When 17-year-old Calli meets her new riding instructor, Justine, their attraction to each other is nearly immediate. But while young Calli is learning what falling in love is about, Justine is driven by her competitive nature to have it all. Twenty years after their initial meeting, Calli travels to France to write her new novel. It’s been 10 years since she’s last seen or heard from Justine, and all she knows of her is that she resides somewhere in France - and even that isn’t certain.

Early 1900s London: Taken from his homeland, twelve-year-old Celestine spends most of the time locked away in the attic of a large house by the sea. The only time Celestine isn’t bound by confines of the small space is when he is acting as an unpaid servant to English explorer Sir Richard Babbington, As the years pass, he desperately clings on to memories of his family in Africa, even as he struggles to remember his mother’s face, and sometimes his real name . . .

At the bar of a grand hotel in a small Irish town sits 84-year-old Maurice Hannigan. He’s alone, as usual ­- though tonight is anything but. Pull up a stool and charge your glass, because Maurice is finally ready to tell his story. Over the course of this evening, he will raise five toasts to the five people who have meant the most to him. Through these stories - of unspoken joy and regret, a secret tragedy kept hidden, a fierce love that never found its voice - the life of one man will be powerful and poignantly laid bare.

Built from the bottom up: one perfect gentleman. Man about town Arthur Lawton spends his days pursuing entertainment, while shoeshine Joe Sprat labors to better his family’s lives. When an argument about nature versus nurture sparks a wager, Arthur swears to a friend he can turn this working man into a gentleman who will pass at a society function. Joe is happy to participate in the experiment for a fee, but receives more than he bargained for after moving into Lawton’s house.

Australia, 1906: Orphan Jane Piper is nine years old when philanthropist siblings Michael and Elizabeth Quinn take her into their home to further her schooling. The Quinns are no strangers to hardship. Having arrived in Australia as penniless immigrants, they now care for others as lost as they once were. Despite Jane’s mysterious past, her remarkable aptitude for mathematics takes her far over the next seven years, and her relationship with Elizabeth and Michael flourishes as she plays an increasingly prominent part in their business.

It is in 1950s Brighton that Marion first catches sight of Tom. He teaches her to swim, gently guiding her through the water in the shadow of the city's famous pier, and Marion is smitten - determined her love alone will be enough for them both. A few years later, near the Brighton Museum, Patrick meets Tom. Patrick is besotted, and opens Tom's eyes to a glamorous, sophisticated new world of art, travel, and beauty. The two lovers must share him, until one of them breaks and three lives are destroyed.

Charged with gross incompetence, Satan is fired from his job as prince of Hell and exiled to that most terrible of places: English suburbia. Forced to live as a human under the name of Jeremy Clovenhoof, the dark lord not only has to contend with the fact that no one recognizes him or gives him the credit he deserves but also has to put up with the bookish war-gamer next door and the voracious man-eater upstairs.

Onna Gebowa is determined to become a great wizard. She can write the parameters of a spell faster than any of the young men in her village school. But despite her incredible abilities, she’s denied a place at the nation’s premier arcane academy. Undaunted, she sails to the bustling city-state of Hexos, hoping to find a place at a university where they don’t think there’s anything untoward about providing a woman with a magical education.

The sole survivor of his family’s gruesome murder years earlier, poor little Ned Lawton has struggled to put the dark events behind him. So, when a brash New York detective darkens his doorway demanding an interview, the wealthy young gentleman immediately shuts him out. But a rash of murders in America are mirroring of the London killings, and Patrick Kelly knows Ned might be the key to stopping the bloodshed.

In this evocative work of what the author in his afterword calls “a kind of novelistic memoir”, Jay Parini takes us back 50 years, when he fled the United States for Scotland - in flight from the Vietnam War and desperately in search of his adult life. There, through unlikely circumstances, he meets the famed Argentinian author Jorge Luis Borges.

Suppose, without any warning, you found yourself in another place and time? Zap. Just that fast! And even worse, in someone else’s body. Then, a month later, zap. You’re back where you were before, as yourself, trying to explain to people what had happened to you. No one believes you because during that month, people didn’t think you’d been gone, at all. Just that you’d been acting really weird.

In today's world filled with terrible dating apps and split-second hot takes, all Zuri Robinson wants is something real. And between her crap job, her family drama, and feeling like she completely missed out on her twenties, she's pretty much done. Her only bright spot is exchanging letters with a ridiculously charming guy in Italy. Only Alessandro Fabricare has a teeeeeny little secret . . .

Being a gay man in 1827 is not only frowned upon in England, but punishable by death. Magistrate Simon Stockley would know. He’s convicted men in his courtroom and sentenced them himself. Every time, it leaves a vile taste in his mouth because Simon is no different than the men whose lives he claims.

In a world similar to our own 17th century, one man's kindness lifts a poor, homeless boy from the dirt and sets him on an unlikely path of adventure. An average man would use a silver coin to buy food for a week. An extraordinary boy can use that same coin to build an empire.

Henry was just an ordinary tavern keeper, helping to run the doomed family business. When the Royal Tradesmen's Ball rolled around, he—like usual—wanted nothing to do with it. But the fourth-in-line Lady Garnet offered him a proposal. She wished to shock her family with an outrageous stunt: appearing to court a commoner. He agreed on one condition: no more strangling the tavern.