And then she was lost... Allison and James Price move to the navy-blue forests of Concordia Idaho hoping to leave behind the chaos of Los Angeles and the painful memories of his indiscretions. Once settled in the picturesque town, where time seems to have stalled and life moves at a slower pace, their six-year-old daughter, Reagan, befriends a mysterious young girl who seems too idyllic to be true with her pressed pinafores, her perfectly curled pigtails. One late autumn evening, as their playdate winds down, both girls vanish into thin air. The little girl said she lived at the end of the street but the only thing Allison and James find at the end of the cul-de-sac is the gaping mouth of the forest. Their little girl, the mysterious playmate—they’re both gone. Everyone is looking for Reagan. Nobody has come forward to claim the mysterious little girl. Both Allison and James look guilty as hell. Maybe they are. Excerpt We were good people, my husband and I. We had everything you could ask for—successful careers, a stunning home with the requisite, yet clichéd, white picket fence, a precious daughter to call our own. We had secrets, my husband and I. Not many, so few, all of them lethal. I watch as James clasps his hands around the girl’s bird-like neck, squeezing hard until her flesh goes white—so hard you can see his bones bulge severely, stretching thin the skin at his knuckles. We were good people, James and I. It was true until it wasn’t.

John le Carre's classic novels deftly navigate readers through the intricate shadow worlds of international espionage with unsurpassed skill and knowledge, and have earned him unprecedented worldwide acclaim. In this thrilling and thought-provoking novel of Middle Eastern intrigue, Charlie, a brilliant and beautiful young English actress, is lured into "the theatre of the real" by an Israeli intelligence officer. Forced to play her ultimate role, she is plunged into a deceptive and delicate trap set to ensnare an elusive Palestinian terrorist.

Little Girl Lost! When E’steem finds Melissa, a lost little girl wandering around Times Square, she runs afoul of Brimstone Jack, a demon pimp out to get a payday at the child’s expense. Can the Devilish Diva beat back Jack and his exotic army of demon dancers and help the lost little girl get back home?Adar Rahid has only been a general for two months, but his problems are already multiplying. He has his hands full with a father who wants to kill him and Helam Morgol, another general who is secretly laying plans to take over the Rarbon city government. When Adar interrupts a brutal attack he is quick to accuse Helam of being the orchestrator, but reconsiders after a confrontation with Helam leaves him wondering if Helam is just as much of a pawn as he. While events unfold Adar Rahid struggles to find a distinction between his methods and those employed by Helam Morgol as both take drastic actions to gain the upper hand. Readers are taken on an adventure between dueling generals in this tale of epic fantasy and science fiction. This action packed story is based in the War of the Fathers universe and happens twenty three years before the events in War of the Fathers. This is the second of four parts.

Tavera is a child passed from hand to hand as a source of cheap labor in the underworld of the Valley. When she finds herself at the mercy of the vicious sausage maker, the elderly Madame Greswin, she discovers secrets from the woman's past and the consequences leave Tavera fighting for her life.**5,000 Word Short Story**Tavera is a child passed from hand to hand as a source of cheap labor in the underworld of the Valley. When she finds herself at the mercy of the vicious sausage maker, the elderly Madame Greswin, she discovers secrets from the woman's past and the consequences leave Tavera fighting for her life."Little Girl Lost" is a short story and prequel to "Thieves at Heart", the first novel in the series "The Valley of Ten Crescents".**5,000 Word Short Story**

When Adélaïde's parents find her mute and unable to explain why she is crying, they bring her to the police station and file a complaint against "X" for sexual assault. Adélaïde grows up without showing any outward signs of damage. As a teen and then as an outwardly cheerful young woman, she suffers in silence, battling her demons alone. Twenty-three years later, Adélaïde receives a call from the juvenile squad. An investigator has reopened the classified case of "the electrician" and DNA analysis points to a man known to the police as a serial burglar. He is subsequently charged with assaulting 72 minors between 1983 and 2003, and it is suspected that he has hurt hundreds of others who never filed complaints. In the spring of 2016, at the Paris city court, along with 18 other women, Adélaïde confronts the rapist who destroyed her life. In precise and delicate prose, with poise and passion, Adélaïde Bon tells a story that is both terrifying and all too common. This French...

