Kristin Hannah makes her hardcover debut with this poignant, tender, and true story of love, loss, passion, and the fragile threads that bind families together. Annie Colwater's only child has just left home for school abroad. On that same day, her husband of twenty years confesses that he's in love with a younger woman. Alone in the house that is no longer a home, Annie comes to the painful realization that for years she has been slowly disappearing. Lonely and afraid, she retreats to Mystic, the small Washington town where she grew up, hoping that there she can reclaim the woman she once was--the woman she is now desperate to become again. In Mystic, she is reunited with her first love, Nick Delacroix, a recent widower unable to cope with his grieving, too-silent six-year-old daughter, Izzie. Together, the three of them begin to heal, and, at last, Annie learns that she can love without losing herself. But just when she has found a second chance at happiness, her life is turned upside down again, and Annie must make a choice no woman should have to make. . . .

We'd hurt each other, my soulmate and me…Faith James is found on a remote beach in the south of Spain with a head injury and no recollection of how she got there. Recovering in hospital, she is desperate to return to her twenty-five-year-old, single life in Sydney.But Faith has lost ten years of memories and her world becomes unrecognisable.Her husband, Will, arrives to collect her, and she is told she has three young children waiting at home in London.So begins the emotional journey to reclaim the life she's forgotten, learn how to be a wife and mother, and mend a broken marriage. She wants to remember everything…But are all memories worth fighting for, even the ones that hurt?

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone - but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen. Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her - but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined. In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos.

When an ex-catholic woman develops a sexual relationship with a vampire, she is forced to confront the memories that haunt her religious past. Struggling to deal with the familial trauma of her Catholic upbringing, hotel cleaner, Noelle, travels to the Isle of Bute. There, she meets a man who claims to be a vampire, and a relationship blooms between them based solely on confession. But as talk turns sacrilegious, and the weather outside grows colder, Noelle struggles to come to terms with her blasphemous sexuality. She becomes hounded by memories of her past: her mother's affair with the local priest, and the part she played in ending it.

A romantic break-up . . .A shocking break-in . . .They say bad things come in threes . . . so, what's next?When thirty-seven-year-old Sarah Harding tries to piece her life back together after losing her boyfriend and some of her valuable inheritance, the last thing she expects is a phone call bearing more bad news: Her teenage daughter, Emily, is missing from the summer sports camp where she is enrolled. In the shadow of every woman's nightmare, Sarah drops everything and embarks on a trip to join the search team to help find her daughter . . . only she never arrives.Will Sarah survive her own tragedy? Does Sarah's ex-boyfriend, Nick, have a part in any of this? Will Emily be found?

Fierce Fragile Hearts is the stunning companion novel to Sara Barnard's YA bestseller Beautiful Broken Things. It is about leaving the past behind, the friends who form your future, and learning to find love, in all its forms.Two years after a downward spiral took her as low as you can possibly go, Suzanne is starting again. Again. She's back in Brighton, the only place she felt she belonged, back with her best friends Caddy and Rosie. But they're about to leave for university. When your friends have been your light in the darkness, what happens when you're the one left behind?

A man responsible for keeping New York City alive falls for an underground activist from the wrong side of the East River in this compelling fiction debut about love, loss, and resilience in the face of ecological crisis. New York in 2057—a metropolis divided. Sheltered by enormous seawalls, Manhattan is green, clean, and thriving, but the eastern boroughs have been given up to the rising Atlantic. The planet has been ravaged by climate change, causing a global scarcity of pharmaceuticals, food, and other essentials for survival.Shavir Tayard, barista and urban community farmer by day, rescuer of animals by night, is on a dog liberation raid in the coastal evacuation zone of Brooklyn when she sustains an injury that changes her relationship with the cute regular at her coffee shop—and her life.Jake Alvaro is a troubled Homeland Security agent tasked with securing critical medical drugs for New York in a world running out of...

The year 1946 begins quietly for Heinrich Schloss. No major wars threaten Germany, and Schloss focuses on planning an election for the fall. The Yuletide Zentrum putsch was spectacular in its failure and succeeded in destroying the leadership of the organization. But the unfortunate side effects of the event eliminated the political party of the center and its chances of winning an election against the Nazis. Another event demonstrating a lack of permanence in the political landscape was the Italian Foreign Minister’s coup against Galeazzo Ciano. Later, the death of two key leaders in Vichy France challenged the governing coherence in that land. Schloss is challenged by the instability of the lands bordering Germany while also facing challenges from the regional leadership at home. The Gauleiters, most appointed by Hitler, actively opposed the scheduled election and expressed their displeasure to the Reich Chancellor. All these events collude to present Schloss with the challenge of his life in this tenth story about the Accidental Nazi.

