When her husband is reported killed in battle, a woman is forced to marry an infamous Norman warrior, with whom she nevertheless falls in love, a love that is tested when he is accused of murdering her late husband. ReviewHaving lost her first husband to the Normans, Faithe of Hauekleah is given in marriage to a Norman knight known as the Black Dragon. Faithe has no choice but to accept her new husband or lose Hauekleah. She bravely awaits her new husband, hoping that perhaps he will tire of farm life quickly and return to being a soldier. But once she gets to know the man behind the reputation, Faithe feels quite differently. She cannot stop thinking about her handsome husband and how he refuses to consummate their marriage until she can trust him. He is a man of honor and honesty-- and Faithe falls in love with her husband. Luke de Perigueux is happy at Hauekleah. He has a beautiful wife who wants to make the best of their marriage and Luke has no intention of leaving her. As the Black Dragon he was expected to be a warrior, but as Luke of Hauekleah he can be the man his wife sees in him. When the truth about Faithe's first husband comes out, Luke will have to face his violent past. Treachery and deception threaten to tear apart the lovers and Luke will risk losing Faithe forever if he tells her the truth. Patricia Ryan is a masterful author of medieval romances. Without question, Secret Thunder is her best work to date. Set in England during the time of the Norman Conquest, the tale is rich in history and romance. Luke is a tortured hero, maintaining his bloodlust during battle only because of the herbs he chews. He is not the beast he thinks he is but it takes the love of Faithe to heal his soul. As is typical of Ms. Ryan's heroines, Faithe is a strong woman devoted to her home-- and to the husband she comes to love. Secret Thunder is a magnificent love story and Patricia Ryan has surpassed this reviewer's highest expectations!This is as good as it gets! Once again Patricia Ryan dazzles us with her amazing story telling abilities! Secret Thunder will steal the hearts of readers everywhere! A marvelous love story from the queen of medieval romance! Patricia Ryan is a gifted author-- and I will buy anything she writes! Don't miss Patricia Ryan at her finest! If you read only one historical romance this year it should be Secret Thunder!Kristina Wright -- Copyright © 1994-97 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary TimesAbout the AuthorPatricia Ryan has written more than two dozen books, which have been published in over 20 countries and won numerous awards, including Romance Writers of America's RITA for her medieval romance SILKEN THREADS. A four-time RITA nominee, she is also the recipient of two Romantic Times Awards and a Mary Higgins Clark Award nomination for the first book of her Gilded Age mystery series, written as P.B. Ryan.(Please note that there is another author who has started writing romance ebooks for Extasy Books as "Patricia Ryan." If a book was published by Extasy, this author did not write it.) --Patricia Ryan Views: 30
I WILL ROCK HER WORLD FOR ONE NIGHT ONLY. ROGER: Five years ago, my sister committed suicide because the media made her feel too ugly to be loved. I made a vow then to dedicate my life to rescuing vulnerable women like her. I don’t come cheaply, but I can guarantee that after a night in my bed, a woman will leave feeling more beautiful than she’s ever felt in her life! ANNA: I’m almost 30, almost 200 pounds and almost a virgin. There’s no stopping the first issue, the second will take a lot of hard work, but I can fix the third. I won’t let another birthday go by without making love with a man…even if I have to pay for the pleasure. Views: 29
No.1 EBOOK BESTSELLER and SUNDAY TIMES TOP 10 PAPERBACK BESTSELLER The real nightmare starts when her daughter is returned... A bone-chilling psychological thriller that will suit fans of Gone Girl, by Gillian Flynn, Daughter, by Jane Shemilt, and The Girl on the Train, by Paula Hawkins. A girl is missing. Five years old, taken from outside her school. She has vanished, traceless. The police are at a loss; her parents are beyond grief. Their daughter is lost forever, perhaps dead, perhaps enslaved. But the biggest mystery is yet to come: one week after she was abducted, their daughter is returned. She has no memory of where she has been. And this, for her mother, is just the beginning of the nightmare. Views: 29
At seventeen Lori Schiller was the perfect child -- the only daughter of an affluent, close-knit family. Six years later she made her first suicide attempt, then wandered the streets of New York City dressed in ragged clothes, tormenting voices crying out in her mind. Lori Schiller had entered the horrifying world of full-blown schizophrenia. She began an ordeal of hospitalizations, halfway houses, relapses, more suicide attempts, and constant, withering despair. But against all odds, she survived. Now in this personal account, she tells how she did it, taking us not only into her own shattered world, but drawing on the words of the doctors who treated her and family members who suffered with her. In this new addition, Lori Schiller recounts the dramatic years following the original publication -- a period involving addiction, relapse, and ultimately, love and recovery.Moving, harrowing, and ultimately uplifting, THE QUIET ROOM is a classic testimony to the... Views: 28
