Jesus Out to Sea

      James Lee Burke
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In this moving collection of short stories, James Lee Burke elegantly marries his flair for gripping storytelling with his lyrical writing style and complex, fascinating character portraits. The backdrop of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast is a versatile setting for Burke's stories, which cover the scope of the human experience -- from love and sex to domestic abuse to war, death, and friendship.

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    Return to Independence Basin

      Matthew Ellison
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Kirkus Reviews Recommended Book: "A haunting but hopeful story of the new West and the unlikely passions it stirs."KIRKUS REVIEW Recommended Book Award!A man returns to the small Western town where he grew up and finds that his family history won’t stay buried in this debut novel.In 1979, Joe Meeks is a construction worker with a penchant for getting thrown off jobs for second-guessing the engineering. He’s on a building site in New York City when his cousin Evan Gallantine shows up with both bad and good news: on the one hand, Joe’s long-estranged father has died; on the other, his passing clears the way to sell the Meeks’ hardscrabble ranch for a handsome sum to dam developers. Joe goes to the town of Meagher, Montana, and then up to the Meeks ranch, to try to convince his ornery 90-year-old grandmother Frances, the last holdout among the local ranchers, to sell the spread. Joe brings along Wade, a 12-year-old boy who looks like him but whom he’s reluctant to call his son, as he reconnects with Meagher’s colorful denizens. As Wade falls in love with the ranch, Joe has misgivings about selling out and running from a guilty past. The novel effectively explores the conflict between yearning for the wider world and staying rooted in place, no matter how wretched the land and searing the memories. Feeling a bit like a mashup of Larry McMurtry and the 1990s TV series Northern Exposure, Ellison’s tale features wonderfully evocative descriptions of Montana’s majestic landscapes and richly atmospheric cow-town settings. Amid well-paced scenes and punchy, pitch-perfect dialogue, it also includes vivid, sharply individuated characters, including Joe’s rapscallion ex-con uncle Harlo; Father Sterling, whose Sunday services are popular for their copiously alcoholic Communion libations; feisty redhead Marly Croft, an old flame of Joe’s who wants to turn her decrepit Grand Hotel into a swanky inn to cater to Evan’s visions of Meagher as an Aspen-style resort; and Marly’s even feistier daughter Anne, whose native truculence (“What’re you lookin at?”) subsides into an infatuation with Joe. There’s also the elderly Frances, an ex-deputy who once shot a robber and then fielded a marriage proposal from the crook’s partner. The final result is first-rate storytelling with a powerful emotional undercurrent.A haunting but hopeful story of the new West and the unlikely passions it stirs.

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    The Horse Dancer

      Jojo Moyes
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In a hidden corner of London, Henri Lachapelle is teaching his granddaughter and her horse to defy gravity, just as he had done in France, fifty years previously. But when disaster strikes, fourteen-year-old Sarah is left to fend for herself. Forced to share a house with her charismatic ex-husband, her professional judgement called into question, lawyer Natasha Macauley's life seems to have gone awry. When her path crosses that of Sarah, she sees a chance to put things right. But she doesn't know that Sarah is keeping a secret... one that will chance all of their lives.

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    Victory (Dover Thrift Editions)

      Joseph Conrad
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"The world is a bad dog. It will bite you if you give it a chance," maintains Axel Heyst, a Swedish drifter in the Pacific islands. Heyst's attempt to remain aloof from the rest of humanity is challenged by his compassion for Lena, a destitute orchestra girl. Defying Lena's abusive boss, the two flee to an isolated paradise. But the vengeful employer sets a trio of miscreants on the lovers' trail, leading Heyst's growing moral courage to a deadly reckoning. First published in 1915, Victory is Conrad's last great novel. Its central question, whether a man of moral sensitivity can function in a corrupt and derelict world, is treated with the author's fundamental pessimism and with faith in the possibility of redemption. The tale abounds in elements characteristic of the great storyteller's later work: an exotic setting, richly and powerfully evoked; muscular prose; complex characterization; and a compelling examination of the human capacity for good and evil. **

