Showing results by publisher "Phoenix Books" in Women's Fiction

The first entry in Leslie Stewart's diary read: "Dear Diary; This morning I met the man I am going to marry." It was simple, optimistic statement, without the slightest portent of the dramatic chain of events that was about to occur. The Best Laid Plans takes listeners inside two of America's most powerful and ruthless institutions: the world of politics with it's scandals, corruption, and cover-ups; and that of newspaper publishing, where it is not unusual to use the power of the press to destroy lives - or bring down heads of state - in pursuit of a story or to settle a score.

This rich and charming novel about a virtuous young woman's search for love amidst the fickle world of country gentry in Regency England is one of Jane Austen's most memorable works. Anne Elliot exists in a world where shallowness and hypocrisy present a challenge to her centered values and tender emotions. Anne vies for the affections of the man she loves while at the same time her willpower is threatened as she battles the conventions of a proper parochial society.

An extraordinary friendship binds two strikingly different women together through 30 years of drama, free-spirited joy, and shattering tragedy.

Newly widowed, still beautiful, and suddenly wealthy, Maggie Pearson Stearn has come home to Wisconsin to start a new life. The recent death of her much-loved husband has left an empty space in her heart. Back on familiar ground, with a gratifying business venture off to promising start, she finds a new zest for life in the rekindling of old friendships—and of her love affair with her high-school sweetheart.

Life has always been a banquet for Sappho, one to be savored to the fullest. Following a magnificent destiny, her strange and sensual odyssey has carried her to the far corners of the ancient world, from Delphi to Egypt, to the Land of the Amazons, and the realm of Hades. For Sappho, it was always about love—love that seduced her into a plot to depose a dictator, and love that made her trade an unwanted marriage bed of a despised and drunken husband for a seemingly endless series of lovers, both male and female.

With humor and pathos, Little Women follows the lives of four young women and their mother as they face the daily struggles of life. Set in Concord, Massachusetts, this is the story of four sisters who learn hard lessons of poverty and growing up in New England during the American Civil War. Each of the March sisters has a vision of what their ideal future will bring, though ultimately experiencing, as most young do, something completely different. The sisters are put to the test when their mother must leave them to attend to their father who is badly wounded in the war.

Wisteria Lane has nothing on these grandes dames of mystery. In the expert hands of two of the mystery world's top storytellers, being a housewife takes on a whole new meaning.These two never-before-published stories by Nevada Barr and Sara Paretsky explore the dark side of the housewife psyche and are guaranteed to delight.

When a mysterious benefactor offers three single, attractive career women the use of his Beverly Hills mansion, pool, and card for a year. At the exclusive polo grounds, spas, and parties of the very rich, all three women meet the desirable, wealthy men they dreamed of. But as the champagne bubbles fade, each one discovers that the dream has a dark side.

I'll Be There picks up after the tragic death of Bertie Barron, who has entrusted the care of her eight-year old daughter, Nina, to her best friend, the dazzling entertainer Cee Cee Bloom. But life in the Hollywood spotlight never prepared Cee Cee for this role: mother to a little girl she barely knows. Even on the couch of the Tonight show or preparing the biggest act of her career, Cee Cee tries to focus on Nina and her needs.

In the year 2005, Sarah finds herself drawn into the tumultuous lives of her unconventional ancestors. Spanning a hundred years, she calls to memory her great-grandmother Sarah, propelled by a Russian pogrom to America in 1906; her grandmother Salome, who cavorted with Henry Miller in pre-war Paris; and finally, her mother, Sally, a famous folk singer and emblem of the 1960s. Through the paradoxical nature of memory, Sarah discovers the power and passion that is her matriarchal birthright and comes to understand and impart her own story.

This rich and nuanced portrait of eighteenth-century China follows a Chinese girl's path to enlightenment. At the midpoint of the Manchus' long sway over the largest empire in China's history, a young girl stands reluctantly on the brink of womanhood. Lotus, the Empress Dowager's servant, decides to follow a spiritual path through the Forbidden City. She travels down routes of erotic fancy in search of a place called Mandala, where life's troubles are left behind.