The Talented Mr. Ripley

      Patricia Highsmith
$value['title']

Since his debut in 1955, Tom Ripley has evolved into the ultimate bad boy sociopath, influencing countless novelists and filmmakers. In this first novel, we are introduced to suave, handsome Tom Ripley: a young striver, newly arrived in the heady world of Manhattan in the 1950s. A product of a broken home, branded a "sissy" by his dismissive Aunt Dottie, Ripley becomes enamored of the moneyed world of his new friend, Dickie Greenleaf. This fondness turns obsessive when Ripley is sent to Italy to bring back his libertine pal but grows enraged by Dickie's ambivalent feelings for Marge, a charming American dilettante. A dark reworking of Henry James's The Ambassadors, The Talented Mr. Ripley—is up to his tricks in a 90s film and also Rene Clement's 60s film, "Purple Noon."

Read online

  • 2 717

    Not if I Save You First

      Ally Carter
$value['title']

Maddie thought she and Logan would be friends forever. But when your dad is a Secret Service agent and your best friend is the president's son, sometimes life has other plans. Before she knows it, Maddie's dad is dragging her to a cabin in the middle of the Alaskan wilderness. No phone. No Internet. And not a single word from Logan. Maddie tells herself it's okay. After all, she's the most popular girl for twenty miles in any direction. (She’s also the only girl for twenty miles in any direction.) She has wood to cut and weapons to bedazzle. Her life is full. Until Logan shows up six years later . . . And Maddie wants to kill him. But before that can happen, an assailant appears out of nowhere, knocking Maddie off a cliff and dragging Logan to some unknown fate. Maddie knows she could turn back- and get help. But the weather is turning and the terrain will only get more treacherous, the animals more deadly. Maddie still really wants to kill Logan. But she has to save him first.

Read online

  • 2 716

    The French Lieutenant's Woman

      John Fowles
$value['title']

The scene is the village of Lyme Regis on Dorset's Lyme Bay..."the largest bite from the underside of England's out-stretched southwestern leg." The major characters in the love-intrigue triangle are Charles Smithson, 32, a gentleman of independent means & vaguely scientific bent; his fiancée, Ernestina Freeman, a pretty heiress daughter of a wealthy & pompous dry goods merchant; & Sarah Woodruff, mysterious & fascinating...deserted after a brief affair with a French naval officer a short time before the story begins. Obsessed with an irresistible fascination for the enigmatic Sarah, Charles is hurtled by a moment of consummated lust to the brink of the existential void. Duty dictates that his engagement to Tina must be broken as he goes forth once again to seek the woman who has captured his Victorian soul & gentleman's heart.

Read online

  • 2 713

    A Touch of Midnight

      Lara Adrian
$value['title']

Savannah Dupree is halfway across the country from her Louisiana bayou hometown, a freshman studying at Boston University on a full scholarship. But academic excellence is only one of Savannah’s gifts. She possesses something even more remarkable than her quick mind and insatiable curiosity for learning. With a simple touch, Savannah can see an object’s past—a skill that puts her life in danger, when her studies bring her into contact with a centuries-old English sword and the secret hidden within the blade’s history: the vicious murders of twin boys by a group of fanged creatures borne of the worst kind of nightmare. In all his three hundred years of living as one of the Breed, vampire warrior Gideon never dreamed he’d see the blade again that spilled his young brothers’ lives ages ago on that blood-soaked night in London. Ever since the boys’ deaths, Gideon’s been on a personal quest to rid the world of Rogue vampires, but now he can’t help wondering if the brutal slayings of his only kin was something more sinister—an act perpetrated by an unknown enemy. An enemy who is apparently living in hiding somewhere in Boston. There’s one certain way to prove Gideon’s suspicion, but it will mean using innocent, gifted Savannah to help uncover the full truth—a truth that will shatter everything she knows about herself and the world around her. And with danger closing in from all sides, the passion that ignites between Gideon and Savannah will tempt them to risk their hearts and lives for a love that might just last an eternity…

Read online

  • 2 710

    Tarzan and the Jewels of Opar

      Edgar Rice Burroughs
$value['title']

Tarzan And The Jewels Of Opar #5 In the previous novel Tarzan and Jane's son, Jack Clayton, a.k.a. Korak, had come into his own. In this novel Tarzan returns to Opar, the source of the gold where a lost colony of fabled Atlantis is located, in order to make good on some financial reverses he has recently suffered. While Atlantis itself sank beneath the waves thousands of years ago, the workers of Opar continued to mine all of the gold, which means there is a rather huge stockpile but which is now lost to the memory of the Oparians and only Tarzan knows its secret location.

