“I am here to collect payment. And that payment is you.” Prince Javier de la Cruz’s goal was simple. Tell heiress Violet King she’s promised in marriage to his brother. His first problem? She refuses. His second problem? Their instant, unwelcome and completely forbidden chemistry! Makeup entrepreneur Violet prides herself on being thoroughly modern. Devastatingly handsome Javier is everything but! So when he steals her back to his kingdom, why does she decide to go willingly? And when this warrior prince could be innocent Violet’s biggest undoing, why can’t this unexpected princess resist playing with fire?
Reunited by front-page news, bound by a shocking revelation! USA TODAY bestselling author Chantelle Shaw’s secret baby romance is steeped in passion and scandal. The tabloids revealed her shocking secret… He’ll reignite their extraordinary desire! Carlos Segarra: tennis legend, businessman…father! At least that’s what the headlines tell him. Now the steel-hearted Spaniard has no choice. He must find the unforgettable woman at the center of the story and demand answers! Onetime housekeeper Betsy Miller chose to keep her son from Carlos. Their one night is scorched onto her heart…and so is the way Carlos dismissed their life-changing encounter. But his return leaves Betsy—and the world!—wondering what the next headline will read… From Harlequin Presents: Escape to exotic locations where passion knows no bounds.
Working as a housekeeper was one of the most prestigious jobs a nineteenth and early twentieth century woman could want – and also one of the toughest. A far cry from the Downton Abbey fiction, the real life Mrs Hughes was up against capricious mistresses, low pay, no job security and gruelling physical labour. Until now, her story has never been told. The Housekeeper’s Tale reveals the personal sacrifices, bitter disputes and driving ambition that shaped these women’s careers. Delving into secret diaries, unpublished letters and the neglected service archives of our stately homes, Tessa Boase tells the extraordinary stories of five working women who ran some of Britain’s most prominent households. There is Dorothy Doar, Regency housekeeper for the obscenely wealthy 1st Duke and Duchess of Sutherland at Trentham Hall, Staffordshire. There is Sarah Wells, a deaf and elderly Victorian in charge of Uppark, West Sussex. Ellen Penketh is Edwardian cook-housekeeper at the sociable but impecunious Erddig Hall in the Welsh borders. Hannah Mackenzie runs Wrest Park in Bedfordshire – Britain’s first country-house war hospital, bankrolled by playwright J. M. Barrie. And there is Grace Higgens, cook-housekeeper to the Bloomsbury set at Charleston farmhouse in East Sussex for half a century – an era defined by the Second World War. Revelatory, gripping and unexpectedly poignant, The Housekeeper’s Tale champions the invisible women who ran the English country house. Normal0falsefalsefalseEN-GBX-NONEX-NONE
For fans of stranger than truth stories, Sandy Schnakenburg is uncovering rattling and unprecedented revelations in this powerful memoir of love, secrets, and survival. When Lee Metoyer is hired to be the new housekeeper, she has no idea that she’s about to become the anchor to a family in an abusive patriarch's home, setting a mystery in motion that will take decades to uncover. At the age of seventy-two, Lee falls ill and on her deathbed asks Sandy to write her story. The only problem is, Sandy doesn’t know the story. Embarking on a quest to honor Lee’s final wishes, Sandy takes an emotional and thrilling journey, unveiling shocking truths not only about her beloved housekeeper but also her own upbringing. As she digs further, she learns that Lee came to her family’s sprawling estate in Barrington, IL, harboring a secret past. For decades, she’s been in hiding. But Lee is not the only one with secrets; Sandy’s quest forces her to grapple with her own family history as well, and to finally confront the effects of the psychological abuse she suffered as a child. Both a chilling and exciting personal tale of love and survival, The Housekeeper’s Secret is a gripping saga that illuminates the resilience of the human spirit.
