Jerry is an average-Joe with average-Joe problems. His wife divorced him, his boss hates him, he drinks too much, his credit cards are maxed out, and his dog needs expensive surgery. He's on a ledge without a net.

On the other hand, there is nothing 'average' about Brandy. She is way above average. A small-town girl, sweet and naive, her beauty leads her to become caught up in a tangled web of abuse, lies, sex, and deception. For Brandy, it's not 'if' she makes a mistake-it's 'when.' And when she does, the life she's been living, her precarious balancing act, is going to come crashing down around her.

Jerry and Brandy deserve better than they have been getting, and each one is praying for a break to come their way. Both of them are broken-hearted and desperate, feeling alone even when with family and friends. Their self-imposed isolation drives them to look for a way out-any way out.

When Jerry and Brandy meet in the most unlikely of ways, the sparks (and clothes) fly. However, their lusty attraction quickly grows into something more meaningful. Jerry helps Brandy escape from a violent husband and a manipulative lover. In return, Brandy ends up rescuing Jerry from himself.

Thomas Fletcher first sees her in 1916, at a drug store in Birmingham, Alabama. He doesn't know her, but her brown hair and beautiful eyes captivate him. He soon learns her name-Juliette Wilcox-and she would learn his. Their attraction cannot be denied, but something stands in their way.

Thomas is a drafted soldier, about to be sent to Europe to fight in the dreaded World War I. Although Juliette begs for them to be married before he goes to boot camp, he doesn't want to leave her a widow. Their letters will keep them close. Letters are all they will have until he returns from the battlefield-hopefully, alive.

For the next four years, letters arrive from far off France and Germany to Juliette's front porch in Alabama. For the next four years, their love grows, develops, and increases. Even so, war is a dark force, and many men never return. Will Thomas be one of the soldiers lost, or will he come home and make Juliette's dreams of marriage a happy reality?

Babe Gordon, the star of this brilliant, sophisticated novel of modern New York's racy set, is a strange woman. She uses her beauty and her sexual allure as a soldier uses his weapons-without mercy or scruples. Her basic appeal attracts all types of men, from bruisers of the prize ring to the more refined sons of the city's aristocracy. From her experiences with men, she is canny, worldly wise, quick thinking. But all her art, her wisdom, and her actions are devoted to love. When her passion for one man cools, she is quick to kindle it in another. Men and their rages over her transient affection do not move her. Through a situation that costs one man his life, another man his career, and the disgrace of a third lover, Babe Gordon moves deftly, coolly, the goal of all men's eyes, the ultimate femme fatale.

In the exclusive world of New York Society, Darcy Snow Statton's wealth and bloodline place her at the very top of the city's elite. Yet, for all her jewelry and dazzling ballroom gowns, Darcy has no freedom. While their husbands quadruple their fortunes, proper ladies engage in polite parlor chatter and stringent etiquette. Darcy's husband, Claude Statton, us a man of uncertain birth but enormous wealth, a man whose polished exterior belies his dark habits and the unspeakable plans he ahs for his wife. Darcy is a prisoner off Claude's Fifth Avenue mansion and she has sworn to escape or die trying. One snowy night, former Pinkerton agent Tavish Finn discovers Darcy attempting to flee. Though he is an acquaintance of Claude Statton, he has a way of extracting the truth from the gilded lies of the rich and he knows shocking secrets about Darcy's husband. He knows that Darcy is suffocating in her rarefied prison and in Tavish's eyes, Darcy sees a glimmer of hope...and a blessed promise of freedom.The excitement and grandeur of America at the turn of the century provide a glittering backdrop for Blind Trust, a story of passage and growth, of cool danger and heated greed, and of the passionate struggle waged by one woman determined to break free of the chains of convention.

