Katherine Reay
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London House : A Novel
$18.99Add to cartAn uncovered family secret sets one woman on the journey of a lifetime through the history of Britain’s WWII spy network and glamorous 1930s Paris in an effort to understand her past, save her family, and claim her future.
One call could bring ruin to her family name.
Caroline Payne thinks it is just another day at work when she receives a call from Mat Hammon, a doctoral candidate, who has uncovered a dark and scandalous family secret: her British great-aunt defected to the Nazis to marry her German lover.
The letters tell a different story.
In search of answers, Caroline flies to London to search her grandmother’s diaries and her aunt’s letters. In them she discovers the “Waite girls” and a time of peace and luxury in the interwar years that is beyond anything she ever imagined. But the buoyant tone quickly changes as the sisters grow older, fall in love with the same man, and one leaves home to join the glamourous art scene of 1930s Paris–all amid the rumblings of war.
But history won’t let its secrets go so easily.
The more Caroline learns, the more questions she has. Together Caroline and Mat work to dig out answers, uncovering stories of spies and love, of family rifts, and of one fateful evening in 1941. Will the truth they uncover heal the decades-old family wounds, or will they tear the family even further apart?
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Of Literature And Lattes
$16.99Add to cartIn the small town of Winsome, Illinois, two people discover the confusing, complex, and beautiful nature of friendship.
After her Silicon Valley start-up shuts down, Alyssa Harrison returns to Winsome, Illinois, to regroup and then move on. Yet as friends and family welcome her back, she begins to envision a future in this small Midwestern community. When another setback lands Alyssa back at home with her estranged mother, Janet, Alyssa is forced to confront her past, the lens through which she remembers it, and the people she has hurt along the way.
Certain of a cool welcome in Winsome, newcomer Curtis Miller buys the town’s coffee shop to be near his daughter. Though he keeps his focus on his daughter and his work, he finds himself drawn to Alyssa Harrison. When he asks for her help in making his shop more appealing to the community, he wonders if something is growing between them–until Alyssa betrays him. Now caught in a legal battle for his daughter and another battle for his shop and reputation, Curtis doesn’t know whom to trust.
Loyalty and faith are tested as Alyssa and Curtis learn how to truly show up for one another and discover that sometimes we all need a second chance and a whole lot of grace.
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Printed Letter Bookshop
$16.99Add to cartAmid literature and lattes, three women come together and find that sharing one’s journey with best friends makes life richer.
When attorney Madeline Carter inherits her aunt’s bookstore in a small town north of Chicago, she plans to sell it and add the proceeds to her nonexistent “investment portfolio.” But plans change when Madeline discovers the store isn’t making money and she gets passed over for promotion at her firm. She quits in protest, takes the train north, and decides to work at the store to prep it for sale. Madeline soon finds herself at odds with employees Jessica and Courtney; when she also finds herself attracted to an affianced man, it only confuses the entire situation.
After blowing up her marriage two years earlier, Jessica has found solace working at the bookstore and a kindred spirit within its owner, Maddie Cullen. But when Maddie dies and her niece, Madeline, barges in like a bulldozer, Jessica pushes at the new owner in every way-until she trips over common ground. Soon the women are delving into online dating and fashion makeovers, and Jessica feels the pull to rediscover her art, a love she thought long behind her.
After a night of bad decisions leaves the store in peril, Courtney arrives and tries to save the day. While she, too, found sanctuary in the little bookstore, she knows it’s under-insured, in the red, and will never survive. When she discovers her teenage daughter has played a part in vandalizing the store, Courtney taps into strength she didn’t know existed-or had long forgotten. The quietest of the three, she steps up and finds a way to save her family, the store, and the precious friendships that have grown within it.
The Printed Letter Bookshop is the story of friends who find each other-and themselves-in a place none of them ever expected.
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Austen Escape : A Novel
$17.99Add to cartAfter years of following her best friend’s lead, Mary Davies finds a whimsical trip back to Austen’s Regency England paves the way towards a new future.
Mary Davies lives and works in Austin, Texas, as an industrial engineer. She has an orderly and productive life, a job and colleagues that she enjoys-particularly a certain adorable, intelligent, and hilarious consultant. But something is missing for Mary. When her estranged and emotionally fragile childhood friend Isabel Dwyer offers Mary a two-week stay in a gorgeous manor house in Bath, Mary reluctantly agrees to come along, in hopes that the holiday will shake up her quiet life in just the right ways. But Mary gets more than she bargained for when Isabel loses her memory and fully believes that she lives in Regency England. Mary becomes dependent on a household of strangers to take care of Isabel until she wakes up.
With Mary in charge and surrounded by new friends, Isabel rests and enjoys the leisure of a Regency lady. But life gets even more complicated when Mary makes the discovery that her life and Isabel’s have intersected in more ways that she knew, and she finds herself caught between who Isabel was, who she seems to be, and the man who stands between them. Outings are undertaken, misunderstandings play out, and dancing ensues as this triangle works out their lives and hearts among a company of clever, well-informed people who have a great deal of conversation.