'Supple, artful, skilful storytelling - it takes an immediate grip on the reader's imagination and doesn't let go' HILARY MANTEL______________________________________________Mary is a difficult grandmother for Durga to love. She is sharp-tongued and ferocious, with more demons than there are lines on her palms. When Durga visits her in rural Malaysia, she only wants to endure Mary, and the dark memories home brings, for as long as it takes to escape. But a reckoning is coming. Stuck together in the rising heat, both women must untangle the truth from the myth of their family's past. What happened to Durga's mother after she gave birth? Why did so many of their family members disappear during the war? And who is to blame for the childhood tragedy that haunts her to this day?In her stunning debut novel Catherine Menon traces one family's story from 1920 to the present, unravelling a thrilling tale of love, betrayal and redemption against the backdrop...

The haunting story of a family of dreamers and tale-tellers looking for home in an unwelcoming world. This exquisite and unusual magic realist debut, told in intensely lyrical prose by an award winning author, traces one girl’s migration from war to peace, loss to loss, home to home. Firuzeh and her brother Nour are children of fire, born in an Afghanistan fractured by war. When their parents, their Atay and Abay, decide to leave, they spin fairy tales of their destination, the mythical land and opportunities of Australia. As the family journeys from Pakistan to Indonesia to Nauru, heading toward a hope of home, they must rely on fragile and temporary shelters, strangers both mercenary and kind, and friends who vanish as quickly as they’re found. When they arrive in Australia, what seemed like a stable shore gives way to treacherous currents. Neighbors, classmates, and the government seek their own ends, indifferent to the family’s fate....

I am Comet Caldwell. And I sort of, kind of, absolutely hate my name. People expect extraordinary things from a girl named Comet. That she’ll be effortlessly cool and light up a room the way a comet blazes across the sky. But from the shyness that makes her book-character friends more appealing than real people to the parents whose indifference hurts more than an open wound, Comet has never wanted to be the center of attention. She can’t wait to graduate from her high school in Edinburgh, Scotland, where the only place she ever feels truly herself is on her anonymous poetry blog. But surely that will change once she leaves to attend university somewhere far, far away. When new student Tobias King blazes in from America and shakes up the school, Comet thinks she’s got the bad boy figured out. Until they’re thrown together for a class assignment and begin to form an unlikely connection. Everything shifts in Comet’s ordinary world. Tobias has a dark past and runs with a tough crowd—and none of them are happy about his interest in Comet. Targeted by bullies and thrown into the spotlight, Comet and Tobias can go their separate ways…or take a risk on something extraordinary.

This is a stunning collection of short stories by acclaimed fantasy writer Neil Gaiman. His distinctive genius has been championed by writers as diverse as Norman Mailer and Stephen King. With The Sandman Neil Gaiman created one of the most sophisticated, intelligent, and influential graphic novel series of our time. Now after the recent success of his latest novel Anansi Boys, Gaiman has produced Fragile Things, his second collection of short fiction. These stories will dazzle your senses, haunt your imagination, and move you to the very depths of your soul. This extraordinary compilation reveals one of the world's most gifted storytellers at the height of his powers.

Jadde – The Fragile Sanctuary is a smash through post-apocalyptic Sci-fi. Read this book to see how a genetic mutation goes horribly wrong.Millennia have passed since the twenty-first century demon wars when mankind so nearly succumbed to the Quarter-men. Now only isolated pockets of humanity survive. One insular tribe The Seconchane, are developing psychic powers but sometimes the gift fails...Jadde – The Fragile Sanctuary is a full on smash and crash through post-apocalyptic Sci-fi. If you want to see how a genetic mutation can go horribly wrong then read this book. Millennia have passed since the twenty-first century demon wars when mankind so nearly succumbed to genetically altered mutants - The Quarter-men. Now only isolated pockets of struggling humanity survive. One insular tribe The Seconchane, are developing psychic powers. Sometimes the gift fails and the unfortunates are banished from the Seconchane’s mountain valleys. Into this harsh reality comes Malkrin Owlear one of the Seconchane’s most gifted. But his incredible talent falters once too often . . .He discovers the deadlands are not as barren as the priesthood say. The quarter-men, from mans technological past have returned, intent on completing their destruction of mankind. Malkrin and his paranormally talented friends must rediscover from a time forgotten how the ancients led by the goddess Jadde prevailed over the quarter-men swarms.It was mans last chance – and Malkrin cannot fail.

