Falling Stars

      Loretta Chase
$value['title']

* New York Times bestselling author, Loretta Chase shares an enchanting Regency Christmas novella about romance, forgiveness...and a second chance for a once in a lifetime love.* Ten years ago, dashing Marcus Greyson and naïve Christina Travers fell madly in love—and parted in anger. Now, wiser and more seasoned, both know better than to trust the wayward impulses of the heart. But some feelings never fade; and the joys of Christmas and family just might rekindle a certain, special spark... This novella was previously published in A Christmas Collection anthology "One of the finest romance authors of all time." –Julia Quinn "Wickedly witty, warm, and engaging." –Stephanie Laurens

Read online

  • 1 043

    Walk on Earth a Stranger

      Rae Carson
$value['title']

Gold is in my blood, in my breath, even in the flecks in my eyes. Lee Westfall has a strong, loving family. She has a home she loves and a loyal steed. She has a best friend—who might want to be something more. She also has a secret. Lee can sense gold in the world around her. Veins deep in the earth. Small nuggets in a stream. Even gold dust caught underneath a fingernail. She has kept her family safe and able to buy provisions, even through the harshest winters. But what would someone do to control a girl with that kind of power? A person might murder for it. When everything Lee holds dear is ripped away, she flees west to California—where gold has just been discovered. Perhaps this will be the one place a magical girl can be herself. If she survives the journey. The acclaimed Rae Carson begins a sweeping new trilogy set in Gold Rush-era America, about a young woman with a powerful and dangerous gift.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Celestial Navigation

      Anne Tyler
$value['title']

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Anne Tyler's *The Beginner's Goodbye.* "Tyler is steadily raising a body of fiction of major dimensions." THE NEW YORK TIMES Thirty-eight-year-old Jeremy Pauling has never left home. He lives on the top floor of a Baltimore row house where he creates collages of little people snipped from wrapping paper. His elderly mother putters in the rooms below, until her death. And it is then that Jeremy is forced to take in Mary Tell and her child as boarders. Mary is unaware of how much courage it takes Jaremy to look her in the eye. For Jeremy, like one of his paper creations, is fragile and easily torn--especially when he's falling in love....

Read online

  • 1 043

    Skeletons at the Feast

      Chris Bohjalian
$value['title']

In January 1945, in the waning months of World War II, a small group of people begin the longest journey of their lives: an attempt to cross the remnants of the Third Reich, from Warsaw to the Rhine if necessary, to reach the British and American lines. Among the group is eighteen-year-old Anna Emmerich, the daughter of Prussian aristocrats. There is her lover, Callum Finella, a twenty-year-old Scottish prisoner of war who was brought from the stalag to her family’s farm as forced labor. And there is a twenty-six-year-old Wehrmacht corporal, who the pair know as Manfred–who is, in reality, Uri Singer, a Jew from Germany who managed to escape a train bound for Auschwitz. As they work their way west, they encounter a countryside ravaged by war. Their flight will test both Anna’s and Callum’s love, as well as their friendship with Manfred–assuming any of them even survive. Perhaps not since The English Patient has a novel so deftly captured both the power and poignancy of romance and the terror and tragedy of war. Skillfully portraying the flesh and blood of history, Chris Bohjalian has crafted a rich tapestry that puts a face on one of the twentieth century’s greatest tragedies–while creating, perhaps, a masterpiece that will haunt readers for generations.

Read online

  • 1 043

    The Celestial Globe

      Marie Rutkoski
$value['title']

After stealing her father’s eyes back from Prince Rodolfo, Petra Kronos lives in constant danger. She and her tin spider, Astrophil, end up hiding out in London, where she learns more about her magical abilities. London has its charms (like Petra’s attractive fencing master), but Petra needs to get back to Bohemia and her father. Meanwhile, Prince Rodolfo is trying to locate a powerful object called the Celestial Globe. Petra’s friends, Tomik and Neel, are searching for her and traveling with a band of Gypsies searching for the globe. The race is on to see who will find the globe first, and who will make it out of this deadly chase alive.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Thirst No. 2: Phantom, Evil Thirst, and Creatures of Forever

      Christopher Pike
$value['title']

Includes: Phantom Evil Thirst Creatures of Forever Tears roll over my face. I touch them with my quivering tongue. They are clear and salty, not dark and bloody. Another sign that I am human. What Alisa has desired for five thousand years has finally come true: She is once again human. But now she is defenseless, vulnerable, and, for the first time in centuries, emotional. As she attempts to reconcile her actions as a vampire with her new connection to humanity, she begins to understand the weight of life-and-death decisions. Can Alisa resolve her past and build a new identity, or is she doomed to repeat her fatal mistakes?

