What Would You Do If a Secret Was Causing Your Family to Crumble?Is there a secret terrible enough that it should never be revealed, not even if it was tearing a family apart? For more than five decades Emma Bauer has kept one—carefully guarding it with all her strength, and for more than five decades that choice has haunted her life and also the lives of her daughters and granddaughter. Is it too late for wrongs to be righted? Does Emma even have the strength to let the healing power of truth work in her family? The story of four generations of women and the powerful effects that their choices have had on their lives is at the heart of Eve's Daughters, an epic novel from author Lynn Austin. Grand in scope but tender and personal at the same time, it will please you as a fan of contemporary or historical fiction. Exploring times from World War I to the 980s, Eve's Daughters is an insightful look at mothers, daughters, sisters, and families that allows you to see a little bit...

A thrilling adventure set within a storm of secrecy.Tansy, Perrin, and Skir could hardly be more different - a laundry-maid, a swordsman and a young Priest-King whose countries are at war. But their frantic escape from Arvestel thrusts them together. Pursued by soldiers, haunted by the Witch-Woman's sinister magic, they ride for their lives through hostile lands.To survive they must learn to trust each other, strip away the layers of deception that surround Skir, and challenge the tyranny of the Witch-Woman. But what will happen if all truths are revealed? And will the power of the Priest-King be enough to bring peace to the Threelands?'Constable's flavour of fantasy is fresh and full of heart. Politics, romance, magic - what more could you ask for? A beautiful and complex book.'Lili Wilkinson, Centre for Youth Literature

The climactic final installment of New York Times bestseller Elizabeth George's award-winning saga.Seth Darrow is a straightforward guy, and he likes life to be simple. Lately, it's been anything but. Since his beloved grandfather's stroke, Seth has been focused on getting Grand home again, before his aunt can take advantage of the situation to get her hands on Grand's valuable real estate. Seth would also like to get his relationship with Prynne on solid ground. He loves her, but can he believe she has her drug use under control? Meanwhile, things are complicated for the other Whidbey Island friends. Derric has found Rejoice, the sister he left behind in Uganda, but no one – including Rejoice – knows she is his sister. Jenn is discovering feelings for her teammate Cynthia, feelings her born-again Christian mother would never find acceptable. And Becca, hiding under a false identity since her arrival on the island, is concealing the...

"Reader beware—you choose the scare! GIVE YOURSELF GOOSEBUMPS! Your teacher thinks it'll be good for your class to hang out at the new wax museum in town. Yeah, right! Once you get there your teacher starts blah-blahing about something or other and that's when you and your friend see the red door. If you decide to check out what's behind door #1, you'll discover the museum owner's secret for making lifelike sculptures. And it doesn't look like fun! If you decide to ditch the red door and go the other way you'll end up meeting scary Sybil Wicked — and wish you hadn't. Will you escape this creepy place before you're turned into a human candle? The choice is yours in this scary GOOSEBUMPS adventure that's packed with over 20 super-spooky endings!

ReviewPeet creates an explosive world where love is frowned upon and the past has bloody teeth and bad breath. It's a world that demands deep examination and thought, and Peet has done a splendid job of creating it.—Booklist (starred review)Peet's brilliant, ambitious novel bridges the years between World War II and the 9/11 terrorist attacks on New York City, but at its heart is a star-crossed affair set during the Cuban Missile Crisis. Recommend this memorable novel to mature teen readers, and if you can wrest away a copy, read it yourself.—School Library Journal (starred review)This is mesmerizing through the sheer force and liveliness of its prose, as well as its unpredictable, inexorable plot. Peet's gift for imagery makes the novel fizz with the intensity of an adolescent's heightened perceptions-in which everything is alive, and even boredom is an all-engrossing activity. Place, period, and adolescent passion all come through with exuberant feeling and humor; Peet's subtle, literary play with narrative voice, style, and chronology make this a satisfyingly sophisticated teen novel. Outstanding.—The Horn Book (starred review)Sophisticated teens and adults will appreciate this subtle yet powerful exposition of the far-reaching implications of war.—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) Product DescriptionCan love survive a lifetime? When working-class Clem Ackroyd falls for Frankie Mortimer, the gorgeous daughter of a wealthy local landowner, he has no hope that it can. After all, the world teeters on the brink of war, and bombs could rain down any minute over the bleak English countryside—just as they did seventeen years ago as his mother, pregnant with him, tended her garden. This time, Clem may not survive. Told in cinematic style by acclaimed writer Mal Peet, this brilliant coming-of-age novel is a gripping family portrait that interweaves the stories of three generations and the terrifying crises that define them. With its urgent sense of history, sweeping emotion, and winning young narrator, Mal Peet’s latest is an unforgettable, timely exploration of life during wartime.