From Kaliningrad on the Baltic to the Russian Far East, journalist Ben Judah has travelled throughout Russia and the former Soviet republics, conducting extensive interviews with President Vladimir Putin’s friends, foes, and colleagues, government officials, business tycoons, mobsters, and ordinary Russian citizens. Fragile Empire is the fruit of Judah’s thorough research: a probing assessment of Putin’s rise to power and what it has meant for Russia and her people.Despite a propaganda program intent on maintaining the cliché of stability, Putin’s regime was suddenly confronted in December 2011 by a highly public protest movement that told a different side of the story. Judah argues that Putinism has brought economic growth to Russia but also weaker institutions, and this contradiction leads to instability. The author explores both Putin’s successes and his failed promises, taking into account the impact of a new middle class and a new generation, the Internet, social activism, and globalization on the president’s impending leadership crisis. Can Russia avoid the crisis of Putinism? Judah offers original and up-to-the-minute answers.From Publishers WeeklyJudah's dynamic account of the rise (and fall-in-progress) of Russian President Vladimir Putin convincingly addresses just why and how Putin became so popular, and traces the decisions and realizations that seem to be leading to his undoing. The former Reuters Moscow reporter maps Putin's career and impact on modern Russia through wide-ranging research and has an eye for illuminating and devastating quotes, as when a reporter in dialogue with Putin says, "I lost the feeling that I lived in a free country. I have not started to feel fear." To which Putin responds, "Did you not think that this was what I was aiming for: that one feeling disappeared, but the other did not appear?" His style, however, feels hurried, an effect of which is occasional losses of narrative clarity. In some cases limited information is available, and his pace-maintaining reliance on euphemistic, metaphorical, and journalistic language can leave readers underserved and confused. Judah is at his best when being very specific, and perhaps the book's achievement is that it makes comprehensible how Putin got to where he is; those wondering how Putin became and remained so popular will benefit from this sober, well-researched case. (June) Book DescriptionA journalist’s lively, inside account of Russian President Putin’s leadership, his achievements and failures, and the crisis he faces amidst rising corruption, government dysfunction, and growing citizen unrest.

Evelyn Hopkins leaves everything she knows and heads to London at the height of the Roaring Twenties, intent upon living her life to the fullest. But will the dark cloud of the Great War keep her from happiness and love?Edward Hopkins returned from the war, but he is a shadow of his former self, broken by his experiences. His sister makes him a promise: to live her life well enough for both of them. London is a colorful world of jazz, fashion, and opportunities for lust and romance at every turn. When Evelyn meets handsome, eccentric Jos—with her butch style and gentle manner—she knows true attraction for the first time. But can love sustain them through tragedy and carry Evelyn into a new life she can be proud of?

Summer 1936: a sunny day in Kent, a perfect afternoon for a garden party, and everything seems right in the tranquil and ordered world of the Jordan family. But before the day is out that peace is shattered due to a war being fought in a country not their own. Summer 1940: London is at war, and for the first time in the history of combat a civilian population is under attack from the air. As a consequence - also for the first time - a generation of young men is called upon to face the enemy not from within an organised force on land or on sea but in individual and lethal combat in the skies above the green, fertile and until now peaceful fields of southern England... The war was not of their making but the Jordan family will do whatever it takes to save all that they hold dear. The perfect family saga of love, war and hope for fans of Josephine Cox, Lily Graham and Natasha Lester.

From USA Today Bestselling author Sophie Davis comes a mystery like none other: "What a twist I never saw coming!" "Talk about a mind-blower" "This was a one of a kind series, it really had me guessing and on the edge of my sit throughout the whole journey!" When Raven Ferragamo finds a stranger’s diary, she has no idea it will catapult her into the mystery of diamond heiress Lark Kingsley’s disappearance. But Raven soon learns that Lark knew what was coming, and there was much more to her disappearance than the news headlines show. The more she discovers, the more Raven realizes that she and the girl born into Manhattan society aren’t so different after all. Now Raven can’t walk away from Lark’s pleas for help. But the deeper she goes, the more Raven realizes that she may end up ensnared in the dark secrets she seeks to unearth... *The Brightest Smiles Hide the Darkest Secrets.... * Get it now! >/b> **

April 18, 1906: A massive earthquake rocks San Francisco just before daybreak, igniting a devouring inferno. Lives are lost, lives are shattered, but some rise from the ashes forever changed.Sophie Whalen is a young Irish immigrant so desperate to get out of a New York tenement that she answers a mail-order bride ad and agrees to marry a man she knows nothing about. San Francisco widower Martin Hocking proves to be as aloof as he is mesmerizingly handsome. Sophie quickly develops deep affection for Kat, Martin's silent five-year-old daughter, but Martin's odd behavior leaves her with the uneasy feeling that something about her newfound situation isn't right. Then one early-spring evening, a stranger at the door sets in motion a transforming chain of events. Sophie discovers hidden ties to two other women. The first, pretty and pregnant, is standing on her doorstep. The second is hundreds of miles away in the American Southwest, grieving the loss of everything...

