National Network for Equitable Library Service

Valancy lives a drab life with her overbearing mother and prying aunt. Then a shocking diagnosis from Dr. Trent prompts her to make a fresh start. For the first time, she does and says exactly what she feels. As she expands her limited horizons, Valancy undergoes a transformation, discovering a new world of love and happiness. One of Lucy Maud Montgomery's only novels intended for an adult audience, The Blue Castle is filled with humour and romance.

Sixteen-year-old magazine quiz junkie Kelsey Sinclair wants to make this summer unforgettable by (hopefully) seducing her secret crush, Blaine Mulder. Armed with romance advice articles, Kelsey tackles true love with scientific precision, including getting a job at the seaside restaurant that overlooks the yacht club where Blaine teaches sailing.However, visions of rendezvous on the beach are clouded when the new kitchen guy's laid back attitude and smouldering stare quickly get under her skin.

Ever since anthropology PhD student Clara Lemont started researching the African-Brazilian religion of Odùn, her days and nights became filled with dreams of swirling figures of white, drum beats and yellow eyes haunting her in the darkness. When Clara travels to Brazil to do fieldwork, she quickly finds herself immersed in a world of dark intrigue, political corruption, black magic and desire.

Having lost her husband through divorce, and her daughter who has left home to go to university, Claire, at midlife, finds herself bereft; she is aging and she feels she has never really been sufficiently engaged in her own life. A perhaps largely-unconscious part of her has wisely chosen to put herself out of her comfort zone by accepting a teaching position in San Jose, Mexico, where she falls in love with Lolo, a Mexican man she both loves and fears, not only because he is an outrageously powerful life force but also a darkly threatening force that she feels could spell danger.

When Philip meets Mildred, a disarming tea-shop waitress, he finds his yearning for art and experience consumed by his intense attraction to her. Mildred, for all her teasing, isn’t all that interested in Philip, but rather in flattery, possessions, and security. Yet Philip, in a powerful haze of passion and pride, obsessively pursues Mildred despite the anguish and emotional carnage that repels and binds them at all costs. Of Human Bondage is a grand story of lust, unrequited love, and the pursuit of beauty.

Middle-aged couple Daphne and Rollie and their friend Alex have found themselves out of work and out of luck. So when they come across a mistakenly rented X-rated movie, they get the idea to make their own porno film for some quick cash. The only problem is none of them want to star in it themselves. As if on cue, Jill, a birthday telegram messenger, accidentally arrives on their doorstep and their cast is set.

Single men are hard to come by in 1970s West Germany. So when Karin Maynard, a government secretary, meets the handsome Markus Richter, a single man who pursues her, she can hardly believe her luck. But with Markus continually away on business, thoughts of infidelity begin to consume Karin. Is her insecurity unwarranted, or is she onto something?

Thirtysomething Kate has devoted much of her adult life to her career as a museum curator. She’s just been tasked with mounting an exhibit about the history of romance and love despite her own string of romantically unsuccessful relationships. Intent on better curating the show, Kate investigates love in books and on hilariously disastrous dates. As her love life enters a comical death spiral, her long-widowed mother rekindles an old romance with a man she co-starred with in a play sixty years ago.

Sarah Jean is a mathematics prodigy who finds safety in numbers, in the reliability of their defined nature. Her affinity for unhealthy relationships, however, remains a complete mystery. Her flings turn into year-long relationships against her better judgment and her confusing emotional patterns are only now coming to light. It’s time for Sarah Jean to make sense of her past in terms she understands and to discover there is more to time than just its inevitable passing. Elliot is a theoretical physicist who spends most of his time thinking about time and how to unify all physics.

Duncan has always been a pretty boring guy, leading a simple life while working at a bread factory. Then he stumbles upon Brenda, a sad young woman who’s about to end her life. Convinced he’s fallen in love, Duncan strikes up a desperate deal: if he can get her to laugh, she'll give life another shot, but if she doesn’t even giggle, he'll help her go through with her plan. There’s just one catch: Duncan isn’t funny. At all. So he borrows Pat, his second-favourite comedian, to help him come up with the perfect routine.