Caught in a Three Strikes law that sends him to prison for life, Nate Larson negotiates with prosecutors for an early release in exchange for testifying against his brother in an upcoming trial. As part of the deal, he demands custody of his 14-year-old granddaughter, Grace, who's survived a string of disastrous foster homes. Nate studied close-up magic during his time in prison. He's good, and despite her wariness Grace joins him for a touring magic show of New England. 

On a warm summer morning in North Carthage, Missouri, it is Nick and Amy Dunne’s fifth wedding anniversary. Presents are being wrapped and reservations are being made when Nick’s clever and beautiful wife disappears. Husband-of-the-Year Nick isn’t doing himself any favors with cringe-worthy daydreams about the slope and shape of his wife’s head, but passages from Amy's diary reveal the alpha-girl perfectionist could have put anyone dangerously on edge.

It was just a typical Monday. Until the big boss asked me to make the pitch for a prospective new client. After two years on shaky ground at work because of my screw up, an opportunity to impress the senior partners was just what I needed. Or so I thought, until I walked into the conference room and collided with the man I was supposed to pitch to. My coffee spilled, my files tumbled to the ground, and I almost lost my balance. And that was the good part of my day. Because the gorgeous man who crouched down and looked at me like he wanted to eat me alive was none other than my ex.

Four tales from top romance authors.

In his three novellas, In Short Measures, Strong Conspirators, and Sally Forth, Michael Ruhlman delves deeply into the nuanced complexity of romantic and sexual love - and the inevitable evolution of the heart over the span of years and decades. Each novella asks questions about the nature of love in terms of loyalty and fidelity - what are one's obligations toward one's spouse, one's family, and one's heart?

Ella's life has been completely upended. She's young, beautiful, and deeply in love - until her husband dies in a tragic sailing accident while trying save her. Or so she'll have everyone believe. Screenwriter Hunter needs a hit, but crippling writers' block and a serious lack of motivation are getting him nowhere. He's on the look-out for a love story. It doesn't matter who it belongs to.

Fifteen years ago in the colourful bustle of Vietnam, Celine and Patrick met and shared four blissful days together. It felt like true love, but soon reality tore them apart and Celine moved on. But now, when she sees him unexpectedly on a busy London street, suddenly nothing else matters. As she deals with the mixed emotions of an amicable divorce, Celine becomes preoccupied with her daughter and the dating agency she founded - not least when her ex-husband, Mike, asks her to find him someone new.

When high-school teacher Caelum Quirk and his wife, Maureen, move to Littleton, Colorado, they both get jobs at Columbine High School. In April 1999, while Caelum is away, Maureen finds herself in the library at Columbine, cowering in a cabinet and expecting to be killed. Miraculously, she survives. But when Caelum and Maureen flee to an illusion of safety on the Quirk family's Connecticut farm, they discover that the effects of chaos are not easily put right.

Jennifer Chaise is proud of her life. Coming from nothing, she's used her beauty to her advantage and is swept up in a glamorous world of wealth and privilege as the mistress of a high-flying businessman. But when she walks in on a violent scene in their Las Vegas hotel room, Jennifer knows she can no longer ignore the truth about her boyfriend, and she flees. Desperate to escape the men searching for her, she invents a whole new persona - with a new look and a new name - as she hides out in a small Nevada town.

Enter the lush world of 1950s New York City, where a generation of aspiring models, secretaries, and editors live side by side in the glamorous Barbizon Hotel for Women while attempting to claw their way to fairy-tale success in this debut novel from the New York Times best-selling author of The Lions of Fifth Avenue. When she arrives at the famed Barbizon Hotel in 1952, secretarial school enrollment in hand, Darby McLaughlin is everything her modeling agency hall mates aren't: Plain, self-conscious, homesick, and utterly convinced she doesn't belong.

On the surface, these seven women are as different as can be - but each has had her share of bad luck, from cheating husbands to sexist colleagues to a legal system that often doesn't do its job. Now, drawn together by tragedy, they're forging a bond that will help them right the wrongs committed against them and discover an inner strength they didn't know they had. The Sisterhood is learning that when bad things happen, you can roll over and play dead...or you can get up fighting...

Two women, the ailing Abigail Boyles and exuberant, wealthy Lauren Durough, are brought together by their love of books and the discovery of a diary written by a young woman, Mercy Hayworth, who was burned at the stake during the Salem witch trials. Her inspiring, yearning, romantic diary proves to be an inspiration to both Abigail and Lauren, teaching them to cherish friendships, love, and life. Readers will be similarly uplifted by Susan Messner's finely wrought tale.

On the eve of her retirement, Georgia attorney Mikala Aulani is as vivacious and vibrant as ever, eagerly anticipating a happy future with her partner, Ben. But if Kala has learned anything in 35 years of practicing law, it’s that the truth can always surprise you. And when Adam Star turns up at her office, confessing to the long-ago murder of his wife, Kala must return to a notorious case that has never stopped haunting her. Ten years have passed since young nurse Sophie Lee was accused of murdering her wealthy patient.

Every child prodigy grows up eventually. For the Promise sisters, escaping their mother's narcissism and the notoriety that came with her best-selling book hasn't been easy. Minerva Promise claimed that her three test-tube daughters - gifted pianist Joanie, artistic Meg, and storyteller Avery - were engineered and molded to be geniuses. In adulthood, their modest lives fall far short of her grand ambitions.

Author Liza Teller’s new book is something of a mystery. She’s been hired to ghostwrite the memoir of Ray Wallis, an elderly stranger eager to share a very personal and surprising life story. The moment Liza arrives on beautiful Haven Island off the South Carolina coast, she has to ask: Out of all the semi-successful writers with stalled careers in the world, why her? Kendall James, the dedicated ex-military man in Ray’s employ, has the same question. Why is this New Yorker in a frilly blue dress so important to Ray?