In this remarkable book, the author of Shiloh and Other Stories, In Country, and other award-winning books gives us powerful new stories that capture the restless energy of life in contemporary America. The characters here are travelers and seekers, feeling their way toward, or away from the defining moments of their lives. They roam out into the world to England, Alaska, Texas, Saudi Arabia, or ricochet back home to Kentucky, ceaselessly searching, exploring, testing for limits. I felt strange, says Chrissy in With Jazz, as though all my life I had been zigzagging down a wild trail to this particular place. In Charger, a teenage boy races along the interstate, seeking the father who abandoned him years before. In Rolling into Atlanta, a young woman searches for the kind of authenticity she remembers from her rural childhood. In Proper Gypsies, Nancy deals with the shock of being robbed in London. In The Funeral Side,... Views: 49
Milo's team is losing the camp Color War. But their awesome moose mascot could help them pull off a win. That is, until it mysteriously disappears. Can Milo and Jazz crack the case? Views: 49
Alone, with a Highlander, in his castle, on a cold dark night...okay, so it wasn't that cold. Jullian MacKay is being conned by a pair of eighty-year-old witches. They believe she's the perfect sucker to test a prophecy and they're willing to bury her alive to prove it. Once she escapes and finds herself in 15th century Scotland, she believes her return home depends on rescuing a Scottish Romeo Views: 49
The Duchess and the Dragon tells the epic story of two unlikely soulmates in the early 1800s Regency Era who live worlds apart but soon meet and turn each other's world upside down. Views: 49
Evelyn King and Dega are hoping for a quiet picnic in an unexplored valley paradise, but their plans are waylaid by a cunning and vicious mountain lion looking for a feast of its own. Views: 49
SUMMARY:
Once upon a time, three children and a little river dragon were the best of friends—until a promise was broken. Now they are almost grown up and barely speaking to one another. With her country in turmoil, Aurelie is sent on a peacekeeping mission. But how can she prevent a war when she can’t even make her friends get along? Heartsick at losing her dearest companions, especially the handsome Garin, Aurelie finds comfort in her secret, late-night trips to fairyland. But a princess can’t hide from her duties forever. Her country needs her, and so do her friends—whether they know it or not. Views: 49
From Publishers WeeklyMarrying into a vampire family is tough, as Milagro De Los Santos learns in this charmingly goofy marriage of chick lit and the supernatural. Milagro, having been infected with vampire blood, is now engaged to her beloved undead beau, Oswald Grant, but the nuptial-planning hits a hitch when the rules committee of the vampire council demands that she renounce her citizenship. Not only does hot-blooded Milagro have a battle in store for her when she stands by her American roots, she's beginning to suspect the council of trying to sabotage her wedding: her assigned wedding planner is cruel and devious, her wedding ring goes missing, she nearly dies in a suspicious car accident and there are a few too many "chance" meetings with her seductive vampire ex-boyfriend. All ends well, but not in the way you might think. Acosta (Happy Hour at Casa Dracula) takes a bite out of the bridal circuit with this loopy, whimsical tale. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From School Library JournalBrash, witty Milagro de los Santos (_Midnight Brunch; Happy Hour at Casa Dracula_) has become so involved with the vampire community that she is now engaged to one of its members, the handsome plastic surgeon Oswald Grant. Because she is considered an outsider, Milagro must pass inspection by the Council. Knowing her penchant for stubbornness, Oswald convinces her to accept whatever is asked so that the wedding can proceed without interference. She agrees, even acquiescing to having the sultry, slightly trashy Cornelia as the coordinator of the secret vampire marriage ritual. Meanwhile the public wedding planner is best bud Nancy, an upper-class airhead and fashionista whose offbeat look at the world gives her some of the funniest lines in this humorous paranormal tale. At the same time, Milagro finds herself torn between her fiancé and the ultrasexy hunk Ian; a loony professor hires her to ghostwrite his memoirs; and someone is desperately trying to stop the wedding. Fans of light vampire fiction will snap this up. Recommended for all collections where urban fantasy is popular.—Patricia Altner, Biblioinfo.com, Columbia, MD Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.
