Coming Up...Week 33 of 2013
Book to be reviewed:
The Emblazoned Red-Dawn McCullough White (e-book, September 12th, book tour)
Once, in another world—a dark world, the world of Faetta—there lived paladins and pirates, tyrants and scallywags, vampires and the undead. In this world a revolution is brewing. The royalty of Sieunes are in chains, and those priests and paladins who follow the holy word of the gods are under attack. In the west, the kingdom of Kellerhald receives the fleeing priests in their temples of the paladins of Silvius, god of the Sky.
Here, a young woman has just passed her tests to become a paladin. A pirate crew raids along the Azez Sea. An undead creature, wielding great power, roams the graveyard of Yetta. And a lost soul, crying out from beyond the veil, seeks out a pure hearted warrior to hear its plea.
Amid the turmoil of the revolution, Ilka’s mettle is tested. Rescued by pirates, she ends up with an unlikely ally: the pirate captain himself. The newly trained paladin finds herself collaborating with the undead, working with a vampire, and worst of all, longing for revenge against the man who has ignited the revolution in Sieunes: Francois Mond...
Death of an Innocent. Rise of a Paladin.
Book One in the Trilogy of the Tyrant, a stand-alone series set fifteen years after the Trilogy of Shadows.
The Rusmolovo Diaries by E. V. Shlychkova (e-book)
"Never has such a tragic book had so much sex"
This is a lost diary of an 18-year old girl that was found by a cleaning lady in the bar toilet in the small settlement outside St. Petersburg, Russia. Nobody has yet claimed it and it’s understandable considering many graphic sex details and dirty little secrets it contains (being raped on her birthday and sleeping with her sister’s husband are not the biggest of them). But if you keep an open mind you’ll find that behind all the sex and cynical observations, there is a vulnerable girl who, like all of us, strives for love and beauty.
Due to explicit content – the book is for adults only.
What I'm Reading right now:
Pestilence Rising by Lea Ryan (e-book)
“Hunter lives alone. He eats and sleeps alone. The only people he can relate to are those he finds on the other side of an internet connection. Like him, they have extraordinary abilities, and like him, they want to keep anyone from finding out. His job is to manipulate them into revealing their deepest secrets to him, secrets that will maintain his freedom and surely end theirs.
His employer classifies him as a "ravager". Unfortunately, his ability is more affliction than asset. If he loses control of his emotions, anyone nearby is stricken with a disease that could prove fatal. The Center for the Preservation of Natural Order allows him to remain free on the condition that he keep a low profile and he work for them.
The arrangement works for all parties involved until a girl claiming to be an angel appears in his living room.
Celeste brings word that his estranged brother is missing. Only the two of them can save him.
When his supervisor comes looking for her, Hunter is faced with a choice. Should he trust a stranger and become a fugitive for a brother he barely knows or turn her in, go back to the lonely existence that's kept him from being a danger to innocent people for so long? And who the hell is the strange, tattooed woman who keeps appearing to him in reflections and dreams?
Who he decides to become will be the catalyst for change. One way or another, the life he knows is over.”
Pages: 114 out of 216
Chapters: 11 out of 19
The Foreign Student: A Novel by Susan Choi
Highly acclaimed by critics, The Foreign Student is the story of a young Korean man, scarred by war, and the deeply troubled daughter of a wealthy Southern American family. In 1955, a new student arrives at a small college in the Tennessee mountains. Chuck is shy, speaks English haltingly, and on the subject of his earlier life in Korea he will not speak at all. Then he meets Katherine, a beautiful and solitary young woman who, like Chuck, is haunted by some dark episode in her past. Without quite knowing why, these two outsiders are drawn together, each sensing in the other the possibility of salvation. Moving between the American South and South Korea, between an adolescent girl's sexual awakening and a young man's nightmarish memories of war, The Foreign Student is a powerful and emotionally gripping work of fiction.
Chapters: 6 out of 14 plus prologue
Pages: 138 out of 325
Ode to Love: From Argentina to the United States by Gertrude Probst Muro, Jaime Muro Crousillat
Two lonely people in a city riddled with crime find their soul mates. After their only date, they embark on an exciting and unforgettable road to happiness. A story of love, romance, self-denial, danger, and sacrifice.
Chapters: 26 out of 40?
Pages: 69 out of 153
I am Venus: A Novel by Bárbara Mujica
In this breathtaking historical novel by the acclaimed author of the bestselling Frida, Bárbara Mujica reimagines the dramatic life and loves of the Baroque Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. Narrated by the mysterious model who posed for The Toilet of Venus, his only surviving female nude, I Am Venus is the riveting account of a great artist’s rise to prominence, set against the backdrop of political turmoil and romantic scandal.
The year is 1619, and Diego Velázquez is a rising star at an art academy in Seville run by his father-in-law. But even as his young wife builds him a family, the painter yearns for a larger canvas, and soon his ambition lands him at the court of King Philip IV, where he quickly gains prominence, just as Spain is plunged into military defeat and domestic chaos.
But as he gains nobility and privilege, Velázquez encounters the sinful decadence that defines the regime. At the heart of this most conservative country, its ruling class breaks every rule that the masses must obey. As he finds himself torn between loyalty to family and the easy seductions of power, Velázquez decides to take on his riskiest painting yet, which could, in a stroke, land him in the claws of the Inquisition.
A sweeping story of scandal and passion, and a vivid recreation of a corrupt kingdom on the brink of collapse, I Am Venus is a thrilling novel that brings to life the public and private worlds of Spain’s greatest painter.
Chapters:16 out of 18 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 251 out of 299
The Last Daughter of Prussia by Marina Gottlieb Sarles
Toward the end of World War II, as Germany’s hold on East Prussia grows increasingly tenuous, a childhood friendship between Manya Von Falken, the daughter of an aristrocratic family, and Joshi Karas, a Romani doctor, blossoms into unlikely love. But the young lovers are torn apart.
Captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp, Joshi fights for survival, while Manya and her family flee and embark on “The Great Trek” out of East Prussia. Based on true stories passed down to author Marina Gottlieb Sarles from her grandparents, survivors of the trek, The Last Daughter of Prussia also tells the story of the brave Trakehner horses who led their owners across a dangerous frozen lagoon, the only open escape route.
Will Joshi and Manya find one another? Gottlieb Sarles creates a tapestry of characters from every corner of East Prussia, shedding light on an untold tragic moment in history.
Chapters: 10 out of 54
Pages: 46 out of 311
Against a Crimson Sky by James Conroyd Martin
A magnificent epic, Against a Crimson Sky is an unforgettable tale of love, valor, and the enduring strength of the human spirit, set against the backdrop of war-torn Poland at the cusp of the nineteenth century.
The year is 1794, and the beautiful and resilient Countess Anna Maria Berezowska has narrowly escaped death amidst the chaos caused by the violent dissolution of Poland.
Anna is soon reunited with her longtime love, Lord Jan Stelnicki, and the two lovers marry even as their beloved Poland is ripped apart. As the couple struggles to raise a family in the face of an uncertain future, Anna’s capricious cousin, Zofia, returns with a surprise of her own. Although Zofia’s past schemes still resonate, Anna’s doubts turn to fear as Jan’s patriotism draws him to the battlefield.
Offering new hope for a conquered Poland, Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in all of his pomp and glory. With the aid of new Polish legions—Anna’s friends and family among them—Napoleon battles his way across Europe in an effort that culminates in the doomed 1812 winter march into Russia.
Against this backdrop, Anna and Jan valiantly fight to hold on to a tenuous happiness, their country, and their very lives.
Chapters: 10 out of 40 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 111 out of 368
Hurry Up and Wait by Aaron Powell
This book consists of the written letters between my wife and I while I was away at recruit training, Parris Island, South Carolina. We've held nothing back - save a few names to protect the identities of the characters portrayed in our letters - and we've agreed to share our experience with anyone interested in reading about it.
This is our story.
-Aaron Powell
Chapters: 13 out of 141 plus conclusion and introduction
Pages: 25 out of 352
The Laws of Gravity by Liz Rosenberg
An exquisite tour de force, The Laws of Gravity is a testament to what it means to be a family, what it takes to save a life, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. Two families, bound by blood, hear terrible news. One decision holds the key to survival--but at a devastating cost.
Nicole, auburn-haired, airy, and beautiful, discovers her body is betraying her. She turns to cousin and childhood best friend Ari for the cord blood he's been banking for his own children. Ari stands firm, bringing them before the scales of justice. Solomon Richter, a state Supreme Court judge on the brink of retirement, is touched by this legal battle like no other. His blood case, he calls it. A case that calls into question the very things we live for: the enduring bonds of family, and the love that lasts a lifetime. It's Nicole's last chance, Ari's last stand, and the judge's last case.