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    Bring Larks and Heroes

      Thomas Keneally
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"This outstanding novel is set in a remote British penal colony, late in the 1790s. Thomas Keneally's evocative writing gives us searing insight into the sun-parched settlements of hungry transports and corruptive soldiers. But this is not an 'historical' novel in the usual sense. It is the story of a man, Corporal Phelim Halloran, and of the demands made on him - by his girl, his Irish comrades, his superior officers, and, most often, by his conscience. Innocent and lover, poet, soldier-by-accident, scholar by the standards of his day, Halloran attempts to make a world unto himself. through his pity and love for Ann Rush, his 'secret bride'; but many seem pledged to complicate these simple desires. There is the convict-artist, Thomas Ewers, persecuted and compelled to illustrate the officers' journals. There is Halloran's feckless colleague, Terry Byrne. The convict, Quinn, whose term of imprisonment should have been nearly over. Robert Hearne, political prisoner, government clerk and traitor. Halloran comes to disbelieve in any other existence except his own and God's, until, shockingly and irrevocably, he is reunited with Ann."

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    Tempting Love

      Kelly Elliott
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Can a woman actually make you feel like you’re losing your damn mind? Yes. If she is Corina Miller. The only woman who has ever made me long for something more, and let me tell you, that has me all kinds of messed up. After months of ignoring my feelings, it’s clear to me I’ve fallen for those piercing blue eyes and sexy smile. But is it too late? Have I pushed her into the arms of someone else? Hell no am I letting that happen. I’m on a mission to win the heart of the only woman I’ve ever cared about—and the only thing standing in my way is one stubborn and pissed off Corina. I always did like a challenge. Tempting Love is book 3 in the Cowboys and Angels series

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    The Proposition: The Ferro Family

      H. M. Ward
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By NEW YORK TIMES Bestselling Author H.M. Ward Blackmail. Sex. Ferro.** His dark hair, bright eyes, and cocky grin look just the way I remembered. The last time I saw Bryan’s Ferro’s beautiful body, he was naked and shimmering with sweat. This time he’s wearing a tux and a wicked smirk that makes my heart beat too fast. It’s been so long since I’ve seen him, the moment feels supercharged. But, the words that fall out of his mouth aren’t what I expect and shock me to the core. They aren’t light and pleasant, like ex-lovers who decided to part ways. His tone is clipped, and if his jaw locked any tighter, it would crack. He doesn’t care about my personal life, my recent loss, or my boyfriend. Bryan makes his intentions clear—if I don’t sleep with him, he’ll ruin me. Genre: New Adult Romance This story unfolds over 5 volumes approx. 125 pages each.

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    According to Hoyle

      Abigail Roux
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By the close of 1882, the inhabitants of the American West had earned their reputation as untamed and dangerous. The line between heroes and villains is narrow and indistinct. The concept that a man may only kill if backed into a corner is antiquated. Lives are worth less than horses. Treasures are worth killing for. And the law is written in the blood of those who came before. The only men staving off total chaos are the few who take the letter of the law at its word and risk their lives to uphold it. But in the West, the rules aren't always played according to Hoyle. U.S. Marshals Eli Flynn and William Henry Washington are escorting two prisoners to New Orleans for trial when they discover there’s more to the infamous shootist Dusty Rose and the enigmatic man known only as Cage than merely being outlaws. When forces beyond the marshals’ control converge on the paddlewheeler they have hired to take them downriver, they must choose between two dangers: playing by the rules at any cost or trusting the very men they are meant to bring to justice.

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    Up for Heir

      Ruth Cardello
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New York Times and USA Today bestselling author Ruth Cardello puts two hearts on the line when a Boston billionaire takes a second chance on the woman of his dreams. Spencer Westerly is his own man. He didn’t need his father’s money to build his wildly successful tech company—and he doesn’t want to deal with the fallout from old family secrets. But as much as Spencer wants to avoid Westerly drama, his grandmother—the family matriarch—is determined to pull him back into the fold. And she’s discovered the perfect lure: his college sweetheart, Hailey. Although she broke his heart, Hailey is still the only woman he’s ever loved. Now that she’s back and looking as desirable as ever, Spencer is determined to get a second chance. A lot has changed for Hailey Tiverton. The only thing that hasn’t? The inexplicable pull she feels toward Spencer. When they were younger, his work was his priority. Now, he’d better be willing to prove that, this time, love comes first…

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    A Note of Madness

      Tabitha Suzuma
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Why is this happening to me? he asked himself desperately. What is wrong with me? Life as a student should be good for Flynn. He's one of the top pianists at the Royal College of Music, he has been put forward for an opportunity-of-a-lifetime concert, and he's got great friends. But beneath the surface, he's falling apart. On a good day he feels full of energy and life, but on a bad day being alive is worse than being dead. Sometimes he wants to compose and practice all night, at other times he can't get out of bed. With the pressure of the forthcoming concert and the growing concern of his family and friends, emotions come to a head. Sometimes things can only get worse before they get better.

