Award-winning Author Marie Lavender brings excitement and passion to two coastal France towns in this captivating love story about a young heiress and a devilishly charming ship captain.
After being raised to believe that love is just a frivolous endeavor, French heiress Fara Bellamont has always kept her dreams of adventure and discovering a soul-searing passion to herself. So, when Captain Grant Hill makes his grand entrance into her life by way of rescuing her one fateful night, she knows she’s in trouble. He completely steals her heart.
But, as far as society is concerned, he’s also not a suitable husband.
Grant Hill, a beguiling, rugged ship captain, is just as enthralled with Fara as she is with him, but he too knows such things aren’t so simple. Not only must they overcome social expectations to be together, but wars and lies, as well. And with a long-time yearning neither has managed to achieve, the pair must fight to attain their deepest desire:
Happiness.
If you loved Surrender of a Siren by Tessa Dare or The Other Miss Brigerton by Julia Quinn, you’ll love this “exciting” and “intricate” standalone Historical Romance set by the sea. Get your copy today…
Professional Reviews
Review: Upon Your Return by Marie Lavender
With vivid characters, sensuality, and danger, Marie Lavender hits the mark with her historical romance Upon Your Return. Set in 1860s France, Lavender pulls the reader into her story with colorful historical details, authentic settings, and French phrases, making the atmosphere even more realistic.
Orphaned by the death of her parents, Fara Bellamont becomes the ward of her unloving uncle. Having known love from her parents, Fara is unprepared to deal with her uncle, who cannot wait until she is of age to marry her off. Fara’s fiancé deliberately puts her in danger one evening and ruffians attack her. Grant Hill, a trading captain, fights off the ruffians and rescues a still pure Fara, which makes Grant hero-worthy in my book. Immediately affected by Grant, Fara falls for his charms. Meanwhile, Grant is also affected by Fara’s beauty and spirit. Defying social convention because they are from different stations, Grant pursues Fara, which made me fall for him even more. All of her life, Fara has been looking for true love and believes that she has found that with Grant. A wise character, Fara realizes that love covers a wide range of feelings because one moment she wants nothing more than to kiss Grant and the next moment she just wants to smack him. Fara needs to hear those three magical words from Grant, and for the longest time, he is unable to say the words to her, which is heartbreaking. When danger finds its way to Fara’s life once again, Grant finally understands that he truly is in love with Fara, making me cheer out loud.
Seamlessly melding a powerful love story with a plenty of surprising plot twists, Upon Your Return is a deliciously seductive read that will sweep readers away to a different time and place.
-Lori Zalewski, Lusty Penguin Reviews
Review: Upon Your Return
Upon receiving this book, I immediately noticed how beautiful the cover was. I only meant to open it long enough to see how long it was going to be but found myself sucked in to the story from page one. I couldn't stop reading and ending up stay up way past my usual bedtime. It was that good.
Fara's background elicits teary eyes at the thought of the hopelessness that faces children in her situation. She was orphaned at a young age during a time in the world that when having a place to live meant relatives had to take you in or your were sent to the work houses, no matter your age. Thankfully, she did have an uncle to turn to but he was a cold man that tried to stifle the independent woman she was to become.
I laughed, cried, and even cheered a few times during the reading of Upon Your Return.
Fara and Grant's story is one that leaves you hoping for more and the touches of historically correct facts, women's rights issues, and the way society worked back then makes this book a hidden gem. Add in the fact that it was well-written and wonderfully edited makes it a five star book, in my opinion.
Brava to the author for publishing a book that turned out so wonderfully! Looking forward to reading more from Marie Lavender in the future! You can purchase Upon Your Return from Amazon or read more about it from Goodreads.
-Amanda, Editing After Edits blog
Romance Junkies Upon Your Return Review
UPON YOUR RETURN is an historical romance set in France that took me on a roller coaster ride with so many adventures and happenings. One minute there was happiness and the next would be despair. So many emotions were drawn on during the telling of the story.
Lavender's UPON YOUR RETURN is filled with sadness and sorrow, tears, angst, happiness, laughter, adventure upon adventure, unlikely heroes and heroines, family, friends, romance, love, hatred, enemies, secrets and a happily ever after. The prologue introduces us to Fara and shows us her strength immediately. Although it would waver she never lost that strength no matter what was thrown her way. Her uncle, who was her guardian after the death of her parents, never had her best interests at heart. It was difficult to fathom why he did what he did concerning Fara's life and future each and every time. Grant Hill, a ship's captain, was her unlikely rescuer many times and they had immediate chemistry and a connection the moment they met. Watching their interactions was never dull. There were complex characters, different locations and nice closure that tied up all the loose ends.
Lavender is a new to me author who has penned many books under several names that I will add to my TBR pile. I am happy to see she is currently working on the sequels to this series and will definitely be reading those as well to hopefully pick up where we left off!
-Jo, Romance Junkies Reviews
A search for the ghost of a chorus girl chorine haunting a costume designer’s Manhattan apartment leads to an encounter with an eccentric, mischievous witch with the ability to send folks back through time…in this case, the 1919 Ziegfeld Follies.
