A Prince Without a Kingdom

      Timothee de Fombelle
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Fleeing dark forces and unfounded accusations across Europe in the years between World Wars, a young man named Vango has been in danger for as long as he can remember. He has spent his life running along rooftops, fleeing to isolated islands, and evading capture across Russia, Paris, New York, and Italy. Narrow escapes, near misses, and a dash of romantic intrigue will rivet adventurous teens to their seats as Vango continues to unravel the mysteries of his past. In the shadow of a rapidly changing world, can Vango find those who have hunted him for so long and uncover his true identity?

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    Hand of God

      Philip Kerr
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City players know they aren't well-liked in Greece, but they never expected to face death on the football pitch.Scott Manson and London City are in Athens battling for the UEFA Champion's League title. The situation in Athens is tense, and some of City's players are so unpopular in Greece they've been assigned bodyguards.Karaiskakis Stadium is packed to the rafters when tragedy strikes. Christoph Bundchen collapses and dies mid-match. Is it a heart attack? Or something more sinister? The team have a crucial match in England - but they can't go home until the investigation is complete. The Greek authorities are dragging their heels... Can Scott Manson find the truth and get the team home in time?The second Scott Manson thriller from bestselling crimewriter Philip Kerr.

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    The Orphan Mother

      Robert Hicks
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A powerful new novel by the New York Times bestselling author of The Widow of the South and A Separate Country.In the years following the Civil War, Mariah Reddick, former slave to Carrie McGavock—the "Widow of the South"—has quietly built a new life for herself as a midwife to the women of Franklin, Tennessee. But when her ambitious, politically-minded grown son, Theopolis, is murdered, Mariah—no stranger to loss—finds her world once more breaking apart. How could this happen? Who wanted him dead?Mariah's journey to uncover the truth leads her to unexpected people—including Robert Cannon, a recent arrival to town, fleeing a difficult past of his own—and forces her to confront the truths of her own past. Brimming with the vivid prose and historical research that has won "master storyteller" (San Francisco Chronicle) Robert Hicks an avid following and critical acclaim, THE ORPHAN MOTHER is an...

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    The Randy Romance Novelist

      Meghan Quinn
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**WARNING: THE RANDY ROMANCE NOVELIST IS OVER THE TOP, RIDICULOUS, AND IS MEANT TO MAKE YOU BURST OUT IN LAUGHTER, QUESTION THE SANITY OF THIS AUTHOR, AND WELCOME OVER-DRAMATIZED COMEDY INTO YOUR LIFE. PLEASE PROCEED IF YOU WOULD LIKE TO READ ABOUT ABSURD TOMFOOLERY TYPE EVENTS, BE EXPOSED TO THE BOOK WORLD AND OTHER AUTHORS, AS WELL AS SEE THAT EVEN IN THE MIDST OF A COMICAL COMBUSTION OF NONSENSICAL CRAZINESS (AND NAÏVE CHARACTERS) LOVE WILL ALWAYS PREVAIL. It finally happened, I lost my virginity. Cue applause and cheers. For a while life was all rainbows and kittens prancing in a sky full of cotton candy clouds…that was until the demands of the real world set in. My best friend is getting married and she asked me to be her maid of honor. She’s not worried about flowers, or the dress, or the food at the venue. No, she’s worried about the bachelorette party, what kind of penis crown she will wear, and the nipple size of the stripper who will be attending. I’m in way over my head trying to balance life with a boyfriend, planning a penis party, and writing my romance novel. Something is bound to give. This is my life after my happily ever after…**

