Letters from Paris


Juliet Blackwell - 2016
    But these days she feels something lacking. Abruptly leaving her lucrative job in Chicago, Claire returns home to care for her ailing grandmother. There, she unearths a beautiful sculpture that her great-grandfather sent home from Paris after World War II.At her grandmother’s urging, Claire travels to Paris to track down the centuries old mask-making atelier where the sculpture, known only as “L’inconnue”—or the Unknown Woman—was created. With the help of a passionate sculptor, Claire discovers a cache of letters that offer insight into the life of the Belle Epoque woman immortalized in the work of art.As Claire uncovers the unknown woman’s tragic fate, she begins to discover secrets—and a new love—of her own.

A Shaft of Sunlight


Barbara Cartland - 1981
    The duke is Giona's Apollo, bringing light and healing to her world. But as her love for him grows, Giona fears he sees himself as nothing more than a rescuer, a Sword of Justice. Can she ever hope of finding rapture in his arms?

Havana Girl


Colin Falconer - 2013
    But it’s love that’s dangerous Havana, 1958. Magdalena Fuentes knows that Angel Macheda is the only man for her, even after he takes her virginity and then tells her he is engaged to someone else. She knows they are meant to be. So why can she not stop thinking about Reyes Garcia? From the moment I saw you, he says, I knew there would be no one else. From the moment I saw you, she tells him, I knew you were arrogant, conceited and rude. Magdalena is a girl who will not let sentiment stand between her and love. But as Fidel Castro’s rebels tighten their grip around the city and she watches her family and her whole life come apart, she learns hard lessons about love and about life. Against the backdrop of the boleristas and the gangsters, the music and the guns, Magdalena discovers just how dangerous love can be.

Afton of Margate Castle


Angela Elwell Hunt - 1993
    Schooled in the ways of kings and surrounded by splendor, Afton falls in love with the earl’s son, brave, Calhoun, her childhood protector.But Calhoun’s mother, the Lady Endeline, has much different plans for him than marriage to a villein’s daughter. Suddenly Afton’s world is torn viciously apart. She is cast out of the castle, given to a man she fears and despises as a reward for his loyalty—an all too clear reminder that, for all her dreams, she is nothing but a villein.Now all she has left is a burning desire for vengeance . . .

Paris Time Capsule


Ella Carey - 2014
    But when she learns that she’s inherited the estate of a complete stranger—a woman named Isabelle de Florian—her life is turned upside down.Cat arrives in Paris to find that she is now the owner of a perfectly preserved Belle Époque apartment in the ninth arrondissement, and that the Frenchwoman’s family knew nothing about this secret estate. Amid these strange developments, Cat is left with burning questions: Who was Isabelle de Florian? And why did she leave the inheritance to Cat instead of her own family?As Cat travels France in search of answers, she feels her grasp on her New York life starting to slip. With long-buried secrets coming to light and an attraction to Isabelle de Florian’s grandson growing too intense to ignore, Cat will have to decide what to let go of, and what to claim as her own.

The Jewel of Seven Stars


Bram Stoker - 1903
    Amid bloody and eerie scenes, his daughter is possessed by Tera's soul, and her fate depends upon bringing Tera's mummified body to life.

The Lioness of Morocco


Julia Drosten - 2017
    Still single at twenty-three, she is treated like a child and feels stifled in her controlling father’s house.When Benjamin Hopkins, an ambitious employee of her father’s trading company, shows an interest in her, she realizes marriage is her only chance to escape. As Benjamin’s rising career whisks them both away to exotic Morocco, Sibylla is at last a citizen of the world, reveling in her newfound freedom by striking her first business deals, befriending locals…and falling in love for the first time with a charismatic and handsome Frenchman.But Benjamin’s lust for money and influence draws him into dark dealings, pulling him ever further from Sibylla and their two young sons. When he’s arrested on horrible charges, the fate of Sibylla’s family rests on her shoulders, as she must decide whether she’ll leave him to his fate or help him fight for his life.

