It is a vast cosmic sea. Where each life exists as rippling circles on its surface, past and future being eternally present. And occasionally, one expanding ring intertwines with that of another, weaving the lives of two people together . . . Intertwine In 2012, Emme Wilde can’t find the right guy. Instead, she obsesses over the portrait of an unknown man in an old locket. Granted, a seriously dreamy guy with delicious, wind-swept hair she just itches to run her fingers through. Emme travels to England, determined to uncover his history and conquer the strong connection she feels. In 1812, James Knight has given up finding the right woman. But then he finds a beautiful mystery woman, dripping wet and half-dead, beneath a tree on his estate. Now if he can uncover her history, perhaps adventure—and romance—will find him at last Divine Georgiana Knight--born in the nineteenth century, but now living in 2013--discovers a centuries-old love letter written in her own handwriting. Should she risk giving up hot showers and return to the past to discover the mysterious stranger who inspired (will inspire?) her passionate letter?In 1813, Sebastian Carew is madly in love with his childhood friend, Georgiana. He is determined to find Georgiana and win her affections. However, she has utterly vanished. Can he divine the truth of her disappearance and convince her to marry him before time runs out? Clandestine In 2014, Marc Wilde--martial artist and actor--finds his life a mess. Someone knows about the time portal in the cellar of Duir Cottage and is threatening to tell the world unless Marc pays up. So yeah . . . life not going so well. In 1814, Kit Ashton has problems of her own. Her brother has disappeared (again), leaving Kit penniless and forcing her to take up employment as a lady's companion (sigh). Add in the sudden appearance of a wind-swept, silver-tongued rogue who makes Kit want to flirt, flirt, flirt . . . it all leaves her one misstep from disaster. Kit is determined to find her brother and return home, all while guarding her heart and (most importantly) keeping her secrets . . . well . . . secret. Refine In 1815, Timothy, Viscount Linwood—handsome, arrogant, privileged—never veers from the refined rules of his world. But then Fate intervenes and draws him to a vivid woman who makes him want things he can never have. Can a pompous lord change enough to find redemption? In 2015, Jasmine Fleury just wants her happily-ever-after. If only she could stop losing people instead. Worse, she finds herself babysitting a haughty nineteenth century lord who can't even shave himself. She has no interest in playing damsel-in-shining-armor to his knight-in-distress. But Fate has other plans . . . Explore four stories of love which transcend Time itself.

    As alliances shift and conspiracies multiply, the Seymours plot to establish their place in the treacherous court of King Henry VIII, where a courtier’s fate is decided by the whims of a hot-tempered and fickle monarch.Lady Anne’s own sister-in-law, Jane Seymour, soon takes Anne Boleyn’s place as queen. But if Jane cannot give King Henry a son, history portends that she, too, will be executed or set aside—and her family with her. In desperation, Lady Anne throws herself into the intoxicating intrigue of the Tudor court, determined to ensure the success of the new queen’s marriage and the elevation of the Seymour family to a more powerful position. Soon her machinations earn her a reputation as a viper in a den of rabbits. In a game of betrayal and favor, will her family’s rise be worth the loss of her soul?

    

    Her parents don't believe her, nor does her fiance. The only one who understands is the eccentric local inventor and her longtime companion, Turri. When her eyesight dims forever, Carolina can no longer see her beloved lake or the rich hues of her own dresses. But as darkness erases her world, she discovers one place she can still see-in her dreams. Carolina creates a vivid dreaming life, in which she can not only see, but also fly, exploring lands she had never known. Desperate to communicate with Carolina, Turri invents a peculiar machine for her: the world's first typewriter. His gift ignites a passionate love affair that will change both of their lives forever. Based on the true story of a nineteenth-century inventor and his innovative contraption, "The Blind Contessa's New Machine" is an enchanting confection of love and the triumph of the imagination."

    

    Garnet Cameron, a fashionable young lady of New York, is leading a neat, proper life, full of elegant parties and polite young men, yet the prospect of actually marrying any of them appalls her. Yearning for adventure, she instead marries Oliver Hale, a wild trader who is about to cross the mountains and deserts to an unheard-of land called California. During Garnet and Oliver's honeymoon in New Orleans, she meets a dance-hall performer on the lam who calls herself Florinda Grove and is also traveling to California. Along the Jubilee Trail, Garnet and Florinda meet kinds of men never known to them before, and together they make their painstaking way over the harsh trail to Los Angeles, learning how to live without compromise and discover both true friendship and true love.

