From the multi-award-winning and bestselling author of The Night Watch and Fingersmith comes an astonishing novel about love, loss, and the sometimes unbearable weight of the past.
In a dusty post-war summer in rural Warwickshire, a doctor is called to see a patient at lonely Hundreds Hall. Home to the Ayres family for over two centuries, the once grand house is now in decline, its masonry crumbling, its garden choked with weeds. All around, the world is changing, and the family is struggling to adjust to a society with new values and rules.
Roddie Ayres, who returned from World War II physically and emotionally wounded, is desperate to keep the house and what remains of the estate together for the sake of his mother and his sister, Caroline. Mrs. Ayres is doing her best to hold on to the gracious habits of a gentler era and Caroline seems cheerfully prepared to continue doing the work a team of servants once handled, even if it means having little chance for a life of her own beyond Hundreds.
But as Dr. Faraday becomes increasingly entwined in the Ayreses’ lives, signs of a more disturbing nature start to emerge, both within the family and in Hundreds Hall itself. And Faraday begins to wonder if they are all threatened by something more sinister than a dying way of life, something that could subsume them completely.
Both a nuanced evocation of 1940s England and the most chill-inducing novel of psychological suspense in years, The Little Stranger confirms Sarah Waters as one of the finest and most exciting novelists writing today. Views: 807
A complete short story introducing my character, 'Truckerson'. If you like schoolboy humour, unbelievable plots or need cheering up generally, this is for you. Humour tinged with serious thought.In Parineeta I tried to depict the agony of a young girl who had to marry a man double of her age. Her problem was manifested as she could not tell the person whom he loves, till her death. Her sacrifice for her sons were also not appreciated, rather ridiculed and condemned by her own sons. She had to surrender her body to her husband against her will and then she had to submit her body to a heartless animal for money and physical needs. My ‘Parineeta’ is not based on any real characters living or dead. Association of my name to Parineeta is just to make the story more realistic. I am no way fit into the character as such. Therefore, if any reader finds some similarity in character of Parineeta, it is pure coincidence only.The life of Parineeta is full of un-contended life of a young girl who grew up to face all nonsense of life and one day she died without any ripple in the minds of those for whom she lived with agony of selling her body and soul whom she never loved. Views: 807
All her world's a stage.
Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater.
She's not an orphan, but she has no parents.
She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own.
That is, until now.
Enter Stage Right
NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie.
COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE'S sidekicks.
ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie's weakness. The symbol of impending doom.
BERTIE. Our heroine.
Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book, an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family, and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known.
Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience.
Open Curtain Views: 807
It’s hard to control your destiny while you’re waiting for the bus. The trouble for Argus Kirkham began when a stranger pushed his way through a crowd at a bus stop and pressed a package into his hands. Inside the package were various random items. As Argus and his friends unravel the clues, very strange things occur in this story of mystery and ghosts. Book Two of the Dragon City series.Naomi is a young woman who has had one bad relationship after another. She decides to find a temporary job and is accepted as a jillaroo on a cattle station in outback Australia. She falls in love with a cowboy. She wants to help save the station from bankrupcy. Her hero cowboy has to save her from her exboyfriend. To win her heart he needs to unravel what the perfect gift is. Some novels are available in print at amazon create space Views: 806
This FREE book tells the story of a boy who is a bit of a loner at school and in life. His home life is also a bit in tatters since his mum died.The book takes up the story when he discovers something in the woods, near where he lives, little does he know where his discovery will take him, but the title of the book gives you an idea, what will he find there? Will he still be alone?What happens when love turns toxic? Sam and Sandy had the best of starts. Most of their friends still think they’re perfect for each other. But behind the public façade lurks a skeleton in the closet: one of them is emotionally abusing the other, making their partner live in constant fear and guilt. Which one, and why does the other stay? Told from the author’s personal experience of a controlling relationship, ‘A Toxic Affair’ examines the ins and outs of emotional abuse and how something as innocent as young love can swiftly become something more sinister. Views: 806
The Darkness That Comes Before, The Warrior Prophet, and The Thousandfold Thought --collectively the Prince of Nothing Saga-were R. Scott Bakker's magnificent debut into the upper echelon of epic fantasy. In those three books, Bakker created a world that was at once a triumph of the fantastic and an historical epic as real as any that came before.
Widely praised by reviewers and a growing body of fans, Bakker has already established the reputation as one of the smartest writers in the fantasy genre-a writer in the line stretching from Homer to Peake to Tolkein. Now he returns to The Prince of Nothing with the long awaited The Judging Eye, the first book in an all-new series. Set twenty years after the end of The Thousandfold Thought, Bakker reintroduces us to a world that is at once familiar but also very different than the one readers thought they knew. Delving even further into his richly imagined universe of myth, violence, and sorcery, and fully remolding the fantasy genre to broaden the scope of intricacy and meaning, R. Scott Bakker has once again written a fantasy novel that defies all expectations and rewards the reader with an experience unlike any to be had in the canon of today's literature. Views: 806
When Tante Lulu decides to matchmake, matches are made. But this time, her meddling Cajun charm will be put to the test...
For five years Savannah Jones thought Special Forces Captain Matthew Carrington died in Afghanistan. For five years he thought she'd rejected him - thanks to his mother’s interception of the letter she wrote to him as he left on his tour of duty.
Now she’s struggling to rebuild a life for herself and their daughter, Katie, despite the devastation Katrina wrought on New Orleans. Thanks to Tante Lulu and her police-officer great-nephew, Tee-John, Savannah and Matthew are about to be reunited.
Will Tante Lulu’s bayou wisdom and sassy attitude be able to turn their broken relationship into a loving gumbo?
Note: this story was made available on the author's website Views: 804
CAN A WOUNDED BEAST . . .
