National Network for Equitable Library Service

Nineteen-year-old Annabelle Worthington was born into a life of privilege, raised amid the glamour of New York society, with glorious homes on Fifth Avenue and in Newport, Rhode Island. But everything changed on a cold April day in 1912, when the sinking of the Titanic shattered her family and her privileged world forever. When she is betrayed, and pursued by a scandal she does not deserve, Annabelle flees New York for war-ravaged France, hoping to lose herself in a life of service.

Roly Carradine has found refuge in Cornwall, in the mellow stone house of his childhood. A broken marriage made Roly remove himself from his busy London life, and here in Cornwall he welcomes Kate, also seeking refuge from the grief of losing her husband, and young Daisy Quin, a dancer recovering from a back injury. Roly's son Nat, a garden designer with his own secret burden to bear, lives not far away and is plagued by the unsympathetic visits of his mother Monica, Roly's ex-wife.

For Harriet Delvaney, the great house of Menfreya, standing like a fortress on the Cornish coast, had always been a citadel of happiness and high spirits. Not until she herself came to Menfreya as a bride did Harriet discover the secret family legend of infidelity, jealousy and murder. And not until the legend seemed to come dangerously to life did Harriet begin to believe the old story that when the tower clock of Menfreya stopped, someone was about to die.

Katherine Mary O'Fallon was 16 when she went from Boston to a ranch in Canada. Soon she met Mike Flanningan of the Canadian Mounted Police and they went to live in the far north. Their story is a romance and they experience happiness, hardship, tragedy, and courage together.

The stranger who helped Georgina to smuggle goods from France also introduced her to high society in London and in doing so, foiled an attempt on the life of the Prince of Wales.

After the death of her fiance, all Lyn wanted was to get as far away from her old life as possible and the offer of a job as nanny seemed just what she was looking for. But she had not bargained for the child's uncle, Rick, a man you could not ignore...

Novella Wentworth is used to solitude, with her father away at war and her mother confined to her sick-bed. So she is surprised when a young gentleman, fleeing for his life, begs for sanctuary in their family house. Novella becomes deeply entrenched in this gentleman's business which leads her to a dangerous mission in London.

With a viewpoint that shifts as crisply as cards in the hands of a blackjack dealer, Carol Shields introduces us to two shell-shocked veterans of the wars of the heart. There's Fay, a folklorist whose passion for mermaids has kept her from focusing on any one man. And right across the street there's Tom, a popular radio talk-show host who has focused a little too intently, having married and divorced three times.