New Releases by Susanne Dunlap

A Christmas novella of love, loyalty, and one very special delivery With the shop finally closed and her seamstresses home for the holiday, modiste Pauline Dawkins is ready to enjoy a rare moment of peace. But when an unsigned letter arrives late on the night before Christmas Eve-demanding an impossible clothing order under threat to her business-Pauline finds herself swept into a challenge she cannot ignore. With only thirty-six hours, no staff, and one icy London night to solve the mystery and complete the gowns, Pauline turns to the last person she ever expected to trust: the tongue-tied but talented tailor Benjamin Cooper. As needles fly and secrets unravel, unexpected alliances form and long-buried feelings surface. And just when things seem under control, Pauline''s business partner, the Countess of Bridlington, delivers the most surprising gift of all. Between a daring commission, a very special delivery, and a romance she never saw coming, Pauline might discover that the most perfect presents aren''t wrapped in ribbons-but sewn with courage, stitched with hope, and handed over straight from the heart.

A marriage of convenience to a scoundrel? Not if Augusta can help it. The impoverished daughter of a baronet, Augusta has no intention of being bartered away like a prize horse. Instead, she flees to London, determined to forge her own path as a modiste. But fate has other plans. On her very first day in the city, she crosses paths with a brooding earl-one burdened with a clubfoot and a reputation nearly as scandalous as the proposal she ran from. His captivating sister, Mariana, is not only Augusta''s employer''s best client but harbors a secret ambition of her own: to marry the one man society deems wholly unsuitable. Drawn into Mariana''s reckless schemes of masquerades, cross-dressing, and Whig intrigue, Augusta soon finds herself entangled in more than just scandal-she''s losing her heart to a man who embodies everything she swore to escape. But the earl has secrets of his own. Is he truly the rogue society believes him to be? And when Augusta''s past comes calling, will her newfound independence-and her heart-survive? A charming, fast-paced Regency romance perfect for fans of Bridgerton and the sweetly adventurous love stories of Maggie Dallen and Jenny Hambly.

Lillian Lorraine was a naive 15-year-old chorine on Broadway when she attracted the notice of the notorious 41-year-old Florenz Ziegfeld. Accustomed to getting what he wanted, Ziegfeld took Lillian under his wing and into his arms, giving her coveted numbers in the Ziegfeld Follies and taking control of her career. But Lillian''s rebellious spirit chafed against him, refusing to play according to his rules, and nearly destroying her own career in the process. The Adored One follows her through rise and fall after rise and fall as she comes of age in a world where her youthful beauty was an asset-and a liability. "Talented, beautiful, fiercely independent, flighty... there aren''t enough adjectives to describe the intensely sympathetic and heartbreakingly reckless Lillian Lorraine... Buckle up; it''s a wild ride. I enjoyed The Adored One immensely." - Mitchell James Kaplan, author of Rhapsody "Broadway of over a hundred years ago comes vividly to life in this story of the enchanting showgirl Lillian Lorraine. You will cheer for this gorgeous survivor all the way." - Stephanie Cowell, American Book Award winner and author of Claude & Camille and The Boy in the Rain

What happens when a daughter''s dream and a mother''s sordid past collide? New York, 1910. Seventeen-year-old Sylvie and her French-immigrant mother Justine eke out a living doing piecework in a tenement on the Lower East Side, while Sylvie attends school so that she can escape their life of poverty by becoming a teacher. At least, that''s what her mother believes should happen. Sylvie, though, has a different dream. She wants to be a star in the new moving pictures, just like the beautiful Vitagraph Girl. When she meets a dangerously handsome Italian boy at church one Sunday and he encourages her ambitions, she begins secretly taking steps toward the career she knows her mother won''t approve of. But Sylvie isn''t the only one with secrets. Justine has kept her sordid past from Sylvie ever since they came to New York fifteen years before, stitching together a fabric of lies along with the shirtwaists she finishes every day, doing everything in her power to keep the truth from her daughter-that she fled Paris as a courtesan after committing a crime that could still get her arrested, or worse. When Justine''s past catches up with her in a single act of brutality, Sylvie witnesses what she thinks is her mother''s betrayal and runs away during a freak blizzard, putting them both in grave danger. Ambition, survival, and unexpected alliances combine in this mother-daughter story that proves love can conquer all-at a price.

