Born on the same day near the turn of the century on opposite sides of the world, both men are brought together by fate and the quest of a dream. These two men -- ambitious, powerful, ruthless -- are locked in a relentless struggle to build an empire, fuelled by their all-consuming hatred. Over 60 years and three generations, through war, marriage, fortune, and disaster, Kane and Abel battle for the success and triumph that only one man can have.
The Wall, the lead story in this collection, introduces three political prisoners on the night prior to their execution. Through the gaze of an impartial doctorâseemingly there for the men's solaceâtheir mental descent is charted in exquisite, often harrowing detail. And as the morning draws inexorably closer, the men cross the psychological wall between life and death, long before the first shot rings out.
This brilliant snapshot of life in anguish is the perfect introduction to a collection of stories where the neurosis of the modern world is mirrored in the lives of the people that inhabit it.
Author Barbara Davis deftly explores an emotionally charged landscape of pain, loss, and despairâand the risk one woman will take in the hope of loving again.
As a teenage runaway and child of an addict, Christy-Lynn learned the hard way that no address was permanent, and no promise sacred. For a while, she found a safe haven in her marriage to bestselling crime novelist Stephen Ludlowâuntil his car skidded into Echo Bay. But Stephenâs wasnât the only body pulled from the icy waters that night.
When details about a mysterious violet-eyed blonde become public, a media circus ensues, and Christy-Lynn runs again. Desperate for answers, sheâs shattered to learn that Stephen and his mistress had a childâa little girl named Iris, who now lives in poverty with her ailing great-grandmother. The thought of Iris abandoned to the foster care systemâas Christy-Lynn once wasâis unbearable. But sheâs spent her whole life runningâdetermined never to be hurt again.
Will she finally stand still long enough to open herself up to forgiveness and love?
In this "page-turner with a beating heart" (Boston Globe), a recovering alcoholic and addict down on her luck struggles to hold on to her home in California. But this becomes contested territory when a recent immigrant from the Middle Eastâa former colonel in the Iranian Air Forceâbecomes determined to restore his family's dignity through buying the house. When the woman's lover, a married cop, intervenes, he goes to extremes to win her love. Andre Dubus III's unforgettable charactersâpeople with ordinary flaws, looking for a small piece of ground to stand onâcareen toward inevitable conflict. An "affecting, subtle portrait of two hostile but equally fragile camps" (The New Yorker), their tragedy paints a shockingly true picture of the country we still live in today, two decades after this book's first publication.
Emika Chen barely made it out of the Warcross Championships alive. Now that she knows the truth behind Hideo's new NeuroLink algorithm, she can no longer trust the one person she's always looked up to, who she once thought was on her side.
Determined to put a stop to Hideo's grim plans, Emika and the Phoenix Riders band together, only to find a new threat lurking on the neon-lit streets of Tokyo. Someone's put a bounty on Emika's head, and her sole chance for survival lies with Zero and the Blackcoats, his ruthless crew. But Emika soon learns that Zero isn't all that he seems â and his protection comes at a price.
Caught in a web of betrayal, with the future of free will at risk, just how far will Emika go to take down the man she loves?
Raw, captivating, and undeniably real, Nic Stone joins industry giants Jason Reynolds and Walter Dean Myers as she boldly tackles American race relations in this stunning debut.
Justyce McAllister is top of his class and set for the Ivy Leagueâbut none of that matters to the police officer who just put him in handcuffs. Despite leaving his rough neighborhood behind, he can't escape the scorn of his former peers or the ridicule of his new classmates.
Justyce looks to the teachings of Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. for answers. But do they hold up anymore? He starts a journal to Dr. King to find out.
Then comes the day Justyce goes driving with his best friend, Manny, windows rolled down, music turned upâway up, sparking the fury of a white off-duty cop beside them. Words fly. Shots are fired. Justyce and Manny are caught in the crosshairs. In the media fallout, it's Justyce who is under attack.
In the land of flaunted sex, money, and flexible rules, an ambitious but lonely Rick Daly faces his demons. Rick Daly has established a business in the exotic surroundings of the Philippines, while simultaneously discovering Marilyn Delgado, the woman of his dreams. However, a clash of cultures and his own naiveté lead to disaster. Falsely accused of a sexual crime, Rick loses both his freedom and his business. To add insult to injury, a prison escape merely amounts to switching jails.
In a world where the rich prosper, honest individuals are forced to the wall, and a cynical disregard for all but the dollar is destroying society from within, crime soon follows punishment for Rick. Close to losing his soul, will Rick's ultimate success in drug and arms dealing finally lead him to face up to reality?
Colleen Hoover delivers a tour de force novel about a troubled marriage and the one old forgotten promise that might be able to save it.
