From the sugar plantations of Saint-Domingue to the lavish parlors of New Orleans at the turn of the 19th century, the latest novel from New York Times bestselling author Isabel Allende (Inés of My Soul, The House of the Spirits, Portrait in Sepia) tells the story of a mulatta woman, a slave and concubine, determined to take control of her own destiny.

Book synopsis:

Born a slave on the island of Saint-Domingue, Zarité -- known as Tété -- is the daughter of an African mother she never knew and one of the white sailors who brought her into bondage. Though her childhood is one of brutality and fear, Tété finds solace in the traditional rhythms of African drums and in the voodoo loas she discovers through her fellow slaves. 

When twenty-year-old Toulouse Valmorain arrives on the island in 1770, it’s with powdered wigs in his baggage and dreams of financial success in his mind. But running his father’s plantation, Saint Lazare, is neither glamorous nor easy. It will be eight years before he brings home a bride -- but marriage, too, proves more difficult than he imagined. And Valmorain remains dependent on the services of his teenaged slave.

Spanning four decades, Island Beneath the Sea is the moving story of the intertwined lives of Tété and Valmorain, and of one woman’s determination to find love amid loss, to offer humanity though her own has been battered, and to forge her own identity in the cruellest of circumstances.

To read an excerpt from Island Beneath the Sea, click HERE.

Isabel Allende Llona (born 2 August 1942) is a Chilean writer. Allende, whose works sometimes contain aspects of the "magic realist" tradition, is one of the best-known women writers in Latin America. She is largely famous for novels such as The House of the Spirits (La casa de los espíritus) (1982) and City of the Beasts (La ciudad de las bestias) (2002), which have been commercially very successful. Allende has been described as "the world’s most widely read Spanish-language author." Her novels often focus on the experiences of women, are sometimes based on her own experiences, and weave myth and realism together. She has lectured and toured widely, and has taught literature at many American colleges. Having adopted American citizenship in 2003, she currently resides in California with her husband. She is of Basque, Spanish and Portuguese descent.

Would you like to read this novel? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

From our foremost historian of World War II, a vivid and incisive portrait of Winston Churchill during wartime.

A vivid and incisive portrait of Winston Churchill during wartime from acclaimed historian Max Hastings, Winston’s War captures the full range of Churchill’s endlessly fascinating character. At once brilliant and infuriating, self-important and courageous, Hastings’s Churchill comes brashly to life as never before.

Beginning in 1940, when popular demand elevated Churchill to the role of prime minister, and concluding with the end of the war, Hastings shows us Churchill at his most intrepid and essential, when, by sheer force of will, he kept Britain from collapsing in the face of what looked like certain defeat. Later, we see his significance ebb as the United States enters the war and the Soviets turn the tide on the Eastern Front. But Churchill, Hastings reminds us, knew as well as anyone that the war would be dominated by others, and he managed his relationships with the other Allied leaders strategically, so as to maintain Britain’s influence and limit Stalin’s gains.

At the same time, Churchill faced political peril at home, a situation for which he himself was largely to blame. Hastings shows how Churchill nearly squandered the miraculous escape of the British troops at Dunkirk and failed to address fundamental flaws in the British Army. His tactical inaptitude and departmental meddling won him few friends in the military, and by 1942, many were calling for him to cede operational control. Nevertheless, Churchill managed to exude a public confidence that brought the nation through the bitter war.

Hastings rejects the traditional Churchill hagiography while still managing to capture what he calls Churchill’s “appetite for the fray.” Certain to be a classic, Winston’s War is a riveting profile of one of the greatest leaders of the twentieth century.

