The Earl of Bracken is meeting his good friend Captain Charles Kenwood at his Club in St. James's Street. He has just returned from a visit to Syria where he had been introduced to Sheik Abu Hamid, the owner of the most magnificent Arab horses the Earl has ever seen.They are both keen to buy horses from the Sheik who is reluctant to sell unless his greatest wish can be fulfilled. He wants to receive a Royal Princess as his guest at his house in the desert, so that he can show his neighbours how important and prestigious he is.The Earl and Charles concoct a plan to take a fake Princess with them to Syria, but cannot think how they can find a suitable candidate for the role until Charles suggests his beautiful sister, Vanda.The Earl has another reason for this escapade and leaving England in that he is being ruthlessly pursued by the glamorous Irene, Lady Grantham, and he is becoming disenchanted with her.Charles has no difficulty in persuading Vanda, as she is most... Views: 25
Sam's Legacy, Book Four, MacLarens of Boundary Mountain Historical Western Romance SeriesSamuel Covington, ex-Pinkerton agent and deputy in the frontier town of Conviction, has come a long way from his upbringing in Baltimore. His job, and a particular woman, occupy his time and thoughts. His future is assured—until a message from home tears it all apart.Jinny MacLaren loves the ranch, her family, and one particular deputy. Even though Sam's never said the words, she's certain of his feelings, envisioning a future as his wife—until the day he announces he's leaving without a promise to return.His future no longer belongs to him. Sam never anticipated the news awaiting him, or the consequences of a past he'd left far behind.Shoving painful thoughts of Sam aside, Jinny focuses on a life without him, allowing a friendship to grow with someone else. He's handsome, smart, and caring, yet in Jinny's heart, he'll never be Sam.As both face an uncertain future without the other, neither... Views: 25
The New York Times has hailed renowned historian and social commentator Simon Schama as a writer who "entwine[s] past and present into a meaningful, continuous whole." His deeply thoughtful and vastly knowledgeable books such as The Power of Art, The American Future, and the National Book Critics Circle Award finalist Rough Crossings have won acclaim for their intellectually rich and entertaining studies of the individuals and influences that have shaped the human condition, from the French Revolution to the political past and future of America, from the power of art to the role of nature in Western civilization.Now, in this passionate and provocative collection, this brilliant observer brings his keen critical sensibility to a wide range of topics, both broad and intimate. Captivating and informative, Scribble, Scribble, Scribble offers a lighter, playful Simon Schama on a diverse range of subjects, from food and family to Winston... Views: 25
A decent, harried young banker, already on the verge of distraction, hurries north to Scotland and his mysteriously troubled sister . . . A “foreign” mother struggles to make a home for her family in a society she only vaguely comprehends . . . A baby girl is abandoned in a bus-station rest room . . . And thus five lives and more are caught up in a binding net of affection and responsibility, of sibling loyalty, romantic longing, and maternal love.Amazon.com ReviewCriminals is a tweaked gothic. Instead of a dark castle, there is an average Scottish farmhouse, Mill of Fortune. There is nothing supernatural, and the love story is all in one character's mind, nearly losing him his livelihood. Ewan is less a knight-at-arms than a London businessman, and his sister is the madwoman. Mollie, however, is not in the attic, but very much up and about after her novelist-lover has left her. Ewan knows he must check on her and heads for Scotland. During a bus layover, he hears a small whimper and is amazed to find a baby in a bathroom stall. Hearing his bus about to leave, he grabs the bundle and ends up taking it with him. Unfortunately, Mollie's reaction is not one he had hoped for: instead of calling the police, she lays siege, and their criminal career begins. Margot Livesey is clearly interested in exploring one question: How much do you really know about your family? For six chapters, the narration goes back and forth between brother and sister, but the seventh is a surprise--devoted to the man who left the baby on the filthy floor. Kenneth's thought processes are sinister and idiotic, giving him a great deal of comic energy. Having followed Ewan to Mill of Fortune, he is determined to bilk him out of as much money as possible. "Ideas, he thought, I am an ideas man." As Kenneth does his brutal best and Ewan is caught up in insider-trading complications, Mollie--still hanging onto the child--grows increasingly paranoid: "She heard something. Had Ewan spoken? Had the table? She examined each in turn. The sleek wood had grown oddly smug and duplicitous ..." Livesey is an expert practitioner of the fiction of threat, the novel of isolation and misery in which the family is a nest of sorrows. From Publishers Weekly"Banker finds Baby in Bus station" is the caption that uptight London bachelor Ewan Munro ruefully realizes will describe events in this intriguing novel about the banality of evil. Discovering a swaddled infant in a lavatory stall in Perth, Ewan almost absentmindedly takes the baby to his unstable sister, Mollie Lafferty, intending