Кра?на стр?мко летить у пр?рву: моторошна криза охоплю? вс? царини людського життя. Псевдовчен? наполегливо пропагують: мислення – це ?люз?я, пошук будь-якого сенсу – абсурд, ? зрештою уряд оголошу? моратор?й на розум. Талано- вит? п?дпри?мц? безсл?дно зникають, кидаючи сво? виробництво напризволяще або знищуючи його. Головн? геро? роману – Да?н? Та??арт ? Генк Р?арден – в?дчайдушно намагаються в?двернути катастрофу. Да?н? переконана, що в кра?н? з’явився та?м- ничий Руйн?вник, ц?ль якого – крах економ?ки ? тотальна деградац?я людей. Ж?нка не покида? над?? в?дтворити досконалий двигун, але перспективний молодий нау- ковець, який погодився допомогти ?й, в?дмовля?ться працювати на благо нев?глас?в. Да?н? не хоче в?дмовлятися в?д свого задуму, тож ?де на зустр?ч з? знев?реним до- сл?дником, а в дороз? знайомиться з волоцюгою. Свого часу в?н працював там, де й зародилося ?чисте зло?, яке зараз пожира? кра?ну… Друга частина роману м?стить блискуч? св?тоглядн? монологи, вкладен? в уста Франциско Д’Анкон?? та Генка Р?ардена.

In 1888 a client, Mary Morstan, comes with two puzzles for Holmes. The first is the disappearance of her father Captain Arthur Morstan in December 1878 and the second is that she has received 6 pearls in the mail from an anonymous benefactor once a year since 1882, since she answered an anonymous newspaper query inquiring for her. With the last pearl she has received a letter remarking that she has been a wronged woman and asks for meeting. Holmes takes the case and soon discovers that Major Sholto — Morstan's only friend who had denied seeing Morstan — had died in 1882 and that within a short span of time Mary began to receive the pearls, implying a connection. The only clue Mary can give Holmes is a map of a fortress with the names of Jonathan Small and three Sikhs, who are named Dost Akbar, Abdullah Khan, and Mahomet Singh. Holmes, Watson, and Mary meet Thaddeus Sholto, the son of the late Major Sholto and Capt Morstan's Army friend who has sent her the pearls. Thaddeus remarks that his father had a paranoid fear of one-legged men and confirms that Mary's father had seen the Major the night he died. That night, in a quarrel about an Agra Treasure, Morstan — who was in weak health — suffered a heart attack. Not wanting to bring attention to the object of the quarrel to public notice, Sholto disposed of the body and hid the treasure. However his own health became worse when he received a letter from India. Dying, he called his two sons and confessed to Morstan's death and was about to divulge the location of the treasure when he suddenly cried "Keep him out!". The puzzled sons glimpsed a face in the window but the only trace was a single footstep in the dirt. On their father's body is a note reading "The Sign of Four". Both brothers quarreled over whether a legacy should be left to Mary Morstan and Thaddeus left his brother Bartholomew, taking a chaplet and sending its pearls to Mary. The reason he sent the letter is that Bartholomew has found the treasure and possibly Thaddeus and Mary might confront him for a division of it. Bartholomew is found dead in his home from a poison dart and the treasure is missing. While the police wrongly take Thaddeus in as a suspect Holmes deduces that there are two persons involved in the murder: a one-legged man, Jonathan Small, as well as another "small" accomplice. He traces them to a boat landing where Small has hired a launch named the Aurora. With the help of his Baker Street Irregulars and his own disguise Holmes traces the launch. In a Police launch Holmes and Watson chase the Aurora and capture it but in the process end up killing the "small" companion after he attempts to kill Holmes with a poisoned dart shot from a blow-pipe. Small tries to escape but is captured. However the iron treasure box is empty; Small claims to have dumped the treasure over the side during the chase.

