A young woman inherits a castle—along with a ghost who tries to scare her away. Her biggest fear, however, is falling in love with him. Views: 101
A Betrothed Couple's Hilarious Mutual Search For Happiness, Wealth...And Mr. Right! Meet Harry Ford...One of the esteemed Kansas Fords, he's traded a BMW and an Ivy League education for a beat-up Volkswagen and a flight attendant's wings. Now this disinherited blue blood is determined to land a red-blooded man who can make him forget about the millions he'd inherit if he brought home a bride before his next birthday. Enter Amity Stone...Harry never expected his soul mate to come packaged as a sassy, irreverent, ravishing blond...woman! With a bravado bigger than her beauty queen hair and a Texas drawl as thick as her mascara, Harry's new roommate has him captivated...if not converted. Why not marry, the willing, wonderful Amity, and collect his fortune? But now that Harry's just about to march down the aisle, temptation arrives in the tall, dark and handsome Nicolo Feragamo, and lust quickly turns to love. Now as the Big Day - and the Big Bucks - loom before him, Harry discovers that the road to happily-ever-after is anything but straight and narrow!From Publishers WeeklyHapless protagonist Harry Ford told his blue-blooded Kansas family he was gay when he was a teenager; his angry father changed his will to state that Harry must marry a woman by the time he's 24 or lose a multimillion-dollar inheritance. Schell's well-meaning, goofy debut novel focuses on the year--1984--that Harry, now a 23-year-old airline steward, oscillates between his gay identity and the possibility of marrying a woman. The devoted love he feels for his beautiful best friend, Amity Stone, may just be enough, he imagines, to turn him into a happy, heterosexual husband and nab him the family fortune to boot. Harry had thought he'd already foregone being rich, having turned up his nose at Ivy League colleges, law school and fancy cars, and choosing instead the freedom to be himself, date men and travel the world. And he falls hard for Argentine waiter Nicolo. But on the other hand, Harry's older brother, Winston, a closeted gay man, is licking his chops at the prospect of collecting his brother's inheritance, which annoys Harry. And then there's Amity, a Dallas wild child whose lust for wealth and luxury is equaled by her true feelings for Harry. The plot twists and turns, pitching money against emotional values and friendship against romantic love, but it and the promising premise escape the grasp of debut author Schell. The question of whether homosexuality can be chosen, changed or willed away is a hot topic, one that hopefully will be explored in fiction not so impeded by smug, unlikable characters and a self-consciously outr? narrative style. This book is light fare for those who like their gay fiction glossy, glib and giggly. Agent, Alison Picard. 8-city author tour. (May) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc. From BooklistSchell explores the many facets of friendship and love in this fast-paced page-turner interlaced with spiritual longing and possessed of an overall sweetness that's hard to resist. Harry Ford drives a beat up VW and works as an airline flight attendant despite the fact that he's from a wealthy midwestern family that has disdained him since his admission of being gay at age 17. His hated brother Winston will inherit everything from their recently dead father if Harry fails to marry at age 24 and remain married for 10 years. Though the stakes are multimillions high, he remains undaunted until he is dumped by Matthew. He then meets fellow attendant Amity Stone, a Fort Worth girl who's down-home and authentic, and they quickly become best friends. They'll marry, and continue with their various men, but who and what exactly is Amity Stone, who consumes increasing amounts of cocaine and whose life seems to be spinning out of control? Whitney Scott Views: 98
Limpy's family reckons humans don't hate cane toads, but Limpy knows otherwise. He's spotted the signs: the cross looks, the unkind comments, the way they squash cane toads with their cars. Limpy is desperate to save his species from ending up as pancakes. Somehow he must make humans see how fabulous cane toads really are. Risking everything, he sets off on a wart-tinglingly dangerous and daring journey to . . . the Olympics?This is the epic story of a slightly squashed young cane toad's quest for the truth.From the Hardcover edition. Views: 94