Quinn and Grahamâs perfect love is threatened by their imperfect marriage. The memories, mistakes, and secrets that they have built up over the years are now tearing them apart. The one thing that could save them might also be the very thing that pushes their marriage beyond the point of repair.
All Your Perfects is a profound novel about a damaged couple whose potential future hinges on promises made in the past. This is a heartbreaking page-turner that asks: Can a resounding love with a perfect beginning survive a lifetime between two imperfect people?
Set in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine, #1 New York Times bestselling author Stephen Kingâs timeless novella âThe Bodyââoriginally published in his 1982 short story collection Different Seasons, and adapted into the 1986 film classic Stand by Meâis now available as a stand-alone publication.
Itâs 1960 in the fictional town of Castle Rock, Maine. Ray Brower, a boy from a nearby town, has disappeared, and twelve-year-old Gordie Lachance and his three friends set out on a quest to find his body along the railroad tracks. During the course of their journey, Gordie, Chris Chambers, Teddy Duchamp, and Vern Tessio come to terms with death and the harsh truths of growing up in a small factory town that doesnât offer much in the way of a future.
A timeless exploration of the loneliness and isolation of young adulthood, Stephen Kingâs The Body is an iconic, unforgettable, coming-of-age story.
David is waiting in a bar for a date who's not going to show... bitter and alone, will he give up on the girl he loves?
After a summer spent apart, Scott and Haley are back together, but something has changed between them... Will their relationship ever feel the same as before?
Madison's new mantra in life is: stay strong and survive senior year. She's in love with her best friend's boyfriend, but Scott only sees her as a friend, and her broken heart can't take it much longer. She needs to finish college and turn the page on an impossible love story... but can she be stronger than her feelings?
Two brothers in love with the same girl.
Two best friends in love with the same guy.
A love triangle within a love triangleâŠ
Against all odds, she survived. The first girl born in fifty years. They called her Eve...
All her life, Eve has been kept away from the opposite sex. Kept from the truth of her past. But at sixteen, it's time for Eve to face her destiny. Three potential males have been selected for her. The future of humanity is in her hands. She's always accepted her fate. Until she meets Bram.
Eve wants control over her life. She wants freedom. But how do you choose between love and the future of the human race?
Eve of Man is the first in an explosive new trilogy by bestselling authors Giovanna & Tom Fletcher.
Beartown is a novel that delves deep into the heart of a small town with a big dreamâand the price required to make it come true. Nestled deep in the forest, Beartown is slowly losing ground to the ever encroaching trees. Yet, by the lake stands an old ice rink, a testament to the determination of the working men who founded this town. Within this ice rink lies the reason the people of Beartown believe tomorrow will be better than today.
Their junior ice hockey team is about to compete in the national semi-finals, and they actually have a shot at winning. All the hopes and dreams of this place now rest on the shoulders of a handful of teenage boys. Being responsible for the hopes of an entire town is a heavy burden, and the semi-final match is the catalyst for a violent act that will leave a young girl traumatized and a town in turmoil. Accusations are made and, like ripples on a pond, they travel through all of Beartown, leaving no resident unaffected.
Beartown explores the hopes that bring a small community together, the secrets that tear it apart, and the courage it takes for an individual to go against the grain. In this story of a small forest town, Fredrik Backman has found the entire world.
With love for one another resting within their inseparable hearts, and a secret occupying their active, yet silent souls, seventeen-year-old Prince Nicu II and his sixteen-year-old sister Victoria, First Princess of Exubertis, must make a choice between their incestuous love affair, and the maintaining of stability within their royal family. Prince Nicu II and Princess Victoria's immutable, romantic feelings for one another force them to engage in extremely risky actions and fabricate various falsehoods.
Throughout the play, Nicu II and Victoria deceive everyone; including their parents King Nicu I and Queen Isabella. Nicu II is presumptuous in character, therefore, he maintains an excessive confidence within himself that he and his sister's romantic relationship can continue without being discovered. However, Victoria fears that they cannot continue their affair emotionally unscathed. Despite Victoria's worries, she continues with the relationship as Nicu II emboldens her more and more.
She's a catwalk model who has everything: a boyfriend, a career, a loyal best friend. But when a sudden motor 'accident' leaves her disfigured and incapable of speech, she goes from being the beautiful centre of attention to being an invisible monster, so hideous that no one will acknowledge she exists.
Enter Brandy Alexander, Queen Supreme, one operation away from being a real woman, who will teach her that reinventing yourself means erasing your past and making up something better, and that salvation hides in the last place you'll ever want to look.
The narrator must exact revenge upon Evie, her best friend and fellow model; kidnap Manus, her two-timing ex-boyfriend; and hit the road with Brandy in search of a brand-new past, present and future.
