Romanse

A New York Times Notable Book

Irena and Josef meet by chance while returning to their homeland, which they had abandoned twenty years earlier. Will they manage to pick up the thread of their strange love story, interrupted almost as soon as it began and then lost in the tides of history? The truth is that after such a long absence "their memories no longer match."

Meet Kate Mackenzie. She:

Cartoonist Jane Harris is delighted by the prospect of her first-ever trip to Europe. But it's hate at first sight for Jane and Cal Langdon, and neither is too happy at the prospect of sharing a villa with one another for a week--not even in the beautiful and picturesque Marches countryside. But when Holly and Mark's wedding plans hit a major snag that only Jane and Cal can repair, the two find themselves having to put aside their mutual dislike for one another in order to get their best friends on the road to wedded bliss--and end up on a road themselves ... one neither of them ever...

Ever since legwarmers were cool, best friends Tara, Katherine, and Fintan have survived small-town ennui, big-city heartbreak, and endless giddy nights out on the town. But now that they've graduated to their slightly more serious thirties, only Fintan has what can honestly be called a "love life." With Tara struggling daily with her eternal diet--and her dreadful, penny-pinching boyfriend--and Katherine keeping her single existence as organized as her drawer full of matching bra and panty sets, it seems they'll never locate the exit door out of the "last chance saloon."

But it's...

To: You (you)
From: Human Resources (human.resources@thenyjournal.com)
Subject: This Book

Dear Reader,

This is an automated message from the Human Resources Division of the New York Journal, New York City's leading photo-newspaper. Please be aware that according to our records you have not yet read this book. What exactly are you waiting for? This book has it all:

• Humor
  
• Romance
  
• Cooking tips
  
• Great Danes
  
• Heroine in peril
  
• Dolphin-shaped driftwood sculptures

If you...

It starts as a lark for Jasmin Field, the charming, acerbically witty columnist for a national women's magazine. She joins a host of celebraties gathering in London to audition for the season's most dazzling charity event: a one-night only stage production of Jane Austen's immortal Pride and Prejudice, directed by and starring the Academy Award -- winning Hollywood heartthrob Harry Noble. And nobody is more surprised than Jasmin herself when she lands the lead of handsome Harry's love interest, Elizabeth Bennet. But things start to go very wrong very quickly. Ms. Field's delicious...

Sabrina is young, lovely, and possesses a sparkling wit, but she feels dreadfully out of place in London Society. Luckily, Ophelia, the daughter of a family friend, has been chosen to usher Sabrina through the all-important first season.

Even less keen to be in London is Duncan MacTavish, who has recently learned he is required to assume his grandfather's title and estates. Worse still, a betrothal has already been arranged without his consent to the ravishing, viper-tongued Ophelia. However,...

Now Eva is alone with an empty heart in a big, empty house. Hutch fears he is falling in love with the neglected wife of his wealthy, philandering best friend. Charley, Eva's law-school-bound...

Louise C. wants what Jackie O had ...

Unhappy with her looks, her life, and her empty marriage, Louise Canova needs help -- and she finds it in a secondhand bookstore. A forty-year-old encyclopedia of style titled Elegance, this slim volume by formidable French fashion expert Madame Dariaux promises to transform even the plainest of women into creatures of poise and grace. It is a fairy godmother in print, an A-to-Z manual with essential advice that Louise vows to take to heart. But within its pages lie not only clues from her past, but also powerful lessons for the future....

Dark and lovely Angelica Chappee was brought up right by her loving grandparents. Still reeling from the shock of losing the two people she cared for most in this world, she's anything but ready for what's waiting for her in her dear departed "Pop-pop's" will. It turns out her grandfather was rich -- millionaire-rich And it's all coming to Angelica -- if the innocent, almost-21-and-never-been-kissed Baton Rouge baby can prove that she's no longer a ...

Well this is just crazy -- and the last thing she would have expected from that sweet old man And six days is so little time to go...