A novel of heartbreaking honesty, humor, and depth--an unforgettable story of finding love and finding family--The Laws of Gravity heralds Liz Rosenberg as a storytelling sensation.
Chapters: 8 out of N/A
Pages: 56 out of 300
A Time of Myths by Chris Blamires
New Mystery Adventure - Win Autographed ARCs!
Woodstock, 1969: the Festival that defined a decade of peace, love and freedom. The paths of five young English students cross – with devastating consequences. Consequences that eventually reach a climax in an isolated Cretan gorge.
Seventeen years later, in the ‘golden age’ of capitalism, dramatic events conspire to reunite the surviving members, necessitating a perilous return to Greece and to a tiny Greek island, as dangerous secrets and self-deceptions are at last forced into the glaring light…
Steeped in the folklore of the 20th century, A Time of Myths is not solely a historical mystery adventure: it seeks also to examine who we are, and how far we are in control of our actions – and even of our lives.
Chapters: 2 out of 6 books
Pages: 67 out of 338
Manzanar to Mount Whitney The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker by Hank Umemoto
In 1942, fourteen-year-old Hank Umemoto gazed out a barrack window at Manzanar Internment Camp, saw the silhouette of Mount Whitney against an indigo sky, and vowed that one day he would climb to the top. Fifty-seven years and a lifetime of stories later, at the age of seventy-one, he reached the summit. Part memoir and part hiker's diary, Manzanar to mount Whitney gives an intimate, rollicking account of Japanese American life California before and after World War II. As he wanders through the mountains of California's Inland Empire, Umemoto recalls pieces of his childhood on a grape vineyard in the Sacramento Valley, his time at Manzanar, where beauty and hope were maintained despite the odds, and his later career as proprietor of a printing firm, all with grace, honesty, and unfailing humor. And all along, the peak of Mount Whitney casts its shadow, a symbol of freedom, beauty, and resilience.
Chapters: 8 out of 12 plus prologue and introduction
Pages: 116 out of 192
Shanghai 1937: Stalingrad on the Yangtze by Peter Harmsen
This deeply researched book describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At its height it involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers, while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators and, often, victims. It turned what had been a Japanese adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world.
In its sheer scale, the struggle for China’s largest city was a sinister forewarning of what was in store for the rest of mankind only a few years hence, in theaters around the world. It demonstrated how technology had given rise to new forms of warfare, or had made old forms even more lethal. Amphibious landings, tank assaults, aerial dogfights and most importantly, urban combat, all happened in Shanghai in 1937. It was a dress rehearsal for World War II—or perhaps more correctly it was the inaugural act in the war—the first major battle in the global conflict.
Actors from a variety of nations were present in Shanghai during the three fateful autumn months when the battle raged. The rich cast included China's ascetic Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his Japanese adversary, General Matsui Iwane, who wanted Asia to rise from disunity, but ultimately pushed the continent toward its deadliest conflict ever. Claire Chennault, later of “Flying Tiger” fame, was among the figures emerging in the course of the campaign, as was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In an ironic twist, Alexander von Falkenhausen, a stern German veteran of the Great War, abandoned his role as a mere advisor to the Chinese army and led it into battle against the Japanese invaders.
Written by Peter Harmsen, a foreign correspondent in East Asia for two decades, and currently bureau chief in Taiwan for the French news agency AFP, Shanghai 1937 fills a gaping chasm in our understanding of the Second World War.
Chapters: 1 out of 9 plus prologue, order of battle
Pages: 29 out of 303
Before the Larkspur Blooms (Prairie Hearts Series #2) by Caroline Fyffe
Caroline Fyffe returns to the windswept prairies of Wyoming with a beautiful story of rekindled love…
Thomas Donovan spent eight long years in prison, convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Finally released, he returns home to Logan Meadows, Wyoming, to discover his parents long buried and his neighbors wanting nothing to do with him. Suddenly the fresh start Thom longed for seems downright impossible until a spirited beauty from his past becomes his unlikely champion, and the walls around his injured heart begin to crumble?
Hannah Hoskins was brokenhearted when Thom Donovan was sent away. While the rest of the town was quick to brand him a no-count thief, Hannah always knew better. Now the boy she once loved has returned home a man ? a man whom Hannah's suitor, the town's deputy sheriff, is determined to destroy. When a crime spree starts anew, suspicion immediately falls on Thom, and it's up to Hannah to prove his innocence, earn him a second chance at life ? and win them both a second chance at love.
Chapters: 3 out of 44
Pages: 17 out of 281
Future Books I will read:
Soul in Present Condition-Mary E Merrell (e-book, Sage's blog tour August 30th)
Divorced. Check.
Ghost whisperer. Check.
Human servant. Check.
Great. Check.
Rosemary Fernandes never planned on being divorced. She never expected to be able to communicate with ghosts nor be the human servant to a vampire either. But she is all these things. Rosemary has had to get tough to compete in the cutthroat world of real estate and even tougher to face her fears of the supernatural as her paranormal escapades heat up.
Marcus Lyons is a vampire and Rosemary’s master. He forbids her to get involved with any more ghosts, and maintains the secrets they hold will be her death. Rosemary knows helping lost souls is what she’s meant to do, no matter how dangerous. When Rosemary connects with an angry young spirit, Marcus puts a price on her desires. What is she willing to give to help this specter? And will Rosemary’s bargain with the vampire be the end of her relationship with sexy tattoo artist Frank Perez.
Benny Cruz talks all gangsta and sarcastic. His energy is static, and he claims he knows what Rosemary is. Benny believes Rosemary controls the dead, and leads them around on a leash. Rosemary agrees to help the lost soul and prove she can't make the dead do anything, but is someone who helps lost souls move on. Something feels off with this spirit, and Rosemary is sure Benny knows more than he’s telling.
Benny is intent on completing the task he didn't finish. Rosemary must convince the spirit that closure with his family is what’s keeping him here. What’s not done is done. When Benny’s secret risks Rosemary’s life, she must somehow save herself and help the ghost find peace. Can she afford Marcus’ price of flesh and blood and prove to the vampire he is more man than monster? And what happens when Rosemary finds herself falling for two very different men? Even though one may be a killer.
Pages: 253
Chapters: 40
House Haunting- Mary E Merrell (e-book, Sage's blog Tour)
Rosemary Fernandes is a divorced, naïve woman, determined to make it in the tough world of real estate. Keith Laumer is a ghost, eager to leave his earthly haunt. As a real estate agent and a womanizer in life, Keith is the perfect partner to teach Rosemary the ins and outs of the real estate business, and he’s perfectly willing to teach her anything else she wants to know too.
Keith wants to find his killers, but Rosemary knows what's really keeping him earthbound. Is it too late for the ghost to find the true meaning of life? And can Rosemary find Keith's killer before her less-than-subtle sleuthing teaches her and her friends a lesson they may not survive.
If you enjoy Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, you’re going to find a kindred “spirit” in Rosemary Fernandes.
Chapters: 46
Pages: 314
Curve Appeal- Mary E Merrel (e-book, Sage's blog tour)
Rosemary Fernandes is a real estate agent with the ability to communicate with lost souls, the spirit of deceased people who can’t or won’t move on. With a deal in escrow and buyers to work with, her business is taking off. All she has to do is avoid the spirits, who call to her, but her ability is getting stronger, and their voices are getting louder. The dead are attracted to her and so are the undead.
Marcus Lyons is a vampire who needs an assistant, and he wants Rosemary. He will do anything to have her, exclusively. Rosemary has no choice but to agree to his terms, but her life will never be the same. Soon she realizes the vampire is no monster but a man with many…talents.
Cassandra Huckabee is a murdered stripper, who won’t leave this world until she knows her daughter is safe. Her essence is hot and her moves hotter. Cassandra’s spirit takes Rosemary to places she’s never been before and teaches her that there is more to her ability than just talking with ghosts. With the help of her best friend, Laura Toste, Rosemary searches for a way to help Cassandra move on and find her killer.
Frank Perez knows all about Rosemary and he’s still interested. Will he still want her when he meets her gorgeous best friend and the sizzling spirit? Can Rosemary keep her life as a human servant separate from her friends and family? And how long will the vampire put up with Rosemary’s silly escapades with ghosts, strip clubs and serial killers? When Cassandra’s killer comes after Rosemary, help comes from an unexpected place. And then sometimes even the predator needs help.
If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, then you’ll find a kindred spirit in Rosemary Fernandes.
Chapters: 47
Pages: 287
Learn, Create, and Teach A guide to building a creative life- Clara Lieu
Whether you are a student, professional, or teacher of the arts, this book delivers succinct, practical, and candid advice that addresses both common concerns in the creative path and the real-life challenges an artist faces in the real world.
Breaking down the creative arc into “student,” “professional,” and “teacher” reinforces that we all have something to learn, to create, and to teach. Addressing universal problems, fears, and roadblocks faced by artists, this book offers solutions, hope, and motivation.
