When life hands you a hunky, rich hockey player...say yes. But Cassandra isn't used to accepting help—and especially not from a sweet-talking, hunky man with more cash than she's seen in her lifetime. And anyway, she's got problems that are bigger than his bank account... Single dad Landon isn't used to hearing no. Especially when he knows the only thing holding Cass back from agreeing to be his nanny is her pride and unfounded fears. How can he convince her that he's worth counting on when it comes to helping her sick son, and that she's the best thing for his headstrong young daughter? It's hard to keep saying no. Especially when love starts to grow... Too bad they agreed to live together out of convenience, and not out of love. Is it too late to change their deal? Find out in The Peppermint Lodge, a standalone sweet romance set in the small town of Sweetheart Creek, Texas. Enjoy hockey players,...

Madeleine Wickham, who writes the internationally bestselling Shopaholic series as Sophie Kinsella, has penned an irresistibly dishy and entertaining novel about three savvy young women and the secrets they share over monthly drinks. Roxanne: glamorous, self-confident, with a secret lover -- a married man Maggie: capable and high-achieving, until she finds the one thing she can't cope with -- motherhood Candice: honest, decent, or so she believes -- until a ghost from her past turns up At the first of every month, when the office has reached its pinnacle of hysteria, Maggie, Roxanne, and Candice meet at London's swankiest bar for an evening of cocktails and gossip. Here, they chat about what's new at The Londoner, the glossy fashion magazine where they all work, and everything else that's going on in their lives. Or almost everything. Beneath the girl talk and the laughter, each of the three has a secret. And when a chance encounter at the cocktail bar sets in motion an extraordinary chain of events, each one will find their biggest secret revealed. In Cocktails for Three, Madeleine Wickham combines her trademark humor with remarkable insight to create an edgy, romantic tale of secrets, strangers, and a splash of scandal.

Gore Vidal's Narratives of Empire series spans the history of the United States from the Revolution to the post-World War II years. With their broad canvas and large cast of fictional and historical characters, the novels in this series present a panorama of the American political and imperial experience as interpreted by one of its most worldly, knowing, and ironic observers.To most Americans, Abraham Lincoln is a monolithic figure, the Great Emancipator and Savior of the Union, beloved by all. In Gore Vidal's Lincoln we meet Lincoln the man and Lincoln the political animal, the president who entered a besieged capital where most of the population supported the South and where even those favoring the Union had serious doubts that the man from Illinois could save it. Far from steadfast in his abhorrence of slavery, Lincoln agonizes over the best course of action and comes to his great decision only when all else seems to fail. As the Civil War ravages his nation, Lincoln must face deep personal turmoil, the loss of his dearest son, and the harangues of a wife seen as a traitor for her Southern connections. Brilliantly conceived, masterfully executed, Gore Vidal's Lincoln allows the man to breathe again.Amazon.com ReviewLincoln is a masterwork of historical fiction, in which Gore Vidal combines a comprehensive knowledge of Civil War America with 20th-century literary technique, probing the minds and motives of the men surrounding Abraham Lincoln, including personal secretary John Hay and scheming cabinet members William Seward and Salmon P. Chase, as well as his wife, Mary Todd. It is a book monumental in scope that never loses sight of the intimate and personal in its depiction of the power struggles that accompanied Lincoln's efforts to preserve the Union at all costs--efforts in which the eradication of slavery was far from the president's main objective. As usual, there's plenty of room for Vidal's wickedly humorous deflation of American icons, including a comic interlude in a Washington bordello in which Lincoln's former law partner informs Hay that Lincoln had contracted syphilis as a young man and had, just before marrying Mary Todd, suffered what can only be described as a nervous breakdown. (Protestors should note that Vidal is only passing along what that former partner had written in his own biography of Lincoln.) Don't be intimidated by the size of Lincoln; if you like historical fiction, you should read this book at the first opportunity. --Ron HoganReview"Superb . . . a grand entertainment. . . . A plausible and human Lincoln, of us and yet beyond us." --Harold Bloom"A portrait of America's great president that is at once intimate and public, stark and complex, and that will become for future generations the living Lincoln, the definitive Lincoln. . . . Richly entertaining . . . history lessons with the blood still hot." --The Washington Post"[Lincoln] is in Vidal's version at once more complex, mysterious and enigmatic, more implacably courageous and, finally, more tragic than the conventional images, the marble man of the memorial. He is honored in the book." --Chicago Tribune

