'I am that, to be sure. Shane O'Neill's the name, but the whole world calls me Blackie.' Opening five years before the start of A Woman of Substance, Blackie and Emma begins with 13-year-old Blackie O'Neill facing an uncertain future in rural County Kerry. Orphaned and alone, he has just buried his sister, Bronagh, and must leave his home to set sail for England, in search of a better life with his mother's brother in Leeds. There, he learns his trade as a navvy, amid the grand buildings and engineering triumphs of one of England's most prosperous cities, and starts to dream of greater things... And then, high on the Yorkshire moors, in the mists of a winter morning he meets a kitchen maid called Emma Harte. In Blackie and Emma, the true Blackie O'Neill is revealed. For the first time, readers discover his story: his tumultuous life, the obstacles facing him, the desire he has to throw off the impotence of poverty and move up in the world. Like his friend Emma, he is ambitious,...

Theirs is a world of ancient desires and forbidden pleasures. They are men of mystery and women of seduction, wild creatures with the power to entrance and enchant, tease and tantalize. Enter their secret world, if you dare. . . The Yearning by Hannah Howell Alpin has lived for centuries with a lust that can never be quenched with mere physical pleasure. And then he meets Sophie whose own search for lasting love binds them together in a cloak of shimmering sensuality. . . A Hell of a Time by Jackie Kessler Jesse's immortal life as a soul-stealing succubus is over. And now that she is human, she longs to tempt her lover with all her persuasive powers of total sexual seduction. . . City of Demons by Richelle Mead Seth cannot resist the intense sexual allure of his demon lover Georgina. Yet their love reaches beyond the physical, into a place of complete untamed surrender. . . Bitten by Lynsay Sands Keeran's...

From one of the greatest novelists of the American West comes a surprising and riveting story set in Montana and New York during the Harlem Renaissance, drawing together an unlikely set of thwarted performers in one last inspired grasp at life's set of gold rings: love and renown.Susan Duff — the bossy, indomitable schoolgirl with a silver voice from the pages of Doig's most popular work, Dancing at the Rascal Fair — has reached middle age alone, teaching voice lessons to the progeny of Helena's high society. Wesley Williamson — business scion of a cattle-empire family — has fallen from the heights of gubernatorial aspirations, forced out of a public career by political foes who uncovered his love affair with Susan. Years later, Susan is taken off guard when Wes arrives at her door with an unusual request: to train his chauffeur, Monty, in the ways of voice and performance.Prairie Nocturne is the saga of these three...

A ROWLAND SINCLAIR MYSTERYShanghai in 1935 is a twentieth-century Babylon, an expatriate playground where fortunes are made and lost, where East and West collide, and the stakes include life itself.Into this, Rowland Sinclair arrives from Sydney to represent his brother at international wool negotiations. Rowland is under strict instructions to commit to nothing... but a brutal murder makes that impossible.As suspicion falls on him, Rowland enters a desperate bid to find answers in a city as glitzy as it is dangerous, where tai-pans and tycoons rule, and politics and vice are entwined with commerce.Once again, the only people Rowland can truly trust are an artist, a poet and a free-spirited sculptress."A sparkling crime series... Evelyn Waugh meets Agatha Christie..." – THE AGE

Smuggler. Smoker. Aviatrix. Thief. The dynamic Roxy Loewen is all these things and more, in this riveting and gorgeous historical fiction novel for readers of Paula McLain, Roberta Rich, Kate Morton and Jacqueline Winspear. You should never fall in love with a flyer. You should only fall in love with flight. That's what Roxy Loewen always thought, until she falls for fellow pilot Jocco Zomack as they run guns into Ethiopia. Jocco may be a godless commie, but his father is a leading art dealer and he's found the original of Bruegel's famous painting, the Fall of Icarus. The trouble is, it's in Spain, a country slipping fast into civil war. The money's better than good--if Roxy can just get the painting to Berlin and back out again before Reichsmarshall Hermann Goring and his Nazi pals get their hands on it . . . But this is 1936, and Hitler's Olympics are in full swing. Not only that, but Goring has teamed up with Roxy's greatest enemy: Sydney Munroe, an American billionaire responsible for the death of her beloved dad seven years before. When the Nazis steal the painting, Roxy and Jocco decide that they are just going to have to steal it back. What happens when Icarus flies too close to the sun? Roxy is going to find out. From African skies to a cellar in Madrid, from the shadow cast by the swastika to the world above the clouds on the Hindenburg's last voyage, in the end Roxy will have just two choices left--but only one bullet.

Split from: Complete Works of H. Rider Haggard

The year is 2019. Sean Linehan, an international sports executive, arrives in Padania to vet the newly independent nation’s bid to join the world football community. As usual, Linehan has his own agenda: girls, art and money. He finds a ready supply, but how will he react when Padania reveals some of its dark secrets?In this short story set in the near future, Sean Linehan, an international sports executive, travels to Padania, which has recently broken away from Italy to form an independent state, and is now desperate to gain acceptance by joining the world football community. Linehan’s job is ostensibly just to look into its application and report back to his boss. As usual, though, Linehan has his own agenda: girls, art and money. Once again, he finds a ready supply, but how will he react when Padania shows him some of its unwelcome dark secrets? The short story is accompanied by the first chapter of Bryan Murphy’s novella of ideas, Goodbye, Padania.

Oscar Devereaux Micheaux (1884 – 1951) was an African American author, film director and independent producer of more than 44 films. Micheaux decided to concentrate on writing and, eventually, filmmaking, a new industry. He wrote seven novels. In 1913, 1,000 copies of his first book, The Conquest: The Story of a Negro Homesteader, were printed. He published the book anonymously, for unknown reasons. Based on his experiences as a homesteader and the failure of his first marriage, it was largely autobiographical. Although character names have been changed, the protagonist is named Oscar Devereaux. His theme was about African Americans realizing their potential and succeeding in areas where they had not felt they could. The book outlines the difference between city lifestyles of Negroes and the life he decided to lead as a lone negro out on the far West as a pioneer. He discusses the culture of doers who want to accomplish and those who see themselves as victims of injustice and hopelessness and who do not want to try to succeed, but instead like to pretend to be successful while living the city lifestyle in poverty. He had become frustrated with getting members of his race to populate the frontier and make something of themselves, with real work and property investment. He wrote over 100 letters to fellow Negroes in the East beckoning them to come West, and only his older brother eventually came West. One of Micheaux\'s fundamental beliefs is that hard work and enterprise will make any person rise to respect and prominence no matter his or her race.

A wonderfully atmospheric collection of stories from one of our most captivating writers, inspired by ghost stories, traditional folk tales and country legends from England and France. These tales are richly populated by spirits and ghosts seeking revenge; by grief-stricken women and haunted men coming to terms with their destiny - all rooted deep in the elemental landscapes of Sussex, Brittany and the Languedoc. The collection will include The Mistletoe Bride, La Fille de Melisande, Red Letter Day, The Lending Library, The House on the Hill...

The remarkable Lindsey magic is stronger than ever! The spectacular #1 bestselling author returns with a glorious tale of passion and duty set in medieval England. A betrothal has been announced that will join together Britain's two most powerful families , a union of wealth and influence to rival even the King's himself. But not only does the dangerously ambitious King John oppose this wedding, but Milisant and Wulfric : the intended bride and groom , are equally unhappy with the arrangement. Two passionate, headstrong people, they resent being thrown together for purely dynastic reasons. But fate's many twists and turns , and the unpredictable predilections of two unconquerable hearts will turn an unwanted marriage of convenience into a true and eternal joining of desire and love.