Reclusive Sir Alistair Munroe has hidden in his castle ever since returning from the Colonies, scarred inside and out. But when a mysterious beauty arrives at his door, the passions he's kept suppressed for years begin to awaken.
TRUST A BEAUTY WITH A PAST . . .
Running from past mistakes has taken legendary beauty Helen Fitzwilliam from the luxury of the ton to a crumbling Scottish castle . . . and a job as a housekeeper. Yet Helen is determined to start a new life and she won't let dust-or a beast of a man-scare her away.
TO TAME HIS MOST SECRET DESIRES?
Beneath Helen's beautiful façade, Alistair finds a courageous and sensual woman. A woman who doesn't back away from his surliness-or his scars. But just as he begins to believe in true love, Helen's secret past threatens to tear them apart. Now both Beast and Beauty must fight for the one thing neither believed they could ever find-a happy ever after. Views: 803
Ex-government agent Frank Compton must halt a murderous plague that threatens to turn the galaxy-spanning Quadrail into a ghost train in the fourth installment of Hugo Award–winning author Timothy Zahn’s acclaimed Quadrail series
The Chahwyn created the Spiders to keep their intra-galactic transportation system, the Quadrail, safe and running smoothly, and contracted ex-security agent Frank Compton to protect its integrity. So far, Compton and his half-human, half-Chahwyn partner, Bayta, have had their hands full keeping this essential link between occupied worlds open and preventing the evil collective intelligence called the Modhri from using it to spread their mind-controlling infection. But now a new threat has boarded, one that troubles even the Modhri.
While the Quadrail is en route to the farthest edge of the galaxy, a murder by poison occurs—then another and another—dark happenings that are not only disturbing but also technically impossible. The system Compton and Bayta have been charged with protecting is in grave danger of derailment, and unless they can get to the deep roots of a sinister conspiracy, chaos will come to the ordered universe.
This tour de force from Hugo Award winner Timothy Zahn rockets the acclaimed Quadrail series to breathtaking new heights. The Domino Pattern is an ingenious amalgam of hard science fiction and locked-room murder mystery that would leave even the great Hercule Poirot bedazzled. Views: 801
Salvage in Space is presented here in a high quality paperback edition. This popular classic work by Jack Williamson is in the English language, and may not include graphics or images from the original edition. If you enjoy the works of Jack Williamson then we highly recommend this publication for your book collection. Views: 798
The epic begins as Dreibrand Veta and the conquering Horde of the Atrophane Empire reach a mythic Wilderness that beckons with a magical call to glory. But Onja, Queen of the rys, a race far more powerful than the greatest human state, guards this land. She has the power to imprison souls and her genocidal rage is legendary. Everything is at risk for her desperate enemies, the union of renegades.Have you ever looked at the facts of your life and realized your dreams won't come true? Have you ever looked into the unknown and seen opportunity? For Dreibrand Veta, a young officer in the Horde of the Atrophane Empire, these questions explode from his spirit in a fit of rage and launch him into an epic struggle. After he encounters a rare super race, the rys, he is forced to choose sides between passionate rivals and navigate his way through a foreign culture all while plotting to seize his own wealth and glory. In this opening novel of The Rys Chronicles you'll meet a man scarred by bad deeds who answers the call of a heroic cause. An unconventional heroine will tug at your sympathies as she bravely faces adversity with all the strengths and vulnerabilities of her womanhood. And overarching it all are the rys. Their magic makes them superior to humans, but they are not above employing humans in their deadly schemes. Views: 798
It's been eighty-six years since the Red Sox won a World Series. Eighty-six years cursed.
Twelve-year-old Oscar Egg be-lieves he is cursed, just like the Red Sox. His real parents didn't want him, and now his adopted mom has dumped him off to live with his strange, sickly dad.
But there's something Oscar doesn't know. The Boston Red Sox really are cursed, and not just because they sold Babe Ruth in 1919. Someone deliberately jinxed the team, and the secret to breaking the Curse lies deep below Fenway Park, with Oscar's dad and the Cursed Creatures, a group that has been doomed to live out their miserable lives below Fenway until the Curse is broken.
Oscar knows he can be the one to break the Curse, allowing the Red Sox to finally win the World Series and setting the Cursed Creatures free. But some of the creatures are angry. Some don't want the Curse broken. Some want Oscar, and the Red Sox, to fail and remain cursed forever. Views: 798
Tamara Goodwin has always lived in the here and now, never giving a second thought to tomorrow. Until a traveling library arrives in her tiny village, bringing with it a mysterious, large leather-bound book locked with a gold clasp and padlock.
What she discovers within the pages takes her breath away and shakes her world to its core.
A mesmerizing storing about how tomorrow can change what happens today... Views: 797
Born one half of a perfect pair, Kal has spent his life believing his other half is gone. But when fate thrusts Isabelle into his arms, he will have no choice but to become the man he was destined to be. That is, if he can battle his own demons first.
Not willing to accept her heritage as an Outsider, Isabelle tries to hide from the truth. But when Kal’s life is on the line, she will have to step forward and embrace her powers or watch everything she has come to love disappear. Views: 796
John Scalzi visits the universe of his bestselling novel The Android's Dream for this exclusive short story, featuring fan favorite character Judge Nugan Bufan Sn -- a brilliant alien jurist whose misanthropy and lack of social graces is matched only by his futile, unrequited for the game of golf. When he hits the links at the absymal Dulles Woods golf course, the unexpected happens: He begins to play well. But there are more hazards on the course for Sn than just sand traps and disaffected caddies…
Long a staple of Scalzi's live readings, "Judge Sn Goes Golfing" has never seen print until now. Read what you've been missing. Views: 795
