Ethan... My desire for Sophia consumes me night and day. I know my jealousy pushed her away, but I'll do anything get her back. Even if that means dealing with shady, underground lords. Alistair… I'm enthralled with Sophia. Now that she's finally agreed to be in a relationship with me, I'll start to push her boundaries, introducing her to my darker side. But I'll need to be careful, so I don't scare her away. She's too good to lose. Sophia... I'm excited by Alistair's kinkiness but scared, at the same time. I wonder if I can tame him. But what if I do and he finds out about my terrible past misdeeds and then rejects me. Because, really...who wouldn't? Beauty, BDSM, and billionaires come together in a sexy contemporary romance romp. Steamy and suspenseful, if you liked E.L. James' Fifty Shades or the titillating tales of J. Kenner, you'll LOVE the TRUST series! USA TODAY Bestselling Author Cristiane Serruya does it again with another love story. Don't wait and one-click today!

Three generations of Jedi. Three untold secrets. A Jedi is never to fall in love.... Grieving for the loss of his friend Tahl, Jedi Master Qui-Gon Jinn has been sent back to the Jedi Temple to recover. But this peace is soon shattered by an urgent mission -- a young boy with a knack for technology has intercepted a message that indicates a mass assassination of planetary leaders is about to take place. It is up to Qui-Gon and his apprentice, Obi-Wan Kenobi, to protect the boy from the bounty hunter assassins...and to foil the deadly plot. Joining Qui-Gon and Obi-Wan on their mission are the Jedi Master Adi Gallia and her headstrong apprentice, Siri. Obi-Wan and Siri have been sparring friends for a long time. But as the assassins' pursuit tightens, they find their relationship beginning to change in an unexpected direction.... A generation later, Obi-Wan, Siri, and the boy they tried to save are reunited once more -- with the fate of the Clone Wars hinging on the outcome. Old tensions rise once more -- as well as new conflicts and secrets. Obi-Wan's apprentice, Anakin Skywalker, has many things to hide, and when his secret wife, Padmé Amidala, joins the Jedi mission, the risks becomes even greater than before. Secrets are dangerous. Secrets are difficult. Secrets can kill.

This story of raging comedy and despair centers on the tempestuous marriage of an heiress and a Vietnam veteran. From their "carpenter gothic" rented house, Paul sets himself up as a media consultant for Reverend Ude, an evangelist mounting a grand crusade that conveniently suits a mining combine bidding to take over an ore strike on the site of Ude's African mission. At the still center of the breakneck action--revealed in Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialoge--is Paul's wife, Liz, and over it all looms the shadowy figure of McCandless, a geologist from whom Paul and Liz rent their house. As Paul mishandles the situation, his wife takes the geologist to her bed and a fire and aborted assassination occur; Ude issues a call to arms as harrowing as any Jeremiad--and Armageddon comes rapidly closer. Displaying Gaddis's inimitable virtuoso dialogue, and his startling treatments of violence and sexuality, Carpenter's Gothic "shows again that Gaddis is among the first rank of contemporary American writers" (Malcolm Bradbury, "The Washington Post Book World" ). "An unholy landmark of a novel--an extra turret added on to the ample, ingenious, audacious Gothic mansion Gaddis has been building in American letters" --Cynthia Ozick, "The New York Times Book Review" "Everything in this compelling and brilliant vision of America--the packaged sleaze, the incipient violence, the fundamentalist furor, the constricted sexuality--is charged with the force of a volcanic eruption. "Carpenter's Gothic" will reenergize and give shape to contemporary literature." --Walter Abish

The title brings to mind a luxury vessel on the most glamorous river in the world, but readers expecting to learn about the high life in France will be in for a surprise. In this charming memoir, painter and novelist Wharton (Birdy) instead gives us literally the nuts and bolts of building a houseboat, along with generous dollops of humor and local color. As a struggling artist in Paris with his schoolteacher wife and four children, Wharton decided to build his own boat after visiting that of an acquaintance in the mid-1970s. He recounts the family's adventures in making their dream come true. They gave up their Paris flat and moved onto the boat, which docked 12 miles downriver from Paris at Le Port Marly. There they spent the next 25 years adding the finishing touches. The most poignant moment comes at the wedding of oldest child, Kate, aboard ship. The author reminds us that she, her husband and their two children were to perish in 1988 in an Oregon fire, a tragedy he recounted in Ever After. Some readers might have preferred learning more about life aboard the boat than about the details of building it, but this work will satisfy Wharton devotees and Francophiles alike. (Jun.)

