At the turn of the twentieth century, Ellen Rimbauer became the young bride of Seattle industrialist John Rimbauer, and began keeping a remarkable diary. This diary became the secret place where Ellen could confess her fears of the new marriage, her confusion over her emerging sexuality, and the nightmare that her life would become. The diary not only follows the development of a girl into womanhood, it follows the construction of the Rimbauer mansion called Rose Red; an enormous home that would be the site of so many horrific and inexplicable tragedies in the years ahead. The Diary of Ellen Rimbauer: My Life at Rose Red is a rare document, one that gives us an unusual view of daily life among the aristocracy in the early 1900s, a window into one woman's hidden emotional torment, and a record of the mysterious events at Rose Red that scandalized Seattle society at the time - events that can only be fully understood now that the diary has come to light. Edited by Joyce Reardon,... Views: 27
Mary Stuart was just five years old when she was sent to France to be raised alongside her future husband. But when the frail young king dies, eighteen-year-old Mary is stripped of her title as Queen of France and set adrift in the harsh world, alone.Determined to reign over what is rightfully hers, Mary returns to Scotland. Hoping that a husband will help her secure the coveted English throne, she marries again, but the love and security she longs for elude her. Instead, the fiery young queen finds herself embroiled in a murder scandal that could cost her the crown. And her attempts to bargain with her formidable "sister queen," Elizabeth I of England, could cost her her very life. Views: 27
Father in training!For Jake Hallam and Amy Jones it was love at first sight. Amy recognized it—the trouble was, Jake refused to! Only, he couldn't refuse to acknowledge that, after a night of tender lovemaking, Amy was expecting his baby.Jake was horrified...yet fascinated. He couldn't stay away from Amy—or ignore the growing life he'd helped create. But he was a confirmed bachelor wedded to his work. Could he learn to be a husband and father before the baby arrived? Views: 27
Love is long-suffering... but she has suffered long enough. Behind every Companion is a mentor who must prepare her for the role. For nine years, Petra has existed within the castle walls. For nine years, the king has taken whatever he pleases—even her son. When tragedy strikes, Petra realises she can either accept her fate or run from it. But the man who owns her will stop at nothing to keep her. To survive, she must put her trust in enemy hands. To heal, she must learn to open her heart. Sir Leksi is the prince's right hand man and Syrasan's fiercest knight. He is also the kingdom's most notorious womaniser. When he stumbles across a runaway in the woods, he is surprised to learn her identity, but even more surprised when he is ordered to protect her. Intrigued by the hunted mentor, he decides to see what lies beneath the unsmiling face and vacant gaze. What he discovers might change him forever... If you enjoy gritty medieval... Views: 27
Hugo Best Short Story nominee (2002). Views: 26
When Emily smiles at David, the Chosen One, as if he's a normal person, his sheltered existence plunges into terror and deception, forcing him to see that the world might not be as perfect as he's always believed. If the choice is between love or perfection, which would you choose? Views: 26
Mrs. Rahlo's Closet: It was a simple request, really. All the aged landlady asked of the young medical student who rented a room in her decaying home was to refrain from opening the closet door. Yes, a simple request. And an impossible one . . . "Harla": They had the perfect marriage, Harla and Mr. Tim--a marriage based on the murders of others. "Don't you see?" Mr. Tim remarked. "Killing sweetens one's temper. Are we not much kinder, more tolerant of others after each homicide?" And it was so. At least, until . . . "We Three and the Stars": "Fear rules the universe, " Ellen learned. "That is the law of the Grider. Those terrible stories of alien abductions--they wanted to know how much fear we can take. And, oh, they found the answer.""Ashes Fall on Timberlake": "Mister, when you think you're sittin' safe in that cabin of yours, you're thinkin' blind, " the handyman told Garvin. "There's things in there with you--things so terrible your stomach would stretch right out of your mouth... Views: 26
More information to be announced soon on this forthcoming title from Penguin USA Views: 26
National Bestseller
The story of an obsessive love affair between a woman and an apartment.
