Escape to the French chateau in this gripping, sweeping tale of love, lies and divided loyalties. Perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore and Lucinda Riley. _________________________________________________________________

In 1759 a baby girl was born to an impoverished family on the Indian subcontinent. Her parents pawned her into bondage as a way to survive famine. A Portuguese slaver sold the girl to a pious French spinster in Bengal, where she was baptized as Madeleine. Eventually she was taken to France byway of Ile de France (Mauritius), and from there to Ile Bourbon (Reunion), where she worked on the plantation of the Routier family and gave birth to three children: Maurice, Constance, and Furcy. Following the master''s death in 1787, Madame Routier registered Madeleine''s manumission, making herfree on paper and thus exempting the Routiers from paying the annual head tax on slaves. However, according to Madeleine''s children, she was never told that she was free. She continued to serve the widow Routier for another nineteen years, through the Revolution, France''s general emancipation of1794 (which the colonists of the Indian Ocean successfully repelled), the Napoleonic restoration of slavery, and British occupation of France''s Indian Ocean colonies. Not until the widow Routier died in 1808 did Madeleine learn of her freedom and that the Routier estate owed her nineteen years ofback wages. Madeleine tried to use the Routiers'' debt to negotiate for her son Furcy''s freedom from Joseph Lory, the Routiers'' son-in-law and heir, but Lory tricked the illiterate Madeleine into signing papers that, in essence, consigned Furcy to Lory as his slave for life.While Lory invested in slave smuggling and helped introduce sugar cultivation to Ile Bourbon, Furcy spent the next quarter century trying to obtain legal recognition of his free status as he moved from French Ile Bourbon to British Mauritius and then to Paris. His legal actions produced hundreds ofpages that permit reconstruction of the lives of Furcy and his family in astonishing detail. The Cour Royale de Paris, France''s highest court of appeal, finally ruled Furcy ne libre (freeborn) in 1843. Eight rare extant letters signed by Furcy over two decades tell in his own words how he understoodhis enslavement and freedom within these multiple legal jurisdictions and societies. France''s general emancipation of 1848 erased the distinction between slavery and freedom for all former slaves but the reaction of 1851 excluded them from citizenship. The struggle for justice, respect, and equalityfor former slaves and their descendants would not be realized within Furcy''s lifetime.The life stories of Madeleine and her three children are especially precious because, unlike scores of slave narratives published in the United States and England in the eighteenth and nineteenth centuries, no autobiographical narrative of a slave held by French-published or unpublished-exists. Thiswill be one of only a handful of modern biographies of enslaved people within France''s empire, in French or in English, and the only one to explore transformations in slavery and freedom in French colonies of the Indian Ocean. This story is also significant because of the legal arguments advanced inFurcy''s freedom suits between 1817 and 1843. Furcy''s lawyers argued that he was free by race (as the descendent of an Indian rather than an African mother) and also by Free Soil (the legal principle whereby any slave setting foot on French soil thereby became free, since Madeleine resided in Francebefore Furcy was born). Parallel debates surround the American case of Dred Scott, who began his long and unsuccessful bid for freedom in 1846 in the former French colonial city of St. Louis, Missouri, just three years after the French Cour Royale de Paris upheld Furcy''s freedom on the basis of FreeSoil. However, the French ruling that Furcy was free by Free Soil and the rejection of the racial argument offer a historical counterpoint to the infamous Taney opinion of 1857.The gripping story of Madeleine and her children is especially well-suited to exploring the developments of French colonization, plantation slavery, race, sugar cultivation, and abolitionism. A fluid narrative, it should have appeal for readers of the history of slavery, world history, Indian Oceanhistory, and French colonial history.

Madeleine Wickham, who writes the internationally bestselling Shopaholic series as Sophie Kinsella, has penned an irresistibly dishy and entertaining novel about three savvy young women and the secrets they share over monthly drinks. Roxanne: glamorous, self-confident, with a secret lover--a married man Maggie: capable and high-achieving, until she finds the one thing she can't cope with--motherhood Candice: honest, decent, or so she believes--until a ghost from her past turns up At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice meet at London's swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip. Here, they chat about what's new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work, and everything else that's going on in their lives. Or almost everything. Beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has a secret. And when a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, each one will find their biggest secret revealed. In Cocktails for Three, Madeleine Wickham combines her trademark humor with remarkable insight to create an edgy, romantic tale of secrets, strangers, and a splash of scandal.

Perfect for fans of The Hazel Wood, this genre-bending page-turner from New York Times bestselling author Madeleine Roux follows two girls who transport themselves into the world of their favorite book only to encounter the sinister alternate reality that awaits them. No matter how different best friends Adelle and Connie are, one thing they’ve always had in common is their love of a little-known gothic romance novel called Moira. So when the girls are tempted by a mysterious man to enter the world of the book, they hardly suspect it will work. But suddenly they are in the world of Moira, living among characters they’ve obsessed about for years. Except…all is not how they remembered it. The world has been turned upside down: The lavish balls and star-crossed love affairs are now interlaced with unspeakable horrors. The girls realize that something dark is lurking behind their foray into fiction—and they will have to rewrite their own arcs if they hope to escape this nightmare with their lives.

