You can't help who you fall for... Six months after her husband's death, Jamie knows she has to start living again. And when fellow soldier Brett Palmer turns up, Jamie knows it's fate. Brett is the only other person who can make her feel alive again. Brett swore he would protect Jamie, but being so close to her is driving him insane. So Brett does everything he can to fight their connection. Until the words slip out--he's always loved her. With a second chance staring them both in the face, there is no going back.... Views: 14
Bertrice Small's New York Times bestsellers have won the hearts of countless readers time and time again. With Intrigued, Jasmine's spirited youngest daughter continues Skye's Legacy as she learns the price of love—and desire. . .IntriguedOn her mother's advice, Lady Autumn Leslie leaves war-torn England for France in the hope of making a suitable match. The wealthy and handsome Marquis d'Auriville is all she could wish for in a husband, but when Autumn is widowed only a few years after they are wed, she believes she will never give her heart to another man.Yet as two kings—Louis XIV and Charles II—boldly bid for her affections, Autumn is plunged into the heady world of court intrigue, where powerful men will not hesitate to use a beautiful woman for their own ends—or barter her for their own pleasure. Yet it is Gabriel Bainbridge, the Duke of Garwood, a face from Autumn's past, who is determined to become her... Views: 14
Review"Alchemy and love prove a volatile mix in Katsu's vividly imagined first novel, which toggles between the present and the past. While working the graveyard shift at a rural Maine hospital, Dr. Luke Findley discovers that patient Lanny McIlvrae has miraculous self-healing powers. Lanny then relates the incredible tale of her life: sent packing to Boston by her family in 1817 to give birth to her illegitimate child, she fell in with the entourage of Count Adair, a centuries-old alchemist who saved her life with an elixir of immortality. Decadent and domineering, Adair took Lanny as his mistress--a role she accepted until Adair's scheme to use her true love, Jonathan, to perpetuate his unnatural existence forced her to a desperate ruse to thwart his formidable magic powers. Katsu shows considerable skill in rendering a world where Adair's unspeakable evilness and Lanny's wild passion make the supernatural seem possible. The result is a novel full of surprises and a powerful evocation of the dark side of romantic love." —Publishers Weekly “Readers won’t be able to tear their eyes away from Katsu’s mesmerizing tale.” —Starred Booklist “Alma Katsu’s The Taker is a frighteningly compelling story about those most human monsters—desire and obsession. It will curl your hair and keep you up late at night.” —Keith Donohue, bestselling author of The Stolen Child“Alma Katsu’s searing tale of otherworldly lovers and eternal obsession will seduce you from page one. With its elegant prose and riveting plot, The Taker is as irresistible as the hauntingly beautiful, pleasure-seeking immortals who scorch its pages. A wicked, sensuous, shattering love story that I can’t recommend enough. You have to experience it for yourself!” —Kresley Cole, #1 New York Times bestselling author "Alma Katsu's debut takes the reader on a spell-binding journey through time. This sensual tale of star-crossed love, betrayal and redemption is a rare and addictive treat. Pleasurable from page one." —Danielle Trussoni, New York Times bestselling author of Angelology “The Taker is a sexy, dark romance. Alma Katsu’s tale of immortality and unrequited love covers hundreds of years but never strays from this question: What price are we willing to pay to completely possess another?” —Alexi Zentner, author of Touch “A centuries-spanning epic that will keep you turning pages all night. This marvelous debut is a thinking person’s guilty pleasure.” —Scott Westerfeld, New York Times bestselling author of Leviathan“Alma Katsu’s addictive tale of immortal love is brutal, wrenching, and ultimately moving. Gothic and richly detailed, *The Taker it is an astonishing good read.” —Meg Waite Clayton, bestselling author of *The Wednesday Sisters “This is a great book. And by great, I mean, devastatingly so, like reading The Scarlet Letter, while riding a roller coaster, on acid. Seductive, daring, soaring, and ultimately gut-wrenching, The Taker is a lush, historical rendering of transcendent love, paranormal beings, and the depths of pain that can be felt by immortal hearts.” —Jamie Ford, New York Times bestselling author of Hotel on the Corner of Bitter and SweetProduct DescriptionTrue love can last an eternity . . . but immortality comes at a price. . . .On the midnight shift at a hospital in rural Maine, Dr. Luke Findley is expecting another quiet evening of frostbite and the occasional domestic dispute. But the minute Lanore McIlvrae—Lanny—walks into his ER, she changes his life forever. A mysterious woman with a past and plenty of dark secrets, Lanny is unlike anyone Luke has ever met. He is inexplicably drawn to her . . . despite the fact that she is a murder suspect with a police escort. And as she begins to tell her story, a story of enduring love and consummate betrayal that transcends time and mortality, Luke finds himself utterly captivated. Her impassioned account begins at the turn of the nineteenth century in the same small town of St. Andrew, Maine, back when it was a Puritan settlement. Consumed as a child by her love for the son of the town’s founder, Lanny will do anything to be with him forever. But the price she pays is steep—an immortal bond that chains her to a terrible fate for all eternity. And now, two centuries later, the key to her healing and her salvation lies with Dr. Luke Findley.Part historical novel, part supernatural page-turner, The Taker is an unforgettable tale about the power of unrequited love not only to elevate and sustain, but also to blind and ultimately destroy, and how each of us is responsible for finding our own path to redemption. Views: 14
