title: The Glass Virgin: A Novel
author:  Catherine Cookson 
description: What differentiates a true lady from a common woman? Is it blood, environment, education or simply hauteur? The late, prolific Cookson deftly explores these questions in this dizzying upstairs-downstairs "romance of adversity" set in rural Edwardian England. Annabella Lagrange is a lovely 17-year-old lady-to-be... or not to be, whose aristocratic childhood comes to a crashing halt when her womanizing papa, who has just bankrupted his wife Rosina's glass factory, reveals that Annabella is actually the daughter of a local whorehouse madam. Manuel Mendoza, a predictably dark and handsome self-made workman, helps Annabella begin a new, humble life as a farmhouse maid with an invented past. Cookson liberally heaps mental anguish and cruel twists of fate upon her heroine as Annabella tentatively navigates "life as lived by the majority of people." Over the course of a trying year, Annabella keeps her ladylike dignityand virginityas she entangles herself in the bonds of love. Is it truly possible for "the upper class to come down and the working class to come up and meet in the middle" in the realms of love and business? Despite some heavy-handed foreshadowing and spell-breaking asides about the social limitations of the Edwardian era, Cookson proves herself a seasoned storyteller, whose plentiful list of titles keeps historical women's fiction fans in the hardcover aisle years after the author's death. <br />Copyright  Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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  DESIRE
  
  
  _**Amanda Quick**_
  
  
  **Copyright © 1993 by Jayne A. Krentz.**
  
  
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  For Stella Cameron—
  
  
  another one of the sisters whom I never had.
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  
  ## PROLOGUE
  
  
  It is extremely unlikely that the lady of Desire is still a virgin," Thurston
  of Landry said. "But under the circumstances, I'm certain you'll find yourself
  able to overlook that aspect of the situation."
  
  
  Gareth looked at his father impassively. His reaction to the news that his
  future bride had already dishonored herself with another man was virtually
  undetectable, a mere tightening of his fingers around his wine cup.
  
  
  As a bastard son who'd been obliged to make his way in the world with his
  sword, he'd had years of experience con