For thirty-some years, Lyle has made a life for his family working as an accountant. But when he retires, his Irish-born wife, Mary, wants to leave America and go home -- where the ocean is near and the butter has flavor.

Somewhat grudgingly, Lyle agrees, but during their years in Galway, they discover that the surprises of life are not over. Going home is more complicated than butter and the bay, and thirty content years does not mean that a couple is immune to romantic intrigue. In this new life, while Mary and Lyle are rediscovering each other and building a richer life together,...

After going for more than a year without a date -- a record in New York City -- Marlowe Riddle has finally met a broodingly sexy, sharply intelligent man who is clearly interested in making more than polite conversation. The only problem: Joseph Kain is an NYPD detective clearly under the mistaken impression that Marlowe is a call girl.

But while Marlowe does take money for spending time with strangers in her expensive Upper West Side apartment, she's a psychologist -- not Manhattan's answer to the Mayflower Madam A fact she has no intention of telling Joe ... at least not until she...

As far as her family and friends are concerned, Frieda has been the grieving widow for long enough. At 35, she's still (relatively) young, still (adequately) attractive. Her sex drive is very much alive; even Frieda admits she'd like to put it to use again. Besides, she has a son who certainly needs a father figure. With visions of the perfect second husband in mind, Frieda's sisters start to send eligible males in her direction.

Big sister Ilene -- herself substantially married -- has found the ultimateunattached catch: a gorgeous, independently wealthy, successful, divorced father,...

In passionate love stories from four of romance's most prominent authors, meet women who've spent years thinking they've missed their shot at Mr Right - only to discover that fate is handing them one more chance.to win back the love of the one who got away

Nate is a D-O-G with an obsession for conquering as many women as possible. But when he breaks his own rules and falls for two women at the same time, all hell breaks loose. Brendan is the type of man every woman claims to want -- at least until she gets one. Will he ever find a woman as sweet as he is, or is he doomed to be the poster child for "Good Guys Who Love Bad Girls"? Cory is successful, smart, and...

After years as a sweet, good-natured pushover, Annie Markham has had to face up to three hard truths:

1. You've got to be tough to succeed in business and romance.
2. Sometimes your meddling loved ones areright about your worthless, no-good boyfriend being worthless and no good.
3. The only reliable thing about men is thatthey're totally unreliable.

Okay, she's been persuaded. So now, seven years after wisely and abruptly dumping the "love of her life," Jake Mead, things should be going better for Annie Markham, right? Unfortunately, her life's going nowhere,...

The Appetizer

Katie has lofty career aspirations that seem to change almost hourly: writer, film director, teacher, educational psychiatrist. In the meantime, she's waiting tables and waiting for "Mr. Right" to arrive out of the blue -- which seems unlikely, considering her romantic track record is as pitiful as her job history.

The Main Course

Still, a girl can dream, even when she's rushing a hot plate of linguini over to the nasty customer at table six. So when gorgeous, sensitive, perfect Dan Crichton asks her out, Katie's over the moon. But once again, commitment...

When CSI investigator Claire Watson meets John Rock on holiday, the attraction is instant--but so is the feeling that they've met before. Now uneasy memories from a decade earlier are beginning to surface for Claire: memories of a body found at the bottom of a cliff in Northern Ireland, a possible suicide or, perhaps, a murder. Now, ten years later in the South of France, she has once again encountered the dead woman's husband, the man Claire and her colleagues had believed was the killer, though they could never pin the crime on him.

But did John's wife really die by his hands? And...

Tamara Contreras will never again settle for unmemorable sex. Her long-time boyfriend may look perfect to her traditional Mexican-American parents -- something Tamara has never been -- but at twenty-six she wants more from life than marriage and motherhood. So in front of everyone, Tamara does the unthinkable: She turns down her boyfriend's unexpected marriage proposal and leaves home for L.A.

Tamara thinks she's got the single-girl-in-the-city thing down, until she runs into Will Benavides, the former high school bad boy turned firefighter. If Tamara's parents had known how Will lit...