"You won’t want to put it down — and you probably won’t either until there are no more pages to turn." ~ Thomas E. Kennedy, author of In the Company of Angels , Falling Sideways , and Kerrigan in Copenhagen "A dark fantasy bildungsroman in the tradition of Stephen King’s It and Robert McCammon’s Boy’s Life" In the late 1970s, Joe Godwin was just twelve years old, living in a working-class neighborhood. Plagued by bullies and a volatile home life, Joe spends his time with his three friends in search of adventure. The discovery of an abandoned mansion during a simple camping trip in a state forest sets of a series of consequences in motion between the boys, inhabitants of the mansion, and the others who occupy the garden behind the colossal home. The Garden of Fragile Things is a literary dark tale that chronicles four boys’ coming of age against paranormal forces that operate between two worlds. “From the first paragraphs, The Garden of Fragile Things holds you in its charm. Anyone who is young, anyone who can or wants to remember the mystery, enchantment, and fragility of youth will enjoy the rich mystery of O’Brien’s Garden of Fragile Things.” ~ Thomas E. Kennedy, author of In the Company of Angels , Falling Sideways , and Kerrigan in Copenhagen(A New York Times Notable Book). Buy now and get a free Kindle book with paperback via Kindle Matchbook!About the Author Richard J. O'Brien was born in Camden, N.J. He served in the army, attended Rutgers University, and worked a variety of jobs before attending graduate school. In 2012, he received his MFA in Creative Writing from Fairleigh Dickinson University. Currently, the author lives in Pennsylvania and teaches English composition at Mercer County Community College, Rowan College at Gloucester County, and others. Visit him at www.obrienwriter.com.

All the Fragile Hearts is an adult fantasy novel that combines mystery, politics, and romance in an epic tale. Cecelia, heir to her father's throne, feels like a stranger in her father's court. Driven to uncover the truth behind her mother's identity, Cecelia embarks on a perilous journey across the sea to the kingdom of Korith. Viktor, a formidable kingsguard, finds himself caught in a complex web of manipulation and duty. Drawn together by fate, Cecelia and Viktor are bound by an unexpected arranged marriage, stirring conflicting emotions within them. Whispers of rebellion spread and a military coup builds in the shadows. Korith is pushed further into chaos when the king is murdered. Loyalties are tested, sacrifices are made, and destinies forged. As Cecelia and Viktor navigate the treacherous landscape of deception, destiny weaves its threads through every fragile heart.

A collection of the New Yorker's groundbreaking reporting from the front lines of climate change—including writing from Bill McKibben, Elizabeth Kolbert, Ian Frazier, Kathryn Schulz, and moreJust one year after climatologist James Hansen first came before a Senate committee and testified that the Earth was now warmer than it had ever been in recorded history, thanks to humankind's heedless consumption of fossil fuels, New Yorker writer Bill McKibben published a deeply reported and considered piece on climate change and what it could mean for the planet. At the time, the piece was to some speculative to the point of alarmist; read now, McKibben's work is heroically prescient. Since then, the New Yorker has devoted enormous attention to climate change, describing the causes of the crisis, the political and ecological conditions we now find ourselves in, and the scenarios and solutions we face. The Fragile Earth tells the story of...

A sniper attack propels Latino cop Jimmy Vega on a twisting hunt for a predator who stalks the unforgiving landscape of immigrant America. Probing beyond the hardships of the journey north, Suzanne Chazin's taut and timely novel explores the perils that await the hopeful once they reach their destination—and the price they must pay to survive . . . Jimmy Vega straddles two worlds – the hardscrabble Bronx where he grew up as the child of a Puerto Rican single mother, and the upscale, mostly white, suburban county where he now serves as a police detective. Yet despite his sense of never belonging, he's a good and decent cop—even if the multi-million-dollar civil suit he's facing says otherwise. His own troubles take a back seat when Vega learns that a court officer has just been shot and killed while transporting a controversial judge across the courthouse lot. Vega quickly surmises that the judge was the real target. She's earned...

V. E. Schwab, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Invisible Life of Addie LaRue, opens another door to a new fantasy series set in the dazzling world of Shades of Magic. Prepare for tangled schemes and perilous adventures with friends old and new in The Fragile Threads of Power.Once, there were four worlds, nestled like pages in a book, each pulsing with fantastical power and connected by a single city: London. Until the magic grew too fast and forced the worlds to seal the doors between them in a desperate gamble to protect their own. The few magicians who could still open the doors grew more rare as time passed and now, only three Antari are known in recent memory—Kell Maresh of Red London, Delilah Bard of Grey London, and Holland Vosijk, of White London.But barely a glimpse of them have been seen in the last seven years—and a new Antari named Kosika has appeared in White London, taking...

Everything she touches breaks . . .Nell Ballard is a runaway. A former foster child with a dark secret she is desperate to keep, all Nell wants is to find a place she can belong.So when a job comes up at Starling Villas, home to the enigmatic Robin Wilder, she seizes the opportunity with both hands.But her new lodgings may not be the safe haven that she was hoping for. Her employer lives by a set of rigid rules and she soon sees that he is hiding secrets of his own.But is Nell's arrival at the Villas really the coincidence it seems? After all, she knows more than most how fragile people can be - and how easy they can be to break . . .Fragile is a dark, contemporary psychological thriller with a modern Gothic twist from an award-winning and critically acclaimed writer who has been compared to Ruth Rendell, P. D. James and Val McDermid. Rebecca meets The Handmaid's Tale in Sarah Hilary's standalone breakout novel."An astonishingly...