This is a fictional story about a little girl who became accidentally lost on a train. Her mother was on another train going in the opposite direction. All the little girl knew is that she lived on Main Street in Skin Your Neck Today. Was she be able to be reunited with her family. Of course, she did. This story has a happy ending. But exactly how? You'll love this tale!When Nachiketa is 23 his father reveals to him that his mother is the reclusive Swedish film star, “Harriet Brown” (the alias Greta Garbo often used). No one knows this and no one must ever know.Nachiketa and Harriet do eventually meet and together embark on a decades-long spiritual journey of sporadic meetings, prolonged silences, and extraordinary, shared experiences complete with ancient snakes, trolls, and a mysterious white horse, that originally belonged to Mark Helprin. And the boy who was once given away will become the person who knows his mother best.This is all a lie, of course, but a lie that tells the truth.====PrologueWhen my mother was twelve years old, directing imaginary plays from the little outhouse roof in her tenement back yard, she knew that there was absolutely nothing wrong with the world.Standing by her living room window, catching a brown and watery glimpse of the East River these many years later, she knew it to be a bad place.Whether this knowledge had gathered little by little over the intervening years—cloud by cloud, regret by regret—and just now let on; or whether it had sprung: gray horizon to horizon upon an unsuspecting sky just moments ago, since breakfast, she couldn’t tell. Only that it was so obvious now.But she mustn’t let this ruin her day. She slipped into her beige duffle coat, donned her sunglasses, covered her head with a gray and black scarf, patted her coat pocket to hear the keys tinkle, made sure she had her cigarettes, and her lighter, and without as much as a word of good-bye to Claire, headed out for her morning walk.====A GiftMy mother gave me away when I was two weeks old. Yes: I was a gift. That’s what she later told me: a gift. Of course, I was also the unthinkable, in a world that must never know about me, at least not the world which knew and celebrated her. I was to be hidden from it.Later I realized that I was also to be hidden from her, the deeper the better.“And given sounds so much better than hidden, don’t you think?” she said once after I had come to know her. “And so much better than unthinkable.”The original benefactee—if I can be permitted to invent a word—was my father. His name was Jiddu and at that time (I was born April 10, 1928) he was a reasonably well known mystic. Indeed, he was quite famous in his day, even though today, if remembered at all, he seems more myth than man. Still, he has left a bit of a legacy, along with not a few schools and foundations scattered here and there about the world. But the man on the street, were you to mention his name, would look at you blankly, take his time, and then shake his head.At first Jiddu argued that she should keep me. “Children should be with their mothers,” he said. “That’s why women give birth and not men.” Besides, would a child not be in his way as much as in hers? This, however, he soon had to admit—even to himself—simply was not true. Sure, to him I would be a burden, an inconvenience and an embarrassment, but to her I would be the end of a career, the end of a successful life.So in the end he relented—though, from what she later told me, not all that gracefully—and accepted me: a gift to be hidden.You could plainly see that I was his and her son. The color of my hair and the color of my skin were his; the color of my eyes, and the shape of my nose and mouth were hers. If my father had entertained any thoughts of contesting his involvement, he must have abandoned them the moment he saw me. Very much his, and very much hers. Not that I cared then.

Sophie walked away once, But Jared would always be there in her head, taunting and tormenting her. Making her offers that she didn't want to refuse. It was time Jared brought Daddy's little girl home. For good. Join Sophie and Jared in this scintillating dark and sexy adventure. Daddy's Little Girl is book four in the Dark Daddy series.

Tempest: His name is Christian Knolls. He’s thirty-eight. He’s the headmaster of my school. And literally everything about him makes me want to drop to my knees in front of him and worship his body. Every single thought I’ve had since that day in his office has revolved around wanting him to tear my clothes from my body, bend me over his desk, and do every single filthy, depraved thing that he wants to me. Christian: Her name is Tempest Kensington. She’s eighteen years old. She’s my student. And I want to know what sounds she makes when she comes. I want to know how tight she’d feel as I emptied every drop of my cum deep inside her sweet little pussy. She's mine, she just doesn’t know it yet.

Perfect for fans of 99 Days and Anna and the French Kiss, this unforgettable, sun-drenched summer romance from one of YA's bestselling and most beloved authors, Sarah Mlynowski, is an irresistible dive into the joys of seizing the day and embracing the unexpected. Sam's summer isn't off to a great start. Her boyfriend, Eli, ditched her for a European backpacking trip, and now she's a counselor at Camp Blue Springs: the summer camp her eleven-year-old self swore never to return to. Sam expects the next seven weeks to be a total disaster. That is, until she meets Gavin, the camp's sailing instructor, who turns her expectations upside down. Gavin may have gotten the job just for his abs. Or that smile. Or the way he fills Sam's free time with thrilling encounters—swimming under a cascade of stars, whispering secrets over s'mores, embarking on one (very precarious) canoe ride after dark. It's absurd. After all, Sam loves Eli. But one...

Ellie Cavanaugh was only seven years old when her fifteen-year-old sister, Andrea, was murdered near their home in Oldham-on-the-Hudson, a rural village in New York's Westchester County. There were three suspects: Rob Westerfield, nineteen-year-old scion of a wealthy, prominent family, whom Andrea has been secretly dating; Paul Stroebel, a sixteen-year-old schoolmate, who had a crush on Andrea; and Will Nebels, a local handyman in his forties. It was Ellie who had led her parents to a hideout in which Andrea's body was found -- a secret hideaway in which she met her friends. And it was Ellie who was blamed by her parents for her sister's death for not telling them about this place the night Andrea was missing. It was also Ellie's testimony that led to the conviction of the man she was firmly convinced was the killer. Steadfastly denying his guilt, he spent the next twenty-two years in prison. When he comes up for parole, Ellie, now an investigative reporter for an Atlanta newspaper, protests his release. Nonetheless, the convicted killer is set free and returns to Oldham. Determined to thwart his attempts to whitewash his reputation, Ellie also returns to Oldham, intent on creating a Website and writing a book that will conclusively prove his guilt. As she delves deeper into her research, however, she uncovers horrifying and heretofore unknown facts that shed new light on her sister's murder. With each discovery, she comes closer to a confrontation with a desperate killer. Gripping and relentlessly compelling, Daddy's Little Girl, a portrayal of a family shattered by crime, reflects Mary Higgins Clark's uncanny insight into the twisted mind of a killer and is further evidence of why she is America's favorite author of suspense.

