The #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Black Dagger Brotherhood delivers the first novel in an enthralling new series set amid the shifting dynamics of a Southern family defined by wealth and privilege—and compromised by secrets, deceit, and scandal. . . .   Upstairs on the sprawling estate of Easterly, the kings of the bourbon capital of the world—the Bradford family—appear to play by the rules of good fortune and taste. Downstairs, the staff works tirelessly to maintain the impeccable Bradford facade. And never the twain shall meet.   For Lizzie King, Easterly’s head gardener, crossing that divide nearly ruined her life. Falling in love with Tulane, the prodigal son of the bourbon dynasty, was nothing she intended—and their breakup proved her instincts right. Now, after two years, Tulane is coming home. And no one will be left unmarked. . . . “Get ready for summer’s most sinful indulgence. The drama never stops in this tale of family secrets, lost love found, rivalries, delightfully nasty villains, and deliciously appealing heroes. The clothes, the whiskey, and the gorgeous Kentucky backdrop will sweep you away. The privileged and the downtrodden never had it so good. Put on your derby hat and join in the fun.”— New York Times bestselling author Susan Wiggs   “Breathless fun! J. R. Ward moves her trademark dark and sexy from the world of warrior vampires to the halls of the Kentucky elite, where the family members’ claws are just as sharp and the consequences just as deadly. I couldn’t stop turning the pages!”— New York Times bestselling author Lisa Gardner   “The setting is 80's TV soap opera Dallas meets Downton Abbey ...This is high drama, and it’s mesmerizing.”—Fresh Fiction   “I want my Bourbon in bed! J. R. Ward delivers a sweeping saga where family roots run deep and passion sizzles hotter than a Kentucky summer. Potent and heady, one taste just isn’t enough.”— New York Times bestselling author Gena Showalter   “The drama and dark secrets behind the Bradford family’s empire propel this irresistible story of high-society scandal . . . a read that’s rich, smooth, and satisfying as a glass of Kentucky bourbon.”— New York Times bestselling author Susan Elizabeth Phillips “With more devious characters than  Dynasty ,  The Bourbon Kings  is juicy soap opera at its finest.”— The Philadelphia Enquirer “Soapy elements abound in this Dynastyesque tale, from lavish wealth to feuds, dirty secrets, and forbidden love…Ward is a master of pacing and world building, and readers will love that the cliff-hanger ending guarantees at least a second helping of the Bradfords.”— Booklist (starred review) J. R. Ward is the author of more than twenty previous novels, including those in her #1 New York Times bestselling series, the Black Dagger Brotherhood. There are more than fifteen million copies of Ward’s novels in print worldwide, and they have been published in twenty-five different countries around the world. She lives in the South with her family.   ONE Charlemont, Kentucky Mist hung over the Ohio’s sluggish waters like the breath of God, and the trees on the Charlemont shore side of River Road were so many shades of spring green, the color required a sixth sense to absorb them all. Overhead, the sky was a dim, milky blue, the kind of thing that you saw up north only in July, and at seven-thirty a.m., the temperature was already seventy-four degrees. It was the first week of May. The most important seven days on the calendar, beating the birth of Christ, the American Independence, and New Year’s Rockin’ Eve. The One Hundred Thirty-ninth running of The Charlemont Derby was on Saturday. Which meant the entire state of Kentucky was in a thoroughbred racing frenzy. As Lizzie King approached the turn-off for her work, she was riding an adrenaline high that had been pumping for a good three weeks, and she knew from past experience that this rush-rush mood of hers wasn’t going to deflate until after Saturday’s clean-up. At least she was, as always, going against the traffic heading into downtown and making good time: Her commute was forty minutes each way, but not in the NYC, Boston, or LA, densely packed, parking-lot version of rush hour—which in her current frame of mind would have caused her head to mushroom cloud. No, her trip into her job was twenty-eight minutes of Indiana farm country followed by six minutes of bridge and spaghetti junction delays, capped off with this six – to ten-minute, against-the-tide shot parallel to the river. Sometimes she was convinced the only cars going in her direction were the rest of the staff that worked at Easterly with her. Ah, yes, Easterly. The Bradford Family Estate, or BFE, as its deliveries were marked, sat high up on the biggest hill in the Charlemont metro area and was comprised of a twenty-thousand-square-foot main house with three formal gardens, two pools, and a three-hundred-sixty degree view of Washington County. There was als