"Told through interlocking narratives, this poignant debut novel captures a year in the life of a small Vermont town—but don’t let the pastoral locale fool you; this book is anything but sleepy. Moving effortlessly from the steamy to the heartbreaking, the novel handles themes such as poverty, first love, drug abuse, unplanned pregnancy, and lust with refreshing nuance." —Oprah DailyA vivid and moving portrayal of the intricate web of relations and fate in a small New England town, told with interlocking storylines in a unique and mesmerizing voice of uncommon power in this debut novel.May has arrived in the tiny hamlet of Glenville, Vermont, bringing with it currents of rejuvenation and rebirth. For 3 families, though, the year ahead will prove to be a roller coaster of life-changing events, promises, and tragedies.Liquid, Fragile, Perishable unspools via a chorus of unforgettable voices: an old-school Christian...

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lexy Timms delivers a tender story of how the heart finds love in the most unexpected places.Cayden shouldn’t be the one.Not the one with Lillian. He’s tall, dark, handsome, and strong. She’s… well, she’s fragile. In every sense of the world.They’re nothing alike.He’s outdoorsy, adventurous, a personal trainer, loves to party, has social skills that would make a celebrity jealous, and in love with Lillian. She’s quiet, a bit of a lost soul, learning to manage her Crohn’s disease, and still suffering from the loss of her best friend.When Andrew, the brother of her best friend, is hurt in an accident, Lillian drops everything to help him. Convincing Cayden that she feels obligated, that Andrew isn’t in love with her, that she has everything under control, might be nearly impossible.Can their love survive distance, mistrust, and hurt? Or will the pain of the past drive a wedge between Cayden and Lillian forever?Fragile Series:Fragile TouchFragile KissFragile Love

After forming a truce with Constantine, the Emperor of Rome, King Arthur of Britain feels confident in his newly established rule. His people are united under his banner, the pagan and the Christian living together as one in his lands, and there seems to be nothing left to do but celebrate his triumph. But a storm is brewing, both within the kingdom and outside it. A terrible plague spreads through the land, killing thousands and weakening Arthur’s army. And a rival warlord is gaining power, inciting those on Britain’s borders to mount an attack. Can Arthur rally enough men to his side to stop the threat of war? Or will his fragile peace be shattered? ‘A Fragile Peace’ is the fifth book in Paul Bannister’s best-selling ‘Arthur Britannicus’ series, chronicling the life of King Arthur in ancient Britain. It is perfect for fans of Conn Iggulden, Ben Kane and Simon Scarrow. ‘I enjoyed A Fragile Peace for several reasons: its ability to bring this historical period alive in all its splendour and brutality, its pace and its successful handling of the first person narrative.’ - Helen McCabe, author of ‘The Price of Beauty’. 'A thrilling story which weaves together both history and legend.' - Richard Foreman, best-selling author of the Swords of Rome series. 'A fantastic insight into Roman life.' - Tom Kasey, best-selling author of 'The Dante Conspiracy'. Paul Bannister is a journalist and author. His other books in the series are 'Arthur Britannicus', 'Arthur Imperator', ‘Arthur Invictus’ and ‘The King’s Cavalry’. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent publisher of digital books.

Two decades after the end of the Second World War, Anna Marlow stands among a crowd of spectators gathered around a lake in Norway. She is watching an aircraft being raised up from the depths of a lake. As she does so, she remembers its pilot - with a heart that is heavy for reasons far more complicated than a love that was lost during the Second World War. As a British secret agent, Anna had returned to her Nazi-occupied homeland during the war to join the Norwegian resistance. Assuming a new identity, she lived among the Nazis whilst carrying out highly dangerous acts of sabotage, risking her life and the lives of her loved ones. Despite the constant danger she faced, Anna found love – or love found Anna. But as the war drags her away from those she loves, can this passion outlast Germany’s occupation of Norway? Or will it be just one more casualty of the conflict? ‘The Fragile Hour’ is an gripping wartime romance about the courage and sacrifices made by the women of the secret service during the Second World War. 'A moving story of love and war.' - Robert Foster, best-selling author of 'Then Lunar Code'. Rosalind Laker was lucky enough to be born into a family that took a great interest in its forebears, and tales of them were handed down to her, providing characters and incidents for many of her historical novels. Endeavour Press is the UK's leading independent digital publisher.