Read online

  • 1 043

    Blue at the Mizzen

      Patrick O'Brian
$value['title']

Almost three decades after commencing his maritime epic with Master and Commander, Patrick O'Brian is still at it. The 20th episode, Blue at the Mizzen, is another swashbuckling adventure on the high seas, complete with romantic escapades from smoggy London to Sierra Leone, diplomacy, espionage, the intricacies of warfare, and imperial brinksmanship. As always, these events are bound up in the ongoing friendship between two officers of the Royal Navy. Jack Aubrey is the naval captain, bold yet compassionate, innovative yet cautious, as fearless in war as he is bumbling in affairs of the heart and household. His boon companion Stephen Maturin is the ship's surgeon - and additionally a spy for the British government, a wealthy Catalonian aristocrat, a doting Irish father, and an avid naturalist. That may sound like a lot to keep track of. However, it's not necessary to carry around a scorecard or ship's roster while reading Blue at the Mizzen. The ostensible issue is whether Jack will finally be promoted to Admiral of the Blue. But long before he hears any word from the Napoleonic era's equivalent of Personnel, he loses half his crew to desertion, his ship undergoes a disastrous collision, and the entire company comes close to perishing in the ice-choked seas off Cape Horn. Meanwhile, the widowed Maturin issues a surprising proposal of marriage to a beautiful, mud-bespattered fellow naturalist while trekking through an African mangrove swamp. (The two lovebirds happen to be searching for a rare variant of 'Caprimulgus longipennis', the long-tailed nightjar, which they hope to surprise in full mating plumage.) Still, this is hardly a plot-driven novel. O'Brian takes time to get anywhere, and invariably enjoys the journey more than the arrival. So even as we get constant hints of the climax to come - Jack's spectacular naval action on behalf of the infant Republic of Chile - we don't mind hearing about the nuances of shipboard existence or the secret life of the white-faced tree duck. We're treated, for example, to this snippet about managed care, circa 1816: "Poll, Maggie and a horse-leech from the starboard watch have been administering enemas to the many, many cases of gross surfeit that have now replaced the frostbites, torsions, and debility of the recent past, the very recent past. Strong, fresh, seal-meat has not its equal for upsetting the seaman's metabolism: he is much better kept on biscuits, Essex cheese, and a very little well-seethed salt pork--kept on short commons." And we're grateful! We can only hope that the elderly author will favor us with at least one more novel, so that his avid followers can avoid their own form of short commons. Life without Aubrey and Maturin would be a deprivation indeed. - Andrew Himes

Read online

  • 1 043

    The Post Office Girl

      Stefan Zweig
$value['title']

Cinderella meets Bonnie and Clyde in Zweig's posthumous classic, available here in English for the first time.Christine toils in a provincial post office in Austria just after World War One, a country gripped by unemployment. Out of the blue, a telegram arrives from her rich American aunt inviting Christine to a resort in the Swiss Alps. Immediately she is swept up into a world of inconceivable wealth and unleashed desire. She feels herself utterly transformed: nothing is impossible. But then, abruptly, her aunt cuts her loose and Christine is forced to return to the Post office where nothing will ever be the same.In this haunting yet compassionate reworking of the Cinderella story, Zweig shows us the human cost of the boom and bust of capitalism. The Post Office Girl was completed during the 1930s as Zweig was driven by the Nazis into exile, and was found among his papers after his suicide in 1942. It is available here for the first time in English.'Zweig is one of...

