National Network for Equitable Library Service

Ruby has always been Ruby Chertok: future classical pianist and daughter of renowned composer Martin Chertok. But after her horrendous audition for the prestigious music school where her father is on faculty, it's clear that music has publicly dumped her. Now Ruby is suddenly just...Ruby. And who is that again? All she knows is that she wants away from the world of classical music for good. Oscar is a wunderkind, a musical genius. Just ask any of the 1.8 million people who've watched him conduct on YouTube-or hey, just ask Oscar.

Scottish Highlands, 1334. Lady Joan Armstrong Fraser was once the indulged and pampered daughter of a laird. But marriage to a brute changed her. When he sets her aside, she has only her wits and her beauty to protect herself and her child from the chaos of her former home. She will have to find another husband - a man whose strength is more than a weapon against the weak, a man she can trust . . . if such a man even breathes. Sir Malcolm McKenna has known Lady Joan since her childhood, a spoiled princess as dangerous as she is lovely.

When the dangerous men who killed her husband in a political assassination threaten Ara, Duchess of Burghly, the Crown assigns her a bodyguard. But the man charged with protecting her is no stranger. He's Clayton Ludlow, the bastard son of a duke and the first man she ever loved. Eight years after he took her innocence and ruthlessly abandoned her, he's back in her drawing room and her life. This time, she's older, wiser, and stronger. She will resist him at any cost and make him pay for the past. She's the only woman Clay ever loved and the one he hates above all others.

His body is as chiseled as Adonis. His lips are as sculpted as David. And his ego is the size of the Guggenheim. You know the type: wolfish smile and the gravity of a black hole-the kind of man who sucks all the air from the room the second he enters it. My cocky boss thinks this internship was wasted on me, and he doesn't hesitate to let me know. But he's wrong, and I'm going to prove it to him. If I can stay away from his devil lips, that is, lips that cut me down and kiss me in the same breath, leaving me certain he's on a mission to ruin my life… …and maybe my heart.

He plays the bass with expert fingers. He plays women with intoxicating charm. And he'll play me with the ease of a virtuoso. Who better to teach me to play than the master himself? I'm his model student, front row, pencil sharp. Pick-up lines? I've got them. Free drinks? By the dozen. Kissing? Let me grab my chapstick. But the most valuable lesson I've learned is that there's so much I don't know-like why his touch sets off a chain reaction straight to my nethers…or how I'm certain each kiss is the best I'll ever have…until the moment his lips take mine again.

A woman who has made her way in society without family or fortune, Lena is about to realize her first big success as an artist...until her business partner makes off with her money, leaving her with little more than her hopes-and a dead body in her studio. Now Lena is at the mercy of a strikingly handsome stranger demanding answers she dare not reveal... Is it her seductive eyes or his suspicion that she's up to no good that has Clive Somerville shadowing Lena's every move? Either way, his secret investigation for the Home Office has him determined to uncover Lena's hidden agenda.

"She's yours." Up until now, Rosanna Mast's hopes for the future have all revolved around handsome Henry Zook. But when a young Englisch girl places her newborn daughter in Rosanna's arms and utters those words, shock quickly turns to fierce, protective devotion. Between helping her midwife mamm and caring for her own siblings, Rosanna has plenty of experience with babies. And who wouldn't love a sweet-natured boppli like little Mollie? Yet to her dismay, Henry has no intention of ever taking on another man's child.

Simon: The only thing that stands in the way of my revenge is her. The lying scheming daughter of the man who killed my parents. She has the secrets I need to bring down her father. And I'll do anything to get them. I will lie to her. Steal from her. Use her. Ruin her. It helps that our chemistry is explosive. What I'm not expecting is for her to be so sweet. And so strong. So…irresistible. Penny: After so many years of lying and hiding, I finally have a place to call home. With people I can call a family. The Paintbrush Inn is my life now, and I won't let anyone ruin it.

As Hammer investigates the baby that was left on his friend's doorstep, he must contend with the assassins that have targeted him and the woman at the center of it all.

Barrette Blake has virtually no memory of the night her world changed forever. With the unwavering support of her best friend, she tries to piece together her life and her foggy memories of that night. She's focused and resilient, but on the inside, she's losing hope she'll ever be whole again. Asa Lawson has it all together-on the field that is. He dominates the college-football scene, but his life is messy. He's in love with the girl who can't love herself after everything that's happened to her.