Excerpt

Sir Max Hugh Macdonald Hastings, FRSL (born 28 December 1945) is a British journalist, editor, historian and author. He is the son of Macdonald Hastings, the noted British journalist and war correspondent, and Anne Scott-James, sometime editor of Harper's Bazaar. Hastings was educated at Charterhouse School and University College, Oxford, which he left after a year. He became a foreign correspondent and reported from more than sixty countries and eleven wars for BBC television and for the Evening Standard in London. Hastings was the first journalist to enter the liberated Port Stanley during the Falklands War. After ten years as editor and then editor-in-chief of The Daily Telegraph, he returned to the Evening Standard as editor in 1996 until his retirement in 2001. He received a knighthood in 2002. He has presented historical documentaries for BBC TV, and is the author of many books, including Bomber Command which earned the Somerset Maugham Award for non-fiction in 1980. Both Overlord and The Battle for the Falklands won the Yorkshire Post Book of the Year Prize. He is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and was President of the Campaign to Protect Rural England from 2002-2007. He currently writes a column for the Daily Mail but often contributes articles to other publications such as The Guardian and The New York Review of Books. In his 2007 book Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 (also known as Retribution in the United States), the chapter on Australia's role in the last year of the Pacific War was criticised by the Returned and Services League of Australia and one of the historians at the Australian War Memorial for, in their view, exaggerating discontent in the Australian Army during this period. Hastings lives with his second wife Penny (née Levinson), with whom he had two children, in west Berkshire. In 1999, his 27-year-old son Charles killed himself in Shanghai, China. Hastings dedicated his book Nemesis: The Battle for Japan, 1944-45 to his late son.

Would you like to read this book? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

The triumphant conclusion to the trilogy that began with A Star Called Henry.

After spending thirty years in America, Henry Smart returns to Ireland in this moving finale to his story.

At the end of Oh, Play That Thing, the second volume of Roddy Doyle's trilogy about Henry Smart, Henry, his leg severed in an accident with a railway boxcar, crawls into the Utah desert to die — only to be discovered by John Ford, who's there shooting his latest Western. Ford recognizes a fellow Irish rebel and determines to turn Henry's story — a boy volunteer at the GPO in 1916, a hitman for Michael Collins, a republican legend — into a film. He appoints him "IRA consultant" on his new film, The Quiet Man.

The Dead Republic opens in 1951 with Henry returning to Ireland for the first time since his escape in 1922. With him are the stars of Ford's film, John Wayne and Maureen O'Hara, and the famous director himself, "Pappy," who, in a series of intense, highly charged meetings tries to suck the soul out of Henry and turn it into Hollywood gold-dust.

Ten years later Henry is in Dublin, working in Ratheen as a school caretaker, loved by the boys, who call him "Hoppy Henry" on account of his wooden leg. When Henry is caught in a bomb blast, that wooden leg gets left behind. He soon finds himself a hero: the old IRA veteran who's lost his leg to a UVF bomb. Wheeled out by the Provos at funerals and rallies, Henry is to find he will have other uses too, when the peace process begins in deadly secrecy...

In three brilliant novels, A Star Called Henry, Oh, Play That Thing and The Dead Republic, Roddy Doyle has told the whole history of Ireland in the twentieth century. And in the person of his hero, he has created one of the great characters of modern fiction.

Excerpt

To read an excerpt from The Dead Republic, click HERE.

“Doyle is a stellar storyteller. . . . Doyle exhibits a peerless ear for cynicism as he grapples with the violence and farce of Irish history.”
— Publishers Weekly

Author's biography:

Roddy Doyle (born 8 May 1958 in Dublin) is an Irish novelist, dramatist and screenwriter.  He is the author of eight novels, a collection of stories, and Rory & Ita, a memoir of his parents. Several of his books have been made into successful films, beginning with The Commitments in 1991. He won the Booker Prize in 1993. Doyle grew up in Kilbarrack, Dublin. He now resides in Dublin. He graduated with a Bachelor of Arts degree from University College Dublin. He spent several years as an English and geography teacher before becoming a full-time writer in 1993. During this period, one of his pupils was Enda Walsh. He established a creative writing centre, Fighting Words, which opened in Dublin in January 2009. It was inspired by a visit to his friend Dave Eggers' 826 Valencia project in San Francisco. Fighting Words is open to students of all ages, and a core principle is that all tutoring in creative writing is provided free.

Would you like to read this novel? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE. 