Those starting their art career will value the tips and strategies for becoming known (“Be able to sum up your work in a single sentence.”) as well as staying motivated (“Never ever stop making your art.”). Teachers will gain insights from not only my experiences but also the perspectives of my colleagues, mentors, and students. This easy-to-digest volume has advice that can be readily put into practice by anyone.
Chapters: 60 plus conclusion and Q&A
Pages: 160
Ida's Story-Steven A. Segal
As he pulled up and shut down the engine, he took a deep breath to calm himself, and in that instant, the flash of anger he had felt the night he was torn from his mother returned. He shook it from his mind, slid out of the seat, and went up the stairs to the front door. Ida opened the door and threw her arms around his neck with exactly the same loving abandonment he had seen her often leap into his father's arms so many years ago. She hung onto her boy, hung on tight with her face buried in his shoulder and sobbed.
Chapters: 43
Pages: 466
Double Down by Saylor Storm
Determined to erase the painful, lonely memories of childhood, unbreakable Lola Stocking vows to make a better life for herself. She plots a path that includes an ascent up the Las Vegas casino corporate ladder. Lola follows her design tenaciously until she falls for a man who was not part of her plan. Adoring Jackson Sterling steps into her life when she least expects it, forcing her to reassess her life course. Shattered by catastrophe on her wedding day, her life's dreams come to a screeching halt. Driven by sheer will and strength, her new direction brings everything she ever dreamed of only to learn that it had been there all along...she just didn't know it.
Chapters: 55
Pages: 220
October Snow by Jenna Brooks
Josie spent twenty years as a battered wife, dying for a hero.
Now, she's dying to become one.
-------------------------------
Josie Kane is a “difficult” woman, a pure enigma - one who survives her abusive husband by honing her unnerving talent for playing mind games:
she knows exactly how to manipulate a bully.
Finally divorced, she thinks the abuse is over, and she’s free.
She’s wrong. And her cynicism is building.
Josie works with battered women, trying to rescue them from a fate similar to hers. But on the night that yet another battered woman is murdered by her husband, pining for a hero as she dies in Josie's arms, her cynicism becomes a quiet, simmering hatred.
Her one remaining refuge is in her bond with Maxine and Samantha, the two friends whom she loves like sisters. When Samantha becomes pregnant by Jack - an abuser who makes known his intentions to use the baby as a weapon of control - Josie’s hatred ripens to a vengeful fury.
She sets out to take on one more batterer, manipulate one more bully… And she lures Jack into the crosshairs of the ultimate mind game.
Her friends are convinced that she intends to rid Samantha of Jack.
They're right.
But with Josie Kane, as always, there's a twist.
With her friends helpless to stop her - and with Samantha hanging in the balance - Josie squares off with Jack in a life-and-death, winner-lose-all battle of wits to determine which side will win Sammy's future.
And this time, there will be a hero.
Chapters: 22 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 370
x0 by Sherrie Cronin
What if you are capable of far more than you realize? Lola, a Texan geophysicist who doesn’t believe in nonsense, finds that a near fatal accident reintroduces a disturbing phenomenon into her mind. Lola pretends it isn’t there until the changes taking place inside of her just won’t be ignored.
Across an ocean, Somadina is a young Nigerian who thinks that her telepathic abilities are perfectly normal. When her sister becomes a captive, the young Igbo woman draws upon her powers to find an ally like herself, a woman with a strong sense of justice and a desire to protect the helpless. As Somadina discovers that her sister has become a strategic pawn in a larger and more dangerous game, she vows to do anything to get the attention of this kindred, uncooperative lady.
x0 is an ancient organization with good reasons to stay hidden, but it knows that these two women have more important things in common than they realize, and that such will forge a powerful link. This forces x0 to reluctantly emerge from the shadows. Somebody needs to intervene. Both women are far stronger than they know, and to make matters worse, a fringe fanatic may be on the verge of altering a nation’s future.
Chapters: 17
Pages: 317
Teller of Tales by Ray Dacolias
This anthology of short stories explores those themes which we encounter down the long, winding road of life- of the probable and the impossible; of the finite and the infinite; of the ordinary and the extraordinary. It is an intimate portrait of those virtues which unite us all: love, and fortitude, justice and redemption.
These tales reflect intense desires people experience throughout their complex lives: they are about people seeking an inner peace, and understanding, and joy, and those looking for a greater purpose in their lives beyond the trivial; they are about hope, and wonder, and beauty; they are about things spiritual, and worldly, and otherworldly, too.
Life is a gorgeous tapestry upon which we weave our own unique stories. This book has narratives that will make you wonder what we are and who we are and why we are, and where we are going, and what we will do once we get there.
There are a boundless number of incredible tales to be told. Here are ten of them, filled with drama and adventure and romance. Enjoy!
Chapters: 10
Pages: 170
The Bouchard Legacy by Ted Magnuson
The Bouchard Family Legacy is about to be passed on to a fourth generation...or will it?
When Paul and Randy were in high school, their parents married new spouses. What different understandings Paul and Randy have when it comes to the future of the family business.
Paul has earned a place in the world, but Randy owns it.
The Bouchard Legacy; a story of loyalty and greed, a story of prejudice and character; it’s the story of Randy and Paul coming of age in the tumultuous 1960’s and then; their arrival as men in the close of the 1970’s. Set in Mid-America, St Louis, MO
Chapters: 29 plus epilogue
Pages: 207
Cynthia and the Blue Cat's Last Meow by Jeffrey Penn May
"Cynthia and the Blue Cat’s Last Meow" is the first person narrative of young man who enters a colorful, anthropomorphic land that appears perfect, and Cynthia is the embodiment of that land. Gradually, the narrator sees his own tormented soul hidden beneath the natural beauty. He sees, but cannot readily accept, the demons gnawing at his heart. This story is about the unleashing and dissolution of his fears and his maturing perception of Cynthia. It is also about her guidance and the resulting changes that occur within her. The offbeat natural setting is established within the first few pages and progresses into a rich ménage of unusual happenings and vivid colors, fishing and fury, moonlight and candlelight, magical red berries and howling caverns, a land where many of us would like to visit, and a few do, briefly in our youth. We should all explore such places of the soul where we dream of blue cats and hearts capable of such adventurous and idyllic sensuality. Please allow yourself to enter Cynthia’s world.
Chapters: 8
Pages: 73
Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road by William Least Heat-Moon
From the acclaimed author of Blue Highways, PrairyErth, and Roads to Quoz, a dazzling collection of travel tales from the road.
HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE draws together for the first time William Least Heat-Moon's greatest short-form travel writing. Personally selected by the writer, these pieces take us from Japan, England, Italy, and Mexico to Long Island, Oregon, Arizona, from small towns to big cities, ocean shores and inland mysteries.
Including Heat-Moon's reflections on writing these pieces, HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE is much more than the usual collection of amber; it is a coupled summation of craft and memory. A perfect treasury of prose and provocation for readers old and new, Heat-Moon's most recent work reveals his absolute mastery across pages many and few.
Chapters: 28
Pages: 390
Portraits of an Artist by Mary F. Burns
From 1882 to 1884, John Singer Sargent painted his greatest masterpieces-the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Madame X-haunting portraits with dark psychological depths. The first unconsciously revealed a secret that would cause great anguish in his private life; the other created a social scandal that drove him from Paris forever. Portraits of an Artist brings to life the subjects of Sargent's paintings-his family, friends, enemies and lovers-to tell his story from their own perspectives. John Singer Sargent's paintings told more than he ever wanted anyone to know.
Chapters: N/A plus afterword and notes on the characters
Pages: 307
Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society by Timothy D. Willard (Goodreads Author), R. Jason Locy
You aren't who you think you are.Culture tells us that in order to be liked we must masquerade as someone other than who we are. So, we lacquer ourselves with credit cards and plastic surgery and status updates hoping no one will see the person underneath. This 'veneer' allows us to silence our real selves as it gives voice to the alter ego we'd like others to see. But, is this all there is to life or have we been duped? Does material success equal significance? Is our only identity the one we steal from Hollywood? God's idea of humanity is altogether different from the world's. There is a way to live that sees beauty in our imperfection and, as Tim and Jason put it, once we realize this we can strip our veneers and live an unveneered life of freedom, honesty, and beauty.
Chapters: 10 plus postlude and prelude
Pages: 249
The Gods of Heavenly Punishment by Jennifer Cody Epstein
A lush, exquisitely rendered meditation on war, The Gods of Heavenly Punishment tells the story of several families, American and Japanese, their loves and infidelities, their dreams and losses, and how they are all connected by one of the most devastating acts of war in human history.
