Pat Conroy called Dorothea Benton Frankâs debut, Sullivanâs Island, âhilarious and wise,â while Anne Rivers Siddons declared that it âroars with life.â
Now, Frank evokes a lush plantation in the heart of modern-day South Carolinaâwhere family ties and hidden truths run as deep and dark as the mighty Edisto River.
Caroline Wimbley Levine always swore sheâd never go home again. But now, at her brotherâs behest, she has returned to South Carolina to see about Motherâonly to find that the years have not changed the Queen of Tall Pines Plantation. Miss Lavinia is as maddeningly eccentric as everâand absolutely will not suffer the questionable advice of her children.
This does not surprise Caroline. Nor does the fact that Tall Pines is still brimming with scandals and secrets, betrayals and lies. But she soon discovers that something is different this time around. It lies somewhere in the distance between her and her motherâand in her understanding of what it means to come home.
Luke Garner is terrified. Out of hiding for the first time in his life, he knows that any minute one of his new classmates at Hendricks School for Boys could discover his secret: that he's a third child passing as the recently deceased Lee Grant. And in a society where it's illegal for families to have more than two children, being a third child means certain death at the hands of the dreaded Population Police.
His first experience outside the safety of his home is bewildering. There's not a single window anywhere in the school; Luke can't tell his classmates apart (even as they subject him to brutal hazing); and the teachers seem oblivious to it all.
Desperate to fit in, Luke endures the confusion and teasing until he discovers an unlocked door to the outside, and a chance to understand what is really going on. But to take this chanceâto find out the secrets of HendricksâLuke will need to put aside his fears and discover a courage that a lifetime in hiding couldn't thwart.
Once again, best-selling author Margaret Peterson Haddix delights her fans with this spine-tingling account of an all-too-possible future. Among the Impostors is a worthy companion to Among the Hidden and a heart-stopping thriller in its own right.
Like father, like son. Intelligent, popular, handsome, and wealthy, sixteen-year-old Nick Andreas is pretty much perfectâon the outside, at least. What no one knowsânot even his best friendâis the terror that Nick faces every time he is alone with his father.
Then he and Caitlin fall in love, and Nick thinks his problems are over. Caitlin is the one person who he can confide in. But when things start to spiral out of control, Nick must face the fact that he's gotten more from his father than green eyes and money.
After nearly twenty years of living in California, March Murray, along with her fifteen-year-old daughter, Gwen, returns to the sleepy Massachusetts town where she grew up to attend the funeral of Judith Dale, the beloved housekeeper who raised her. Yet returning to her hometown also brings her back to Hollis, Marchâs former soul mate and lover.
Marchâs father had taken the teenaged Hollis, an abandoned child, and the product of a series of detention homes, into his house as a boarder, and treated him like a son. Yet March and Hollisâs passionate love was hardly a normal sibling relationship. When Hollis left her after a petty fight, March waited for him three long years, wondering what she had done wrong.
Encountering Hollis again makes March acutely aware of the choices that she has made, and the choices everyone around her has madeâincluding Mrs. Dale, who knew more of love than March could ever have suspected, and her brother Alan, whose tragic history has left him grief-struck, with alcohol as his only solace. Her attraction to Hollis is overwhelmingâand March jeopardizes her marriage, her relationship with her daughter, and her own happiness in an attempt to reclaim the past.
An Equal Music by Vikram Seth is a powerful and deeply romantic tale of two gifted musicians. Michael Holme is a violinist, a member of the successful Maggiore Quartet. He has long been haunted by memories of the pianist he loved and left ten years earlier, Julia McNicholl. Now, Julia, married and the mother of a small child, unexpectedly reenters his life and the romance flares up once more.
Against the magical backdrop of Venice and Vienna, the two lovers confront the truth about themselves and their love, about the music that both unites and divides them, and about a devastating secret that Julia must finally reveal.
With poetic, evocative writing and a brilliant portrait of the international music scene, An Equal Music confirms Vikram Seth as one of the world's finest and most enticing writers.
Chosen by the Bride Finder, a man blessed with amazing insight, Madeline Breton has come to Cornwall to meet her new husband, the enigmatic Anatole St. Leger. But her dream of happiness soon diffuses in his overpowering shadow.
Anatole knows only too well the legacies that to him have been more curses than gifts. But as Madeline embarks on an odyssey both otherworldly and undeniably real, she and her husband fall hopelessly in loveâuntil she sees a haunting vision of murder and a terrifying enemy emerges to threaten both their lives...
