightly acquainted but St. Vincent had no idea of her family situation. He can’t afford to refuse her offer.

They rush to Scotland and marry in an anvil wedding. When they return to England, St. Vincent takes over Evie’s father’s business and her protection – and rises to meet both challenges with bravery and integrity, something no one ever expected of him. And he’s as smart and ruthless as they come. Evie has saved herself through very unconventional means, which appeals to me.

Devil in Winter is one of four novels in the author’s Wallflowers series, and we have all three of the other books in that series, Secrets of a Summer Night, It Happened One Autumn and Scandal in Spring, also available as e-books. If you like to read series in order, Secrets of a Summer Night is the first book in the Wallflowers series, It Happened One Autumn is second, Devil in Winter is third and Scandal in Spring is fourth.

If you like Evie as much as I do, the author has also written a wonderful novel featuring Evie’s daughter, Phoebe, Devil’s Daughter, which we have as an e-book and as an audiobook, and a novel featuring Evie’s son, Gabriel, Devil in Spring, which we also have as an e-book. We also have several other novels by Ms. Kleypas available as e-books, both historical romance and contemporary romance.