_Rarely has a young writer won a place among the major talents in fantasy fiction as quickly as James Clemens. In the first four novels of his breathtaking epic, The Banned and the Banished, Clemens has woven an ever-deepening spell of wonderment with his boundless imagination and matchless storytelling gifts. Now he brings his saga to a masterful and breathtaking climax as the wit’ch Elena faces the unmasked evil of the Dark Lord for the final time in a cataclysmic conclusion that will shatter her understanding of all that has gone before. . . ._The three deadly Weirgates are destroyed but the threat of the Dark Lord remains. And so Elena and her companions have gone their separate ways to prepare for what is yet to come. Elena herself has journeyed to the beautiful city of A’loa Glen, there to recover her strength and spirit. Enter Harlequin Quail.Some might call him a fool, but the little man in the jester’s suit claims to be a spy. And he comes fresh from the foul fortress of Blackhall itself, where the Dark Lord dwells. There he uncovered things that spell certain doom– for a final Weirgate remains, the most potent one of all. And with it, in just one moon’s time, the Dark Lord will avenge his earlier defeat, destroying the heart of the land and ushering in a reign of evil without end. Only Elena, with the awesome magicks of the Blood Diary, has the power to stop him.Blackhall is all but impregnable. And according to Quail, the Weirgate is well hidden, in a place known only to the Dark Lord himself.Thus begins a desperate quest like no other. Hunted by the Dark Lord’s minions and threatened by clandestine betrayals, Elena and her brave companions reunite in the effort to locate the last Weirgate and destroy it. Along the way, many questions will be answered and illusions will be smashed. Brother will turn against brother, and the strongest bonds of magic and love will be tested to the breaking point . . . and beyond. Views: 92
Sidonie-Gabrielle Colette (1873–1954), one of the most popular and best loved of modern French writers, became known simply as Colette when she married in 1893. Her husband, a Parisian man-about-town and the son of a major publisher, made use of her literary talents by publishing her first several novels under his own name — his only changes, evidently, being to make them more prurient. But eventually she broke free of this unhappy marriage and took flight on her own, as a fiction writer, a journalist, and an actress. By the time Chéri was published in 1920, Colette had become well known both as a writer and as a personality and was entering a period of rich personal growth and happiness.Published when the author, like her heroine, was in her late 40s, Chéri is a delicate analysis of a May-December romance. The story of a love affair between Léa, a still-beautiful 49-year-old ex-courtesan, and Chéri, a handsome but... Views: 92
Ten years ago, devastated by an ugly scandal, Brooke Martin fled the small town of Hayden to pursue a career as a stained glass artist. Now Brooke has returned on business to discover that some things never change. Her spotted reputation remains. Tongues still wag. And that makes what should be her dream assignment tough. Brooke has been hired to design new stained glass windows at Hayden Bible Church. The job is a career windfall. But Nick Marcello is overseeing the project, and some in the church think Nick and Brooke's relationship is not entirely professional--and as before, there is no convincing those people otherwise. In the face of mounting rumors, the two set out to produce the masterpiece Nick has conceived: a brilliant set of windows displaying God's covenants in the Bible. For Brooke, it is more than a project--it is a journey toward faith. But opposition is heating up. A vicious battle of words and will is about to tax Brooke's commitment to the limit. Only this time, she is determined not to run.** Views: 91
Lisa Jackson's Bentz & Montoya Bundle: Hot Blooded, Cold Blooded, Shiver, Absolute Fear, Lost Souls, Malice, & an Exclusive EXTENDED Excerpt from DeviousHot BloodedA First One Dead Body...A prostitute lies strangled in a seedy French Quarter hotel room. Miles away, in a rambling plantation house on the sultry shores of Lake Ponchartrain, popular late-night radio host Dr. Samantha Leeds receives a threatening crank call. All in a day's work for a celebrity. Who would think to link the two?Then Another...A second hooker's corpse turns up. Samantha's ominous caller persists, along with a mysterious claiming to be a woman from her past—a woman who's been dead for years. With Detective Rick Bentz convinced that the serial killer prowling the shadowy streets of New Orleans is somebody close to Samantha, she doesn't dare trust anyone. Especially not Ty Wheeler, her seductive new neighbor who seems to know more about her than a stranger should....And Another... Views: 91
At the once-splendid Imperial Hotel, chef Gabriel Lightfoot is trying to run a tight kitchen. But his integrity and his sanity are under constant challenge from an exuberantly multinational staff, a gimlet-eyed hotel management, and business partners with whom he is planning a new venture. Despite the pressure, his hard work looks set to pay off.Until the discovery of a porter's dead body in the kitchen appears to tip the scales. It is a small death, a lonely death -- but it is enough to disturb the tenuous balance of Gabe's life. In The Kitchen is Monica Ali's stunning follow up to Brick Lane. It is both the portrait of a man pushed to the edge, and a wry and telling look into the melting pot which is our contemporary existence. It confirms Monica Ali not only as a great modern storyteller but also an acute observer of the dramas of modern life. Views: 90
