Hearts Reawakened

Three years of silence taught Lady Moriah Moorland one devastating truth: "A good death is preferable to marriage." After finding her mother's lifeless body and watching love destroy everything she held dear, she's built walls no suitor can breach. Armed with razor-sharp wit and unshakeable resolve, she's determined to sabotage every match her brother Felix arranges—no matter how it breaks his heart. 

But when Duke Lucian Ashcombe appears as her unwanted chaperone for the London season, her carefully constructed world tilts. The man she loved—then believed abandoned her without explanation—is back, and living under the same roof reveals a shattering truth: his letters never stopped coming. Someone intercepted them, wanting to destroy their love, and succeeded. 

Now the reluctant heir who was never meant to rule faces his own demons. As England's first Duke of color, Lucian must prove his worth to a society watching his every move while navigating the treacherous waters of his own wounded heart. The playful boy Moriah once knew has become a man burdened by expectation and haunted by her silence. 

As old wounds reopen and their hearts remember what their minds tried to forget, a dangerous new threat emerges. Adrian Harcourt—wealthy, entitled, and ruthlessly determined—represents everything Moriah fears about marriage: a cage that would slowly kill her spirit. His calculated pursuit becomes more than unwanted attention; it's a strategic move to tie the Moorland fortune to the Harcourt empire. 

With political alliances shifting and Adrian's obsession escalating, Moriah faces an impossible choice: surrender to a loveless fate that ensures her safety, or risk her heart on the man who already shattered it once. But some wounds can only heal through forgiveness, and some love stories can only succeed in God's perfect timing. 

Can two souls wounded by betrayal discover that their trials have forged them into exactly who they need to be—for each other and for the future of England's changing aristocracy? 

In a world where love and politics collide, some hearts must break before they can truly heal. 

Book One in the sweeping Moorland Series—where broken hearts discover their refuge and become more than they ever imagined.