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    Kid Power

      Susan Beth Pfeffer
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Winner of the Dorothy Canfield Fisher Award and the Sequoyah Children’s Book Award:To save money for a bike, a young girl becomes a business tycoon Janie is desperate for a new bike, but her parents won’t buy her one unless she can pay for half of it herself. She’s too young to babysit and it’s too late to get a paper route, so Janie decides to open her own business. She calls it Kid Power and promises her customers that there is no problem too big or too small for her to handle—but this budding entrepreneur will soon find that running a company isn’t as easy as it looks. As Janie begins walking dogs, feeding cats, cleaning gutters, and pulling weeds, she gets closer and closer to her bike. But as Kid Power grows bigger than Janie can handle, she learns that there are some problems money can’t solve, and some things even more important than getting a new bike.

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    The Backward Shadow

      Lynne Reid Banks
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Jane has had her baby and is living along with him in a country cottage. Her idyllic time there is soon complicated by the arrival of Toby, the love of her life, and her friend Dorothy. The two women start up a shop in the village, and it is their changing fortunes and feelings for the men on whom so much of their lives are staked which form the core of this funny and vivdly-told novel. The Backward Shadow is a worthy sequel to The L-Shaped Room

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    Sweet Rivalry

      K. Bromberg
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Ryder Rodgers had a plan. He was going to stride into the conference room, do the required song and dance over the next five days, and win the biggest contract of his career. But when he walked in and heard the voice of one of his competitors, all his plans were shot to hell. Harper Denton. She was always on top. In college. First in their class. Always using every advantage to edge him out to win the coveted positions. The only one who could beat him. His academic rival. More like a constant thorn in his side. And his ego’s. When he heard her voice, he was brought back to years before. To the bitter taste of being second best. But the woman who meets his gaze is nothing like the drab wallflower he used to know. Hell no. She was all woman now: curves, confidence, and staggering sex appeal. And no doubt, still brilliant. The fact that she’s gorgeous and bright won’t distract him. This time, Ryder’s determined to be the one on top. But not if Harper can help it.

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    Moonshot

      Alessandra Torre
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Baseball isn’t supposed to be a game of life and death… The summer that Chase Stern entered my life, I was seventeen. The daughter of a legend, the Yankees were my family, their stadium my home, their dugout my workplace. My focus was on the game. Chase... he started out as a distraction. A distraction with sex appeal poured into every inch of his six foot frame. A distraction who played like a god and partied like a devil. I tried to stay away. I couldn’t. Then, the team started losing. Women started dying. And everything in my world broke apart.

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    These Things Hidden

      Heather Gudenkauf
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When teenager Allison Glenn is sent to prison for a heinous crime, she leaves behind her reputation as Linden Falls' golden girl forever. Her parents deny the existence of their once-perfect child. Her former friends exult her downfall. Her sister, Brynn, faces whispered rumors every day in the hallways of their small Iowa high school. It's Brynn--shy, quiet Brynn--who carries the burden of what really happened that night. All she wants is to forget Allison and the past that haunts her. But then Allison is released to a halfway house, and is more determined than ever to speak with her estranged sister. Now their legacy of secrets is focused on one little boy. And if the truth is revealed, the consequences will be unimaginable for the adoptive mother who loves him, the girl who tried to protect him and the two sisters who hold the key to all that is hidden

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    The Lost Tudor Princess: The Life of Lady Margaret Douglas

      Alison Weir
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Margaret Douglas, Countess of Lennox. Royal Tudor blood ran in her veins. Her mother was a Queen, her father an Earl, and she herself was the granddaughter, niece, cousin and grandmother of monarchs. Beautiful and tempestuous, she created scandal not just once but twice by falling in love with unsuitable men. Fortunately the marriage arranged for her turned into a love match.

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