    For Tansy, however, the choice was never hers. On the eve of her seventeenth birthday, Tansy is caught in a sizzling kiss with Christophe Desmarais. The next night, Tansy’s mother introduces her to the life she has been raised for: as a beautiful quadroon in Old New Orleans, Tansy is meant to be a rich white man’s mistress. She is as she should be, biddable, loyal and submissive. But is this all there is? As Tansy matures, she wearies of telling herself that her narrow life is enough, yet she is terrified to leave behind security and plenty to become a self-reliant, independent woman.Christophe Desmarais was, like Tansy, born to a mixed-race mother and a rich white father, but as a shrewd card-player, a talented violinist, and a respected teacher, he creates his own life. The attraction between him and Tansy has never abated, only been pushed down and unacknowledged. When he sees Tansy discovering there is more to her than being pretty and pleasing, he allows himself to hope that she will become her own woman. Maybe then the two of them will have a chance at a life together.Multiple award-winning author Gretchen Craig returns with an unconventional novel about loyalty, independence, and love.

    In this crisis, one man stood out as the great defender of tradition: Sir Thomas More.Portrait of an Unknown Woman is historical fiction at its best, rich in detail and observation that dares to choose as its setting the household of More. It is a novel that unfolds from an oblique angle, revealing itself not through More's eyes but through the eye of his young ward, Meg Giggs -- the unknown woman. Meg is a wholly realized creation, a young, headstrong woman schooled from childhood in the healing arts. A woman who, in time, will be torn between her loyalty, duty, and devotion to the More family and the call of her passions and conscience. Two men will vie for the heart and mind of young Meg: John Clement, her former tutor, a quiet man with a past shrouded in mystery; and Hans Holbein, the famous artist who twice painted portraits of More and his family.In Portrait of an Unknown Woman, Bennett has penned a suspenseful family drama with countless twists and turns, a revealing lesson on art and painting, and a most satisfying love story, all set against and within the rich historical time and tapestry of Tudor England. A remarkable debut novel.

    In that moment, she understood the nature of her life: an outlier."In 1883, a young Chinese woman is sold by her father to human traffickers and forcibly taken from her family and home in the mountains of Hunan. Facing brutality and deprivation, Ya Zhen must forge within herself a core of strength that will allow her to survive. Her journey ends thousands of miles and a continent away when she’s purchased in San Francisco as an indentured prostitute and taken to Eureka, a rugged and remote area of coastal California. This fledgling outpost—a coarse place filled with lumber mills, brothels, churches, and saloons—is bounded by ocean on one side and heavy redwood forests everywhere else.In Eureka, another woman, Rose Allen, doesn’t quite fit in. Big-hearted, but hard-headed and outspoken, Rose struggles against the prejudices and social expectations of her Victorian neighbors and acquaintances—especially after she falls in love with the Chinese shopkeeper, Bai Lum. When she learns that several Chinese women are kept as virtual slaves at Salyer’s Hotel, Rose joins forces with a small group of friends who are determined to help Ya Zhen escape her grim incarceration. But even as they devise a plan to get her free, a terrible accident precipitates the upheaval of the entire town, and tension mounts as the clock begins ticking for everyone.With a rich cast of unforgettable characters both fictional and historical, Chasing Down the Moon is based on true events that tore a community apart. This gripping historical fiction and literary love story will break your heart, give you reason to hope, and ultimately make you believe in the resilience of the human spirit.

    A womanizing merchant. Is Allana Dundas' life doomed before it even begins? Travel through Scottish Medieval Highlands with a sensuous historical romance full of courage, action, romance, strong emotions and twists. Here is the story: When wild and beautiful Allana Dundas reaches nineteen, everyone believes it is high time she is wed. Her family expects her to marry the neighbouring Laird's son, Nevin Kirk, a ruggedly handsome and masculine young man.Yet, a drunken embrace leads to sparks flying between Nevin and the fair, quiet Bettina, Allana's younger sister. Suddenly, all expectations are shattered.The sisters begin unwittingly competing for the hand of the handsome Nevin until hopeless romantic Allana finds an irresistible passion in the arms of a mysterious travelling merchant from Mull named Kendrick Muir. Undoubtedly, a proposal is not far behind and when the mature and sexy Laird Gavin Ingram catches word of the budding romance blossoming in the heart of Dundas Castle, he is shaken to his very core. Their wedding must be ruined, but how?A long-concealed ally arrives in Oban to reveal a heart-breaking secret which casts Allana's future into chaos once more.She isn't getting any younger and a fearful Allana realizes she must find a suitor or face a lonely future of spinsterhood. Will the free-willed Allana Dundas ever be tamed?"Highlander's Burning Desire" has over 80,000 words packed with romance, action, and emotion set on the beautiful backdrop of the Scottish Highlands.

