An unforgettable story of resilience and resistance set during WWII and present-day France on a secluded island off the coast of Brittany
Natalie Morgen made a name for herself with a memoir about overcoming her harsh childhood after finding a new life in Paris. After falling in love with a classically trained chef, they moved together to his ancestral home, a tiny fishing village off the coast of Brittany.
But then Francois-Xavier breaks things off with her without warning, leaving her flat broke and in the middle of renovating the guesthouse they planned to open for business. Natalie's already struggling when her sister, Alex, shows up unannounced. The sisters form an unlikely partnership to save the guesthouse, reluctantly admitting their secrets to each other as they begin to heal the scars of their shared past.
But the property harbors hidden stories of its own. During World War II, every man of fighting age on the island fled to England to join the Free French forces. The women and children were left on their own...until three hundred German troops took up residence, living side-by-side with the French women on the tiny island for the next several years.
When Natalie and Alex unearth an old cookbook in a hidden cupboard, they find handwritten recipes that reveal old secrets. With the help of locals, the Morgen sisters begin to unravel the relationship between Violette, a young islander whose family ran the guesthouse during WWII, and Rainier, a German military customs official with a devastating secret of his own.
An artist lost to history, a family abandoned to its secrets, and the woman whose search for meaning unearths it all in a sweeping and expressive story from the New York Times bestselling author of Letters from Paris.
Long, lonely years have passed for the crumbling Château Clement, nestled well beyond the rolling lavender fields and popular tourist attractions of Provence. Once a bustling and dignified ancestral estate, now all that remains is the château's gruff, elderly owner and the softly whispered secrets of generations buried and forgotten.
But time has a way of exposing history's dark stains, and when American photographer Cady Drake finds herself drawn to the château and its antique carousel, she longs to explore the relic's shadowy origins beyond the small scope of her freelance assignment. As Cady digs deeper into the past, unearthing century-old photographs of the Clement carousel and its creators, she might be the one person who can bring the past to light and reunite a family torn apart.
Lily Ivory and her friends are planning a 1950s-themed brunch to benefit the local women's shelter. When a figure from her past shows up unannounced, threatening her unless she returns something that belonged to him, Lily's fiance, Sailor, steps in to defend her. After the same man is found dead later that day, Sailor is the primary suspect. He swears he's innocent, but multiple witnesses ID him as the perpetrator of the assault. Lily vows to clear his name . . . only she's not sure where to start with the mounting evidence against him.
When she sees Sailor in the neighborhood despite knowing he's in jail, Lily starts to wonder if there could be a doppelganger in San Francisco. When she's not busy helping customers find matching outfits for the upcoming event, searching for a vintage wedding dress for her own nuptials, and dealing with an ill-timed magical cold, Lily begins to suspect one of her magical foes is targeting her loved ones in an attempt to weaken her.
Claire entdeckt im Nachlass ihrer Großmutter in Louisiana ein altes Kunstwerk: Es ist die Totenmaske einer Frau. Sie findet heraus, dass die Maske unter dem Namen 'L'inconnue de la Seine' bekannt ist und vor über 100 Jahren in Paris gefertigt wurde. Fasziniert von dem Kunstwerk bricht Claire auf, um sich auf die Spuren der geheimnisvollen Schönen zu begeben. Sie macht das Atelier ausfindig, in dem die Maske einst entstand und das der so unnahbare wie attraktive Künstler Armand Lombardi in alter Familientradition führt. Armand willigt ein, ihr zu helfen. Ihre Recherchen führen Claire tief in die schillernde Kunstwelt der Pariser Belle Époque - und zum Beginn einer großen Liebe.
Since she went straight, Annie Kincaid's been applying her genius for fine art forgery to her own faux finishing business in San Francisco. She hasn't seen the inside of a jail cell since she was seventeen, although sometimes it takes all of her arts-fine or otherwise-to keep it that way . . . Annie knows that art security can be inadequate, but it's crazy to think that an Old Master painting could be hanging unguarded in the local columbarium where she's doing restoration work. Still, when she gets a tip that the chapel's copy of Raphael's exquisite La Fornarina might be the real thing, Annie has to take a look. And when she runs into a certain sexy art thief on the premises, alarm bells go off in her head as well as her heart. Tired of being an art world pariah, Annie hopes that if she can help return the masterpiece to Italy, she'll finally be redeemed. But when murder enters the picture, Annie realizes that it won't be so easy to put things at the cemetery to rest . . .
