“I finally understand what the poets have written. In spring, moved to passion; in autumn only regret.”For young Peony, betrothed to a suitor she has never met, these lyrics from The Peony Pavilion mirror her own longings....

For sixty years Jewish refugees and their descendants have prospered in the Federal District of Sitka, a 'temporary' safe haven created in the wake of the Holocaust and the shocking 1948 collapse of the fledgling state of Israel. The...

In the days before the Civil War, there lived a Louisiana people unique in Southern histroy. Though descended from African slaves, they were also descended from the French and Spanish who enslaved them. Called the Free People of Color...

Interweaving historical fact with fiction, this richly textured novel by the author of Girl with a Pearl Earring explores the mystery and personal stories behind the creation of the remarkable Lady and the Unicorn tapestries, woven at...

A killer stalks two psychics posing as husband and wife in this suspenseful paranormal romance set in the Victorian era. Lonely spinster photographer Venetia Milton decides to seduce her employer, Gabriel Jones, who has hired her to t...

From Brittany’s misty shores to the decadent splendor of Paris’s royal court, one woman must fulfill her destiny–while facing the treacherous designs of Catherine de Medici, the dark queen.She is Ariane, the Lady of ...

Whether he is nurturing a single rare seedling into a blossoming tree or planning acres of exquisitely conceived royal gardens, John Tradescant's fame and skill as a gardener are unsurpassed in seventeenth-century England. But it is T...

Historical novelist Sarah Waters sets her fourth book in World War II-era London, which serves as a backdrop to the poignant intertwined stories of men and women looking for love, often in not societally approved liaisons (with their ...

At the time of her death, Granny Dan was known simply as a fun-loving grandparent, beloved for her kindness and wisdom. But when her granddaughter stumbles upon her only legacy--a small box wrapped in brown paper--she finds the key to...

A lush, seductive novel of the legendary beauty whose face “launched a thousand ships” Daughter of a god, wife of a king, prize of antiquity's bloodiest war, Helen of Troy has inspired artists for millennia. Now Margaret Ge...

This fiercely beautiful novel tells the true story of Charles Radcliff, a Catholic nobleman who joined the short-lived Jacobite rebellion of 1715, and of his daughter, Jenny, by a secret marriage. Set in the wilds of Northumbria, teem...

E. L. Doctorow digs deeply into American history once again in this epic tale of Sherman’s march to the sea--a 60-mile trail of death and destruction--toward the end of the Civil War. Mingling real historical figures with imagin...

The author of The Hidden Diary of Marie Anotinette offers a fictional portrait of the sixth wife of Henry VIII, Catherine Parr, following this alluring, witty, and resourceful woman from the intrigues and perils of Henry's court to he...

Joanne Harris, bestselling author of Chocolat, presents her most accomplished novel yet -- an intoxicating concoction that blends theology and reason, deception and masquerade, with a dash of whimsical humor and a soupçon of sens...

As England descends into civil war, John Tradescant the Younger, gardener to King Charles I, finds his loyalties in question, his status an ever-growing danger to his family. Fearing royal defeat and determined to avoid serving the re...

From the pen of the legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy comes the story of Princess Margaret Tudor, whose life of tragedy, bloodshed, and scandal would rival even that of her younger brother, Henry VIII.Princess Margaret Tudor i...

Legendary historical novelist Jean Plaidy brings to life the story of Princess Mary Tudor, a celebrated beauty and born rebel who would defy the most powerful king in Europe—her older brother.Princess Mary Rose is the youngest s...

An extraordinary historical novel about a peculiar friendship between the mistress of a Scottish estate and her irresistibly appealing housemaid Scotland, 1863. In an attempt to escape her not-so-innocent past in Glasgow, Bessy Buckl...

From the bestselling author of Girl With a Pearl Earring comes a stirring eighteenth-century coming-of-age tale Tracy Chevalier, author of the international bestseller Girl With a Pearl Earring, returns with another brilliantly rende...

Lauren Willig continues the exciting series with her fourth novel, The Seduction of the Crimson Rose, featuring Lord Vaughn, the delightfully devilish spy from The Masque of the Black Tulip, and Mary Alsworthy, the raven-haired beauty...

Drawing from decades of work, travel, and research in Russia, Robert Alexander re-creates the tragic, perennially fascinating story of the final days of Nicholas and Alexandra as seen through the eyes of the Romanovs' young kitchen bo...

With the Allies preparing for the invasion of Nazi-occupied Europe, Felicity "Flick" Clariet, an agent in the ranks of the British Special Operations Executive, is given the job of destroying German lines of communications, ...

In a first installment of a new series of historical novels by the author of The Queen of the South, wounded seventeenth-century Spanish soldier Alatriste works as a swordsman-for-hire in Madrid, but when his latest job takes an unexp...

"A simply remarkable book. Robin Oliveira brings the Civil War era vividly alive with a heroine no reader will ever forget." -Ron Rash, author of Serena Mary Sutter is a brilliant young midwife who dreams of becoming a surg...

Sarah Piper's lonely, threadbare existence changes when her temporary agency sends her to assist a ghost hunter. Alistair Gellis-rich, handsome, scarred by World War I, and obsessed with ghosts- has been summoned to investigate the s...

The Chili Queen is a whorehouse in 1860s New Mexico, and the story of the place is told first by Addie French, the madam; Ned Partner, a bank robber who patronizes the whorehouse; Emma Roby, a mail-order bride; and Welcome, the whoreh...

The Scottish Lowlands, October 1789.A year has come and gone since Jamie McKie fled for his life, arriving at Auchengray in search of sanctuary and a bonny wife. Young Rose McBride, as fair a lass as any in Scotland, dearly loves her ...

While escaping from an arranged marriage to a much-older man, Felicia Camell is taken hostage by Rory Maclean, the leader of a rival clan, and finds herself drawn to the enemy, which could cause a clan war to erupt. Original.

A COMPELLING, WELL-WRITTEN EPIC. . .Penman is an accomplished novelist and certainly has staked a claim to medieval England as her literary fiefdom.'--The Philadelphia InquirerA.D. 1135. As church bells tolled for the death of England...

[P]leasantly atmospheric....Olympia leaps out in sharp focus from the first page, but the conscientiously tangled plodding and the muddle it provokes in her show the strain of transplanting a millennial sensibility back a hundred year...