    Guy of Gisborne is a man with secrets, Ysabel of Moncrieff, a naïve and opinionated noblewoman whose world comes tumbling down like the stones of a mighty cathedral on the death of her mother. Gisborne is ordered to Aquitaine to escort the young woman home to attend to her grieving father and whilst travelling, she discovers Gisborne’s secrets are not just connected with his family but with the throne of England. And with revenge. Suddenly Ysabel is confronted with the fact that history can be shaped unconscionably by those in power and that she and Gisborne could lose their lives. Highly Commended in 2012 Golden Claddagh Awards. Finalist in the prestigious RONE Awards, 2013. Honourable Mention in the RONE Awards, 2013.

    Claire Donovan always dreamed of visiting Venice, though not as a chaperone for a surly teenager. But she can't pass up this chance to complete her Ph.D. thesis on Alessandra Rossetti, a mysterious courtesan who wrote a secret letter to the Venetian Council warning of a Spanish plot to overthrow the Venetian Republic in 1618. Claire views Alessandra as a heroine and harbors a secret hope that her findings will elevate Alessandra to a more prominent place in history. But an arrogant Cambridge professor is set to present a paper at a prestigious Venetian university denouncing Alessandra as a co-conspirator -- a move that could destroy Claire's paper and career.As Claire races to locate the documents that will reveal the courtesan's true motives, Alessandra's story comes to life with all the sensuality, political treachery, and violence of seventeenth-century Venice. Claire also falls under the city's spell. She is courted by a handsome Italian, matches wits with her academic adversary, bonds with her troubled young charge, and, amid the boundless beauty of Venice, recaptures the joy of living every moment....Layering wit and warmth into her portraits of two very different yet equally dynamic heroines, Christi Phillips shifts effortlessly between past and present in a remarkable novel that is at once a love story, a mystery, and an intriguing historical drama. Filled with beautifully rendered details of one of the world's oldestand most magical cities, "The Rossetti Letter" marks Phillips's debut as a writer of extraordinary skill and grace.

    The bleak wilderness of America’s 49th state challenges three women in different eras: Julie, a nurse, who must serve victims of a 1925 diphtheria epidemic; Beth, whose Canadian-born husband is killed in World War II; and Rita, who takes on the ultimate test of endurance, the Iditarod dog sled race. Each must surmount the obstacles in her life, and perhaps, with God’s help, find true love as well.

    As Stefano, an Italian POW, heads toward home across war-ravaged Germany, he encounters a young child beside his dead mother. Unable to leave him to an unknown fate, Stefano takes the boy with him, finding refuge in a seemingly abandoned house in a secluded woodland.But the house is far from vacant. Stefano wakes at the arrival of its owner, Erich, a former German soldier, who invites the travelers to stay until they can find safe passage home. Stefano cautiously agrees, intrigued by the disarming German, his reclusive neighbor Rosalind, and her traumatized husband, Georg. Stefano is also drawn to Monique, the girl in a photograph on Rosalind’s wall, who went missing during the war.But when he discovers letters written by Monique, a darker truth emerges. This place of refuge could be one of reckoning, and the secrets of the past might prevent the travelers from ever getting home.

    Uprooted by war, Miriam enters a world where the old constraints slip away with thrilling and disastrous results. Miriam’s rebellious daughter, Nadia, is thrilled with the opportunity for a modern life that her elite education provides. But when she falls in love with an outsider, the clan reins her back with a shocking finality. Nijmeh, Nadia's daughter, is an only child and the path her father, the sheik, sets for her is fraught with difficulties, yet it prepares her for her ultimate journey to America, where she finds her future.Each woman, in her own time and in her own way, experiences a world in transition through war and social change...and each must stretch the bounds of her loyalty, her courage, and her heart.