At The Battle of Worcester in 1651, Prince Charles with thirteen thousand troops, both English andScottish, is heavily defeated by Oliver Cromwell and flees to France. Clive More escapes the battlefield to a friendly house and is saved from Cromwell's men by the Nanny of Alissa aged nine. Nanny disguises him as a girl and hides him in her bedroom. After the Prince is restored to the throne as King Charles II in 1660, Alissa, her father the Earl of Dalwaynnie, her stepmother and her stepsister Nancy, move to London.The King, grateful for the Earl's support, gives them Apartments at the Royal Palace of Whitehall.Clive More, who is now the Marquis of Morelanton, comes down from the North. He and the King are the same age and spent a great deal of time together including playing tennis at which they both excel. The Countess, the new wife of the Earl of Dalwaynnie, is determined that her daughter Nancy should marry Clive now he is a Marquis and contrives to keep him away... Views: 68
He snatched me up and filled me with his baby.
I shouldn’t submit to him. After all, he kidnapped me.
I should do something – run, scream, fight back.
But one look into his icy eyes and I know the truth: I’m not going anywhere.
I’m going to stay here. Submit to his touch.
And I’m going to have his baby.
Kelsey
I knew when I started that this was a dangerous game.
But I needed answers, and one of these bastards had to know who killed my sister.
I’d do whatever it took to find the murderer.
Even if it meant letting a hideous monster f*ck me like a dog.
Spike Lawler claimed me as his old lady before I even knew to resist.
Now, he says he’ll never let me go.
I’m trapped and drowning, a helpless victim to his disgusting wrath.
And when he finds out I’m pregnant, the last windows of opportunity to escape are slammed shut.
But here’s what Spike doesn’t know:
The baby isn’t his.
And the man who gave it to me is coming to claim his child.
Chopper
I’m sick of standing idly by. It’s time to strike.
Spike Lawler is soft. Weak. Arrogant. He thinks I can’t do a thing to him.
But he doesn’t know that I’ve learned his secret:
His old lady, his most prized possession, is pregnant.
I’m going to hit him where it hurts the most.
The plan comes together perfectly, and before I know it,
I have his old lady tied up in my clubhouse basement.
I go down to interrogate her, only to come face-to-face with a stunning realization.
She’s not just some pawn in this power struggle.
She’s the mother of my baby.
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Be careful what you wish for...Antonia has always put everyone else before herself. Shy and quiet, her life in a small village in Wicklow has been devoted to her invalid mother and singing in the local church choir. Somehow, it's easier that way. But when she is left alone her friends encourage her to audition for a television talent show. Blessed with a glorious singing voice, she is suddenly thrust into the limelight and enters the world of celebrity and glamour. She's the Girl from Nowhere, but can she cope with this startling new life? Antonia discovers that this business is tougher than she ever thought possible, but also that she's stronger than she thought she was. And she finds that help can come from the most unexpected places...From the number one bestselling author of Take A Look At Me Now, winner of the Galaxy Irish Popular Fiction Book of the Year. Views: 68
Running from the Law. Leaving everything behind. What more is there to lose?Katie Donovan soon learns she has much to lose, but even more to gain on the long journey to Oregon in 1850.Two men vie for Katie's affection. Clay Monroe is ready to marry and vows he will win Katie's heart before they reach Oregon. His proposal has her head and her heart spinning.Jason Barnett is attracted to Katie, but her rebellion against God keeps him from pursuing her. As he grows closer to her and her family, can he turn away once they reach the land of their dreams?Cross the wilderness with Katie as she travels The Oregon Trail. Views: 68
Seventeen-year-old Elena lived a vibrant life with a great boyfriend and great friends. Little did she know that turning in her pom-poms was the least of the changes she would experience in the upcoming year. Life-changing, heart-shattering circumstances would soon cause her happy life to crumble right in front of her. The once fun-loving Elena retreated into herself, finding it easier to push people out than chance more heartache. Just when she figured out how to keep herself busy enough to ignore the imperfections of her life, Finn Kerrville showed up with one mission: to prove that life could be more than disappointment and betrayal. Life could be fun and exciting. Life could be unexpected. Life could be forgiving. Views: 68
How do you work for a guy who took the job you wanted? Every time Captain Layne Sullivan runs into Chief Ross Taylor, she struggles with that issue. It doesn't help that he's a by-the-book cop who expects everything done his way. It also doesn't help that he's hot. Ignoring that little fact is impossible--she's tried!Then Layne's world is turned upside down when human remains are discovered...and the case has a personal connection. Suddenly she's glad Ross is so thorough, because he'll get to the truth. And his search brings them closer, fueling the attraction that's out of control. As secrets and lies from the past surface, Layne's biggest challenge is fighting for a future--with Ross in it. Views: 68
Firefighter Aidan Donnelly has always battled the flames with trademark icy calm. That is, until a blazing old flame returns--in the shape of sizzling soap star Mackenzie Stafford! Aidan wants to pour water over the unquenchable heat between them. But that just creates more steam....Kenzie is not the delicate, fragile female she looks like. She has one clear objective, and nothing will stand in the way of her goal--well, nothing but the red-hot touch of a certain dangerously sexy fireman, that is! Views: 68