The English writer Christopher Isherwood settled in California in 1939 and spent the war years working in Hollywood film studios, teaching English to European refugees, and converting to Hinduism. By the time the war ended, he realized he was not cut out to be a monk. With his self-imposed wartime vigil behind him, he careened into a life of frantic socializing, increasing dissipation, anxiety, and, eventually, despair.For nearly a half decade he all but ceased to write fiction and even abandoned his lifelong habit of keeping a diary. This is Isherwood's own account, reconstructed from datebooks, letters, and memory nearly thirty years later, of his experience during those missing years: his activities in Santa Monica, and also in New York and London, just after the war.Begun in 1971, in a postsixties atmosphere of liberation, "Lost Years" includes explicit details of his romantic and sexual relationships during the 1940s and unveils a hidden and sometimes shocking way of life shared with friends and acquaintances--many of whom were well-known artists, actors, and film-makers. Not until the 1951 Broadway success of "I Am a Camera, " adapted from his Berlin stories, did Isherwood begin to reclaim control of his talents and of his future. Isherwood never prepared "Lost years" for publication because he rapidly became caught up in writing the book that established him as a hero of gay liberation, "Christopher and His Kind." With unpolished directness, and with insight and wit, "Lost Years" shows how Isherwood developed his private recollections into the unique mixture of personal mythology and social history that characterizes much of his best work. This surprising and important memoir also highlights his determination to track down even the most elusive and unappealing aspects of his past in order to understand and honestly portray himself, both as a writer and as a human being.

Introducing an eloquent, sensual new Canadian voice that rings out in a first novel that is exquisitely rich and stunningly original.Roop is a sixteen-year-old village girl in the Punjab region of undivided India in 1937 whose family is respectable but poor — her father is deep in debt and her mother is dead. Innocent and lovely, yet afraid she may not marry well, she is elated when she learns she is to become the second wife of a wealthy Sikh landowner, Sardarji, whose first wife, Satya, has failed to bear him any children. Roop trusts that the strong-willed Satya will treat her as a sister, but their relationship becomes far more ominous and complicated than expected.Roop's tale draws the reader immediately into her world, making the exotic familiar and the family's story startlingly universal, but What the Body Remembers is also very much Satya's story. She is mortified and angry when Sardarji takes Roop for a wife, a woman whose low status Satya takes as...

The price of gold just went up, and Longarm’s paying—with his life…Deputy Marshal Custis Long may not like his new assignment—bodyguarding a visiting nobleman—but he’s going to stick to the English mucky-muck like a burr. Especially since Sir Harry Blackstreet has been accosted twice since he crossed the pond—by the same flock of owlhoots…   After being ambushed outside of a Denver museum by a different gang of outlaws, Longarm is riddled with more questions than bullets. He can’t figure out what Blackstreet has that everyone is after—unless you count his niece: a ravishing young woman who is quite a work of art…

ON THE EXOTIC ISLAND OF ST. ANN, NANCY SEARCHES FOR SECRETS BURIED IN THE PAST! Swimming, sailing, and snorkeling are all that Nancy, Bess, and Ned expect when they visit old friends at their nineteenth-century plantation, Sugar Moon. But when a strange man appears, brandishing a cutlass, and Nancy discovers traces of intruders, her curiosity is aroused. Soon she comes across a faded love letter with clues to the hiding place of a long-dead pirate's precious gift — a fabulous emerald necklace. Many colorful island characters have a serious stake in finding the treasure, and Nancy barely escapes from their traps, on land and at sea. Then, just as Nancy locates the necklace, it's about to slip from her grasp forever!

