Zara and Adnan are just friends. Always have been, always will be. Even if they have to pretend to be girlfriend and boyfriend... Zara loves love in all forms: 90s romcoms and romance novels and grand sweeping gestures. And she's desperate to have her own great love story. Crucially, a real one. So when her best friend Adnan begs her to pretend to date him to cover up his new top-secret relationship, Zara is hesitant. This isn't the kind of thing she had in mind. But there's something in it for Zara too: making her parents, who love Adnan, happy might just stop them arguing for a while. She may not be getting her own love story, but she could save theirs. So Zara agrees and the act begins: after all, how different can pretending to be in a relationship with your best friend be to just hanging around with them like usual? Turns out, a lot. With fake dating comes fake hand-holding and fake kissing and real feelings... And when a new boy turns up...

The Jewels of Texas Pearl Jewel Was About To Teach A Lonely Cowboy A Lesson In Love. Cal McCade's world was the open range with no one but himself and his haunted past for company. It was the life of a man with no ties—and he liked it that way, until Pearl, a cultured beauty fresh from Boston with proper manners and fiery kisses, gave him a taste of something he could never have. Diamond, Pearl, Jade and Ruby. The Jewels of Texas. Four sisters as wild and vibrant as the untamed land they're fighting to protect.

Seventh century Ireland provides the background in Peter Tremayne's newest murder mystery which begins gruesomely as two nuns pull a decapitated corpse from their drinking well. Sister Fidelma is called upon to determine who the body is and how she met her untimely end. Fidelma, as an advocate of the courts, is the appropriate person to collect evidence and determine if there is a case to be answered. Although Tremayne makes clear in his introduction that women under Irish law in the period aspired to and performed most professions on a similar footing with men, he does not neglect the opportunity to place Fidelma in situations where both her youth and gender raise the question of her suitability for her official capacity. Still, her enjoyment in convincing her doubters of her abilities and her ultimate success indicate, as Tremayne evidently intends, that this particular period, at least as Ireland as concerned, should not be characterized as a dark one. En route to the scene of the crime that opens the story, Sister Fidelma encounters a second curiosity, a ship foundering in the waves without a person on board. What Fidelma does discover are hints that an old and trusted friend was aboard and seems to have met the same mysterious fate as the rest of the crew and cargo, whatever that might have been. The novel proceeds as Fidelma sets out to determine the cause of each of her mysteries, and what if any is the connection between them. Tremayne is a careful and engaging storyteller; his characters are thoughtfully drawn, and he uses the central mystery for them to discuss and reflect upon the differences between the native Irish church and that of Rome (which is becoming the more powerful--and whose ultimate success will keep women like Fidelma out of the halls of power which she has confidently and capably strode.) The ecclesiastical period setting may remind readers of the work of Ellis Peters, but the 7th century is distinct from the 12th and Ireland distinct from England. Tremayne relishes those differences, creating a tale that has much to enlighten and intrigue his readers and make them anxious for the next time Sister Fidelma is called to perform her duties.

Previously published as Tilly's Family and in ebook as A Home for Tilly.A warm-hearted and nostalgic family saga from the author of The Winter Baby and The Gingerbread Girl, for readers of Katie Flynn and Sheila Jeffries. The perfect festive read to get cosy with this Christmas. Will she finally find a family to call her own?Tilly, a young maid, is sent away from her home in London to care for a sick child in an old cottage on the Isle of Sheppey, and she little imagines how her life will change . . .Having settled in with her new family, Tilly dares to believe that the happiness she's longed for could be hers at last, and that she might finally be free from the secrets of her past. But tragedy strikes, and Tilly is forced to return to London, leaving the cottage under the sea wall - and her new life - behind. As war approaches and new challenges arise, will Tilly be able...

Douglas Coupland takes his sparkling literary talent in a new direction with this crackling collection of takes on life and death in North America -- from his sweeping portrait of Grateful Dead culture to the deaths of Kurt Cobain, Marilyn Monroe and the middle class.For years, Coupland's razor-sharp insights into what it means to be human in an age of technology have garnered the highest praise from fans and critics alike. At last, Coupland has assembled a wide variety of stories and personal "postcards" about pivotal people and places that have defined our modern lives. Polaroids from the Dead  is a skillful combination of stories, fact and fiction -- keen outtakes on life in the late 20th century, exploring the recent past and a society obsessed with celebrity, crime and death. Princess Diana, Nicole Brown Simpson and Madonna are but some of the people scrutinized.

