Four friends devise a plan to turn Smitten, Vermont, into the country's premier romantic getaway-and each finds her own true love along the way.With Smitten Lumber closing, residents wonder if their town can stay afloat. Then four friends and local business owners-Natalie, Julia, Shelby, and Reese--decide the town is worth saving. How will they do it? They'll turn Smitten into a honeymoon destination!As Natalie, Julia, Shelby, and Reese work to save the town, each discovers romance in her own life. Meanwhile, the faith of a little child reminds the whole town what it means to have real faith in the God who is the always and forever Love.Discover a novel written by four of Christian fiction's most popular romance novelists- friends in real life who've drawn an amazing story of four friends! Includes a Reading Group Guide as well as "Conversation over Coffee with the Authors". Views: 46
Jack Paine was on what passed for a vacation, or maybe it was a regrouping, an opportunity to forget the events of the last year and especially of the last month. When the phone rang, he tried to ignore it. There were only a few people who knew where to reach him, and none of them would try. But the phone kept ringing. And Jack Paine finally answered it. Of course, it was bad news. Bob Petty, a friend from Paine's days on the force, had disappeared. Petty's wife, Terry, knew that he hadn't gone undercover; they'd worked out a code for situations like that. All Bob had said in his last phone call to his wife was, "If you ever come near me I'll kill you and the kids." Jack Paine is a retired cop with a private license and a telescope he uses to watch the heavens. It's a simple life, good when he's got clients, and he manages when he doesn't. But this call was leading to something Paine wasn't sure he could manage: Now that Petty had disappeared, bodies were beginning to appear and the trail always led back to his old friend. Paine doesn't think his friend has turned. But something is very wrong, something that goes beyond the deep-rooted corruption he beings to uncover, something that goes deeper...and much further back. And in the Arizona desert, where day's heat turns deathly cold at night, and where the stars scream for attention, Jack Paine turns over the last stone... Views: 46
Deputy District Attorney Samantha Kincaid walks into her office in Portland's Drug and Vice Division one Monday morning to find three police officers waiting for her. A thirteen-year-old girl has been brutally attacked and left for dead on the city's outskirts. Given the lack of evidence, most lawyers would settle for an assault charge; Samantha, unnerved by the viciousness of the crime, decides to go for attempted murder. As Sam prepares for the trial, she uncovers a dangerous trail leading to an earlier high-profile death penalty case, a prostitution ring of underage girls, and a possible serial killer. And she finds her judgement - not only in matters of the law but in her personal life - called into question... Views: 46
Death at La Fenice is the first novel in Donna Leon's internationally best-selling Commissario Guido Brunetti series. During intermission at the famed La Fenice opera house in Venice, a notoriously difficult conductor is poisoned, and suspects abound. Brunetti, a native Venetian, sets out to unravel the mystery behind the high-profile murder. To do so, he he calls on his knowledge of Venice, its culture, and its dirty politics. Revenge, corruption, and even Italian cuisine play a role. The novel that started it all, Death at La Fenice is an entrancing mystery, rich in atmosphere.Few detective writers create so vivid, inclusive and convincing a narrative as Donna Leon, the expatriate American with the Venetian heart. . . . One of the most exquisite and subtle detective series ever." —The Washington Post Views: 46
*Listen to what I tell you, son, every word is trueThe sisters haunt the night, and might fight over youNothing can steal your soul and stamp it in the mudLike being the new play-pretty for the girls with the games of blood . . .*The old song warns of the beautiful Bolade sisters, Patience and Prudence, whose undying rivalry was said to stretch even beyond the grave. But Count Rudolfo Vladimir Zginski has never heard the song. A suave Continental vampire, staked to death more than sixty years ago, he has risen to stalk the Southern nights of Memphis, Tennessee, circa 1975. Although new to the modern world, he has quickly developed a taste for its hot blood, willing women, and high-speed automobiles.Yet the seventies are not without their perils, even for so cunning and ruthless a predator. Zginski’s insistent pursuit of a cherry 1973 Mach 1 Ford Mustang soon brings him into conflict with a legendary redneck sheriff with a short temper and a big baseball bat. His dangerous fascination with an enticing undead chanteuse and her equally seductive sister, threatens not only his own ageless existence, but that of