Read online

  • 2 706

    Bedding the Billionaire

      Ruth Cardello
$value['title']

Lil Dartley's life is upside down. Her previously steadfast and predictable sister is marrying an influential billionaire and needs help planning the wedding of the century in less than a month. Years of middle class rebellion have not prepared Lil for handling diplomats or paparazzi. Jake Walton knows a train wreck when he sees one. Lil was trouble from the first day he met her, but since her sister is marrying his best friend, he has no choice but to help her or this wedding will be in the news for all the wrong reasons. Teaching Lil how to fit into high society would be a whole lot easier if she didn't drive him insane both in and out of the bedroom.

Read online

  • 2 701

    A Reaper at the Gates

      Sabaa Tahir
$value['title']

**The highly anticipated third book in Sabaa Tahir's *New York Times* bestselling EMBER QUARTET.** Beyond the Empire and within it, the threat of war looms ever larger. The Blood Shrike, Helene Aquilla, is assailed on all sides. Emperor Marcus, haunted by his past, grows increasingly unstable, while the Commandant capitalizes on his madness to bolster her own power. As Helene searches for a way to hold back the approaching darkness, her sister's life and the lives of all those in the Empire hang in the balance. Far to the east, Laia of Serra knows the fate of the world lies not in the machinations of the Martial court, but in stopping the Nightbringer. But while hunting for a way to bring him down, Laia faces unexpected threats from those she hoped would aid her, and is drawn into a battle she never thought she'd have to fight. And in the land between the living and the dead, Elias Veturius has given up his freedom to serve as Soul Catcher. But in doing so, he has vowed himself to an ancient power that will stop at nothing to ensure Elias's devotion--even at the cost of his humanity.

Read online

  • 2 701

    Make Me Yours

      Kendall Ryan
$value['title']

Emotionally crippled Liz isn’t looking for a relationship when she meets delish boy-next-door, Cohen. He’s a few years younger, a volunteer firefighter, oh…and a virgin, making him totally off limits. But never one to back away from a challenge, she’s drawn to him even while she continues to satisfy her physical needs elsewhere. Even as she spends her evenings in another man’s arms, she somehow finds herself curled up in Cohen’s bed each night. It’s been a long time since she had a true honest-to-goodness make out session, but Cohen’s showing her just how much fun not having sex can be. When Cohen’s injured, her real feelings for him rise to the surface, and she has to decide if she’s willing to take a risk on love after enduring so much heartbreak in her past.

Read online

  • 2 700

    Ozma of Oz

      L. Frank Baum
$value['title']

A Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Tiktok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded HereinA Record of Her Adventures with Dorothy Gale of Kansas, the Yellow Hen, the Scarecrow, the Tin Woodman, Tiktok, the Cowardly Lion and the Hungry Tiger; Besides Other Good People too Numerous to Mention Faithfully Recorded Herein

Read online

  • 2 699

    The Hyborian Age

      Robert E. Howard
$value['title']