Marry a Catholic stranger, or flee the only world she''s ever known...Headstrong Bruna de Gansard must choose one or the other to save her Cathar family from the inquisitors. Toulouse, 1229. The inquisitors have arrived to rid the city of Cathar heretics once and for all, and are putting all unmarried girls over the age of 12 to the question. After an incident in the town calls unwanted attention to 14-year-old Bruna, Alaman de Bosquet-a young Catholic stranger who is sympathetic to the heretics-warns her family about the looming danger, and volunteers to marry their daughter to save her from being questioned. But Bruna doesn''t want to be forced into marriage, so she chooses flight-which lands her unexpectedly in the midst of a Catholic pilgrimage to Compostela, thrusting her into a life of deceit. When her beauty and her voice bring her to the attention of the powerful Baron de Belascon, she finds herself caught between her allegiance to her own people and the dangerous secret of her origins-a secret that can be revealed at any time after the arrival of a French knight who recognizes her.

Two orphans are separated from each other in the dangerous world of medieval Languedoc, and go on quests to find each other and the secret of their identity.

Based on a true story, this is the tale of Adélaïe Labille-Guiard''s fight to take her rightful place in the competitive art world of eighteenth-century Paris. With a beautiful rival who''s better connected and better trained than she is, Adélaïde faces an uphill battle. Her love affair with her young instructor in oil painting gives rise to suspicions that he touches up her work, and her decision to make much-needed money by executing erotic pastels threatens to create as many problems as it solves. Meanwhile, her rival goes from strength to strength, becoming Marie Antoinette''s official portraitist and gaining entrance to the elite Académie Royale at the same time as Adélaïde. When at last Adélaïde earns her own royal appointment and receives a massive commission from a member of the royal family, the timing couldn''t be worse: it''s 1789, and with the fall of the Bastille her world is turned upside down by political chaos and revolution. With danger around every corner in her beloved Paris, she must find a way adjust to the new order, carving out a life and a career all over again--

Apparently, false rumors about Marie Antoinette are all the fashion in 1783. Marie Antoinette is facing hostility from the populace, inflamed by rumors circulated in pamphlets throughout Paris. The rumors claim that she has dozens of lovers, drinks the blood of poor people, holds satanic masses at Versailles, and more, when nothing could be further from the truth. On the advice of the handsome, enigmatic Captain von Bauer, Joseph II-emperor of Austria and Marie Antoinette''s brother-decides that mystery-solving violinist Theresa Schurman is the ideal candidate for a spy to discover the source of these vile slanders.Theresa is only too glad to get away from Vienna for a while, unwilling to commit herself yet to marrying Zoltan-a Hungarian baron she met when she was fifteen-and running out of reasons to postpone her decision. She is eager, too, to explore a new musical scene and broaden her artistic education. But when the captain confounds her expectations and places her as a bookkeeper in the establishment of Rose Bertin, milliner to the queen, she begins to lose hope that she will ever achieve her musical aims-or the emperor''s goal of exposing the pamphleteers.A chance encounter with the Chevalier de Saint-Georges, an extraordinary black violinist and expert swordsman, sets Theresa on the path to unraveling the mystery. But will the chevalier''s patron, the powerful duc de Chartres, confound her efforts and put her-and the captain''s-lives in danger?Be prepared for music, mystery, love, and murder in this riveting tale of pre-revolutionary Paris.

Theresa Schurman leads a double life, as a sweet, young Viennese girl from a respectable family, and as a the professional violinist Thomas Weissbrot, who performs in pickup orchestras throughout the Vienna of Haydn and Mozart. When she stumbles upon a murder on her way home from performing, and the dying man''s last word is ''Mozart,'' feisty Theresa decides to get to the bottom of it, and involves herself in a conspiracy that threads through the musical world of Vienna--from the lowest freelance musician all the way to the royal court.

When Eliza Monroe - daughter of the future president of the United States - discovers that her mother is sending her to boarding school outside of Paris, she is devestated. But Eliza is quickly reconciled to the idea when she discovers who her fellow pupils will be: Hortense de Beauharnais, daughter of Josephine Bonaparte; and Caroline Bonaparte, youngest sister of the famous French general. It doesn''t take long for Eliza to figure out that the two French girls are mortal enemies - and that she''s about to get caught in the middle of their schemes. Loosely based on fact (the three girls really did attend finishing school at the same time), Eliza''s coming of age provides a fascinating glimpse into the lives and histories, loves and hopes of three young women against the backdrop of one of the most volatile and exciting periods in French history.

Sixteen-year-old Molly Fraser works as a nurse with Florence Nightingale during the Crimean War to earn a salary to help her family survive in nineteenth-century England.

Exiled to Siberia when the Bolsheviks seize control, young Grand Duchess Anastasia Romanov, the daughter of Russia''s ill-fated last tsar, falls in love with a sympathetic young guard she hopes will save her family from execution.

