A ship burns, sinking into the dark sea. There is only one survivor—a child hunted for the power of her song. Hidden away on an isolated island, Lilette buries her power deep, convinced it caused the deaths of those she loves.But when her secret is revealed, all that can save her is her song. It’s time to rise up and become what she was always meant to be: the most powerful witch ever born.A ship burns, sinking into the dark sea. There is only one survivor—a child hunted for the power of her song. Hidden away on an isolated island, Lilette buries her power deep, convinced it caused the deaths of those she loves.But she can’t run from who she is. And when her secret is revealed, the only thing that can save her is her song. It’s time to rise up and become what she was always meant to be: the most powerful witch ever born.

Everyday is exactly the same for Rose Winter. The year is 1973, and she lives in a town, full of small minded people. What Rose doesn't know, is that everything is about to change. After finding an old abandoned house in the woods, a ghost from the past tries to reach out to her. Rose must find out the truth of the dead, before she joins them.Everyday is exactly the same for Rose Winter. The year is 1973, and she lives in a town, full of small minded people. What Rose doesn't know, is that everything is about to change. After finding an old abandoned house in the woods, a ghost from the past tries to reach out to her. Rose must find out the truth, so that the dead may sleep again.

A Collection of flash fiction. During 2014 I entered a few writing contests, and submitted to many events.Collected Stories from Contests and Events 2014A Collection of flash fiction.During 2014 I entered a few writing contests, and submitted to many events.Here you will find all my submissions from the year including the prize-winning story Julie's Problem. Some are humorous, some serious, a few might come as a surprise to anyone who has read my Flashes of Light collections.

Liam MacDonald has a rare gift and discovers there are others like him who intend to misuse theirs. He exposes their plot and must run to deny them their revenge. In time, others like him find him, and he becomes their chosen leader. To save them, Liam knows he must use his ability to take on his nemesis,regardless of the outcome.Liam MacDonald was just an ordinary fifteen year old. So everyone thought. As he also thought, until that fateful day when he discovered he was something more than ordinary. He discovered that he was actually quite extraordinary — he could make a daydream, a vision, become reality. He has a gift that has been inherited only by a few each generation throughout history. He is a Vision Master. His gift demands that he become a man before he's ready when he discovers by accident that others with the same gift intend to misuse their power and take over the government. When they learn he has uncovered their plot, they fear his ability stop them and, when they attack, Liam is forced to run and hide with his family and close friends. In time, others like him, equally persecuted, find him and he becomes their chosen leader. To save them, Liam decides he must use his ability to take on the enemy, regardless of the outcome.

Country-pop ingénue Kayleigh Towne's career is just reaching new heights with her huge hit single "Your Shadow"- but fame is also bringing unwanted attention. An innocent exchange with a fan leads Kaleigh into the dangerous and terrifying realm of obsession, and when California Bureau of Investigation agent Kathryn Dance intervenes on the singer's behalf, she draws the admirer's ominous attention to herself. Then a member of Kayleigh's road crew is murdered in an eerie echo of her chart-topping song. As Kathryn Dance races to stop the stalker with her considerable skills of investigation and body-language analysis, she soon discovers that Kayleigh has more than one frightening fan with a mission...