" The Hyborian Age" is as essay by Robert Ervin Howard. Robert Ervin Howard (January 22, 1906 – June 11, 1936) was an American author who wrote pulp fiction in a diverse range of genres. He is well known for his character Conan the Barbarian and is regarded as the father of the sword and sorcery subgenre. Howard was born and raised in the state of Texas. He spent most of his life in the town of Cross Plains with some time spent in nearby Brownwood. A bookish and intellectual child, he was also a fan of boxing and spent some time in his late teens bodybuilding, eventually taking up amateur boxing. From the age of nine he dreamed of becoming a writer of adventure fiction but did not have real success until he was 23. Thereafter, until his death at the age of 30 by suicide, Howard's writings were published in a wide selection of magazines, journals, and newspapers, and he had become successful in several genres. Although a Conan novel was nearly published into a book in 1934, his stories never appeared in book form during his lifetime. The main outlet for his stories was in the pulp magazine Weird Tales. Howard’s suicide and the circumstances surrounding it have led to varied speculation about his mental health. His mother had been ill with tuberculosis his entire life, and upon learning that she had entered a coma from which she was not expected to wake, he walked out to his car and shot himself in the head. In the pages of the Depression-era pulp magazine Weird Tales, Howard created Conan the Barbarian, a character whose cultural impact has been compared to such icons as Tarzan, Count Dracula, Sherlock Holmes, Batman, and James Bond. With Conan and his other heroes, Howard created the genre now known as sword and sorcery, spawning many imitators and giving him a large influence in the fantasy field. Howard remains a highly read author, with his best works still reprinted. Howard spent his late teens working odd jobs around Cross Plains; all of which he hated. In 1924, Howard returned to Brownwood to take a stenography course at Howard Payne College, this time boarding with his friend Lindsey Tyson instead of his mother. Howard would have preferred a literary course but was not allowed to take one for some reason. Biographer Mark Finn suggests that his father refused to pay for such a non-vocational education. In the week of Thanksgiving that year, and after years of rejection slips and near acceptances, he finally sold a short caveman tale titled "Spear and Fang", which netted him the sum of $16 and introduced him to the readers of a struggling pulp called Weird Tales. Now that his career in fiction had begun, Howard dropped out of Howard Payne College at the end of the semester and returned to Cross Plains. Shortly afterwards, he received notice that another story, "The Hyena," had been accepted by Weird Tales. During the same period, Howard made his first attempt to write a novel, a loosely autobiographical book modeled on Jack London's Martin Eden and titled Post Oaks & Sand Roughs. The book was otherwise of middling quality and was never published in the author's lifetime but it is of interest to Howard scholars for the personal information it contains. Howard's alter ego in this novel is Steve Costigan, a name he would use more than once in the future. The novel was finished in 1928 but not published until long after his death.

Read online

  • 2 699

    The Adventures of Pinocchio

      Carlo Collodi
$value['title']

The Adventures of Pinocchio is a novel for children by Italian author Carlo Collodi, written in Pescia. The first half was originally a serial in 1881 and 1882, published as La storia di un burattino (literally "The tale of a puppet"), and then later completed as a book for children in February 1883. It is about the mischievous adventures of an animated marionette named Pinocchio and his father, a poor woodcarver named Geppetto. It is considered a canonical piece of children's literature and has inspired hundreds of new editions, stage plays, merchandising and movies, such as Walt Disney's iconic animated version and commonplace ideas such as a liar's long nose. According to extensive research done by the Fondazione Nazionale Carlo Collodi in late 1990s and based on UNESCO sources, it has been adapted in over 260 languages worldwide. That makes it the most translated non-religious book in the world, and one of the best-selling books ever published. According to Francelia Butler, it remains "the most widely read book in the world after the Bible".

Read online

  • 2 698

    Lightning

      Dean Koontz
$value['title']

A bolt of lightning brings a blond-haired stranger into Laura Shane's life. But is he the guardian angel he seems? The devil in disguise? Or the master of a haunting destiny beyond time and space?#1 New York Times bestselling author Dean Koontz’s brilliantly thrilling novel of suspense.In the midst of a raging blizzard, lightning struck on the night Laura Shane was born. And a mysterious blond-haired stranger showed up just in time to save her from dying. Years later, in the wake of another storm, Laura will be saved again. For someone is watching over her. Is he the guardian angel he seems? The devil in disguise? Or the master of a haunting destiny beyond all time and space?“A gripping novel…fast-paced and satisfying.”—People

Read online

  • 2 696

    About the Author

      Maya Banks
$value['title']