Valentine’s Day is coming up and love is in the air between Beth Malloy and Josh Hatford. When they are spotted holding hands, Josh tells his teasing brothers that he’s simply spying on the girls to see what they’re plotting next. When Caroline Malloy decides she must know what it’s like to fall in love, too, poor Wally Hatford is in for it! Meanwhile, big sister Eddie couldn’t care less about that mushy stuff. All she cares about is her sixth-grade science fair project. But when she comes up with a great plan, Josh and Jake Hatford horn in on her project. On the day the plan goes into action, little do the boys know that Eddie has a trick up her sleeve. And with daredevil Caroline’s amazing attention-getting stunt, trouble is sure to follow. Get ready, the Malloys and Hatfords are at it again! From the Trade Paperback edition.

Life has never been so insane for Nikki James. There's another teenager missing. She has another vampire to contend with. Her partner and best friend Jake is in the hospital dying. And a madman is kidnapping the wealthy. Just when it seems nothing else could possibly go wrong, Michael returns-but not for her. This time, however, Nikki has no intention of running from either the case or from what still lies between her and Michael. And she isn't going to let him run, either. The last thing Michael Kelly needs is a confrontation with Nikki-especially when his control over his bloodlust is still so tenuous. But when a kidnapper steps up his agenda to murder, he's forced into a partnership with Nikki to keep her safe. Soon Michael discovers the biggest danger he faces may not be from his need to "taste" her, but from his desire to make her a permanent part of his life-a life that is sure to get her killed. Nikki is determined to make Michael see that life apart is worse than death. But before she can make him see the light, a specter from Michael's past rises that could destroy any hope she has of a future with him. Because this time the threat isn't physical. It's a matter of the heart. Nikki must compete with the woman-the vampire-for whom Michael gave up life.

Glorious rejacket of the story collection set in the worlds of Chrestomanci. The stories featured in this collection are: Warlock at the WheelStealer of SoulsCarol Oneir’s Hundredth DreamThe Sage of Theare Everybody’s favourite nine-lifed enchanter makes a guest appearance in each tale. Plus man favourites from theChrestomanci novels - and a cast of thousands! With illustrations by Tim Stevens.

Fall into the magic land of the Mythos along with its brave and forgotten daughter. Yevliesza has been caring for her ailing father when she is summoned home to a world she has never seen. Using a hidden portal, she enters the realm of Numinat, a myth world arisen from legend. Although she is the daughter of witches, she was raised in the modern age with little knowledge of their arisen world and none of their magic. For the the last leg of her journey, she flies on the back of a dragon. When a storm splits open the sky, Yevliesza is caught in its blinding light. She arrives at the medieval city-palace severely damaged, indelibly marked as an outsider. In this kingdom of deep powers, she is devoid of magic. Determined to find her power and claim her place, she must counter dangerous court intrigues and a sorceress who intends to see this foreigner cast from the great Tower. Yevliesza may find protection with a powerful lord if her...

Eight-year-old Jessica Atkins wants a monster for Christmas. Not a big, mean monster; more of a friendly little one to play with when she comes home from school, and maybe scare away the mice who live in her big old London house. But the old housekeeper, Mrs. Murgatroyd, warns her against wishing for a monster in this house. Exactly one hundred years ago the Christmas Thingy visited this very house and stole away with a load of Christmas presents. As Mrs. Murgatroyd's mum used to say: "Like a rose must bloom and a pig must squeal, a cow must moo and a thingy must steal. It simply must." Be careful what you wish for, Jessica... The Christmas Thingy is a heartwarming story for children (and adults!) of all ages -- and a delightful fantasy for every day of the year!

Suze is a mediator -- a liaison between the living and the dead. In other words, she sees dead people. And they won't leave her alone until she helps them resolve their unfinished business with the living. But Jesse, the hot ghost haunting her bedroom, doesn't seem to need her help. Which is a relief, because Suze has just moved to sunny California and plans to start fresh, with trips to the mall instead of the cemetery, and surfing instead of spectral visitations. But the very first day at her new school, Suze realizes it's not that easy. There's a ghost with revenge on her mind ... and Suze happens to be in the way.

Vampire detective Jack Fleming made a good bit of money cleaning up the streets of post-prohibition Chicago--enough to realize his dream of owning a nightclub. During renovations, workmen discover the remains of a woman, clad in a distinctive red dress. Vampire or not, Jack won't rest until he finds out who killed the lady in red--even if it means resurrecting secrets the mob would kill to keep buried.