Award-winning author Jo-Ann Power achieved "shining brilliance" (Kathe Robin, <I>Romantic Times)</I> in <I>The Nightingale's Song.</I> Now, in the grand tradition of Edith Wharton, she masterfully evokes the Victorian era in a series featuring the young American heiresses who take Europe by storm...the American Beauties. <P> Ann Brighton is determined to be more than the debutante daughter of a brash American millionaire. Foiled in a bid for her independence -- and jilted by her fiancé -- she reluctantly accepts her father's offer: a stipend to buy the horse farm she covets if she accompanies him on a grand tour of Europe. Skip Brighton hopes to unravel some suspicious business dealings <I>and</I> match his daughter with any eligible British nobleman. Ann intends to cling to her freedom -- until a stranger asks for her trustin more ways than one.... <P> Rhys Kendall, the sixteenth duke of Carlton, is nearly bankrupt -- for which he blames Skip Brighton. But now he wants Ann as his lover and his wife; together, Rhys and Ann must conquer their bitter pasts amid the colorful whirl of London's drawing rooms and ballrooms, where they encounter gossip, greed and murder. To win a love like never before, Rhys must persuade Ann to surrender her hand and her heart for safekeeping -- and to follow the spirit of an unexpected passion.