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Set at the end of World War II, in a crumbling Bavarian castle that once played host to all of German high society, a powerful and propulsive story of three widows whose lives and fates become intertwined - an affecting, shocking, and ultimately redemptive novel from the author of the New York Times notable book The Hazards of Good Breeding.

It's 1945: When the critically wounded Captain Cooper Ravenal is brought to a private hospital on Manhattan's Upper East Side, young Dr. Kate Schuyler is drawn into a complex mystery that connects three generations of women in her family to a single extraordinary room in a Gilded Age mansion. Who is the woman in Captain Ravenel's portrait miniature who looks so much like Kate? And why is she wearing the ruby pendant handed down to Kate by her mother?

With her father murdered and her home burned, lovely Alyx Blackelt fled to the woods - and sanctuary in the camp of Raine Montgomery, a nobleman outlawed by the king's edict. There she hid her beauty in the guise of a boy and her sorrow in her work as Montgomery's squire. But how long could such loveliness as hers be hidden? How long could such a gallant man's desires be blind?

After each lifecycle, Catherine returns to the heavens for a new assignment. This time, she'll be born in the Highlands of Scotland, and she's thrilled to learn she'll meet her soulmate. Circumstances will try to wrest them apart, but they must stand strong if they're to live a happy life. There's one drawback: Catherine won't remember anything once she's born....

After enduring years of her nobleman father's cruelty and abuse, Celestina Lunde is ready to take her own life rather than enter into an arranged marriage with an equally brutal man. But just when she is about to leap through the window of her tower bedroom, a brawny Highland warrior arrives at her home and changes everything.

When Moray Allen is left in charge of Muir Castle the fortnight before Yule, he doesn't anticipate any excitement. The excitement is all down south, where the Grant and Ramsay cousins are embroiled in their final battle with the Channel of Dubh, smugglers who trade in human cargo. But the chieftain hasn’t been gone for more than a day when Moray spots a golden-haired lass in the wilds surrounding Castle Muir. He suspects she’s lost and in need of food, but she runs from him.

Heroes are made, not born. From the moment he first sees Sela Seton, Connor Grant is drawn to the woman known as the Ice Queen. Although his cousins assume she’s as guilty as the men she serves, the unscrupulous smugglers of the Channel of Dubh, Connor is convinced she’s being coerced. His mother was abused and controlled, and he suspects the same is true of Sela. For five years, Sela has known only misery, with one exception: her sweet daughter, Claray.

The greatest heroes are soft-spoken. Gregor Ramsay has never seen himself as a hero, but when the lass he fancies falls into the clutches of the Channel of Dubh, he’ll do anything he can to save her. Linet Baird will not be sold across the sea on his watch. Together with his cousin Connor, he follows Linet’s trail to Edinburgh, where it’s rumored they’ll find one of the Channel of Dubh’s final headquarters. There’s only one problem: Linet claims she doesn’t wish to be saved. Although Linet didn’t ask to be kidnapped from Ramsay land, she’s grateful it happened.

He vows to find her sister. She helps him find himself...Merewen Baird will do anything to save her sister. She’s long admired Gavin, and when he agrees to search for Linet with her, she sets off on a journey with him and several of his cousins...To save Linet and the other lasses and lads, Merewen and Gavin must risk all - including the promise of a future with each other.

To others, he’s a misfit. To her, he’s a hero. Daniel Drummond fears no lass will want a one-handed warrior, but when he meets the bonny and spirited Constance at Sona Abbey, he dares to wonder if they could have a future together. The beautiful novice has a secret, however, and her reticence makes him fear she sees him as less than a man. Eager to forget her, Daniel throws himself into the Band’s mission to find and stop the underground kidnappers who ship lads and lasses across the waters.