Colorado Parks & Wildlife Research Library

"Nantucket writer Madeline King couldn't have picked a worse time to have writer's block. Her deadline is looming, her bills are piling up, and inspiration is in short supply. Madeline's best friend Grace, is hard at work transforming her garden into the envy of the island with the help of a ruggedly handsome landscape architect. Before she realizes it, Grace is on the verge of a decision that will irrevocably change her life. Could Grace's crisis...

On a cool June morning, a woman is walking her dog in the idyllic coastal village of Salten along a tidal estuary known as the Reach. Before she can stop him, the dog charges into the water to retrieve what first appears to be a wayward stick, but to her horror, turns out to be something much more sinister. The next morning, three women in and around London -- Fatima, Thea, and Isabel -- receive the text they had always hoped would never come, from...

"It is 1914 and the world has been on the brink of war so many times, many New Yorkers treat the subject with only passing interest. Eliza Ferriday is thrilled to be traveling to St. Petersburg with Sofya Streshnayva, a cousin of the Romanovs. The two met years ago one summer in Paris and became close confidantes. Now Eliza embarks on the trip of a lifetime, home with Sofya to see the splendors of Russia. But when Austria declares war on Serbia and...

After learning of her family’s ties to the slaveholding South, Sylvia Compson scours her attic for clues and discovers a window into the world of her ancestors: the memoir of her great-grandfather’s spinster sister, Gerda Bergstrom. Gerda’s memoir chronicles the founding of Elm Creek Manor and the tumultuous years when Hans, Anneke, and Gerda Bergstrom sheltered fugitive slaves within its walls, using quilts as a signal of sanctuary....

Reclusive literary legend M. M. 'Mimi' Banning has been holed up in her Bel Air mansion for years. But after falling prey to a Bernie Madoff-style ponzi scheme, she's flat broke. Now Mimi must write a new book for the first time in decades, and to ensure the timely delivery of her manuscript, her New York publisher sends an assistant to monitor her progress. The prickly Mimi reluctantly complies, with a few stipulations: No Ivy-Leaguers or English...

In a life that spanned nearly a century and witnessed some of the most momentous events in American history, Elizabeth Hobbs Keckley was born a slave. She earned her freedom by the skill of her needle and won the friendship of First Lady Mary Todd Lincoln with her devotion. Chiaverini illuminates the extraordinary relationship the two women shared, beginning in the hallowed halls of the White House during the trials of the Civil War and enduring almost,...

Teresa "Toots" Amelia Loudenberry is a wealthy woman, but the riches that mean most to her are her friends and family. Her daughter, Abby, has married her beau, Chris, and settled near Toots in Charleston. Toots's friendship with Dr. Phil Becker has grown unexpectedly close. But after burying eight husbands, Toots suspects she should end her relationship rather than jinx Phil, too. As a distraction, Toots throws herself into helping Abby and Chris...

Time for a Change-or Three! Stefanie Stahl has a husband with renovation ADD. He can't seem to finish anything he starts and her house is littered with his "projects." If he doesn't smarten up, she swears she's going to murder him and bury him under the pile of scrounged lumber in the backyard. Her friend Griffin James is suddenly single and thinking maybe she needs to sell her fixer-upper and follow her career bliss up the ladder of success,...

In the final volume of the author's "Revenge of the Sisterhood" series, founder of the Sisterhood Myra Rutledge has her turn at vengeance as she prepares to avenge the murder of her daughter by the playboy son of a former Chinese ambassador to the United States, who was deported to his native China after the crime.

When they meet as girls on a beach in Nantucket, Maggie McIntyre and Emily Porter become fast friends--though Emily's well-heeled mother would prefer that she associate with the upscale daughters of bankers and statesmen rather than a child of the local seamstress. Even as Emily falls for Maggie's brother, Ben, and the young women's paths diverge, the duo remain close friends. Then the unthinkable happens: a lifelong friendship is pushed to its breaking...