“As well as providing a history of post-abolition Jamaica, The Long Song is beautifully written, intricately plotted, humorous and earthy. In patois-inflected prose, Levy conjures the greed and licentiousness of the island’s sugar impresarios and heiresses as they indulge vast meals and sexual gropings—before casting Jamaica aside like a sucked orange. Those who enjoyed Small Island will love The Long Song, not just for the insights on the ‘wretched island,’ but as a marvel of luminous storytelling.” 
—Ian Thomson, Financial Times

Small Island introduced Andrea Levy to America and was acclaimed as “a triumph”. It won both the Orange Prize and the Whitbread Book of the Year Award, and has sold over a million copies worldwide. With The Long Song, Levy once again reinvents the historical novel.

Told in the irresistibly willful and intimate voice of Miss July, with some editorial assistance from her son, Thomas, The Long Song is at once defiant, funny, and shocking. The child of a field slave on the Amity sugar plantation, July lives with her mother until Mrs. Caroline Mortimer, a recently transplanted English widow, decides to move her into the great house and rename her “Marguerite.”

Resourceful and mischievous, July soon becomes indispensable to her mistress. Together they live through the bloody Baptist war, followed by the violent and chaotic end of slavery. Taught to read and write so that she can help her mistress run the business, July remains bound to the plantation despite her “freedom.” It is the arrival of a young English overseer, Robert Goodwin, that will dramatically change life in the great house for both July and her mistress. Prompted and provoked by her son’s persistent questioning, July’s resilience and heartbreak are gradually revealed in this extraordinarily powerful story of slavery, revolution, freedom, and love. 

To read Foreword and an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

You can also read an essay "The writing of The Long Song" by clicking HERE.


Andrea Levy was born in London in 1956, almost a decade after her parents emigrated to England from Jamaica. She began writing in her mid-thirties and is the author of several short stories and novels, including Small Island, which won both the Whitbread Book of the Year Award and the Orange Prize for Fiction: Best of the Best. Her novels concentrate on the experiences of black Britons. Her novel 'Small Island' has been made into a BBC drama which was televised on BBC in December 2009. Levy is of primarily Afro-Jamaican descent. Levy has a Jewish paternal grandfather and a Scottish maternal great-grandfather. She lives in London. 

 

Would you like to read this novel? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

 

A definitive, deeply moving narrative, Bonhoeffer is a story of moral courage in the face of the monstrous evil that was Nazism. 

After discovering the fire of true faith in a Harlem church, Bonhoeffer returned to Germany and became one of the first to speak out against Hitler. As a double-agent, he joined the plot to assassinate the Fuhrer, and was hanged in Flossenberg concentration camp at age 39. Since his death, Bonhoeffer has grown to be one of the most fascinating, complex figures of the 20th century. 

Bonhoeffer presents a profoundly orthodox Christian theologian whose faith led him to boldly confront the greatest evil of the 20th century, and uncovers never-before-revealed facts, including the story of his passionate romance. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Eric Metaxas (born 1963 in New York City) is the author of Everything Else You Always Wanted to Know About God (But Were Afraid to Ask) and thirty children's books. He is founder and host of Socrates in the City in New York City, where he lives with his wife and daughter. His daughter is one of the school kids. Metaxas' writing has appeared in the New York Times, The Atlantic Monthly, Washington Post, Books and Culture, Christianity Today, Mars Hill Review, and First Things. He has written for VeggieTales, 3-2-1 Penguins! (season 1) and Rabbit Ears Productions, earning three Grammy nominations for Best Children's Recording. His recent publication is Amazing Grace: William Wilberforce and the Heroic Campaign to End Slavery, which is associated with the 2006 film Amazing Grace.

Would you like to read this book? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE. 

From the two-time Booker Prize–winning author comes an irrepressibly funny new novel set in early nineteenth-century America.

 

Olivier is an aristocrat, one of an endangered species born in France just after the Revolution. Parrot, the son of an itinerant English printer and twice Olivier's age,  always wanted to be an artist but has ended up a servant. Starting on different sides of history, their lives will be permanently joined by an enigmatic, one-armed Marquis. 

