From the USA Today bestselling author of Midnight at the Blackbird Cafe comes Heather Webber's next charming novel, In the Middle of Hickory Lane!Emme Wynn has wanted nothing more her whole life than to feel like part of a family. Having grown up on the run with her con artist mother, she's been shuffled from town to town, drawn into bad situations, and has learned some unsavory habits that she's tried hard to overcome. When her estranged grandmother tracks her down out of the blue and extends a job offer—helping to run her booth at an open-air marketplace in small-town Sweetgrass, Alabama—Emme is hopeful that she'll finally be able to plant the roots she's always dreamed of. But some habits are hard to break, and she risks her newfound happiness by keeping one big truth to herself.Cora Bee Hazelton has her hands full with volunteering, gardening, her job as a color consultant and designer, and just about anything she can do to... Views: 56
Gladys, a spirited, beautiful girl raised in the heart of the Australian outback by her father, has married into British high society. Her husband Alfred, well meaning, kind and head-over-heels in love with her, unwittingly throws her into the lion's den that is the London summer season. Is her beauty enough to make up for her coarse ways and shocking behaviour? And will her new family ever recover from the shame of having such a wild member? Soon England promises to smooth her rough-edged vulgarity; but at what cost?This endearing exploration into the trials of being an animated, lively and vigorous young woman in late 1800's England is E. W. Hornung at his very best. It was first published in 1890. Views: 56
Kate Parello runs a volunteer program in Belize for Artists for International Aid, where she deals with self-centered artists who use the program as a means to repair their marred reputations. She loves the country, the people, and what AIA stands for, but too many diva volunteers have turned her off to press-seeking celebrities altogether and left her questioning the value of the volunteer program. When she meets incredibly handsome and charming Sage, he stirs emotions she hasn't felt for ages, even though he represents the things she despises. Laid-back artist Sage Remington escapes his wealthy lifestyle in the Big Apple for a two-week journey of self-discovery to figure out how a guy who has so much can feel so empty. When he meets ultra-organized Kate, who lives her life the way he's always dreamed of living his, the attraction is too hot to ignore, but Sage is there to figure out what's missing in his life, not to find a woman. Every look, and every late-night chat in the romantic jungle brings them closer together, but Sage can barely think past stripping away Kate's misconceptions about him. Kate fights him every step of the way--even though she finds it hard to ignore the strikingly handsome, generous-to-a-fault artist who wants to do nothing more than right the wrongs of the world--and love her to the ends of the earth. Views: 56
Addy Hanlon has always been Beth Cassidy's best friend and trusted lieutenant. Beth calls the shots and Addy carries them out, a long-established order of things that has brought them to the pinnacle of their high-school careers. Now they're seniors who rule the intensely competitive cheer squad, feared and followed by the other girls -- until the young new coach arrives.Cool and commanding, an emissary from the adult world just beyond their reach, Coach Colette French draws Addy and the other cheerleaders into her life. Only Beth, unsettled by the new regime, remains outside Coach's golden circle, waging a subtle but vicious campaign to regain her position as "top girl" -- both with the team and with Addy herself. Then a suicide focuses a police investigation on Coach and her squad. After the first wave of shock and grief, Addy tries to uncover the truth behind the death -- and learns that the boundary between loyalty and love can be dangerous terrain. The raw passions of girlhood are brought to life in this taut, unflinching exploration of friendship, ambition, and power. Award-winning novelist Megan Abbott, writing with what Tom Perrotta has hailed as "total authority and an almost desperate intensity," provides a harrowing glimpse into the dark heart of the all-American girl.Amazon.com ReviewAmazon Best Books of the Month, August 2012: Oh my, these beautiful, terrible girls, with their "Aruba-tanned" legs and their ferocity and fears, for whom the smallest slights become life-and-death matters. This brilliantly dark and uncomfortably real story, sharp