Read online

  • 1 043

    The Ashford Affair

      Lauren Willig
$value['title']

New York Times bestselling author Lauren Willig "spins a web of lust, power and loss" (Kate Alcott) that is by turns epic and intimate, transporting and page-turning  As a lawyer in a large Manhattan firm, just shy of making partner, Clementine Evans has finally achieved almost everything she’s been working towards—but now she’s not sure it’s enough. Her long hours have led to a broken engagement and, suddenly single at thirty-four, she feels her messy life crumbling around her. But when the family gathers for her grandmother Addie’s ninety-ninth birthday, a relative lets slip hints about a long-buried family secret, leading Clemmie on a journey into the past that could change everything. . . . What follows is a potent story that spans generations and continents, bringing an Out of Africa feel to a Downton Abbey cast of unforgettable characters. From the inner circles of WWI-era British society to the skyscrapers of Manhattan and the red-dirt hills of Kenya, the never-told secrets of a woman and a family unfurl.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Innocent Traitor

      Alison Weir
$value['title']

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Alison Weir's Mary Boleyn. I am now a condemned traitor . . . I am to die when I have hardly begun to live. Historical expertise marries page-turning fiction in Alison Weir’s enthralling debut novel, breathing new life into one of the most significant and tumultuous periods of the English monarchy. It is the story of Lady Jane Grey–“the Nine Days’ Queen” –a fifteen-year-old girl who unwittingly finds herself at the center of the religious and civil unrest that nearly toppled the fabled House of Tudor during the sixteenth century. The child of a scheming father and a ruthless mother, for whom she is merely a pawn in a dynastic game with the highest stakes, Jane Grey was born during the harrowingly turbulent period between Anne Boleyn’s beheading and the demise of Jane’s infamous great-uncle, King Henry VIII. With the premature passing of Jane’ s adolescent cousin, and Henry’s successor, King Edward VI, comes a struggle for supremacy fueled by political machinations and lethal religious fervor. Unabashedly honest and exceptionally intelligent, Jane possesses a sound strength of character beyond her years that equips her to weather the vicious storm. And though she has no ambitions to rule, preferring to immerse herself in books and religious studies, she is forced to accept the crown, and by so doing sets off a firestorm of intrigue, betrayal, and tragedy. Alison Weir uses her unmatched skills as a historian to enliven the many dynamic characters of this majestic drama. Along with Lady Jane Grey, Weir vividly renders her devious parents; her much-loved nanny; the benevolent Queen Katherine Parr; Jane’s ambitious cousins; the Catholic “Bloody” Mary, who will stop at nothing to seize the throne; and the protestant and future queen Elizabeth. Readers venture inside royal drawing rooms and bedchambers to witness the power-grabbing that swirls around Lady Jane Grey from the day of her birth to her unbearably poignant death. Innocent Traitor paints a complete and compelling portrait of this captivating young woman, a faithful servant of God whose short reign and brief life would make her a legend. “An impressive debut. Weir shows skill at plotting and maintaining tension, and she is clearly going to be a major player in the . . . historical fiction game.” –The Independent “Alison Weir is one of our greatest popular historians. In her first work of fiction . . . Weir manages her heroine’s voice brilliantly, respecting the past’s distance while conjuring a dignified and fiercely modern spirit.” –London Daily Mail

Read online

  • 1 043

    Spider Bight

      Tymber Dalton
$value['title']

[Siren Ménage Everlasting: Erotic Futuristic Sci-Fi Ménage a Quatre Romance, M/M/M/F, reverse harem, voyeurism, HEA] When the Tamora Bight is diverted from a scheduled mission to conduct a rescue operation and tow a disabled Kal’moran vessel, the crew’s also ordered to refer to Emi Hypatia as the ship’s captain. Aaron Lucio, Caph Bates, and Ford Caliban aren’t delighted to learn Kal’moran is a luxury resort planet for women, run by women. They’re even less pleased when they’re diplomatically obligated to visit the Kal’moran capital with Emi. Emi tries to maintain objectivity, but finds it hard to remain agreeable while being shown around a planet that treats males as little more than pack animals. Unfortunately, a jealous, scheming Kal’moran sets her sights on obtaining Aaron, Caph, and Ford by any means necessary when Emi refuses to share. Now Emi must fight to save her men from a Kal’moran warrior who’ll stop at nothing to win. And on a planet that houses deadly arachnid-like creatures, Emi’s going to show them she can be even more formidable than any Spider Bight.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Heartbreaker