The book's protagonist is an English scientist and gentleman inventor living in Richmond, Surrey in Victorian England, and identified by a narrator simply as the Time Traveller. The narrator recounts the Traveller's lecture to his weekly dinner guests that time is simply a fourth dimension, and his demonstration of a tabletop model machine for travelling through it. He reveals that he has built a machine capable of carrying a person, and returns at dinner the following week to recount a remarkable tale, becoming the new narrator.In the new narrative, the Time Traveller tests his device with a journey that takes him to A.D. 802,701, where he meets the Eloi, a society of small, elegant, childlike adults. They live in small communities within large and futuristic yet slowly deteriorating buildings, doing no work and having a frugivorous diet. His efforts to communicate with them are hampered by their lack of curiosity or discipline, and he speculates that they are a peaceful communist society, the result of humanity conquering nature with technology, and subsequently evolving to adapt to an environment in which strength and intellect are no longer advantageous to survival. Returning to the site where he arrived, the Time Traveller is shocked to find his time machine missing, and eventually works out that it has been dragged by some unknown party into a nearby structure with heavy doors, locked from the inside, which resembles a Sphinx. Later in the dark, he is approached menacingly by the Morlocks, ape-like troglodytes who live in darkness underground and surface only at night. Within their dwellings he discovers the machinery and industry that makes the above-ground paradise possible. He alters his theory, speculating that the human race has evolved into two species: the leisured classes have become the ineffectual Eloi, and the downtrodden working classes have become the brutish light-fearing Morlocks. Deducing that the Morlocks have taken his time machine, he explores the Morlock tunnels, learning that they feed on the Eloi. His revised analysis is that their relationship is not one of lords and servants but of livestock and ranchers. The Time Traveller theorizes that intelligence is the result of and response to danger; with no real challenges facing the Eloi, they have lost the spirit, intelligence, and physical fitness of humanity at its peak. Meanwhile, he saves an Eloi named Weena from drowning as none of the other Eloi take any notice of her plight, and they develop an innocently affectionate relationship over the course of several days. He takes Weena with him on an expedition to a distant structure that turns out to be the remains of a museum, where he finds a fresh supply of matches and fashions a crude weapon against Morlocks, whom he fears he must fight to get back his machine. He plans to take Weena back to his own time. Because the long and tiring journey back to Weena's home is too much for them, they stop in the forest, and they are then overcome by Morlocks in the night, and Weena faints. The Traveller escapes only when a small fire he had left behind them to distract the Morlocks catches up to them as a forest fire; Weena is presumably lost in the fire, as are the Morlocks. The Morlocks use the time machine as bait to ensnare the Traveller, not understanding that he will use it to escape. He travels further ahead to roughly 30 million years from his own time. There he sees some of the last living things on a dying Earth, menacing reddish crab-like creatures slowly wandering the blood-red beaches chasing butterflies in a world covered in simple lichenous vegetation. He continues to make short jumps through time, seeing Earth's rotation gradually cease and the sun grow larger, redder, and dimmer, and the world falling silent and freezing as the last degenerate living things die out.

Through the Looking-Glass, and What Alice Found There (1871) is a novel by Lewis Carroll (Charles Lutwidge Dodgson), the sequel to Alice's Adventures in Wonderland (1865). The themes and settings of Through the Looking-Glass make it a kind of mirror image of Wonderland: the first book begins outdoors, in the warm month of May (4 May), uses frequent changes in size as a plot device, and draws on the imagery of playing cards; the second opens indoors on a snowy, wintry night exactly six months later, on 4 November (the day before Guy Fawkes Night), uses frequent changes in time and spatial directions as a plot device, and draws on the imagery of chess. In it, there are many mirror themes, including opposites, time running backwards, and so on. Short Summary: Alice is playing with a white kitten (whom she calls "Snowdrop") and a black kitten (whom she calls "Kitty")—the offspring of Dinah, Alice's cat in Alice's Adventures in Wonderland—when she ponders what the world is like on the other side of a mirror's reflection. Climbing up on the fireplace mantel, she pokes at the wall-hung mirror behind the fireplace and discovers, to her surprise, that she is able to step through it to an alternative world. In this reflected version of her own house, she finds a book with looking-glass poetry, "Jabberwocky", whose reversed printing she can read only by holding it up to the mirror. She also observes that the chess pieces have come to life, though they remain small enough for her to pick up. Upon leaving the house (where it had been a cold, snowy night), she enters a sunny spring garden where the flowers have the power of human speech; they perceive Alice as being a "flower that can move about." Elsewhere in the garden, Alice meets the Red Queen, who is now human-sized, and who impresses Alice with her ability to run at breathtaking speeds. This is a reference to the chess rule that queens are able to move any number of vacant squares at once, in any direction, which makes them the most "agile" of pieces. The Red Queen reveals to Alice that the entire countryside is laid out in squares, like a gigantic chessboard, and offers to make Alice a queen if she can move all the way to the eighth rank/row in a chess match. This is a reference to the chess rule of Promotion. Alice is placed in the second rank as one of the White Queen's pawns, and begins her journey across the chessboard by boarding a train that literally jumps over the third row and directly into the fourth rank, thus acting on the rule that pawns can advance two spaces on their first move.