to call the authorities once he arrives at her home. Mollie is in a bad way; she has split with her novelist husband, anguished because he has fictionalized her in his current novel, and, she thinks, given away secrets she didn't even realize she harbored. (Chunks of this novel are interpolated as Ewan reads it, adding tension to a narrative already taut with frightening implications.) For Mollie now recognizes that her great need is to have a child, and she conspires to keep the baby. Meanwhile, the child's feckless father, an amoral layabout called Kenneth, who has impetuously abandoned his daughter, realizes that he can extort money when he shows up to claim her; and her mother, a nurse from Bombay, becomes distraught at the infant's disappearance. Scottish-born Livesey (Homework) controls the narrative with assurance, gradually laying bare the bedrock of her characters' inner lives. One reads with fascinated attention as Ewan and Mollie?he preoccupied by a lapse in his meticulously moral behavior that has made him complicit in illegal trading; she sliding into emotional breakdown?discover how easy it is to become criminals. Livesey maintains a low-key style that perfectly matches the way ordinary lives can slip into chaos; her elegantly simple prose, her control of pacing and characterization and her insights into human behavior combine to produce a fascinating narrative. 50,000 first printing; Literary Guild selection. Copyright 1995 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 25
A twisted tale of love and revenge... Valentine's Day should be a time for cards, gifts, and attention from a special person. But for Rosalyn, February 14th brings fear and anxiety. A Speculative Fiction short from the author of Raising the Lost and Dad's Favorite Holiday. Views: 25
The worst serial killing case in Massachusetts since the Boston Strangler Views: 25
Twitch, Jerk, Freak—Sam Carrier has been called them all. Because of his Tourette's syndrome, Sam is in near constant motion with tics and twitches and verbal outbursts. So, of course, high school is nothing but torment. Forget friends; forget even hoping that beautiful, perfect Naomi will look his way. And home isn't much better with his domineering stepfather reminding him that the only person who was more useless than Sam was his dead father, Jack. But then an unexpected turn of events unearths the truth about his father. And suddenly Sam doesn't know who he is, or even where he'll go next. What he does know is that the only girl in the world who can make him happy and nervous at the same time is everywhere he turns...and he'd give anything just to be still. Views: 25
The training at Cloughton Wyke Hydro is more severe than Prudence is prepared for, involving as it does strict discipline, tight rubber uniforms and an education in the application of bizarre and exotic treatments. Ruthless and beautiful, Hera leads the Black Garter with a merciless hand. Her elite group of prefects secretly patrols the Kilgrimol Finishing School for Young Ladies. They help her to administer cruel and degrading punishments whenever Hera deems it necessary. New recruits are subjected to humiliating initiations, but the treasured prize of acceptance makes it a sacrifice worth enduring. These are just three of the stories featured in the fifth volume of the very best of erotic writing from Nexus. Also included are stand-alone stories from Penny Birch, Aishling Morgan, Maria del Rey and Jennifer Jane Pope. Views: 25
History remembers Guinevere's sin, but it was Arthur who transgressed first.Forced into a marriage she neither anticipated nor desired, Guinevere finds herself High Queen, ruling and fighting alongside Arthur as they try to subdue the Saxons, Irish and Picts who threaten Britain from every direction. Though her heart still longs for her lost love, Guinevere slowly grows to care for her husband as they join together to defeat their enemies.Meanwhile, within the walls of Camelot their closest allies plot against them. One schemes to make Guinevere his own, another seeks revenge for past transgressions, while a third fixes her eyes on the throne. When the unthinkable happens and Guinevere is feared dead, Arthur installs a new woman in her place, one who will poison his affections toward her, threatening Guinevere's fragile sanity and eventually driving her into the arms of her champion.Amid this tension a new challenge arises for the king and queen of Camelot: finding the Holy Grail,... Views: 25
Robert Lyndon, heir apparent to a dukedom and newly spurned lover is desperate to save face amongst the young dandies and court ladies of Regency London society. Handsome, wealthy and decorated for his bravery in the army fighting for King and country, Robert is recognised as one of the most eligible bachelors in Society. Yet despite his success with the ladies, it seems that he cannot find the perfect wife.Beautiful Rania Temple is living in impoverished gentility in the country. Away from the fashions and trends of the city, she is devoted to her family home and much loved horses. The only stain on her otherwise perfect landscape is a serious lack of money, without which she stands to loses all she holds dear.A chance meeting sees them join forces to enter a deception that will benefit both of their needs. But are they capable of pulling off a charade that will fool everyone from Harry, Rania's beloved brother, to the leader of the Beau Monde, the Prince Regent himself? As a... Views: 25