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    A Parchment of Leaves

      Silas House
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When Silas House made his debut with Clay's Quilt last year, it touched a nerve not just in his home state (where it quickly became a bestseller), but all across the country. Glowing reviews-from USA Today (House is letter-perfect with his first novel), to the Philadelphia Inquirer (Compelling. . . . House knows what's important and reminds us of the value of family and home, love and loyalty), to the Mobile Register (Poetic, haunting), and everywhere in between-established him as a writer to watch.His second novel won't disappoint. Set in 1917, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES tells the story of Vine, a beautiful Cherokee woman who marries a white man, forsaking her family and their homeland to settle in with his people and make a home in the heart of the mountains. Her mother has strange forebodings that all will not go well, and she's right. Vine is viewed as an outsider, treated with contempt by other townspeople. Add to that her brother-in-law's fixation on her, and Vine's life becomes more complicated than she could have ever imagined. In the violent turn of events that ensues, she learns what it means to forgive others and, most important, how to forgive herself.As haunting as an old-time ballad, A PARCHMENT OF LEAVES is filled with the imagery, dialect, music, and thrumming life of the Kentucky mountains. For Silas House, whose great-grandmother was Cherokee, this novel is also a tribute to the family whose spirit formed him.From Publishers WeeklyHouse offers a poignant, evocative look at the turmoil that plagues a rural Kentucky family during WWI in his solid second novel, which begins when Saul Sullivan takes a shine to a mysterious, beautiful Cherokee woman named Vine. Courtship quickly leads to marriage and a newborn girl named Birdie, but trouble surfaces when Saul's younger brother, Aaron, an unfocused dreamer who longs for a more fulfilling life than his country existence as a laborer, also becomes attracted to Vine. Aaron's opportunity to express his longings comes when Saul leaves to work at a logging camp, hoping to provide some luxuries for his family while supporting the war effort. Vine spurns Aaron's initial advances and manages to drive him away, but the younger brother returns with a young mixed-race bride from East Tennessee who looks exactly like Vine, and soon he is drinking heavily and exercising his formidable temper on his newly pregnant wife. Saul returns briefly to try to straighten out his brother but, when he departs, Aaron turns his attentions on Vine again, who shoots Aaron after he rapes her and goes after Birdie, then buries the body on top of a mountain near the family homestead. A slightly more original story line would have made this an exceptional novel, but House's lovely storytelling, graceful prose, strong characters and his feel for Southern rural life distinguish it. Agent, ICM. (Oct. 18) Forecast: Solid local sales are the bedrock on which this novel's success will rest, but strong reviews, a 15-city author tour and House's NPR connection (he is a frequent contributor) are certain to broaden House's audience. Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc. From Library JournalIn 1917 rural Kentucky, a young Cherokee woman named Vine, rumored to cast spells on unsuspecting men, falls in love with local Irishman Saul Sullivan, whom she eventually marries. This second novel by Appalachian writer House (Clay's Quilt) tells the story of Vine and Saul's tender relationship and the prejudice they face and eventually overcome. While Vine was not raised according to Cherokee customs, she is still aware of being seen as an outsider when she leaves her Cherokee community to be with her husband. People are drawn to her gentle and generous personality, however, and soon she forms enduring friendships with her hard-working mother-in-law, Esme, and feisty and independent midwife Serena. When World War I erupts and Saul temporarily takes a better-paying job far from home, Vine finds herself trying to ward off the unwanted advances of Saul's restless younger brother, Aaron, who declares his own love for Vine. A deep respect for the natural world and the enduring spirit of the human heart are what make this book worth reading and remembering. Recommended for all fiction collections.Maureen Neville, Trenton P.L., NJ Copyright 2002 Reed Business Information, Inc.

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    Leaving Ardglass

      William King
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'One of the best novels to have come out of Ireland in a long time ... it chronicles not just a personal and spiritual journey but the state of a nation over 40 years. Outstanding.' John Boland, Irish Independent. 'Leaving Ardglass gives us a stunning insight into Church politics, the highs and lows of serving God, and the confusions and contradictions that modern Ireland has foisted on all of us.' Joe Duffy, Mail on Sunday. 'A finely written and brave book that throws up uncomfortable truths and interesting parallels between hidden worlds driven by ambitious men determined to survive.' Dermot Bolger, Sunday Business Post. In 1961, MJ Galvin, an Irish building contractor in London, brings over his kid brother, Tom, to join the family business. Educated, sensitive and naive, and destined for the seminary, Tom witnesses a killing, learns about dead men and the start in Camden Town, experiences drunken brawls and the excitement of dancehall nights in the Galtymore. He faces a...

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    Dead Warrior

      John Myers Myers
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"I tell you what I'll do," he said. "The stage won't be no good to me until Powder Keg amounts to somethin' . . . I'll bet a coach and team against what's on the table, draw and show down."His offer was a sufficient warning of his strength. However, I still liked my aces. A pair of them pack a lot of power in a two-handed game, and I had the feeling that my luck had not run out . . .I counted my aces as casually as pounding pulses would permit. "Can you beat 'em?"His face showed me he could not . . . "How about loanin' me your pony?"

