On the third day of Christmas, Overlook Press gave to me...

...THE BEST OF PENNY VINCENZI!

We're thrilled about today's giveaway both because Vincenzi kind of rhymes with "me," and because we are huge, HUGE Penny Vincenzi fans.

First, congratulations to yesterday's winners, Gary P., @kissesforusall and @AllTheWiser. They'll be getting signed copies of Frank Deford's much-praised novel of the 1936 Olympics BLISS, REMEMBERED. Thanks to all of you who entered on Day 2! We are thrilled with the responses we're getting and appreciate your enthusiasm for some of our very favorite titles.

And oh, what a favorite are today's titles. We're giving away JUST ONE set of Penny Vincenzi's Spoils of Time trilogy--No Angel, Something Dangerous, and Into Temptation--as well as her brand-new hardcover, Forbidden Places. The Lytton family saga remains one of Overlook's best-selling titles year in and year out. They're the story of glamorous Lady Celia Lytton, her husband Oliver, and the publishing company they run in early-twentieth-century London. Anyone who loves sweeping historical novels, strong women characters, and passionate romances written by a true master of women's fiction will fall in love with Lady Celia just like we did. (The only downside of recommending these novels to everyone? Explaining that our publishing universe isn't quite as glamorous as the literarti of Edwardian London).

We'll be giving away ONE set of these FOUR NOVELS. They're great for sinking one's teeth into and a gift that will provide hours of entertainment for the recipient (or distract you from holiday stress, difficult family gatherings, arduous winter travel...) and will open up a whole new world of fabulous Penny fiction.

TO WIN: Leave a blog comment, Tweet this contest, or leave a comment on our Facebook page. You can enter once in every area and we'll announce the winners tomorrow morning as we announce what you can look forward to for the Third Day of Overlook Christmas! And yes, it will be better than colly birds (we always thought it was "calling" birds?). Hint: we hope you like art and graphic design!

Coming up over the next 10 business days...art books, more signed books, gift book sets, some of our most popular authors (including P.G. Wodehouse, Katie Arnoldi, Peter Quinn...and more!) and a True Grit giveaway bonanza! Thanks for participating and we hope you enjoy the holidays as much as we are!

Previously:
Nonesuch Dickens Christmas Books
Autographed Bliss, Remembered

Summer Reading: Penny Vincenzi's Classic Trilogy "The Spoils of Time"

Penny Vincenzi has just released a new novel The Best of Times, published by our friends at Doubleday, that is sure to be a summer bestseller. One of Britian's best-loved and most popular authors since her first novel was published in 1989, Penny Vincenzi has sold over four million books worldwide. Introduced to American readers by The Overlook Press, Penny's beloved backlist titles continue to find new readers. Coming this Fall from Overlook is Windfall, and a new paperback, An Outrageous Affair. For summer reading, we recommend Penny's classic Lytton family trilogy - "The Spoils of Time" - beginning with No Angel, followed by Something Dangerous and Into Temptation.

Penny Vincenzi's WINDFALL Coming In October 2009

For all you Penny Vincenzi fans, here's some very good news: Windfall will published by The Overlook Press in October 2009. A number one bestseller in Britain, Windfall is perhaps Penny Vincenzi’s most riveting family saga yet; a mesmerizing story of one woman's very complicated inheritance. After smashing successes with the American publication of six of Vincenzi’s "marvelously engrossing" (Barbara Taylor Bradford) novels, Overlook is thrilled to offer Windfall for American readers for the very first time.

Bookreporter on Penny Vincenzi's AN OUTRAGEOUS AFFAIR

Reviewer Norah Piehl takes a look at Penny Vincenzi's An Outrageous Affair on Bookreporter.com: "The Overlook Press, the small publishing house that first introduced American readers to the epic novels of Penny Vincenzi, is committed to bringing all of Vincenzi's backlist in print in the United States (even as another, larger publisher has snatched up her newest titles now that the word is out). An Outrageous Affair, first published in the United Kingdom in 1993, is another terrific example of Vincenzi's ability to bring together a couple dozen characters (and just as many subplots) in intriguing, titillating and outrageous ways. . .Fans of Penny Vincenzi's other novels will recognize trademark details here: the sprawling time frame, the large cast of characters, the teetering balance between scandal and propriety, between appearance and reality. Readers are also in for a particularly alluring historical ride this time around, as the action travels from old Hollywood to Madison Avenue advertising pitch meetings to the London theater scene to noble English country house culture. . Perhaps not surprising given its title, An Outrageous Affair has somewhat more (and more explicit) sex than many recent Vincenzi novels. Nonetheless, An Outrageous Affair gives readers more of what they've come to expect from Penny Vincenzi: a thoroughly enjoyable family saga with glamour, romance and drama to spare."

Penny Vincenzi's AN OUTRAGEOUS AFFAIR in The Seattle Times

Melinda Bargreen takes a look at Penny Vincenzi's An Outrageous Affair and An Absolute Scandal in The Seattle Times: "Fans of the best-selling British author Penny Vincenzi are in luck: her new novel, An Outrageous Affair, is being released only a few months after the first U.S. publication of an earlier book, An Absolute Scandal. They're both whomping big page-turners in the old-fashioned, over-the-top grand manner — full of colorful characters, plot twists, sex scenes and long-buried secrets."

Penny Vincenzi's AN OUTRAGEOUS AFFAIR and THE DILEMMA On Sale Now!

October brings joy to fans of bestselling author Penny Vincenzi with the release of An Outrageous Affair and the paperback edition of The Dilemma. Published for the first time for American audiences, An Outrageous Affair is one Penny's most enthralling novels: A mysterious, tragic accident in the 1950s; an inexplicable suicide twenty years later, and a secret which could not be kept for ever. Moving from wartime England to fifties Hollywood, from glitzy Madison Avenue to London's theatrical aristocracy and the machinations of check-book publishing, An Outrageous Affair explores the extraordinary, sometimes fatal, consequences of truth.

Penny Vincenzi on New York Times List of BEST BEACH BOOKS of the Summer

Janet Maslin of The New York Times includes Penny Vincenzi on her list of best chick-lit reading for the beach this summer: "Snobbery, treachery and status seeking are, of course, staples of the beach-book world. Penny Vincenzi, an accomplished if long-winded British writer whose style Publishers Weekly has called “chickensian,” has a particular affinity for all of the above.

Overlook has brought American readers five glittering epics by Penny Vincenzi, and the sixth will arrive in October with the long awaited publication of An Outrageous Affair. A number-one bestseller in Britain, this delicious page-turner is considered one of Penny's great family dramas.