"A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide (Barack Obama)," this New York Times bestselling memoir is the inspiration for the Netflix limited series, hailed by Rolling Stone as "a great one." At 28, Stephanie Land's dreams of attending a university and becoming a writer quickly dissolved when a summer fling turned into an unplanned pregnancy. Before long, she found herself a single mother, scraping by as a housekeeper to make ends meet. Maid is an emotionally raw, masterful account of Stephanie's years spent in service to upper middle class America as a "nameless ghost" who quietly shared in her clients' triumphs, tragedies, and deepest secrets. Driven to carve out a better life for her family, she cleaned by day and took online classes by night, writing relentlessly as she worked toward earning a college degree. She wrote of the true stories that weren't being told: of living on food stamps and WIC coupons, of government programs that barely provided housing, of aloof government employees who shamed her for receiving what little assistance she did. Above all else, she wrote about pursuing the myth of the American Dream from the poverty line, all the while slashing through deep-rooted stigmas of the working poor. Maid is Stephanie's story, but it's not hers alone. It is an inspiring testament to the courage, determination, and ultimate strength of the human spirit. "A single mother's personal, unflinching look at America's class divide, a description of the tightrope many families walk just to get by, and a reminder of the dignity of all work." -PRESIDENT BARACK OBAMA, Obama's Summer Reading List
A mattress, box spring, and duvet for a king-size hotel bed weighs in at 225 pounds. Imagine trying to wrestle with changing the sheets and getting the hospital corners just right; it is easy to see why hotel housekeepers experience back and shoulder injuries at increasing rates. David Brody got behind the scenes at the Chicago Hyatt Regency and the Starwood hotels in Hawaii, bypassing management and corporate press releases to interview the housekeeping staff directly. Given Brody s expertise in architecture and design, his mission here is to help us understand service design in hotels in order to situate the needs of hotel customers, housekeepers, and hotel management one relative to the other. What unfolds as a new perspective on hotels is designin terms of spaces, products, maintenance, and workflow systems. We get vivid examples of how a hotel room s design encapsulates a highly orchestrated, hidden process of management and labor, where work is invisible and surface appearances are paramount to the guest s sense of domestic comfort. ( Turndown service is one exampleroom light dimmed, drapes drawn, music on classical, turndown mat on floor, slippers in place, mint on pillow, etc.) Brody opts strongly for what he calls co-design, which means collaboration between workers and management on improving hotel design, and he is unabashedly partisan in taking sides with hotel workers and their unions. He also advocates for sustainability and green politics."
The sex scandal that toppled Dominique Strauss-Kahn gripped the world with its salacious allegations, dramatic twists, and a stunning turnabout in court. But the public saw only a fraction of what really went on behind the scenes, where justice played second fiddle to egos, political pressures, and investigative missteps. Now award-winning reporter John Solomon exposes the story you didn't know, delivering a searing indictment of American justice at its moment of intense international scrutiny. When Strauss-Kahn arrived in New York on Friday, May 13, 2011, he was an international political powerhouse and favorite to win the French presidential election. By Monday, he was sitting in the notorious Rikers Island jail, his career in tatters. Likewise, when hotel maid Nafissatou Diallo arrived at work on Saturday morning, she never could have predicted that a brief encounter with a VIP guest would put her at the center of a legal and public relations battle that would leave her life in shambles. Those seven minutes in Suite 2806 would throw international politics into turmoil, eliminate one of the key players in Europe's debt crisis, and create a trial by fire for Manhattan's rookie district attorney. And it would all happen under the eye of a frenzied media which at first presumed guilt before suddenly turning the tables on the alleged victim. The public was left wondering: Was Dominique Strauss-Kahn guilty or innocent? Solomon goes past the headlines to show how personal clashes, ambition, and media leaks took precedence over facts and evidence. He chronicles the personal battles that went on behind the scenes, from suicide worries to AIDS scares, and the toll they took on key players. He lays out in gripping detail all the facts, good and bad, pro and con, so that finally the public can judge what really happened in one of the most fascinating criminal cases of the last decade.
Second-Time Bride by Lynne Graham Beholden to the billionaire… Daisy Thornton’s memories of her brief marriage to Alessio Leopardi thirteen years ago have never waned. Their whirlwind affair was passionate and deep, but soon after the wedding he turned his back on her and she was left alone…or so she thought—for it was soon revealed she was carrying his child! Now Alessio is back and Daisy must tell him about the daughter he never knew he had. But when the formidable Italian learns of his legacy he makes an uncompromising demand. Now Daisy will have to choose: walk away from the man she never forgot…or return to his bed—as his wife! Back in the Headlines by Sharon Kendrick "What woman wouldn't get all hot and bothered if Titus Alexander was staring at her like that?" As part of a number-one-selling girl band, Roxanne Carmichael was used to having the eyes of thousands on her, but now that she's scrubbing floors, one condescending look from the Duke of Torchester fires her blood with fury…and attraction! Titus doesn't suffer fools, and does not drop his guard. But his new chambermaid is threatening his iron self-control with those legs and that wicked mouth! There's only one way he can get her out of his system—and that's to get her into his bed!