There were three things that Steve Greene wanted to do, and they were, in order of importance: 1. Get away from his Great Mistake (her name was Vivian). 2. Write the last movement of his symphony and relieve his mind of an unfinished concerto or two. 3. Whip the waters of some unspoiled mountain lake for record-breaking bass and pike. And so he bought a trailer. When he took to the open road, his house on wheels was replete with gadgets and improvements, but he was hardly prepared to find a breathtakingly pretty girl and a snarling, suspicious black dog hiding in the depths of his folding bed when he parked the first night, fifty miles from civilization. Little did Steve know, the pretty girl was actually Gloria Newcombe of Hollywood, running away from a new contract and an expensive and utterly unwanted husband. Her disappearance had been ballooned into a sensational kidnapping. While State Troopers and assorted county sheriffs comb the trails for Gloria, affairs inside the trailer grow ever more complicated, intimate, and tempestuous in this romantic tale of two worlds colliding against the backdrop of America in the 1930s.

Originally published in 1949, Matthew Smith writes with the brilliance of an Arlen and the sophistication of a Maugham in this vintage tale of high-fashioned passion that bares the souls and appetites of mid-century old money. Nestled in rolling fields on the eastern Connecticut shore stands Cragie, the sumptuous estate of George Ridgley. Passersby admire its sprawling luxury and envy its owner his many acres with their tenant farms, luxurious buildings, and natural beauty. Here Eros launches five arrows that find their mark at once, filling five cultivated and refined people with passions that even the expansive rooms of Cragie can t contain. First George Ridgley falls in love with Lesley, a beautiful guest much his junior. Then Reggie, the playboy forgets his selfishness to lose his heart to Audrey, a wealthy and sensuous vixen. When Peter Drake, our tale s hero, flies back from Europe and enters the scene, scandal erupts. These people woo in the same sophisticated, pleasure guided way they live. They play at passion as they play at backgammon to win."

Set in the French countryside of George Sand's childhood and narrated in the unique voice of a Berrichon peasant, La Petite Fadette is a beloved 1848 novel about identical twin brothers and Fadette, the mysterious waif with whom they both fall in love. The brothers, Landry and Sylvinet, belong to a highly respected farm family. When young Landry meets Fadette, whose very name suggests that she is a witch, he is captivated by the girl despite her lowly status and disreputable family. Sylvinet soon follows suit. Fadette's relationship with the twins defies the patriarchal norms of French society as well as the expectations of the village, resulting in a tale of love, courage, and clever strategy winning out over superstition and prejudice. Often regarded as a simple country tale, Sand's novel is layered with meaning, including subtle nods to the burgeoning desire for political and sexual equality in nineteenth-century France. This thoughtful critical translation by Gretchen van Slyke brings the complexity of the original story to life. Her introduction explores the autobiographical and political dimensions of the novel, and her translation preserves the rustic charm and archaic flavor of Sand's language. An invaluable contribution to French literary studies and nineteenth-century literature studies, this new edition ensures that La Petite Fadette will be read by generations to come.

Sonja Haraldsen, a young Norwegian seamstress who works in her family's clothing store, has never dreamed of being famous for anything besides fashion design. Yet one summer evening in 1959, she meets Crown Prince Harald at a party. She's shocked when he wants to see her again, but they quickly fall in love, and Harald proposes marriage less than a year later.

Yet King Olav, who expects his son to marry royal, is firmly opposed to the idea of a common-born seamstress as the next Crown Princess. As His Majesty's approval is legally necessary for the marriage of the heir, Harald and Sonja are left waiting and hoping for the King to change his mind.

Soon, the secret relationship finds its way into the papers, and the Crown Prince's romance with a shopkeeper's daughter becomes the scandal of the century. Journalists, politicians, and ordinary Norwegians declare that a common marriage would destroy the monarchy, and a furious King repeatedly insists that the relationship must end.

Set against the romantic backdrop of royal Europe, A Shopkeeper's Daughter is based on a true story of a love worth fighting for.

