Princess Mia may seem like the luckiest girl ever. But the truth is, Mia spends all her time doing one of three things: preparing for her nerve-racking entrée into Genovian society, slogging through the congestion unique to Manhattan in December, and avoiding further smooching from her hapless boyfriend, Kenny. For Mia, being princess is not the fairy tale it's supposed to be . . . or is it?

This is a thrilling historical-psychological novel, based on the Bible and on the drama ‘Athaliah’- by playwright Racine. This novel will be liked by many who heard the Biblical story about the stubborn God Believers'struggle against a pagan tyrant, murderous Queen Athaliah, daughter of Jezebel. However, Athaliah is not absolutely wicked... Handel's Opera Athaliah was shown on French TV MEZZO...A whole ancient historical era is depicted in this novel. Religious or not –anyone who dislikes any kind of dictatorship - will like to read my book. Plot: Athaliah, who is Jezebel’s daughter, marries the king of Judea, (North Israel neighbor from the south). She hates her husband, the king, who is king David’s offspring, because that king was faithful to God, - and she hates God, who “caused the killing of my family”...One day Athaliah receives a message that her son, who has become Judea’s king, is killed in a battle. Three Judean officers, among them Army Chief Abner- who have been rescued from the battle, tell her that the rebel Jehu was the man who killed her son, (as well as her brother and mother Jezebel)- and now this rebel intends to conquer the small kingdom of Judea... The officers suggest to crown immediately a new king in Judea, in order to unite the people to stand against killer Jehu, now king of Northern Israel. Athaliah refuses to listen, having a selfish wish to be herself the ruler. To her help comes an Ex-Priest of God –Mathan- who reveals to the officers that their comrade, the claimant to the crown, is a bastard, not fit for being a king!.. Athaliah & Mathan make a deal: He will kill for her almost all the remaining offspring-s of king David, (Judean dynasty’s forefather). As a reward - she will nominate Mathan to be high Priest of Baal Idol, as Athaliah herself is a pagan. However, the high Priest of God in Jerusalem’s Temple- Yehoyada, and his wife Yehosheva-( she is Athaliah’s daughter), struggle against the new ruler, Athaliah. The high priest of God soon hides the son of the late king, putting him and his milk-nurse, Nefertita, in a cave. After Athaliah succeeds to deter Jehu- she becomes a tyrant, who fight against God Belivers in her 'Queendom'.In the sixth year of Athaliah’s regime - the public sacrifices in God’s Temple are stopped by her wicked decrees; though she still allows the high priest to teach there Torah- the holy Scriptures- to God Believers. Among his pupils are: his seven years old son, Zakharia, and his friend- a boy named Elyakim, who is said to be a foundling orphan…One day Athaliah comes to visit the Holy Temple, to beg the priests’ help: She suffers from insomnia and nightmares. As she is looking around- she sees the boy Elyakim, who is really her grandson, now aged seven. Answering her questions, he becomes very afraid of her. She “falls in Love” with him, and would like to adopt and educate him. Yehoyada and his wife oppose that idea, of course: The boy is their last hope for renewing king David’s Dynasty rule in Judea! Athaliah threatens Yehoyada to burn the Temple, if he does not hand her the boy. (she is prevented from knowing his true identity). Mathan is filled with fears, understanding that the Queen’s madness will bring the end of her regime. And that really happens: Commander Abner - an ardent God Believer, organizes the rebellion against the mad woman ruler, and succeeds... Athaliah comes into the Temple, and admits before many celebrating people: “King David, you have won.” She is killed, and Elyakim- her only grandson, the rescued baby - is crowned to be the new king of Judea. There are other interesting characters in that novel, like Prophet Joseph- Nefertita’s sweetheart, prophet Elisha - and his leper young servant Gehazi, and his amazing lover and wife Bat Gad, who escapes from him and becomes Athaliah’s whore-spy— against her internal enemies, the priests and prophets of God.…

Apart from occupying a definite territory, Maharashtra has a glorious history that can be traced back to ancient times. In the medieval ages the entire India faced foreign invasion. Only two exceptions shine brightly in this dark and dismal scenario: the Vijayanagar empire and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. This book gives the all history in short note.Apart from occupying a definite territory, Maharashtra has a glorious history that can be traced back to ancient times. In the medieval ages the entire India faced foreign invasion. Only two exceptions shine brightly in this dark and dismal scenario: the Vijayanagar empire and Chhatrapati Shivaji Maharaj. After the decline of Maratha power Maharashtra came under the British rule. People from all the strata of the society, revolutionaries and ordinary people participated In the freedom struggle against the British, and our country gained freedom. After independence was achieved in 1947, Maharashtra had a further struggle, for a separate linguistic State. Maharashtra became a separate linguistic State in 1960, but without the territory of Belgaum. Since 1960 to date, there have been persistent efforts to convert this Free State into a Great State. This article is a run through of Maharashtra’s ancient and glorious history, the inspirational struggle for United Maharashtra, and State-wide efforts from establishment of the State to date.