While helping organize Greenfield's Winter Festival, the Boxcar Children find a secret message in their developed photos. They realize someone is trying to ruin the Festival. Can they figure it out in time to save the event?

An Archeologist Opens an Ancient Tomb. His Discovery Reveals A Secret. A Secret Some Will Kill to Keep Buried.On the planet Na-Dina, the tombs in the Ancestor’s Valley have lain undisturbed for six thousand years. A fully intact royal chamber promises treasures beyond reckoning, but no one expected ancient Mizari artifacts. When a member of the team is brutally murdered, Ambassador-at-Large Mahree Burroughs arrives, determined to find the killer…no matter the cost. What she discovers will change her life, the lives of the Na-Dina, and the lives of everyone in the Cooperative League of Systems.Praise for the StarBridge Series“Rousing adventure…a very exciting and reader-enticing series!” — Andre Norton“This series offers well-told tales with a welcome note of realism about interspecies relationships…Recommended.” — Booklist“This is space opera in the best tradition…just tremendous; I’m delighted to recommend it.” — Judith Tarr“A highly emotional and surprisingly successful story…With its touches of humor, and an intriguing set of characters, the action-packed plot races along!” — Locus“…the series is batting a thousand!” — DragonReview"T. Jackson King is a professional archaeologist and he uses that to great advantage in Ancestor's World. I was just as fascinated by the details of the archaeology procedures as I was by the unfolding of the plot . . . The novel opens with the discovery of artifacts from the lost colony of the Mizari in a tomb of an ancient Na-Dina emperor. This is a discovery that the modernist faction of the Na-Dina do not want getting out, and some of them will do anything to keep it under wraps. What follows is a tightly plotted, suspenseful novel."---Absolute Magnitude magazine"The latest in the StarBridge series from King, a former Rogue Valley resident now living and writing in Arizona, follows the action on planet Na-Dina, where the tombs of 46 dynasties have lain undisturbed for 6,000 years until a human archaeologist and a galactic gumshoe show up. Set your phasers for fun."--Mail Tribune newspaper"Another of A.C. Crispin's StarBridge adventures, this one fleshed out by T. Jackson King. There is a murder on the world of Na-Dina, at an archaeological dig in Ancestor's Valley where Human and other archaeologists are in the process of finding artifacts that contradict the beliefs of many of the planet's natives. The murder is only one element of the plot, but its solution winds up the story nicely. Recommended."---Norm Hartman, Book Net #10"In this book Ambassador Burroughs and archaeologist Gordon Mitchell become the targets of a radical faction that will do anything to gain the power of more advanced species, even kill . . . this was another fine book in the (StarBridge) series and a tribute to King."--Lyn McConchie, author of the Beastmaster seriesFrom the AuthorT. Jackson King (Tom) is a professional archaeologist and journalist. He writes hard science fiction, anthropological scifi, dark fantasy/horror and contemporary fantasy/magic realism--and he never took a college creative writing class nor bowed and scarped to a literary opinion-maker. That said, Tom has long loved a good story. He works at sharing his best efforts in imaginative stories with reader worldwide. And for those who like to know where an author grew up or has lived as an adult, the answer is Lots Of Places! Some of them include Garden Grove, Calif.; Belmont, Calif.; Medford, Oregon; New Orleans, LA; Paris, France; Tokyo, Japan; Nashville, TN; Knoxville, TN; Silver City, New Mexico; Show Low, Arizona; Salt Lake City, Utah; Pinetop, AZ; Huntsville, Alabama; Tucson, AZ; Cortez, Colorado; Safford, AZ; and Riverside, Calif.

This is the heart-rending story of a woman struggling to reclaim her dignity after a violent, abusive marriage and a worsening drink problem. Paula Spencer recalls her contented childhood, the audacity she learned as a teenager, the exhilaration of her romance with Charlo, and the marriage to him that left her powerless. Capturing both her vulnerability and her strength, Doyle gives Paula a voice that is real and unforgettable.