In this evocative and thrilling epic novel, fifteen-year-old Yoshi Kobayashi, child of Japan’s New Empire, daughter of an ardent expansionist and a mother with a haunting past, is on her way home on a March night when American bombers shower her city with napalm—an attack that leaves one hundred thousand dead within hours and half the city in ashen ruins. In the days that follow, Yoshi’s old life will blur beyond recognition, leading her to a new world marked by destruction and shaped by those considered the enemy: Cam, a downed bomber pilot taken prisoner by the Imperial Japanese Army; Anton, a gifted architect who helped modernize Tokyo’s prewar skyline but is now charged with destroying it; and Billy, an Occupation soldier who arrives in the blackened city with a dark secret of his own. Directly or indirectly, each will shape Yoshi’s journey as she seeks safety, love, and redemption.
Chapters: 9
Pages: 382
Risk of Ruin by Arnold Snyder
The first work of fiction to be released by well-known gambling expert and author Arnold Snyder, Risk of Ruin is about a biker/professional blackjack player who becomes obsessed with a stripper who believes she's God.
Risk of Ruin is a provocative story of crime, passion, rebellion, and possible redemption that attempts to answer a question that has tormented gambling men since Adam placed that all-in bet on Eve: Is she worth the risk?
Chapters: 44
Pages: 255
Wide Open by Larry Bjornson
Based on a remarkable true story-
A wilderness of grass
A magnificent secret
A stunning tragedy
A lifelong romance in its earliest days
This is the epic story of Abilene, Kansas, at a time when the cowboy is king, and good and evil are so evenly matched that no one knows which will triumph.
Abilene, 1871. Fifteen-year-old Will Merritt is fiercely protective of the cattle trade that made his father’s fortune. Idolizing the cowboys who flood the streets each summer, Will and his friends are drawn to Abilene’s exotic Texastown district—a powderkeg of saloons and brothels so notorious that the mayor has hired the West’s most famous gunman, Wild Bill Hickok, to police its streets. Yet even with Hickok as marshal, Abilene boils with deep divisions.
The townsfolk resent the immigrant settlers whose new farms are slicing up the rangeland. And no one is more intolerant than Will’s best friend, Jasper, who delights in tormenting any farmer he encounters. But Will finds himself torn when he meets the beautiful and beguiling Anna, whose dignity and determination test his deepest beliefs.
With the scaffolding of his life beginning to wobble, Will realizes that his flamboyant father, J.T. Merritt, has a secret, something hidden far out in the remote prairie. When J.T. makes his stunning secret public, everything Abilene believes about its future is challenged, and the Merritts become outcasts.
And all the while, Will and the town are rushing toward an extraordinary tragedy involving Marshal Hickok. An event that will seal Will and Anna in a lifelong romance.
Chapters: 45 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 378
Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend
Winner, Chick Lit, Indie Reader Discovery Awards 2013
Can love cross borders? In "Imperfect Pairings" a woman’s love for an Italian leaves her confronting this question. He’s Jack in America, but he’s Giovanni in Italy; understanding him means understanding his culture, his language. It means losing the foundations of her identity to become entangled in the deep-rooted vines of his family’s troubled past when she’d vowed to remain disentangled. Her career and autonomy had always come first, and she fell in love thinking she could control it, not give in to it. Is she losing herself? Or is she finally giving in to the woman she’d been all along.
This is an adult love story, one that will leave you thinking long afterwards about the oceans that separate us from the ones we love
Chapters: 35
Pages: 389
The Soulmate Experience: A Practical Guide to Creating Extraordinary Relationships
by Mali Apple
"Create the Love of Your Life--Keep the Life in Your Love "
Single, in a relationship, and married: people of all walks of life and all ages are finding this new book on enlightened relationships inspiring, accessible, and truly transformational. This revolutionary guide will help you create and sustain a relationship that is intimately connected on all levels--emotional, intellectual, sexual, and spiritual--and a continual source of love, inspiration, and joy.
In Part 1, chapters like Loving Your Body, Reducing Your Baggage, and Raising Your Soulmate Potential will help you release anything that might be preventing you from experiencing a deeply connected relationship. As you read, you will quickly begin to feel more loving and compassionate toward yourself, more connected to those around you, and more confident about and creating your own soulmate experience.
In Part 2, chapters such as Creating a Context, Turning Expectations into Invitations, Transforming the Energy of Jealousy, Exploring the Edges, and Connecting on a Soul Level will give you everything you need to approach even the most challenging aspects of relationships in ways that will actually deepen your experience of love and intimacy. You will discover the secrets to keeping the love, passion, and connection in your relationship fully alive--every single day. And you will learn how to lovingly guide each other to release limiting beliefs, heal the past, rise above perceived limitations, and unlock the potential in every area of your lives.
Whether you re on a quest for your soulmate, looking for deeper connection in the relationship you have right now, or just want to experience much more love in your life, the ground-breaking ideas in this book--and the many stories of real people putting them into practice--will fill you with love, inspiration, and possibility. Because The Soulmate Experience isn t just a book. It 's a way great way of living life.
The Authors
Mali Apple and Joe Dunn are the hosts of the popular Facebook page The Soulmate Experience. They have dedicated their relationship to discovering how to keep the magic in any relationship alive. Their greatest joy is inspiring others to bring more of the soulmate experience into all their relationships.
Chapters: 12 plus transofrmational techniques and questions, discussion questions
Pages: 257
Breath in the Dark by Jane Hersey
Settling down on the bed, I stroked the plump, still body, watching my mother's face just to make sure she was still breathing. As a 6 year old that was all I wanted, not toys or chocolates or comforts, just to know my mother was still alive was enough. Jane Hersey's biography is told through the thoughts and voice of a traumatized, isolated child, enduring the stresses and strains of day-to-day life under difficult circumstances in 1960s Manchester. As a six year old child with sole care of a mother suffering with clinical depression, diabetes and eating disorders, Jane is ostracized by the Jewish community and the community at large. Breath in the Dark is the heart-rending story of a girl socially isolated, neglected, physically, emotionally and sexually abused and living in poverty. "From the first lines of Breath in the Dark, there is a powerful sense that this is special. The simplicity of Jane's style, the clarity of the child's voice and the intensity of emotion fired in those few words had me hooked from the start. [...] Jane expresses the beautiful mix of confusion, faith and fear that characterises her childhood effortlessly... There is so much I could say about Breath in the Dark, it's excellent narrative, incredible intensity and the unfakeable ring of truth it carries. [...] Every part of it is an extremely powerful reading experience: it is heartbreaking and fascinating in equal amounts." - Review by Harper Collins
Chapters: 28 plus preface
Pages: 329
Full Circle by Jane Hersey
My body shook with the first kick to my naked body. His boots were heavy. First he kicked at my legs. Then my thighs. I curled in a ball to try to protect myself, his kicks penetrated me, the bones in my back and ribs felt like they were crumbling. I knew I was going to die... Screams echoed around the room as I tried to reach up to the window so I could jump out. Full Circle continues the life story of Jane Hersey which began with Breath in the Dark. It tells the harrowing true tale of a socially isolated young woman, who is neglected, physically and emotionally abused and living in poverty and deprivation. 'I was 16 years old when I left Manchester, struggling with emotional and related physical problems. Unable to hold down a job I found myself homeless. Coerced into a relationship I quickly became pregnant. Soon after my partner turned extremely violent. The emotional and physical abuse was relentless. After a life threatening beating I left in the middle of the night with my 18 month old baby. Refused help by the Homeless Families Department because I had lived out of Manchester for three years, I found myself homeless with a baby, at the mercy of unscrupulous people, forced into prostitution and sexually exploited. Eventually I found an attic flat for myself and my son in a dilapidated, vermin infested house. Three years later the Jewish Social Services got involved and offered me a decent flat on condition that I brought my son up in the Jewish faith, I agreed. I was 25 when I returned to the Jewish community. The first book in this autobiographical series was featured in The Jewish Telegraph, Ireland's Big Issue and Jane appeared on a wide range of radio shows from Newstalk to the BBC. It's been reviewed by the Madness and Literature Network (University of Nottingham) and included on the reading list for mental health nurses and recommended as a key text for clinicians, students, carers and parents.
Chapters: 12 plus epilogue foreword and preface
Pages: 164
Till Morning Comes by Suyin Han
Alone in exotic Chungking, beautiful foreign correspondent Stephanie Ryder is warned to keep silent about the atrocities she witnesses in the city’s teeming slums. Defying a brutal Kuomintang officer, she is swept to an electrifying first meeting with Dr. Jen Yong, a handsome, dedicated and compassionate Chinese surgeon. For Yong, a sexual liaison with an American woman could mean a death sentence. For Stephanie, an affair with an Asian man would cause an irreparable breach with her Texas millionaire father. But just when danger threatens to separate them forever, their passion bursts into flame…and carries them on a fabulous romantic journey from the stormy depths of fear and desire, to the moving affirmation that enduring love is truly a many-splendored thing.
