With his elegant prose, distinctive imagination, and deep empathy, the bestselling author of The Crimson Petal and the White once again dazzles us in three novellas. "The Courage Consort" tells of an a capella vocal ensemble sequestered in a Belgian chateau to rehearse a monstrously complicated new piece. But competing artistic temperaments and sexual needs create as much discordance as the avant garde music. In "The Hundred and Ninety-Nine Steps," a lonely woman joins an archaeological dig at Whitby Abbey and unearths a mystery involving a long-hidden murder. In "The Fahrenheit Twins," strange children, identical in all but gender and left alone at the icy zenith of the world by their anthropologist parents, create their own ritual civilization. In each of these novellas, Michel Faber creates a unique, self-contained world, where the perennial human drama plays out in all its passion and ambiguity.

Lake in the Clouds In her extraordinary novels Into the Wilderness and Dawn on a Distant Shore, award-winning author Sara Donati deftly captured the vast, untamed wilds of late-eighteenth-century New York and the trials and triumphs of the spirited Bonner family. Now she takes on a new chapter in the life of Elizabeth and Nathaniel Bonner--as their brave and beautiful oldest daughter comes of age with a challenge that will change her forever. . . . It is the spring of 1802 and the village of Paradise is still reeling from the typhoid epidemic of the previous summer. But despite a devastating personal loss, the Bonners persevere, with Hannah, Nathaniel's half-Indian daughter, working as a doctor in training. A gifted healer, this striking young woman of two worlds finds herself in peril when a dangerously ill runaway slave is discovered near the family home and Hannah insists on nursing the outlaw. Her determination places both her family and her heart in jeopardy, for a bounty hunter is afoot--and he is none other than Hannah's childhood friend and first love. So begins a journey that will test the strength of the Bonners' love for one another--and bring Hannah to face the decision she has always dreaded: will she make a life for herself in a white world, or among her mother's people?

Passionate ConquestDuchess Elena de Carisenda fears her small but wealthy duchy will be taken from her by force. Her only chance for survival is to hire an army to protect her and her people—and mercenary Marco Rinaldi is the best soldier money can buy.Marco pledges to fight off all invaders, but one look at the beautiful duchess and he insists he'll pose even more of a threat if he and Elena wed. Strong and commanding, he awakes the sensual woman deep inside her, but soon it is apparent he harbors a dark secret. Is their marriage part of a plan for revenge?

Will winning her heart be enough to overcome her fear of losing him? What starts out as a forced blind date might just be the best thing that ever happened to Jase and Bonnie. Navy SEAL, Jase Drakos is used to pulse-pounding missions that often mean the difference between life and death. He balances his job with his large and loving family and the team of men who have turned into brothers. But Jase has come to realize that something is missing in his life. So maybe it's time to come to terms with the fact that he's going to end up going through life without a woman by his side and a family of his own. Single mother, Bonnie Larkin doesn't know if she is a chambermaid, chef, or chauffeur. Raising seven-year-old twins has her hopping, especially since they are precocious and love trying out their next grand adventure. She is mostly fine with their antics, because she knows their shenanigans break up the monotony of her otherwise lackluster...

ARE YOU THE DADDY?Tragedy had left Carlee Denton to raise her best friend'sbaby, and her search for the little boy's father had led straight to Nick Starke. But she couldn't risk telling the handsome, wealthy orange grove owner that her new baby was his, too, until she knew what he wanted….And everything, from the soulful way he touched her—kissed her—to the way he played with little Scotty, told her that this man wanted her. He wanted them. But was he really Scotty's dad? Carlee wondered if she'd found—fallen for—the wrong man. Whatever the truth was, Carlee knew it was too late to turn back from the one man who could open her heart….

Featuring friendship, school, family, and a diverse community, these early illustrated chapter book Jigsaw Jones Mysteries from James Preller have it all.Is there a bear loose in the woods by Jigsaw Jones' town? For once this second-grade detective and his partner Mila Yeh might be out of their depth! One way or another, these two young sleuths will get to the bottom of who, or what, is growling and snapping in those woods in The Case of the Bear Scare. James Preller's wry, witty, Jigsaw Jones books are once again available to inspire the next generation of young readers, featuring both new titles and classroom classics!

This powerful new novel by the bestselling author of Black and Blue, One True Thing, Object Lessons, and A Short Guide to a Happy Life begins when a teenage couple drives up, late at night, headlights out, to Blessings, the estate owned by Lydia Blessing. They leave a box and drive away, and in this instant, the world of Blessings is changed forever. Richly written, deeply moving, beautifully crafted, Blessings tells the story of Skip Cuddy, caretaker of the estate, who finds a baby asleep in that box and decides he wants to keep her, and of matriarch Lydia Blessing, who, for her own reasons, decides to help him. The secrets of the past, how they affect the decisions and lives of people in the present; what makes a person, a life, legitimate or illegitimate, and who decides; the unique resources people find in themselves and in a community—these are at the center of this wonderful novel of love, redemption, and personal change by the writer about whom The Washington Post Book World said, “Quindlen knows that all the things we ever will be can be found in some forgotten fragment of family.” From the Hardcover edition.

One of Hardy's most unusual novels, A Laodicean features a heroine torn between the dilapidated aristocratic romance of the past and the energetic technocracy of the modern world. Paula Power's two suitors, a patrician Army officer, and an architect, representative of the new nobility of talent and enterprise & comically illustrates the great social changes that were taking place as Hardy wrote the novel.

When Miss Samantha Prendregast arrives at Devil's Fell to take charge of six rebellious girls, the vibrant, outspoken governess is not quite prepared to deal with the tall, dark and dashing master of the grand estate. The children she can manage with intelligence, guile . . . and a little bribery. Their widowed father, Colonel William Gregory, is not so easily charmed -- and far too easy to fall in love with, which she dares not do. William always cherished the orderliness of his life, until this captivating troublemaker began flouting his authority and distracting him with her witty defiance and breathtaking beauty. Despite the fact that they clash at every meeting, William finds himself inexplicably drawn to Samantha's fire. And now he's even contemplating marriage, which would be sweet madness indeed. But before he can successfully woo her, William must discover what it is that Samantha is hiding from him. But the secret the lady is preciously guarding is far too shocking and dangerous to ever reveal .

Ernest Hemingway's first new book of fiction since the publication of "A Farewell to Arms" in 1929 contains fourteen stories of varying length. Some of them have appeared in magazines but the majority have not been published before. The characters and backgrounds are widely varied. "A Clean, Well-Lighted Place" is about an old Spanish Beggar. "Homage to Switzerland" concerns various conversations at a Swiss railway-station restaurant. "The Gambler, the Nun, and the Radio" is laid in the accident ward of a hospital in Western United States, and so on. Ernest Hemingway made his literary start as a short-story writer. He has always excelled in that medium, and this volume reveals him at his best.

A once-respected college professor and novelist, Dale Stewart has sabotaged his career and his marriage -- and now darkness is closing in on him. In the last hours of Halloween he has returned to the dying town of Elm Haven, his boyhood home, where he hopes to find peace in isolation. But moving into a long-deserted farmhouse on the far outskirts of town -- the one-time residence of a strange and brilliant friend who lost his young life in a grisly "accident" back in the terrible summer of 1960 -- is only the latest in his long succession of recent mistakes. Because Dale is not alone here. He has been followed to this house of shadows by private demons who are now twisting his reality into horrifying new forms. And a thick, blanketing early snow is starting to fall ...