A spirited woman survives the sinking of the Titanic only to find herself embroiled in the tumultuous aftermath of that great tragedy. Tess is one of the last people to escape into a lifeboat. When an enterprising reporter turns her employer, Lady Duff Gordon, into an object of scorn, Tess is torn between loyalty and the truth.

Hoping to find new meaning in his life, British intelligence officer Simon Duval resigns his commission and returns to England, where he finds his cousin's widow, Suzanne Duval, the Comtesse de Chambron. Working as a seamstress, living in reduced circumstances among London's French émigré community, Suzanne has had a life as complicated as Simon's own. While both believe they are beyond love and passion, their sympathetic bond leads him to propose...

Dorothea Truelove is young, wealthy, and beautiful. Ruth Butterham is young, poor, and awaiting trial for murder. When Dorothea's charitable work brings her to Oakgate Prison, she is delighted by the chance to explore her fascination with phrenology and test her hypothesis that the shape of a person's skull can cast a light on their darkest crimes. But when she meets one of the prisoners, the teenaged seamstress Ruth, she is faced with another strange...

When Fabienne Bissette attends the annual Met Gala for an exhibit honoring her grandmother Estella, a famed designer, she begins to learn more about her grandmother's past, uncovering a story of tragedy, heartbreak, and secrets.

"A tale rich in color, character, and vivid historical detail, When we were strangers chronicles the tumultuous life journey of a young immigrant seamstress, as she travels from her isolated Italian mountain village through the dark corners of late nineteenth century America."--from publisher's description.

"New York, 1924. Vivian Kelly's days are filled with drudgery, from the tenement lodging she shares with her sister to the dress shop where she sews for hours every day. But at night, she escapes to The Nightingale, an underground dance hall where illegal liquor flows and the band plays the Charleston with reckless excitement. With a bartender willing to slip her a free glass of champagne and friends who know the owner, Vivian can lose herself in...