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Melinda Hammond
Newest Release
Born in Bristol, England, UK, she grew up telling stories. She would make up adventures to relate to her school friends during break times and lunch hours, and she was once caught scribbling a story instead of listening to the French lesson. As a punishment, her teacher made her translate the story into French! She left school at sixteen and worked in offices as varied as stockbrokers, marine engineers, insurance brokers, biscuit manufacturers and even a quarrying company.
She married at nineteen, but continued to work until the birth of her first child. It was at that time that she decided to try her hand at her first love—writing, and shortly after the birth of her daughter she had her first book, Fortune's Lady, published under the pen name of Melinda Hammond. This was quickly followed by two more historical novels, Summer Charade and Autumn Bride, but with the birth of her twin sons the demands of family life meant that writing had to take a backseat for a few years. A compulsive scribbler, she never stopped writing and continued to work on research for her novels, experimenting with contemporary scenarios as well as writing pantomimes for her children's school. In 1989 the family moved to an isolated Pennine farmhouse in West Yorkshire, not far from Brontë country, where the family expanded to include a dog, two gerbils and a dozen chickens. The growing family needed funding and she went back to work full-time. The writing had to be put on hold. Then, in March 2000, Sarah stepped off a curb and landed in hospital with one ankle broken and one badly sprained. This laid her up on a sofa for twelve weeks and gave her the time she needed to finish a novel. She wrote as Melinda Hammond and Maid of Honour was published the same year. Since then she has never looked back. She's published more than a dozen books under this pen name and has won the Reviewers' Choice Award in 2005 from Singletitles.com for Dance for a Diamond. Her novel Gentlemen in Question was a Historical Novel Society Editors' Choice Title in November 2006. In 2012 her novel The Dangerous Lord Darrington won the Love Story of the Year by the Romantic Novelists' Association. She is now concentrating on writing romantic historical adventures for Mills & Boon.
Full Series List in Order
Lagallan Brothers
1 - Autumn Bride (Aug-1983)2 - Dream Chasers (Nov-2003)
Book List in Order: 17 titles
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Fortune's Lady
- Jun-1982
- / Romance
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When beautiful Lady Rosalyn Tremayne inherited her godfather’s fortune, she returned to London after a prolonged absence. Her reappearance caused speculation: Had she decided to take a husband -- or to rekindle an old flame? She had no lack of admi...
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Summer Charade
- Nov-1982
- / Romance
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In Georgian England, arranged marriages were a way to repair family fortunes, but when Miss Christine Harpollet learned she was to be sacrificed upon the matrimonial altar, she decided to take matters into her own hands. Lord Malshangar managed to re...
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Autumn Bride
- Aug-1983
- / Romance
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Governess Caroline Hetton was approached by Major Lagallan with the suggestion that she marry his brother, Vivyan, and spend the rest of her life in comfort. Though the young man is charming and handsome, Caroline is disturbed by his wildness -- and ...
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Maid of Honour
- Apr-2002
- / Romance
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When her mother is incapacitated, Lucilla Chambers reluctantly agrees to take her place and act as chaperone to her sister, the beautiful widow, Lady Lairne. Her attempts to protect her sister bring Lucilla into conflict with the notorious Dominic Va...
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The Bargain
- Oct-2002
- / Romance
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"When I do not care for your fortune... what else could possibly aid your suit?" Fashionable London in the 1780s is a hotbed of vice and scandal and the notorious Earl of Aldringham retreats to Bath in order to let talk of his latest affai...
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Lady Vengeance
- May-2003
- / Historical Romance
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When Madame Elinor de Sange returns to England in 1753, bent on revenge, Guy Morellon, Marquis of Thurleigh finds himself pitted against a dangerous adversary. For Elinor has the bloodstone, a fiery ruby that holds the key to his destruction and that...
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Dream Chasers
- Nov-2003
- / Historical Romance
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When Vivyan Lagallan decides it is time to settle down, Fate has other ideas. One last adventure literally drops into his arms in the form of the spirited Miss Eustacia Marchant. Eustacia is determined to marry Rupert Alleyne, while Vivyan is engaged...
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The Highclough Lady
- Oct-2004
- / Romance
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Governess Verity Shore longs for a little adventure, until Rafe Bannerman arrives to carry her off to Highclough and Verity discovers that life can be a little too exciting. An estate on the edge of the wild Yorkshire Moors, Highclough is Verity's in...
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A Lady at Midnight
- May-2005
- / Romance
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When Amelia Langridge accepts an invitation to stay in London as companion to the beautiful Camilla Strickland, her thoughts are merely to enjoy herself a little before settling down as the wife of dull but dependable Edmund Crannock. When Camilla at...
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Dance for a Diamond
- Oct-2005
- / Historical Romance
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Antonia Venn describes herself as a very average sort of female -- certainly nothing to win the heart of a man of fortune or fashion. In a bid for independence and at a time when the waltz was born, she decides to open a dancing school in Bath, despi...
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Gentlemen in Question
- Jun-2006
- / Romance
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In the closing months of 1792, the terror of the French Revolution forces Camille, the young Comte du Viviere, to flee his homeland and seek refuge with his relatives in England. For Madeleine, the arrival of her handsome French cousin marks a change...
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The Belles Dames Club
- Apr-2007
- / Romance
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Miss Clarissa Wyckenham comes to London to join her pretty step-mother and finds that Mama-Nell has formed a discreet club for ladies. Soon she is pitched headlong into the deliciously wicked antics of the Belles Dames Club and finds herself in confl...
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Moonshadows
- Sep-2008
- / Fantasy
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Right man, wrong century? Feeling trapped between an attraction to her rich, handsome boss and loyalty to her penniless boyfriend, Jessica "Jez" Skelton hopes a visit to her aunt's house will clear her head. Instead, a box of inherited letters raises...
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Casting Samson
- Oct-2011
- / Romance
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Finding your boyfriend in the shower with another woman isn't high on Deborah Kemerton's "best birthday presents ever" list. Her life in London shattered, she retreats to her sleepy hometown to heal her broken heart. There, she's quickly swept up in ...
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Melinda Hammond
- Nov-2013
- / Historical Romance
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Three full Regency Romance novels by British author Melinda Hammond: Fortune’s Lady, Maid of Honour, and Highclough Lady ...
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The Miner's Wife
- Sep-2014
- / Romance
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Glory is on a downward spiral to insanity. She is a mining wife in a mining town in the middle of nowhere, on a road fallen off the edge of the Nullarbor, where dead men tell no lies. Glory and the three men who love her - one dead, one silent, and t...