A young woman is found murdered...and the clues to her death point to her spurned lover, Paul Cézanne.In this richly atmospheric novel, a mysterious young woman named Solange Vernet arrives in Aix-en-Provence with her lover, a Darwinian scholar named Charles Westbury, and a year later is found strangled in a quarry outside the city. The young and inexperienced magistrate, Bernard Martin, finds his investigation caught in the crossfires of a raging cultural debate. Many of the more conservative residents of Aix, including Martin's own police investigator, believe that Solange reaped what she sowed for entertaining such radical scientific theories.Initially assuming that Solange's murder was a simple crime de passion by either a spurned Cézanne or a betrayed Westbury, Bernard soon finds himself on a mission to unravel the secrets of Solange and Cezanne's hidden past—the key to which may be a series of his paintings which depict the strangulation and violation of a woman with golden-red hair.Exploring questions of science and religion—and the role of women in these realms—that persist even today, Cézanne's Quarry is an impressive debut mystery about life, death, love, and art.From Publishers WeeklyCould Paul Cézanne be a killer? That's one of the disturbing prospects confronting novice magistrate Bernard Martin in August 1885 as he starts to investigate the murder of Solange Vernet, a recent transplant from Paris whose brutalized remains are discovered near a favorite haunt of the painter's outside Aix, in Pope's provocative debut. Was the freethinking beauty with the flame-colored locks slain by her lover, self-professed Darwinian scholar—and likely scam artist—Charles Westerbury, as Martin's boss contends, or by a smitten Cézanne? Martin quickly recognizes that the case could be a career maker—or breaker—if he antagonizes the artist's powerful family without overwhelming evidence. Pope animates her canvas with plenty of vivid period detail, but subplots, romantic and otherwise, dilute the suspense; later she telegraphs what should have been a surprise ending. Still, Francophiles and history buffs will find much to like. (June) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistIn fewer than 400 pages, first-time novelist Pope skillfully explores the subjugation and abuse of women in the nineteenth century; the injustices of the French legal system; the conflict between Darwinian philosophy and established religious belief; and Cézanne’s art, love life, and depressed personality. She also weaves a fascinating murder mystery into these diverse thematic threads, forming an intriguing portrait of the painter’s life in Provence and how others might have perceived him. A body is found in a quarry near Aix—the lovely Solange Vernet, object of Cézanne’s unrequited love and the paramour of Darwinian scholar Charles Westbury. Unfortunately, the summer holiday leaves only a skeleton law-enforcement crew in place, among them the inexperienced, timid magistrate Bernard Martin and his callous detective assistant, Franc, who unceremoniously hauls in Westbury and Cézanne for questioning. Both investigators believe this crime of passion points to a lover spurned—but which one? With a bleak view of humanity similar to Émile Zola’s, this story of tortured love and repressed violence resembles Iain Pears at his darkest and Arturo Pérez-Reverte’s The Flanders Panel (1994) in tone and thematic depth. --Jen Baker Views: 14
A Nasty Stew Between her latest "sure-fire" foray into the food industry--video restaurant reviews--and her concern over boyfriend Homicide Detective Paavo Smith's depressed state, Angie Amalfi's plate is full to overflowing. Paavo has never come to terms with the fact that his mother abandoned him when he was four, leaving vehind only an antique brooch to remember her by. But when the bauble vanishes, the jeweler who was repairing it is murdered, and Paavo's surrogate father is critically wounded by a would-be burglar, Paavo decides it's time to discover the truth about his errant parent's life and mysterious disappearance. Gourmet chef and eager sleuth Angie Smells a tasty mystery cooking. But what's bubbling in this pot is a lethal goulash of intrigues, betrayals, FBI deceptions, and murderous Russian mafia mayhem--an old family recipe for disaster for Angie and her policeman beau. Views: 14
New York Times and USA Today bestselling author P. J. Alderman's delightful new mystery series blends haunting ghosts with hunting criminals as therapist Jordan Marsh dives deep into the past to solve a modern murder.