A gripping mystery with a heart-breaking revelation, The Secrets Between Us is a sublimely satisfying story of lost love, betrayal and the dangers of war. ‘Sublimely satisfying’ Veronica Henry, author of The Forever House High in the mountains in the South of France, eighteen-year-old Ceci Corvin is trying hard to carry on as normal. But in 1943, there is no such thing as normal; especially not for a young woman in love with the wrong person. Scandal, it would seem, can be more dangerous than war. Fifty years later, Annie is looking for her long-lost grandmother. Armed with nothing more than a sheaf of papers, she travels from England to Paris in pursuit of the truth. But as she traces her grandmother’s story, Annie uncovers something she wasn’t expecting, something that changes everything she knew about her family – and everything she thought she knew about herself... Perfect for fans of Kate Morton's The Lake House and Dinah Jeffries' Before the Rains. * Laura Madeleine's writing is... ‘Mouth-watering and mysterious’ Leah Fleming, author of The Glovemaker's Daughter ‘Delightful and delicious’ Nina George, author of The Little Paris Bookshop

NEWBERY MEDAL WINNER • TIME MAGAZINE’S 100 BEST FANTASY BOOKS OF ALL TIME • NOW A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE FROM DISNEY Read the ground-breaking science fiction and fantasy classic that has delighted children for over 60 years! "A Wrinkle in Time is one of my favorite books of all time. I've read it so often, I know it by heart." —Meg Cabot Late one night, three otherworldly creatures appear and sweep Meg Murry, her brother Charles Wallace, and their friend Calvin O'Keefe away on a mission to save Mr. Murray, who has gone missing while doing top-secret work for the government. They travel via tesseract--a wrinkle that transports one across space and time--to the planet Camazotz, where Mr. Murray is being held captive. There they discover a dark force that threatens not only Mr. Murray but the safety of the whole universe. A Wrinkle in Time is the first book in Madeleine L’Engle’s Time Quintet.

Fabulously wealthy, internationally adored, the aristocratic Massot family owns one of the last great jewelry firms in Paris. But seven years have passed since the disappearance of the patriarch, Pierre Massot. With hope of his return all but extinguished, his beautiful young widow, Sophie, reluctantly declares her husband dead and takes control of the family business. But even as Sophie begins to look to the future, forces are conspiring to destroy the Massots—by unearthing the devastating secret from their past that Pierre may have died trying to protect. Bagshawe’s sweeping story takes readers from the murky diamond mines of Soviet Russia to the cultural whirl of modern-day Paris, unraveling the mystery of Pierre Massot’s fate and the scandal and deceit that lies behind the Massot family fortune. Spanning continents and decades, Louise Bagshawe’s Sparkles is an addictive tale of ambition, betrayal, and romance.

Winner of a third-place award for spirituality books from the Catholic Media Association. Do you yearn for the peace, protection, and joy of a Christ-centered home? The Sacred Heart of Jesus is the answer. Bestselling and award-winning author Emily Jaminet takes up each of the twelve promises Christ made to St. Margaret Mary Alacoque in a series of visions, puts a fresh new spin on the classic Catholic devotion, and invites you and your family to experience the profound spiritual benefits you will receive when you keep the Sacred Heart of Jesus at the center of your home. Appearing to her in a series of visions in 1673, Jesus promised St. Margaret Mary Alacoque that those who “expose and honor his most Sacred Heart” will find peace in the home, consolation in sorrow, and a source of refuge in times of trouble. In Secrets of the Sacred Heart, Emily Jaminet—executive director of the Sacred Heart Enthronement Network—weaves personal testimony, teachings, and reflection questions while exploring and applying each of Christ’s promises. Jaminet will guide you through a special enthronement ceremony to dedicate your home and inspire you to a lifelong devotion to the Sacred Heart. Whether you have already consecrated your home or are newly embarking on the journey of discovering the graces of this ancient practice, you will find a personal encounter with Jesus, who promises: peace in your home, safe refuge in life and death, blessings on your undertakings, an infinite source of mercy, and a restored and enlivened faith for those who surrender themselves wholly to Christ. Videos and additional resources can be found at WelcomeHisHeart.com.

A deliciously sexy blockbuster of Hollywood ambition, greed and intrigue. To the outside world, Siena McMahon has a fairytale life. Born into a great Hollywood dynasty - granddaughter of forties movie legend Duke McMahon, daughter of billionaire producer Pete McMahon - she is blessed with beauty, brains and wealth, a proverbial princess. But behind the wrought iron gates of the McMahon's sprawling Hollywood mansion, life is far from happy. The McMahons are bound together not by love, but by ambition, greed and intrigue. When a gold-digging English aristocrat worms her way into their lives and their home, the fault lines in the feuding family are blown right open. In an effort to protect Siena from the fall-out, her parents pack her off to an English boarding school. But Siena has a burning ambition - she is determined to become a Hollywood star, just as her grandfather said she would be. One way or another, Siena McMahon is going to return to LA and take the City of Dreams by storm. And woe betide anyone who gets in her way...

"A novel of the south of France"--Jacket.