| The Witches of Cambridge by Alice HoffmanNew to Radcliffe College in 1950 Cambridge, Massachusetts, Ava and Lauren become friends and join the Lilith Society, a secret group of witches. Beautiful Ava from small-town Maine falls for a Harvard student descended from a 17th-century witch hunter, but wealthy, orphaned Lauren disapproves of the match. Meanwhile, McCarthyism ripples through the country and several girls go missing. This Read with Jenna pick mixes magical realism with dark academia to create a compelling, atmospheric read. Try this next: Silvia Moreno-Garcia's The Bewitching. |
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| Sunlight Finds You by Laura MoriartyIn 1949 St. Petersburg, Florida, 17-year-old Nora falls for Leonard, the shy, brilliant son of wealthy transplanted New Yorkers. Though the young couple's love grows, his parents interfere. Rebelling, Leonard skips college to enlist and ends up in the Korean War. Meanwhile, Nora discovers she's pregnant and is sent to a mother-and-baby home where her only choice is to give up her child for adoption. Told from Nora's point of view a few years later, this novel follows what happens to these complex characters. Try this next: Laney Katz Becker's In the Family Way. |
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Murder on 34th Street
by Mariah Fredericks
New York, 1932. Grace Verlander is the secret beating heart of Macy's. She's the assistant to the assistant to the someone who's in charge, the go-to person for keeping everything running smoothly behind-the-scenes at the famous, bustling store. It's not every day you get a letter from Santa Claus, but three days before the Macy's annual Thanksgiving Day Parade, Grace arrives at work to find a note from the store Santa Claus in her locker: someone has sent him a death threat. Shocked, Grace promises to look into it and speaks to the store detective about the parade's security, confident that they've found a solution that will keep everyone safe. But on the day of the parade, despite all their precautions, a dead body is found on one of the floats. Using her wits and deep knowledge of the ways of the place, Grace is determined to find the killer and seek justice--not just for the dead man, but to save the reputation of this iconic store from ruin. Steeped in glittering glamor and nostalgic wonder, this is a remarkable, unpredictable mystery set in the evocative world of one of New York's most memorable institutions.
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The Queen of Roses
by Julia Kelly
1960: Frustrated reporter Theresa Johnson's life changes when she receives a phone call from a Miss Pearce who claims her obituary about one of Pasadena's last great hoteliers is wildly inaccurate. Seeking the truth, Theresa drives to the mysterious Rosewood House nestled high in the Altadena foothills. Even more intriguing than the house's beautiful garden is Miss Pearce's proposal that Theresa help her settle old scores by writing her biography. 1903: Beautiful but haughty, Adele Pearce is reluctant to leave the London Season and her last hope of a proposal. When she arrives in California, she discovers the startling truth of why her mother has called her there: her father has squandered his fortune and Adele must marry a wealthy American to save the family. Stifled by expectation as Pasadena's newest doyenne, Adele's only comfort is Rosewood House and the beautiful garden she creates with the help of taciturn gardener Alexander Macalister. However, as Adele's feelings for Alex flourish, a fire ignites in the San Gabriel Mountains above Rosewood House, threatening everything Adele holds dear, while in 1960, Miss Pearce learns that history has a terrible habit of repeating itself.
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Samantha: The Next Chapter
by Fiona Davis
From American Girl and New York Times bestselling author Fiona Davis comes the next chapter of Samantha Parkington's story--now an adult searching for justice after her legacy is stolen in New York City in 1920. It's 1920, and 25-year-old Samantha Parkington is working hard to educate women in New York about suffrage and encourage them to vote in their first presidential election that fall. But when Samantha's large inheritance, including her childhood Mount Bedford home, is stolen in a shocking scheme, she goes from socialite to shop girl overnight and experiences a very different side of New York City living in a boarding house. Searching for clues regarding the theft of her inheritance, she infiltrates the business of a notorious criminal in New York City. Determined as ever, Samantha will do whatever it takes to find answers and save her family's legacy.
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The Piano Teacher of Montparnasse
by Heather Morris
The #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Tattooist of Auschwitz returns with a masterful new novel that captures the astonishing bravery of ordinary people in extraordinary times. In 1942, the Nazis come for a Jewish family living in the Montparnasse area of occupied Paris. In the chaos of their arrest, eleven-year-old Josephine runs to the only person she can trust: her piano teacher, Andree Levallois, a secret French Resistance operative. Andree takes her in as a member of the family, spreading their rations and risking everything to keep her safe. But soon the authorities close in, and both Andree and Josie are caught in a desperate race to stay alive.Epic in scope and based on real people and historical events, Heather Morris has written a story of breathtaking beauty, at once gripping, heartbreaking, and uplifting.
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Royal Witch
by Philippa Gregory
Ambition. Sorcery. Treason. How far will one woman dare to go?1420. Eleanor Cobham arrives at the court of Henry V. Pretty but not highborn, she hopes for nothing more than to marry well.It is a golden age for England, its royal family's dynasty stretching across Europe. But chaos waits in the shadows. Betrayals and shifts of power change the flourishing world Eleanor has stepped into.Working in the household of a Countess who commands her own army, Eleanor begins to see for the first time what a woman is capable of...what men's promises are truly worth.As the safe, comfortable future she'd envisioned begins to shift, Eleanor changes with it. Now she must use her wits to survive - and to rise. Her newfound ambition will to carry her further than any woman before has dared. But if she is to rule England itself, she will need to turn to darker arts..
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Queen of Lombard Street
by Lisa Kleypas
In Victorian England, no woman--not even a brilliant economist like Reina Martin--is allowed to open her own bank account. Men will take care of everything, women are told. But Reina knows better. As the illegitimate daughter of a Spanish immigrant mother, she's haunted by the memory of living with unpaid grocer's bills and no coal for the hearth.So together with her mentor, the powerful banker William Farlow, Reina will build the first all-women's bank, where women can manage their own financial security. At home, Reina's domestic staff of recently paroled prisoners are building new lives and becoming a found family. But soon Reina is shocked to discover that her enigmatic butler, John Pembroke, is an undercover police detective. He's been assigned to investigate Farlow, who's suspected of financial crime on a scale so massive, it could destabilize the British economy. Pembroke needs Reina's expertise for a high-stakes nighttime heist to obtain incriminating evidence. Now Reina faces the agonizing choice of betraying her mentor or turning her back on thousands of working-class families who stand to lose everything. Based on real-life trailblazers such as Mary Paley Marshall, Britain's first female economist, and financial titan Hetty Green, Queen of Lombard Street brings to light the hidden history of extraordinary women whose achievements should be celebrated. How can we know who we are, if we don't know who we were?
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Adam & Eve
by Jeffrey Archer
Jeffrey Archer's final novel. Armistice Day 1918. Two children are born on the same day - but worlds - apart. Adam and Eve. Their births mark the end of one war. Their love will change the outcome of another.
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