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lexy Timms delivers a tender story of how the heart finds love in the most unexpected places.“His body is perfect. He’s got this face that isn’t just heart-melting but actually kind of exotic…”Lillian Warren’s life is just how she’s designed it. She has a high-paying job working with celebrities and the elite, teaching them how to better organize their lives. She’s on her own, the days quiet, but she likes it that way. Especially since she’s still figuring out how to live with her recent diagnosis of Crohn’s disease. Her cats keep her company, and she’s not the least bit lonely. Fun-loving personal trainer, Cayden, thinks his neighbor is a killjoy. He’s only seen her a few times, and the woman looks like she needs a drink or three. He knows how to party and decides to invite her to over—if he can find her. What better way to impress her than take care of her overgrown yard? She proceeds to thank him by throwing up in his painstakingly-trimmed-to-perfection bushes.Something about the fragile, mysterious woman captivates him.Something about this rough-on-the-outside bear of a man attracts Lily, despite her heart warning her to tread carefully.Fragile Series:Fragile TouchFragile KissFragile Love

SUMMARY: For many years now China's economy has seemed unstoppable. A slow appreciation of the renminbi in 2007 brought wave upon wave of liquidity into China and allowed its companies and banks to raise hundreds of billions in dollars via stock market listings. State banks that had started the new century as bankrupt relics of a communist past became the darlings of international investors. Even the collapse of Lehman Brothers in 2008 and the ensuing global financial crisis seemed to have little impact on China as the government quickly responded with a huge stimulus package. But the Lehman collapse was a dramatic wake up call to the Chinese leadership. This model of bank and capital market reform had been studiously emulated for more than a decade and had brought great benefits to China. But now, although they believed it to be bankrupt, the Chinese government were bereft of new ideas. In the face of the global financial crisis the government returned to what it knows best, massive state intervention via the banking system. Ten years of banking and capital market reforms were dead.In Red Capitalism, Carl Walter and Fraser Howie detail how the Chinese government reformed and modeled its financial system in the 30 years since it began its policy of engagement with the west. Instead of a stable series of policies producing steady growth, China's financial sector has boomed and gone bust with regularity in each decade. The latest decade is little different. Chinese banks have become objects of political struggle while they totter under balance sheets bloated by the excessive state-directed lending and bond issuance of 2009.Looking forward, the government's response to the global financial crisis has created a banking system the stability of which can be maintained only behind the walls of a non-convertible currency, a myriad of off-balance sheet arrangements with non-public state entities and the strong support of its best borrowers--the politically potent National Champions--who are the greatest beneficiaries of the financial status quo.China's financial system is not a model for the west and, indeed, is not a sustainable arrangement for China itself as it seeks increasingly to assert its influence internationally. This is not a story of impending collapse, but of frustrated reforms that suggests that any full opening and meaningful reform of the financial sector is not, indeed cannot be, on the government's agenda anytime soon.

In the tradition of Sarah Dessen and Morgan Matson comes a pitch perfect novel about friendship and what it takes to break the bonds between friends.Caddy and Rosie have always been inseparable. But that was before Suzanne. Now the twosome has become a triangle with constantly shifting alliances. Caddy's ready to be more than just the quiet one. She wants something to happen. Suzanne is trying to escape her past and be someone different, someone free. But sometimes downward spirals have a momentum of their own. And no one can break your heart like a best friend.

The Civil war unleashes a bitter battle near Caroline's home--and in her heart. Parentless, and with a young brother to tend, Caroline blames God and the Yankees for her difficulties. Then, she finds a wounded Union soldier lying in her lawn, and her world is turned upside-down... Shot and left for dead, Nate thanks God for the Confederate angel who takes him in and nurses him back to health, but dreams of taking her West with him after the war are dampened by her Southern alliances and hardened heart. Will the war pull them apart, or can Nate's faith bind them together?

An incredible memoir from one of the world's most eminent heart surgeons and some of the most remarkable and poignant cases he's worked on. Grim Reaper sits on the heart surgeon's shoulder. A slip of the hand and life ebbs away. The balance between life and death is so delicate, and the heart surgeon walks that rope between the two. In the operating room there is no time for doubt. It is flesh, blood, rib-retractors and pumping the vital organ with your bare hand to squeeze the life back into it. An off-day can have dire consequences – this job has a steep learning curve, and the cost is measured in human life. Cardiac surgery is not for the faint of heart. Professor Stephen Westaby took chances and pushed the boundaries of heart surgery. He saved hundreds of lives over the course of a thirty-five year career and now, in his astounding memoir, Westaby details some of his most remarkable and poignant cases – such as the baby who had suffered multiple heart attacks by six months...

Dr. Dulcinea (Dulcie) Chambers is honored to have the esteemed British artist Logan Dumbarton as a guest at the Maine Museum of Art. The abstract expressionist painter has come all the way from London to teach a master class. His students, a group of talented local artists, are initially in awe. However, the eccentric artist is accompanied by an entourage that is proving less than ideal. His stunningly exotic wife Isabel is a constant distraction with her incessant whining, while Linda, Logan's ever-efficient sister and business manager, does nothing but placate her brother's whims. To make matters worse, Logan seems to vacillate between annoyingly sniveling and irritatingly egocentric at any given moment.Within a week the entire class loathes him. Is he really worth all of this trouble? Somebody doesn't seem to think so, and it's up to Dulcie to find out who. But she'll have to team up with Detective Nicholas Black once again, and at the moment their relationship can only be...