Very short stories. Bite sized fiction to entertain, thrill, amuse, or perhaps scare you in a small package. Stories that attempt to really go places in only a few sentences.Note: "Prank Gone Wrong" is a short story and a quick read. (estimated 23 pages) Rebekah, Mouse and RJ each have their own fun short story series and sometimes they come together, bringing you these special editions.They all love hanging out, solving mysteries and playing pranks together and we hope you will enjoy these special times as well. It's going to be a great weekend because RJ is coming to Curtis Bay to hang out with his fun detective cousin Rebekah and her best friend Mouse. What RJ doesn't know is that they are planning to introduce and invite him to join Mouse's Secret Club...introduce him to it with a funny prank that is on him UNTIL it looks like it might be on the WHOLE town!Yikes! It looks like the gang might have some explaining to do!

Lena has managed to carve out an almost idyllic life for herself in the small seaside town of Monterey until the unexpected and illogically explained death of her best friend pulls her out of the life she has painstakingly built and thrusts her into a topsy-turvy world of characters and situations that teaches her more about human nature than she could imagine or expected.Award Winning Author I. A. Watson, one of the most prolific voices in New Pulp, takes readers into a world of history of fantasy, one marred with magic, monsters, and mystery in his exclusive original Pro Se Single Shot Signatures Series Byzantium.In a world where Christianity never arose to sweep away the old magics, where sorcerer-guilds and necromancer-kings rule amidst the Roman ruins, Kirkgrim the Wanderer joins a caravan train across war-torn wasteland to the world's most corrupt city. The reluctant hero finds himself trapped with travelers, refugee orphans, deserter soldiers, a beautiful hunted sorceress, and one mad viking, amidst civil war, religious zealots, brutal reavers, and a growing zombie army - guarding a secret that could bring the last vestiges of civilization crashing down in flames.In Byzantium Book One: Dead Men’s Road, a beautiful woman tasked with delivering a sealed package to the Invisible College in Byzantium is pursued by merciless bandits, relentless undead, and a charming scoundrel who has nothing to lose.

The Great War has been stuck in stalemate on the Western Front for forty-seven years since 1914. Jimmy is a lonely private at the front, forced to battle from the enormous deathly wall that faces the Germans across no-man's land. Esme is the factory girl he met in Brighton. The girl he dreams of...The Great War has been stuck in stalemate on the Western Front for forty-seven years since 1914. Jimmy is a lonely private at the front, forced to battle from the enormous deathly wall that faces the Germans across no-man's land. Esme is the factory girl he met in Brighton. The girl he dreams of... Separated by the enormity of the war machine that surrounds them they write to each other, sharing their hopes and dreams of a better time... An epistolary novel set in an alternate history.

The true story of Beowulf as told by an old man who was there. At least that is what Grimm is telling 21st Century London schoolboy Jamie.When South London schoolboy Jamie goes to Wimbledon to photocopy some pictures for his school project on the Old English poem 'Beowulf', he little thinks that his life will never quite be the same again. Deciding to exchange his bus fare home for a hamburger, Jamie somehow ends up in the company of a very weird old man for whom everything seems to have stopped in the time of the Anglo-Saxons. After being thrown out of the hamburger bar for creating a disturbance, the pair heads for Wimbledon Common.In between 'gathering tributes' of what seem to be other people's unattended food and drinks Grimm, the old man, tells Jamie what he claims to be an eye witness account of the story of Beowulf and the hero's battles with the monster Grendel and Grendel's mother in the damp of a Danish bog. Although Grimm's version is not quite the same as that told in the poem he claims that it is all true, well almost true.