Alone with their authoritarian father on a vast estate where time has stopped, two siblings speak a language and inhabit a surreal universe of their own making, shaped by their reading of philosophy and tales of chivalry. When their father dies and the children set out to bury him, they encounter the inhabitants of the neighboring village, and the pair's cloak of romance and superstition falls away to reveal the appalling truth of their existence. A brilliant, masterful story in which nothing is as it first seems, The Little Girl Who Was Too Fond of Matches is a triumph of suspense, linguistic invention, and playfulness that peers into the heart of guilt, cruelty, and violence.

This original short story tells the tale of how a girl named Mallow defeated King Goldmouth with the help of the Red Wind, Mr. Map, and many fairyland friends new and old--from Catherynne M. Valente, author of the children's fantasy sensation The Girl Who Circumnavigated Fairyland in a Ship of Her Own Making. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

This collection of literature attempts to compile many of the classic, timeless works that have stood the test of time and offer them at a reduced, affordable price, in an attractive volume so that everyone can enjoy them.

When Nate Lancaster, a white man, is released on bail after running over a little black girl named Presley and leaving her in a coma, the small town of Thompsonville, Mississippi erupts with chaos, exposing racial tension from the past.Despite the protests of his old college buddy Klein, a black man who now works for the mayor, Anderson Abraham, a white reporter from Boston, comes to town to do a story on the incident in order to help Presley get justice. Unfortunately, her mother, Channing, refuses to let her daughter's case become a publicity stunt.As they get to know each other, Anderson opens Channing's eyes to the bigger picture, and she realizes how much he cares for Presley.Channing and Anderson fall in love but a vengeful racist, a mayor with a political agenda, and a black activist hungry for fame threatens Channing and Anderson's relationship as well as the future of Thompsonville.

June brings to the Nttrragansett country, that the steamer Eq Ius pushed out from Wickford Pier on her afternoon trip to Newport. The fiky Wjas of a beautiful translucent blue ;the sunshine had a silvery rather than a golden radiance. A sea-wind blew up the Western Passage, so cool as to make the passengers on the upper deck glad to draw their wraps about them.(Typographical errors above are due to OCR software and don\'t occur in the book.)About the Publisher Forgotten Books is a publisher of historical writings, such as: Philosophy, Classics, Science, Religion, History, Folklore and Mythology.Forgotten Books\' Classic Reprint Series utilizes the latest technology to regenerate facsimiles of historically important writings. Careful attention has been made to accurately preserve the original format of each page whilst digitally enhancing the aged text. Read books online for free at www.forgottenbooks.org --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title. --This text refers to an out of print or unavailable edition of this title.

While Seth O'Malley is healing from a gun shot wound (received in The Cigarette Killer), Ava and her team is awarded a grant to look into cold cases in rural areas of Colorado with Seth as the consulting detective. No sooner than the grant is awarded, when Seth receives a request to look into the brutal murder of a young woman in Kiowa County, near the border of Colorado and Kansas.Ava and her team discover that the girl was buried on top of a previously undiscovered archaeological site. Every step Ava takes to uncover who killed this poor young woman, the closer she gets to her own dark family history.This novella is set in rural Colorado.

A retelling of the fairy tale by Hans Christian Andersen of the same name. Read more of the Cyberpunk Fairy Tales, a unique twist on the classic stories you grew up with. Sometimes dark and disturbing like the Grimm stories, other times new and relevant to the modern age.

Evil is lurking in the sleepy village of Kenley. When the body of a young girl is discovered in the middle of the Glory Woods, a nearby local beauty spot, Detective Inspector Carla Right starts to uncover secrets that have been buried for many years, secrets that will change the lives of some of the local residents forever.

How can a little girl vanish into thin air? Five-year-old Cassie Bailey’s mother tucked her into bed and kissed her goodnight. This morning she’s missing, her unicorn bedcovers are empty, and her parents are frantic.Detective Rachel Hart knows that the first few hours after a child goes missing are the most crucial, and that the Baileys are living every parent’s worst nightmare. Rachel knows, because as a child her family lived through it too, when her sister was taken.The days are ticking by with no sign of Cassie, and the cracks in the Baileys’ marriage are beginning to show. But are the holes in their stories because they’re out of their minds with panic – or because they’re lying?Rachel’s convinced that Cassie knew the person who took her, but can she find the little girl before she’s lost forever?A gripping and unputdownable thriller for fans of Close to Home, The Couple Next Door and Behind Closed Doors.

Leopold is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive Classic Library collection. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. The aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature, and our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. The contents of the vast majority of titles in the Classic Library have been scanned from the original works. To ensure a high quality product, each title has been meticulously hand curated by our staff. This means that we have checked every single page in every title, making it highly unlikely that any material imperfections – such as poor picture quality, blurred or missing text - remain. When our staff observed such imperfections in the original work, these have either been repaired, or the title has been excluded from the Leopold Classic Library catalogue. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, within the book we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with a book that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic work, and that for you it becomes an enriching experience. If you would like to learn more about the Leopold Classic Library collection please visit our website at www.leopoldclassiclibrary.com

Eleanor Gates (26 September 1875 – 7 March 1951) was an American playwright who created seven plays that were staged on Broadway.

