"Sophie Beckett never dreamed she'd be able to sneak into Lady Bridgerton's famed masquerade ball-or that "Prince Charming" would be waiting there for her! Though the daughter of an earl, Sophie has been relegated to the role of servant by her disdainful stepmother. But now, spinning in the strong arms of the debonair and devastatingly handsome Benedict Bridgerton, she feels like royalty. Alas, she knows all enchantments must end when the clock strikes midnight. Ever since that magical night, a radiant vision in silver has blinded Benedict to the attractions of any other-except, perhaps, this alluring and oddly familiar beauty dressed in housemaid's garb whom he feels compelled to rescue from a most disagreeable situation. He has sworn to find and wed his mystery miss, but this breathtaking maid makes him weak with wanting her. Yet, if he offers her his heart, will Benedict sacrifice his only chance for a fairy-tale love" -- Front jacket flap.

Best-selling author Belva Plain follows the enormous success of "Whispers" and "Daybreak" with another explosive novel that explores the realities simmering below the surface of a seemingly admirable Amencan family. In the opening pages of "The Carousel" a woman is looking at an exquisite music box, a silver carousel. She is pensive and reflects upon how this beautiful object has linked the momentous events of a family's life. She has married into that family, the Greys, whose successful business is nationally known. The sun has long shone upon the patriarch, Oliver Grey, his two sons Ian and Clive, and his niece and nephew, Amanda and Dan. Oliver has recently handed over control of the business to his two sons and his nephew. Amanda has a non-voting share. Now the sky has clouded over and terrible storms arise as a series of incidents threatens to destroy the family... Amanda is making furious demands upon the business. Ian's greed and his adultery collide with Clive's jealousy. And the five-year-old daughter of Dan and his wife has been the victim of sexual abuse. The Greys, pillars of their upstate New York community, are being torn apart. And before their ordeal comes to an end someone will be the victim of murder. As she did in the enormously successful "Whispers," Belva Plain tells a timely story of a family with a dark and dirty secret. With the additional touches of mystery--a new territory for Belva Plain --"The Carousel" confirms her place as one of our most compelling and popular writers. "The queen of the family saga writers...Belva Plain is in a class by herself." -- "The New York Times,"

"Denied by his father, abandoned by his mother, Adam has been in flight from his past for twenty years--until he returns to investigate the possible murder of his father by one of the church members."--Jacket.

"A writer's notebook becomes the key that unlocks memories of a love formed and lost in 1960s Paris. In the aftermath of Algeria's war of independence, Paris was a city rife with suspicion and barely suppressed violence. Amid this tension, Jean, a young writer adrift, met and fell for Dannie, an enigmatic woman fleeing a troubled past. A half century later, with his old black notebook as a guide, he retraces this fateful period in his life, recounting how, through Dannie, he became mixed up with a group of unsavory characters connected by a shadowy crime. Soon Jean, too, was a person of interest to the detective pursuing their case--a detective who would prove instrumental in revealing Dannie's darkest secret. The Black Notebook bears all the hallmarks of this Nobel Prize-winning literary master's unsettling and intensely atmospheric style, rendered in English by acclaimed translator Mark Polizzotti. Once again, Modiano invites us into his unique world, a Paris infused with melancholy, uncertain danger, and the fading echoes of lost love"--

Like most people, Vic Mullan, habitual drug-user, professional layabout, and amoralist extraordinaire, can remember where he was and what he was doing on the day of Princess Diana's death. Yes, he can remember it particularly well: he was at home, beginning an affair with Emma, his best friend's wife.The opening sections of David Baddiel's second novel chart the history of an intense and passionately sexual liaison set against the background of the most hysterical - in both senses of the word - time in recent memory. But as the months wear on, and life and love return to normal, so things become more complex between Vic and Emma. And then, tragedy - a real, local, small-scale tragedy, as opposed to a national, iconic, mythological one - intervenes. Part-satire, part-love story, part-whodunnit, and part-meditation on the nature of sex and death, Whatever Love Means is truly a tale for our times