**Perfect for readers of* Fifty Shades of Grey* and *Bared to You,* this steamy eBook novella from J. Kenner, bestselling author of* Release Me,* features powerful billionaire Damien Stark and his wife, Nikki Fairchild, on their impromptu getaway to Las Vegas—and there’s no better place to turn up the heat than in Sin City.** ** ** I’ve never felt as close to anyone as I have with Damien Stark. I know every line of his body, every secret within his soul. There’s nothing I crave more than his touch, and with his kiss, he seals his claim. Las Vegas is the perfect place for us, where we can indulge every desire and fantasy. But when someone from my past resurfaces, I can’t ignore my instinct that I have to make things right. With Damien by my side, I feel safe no matter the danger. Our passion protects us, drives us, makes us whole. His pleasure is an exquisite game, and one that I’ll play forever. ***Seduce Me* is intended for mature audiences.** ** ** **Praise for J. Kenner and The Stark Trilogy** ** ** “Kenner may very well have cornered the market on sinfully attractive, dominant antiheroes and the women who swoon for them.”**—*RT Book Reviews*** ** ** “J. Kenner has written a sensually seductive storyline that catches your imagination. . . . [*Release Me*] will suck you in from the very start.”**—The Reading Cafe** ** * * ** “[A] sexy and exciting ride.”**—*Fresh Fiction****, *on *Claim Me* ** ** “[An] immensely satisfying series . . . The roller coaster events of *Complete Me* give this novel a page-turning quality.”**—*Heroes and Heartbreakers***

Tom Wolfe, the master social novelist of our time, the spot-on chronicler of all things contemporary and cultural, presents a sensational new novel about life, love, and learning--or the lack of it--amid today's American colleges. Our story unfolds at fictional Dupont University: those Olympian halls of scholarship housing the cream of America's youth, the roseate Gothic spires and manicured lawns suffused with tradition . . . Or so it appears to beautiful, brilliant Charlotte Simmons, a sheltered freshman from North Carolina. But Charlotte soon learns, to her mounting dismay, that for the upper-crust coeds of Dupont, sex, cool, and kegs trump academic achievement every time. As Charlotte encounters the paragons of Dupont's privileged elite--her roommate, Beverly, a Groton-educated Brahmin in lusty pursuit of lacrosse players; Jojo Johanssen, the only white starting player on Dupont's godlike basketball team, whose position is threatened by a hotshot black freshman from the projects; the Young Turk of Saint Ray fraternity, Hoyt Thorpe, whose heady sense of entitlement and social domination is clinched by his accidental brawl with a bodyguard for the governor of California; and Adam Geller, one of the Millennial Mutants who run the university's "independent" newspaper and who consider themselves the last bastion of intellectual endeavor on the sex-crazed, jock-obsessed campus--she is seduced by the heady glamour of acceptance, betraying both her values and upbringing before she grasps the power of being different--and the exotic allure of her own innocence. With his trademark satirical wit and famously sharp eye for telling detail, Wolfe's I Am Charlotte Simmons draws on extensive observations at campuses across the country to immortalize the early-21st-century college-going experience.

The heroine of this love story is Madelene Burden. Lonely and disillusioned despite her upper-crust London existence, she's a modern-day sleeping beauty drowsing gently in an alcoholic stupor. But the prince whose kiss brings her to life is not tall, dark, and handsome. He's a short, dark, 300-pound ape named Erasmus. The victim of a smuggling attempt gone awry, Erasmus is brought to Madelene's home; her husband, Adam, a distinguished behavioral scientist, believes the ape's sophisticated intelligence renders him more human than animal. If he is right, Erasmus would be a most lucrative addition to Adam's new zoo. But Madelene is determined to save Erasmus from a series of inhumane tests that would rob the ape of the very qualities that makes him so un-apelike. Pursuing this goal with all the energy she had previously reserved for her drinking, Madelene's compassion turns to passion and woman and beast escape and fall in love. But Erasmus has come to England with a purpose that eventually forces the couple to face the world they have sought to flee.Enthralling readers with the same taut prose, enigmatic characters, thrilling suspense, and satirical humor that drove Smilla to the top of bestseller lists across the country, Peter Hoeg offers a daring and imaginative fable that poses searching questions about the nature of romance, freedom and humanity. Above all, it is a love story as erotically charged and emotionally powerful as any you will ever read.