When Olivier sets sail for the New World — ostensibly to study its prisons, but in reality to avoid yet another revolution — Parrot is sent with him, as spy, protector, foe and foil. 

As the narrative shifts between the perspectives of Parrot and Olivier, between their picaresque adventures apart and together — in love and politics, prisons and finance, homelands and brave new lands — a most unlikely friendship begins to take hold. And with their story, Peter Carey explores the adventure of American democracy — in theory, in practice, and in ongoing argument. 

Parrot and Olivier in America is a dazzlingly inventive reimagining of Alexis de Tocqueville's famous journey, brilliantly evoking the Old World colliding with the New. Above all, it is a wildly funny and deeply tender portrait of two men who come to form an almost impossible friendship, and a completely improbable work of art.

 

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

Peter Philip Carey (born 7 May 1943) is an Australian novelist and short story writer. He is one of only two writers, the other being South African born J. M. Coetzee, to have won the Booker Prize twice. In May 2008 he was also nominated for the "Best of the Booker Prize". He has also won the Miles Franklin Award three times. He collaborated on the screenplay of the film Until the End of the World with Wim Wenders. Currently, he is the executive director of the Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing program at Hunter College, part of the City University of New York.

Would you like to read this book? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Jayne Ann Krentz, née Jayne Castle (b. March 28, 1948) is an American writer of romance novels. Krentz is the author of a string of New York Times bestsellers under seven different pseudonyms. Now, she only uses three names. As Jayne Ann Krentz (her married name) she writes contemporary romantic-suspense. She uses Amanda Quick for her novels of historical romantic-suspense. Jayne Castle (her birth name) is reserved these days for her stories of futuristic/paranormal romantic-suspense. Over 23 million copies of Krentz's 122 novels are in print. With Sweet Starfire, Krentz created the futuristic romance subgenre, and further expanded the boundaries of the genre in 1996 with Amaryllis, the first paranormal futuristic romantic suspense novel. She is an outspoken advocate for the romance genre and has been the recipient of the Susan Koppelman Award for Feminist Studies.

Would you like to read this book? you can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

The first part of an unforgettable epic family saga about the sacrifices every mother makes for her daughter and the very nature of unconditional love. On the eve of the First World War, fiery Marta Schneider leaves Switzerland and her difficult childhood behind, determined to find a new life on her own terms. Barely out of her teens, Marta is haunted by a devastating loss that fuels her ambition to one day own a hotel. From the cramped quarters of a French housekeeping school to the portrait-lined halls of a stately English manor, Marta becomes a hard working domestic who has little time to dwell on what might have been.  Instead, she draws her strength from what could be. Then, Marta meets Niclas Waltert, a man just as determined as she to forge a better life in a new place. Niclas captures her heart and together they endure the harshness of life as tenant farmers on the vast prairies of Winnipeg, Canada, before following the promise of the American dream and migrating to the agriculturally rich Central Valley of California.  Marriage and motherhood bring both joy and heartbreak, as Marta must surrender her long-held ambitions for the sake of her husband and children, including her daughter, Hildemara, upon whose shoulders her own hopes now squarely rest. Only the strong survive and Marta is determined to raise a daughter as strong as she.  But as Hildie reaches young womanhood and another war is fast approaching, those hopes become too heavy a burden for Hildie to bear. Born with a heart to serve others, Hildie pursues her calling as a nurse, something Marta can’t understand. Marta’s years of hardnosed parenting have left Hildie still hungry for her mother’s love…and now for her mother’s respect. Amid the drama of WWII, Hildie falls in love and begins a family of her own. She wants her daughter, Carolyn, never to doubt her love—but the challenges of life conspire against her vow and the only person who can come to her aid is the person she remains so desperate to please: Marta, her mother. With hallmark touches of brilliant prose and gripping characterizations, Her Mother’s Hope is a rich, moving epic about faith and dreams, heartache and disappointment, and ultimately the resilience and tenacity of love.

