Jim, an axe-man for a sawmill, who is a hard-knuckled, two-fisted fighting man when he has to be, but is shy around women, longs to find a wife and settle down. Two women, one a mercenary widow of the country town, the other a classy city girl, both set their caps for Jim. Will true love triumph? Will Jim's dog ever get his dinner? Will Jim ever get his tongue untied? These and other questions are answered in this story in rhyme. - Summary by Son of the Exiles

Fresh from school, mistreated and neglected by her father and stepmother, sixteen-year-old Dawn consents to marry a friend of her father's whom she has only met, but the wedding does not go as planned. Scared and confused, she runs away after the ceremony. Many adventures follow lovely and resourceful Dawn on her journey to becoming an independent woman. - Summary by karlkzumich

A classic with a pinch of romance, a pinch of gothic, and a dash of mystery, are you interested yet? When young Alice Maybell’ father dies she is taken in by Squire Fairfield, a widower with two handsome young sons, Charles and Harry. As Alice grows into a lovely young woman she attracts the attentions of more than one admirer, not all welcome. She marries the man she loves whilst fleeing the home she grew up in, but the blissful happiness that follows is short-lived. She finds herself pulled into the middle of the secrets of her husbands family’s past...

This award-winning book tells the coming of age story of Joanna Bannerman. Considered largely autobiographical, it shows Joanna with all her complexities and contradictions, some of which are faced by women almost 100 years later. Perfect for those who love sharp and witty novels. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

It is an ideal honeymoon of an ideal couple. But somehow, the wife cannot stop dreaming that her husband would be shot and killed. He dismisses her dreams until they come true. Who commited the murder? How would the wife take it? - Summary by Stav Nisser

Love stories make perfect short stories. This collection contains 16 different short stories on the different ways a love affair can play out. - Summary by Carolin

Marriage is a big adventure. It makes for great stories, too: both in case of a happy marriage and in case of an unhappy one. Eleven of these stories are collected in this collection, concerning all the different obstacles that a couple may face during courtship, engagement, wedding, and the actual marriage. - Summary by Carolin

A World War 1 spy vs spy novel. Oh! And perhaps I should also mention, a bit of romance? "I am sorry,” he said coolly, "awfully sorry. As you know, I would have had things different. You may still doubt me when I say that what I have done is the hardest task that I ever undertook in my life. But that is true. You were the only person in England who jeopardized my existence there. I had to take you away. I regret the necessity of having to use force. I shall do what I can here upon the Sylph to counteract the unpleasant impression of my brutality...

A young society woman travels to the country to visit her aunt, only to end up as the unwilling guest of a neighboring family. The daughter is not so sure how to deal with this unpleasant circumstance. The young man of the household has met her before. Through them, she gains new perspectives on life, faith, and love. - Summary by LikeManyWaters

This is a collection of twelve original and entertaining little romances. Literature is an important anchor that helps us understand society in the American Gilded Age in the late ninteenth century, and these stories allow us to understand the marriage market of the time. - Summary by Carolin"Miss Ticknor, well known as one of the most promising of the younger school of American writers, has never done better work than in the majority of these clever stories, written in a delightful comedy vein." - The Publisher

"As the noblest attribute of man, family pride had been cherished time immemorial by the noble race of Rossville. Deep and incurable, therefore, was the wound inflicted on all its members by the marriage of the honorable Thomas St. Clair, the youngest son of the Earl of Rossville, with the humble Miss Sarah Black, a beautiful girl of obscure origin and no fortune." And so the stage is set for our plot, which focuses on the implications and complications of the return from France to Scotland of the Rossville widow and her daughter-heiress Gertrude, who must suffer the onslaught of relations and suitors as well as a mysterious, threatening stranger who plagues her mother...

"He was a stranger in Matcham, a 'foreigner' as the villagers called such alien visitors. He had never been in the village before, knew nothing of its inhabitants or its surroundings, its customs, ways, local prejudices, produce, trade, scandals, hates, loves, subserviencies, gods, or devils , and yet henceforward he was to be closely allied with Matcham, for a certain bachelor uncle had lately died and left him a small estate within a mile of the village."

