In ​the Shadow of the Sun King

Golden Keyes Parsons - Where ​Hearts Are Free
Bridget ​is in love with one man...and promised to another. Amid the liberty and promise of the New World, Bridget Barrington and Philippe Clavell fall in love. But nothing about their love seems possible. To pay for the Clavell family's passage from France, Philippe, a former member of French royalty, worked as an indentured slave to the Barringtons. Bridget is the heiress of the prominent plantation. When Bridget's parents discover the budding Romance between their daughter and their servant, they quickly orchestrate her engagement to an older, more advantageous match. But Edward Moorehead has a secret. And he's anything but a good match for Bridget. Separated from her true love and in danger from her betrothed, Bridget must rely on God to deliver her from darkness into light.

Nicolas Barreau - One ​Evening in Paris
Alain ​Bonnard, the owner of a small art cinema in Paris, is a dyed-in-the-wool nostalgic. In his Cinéma Paradis there are no buckets of popcorn, no XXL coca-colas, no Hollywood blockbusters. Not a good business plan if you want to survive, but Alain holds firm to his principles of quality. He wants to show films that create dreams, and he likes most of the people that come to his cinema. Particularly the enchanting, shy woman in the red coat who turns up every Wednesday in row 17. What could her story be? One evening, Alain plucks up courage and invites the unknown beauty to dinner. The most tender of love stories is just getting under way when something incredible happens: The Cinéma Paradis is going to be the location of Allan Woods' new film Tender Memories of Paris. Solène Avril, the famous American director's favourite actress, has known the cinema since childhood and has got it into her head that she wants the film to be shot there. Alain is totally overwhelmed when he meets her in person. Suddenly, the little cinema and its owner are the focus of public attention, and the red-plush seats are sold out every evening. But the mystery woman Alain has just fallen in love with seems suddenly to have vanished. Is this just coincidence? Alain sets off in search of her and becomes part of a story more delightful than anything the cinema has to offer.

Sandra Gulland - Mistress ​of the Sun
The ​author of the internationally acclaimed Josephine B. trilogy presents a new, irresistible historical novel, based on the life of Louise de la Vallière, who, against all odds, became the most beloved consort of France's Louis XIV, the charismatic Sun King. Set against the magnificent decadence of the seventeenth-century French court, Mistress of the Sun begins when the eccentric young Louise falls in love with a wild white stallion and uses ancient dark magic to tame him. This one desperate action of her youth shadows her throughout her life, changing it in ways she could never imagine. Unmarriageable, and too poor to join a convent, Louise enters the court of the Sun King as a maid of honor, where the King is captivated by her athleticism and her striking grace. As their love unfolds, Louise bears Louis four children, is made a duchess, and reigns unrivaled as his official mistress until dangerous intrigue threatens her position at court, her place in Louis's heart, and even her life. Louise must decide where she can best find the peace and fulfillment her souls has longed for, and which she has traveled so far to find. A riveting love story with a captivating mystery at its heart, Mistress of the Sun resurrects a fascinating female figure from the shadows of history and illuminates both the power of true and perfect love and the rash actions we take to capture and tame it.

Judith McNaught - Whitney, ​My Love
One ​of today's best-loved authors, Judith McNaught launched her stellar career with this dazzling bestseller. Now in a special edition that features a brand-new, enhanced ending and endows familiar characters with new depth, Whitney, My Love lives on as "the ultimate love story, one you can dream about forever" (Romantic Times). Under the dark, languorous eyes of Clayton Westmoreland, the Duke of Claymore, Whitney Stone grew from a saucy hoyden into a ravishingly sensual woman. Fresh from her triumphs in Paris society, she returned to England to win the heart of Paul, her childhood love...only to be bargained away by her bankrupt father to the handsome, arrogant Duke. Outraged, she defies her new lord. But even as his smoldering passion seduces her into a gathering storm of desire, Whitney cannot -- will not -- relinquish her dream of perfect love. Rich with emotion, brimming with laughter and tears, Whitney, My Love confirms once more why "Judith McNaught is truly one of the spellbinding storytellers of our times" (Affaire de Coeur).