Career Banks has written over fifty novels. Her story, No Place to Run, landed on The New York Times Best Seller list in December 2010, while many others have been ranked on the USA Today's Best-Selling Books list. In September 2012, Berkley Books announced that a trilogy of erotic romance novels by Banks had been acquired for publishing. Her trilogy was described as similar to the Fifty Shades trilogy, featuring three billionaires. In a 2013 interview, Banks stated that she had not read Fifty Shades of Grey, as she usually avoids reading books written in the first person. She added that many readers felt her Sweet series was a "ripped Fifty Shades off" despite being published several years previously. In 2013, Banks signed with Avon Books for a three-book deal in the contemporary romance genre featuring "psychic elements". Personal life She lives in Texas with her husband and three children. When writing, she prefers absolute quiet and avoids music with lyrics. Of her approach to writing, Banks has said "I approach writing the way I approach reading, because I am a voracious reader, and so I write what I love to read." Author's series: ​COLTERS LEGACY SERIES​​​ ​MCCABE TRILOGY SERIES​​​ ​BREATHLESS SERIES​​​ ​KGI SERIES​​​ ​SWEET SERIES​​​ ​THE MONTGOMERYS AND ARMSTRONGS SERIES​​​ ​SURRENDER SERIES​​​ ​SLOW BURN SERIES​​​ ​PREGNANCY & PASSION SERIES​​​ ​THE ANETAKIS TYCOONS SERIES​​​ ​UNSPOKEN SERIES​​​ ​THE ENFORCERS SERIES​​​ ​BRAZEN SERIES​​​ ​WILD SERIES​​​ ​FALCON MERCENARY GROUP SERIES​​​

Read online

  • 2 690

    Somebody to Love

      Kristan Higgins
$value['title']

After her father loses the family fortune in an insider-trading scheme, single mom Parker Welles is faced with some hard decisions. First order of business: go to Gideon's Cove, Maine, to sell the only thing she now owns—a decrepit house in need of some serious flipping. When her father's wingman, James Cahill, asks to go with her, she's not thrilled…even if he is fairly gorgeous and knows his way around a toolbox.Having to fend for herself financially for the first time in her life, Parker signs on as a florist's assistant and starts to find out who she really is. Maybe James isn't the glib lawyer she always thought he was. And maybe the house isn't the only thing that needs a little TLC….

Read online

  • 2 687

    With My Last Breath

      Courtney Cole
$value['title']

ust when Harmonia thought she had saved everyone she loved, the unthinkable happens and her life is shattered… in the space of just one breath. Now, she is left alone to shoulder a challenge, because she alone can fulfill a prophecy and restore Olympus. She knows she can succeed; she is the daughter of gods, after all. But will doing so cause her to lose herself?To find Zeus’ sword, she is forced to return to a place that she knows will cause her pain. But she willingly goes in order to save everyone she loves, because pain alone cannot kill her. Or can it? Critics say: My Vamp Fiction says this about The Bloodstone Saga: “I just have to say this author keeps blowing me away with these books. I’m totally and completely infatuated with them. I’d even go as far as to say that they may just be my favorite series of the year.”The Book Holdup says: "Camelot…that is all I think I need to say! How perfect is it that Harmonia is back in the time of knights in shining armor looking for a mystical sword to save Olympus and rescue her soul mate? Magical! Once again Ms. Cole gives the reader quite a ride."Tanya Marie on Goodreads said: "The Bloodstone Saga is pure literary magic!!!! This is my new literary chocolate -- my new literary gold!!!"Darcy on Goodreads says: "Fabulous! My favorite of the series so far. I cannot wait until the next book comes out."Helen on Goodreads says: "There has never been a series that has given me as many goosebumps, made me want to scream for joy, and cry for lost ones. In literature world that seems to be filled with vampires and werewolves, this series is fantasically refreshing. I am in awe of how quickly I fell for Harmonia and Cadmus, but am pleased to say that they are now my new favorite fictional characters. This series is a MUST read!"With My Last Breath is Book 3 in the Bloodstone Saga. (It is preceded by Every Last Kiss and Fated). Book 4 (My Tattered Bonds) is the epic series finale. This novel contains an exciting excerpt from J.L. Bryan's bestselling novel, Jenny Pox. About the author: Courtney Cole is a YA novelist who loves thunderstorms, cake batter and insane amounts of coffee. She wrote her first story at the age of 9, although thankfully it has remained hidden away in an old cedar chest beneath musty blankets. Her more recent efforts are much better. 