The publication of her sexy, offbeat, riotous first novel, Going Down, won Jennifer Belle comparisons from everyone from Dorothy Parker and Lorrie Moore to J. D. Salinger and Liz Phair. In High Maintenance, Belle is back with another brilliantly twisted New York story that is as funny, sad, painful, ridiculous, wild, daring, and lovable as its predecessor.
Set in the manic world of New York real estate, High Maintenance is the story of Liv Kellerman, a young woman who's just left her husband and, more important, their fabulous penthouse apartment with its Empire State Building view. On her own for the first time in her life, she relocates to a crumbling Greenwich Village hovel and contemplates her next move. Before long she finds her true calling: selling real estate. With her native eye for prime properties and an ability to lie with a straight face, Liv finds success and soon is swimming with the sharks-the hardcore, cutthroat brokers who'll do anything to close a deal. Along the way she picks up a maniacally ardent architect who likes to bite her, a few hilarious bosses, strange and exasperating clients, and a gun, and brings them with her on her search for the one thing she's really after: a home.
Belle's gift for creating strange and winning characters and her acute observations of both the absurd and the poignant in everyday life are the hallmarks of her fiction. High Maintenance is generous and unsparing, tough and exciting and terrifically smart—a hot new property on the market.
**From Publishers Weekly
Brimming with Gotham references, weird but lovable characters and typical urban scenes, Belle's second novel (after Going Down, which won her the title of Entertainment Weekly's Best New Novelist of 1996) is a witty and engaging tale of love and real estate in Manhattan. Liv Kellerman is 26 and recently divorced. In classic New York fashion, she's more upset about leaving her snazzy uptown digs than being single. Too proud to ask her wealthy father for money and lacking an advanced degree, she hits the pavement in search of a job and an apartment two things every 20-something in the city has had to struggle to secure. After she finds herself a shabby one-bedroom in Greenwich Village, "five flights above a 'restaurant' called King Shawarma," she works on employment. Liv ventures into the cutthroat world of real estate, gets her license and is soon spending her days showing TriBeCa lofts to the city's most discriminating clients. She's surprisingly good at it, and her new profession turns out to be therapeutic, too her forays into Manhattan's most wanted apartments teach her a thing or two about her own inner workings. Like all New York stories, this one features an eccentric romance: here, a noncommittal boyfriend with a proclivity for biting (at one point, Liv must visit an animal hospital to have her ear reattached to her head). Belle's tongue-in-cheek style and laugh-out-loud antics keep the pages turning. Despite the lack of a riveting story line, this latest addition to the booming yuppie fiction genre is fresh and invigorating. 8-city author tour. (May 7)
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc.
From Library Journal
This work continues in the same tradition of Belle's highly praised first novel, Going Down (LJ 5/1/96), with equal parts hilarity and pain. Liv Kellerman has just left her husband after discovering his philandering. Never having been on her own before, she embarks on a new career in real estate. This novel is all New York from its high-priced apartments to its quirky characters. Liv begins dating an obsessive architect who likes to bite her. She finds a gun in a bathroom and keeps it, using it to scare aforementioned boyfriend when he turns out to be a liar and a cheat. Adjusting to a Greenwich Village dump after living in a penthouse, Liv shows fabulous apartments to clients who can't decide whether or not to buy them. Belle's portrayal of Liv's ups and downs, successes and failures are in turn funny and poignant. Interspersed are laugh-aloud lines: "When I got home I got undressed and a single pea fell out of my bra. I had gone to work with a pea in my bra and not even known it. Some princess, I thought." The film rights to Belle's first novel were optioned by Madonna; this one should have equal success. Highly recommended.
- Kathy Ingels Helmond, Indianapolis-Marion Cty. P.L.
Copyright 2001 Reed Business Information, Inc. Views: 26