Just another routine overseas assignment. That's what successful young New York architect Ken Strang thought when a national travel magazine sent him to Europe to sketch Greek ruins.What he did not know, until it was too late, was that from the moment he boarded the ship, he had become the pawn in a murderous game of international intrigue.To Strang, danger was no object. He could take care of himself, but he had reckoned without Cecilia, his beautiful photographer. When he fell in love with her, he gave his enemies the one weapon they needed.

The Blood Rose Tales Box Set features three paranormal romances set in the world of the Blood Rose. Each stand-alone story is shorter than the Blood Rose "Embrace" Series books, perfect for a quick read. Enjoy all three together in one set.Blood Rose Tale #1 - TRAPPED: Mastyr Vampire Zephyr, a one-man fighting force,can't keep away from Alesia and feels obligated to keep her safe. They'd broken up, unable to reconcile painfully opposing views on what should be done to the evil Invictus pairs. But when several wraith-pairs attack her diner, he flies her to safety, taking her home where they're trapped together for the entire day. His chronic blood-starvation problem surfaces and it soon becomes apparent that she's the key to taking away decades of suffering. But if she offers to take care of his needs, will he be drawn in once more only to have her disapproval ruin their relationship yet again?Blood Rose Tale #2 - HUNGER: Detective Yolen of the Nine Realms police forcekeeps his...

In The Christmas Letters, three generations of women reveal their stories of love and marriage in the letters they write to family and friends during the holidays. It's a down-home Christmas story about tradition, family, and the shared experiences of women.Here, in a letter of her own, Lee Smith explains how she was inspired to write this celebrated epistolary novel:Dear Friends,Like me, you probably get Christmas letters every year. I read every word and save every letter. Because every Christmas letter is the story of a life, and what story can be more interesting than the story of our lives? Often, it is the story of an entire family. But you also have to read between the lines with Christmas letters. Sometimes, what is not said is even more important than what is on the page.In The Christmas Letters, I have used this familiar format to illumine the lives, hopes, dreams, and disappointments of three generations of American women. Much of the story of The...

THE CHRISTMAS BASKETMore than ten years ago, high-school sweethearts Noelle McDowell and Thomas Sutton planned to elope--but then he jilted her. This Christmas, Noelle is home to celebrate the holidays, and she and Thom discover they are still in love. Now only the decades-old rivalry between their mothers stands in the way of a second chance together.THE SNOW BRIDEIt's a month before Christmas and Jenna Campbell is flying to Alaska to marry a man she met on the Internet--until her seatmate takes it upon himself to change her plans. Which is how Jenna ends up stranded in tiny Snowbound, Alaska, alone with Reid Jamison (plus a bunch of eccentric old men and a few grizzly bears). And then there's a blizzard.... Maybe she'll be a Christmas bride after all!

Continuing in a festive annual tradition, #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber returns with a new original holiday novel full of romance and cheer—and the magical prospect of finding love in even the most guarded hearts. Friendly and bubbly, Julia Padden likes nearly everyone, but her standoffish neighbor, Cain Maddox, presents a particular challenge. No matter how hard she's tried to be nice, Cain rudely rebuffs her at every turn, preferring to keep to himself. But when Julia catches Cain stealing her newspaper from the lobby of their apartment building, that's the last straw. She's going to break through Cain's Scrooge-like exterior the only way she knows how: by killing him with kindness. To track her progress, Julia starts a blog called The Twelve Days of Christmas. Her first attempts to humanize Cain are far from successful. Julia brings him homemade Christmas treats and the disagreeable grinch won't even accept them. Meanwhile,...

I woke up in a cold sweat, knowing for a definite fact that death was a teenage girl and that she had been standing silently by my bed during the night...' Jim Beaudry, or Biscuit as he's known, is a teenage boy trying to stay out of trouble. But trouble has a way of finding him. Especially after his cousin L.A. turns up on his doorstep. When one summer afternoon Biscuit and L.A. discover the body of a teenage girl in the Texas wilderness, an investigation begins that will put both of their lives in grave danger. What Dies in Summer is a chilling and unforgettable page-turner that introduces Tom Wright as a major new talent.