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Francine Sandra Rivers (born 1947) is an American author of fiction with Christian themes, including inspirational romance novels. Prior to becoming a born-again Christian in 1986, Rivers wrote historical romance novels. She is best known for her inspirational novel Redeeming Love, while another novel, The Last Sin Eater has become a feature film. Rivers has been honored with many awards, including the Christy Award, the ECPA Gold Medallion, and the Holt Medallion. Rivers is also a member of the Romance Writers of America's Hall of Fame. She has won four RWA RITA Awards, the highest award given in romantic fiction. Her first RITA was for Best Historical Romance in 1986 for Not So Wild a Dream. Her subsequent ones, in 1995, 1996, and 1997, have been for Best Inspirational Romance. Francine Rivers is married to Rick Rivers and they live together in northern California (where the action in many of her contemporary novels is set). They have three children: Trevor, Shannon, and Travis; and five grandchildren.

Would you like to read this book? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Tragedy hits the Allenhouse family on a hot summer night in Ohio when a mother of four vanished. Eight-year-old Vada virtually grew up overnight and raised her three younger sisters while her father lost himself in his medical practice in the basement of their home.

Now, Vada is a grown woman, still making her home with her father and sisters. Her days are spent serving as an errand girl for Cleveland’s fledgling amateur orchestra; her evenings with Garrison Walker, her devoted, if passionless, beau.

Dizzying change occurs the day the Brooklyn Bridegrooms come to town to play the Cleveland Spiders and a line drive wallops the head of a spectator. The fan is whisked to the Allenhouse parlor, and questions swirl about the anonymous, unconscious man.

Suddenly, the subdued house is filled with visitors, from a flirtatious, would-be sports writer to the Bridegrooms’ handsome star hitter to the guilt-ridden ballplayer who should have caught the stray shot. The medical case brings Dr. Allenhouse a frustration and helplessness he hasn’t felt since his wife’s disappearance. Vada’s sisters are giddy at the bevy of possible suitors. And Vada’s life is awakened amid the super-charged atmosphere of romantic opportunity. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Allison Pittman is the author of Stealing Home, the Crossroads of Grace series, and her non-fiction debut, Saturdays With Stella. A former high-school English teacher, she serves as director of the theater arts group at her church. Allison makes her home in Texas with her husband and their three boys. 

Would you like to read this book? You can buy it on Amazon by clicking HERE.

Lexie Sinclair cannot stay. Enclosed within her parents’ genteel country lawn, she yearns for more. She makes her way to the city, and meets a magazine editor, Innes, a man unlike any she has ever imagined. He introduces her to the thrilling world of bohemian postwar London, and she learns to be a reporter, to know art and artists, to live her life fully and with a deep love at the center of it. She creates many lives—all of them unconventional. And when she finds herself pregnant by a man wholly unsuitable for marriage or fatherhood, she doesn’t hesitate for a minute to have the baby on her own.

Later, in present-day London, a young painter named Elina dizzily navigates the first weeks of motherhood. Her boyfriend, Ted, traumatized by nearly losing her in labor, begins to recover lost memories. He cannot place them. But as they become more disconcerting and return more frequently, we discover that something connects these two stories—these two women—something that becomes all the more heartbreaking and beautiful as they all hurtle toward its revelation.

A stunning portrait of motherhood and the artist’s life in all their terror and glory, Maggie O’Farrell’s newest novel is a gorgeous inquiry into the ways we make and unmake our lives, who we know ourselves to be, and how even our most accidental legacies connect us. 

To listen to an audio excerpt, click HERE.

Maggie O'Farrell (born 1972, Coleraine Northern Ireland) is a British author of contemporary fiction, who features in Waterstones' 25 Authors for the Future It is possible to identify several common themes in her novels - the relationship between sisters is one, another is loss and the psychological impact of those losses on the lives of her characters.  She is the author of four previous novels, including the acclaimed The Vanishing Act of Esme Lennox and After You'd Gone. Maggie was born in Northern Ireland and grew up in Wales and Scotland. At the age of eight she missed a year of school due to a viral infection, an event that is echoed in The Distance Between Us. Maggie worked as a journalist, both in Hong Kong and as the Deputy Literary Editor of The Independent on Sunday. She has also taught creative writing. She is married to the novelist William Sutcliffe, whom she met at Cambridge. They live in Edinburgh.