Jeffrey Clayton, a professor of abnormal psychology, struggles with a dark past. Twenty-five years ago, Jeffrey and his mother and sister fled from his tyrannical fatherâa man who was later suspected in the heinous murder of a young student. Though the father was never charged, he committed suicide. Or so it seemed.
Since then, Jeffrey's mother and his sister, Susan, have concealed themselves in the remote, tangled swamps of the Upper Keys, where Susan creates word games for Miami Magazine. But someone has sent her a cryptic note. Once deciphered, it carries a terrifying message: I have found you.
At the same time, a serial killer has invaded a community whose citizens seek a haven of old-fashioned values. And one new-fashioned guarantee: unconditional safety. But no one is safe from this intruderâwho murders young girls in unspeakable ways.
Is Jeffrey Clayton's father the source of this latest killing spree? The authorities think so, and they present Jeffrey with an ultimatum: Find the butcher responsible for the newborn spate of carnage. Find your father.
As this race-against-time scenario unfolds, each playerâbrother, sister, motherâbecomes a pawn in a cunning killer's elaborate maze. "He plays at death," Jeffrey says. "That's the game. And now, we're the pieces..."
Emma McAvoy is beautiful, intelligent, and radiantly talented. She lives in a star-studded world of wealth and privilege, but she is about to discover that fame is no protection at all when someone wants you dead.
All she has to do is close her eyes and she remembers the magical day her father came into her life. She was a frightened, lonely toddler, hiding from her mother's wrath, when Brian McAvoy swept in and took her away. She didn't know then that she was his illegitimate daughter or that she had just been rescued by pop music's rising new star. All she knew was that suddenly she felt safe.
Brian's new wife became Emma's loving stepmother, his band members her surrogate uncles, and soon Emma even had a new baby brother to care for. Then, just when everything seemed perfect, a horrifying event shattered all their lives: a botched kidnapping attempt, shocking the world, traumatizing Emma, leaving her bereft of her newfound happiness.
Yet now, after so many years of pain and guilt, of being overprotected and hounded by the press, Emma finally feels as if she's put the tragedy behind her. A determined, self-sufficient young woman, she has carved out a thrilling career and even dared to fall rapturously in love. But the man who will become her husband isn't all that he seems. And Emma is about to awaken to the chilling knowledge that the darkest secret of all is the one buried in her mindâa secret that someone may kill to keep.
Among the many evening classes starting all over Dublin is an 'Introduction to Italian'. On the surface, it could be just one of hundreds in which some students will succeed and some will fall along the way. However, the hopes and dreams of so many people are tied up in the twice-weekly lessons.
They are ready to set off on the promised trip to Italy at the end of the year, and everyone's destiny has changed utterly. A girl finds love, a boy abandons crime, and a man regains a reason for living. It is the work of the teacher, an Irish woman who followed a married man to Italy and returned to Ireland on his death. A tale of one woman's gift for helping others.
The Italian evening class at Mountainview School is like hundreds of others starting up all over the city. But this class has its own special quality - as the focus for the varied hopes and dreams of teacher and pupils alike.
Aidan Dunne needs his new evening class project to succeed almost as much as his pupils do. They too are looking for something more: Bill to find a way to keep spendthrift Lizzie at his side, and Fran to make sure that young Kathy finds her way out from behind the kitchen sink. The key to their success lies with the Signora. Her passion has drawn her from Ireland to Italy and back home again with a burning desire to share her love of all things Italian.
Mayfair Witches Collection brings together the original trilogy from Anne Rice's bestselling series about the enigmatic lives of the Mayfair witches.
The Witching Hour: Anne Rice demonstrates her spellbinding storytelling, weaving a tale of a great dynasty spanning four centuries of witches. This family, rife with poetry, incest, murder, and philosophy, is haunted by a powerful, seductive being named Lasher who preys on the Mayfair women.
Lasher: At the heart of this novel is Rowan Mayfair, the brilliant and beautiful queen of the coven. She is irresistibly drawn to Lasher, the dark demon whose evil spell she must escape. Rowan's flight, along with their terrifying and exquisite child, forms the core of this extraordinary saga, traversing the globe, moving through time, and intertwining the human and demonic realms.
Taltos: Ashlar believes he is the last of his race until he discovers another Taltos has been sighted. This revelation thrusts him into the haunting world of the Mayfair family, a New Orleans dynasty of witches beset by ghosts, spirits, and their own formidable powers. Ashlar realizes this powerful clan is deeply connected to the Taltos heritage. This mesmerizing novel takes readers on a wondrous journey through centuries, exploring a civilization that is half-human and wholly mysterious, grappling with themes of mortality, immortality, justice, and guilt.