Four lives. Four stories. Four sets of letters. Four brave souls in need of guidance while facing life's greatest challenges. The anonymously published Dear Life program is designed to help them step outside of their comfort zones, face their obstacles, and relinquish their demons...and prove their existence. With their lives teetering between wanting more and losing it all, all four souls dive into the program as a New Year’s resolution, sending them on a crazy, life-altering journey. Dear Life, Please be kind. Yours truly, Hollyn, Jace, Daisy, and Carter.**

Based on a true story, Arthur Japin’s new novel is a tale of consuming love and artistic creation that reimagines the last romance of the legendary filmmaker Federico Fellini.In Director’s Cut we enter the mind of Snaporaz, the lion of Italian cinema, as he slips into a coma in his final days. Having always drawn inspiration from the world of his dreams, he welcomes the chance to take account of his life and, in particular, his most recent love affair, with a beautiful but tempestuous young actress called Gala. Here is the story as Snaporaz tells it.Lured by the glamour of Rome, Gala and her boyfriend, Maxim, an actor as well, are hoping to be discovered when they manage the impossible: entrée to the studio of the great master. Despite an age difference of four decades, Gala soon becomes Snaporaz’s mistress, leaving Maxim, guardian of her secrets and her fragile health, to be an anxious and helpless observer of her physical and spiritual decline. As Gala becomes increasingly dependent on Snaporaz’s attentions, her desperation never to disappoint him leads her down a reckless path to anorexia and prostitution before the one true bond in her life is restored.Snaporaz’s intoxicatingly baroque—Felliniesque—account of the affair slyly challenges us again and again to ask what is dream and what is reality, and to conclude that the difference is irrelevant when such a genius immerses himself in his most natural element: the imagination. A dazzling tale from one of Europe’s most celebrated writers.From the Hardcover edition.From Publishers WeeklyThis story of romance between a young Dutch actress and a slightly fictionalized Federico Fellini flounders on poor plotting and overwrought prose. After being reared by a demanding father, Gala and an ambiguous male companion named Maxim travel to Rome in the 1970s to find their fortune as movie stars. There, the beautiful and epileptic Gala eventually attracts the ardor of Fellini stand-in Snaporaz. Told partially in the third-person and partially as Snaporaz's elegiac reminiscences, this potentially interesting story is hampered by clumsy prose; Snaporaz's frequent pronouncements often come off as banal or pretentious (I gather strange butterflies. My white is made up of so many colors). Plot momentum might have made such stylistic lapses easier to overlook, but Japin chooses to let his aspiring actors simmer in Italy with little to do for so long that Snaporaz's and Gala's eventual romance feels anticlimactic and belated. Though Japin, author of the widely praised In Lucia's Eyes, brings together a number of promising elements, this book comes up short. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. From BooklistA Dutch actor and actress travel to 1970s Rome in hopes of finding their big break in this latest offering from Dutch novelist Japin (In Lucia’s Eyes, 2007). Gala and Maxim have been companions for years; each is overjoyed when the other finds work. But when Gala comes under the spell of the celebrated Italian director Snaporaz (a thinly disguised Fellini), Maxim is besieged by worry. Beautiful Gala is an epileptic, and her seizures seem to occur with greater frequency in times of emotional distress. Gala pins all her hopes on a role in Snaporaz’s latest movie, but the waiting game she must play after their initial meeting nearly drives her mad. Meanwhile, she earns money as a female escort, while Maxim lands a solid film role. Snaporaz’s lust for Gala is undeniable, and the fling between them is both inevitable—and anticlimactic. Based on a true story, Japin’s novel is overlong, and the characters are lackluster. Still, there are some vivid depictions of life in Rome, and the Fellini connection may interest cinema buffs. --Allison Block

The second book in the Secrets of the Pied Piper trilogy finds Max, Carter, and their allies on Summer Isle battling new foes, relying on new friends, and fighting for stakes higher than ever, in a series New York Times bestselling author Adam Gidwitz called "a wild fantasy adventure." On the Summer Isle, siblings Max and Carter discovered the magical land where the villainous Pied Piper led the children of Hamelin centuries ago. But only Max made it back. Now she is determined to rescue her brother. To do so, she will have to find the one and only key to the Summer Isle. That key is controlled by Vodnik, a dastardly magician and soul stealer who will stop at nothing to get what he wants. Meanwhile, Carter must overcome his own troubles back on the Summer Isle. He's been separated from his friends and left with a very untrustworthy companion: the Pied Piper himself. Struggling desperately to find each other, Max and Carter...

A classic work of experimental poetry by a titan of modernist literatureTender Buttons, Stein's first published work of poetry, debuted in 1914 as a volume of powerful avant-garde expression. This meditation on ordinary living is presented in three compelling sections—"Objects," "Food," and "Rooms"—through which Stein delights in experiments with language. Emphasizing rhythm and sonority over traditional grammar, Stein's wordplay has garnered praise from readers and critics alike. In "A Piece of Coffee," for example, Stein plays with conventional language and cubist imagery to produce a stunningly original literary effect:A single image is not splendor. Dirty is yellow. A sign of more is not mentioned. A piece of coffee is not a detainer. The resemblance to yellow is dirtier and distincter. The clean mixture is whiter and not coal color, never more coal color than altogether. This ebook has been professionally proofread...