French Women

In 1992, Marilyn French was told she had one year to live. A smoker of 48 years she was diagnosed as having cancer of the oesophagus, a cancer which is almost always fatal. Five years on, having battled with chemotherapy and radiotherapy, a heart attack and her back breaking, she is very much alive. And - astonishingly - her body shows no sign of cancer.

Nagel tells a remarkable story of an astonishing woman, from her birth, to her upbringing by doting parents, through to Revolution, imprisonment, exile, Restoration, and, finally, her reincarnation as saint and matriarch.

From the moment the ship docked in Le Havre, en route to Paris, in the fall of 1948, Julia had an awakening that changed her life. Soon this tall, outspoken gal from Pasadena, California, who didn't speak a word of French and knew nothing about the country, was steeped in the language, chatting with purveyors in the local markets, and enrolled in the Cordon Bleu.

Before she was the Duchess of Windsor, Bessie Wallis Warfield was Mrs. Wallis Spencer, wife of Earl “Win” Spencer, a US Navy aviator. From humble beginnings in Baltimore, she rose to marry a man who gave up his throne for her. But what made Wallis Spencer, Navy Wife, the woman who could become the Duchess of Windsor? The answers lie in her one-year sojourn in China. In her memoirs, Wallis described her time in China as her “Lotus Year,” referring to Homer’s Lotus Eaters, a group living in a state of dreamy forgetfulness, never to return home.

Small-town biz wiz Jill Hale has been in love with her childhood best friend Brian McConnell for as long as she can remember. A falling out led to years of estrangement, but when Brian returns to Dare Valley after trying to make it big as a chef in New York City, Jill’s determined to make this their second chance. She’s convinced that starting a restaurant together will be the perfect win-win situation to spice up their lives.

Women haven't been hired to work in my bar for a reason: they're too tempting and too distracting - too much of a liability. That's why I shocked myself by hiring Avery Cole. She's young, carefree, and happy - a beautiful distraction. When she's around, the devastation of my past gets buried under layers of lust and desire...hints of a life I once lived but have completely given up on. I've already had my love and now that's gone; there's no need to try again. Even if love is staring me right in the face with a pair of deep brown eyes and no expectations.

My husband is a monster. My home is riddled with lies. I thought I could bear the torment for my daughter's sake. Until I met him. In one night, Matthew Zola showed me everything I never knew I was missing. Passion. Pleasure. Deep, dark, earth-shattering love.

If you loved him, could you tell him? And would he abandon his lonely mission and give his heart to you? From the jungles of Mexico to the glittering elegance of 1840’s New Orleans comes a wildly romantic story of love, heartbreak, and the chance to begin again. Amid the intrigue and glamour of the delta city, Lucie must find her own way as she struggles to recover from devastating loss and what she fears is the end of love. The last thing she wants is to be beholden to a man – especially a man as infuriating and intriguing as the mysterious newcomer from Spain. Stephen Arroyo is known ...

A pompous Pomeranian and visiting media from France lead to unexpected trouble that ends in murder! French media visit Misty Valley for a puff piece on Pierre. Or so he believes. The press is really there to view the plans for development in Misty Valley for the upcoming Grand Prix. But Pierre's hope of fame and glory cools rapidly when he flips the press to reveal a murder. The demise of a French journalist disrupts everyone's plans for a quiet party at Castle Raven.

Plus personne n'envoyait de vraies lettres, mais April aimait l'idée d'utiliser une feuille et un stylo plutôt que le clavier de son ordinateur. L'écriture de quelqu'un, avec ses boucles, ses fioritures et ses arêtes, était comme une carte en miniature de sa personnalité.

Fresne Prison, 1940: A former maid at a luxury villa on the Riviera, Margot Bisset finds herself in a prison cell with writer and French Resistance fighter Joséphine Murant. Together, they are transferred to a work camp in Germany for four years, where the secrets they share will bind them for generations to come. Paris, around about now: Evie Black lives in Paris with her teenage son, Hugo, above her botanical bookshop, La Maison Rustique. Life would be so sweet if only Evie were not mourning the great love of her life.

When an abused bride, married against her will to a Barbary corsair captain, arrives at the only refuge for women in Algiers with her alleged husband’s two sisters, Lalla Hurriya must defend the women against the threat of attack. Will Chief Commissioner Muhammad save the only refuge for women in Algiers from destruction by the enraged Barbary corsair and his cutthroat crew? Against the action that takes place between the contending parties, the story of the women inside the fortified hammam is told by Lalla Hurriya, recently pledged by her family to the Chief Commissioner, a man she ...

“A fast and delightful read! There is something here for everyone. Highly recommend!”-- Mrs. Virginia A. Butterfield Caroline Steele, a secret rebel during the colonial war, finds a Royalist rogue sea captain hiding in her bedroom armoire as English soldiers swarm through her home with a warrant for his arrest. Her reputation in tatters, she boldly takes a chance on him. “I won’t turn you over to the Redcoats if you agree to be my husband and take me to the Caribbean.” Garrett Faulkner is a clever smuggler and outlaw who is more than up to the task of wedding and bedding this ...

Twenty-one-year-old Linda Kovic needs to learn a language fast in order to fulfill her dream of becoming a flight attendant, so she contracts to become an au pair for a wealthy family in the Loire Valley. In order to secure the nanny position, she lies on her application and pretends to speak French, confident she'll be forgiven once she arrives at her destination. This book captures Linda's real-life story inside and outside the Chateau de Montclair, detailing her challenges and triumphs as she tries to adjust to her new life.

French-born American chef Sophie Valroux had one dream: To be part of the 1% of female chefs running a Michelin-starred restaurant. From spending summers with her grandmother, who taught her the power of cooking and food, to attending the Culinary Institute of America, Sophie finds herself on the cusp of getting everything she's dreamed of.

Amy has been recently traded in for a newer model, by her husband, and is struggling to make ends meet and pay her rent. Her female boss Nicole, announces to her that she herself does escort work, without sex, and suggests that Amy join her. Amy is reluctant at first until her landlord suggests other ways of catching up on her rent arrears. Amy, because of her stunning looks, is successful at escorting, and ends up on a, International circuit, where she gets involved with French big business, and people smuggling from Paris. Escaping Paris, she ends up picking grapes in a French vineyard ...

Another fairy tales goes rogue in this eclectic series of Europe in World War 2. This time, Goldilocks has a twist in the tale, only she's not the one intruding this time . . . Golda now had to do the same as everyone else, and it wasn't sitting well with her. She was used to independence, doing just as she liked. But now stood in line like everyone else, waiting for her work papers, issued by the invaders, which she needed just to get a job. And no matter what their excuse, what their cause or their concept of what history was, that's what they were: INVADERS. She spoke German too, like ...

Dolores and Victor are both successful, both Americans living alone in England. They meet and fall instantly in love, only to discover they agree on nothing. From the start they know they have only one year together. Their affair is sometimes bitter, always passionate, and, in the end, an extraordinary revelation for them both.

Julia Child is synonymous with French cooking, but her legacy runs much deeper. Now, her great-nephew and My Life in France coauthor vividly recounts the myriad ways in which she profoundly shaped how we eat today. He shows us Child in the aftermath of the publication of Mastering the Art of French Cooking, suddenly finding herself America's first lady of French food and under considerable pressure to embrace her new mantle.

Joséphine Bonaparte, future Empress of France; Térézia Tallien, the most beautiful woman in Europe; and Juliette Récamier, muse of intellectuals, had nothing left to lose. After surviving incarceration and forced incestuous marriage during the worst violence of the French Revolution of 1789, they dared sartorial revolt.