In “True Ghost Stories,” Mr. Carrington presents a number of startling cases of this character; but they are not the ordinary “ghost stories”—based on pure fiction, and having no foundation in reality. Here we have a well-arranged collection of incidents, all thoroughly investigated and vouched for, and the testimony obtained first-hand and corroborated by others. The chapter on “Haunted Houses” is particularly striking. The first chapter deals with the interesting question, “What is a Ghost?” and attempts to answer this question in the light of the latest scientific theories which have been advanced to explain these supernatural happenings and visitants. It is a book of absorbing interest, and cannot fail to grip and hold the attention of every reader—no matter whether he be a student of these questions, or one merely in search of hair-raising anecdotes and stories. He will find them here a-plenty! The following little book endeavors to bring together a number of “ghost stories” of the more startling and dramatic type,—but stories, nevertheless, which seem to be well authenticated; and which have been obtained, in most instances, at first hand, from the original witnesses; and often contain corroborative testimony from others who also experienced the ghostly phenomena. Some of these incidents, indeed, rise to the dignity of scientific evidence; others are less well authenticated cases,—but interesting for all that. These have been grouped in various Chapters, according to their evidential value. Chapters II. and III. contain well-evidenced cases, some of which have been taken from the Proceedings and Journals of the Society for Psychical Research (S. P. R.), or from Phantasms of the Living, or from other scientific books, in which narratives of this character receive serious consideration. Chapter V., on the contrary, contains a number of incidents which,—striking and dramatic as they are,—cannot be included in the two earlier Chapters, as presenting real evidence of Ghosts; but are published rather as startling and interesting ghost stories. Chapter IV., devoted to “Haunted Houses,” contains brief accounts of the most famous Haunted Houses, and of the phenomena which have been witnessed within them. Appendix A gives a list of a few of the important “Historical Ghosts,” Appendix B describes the “Phantom Armies” lately seen by the Allied troops in France—while Appendix C lists a number of books of Ghost Stories which the interested reader may care to peruse. A short Glossary, at the beginning of the book, explains the meaning of certain terms used,—which are not, perhaps, ordinarily met with in books of this character. In the Introductory Chapter, I have endeavored to explain, very briefly, the nature and character of Ghosts; what they are; and the various scientific theories which have been brought forward, of late years, to explain Ghosts. I hope that this may prove of interest to the reader; in case it does not do so, he is invited to “skip” directly to Chapter II., which begins our account of “True Ghost Stories.” I wish to express my thanks in this place to the Council of the English S. P. R. for special permission to quote and to summarize several striking cases here reproduced; also to Miss Estelle Stead, for permission to utilize several cases previously printed at length in Mr. Wm. T. Stead’s collections of Ghost Stories. H. C. [Author]

The War of the Worlds is a military science fiction novel by H. G. Wells. It first appeared in serialized form in 1897, published simultaneously in Pearson's Magazine in the UK and Cosmopolitan magazine in the US. The first appearance in book form was published by William Heinemann of London in 1898. It is the first-person narrative of the adventures of an unnamed protagonist and his brother in Surrey and London as Earth is invaded by Martians. Written between 1895 and 1897, it is one of the earliest stories that detail a conflict between mankind and an extraterrestrial race. The novel is one of the most commented-on works in the science fiction canon. The War of the Worlds has two parts, Book One: The Coming of the Martians and Book Two: The Earth under the Martians. The narrator, a philosophically-inclined author, struggles to return to his wife while seeing the Martians lay waste to southern England. Book One also imparts the experience of his brother, also unnamed, who describes events in the capital and escapes the Martians by boarding a ship near Tillingham, on the Essex coast. The plot has been related to invasion literature of the time. The novel has been variously interpreted as a commentary on evolutionary theory, British Imperialism, and generally Victorian superstitions, fears and prejudices. At the time of publication it was classified as a scientific romance, like his earlier novel The Time Machine. The War of the Worlds has been both popular (having never gone out of print) and influential, spawning half a dozen feature films, radio dramas, a record album, various comic book adaptations, a television series, and sequels or parallel stories by other authors. It has even influenced the work of scientists, notably Robert Hutchings Goddard. Plot SummaryYet across the gulf of space, minds that are to our minds as ours are to those of the beasts that perish, intellects vast and cool and unsympathetic, regarded this earth with envious eyes, and slowly and surely drew their plans against us.— H. G. Wells (1898), The War of the Worlds The Coming of the MartiansThe narrative opens in an astronomical observatory at Ottershaw where explosions are seen on the surface of the planet Mars, creating much interest in the scientific community. Later a "meteor" lands on Horsell Common, near the narrator's home in Woking, Surrey. He is among the first to discover that the object is an artificial cylinder that opens, disgorging Martians who are "big" and "greyish" with "oily brown skin," "the size, perhaps, of a bear," with "two large dark-coloured eyes," and a lipless "V-shaped mouth" surrounded by "Gorgon groups of tentacles." The narrator finds them "at once vital, intense, inhuman, crippled and monstrous." They briefly emerge, have difficulty in coping with the Earth's atmosphere, and rapidly retreat into the cylinder. A human deputation (which includes the astronomer Ogilvy) approaches the cylinder with a white flag, but the Martians incinerate them and others nearby with a heat-ray before beginning to assemble their machinery. Military forces arrive that night to surround the common, including Maxim guns. The population of Woking and the surrounding villages are reassured by the presence of the military. A tense day begins, with much anticipation of military action by the narrator.