Lost Memories


Katie Winters - 2020
    Her husband of twenty years had an affair; her children have left the nest; and she hasn’t managed to sell a screenplay in almost ten years. Now, one of the people she loved most in the world—her mother—is dead.“Heartbroken” doesn’t even cover it. She’s never been more lost in her life.Elise and her mother had always lived in Los Angeles. Her mother was an actress and a single mother, who never revealed who Elise’s father was.Now, Elise finds a secret diary within her mother’s things—one that reveals a portion of her mother’s life that Elise never knew about.In the late ‘70s, her mother worked as the personal assistant to acclaimed actress, Jane Seymour. And during this time, she journeyed to the glorious Michigan-based Mackinac Island, for the film, Somewhere in Time.While there, Elise’s mother met a man who changed her life forever. He must be Elise’s father. And Elise is determined to find out.Now, Elise must decide what to do next. How will she grapple with her mother’s death? And could a trip to Mackinac Island change her life, like it did her mother’s?She thought all the adventure in her life was over. She thought she would never find happiness again.But she’s beginning to think the adventure has only just begun. Dive in for a trek of a lifetime: from the glittering sands of Los Angeles, all the way to that gem of an island between the southern and northern peninsulas of Michigan, Mackinac Island, where secrets have been kept for the previous forty years.

The People We Were Before


Annabelle Thorpe - 2016
    A new village. A new life. But eight-year-old Miro knows the real reason why his family moved from the inland city of Knin to the sunkissed village of Ljeta on the Dalmatian Coast, a tragedy he tries desperately to forget. The Ljeta years are happy ones, though, and when he marries his childhood sweetheart, and they have a baby daughter, it seems as though life is perfect. However, storm clouds are gathering above Yugoslavia.War breaks out, and one split-second decision destroys the life Miro has managed to build. Driven by anger and grief, he flees to Dubrovnik, plunging himself into the hard-bitten world of international war reporters.There begins a journey that will take him ever deeper into danger: from Dubrovnik, to Sarajevo, to the worst atrocities of war-torn Bosnia, Miro realises that even if he survives, there can be no way back to his earlier life. The war will change him, and everyone he loves, forever.(P)2016 Headline Digital

Sylvia's Lovers


Elizabeth Gaskell - 1863
    England is at war with France, and press-gangs wreak havoc by seizing young men for service. One of their victims is a whaling harpooner named Charley Kinraid, whose charm and vivacity have captured the heart of Sylvia Robson. But Sylvia’s devoted cousin, Philip Hepburn, hopes to marry her himself and, in order to win her, deliberately withholds crucial information—with devastating consequences.The introduction discusses the novel's historical and geographical authenticity, as well as its innovative treatment of gender and human relationshipsIncludes a new chronology, updated further reading, notes, and appendices

The Thread


Victoria Hislop - 2011
    Victoria Hislop, internationally bestselling author of The Island and The Return, has written a wonderfully evocative and enthralling saga enriched by deep emotion and sweeping historical events, from fire to civil war to Nazi brutality and economic collapse. The Thread is historical fiction at its finest, colorful and captivating with truly unforgettable characters--a novel that brilliant captures the energy and life of this singular Greek city.

Under the Country Sky


Grace S. Richmond - 1916
    Smart, spunky, and energetic, she bears her situation with a good will and exercises her considerable talents for the good of those she loves. Before long, a Mr. Jefferson comes to board and Georgiana invites her cousin—rich, town-bred cousin Jeannette—to visit. Companioned by her childhood friend Jimps and fast-moving suitor Miles Channing, Georgiana won't be bored for long! Written in 1916.

The Art of Hearing Heartbeats


Jan-Philipp Sendker - 2002
    Intent on solving the mystery and coming to terms with her father’s past, Julia decides to travel to the village where the woman lived. There she uncovers a tale of unimaginable hardship, resilience, and passion that will reaffirm the reader’s belief in the power of love to move mountains.

The Trumpet-Major


Thomas Hardy - 1880
    In The Trumpet-Major, the tale of a woman courted by three competing suitors during the Napoleonic wars, he explores the subversive effects of ordinary human desire and conflicting loyalties on systematized versions of history. This edition restores Hardy's original punctuation and removes the bowdlerisms forced upon the text on its initial publication.

The Bridge Over the River Kwai


Pierre Boulle - 1952
    In a prison camp, British POWs are forced into labor. The bridge they build will become a symbol of service and survival to one prisoner, Colonel Nicholson, a proud perfectionist. Pitted against the warden, Colonel Saito, Nicholson will nevertheless, out of a distorted sense of duty, aid his enemy. While on the outside, as the Allies race to destroy the bridge, Nicholson must decide which will be the first casualty: his patriotism or his pride.