The mesmerizing biography of one of the world's richest, most intriguing women—philanthropist and socialite Lily Safra In the early morning of December 3, 1999, Lily Safra stood shivering in her nightgown on the grounds outside her sumptuous Monte Carlo penthouse where, just hours before, her fourth husband, reclusive billionaire Edmond Safra, died in a fire. An American nurse employed by the Safra family was eventually convicted of the arson death. Overnight, Lily became one of the wealthiest widows in the world. The Brazilian-born Lily Safra was no stranger to tragedy. In 1969, her second husband, the Brazilian multimillionaire Alfredo Monteverde, died from two gunshots to the chest. The Brazilian authorities ruled it a suicide. In 1989, her beloved eldest son and four-year-old grandson died in a car accident. But just who is Lily Safra? Despite having become a fixture in society columns for her generous charity work and lavish parties, the elegant and enigmatic widow has remained in the background. Gilded Lily tells Lily Safra's story for the first time. Using archival sources, court documents, and interviews with childhood friends and former employees in South America, investigative journalist Isabel Vincent chronicle's Safra's rise from humble origins in Brazil to fabled wealth in London, New York, and Monaco.

Winter, 1661. In her short life Sadie Appleby has never left rural Westmorland. But one night she is rudely awoken by her older and bolder sister, Ella. She has robbed her employer and is on the run. Together the girls flee their home and head for London. But London may not be the promised land she expects. Work is hard to find, until Ella takes up with a dashing and dubious gentleman with ties to the London underworld. Meanwhile, her old employer's twin brother is in hot pursuit of the sisters. Set in a London of atmospheric coffee houses, gilded mansions, and shady pawnshops hidden from rich men's view, Deborah Swift's The Gilded Lily is a dazzling novel of historical adventure.

Longing for a life beyond housemaid chores and her drunken father's abuse, Ella Appleby of mid-17th-century England and her sister flee to London and take up with a dashing gentleman with ties to the underworld, unaware that they are being pursued by her former employer's twin brother.

They say there's no such thing as perfect.But I've built my life to perfection-the perfect boyfriend, the perfect apartment, the perfect career planning celebrity weddings. My job-my only job-is to make sure every event is absolutely and completely perfect.What's not perfect? Kash Bennet. And I wish I didn't find that so appealing. I could have told you every perfectly imperfect thing about the gardener at Longbourne. Like his hair, lush and black and far too long. Or his nose, the flat bridge of a Greek god, bent a little like it's been broken. Or his size. Beastly. Roped and corded with muscles, gleaming with sweat and peppered with dirt. There's no escaping him, not if I'm going to use his family's flower shop for my events.But nothing is what it seems. And in the span of a heartbeat, my perfect life is turned inside out. They say the best way to get over somebody is to get under somebody new. When Kash offers his services to the cause, it sounds like the perfect plan.What's not part of the plan? Falling in love with the gardener.But they were right-there's no such thing as perfect. And I'm the fool who finds out the hard way.

The elegant and passionate Nina De Bonnard lives life by her own rules, changing beaus as often as she does gowns, in this delightful novel from award-winning author Helen Argers. Set in America's Gilded Age, The Gilded Lily moves from opulent Fifth Avenue parties to ostentatious summer mansions.

Hired to court spoiled heiress Frederique Murcheson, Barnabas Smith-Grenville discovers that she holds the key to finding his missing brother as they are both drawn into a scandalous mystery and a dangerous game of the heart.