To read an excerpt, click HERE. 

Karen Robards (born in 1955 in the Kentucky) is the author of thirty-four novels and one novella. After first gaining recognition for her historical romances, Robards became one of the first historical romance novelists to successfully make the switch to contemporary romantic fiction. Her work has been translated into eleven languages, and has won awards from both Romantic Times and Affaire de Coeur. A regular on the New York Times, USA Today, and Publishers Weekly bestseller lists, among others, she is the mother of three boys, ages 12, 17, and 23, and lives in Louisville, Kentucky.

Determined to put his roguish past behind him, the Earl of Camdonn arranges to marry the proper Lady Elizabeth. But when an accident lands the Earl in the expert hands of a beautiful Highland medicine woman, all well-laid plans are thrown to the wind- and, just as in the old days, his passions run high…

Ceana MacNab has terrible luck with men. Resigning herself to the healing arts, she has steeled her heart against love. Then fate sends Cam her way. Even though he’s a well-bred Earl-and Ceana a low-born Highlander-their all-consuming passion may lead the way to lasting bliss.

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

As a child, Dawn Halliday traveled the South Pacific with her family on their homebuilt sailboat. The months spent on the sometimes-quiet, sometimes-raging seas sparked her love of adventure and grand romance. Since then, she's earned degrees in Computer Science and Education and held various jobs from bookselling to teaching inner-city children to acting, but she's never put down the pen. When she doesn't have her head buried in a book, you can find her playing video games or posing as a baseball mom in California where she lives with her husband and three children.

"...today's most skillful writer of intelligent historical romance."  

The Duke of Ithorne might be a rake in some respects, but he is every inch a duke. He takes his immense responsibilities seriously, and also his place at the heart of political and court power -- a place already taken by the Marquess of Rothgar.

He values his escape, however, his alter-ego Captain Rose of the Black Swan, sailing out of Dover on coastal trading voyages, and occasionally on missions for the Crown. It's as Captain Rose that he meets an unusual young woman -- one who threatens all his plans.

When Arabella Barstowe is kidnapped, she believes her life and virtue are forfeit-until she's rescued by the notorious rogue Captain Rose. Bella never expects to see him again. But years later she learns the wicked truth behind her abduction, and she seeks out the only man who can help her take revenge.

What she doesn't know is that Captain Rose is just a disguise for the formidable Duke of Ithorne, who is intrigued to hear from the mysterious woman from his past. Their lives are soon entangled by danger and a growing forbidden passion. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE. 

Jo Beverley, née Mary Josephine Dunn (born September 22, 1947 in Lancashire, England) is a prolific British-Canadian writer of popular historical romance novels. Her works are regarded as well researched, filled with historical details and peopled by communities of interlinked characters, stretching the boundaries of the historical romantic fiction genre. They have been translated into several languages and she has been given several awards.

A WOMAN CALLED PATIENCE. A DESIRE THAT WOULD PUT HER NAME—AND HER LOVE—TO THE TEST.

Known for her exceptional beauty, Patience Emmalina Dare has been pursued by admirers ever since coming of age. But suitor after suitor fails to inspire her love – or her desire. Certain she will never find a man who touches her deeply, she decides to forgo marriage in favor of pursuing her music. But just when Patience thinks she has her life well in hand, a passionate kiss with her enigmatic brother-in-law awakens a powerful need in her. How will she reconcile her desire for him and her desire for a life that's her own – and what will she do when he shows her a deep and hidden part of herself that she never knew existed? 

When the secret of his illegitimate birth pushes Matthew Morgan Hawkmore from his place in society, the darkly handsome half-brother of the Earl of Langley plots his resurrection and his revenge. Betrayed and abandoned by the women he believed loved him, he swears to never again be controlled by love. But despite his vow, he is unable to resist the beautiful Patience, whose strength and self-reliance hide a need that he is perfectly suited to fulfill. Can he have her without loving her? What will he give up to keep her? And will her passionate surrender be the one thing that can stop him from making a tragic mistake that could destroy them both…

To read an excerpt from Chapter One, click HERE.

