Dennis Fleetwood appeared in court effectively and frequently. Time and time again the lawyer for the other side was John Eldridge. During a meeting in Johns office Dennis noticed a picture of a woman he thought he recognized. It was Johns mother, a mother whom John never knew. She, strangely, had placed him in a boarding school in Great Britain. Later Dennis discovered that the womans picture was in an antique watch that had been hidden in his briefcase during his flight from Harvard to California. The discovery of that watch, and Dennis naive attempt to use the law to help John Eldridge find his mother, led Dennis down a path that threatened, not only his career, but his life. He was no match for the violent responses that resulted from that guileless attempt to help John.
From “a brilliant new player in the court of royal fiction” (People), comes the mesmerizing story of Lady Penelope Devereux—the daring young beauty in the Tudor court, who inspired Sir Philip Sidney’s famous sonnets even while she plotted against Queen Elizabeth. Penelope Devereux arrives at Queen Elizabeth’s court where she and her brother, the Earl of Essex, are drawn into the aging Queen’s favor. Young and naïve, Penelope, though promised elsewhere, falls in love with Philip Sidney who pours his heartbreak into the now classic sonnet series Astrophil and Stella. But Penelope is soon married off to a man who loathes her. Never fainthearted, she chooses her moment and strikes a deal with her husband: after she gives birth to two sons, she will be free to live as she chooses, with whom she chooses. But she is to discover that the course of true love is never smooth. Meanwhile Robert Cecil, ever loyal to Elizabeth, has his eye on Penelope and her brother. Although it seems the Earl of Essex can do no wrong in the eyes of the Queen, as his influence grows, so his enemies gather. Penelope must draw on all her political savvy to save her brother from his own ballooning ambition and Cecil’s trap, while daring to plan for an event it is treason even to think about. Unfolding over the course of two decades and told from the perspectives of Penelope and her greatest enemy, the devious politician Cecil, Watch the Lady chronicles the last gasps of Elizabeth’s reign, and the deadly scramble for power in a dying dynasty.
NATIONAL BESTSELLER • Real love . . . as seen on TV. A plus-size bachelorette brings a fresh look to a reality show in this razor-sharp, “divinely witty” (Entertainment Weekly) debut. “Effortlessly fun and clever . . . I found the tension impeccable . . . and that made my reading experience incredibly propulsive. Read it in a day and a half.”—Emily Henry, #1 bestselling author of Beach Read and The People We Meet on Vacation NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY Time • NPR • Marie Claire • Mashable Bea Schumacher is a devastatingly stylish plus-size fashion blogger who has amazing friends, a devoted family, legions of Insta followers—and a massively broken heart. Like the rest of America, Bea indulges in her weekly obsession: the hit reality show Main Squeeze. The fantasy dates! The kiss-off rejections! The surprising amount of guys named Chad! But Bea is sick and tired of the lack of body diversity on the show. Since when is being a size zero a prerequisite for getting engaged on television? Just when Bea has sworn off dating altogether, she gets an intriguing call: Main Squeeze wants her to be its next star, surrounded by men vying for her affections. Bea agrees, on one condition—under no circumstances will she actually fall in love. She’s in this to supercharge her career, subvert harmful beauty standards, inspire women across America, and get a free hot air balloon ride. That’s it. But when the cameras start rolling, Bea realizes things are more complicated than she anticipated. She’s in a whirlwind of sumptuous couture, Internet culture wars, sexy suitors, and an opportunity (or two, or five) to find messy, real-life love in the midst of a made-for-TV fairy tale. In this joyful, wickedly observant debut, Bea has to decide whether it might just be worth trusting these men—and herself—for a chance to live happily ever after.
The mother did not reply, and before Caroline could say another word or even ask the mother who or what the child was looking at that made the child stop crying, the mother quickly took off in the crowd. It was like she disappeared in thin air. Danielle Murphy and Caroline Spano are living a charmed life. They live in sunny Florida where the weather is beautiful and the only pressing activity is people-watching. In other words, they are bored out of their minds. That is, until they witness what looks like a kidnapping and get pulled into a whirlwind adventure to track down the kidnappers and restore a baby to its true family. Suddenly life isn't looking as simple as it used to, and throughout it all Caroline and Danielle must face what it means to be friends, what it means to be family, and how close is too close when it comes to other people's secrets. Will Danielle and Caroline solve the mystery and live to tell about it? Join author M.D. Tyszka for a thrilling whodunit that includes an unforgettable tale of love, loss, and blood that is thicker than water in her first, fast-paced novel, Watch and Guess.
"Beginning early in Mary Tudor's turbulent reign, [this book] explores the lives of a pair of sisters as dangerously close to the throne as their sister Lady Jane Grey, who died on the executioner's block at the age of 16, after being queen for nine days"--