Life for the residents of Hexam Place appears placid and orderly on the outside: drivers take their employers to and from work, dogs are walked, flowers planted in gardens, and Christmas candles lit uniformly in windows. But beneath this tranquil veneer, the upstairs/downstairs relationships are set to combust.

"Escaping from an arranged and abusive marriage, seventeen-year-old Lakshmi makes her way alone from her 1950s rural village to the vibrant pink city of Jaipur. There she becomes the henna artist-and confidante-most in demand to the wealthy women of the upper class. But trusted with the secrets of the wealthy, she can never reveal her own... Known for her original designs and sage advice, Lakshmi must tread carefully to avoid the jealous gossips who...

Grace Bradley went to work at Riverton House as a servant when she was just a girl, before the First World War. For years her life was inextricably tied up with the Hartford family, most particularly the two daughters, Hannah and Emmeline. In the summer of 1924, at a glittering society party held at the house, a young poet shot himself. The only witnesses were Hannah and Emmeline and only they--and Grace--know the truth. In 1999, when Grace is ninety-eight...

"After five unsuccessful Seasons on the marriage mart, Miss Adelaide Duveen has resigned herself to the notion that she's destined to remain a spinster forever— a rather dismal prospect, but one that will allow her to concentrate on her darling cats and books. However, when she inadvertently stumbles upon Mr. Gideon Abbott engaged in a clandestine activity during a dinner party, Adelaide finds herself thrust into a world of intrigue that resembles...

Damian Baxter is hugely wealthy and dying. He lives alone in a big house in Surrey, England, looked after by a chauffeur, butler, cook and housemaid. He has but one concern—his fortune in excess of 500 million and who should inherit it on his death. Past Imperfect is the story of a quest. Damian Baxter wishes to know if he has a living heir. By the time he married in his late thirties he was sterile (the result of adult mumps), but what about

...

"The MacBrides lead a cozy life of upper class privilege: good looks (more or less), a beautiful home, tuition-free education at the prestigious private school where Rowan is headmaster, an altruistic righteousness inherited from magistrate Lydia. But when Rowan and his three grown children gather for the first time since Lydia's passing at the family's weekend home--a restored barn in the English countryside--years of secrets surface ... [and they]...

Spinster Miss Dido Kent travels to be by her niece Catherine's side after her fiancé breaks off their engagement and disappears, and decides to investigate the breakup while also looking into the murder of a woman whose body was found on the missing man's family estate.

"A masterful tale of social climbing and entrenched class distinctions, as seen through the eyes of an outsider who desperately wants in. Tense, hilarious, and bursting with gorgeous language. Stephanie Clifford is a 21st-century Edith Wharton." -J. Courtney Sullivan, New York Times bestselling author of The Engagements. It's 2006 in the Manhattan of the young and glamorous. Money and class are colliding in a city that is about to go over a financial...

Desperate Lavinia Gray gets some unexpected help from Parth Sterling, the richest bachelor in England, with finding a husband, and as they work closely together, she vows to convince him that he is the only man for her.

He was her target. She was his diversion. Falling in love was never something they wanted. As a con woman who has spent her entire life fending for herself on the streets of London, Rose Wakefield knows how to scam a gentleman out of his money without ever getting caught. That's until she knocks on the wrong earl's door and is faced with Carver Ashburn Earl of Kensworth and not the notorious rake she thinks she is approaching. Carver is a good man,...