The first title in Elizabeth Ogilvies' Lover's Trilogy, The Dawning of the Day follows war widow Philippa Marshall as she carves a life out for herself as a school teacher on rugged Bennett's Island. Underneath the sleepy exterior of the island, Philippa discovers latent family feuds, the perils of living on an island and a kindling love for handsome Steve Bennett. As she grapples with her sense of loyalty to her deceased husband. Philippa must weigh the balance of her heart and mind and plot the course of her destiny.

Vanessa Barton steps onto Bennett's Island for the first time as if she is stepping into a prison cell. She feels trapped by her marriage, she carries the emotional shackles of a childhood spent as a ward of the state, and she wants nothing to do with the island community. A chance encounter with Owen Bennett sparks off an attraction that brings Vanessa to life, as she discovers something real that eclipses the fantasies of the novels she reads. Owen leads her on a path of self-discovery that forces her to confront long buried feelings and begin healing old emotional scars. Island life shakes Vanessa out of her self-pity but when misfortune knocks once again at her door, she must decide once and for all whether to succumb to the fugue of her earlier days or whether to seize her independence and happiness.

In The Thundering Path of Spirit, young teenage Amanda Blair is the sole survivor of an attack by a small band of Crow Indians while traveling west by wagon train with her parents. Adopted by the Crow, Amanda becomes Spotted Deer and grows to young womanhood with her Crow family in the Montana Territory. Mysterious circumstances after a vision quest lead her to run away to the town of Helena, where her troubled memories of the brutal attack are finally healed.

Content to live with her own people again, she hears rumors of war breaking out near the Little Bighorn River. With the unfortunate discovery that her adopted Crow brother has become a scout for the US Cavalry at Fort Laramie, Amanda journeys back to the Crow in the hopes of saving him from certain death. Her decisive actions fill her with ambivalence as she must again face the intimidating Crow spiritual mentor she once loved and seek his help in saving the brother she also loves. The Thundering Path of Spirit is a riveting love story about following God's will in harrowing times.

"Some people are born storytellers, and when you add to that careful historical research, you get a fascinating tale. M. B. Tosi's new novel is a compelling love story and spiritual journey told against the background of the Battle of the Little Bighorn. It's a page turner." -Jim Langford, Director Emeritus of University of Notre Dame Press

Rosa Fleming motors her way to Bennett's Island in the dark of the night, fleeing her divorce, her philandering husband and the gossipmongers of her hometown. On the Island she discovers not only a refuge to heal her emotional wounds, but also a community that nurtures her battered confidence and a man who teaches her to love and be loved as an equal. When a fight breaks out between the island's lobstermen and the invading fishermen who disregard the island's longstanding customs, Rosa steps into the struggle and saves a man's life. She flourishes amid the crisis, but her growth may be at the expense of her fledgling romance. Strawberries in the Sea is a story of self-discovery and rejuvenation, as a sad insecure woman realizes her own inner beauty and personal strengths.

A romantic comedy set in turn-of-the-century California. By the author of "The Octopus" and "The Pit."

Discover Rosie Clarke's bestselling Blackberry Farm series! A story of life and survival during the war which is heart-rending and bitter-sweet, bringing you laughter and tears. Cambridgeshire - 1941 As the war rages on in Europe, it brings untold heartache to the Talbot family at Blackberry Farm. First Tom is missing in action and then his brother John. leaving the family distraught with worry. Faith finds herself in trouble and turns to Lizzie for support as fear and grief bring them closer together. But tragedy is never too far away and when it strikes, it may not be those who fight that suffer the most. Will Pam's prayers be answered and will both her sons return home? And can the family at Blackberry Farm unite to overcome their heartache and find hope for the future?

WITH A NEW INTRODUCTION BY GILL HORNBY

Handsome, clever and rich, Emma Woodhouse has no desire to fall in love or be married. Playing Cupid for her peers is far more appealing. But when Emma's well-intentioned schemes for her friend Harriet Smith begin to go awry, Emma must navigate misunderstandings, mismatched suitors and the realisation that perhaps love was closer to home than she realised.