Acclaimed New York Times bestselling author Lynne Truss (Eats, Shoots & Leaves) is back with a mesmerizing and hilarious tale of cats and murder   For people who both love and hate cats comes the tale of Alec Charlesworth, a librarian who finds himself suddenly alone: he’s lost his job, his beloved wife has just died. Overcome by grief, he searches for clues about her disappearance in a file of interviews between a man called "Wiggy" and a cat, Roger. Who speaks to him.             It takes a while for Alec to realize he’s not gone mad from grief, that the cat is actually speaking to Wiggy . . . and that much of what we fear about cats is true. They do think they’re smarter than humans, for one thing. And, well, it seems they are! What’s more, they do have nine lives. Or at least this one does – Roger’s older than Methuselah, and his unblinking stare comes from the fact that he’s seen it all. And he’s got a tale to tell, a tale of shocking local history and dark forces that may link not only the death of Alec’s wife, but also several other local deaths. But will the cat help Alec, or is he one of the dark forces? In the deft and comedic hands of mega-bestseller Lynne Truss, the story is as entertaining as it is addictive” (The Sunday Telegraph) – an increasingly suspenseful and often hysterically funny adventure that will please cat lovers and haters alike. And afterwards, as one critic noted, “You may never look at a cat in quite the same way again” (The Daily Mail).

Alyssa Gardner has been down the rabbit hole and faced the bandersnatch. She saved the life of Jeb, the guy she loves, and escaped the machinations of the disturbingly seductive Morpheus and the vindictive Queen Red. Now all she has to do is graduate high school and make it through prom so she can attend the prestigious art school in London she's always dreamed of. That would be easier without her mother, freshly released from an asylum, acting overly protective and suspicious. And it would be much simpler if the mysterious Morpheus didn’t show up for school one day to tempt her with another dangerous quest in the dark, challenging Wonderland—where she (partly) belongs. As prom and graduation creep closer, Alyssa juggles Morpheus’s unsettling presence in her real world with trying to tell Jeb the truth about a past he’s forgotten. Glimpses of Wonderland start to bleed through her art and into her world in very disturbing ways, and Morpheus warns that Queen Red won’t be far behind. If Alyssa stays in the human realm, she could endanger Jeb, her parents, and everyone she loves. But if she steps through the rabbit hole again, she'll face a deadly battle that could cost more than just her head.

"David Gemmell tells a very real adventure, the stuff of true epic fantasy." --R. A. Salvatore, New York Times Bestselling author John Shannow, The Jerusalem Man, lived in a world that had toppled on its axis. Civilization had been replaced by ruthlessness and savagery. Relentless in his quest for peace, Shannow followed a path that led only to bloodshed and sorrow. Abaddon, the Lord of the Pit, sought to plunge mankind into a new Satanic era. His Hellborn army spewed forth from the Plague Lands with an unholy force stemming from human sacrifice. For it was the blood of innocents that fueled the corrupted Sipstrassi Stones of Power--the source of Abaddon's might. But the Hellborn made a fatal mistake--they took the woman who had stolen Shannow's heart. He would move Heaven and Earth to save her or he would die trying. From the Paperback edition.

An unconventional woman trapped in a conventional marriage, Martha Quest struggles to maintain her dignity and her sanity through the misunderstandings, frustrations, infidelities, and degrading violence of a failing marriage. Finally, she must make the heartbreaking choice of whether to sacrifice her child as she turns her back on marriage and security. A Proper Marriage is the second novel in Doris Lessing's classic Children of Violence series of novels, each a masterpiece on its own right, and, taken together, an incisive and all-encompassing vision of our world in the twentieth century.

