Told that they will have to move out of their Harlem brownstone just after Christmas, the five Vanderbeeker children, ages four to twelve, decide to change their reclusive landlord's mind.

Christina Antonioni is preparing for the holidays at her Nantucket toy shop, unpacking last-minute shipments and decorating for her loyal Christmas shoppers. But when her Scrooge of a landlord, Oscar Bittlesman, raises her rent, it seems nearly impossible for Christina to continue business on the wharf. Even so, Christina hopes there is a warm heart underneath Oscar's steely exterior. When she bonds with Wink, his sweet, young granddaughter who frequents...

A house is burning, threatening the existence of its six tenants—including a failed priest; a naturalist; a neurosurgeon; an invalid dreaming of his anxious boyhood; and their landlord, whose relationship to the tenants is both intimate and shadowy. At times, he shares their preoccupations and memories. He will also share their fate.

Living and working side-by-side on the rural Southern farm belonging to their white employers, Tee Wee and Icey forge a bond based on their shared servitude and their equally painful pasts.

B.J. Clark, the manager of an old-fashioned inn in Vermont, resents the efforts of the inn's new owner, Taylor Reynolds, to modernize it, and Gwen Lacrosse is intrigued by her mother's irritating new boarder, Luke Powers.

Marisa and Jake are a perfect couple. Their new lodger, Kate, and her rent payments will give them the income they need to start trying for a baby. Sure, Kate doesn't seem to care about personal boundaries and is occasionally overly familiar with Jake. But as Jake and Marisa are put through months of fertility treatments and false starts, Kate's boundary-pushing turns into an all-out obsession. Why does she seem to know everything about Marisa and...

When Tess is forced to rent out her late sister's old room to pay the bills, the urge to rummage through her guests' belongings overtakes her every thought. Teasing herself with forbidden glimpses into the lives of strangers is a momentary thrill, but it's the closest she's felt to anyone since the mysterious death of her sister, Rosie. After her newest lodger, Arran, takes the room, Tess finds his salaciously detailed diary, which chronicles his...

"Holly Stanford is doing the best she can with the restaurant she inherited from her late uncle. But after her fiancé abandons her and the business, Holly regrets having given up her dream of becoming a pastry chef. Now a few bad financial decisions might cost her everything, including her hope for the future. Jed Henning has done well with his new company despite his prodigal brother's behavior. When Jed's father, the controlling member of the board...