Enter an enchanted, hypnotic world, crafted from the vivid imagination of Anne Rice.
In the heart of the bayou, Ruby Landry lives a simple, happy life. But innocence can't last forever...
The only family Ruby Landry has ever known are her loving guardian, Grandmère Catherine, a Cajun spiritual healer, and her drunken, outcast Grandpère Jack. Although thinking about her dead mother and mysterious father sometimes makes her feel as mournful as the wind sighing through the Spanish moss, Ruby is grateful for all she has. Her life is filled with hope and promise...especially when her attraction for handsome Paul Tate blossoms into a mysterious, wonderful love.
But Paul's wealthy parents forbid him to associate with a poor Landry, and Grandmère urges her to follow her dream of becoming a great painter, foreseeing a time when Ruby will be surrounded with riches in the dazzling city of New Orleans! Yet she cannot know how close that uncertain future looms...
In a faded photograph, Ruby glimpses for the first time the image of her father â and learns of a shameful deception and a shocking scheme of blackmail that now must come to light. Stunned by these revelations, she is devastated when Grandmère dies, leaving her to seek out her father in his vast New Orleans mansion. There, in a house of lies, madness, and cruel torment, Ruby clings to her memories of Paul to keep her heart alive. For only their love can save her now.
Winnie and Helen have kept each other's worst secrets for more than fifty years. Now, because she believes she is dying, Helen wants to expose everything. And Winnie angrily determines that she must be the one to tell her daughter, Pearl, about the pastâincluding the terrible truth even Helen does not know. And so begins Winnie's story of her life on a small island outside Shanghai in the 1920s, and other places in China during World War II, and traces the happy and desperate events that led to Winnie's coming to America in 1949.
The Kitchen God's Wife is a beautiful book from the author of bestselling novels like The Joy Luck Club and The Valley of Amazement, and the memoir, Where the Past Begins.
From the #1 New York Times bestselling author and âqueen of royal fictionâ (USA TODAY) Philippa Gregory comes the thrilling sequel to the New York Times bestseller Wideacre as the once-great Lacey estate is restored to its former grandeurâthough not without cost.
The Wideacre estate is bankrupt. The villagers are living in poverty and the formerly stunning hall is a smoke-blackened ruin. But, in the Dower House nearby, two children are being raised in protected innocence.
Equal claimants to the estate, rivals for the love of the village, they are tied by a secret childhood betrothal but forbidden to marry. Only one can be the favored childâonly one can inherit the magical understanding between the land and the Lacey family that can make the Sussex village grow green again. Only one can be Beatrice Laceyâs true heir.
Sensual, gripping, and mystical, The Favored Child irresistibly sweeps the reader into a world of secrets, betrayals, and power in this revolutionary period of English history.
The Lonely Passion of Judith Hearne is an unflinching and deeply sympathetic portrait of a woman destroyed by self and circumstance. First published in 1955, it marked Brian Moore as a major figure in English literature and established him as an astute chronicler of the human soul.
Judith Hearne is an unmarried woman of a certain age who has come down in society. She has few skills and is full of the prejudices and pieties of her genteel Belfast upbringing. But Judith has a secret life. And she is just one heartbreak away from revealing it to the world.
Orphaned at an early age, Philip Ashley is raised by his benevolent older cousin, Ambrose. Resolutely single, Ambrose delights in Philip as his heir, and Philip grows to love Ambrose's grand estate as much as he does himself. But the cozy world the two construct is shattered when Ambrose sets off on a trip to Florence. There he falls in love and marries a mysterious distant cousin named Rachel -- and there he dies suddenly.
Jealous of his marriage, racked by suspicion at the hints in Ambrose's letters, and grief-stricken by his death, Philip prepares to meet his cousin's widow with hatred in his heart. But when she arrives at the estate, Rachel seems to be a different woman from the one described in Ambrose's letters. Beautiful, sophisticated, and magnetic, Philip cannot help but feel drawn to Rachel. And yet, questions still linger: might she have had a hand in Ambrose's death? And how, exactly, did Ambrose die? As Philip pursues the answers to these questions, he realizes that his own fate could hang in the balance.
Pet Sematary is a gripping tale of horror where the boundary between life and death is blurred. When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, everything seems perfect: a physician father, a beautiful wife, a charming little daughter, and an adorable infant son, all complemented by an idyllic home. The friendly cat adds to the family's happiness, but the nearby woods harbor a chilling secret.