Cash Fraser is planning revenge and to get it he needs the perfect woman. So he hires her. Abigail Butler has lost nearly everything in her life and she’s about to lose the home she loves. Cash meets Abby, who is posing as a paid escort, and the minute he does he knows he’s willing to pay for more than Abby being his pretend girlfriend. A lot more. Abby needs the money or the last thing that links her to her dead family and husband will be gone. The deal is struck but both Cash and Abby get more than they bargained for. Cash realises very quickly that Abby isn’t what she seems and while he changes strategies, Abby discovers that Cash’s legacy, Penmort Castle, is like all the tales say – very, very haunted. Making matters worse, the ghost in residence wants her dead. Abby’s found herself in the battle of her life so she enlists Mrs. Truman, her nosy neighbour; Jenny, her no-nonsense friend; Cassandra McNabb, white witch and clairvoyant with a penchant for wearing scarves (and lots of them); and Angus McPherson, dyed-in-the-wool Scot (which means he hunts ghosts in a kilt) to fight the vicious ghost who has vowed that she will rest at nothing to kill the true, abiding love of the master of Penmort.

An NYRB Classics Original Stefan Zweig was particularly drawn to the novella, and Confusion, a rigorous and yet transporting dramatization of the conflict between the heart and the mind, is among his supreme achievements in the form. A young man who is rapidly going to the dogs in Berlin is packed off by his father to a university in a sleepy provincial town. There a brilliant lecture awakens in him a wild passion for learning—as well as a peculiarly intense fascination with the graying professor who gave the talk. The student grows close to the professor, be­coming a regular visitor to the apartment he shares with his much younger wife. He takes it upon himself to urge his teacher to finish the great work of scholarship that he has been laboring at for years and even offers to help him in any way he can. The professor welcomes the young man’s attentions, at least on some days. On others, he rages without apparent reason or turns away from his disciple with cold scorn. The young man is baffled, wounded. He cannot understand. But the wife understands. She understands perfectly. And one way or another she will help him to understand too.

There's nothing like an impromptu holiday to explore the birthplace of modern civilisation, but when Atticus and Oberon pursue a book-stealing Egyptian wizard - with a penchant for lamb - to the land of the pharaohs, they find themselves in hot, crocodile-infested water. The trip takes an even nastier turn when they discover the true nature of the nefarious plot they've been drawn into. On the wrong side of the vengeful cat goddess Bast and chased by an unfathomable number of her yowling four-legged disciples, Atticus must find a way to appease or defeat Egypt's deadliest gods - before his grimoire-grabbing quarry uses them to turn him into mincemeat.

Welcome to Wayward Pines, the last town. Secret Service agent Ethan Burke arrived in Wayward Pines, Idaho, three weeks ago. In this town, people are told who to marry, where to live, where to work. Their children are taught that David Pilcher, the town’s creator, is god. No one is allowed to leave; even asking questions can get you killed. But Ethan has discovered the astonishing secret of what lies beyond the electrified fence that surrounds Wayward Pines and protects it from the terrifying world beyond. It is a secret that has the entire population completely under the control of a madman and his army of followers, a secret that is about to come storming through the fence to wipe out this last, fragile remnant of humanity.

NATIONAL BESTSELLER Now with an additional story. Every now and then, right in the middle of an ordinary day, a woman kicks up her heels and commits a small act of liberation. What would you do if you could shed the “shoulds” and do, say—and eat—whatever you really desired? Go AWOL from Weight Watchers and spend an entire day eating every single thing you want? Start a dating service for people over fifty to reclaim the razzle-dazzle in your life—or your marriage? Seek comfort in the face of aging, look for love in the midst of loss, find friendship in the most surprising of places? In these beautiful, funny stories, Elizabeth Berg takes us into the heart of the lives of women who do all these things and more—confronting their true feelings, desires, and joys along the way. Look for special features inside. Join the Circle for author chats and more. RandomHouseReadersCircle.com

When magic sleeps, everything changes. For as long as she can remember, Winnie Price has visited another world in her dreams, a magical fae realm caught up in a war of intrigue and sorcery. Where nature is all-powerful and a dark prince will do anything to save his dying clan. She thought this realm was pure imagination, until one midsummer’s eve when the owl who visits her window once a month transforms into a boy before her eyes. And not just any boy, the dark fae prince. With his clan on the verge of extinction, Cathair O Cuana knows that his secret feelings for the human girl can never be more than fantasy. Caught between duty and emotion, he knows his responsibility to his people comes first. But when the magic sleeps and she sees his true form, the girl he yearns for finally feels within his reach—just as a traitor in the palace pushes the kingdom to the brink of war. Will disaster drive them apart or pull them together? In a world where dreams, magic, and war collide, a human girl with a special ability and a fae prince with the weight of a kingdom on his shoulders must risk everything for a chance at happily ever after.