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    The Shoe on the Roof

      Will Ferguson
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From the Giller Prize–winning novelist of 419 comes the startling, funny, and heartbreaking story of a psychological experiment gone wrong.Ever since his girlfriend dumped him, Thomas Rosanoff's life has been on a downward spiral. A gifted med student, he has spent his entire adulthood struggling to escape the legacy of his father, an esteemed psychiatrist who used him as a test subject when he was a boy. Thomas lived his entire young life as the "Boy in the Box," watched by researchers behind two-way glass. But now the tables have turned. Thomas is the researcher, and his subjects are three homeless men, all of whom claim to be messiahs—but no three people can be the one and only saviour of the world. Thomas is determined to "cure" the three men of their delusions, and in so doing save his career—and maybe even his love life. But when Thomas's father intervenes in the experiment, events spin out of control, and Thomas must confront the voices...

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    The Sinners' Garden

      William Sirls
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In the small Lake Erie township of Benning, someone is at work cultivating a supernatural garden …Andy Kemp’s young life has been as ravaged as his scarred face. Disfigured by an abusive father, the teenager hides behind his books and an impenetrable wall of cynicism and anger.As Andy’s mother struggles to reconnect with him, his Uncle Rip returns transformed from a stint in prison and wants to be a mentor to the reclusive boy, doing everything he can to help end Andy’s pain. When Andy begins hearing strange music through his iPod and making near-prophetic announcements, Rip is convinced that what Andy is hearing is the voice of God. Elsewhere, police officer Heather Gerisch responds to a late-night breaking and entering in one of the poorest homes in town. She soon realizes that the masked prowler has left thousands of dollars in gift cards from a local grocery store. As the bizarre break-ins continue and Heather pursues the elusive “Summer Santa,” Andy and Rip discover an enormous and well-kept garden of wildflowers that seems to have grown overnight at an abandoned steel mill. Soon, they realize who the gardener is, and a spree of miracles transfigures this small town from a place of hopelessness into a place of healing and beauty.**

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    Return of the Ascendant (The Ascendant Series)

      Raine Thomas
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Expecting to enjoy another typical college night at a frat party with friends, Kyra Vaughn’s plans derail when she’s almost killed…twice. Her savior, a tall, sexy stranger who calls himself TaeDane, claims that he’s the personal bodyguard for the Ascendant of Alametria. She’s convinced he’s crazy.   Especially when he insists that she’s the Ascendant.   With dark enemies hunting her down, Kyra has no choice but to trust her supposed bodyguard. Ty vows to help her remember her past and return her safely to Alametria, but someone seems intent on interfering, challenging his abilities at every turn.   As Kyra’s memories emerge, she remembers that Ty is more to her than he’s let on…much more than he’s allowed to be. She’ll also discover that there are many things about her planet and herself that she’d rather forget. In the end, she’ll have to make a choice: cling to the life she knows, or risk it all to become the person she’s destined to be.  

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    A Girl Like You

      Maureen Lindley
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In the 1930s and '40s in Angelina, California, Satomi is the only girl with one white parent and one Japanese parent. There are Japanese families, but Satomi is neither a part of the white community nor the Japanese one. She is "other" to both. Things get worse for Satomi--and all people with even a drop of Japanese blood--when Japan poses a threat to the United States. Her father joins the Navy, in part to fight for his country, and in part to protect his wife and daughter from racist citizens, but dies in the bombing of Pearl Harbor. Rather than being celebrated as a hero, his death is ignored by the neighbors who shun Satomi and her mother. Shortly thereafter, they are taken to internment camps where they are treated like animals.*Satomi's sudden loss of freedom is a terrible thing to bear, and she is disgusted by the utter lack of privacy, the open latrines, the sewage that runs behind their barrack, and the poorly built hovels that allow stinging dirt and dust to enter during frequent storms. But in the camp she finds a community for the first time. Not all of the Japanese residents welcome her, but Satomi and her mother find good friends in the family housed next to them in the barracks, and in the camp doctor, who is drawn to Satomi's spirit and her mother's grace. Satomi cares for Cora, one of the young orphans at the camp, as a daughter.*Throughout it all, Satomi yearns for love. When she is finally freed from the internment camp, she heads east, finding a job, a shabby room, and several suitors in New York. There are men who would make her life easier, those who would take care of her, but Satomi insists on love--and finds it, in unexpected places.**

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