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When an unidentified body is discovered in the harbour town of Axmouth, twenty miles from Exeter, Sir John de Wolfe, the county coroner is called to investigate. The manner of the young man's death is a matter of some dispute - but, as Sir John soon discovers, it was no accident. The victim did not drown, as the manor reeve alleges, but was strangled to death. In the ensuing murder investigation, Sir John is frustrated by what appears to be a conspiracy of silence among the seamen and townsfolk. Just what is the local population trying to hide? As Crowner John is to learn, there are those who would go to any length to ensure the shocking truth remains hidden. And the coroner must draw on all his resources of courage, cunning and determination if he is to escape from Axmouth with his life. Views: 49
From acclaimed, bestselling author Andrew Pyper, a suspenseful page-turner that explores the repercussions of that most dishonest of thefts: stealing another’s story and calling it your own.Patrick Rush, a former bright light at the National Star now demoted to the reality TV beat, is still recovering from his wife’s death when he joins a writers’ group in Toronto. His goal: to write the book he’s always felt lived within him. Trouble is, Patrick has no story to tell. And while the circle’s members show similarly little literary promise, there is one exception: Angela. Her unsettling readings tell of a shadowy childhood tragedy and an unremitting fear of the Sandman, a “terrible man who does terrible things.” It’s the stuff of nightmares or horror films. Or is it? Over the weeks that follow, a string of unsolved murders seem increasingly connected to Patrick. And then the circle’s members start to go missing, one by one. Still haunted by loss–and by a crime only those in the circle could know of–Patrick finds himself in a fictional world made horrifically real. But nothing will put him in greater danger than that ancient curse of natural born readers: the need to know how the story ends.At once a complex and compulsive read, The Killing Circle explores the side effects of an increasingly fame-mad culture, where even the staid realm of literature can fall prey to ravenous ambition and competition.From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklyStarred Review. In this extraordinary thriller from Canadian author Pyper (The Wildfire Season), Patrick Rush, a lowly TV critic for a Toronto newspaper whose life has been slowly deteriorating since the untimely death of his wife, struggles to remain employed while trying to raise his precocious young son. When Rush decides to join a local writing circle in hopes of pursuing his lifelong dream of being an author, he becomes obsessed with a horrific work-in-progress written by a would-be writer in the group, a possibly autobiographical tale about being haunted by a terrible man who does terrible things. Rush begins finding connections among the story's supernatural villain, a shadowy serial killer with a predilection for dismemberment that has all of Toronto living in fear, and his own unraveling sanity. Powered by an ingeniously nonlinear narrative and suffused with a tone thick with dread, this is easily Pyper's most ambitious—and absorbing—work to date. (Sept.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistPatrick Rush is a lonely widower, a wannabe novelist, and the father of a young son. He joins a writer’s workshop or, as its leader refers to it, a “circle.” The leader is a minor novelist from the seventies who disappeared from the Toronto literary scene after some scathing reviews and allegations of criminal sexual behavior. During the circle’s weekly meetings, Patrick is mesmerized by the writing of a young girl whose unadorned yet ethereal prose reveals an intensely personal childhood story of abandonment, abuse, and stalking by the Sandman, a character who may be real, may be symbolic, and may have followed her to Toronto. Bodies are turning up in Patrick’s neighborhood, and Patrick’s concern for the safety of his son grows, even as the readings in the circle—and the behavior of its leader—become more ominous. Pyper’s first novel, Lost Girls (2000), was a New York Times Notable Book. Few are better at conveying an omnipresent sense of dread and horror bubbling just beneath life’s seemingly mundane routines. This will keep you up one night reading and another four checking the locks on the doors. --Wes Lukowsky Views: 49
From the Heavens comes a hero who will take your breath away. Reese Whittaker dreams of falling for a man who shares her love of archeology and ancient civilizations. But being attacked by a horde of demons and rescued by a Sumerian God—a well-armed, gorgeous Sumerian God—opens up a whole new world she never knew existed. And awakens a mysterious power within her that attracts all kinds of supernatural attention. Dagan, son of the Air-God Enlil and a Time Walker, is sworn to protect the human race in general, and one young woman in particular—Reese. He’s not the only one mysteriously attracted to her powerful life force. Underworld leader Kur craves it for the untold power it will give him to strike a blow at the deities of Dilmun. Dagan is forbidden by law from interacting with Reese, but from the moment he sees her, the fury—an intense sexual need for bonding—blinds him to all the rules. Should the pantheon discover he has fallen for a human, the punishment could mean suffering beyond imagining for him…and death for her. Warning: Contains language, lots of action, Sumerian Gods, gorgeous men, tough, stubborn women and some creatures from the Underworld that make life hell. Views: 49
