In The Matchmakers, a young widow with two small sons feels very fortunate that her widowed father was there to help her care for the boys and make the adjustment since her husband's death. But now, a bit smothered by his caregiving, she feels ready to go on but is concerned about how to get him to step back a pace. A friend suggests a fine older widow in the church, who might divert his attention. The older widow has a son who appears rather distant,...

Alice McDermott's powerful novel is a vivid portrait of an American family in the middle decades of the twentieth century. Witty, compassionate, and wry, it captures the social, political, and spiritual upheavals of those decades through the experiences of a middle-class couple, their four children, and the changing worlds in which they live. While Michael and Annie Keane taste the alternately intoxicating and bitter first fruits of the sexual revolution,...

Assuming that his long-time correspondent, Eloise Bridgerton, is a homely, quiet, unassuming spinster sho would be desperate for an offer of marriage, Sir Phillip proposes through the mail, never expecting to discover that his prospective fiancee is a stunningly beautiful young woman who is the toast of London.

A true-life novel about Lily Casey Smith (the author's grandmother) who at age six helped her father break horses, at age fifteen left home to teach in a frontier town, and later as a wife and mother runs a vast ranch in Arizona where she survived t

It's harvest time in the village of Kurland St. Mary as Miss Lucy Harrington and Major Sir Robert Kurland prepare to take their vows--but a murderer has taken an unseasonable vow of vengeance, crushing the church verger with a stone gargoyle.

Excerpt: "Tappan gazed down upon the newly-born little burro with something of pity and consternation. It was not a vigorous offspring of the redoubtable Jennie, champion of all the numberless burros he had driven in his desert-prospecting years. He could not leave it there to die. Surely it was not strong enough to follow its mother. And to kill it was beyond him. "Poor little devil!" soliloquized Tappan. "Reckon neither Jennie nor I wanted it to...

Savage ambition has brought common-born Rhys Winterborne vast wealth and success. In business and beyond, Rhys gets exactly what he wants. And from the moment he meets the shy, aristocratic Lady Helen Ravenel, he is determined to possess her. If he must take her virtue to ensure she marries him, so much the better... Helen has had little contact with the glittering, cynical world of London society. Yet Rhys's determined seduction awakens an intense...

Things are looking up for seven-year-old Bertie Pollock. The arrival of his spirited grandmother and the absence of his meddlesome mother--who is currently running a book club in a Bedouin harem (don't ask)--bring unforeseen blessings: no psychotherapy, no Italian lessons, and no yoga classes. Meanwhile, surprises await Scotland Street's grown-ups. Matthew makes a discovery that could be a major windfall for his family, but also presents a worrisome...