A recent transplant to Washington State's charming seaside town of Port Chatham, Jordan is still getting used to sharing her slightly run-down but historic lodging with ghosts. As if living with the long-deceased isn't enough of a challenge, she's just found a corpse: The town's notorious womanizer Holt Stillwell is lying on the beach with a bullet in his head. Before Jordan can reel in a suspect, another victim surfaces. And this one isn't taking murder lying down. Holt's ancestor Michael Seavey, the Pacific Northwest's most infamous shanghaier, has materialized in Jordan's house, seeking to solve his own death in a suspicious shipwreck in 1893. With two murders to solve and a killer on the loose, Jordan faces yet another equally terrifying prospect: her growing attraction to the very alive and criminally attractive pub owner Jase Cunningham. Views: 14
"The king was in his counting-house. He was counting to see whether there was enough gold to maintain the golden age that had already begun, in wobbly fashion, and almost unnoticed. And he was amazed by the amount of gold that he found." — Notes From The Golden Age, R.A. LaffertyThere is a lot of gold left to Lafferty even after the tales have been talled. After the overwhelming positive response to our collection of R.A. Lafferty's short fiction, we decided a companion volume was needed, one which gathered together the core of his non-fiction in one convenient place for his fans, both past and future.This e-book contains: It's Slippery Down The Cellar StairsTrue BelieversCranky Old Man From TulsaThe Fall of RomeAfterwords and Memoir commentaries on the author's own storiesLetters and essays from other venuesThe typographical corrections, rigorous proof-reading, and active Table of Contents every good e-book needs to be worth your time Views: 14
A MATCH MADE BY MAIL Needing a home and a husband to help her raise her orphaned nephews, Bella Wilson travels to Wyoming in response to a mail-order bride ad. But when she arrives, she discovers Pony Express rider Philip Young didn't place the ad. With her groom-to-be insisting he's not looking for a wife, Bella must convince him to marry her for the sake of the children. Philip never planned to marry, but he can't possibly turn away a woman in distress and allow her nephews to end up in an orphanage as he once had. A marriage of convenience is the perfect solution. But when he slowly discovers that family life may be what he's been looking for all along, can he convince Bella to give love a chance? Views: 14
Long light evenings, swimming and tennis, striped cotton frocks...it's summer term at Raeburn. New arrival Constance King hates her boarding school on sight, yet dreams of being accepted by the other girls. Instead, she finds a ferment of frustrated hopes mingled with excited expectations... Views: 14
In this sweeping novel, James A. Michener chronicles eight tumultuous centuries as three Polish families live out their destinies. The Counts Lubonski, the petty nobles Bukowksi, and the peasants Buk are at some times fiercely united, at others tragically divided. With an inspiring tradition of resistance to brutal invaders, from the barbarians to the Nazis, and a heritage of pride that burns through eras of romantic passion and courageous solidarity, their common story reaches a breathtaking culmination in the historic showdown between the ruthless Communists and rebellious farmers of the modern age. Like the heroic land that is its subject, Poland teems with vivid events, unforgettable characters, and the unfolding drama of an entire nation. Views: 14
Oppressed and trodden on by her aunt and uncle, the Duke and Duchess of Bruntwick, who despise her because her father died in debt and her mother was French, Rocana Brunt yearns to escape the confines of their Bruntwick Castle.Yet when her dear cousin Lady Caroline is ordered much against her will to marry the imperious Marquis of Quorn, simply to extricate him from a potential scandal over one of his many liaisons, loyal Rocana agrees to take her cousin's place at the altar so that Lady Caroline may elope with her beloved Patrick.At least she believes that this deception and the loveless marriage that would undoubtedly follow, might free then her from her virtual slavery.Her deceit is not revealed until long after the wedding, when she and the Marquis reach Paris and her cousin and Patrick are safely and ecstatically wed.And soon, through her own magic and some dangerous escapades, Rocana herself feels a glimmer of hope that she too is about to find eternal... Views: 14
