Are you mourning the end of Season 3 of Downton Abbey?  Don't worry -- there's a whole new crop of books that can sweep you right back into the spirit of that era.  I just finished one of them, Lauren Willig's "The Ashford Affair," and it was a terrific, engrossing read.  Here are some recently published (or soon-to-be-published) titles, with links to our catalog.

    "The American Heiress" by Daisy Goodwin   http://goo.gl/FDCjg

The story of Cora Cash, an American heiress in the 1890s who marries an English duke, this evocative novel reminds us that money doesn't always buy happiness.  Witty, moving, and brilliantly entertaining, Cora's story marks the debut of a glorious storyteller who brings a fresh new spirit to the world of Edith Wharton and Henry James.
 

      "The Ashford Affair" by Lauren Willig  http://goo.gl/Iqop0

From New York Times bestselling author Willig comes a page-turning novel about two different women, from different eras and on different continents, who are connected by one deeply buried secret.  From the inner circles of British society to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the red-dirt hills of Kenya, the never-told secrets of a woman and a family unfurl.

      "Ashenden" by Elizabeth Wilhide  http://goo.gl/tKzBa  

A beautifully atmospheric novel about an English country house and the people who inhabit it, upstairs and downstairs, over the course of 240 years.

   "Crossing on the Paris" by Dana Gynther   http://goo.gl/gkt1d

This book chronicles the experiences of three women from different generations and classes whose lives intersect on a majestic ocean liner traveling from Paris to New York. 

   "Habits of the House" by Fay Weldon   http://goo.gl/iC9fZ

From the award-winning novelist and writer of "Upstairs Downstairs," this book launches a brilliant new trilogy about what life was really like for masters and servants before the world of Downton Abbey. 

   "The Last Summer" by Judith Kinghorn  http://goo.gl/ZWaVT

Clarissa lives with her parents and three brothers in the idyllic isolation of Deyning Park, a grand English country house. Clarissa is drawn to the housekeeper's handsome son. Though her parents disapprove of their upstairs-downstairs friendship, the two are determined to see each other, and they meet in secret to share what becomes a deep romance.

   "Park Lane" by Frances Osborne   http://goo.gl/pVDMO

The bestselling author of "The Bolter" returns with a delicious novel about two determined women whose lives collide in the halls of a pedigreed London town home in 1914. But unbeknownst to both of the young women, the choices they make will connect their chances at future happiness.

   "Parlor Games" by Maryka Biaggio   http://goo.gl/5YPmm

A beautiful con artist relates her turn-of-the-century escapades that took her around the world as she was being doggedly pursued by a Pinkerton Agency detective.

Happy reading!