Gustave Flaubert - Madame ​Bovary (angol)
Emma ​Bovary is beautiful and bored, trapped in her marriage to a mediocre doctor and stifled by the banality of provincial life. An ardent reader of sentimental novels, she longs for passion and seeks escape in fantasies of high romance, in voracious spending and, eventually, in adultery. But even her affairs bring her disappointment and the consequences are devastating. Flaubert's erotically charged and psychologically acute portrayal of Emma Bovary caused a moral outcry on its publication in 1857. It was deemed so lifelike that many women claimed they were the model for his heroine; but Flaubert insisted: 'Madame Bovary, c'est moi'.

Stephanie Perkins - Isla ​and the Happily Ever After
Falling ​in love in the world’s most romantic city is easy for hopeless dreamer Isla and introspective artist Josh. But as they begin their senior year at the School of America in Paris, Isla and Josh are quickly forced to deal with the heartbreaking reality that happily-ever-afters aren’t always forever. Their romantic journey is skillfully intertwined with those of beloved couples Anna and Étienne and Lola and Cricket, whose paths are destined to collide in a sweeping finale certain to please fans old and new.

Pamela Edgar - Between ​Two Fires
A ​big country, a big love story, a bitter war ...this romantic novel has been described by readers as the Gone with the Wind of South Africa. When Arabella arrives in South Africa for a short holiday in September 1899, she has no idea that the Boer War is about to explode. Trapped in Natal with her unstable cousin Rosamunde and the latter's predatory husband Ben, Arabella decides to flee - but not before she has encountered the enemy in the shape of Deneys du Rand, a rugged Boer soldier ...and the most attractive man she has ever seen. Arabella becomes torn between two fires - between two men, both beloved, and both forbidden.

Andrew M. Greeley - Irish ​Lace
The ​beautiful and fey - as they say in the Old Country - Nuala Anne McGrail uses her psychic abilities to help solve mysteries. But even she will admit with a smile that she couldn't do it without Dermot Michael Coyne, her devoted admirer and self-proclaimed "spear carrier." Now both living in Chicago, their unique courtship is once again interrupted by one of Nuala's "spells." On a quiet street on the South Shore, she is overwhelmed by the screaming of thousands of dying men - Confederate soldiers held as prisoners of war. Soon the pair are caught up in a Civil War controversy, and an all-too-present-day mystery involving a sophisticated gang of art thieves, corrupt politicians, and international terrorists. But Dermot is cheerfully resigned, for as he well knows, life with Nuala will never be simple. After all, she's like Irish lace - "thin and delicate and pretty, and just a little bit complicated."

Andrew M. Greeley - Irish ​Gold
Bestselling ​novelist Andrew M. Greeley outdoes his previous triumphs with Irish Gold, a contemporary, fresh and exciting novel of suspense and love. Nuala Anne McGrail, a student at Dublin's Trinity College, is beautiful the way a Celtic goddess is beautiful - not that Dermot Michael Coyne of Chicago has ever seen one of those in his twenty-five years - unless you count his grandmother Nell, who left Ireland during the Troubles with her husband Liam O'Riada, and who would never tell why they left. Somebody else remembers, though - or why is Dermot set upon by thugs?

Rachel Van Dyken - Shame
I ​ran away from him, ran away from the memories and tried to start over. A fresh start at college was just what I needed and for a while it worked, unitl my past began to catch up with me. I'd always been the party girl, the one you could count on for a good time, but it was all a lie. I so wanted to be the beauty in the story--when really I knew I was always the beast. When guys touched me...I felt nothing but pain. When they kissed me...I felt nothing but rage. Until he walked into my life. I wasn't prepared to fall for someone--ever. My scars were too deep, the wounds too raw. But he offered me peace, he offered me security and love. I should have known it was just another lie--I should have known that falling in love with my professor was a bad idea. But I was powerless to stop myself from falling. And he was powerless to catch me. You think you know my story, but you don't....after all everyone has Shame in their lives--you're about to know mine.