Bessie found that it was so. There was the squirrel\'s head, twisted oddly on one side, in order to get a good view of his disturbers. His keen eyes were fixed anxiously on them, as though to discover the cause of their intrusion. Presently he leaped on a branch of a shrub, and sat staring solemnly at them."It can\'t be a squirrel," said Bessie, "after all; its tail is not half bushy or long enough.""It jumps like one," said Nellie, "and its eyes and ears are just like a squirrel\'s too. See, it\'s gray and white!"They approached slowly, the little animal permitting them to come quite close, and then the children saw that it was indeed a squirrel, but that its tail had, by some accident, been torn nearly half away."Perhaps it has been caught in a trap," suggested Nelly."Or in a branch of a tree," said Bessie. "Well, anyway, little Mr. Squirrel, we shall know you again if we meet you.""I should say," exclaimed Nelly, "that there must be plenty of nuts somewhere near us, or that gray squirrel would not be likely to be here."The two girls now set about searching for a hickory nut-tree, quite encouraged in the thought that their walk was to be rewarded at last. Nelly was right in her[16] conjecture. It was not long before they recognized the well-known leaf of the species of tree of which they were in quest. A small group of them stood together, not far distant, and great was the delight of the children to find the ground beneath well strewed with nuts, some of them lying quite free from their rough outer shells, others only partially opened, while many of them were still in the exact state in which they hung upon the tree. Of course the former were preferred by the little nut gatherers, but it was found that as these did not fill the bag and baskets, it was necessary to shell some of the remainder. Accordingly, Bessie selected a large flat stone, as the scene of operation, and providing herself with another small one, as a hammer, she began pounding the unshelled nuts, and by these means accumulated a second store; Nelly gathering them, and making a pile beside her, ready to be denuded of their hard green coverings.

It was a very warm morning in June. Edna and her friend Dorothy Evans were sitting under the trees trying to keep cool. They both wore their thinnest morning frocks and had pinned their hair up in little pug knots on the tops of their heads. They had their boxes of pieces and were trying to make something suitable for their dolls to wear in the hot weather. "It\'s too sticky to sew," said Dorothy, throwing down her work. "Marguerite will have to go without a frock and sit around in her skin." "You mean in her kid," returned Edna. "Well, isn\'t kid skin?" asked Dorothy. Edna laughed. "Why, yes, I suppose it is, and Ben says we are kids, so our skin is kid skin. Oh, dear, it is hot. I wish I were a fish; it would be so nice to go slipping through the cool water." "Yes, but it wouldn\'t be so nice to be in a frying pan sizzling over a fire." "I feel almost as if I were doing that now. There comes the postman, I wonder if he has a letter from Jennie. We promised one another we would always write on blue paper because blue is true, you know, and that looks as if it might be a blue letter the postman has on top. I\'m going to see." "I\'ll wait here," returned Dorothy. "It\'s too hot to move." She sat fanning herself with the lid of her piece box, watching her friend the while. Once or twice Edna stopped on her way back, and finally she began to dance up and down, then ran toward Dorothy, calling out, "Oh, there\'s a lovely something to tell you. Oh, I do hope it can come true." "What is it?" cried Dorothy, roused out of her listlessness.

Amanda Minnie Douglas was an American writer of adult and juvenile fiction. She was probably best remembered by young readers of her day for the Little Girl and Helen Grant series published over the decades flanking the turn of the twentieth century.

This scarce antiquarian book is a facsimile reprint of the original. Due to its age, it may contain imperfections such as marks, notations, marginalia and flawed pages. Because we believe this work is culturally important, we have made it available as part of our commitment for protecting, preserving, and promoting the world\'s literature in affordable, high quality, modern editions that are true to the original work.

After a teacher scandalizes the fishing village of Little Cove, Newfoundland, by running off with a priest, the school looks to the mainland to fill the job quickly. They want someone who can uphold their Catholic values and keep a motley group of largely uncooperative students in line. The position is filled by Rachel O'Brien, a young woman from Toronto desperate for a fresh start after a failed relationship and the death of her father. Rachel isn't surprised that her students don't see the value of learning French. But she is surprised that she can barely understand their English, which is thickly accented and full of unfamiliar expressions. When she is called a sleveen, is it a compliment or an insult? (Insult.) And the anonymous notes left on her car, telling her to go home, certainly don't make her feel welcome. Still, Rachel is quickly drawn into the island's traditional music and culture, and the personal lives of her students as well as her fellow teacher...

Leopold Classic Library is delighted to publish this classic book as part of our extensive collection. As part of our on-going commitment to delivering value to the reader, we have also provided you with a link to a website, where you may download a digital version of this work for free. Many of the books in our collection have been out of print for decades, and therefore have not been accessible to the general public. Whilst the books in this collection have not been hand curated, an aim of our publishing program is to facilitate rapid access to this vast reservoir of literature. As a result of this book being first published many decades ago, it may have occasional imperfections. These imperfections may include poor picture quality, blurred or missing text. While some of these imperfections may have appeared in the original work, others may have resulted from the scanning process that has been applied. However, our view is that this is a significant literary work, which deserves to be brought back into print after many decades. While some publishers have applied optical character recognition (OCR), this approach has its own drawbacks, which include formatting errors, misspelt words, or the presence of inappropriate characters. Our philosophy has been guided by a desire to provide the reader with an experience that is as close as possible to ownership of the original work. We hope that you will enjoy this wonderful classic book, and that the occasional imperfection that it might contain will not detract from the experience.

