Violet Minturn, a half-Chinese/half-American courtesan who deals in seduction and illusion in Shanghai, struggles to find her place in the world, while her mother, Lucia, tries to make sense of the choices she has made and the men who have shaped her.

In 1917, deep in the snowy mountains of occupied Korea, an impoverished local hunter on the brink of starvation saves a young Japanese officer from an attacking tiger. In an instant, their fates are connected, and from this encounter unfolds a saga that spans half a century. In the aftermath, a young girl named Jade is sold by her family to Miss Silver's courtesan school, an act of desperation that will cement her place in the lowest social status....

"When Lei, seventeen, is stolen from her home to become one of nine Paper Girls, the Demon King's concubines, she proves to be more fire than paper." -- Each year, eight beautiful girls are chosen as Paper Girls to serve the king. It's the highest honor they could hope for... and the most cruel. But this year, there's a ninth girl... and she's made of fire. Lei is a member of the lowest and most oppressed class in Ikhara. She's forced to go with...

"Letty Banks is a reluctant courtesan, keeping a terrible secret that brought her, a vicar's daughter, to a life of vice. While becoming madam of Viscount Fairly's high-class brothel is an absolute financial necessity, Letty refuses to become David's mistress--though their attraction becomes harder to resist the more she learns about the man. David is smitten not only with Letty's beauty, but also with her calm, her kindness, her quiet. David is determined...

Koré, a courtesan to the wealthy and powerful, knows many secrets. He also knows meddling in politics is dangerous. Nevertheless, he seeks political influence, and in the process, he meets a dying god who gives him the powers of a sacred dragon. Suddenly Koré is a hunted man, for whoever finds him first and discovers his secret can claim the powers and use him as a deadly tool.

Romy escapes her hardscrabble upbringing when she becomes courtesan to the Shadow Lord, a revolutionary noble who brings laws and comforts once reserved for the wealthy to all. When her brother, Neri, is caught thieving with the aid of magic, Romy's aristocratic influence is the only thing that can spare his life--and the price is her banishment. Now back in Beggar's Ring, she has just her wits and her own long-hidden sorcery to help her and Neri...

"Courtesan Georgette Lawson entrusts governess Kate Walcott with the care of her unruly children and the writing of her shocking memoirs, but when Colin Boscastle, Georgette's first lover, comes back to restore his honor and avenge his father's murder, Kate's finds her heart at risk"--

In the winter of 1662, Elizabeth Stuart, the Winter Queen, is on her deathbed. She entrusts an ancient pearl, rumored to have magic power, to her faithful cavalier William Craven for safekeeping. In his grief, William orders the construction of Ashdown Estate in her memory and places the pearl at its center. One hundred and fifty years later, notorious courtesan Lavinia Flyte hears the maids at Ashdown House whisper of a hidden treasure, and bears...

"Irish Times In 1780s London, a prosperous merchant finds his quiet life upended when he unexpectedly receives a most unusual creature--and meets an extraordinary woman-in this much-lauded, atmospheric debut that examines our capacity for wonder, obsession, and desire with all the magnetism, originality, and literary magic of The Essex Serpent.One September evening in 1785, Jonah Hancock hears an urgent knocking on his front door near the docks of...