This heartfelt digital original short story by Lurlene McDaniel features many of the same characters connected to her poignant contemporary novels The Year of Luminous Love and The Year of Chasing Dreams. When Ciana Beauchamp awakens from a dream about Jon Mercer, her initial happy thoughts are muddied by the reality that they haven't talked in months. Indeed, Ciana has no idea where Jon is. Her emotions are confused as she both longs for him and is infuriated with him. Jon has put distance between them. He’s off riding broncos on the rodeo circuit. But the miles don't stop thoughts of Ciana from swirling in his head. He knows he must come to a decision about what to do with his life if he is to reconnect with her. Lurlene McDaniel offers an intimate glimpse into the lives of two people who are deeply in love but must overcome their pride to come together again.

Lachlan McGregor and Kayla Moore have fought hard for their happily ever after, so one would think their first Christmas together would be a piece of sugarplum cake. But even though the city of Edinburgh is absolutely magical during the holiday season and the sizzling duo has enough steam between them to make snow melt, Christmas often brings its own share of troubles. Kayla misses her mother and San Francisco while trying to adapt to life in Scotland, Lachlan struggles to stay on top of his ever-present demons (which pack more punch during the holidays) and his older brother Brigs is facing difficult memories of his own. One thing is for sure though - this will be a Christmas they'll never forget.

Since Merit was turned into a vampire, and the protector of Chicago’s Cadogan House, it’s been a wild ride. She and Master vampire Ethan Sullivan have helped make Cadogan’s vampires the strongest in North America, and forged ties with paranormal folk of all breeds and creeds, living or dead…or both.But now those alliances are about to be tested. A strange and twisted magic has ripped through the North American Central Pack, and Merit’s closest friends are caught in the crosshairs. Gabriel Keene, the Pack Apex, looks to Merit and Ethan for help. But who—or what—could possibly be powerful enough to out-magic a shifter?Merit is about to go toe to toe, and cold steel to cold heart, to find out.

Margaret Sidney was an American author best known for writing the classic Five Little Peppers series. Sidney wrote a total of twelve books on the lives of the five children born into poverty in a little brown house. Five Little Peppers Grown Up is the third novel in the series. The action follows the adventures of the younger children of the family as they become young adults.

A mysterious stranger. A full moon. A strange lust.Lenore Anderson’s plain world changes the night she meets the newcomer, Nick Connor. The new owner of a deserted old house, he exudes charm and questions. Why did he move to their small town? How is he so rich? And why does he look at Lenore with such hungry eyes? Those questions lead her into his strange, dark world.The series is now complete and all four parts are available for purchase!A mysterious stranger. A full moon. A strange lust.Lenore Anderson’s plain world changes the night she meets the newcomer, Nick Connor. The new owner of a deserted old house, he exudes charm and questions. Why did he move to their small town? How is he so rich? And why does he look at Lenore with such hungry eyes? Those questions lead her into his strange, dark world and into his strong arms, and he’ll never let her go.

'It is the saddest night, for I am leaving and not coming back.' Jay is leaving his partner and their two sons. As the long night before his departure unfolds he remembers the ups and downs of his relationship with Susan. In an unforgettable, and often pitiless, reflection of their time together he analyses the agonies and the joys of trying to make a life with another person.

***Rock Stars Do It Harder is the pilot story for a Big Girls spinoff-sequel series. It is best to read this after the Big Girls Do It books 1-5 to avoid major spoilers.*** Chase Delany is a rock star. Rock stars are expected to rock hard onstage and party even harder offstage. Chase is living up to those expectations, and then some. He leaves everything he's got onstage, and drowns the ache in his soul at the bottom of a tequila bottle. And then there are the girls. They throw themselves at him nonstop, a never-ending train of hot girls who want in his signature tight leather pants. The problem? Nothing, no amount of booze and no amount of backstage sex can heal the cracks in his heart left by Anna's rejection. And then he runs into Jamie. Anna's best friend. The one girl in the whole world who is off limits to him. The one girl who happens to be the one thing that seems to soothe the hurt inside him. Forgetting her proves to be impossible. Jamie Dunleavy has always been an enthusiastic practitioner of the sexual arts. She's never apologized for it, and she owns it. She's been known to admit--to her best friend Anna Devine, at least--that she's a bit of a slut. Her deep, dark secret? She's tired of it. She doesn't want to be that girl anymore. She wants love, now more than ever, having watching Anna find her own happily-ever-after. So who does she find herself falling for? Chase Delany. Anna's very recent ex. A rockstar, and the one guy she knows she can't ever, ever be with. You don't bang your best friend's ex. You just don't. It's the one hard and fast rule of best friendship. Except, no matter how hard she tries to forget him, she can't seem to shake the image of his dark eyes and sexy tattoos and those lips she wants so badly to kiss and kiss until neither of them can breathe. She can't forget him, and she can't ever have him. ** This 22,000 word erotic romance novella is for adults only! **