Silence is a book that opens up our definitions of self-realization. In many ways, we are treated to an almost cinematic rendering of this search. With the beautiful and, often, desolate landscape of Florida’s orange grove country, Munnis reconceives a past that often blurs memory, truth, perception, and awareness.Silence is a book that opens up our definitions of self-realization. In many ways, we are treated to an almost cinematic rendering of this search. With the beautiful and, often, desolate landscape of Florida’s orange grove country, Munnis reconceives a past that often blurs memory, truth, perception, and awareness. As the narrator, Brian, pushes through his past, his discoveries illuminate the roles each of us play in a family. And when Brian journeys through his past, we are face to face with the surreal and sensory imagery of this family’s life. The cattails, dead birds, and diesel fuel smells surrounding a boy’s life in Titusville make an impressionistic effect while the clear and unadorned realizations of Munnis’ narrator take us to a place of understanding: hatred wrapped in love, misunderstanding and shame masked in silence, love and tenderness in small kindnesses. Complicating this cinematic cycle of poems is the pressure of a family negotiating a life of power, money, and violent tendencies. As dramatic tensions rise in many sections of these poems, the awareness of what these tensions mean rises alongside the pivotal events where race, memory, sex, love, and loss merge. We cannot look away. If we need a word for this inevitability and its power to draw us in, it would be destiny. And in these poems as we travel with narrator, we meet his destiny and the inevitable pursuit and renegotiation of the past.—Wynn Yarbrough, Ph.D, teaches Creative Writing at the University of the District of Columbia. He is also the author of A Boy’s Life (Pessoa Press, 2011) and a critical work, Masculinity in Children’s Animal Stories, 1888-1928: A Critical Study of Anthropomorphic Tales by Wilde, Kipling, Potter, Grahame, and Milne (McFraland Press, 2011).

A novel half "Outsiders", half "Power of Now", "Danny’s Mind" chronicles the rise of Danny Perkins, a victimized nerd who catapults to charismatic high school prophet, transforming the student body through genuine spiritual powers…but also fueling the backlash from peers and adults determined to destroy him. Only his neighborhood buddy, tough kid, Joe Maddy can save him from the gathering storm.If you enjoyed the Outsiders and the Power of Now, get ready to combine your reading passions—because in the corridors and classrooms of Payton High School, something strange is happening: a prophet is rising, and a new power grows…Meet Danny Perkins—The sixteen-year-old bookworm who catapults from victimized school nerd to charismatic playground prophet. The high school mystic who opens up the dimension of real heaven on earth, unleashing a mystical power which transforms the student body…and fuels a fiery backlash from threatened peers and adults determined to destroy him.Meet Joe Maddy—The biggest bully in school, and Danny’s best friend. The wrong-side-of-town tough-kid, who daydreams of Conan the Barbarian and loves the “razor” feeling of a good fight. He alone sees the menace gathering, preparing to strike. Is his wild strength enough to stop the violence?Meet Michelle Connelly—The quintessential IT Girl, head cheerleader, top-flight student, and queen of the “activities” crowd. She recognizes the transformative nature of Danny’s power and intends to spread him to the world like a teenage Eckhart Tolle…if she can live that long.Meet Tim Hanson—Mr. Cool, Mr. Glam, the guy every young male wants to be. Star athlete, rich family, handsome, and dating the IT Girl. A born leader the students look to. But for which side? And as the arch rival of Joe Maddy for top tough kid in school, like two gunslingers from an old western, both boys are on a path to bloody destiny.Get ready to enter the dimension of Danny’s Mind.

Deep in a shadowy castle dwells timeless evil and gruesome creepiness. Can Ergo save the universe again or will these dire threats prove too devastatingly terrible and leave our unfortunate hero… drained?Ergo is a misunderstood human-puppet hybrid wanting little more than to fit in at his pharmaceutically-driven indoctrination center (public school), when his day is suddenly turned upside-down by a bizarre series of events leading him to a mysterious thrift shop, an abrupt flight with unexpected allies to a secretive village in Transylvania, and ultimately deep into a shadowy castle rife with timeless evil and gruesome creepiness. Can Ergo save the universe again or will these dire threats prove too devastatingly terrible and leave our unfortunate hero… drained?