Amanda Minnie Douglas was an American writer of adult and juvenile fiction. She was probably best remembered by young readers of her day for the Little Girl and Helen Grant series published over the decades flanking the turn of the twentieth century.

A classic story for girls, by L.T. Meade.

The bell had clanged and the gates of the stockade were closed. There were some houses on the outside; there was not so much fear of the Indians here, for the French had the art of winning them into friendship. Farms were cultivated, and the rich bottom lands produced fine crops. Small as the town was twenty years before the eighteenth century ended, it was the headquarters of a flourishing trade. The wisdom of Pierre Laclede had laid the foundation of a grand city. The lead mines even then were profitably worked, and supplied a large tract of the Mississippi River east and west.

SUMMARY: Three twenty-something women, one hot rich guy, two mega movie stars, and a devastating murder: Poor Little Bitch Girl has it all.Denver Jones is a hotshot twenty-something attorney working in L.A. Carolyn Henderson is personal assistant to a powerful and very married Senator in Washington with whom she is having an affair. And Annabelle Maestro—daughter of two movie stars—has carved out a career for herself in New York as the madame of choice for discerning famous men. The three of them went to high school together in Beverly Hills—and although Denver and Carolyn have kept in touch, Annabelle is out on her own with her cocaine addicted boyfriend, Frankie. Then there is Bobby Santangelo Stanislopolous, the Kennedyesque son of Lucky Santangelo and deceased Greek shipping billionaire, Dimitri Stanislopolous. Bobby owns Mood, the hottest club in New York. Back in the day he went to high school with Denver, Carolyn and Annabelle. And he connected with all three of them. Frankie is his best friend. When Annabelle’s beautiful movie star mother is found shot to death in the bedroom of her Beverly Hills mansion, the five of them find themselves thrown together . . . and secrets from the past have a way of coming back to haunt everyone. . . . A new, sexy, and explosive novel from perennial bestseller Jackie Collins. From Publishers WeeklyAt 72, with 26 bestsellers under her belt, Collins (_Drop Dead Beautiful_) prowls familiar terrain with this overheated tale of the filthy rich, nasty poor, and cravenly ambitious. Collins picks up the saga of the Santangelos with spoiled-brat Annabelle Maestro, the daughter of two Tinseltown icons, who runs a high-priced call-girl ring in New York with her coke-sniffing nogoodnik boyfriend, Frankie. Annabelle's mom's murder brings the black sheep home to L.A. to mourn for a parent she never loved—and to lean on the adventurous Denver, a quick-witted, sex-starved lawyer who's defending the No. 1 suspect in the murder, Annabelle's dad, film legend Ralph Maestro. But Denver also juggles the rescue of his missing best friend, Carolyn, who's fooling around with a horn dog U.S. senator, and a few hot one-night stands. For all the convoluted connections, mismatches, and throw-away references to ripped-from-the-headlines news and celebrities, Collins is at her seasoned best with this raunchy, retro hot-sheets romance. It's men, dollface, one brassy Hollywood agent muses. They all spew forth the same tired old lines. As does Collins. And it's impossible not to fall for it. Again. (Feb.) Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. FromThe eponymous “bitch girl” of the title is Annabelle Maestro, the daughter of two famous movie stars who flees L.A. for New York to escape her indifferent parents. She hooks up with coke-addicted DJ Frankie to start a high-priced escort business. And then her mother’s murder makes headlines. Denver Jones, a beautiful, talented attorney who was briefly friendly with Annabelle, is called in when Annabelle’s father, Ralph, becomes a suspect in his wife’s death. Ralph orders Denver to fly to New York to bring Annabelle back for the funeral. In Washington, D.C., Denver’s best friend, Carolyn, is desperately trying to get a hold of her to share some exciting news: Carolyn is pregnant with the child of the married senator she works for. Denver keeps missing Carolyn’s calls because she has her hands full with Annabelle, who returns to L.A. determined to hide her secret business, and with her sights set on Bobby, the devastatingly handsome son of Lucky Santangelo, the heroine of several of Collins’ previous novels. Though the characters are frequently vapid and shallow, their over-the-top antics are undeniably scintillating. Expect plenty of demand for this page-turning sudser. --Kristine Huntley

An intimate profile of one of the most popular American singers of the 20th century, this first full-length biography of Karen Carpenter details every aspect of her life, from her modest Connecticut upbringing and her rise to stardom in southern California to the real story of her tragic, untimely death.

Ever since the Voices started, little Bonnie can't sleep anymore. Every night, they whisper through the walls of her room, casting a dark spell over someone in her family...preparing them for a rampage of gruesome murder. What if the only way for Bonnie to save her family is to destroy someone she loves? And what if the secret of the Voices is even deadlier and more terrifying than she can imagine? Don't miss this story by award-winning writer Robert Jeschonek, a master of shocking horror that really packs a punch.