Read online

  • 2 685

    The Woodlanders

      Thomas Hardy
$value['title']

In this classically simple tale of the disastrous impact of outside life on a secluded community in Dorset, now in a new edition, Hardy narrates the rivalry for the hand of Grace Melbury between a simple and loyal woodlander and an exotic and sophisticated outsider. Betrayal, adultery, disillusion, and moral compromise are all worked out in a setting evoked as both beautiful and treacherous. The Woodlanders, with its thematic portrayal of the role of social class, gender, and evolutionary survival, as well as its insights into the capacities and limitations of language, exhibits Hardy's acute awareness of his era's most troubling dilemmas.

Read online

  • 2 681

    The Scapegoat

      Daphne Du Maurier
$value['title']

'Someone jolted my elbow as I drank and said, "*Je vous demande pardon,*" and as I moved to give him space he turned and stared at me and I at him, and I realised, with a strange sense of shock and fear and nausea all combined, that his face and voice were known to me too well. I was looking at myself.' By chance, two men - one English, the other French - meet in a provincial railway station. Their resemblance is uncanny, and they spend the next few hours talking and drinking - until at last John, the Englishman, falls into a drunken stupor. It's to be his last carefree moment, for when he wakes, his French companion has stolen his identity and disappeared. So John steps into the Frenchman's shoes, and faces a variety of perplexing roles - as owner of a chateau, director of a failing business, head of a fractious family, and master of nothing.

Read online

  • 2 680

    Simple Genius

      David Baldacci
$value['title']

In a world of secrets, human genius is power. And sometimes it is simply deadly . . .Near Washington, D.C., there are two clandestine institutions: the world's most unusual laboratory and a secret CIA training camp. Drawn to these sites by a murder, ex-Secret Service agent Sean King encounters a dark world of mathematicians, codes, and spies. His search for answers soon leads him to more shocking violence-and an autistic girl with an extraordinary genius.Now, only by working with his embattled partner, Michelle Maxwell, can he catch a killer...and solve a stunning mystery that threatens the entire nation.

Read online

  • 2 679

    The Madmans Daughter

      Megan Shepherd
$value['title']

With inspiration from Mary Shelley's Frankenstein—and perfect for fans of Libba Bray—this breathless conclusion to the Madman's Daughter trilogy explores the things we'll sacrifice to save those we love…even our own humanity.After killing the men who tried to steal her father's research, Juliet and her friends have escaped to a remote estate on the Scottish moors. Owned by the enigmatic Elizabeth von Stein, the mansion is full of mysteries and unexplained oddities: dead bodies in the basement, secret passages, and fortune tellers who seem to know Juliet's secrets. Though it appears to be a safe haven, Juliet fears new dangers may be present within the manor's walls.Then Juliet uncovers the truth about the manor's long history of scientific experimentation—and her own intended role in it—forcing her to determine where the line falls between right and wrong, life and death, magic and science, and promises and secrets. And she must decide if she'll follow her father's dark footsteps or her mother's tragic ones, or whether she'll make her own.

Read online

  • 2 678

    The Darkest Whisper

      Gena Showalter
$value['title']

He is the keeper of Doubt and his entire world’s about to be rocked. Bound by the demon of Doubt, Sabin unintentionally destroys even the most confident of lovers. So the immortal warrior spends his time on the battlefield instead of the bedroom, victory his only concern…until he meets Gwendolyn the Timid. One taste of the beautiful redhead, and he craves more. Gwen, an immortal herself, always thought she’d fall for a kind human who wouldn’t rouse her darker side. But when Sabin frees her from prison, battling their enemies for the claim to Pandora’s box turns out to be nothing compared to the battle Sabin and Gwen will wage against love…

Read online

  • 2 676