In her exhilarating debut novel, Kresley Cole captures the drama, passion, and boundless adventure of the high seas -- as one fiery lass finds herself caught in a tide of torrid romance. Raised as a free spirit aboard her American sea captain father's majestic clipper ship, willful Nicole Lassiter has never encountered an obstacle she couldn't overcome -- until she meets Captain Derek Sutherland. His sizzling kisses leave her longing, but after they share a night of passion, his subsequent disdain makes her blood boil. Nicole vows to take her revenge -- by helping her father beat Sutherland in a high-stakes competition: the Great Circle Race from England to Australia. Nicole's scheme is thrown overboard after her father is wrongly imprisoned, yet she remains undaunted -- taking to the high seas with her father's ship. But a storm wrecks her plans, and she finds herself a virtual prisoner aboard Sutherland's vessel. And while her mind tells her she should escape, her body urges her to surrender... Views: 68
In her powerful memoir His Bright Light, #1 New York Times bestselling author Danielle Steel opened her heart to share the devastating story of the loss of her beloved son. In A Gift of Hope, she shows us how she transformed that pain into a campaign of service that enriched her life beyond what she could imagine.For eleven years, Danielle Steel took to the streets with a small team to help the homeless of San Francisco. She worked anonymously, visiting the “cribs” of the city’s most vulnerable citizens under cover of darkness, distributing food, clothing, bedding, tools, and toiletries. She sought no publicity for her efforts and remained anonymous throughout. Now she is speaking to bring attention to their plight.In this unflinchingly honest and deeply moving memoir, the famously private author speaks out publicly for the first time about her work among the most desperate members of our society. She offers achingly acute portraits of the people she met along the way—and issues a heartfelt call for more effective action to aid this vast, deprived population. Determined to supply the homeless with the basic necessities to keep them alive, she ends up giving them something far more powerful: a voice.By turns candid and inspirational, Danielle Steel’s A Gift of Hope is a true act of advocacy and love.About the AuthorDanielle Steel has been hailed as one of the world’s most popular authors, with over 600 million copies of her novels sold. Her many international bestsellers include The Sins of the Mother, Friends Forever, Betrayal, Hotel Vendôme, Happy Birthday, 44 Charles Street, and other highly acclaimed novels. She is also the author of His Bright Light, the story of her son Nick Traina’s life and death. Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.OneHow and Why “Yo! Angel!” StartedThe homeless outreach team that changed my life, and that of many others, began at a very dark time for me. My son Nick showed signs of suffering from bipolar disease from his earliest childhood. At eighteen months, I found him “different,” and precocious long before that (he walked at eight months and spoke in full sentences in two languages when he was a year old). At four, I was convinced that he was manic. When he was five, I sought advice from doctors and psychiatrists who brushed off my concerns, and assured me he was “fine.” And when he was seven, I alternated between panic and despair, convinced that he was sick, begging for help for him, while every doctor I consulted reassured me and insisted there was nothing wrong. I have a great fondness now for doctors who respect the bond that mothers have with their children and acknowledge that we know them best of all. I knew my son was sick, but no professional would agree.When Nick was a very young child, which is not so very long ago, the tradition adhered to by most psychiatrists was that manic depression (or bipolar disease as it is more frequently called now), could not be diagnosed until a patient was in his early twenties, and was staunchly never medicated before that age. The medication most commonly used for bipolar disease was lithium. And it was considered exceptional and almost revolutionary when I found a very respected expert on manic depression at UCLA, who gave Nick lithium at sixteen. And for a brief time, lithium was a miraculous wonder drug for him. For the first time in years he was able to lead what appeared to be a totally normal life because of the drugs, and his diagnosis was established: He was bipolar. To be diagnosed at that age was almost unheard of then. Today, they give lithium to children suspected of being bipolar at four or five. That was unthinkable when Nick was that age. And the belief now is that if you diagnose and medicate bipolar children, they have a much better chance of having a normal life later on. I’ve written a whole book about Nick, his illness and his life, his victories and defeats, and our great love for him, so I won’t go into detail here. He had two very good years of productive, normal life once he was medicated. And at eighteen, still on the appropriate drugs, he felt so normal that he insisted he wanted to stop taking them. Much to my chagrin (and terror), he spiraled down immediately once off them, and within five weeks he made his first suicide attempt, and very nearly succeeded. Miraculously, he survived, and assured me he wouldn’t do it again, but did so ten days later, and was saved again. He made three unsuccessful suicide attempts in three months, then got back on his medications and improved immediately, and with the naivete of a loving parent, I thought we were home free. After those three suicide attempts, he seemed better, happier, more productive, and more functional than he had ever been, until fierce depression hit him again six months later. He made his final and tragically successful suicide attempt eleven months after the first one, and died at nineteen. It was a heartbreaking time for me, my eight other children, and all those who knew and loved Nick. Although I have eight wonderful children for whom I am immeasurably grateful, he left an enormous hole in our lives, and will be forever missed. The first months after he died were bleak, to say the least. Like many grieving parents, I had a hard time getting from one day to the next. To compound things further, as sometimes happens at difficult times, like after a