Raised by a family of survivalists, FBI agent Mercy Kilpatrick can take on any challengeâeven the hostile reception to her homecoming. But sheâs not the only one causing chaos in the rural community of Eagleâs Nest, Oregon. At first believed to be teenage pranks, a series of fires takes a deadly turn with the murder of two sheriffâs deputies. Now, along with Police Chief Truman Daly, Mercy is on the hunt for an arsonist turned killer.
Still shunned by her family and members of the community, Mercy must keep her ear close to the ground to pick up any leads. And itâs not long before she hears rumors of the areaâs growing antigovernment militia movement. If the arsonist is among their ranks, Mercy is determined to smoke the culprit out. But when her investigation uncovers a shocking secret, will this hunt for a madman turn into her own trial by fire?
The past is a foreign country: they do things differently there.
Summering with a fellow schoolboy on a great English estate, Leo, the hero of L. P. Hartley's finest novel, encounters a world of unimagined luxury. But when his friend's beautiful older sister enlists him as the unwitting messenger in her illicit love affair, the aftershocks will be felt for years.
The Go-Between is a masterpieceâa richly layered, spellbinding story about past and present, naivetĂ© and knowledge, and the mysteries of the human heart.
Ruth Jefferson is a labor and delivery nurse at a Connecticut hospital with more than twenty years' experience. During her shift, Ruth begins a routine checkup on a newborn, only to be told a few minutes later that she's been reassigned to another patient. The parents are white supremacists and don't want Ruth, who is African American, to touch their child. The hospital complies with their request, but the next day, the baby goes into cardiac distress while Ruth is alone in the nursery. Does she obey orders or does she intervene?
Ruth hesitates before performing CPR and, as a result, is charged with a serious crime. Kennedy McQuarrie, a white public defender, takes her case but gives unexpected advice: Kennedy insists that mentioning race in the courtroom is not a winning strategy. Conflicted by Kennedy's counsel, Ruth tries to keep life as normal as possible for her familyâespecially her teenage sonâas the case becomes a media sensation. As the trial moves forward, Ruth and Kennedy must gain each other's trust, and come to see that what they've been taught their whole lives about othersâand themselvesâmight be wrong.
With incredible empathy, intelligence, and candor, Jodi Picoult tackles race, privilege, prejudice, justice, and compassionâand doesn't offer easy answers. Small Great Things is a remarkable achievement from a writer at the top of her game.
David and Scott Williams are in love with the same girl, again.
Haley has never been happier than in her relationship with Scott. But she can no longer deny that bad-boy David has gotten under her skin.
Madison has always been insecure in love. The only satisfying romances in her life come from the many books she reads. Book-boyfriends are easy to fall for, but the real world seems short of swoon-worthy heroes. And just when she thought she mightâve found one, he fell in love with her best friendâŠ
Love and friendship mix in the Just Friends series. Meet new characters and catch up with old ones in the third book of the series.
My Best Friendâs Boyfriend is part of the Just Friends new adult college romance series.
Reading order:
Book 1 - Letâs Be Just Friends
Book 2 - Friend Zone
Book 3 - My Best Friendâs Boyfriend
Tom Hazard has a dangerous secret. He may look like an ordinary 41-year-old, but owing to a rare condition, he's been alive for centuries. Tom has lived historyâperforming with Shakespeare, exploring the high seas with Captain Cook, and sharing cocktails with Fitzgerald.
Now, he just wants an ordinary life. So Tom moves back to London, his old home, to become a high school history teacherâthe perfect job for someone who has witnessed the city's history first hand. Better yet, a captivating French teacher at his school seems fascinated by him.
But the Albatross Society, the secretive group which protects people like Tom, has one rule: Never fall in love. As painful memories of his past and the erratic behavior of the Society's watchful leader threaten to derail his new life and romance, the one thing he can't have just happens to be the one thing that might save him.
Tom will have to decide once and for all whether to remain stuck in the past, or finally begin living in the present. How to Stop Time is a bighearted, wildly original novel about losing and finding yourself, the inevitability of change, and how with enough time to learn, we just might find happiness.
He was the first person to inspire her, to move her, to truly understand her. Was he meant to be the last?
Lucy is faced with a life-altering choice. But before she can make her decision, she must start her storyâtheir storyâat the very beginning.
Lucy and Gabe meet as seniors at Columbia University on a day that changes both of their lives forever. Together, they decide they want their lives to mean something, to matter. When they meet again a year later, it seems fatedâperhaps theyâll find lifeâs meaning in each other.
But then Gabe becomes a photojournalist assigned to the Middle East and Lucy pursues a career in New York.
