Romola is a brilliant young woman who unknowingly falls in love with a handsome stranger whose true nature is fueled by greed, status and ego. Over the course of the novel, she uncovers his many transgressions and secret dealings. A handsome stranger called Tito Melema arrives in Florence and is immediately smitten by Romola, the daughter of a local scholar. The two eventually marry as Tito gains access to various social circles. He becomes an influential...

From Washington, D.C. to Hyde Park, from a little white house on Long Island to an apartment on Manhattan’s Washington Square, Amy Bloom’s new novel moves elegantly through fascinating places and times, written in compelling prose and with emotional depth, wit, and acuity.

"George Sand was a 19th century French novelist known not only for her novels but even more for her scandalous behavior. After leaving her estranged husband, Sand moved to Paris where she wrote, wore men's clothing, smoked cigars, and had love affairs with famous men and an actress named Marie. In an era of incredible artistic talent, Sand was the most famous female writer of her time. Her lovers and friends included Frederic Chopin, Gustave Flaubert,...

When Truman Capote gains access to New York high society, he builds an unlikely friendship with socialite Babe Paley. Of all the glamorous stars of New York high society, none blazes brighter than Babe Paley and her friends, the alluring socialite Swans. But beneath this elegantly composed exterior dwells a passionate woman, desperately longing for true love and connection. Enter Truman Capote. Through Babe, Truman gains unparalleled access to the...

Once again, the author takes a remarkable shard of history and brings it to vivid life. In 1665, a young man from Martha's Vineyard became the first Native American to graduate from Harvard College. Upon this slender factual scaffold, she has created a luminous tale of love and faith, magic and adventure. The narrator of the story is Bethia Mayfield, growing up in the tiny settlement of Great Harbor amid a small band of pioneers and Puritans. Restless...

In 1774, Marie Antoinette and Louis XVI become the rulers of France and Marie must rise above the gossip and rivalries that circle her, while struggling with becoming a mother, her feelings for Axel von Fersen, and the Diamond Necklace Affair.

"An incredible story of dangerous and hidden friendships, ambition, betrayal, and sacrifice. The year is 1739. Eliza Lucas is sixteen years old when her father leaves her in charge of their family's three plantations in rural South Carolina and then proceeds to bleed the estates dry in pursuit of his military ambitions. Tensions with the British, and with the Spanish in Florida, just a short way down the coast, are rising, and slaves are starting...

Zane Grey's debut novel, which he self-published in 1905, "Betty Zane" is the first book in Grey's "Frontier Trilogy" and tells the true biographical story of Elizabeth "Betty" Zane, a hero of the American Revolutionary War and direct ancestor of the author. While under siege at Fort Henry by American Indian allies of the British Army and faced with dwindling supplies, the lovely and sixteen-year-old Betty bravely volunteers to venture out of the...

When feminist, journalist, and orator Margaret Fuller's family is drowned off the coast of New York upon their return from Europe, Henry David Thoreau visits the site of their shipwreck and discovers a revealing personal document of hers.

Her only crime was to be an independent woman! When Mata Hari arrived in Paris she was penniless. Within months she was the most celebrated woman in the city. As a dancer, she shocked and delighted audiences; as a courtesan, she bewitched the era's richest and most powerful men. But as paranoia consumed a country at war, Mata Hari's lifestyle brought her under suspicion. In 1917, she was arrested in her hotel room on the Champs Elysees, and accused...