death--particularly the death of a child--my marriage disintegrated as well. Life couldn’t have seemed worse. And as the holidays approached, I was in dark despair.Years before, I had learned a valuable lesson from my oldest daughter, then only fourteen. She had a serious moped accident in our driveway, which damaged her knee, resulting in seven years of grueling physical therapy and repeated surgeries, and kept her on crutches and in wheelchairs for those seven years. It would have been challenging for anyone, and even more so for a young girl of fourteen. She was extremely brave and in constant pain, and to distract her from her troubles, one of her doctors suggested that she work with people who were even more unfortunate than she. She took the advice to heart, and within a short time she had volunteered in a pediatric cancer ward. And there she found not only something to think about other than her injury, she found her true passion and lifelong vocation. She spent hours there, fell in love with the young patients, volunteered for many years at a summer camp for kids with cancer, and many degrees later, she is a therapist and social worker in a pediatric oncology ward. I can’t think of a more heartbreaking job. I admire her immensely for it, and she loves what she does. It is her passion. And I’m sure that in the beginning, at fourteen, it helped keep her mind off her leg and the agony she was in.During those early days and months after my son’s death and the end of my marriage, trying to find some meaning to life and to struggle through such hard times, I went to church every day. I realize that’s not for everyone, but it helped get me through it, and to hang on till the next day. And one dark winter evening, I was thinking about what my daughter had done in her teens, reaching out to help people who were in even greater distress than she was, and I prayed about it, kneeling in a dark, candle-lit church. The only things that were keeping me going then were my children and my faith. So with my face in my hands, I prayed for something to make me hold on, and to find a way to help someone else in greater need. The answer came faster than I expected, was loud and clear, and was by no means the answer I wanted. I don’t know if I even knew what I hoped the message would be, but surely not the one I got. I didn’t like the thought that popped into my head within minutes of my prayer and request for direction and guidance. It came to me very simply: Help the homeless. And all I could think was Oh no!! Not that!! Please!!I remained kneeling for a while, and then lit some candles, trying to pretend that I hadn’t heard that message clearly in my head. How about some other project? Working with children maybe--I was good at that--or some other nice, neat, clean line of work. All my life I had been a somewhat skittish person, nervous about unusual or ominous-looking people, frightened when drunks or homeless people approached me on the street. It was something I didn’t want to see. Their intrusion into my neat, orderly, clean life was something I wanted to avoid, not embrace. But suddenly, in reality, there was no longer perfect order in any aspect of my life anyway. With my son’s death and husband’s departure, my life was a mess. My life, head, and heart were in disarray. Nick’s death had nearly destroyed me, my whole family was badly shaken. Everything had changed.My children were remarkable to me and one another during that incredibly hard time. There was a sense of solidarity and determined survival, from children who were still so young (five of them from nine to fifteen at the time of their brother’s death, and still at home). Although we were very close before Nick’s death, it has created an even stronger bond between us since. I remember thinking one night right after he died, as we all gathered for dinner, that we were like survivors of the Titanic or some other shipwreck, huddled over our plates, and barely able to speak in our communal pain. And yet we hung on to one another, determined to get through it and one day come to life again. It was a slow and grueling process, with some heavy bumps along the way.Into that atmosphere of life gone awry, and even despair, came the remarkable message I heard in church: Help the homeless. Nuts . . . no, no . . . anything but that. I resisted the thought with all my might. But I also remembered Nick had always been particularly sensitive to the plight of the homeless. Whenever he saw a homeless person, he would stop what he was doing, go to the nearest restaurant or food store, and buy them a meal and “a pack of smokes.” He would return with his offering, never too busy to take the time to do it. He visited shelters, and as the lead singer of an increasingly successful band, he performed at family shelters whenever he could. So I knew that helping the homeless would have been meaningful to him, which made the voice harder to ignore. But I still didn’t like the idea. Not at all!I had already organized a nonprofit foundation in his name, to assist the mentally ill. But this was different. It was about the homeless. Because the idea had come to me in prayer, the message had a sacred meaning to me and I felt as though I was supposed to follow it, even if I didn’t want to. It was close to Christmas, and it seemed like I’d just been given an assignment from “upstairs.” I argued with the idea anyway. Wherever the message came from, I spent several more minutes on my knees in church that night, negotiating . . . come on, God . . . not that . . . how about something else? No deal. The message kept coming like a subliminal ad: Help the homeless. Too bad if you don’t like it. You asked who to help. I told you. Now go do it. (I was not thrilled.)Worse, I had a strange, overwhelming feeling that I had no choice. But believe me, the thought of helping the homeless scared me to death. Being at close range seemed terrifying. I suspect this isn’t a unique reaction, since most of us would rather pretend the homeless don’t exist. People look through them on the streets, turn away, don’t meet their eyes, and whenever possible, would prefer to cross the street to avoid them. Most would rather leav... Views: 68