A Warrior Of Immortal Powers He was a mighty Scottish warrior who lived in a world bound by ancient laws and timeless magic. But no immortal powers could prepare the laird of Castle Brodie for the lovely accursed lass who stood before him. A terrible trick of fate had sent her 700 years back in time and into his private chamber to tempt him with her beauty—and seduce him with a desire he could never fulfill. For this woman he burned to possess was also the woman he had foresworn to destroy. A Woman Caught In The Mists Of Time When Lisa felt the earth move under her feet, the fiercely independent 21st-century woman never dreamed she was falling...into another century. But the powerful, naked warrior who stood glaring down at her was only too real...and too dangerously arousing. Irresistibly handsome he might be, but Lisa had no intention of remaining in this savage land torn by treachery and war. How could she know that her seductive captor had other plans for her...plans that would save her from a tragic fate? Or that this man who had long ago forsaken love would defy time itself to claim her for his own.... From the Paperback edition.

Sometimes the only way to heal... is to shatter. Rock star Alec Daniels has it all. Love, fame, money... But being in the limelight isn't all it’s cracked up to be, and after one bad choice comes back to haunt him he is left picking up the pieces of his carefully constructed life. Now he faces the toughest decision of his life: Deal with his mistake like a man, or dive back into the dark hole of depression, drugs, and denial that have been his comfort for so long. One wrong move could destroy everything. His girlfriend, his family, and his future.

In her startlingly sensual new story, “Rules for Virgins”—this 43-page jewel of a tale is the first fiction she has published in six years—beloved bestselling author Amy Tan (“The Joy Luck Club,” “The Bonesetter’s Daughter”) takes us deep into the illicit world of 1912 Shanghai, where beautiful courtesans mercilessly compete for the patronage of wealthy gentlemen. For the women, the contest is deadly serious, a perilous game of economic survival that, if played well, can set them up for life as mistresses of the rich and prominent. There is no room for error, however: erotic power is hard to achieve and harder to maintain, especially in the loftiest social circles. Enter veteran seducer, Magic Gourd, formerly one of Shanghai’s “Top Ten Beauties” and now the advisor and attendant of Violet, an aspiring but inexperienced courtesan. Violet may have the youth and the allure, but Magic Gourd has the cunning and the knowledge without which the younger woman is sure to fail. These ancient tricks of the trade aren't written down, though; to pass them on to her student, Magic Gourd must reach back into her own professional past, bringing her lessons alive with stories and anecdotes from a career spent charming and manipulating men who should have known better but rarely did. The world of sexual intrigue that Tan reveals in "Rules for Virgins" actually existed once, and she spares no detail in recreating it. But this story is more than intriguing (and sometimes shocking) historical literary fiction. Besides inviting us inside a life that few writers but Tan could conjure up, the intimate confessions of Magic Gourd add up to a kind of military manual for the War of the Sexes’ female combatants. The wisdom conveyed is ancient, specific, and timeless, exposing the workings of vanity and folly, calculation and desire that define the mysterious human heart.

The sixth novel in James Patterson's no. 1 bestselling series featuring Detective Michael Bennett. Forced into hiding from a mass murderer seeking vengeance, Detective Michael Bennett must decide whether to stay and protect his family, or hunt down the man who is hunting them. When Bennett arrested Manuel Perrine, he thought he had brought an end to the drug cartel boss’s reign of terror and would get justice for the murder of his best friend. But then, during the trial, Perrine escaped. In a bloody shoot-out, Bennett killed Perrine’s wife. Now he wants nothing more than to make Bennett suffer, to make him pay. The whole family are moved to a safe-house in California. But as Perrine’s attacks on US soil become more vicious and more daring, it’s clear there is a war coming. No one, anywhere, is safe.

