Juanita McMahon
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English
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"An exquisitely talented young British author makes her American debut with this rapturously acclaimed historical novel, set in late nineteenth-century England, about an intellectually minded young widow, a pious vicar, and a rumored mythical serpent that explores questions about science and religion, skepticism, and faith, independence and love. When Cora Seaborne's brilliant, domineering husband dies, she steps into her new life as a widow with...
2) Fingersmith
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English
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Sue Trinder is an orphan, left as an infant in the care of Mrs. Sucksby, a "baby farmer," who raised her with unusual tenderness, as if Sue were her own. Mrs. Sucksby's household, with its fussy babies calmed with doses of gin, also hosts a transient family of petty thieves-fingersmiths-for whom this house in the heart of a mean London slum is home. One day, the most beloved thief of all arrives-Gentleman, a somewhat elegant con man, who carries with...
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English
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'Death is a hollow drum whose beat has measured out my adult life.' So writes Jay Macallan Stewart in her latest volume of memoirs. But nobody has ever asked whether that has been by accident or design. Nobody, that is, until Jay turns her sights on newly-wed and freshly-widowed Magda Newsam. For Magda's mother Corinna is an Oxford don who knows enough of Jay's history to be very afraid indeed. Determined to protect her daughter, Corinna turns to...
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English
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A tale set in World War II finds a rescue worker struggling for composure after a bombing, a young woman longing for her soldier lover, and a convict who watches a battle through the bars of his window. Moving backward through the 1940s, through air raids, blacked-out streets, illicit partying, and sexual adventure, this novel tells the story of four Londoners--three women and a young man with a past--whose lives, and those of their friends and lovers,...
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Nancy Astley, a fishmonger in Whitstable, becomes smitten by male impersonator Kitty Butler and attends shows until the star notices her, which leads to the two becoming partners in romance and performance until societal pressures drive the two into situations that embrace the ambiguity of sexual preference and gender roles.
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English
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"Detective Manon Bradshaw is 39, single, and miserable as sin. She has endured some of the worst dates in internet history. But she loves her job and performs it brilliantly; all she needs to rise up in the ranks is a big break. Edith Hind is a gorgeous, intrepid graduate student at Cambridge University who seems to have it all: a doting boyfriend, a devoted friend named Helena, a loving mother and a father who is a surgeon to the Royal Family. When...
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English
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"Lupton enters the highly charged ring where the best psychological detective writers spar... Like Kate Atkinson, Patricia Highsmith and Ruth Rendell… Both tear-jerking and spine-tingling, Sister provides an adrenaline rush that could cause a chill on the sunniest afternoon." —The New York Times Book Review
When her mom calls to tell her that Tess, her younger sister, is missing,
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English
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"Newly married and navigating life with a toddler as well as her adopted adolescent son, Fly Dent, Manon Bradshaw is happy to be working part-time in the cold cases department of the Cambridgeshire police force, a job which allows her to "potter in, coffee in hand and log on for a spot of internet shopping--precisely what she had in mind when she thought of work-life balance." But beneath the surface Manon is struggling with the day-to-day realities...
10) Sea of lost love
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English
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Celestria always spends her summer holiday at Pendrift Hall, the rambling Cornish mansion that has been home to the Montague family for generations. In the summer of 1958, the highlight is a lavish ball in honour of Archie Montague's fiftieth birthday, and the beautiful girl, on the cusp of womanhood, is looking forward to practising her flirtation skills. But what is supposed to be a night of celebration ends in catastrophe. As a result, Celestria's...
11) Affinity
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English
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“Gothic tale, psychological study, puzzle narrative…This is gripping, astute fiction that feeds the mind and senses.”—The Seattle Times
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves,...
An upper-class woman recovering from a suicide attempt, Margaret Prior has begun visiting the women’s ward of Millbank prison, Victorian London’s grimmest jail, as part of her rehabilitative charity work. Amongst Millbank’s murderers and common thieves,...
Author
Series
Language
English
Description
"Detective Manon Bradshaw is five months pregnant and has officially given up on finding romantic love. Instead, she is in hot-pursuit of the work-life balance and parked in a cold case corridor--the price she's had to pay for a transfer back to Cambridgeshire. This is fine, she tells herself. She can devote herself to bringing up her motley collection of children--the new baby, and her adopted 12-year-old son Fly Dent. He needed a fresh start--he...
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English
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Ever since legwarmers were cool, best friends Tara, Katherine, and Fintan have survived small-town ennui, big-city heartbreak, and endless giddy nights out on the town. But now that they've graduated to their slightly more serious thirties, only Fintan has what can honestly be called a "love life." With Tara struggling daily with her eternal diet-and her dreadful, penny-pinching boyfriend-and Katherine keeping her single existence as organized as...
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English
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"It is the seventeenth century and a wall is being raised around Wychwood, transforming the great house and its park into a private realm of ornamental lakes, grandiose gardens, and majestic avenues designed by Mr. Norris, a visionary landscaper. In this enclosed world everyone has something to hide after decades of civil war. Dissenters shelter in the woods, lovers rendezvous in secret enclaves, and outsiders--migrants fleeing the plague--find no...
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English
Description
Spoilt and wilful Sofia Solanas grows up on a magnificent ranch in the middle of the Argentine pampas, loved by all around her. All, that is, except her Irish mother, Anna, who punishes her daughter for her own sense of alienation and inadequacy while doting on her sons. When a horrified Anna discovers that Sofia has embarked on a passionate love affair that can only bring shame upon the family, she sends Sofia away to Europe, inadvertently exiling...
16) The London train
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Language
English
Description
After the death of his mother, Paul abandons his family to live life on the edge with his daughter from a previous marriage who is pregnant and living in a run-down council flat, while Cora rebels against her marriage and society.
17) Moths
Author
Series
Moths volume 1
Language
English
Description
Forty years ago, the world changed. Toxic threads left behind by mutated moths infected men and boys around the globe. Some were killed quietly in their sleep, others became crazed killers, wildly dangerous and beyond help. All seemed hopeless. But humanity adapted, healed and moved on. Now matriarchs rule, and men are kept in specially treated dust-free facilities for their safety and the good of society, never able to return to the outside. Mary...
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English
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When love begins with a lie, where will it end? Doctor Tristan Ainsworth has returned with his family to the idyllic Cornish village close to where he grew up. The past has taught him some hard lessons, but he'll do anything to make his wife happy - so what's making her so withdrawn? Karen Ainsworth daren't reveal her true feelings, but knows her husband has put up with her moods for too long. A chance to use her extraordinary singing voice may set...
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English
Description
Sophie Mills has worked her Manolo Blahniks off to reach the near-top of her profession. And she's very happy with her priorities in life - her job, her neurotic cat Artemis and her passion for shoes. After all, relationships only get in the way. And as for children? She hasn't even begun to think about them yet. Until one day an unexpected visitor brings news of a strange inheritance and Sophie is suddenly, out of the blue, in sole charge of two...
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English
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Willow and Holly are identical twins. They're alike in every way, except one – Willow is afraid on the inside. For a long time Willow has felt separated from Holly by one terrible moment in time – a moment that meant Willow's life was never the same again. And when the past catches up with her, Willow realizes it's finally time for her to face her fears, and learn to laugh again.