the small group of modern-day vampires he has grudgingly taken under his wing. Zginski has already escaped limbo once, but can he free himself from the tangled web of the girls who play games of blood?Alex Bledsoe, author of Blood Groove, returns to he world of the undead with a tale of fast cars and vengeance that never dies. . . .At the publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management software (DRM) applied.From Publishers WeeklyBledsoe captures Tennessee's seamy side in this sordid, oppressive sequel to 2009's Blood Groove. Baron Rudolfo Vladimir Zginski stalks 1970s Memphis after 60 years in limbo. The unrepentantly racist, misogynist vampire sinks his fangs into a new obsession: a 1973 Mach I Mustang he buys from Zeb Crabtree, whose nubile white daughter, Clora, catches the eye of black vampire Leonardo Jones, Zginski's sidekick. Waitress Fauvette (an anti–Sookie Stackhouse) meets undead singer Patience Bolade at Zginski's club, the Ringside (an anti-Merlotte's), and tries to learn Patience's secret to surviving without drinking blood, while Prudence, Patience's estranged vampire sibling, hopes for vengeance over a love triangle with a Civil War colonel. Zginski rates as one of the genre's most repulsive protagonists, and Bledsoe's polished prose can't make up for the shock tactics he uses to propel the plot. Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistThe sequel to Blood Groove (2010) finds vampire count Rudolfo Zginski, staked in 1915 and resurrected in 1975, in Memphis, Tennesee, with two young vampires he befriended in the first book. There is an old song from that era warning against the Bolade sisters, whose rivalry in love lasted well beyond their deaths. Listen to what I tell you, son, and every word is true / The sisters haunt the night, and they might fight over you; so run the lyrics. The count knows nothing of the song. He’s fallen in love with fast cars, and is in the area to buy a 1973 cherry Mustang. The purchase brings him into conflict with a short-tempered former sheriff who also covets the vehicle. Then Rudolfo becomes fascinated with an undead chanteuse, who turns out to be one of the Bolade sisters. This brings him into their undying feud. Bledsoe has admirably resurrected the Memphis of 35 years ago for this story. The intricate plot is peopled with fully developed characters. Definitely one of the better vampire novels lately. --Frieda Murray Views: 46
VENUS ISN'T BIG ENOUGH FOR BOTH OF THEM Dalin Shar's dream for the 26th Century is to bring Earth's poisoned Lost Lands back to life and restore his home planet to its former glory. Until that happens, relocation to a more inhabitable planet is his people's last chance for survival. But the last free place in the Five Worlds is desired by more than one warrior of the stars... Prime Cornelian, alien High Leader and conqueror of Mars and Titan, needs new ground to plant his seeds of evil. And the grand prize of the galaxy is ideal for the tyrant's invasion. To rule it, his ravenous appetite for power must devour everythying in its path - including Dalin, exiled king of Earth. Now they're both hurtling toward Venus, both vying for possession. This is a race that will be won, not by the strong or the swift-but by the lucky... PRAISE FOR RETURN: "Crisp dialogue, strongly drawn characters, and fast action! Space-based action at its best!" - William F. Wu Views: 46
"You did nothing."Christine Steinmeyer thought the anonymous suicide note she found in her mailbox on Christmas Eve wasn't meant for her. But the man calling in to her radio show seems convinced otherwise."You let her die. . . ."That's only the beginning. Bit by bit, her life is turned upside down. But who among her friends and family hates her enough to want to destroy her? And why?It's as if someone has taken over her life, and everything holding it together starts to crumble. Soon all that is left is an unimaginable nightmare.Martin Servaz is on leave in a clinic for depressed cops, haunted by his childhood sweetheart Marianne's kidnapping by his nemesis, the psychopath Julian Hirtmann. One day, he receives a key card to a hotel room in the mail—the room where an artist committed suicide a year earlier. Someone wants him to get back to work, which he's more than ready to do, despite his mandatory sick leave. Servaz soon... Views: 46
Three separate families. Three different tales of loss. But a tangled thread binds them together . . .Three widely separated households – one in Scotland, one in the north of England and one in the south – have known the pain of losing a loved one; losses which, over the years, have shaped the characters of those left behind. But it takes the untimely and suspicious death of Martin Petrie, a stranger from the Scottish Borders mowed down in a hit and run, to untangle the threads that will draw them together in ways they could never have imagined, with results that are far-reaching – and fatal. Views: 46