      Linda Howard
$value['title']

Michelle Cabot has inherited her father's Florida cattle ranch -- and a mountain of debt. To make matters worse, a huge chunk of that debt is owed to the neighboring rancher, her nemesis John Rafferty. Nothing shocks Rafferty more than discovering that the spoiled, pampered rich girl he once despised is painstakingly trying to run the Cabot ranch herself, working the land with desperation the only thing she has left. He likes this new Michelle and decides to make her his woman. What he doesn't know is that underneath Michelle's cool, polished façade lies heartache, secrets and the raw determination to live life as her own woman. But Rafferty isn't about to take no for an answer.

Read online

  • 1 043

    The Longings of Women

      Marge Piercy
$value['title']

Her marriage over, her life unraveling, writer Leila Landsman turns to work and finds herself drawn to the sensational story of Becky Burgess, a young woman accused of killing her husband with the help of her teenage lover. Becky thought she'd escaped the grim poverty of her childhood when she married up, but her husband was soon planning to trade her in for a newer model. And that's just what happened to Mary Burke, whose middle-class life ended with her divorce. Now Leila's housecleaner, Mary has a secret: she is homeless. They are three very different women who share the same longings: to be seen for who they are, to be valued and loved, but most of all, to have a physical and emotional home that can't be taken away....

Read online

  • 1 043

    The Keep

      F. Paul Wilson
$value['title']

"Something is murdering my men." Thus reads the message received from a Nazi commander stationed in a small castle high in the remote Transylvanian Alps. And when an elite SS extermination squad is dispatched to solve the problem, the men find a something that's both powerful and terrifying. Invisible and silent, the enemy selects one victim per night, leaving the bloodless and mutilated corpses behind to terrify its future victims. Panicked, the Nazis bring in a local expert on folklore―who just happens to be Jewish―to shed some light on the mysterious happenings. And unbeknownst to anyone, there is another visitor on his way―a man who awoke from a nightmare and immediately set out to meet his destiny. The battle has begun: On one side, the ultimate evil created by man, and on the other...the unthinkable, unstoppable, unknowing terror that man has inevitably awakened.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Earthfall

      Mark Walden
$value['title']

The battle for mankind is about to begin in this riveting story of Earth’s invasion from the author of the H.I.V.E. series. Sam awakens to see strange vessels gathered in the skies around London. As he stares up, people stream past, walking silently toward the enormous ships, which emit a persistent noise. Only Sam seems immune to the signal. Six months later, he is absolutely alone. Or so he thinks. Because after he emerges from his underground bunker and is wounded by a flying drone, a hail of machine-gun fire ultimately reveals two very important truths: One, Sam is not, in fact, alone. And two, the drone injury should have killed him—but it didn’t. With his home planet feeling alien and the future unstable and unclear, Sam must navigate a new world in this gripping adventure.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Dance and Dream

      Javier Marías
$value['title']

Your Face Tomorrow, Javier Marias's dazzling unfolding magnum opus, is a novel in three parts, which began with Volume One: Fever and Spear. Described as a "brilliant dark novel" (Scotland on Sunday), the book now takes a wild swerve in its new volume. Skillfully constructed around a central perplexing and mesmerizing scene in a nightclub, Volume Two: Dance and Dream again features Jacques Deza. In Volume One he was hired by MI6 as a person of extraordinarily sophisticated powers of perception. In Volume Two Deza discovers the dark side of his new employer when Tupra, his spy-master boss, brings out a sword and uses it in a way that appalls Deza: You can't just go around hurting and killing people like that. Why not? asks Tupra. Searching meditations on favors and jealousy, knowledge and the deep human desire not to know, violence and death play against memories of the Spanish Civil War as Deza's world becomes increasingly murky.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Bloody Crimes: The Funeral of Abraham Lincoln and the Chase for Jefferson Davis