Billionaire Caleb Blackstone lives in the glamorous world of wealth and success, with every material luxury. But the moment he sees Brooke Casterley, none of that matters. Caleb is filled with a raw, undeniable need that he can’t ignore…for a girl who is so completely different from everything and everyone he’s ever known. Only Brooke isn’t looking for love. She knows all too well just how much damage the wrong guy can do. Still, what sane, broke British girl can resist the charms of an incredibly sexy, chivalrous billionaire? What starts as flirtation quickly turns into all-consuming passion. Nothing could have prepared her for the searing heat of Caleb’s touch—or just how much she craves him. Their whirlwind romance is the stuff of high-society fantasy—but for every moment of pleasure, there is a cost. Past mistakes and tragedy shadow them both…and falling for him might be the kind of trouble she can’t afford.

Livie has always been the stable one of the two Cleary sisters, handling her parents' tragic death and Kacey's self-destructive phase with strength and maturity. But underneath that exterior is a little girl hanging onto the last words her father ever spoke to her. “Make me proud,” he had said. She promised she would...and she’s done her best over the past seven years with every choice, with every word, with every action. Livie walks into Princeton with a solid plan, and she’s dead set on delivering on it: Rock her classes, set herself up for medical school, and meet a good, respectable guy that she’s going to someday marry. What isn’t part of her plan are Jell-O shots, a lovable, party animal roommate she can’t say ‘no’ to, and Ashton, the gorgeous captain of the men’s rowing team. Definitely him. He’s an arrogant ass who makes Livie’s usually non-existent temper flare and everything she doesn’t want in a guy. Worse, he’s best friends and roommates with Connor, who happens to fits Livie’s criteria perfectly. So why does she keep thinking about Ashton? As Livie finds herself facing mediocre grades, career aspirations she no longer thinks she can handle, and feelings for Ashton that she shouldn’t have, she’s forced to let go of her last promise to her father and, with it, the only identity that she knows.

"Every bit as smart, sensitive, funny, and genuine as her phenomenally popular novels,"* a dazzling collection from the New York Times bestselling author of Prep, American Wife, and EligibleA suburban mother of two fantasizes about the downfall of an old friend whose wholesome lifestyle empire may or may not be built on a lie. A high-powered lawyer honeymooning with her husband is caught off guard by the appearance of the girl who tormented her in high school. A shy Ivy League student learns the truth about a classmate's seemingly enviable life.Curtis Sittenfeld has established a reputation as a sharp chronicler of the modern age who humanizes her subjects even as she skewers them. Now, with this first collection of short fiction, her "astonishing gift for creating characters that take up residence in readers' heads" (The Washington Post) is showcased like never before. Throughout the ten stories in You Think It, I'll Say It,...

When you land in hot water, swim for safety—or let the fire burn. Claire McKinley has just experienced every bride’s nightmare. The groom is a no-show, and now she must face five hundred guests alone. Furious and humiliated, Claire seeks help from the most unlikely candidate—her almost-brother-in-law, who promptly whisks her away to his apartment in San Diego, where she can recover her pride in peace and quiet. Dylan Wade is no fan of Claire’s, but no way can he leave the jilted bride in her time of need. Bringing her home seems like a good idea—until he remembers his new roommate. Dylan’s relationship with Aidan is…complicated. And with Claire thrown into the mix, life becomes even more…complicated. Claire is blindsided by her attraction not only to Dylan, but also to Aidan, a man she’s just met. Soon they’re caught up in an all-consuming sexual storm they can’t fight even if they wanted to. Yet Claire wonders if it can last, or if she’s just setting herself up for more heartache. Warning: This book is very dirty. Ménage a trois and man-on-man dirty. Graphic-language and explicit-sex dirty. Basically? Dirty. You’ve been warned.

It's too bad they don't give out diplomas for what you learn at the mall, because I could graduate with honors in that subject. No really. Since I've worked there, I've become an expert on all things shopping-related. For example, I can tell you right off who to distrust at the mall: 1) Skinny people who work at Cinnabon. I mean, if they're not eating the stuff they sell, how good can it be? 2) The salesladies at department store makeup counters. No matter what they tell you, buying all that lip gloss will not make you look like the pouty models in the store posters. 3) And most importantly—my best friend's boyfriend, Bryant, who showed up at the food court with a mysterious blonde draped on his arm. Yeah, I saw it, and yeah, I told my best friend all about it. You would think this would mean trouble for Bryant, but you would basically be wrong. Somehow, the evil boyfriend turned everything around, and now I'm the one who has to prove myself! But I will. Even if Bryant—and more importantly his best friend, Colton—keep trying to stop me.