The Intrepid Miss Haydon

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Jayne Bauling

Valentine was living on borrowed time. Once Kemp Irvine knew who she was, and the part she had played in his cousin Philip's tragic death, he would feel nothing for her but hate. Only by Philip's death had Kemp come into his unwanted inheritance, and he cherished a bitter grudge against the unknown woman who had destroyed his family, and his own hopes for the future. She must tell him, that was certain. But Valentine's coward spirit begged for a little more time to love him.

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Barbara Pym

Harriet and Belinda Bede are middle-aged sisters who have only two things in common: their spinsterhood and their love for each other. Harriet is a bubbly, chubby coquette. Belinda is a meek, thin romantic who, since her youth, has nurtured an unrequited love for the town's vicar. Barbara Pym provides her heroines with a memorable clique of admirers: Archdeacon Hoccleve, a pompous man of the cloth whose sermons remain mysteries to his parishioners; Edgar Donne the young church curate who, taken under Harriet's wing, is fed enough chicken to last a lifetime; and Count Ricardo Bianco, a nice old man who periodically proposes to, and is turned down by, Harriet. In many ways, *Some Tame Gazelle*, Barbara Pym's first novel, presents the reverse image of village life portrayed in *A Few Green Leaves*, her last novel. Where that was reflective, this is hopeful, gay, and turned to the future. The world of Barbara Pym may be as provincial as an English country village, but it is alive and ready for the seizing.

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Beatrice Colin

"Set against the construction of the Eiffel Tower, this novel charts the relationship between a young widow and an engineer who, despite constraints of class and wealth, fall in love. In February 1887, Caitriona Wallace and Emile Nouguier meet in a hot air balloon, floating high above Paris a moment of pure possibility. But back on firm ground, their vastly different social strata become clear. Cait is a widow who because of her precarious financial situation is forced to chaperone two wealthy Scottish charges. Emile is expected to take on the bourgeois stability of his family's business and choose a suitable wife. As the Eiffel Tower rises, a marvel of steel and air and light, the subject of extreme controversy and a symbol of the future, Cait and Emile must decide what their love is worth. Seamlessly weaving historical detail and vivid invention, Beatrice Colin evokes the revolutionary time in which Cait and Emile live--one of corsets and secret trysts, duels and Bohemian independence, strict tradition and Impressionist experimentation. To Capture What We Cannot Keep, stylish, provocative, and shimmering, raises probing questions about a woman's place in that world, the overarching reach of class distinctions, and the sacrifices love requires of us all"--

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Diana Palmer

Diego Laremos had never forgotten the last night he'd spent with Melissa Sterling five years before. She'd fled their home after a bitter dispute, hoping to escape their unhappy marriage. He hadn't forgiven her for leaving, though he'd hated himself even more for driving her away. Seeing Melissa again had renewed his hope for a possible future together... Melissa had felt the same way, but she'd lied to Diego in the past. Now she had to prove to him that she was indeed his love–his ENAMORADA–and that the truth could set them both free...to love.