The Yellow Villa

'People come to France to reinvent themselves...' Mia and Ben, an Australian couple in their early thirties, have relinquished one dream and embraced another, selling their Sydney flat and purchasing an old yellow house in the picturesque village of Cordes-sur-Ciel in South-West France. They soon meet sophisticated neighbours Dominic and Susannah, a British couple in their sixties who welcome them warmly but whose own relationship is in crisis. Mia and Ben are immediately star-struck and impressed by their lavish hospitality. However, things with Dominic and Susannah are not what they first seem. Gradually secrets begin to surface, revealing details of a scandal Dominic and Susannah had hoped to leave behind in London. Reeling from these revelations, Mia and Ben no longer trust their own instincts and the peaceful idyll of their French life begins to unravel. Can Dominic and Susannah escape each other, and can Ben and Mia they find their way back to each other...
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A Hidden Affair

PAST WARS, PAST LIVES, PAST LOVES . . . CAN WE EVER REALLY LET THEM GO . . . AND SHOULD WE? Ten years ago, U.S. State Department intelligence officer Jordan Weiss's life was turned upside down when she was told her college boyfriend, Jared, drowned in the River Cam. In a shocking discovery, though, she realizes that things weren't as they seemed and that she had been lied to and betrayed by those closest to her. Reeling from the shock-- and the knowledge that Jared is still alive--Jordan resigns her State Department post and sets off in search of answers. Traveling to Jared's last known whereabouts on the French Riviera, she encounters Nicole, a mysterious woman who flees after refusing to disclose what she knows about Jared.Following Nicole across Europe, Jordan soon discovers that she is not alone in her pursuit-- Aaron, a handsome and enigmatic Israeli, is chasing Nicole for his own cryptic reasons. Though distrustful of each other, Jordan and Aaron join forces on a...
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Baby Come Back

This novella is written from Gina's point of view. The time frame encompassed in this book is from the end of Book #2, 'Baby Love', and the time period covered in Book #3, 'Be My Baby.' This book offers insight into Gina's past and what makes her the tough cookie that she appears to be. This book also gives us a glimpse of her relationship with Tristan, and how they face some bumps in their rode to HEA (Happily Ever After).It is important to read the three prior books in the 'Baby Series' trilogy first.About the AuthorAndrea Smith is an Ohio native, currently residing in Springfield, Ohio. Ms. Smith is the mother of two grown sons, and grandmother of four. The 'Baby Series' trilogy is Ms. Smith's first self-published work. Having previously been employed as an executive for a global corporation, Ms. Smith decided to leave the corporate world and pursue her life-long dream of writing fiction. She credits her former employer in a large part for assisting her in making this career choice. Ms. Smith discovered that reality is often times stranger than fiction in Corporate America. . .
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The Butcher's Theater

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER They call the ancient hills of Jerusalem the butcher's theater. Here, upon this bloodstained stage, a faceless killer performs his violent specialty. The first to die brutally is a girl. She is drained of blood, then carefully bathed and shrouded in white. Precisely one week later, a second victim is found. "Crisp . . . suspenseful . . . intense."--The New York Times Book Review From the sacred Wailing Wall to monasteries where dark secrets are cloistered, from black-clad Bedouin enclaves to labyrinthine midnight alleys, veteran police inspector Daniel Sharavi and his crack team plunge deep into a city simmering with religious and political passions to hunt for a murderer whose insatiable taste for bloodshed could destroy the delicate balance on which Jerusalem's very survival depends.BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from Jonathan Kellerman's Guilt.
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The Heretic's Treasure

An ancient fortune has lain hidden for thousands of years, one so powerful that men will kill to protect it.And only one man can unearth it…Ex-SAS operative Ben Hope is living a peaceful life in rural France - until a phone call from an old army comrade turns his world upside down. Eminent Egyptologist Morgan Paxton has been brutally murdered while working on the mysterious 'Akhenaten Project' in Cairo, and Colonel Harry Paxton wants Ben to find his son's killer.Ben is unable to refuse the request from the man who once saved his life - but when Harry asks him to avenge his son's death he's in dangerous territory. Made worse by the fact that he finds himself attracted to Zara Paxton, Harry's new bride.Carving through the seedy Cairo underworld, Ben soon realises that there was more to Paxton's research than meets the eye as he is plunged into one double-cross after another. His mission leads him from Italy and Paris via the coast of Scotland to the banks of the Nile, climaxing in a tense showdown in the war-torn Sudanese desert.At the end of the trail lies the ultimate treasure, hidden away by three rebel High Priests during the reign of the 'Heretic' Pharoah Akhenaten - a collection so valuable that some will stop at nothing to possess it…A super-charged, heart-racing thriller, perfect for fans of Dan Brown, Sam Bourne and Wilbur Smith. Scott Mariani is the author of the Sunday Times bestselling series of conspiracy adventure thrillers featuring ex-SAS hero and former theology scholar Ben Hope. With translation rights sold in 20 countries, the series was optioned for film in 2009 and a major star is lined up to take the leading role. 2010 sees the launch of Scott's new Vampire Federation series for Avon, writing under the name Scott G. Mariani.Scott lives in the wilds of west Wales, and when not busy writing enjoys outdoor pursuits, walking his dogs, archery and photography.
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Falling

