Four young ladies at the side of the ballroom make a pact to help each other find husbands . . . no matter what it takes
Proud and beautiful Annabelle Peyton could have her pick of suitors—if only she had a dowry. Her family is on the brink of disaster, and the only way Annabelle can save them is to marry a wealthy man. Unfortunately her most persistent admirer is the brash Simon Hunt, a handsome and ambitious entrepreneur who wants her as his mistress.
Annabelle is determined to resist Simon's wicked propositions, but she can't deny her attraction to the boldly seductive rogue, any more than he can resist the challenge she presents. As they try to outmaneuver each other, they find themselves surrendering to a love more powerful than they could have ever imagined. But fate may have other plans—and it will take all of Annabelle's courage to face a peril that could destroy everything she holds dear. Views: 1 211
From *New York Times bestselling author James Rollins comes an electrifying short story, in which the battle over a lost treasure leads to murder, betrayal, and the revelation of a shocking mystery hidden aboard the . . . Ghost Ship** *
The discovery of a burned body sprawled on a remote Australian beach shatters the vacation plans of Commander Gray Pierce. To thwart an ingenious enemy, he and Seichan are pulled into a centuries-old mystery surrounding a lost convict ship, the Trident. The vessel—with a history of mutiny and stolen treasure—vanished into the mists of time, but nothing stays lost forever. A freak storm reveals clues scattered across the Great Barrier Reef, but following those clues will lead to bloodshed and savagery, for where this ghost ship is hidden is as shocking as the mystery behind its disappearance. It will take all of Gray’s ingenuity and Seichan’s deadly skills not only to survive—but to stop an enemy from destroying everything in his path.
Included with this short story is a sneak peek at the upcoming Sigma Force novel, *The Demon Crown , where events here lead to Sigma’s most harrowing adventure to date.* Views: 1 211
“Troy meant one thing only to the men gathered here, as it did to their commanders. Troy was a dream of wealth; and if the wind continued the dream would crumble.”
As the harsh wind holds the Greek fleet trapped in the straits at Aulis, frustration and political impotence turn into a desire for the blood of a young and innocent woman – blood that will appease the gods and allow the troops to set sail. And when Iphigeneia, Agamemnon’s beloved daughter, is brought to the coast under false pretences, and when a knife is fashioned out of the finest and most precious of materials, it looks as if the ships will soon be on their way. But can a father really go to these lengths to secure political victory, and can a daughter willingly give up her life for the worldly ambitions of her father?
Throwing off the heroic values we expect of them, Barry Unsworth’s mythic characters embrace the political ethos of the twenty-first century and speak in words we recognize as our own. The blowhard Odysseus warns the men to not “marginalize” Agamemnon and to “strike while the bronze is hot.” High-sounding principles clash with private motives, and dark comedy ensues. Here is a novel that stands the world on its head.
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 1 211
Only Juan Cabrillo and the crew of the Oregon stand between two warring moguls and global havoc in this thrilling suspense novel in Clive Cussler's #1 New York Times bestselling series.
Nearly two thousand years ago, an Eastern emperor charged a small group with safeguarding a body of knowledge and secrets powerful enough to change the history of mankind. They went down in legend as the Nine Unknown Men--and now two rival factions of the descendants are fighting a mighty battle. Both sides think they are saving the world, but one of them is willing to use horrifying means to accomplish its goals. Now is up to Cabrillo and his team of expert operatives to stop both of them from the destructive path they're on, and save the earth from a dynasty of terror. Views: 1 211
Lloyd from Leith has a transfiguring passion for the unhappily married Heather. Together they explore the true nature of house music and chemical romance. Will their ardour fizzle and die or will it ignite and blaze like a thousand suns? Ecstasy follows them and others through the backstreets of Edinburgh, stifling suburban sitting rooms and the bright lights of London. Exhilarating and dazzling, this is Welsh at his very best. Views: 1 211
Hugh De Luc returns from the Crusades to discover that his terrifying nightmare has just begun. Merciless killers have slain his young son, kidnapped his wife, Sophie, and destroyed his town in their search for a priceless relic from the Crucifixion. Hugh's quest to find Sophie is one of the most pulse-pounding adventures, mysteries, and unforgettable love stories in all of fiction. Views: 1 210
Introducing a fresh, exciting Chinese-American voice, an inspiring debut about an immigrant girl forced to choose between two worlds and two futures.
When Kimberly Chang and her mother emigrate from Hong Kong to Brooklyn squalor, she quickly begins a secret double life: exceptional schoolgirl during the day, Chinatown sweatshop worker in the evenings. Disguising the more difficult truths of her life like the staggering degree of her poverty, the weight of her family’s future resting on her shoulders, or her secret love for a factory boy who shares none of her talent or ambition. Kimberly learns to constantly translate not just her language but herself back and forth between the worlds she straddles.
Through Kimberly’s story, author Jean Kwok, who also emigrated from Hong Kong as a young girl, brings to the page the lives of countless immigrants who are caught between the pressure to succeed in America, their duty to their family, and their own personal desires, exposing a world that we rarely hear about.
Written in an indelible voice that dramatizes the tensions of an immigrant girl growing up between two cultures, surrounded by a language and world only half understood, Girl in Translation is an unforgettable and classic novel of an American immigrant-a moving tale of hardship and triumph, heartbreak and love, and all that gets lost in translation. Views: 1 210
A gripping and dramatic short read from the master storyteller Barbara Taylor Bradford.
Beautiful, artistic and creative, Allison Jones is a force to be reckoned with. Growing up amongst a family of men, she is the treasured gem at the heart of a large and boisterous clan of cops.
