Named Author of the Year at the 2003 British BookAwards, Sarah Waters is the author of Tipping the Velvet, a New York Times Notable Book. Once inside the concrete walls of Millbank Prison, Margaret Prior, hired to speak with the female inmates, becomes all too aware that what she perceives to be reality may not be so. Bringing new ideas to her mind is the beautiful, but dangerous criminal Selina Dawes.

Orphaned as an infant, Susan Trinder was raised by Mrs. Sucksby, “mother” to a host of pickpockets and con artists. To pay her debt, she joins legendary thief Gentleman in swindling an innocent woman out of her inheritence. But the two women form an unanticipated bond and the events that follow will surprise every listener. Fingersmith was shortlisted for the Orange Prize and the Booker Prize, and was chosen as book of the year 2002 by more organizations than any other novel. Sarah Waters was named Author of the Year at the 2003 British Book Awards.

Charlotte Thompson appears to have it all—by forty, her political plans are panning out exactly as she'd always hoped. Now a senator, she quietly came out a couple of years ago, and she's on-track to fulfilling everything she'd ever dreamed of. Perhaps she is a little lonely sometimes, but as the saying goes: it's lonely at the top.

For the first time, Regan Gallagher is facing the world without her best friend by her side—no, Sutton isn't dead but she is in Rome, following her dreams. And Regan really is thrilled for her. Left to her own devices, she's doing . . . fine. Oh, except for the fact that her new roommate, Emma Bordeaux, has hated Regan since the literal day they'd met two years ago. Sure, most of their interactions end in disaster and Regan is the root cause, but they are all accidents! She'll win Emma over though; she's determined to make this living arrangement work come hell or high water.

Sutton Spencer's ideas for her life were fairly simple: finish graduate school and fall in love. It would be a lot simpler if she could pinpoint exactly what she should do when she graduates in less than a year. Oh, and if she could figure out how to talk to a woman without feeling like a total mess, that would be great, too. Charlotte Thompson is very much the opposite.