Back from the Great War, a penniless and disillusioned young soldier finds himself in the home of Miss Marilla Chadwick, a sweet old lady who is expecting her nephew for dinner. Mary Amber, Miss Marilla's neighbor, is also there. He hates girls. She hates men. What will be the result? He will fight girl in the concrete! - Summary by LikeManyWaters

“Digger Smith” is a series of narrative poems about an Australian soldier coming home in the closing months of the Great War minus a leg and with “ANZAC eyes” ... what a later war would call “The Thousand Yard Stare”. Despite his post-traumatic stress disorder, Digger Smith sets about ministering to everybody’s troubles but his own ... his internal conviction that his amputee status will make him seem “half a man” in the eyes of the lady love he left behind when he went off to the War. Oh Digger Smith, how little faith you have in woman... - Summary by Son of the Exiles

"Then was there war in the house of Baxendale. Guy had made up his mind to wed the fair daughter of the forester; while Sir Stephen and Dame Alice his wife had made up their minds — with equal firmness — that no son of their noble name should mate with a daughter of the people". A rumor started that the girl was a witch and so she was burned. However before she was burned she cursed the family who condemned her: "First by the King, and then by the State, And thirdly by that which is thrice as great As these, and a thousandfold stronger and higher Shall Baxendale Hall be made fuel of fire"...

Rich and sophisticated Arthur Tracy returns to Tracy Park after several years abroad confused and mentally unstable. Initially claiming that Gretchen accompanied him on the boat and train back he then expects her to arrive at any moment. Meanwhile a child is found at the side of a woman frozen to death in the Tramp House nearby. Arthur's brother Frank believes he knows the child's identity but keeps it a secret fearing that his elaborate lifestyle could be in jeopardy. This is a heartwarming story with just the right mix of suspense and romance. - Summary by Celine Major

Ann Radcliffe is the founder of the gothic novel. This novel is no exception. The wicked baron murdered the good earl's father twelve years before the novel began. Only twelve years later, free from his mother's wishes, can the earl seek revenge. Meanwhile, Mary, the earl's beautiful sister is falling in love with a peasant. Yet her brother was abducted by the baron and he wants to marry her. She may have to wed him in order to secure his return. We see Mary's conflict along with a description of her brother's captivity...

Giovanna and Costantino Ledda are a happily married couple living with their young child in a Sardinian country village close to their extended family. Costantino is wrongly convicted of murdering his wicked uncle and with no way of supporting herself, Giovanna reluctantly divorces him and is driven to marry Brontu Dejas, a wealthy but brutish drunkard who has always lusted after her. As well as enduring a marriage amounting to slavery, Giovanna is derided by villagers for having two husbands...

This is a less known, but not less beautiful, novel by the author of The Secret Garden, A Little Princess, The Lost Prince, Little Lord Fauntleroy, The Shuttle, and many more. There is something different about miss Lysbeth Crespigny. Raised by three maiden aunts and sheltered from the world, she leaves them for the first time in order to explore the world. Yet she is often misunderstood. The world she discovers is more complicated and confusing then she anticipates. She is only 18 when the book starts. However the choices she has to make have consequences which she learns to navigate and become the strong woman she can be. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

This novel is subtitled A Temperance Story, which identifies explicitly the focus of the work. Frances Harper is a Christian moralist and uses her writings for didactic purposes. Here she contrast two couples, one, Belle and Paul, who do not drink and whose lives are happier and more productive, and the other, Jeanette and Charles, who lives are destroyed by the demon rum.

Kit Orchardson, an apprentice produce grower in Sunbury, England describes for us a time in his youth in which he fell in love with Kitty, a young lady of higher status, endeavored to secure her love and ventured to solve her mysterious disappearance shortly after they were joined in marriage. Through Kit's perspective, we get a wonderful view of life in 1860 England where people's attitudes were maneuvering between their societal status and their character.