Susan Mallery - Chasing ​Perfect
Welcome ​to Fool's Gold, California, a charming community in the foothills of the Sierra Nevada. There's lots to do and plenty of people to meet, especially women. Because there's just one tiny problem in Fool's Gold: the men don't seem to stick around. Maybe it's the lure of big-city life, or maybe it's plain old bad luck, but regardless of the reason, the problem has to be fixed, fast. And Charity Jones may be just the city planner to do it. Charity's nomadic childhood has left her itching to settle down, and she immediately falls in love with all the storybook town has to offer—everything, that is, except its sexiest and most famous resident, former world-class cyclist Josh Golden. With her long list of romantic disasters, she's not about to take a chance on another bad boy, even if everyone else thinks he's perfect just the way he is. But maybe that's just what he needs—someone who knows the value of his flaws. Someone who knows that he's just chasing perfect.

Anita Brookner - Hotel ​du Lac
In ​the novel that won her the Booker Prize and established her international reputation, Anita Brookner finds a new vocabulary for framing the eternal question "Why love?" It tells the story of Edith Hope, who writes romance novels under a psudonym. When her life begins to resemble the plots of her own novels, however, Edith flees to Switzerland, where the quiet luxury of the Hotel du Lac promises to resore her to her senses. But instead of peace and rest, Edith finds herself sequestered at the hotel with an assortment of love's casualties and exiles. She also attracts the attention of a worldly man determined to release her unused capacity for mischief and pleasure. Beautifully observed, witheringly funny, Hotel du Lac is Brookner at her most stylish and potently subversive.

Julia Llewellyn - Ten ​Minutes to Fall in Love
Zu ​Forbes has a complicated relationship with love. Her mother died when she was a teenager, leaving her with a lonely father and emotional baggage. So at the earliest opportunity she switched the baggage for luggage and took off around the world. But now she's home and working for a dating agency. Can she find the perfect match for her dad? If only she can pair him off, she can run away again with a clear conscience. While Zu busies herself fixing her dad's love life, she almost misses Cupid creeping up behind her. They say it takes ten minutes to fall in love so how can she be falling for someone she's known for years? And why is it taking so damn long to matchmake her dad? Zu must make a commitment one way or the other: to her love life; to her family; and to the memories of a mother she's tried so desperately to forget. Ten Minutes to Fall in Love is an engaging, witty and romantic story about finding that perfect person to share your life.

E. M. Forster - A ​Room with a View
Lucy ​has her rigid, middle-class life mapped out for her until she visits Florence with her uptight cousin Charlotte, and finds her neatly ordered existence thrown off balance. Her eyes are opened by the unconventional characters she meets at the Pension Bertolini: flamboyant romantic novelist Eleanor Lavish, the Cockney Signora, eccentric Mr Emerson and. most of all, his passionate son George. Lucy finds herself torn between the intensity of life in Italy and the repressed morals of Victorian England, personified in her terminally dull fiancé Cecil Vyse, until she finally learns to follow the power of her own heart. A Room with a View was brought to life in a film starring Helena Bonham Carter.

Katie Fforde - Restoring ​Grace
Ellie ​Summers' life is unravelling. Finding herself pregnant - and her sexy but idle boyfriend Rick less than enthusiastic about parenthood - she needs a plan. Fast. Grace Soudley's life is also coming apart at the seams - her only security is the beautiful yet crumbling old house she was left by her godmother. But unless she can find a fortune, Luckenham House will disintegrate around her. When Ellie and Grace meet, the two very different women find they can help each other out. Ellie needs a place to stay; Grace needs a lodger. Both of them need a friend. But then the disconcertingly engaging Flynn Cormack arrives on the scene, apparently determined to help. And when Grace discovers some beautiful painted panels hidden behind the tattered dining-room curtains, the whole business of restoration starts to get serious...

E. M. Forster - A ​Room with a View / Howards End / Maurice
In ​these three novels Forster explores a perennial theme - the contradictory demands of passion ans civilization and the difficulties of staying true to the best ideals of each. A Room With A View, Howard's End and Maurice combine wit, a love of nature, astute social criticism and a complex and sympathetic understanding of human nature.