Neked talán sikerül, mert fiatal vagy, én nem fogok visszatérni.” Marceline Loridan-Ivens édesapjának szavai ezek, amelyeket 1944 tavaszán a franciaországi Drancyban mondott az akkor 16 éves lányának, mieltt az auschwitzi, illetve a birkenaui haláltáborba deportálták volna ket. A férfinak igaza lett, lányát pedig azóta is kísértik ezek a szavak. Soha nem tudta feldolgozni, ami trtént, így most megírta, egyszeren, szikár stílusban annak az embernek, akit a világon a legjobban szeretett: haláltáborban meggyilkolt édesapjának. Loridan-Ivens gynyr vallomása az elmúlt évek egyik legnagyobb irodalmi sikere volt. Loridan-Ivens az apa-lánya kapcsolat legmélyére hatol. Precíz, visszafogott mesterm…” - Financial Times Mély, megragadó, és mégis knnyed. Mintha minden egyes mondat az emberi szenvedés és túlélés gondolatát sugározná.” - Sunday Times Hátborzongató és gynyr knyv.” - Independent Az egyik legremekebb, legknyrtelenebb knyv, amit valaha írtak.” - Guardian

Egy nem mindennapi gyerekkori barátság lélegzetelállító t?rténete, amely kiállja az id? próbáját. Gustav Perle egy svájci kisvárosban n? fel, ahol a II. világháború sz?rny?ségeib?l csak halk visszhang jut el. Egyedüli gyerekként nevelkedik imádott édesanyjával, Emilie-vel, aki meglehet?en mogorván bánik vele. ?sszebarátkozik egy vele egykorú tehetséges és jó esz? zsidó fiúval Anton Zweibellel, az ígéretes zongoristapalántával.A regény Gustav családjának t?rténetét k?veti nyomon, feltárja az anya antiszemitizmusának gy?kereit, amelynek kihatása lesz fia és legkedvesebb barátjának életére is. Visszatekintés a háborús évekre és egy lelkiismereti ügy kellemetlen k?vetkezményeire, és el?re nézés két életútra, két karrierre; egy szállodatulajdonoséra és egy zongoram?vészére.A Gustav-szonáta a barátságról szól: a szenvedélyes szeretetr?l, az eltávolodásról és a küzdelemr?l. Er?teljes és mélyen megindító m? az egyik legnagyobb kortárs regényíró tollából.?A szeretet és irigység mesteri elbeszélése.” – The Guardian“Egy t?kéletes regény az élet t?kéletlenségér?l” – The Observer“Tremain egy géniusz.” – The Times"Végletes és fájdalmas szépség. Briliáns regény; Tremain a legnagyobb brit írók egyike.” -Salman RushdieRose Tremain 1943-ban született Londonban. Regényei és novellái világszerte 27 országban jelentek meg, számtalan díjat nyertek, beleértve a Sunday Express ?v K?nyve Díját a Restoration-nel (a regényt Booker-díjra is jel?lték). A Sacred Country-val Franciaországban elnyerte a ?Prix Femina Etranger”-díjat, a Music and Silence-szel a Whitbread ?v K?nyve díjat, és a Road Home-mal 2008-ban a regényeknek járó Orange-díjat. 1995-ben a Restoration-b?l Változások kora címmel filmet forgattak, és 2009-ben színpadra is vitték. Legújabb regénye a sokat dicsért Gustav-szonáta, amiben Rose ?páratlan tehetsége csúcsára érkezett” (Observer).Rose Tremain korábbi regénye Színarany címmel jelent meg magyarul a Park Kiadó gondozásában.