Behind the children's pet cemetery lies another graveyard, one from which the dead return. The Creeds are about to discover that sometimes, dead is indeed better, as they are drawn into a sinister world where the line between the living and the dead is frighteningly thin.
Dinner at the Homesick Restaurant is a profound and moving exploration of family dynamics. Pearl Tull may be dying, but the memories of her life are vivid and binding. Abandoned by her salesman husband, she is left to raise her three children alone: Cody, a flawed devil; Ezra, a flawed saint; and Jenny, errant and passionate.
As Pearl lies encased in her pride and solitude, the past is unlocked, revealing secrets that have kept the family together despite everything. Now, gathered during a time of loss, they will reluctantly unlock the shared secrets of their past and discover if what binds them together is stronger than what tears them apart.
This story is a heartfelt journey through the Tull family's memories, some painful, yet holding them together despite their differences. Ezra, who stayed at home to look after his mother, runs a restaurant where he cooks what other people are homesick for, stubbornly yearning for the perfect family he never had.
Through every family run memories which bind it together - despite everything. The Tulls of Baltimore are no exception. This novel is a tapestry of emotional journeys, family secrets, and nostalgic tales that will remind you why "to read a novel by Anne Tyler is to fall in love."
Such wonderful children. Such a beautiful mother. Such a lovely house. Such endless terror!
It wasn't that she didn't love her children. She did. But there was a fortune at stakeâa fortune that would assure their later happiness if she could keep the children a secret from her dying father.
So she and her mother hid her darlings away in an unused attic. Just for a little while. But the brutal days swelled into agonizing years. Now Cathy, Chris, and the twins wait in their cramped and helpless world, stirred by adult dreams, adult desires, served a meager sustenance by an angry, superstitious grandmother who knows that the Devil works in dark and devious ways. Sometimes he sends children to do his workâchildren whoâone by oneâmust be destroyed....
Way upstairs there are four secrets hidden. Blond, beautiful, innocent struggling to stay alive....
Fame. Money. Glory. These were all the things that you would expect from being famous. The bait that the producers of the industry would tempt you with to get you on their side.
What they don't tell you, though, are all the inner tragedies that come along just as quickly. They don't tell you about the heartache that occurs when you realize that this wasn't what you wanted at all. They don't tell you about the pressure that's always on the verge of crushing you when you're forced to do everything that the public demands and not what you truly desire. They don't tell you about the self-hatred that would soon take over your entire being at the thought that you will never be good enough.
No - they don't tell you these things at all. But, Lilith Rose will.
Lilith Rose, lead singer of one of the most famous rock bands around, gets tired of all the lies and secrets that come with being famous. She decides that it's time for all of it to stop and ends up revealing everything on a Facebook live stream.
The result... "Part of me wants to die tonight, part of me wants it to be an accident, and part of me wants someone to notice and save me." - Lilith Rose.
Teresa Hamilton is having a rough yearâsheâs in love with her big brotherâs best friend, but he hasnât spoken to her since they shared a truly amazing, mind-blowing, change-your-life kiss. She got out of a terrible relationship. And now an injury is threatening to end her dance career for good. Itâs time for Plan B â college. And maybe a chance to convince Jase that what they have together is real.
Jase Winstead has a huge secret that heâs not telling anyone. Especially not his best friendâs incredibly beautiful sister. Even though he and Teresa shared the hottest kiss of his life, he knows that his responsibilities must take priority. He certainly doesnât have time for a relationship. But it doesnât help that all he can think about is kissing the one girl who could ruin everything for him.
As theyâre thrown together more and more, Jase and Tess canât keep denying their feelings for each other. But a familiar danger looms and tragedy strikes. As the campus recovers, the star-crossed couple must decide what theyâre willing to risk to be together, and what theyâre willing to lose if theyâre notâŚ
What if you awoke to find yourself in an entirely different world where your very existence threatened not only your life but the lives of everyone around you â what would you be willing to do to survive?
In Callasandra: Fractured, the story is about a sixteen-year-old girl named Cassi who, when disaster hits and a dark family secret is revealed, must come to terms with the terrible realization that nothing is as it seems. A dangerous secret and enemies everywhere, Cassi becomes Callasandra and must find the strength and courage to fight for her life and the ones she loves.
In Callasandra: Fractured, the unique action and thrill of the story are intertwined with the beauty of music. Throughout the book, music is used to convey hidden messages as well as to provide cover for characters sharing dark secrets and critical information.