Genji Monogatari, or The Tale of Genji, is a Japanese classic novel from the eleventh century. Supposedly commissioned by members of the Imperial Family, it tells the story of the son of the Emperor's favorite concubine and his role as a privileged boy and man, but not quite recognized as royal. He is placed in a loveless marriage, but continues a number of 'friendships' with the women of the court. This translation brings us the first seventeen chapters, and there is some dispute over the authorship of later chapters. The book gives us a fascinating insight into court life of the period. - Summary by Lynne Thompson

Published in 1796, this novel tells the trials and tribulations of Amanda and Oscar FitzAlan, brother and sister who have to navigate the world with no money or status, and hardly any connections. They find love, yet, again and again, things block the way to happiness and, worse, destroy Amanda's reputation. This is the story of abuse of power, loyalty, and, ultimately, love in many forms. - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Beau Brocade is a historical fiction set in England in the early 1700's. The hero Beau is a wanted highwayman, who takes from the rich to help the poor. - Summary by Deon Gines

On the surface, Mary is the typical literary heroine: Beautiful, animated, and accomplished. She will be rich, too, when she inherits her aunt's large fortune. There is only one problem: Mary is required to marry before her twenty-third birthday or her inheritance will be forfeited... and she is already violently in love with her girlfriend, Felice.

Can starving children be grateful for the education they receive if, when they ask for food, rich people give them a stone? This is the question in the heart of this rich psychological novel. Lady Lashmore is a typical lady of her time, ruling every aspect of her household and constantly complaining that the poor people in the factory ten miles away bother her. Things change when her son, Lord Lashmore, falls in love with a poor woman. Only then does he understand what is the one thing they need most...

As the title suggests, this work does flirt with the supernatural. Yet it is essentially a political novel—a utopian experiment in a fictitious Balkan country, the Land of the Blue Mountains. The story spans the years from 1892 to 1909. It includes a beautiful love story and an adventure tale—a double rescue requiring strength, cunning, and cutting-edge technology. These various aspects are unified by the character of the hero, a purely admirable individual whom we love and admire from the very first and who acquires immense power...

Netta Syrett was the niece of Grant Allen and a "new woman" in her own right. Educated at the University of Cambridge, she tried to make a career in teaching before becoming a novelist and playwright. This novel, The Day's Journey, tells the story of an ideal marriage which turns up side down when the husband falls in love with another woman. - Summary by Stav Nisser

Dick Brewster is implicated in a murder and comes to his aunt's farm to hide. His Aunt Sarah stands by him in his need and they all move to the city in the effort to clear his name. She investigates on her own account and.... - Summary by The Author Cast list: Lily Ann, Help at the farm: Devorah Allen Aaron Flint, the hired man: Alan Mapstone Mrs. Brewster, from New York: TJ Burns Helen Brewster, her daughter: Jenn Broda Leonard Fillmore, a young country lawyer: skypigeon Sarah Newcomb, sister of Mrs...

The Chichester family have just gone bankrupt due to bank failure. Their situation looks gloomy until Mrs. Chichester learns of the death of her brother Nathaniel. While Nathaniel hasn't left them any money, he put a clause into his will stating that, if the daughter of his other sister can receive a proper education and become a lady, the family who raised her will receive a considerable sum of money every year. This daughter is named Peg. - Summary by ambsweet13 The Characters in the Comedy: Mrs...

Things look bleak for Lesbia Hales. Her father does not let her marry the man she loves. Her mother is dead. She has to keep secrets in order to promote what she wants for herself. One day, her lover, George Walker, is injured in her home and someone stole the expensive amethyst cross. Who could have done that and why? - Summary by Stav Nisser.

Galsworthy's classic The Dark Flower is a study of love. Spring is the beginning when all is new and full of hope. However, the woman Lennan has fallen for is out of reach, a forbidden love. Can he overcome the challenges? As he matures, he discovers two different loves: the first is platonic, comfortable, and one that can last a lifetime. The other is crazy, passionate, and dangerous. As he matures, he settles into a somewhat boring and safe marriage, but then excitement and danger re-emerge in the form of a young mistress...