Jo Stone

Young playwright Melina Green has just written a new work inspired by the life of her Elizabethan ancestor Emilia Bassano. But seeing it performed is unlikely, in a theater world where the playing field isn’t level for women. As Melina wonders if she dares risk failure again, her best friend takes the decision out of her hands and submits the play to a festival under a male pseudonym.

Deborah Harkness first introduced the world to Diana Bishop, an Oxford scholar and witch, and vampire geneticist Matthew de Clermont in A Discovery of Witches. Drawn to each other despite long-standing taboos, these two otherworldly beings found themselves at the center of a battle for a lost, enchanted manuscript known as Ashmole 782. Since then, they have fallen in love, traveled to Elizabethan England, dissolved the Covenant between the three species, and awoken the dark powers within Diana’s family line.

Spanning more than 30 years of Adriana's life, Alyssa Palombo's The Violinist of Venice is a story of passion, music, ambition, and finding the strength to both fall in love and to carry on when it ends.

It is London, 1914. World War I looms on the horizon, women are fighting for the right to vote, and explorers are pushing the limits of endurance in the most forbidding corners of the earth. Into this volatile time, Jennifer Donnelly places her vivid and memorable characters, including Willa Alden, a passionate mountain climber who lost her leg while summiting Kilimanjaro with Seamus Finnegan - and will never forgive him for saving her life.

Kate is a Keeper—a storyteller, magic-wielder, and researcher—but a single mystery has evaded her all her life: What happened on the tragic day when two strangers stole not only the puzzle box that hummed with magic but so much more? She and her brother Bo have searched for twenty years with no luck. Until Venn, a surly elf, shows up on the hidden doorstep of the Keepers' Stronghold with that same aenigma box—and a message that Bo has disappeared. Kate needs a guide back to Venn's homeland to search for him, and Venn needs to find him for reasons of her own.

Sable would do anything to break free from the ruthless gang boss she's indebted to before he corrupts her younger sister or discovers Sable's magical ability to sense the truth in people's words. In a last desperate attempt at freedom, Sable stumbles into unexpected help—Atticus, the famous playwright, and his traveling theater troupe. Far more than a means of escape, the mismatched band of actors is destined to become the family Sable never knew she wanted. They help awaken her magic until she becomes the burning symbol of truth that the entire land needs.

With the beautiful and cunning Poppaea at his side, Nero commands the Roman empire, ushering in an unprecedented era of artistic and cultural splendor. Although he has yet to produce an heir, his power is unquestioned. But in the 10th year of his reign, a terrifying prophecy comes to pass and a fire engulfs Rome, reducing entire swaths of the city to rubble. Rumors of Nero’s complicity in the blaze start to sow unrest among the populace - and the politicians.... For better or worse, Nero knows that his fate is now tied to Rome’s.

Built on the backs of those who fell before it, Julius Caesar's imperial dynasty is only as strong as the next person who seeks to control it. In the Roman Empire, no one is safe from the sting of betrayal: man, woman - or child. As a boy Nero's royal heritage becomes a threat to his very life, first when the mad emperor Caligula tries to drown him, then when his great-aunt attempts to secure her own son's inheritance. Faced with shocking acts of treachery, young Nero is dealt a harsh lesson: It is better to be cruel than dead.

Maud Heighton came to Lafond's famous Academie to paint, and to flee the constraints of her small English town. It took all her courage to escape, but Paris, she quickly realizes, is no place for a light purse. While her fellow students enjoy the dazzling decadence of the Belle Epoque, Maud slips into poverty. Quietly starving, and dreading another cold Paris winter, Maud is hired by Christian Morel as companion to his beautiful, young sister, Sylvie. But Sylvie, Maud discovers, is not quite the darling she seems.

Following the death of her father, CeCe D'Aplièse finds herself at breaking point. In desperation, she decides to flee England and discover her past; the only clues she has are a photograph and the name of a woman pioneer who lived in Australia over 100 years ago. When CeCe finally reaches the Red Centre of Australia, she begins the search for her past. With help from those she meets on her journey, CeCe begins to believe that this wild, vast continent could offer her a sense of belonging.