The wildly popular series by K.A. Applegate is back! The first six books of Animorphs return, with striking new lenticular covers that morph. When Tobias and his friends were given the power to morph, they were also given an important warning: Never stay in a morph for more than two hours. But Tobias broke the time limit, and now he's trapped in the body of a hawk -- forever. When he discovers an important Yeerk secret, Tobias knows he has to do everything in his power to destroy it. But to do so, he'll have to contend with a part of himself that's wrestling for control. A part that isn't human.

    Mystery fiction's legendary trio, Raymond Chandler, Dashiell Hammett, and Erle Stanley Gardner, are back as amateur detectives, following their dynamic, critically acclaimed debut in The Black Mask Murders. Here they interact in a complex, colorful, and ultimately dangerous adventure, a richly textured thriller that also celebrates the joys of love and marriage between Chandler and his exceptional wife, Cissy.     As narrated by Chandler, the adventure begins in East Los Angeles with the discovery of what is apparently the ritual suicide of Cissy's former husband in a Chinese cemetery. Action moves swiftly from the coastal splendors of the Hearst castle, to the abandoned canals of Venice by the Sea, to an ornate hotel on Coronado Island, to the rococo Victorian mansions of Bunker Hill.     The characters are equally diverse: a mysterious screen star known to millions as the Vampire Queen, a concert pianist who discovers surprising romance, an ex-stage actor with a penchant for using his fists, a missing sister who prefers to stay missing, and a pair of muscle-bound punks who don't balk at kidnapping and murder.     Along the way readers will encounter such fascinating real-life personalities as newspaper magnate William Randolph Hearst, America's cinema sweetheart Shirley Temple, comic genius Charlie Chaplin, Hollywood gossip columnist Hedda Hopper, and a brash young Orson Welles.     Once again, William F. Nolan expertly evokes the surreal world of Southern California in the 1930s, when Hollywood provided golden dreams for a nation in economic crisis, as the all-time masters of crime fiction return in a bold, inventive new novel that will stun, shock, and delight.      ***          From Kirkus Reviews     A thousand dollars is a lot of 1936 dollars, and even though Raymond Chandler's never walked the mean streets he writes about, he's happy to take the money from self-styled "Countess" Carmilla Blastok (Ce Letty Knibbs of Newark) to find her missing sister Elina-especially since he'd like to quiz Elina about the death of her rumored lover, pianist/composer Julian Pascal. The LAPD thinks Julian's death in a Chinese cemetery was a clear case of ritual suicide, but Julian's ex-wife, Cissy, who left him for Chandler years ago, is sure it was murder. With some help from Dashiell Hammett and Erle Stanley Gardner, his buddies from Black Mask (The Black Mask Murders, 1994), Chandler goes after Elina's lowlife companion Merv Enright-and walks right into a mulligan stew of fact and fiction, with many scenes he's evidently planning to hoard for his own later novels. Despite clunky cameos by Orson Welles, Hedda Hopper, Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, and Shirley Temple, the shaggy story moves along briskly, with detection-on-the-fly very typical of Chandler's own work, and inaccurate social prophecies ("Maybe Los Angeles will someday even lead the way in race relations," muses one character) that mark a nice change from the usual 20/20 hindsight of most historical mysteries. It's not just because of his subject that prolific Nolan may well represent the last of the pulp tradition. Black Mask fans will be waiting eagerly for his Erle Stanley Gardner installment.      ***          From Booklist     The Black Mask boys are back, and that's a cause for celebration. Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner, introduced as detectives in Nolan's Black Mask Murders (1994), track down the murderer of Chandler's wife's first husband, Julian, who has apparently committed ritual suicide in a Chinese cemetery. Cissy Chandler, not buying the suicide story, puts her husband on the case. Chandler follows Julian's trail to horror-movie actress Carmilla Blastok, who leads the writerly sleuth to a thug named Enright, who may have killed Carmilla's sister. When Chandler gets in over his head, he calls his Black Mask cronies for help. Along the way, Charlie Chaplin, William Randolph Hearst, and Orson Welles also make cameo appearances. Nolan has obviously researched the Hollywood of the 1930s thoroughly; his backgrounds are always convincing, even when you don't believe the foreground for a minute. Entertaining for nostalgia buffs.      ***          From Library Journal     Nolan's Black Mask Boys-Dashiell Hammett, Raymond Chandler, and Erle Stanley Gardner-undertake their second amateur investigation. The apparent suicide of Cissy Chandler's former husband entails visits to East L.A., Hearst Castle, and Venice-by-the-Sea. Various famous people make appearances. Especially good for fans of 1930s historical fiction.      ***          "Masterfully penetrates the surreal Black Mask world of Southern California in the 1930s. Nolan has captured the essence of both an era and a literary form in one brilliant exercise."     -Robert R. Parker