In this haunting and frank account, Donna Ford, author of The Step Child, returns to the horrific abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepmother. As a tiny girl of five, and for six long years, Donna was physically, mentally, and sexually abused. She was starved, beaten, and "loaned out" to neighbors who raped and molested her, and throughout her father stood by and did nothing. When her stepmother finally left the family home, Donna dreamed of a normal childhood in which she would be taken care of by the man who had, up until this point, failed her. But it was not to be. By telling the whole story of her Edinburgh childhood, Donna tries to understand why the man who should have loved her the most—her own father—was the one who deceived her the most, by continuing to allow men to abuse her. Instead of finding a future of love and happiness, Donna was once again thrust into a living nightmare of  exploitation and betrayal by those who should have wrapped her up in their love. Abandoned by her real mother when she was tiny, we also learn of Donna’s efforts to find the woman who might have made such a difference to her childhood, and the terrors she has gone through as an adult, if she had stayed. Most astonishing of all is the journey we take with Donna to discover the woman she has become: a devoted mother of three and a talented artist and writer. While this is a story of the appalling physical, mental, and emotional abuse inflicted on Donna, it is also a tale of how exhilaration, tenderness, and self-development can flourish despite childhood horrors.About the AuthorDonna Ford is a successful artist and writer.

Strong, silent type When a child was dropped on ex-detective Jac McCabe's doorstep, he voxed to guard her with his life. She had no one to claim her--except sexy caregiver Hailey Bishop. And both vulnerable ladies needed his protection from killers tying up loose ends--killers who might be dirty cops... In need of healing... Jack worried he wasn't the right man for this job--not since the accident that had stripped him of his badge, his life. But together they formed a fugitive family, working to keep one another safe...and Jack felt whole for the first time in years. Maybe he was the one who'd been found and rescued after all.

Ten years after her parents’ death, Bridget Dubois returns to her hometown of Belle Dame, North Carolina. Her younger sister, Holly, is missing, and Bridget is determined to discover her whereabouts. No one knows what happened to Holly, so when Bridget starts to hear Holly’s voice in her head, she becomes the only one who has a chance of finding her little sister.

From New York Times Bestselling Author Wendy Corsi Staub comes a gripping novel of psychological suspense, as a young foundling's path to her biological parents leads to a killer with a chilling agendaMAY, 1968On a murky pre-dawn Mother's Day, sinister secrets play out miles apart in New York City. In Harlem, a church janitor finds an innocent newborn in a basket. In Brooklyn, an elusive serial killer prowls slumbering families, leaving a trail of blood and a twisted calling card. Cloaked in lies, these seemingly unrelated lives—and deaths—are destined to intersect on a distant, blood-soaked day.OCTOBER, 1987Reeling from shocking personal discoveries, two strangers navigate a world where nothing is as it seems. Amelia Crenshaw embarks on a search to discover the truth about the birth mother who abandoned her, never suspecting she's on a collision course with a killer. Detective Stockton Barnes, a brash young NYPD detective, trails a...

Would she lose her little girl if she regained her memory? When they survived a fiery bus accident, Jane Dolan and her infant daughter were given a new beginning--and new memories. But five years later those memories were challenged when Jane saw pictures of her murdered mother and sister in the newspaper. Suddenly she remembered her family, but nothing else, and now she had to find the truth--about their killer, about who she really was.... Reporter Chad Ryker claimed he knew the truth. But Jane could trust no one or nothing-especially her heart, which was quickly, irresistibly falling in love with the man. How could she believe his story that her family was in hiding ... and that her precious daughter wasn't her child?

Lyra is living the dream: running her own bookstore along with her best friends, Felicity and Jaime. Everything is idyllic...until Verity Patrick walks into her life."Lyra, you're a witch.""I'm not a witch. I'm NOT a witch!"As Lyra struggles to reconcile her past with what seems to be her inescapable future, she works to keep her dreams alive in spite of the pressures bearing down upon her from all sides.

Madora was seventeen, headed for trouble with drugs and men, when Willis rescued her. Fearful of the world and alienated from family and friends, she ran away with him and for five years they have lived alone, in near isolation. But after Willis kidnaps a pregnant teenager and imprisons her in a trailer behind the house, Madora is torn between her love for him and her sense of right and wrong. When a pit bull puppy named Foo brings into Madora's world another unexpected person--Django Jones, a brilliant but troubled twelve-year-old boy--she's forced to face the truth of what her life has become. An intensely emotional and provocative story, Little Girl Gone explores the secret hopes and fears that drive good people to do dangerous things . . . and the courage it takes to make things right.