On a late summer day along the shores of Nova Scotia, a young woman makes a mistake that will claim her life, while at the other end of the beach her brother, Damian, is unaware that she is drowning. Beginning with this shattering event, Anne Simpson’s mesmerizing novel unfolds in unexpected ways. A year after the accident, Damian and his mother, Ingrid, travel to Niagara Falls to scatter Lisa’s ashes and to visit Ingrid’s estranged brother, once a famous daredevil of the Falls, now blind, and his mentally disabled son. But old wounds and new misunderstandings soon collide. Damian, burdened by guilt, finds solace in an intense relationship with a girl he first glimpses in a tattoo parlour. A runaway with dreams of New York City, Jasmine has her own reasons for wanting to escape the past. Meanwhile, Ingrid, having reluctantly returned to her childhood home, finds herself at odds with her brother and besieged by memories. As the summer progresses, each of them becomes caught in the pull of the past — until an act of recklessness shocks them into a new course for the future. In startling, luminous language, Anne Simpson captures both the natural beauty and tawdry eccentricity of Niagara Falls, while evoking the elemental bonds that tie us to the ones we love. By turns uncompromising and heartbreakingly tender, Falling is a riveting story of ordinary people poised on the knife-edge of grief and hope. With this, her second novel, Anne Simpson proves herself to be one of our most striking and original writers.From the Hardcover edition.ReviewPraise for Falling“This is a tender and wise novel; a remarkable story of love lost, and then found.” — David Bergen“In concise, beautiful language, Anne Simpson’s Falling captures a family in free-fall after tragedy strikes. Against the quiet loveliness of a Nova Scotian landscape, and the endless, brutal roar of Niagara Falls, Simpson’s characters struggle to regain their balance, caught between the poles of acceptance and rage, hope and despair. We fall with them and surface, shaken, transformed. Tough, heartbreaking, astute, this novel confronts our deepest fears, and teaches us how to survive.” — Beth Powning“The novel moves forward much like the rushing river that ends up as the tumbling waterfall, unstoppable, a force of nature, like life itself. . . . The novel deserves the highest praise: Simpson has brought together character, plot, language and metaphor with both subtlety and intensity. The result is a potent mix, one that might well result in a Giller award to stand beside her Griffin Prize.” — National Post“Simpson's skill is such that the sum total here is far greater than the parts. We don't quite realize the force of what's built up until near the end, when we suddenly find ourselves fully invested in this compelling web of characters.” — Toronto Star“Profound and sharply observed. . . . Simpson has the poet’s art of paying close attention to details, which take on added fierceness and luminosity [in this novel]. . . . We see, with increasing admiration and wonder, the forces [her characters] are able draw on, as they tumble through the waterfall, in order to survive.” — Globe and Mail“It’s rare to come across a current writer whose characters not only make you think, but are described in such sensual language that t... About the AuthorANNE SIMPSON is the author of four books of poetry, Is (2011); Quick (2007), winner of the Pat Lowther Memorial Award; Loop (2003), winner of the Griffin Poetry Prize; and Light Falls Through You (2000), winner of the Gerald Lampert Memorial Prize and the Atlantic Poetry Prize. She has also written two novels, Falling (2008), longlisted for the International IMPAC Dublin Literary Award and winner of the Dartmouth Award for Fiction, and Canterbury Beach (2001). Her book of essays, The Marram Grass: Poetry and Otherness (2009), delves into issues of poetry, art, and empathy. While her home is in Nova Scotia, she has been a writer-in-residence at many universities and libraries across Canada.
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Eugene Onegin

Still the benchmark of Russian literature 175 years after its first publication—now in a marvelous new translationPushkin's incomparable poem has at its center a young Russian dandy much like Pushkin in his attitudes and habits. Eugene Onegin, bored with the triviality of everyday life, takes a trip to the countryside, where he encounters the young and passionate Tatyana. She falls in love with him but is cruelly rejected. Years later, Eugene Onegin sees the error of his ways, but fate is not on his side. A tragic story about love, innocence, and friendship, this beautifully written tale is a treasure for any fan of Russian literature.
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