Chapters: 27
Pages: 620
Once, in another world—a dark world, the world of Faetta—there lived paladins and pirates, tyrants and scallywags, vampires and the undead. In this world a revolution is brewing. The royalty of Sieunes are in chains, and those priests and paladins who follow the holy word of the gods are under attack. In the west, the kingdom of Kellerhald receives the fleeing priests in their temples of the paladins of Silvius, god of the Sky.
Here, a young woman has just passed her tests to become a paladin. A pirate crew raids along the Azez Sea. An undead creature, wielding great power, roams the graveyard of Yetta. And a lost soul, crying out from beyond the veil, seeks out a pure hearted warrior to hear its plea.
Amid the turmoil of the revolution, Ilka’s mettle is tested. Rescued by pirates, she ends up with an unlikely ally: the pirate captain himself. The newly trained paladin finds herself collaborating with the undead, working with a vampire, and worst of all, longing for revenge against the man who has ignited the revolution in Sieunes: Francois Mond...
Death of an Innocent. Rise of a Paladin.
Book One in the Trilogy of the Tyrant, a stand-alone series set fifteen years after the Trilogy of Shadows.
The Rusmolovo Diaries by E. V. Shlychkova (e-book)
"Never has such a tragic book had so much sex"
This is a lost diary of an 18-year old girl that was found by a cleaning lady in the bar toilet in the small settlement outside St. Petersburg, Russia. Nobody has yet claimed it and it’s understandable considering many graphic sex details and dirty little secrets it contains (being raped on her birthday and sleeping with her sister’s husband are not the biggest of them). But if you keep an open mind you’ll find that behind all the sex and cynical observations, there is a vulnerable girl who, like all of us, strives for love and beauty.
Due to explicit content – the book is for adults only.
What I'm Reading right now:
“Hunter lives alone. He eats and sleeps alone. The only people he can relate to are those he finds on the other side of an internet connection. Like him, they have extraordinary abilities, and like him, they want to keep anyone from finding out. His job is to manipulate them into revealing their deepest secrets to him, secrets that will maintain his freedom and surely end theirs.
His employer classifies him as a "ravager". Unfortunately, his ability is more affliction than asset. If he loses control of his emotions, anyone nearby is stricken with a disease that could prove fatal. The Center for the Preservation of Natural Order allows him to remain free on the condition that he keep a low profile and he work for them.
The arrangement works for all parties involved until a girl claiming to be an angel appears in his living room.
Celeste brings word that his estranged brother is missing. Only the two of them can save him.
When his supervisor comes looking for her, Hunter is faced with a choice. Should he trust a stranger and become a fugitive for a brother he barely knows or turn her in, go back to the lonely existence that's kept him from being a danger to innocent people for so long? And who the hell is the strange, tattooed woman who keeps appearing to him in reflections and dreams?
Who he decides to become will be the catalyst for change. One way or another, the life he knows is over.”
Pages: 114 out of 216
Chapters: 11 out of 19
The Foreign Student: A Novel by Susan Choi
Highly acclaimed by critics, The Foreign Student is the story of a young Korean man, scarred by war, and the deeply troubled daughter of a wealthy Southern American family. In 1955, a new student arrives at a small college in the Tennessee mountains. Chuck is shy, speaks English haltingly, and on the subject of his earlier life in Korea he will not speak at all. Then he meets Katherine, a beautiful and solitary young woman who, like Chuck, is haunted by some dark episode in her past. Without quite knowing why, these two outsiders are drawn together, each sensing in the other the possibility of salvation. Moving between the American South and South Korea, between an adolescent girl's sexual awakening and a young man's nightmarish memories of war, The Foreign Student is a powerful and emotionally gripping work of fiction.
Chapters: 6 out of 14 plus prologue
Pages: 138 out of 325
Two lonely people in a city riddled with crime find their soul mates. After their only date, they embark on an exciting and unforgettable road to happiness. A story of love, romance, self-denial, danger, and sacrifice.
Chapters: 26 out of 40?
Pages: 69 out of 153
I am Venus: A Novel by Bárbara Mujica
In this breathtaking historical novel by the acclaimed author of the bestselling Frida, Bárbara Mujica reimagines the dramatic life and loves of the Baroque Spanish painter Diego Velázquez. Narrated by the mysterious model who posed for The Toilet of Venus, his only surviving female nude, I Am Venus is the riveting account of a great artist’s rise to prominence, set against the backdrop of political turmoil and romantic scandal.
The year is 1619, and Diego Velázquez is a rising star at an art academy in Seville run by his father-in-law. But even as his young wife builds him a family, the painter yearns for a larger canvas, and soon his ambition lands him at the court of King Philip IV, where he quickly gains prominence, just as Spain is plunged into military defeat and domestic chaos.
But as he gains nobility and privilege, Velázquez encounters the sinful decadence that defines the regime. At the heart of this most conservative country, its ruling class breaks every rule that the masses must obey. As he finds himself torn between loyalty to family and the easy seductions of power, Velázquez decides to take on his riskiest painting yet, which could, in a stroke, land him in the claws of the Inquisition.
A sweeping story of scandal and passion, and a vivid recreation of a corrupt kingdom on the brink of collapse, I Am Venus is a thrilling novel that brings to life the public and private worlds of Spain’s greatest painter.
Chapters:16 out of 18 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 251 out of 299
Toward the end of World War II, as Germany’s hold on East Prussia grows increasingly tenuous, a childhood friendship between Manya Von Falken, the daughter of an aristrocratic family, and Joshi Karas, a Romani doctor, blossoms into unlikely love. But the young lovers are torn apart.
Captured by the Nazis and sent to a concentration camp, Joshi fights for survival, while Manya and her family flee and embark on “The Great Trek” out of East Prussia. Based on true stories passed down to author Marina Gottlieb Sarles from her grandparents, survivors of the trek, The Last Daughter of Prussia also tells the story of the brave Trakehner horses who led their owners across a dangerous frozen lagoon, the only open escape route.
Will Joshi and Manya find one another? Gottlieb Sarles creates a tapestry of characters from every corner of East Prussia, shedding light on an untold tragic moment in history.
Chapters: 10 out of 54
Pages: 46 out of 311
Against a Crimson Sky by James Conroyd Martin
A magnificent epic, Against a Crimson Sky is an unforgettable tale of love, valor, and the enduring strength of the human spirit, set against the backdrop of war-torn Poland at the cusp of the nineteenth century.
The year is 1794, and the beautiful and resilient Countess Anna Maria Berezowska has narrowly escaped death amidst the chaos caused by the violent dissolution of Poland.
Anna is soon reunited with her longtime love, Lord Jan Stelnicki, and the two lovers marry even as their beloved Poland is ripped apart. As the couple struggles to raise a family in the face of an uncertain future, Anna’s capricious cousin, Zofia, returns with a surprise of her own. Although Zofia’s past schemes still resonate, Anna’s doubts turn to fear as Jan’s patriotism draws him to the battlefield.
Offering new hope for a conquered Poland, Napoleon Bonaparte arrives in all of his pomp and glory. With the aid of new Polish legions—Anna’s friends and family among them—Napoleon battles his way across Europe in an effort that culminates in the doomed 1812 winter march into Russia.
Against this backdrop, Anna and Jan valiantly fight to hold on to a tenuous happiness, their country, and their very lives.
Chapters: 10 out of 40 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 111 out of 368
This book consists of the written letters between my wife and I while I was away at recruit training, Parris Island, South Carolina. We've held nothing back - save a few names to protect the identities of the characters portrayed in our letters - and we've agreed to share our experience with anyone interested in reading about it.
This is our story.
-Aaron Powell
Chapters: 13 out of 141 plus conclusion and introduction
Pages: 25 out of 352
The Laws of Gravity by Liz Rosenberg
An exquisite tour de force, The Laws of Gravity is a testament to what it means to be a family, what it takes to save a life, and the lengths we will go to protect the ones we love. Two families, bound by blood, hear terrible news. One decision holds the key to survival--but at a devastating cost.
Nicole, auburn-haired, airy, and beautiful, discovers her body is betraying her. She turns to cousin and childhood best friend Ari for the cord blood he's been banking for his own children. Ari stands firm, bringing them before the scales of justice. Solomon Richter, a state Supreme Court judge on the brink of retirement, is touched by this legal battle like no other. His blood case, he calls it. A case that calls into question the very things we live for: the enduring bonds of family, and the love that lasts a lifetime. It's Nicole's last chance, Ari's last stand, and the judge's last case.
A novel of heartbreaking honesty, humor, and depth--an unforgettable story of finding love and finding family--The Laws of Gravity heralds Liz Rosenberg as a storytelling sensation.