Following his acclaimed Atlantic and The Men Who United the States, New York Times bestselling author Simon Winchester offers an enthralling biography of the Pacific Ocean and its role in the modern world, exploring our relationship with this imposing force of nature. As the Mediterranean shaped the classical world, and the Atlantic connected Europe to the New World, the Pacific Ocean defines our tomorrow. With China on the rise, so, too, are the American cities of the West coast, including Seattle, San Francisco, and the long cluster of towns down the Silicon Valley. Today, the Pacific is ascendant. Its geological history has long transformed us—tremendous earthquakes, volcanoes, and tsunamis—but its human history, from a Western perspective, is quite young, beginning with Magellan’s sixteenth-century circumnavigation. It is a natural wonder whose most fascinating history is currently being made. In telling the story of the Pacific, Simon Winchester takes us from the Bering Strait to Cape Horn, the Yangtze River to the Panama Canal, and to the many small islands and archipelagos that lie in between. He observes the fall of a dictator in Manila, visits aboriginals in northern Queensland, and is jailed in Tierra del Fuego, the land at the end of the world. His journey encompasses a trip down the Alaska Highway, a stop at the isolated Pitcairn Islands, a trek across South Korea and a glimpse of its mysterious northern neighbor. Winchester’s personal experience is vast and his storytelling second to none. And his historical understanding of the region is formidable, making Pacific a paean to this magnificent sea of beauty, myth, and imagination that is transforming our lives.

All her world's a stage. Bertie Shakespeare Smith is not an actress, yet she lives in a theater. She's not an orphan, but she has no parents. She knows every part, but she has no lines of her own. That is, until now. Enter Stage Right NATE. Dashing pirate. Will do anything to protect Bertie. COBWEB, MOTH, MUSTARDSEED, and PEASEBLOSSOM. Four tiny and incredibly annoying fairies. BERTIE'S sidekicks. ARIEL. Seductive air spirit and Bertie's weakness. The symbol of impending doom. BERTIE. Our heroine. Welcome to the Théâtre Illuminata, where the actors of every play ever written can be found behind the curtain. They were born to play their parts, and are bound to the Théâtre by The Book, an ancient and magical tome of scripts. Bertie is not one of them, but they are her family, and she is about to lose them all and the only home she has ever known. Lisa Mantchev has written a debut novel that is dramatic, romantic, and witty, with an irresistible and irreverent cast of characters who are sure to enchant the audience. Open Curtain

In the steam-fuelled world of Victorian London, vampires, werewolves and slasher gangs stalk the night and a man made partly of metal is about to discover just how far he’ll go to protect the woman he loves…After a vicious vampire attack left him struggling to leash the dark urges of the craving virus, John ‘Rip’ Doolan, thinks he’s finally starting to master the darkness within. The only thing that threatens to shatter his hard-won control is Esme, his closest friend and the only woman he’s ever wanted. If the stubborn beauty ever realised precisely what was going through his mind, their friendship would be ruined…For six months Esme has waited for Rip to recover and take her as his thrall, not daring to hope for more. Too afraid to put her heart on the line, she’s devastated when Rip reveals that he never had any intentions of making her his.But when a savage gang of Slashers start causing havoc in Whitechapel, Rip and Esme have no choice. They must face up to the depth of the passion that burns between them and forge a new relationship… or risk losing each other forever.“Deftly blends elements of steampunk and vampire romance with brilliantly successful results…darkly atmospheric and delectably sexy.” –Booklist, starred review for KISS OF STEEL