– Van valami, amiért még mindig haragszol az elmúlt évekbl – néztem a szemébe, amikor megálltunk a kapunkban. – Nem. Nincs – szólt szintén, némi tprengés után. – Neked – Azt hiszem, nincs – ismertem be, és komolyan is gondoltam. – Viszont – tettem hozzá, amolyan "azért ne nyugodj meg" pillantással – nehogy azt hidd, hogy Benot nem jelentett nekem sokat. – Gondolom. De a te kitalált barátodat Jérome-nak hívták – emlékeztetett mosolyogva. – Részletkérdés – nevettem el magam, aztán a vállába fúrva az arcom, szorosan átleltem. – rülk, hogy az elmúlt négy évem minden egyes napja rólad szólt – suttogtam alig hallhatóan. Cortez kissé eltolt magától, hogy a szemembe tudjon nézni, majd hosszasan megcsókolt, engem pedig elnttt a forróság a hajnali hvsben. Azt hiszem, ezt végleg megbeszéltük.”

Book 2 of the Forest People Series – The Choosing Camryn Painter’s powers come at a steep price. It’s one thing to master her chameleon abilities in the ancient forest world she now calls home, but another to use her abilities wisely. With the life or death of an entire civilization in her hands, Camryn must bond with a thunder dragon and join a battle she has little chance of winning… unless she can face down her own inner demons without destroying those she loves.

This holiday trio contains three stories featuring beloved characters from the Sweetwater Canyon series. Thanks for Love – A Thanksgiving Novella Is faith and forgiveness enough to make a family of four survive and thrive? After Sarah’s horrific ordeal with Amanda, all she wanted was to be in Tom’s arms forever. But now she’s not sure she is the best person to bring this family together. When it looks like the wedding is off, Connor and Grady put together a plan to get the family they’ve always wanted. A Thanksgiving Day wedding, with all of Broken Bow in attendance is in jeopardy. Can the boys get the bride to show up? Christmas Courage – A Christmas Novelette A week before Christmas, Kat’s father turns up on their doorstep and wants to be a part of her life. As far as Theresa is concerned, when Doug walked out fifteen years ago, leaving her with a two-year-old child and a mountain of debt, he forfeited all claims to Kat’s life. He does not get to waltz in like Santa Claus and re-claim her. Kat needs more than courage to navigate this Christmas season. She needs a miracle. The Hogmanay Stranger – A New Year’s Novelette The Sweetwater Canyon musicians celebrate Hogmanay in Scotland with Rachel’s father, Gavin Cullen. Since his wife’s death eight years ago, Gavin has never been the same. Running the bed and breakfast inn is what has kept him going. When a young, homeless stranger is given a room in the inn on New Year’s Eve, he’s met with great caution. Clearing the cobwebs of the past in order to begin anew is a tradition at Hogmanay, but can the Cullen family let go?

The Sweetwater Canyon romantic women’s fiction boxset contains the first three books in the series: Undertones, Healing Notes, and Heart Strings. Join the all women Americana band as they travel on the road, enhance their careers, and try to find balance between their music, their home, and their hearts desire. Undertones – Michele’s Story Balancing a career and a relationship is never easy, and it’s even harder when you are on the road and everyone wants a piece of you. As a music major who sacrificed everything to become master of the upright bass, the last thing Michele Scott thought she’d be doing is touring with an Americana and Bluegrass band. But to tell the truth, she loves it. Not so much David Blackstone. Even though he’s irresistible, the thought of balancing her career, life on the road, and a long-distance relationship isn’t for her. Her music gives her life, yet her heart yearns for something more. A girl just can’t have it all… or can she? Trusting David is a risk that may give her everything she wants or it will close her heart forever. Healing Notes – Rachel’s Story Forgiving yourself is the first step, but helping others forgive may be just too hard. Each note Rachel Cullen plays on her violin comes straight from the heart. But life isn’t easy. A Scottish immigrant to America, she embraced the Celtic and Bluegrass communities. Unfortunately, divorce, rape and distrust leave her emotionally crippled. Can Noel Karshaw, an English teacher and poet with a young daughter, be the key to help her reconcile who she is, what she wants, and how to get there? It takes both music and words to make a love song. With Noel by her side, Rachel has a chance to be part of the family she’s always wanted—a chance to make love strong. Heart Strings – Sarah’s Story Faith is easy…living is hard. Sarah Cosgrave picked up the guitar at age sixteen as a way to escape her life with an alcoholic father. Sweetwater Canyon gave her a career and the best of friends. Now, called to her dying father’s bedside, Sarah is forced to leave her band–the one thing that saved her. With her music career on hold and her past threatening to silence her, Sarah must make choices she swore she’d never have to face again. Her faith in her path is true; but can she have faith in Tom Pawlak, the man who once betrayed her, in order to find the peace she desperately needs?