Chapters: 8 out of N/A
Pages: 56 out of 300
New Mystery Adventure - Win Autographed ARCs!
Woodstock, 1969: the Festival that defined a decade of peace, love and freedom. The paths of five young English students cross – with devastating consequences. Consequences that eventually reach a climax in an isolated Cretan gorge.
Seventeen years later, in the ‘golden age’ of capitalism, dramatic events conspire to reunite the surviving members, necessitating a perilous return to Greece and to a tiny Greek island, as dangerous secrets and self-deceptions are at last forced into the glaring light…
Steeped in the folklore of the 20th century, A Time of Myths is not solely a historical mystery adventure: it seeks also to examine who we are, and how far we are in control of our actions – and even of our lives.
Chapters: 2 out of 6 books
Pages: 67 out of 338
Manzanar to Mount Whitney The Life and Times of a Lost Hiker by Hank Umemoto
In 1942, fourteen-year-old Hank Umemoto gazed out a barrack window at Manzanar Internment Camp, saw the silhouette of Mount Whitney against an indigo sky, and vowed that one day he would climb to the top. Fifty-seven years and a lifetime of stories later, at the age of seventy-one, he reached the summit. Part memoir and part hiker's diary, Manzanar to mount Whitney gives an intimate, rollicking account of Japanese American life California before and after World War II. As he wanders through the mountains of California's Inland Empire, Umemoto recalls pieces of his childhood on a grape vineyard in the Sacramento Valley, his time at Manzanar, where beauty and hope were maintained despite the odds, and his later career as proprietor of a printing firm, all with grace, honesty, and unfailing humor. And all along, the peak of Mount Whitney casts its shadow, a symbol of freedom, beauty, and resilience.
Chapters: 8 out of 12 plus prologue and introduction
Pages: 116 out of 192
This deeply researched book describes one of the great forgotten battles of the 20th century. At its height it involved nearly a million Chinese and Japanese soldiers, while sucking in three million civilians as unwilling spectators and, often, victims. It turned what had been a Japanese adventure in China into a general war between the two oldest and proudest civilizations of the Far East. Ultimately, it led to Pearl Harbor and to seven decades of tumultuous history in Asia. The Battle of Shanghai was a pivotal event that helped define and shape the modern world.
In its sheer scale, the struggle for China’s largest city was a sinister forewarning of what was in store for the rest of mankind only a few years hence, in theaters around the world. It demonstrated how technology had given rise to new forms of warfare, or had made old forms even more lethal. Amphibious landings, tank assaults, aerial dogfights and most importantly, urban combat, all happened in Shanghai in 1937. It was a dress rehearsal for World War II—or perhaps more correctly it was the inaugural act in the war—the first major battle in the global conflict.
Actors from a variety of nations were present in Shanghai during the three fateful autumn months when the battle raged. The rich cast included China's ascetic Generalissimo Chiang Kai-shek and his Japanese adversary, General Matsui Iwane, who wanted Asia to rise from disunity, but ultimately pushed the continent toward its deadliest conflict ever. Claire Chennault, later of “Flying Tiger” fame, was among the figures emerging in the course of the campaign, as was First Lady Eleanor Roosevelt. In an ironic twist, Alexander von Falkenhausen, a stern German veteran of the Great War, abandoned his role as a mere advisor to the Chinese army and led it into battle against the Japanese invaders.
Written by Peter Harmsen, a foreign correspondent in East Asia for two decades, and currently bureau chief in Taiwan for the French news agency AFP, Shanghai 1937 fills a gaping chasm in our understanding of the Second World War.
Chapters: 1 out of 9 plus prologue, order of battle
Pages: 29 out of 303
Before the Larkspur Blooms (Prairie Hearts Series #2) by Caroline Fyffe
Caroline Fyffe returns to the windswept prairies of Wyoming with a beautiful story of rekindled love…
Thomas Donovan spent eight long years in prison, convicted of a crime he didn't commit. Finally released, he returns home to Logan Meadows, Wyoming, to discover his parents long buried and his neighbors wanting nothing to do with him. Suddenly the fresh start Thom longed for seems downright impossible until a spirited beauty from his past becomes his unlikely champion, and the walls around his injured heart begin to crumble?
Hannah Hoskins was brokenhearted when Thom Donovan was sent away. While the rest of the town was quick to brand him a no-count thief, Hannah always knew better. Now the boy she once loved has returned home a man ? a man whom Hannah's suitor, the town's deputy sheriff, is determined to destroy. When a crime spree starts anew, suspicion immediately falls on Thom, and it's up to Hannah to prove his innocence, earn him a second chance at life ? and win them both a second chance at love.
Chapters: 3 out of 44
Pages: 17 out of 281
Future Books I will read:
Divorced. Check.
Ghost whisperer. Check.
Human servant. Check.
Great. Check.
Rosemary Fernandes never planned on being divorced. She never expected to be able to communicate with ghosts nor be the human servant to a vampire either. But she is all these things. Rosemary has had to get tough to compete in the cutthroat world of real estate and even tougher to face her fears of the supernatural as her paranormal escapades heat up.
Marcus Lyons is a vampire and Rosemary’s master. He forbids her to get involved with any more ghosts, and maintains the secrets they hold will be her death. Rosemary knows helping lost souls is what she’s meant to do, no matter how dangerous. When Rosemary connects with an angry young spirit, Marcus puts a price on her desires. What is she willing to give to help this specter? And will Rosemary’s bargain with the vampire be the end of her relationship with sexy tattoo artist Frank Perez.
Benny Cruz talks all gangsta and sarcastic. His energy is static, and he claims he knows what Rosemary is. Benny believes Rosemary controls the dead, and leads them around on a leash. Rosemary agrees to help the lost soul and prove she can't make the dead do anything, but is someone who helps lost souls move on. Something feels off with this spirit, and Rosemary is sure Benny knows more than he’s telling.
Benny is intent on completing the task he didn't finish. Rosemary must convince the spirit that closure with his family is what’s keeping him here. What’s not done is done. When Benny’s secret risks Rosemary’s life, she must somehow save herself and help the ghost find peace. Can she afford Marcus’ price of flesh and blood and prove to the vampire he is more man than monster? And what happens when Rosemary finds herself falling for two very different men? Even though one may be a killer.
Pages: 253
Chapters: 40
House Haunting- Mary E Merrell (e-book, Sage's blog Tour)
Rosemary Fernandes is a divorced, naïve woman, determined to make it in the tough world of real estate. Keith Laumer is a ghost, eager to leave his earthly haunt. As a real estate agent and a womanizer in life, Keith is the perfect partner to teach Rosemary the ins and outs of the real estate business, and he’s perfectly willing to teach her anything else she wants to know too.
Keith wants to find his killers, but Rosemary knows what's really keeping him earthbound. Is it too late for the ghost to find the true meaning of life? And can Rosemary find Keith's killer before her less-than-subtle sleuthing teaches her and her friends a lesson they may not survive.
If you enjoy Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, you’re going to find a kindred “spirit” in Rosemary Fernandes.
Chapters: 46
Pages: 314
Rosemary Fernandes is a real estate agent with the ability to communicate with lost souls, the spirit of deceased people who can’t or won’t move on. With a deal in escrow and buyers to work with, her business is taking off. All she has to do is avoid the spirits, who call to her, but her ability is getting stronger, and their voices are getting louder. The dead are attracted to her and so are the undead.
Marcus Lyons is a vampire who needs an assistant, and he wants Rosemary. He will do anything to have her, exclusively. Rosemary has no choice but to agree to his terms, but her life will never be the same. Soon she realizes the vampire is no monster but a man with many…talents.
Cassandra Huckabee is a murdered stripper, who won’t leave this world until she knows her daughter is safe. Her essence is hot and her moves hotter. Cassandra’s spirit takes Rosemary to places she’s never been before and teaches her that there is more to her ability than just talking with ghosts. With the help of her best friend, Laura Toste, Rosemary searches for a way to help Cassandra move on and find her killer.
Frank Perez knows all about Rosemary and he’s still interested. Will he still want her when he meets her gorgeous best friend and the sizzling spirit? Can Rosemary keep her life as a human servant separate from her friends and family? And how long will the vampire put up with Rosemary’s silly escapades with ghosts, strip clubs and serial killers? When Cassandra’s killer comes after Rosemary, help comes from an unexpected place. And then sometimes even the predator needs help.
If you like Janet Evanovich’s Stephanie Plum, then you’ll find a kindred spirit in Rosemary Fernandes.
Chapters: 47
Pages: 287
Learn, Create, and Teach A guide to building a creative life- Clara Lieu
Whether you are a student, professional, or teacher of the arts, this book delivers succinct, practical, and candid advice that addresses both common concerns in the creative path and the real-life challenges an artist faces in the real world.