People had always told Ofelia what to do; for once she was going to do what she wanted. She refused to get on the cryo ships, refused to leave the only world she could call home. And when they finally came for her, she hid, not that the authorities looked all that hard for one crazy old woman. Now Ofelia is alone, content to live with no more demands on her self or her time, the only remaining settler on an abandoned planet. The new settlers arrive. At first she fears they have come to reoccupy the settlement she has come to think of as hers - but they land far away. And as Ofelia secretly listens, they are slaughtered to the last child by stone-age aliens no one knew were there. Now it will be up to Ofelia to save the aliens from Earth's wrath.

Marco never wanted to be an Animorph. He never wanted the ability to change into any animal he touches. He just wants to chill. Whatever happens, happens.

She fell in love, got married...and it was all a lie.They expected a mafia princess, but when Rodrigo meets the woman his father is forcing him to marry, he realizes Giada is much more than she seems. Smart and dangerous, she's the kind of woman he could love...too bad everything he's about to tell her is a lie.Casson knows Rodrigo is in too deep. Rodrigo's undercover mission as the heir to a powerful Camorra don should have ended long ago, but now he's engaged to the daughter of another dangerous man, and it's Casson's job to pull him out.There's just one problem. Giada.She's nothing either man expected, and everything they want. The last thing they expect is for Giada to invite both of them to her bed.As the wedding day looms closer, and enemies close in, the line between what's real and what's a lie becomes blurred, and Rodrigo and Casson have to decide if love is enough. And if they should tell her the truth.Unfortunately, there's...

Who is Ruth McBride Jordan? A self-declared "light-skinned" woman evasive about her ethnicity, yet steadfast in her love for her twelve black children. James McBride, journalist, musician, and son, explores his mother's past, as well as his own upbringing and heritage, in a poignant and powerful debut, "The Color Of Water: A Black Man's Tribute to His White Mother."The son of a black minister and a woman who would not admit she was white, James McBride grew up in "orchestrated chaos" with his eleven siblings in the poor, all-black projects of Red Hook, Brooklyn. "Mommy," a fiercely protective woman with "dark eyes full of pep and fire," herded her brood to Manhattan's free cultural events, sent them off on buses to the best (and mainly Jewish) schools, demanded good grades, and commanded respect. As a young man, McBride saw his mother as a source of embarrassment, worry, and confusion--and reached thirty before he began to discover the truth about her early life and long-buried pain. In The Color of Water, McBride retraces his mother's footsteps and, through her searing and spirited voice, recreates her remarkable story. The daughter of a failed itinerant Orthodox rabbi, she was born Rachel Shilsky (actually Ruchel Dwara Zylska) in Poland on April 1, 1921. Fleeing pogroms, her family emigrated to America and ultimately settled in Suffolk, Virginia, a small town where anti-Semitism and racial tensions ran high. With candor and immediacy, Ruth describes her parents' loveless marriage; her fragile, handicapped mother; her cruel, sexually-abusive father; and the rest of the family and life she abandoned. At seventeen, after fleeing Virginia and settling in New York City, Ruth married a black minister and founded the all- black New Brown Memorial Baptist Church in her Red Hook living room. "God is the color of water," Ruth McBride taught her children, firmly convinced that life's blessings and life's values transcend race. Twice widowed, and continually confronting overwhelming adversity and racism, Ruth's determination, drive and discipline saw her dozen children through college--and most through graduate school. At age 65, she herself received a degree in social work from Temple University. Interspersed throughout his mother's compelling narrative, McBride shares candid recollections of his own experiences as a mixed-race child of poverty, his flirtations with drugs and violence, and his eventual self- realization and professional success. The Color of Water touches readers of all colors as a vivid portrait of growing up, a haunting meditation on race and identity, and a lyrical valentine to a mother from her son.