Alexandra Lansing is looking forward to a vacation from her job as an operative with the Commonwealth’s counterterrorist task force.? She has three blissful weeks off, and plans to spend the entire time in France. After all, everyone needs a break from stress and worry. But when she’s snatched from the Left Bank in Paris she isn’t sure if her kidnapping is a case of being in the wrong place at the wrong time or a direct plot against the task force. When she discovers Praed has also been abducted, the vacation is officially over, and the possibility of an informer at task force headquarters becomes a very real, very frightening possibility. The pair manages to escape, and flees to Praed’s family home where they are forced to defend his brother’s wife and children from armed terrorists determined to recapture the operatives. With no clue as to who is behind the plot, or even a motive to explain why someone wants to take Praed and Alex prisoner, and the identity of the informant at HQ is a complete mystery. While Henry Davison races to eliminate suspects at headquarters, Praed offers himself as bait to draw out the kidnappers, hoping to discover the mastermind behind the plot. ? Alex is in hot pursuit, but will she be able to reach him before his captors extract the information they want and execute him?

Koragi is a promising young seamstress who longs to open her own tailoring shop in her home village of Cordak. Like most young girls in the village, she has an eye for Tebanis, the handsome militia captain with a crooked smile and a fierce sword arm. Hooded thugs attack Koragi during the annual harvest festival in the capital city of Eiskre. Tebanis mysteriously takes the form of a black dog to track and rescue her. He takes her away from the city on horseback, but they arrive in Cordak to find the village devastated. A massive golden dragon lies dead in the smoldering ruins. Tebanis reveals that Koragi is born of the gods, and she must cast aside her simple life to seek out three Pearls of Power in order to awaken the full capacity of her birthright. As she grieves the loss of her worldly mother and the deaths of countless villagers, Koragi is compelled to travel with Tebanis to Raitom, the City of Swords, in a desperate search for the strength to take retribution. Alongside Tebanis, Koragi battles agents of the dark goddess Ariana as she embarks on a quest to find her Pearls and gather allies and power enough to stand against the wicked goddess who plagues Camriiole. Facing treachery and the agony of loss, can Koragi overcome her own fears and pain to complete the impossible task which prophecy has placed before her?

Will one man change everything Caroline's ever thought about love? Caroline Lowther’s in a long-term open relationship with her boyfriend of nearly four years, Nathan MacMillan. For the past six months, Nathan’s had another girlfriend, Rissa, while Caroline has yet to find anyone else who interests her in a romantic way. That is until Benedict Grant, a local business man in an open-relationship of his own, approaches her at her favorite cafe and makes his own attraction clear. What follows is a whirlwind romance where two hearts fall fast for one another, secrets kept become desires revealed, and the shocking murder of someone close to Caroline leaves her world shattered and her heart broken. Picking up the pieces, Caroline must learn that life has immeasurable merit, love is worth holding on to even if it’s different from what she’s always thought, and every single moment leads her right where she needs to go.