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Lies, Black Out, and Die For You comes a novel of corrosive secrets, tenuous connections, and the all-encompassing strength of a mother's faith. Despite their mostly happy marriage, when their son Ricky's girlfriend vanishes, Maggie and Jones find themselves at odds – Maggie is positive Ricky had nothing to do with Charlene's disappearance, while Jones isn't as sure. With Charlene gone, the memory of another young girl who went missing some twenty years ago is haunting the town. That story didn't have a happy ending, and almost everyone has an unrevealed reason to keep the horror of it firmly in the past. As Jones and the police turn their focus on Ricky, Maggie must find out the truth about what happened all those years ago. In order to save her son and the young woman whose life hangs in the balance, she'll test the bonds of her community – and find out just how fragile they can be.

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lexy Timms delivers a tender story of how the heart finds love in the most unexpected places.“His body is perfect. He’s got this face that isn’t just heart-melting but actually kind of exotic…”Lillian Warren’s life is just how she’s designed it. She has a high-paying job working with celebrities and the elite, teaching them how to better organize their lives. She’s on her own, the days quiet, but she likes it that way. Especially since she’s still figuring out how to live with her recent diagnosis of Crohn’s disease. Her cats keep her company, and she’s not the least bit lonely. Fun-loving personal trainer, Cayden, thinks his neighbor is a killjoy. He’s only seen her a few times, and the woman looks like she needs a drink or three. He knows how to party and decides to invite her to over—if he can find her. What better way to impress her than take care of her overgrown yard? She proceeds to thank him by throwing up in his painstakingly-trimmed-to-perfection bushes.Something about the fragile, mysterious woman captivates him.Something about this rough-on-the-outside bear of a man attracts Lily, despite her heart warning her to tread carefully.Fragile Series:Fragile TouchFragile KissFragile Love

When a savage earthquake rocks Los Angeles, buildings crumble and highways fall apart. Matthew Calvert, a young family man on the job interview of his life, finds himself at ground zero of the destruction—his building collapses beneath him and he wakes to find himself buried under a mountain of rubble, badly injured, trapped in the dark. As his injuries worsen with each passing hour, he clings to memories to fight off the fear of impending death, the hope for salvation. Soon, however, the memories turn dark and his terror escalates. There are things with him in the dark. Trying desperately to hold onto his sanity, Matthew clings to the barrier between this life and the next, his mind flipping between reality and delusion, before confronting a final horrifying truth: Sometimes the hallucinations are real.

Julianna Dryden doesn’t wear black. Though recently widowed, her husband Owen, a Cambridge Don, killed in Cairo, she wears costly furs and snakeskin boots, and though poor as the church mouse regularly travels to London, to Bloomsbury, to the home of the celebrated artist, Lady Evelyn Carrington, the Society hostess and friend of Bertie, Prince of Wales. Julianna, or Ju-ju as she is known, is beautiful with bright copper hair and amber eyes. She has secrets, mildly scandalous secrets that she keeps as best she can. In the spring of 1897 Julianna and Matty, her little boy, move into a cottage in Norfolk. The cottage, or the Needed and Necessary as is it known, has secrets of its own, old secrets, jagged and sharp like shards of costly broken Meissen china. As with all things hidden in darkness given light and laughter, and a Wolf’s howl, the secrets will gain new life and reach out to choke Julianna.

Three lives. Three broken hearts... Piper loved her mummy. So when she loses her, her world is confused and sad. But she has Rachel now. She won't leave her as well, will she? Rachel finds out she has a 5-year-old sister on the same day that she is told her mother has died. Having been in foster care for years, she never really knew her mum, but she knows for sure she doesn't want the same thing for Piper. She knows she has to take care of her – but how? Mary never even got to see her baby. They took it away as soon as she gave birth. And the hole in her heart has never healed. So when she meets Rachel and Piper, two lost girls looking for a family, her broken heart skips a beat... Praise for Buffy Andrews '5 Huge-Tear-Stained-Stars!' - Smut & Spitfire on The Moment Keeper 'Be warned this is a tale about choices, bereavement and relationships in this book which may cause a few tears to fall...' - Cleopatra Loves Books on The Moment Keeper 'The author has written a story which drew...

From the author of stunning debut The Mourning Hours comes a powerful new novel that explores every parent's worst nightmare...The Kaufmans have always considered themselves a normal, happy family. Curtis is a physics teacher at a local high school. His wife, Kathleen, restores furniture for upscale boutiques. Daniel is away at college on a prestigious music scholarship, and twelve-year-old Olivia is a happy-go-lucky kid whose biggest concern is passing her next math test.And then comes the middle-of-the-night phone call that changes everything. Daniel has been killed in what the police are calling a "freak" road accident, and the remaining Kaufmans are left to flounder in their grief.The anguish of Daniel's death is isolating, and it's not long before this once-perfect family finds itself falling apart. As time passes and the wound refuses to heal, Curtis becomes obsessed with the idea of revenge, a growing mania that leads him to...