THE LITTLE WAY OF RUTHIE LEMING follows Rod Dreher, a Philadelphia journalist, back to his hometown of St. Francisville, Louisiana (pop. 1,700) in the wake of his younger sister Ruthie's death. When she was diagnosed at age 40 with a virulent form of cancer in 2010, Dreher was moved by the way the community he had left behind rallied around his dying sister, a schoolteacher. He was also struck by the grace and courage with which his sister dealt with the disease that eventually took her life. In Louisiana for Ruthie's funeral in the fall of 2011, Dreher began to wonder whether the ordinary life Ruthie led in their country town was in fact a path of hidden grandeur, even spiritual greatness, concealed within the modest life of a mother and teacher. In order to explore this revelation, Dreher and his wife decided to leave Philadelphia, move home to help with family responsibilities and have their three children grow up amidst the rituals that had defined his family for five generations-Mardi Gras, L.S.U. football games, and deer hunting. As David Brooks poignantly described Dreher's journey homeward in a recent New York Times column, Dreher and his wife Julie "decided to accept the limitations of small-town life in exchange for the privilege of being part of a community." Amazon.com ReviewA Conversation with Author Rod DreherAfter decades as a professional journalist, was it difficult to write such a personal story? Were there any unexpected challenges that came up during the writing process?The chief difficulty came for me in having to recognize that the people I was writing about weren't just subjects, but people I loved and cared about, and among whom I lived. I constantly thought about balancing respect for them and their feelings with respect for the truth. Everybody loves the fun stories about Ruthie, but if I had left it at that, it wouldn't have been the whole story of Ruthie. What I didn't expect were the philosophical challenges that came up as I worked on the book. I was most struck by the nature of Ruthie's courage in facing her cancer. I learned as I reported the book that Ruthie never talked with her husband or her children about the possibility of her death--this, even though she lived for 19 months with terminal cancer. She was both accepting of death, and terrified of it. She lived with a lot of denial. In learning more about her, I came to understand that the line between heroic courage and stark terror is far more ambiguous than I thought.Maybe the main difference between us was that while my nature was to approach the world from a critical stance, she accepted life as it was. She almost always met it with humility, fidelity, and above all, love. It is perhaps the most beautiful paradox of Ruthie Leming’s life that in showing us how to die, she showed us how to live. To write The Little Way of Ruthie Leming, you interviewed many people from your hometown and your immediate family. What was that process like so shortly after Ruthie’s passing?I felt as if I were trying to cross a minefield. She had been gone only three months when I started these interviews. The hardest interviews, of course, were with my family. During one interview, my father stood behind the couch in his living room talking about Ruthie, and in mid-sentence broke down into sobs, and had to grab the furniture to steady himself. It was heartbreaking to watch the man who had always been the rock of our family reduced to that, and awful too to know that I had forced him into it with my questioning. But I also knew that I couldn't flinch, and neither could he. This story had to be told. Without a doubt the most difficult interview was with Ruthie’s husband Mike, a big, quiet man who doesn't talk much, and never about his feelings. He collapsed emotionally during the interview, but pushed himself on, saying what needed saying. I've done lots of interviews in my career, including talking to 9/11 survivors. But nothing as searing as that one.Community is a strong theme in the book. How did your idea of community evolve over the course of Ruthie's illness and how did it led to your decision to leave the "big city" for a tiny country town?Everybody wants to belong. I grew up in a close-knit place where I belonged, until I got to high school. Suddenly I didn't. I was bullied. This happened at the same time that my father had no idea what to do with me. Paw was, and is, a good and loving man, but as I began to turn out different from what he expected--bookish, nerdy, and intellectual, instead of outdoorsy and athletic--the distance between us grew wide. Thank God for Mam, who battled with him on my behalf, so I could leave home and spend my junior and senior years in a public boarding school for gifted kids. I put my hometown behind me, and never looked back.And then Ruthie got sick, and I saw the community in a new way. I also began to see myself in a new way. Ruthie was a healthy woman in the prime of her life, and had never smoked--yet she came down with terminal lung cancer. If that could happen to a woman like her, anything was possible. What would I do if it happened to me, or to my wife? We had friends in every place we'd lived, but we hadn't lived in any one place long enough to put down the roots that Ruthie had, not only because she spent her life here, but because she cultivated roots laid down by previous generations of our family. I came to understand that my family needed what Ruthie had, the kind of things that money can't buy. I could have at least some of it, I realized--but only if I sacrificed my own individual desire to follow my career wherever it took me.The lesson is not that everybody should move to a small town, or should return to their hometown. The lesson is that you need your community more than you think, and that you should practice what the Benedictine monks call "stability." That is, do your best to stay in one place, put down roots, and resist the currents of our culture.You say that returning to St. Francisville was an unexpected decision, but felt like what you had to do. What has it been like to come back to the town you grew up in and then left as a young man?People have been great, really great. I find that some of the ordinary things that I rejected when I was young--the quiet, mostly--are things that I crave now, things that feed my soul. I love the fact that my kids can see their grandparents, and are getting to know a range of cousins they never really knew they had, because we were never able to visit long enough in the past for them to spend time with these people. The familiar used to feel oppressive; now it feels comforting.Now you're back in St. Francisville. Do you think you will stay or will your love of city life kick back in?Oh no, we'll stay. We want to stay. We are home. ReviewIf you've ever felt an outsider in your own family, you've got to read this book. If you have ever had any "sibling-issues" you've got to read this book. This true, powerful, deeply-moving, and masterfully-told story is nothing less than a gift. And yes, indeed: it will change lives.-- Eric Metaxas, New York Times bestselling author of Bonhoeffer: Pastor, Martyr, Prophet, SpyIf you are not prepared to cry, to learn, and to have your heart cracked open even a little bit by a true story of love, surrender, sacrifice, and family, then please do not read this book. Otherwise, do your soul a favor, and listen carefully to the unforgettable lessons of Ruthie Leming.-- Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, LoveEmotionally complex and genuinely affecting.-- Kirkus ReviewsThis is an authentic and deeply touching memoir, which honestly asks many of the best questions about the things that matter. Interacting with this story will change you!-- Wm. Paul Young, author of The Shack and Cross RoadsThis book will make you feel hunger pangs for what you didn't know you even missed. And then it will feed you, line upon line, soul bread. As the Israelites ate manna in the desert, Dreher's evocative prose gathers the unforgettable manna moments of Ruthie Leming's life.--Ann Voskamp, author of One Thousand Gifts: A Dare to Live Fully Right Where You AreRod Dreher tells a tale of dear things lost and dear things restored, but also, and unflinchingly, confronts some harder truths about old wounds that never fully heal and old misunderstandings that won't quite go away. This is a book that strives for truth more than beauty-and is all the more beautiful for it.-Alan Jacobs, author of The Pleasures of Reading in an Age of Distraction"The Little Way of Ruthie Leming is Steel Magnolias for a new generation."-Sela Ward, Emmy Award-winning actress and author of Homesick"Thoughtful and thought-provoking..."--USA Today"In reading Dreher's reflections on small-town life, and seeing his desire to savor its beauty despite all the pain, I couldn't help thinking: Here is a mature writer speaking words American evangelicals desperately need to hear."-- Christianity Today"...the best story about home, family, and community I have read in a long, long time. When I next teach my "Simplicity and Sustainability" class (next fall), I'm going to present it alongside ... classics like Walden, as a way to help my students understand that these "little ways"--ways of tradition and connection--really are available and out there, and aren't just romantic dreams.-- Front Porch Republic"Gripping."-- Tampa Bay Times"The sorrows, mysteries, and beauties of the human experience are on full display in Rod Dreher's The Little Way of Ruthie Leming. Subtitled A Southern Girl, a Small Town and the Secret of a Good Life, this moving and emotionally complex account of the life and death of Dreher's younger sister, who passed away two years ago at the age of 42, touches on one resonant theme after another: deep-seated sibling conflict, growing up as an outsider, strained father-son relationships, the bonds of community, and renewal amidst tragedy."-- Pop Matters"Believe me. This is one of the most powerful, emotionally riveting, and spiritual books you will ever have the good fortune to read."-- D Magazine"The most powerful book I've read in years. It overflows with that inexplicable mix of joy and pain that a writer can only achieve when he is telling the truth."-- Yuval Levin, National Review"If you read just one work of serious non-fiction this spring, let it be Rod Dreher's beautiful, moving memoir The Little Way of Ruthie Leming. At the center of the book is the emotionally gripping story of the death of the author's sister from cancer at the age of 42. But that story is embedded in an another - an intellectually and spiritually provocative account of Dreher's youthful flight from and eventual return (after Ruthie's death) to his Louisiana hometown (population 1,700). It is these bracing reflections on place and community, ambition and happiness that transform the book into something far more than a tragic autobiography. Dreher has written a powerful statement about how we live today - and more importantly, about how we should live."-- The Week