Though she was born in Baltimore, Maryland, Lisa Valdez was raised in Los Angeles, California. When she wasn’t swimming or biking to the beach with friends, she spent much of her youth with her nose in a book. After high school, she earned her BA in English Literature from U.C.L.A. With the poetry of Chaucer and Shakespeare reverberating in her heart, she went to work—for Nordstrom, where she became the Los Angeles region swimwear buyer. It was during those busy years buying swimwear—full bottoms, boy-cuts, tongas and thongs—that she married her high school sweetheart and began writing. Now, still married to the same man, Lisa is wife, mother and writer. She still loves swimming and the beach, but she also enjoys cooking and baking for her family. She dances flamenco and loves talking about sex, politics and literature with her friends. She adores her husband, and lives for her children’s smiles. And, of course, she finds a distinct joy in writing passionate stories full of yearning, lust and love.

First century Rome: a world of depravity, blood, and secrets. The enigmatic Emperor Domitian watches over all, fearing murder from every side . . . except from the woman who fascinates him most.

Thea is a slave girl from Judaea; musical, wary, and passionate. Purchased as a toy for the spiteful heiress Lepida Pollia, Thea and her mistress will become rivals for the love of Arius the Barbarian, Rome’s newest and most savage gladiator. His love brings Thea the first happiness of her life – quickly ended when a jealous Lepida tears them apart.

As Lepida goes on to wreak havoc in the life of a new husband and his family, Thea remakes herself as a polished singer for Rome’s aristocrats. Unwittingly, she attracts another admirer in the charismatic Emperor of Rome. But Domitian’s games have a darker side, and Thea finds herself fighting for both soul and sanity. Many have tried to destroy the Emperor: a vengeful gladiator, an upright senator, a tormented soldier, a streetwise child, a Vestal Virgin. But in the end, the life of the brilliant and ruthless Domitian lies in the hands of one woman: a slave girl who has come to be called the Mistress of Rome . . .

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Kate Quinn is a native of southern California. She attended Boston University, where she earned a Bachelor’s and Master’s degree in Classical Voice. After college, she held down any day job she could find until she sold her first book, Mistress of Rome. Kate is currently working on a sequel and a prequel to Mistress of Rome. She also has succumbed to the blogging bug, and keeps a blog filled with trivia, pet peeves, and interesting facts about historical fiction. She and her husband live in San Diego.

From the acclaimed author of Revealed comes a tale of first loves and second chances.

Lady Jane Cummings is certain that her summer is ruined when she is forced to reside at isolated Merrymere Lake with her reckless brother and ailing father. Her fast-paced London society is replaced with a small town grapevine. But one bit of gossip catches Jane's attention- rumors that the lake's brooding new resident is also an elusive highwayman.

Jane must face the much discussed mysterioso after he saves her brother from a pub brawl. She immediately recognizes him from London: Byrne Worth, war hero and apparent hermit-whom she finds strangely charming. The two build a fast friendship, and soon nothing can keep this Lady away from Merrymere's most wanted. Convinced of his innocence, Jane is determined to clear Byrne's name-and maybe have a little fun this summer after all. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Kate Noble loves books. Romances especially. But, being born into a family of doctors, scientists, and mathematicians, she didn’t discover she was adept at writing until about junior year of high school. Which came as something of a relief, as she was hopeless at memorizing the Latin names for all the bones in the human body. The Heisenberg Uncertainty Principle eludes her to this day. Kate Noble lives in New York with her family. This is her third novel.

Mary Barnes has had it with her cruel stepmother who's hoarded the family inheritance... with her two privileged stepsisters... and with feeling unloved and unappreciated. Her one desire is to flee her stifling world, but it doesn't seem possible — until a mysterious peddler offers her an elixir and a promise: one drink of his tonic and the first man she sees will be hers. Though she is too much of realist to believe in potions, she accepts. As if by magic, a stranger crosses her path and steps into her life. 

