What if the perfect match is a perfect surprise? Honor Holland has just been unceremoniously rejected by her lifelong crush. And now--a mere three weeks later--Mr. Perfect is engaged to her best friend. But resilient, reliable Honor is going to pick herself up, dust herself off, and get back out there -- or she would if dating in Manningsport, New York, population 715, wasn't easier said than done. Charming, handsome British professor Tom Barlow just...

"Millie Morris has always been one of the guys. A UC Santa Barbara professor, she's a female-serial-killer expert who's quick with a deflection joke and terrible at getting personal. And she, just like her four best guy friends and fellow professors, is perma-single. So when a routine university function turns into a black tie gala, Mille and her circle make a pact that they'll join an online dating service to find plus-ones for the event. There's...

In present-day New Orleans, Polly Deschamps finds herself at yet another lonely crossroads in her life until she encounters architect Marshall Marchand, a lifelong bachelor who spends most of his time with his brother Danny. When Polly's two young daughters from her previous marriage are likewise taken with Marshall, she marries him. But then an ominous prediction by a New Orleans tarot card reader proclaims that Polly will murder her husband, and...

"For Chicago sociology professor Amelia Emmet, violence was a research topic--until a student she'd never met shot her. He also shot himself. Now he's dead and she's back on campus, trying to keep up with her class schedule, a growing problem with painkillers, and a question she can't let go: Why? All she wants is for life to get back to normal, but normal is looking hard to come by. She's thirty-eight and hobbles with a cane. Her first student interaction...

Don Tillman, professor of genetics, has never been on a second date. He is a man who can count all his friends on the fingers of one hand, whose lifelong difficulty with social rituals has convinced him that he is simply not wired for romance. So when an acquaintance informs him that he would make a "wonderful" husband, his first reaction is shock. Yet he must concede to the statistical probability that there is someone for everyone, and he embarks...

"In the Midst of Winter begins with a minor traffic accident--which becomes the catalyst for an unexpected and moving love story between two people who thought they were deep into the winter of their lives. Richard Bowmaster--a 60-year-old human rights scholar--hits the car of Evelyn Ortega--a young, undocumented immigrant from Guatemala--in the middle of a snowstorm in Brooklyn. What at first seems just a small inconvenience takes an unforeseen and...

It's been twenty-five years since the shocking disappearance of a student and the distinguished creative writing professor who died while searching for her. The Briarwood College community has never forgotten the terrible storm that caused the double tragedy. Now the college is bringing together faculty, donors, and alumni to honor the victims. On a cold December weekend after the fall semester has ended, guests gather on the vacant campus for the...

"August, 1911: The Mona Lisa is stolen by Vincent Peruggia. Exactly what happens in the two years before its recovery is a mystery. Many replicas of the Mona Lisa exist, and more than one historian has wondered if the painting now in the Louvre is a fake, switched in 1911. Present day: art professor Luke Perrone digs for the truth behind his most famous ancestor: Peruggia. His search attracts an Interpol detective with something to prove and an unfamiliar...

"Benjamin Monroe is pretty sure how his life will play out. He'll continue teaching chemistry in his small college, and spend his free time biking through the valley. Eventually, he'll retire to putter around in his garden and greenhouse. His colleague, Virginia Clark, is not one for routines. She's chatty, spontaneous, and bubbly, and before Benjamin realizes what happened, she's talked him into collaborating on a research project--studying the mating...