and suspenseful and chilling, made me desperately glad I have sons. The author is so attuned to the "witchiness of girls" and the drama of high school, and then she takes us to the darkest corners of that world. These aren't Mean Girls or Breakfast Club teens--more like Glee on steroids. Megan Abbott is a scary genius. Her voice is fierce and fearless. --Neal ThompsonReviewEARLY PRAISE FOR DARE ME:"A fascinating, almost voyeuristic, glimpse into the power struggle that goes on between teenaged girls. Not just any teenaged girls-cheerleaders-with their own unique hierarchy and fierce code of loyalty, which they'll protect at any cost. There's a dark and twisted love story here, told with a rich sensual undertone that lingers long after you close the last page, still breathing in your ear: Dare me." (Chevy Stevens, New York Times bestselling author of Still Missing and *Never Knowing* )"Arresting, original and unputdownable." (Rosamund Lupton, New York Times bestselling author of *Sister* )"I dare you not to love this book. You lucky reader." (Tom Franklin, New York Times bestselling author of *Crooked Letter, Crooked Letter* )"DARE ME sneaks up on you from behind, pulling on long-forgotten memories of teenaged desperation, obsession, and desire. This is truly masterful storytelling." (Alafair Burke, author of *Never Tell* )"Megan Abbott's brilliant new book presents a number of possibilities-the mysterious and the erotic, as well as the inevitable and paradoxical lessons of girlhood-with such illumination that the joyful terrors of adolescence were once again present in me. Abbott's characters, confronted with unaccustomed questions and strange, new difficulties, remind us that the loss of innocence can, if we are fortunate, emerge into a lustrous wisdom." (Susanna Moore, author of *In the Cut* )"In Dare Me Megan Abbott guides us into the subculture of athletic and fierce young cheerleaders, who train together, compete, andbond until they form a rugged unit much as Marines form a rugged unit. She finds the nearly sinister underside of everyday events and somehow builds great suspense from ingredients that seem so familiar. Abbott has become expert at revealing truths we thought we knew but didn't, delivered in prose that is by turns elegant and incantatory." (Daniel Woodrell, author of *Winter's Bone* ) Views: 56
Something is wrong with Esmé. Kicked out of her fancy private school in New York, she's sent to live with her grandmother in a small Pennsylvania town. Something is wrong with the grandmother Ez hasn't seen for years; she leaves at midnight, carrying a big black bag. Something is wrong with her grandmother's house, a decrepit mansion full of stray cats, stairs that led to nowhere, beds that unmake themselves. Something is wrong in the town where a kid disappears every year, where a whistle sounds at night but no train ever arrives. And something is wrong with the cute and friendly neighbour Ez's age with black curls and ice-blue eyes. He's dead. Views: 56
Kenza nightclub owner, Ruben McKenzie can have any woman he wants, but the only woman he wants is Rosie—his sweet innocent employee, who happens to be eleven years his junior. Watching her parade her hot little body around his club, serving drinks completely unaware of the attention she attracts is driving him to distraction. But when he sees a regular getting close to her, all bets are off. Rosie has had more than enough life experience, but when it comes to matters of the heart—the one place that Ruben wants in—she’s completely innocent. Having no family of her own, it’s a dream to be invited to a McKenzie family gathering. Rosie always wanted to belong to a family like the McKenzie’s, but she’s afraid that if she gives her heart to Ruben and things don’t work she’ll be crushed, beyond repair. Neither one of them may be able to keep their distance for long. The trouble that has been brewing at Kenza finally comes to a head, and when Rosie finds herself caught up in it, how far will Ruben go to protect her? ***In this third installment of the McKenzie Brothers series you’ll learn more about the two remaining brothers, Lucien and Ramon. New players, Hunter and Julian, will be introduced. They’re getting their own series in 2015, but Hunter’s story will start in Gia, a novella coming out first in the Bad Boys of Romance Anthology, which is releasing in July 2014. None of my books have cliffhangers and they can be read as standalone, but to get the full background on the rest of the family then I do suggesting reading Seduce, The Wedding and Rapture first. Views: 56