Brittany Geragotelis - Life's ​a Witch
Hadley ​Bishop is a witch. As a descendant of the first woman executed in the Salem witch trials, Hadley understands the consequences if her secret gets out. But witchcraft has come a long way since Salem, and as far Hadley is concerned the past is past. Beauty spells, designer outfits and being in with the popular social crowd is much more her thing! But when the adults from Hadley's coven suddenly vanish, it seems that the past is catching up with the present. All the evidence points to an age-old rival coven as the culprits, and Hadley must lead the young witches of her coven in a fight to avenge their elders and rescue their missing parents. At the same time Hadley is distracted by the mysterious and gorgeous Asher, who seems to have plenty of secrets of his own, not to mention a bit of magic. But whose side is he on? With everything at stake, can Hadley trust her own magic - and her heart - to guide her coven to victory?

Pamela Aidan - Duty ​and Desire
Jane ​Austen's classic novel "Pride and Prejudice" is beloved by millions, but little is revealed in the book about the mysterious and handsome hero, Mr. Darcy. And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy? Pamela Aidan's trilogy finally answers that long-standing question, creating a rich parallel story that follows Darcy as he meets and falls in love with Elizabeth Bennet. "Duty and Desire," the second book in the trilogy, covers the "silent time" of Austen's novel, revealing Darcy's private struggle to overcome his attraction to Elizabeth while fulfilling his roles as landlord, master, brother, and friend. When Darcy pays a visit to an old classmate in Oxford in an attempt to shake Elizabeth from his mind, he is set upon by husband-hunting society ladies and ne'er-do-well friends from his university days, all with designs on him -- some for good and some for ill. He and his sartorial genius of a valet, Fletcher, must match wits with them all, but especially with the curious Lady Sylvanie. Irresistibly authentic and entertaining, "Duty and Desire" remains true to the spirit and events of "Pride and Prejudice" while incorporating fascinating new characters, and is sure to dazzle Austen fans and newcomers alike.

Pamela Aidan - An ​Assembly Such As This
So ​begins the timeless romance of Fitzwilliam Darcy and Elizabeth Bennet in Pride and Prejudice. Jane Austen's classic novel is beloved by millions, but little is revealed in the book about the mysterious and handsome hero, Mr. Darcy. And so the question has long remained: Who is Fitzwilliam Darcy? In An Assembly Such as This, Pamela Aidan finally answers that long-standing question. In this first book of her Fitzwilliam Darcy, Gentleman trilogy, she reintroduces us to Darcy during his visit to Hertfordshire with his friend Charles Bingley and reveals Darcy's hidden perspective on the events of Pride and Prejudice. As Darcy spends more time at Netherfield supervising Bingley and fending off Miss Bingley's persistent advances, his unwilling attraction to Elizabeth grows—as does his concern about her relationship with his nemesis, George Wickham. Setting the story vividly against the colorful historical and political background of the Regency, Aidan writes in a style comfortably at home with Austen but with a wit and humor very much her own. Aidan adds her own cast of fascinating characters to those in Austen's original, weaving a rich tapestry from Darcy's past and present. Austen fans and newcomers alike will love this new chapter of the most famous romance of all time.

Sarah Addison Allen - The ​Sugar Queen
In ​this irresistible novel, Sarah Addison Allen, author of the New York Times bestselling debut, Garden Spells, tells the tale of a young woman whose family secrets—and secret passions—are about to change her life forever. Josey Cirrini is sure of three things: winter is her favorite season, she’s a sorry excuse for a Southern belle, and sweets are best eaten in the privacy of her closet. For while Josey has settled into an uneventful life in her mother’s house, her one consolation is the stockpile of sugary treats and paperback romances she escapes to each night…. Until she finds her closet harboring Della Lee Baker, a local waitress who is one part nemesis—and two parts fairy godmother. With Della Lee’s tough love, Josey’s narrow existence quickly expands. She even bonds with Chloe Finley, a young woman who is hounded by books that inexplicably appear when she needs them—and who has a close connection to Josey’s longtime crush. Soon Josey is living in a world where the color red has startling powers, and passion can make eggs fry in their cartons. And that’s just for starters. Brimming with warmth, wit, and a sprinkling of magic, here is a spellbinding tale of friendship, love—and the enchanting possibilities of every new day.