Breaking down the creative arc into “student,” “professional,” and “teacher” reinforces that we all have something to learn, to create, and to teach. Addressing universal problems, fears, and roadblocks faced by artists, this book offers solutions, hope, and motivation.
Those starting their art career will value the tips and strategies for becoming known (“Be able to sum up your work in a single sentence.”) as well as staying motivated (“Never ever stop making your art.”). Teachers will gain insights from not only my experiences but also the perspectives of my colleagues, mentors, and students. This easy-to-digest volume has advice that can be readily put into practice by anyone.
Chapters: 60 plus conclusion and Q&A
Pages: 160
As he pulled up and shut down the engine, he took a deep breath to calm himself, and in that instant, the flash of anger he had felt the night he was torn from his mother returned. He shook it from his mind, slid out of the seat, and went up the stairs to the front door. Ida opened the door and threw her arms around his neck with exactly the same loving abandonment he had seen her often leap into his father's arms so many years ago. She hung onto her boy, hung on tight with her face buried in his shoulder and sobbed.
Chapters: 43
Pages: 466
Double Down by Saylor Storm
Determined to erase the painful, lonely memories of childhood, unbreakable Lola Stocking vows to make a better life for herself. She plots a path that includes an ascent up the Las Vegas casino corporate ladder. Lola follows her design tenaciously until she falls for a man who was not part of her plan. Adoring Jackson Sterling steps into her life when she least expects it, forcing her to reassess her life course. Shattered by catastrophe on her wedding day, her life's dreams come to a screeching halt. Driven by sheer will and strength, her new direction brings everything she ever dreamed of only to learn that it had been there all along...she just didn't know it.
Chapters: 55
Pages: 220
Josie spent twenty years as a battered wife, dying for a hero.
Now, she's dying to become one.
-------------------------------
Josie Kane is a “difficult” woman, a pure enigma - one who survives her abusive husband by honing her unnerving talent for playing mind games:
she knows exactly how to manipulate a bully.
Finally divorced, she thinks the abuse is over, and she’s free.
She’s wrong. And her cynicism is building.
Josie works with battered women, trying to rescue them from a fate similar to hers. But on the night that yet another battered woman is murdered by her husband, pining for a hero as she dies in Josie's arms, her cynicism becomes a quiet, simmering hatred.
Her one remaining refuge is in her bond with Maxine and Samantha, the two friends whom she loves like sisters. When Samantha becomes pregnant by Jack - an abuser who makes known his intentions to use the baby as a weapon of control - Josie’s hatred ripens to a vengeful fury.
She sets out to take on one more batterer, manipulate one more bully… And she lures Jack into the crosshairs of the ultimate mind game.
Her friends are convinced that she intends to rid Samantha of Jack.
They're right.
But with Josie Kane, as always, there's a twist.
With her friends helpless to stop her - and with Samantha hanging in the balance - Josie squares off with Jack in a life-and-death, winner-lose-all battle of wits to determine which side will win Sammy's future.
And this time, there will be a hero.
Chapters: 22 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 370
x0 by Sherrie Cronin
What if you are capable of far more than you realize? Lola, a Texan geophysicist who doesn’t believe in nonsense, finds that a near fatal accident reintroduces a disturbing phenomenon into her mind. Lola pretends it isn’t there until the changes taking place inside of her just won’t be ignored.
Across an ocean, Somadina is a young Nigerian who thinks that her telepathic abilities are perfectly normal. When her sister becomes a captive, the young Igbo woman draws upon her powers to find an ally like herself, a woman with a strong sense of justice and a desire to protect the helpless. As Somadina discovers that her sister has become a strategic pawn in a larger and more dangerous game, she vows to do anything to get the attention of this kindred, uncooperative lady.
x0 is an ancient organization with good reasons to stay hidden, but it knows that these two women have more important things in common than they realize, and that such will forge a powerful link. This forces x0 to reluctantly emerge from the shadows. Somebody needs to intervene. Both women are far stronger than they know, and to make matters worse, a fringe fanatic may be on the verge of altering a nation’s future.
Chapters: 17
Pages: 317
This anthology of short stories explores those themes which we encounter down the long, winding road of life- of the probable and the impossible; of the finite and the infinite; of the ordinary and the extraordinary. It is an intimate portrait of those virtues which unite us all: love, and fortitude, justice and redemption.
These tales reflect intense desires people experience throughout their complex lives: they are about people seeking an inner peace, and understanding, and joy, and those looking for a greater purpose in their lives beyond the trivial; they are about hope, and wonder, and beauty; they are about things spiritual, and worldly, and otherworldly, too.
Life is a gorgeous tapestry upon which we weave our own unique stories. This book has narratives that will make you wonder what we are and who we are and why we are, and where we are going, and what we will do once we get there.
There are a boundless number of incredible tales to be told. Here are ten of them, filled with drama and adventure and romance. Enjoy!
Chapters: 10
Pages: 170
The Bouchard Legacy by Ted Magnuson
The Bouchard Family Legacy is about to be passed on to a fourth generation...or will it?
When Paul and Randy were in high school, their parents married new spouses. What different understandings Paul and Randy have when it comes to the future of the family business.
Paul has earned a place in the world, but Randy owns it.
The Bouchard Legacy; a story of loyalty and greed, a story of prejudice and character; it’s the story of Randy and Paul coming of age in the tumultuous 1960’s and then; their arrival as men in the close of the 1970’s. Set in Mid-America, St Louis, MO
Chapters: 29 plus epilogue
Pages: 207
"Cynthia and the Blue Cat’s Last Meow" is the first person narrative of young man who enters a colorful, anthropomorphic land that appears perfect, and Cynthia is the embodiment of that land. Gradually, the narrator sees his own tormented soul hidden beneath the natural beauty. He sees, but cannot readily accept, the demons gnawing at his heart. This story is about the unleashing and dissolution of his fears and his maturing perception of Cynthia. It is also about her guidance and the resulting changes that occur within her. The offbeat natural setting is established within the first few pages and progresses into a rich ménage of unusual happenings and vivid colors, fishing and fury, moonlight and candlelight, magical red berries and howling caverns, a land where many of us would like to visit, and a few do, briefly in our youth. We should all explore such places of the soul where we dream of blue cats and hearts capable of such adventurous and idyllic sensuality. Please allow yourself to enter Cynthia’s world.
Chapters: 8
Pages: 73
Here, There, Elsewhere: Stories from the Road by William Least Heat-Moon
From the acclaimed author of Blue Highways, PrairyErth, and Roads to Quoz, a dazzling collection of travel tales from the road.
HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE draws together for the first time William Least Heat-Moon's greatest short-form travel writing. Personally selected by the writer, these pieces take us from Japan, England, Italy, and Mexico to Long Island, Oregon, Arizona, from small towns to big cities, ocean shores and inland mysteries.
Including Heat-Moon's reflections on writing these pieces, HERE, THERE, ELSEWHERE is much more than the usual collection of amber; it is a coupled summation of craft and memory. A perfect treasury of prose and provocation for readers old and new, Heat-Moon's most recent work reveals his absolute mastery across pages many and few.
Chapters: 28
Pages: 390
From 1882 to 1884, John Singer Sargent painted his greatest masterpieces-the Daughters of Edward Darley Boit and Madame X-haunting portraits with dark psychological depths. The first unconsciously revealed a secret that would cause great anguish in his private life; the other created a social scandal that drove him from Paris forever. Portraits of an Artist brings to life the subjects of Sargent's paintings-his family, friends, enemies and lovers-to tell his story from their own perspectives. John Singer Sargent's paintings told more than he ever wanted anyone to know.
Chapters: N/A plus afterword and notes on the characters
Pages: 307
Veneer: Living Deeply in a Surface Society by Timothy D. Willard (Goodreads Author), R. Jason Locy
You aren't who you think you are.Culture tells us that in order to be liked we must masquerade as someone other than who we are. So, we lacquer ourselves with credit cards and plastic surgery and status updates hoping no one will see the person underneath. This 'veneer' allows us to silence our real selves as it gives voice to the alter ego we'd like others to see. But, is this all there is to life or have we been duped? Does material success equal significance? Is our only identity the one we steal from Hollywood? God's idea of humanity is altogether different from the world's. There is a way to live that sees beauty in our imperfection and, as Tim and Jason put it, once we realize this we can strip our veneers and live an unveneered life of freedom, honesty, and beauty.
Chapters: 10 plus postlude and prelude
Pages: 249
A lush, exquisitely rendered meditation on war, The Gods of Heavenly Punishment tells the story of several families, American and Japanese, their loves and infidelities, their dreams and losses, and how they are all connected by one of the most devastating acts of war in human history.