Dear Reader: When Ryder Sherbrooke finds a child nearly beaten to death in an alley in Eastbourne, he takes her home to Brandon House. She doesn't speak for six months. Her first words, oddly enough, are a haunting song: I dream of beauty and sightless night I dream of strength and fevered might I dream I'm not alone again But I know of his death and her grievous sin. Ah, and just what does this strange song mean that was seemingly imprinted on the child's brain? She names herself Rosalind de La Fontaine since she cannot remember who she is. In her first season in London in 1835, under the aegis of the Sherbrookes, she meets Nicholas Vail, the seventh Earl of Mountjoy, newly arrived from Macau. It is instant fascination on both their parts, but for different reasons. With Grayson Sherbrooke, they are led to an ancient copy of a mysterious book written by a sixteenth-century wizard. The book is written in a baffling code that neither Grayson nor Nicholas can read. But Rosalind can, easily. Strange things start happening. Both Nicholas and Rosalind know it has to do with the old book and, perhaps, even her past, particularly the song she first sang as a child. The urgency builds as they realize Rosalind is the key to a centuries-old mystery. Catherine Coulter (The Author)

For months Clara Gardner trained to face the fire from her visions, but she wasn't prepared for the choice she had to make that day. And in the aftermath, she discovered that nothing about being part angel is as straightforward as she thought. Now, torn between her love for Tucker and her complicated feelings about the roles she and Christian seem destined to play in a world that is both dangerous and beautiful, Clara struggles with a shocking revelation: Someone she loves will die in a matter of months. With her future uncertain, the only thing Clara knows for sure is that the fire was just the beginning. In this compelling sequel to Unearthly, Cynthia Hand captures the joy of first love, the anguish of loss, and the confusion of becoming who you are.

Meet Don Tillman. Don is getting married. He just doesn't know who to yet. But he has designed a very detailed questionnaire to help him find the perfect woman. One thing he already knows, though, is that it's not Rosie. Absolutely, completely, definitely not. Don Tillman is a socially challenged genetics professor who's decided the time has come to find a wife. His questionnaire is intended to weed out anyone who's unsuitable. The trouble is, Don has rather high standards and doesn't really do flexible so, despite lots of takers, he's not having much success in identifying The One. When Rosie Jarman comes to his office, Don assumes it's to apply for the Wife Project - and duly discounts her on the grounds she smokes, drinks, doesn't eat meat, and is incapable of punctuality. However, Rosie has no interest in becoming Mrs Tillman and is actually there to enlist Don's assistance in a professional capacity: to help her find her biological father. Sometimes, though, you don't find love: love finds you...

NATIONAL BESTSELLER National Book Critics Circle Award Winner PEN/Faulkner Award Finalist A New York Times Book Review Best Book One of the Best Books of the Year: Boston Globe, Chicago Tribune, The Daily Beast, The Miami Herald, The Minneapolis Star-Tribune, Newsday, NPR's On Point, O, the Oprah Magazine, People, Publishers Weekly, Salon, San Francisco Chronicle, Seattle Times, Slate, Time, The Washington Post, and Village Voice Bennie is an aging former punk rocker and record executive. Sasha is the passionate, troubled young woman he employs. Here Jennifer Egan brilliantly reveals their pasts, along with the inner lives of a host of other characters whose paths intersect with theirs. With music pulsing on every page, A Visit from the Goon Squad is a startling, exhilarating novel of self-destruction and redemption. From the Trade Paperback edition.

Bold and haunting, The Doll-Master and Other Tales is a collection of six psychologically daring stories from Joyce Carol Oates. In the title story, a boy becomes obsessed with his cousin’s doll after she tragically passes away, and as he grows older, he begins to collect “found dolls” from surrounding neighborhoods. But just what kind of dolls are they? In “Gun Accident,” a teenage girl is delighted to house-sit for her favorite teacher, until an intruder forces his way inside the old Colonial—changing more than one life forever. The Doll-Master closes with a taut bibliomystery, about the owner of a middling chain of mystery bookstores whose plan to take over a rare bookshop in scenic New Hampshire derails into a game of verbal cat-and-mouse that threatens to have real-life consequences. Throughout the collection, Oates evokes “the fascination of the abomination” that is at the core of the most profound, the most unsettling, and the most memorable of dark mystery fiction.