Book 2 of The Bells of Lowell. The mill town of Lowell, Massachusetts, beckons Arabella Newberry when she decides to flee the life of the Shakers. There she finds the independence she seeks and a greater purpose as she works for educational reform. But Lowell, plagued by ethnic strife, seems no longer a safe haven but rather a danger when several girls go missing. As rumors and conflict invade the industry of the mill, Arabella struggles with her own heart as two men vie for her love.

A multicultural American family comes together just as the world around them begins to fall apart... When Vic Singh finds a dead blue butterfly-out of place in his cold, upstate New York village-he knows something is terribly amiss. Yet he is too busy dodging the bully at his high school, let alone trying to live up to his father's expectations, to look much further into the environmental oddities around him. Meanwhile, for Vic's father, Paul, the ghosts of the past cause him to pressure his son to live up to his Sikh traditions-while his Latvian wife, Maija, is haunted by the present: She's having new and ominous psychic visions even though she can't read her own teenage children. Isabella, attempting to lose herself through her role in a school play, has an illness she can't seem to shake-and Vic, trying to find himself, is spending more time alone in nature. Then Paul's father and Maija's mother move in to the family home, upending the delicate balance of this Indian/Latvian family and its two American teenagers. Yet, as the environmental devastation that Vic's butterflies have forewarned comes to bear, the family comes together in new and unexpected ways. Olivia Chadha's lovely, multilayered novel brings us into an extended family of three generations that strives to remain together in an unstable world.Review"Chadha's absorbing first novel depicts a family of first-generation immigrants in upstate New York encountering the difficulties of survival, assimilation and longing for home...It's a delightful intrigue, with strong characters who develop and grow throughout the book as they face frightening turns."-Publisher's Weekly From the Back CoverA multicultural American family comes together just as the world around them begins to fall apart...When Vic Singh finds a dead blue butterfly--out of place in his cold, upstate New York village--he knows something is terribly amiss. Yet he is too busy dodging the bully at his high school, let alone trying to live up to his father's expectations, to look much further into the environmental oddities around him.Meanwhile, for Vic's father, Paul, the ghosts of the past cause him to pressure his son to live up to his Sikh traditions--while his Latvian wife, Maija, is haunted by the present: She's having new and ominous psychic visions even though she can't read her own teenage children. Isabella, attempting to lose herself through her role in a school play, has an illness she can't seem to shake--and Vic, trying to find himself, is spending more time alone in nature.Then Paul's father and Maija's mother move in to the family home, upending the delicate balance of this Indian/Latvian family and its two American teenagers. Yet, as the environmental devastation that Vic's butterflies have forewarned comes to bear, the family comes together in new and unexpected ways.Olivia Chadha's lovely, multilayered novel brings us into an extended family of three generations that strives to remain together in an unstable world.

USA Today Bestselling Author, Lexy Timms delivers a tender story of how the heart finds love in the most unexpected places.“You broke up with me over a text?”Lillian Warren didn’t mean to break up with Cayden over a text. Well, actually she did. She didn’t have the courage to do it to his face because she was afraid she wouldn’t go through with it. She doesn’t deserve this handsome, sweet and extremely passionate guy. Did she mention how hot he was? Incredibly, put-the-sun-to-shame hot.How could Cayden fall for a boring girl with Crohn’s disease? Impossible.Cayden, on the other hand, doesn’t understand what happened. Things were perfect Why would Lillian break up simply because he’s working in LA. Sure, there’s some distance, but with modern technology it shouldn’t be a big deal. Plus, it’s only temporary.Or is there an opportunity in LA that Cayden would be crazy to say no to?Fragile Series:Fragile TouchFragile KissFragile Love

*"I absolutely loved this continuation of Matt & Chloe's story! Again we get flawless writing, delicious angst, and scenes where the chemistry is super hot. When these two are together, you can feel their passion - they are perfect for each other."*~Lori ~BF Bookies Book Blog-Matt gets the job offer of a lifetime. The only problem? He'd have to leave town just when his connection to Chloe is starting to intensify. He knows what he feels for her is more than just lust. Just like he knows that if he pushes their relationship too far, too fast, it will die before it ever has a chance to begin. He only has one week to decide between his dream career, and the woman he can't get out of his thoughts. Chloe knows Matt is hiding something, and she is certain that whatever it is will cause their ultimate demise. In an attempt to delay the inevitable, she asks Matt to hold off on telling her what it is for one night. A single night to relish in each other.A night to savor the bond they've formed.A night to make a memory that they can both look back on after all is said and done. She's already surrendered to the idea that they don't have a future together. Will one night change her mind? (It is necessary to read The Fragile Line: Part One before starting Part Two of this invigorating, three part, New-Adult Romance series). **