Stephanie Douglas worked with musicians from all over the world to artfully create this immersive, one-of-a-kind cinematic reading experience.
How is it, that someone can make decision after decision attempting to get away from their past and somehow end up right back where they started?
When Brenna decided to leave the only life she'd ever known, she never thought she'd ever be back. Now, five years later, she's running from her clean-cut husband straight back to the motorcycle club that raised her... and the man she left behind. She left with a secret, and as soon as she returns, the truth will break her carefully constructed life wide open.
Sang Sorenson is forced to suffer through another of her motherâs extreme punishments. It almost kills her. The Academy boys vow it will be the last. They're determined to keep Sang safe, especially from her own family. Their solution: complete invasion of her life.
Kota, Luke, Silas, Nathan, Victor, Gabriel and North do everything within their power to show Sang what true loyalty means. It takes more than blood to make a family, and they want Sang in theirs.
In this third book of The Academy series, Sang experiences a taste of freedom and what itâs like to truly be cared for...to be wanted. Sang learns a bit more about the boysâ broken families, and the boys discover more than they could ever have bargained for about Sangâs. The Academy was the answer to their problems. Could it be hers?
Sangâs actions will force her mother to reveal a startling truth. A truth that will change Sangâs life and the boysâ lives in unpredictable ways. Forever.
They call their abilities Talents, and thatâs what they call themselves as well. Talents are people born with supernatural powers, feared by the population at large. Possession of an âunregistered abilityâ has become illegal, and those who are discovered are forcibly removed to government-run research facilities. For Talents, keeping their secret is the most important thing in their lives. For some, that need for secrecy begins to define who they are.
Thatâs how it is for Joss, a high school girl who does everything in her power to go unnoticed. She's incredibly bright, but strives to maintain grades that are good yet not too good. She doesn't participate in school activities, keeps quiet in class, and eats by herself. Despite her longtime crush on Dylan, she wouldn't even think about trying to talk to him. Joss doesn't make friends of any kind, because friends can draw attention, friends can make you slip up, friends can make things complicated.
When new girl, Kat, steps in to rescue Joss from an uncomfortable situation with Marco, the class jerk, she doesnât realize what sheâs getting into, and it blows up in her face. Joss finds herself torn between a desire to do the right thing, to find some way to help a girl who was kind to her, and her need to mind her own business and fade into the background. For the first time, Joss begins to question the way she operates, and starts to long for connections with other peopleâespecially a connection with Dylan, who's finally starting to talk to her.
But what's up with Dylan's sudden interest? As Marcoâs best friend, can he be trusted at all? It's bad enough when a girl's got to worry about friends, boys, over-protective dads, and shoes that pinch, but when you throw in blackmail, government agents with guns, and really annoying little sisters... that's just about too much to handle, even for a girl with an ass-kicking superpower.
If sheâd waited less than two weeks, sheâd be June who died in June. But I guess my sister didnât consider that.
Harper Scottâs older sister has always been the perfect one â so when June takes her own life a week before her high school graduation, sixteen-year-old Harper is devastated. Everyoneâs sorry, but no one can explain why.
When her divorcing parents decide to split her sisterâs ashes into his-and-her urns, Harper takes matters into her own hands. Sheâll steal the ashes and drive cross-country with her best friend, Laney, to the one place June always dreamed of going â California.
Enter Jake Tolan. Heâs a boy with a bad attitude, a classic-rock obsession and nothing in common with Harperâs sister. But Jake had a connection with June, and when he insists on joining them, Harperâs just desperate enough to let him. With his alternately charming and infuriating demeanor and his belief that music can see you through anything, he might be exactly what she needs.
Except June wasnât the only one hiding something. Jakeâs keeping a secret that has the power to turn Harperâs life upside down â again.
Riddle me this...
âI am neither dead, nor alive, and Iâm not something little Madison can hide. But you will be dead, by the time this is done...the timer starts now, and the games have just begunâŚâ
Madison Montgomery comes from money and power, but when someone close to her commits the ultimate crime, she must live with her tainted name for the rest of her life. When she begins Riverside Preparatory Academy, the private school her father has enrolled her in within The Hamptons, she hopes for a fresh start.
What she wasn't expecting was the pack of bad boys who run the school; ten, to be exact. When Madison gains the attention of their leader, Bishop Vincent Hayes, a whole new world that she didn't think existed is exposed to her. A world that starts and ends with The Elite Kings Club, and these boys are about to turn her world upside down.
Secrets are overflowing, and family lies are about to be exposed. Is there more to Madison Montgomery than even she knows?