Akron Public Library

aConstance Chatterley, married to an aristocrat and mine owner whose war wounds have left him paralyzed and impotent, has an affair with Mellors, a gamekeeper, becomes pregnant, and considers abandoning her husband. One of the seminal class novels of the twentieth century, Lady Chatterley's Lover was considered flagrantly pornographic when it was first published in 1928.

To illuminate the changing times, Forster throws together three vastly dissimilar classes of people: the Schlegels, Helen and Margaret, educated, compassionate and independently wealthy; the Wilcoxes, nouveau riche Empire builders; and Leonard Bast, an ambitious but struggling bank clerk.

Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in making Philip his heir, knowing he will treasure his beautiful Cornish estate. But Philip's world is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries - and then dies suddenly in suspicious circumstances. Before long, the new widow - Philip's cousin Rachel - arrives in England. Despite...

Gareth St. Clair is in a bind. His father, who detests him, is determined to beggar the St. Clair estates and ruin his inheritance. Gareth's sole bequest is an old family diary, which may or may not contain the secrets of his past . . . and the key to his future. The problem is--it's written in Italian, of which Gareth speaks not a word. All the ton agreed: there was no one quite like Hyacinth Bridgerton. She's fiendishly smart, devilishly outspoken,...

The novel's narrator, Stevens, is a perfect English butler who tries to give his narrow existence form and meaning through the self-effacing, almost mystical practice of his profession. In a career that spans the second World War, Stevens is oblivious of the real life that goes on around him -- oblivious, for instance, of the fact that his aristocrat employer is a Nazi sympathizer. Still, there are even larger matters at stake in this heartbreaking,...

"Adam Deveril, the new Viscount Lynton, is madly in love with the beautiful Julia Oversley. But he has returned from the Peninsular War to find his family on the brink of ruin and his ancestral home mortgaged to the hilt. He has little choice when he is introduced to Mr. Jonathan Chawleigh, a City man of apparently unlimited wealth and no social ambitions for himself--but with his eyes firmly fixed on a suitable match for his only daughter, the quiet...

At four and twenty Victoria Huntington thought herself quite adept at fending off fortune hunters... until she came under siege from Lucas Colebrook, the darkly disturbing new Earl of Stonevale. But becoming Stonevale's companion in adventure was far more dangerous undertaking than Victoria could ever imagine.

When Griffin York, the Duke of Halford, tries thwart his mother's attempts to get him to marry by paying Spindle Cove barmaid Pauline Simms to fail duchess training, the unexpected result is a burning desire in the duke's heart to truly make her his wife.

Susan Henley, a notorious but bewitching widow, pairs up with dashing Valentine Montclair to foil plots involving deception, smuggling, thievery, and murder.

In Secrets of Surrender, best-selling author Madeline Hunter pulls listeners into a seductive Regency era tale of untapped desire. When proud Roselyn Longworth is auctioned off at a dinner party to the highest bidder, she dreads passing from one cruel man to another. But Kyle Bradwell proves himself to be a true gentleman and an even more insatiable lover, and Roselyn finds herself succumbing to his seductive grip-one that demands her complete surrender....