Amid the glamour of Prince Nicholas Esterhazy''s court in 18th-century Vienna, murder is afoot. Or so fifteen-year-old Theresa Maria is convinced when her musician father turns up dead on Christmas Eve, his valuable violin missing, and the only clue to his death a strange gold pendant around his neck. Then her father''s mentor, the acclaimed composer Franz Joseph Haydn, helps her through a difficult time by making her his copyist and giving her insight into her father''s secret life. It''s there that Theresabegins to uncover a trail of blackmail and extortion, even as she discovers honor, and the possibility of a first, tentative love. Thrumming with the weeping strains of violins, as well as danger and deception, this is an engrossing tale of murder, romance, and music that readers will find hard to forget.

Anne, en ung grevinde og pianist, har netop mistet sin mor i koleraepidemien. Moderens veninde tager hende under sine vinger og introducerer hende til kunstens verden, og hun betages af Franz Liszt under en koncert. Hun vikles ind i intriger og opdager en familiehemmelighed

Paris, 1676. Fille d''un modeste luthier, Emilie, quinze ans, possède un don particulier : elle a une voix d''ange. Lorsque le compositeur Marc-Antoine Charpentier entend sa voix, il tombe sous son charme et propose de prendre la jeune fille comme élève afin de lui apprendre non seulement l''art du chant, mais aussi tout ce qui lui permettra de briller dans les salons et, pourquoi pas, à la cour de Louis XIV. La tête pleine de rêves, de robes, de bijoux et de bals, Emilie commence sa formation... jusqu''à ce que les plans de Mme de Maintenon pour éloigner le roi de sa rivale, la Montespan, viennent bouleverser le cours des choses et amènent prématurément Emilie à Versailles. La jeune fille se retrouve plongée dans de dangereuses intrigues de palais, tel un pion dans la partie d''échecs que jouent les deux favorites du roi. Prisonnière parmi les splendeurs et les fastes royaux, objet de toutes les haines et de toutes les convoitises, Emilie devra se battre pour sauver sa carrière et sa vie.

Set against the backdrop of Paris and the court of Versailles, émilie''s Voice introduces a young heroine of modest upbringing who possesses a special gift: the voice of an angel. When distinguished composer Marc-Antoine Charpentier hears émilie''s voice, he offers to instruct her in the art of singing with the ultimate goal of presenting her at the court of Louis XIV. Her head filled with dreams of elegant gowns, opulent jewels, and the thrill of someday performing in the great houses of Paris, she begins her training -- until a scheming noblewoman looking to unseat the king''s official mistress interferes by preemptively bringing émilie to Versailles. There, amid royal pomp and splendor, she is swept up in dangerous palatial intrigues, becoming a pawn in aristocratic power games. But it is the passionate battle for control over her life and career waged between Charpentier and Louis XIV''s official court composer, Jean-Baptiste Lully, that has far-reaching consequences for a girl on the verge of becoming a woman and a singer on the verge of becoming extraordinary.

The romantic story of a young female pianist in cholera-ravaged Paris of 1832, whose own tragedy leaves her susceptible to the passions and scandals of the composer Franz Liszt At the height of the Romantic era in Paris, there was no bigger celebrity than the composer and pianist Franz Liszt. A fiery and gorgeous Hungarian, he made women swoon at soirees and left a trail of broken hearts behind him. Anne, a countess and talented young pianist whose mother has just died of cholera, hears Franz Liszt in concert and is swept up in his allure. The enigmatic Marie d''Agoult, a friend of Anne''s late mother, takes her under her wing and introduces her to the artistic world -- despite the objections of Anne''s sullen and sorrowful father. Anne soon finds herself in the midst of dangerous intrigues, discovering a family secret so shocking that her father will go to any lengths to protect it. With the ominous presence of Paris''s most deadly epidemic looming over every turbulent event, Liszt''s Kiss is a rich evocation of a remarkable period as seen through the eyes of a sensitive young artist.

Paris, 1676. Fille d''un modeste luthier, Émilie, quinze ans, possède un don particulier: elle a une voix d''ange. Lorsque le compositeur Marc-Antoine Charpentier entend sa voix, il tombe sous son charme et propose de prendre la jeune fille comme élève afin de lui apprendre non seulement l''art du chant, mais aussi tout ce qui lui permettra de briller dans les salons et, pourquoi pas, à la cour de Louis XIV. La tête pleine de rêves, de robes, de bijoux et de bals, Emilie commence sa formation.., jusqu''à ce que les plans de Mme de Maintenon pour éloigner le roi de sa rivale, la Montespan, viennent bouleverser le cours des choses et amènent prématurément Emilie à Versailles. La jeune fille se retrouve plongée dans de dangereuses intrigues de palais, tel un pion dans la partie d''échecs que jouent les deux favorites du roi. Prisonnière parmi les splendeurs et les fastes royaux, objet de toutes les haines et de toutes les convoitises, Emilie devra se battre pour sauver sa carrière et sa vie.