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Portrait Of Emily Price
$17.99Add to cartKatherine Reay’s newest novel, A Portrait of Emily Price, transports readers to Italy where one woman will learn what it means to be truly free. Emily Price, art restorer and would-be artist, finds herself in Atlanta, restoring objects recovered from a house fire. As she strives to make all the pieces of her life fit, she finds herself enthralled by Chef Benito Hillam, who is in town from Italy visiting his brother Joseph, Emily’s boss. Ben spends his time working to restore his aunt and uncle’s restaurant and wooing to Emily. When she surprises herself and accepts his marriage proposal, Emily follows Ben home to Italy. Emily is transported into a new world, but instead of allowing Italy to change her, she tries to change Italy, alienating Ben’s tight-knit Italian family in the process-everyone, that is, except Ben’s father, Henry. The elderly man takes Emily under his wing, and she begins to transform, growing wings as Italy’s beauty begins to take hold of her spirit, and her art and life begin to blossom. But when long-hidden family secrets are unearthed and past hurts become fresh again, Emily is left to wonder whether she really fits into Ben’s world. Will the lessons of Italy become just a memory to Emily, or will she embrace the freedom and beauty that her life with Ben has shown her is possible?
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Bronte Plot : A Novel
$17.99Add to cartWhen a rare-books dealer goes to England, she discovers more than just the famous writing haunts-she discovers how to love and be loved in today’s modern world.
Victoria Seward makes a living finding rare books through means that aren’t always on the up-and-up. But if it makes the clients happy, who is she really hurting? After all, everything always turns out all right in the end. At least it does in her favorite books, the ones her absent father sends every year on her birthday, no matter where he is.
When her unorthodox behavior ruins her relationship with her boyfriend James, Victoria knows something has to change-she has to change. Enter Helen, a wealthy client seeking a companion for her trip to England to purchase antiques, and who just happens to be James’s grandmother. Helen has secrets of her own, secrets that help her relate to Victoria more than anyone can guess.
As Victoria and Helen travel across England, Victoria suspects there is more to this trip than Helen lets on. When Helen’s health falters, Victoria reaches out to James, reigniting feelings that were never truly extinguished.
Everything comes to a head at Haworth, home of the Bront sisters, when hidden offenses rise to the surface. Victoria’s happy ending is within reach-if she can step out of the literary world and into the life that’s been waiting for her all along.
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Lizzy And Jane
$17.99Add to cartLizzy and Jane never saw eye to eye. But when illness brings them together, they discover they may be more like Austen’s famous sisters after all. Lizzy was only a teenager when her mother died of cancer. Shortly after, Lizzy fled from her home, her family, and her cherished nickname. After working tirelessly to hone her gift of creating magic in the kitchen, Elizabeth has climbed the culinary ladder to become the head chef of her own New York restaurant, Feast. But as her magic begins to elude her, Paul, Feast’s financial backer, brings in someone to share her responsibilities and her kitchen. So Elizabeth flees again. In a desperate attempt to reconnect with her gift, Elizabeth returns home. But her plans are derailed when she learns that her estranged sister, Jane, is battling cancer. Elizabeth surprises everyone-including herself-when she decides to stay in Seattle and work to prepare healthy, sustaining meals for Jane as she undergoes chemotherapy. She also meets Nick and his winsome son, Matt, who, like Elizabeth, are trying to heal from the wounds of the past. As she tends to Jane’s needs, Elizabeth’s powers begin to return to her, along with the family she left behind so long ago. Then Paul tries to entice her back to New York, and she is faced with a hard decision: stay and become Lizzy to her sister’s Jane, or return to New York and the life she worked so hard to create?
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Dear Mr Knightley
$17.99Add to cartDear Mr. Knightley is a contemporary epistolary novel with a delightful dash of Jane Austen.
Samantha Moore survived years of darkness in the foster care system by hiding behind her favorite characters in literature, even adopting their very words. Her fictional friends give her an identity, albeit a borrowed one. But most importantly, they protect her from revealing her true self and encountering more pain.
After college, Samantha receives an extraordinary opportunity. The anonymous “Mr. Knightley” offers her a full scholarship to earn her graduate degree at the prestigious Medill School of Journalism. The sole condition is that Sam write to Mr. Knightley regularly to keep him apprised of her progress.
As Sam’s true identity begins to reveal itself through her letters, her heart begins to soften to those around her-a damaged teenager and fellow inhabitant of Grace House, her classmates at Medill, and, most powerfully, successful novelist Alex Powell. But just as Sam finally begins to trust, she learns that Alex has secrets of his own-secrets that, for better or for worse, make it impossible for Sam to hide behind either her characters or her letters.