From the Prologue… Thank goodness for a blatantly obvious murder. From Chapter One… This is an account of a remarkable man named Sherlock Holmes. BOOK DESCRIPTION “Being shunned by Society gives Charlotte Holmes the time and freedom to put her extraordinary powers of deduction to good use. As “Sherlock Holmes, consulting detective,” aided by the capable Mrs. Watson, she’s had… Read more »
Scarlett O’Hara was not beautiful, but men seldom realized it when caught by her charm as the Tarleton twins were. GONE WITH THE WIND by Margaret Mitchell “Since its original publication in 1936, Gone With the Wind—winner of the Pulitzer Prize and one of the bestselling novels of all time—has been heralded by readers everywhere as The Great American Novel…. Read more »
“If you marry into glass,” Pierre Labbe warned my mother, his daughter Magdaleine, in 1747, “you will say good-bye to everything familiar, and enter a closed world.” THE GLASS-BLOWERS by Daphne du Maurier “The world of the glass-blowers has its own traditions, it’s own language – and its own rules. ‘If you marry into glass’ Pierre Labbe warns his daughter,… Read more »
“The grey-green sea looked hungry as it lapped and chewed on the English shore, voracious, like the monsters mapmakers paint at the edge of the world.” THE TUDOR BRIDE by Joanna Hickson “The thrilling story of the French princess who became an English queen, from the best-selling author of The Agincourt Bride. Perfect for fans of The White Queen. Even… Read more »
“The parcel was wrapped in brown paper and tied with an unblemished silk ribbon.” PARIS TIME CAPSULE by Ella Carey “New York–based photographer Cat Jordan is ready to begin a new life with her successful, button-down boyfriend. 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…. Read more »
“Half an hour before Diana Snyder died, she tidied up her desk in the typists’ office of the Cabinet War Rooms.” MR. CHURCHILL’S SECRETARY by Susan Elia MacNeal “London, 1940. Winston Churchill has just been sworn in, war rages across the Channel, and the threat of a Blitz looms larger by the day. But none of this deters Maggie Hope…. Read more »
“Rebecca Hoffmann was summoned by the secret police on a rainy Monday in 1961.” EDGE OF ETERNITY by Ken Follett In Fall of Giants and Winter of the World, Ken Follett followed the fortunes of five international families—American, German, Russian, English, and Welsh—as they made their way through the twentieth century. Now they come to one of the most tumultuous… Read more »
“Nora’s first thought when they brought her the body was that it could not be her husband’s.” THE GOOD PEOPLE by Hannah Kent “The fires on the hills smouldered orange as the women left, pockets charged with ashes to guard them from the night. Watching them fade into the grey fall of snow, Nance thought she could hear Maggie’s voice…. Read more »
“I often marveled after I went to Pendorric that one’s existence could change so swiftly, so devastatingly.” BRIDE OF PENDORRIC by Victoria Holt “Favel Farrington meets Roc Pendorric on the idyllic Mediterranean island of Capri, where she was raised and lives with her father. Roc sweeps her off her feet, taking her from her home by an emerald sea to… Read more »
“While we waited for the news to arrive, we played dice.” CLEOPATRA’S DAUGHTER by Michelle Moran “The marriage of Marc Antony and Cleopatra is one of the greatest love stories of all time, a tale of unbridled passion with earth-shaking political consequences. When the lovers choose to die by their own hands, their three orphaned children are taken in chains… Read more »
“The mansion on the hill shone like a lighthouse.” ALEX & Eliza by Melissa de la Cruz “1777. Albany, New York. As battle cries of the American Revolution echo in the distance, servants flutter about preparing for one of New York society’s biggest events: the Schuylers’ grand ball. Descended from two of the oldest and most distinguished bloodlines in New… Read more »
“Sometimes anger is a living thing.” THE PURSUIT OF MARY BENNET by Pamela Mingle “A tale of love and marriage, society balls and courtship, class and a touch of scandal, Pamela Mingle’s The Pursuit of Mary Bennet is a fresh take on one of the most beloved novels of all time, Jane Austen’s Pride and Prejudice. Growing up with four… Read more »