Geez, make a splash in the world of art forgery at the age of seventeen and people can't stop bringing it up. Lesson learned: genuine art is priceless, and forgery gets you arrested. Now Annie puts her artistic talents to honest use as a faux finisher in San Francisco. But carving out a new reputation can be a creative challenge . . . Modernism isn't Annie's thing, but even she is surprised to discover that the "sculpture" in a prestigious gallery's grisly new exhibition is an all-too-real corpse-the artist's. Meanwhile, a Chagall painting is stolen from the Brock Museum, and Annie's old friend Bryan is accused of being in on the fix. To track down the missing Chagall, she'll need the dubious assistance of a certain sexy art thief. And if Michael-or whatever his real name may be-isn't distraction enough, Annie's mother shows up in town, acting strangely. Annie's got to solve these mysteries, and fast-because art is long, but life can be very, very short.
At ten, painting a perfect Mona Lisa made Annie Kincaid a prodigy. A similar copy at seventeen made her a crook. Lesson learned: genuine art is priceless, and forgery gets you arrested. Now Annie puts her artistic talents to honest use as a faux finisher in San Francisco. But her past may not be painted over as well as she thought . . . Annie's got bad news for her ex-boyfriend, curator Ernst Pettigrew: the snooty Brock Museum's new fifteen-million-dollar Caravaggio painting is as fake as a three-dollar bill. And the same night Annie makes her shattering appraisal, the janitor on duty is killed-and Ernst disappears. To top it all off, a well-known art dealer has absconded with multiple Old Master drawings, leaving yet more forgeries in their places. Finding the originals-and pocketing the reward money-will get Annie's new landlord off her back. But it could also draw her into the underworld of fakes and forgers she swore she'd left behind, starting with a close encounter with a changeable but charming art thief . . .
Dangerous tides ahead . . . When her friend Alicia hires Turner Construction to renovate a historic lighthouse in the San Francisco Bay, Mel Turner can't wait to get her hands dirty. Alicia plans to transform the island property into a welcoming inn, and while Mel has never attempted a project so ambitious-or so tall-before, she's definitely up for the challenge. But trouble soon arises when Alicia's abusive ex-husband shows up to threaten both her and Mel, and later turns up dead at the base of the lighthouse stairs. With no other suspects in sight, things start looking choppy for Alicia. Now, if Mel wants to clear her friend's name, she'll need the help of the lighthouse's resident ghosts to shine a light on the real culprit . . .
After surviving the accident that took her mother's life, Claire Broussard worked hard to escape her small Louisiana hometown. But these days she feels something lacking. Abruptly leaving her lucrative job in Chicago, Claire returns home to care for her ailing grandmother. There, she unearths a beautiful sculpture that her great-grandfather sent home from Paris after World War II. At her grandmother's urging, Claire travels to Paris to track down the centuries old mask-making atelier where the sculpture, known only as "L'inconnue"-or the Unknown Woman-was created. With the help of a passionate sculptor, Claire discovers a cache of letters that offer insight into the life of the Belle Epoque woman immortalized in the work of art. As Claire uncovers the unknown woman's tragic fate, she begins to discover secrets-and a new love-of her own.
Even the most skilled sorceress can't ward off a lawsuit, and Lily is not at her enchanting best with her hands full as the temporary leader of San Francisco's magical community. So after her potbellied pig Oscar head-butts rival clothier Autumn Jennings, Lily tries to make peace without a costly personal injury case. But any hope of a quiet resolution is shattered when Autumn turns up dead. As one of the prime suspects, Lily searches for a way to clear her name and discovers a cursed trousseau among Autumn's recently acquired inventory. Lily must deal with a mysterious dog walker and spend the night in a haunted house as she delves into the trunk's treacherous past. She's got to figure out who wanted to harm Autumn fast, before the curse claims another victim.
San Francisco millionaire Andrew Stirling wants to sell his Victorian mansion, but ghostly music, the squeaking of a long-disappeared weathervane, and an angry ghost keep running off potential buyers. After a famous psychic is called in, she informs the Stirlings that their multi-million-dollar renovations to "update" the home have left its resident ghost extremely agitated. So contractor Mel Turner is engaged to track down and replace some of the original features of the house. But when the beautiful psychic is found stabbed, it appears that someone had a very human motive for murder. Now Mel must use her ghost whispering gift to uncover the secrets of the haunted house on the hill, and her sleuthing skills to catch a killer.
As a girl, Genevieve Martin spent the happiest summer of her life in Paris, learning the delicate art of locksmithing at her uncle's side. But since then, living back in the States, she has become more private, more subdued. She has been an observer of life rather than an active participant, holding herself back from those around her, including her soon-to-be ex-husband. Paris never really left Genevieve, and, as her marriage crumbles, she finds herself faced with an incredible opportunity: return to the magical city of her youth to take over her late uncle's shop. But as she absorbs all that Parisian culture has to offer, she realizes that the city also holds secrets about her family that could change her forever, and that locked doors can protect you or imprison you, depending on which side of them you stand.
