The Temptation

A Dickensian coming-of-age tale about poverty, sex, World War I, and the darker side of human nature as seen through the eyes of a lobby boy in a Budapest hotel. Temptation is a rediscovered masterwork of twentieth-century fiction, a Dickensian tale of a young man coming of age in Budapest between the wars. Illegitimate and unwanted, Béla is packed off to the country to be looked after by a peasant woman the moment he is born. She starves and bullies him, and keeps him out of school. He does his best to hold his own, and eventually his mother brings him back to live with her in the city. In thrall to his feckless father, Mishka, and living in a crowded tenement, she works her fingers to the bone, while Béla shares a room with a hardworking prostitute. Finally, Béla secures a job in a fancy hotel. Though exhausted by endless work, he is fascinated by the upper-crust world that his new job exposes him to; soon he is embroiled with a rich, damaged, and dangerous woman. The atmosphere of Budapest is increasingly poisoned by the appeal of fascism, while Béla grows ever more aware of how power and money keep down the working classes. In the end, with all the odds still against him, he musters the resolve to set sail for new future.

Vance Hale has everything. A ridiculous amount of money, an Ivy-league education, and a 1,000-watt smile that can charm the designer dress right off a girl. He’s also going to have a future that includes me—whether he wants it or not. I don’t care that he’s trying to reform his playboy ways, or that he made a bet to go 90 days without the touch of a woman. I’ve spent the last decade planning my revenge and I need a partner in crime. This gorgeous, cunning man should do fine. So, we strike a deal. I’ll help get him across the finish line and he’ll bring me into his world among the Cape Hill elite. Our relationship may be fake, but our chemistry is shockingly real. One innocent kiss and I’m struggling to hold up my end of the bargain. Wanting him wasn’t part of the plan when everything else I desire is within my grasp. The only problem? Neither of us is any good at resisting temptation.

The Temptations were the most commercially successful and critically lauded male vocal group of the Sixties and early Seventies. Through the years, the group's trademark razor-sharp choreography, finely tuned harmonies, and compelling vocals made them the exemplars of the Motown style. This is the frank, revealing story of the legendary supergroup, told by its founder.

An unforgettable tale of love lost and rediscovered, set in the enchanting backdrop of Italy—from internationally bestselling author Santa Montefiore, whose books have sold more than 6 million copies worldwide. Love may be lost, but it’s not gone forever. When Gracie Burton stumbles upon a weeklong cooking course at Castello Montefosco, a castle in the sun-kissed Tuscan countryside, she cannot resist the opportunity to revisit the past she left behind in Italy. Since her husband’s death eight years earlier, Gracie has grown apart from her daughter, Carina, a high-powered businesswoman in London and her granddaughter, Anastasia, who would rather spend her time on her phone than with her family, but both women decide to join her. Little do they know that a lifetime of secrets await them in Italy. Over the course of the week, Gracie reveals the truth about what has drawn her back to the castle and its owner, the mysterious Count Bassanelli. Carina and Anastasia are shocked to discover that Gracie spent fifteen years in Italy as an apprentice to her uncle, a renowned art restorer and collector. While there, she fell madly in love. Now, forty-one years later, she has returned in hopes of righting past wrongs. With the help of Mamma Bernadetta’s magical recipes and the kindness of her fellow guests, Gracie reconnects with her family and together, all three women learn that love once lost, is not gone forever. The Temptation of Gracie is a poignant, timeless tale of grand romance, a story of women through the generations, and a reminder that it’s never too late to love.

The New York Times–bestselling series transports us to “Donna Leon’s enticing, troubled and beautiful Venice . . . Her latest mystery is one of her best” (Providence Journal). A New York Times Book Review Best Crime Book of the Year • A New York Times Book Review Editors’ Choice • A Financial Times Summer Book Pick • A Deadly Pleasures Mystery Magazine Most Anticipated Mystery of the Year Commissario Guido Brunetti is surprised by the appearance of a friend of his wife’s, fearful that her son is using drugs and hopeful Brunetti can somehow intervene. When the woman’s husband is found unconscious with a serious brain injury at the foot of a bridge in Venice after midnight, Brunetti is drawn to pursue a possible connection to the boy’s behavior. But the truth, as Brunetti has experienced so often, is not straightforward. While Brunetti pursues several false and contradictory leads, he becomes exasperated by the petty bureaucracy that constantly bedevils him and threatens to expose Signorina Elettra, his superior’s secretary. But steadied by the embrace of his own family and by his passion for the classics, he reads Sophocles’s Antigone, and, in its light, considers the terrible consequences to which the actions of a tender heart can lead. “It’s the living, bleeding humanity of the characters that makes Donna Leon’s police procedurals so engaging. . . . Tagging along after this sleuth is a wonderful way to see Venice like a native.” ―The New York Times Book Review “[A] droll and intelligent series.” ―The Wall Street Journal “[A] richly rewarding series . . . from a master of character-rich crime fiction.” ―Booklist

At first Kendra thought the handsome stranger who haunted her dreams existed only in her imagination. Now she knows that Revell is as real as flesh and blood. She senses that he is truly evil, but she finds him totally irresistible.

It is l909 and Temperance O'Neil is a woman ahead of her time. She's happy and devoted to helping single mothers on the streets of New York. But her new stepfather, Angus McCairn, does not approve and insists she quit her career and, as a respectable unmarried daughter should, live in his house in Edinburgh. Furious, but with no other choice, Temperance heads for Scotland determined to drive Angus crazy. Soon, an exasperated Angus makes her an unlikely offer: to pose as housekeeper to his nephew James, and find him a wife, secretly. If she succeeds, he'll allow her back to New York. Temperance, smart, passionate, as stubborn as her stepfather, is determined at any cost to win her return passage. But she has taken on far more than she expected. James McCairn, Laird of Clan McCairn, is no cultured gentleman but a strapping, rough-mannered farmer, rude and brusque. There are pigeons roosting in the kitchen and chickens in the bedroom. Marriage is the last thing on his mind.

Shy student Penny Taylor always follows the rules. At least, that's how it appears to her classmates. But she has one illicit secret - she's fallen hard for her professor. And she's pretty sure he's fallen for her too. Everyone loves Professor Hunter. He's tall, dark, and handsome. And completely unobtainable. But it's the secrets hiding behind his deep brown eyes that allures Penny. Secrets darker than she could ever imagine. James Hunter gave up his billionaire lifestyle in NYC last year to become a professor. The easiest new rule to follow: don't fraternize with the students. It's easy to follow because he's become quite the recluse in his new town - the only way he knows how to keep his secrets buried. But he never expected to be teaching such a beautiful student. He has to resist her. He needs to walk away. Penny deserves better than a man with his demons. But she's daring him to cross the line. And he's never been one to resist temptation.