After the tragic death of her mother, Allison had thrown herself into her work, but then she meets Mike. Neither one of them is prepared for the power and intensity of their love for each other.
So, when tragedy strikes, Allison’s life is derailed once again. Her over-protective family have looked out for her all her life, but they cannot protect her from herself… Views: 1 208
Bestselling author Alice Hoffman’s bewitching Nightbird is perfect for ages 10-13: love and friendship empower a lonely girl to embrace her uniqueness and discover her strengths.
Twig lives in Sidwell, where people whisper that fairy tales are real. After all, her town is rumored to hide a monster. And two hundred years ago, a witch placed a curse on Twig’s family that was meant to last forever. But this summer, everything will change when the red moon rises. It’s time to break the spell.
What Other Authors Are Saying
“I love the way Alice Hoffman creates the most ordinary people and then turns their lives magical. . . . [Nightbird] is like reentering a wonderful dream that you vaguely remember.” —Lois Lowry, two-time Newbery Medal–winning author of The Giver
“Hoffman reminds us that there are secrets everywhere . . . Nightbird soars.”
—The New York Times
“Alice Hoffman has a gift for melding magic and realism in a way that makes nearly anything seem possible.”
—Shelf Awareness, Starred
“The mix of romance and magic is irresistible.”
—Kirkus Reviews
From the Hardcover edition. Views: 1 208
He had built an empire out of a worthless scrap of farmland, rising from the wrong side of the tracks to move gracefully within the inner circles of the very rich: the American dream came true for him; now it was turning into a nightmare..: one night he tried to kill himself in his car; suddenly he was forced to come to terms with what he'd been and what he'd become: drama of a man's struggle for power. Views: 1 208
Bestselling author John Connolly's first collection of short fiction, Nocturnes, now features five additional stories -- never-before published for an American audience -- in a dark, daring, utterly haunting anthology of lost lovers and missing children, predatory demons, and vengeful ghosts. In "The New Daughter," a father comes to suspect that a burial mound on his land hides something very ancient, and very much alive; in "The Underbury Witches," two London detectives find themselves battling a particularly female evil in a town culled of its menfolk. And finally, private detective Charlie Parker returns in the long novella "The Reflecting Eye," in which the photograph of an unknown girl turns up in the mailbox of an abandoned house once occupied by an infamous killer. This discovery forces Parker to confront the possibility that the house is not as empty as it appears, and that something has been waiting in the darkness for its chance to kill again. Views: 1 208
A sweeping, evocative epic of two women's intertwined fates and their search for identity, that moves from the lavish parlors of Shanghai courtesans to the fog-shrouded mountains of a remote Chinese village.
Spanning more than forty years and two continents, The Valley of Amazement resurrects pivotal episodes in history: from the collapse of China's last imperial dynasty, to the rise of the Republic, the explosive growth of lucrative foreign trade and anti-foreign sentiment, to the inner workings of courtesan houses and the lives of the foreign "Shanghailanders" living in the International Settlement, both erased by World War II.
A deeply evocative narrative about the profound connections between mothers and daughters, The Valley of Amazement returns readers to the compelling territory of Amy Tan's The Joy Luck Club. With her characteristic insight and humor, she conjures a story of inherited trauma, desire and deception, and the power and stubbornness of love. Views: 1 207
The definitive edition of Calvino’s cosmicomics, bringing together all of these enchanting stories—including some never before translated—in one volume for the first time
In Italo Calvino’s cosmicomics, primordial beings cavort on the nearby surface of the moon, play marbles with atoms, and bear ecstatic witness to Earth’s first dawn. Exploring natural phenomena and the origins of the universe, these beloved tales relate complex scientific concepts to our common sensory, emotional, human world.
Now, The Complete Cosmicomics brings together all of the cosmicomic stories for the first time. Containing works previously published in Cosmicomics, t zero, and Numbers in the Dark, this single volume also includes seven previously uncollected stories, four of which have never been published in translation in the United States. This “complete and definitive collection” (Evening Standard) reconfirms the cosmicomics as a crowning literary achievement and makes them available to new generations of readers.
“It’s a joy to have all the cosmicomics within one cover . . . A landmark in fiction, the work of a master.”—Ursula K. Le Guin, Guardian Views: 1 207
The outstanding final volume of acclaimed author Thomas Keneally's major new three-volume history takes up the story of Australia at the end of the Great War and explores its development as a nation during the tumultuous 20th century
Australia emerged from World War I into a decade of profound change, characterized by a revolution in behavior among the young; by the first great age of consumerism; by the new and increasingly sophisticated impact of the movies; by secret right wing armies and the emergence of the Communist Party; and by two less remembered and very interesting PMs, the handsome, somber Stanley Melbourne Bruce of the Melbourne Establishment, and Jim Scullin, unpretentious Labor man of humbler Irish parentage. As in the two previous volumes, Keneally brings history to vivid and pulsating life as he traces the lives and the deeds of Australians known and unknown. As another war grew closer he follows the famous and the infamous through the Great Crash and the rise of Fascism, and explains how Australia was inexorably drawn into a war which led her forces into combat throughout Asia, Africa, Europe, and the Pacific. At home an atmosphere of fear grew with the fall of Singapore and the bombing of Darwin, the Japanese advance and then the American Alliance and the arrival of General MacArthur. Peace brought its own problems with the Depression that left one third of Australians unemployed. Keneally believes too that the 1950s are misunderstood—depicted by some as an age of full employment, by others as the age of suburban spread and boredom under the serene prime ministership of Robert Menzies. But Menzies was complicated and so were the 1950s. The result of masterly writing and exhaustive research is a volume which brings Australia's more recent history to vibrant life. Views: 1 207
