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

More Praise for Penny Vincenzi's WINDFALL

Another stellar review for Penny Vincenzi's Windfall has arrived: "In London 1935, Cassia Tallow has been married to a practicing doctor Edward for seven years while she has stayed home to raise their three young children. She is somewhat envious of her spouse as she also was trained as a doctor, but he insists she stay at home. Cassia is scrubbing the alter steps when she learns she inherited a fortune from her godmother, Lady Beatty, who drank Champagne with the rich, aristocratic and famous like Edward VIII. With a half a million pounds, Cassia has the means to join the upper crust if she chooses or practice medicine to the neglected working-class women as she once dreamed of; something her husband objects to. However, Cassia soon begins to learn that her liberating windfall may not rightfully belong to her; ethical as always, she investigates with a need to learn the truth. Sometimes the truth will not set you free as Cassia learns that with each revelation comes increasing danger.

This a typical entertaining Penny Vincenzi historical thriller as the ethical heroine tries to do what is right, but finds that dangerous. Cassia makes the story line work as her actions after learning of her WINDFALL place her in opposition with her demanding spouse and to a degree her children, but eventually she goes after what she wants for herself: providing medical care to impoverish women. Fans of the author and those who enjoy a between World Wars English historical will want to read Ms. Vincenzi's blockbuster bonkbuster as the British would say over a cup of Earl Grey. - Midwest Book Review

Penny Vincenzi's WINDFALL in Booklist

Booklist takes note of Penny Vincenzi's Windfall: "Cassia Tallow, the independent, only child of a suffragette, wants to be a doctor, but given that she comes of age at the close of World War I, the closest she gets is marrying one. Cassia lives a quiet, pleasant life in West Sussex with her husband and their three children. Until the day she inherits half a million pounds from her sophisticated, slightly eccentric godmother. Suddenly everything is changed; everything is within reach; doors are open to her, and she can do whatever she likes. So Cassia moves to London and splurges on clothes, cars, and anything else she covets that she couldn’t afford before. But while she’s busy jetsetting around London, hanging out with glamorous people, and trying to restart her medical studies, she realizes that she’s hurting her husband and family in more ways than one. Then she begins to wonder where exactly the money she inherited came from. Another stirring novel with an ensemble cast from the prolific and entertaining Vincenzi."

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's AN OUTRAGEOUS AFFAIR in Booklist

More praise for Penny Vincenzi in Booklist: "The author of No Angel (2003) and Sheer Abandon (2007) offers another sprawling saga, this one centered around a spirited English-woman and her two daughters. Caroline Miller falls hard for dashing American soldier Brendan FitzPatrick, but his disappearance during World War II leads her to give up the baby she conceived shortly before he shipped out. By the time Brendan returns, Caroline has married another man and is expecting a child with him. Caroline refuses to leave her husband, but she implores Brendan to reclaim their baby. He does, naming her Fleur and taking her back to New York with him, while Caroline raises her other daughter, Chloe, in England. When they reach adulthood, the girls’ fates intertwine in unexpected ways when Chloe’s husband appears to be tied to the scandalous death of Fleur’s beloved father. Fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford’s multigenerational stories will likely flock to An Outrageous Affair; the mystery will likely keep them turning the pages."

Meet PENNY VINCENZI at Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA on May 19

Penny Vincenzi will appear Vroman's Bookstore in Pasadena, CA on Monday, May 19, at 7pm. Vroman's was recently chosen as Bookseller of the Year by Publishers Weekly! Penny is on tour in America for the paperback release of Sheer Abandon, but is also signing copies of all her books, including Overlook bestsellers such as Almost a Crime, The Dilemma, No Angel, and Something Dangerous.

Penny Vincenzi's THE DILEMMA on Bookreporter

From the website Bookreporter.com comes a terrific review of Penny Vincenzi's The Dilemma: "The Overlook Press was the first American publisher to introduce the novels of Penny Vincenzi, a bestselling author in her native England, to American audiences. Although U.S. readers have yet to give Vincenzi the attention she deserves, her most recent novels have garnered the attention of a major U.S. publisher, Doubleday. Overlook Press, however, has continued its efforts to bring Vincenzi's backlist to American readers, and their latest endeavor is to release Vincenzi's debut novel (originally published in 1996) to the United States for the first time . . . The Dilemma is Vincenzi's debut novel, and readers already familiar with her subsequent fiction will notice how many elements of her successful novelistic formula have their genesis here. The quickly-shifting plotlines, the burgeoning cast of dozens of characters whose disparate lives soon become entangled for better or for worse, the oblique references to economic and political issues --- all these hallmarks of Vincenzi's more recent novels can be seen in The Dilemma, which is a hugely entertaining and even captivating read. Once American fans discover Vincenzi, they'll want to read everything she's written, and reading her debut is the perfect way to trace how Vincenzi skillfully developed the fiction-writing techniques that have served her so well in her many bestselling novels to date."