Take Me There is a passion project for Tristan Taormino, who presents erotica by, for, and about transfolk, FTMs, MTFs, genderqueers, gender outlaws, as well as two-spirit, intersex, and gender-variant people in her newest anthology. Among the diverse array of voices in Take Me There, one important theme running throughout the stories is the power of seeing and being seen. It’s not simply about passing, but about being acknowledged and desired in a sexual context. Affirmation and want collide in Andrea Zanin’s story of a baby butch dyke and the transwoman she picks up in a small-town café. Likewise, the main character in Helen Boyd’s All Girl Action” longs to be touched as a woman by other queer women. The characters of these stories are ready and willing to go there and they do, over and over again. Views: 28
“A landmark book in the science of emotions and its implications for ethics and human universals.”―Library Journal, starred review
In this startling study of human emotion, Dacher Keltner investigates an unanswered question of human evolution: If humans are hardwired to lead lives that are “nasty, brutish, and short,” why have we evolved with positive emotions like gratitude, amusement, awe, and compassion that promote ethical action and cooperative societies? Illustrated with more than fifty photographs of human emotions, Born to Be Good takes us on a journey through scientific discovery, personal narrative, and Eastern philosophy. Positive emotions, Keltner finds, lie at the core of human nature and shape our everyday behavior―and they just may be the key to understanding how we can live our lives better. 60 photos
** Views: 26
Set between 1989 and the downfall of Ceausescu, and 2013, The Squeeze travels between Edinburgh, Romania and Oslo and see this multi-award-winning and bestselling author at the height of her powers.Marta, a teenager trafficked from Romania in the early 1990s is forced to work as a prostitute in Edinburgh. Mats, a Norwegian businessman, who longs only to be a good husband and father, becomes involved with Marta and both their lives are wrenched - for good or ill - in new directions.Told in a splintered narrative style that allows glimpses into several points of view, The Squeeze explores the transactions that take place between men and women. Sex, money and the desire for love, are at its heart. Views: 26
Thirty-four years have gone by since an ingenious biochemist, named Louis Picard, invented the ultimate anti-aging drug in 1981, that is known as Telomerax. An apocalyptic novel based on political and scientific facts, “The Last Enemy” blends reality and fiction with a reflection on human nature and her possible future Views: 25
"A riveting ride through your own brain." -Adam GrantHow the brains of psychopaths and heroes show that humans are wired to be goodAt fourteen, Amber could boast of killing her guinea pig, threatening to burn down her home, and seducing men in exchange for gifts. She used the tools she had available to get what she wanted, like all children. But unlike other children, she didn't care about the damage she inflicted. A few miles away, Lenny Skutnik cared so much about others that he jumped into an ice-cold river to save a drowning woman. What is responsible for the extremes of generosity and cruelty humans are capable of? By putting psychopathic children and extreme altruists in an fMRI, acclaimed psychologist Abigail Marsh found that the answer lies in how our brain responds to others' fear. While the brain's amygdala makes most of us hardwired for good, its variations can explain heroic and psychopathic behavior.A path-breaking read, The Fear Factor is... Views: 25
Three days before historic peace talks in London a massive bomb explodes in the heart of the city.As British intelligence chase down the ISIS cell behind the attack, Counter Terrorism Officer Leila Reid believes there is something far more sinister involved that none of them is yet seeing.With civil unrest on the streets and the crisis spiralling out of control, Reid must track down the real cell before they can execute the final stage of a plan that will bring a decades-old global conspiracy to its terrifying conclusion. Views: 25
In this enthralling new novel, Barbara Quick re-creates eighteenth-century Venice at the height of its splendor and decadence. A story of longing and intrigue, half-told truths and toxic lies, Vivaldi's Virgins unfolds through the eyes of Anna Maria dal Violin, one of the elite musicians cloistered in the foundling home where Antonio Vivaldi--known as the Red Priest of Venice--is maestro and composer. Fourteen-year-old Anna Maria, abandoned at the Ospedale della PietÀ as an infant, is determined to find out who she is and where she came from. Her quest takes her beyond the cloister walls into the complex tapestry of Venetian society; from the impoverished alleyways of the Jewish Ghetto to a masked ball in the company of a king; from the passionate communal life of adolescent girls competing for their maestro's favor to the larger-than-life world of music and spectacle that kept the citizens of a dying republic in thrall. In this world, where for fully half the... Views: 24
When Sebastian says he wants to travel, the other toys suggest a trip to the North Pole or the Equator. But Sebastian is just a teddy-bear: how could he possibly go around the world on his own? Fate steps in, and soon he is on an adventure that takes him first to Paris and then on a train bound for Russia. Along the way, he has his portrait painted, joins a circus, becomes a magician's assistant, and is mistaken for the Abominable Snowman. Views: 24
