Adult

Luz Alana set sail from Santo Domingo armed with 300 casks of rum, her two best friends and one simple rule: under no circumstances is she to fall in love. In the City of Lights, she intends to expand the rum business her family built over three generations, but buyers and shippers alike can’t imagine doing business with a woman…never mind a woman of color. Enter James Evanston Sinclair, Earl of Darnick, who has spent a decade looking for purpose outside of his father’s dirty money and dirtier dealings. Ignoring his title, he’s built a whisky brand that’s his biggest --- and only --- passion. That is, until he’s confronted with a Spanish-speaking force of nature who turns his life upside down.

The Kingsley family is beloved for their military heroics and political service. In 1967, after Joseph S. Kingsley, Jr. is killed in a tragic accident, his charismatic son inherits the weight of that legacy. But despite his best intentions, Joe III has trouble meeting the expectations of a nation. Cate Cooper also grew up fatherless, and after her mother marries an abusive man, she is forced to fend for herself. After being discovered by a model scout, Cate decides that her looks may be her only ticket out of the cycle of disappointment that her mother has always inhabited. When Joe and Cate unexpectedly cross paths one afternoon, their connection is instant and intense. But can their relationship survive the glare of the spotlight and the so-called Kingsley curse?

When it comes to creating the perfect happily-ever-after, Yardley Belanger is a bona fide miracle worker. But when it comes to her own love life, she’s completely clueless. The 31-year-old has poured her heart and soul into her business and doesn’t have time for anything --- or anyone --- else. And that’s something not even the gorgeous older brother of her newest client can change. Right? All Travis Long wanted was to give his little sister, Sheena, the wedding of her dreams. Ever since the tragic death of their parents, he’s done everything he can to make her feel loved and give her everything she needs. Yardley seems to know exactly what to do and how to do it --- and Travis finds himself falling for her a little more each day.

After the death of her US senator father, Marlow Madsen travels to the small island off the coast of Florida where she spent summers growing up to help her mother settle the family estate. For Marlow, the trip is a chance to reconnect after too long apart. It’s also the perfect escape to help her feel grounded again --- one she’s happy to share with friends Aida and Claire, who are hoping to hit reset on their lives, too. A leisurely beachfront summer promises the trio of women the opportunity to take deep healing breaths and explore new paths. But when her father’s will reveals an earth-shattering secret that tarnishes his impeccable reputation and everything she thought she knew about her family, Marlow finds herself questioning her entire childhood --- and aspects of her future.

When Joanna Whitman's famous ex-husband dies in a car accident, she doesn't know what to feel. Their dysfunctional marriage held more painful secrets than she cares to remember. But when she discovers that the young woman with him in the crash is pregnant, Joanna feels compelled to act. Ashley Blake can't believe it when Joanna shows up in her hospital room and suggests they hide away at her beach house on a sleepy stretch of California coast. Joanna should be hating her, not helping her. But alone and pregnant, Ashley can't turn down Joanna's offer. Yet she knows that if Joanna ever found out the real reason Ashley was in that car, their tentative bond would shatter instantly.

In present-day Southern California, a diverse group of characters seeks the fulfillment and connection this sunny state has always promised. They come with hopes for a better lifestyle, for a change of perspective, or for the dry, mild West Coast weather. Between each of the 13 stories in ALL'S FAIR are interspersed several “snapshot” stories --- poetic pauses --- that blend a set of images into an artistic visual unit, much like a brief cinematic experience. Every character in this collection is distinct from the next, but all of their stories unfold under the glare of the same Southern California sun --- a western desert light so clear and unfiltered that it reveals everything.

In 1963, in a Siberian prison, former nuclear specialist Valery Kolkhanov has mastered what it takes to survive. But one day, Valery's university mentor steps in and sweeps him from the frozen camp to a mysterious unnamed city. It houses a set of nuclear reactors, and surrounding it is a forest so damaged it looks like the trees have rusted from within. In City 40, Valery is expected to serve out his prison term studying the effect of radiation on local animals. But as Valery begins his work, he is struck by the questions his research raises. Why is there so much radiation in this area? What, exactly, is being hidden from the thousands who live in the town? And if he keeps looking for answers, will he live to serve out his sentence?

In the first century, under Domitian's reign, strange and brutal goings-on are nothing new in Rome. Flavia Albia, daughter of Marcus Didius Falco, has taken over her father's business as a private informer, but she tries to shy away from the brutal, the complicated and the political. Unfortunately, she's not very good at turning them down. This time a commission shows up on her doorstep --- someone is staging brutal murders in some of the most beautiful buildings in Rome. So far, the only clue was the phrase that one survivor managed to croak: "The undertaker did it..." With little to go on and bodies starting to pile up, Albia has to unravel the strangest mystery of her career in short order if she is to stop this dismaying orgy of murder.

The Right Sort Marriage Bureau was founded in 1946 by two disparate individuals: Mrs. Gwendolyn Bainbridge, whose husband was killed in the recent World War, and Miss Iris Sparks, who worked as an intelligence agent during the recent conflict, though this is not discussed. Miss Sparks finds herself followed, then approached, by a young woman who has a very personal connection to a former paramour of Sparks. But something is amiss, and it seems that Iris' past may well cause something far more deadly than mere disruption in her personal life. Meanwhile, Gwendolyn is struggling to regain full legal control of her life, her finances and her son --- a legal path strewn with traps and pitfalls.

Emme Wynn has wanted nothing more her whole life than to feel like part of a family. Having grown up on the run with her con artist mother, she’s been shuffled from town to town, drawn into bad situations, and has learned some unsavory habits that she’s tried hard to overcome. When her estranged grandmother tracks her down out of the blue and extends a job offer --- helping to run her booth at an open-air marketplace in small-town Sweetgrass, Alabama --- Emme is hopeful that she’ll finally be able to plant the roots she’s always dreamed of. But some habits are hard to break, and she risks her newfound happiness by keeping one big truth to herself.