      James L. Swanson
$value['title']

This Civil War history traces two movements; one a desperate manhunt and the other, a stately, cross-country funereal process. In early April 1865, Confederate president Jefferson Davis received the telegram that he had been dreading: Robert E. Lee's armies could no longer hold back the Union attack. Left with no options, Davis packed quickly and fled Richmond on a midnight train. Now a wanted man, he began a desperate race south, attempting to outrun his pursuers. Just two weeks after that telegram, a cabal of Southern conspirators struck in Washington, killing President Abraham Lincoln. In an instant, Davis was sought not only as a traitor, but also as presumed presidential assassin. As Lincoln's funereal cortege moved slowly west to his final resting place, Northern cavalry tracked down the man they believed to be the plotter of their president's death. An unforgettable story, well-told by a respected historian.

Read online

  • 1 043

    Torn

      H. M. Ward
$value['title']

Ivy's life is torn apart when her plan to save Collin goes horribly wrong. Having descended into the deepest pits of Hell, she risks everything to save him, but nothing could have prepared her for what she encounters. Weak and wounded, Ivy must overturn her dark destiny and face the possibility that she may lose true love forever.

Read online

  • 1 042

    Nice Girls Dont Live Forever

      Molly Harper
$value['title']

UNEXPECTED UNDEAD BREAK-UP Nothing sucks the romance out of world travel like a boyfriend who may or may not have broken up with you in a hotel room in Brussels. Jane Jameson's sexy sire Gabriel has always been unpredictable, but the seductive, anonymous notes that await him at each stop of their international vacation, coupled with his evasive behavior over the past few months, finally push Jane onto the next flight home to Half Moon Hollow -- alone, upset, and unsure whether Gabriel just ended their relationship without actually telling her. Now the children's-librarian-turned-vampire is reviving with plenty of Faux Type O, some TLC from her colorful friends and family, and her plans for a Brave New Jane. Step One: Get her newly renovated occult bookstore off the ground. Step Two: Support her best friend, Zeb, and his werewolf bride as they prepare for the impending birth of their baby...or litter. Step Three: Figure out who's been sending her threatening letters, and how her hostile pen pal is tied to Gabriel. Because for this nice girl, surviving a broken heart is suddenly becoming a matter of life and undeath....

Read online

  • 1 042

    The Last Threshold

      R. A. Salvatore
$value['title']

In the final book of the #4 New York Times best-selling Neverwinter Saga, Drizzt Do’Urden navigates a winding path littered with secrets and lies. Tangled up in his companion Dahlia’s dark secrets, the ties that once held her close to Drizzt threaten to tear as her bonds to his former foe, Artemis Entreri, continue to grow. Meanwhile, in the caverns of Gauntlgrym, the drow Tiago Baenre enlists the help of Bregan D’aerthe in his quest to destroy Drizzt. While making promises they may not keep, the agents of the elite drow mercenary group hide plans of their own. Determined to stand for what’s right in the Realms once again, Drizzt forges a new road north—toward Icewind Dale. Will his new companions follow? Can he fight the darkness alone? Either way, he knows now where he’s headed—back to the only place that’s ever felt like home.

Read online

  • 1 042

    To Capture A Highlander's Heart: The Beginning

      Teresa J. Reasor
$value['title']

Tired of loving Gabriel Campbell from afar, shy lady’s maid, Grace MacNab announces her interest by showing him what she has to offer—her heart. Taken unaware, Gabriel dismisses her feelings as a temporary infatuation. Can Grace make him see the woman she is—and win his love? Or will he hold on to past perceptions and deny the passion between them?(This is a short story of 3066 words)Tired of loving Gabriel Campbell from afar, shy lady’s maid, Grace MacNab announces her interest by showing him what she has to offer—her heart. Taken unaware, Gabriel dismisses her feelings as a temporary infatuation. Can Grace make him see the woman she is—and win his love? Or will he hold on to past perceptions and deny the passion between them.(This is a short story of 3066 words)

Read online

  • 1 042