He's Jordan Winthrop, scoundrel, viscount, and desperately bankrupt heir to the Earl of Sunderland. He's also meant for Mary's stepsister. Thrilled by his advances, and intoxicated by their secret affair, Mary finds herself falling for a man who's already unmistakably engaged — to her sister's fortune. As for Jordan, he can't help but wonder if Mary is the woman to change his roguish ways — when he is spellbound in a sensual destiny spiraling beyond his control. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Cheryl Holt is a lawyer, mom, and best-selling novelist.  Her hot, sexy, dramatic stories of passion and illicit love have captivated fans around the world, and she's celebrated as the Queen of Erotic Romance.  Due to the ferociousness of some of her characters, she’s also renowned as the International Queen of Villains.  Her books have been released to wide acclaim, and she has won or been nominated for many national awards.  She is particularly proud to have been named, “Best Storyteller of the Year” by Romantic Times BOOK reviews magazine. Currently, she lives and writes in Los Angeles, where her teenaged son is pursuing his dream of becoming a Hollywood movie star.

A new Warriors of the Iroquois novel from the author of Black Eagle

1755, the American colonies.  While the English and French fight for control of the North American continent, the American Indians fight for their lives. Another war rages, however, within the heart of one Seneca warrior and a white woman in danger...

Indentured servant Sarah Strong has met with more than her share of troubles en route to New Hampshire with her young charge.  She's been set upon by war parties and tossed about by river rapids, only to fall over a mountain-high waterfall.  And the dangers keep coming...

A reclusive Seneca Indian, White Thunder has only one purpose in life: to find and kill the man who murdered his beloved wife.  But when he stumbles across the injured, desperate Sarah, White Thunder finds what could turn out to be a new purpose.

Now, if the pair can only put aside their many differences, they might find what they've been looking for all along...

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Gen Bailey is is the pen name for Karen Kay Elstner, an American author of historical romance novels. All of her novels feature Native Americans. Before becoming a publishing sensation, Kay worked as a realtor. She has been a Scientologist since 1967. She is also a self-proclaimed libertarian. Kay is a supporter of the World Literacy Crusade, an organization linked to the Church of Scientology as well as to Blackfeet Literacy, and the Hollywood Education and Literacy Project. Kay and her husband, Paul, were married on the Blackfeet reservation in Montana.

Amelia Grey (aka Gloria Dale Skinner) has won the coveted Romantic Times award for Love and Laughter, the prestigious Maggie award for best historical and Affaire de Coeur's best American historical award. She has been a finalist for the Golden Heart and the Holt Medallion awards which are given by Romance Writers of America and numerous other awards. Her books have been sold to many countries in Europe, Russia and China.

The author who "masterfully builds a dramatic story" presents another gripping novel of the women of Tudor England.

As the bereft, orphaned cousin to the ill-fated Anne Boleyn, Katherine Howard knows better than many the danger of being favored by the King. But she is a Howard, and therefore ambitious, so she assumes the role Henry VIII has assigned her-his untouched child bride, his adored fifth wife. But her innocence is imagined, the first of many lies she will have to tell to gain the throne. And the path that she will tread to do so is one fraught with the same dangers that cost Queen Anne her head. 

To read an excerpt, click HERE.

Sarah de Almeida Hoyt (also known as Sarah Hoyt or Sarah A. Hoyt) is an award-winning fiction author. Hoyt was born on November 18, 1962 in the village of Granja, Aguas Santas, Maia near Porto, Portugal, a major port city on the Atlantic coast. Educated in both Portugal and the US, she graduated from University of Porto, with a Master's equivalent in Modern Languages and Literature with a major in English and a minor in German. She also speaks Swedish, Italian and French, with varying degrees of fluency. Married in 1985 to Dan Hoyt (a science fiction author and mathematician, she has two teenaged sons. She became a United States citizen in 1988 in Charlotte, North Carolina. She is a member of Mensa, SFWA, MWA, and RWA. She was the first female member of the Associação Atlética de Aguas Santas (the sports club in Aguas Santas Maia).