"It's definitely him." Leah's anxiety and anticipation ratcheted up another notch. Gone was some of the shine of his earlier youth. Narrow streaks of silver had edged their way into the thick black waves flowing back from his temples. The eyes were the same Caribbean blue she had once found so irresistible. But had he come as friend or foe?In the mid-1970s, idealistic Leah Sinclair was passionate about her volunteer work on the Caribbean island of Santo Sangre. Javier de Córdova was a handsome aristocrat, equally dedicated to his ministry as a Roman Catholic priest. Working side by side drew Leah and Javier into a forbidden love. Tension built as they struggled to remain faithful to their work among the poor of the island--and finally go their separate ways. Fourteen years later, Leah is USA director of a human rights organization that is actively protesting and lobbying against Santo Sangre's abominable human rights record. She is also a young widow with two children on the brink of adolescence.Destiny brings Leah and Javier together again when Santo Sangre's vengeful dictator lures the priest into a devious diplomatic mission to meet with rights organizations' leaders and plead his country's case. Javier agrees to represent this man he hates because it will give him one last opportunity to see the woman he once loved. He will finally admit to Leah that he made a terrible mistake in rejecting her love. After stops in Rome and Amsterdam, Javier arrives in San Francisco. Unknown to him, Montenegro's chief assassin has trailed him across Europe murdering the children of the leaders Javier has visited. During Leah and Javier's brief reunion, they discover that he has led the killer to her doorstep and that her son is targeted for murder. To their mutual surprise, confusion, and delight, Leah and Javier find that the love they once shared burns with as much passion as it did before. They pool their meager resources to avert what seems like an unstoppable murder. Putting their trust, love, and lives on the line, they confront the danger--together. The climax takes place in the High Sierras during Thanksgiving Week. The assassin has captured Leah and her children and is holding them inside her isolated mountain cabin. Javier arrives to rescue the Bartons but is overpowered and likewise taken captive. When Leah's son Teddy makes a foolish attempt to protect his mother from the assassin, he is shot in the head. Javier takes advantage of the distraction to attack the killer. Leah hears a gunshot and a man's footsteps coming toward her across the deck. She prepares to die, but it is Javier. The discharge of the gun killed the assassin. Javier tells her Teddy's wound isn't life-threatening and they must get him to a hospital.In the aftermath of the incident, Javier is cleared of any wrongdoing in the death of the foreigner. Disgraced by exposure of his evil plot, President Montenegro of Santo Sangre frees all political prisoners on Christmas Day and resigns from office. Javier takes up residence with Leah's family, and they announce to the children their intention to marry and begin a new life. Views: 333
Sallis is a very ordinary boy, with an extraordinary destiny.Sallis ti Ath lies seriously ill and only a touch-healer, usually the preserve of the wealthy, can save his life. But when Elvallon heals the sick boy, he reveals that Sallis is Gifted, one of the few born to touch the power that allows the universe to exist.But the boy's skills turn out very differently from anything Elvallon expected.Novella of 24 thousand words. Views: 333
Like Patrick Susskind's Perfume, Felidae is a remarkable literary thriller from Europe with dark, historical resonance. With his American debut, Akif Pirinçci has accomplished a leap of the imagination so thrilling and original that the book has already become an international sensation, rising to the top of bestseller lists in Germany, France, and Italy.Although it unfolds daily around us - in our backyards, kitchens, basements, and alleys - the world of Felidae is unknown to mere humans. Our witty, ironic guide is Francis, an ordinary housecat with an unquenchable thirst for knowledge. Refusing to accept the banality of death, Francis sets out to connect a chain of events, each link more mysterious and perplexing than the last: a rash of grisly psychopathic murders, a bizarre sect that worships an unknown martyr, an ancient crypt whose guardian is half insane, and the journal of a human scientist whose obsessive experiments violated all moral codes, human or feline ...The answers to Francis's questions are not simple. They concern the nature of good and evil, subjugation and liberation, and the ambiguities of justice. They are about cruelty, vengeance, the necessary cycle of creation and destruction, and even genocide.Akif Pirinçci has brilliantly imagined a world where cats speak and act almost as humans do. Highly praised upon publication in Europe, Felidae is a subtle psychological thriller that delves into the reader's subconscious to illuminate the best and worst about ourselves. Views: 333
CONTAINS TWO COMPLETE NOVELS!