In this evocative and thrilling epic novel, fifteen-year-old Yoshi Kobayashi, child of Japan’s New Empire, daughter of an ardent expansionist and a mother with a haunting past, is on her way home on a March night when American bombers shower her city with napalm—an attack that leaves one hundred thousand dead within hours and half the city in ashen ruins. In the days that follow, Yoshi’s old life will blur beyond recognition, leading her to a new world marked by destruction and shaped by those considered the enemy: Cam, a downed bomber pilot taken prisoner by the Imperial Japanese Army; Anton, a gifted architect who helped modernize Tokyo’s prewar skyline but is now charged with destroying it; and Billy, an Occupation soldier who arrives in the blackened city with a dark secret of his own. Directly or indirectly, each will shape Yoshi’s journey as she seeks safety, love, and redemption.
Chapters: 9
Pages: 382
Risk of Ruin by Arnold Snyder
The first work of fiction to be released by well-known gambling expert and author Arnold Snyder, Risk of Ruin is about a biker/professional blackjack player who becomes obsessed with a stripper who believes she's God.
Risk of Ruin is a provocative story of crime, passion, rebellion, and possible redemption that attempts to answer a question that has tormented gambling men since Adam placed that all-in bet on Eve: Is she worth the risk?
Chapters: 44
Pages: 255
Based on a remarkable true story-
A wilderness of grass
A magnificent secret
A stunning tragedy
A lifelong romance in its earliest days
This is the epic story of Abilene, Kansas, at a time when the cowboy is king, and good and evil are so evenly matched that no one knows which will triumph.
Abilene, 1871. Fifteen-year-old Will Merritt is fiercely protective of the cattle trade that made his father’s fortune. Idolizing the cowboys who flood the streets each summer, Will and his friends are drawn to Abilene’s exotic Texastown district—a powderkeg of saloons and brothels so notorious that the mayor has hired the West’s most famous gunman, Wild Bill Hickok, to police its streets. Yet even with Hickok as marshal, Abilene boils with deep divisions.
The townsfolk resent the immigrant settlers whose new farms are slicing up the rangeland. And no one is more intolerant than Will’s best friend, Jasper, who delights in tormenting any farmer he encounters. But Will finds himself torn when he meets the beautiful and beguiling Anna, whose dignity and determination test his deepest beliefs.
With the scaffolding of his life beginning to wobble, Will realizes that his flamboyant father, J.T. Merritt, has a secret, something hidden far out in the remote prairie. When J.T. makes his stunning secret public, everything Abilene believes about its future is challenged, and the Merritts become outcasts.
And all the while, Will and the town are rushing toward an extraordinary tragedy involving Marshal Hickok. An event that will seal Will and Anna in a lifelong romance.
Chapters: 45 plus epilogue and prologue
Pages: 378
Imperfect Pairings by Jackie Townsend
Winner, Chick Lit, Indie Reader Discovery Awards 2013
Can love cross borders? In "Imperfect Pairings" a woman’s love for an Italian leaves her confronting this question. He’s Jack in America, but he’s Giovanni in Italy; understanding him means understanding his culture, his language. It means losing the foundations of her identity to become entangled in the deep-rooted vines of his family’s troubled past when she’d vowed to remain disentangled. Her career and autonomy had always come first, and she fell in love thinking she could control it, not give in to it. Is she losing herself? Or is she finally giving in to the woman she’d been all along.
This is an adult love story, one that will leave you thinking long afterwards about the oceans that separate us from the ones we love
Chapters: 35
Pages: 389
by Mali Apple
"Create the Love of Your Life--Keep the Life in Your Love "
Single, in a relationship, and married: people of all walks of life and all ages are finding this new book on enlightened relationships inspiring, accessible, and truly transformational. This revolutionary guide will help you create and sustain a relationship that is intimately connected on all levels--emotional, intellectual, sexual, and spiritual--and a continual source of love, inspiration, and joy.
In Part 1, chapters like Loving Your Body, Reducing Your Baggage, and Raising Your Soulmate Potential will help you release anything that might be preventing you from experiencing a deeply connected relationship. As you read, you will quickly begin to feel more loving and compassionate toward yourself, more connected to those around you, and more confident about and creating your own soulmate experience.
In Part 2, chapters such as Creating a Context, Turning Expectations into Invitations, Transforming the Energy of Jealousy, Exploring the Edges, and Connecting on a Soul Level will give you everything you need to approach even the most challenging aspects of relationships in ways that will actually deepen your experience of love and intimacy. You will discover the secrets to keeping the love, passion, and connection in your relationship fully alive--every single day. And you will learn how to lovingly guide each other to release limiting beliefs, heal the past, rise above perceived limitations, and unlock the potential in every area of your lives.
Whether you re on a quest for your soulmate, looking for deeper connection in the relationship you have right now, or just want to experience much more love in your life, the ground-breaking ideas in this book--and the many stories of real people putting them into practice--will fill you with love, inspiration, and possibility. Because The Soulmate Experience isn t just a book. It 's a way great way of living life.
The Authors
Mali Apple and Joe Dunn are the hosts of the popular Facebook page The Soulmate Experience. They have dedicated their relationship to discovering how to keep the magic in any relationship alive. Their greatest joy is inspiring others to bring more of the soulmate experience into all their relationships.
Chapters: 12 plus transofrmational techniques and questions, discussion questions
Pages: 257
Breath in the Dark by Jane Hersey
Settling down on the bed, I stroked the plump, still body, watching my mother's face just to make sure she was still breathing. As a 6 year old that was all I wanted, not toys or chocolates or comforts, just to know my mother was still alive was enough. Jane Hersey's biography is told through the thoughts and voice of a traumatized, isolated child, enduring the stresses and strains of day-to-day life under difficult circumstances in 1960s Manchester. As a six year old child with sole care of a mother suffering with clinical depression, diabetes and eating disorders, Jane is ostracized by the Jewish community and the community at large. Breath in the Dark is the heart-rending story of a girl socially isolated, neglected, physically, emotionally and sexually abused and living in poverty. "From the first lines of Breath in the Dark, there is a powerful sense that this is special. The simplicity of Jane's style, the clarity of the child's voice and the intensity of emotion fired in those few words had me hooked from the start. [...] Jane expresses the beautiful mix of confusion, faith and fear that characterises her childhood effortlessly... There is so much I could say about Breath in the Dark, it's excellent narrative, incredible intensity and the unfakeable ring of truth it carries. [...] Every part of it is an extremely powerful reading experience: it is heartbreaking and fascinating in equal amounts." - Review by Harper Collins
Chapters: 28 plus preface
Pages: 329
My body shook with the first kick to my naked body. His boots were heavy. First he kicked at my legs. Then my thighs. I curled in a ball to try to protect myself, his kicks penetrated me, the bones in my back and ribs felt like they were crumbling. I knew I was going to die... Screams echoed around the room as I tried to reach up to the window so I could jump out. Full Circle continues the life story of Jane Hersey which began with Breath in the Dark. It tells the harrowing true tale of a socially isolated young woman, who is neglected, physically and emotionally abused and living in poverty and deprivation. 'I was 16 years old when I left Manchester, struggling with emotional and related physical problems. Unable to hold down a job I found myself homeless. Coerced into a relationship I quickly became pregnant. Soon after my partner turned extremely violent. The emotional and physical abuse was relentless. After a life threatening beating I left in the middle of the night with my 18 month old baby. Refused help by the Homeless Families Department because I had lived out of Manchester for three years, I found myself homeless with a baby, at the mercy of unscrupulous people, forced into prostitution and sexually exploited. Eventually I found an attic flat for myself and my son in a dilapidated, vermin infested house. Three years later the Jewish Social Services got involved and offered me a decent flat on condition that I brought my son up in the Jewish faith, I agreed. I was 25 when I returned to the Jewish community. The first book in this autobiographical series was featured in The Jewish Telegraph, Ireland's Big Issue and Jane appeared on a wide range of radio shows from Newstalk to the BBC. It's been reviewed by the Madness and Literature Network (University of Nottingham) and included on the reading list for mental health nurses and recommended as a key text for clinicians, students, carers and parents.
Chapters: 12 plus epilogue foreword and preface
Pages: 164
Till Morning Comes by Suyin Han
Alone in exotic Chungking, beautiful foreign correspondent Stephanie Ryder is warned to keep silent about the atrocities she witnesses in the city’s teeming slums. Defying a brutal Kuomintang officer, she is swept to an electrifying first meeting with Dr. Jen Yong, a handsome, dedicated and compassionate Chinese surgeon. For Yong, a sexual liaison with an American woman could mean a death sentence. For Stephanie, an affair with an Asian man would cause an irreparable breach with her Texas millionaire father. But just when danger threatens to separate them forever, their passion bursts into flame…and carries them on a fabulous romantic journey from the stormy depths of fear and desire, to the moving affirmation that enduring love is truly a many-splendored thing.
Chapters: 27
Pages: 620
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