What follows is a thirteen-year journey of dreams, desires, jealousies, betrayals, and, ultimately, of love.
Was it fate that brought them together? Is it choice that has kept them away?
Their journey takes Lucy and Gabe continents apart, but never out of each otherâs hearts.
Sie fĂŒrchtet sich vor der Liebe. Doch noch mehr fĂŒrchtet sie, ihn zu verlieren...
Mit Luca war Sage glĂŒcklicher als je zuvor in ihrem Leben. Er hat ihr gezeigt, was es bedeutet, zu vertrauen, zu leben, und zu lieben. Doch dann hat Sage' dunkle Vergangenheit sie eingeholt â und ihr GlĂŒck zerstört.
Sage kann Luca nicht vergessen, auch wenn sie es noch so sehr versucht. Jeder Tag, den sie ohne ihn verbringt, fĂŒhlt sich an, als wĂŒrde ein Teil ihrer selbst fehlen. Aber dann taucht Luca plötzlich vor ihrer TĂŒr auf und bittet sie, zurĂŒckzukommen.
Doch wie soll es fĂŒr die beiden eine zweite Chance geben, wenn so viel zwischen ihnen steht?
Divorced after discovering her husbandâs affairs had been going on for years, Maggie Oliver returns to Shade Tree, Texas, hoping the peaceful Hill Country ranch life will restore her self-esteem and help tame her rebellious fifteen-year-old daughter.
When a fire destroys her home and ex-rodeo star Sam Banner, now a local police officer, races back into her life, she vows to steer clear of Samâs brand of trouble. The seductive Texas charm of her exâs best man has always been a threat to her heart... a heart that could be broken again by the secret heâs kept for years.
How can Maggie trust herself to make the right choice this time? Sometimes, all it takes is a leap of faith and the love of a HILL COUNTRY MAN.
Despite early setbacks, things are now progressing between Lily and Stuart. Not only is their relationship made official when she attends a public fundraiser on Stuartâs arm, but he finally introduces her to the exclusive and mysterious club âThe Powerhouseâ.
Things initially seem idyllic until events take a violent turn and their future seems under siege. Progress is made when an arrest puts one dangerous character behind bars, and they face one of the ghosts of Lilyâs past and the cause of much of her self-doubt - her mother.
What is a single life worth? In our modern world, where wars are on the cusp of igniting at a momentâs notice, new diseases ravage entire populations, and hidden atrocities erase the lives of thousands, what can the death of a single person mean?
It can mean the tenuous line between peace and destruction.
Kurt Ramis knows this, as he watches the aftermath of an assassination on his television set. His years in the CIA have prepared him for such a dreadful day.
âRasulâ knows this, as he follows his young guide down the streets of New York City, with a gift for his adopted country.
The soldiers and sentries of Camelotâs Corridor, deep under the sands of Texas know this, as they prepare the secret bunker for the Presidentâs arrival.
Mike Keogh knows this, as he remembers fallen friends, betrayals, and mention of a secretive monster named the Tangerine Demon.
Jessie Rosen will know it soon enough, as she descends the steps to KubrĂĄ, to meet her deliverer. Her new family descends those steps as well, calling for their Lord to hear their prayers.
Phil Barr begrudgingly knows this, as he cowers in his palatial Hollywood Hills mansion, murderers and thugs auditioning on live TV, sirens ringing in his ears. This wasnât how his charmed life was supposed to turn out.
And DaRWIn knows this best of all, as it predicted the assassination, and the calamitous after-effects some time ago.
On a certain day, on a certain street in the Middle East, the taking of a single life will mean everything, and it will shake the foundation of humanity. It will be the pulling of a loose strand in mankindâs tapestry, undoing the progress of a thousand years, ripping apart at the seams countless lives, countless societies.
Intertwining lives and stories, some saved and some ended, some Going, some GoneâŠ
In An Accidental Affair, the first book of the series, gorgeous Scottish CEO Stuart Watson tries to convince Lily to explore the dynamic between them, despite her fear of being hurt. He woos her with such determination that she accedes, and the time they spend together is magical.
Now that Lily and Stuart are back in the Pacific Northwest, things become far more complicated, removed as they are from the idyll of Scotland. Circumstances conspire to drive a wedge between them and cause Lily to question her decision to pursue a relationship with him. Stuart's ex-wife, Megan, surfaces and tries to insinuate her way back into his life and his affections, while an adversary threatens his hold on Watson & Dickson as well as Lilyâs safety. A surprise admission by Stuart adds an extra depth to their relationship.
The publicity surrounding their involvement causes unexpected fractures at her work, and an old love re-enters the picture, intent on gaining a second chance to win Lilyâs heart.