For the first time in a single volume, Peter F. Hamilton’s acclaimed novels—Mindstar Rising and A Quantum Murder—set in a near-future so real it seems ripped from tomorrow’s headlines
In Mindstar Rising, Greg Mandel, gifted—or cursed—with biotechnology that makes him a living lie detector, is hired to investigate corporate espionage by Event Horizon, a powerful company about to introduce a technology that will solve the energy problems of a world decimated by global warming.
Set two years later, A Quantum Murder once again teams Mandel with Event Horizon and its beautiful young owner, Julia Evans, in a locked-room mystery that combines the ingenuity of an Agatha Christie novel with cutting-edge speculative brilliance.
Read together, these novels take on fresh depth and complexity, underscoring the magnitude of Peter F. Hamilton’s creative talent.
From the Trade Paperback edition. Views: 333
"I became completely immersed in this story and it had me at page one." – Fresh Fiction -a Where Dreams romance- This "Sweet Version" is the exact same story as the original, with no foul language and the bedroom door—even when there isn't one—tastefully closed. One calendar. Twelve lighthouses. Two hearts. Cassidy Knowles, the nation's fastest rising food-and-wine critic. Her father, a small-scale vintner, leaves a final gift: a calendar of Pacific Northwest lighthouses, a dozen thin letters, and a deathbed promise to visit one each month. She can handle that. Russell Morgan, #28 on the latest "most eligible" list and the last guy on the planet Cassidy wants. Fine with him. She's an over-privileged little twit. He sets his own course by a friend's calendar of lighthouses. A sailing voyage that guides him to the one woman in all Seattle who irritates him the most. Where can two hearts... Views: 333
HOUDINI HEART harkens back to the masters of suspenseful supernatural horror: Poe, Lovecraft, Shirley Jackson, but speaks with a wholly fresh voice. Once caught in its pages, there's no escaping Longfellow's terrible tale. Weeks ago, she was one of Hollywood's biggest writers, wed to one of its greatest stars. The doting mother of their golden child. But now? She's alone, tortured by a horrifying secret no woman could bear. Pursued by those she can't outrun, anguished by a guilt she can't endure, and driven close to madness, she flees to the one place she's ever called home: a small town in Vermont where River House still stands. To a child, the splendid hotel was mysterious and magical and all its glamorous guests knew delicious secrets. Cocooned in its walls, she will write one last book. Her atonement? Or her suicide note? But life is never as you dream it, and River House isn't what she'd always imagined it was. Intense, literary, and harrowing, Houdini Heart is a tale of bone-chilling horror, emotional torment, and psychological terror. Gripped by River House, trapped in an aging hotel of mirrors only Houdini could escape, how much can haunt a mind before it too is only a thing once imagined? "A haunting and disturbing journey through the psyche."-Erika Mailman, Author of "The Witch's Trinity" Views: 333
Science-Fiction Double Book Views: 333
Llewellyn is a Powys Prince in Wales and meets his princess for the first time as a young boy. Their forever love lasts beyond death.Llewellyn is a Powys Prince in medeival Wales and finds his forever love in the hills of his father's kingdom. Despite battles and death he remains true to his princess. Views: 332
Fyodor Volkov had risen from nothing to be wealthy beyond his dreams. But the zombie plague had forced him to retreat to his vacation house in the suburbs of Moscow, and he soon found himself scrabbling for subsistence like everyone else.This is the seventh story in the series. A new story will be released each week through the end of 2011 and beginning of 2012.Every housewife needs an alias. Donna Stone has one--and it happens to be government-sanctioned.Oh sure, you need to be ruthless to take on Russian mafia bosses, rogue dictators, and terrorists set on destroying the world. But it takes real killer instincts to survive suburbia. Try juggling the fifth grade phone tree during a shootout with skinhead arms dealers, or driving carpool while being chased by Chinese double agents.Donna’s life wasn’t always this complicated. Five years earlier she was just another woman with two preschoolers, a baby bump, and an adoring husband: Carl, with whom she lived happily ever after in a McMansion in the Orange County, California community of Hilldale. But Donna’s life was changed forever the night she delivered her baby: Carl’s car blew up on the way to the hospital.Turns out Carl was a “hard man”—an assassin—for the black ops organization known as Acme Industries. The hit on Carl was carried out by the Quorum, a terrorist cell he was tracking. The Quorum’s motto: “Show me the money.” Governments and corporations do as they’re told—or suffer bloody consequences.Carl left something behind that the Quorum wants badly. To protect herself and avenge Carl’s death, Donna joined Acme. Whereas her hostessing skills rival Martha Stewart’s, her marksmanship is second to none.A good thing, too, because the Quorum has planted a sleeper cell in Hilldale. For Donna, that’s too close for comfort. Will she be able to save her family before the Quorum