When Mandy’s car is stolen with her two young daughters inside, the police think it’s a car-jacking gone wrong, but she can’t forget the determined look in the man’s eyes as he drove away. Mandy and her husband, Nick, are on the verge of divorce and the kidnapping is a wake-up call. All of their differences and problems can’t stand in the way of a parent’s love. In order to find their children, they’ll have to forgive each other and learn to work together. But they don’t have years or even months to make this happen . . . according to the kidnapper, time is running out.? The first novella in the Silver Cascade Suspense series, Silver Cascade Secrets, is available when you sign up for Rachelle's VIP news. If you're interested, copy and paste this link into your browser http://rachellechristensen.com/free-book/

In a dark and desolated After Earth, love still does exist, but the cost of bearing such a flaw is death. World War III has left Earth in utter turmoil. People’s beliefs are said to be the cause of the worldwide destruction. After The Clearing new laws are set about - to show certitude in anything besides the law is weak and chargeable as mutiny. To be illogical and have faith in religion is illegal, to be limitless is dangerous. And Illness is seen as a defect – all flaws that are inexcusable. But to love is the greatest betrayal of all man kind. It is a fault the world has long forgotten and punishable by death, a fatal risk Aecker and Opel are fully prepared to take - because in love there is freedom. But how far can they push back before it claims their lives and those they care about

"Excellent as usual. This series is one of the best I ever read and I read a lot!" - 5-star customer review. Deadly power. Stunning beauty. She will not be controlled. Sixteen-year-old Beth’s ordinary life is shattered the night her dormant magic awakens and she almost kills her boyfriend. Horrified at what she’s done, she flees into the fae realm to find the siren mother who disowned her a decade ago. When it turns out her power cannot be controlled, she is once again cast out from the siren community. Alone and afraid, Beth winds up in the Dark North where a group of witches rescues her. They offer to help her gain control of her deadly magic—but at what price? Scarlett is a companion story to the bestselling YA fantasy Creepy Hollow series. Grab your copy today to taste a darker side of this captivating magical world! While this story is best enjoyed in conjunction with the rest of the Creepy Hollow series, it is a standalone story that can be read on its own. (Optimal reading position in series: after book 1, The Faerie Guardian) Readers' reviews:? "A fabulous addition to the Creepy Hollow series." "I haven't read books this good in a really long time. Rachel, please always keep writing!"

回忆，有时候是一种苦涩中的甜蜜，明知道是回不去的过去； 但，还是会情不自禁慢慢地到那记忆深海里。 认识她的时间不是很久， 就只是那短短的数天…… 今天的她，却不再回应我了，这也发生在没多久之前，就在刚过去的一个星期前开始…..

A gripping tale of mesmerists, elemental spirits, and the ghosts of historyWhen James Esdaile, a Scottish doctor, travels to India in the early 19th century in service to the British East India Company, he employs mesmerism—an “alternate science” that allows the practitioner to control a subject’s mind and body—as a palliative anesthetic. His ability is enhanced by the use of a curious artifact: a small statue from a pre-Hindu culture. In his correspondence with Rev. William Davey, the head of a secret society of English mesmerists, Esdaile offers to bring the artifact back at the end of his time abroad. When Esdaile abruptly changes his mind, however, he becomes an enemy of the secret society, and must accept a devil’s bargain to protect himself. He arranges for a young woman to be inhabited by a chthonios, an elemental spirit of the earth, and he marries her just before leaving India. In order to free himself from the spirit, he commits suicide in the exact center of the Crystal Palace—where neither mesmeric power nor the wrath of the chthonios can affect him.But that is just the beginning. Reverend Davey, following the story told by Esdaile’s widow, now freed from the possession of the earth-spirit, travels in search of the elusive artifact, following its trail all the way to India and back again. Davey is drawn into the interplay of forces—mesmerists, elemental spirits, and the ghosts of history—in his quest to obtain the artifact, while the spirits search for a way to open the Glass Door that separates them from the world of men, who exiled them so long ago.

The Naplian Empire’s war of expansion against the Grand Alliance has taken a turn for the worse. With vital serjaum fuel reserves wiped out by a surprise attack, Admiral Daviont of the III Corps makes a long, desperate journey to the fringes of Terran space for a massive undeveloped source of serjaum—the Baedecker Star System. But his action does not go unnoticed. Their mortal enemies, the Briddarri, send their own task force to intercept. At Baedecker Four, starfighter pilot and governor’s son Taggart “Tag” Wester has his hands full steering clear of his wing commander’s wrath. When an emergency call unearths a dangerous foe from the past, he’s put to a test unlike any he’s ever face—one of courage, and leadership. Elden Selva is on a mission to restore power to the defeated Northern Alliance, by retrieving the remains of Truppen cybernetic soldiers. What he finds is far more than he anticipated, and the ensuing conflict changes both him and the woman he loves. The invaders and defenders collide in a struggle that will not only shape their lives, but have dire consequences for the entire galaxy.