Innocent and lovely Shimona Bardsley's father, the celebrated actor Beau Bardsley, has fallen desperately ill and yet he insists on persevering with the evening's performance as Hamlet at The Theatre Royal, Drury Lane. A concerned Shimona accompanies him to the theatre where she overhears the notoriously disreputable Duke of Ravenstone – known as 'His Disgrace' – offering her father the huge sum of five hundred guineas to find him an actress to play 'a part' for just two nights. Desperate to raise enough money to take her father to a warmer clime and thereby save his life, Shimona accepts the Duke's offer and finds herself reluctantly embroiled in a deception that her conscience finds hard to bear. Unchaperoned in the grand Ravenstone House in London with the devilish Duke and an imperious Clan Chieftain, Shimona is afraid, alone and in trouble – But soon, to her bewilderment and ecstasy, she finds that she is also in love. Views: 15
Michael McGinnis has finally escaped the clutches of alcohol, and with his brother Casey doing well in rehab, for the first time in his life, he dares to hope that what only seemed like a fantasy a year ago - a life with Eva as his wife, a child or two, and a job he was born to do - will become a reality. But Viper reaches out even from prison, and sets out to shatter Michael's dreams. With help from outside sources, he frames Michael for a string of arson cases. Desperate to clear his name, Michael becomes a fugitive, staying one step ahead of the law, but one step behind the real arsonist. Views: 15
The End Boxset: Postapocalyptic Visions of an Unstoppable Collapse "A very chilling story that keeps you glued to the pages. I thought the author's writing was reminiscent of some of Isaac Asimov's early writings so I felt compelled to see the story through to the end. I really enjoyed this story and hope to read further works by this author." *Book 1 rating 5/5 Stars This is a boxset of three best selling Post-Apocalyptic books: In the near future, society has reached its breaking point. Even in the U.S. (the last best hope for the world), economic collapse seems unavoidable along with war and civil strife. In such troubling times there are those prepared for the worst and those who are not. Then there are also are too young to notice what is happening around them. Brian is an average teenager just starting high school in a Pittsburgh suburb he moved to only three years before. Struggling to fit in at school and dealing with his mother--who continues to make wild plans to flee the country--all Brian wants to do is get through another day. But on one seemingly normal Wednesday afternoon at school, the collapse begins, creating a new and dangerous world. Through these unexplained events, Brian will discover that the craziest day of his life is only the beginning...of the end. Book 2: In this second installment of the three-part story, trouble has come to an unsuspecting Pittsburgh suburb. In the near future, society has reached its breaking point. A strange and mysterious occurrence follows one seemingly normal Wednesday afternoon that leads to chaos and pandemonium. All power in the town has gone out, vehicles have stopped dead in their tracks, and cell phones aren't functional. Could this be a freak accident or some part of a larger attack on the nation's power grids? Alice, a strong-willed mother of two, races to get her children from school before things get worse. Brian, her son, has fled the high school with his friend, Tobias, as they attempt to get home. And Kiya, her daughter, is trapped in her middle school as the vigilant Principal, Mr. Wright, has sealed the school from outside intruders. Through all of this, the citizens of the town can stand together or they can fall, as a full-fledged collapse is right around the corner. This is...the end. Book 3 In this third and final installment of the series, the people of a Pittsburgh suburb must come to grip with their troubling dilemma. Cut off from the world through a collapsed power grid, there are no easy answers, and as chaos grows people start to turn on one another when they should be coming together. But nothing will stop Alice from finding her children and getting them to safety, despite the odds. Her daughter, Kiya, is trapped inside a middle school that's been placed on lockdown by a fanatical principal who fears the end of days. Her son,Brian, wants nothing more than to find his friend Tobias. And finally, Jeremy, a loner from town, has traveled far to escape the calamity, but finds that the problem extends far beyond state lines. All of their tales merge into a discovery of where society is headed. Could there be hope? Or is this simply...the end? Views: 15
The conclusion of a two-part series.Luke Harrington has returned to New York, back to the place where he used to live a life of excess and change women as he often as he changed suits. But the city no longer feels like home, not when the woman he loves is hidden away on the other side of the continent.Kat Hollister once prided herself on being strong and self-reliant, but everything changes when she ventures from the comfort of her small town in Alaska to follow a dream.In a city of eight million people, can Luke and Kat find each other before all is lost? Views: 15
Contemporary visions of the future have been shaped by hopes and fears about the effects of human technology and global capitalism on the natural world. In an era of climate change, mass extinction, and oil shortage, such visions have become increasingly catastrophic, even apocalyptic. Exploring the close relationship between science fiction, ecology, and environmentalism, the essays in Green Planets consider how science fiction writers have been working through this crisis. Beginning with H. G. Wells and passing through major twentieth-century writers like Ursula K. Le Guin, Stanislaw Lem, and Thomas Disch to contemporary authors like Margaret Atwood, China Miéville, and Paolo Bacigalupi—as well as recent blockbuster films like Avatar and District 9—the essays in Green Planets consider the important place for science fiction in a culture that now seems to have a very uncertain future. The book includes an extended interview with Kim Stanley Robinson and an... Views: 15