blows up Los Angeles?Acme’s way of flushing out the Quorum is by “bringing Carl back from the dead.” But terrorism makes strange bedfellows--and brings new meaning to that old adage “Honey, I’m home…”*Not her real name."Adorable is not usually the word that comes to mind with a title like The Housewife Assassin’s Handbook, but it was just what I needed to pull me out of my reading doldrums. From the handy little homemaker/assassin tips at the beginning of each chapter to the thankless job of being a single parent with catty neighbors, this book hits all the right notes. Donna works for the good guys, Acme Industries, undercover by taking down drug lords and terrorists with a matter-0f-fact attitude while worrying about making it to her carpooling duties.Granted, the book ended with a hook that made me want to immediately get the next one, which is always a smart move and I was excited to see that there are actually 11 books in the series (including a prequel). I now want a week at the beach to read them all. Think Alias meets Desperate Housewives meets The Scarecrow and Mrs. King. Live a little, add some spice to your life, give this little book a try and give yourself a reason to smile. I know I did and now I’m completely smitten." -- Barbara Vey, BarbaraVey.com Views: 332
This short story introduces Ax Weller, a space miner who has collected strange tales from his decades spent in the remote regions of deep space."The Companion" is the tale of an explorer left for dead on a desolate moon and the unlikely relationship that helps him survive.Lola, the spider lady, came to the club to introduce the women to the world of spiders. She knew she would have to win them over by telling them about some of the interesting techniques that spiders used to catch their prey but it threw her a bit when one woman screamed at the sight of a big hairy spider and another person got up and ran from the room. Trying harder now, she showed them some slides and soon a few of the women came over to view Goldie, the big hairy spider that had initially scared them.The woman who had run from the room returned and soon asked a few questions and in no time at all she became Lola's biggest fan and even started a spider diary of her own. Here she recorded the activities of the spiders in her own garden and also introduced her family to the world of spiders.So if you have a fear of spiders, this short story might help you to overcome it. Views: 332
Soot the almost black cat guards the portal between here and otherwhere along with his witch. They must defend it against werewolves, trolls, faerie and worst, the humans of suburbia. Views: 332
Excerpt: ...two hands and set him just outside the door. I never was rough with any baby in all my life!" "I happen to know, on excellent authority," said Mrs. Milligan, "that you slapped both of those helpless children and threw them down the front steps. Laura was so excited about it that she couldn\'t sleep, and the poor baby cried half the night Views: 332
Three Coins in a FountainLibby, Jessie and GenaThree women, three wishes...Three Coins in a FountainLibby Waldron wished to marry...anyone but the groom handpicked by her small-town, wedding-crazed Texas family!Ethan Redwine needed a nanny for his two precocious kids--could Libby convince the marriage-shy millionaire to take a temporary wife? With Ethan's children on her side, she just might charm him into matrimony. But as Libby gazed into Ethan's warm brown eyes, she started wishing forever could be part of the vows...Only a wish from the heart will come true! Views: 332
Everyday, one reads and search for answers about what is the purpose of humanity’s existence on this planet. One purchases and reads books, researches on the internet, publishing their theories about the purpose of humanity, and there purpose on Earth. So many theories are being proclaimed. Yet, there has been confusion, since the beginning of creation to this life’s old question. Truth?They are tricked by Satan to walk down the path of evil and darkness. They are praying homage to false idols, addictions and vices of the Earthly realm. They are pulled further away from their spiritual truth God wants his children to come home to him, to turn away from the evil lurk of Satan and his henchmen. If he could find a child or children who were willing to write a book about a conversation between God and humanity explaining the truth of his love, it probably would be similar to the following dialogue. Humanity starts the conversation and God explaining his perspectives of why what he does to teach his children, because he loves all of his children. No matter what awful transgressions they have or will commit in the past, present and the future, from murder, adultery, lying, stealing and deceiving others. No trangression is not forgivable. When they are repented and called upon Jesus for mercy, admit their transgressions and accept the Salvation of coming closer to the Creator, then they are saved and are reborn as Children of God. The peace that comes with this sacrifice can not be describe in human language. Only by letting go of freewill will humankind understand the truth of the Messiah. Views: 332
Eliza Leslie, frequently referred to as Miss Leslie, was an American author of popular cookbooks during the nineteenth century. Views: 332
