"Through a Fog" by Hollis Shiloh

This was a strange little novella about a magician/courier transporting a mysterious egg across the sea to be studied by English scientists.  It is at least 50 years old and has shown no signs of life until cracks start to appear.  Soon an unusual creature hatches, but is it harmless or will it endanger the ship and its passengers?  I've read many of Shiloh's stories and this one was quite different from the others, but I still enjoyed her cast of characters as well as the unique setting.  60 pages (Kindle edition).

"Memoirs of a Scandalous Red Dress" by Elizabeth Boyle

Captain Thomas Dashwell is an American privateer, and Lady Phillipa "Pippin" Knolles is an innocent British miss when they meet in Smuggler's Cove in 1810.  They are smitten with each other but don't meet again until 1814 when Dash is stranded in London during a severe winter and Pippin has come to town with her cousins to find a husband.  They are only together a few brief times and then are separated another 23 years.  This novel weaves back and forth between 1814 and 1837, when they are both in their 40s.  Pippen is now a widow with two grown children, and Dash is still captain of a ship but is a shell of the man he once was.  His son tracks down Pippen with the hope that she can save Dash from drinking himself to death.  But will she risk not only her reputation but her children's to help the man she once loved more than anything?

Criss-crossing between the past and present doesn't always work well in narratives, but the author does a fine job using it to tell Pippen and Dash's story.  In fact, it kept me so intrigued that I read this novel in two days!  The HEA is never really in question in historical romances, but getting the full story of a couple's past and how it affects them now that they are older and getting to know each other again is fascinating.  Highly recommended.  350 pages.