A little girl vanished 100 years ago. Her name was Sophie. Where did she go? An old house in Balmain. A portrait and perfume bottle hidden in a chimney. Unknown and untouched, while a century passed, their memory slowly fading. Glimpses of an eight year old girl and her school friend, missing, never found. The grief of those left behind, those who searched, those who yearned. Now a new search!

THERE WAS A LITTLE GIRL is a psychological thriller that will have you taking a closer look at the people you thought you knew.No one is what they seem...Katherine Hope Jones is a seemingly normal woman with a well-paying job. The horror of her childhood carefully hidden away. But after she witnesses an act of animal cruelty, her tightly constructed world comes crashing down as past and present collide.You never know who's watching...As the lies pile up and she desperately tries to maintain two identities, a smart animal control officer has discovered something disturbing. Someone is killing animal abusers. Hope slowly unravels from an upstanding citizen into something else. Vigilante. Champion. Killer. Hero...As Hope takes incredible risks to punish the guilty, she's blind to the danger closing in around her. For someone powerful and dangerous has taken notice of what she's been up to...Everyone has a line they won't cross...until they do.

Planning a wedding with one fiancée, losing herself to the sexual advances of her other fiancée, Aidan is torn between love and duty. Through no fault of her own, Aidan is caught up in a love triangle, and must choose which woman she will marry. But that's not Aidan's only problem. She must save her fiancée, Vicky, from a particularly nasty stalker, who as it turns out, is Aidan's own father. But how can she concentrate on just her, when she is also engaged to Samantha, who Aidan believes she left behind, during an insurgent attack in Iraq. Samantha spent a year in captivity, and the only way she could survive the horrific treatment, was to think of Aidan. It’s love, it’s romance, it’s an emotional tug-of-war, and Aidan’s emotions are already stretched to the limit. **

After losing yet another job, twenty-year-old Molly Parker wonders whether failure and sadness are her lot in life. Her last hope lies in Dr. Andrew Harrington, the handsome physician who witnessed a courageous act of kindness on her part and then offered her a job. But Molly can’t help worrying that she’ll lose this job too, just like all the others… From the moment he set eyes on her, Andrew knew there was something special about Molly—special enough for him to bring her halfway across the country and give her a job at his practice and a room in his home—but it soon becomes clear that she will be a handful. When it seems that her poor attitude at work will leave him no choice but to fire her, he makes a bold decision and gives Molly exactly what she needs: a long, hard, bare-bottom spanking. Nobody has ever cared enough about Molly to correct her before, let alone take her in hand so completely, and soon enough she is cuddling in Andrew’s lap and calling him daddy. It will take more than one trip over Andrew’s knee to cure her bad habits, though, and discipline at a doctor’s office can leave a naughty little girl blushing bright red before her real punishment even begins. But can Andrew really give Molly what she has always longed for, or will he eventually give up on her like everyone else? Publisher’s Note: The Doctor’s Little Girl is an erotic romance novel that contains spankings, age play, medical play, anal play, sexual scenes, elements of BDSM, and more. If such material offends you, please don’t buy this book.