"Is there life after motherhood?"Widowed before her son, Chris, was born, Gwyn Sinclair has put all her energies into being a great mom. But after meeting David Bretton, she starts to wonder if it's time to be more than a mother. And she' s starting to realize Chris needs more, too. David would love to be the man who helps Gwyn find the answer to her question. Too bad his ideas about parenting Chris are completely opposite hers!

Over the past ten years Maggie Rivers has faced more than her share of trauma. Everyone has been amazed at how nothing seemed to faze her--until she fell in love with Detective Matt Lebretti and was confronted with the constant dangers of a cop's life. Now she's fighting to keep her head above a tidal wave of fear--and losing.... When Maggie heads to Oakwood, Georgia, to put some distance between them, Matt reluctantly lets her go. Then Matt, for reasons of his own, follows Maggie south. And when her life is once more at stake, Matt shows her that it's okay to lean on someone else. Someone like him.

He was the love of Maggie Tillman's life. But when she and Will Stewart broke up, she was forced to make a decision?one that cost her far too dearly. And now a twist of fate brings her face-to-face with her past, and with the secret she has kept?for eight long years. How can they possibly keep their relationship professional? As they work together old angers erupt between them?along with the fiery attraction that always got Maggie and Will into trouble. But now there's much more at stake than their hearts. Because Will's hiding his own secret. And this one could cost him his daughter and a second chance with Maggie.?

Her family drove her nuts. As the only sane one in a group of crazy relatives and friends, Rachel Madison was calm, comforting...and desperatley needed someone to care for her. Her interior-design work was her refuge, and her latest client, Dr. Mark Thomas, a sexy solitary man, tempted her to go beyond a purely business relationship. Then a knock on Mark's door introduced him to a brother--and a family--he'd known nothing about. Suddenly his predictable world was askew--and only Rachel could ease his confusion. But dare she risk involvement with a man who didn't know his past...and who wondered about his future?

Jessica Ledbetter had worked too hard on her family's Colorado dude ranch, the Lazy L, to roll over and play dead when Jim Bradford showed up as the new manager. The former power broker from New York City was darkly handsome in his custom suit and tie, but downright devastating in tight jeans and Stetson. Once back in the saddle after a decade in the city, Jim, a native Texan, took the reins and steered the operation, roped in the guests and even tamed Jess's uncooperative brothers. But the Lazy L was her legacy. Jess couldn't let it fall into the hands of an outsider. No matter what those hands did to her..

It had been years since Colin McCarthy was run out of town by Abby Hopewell's wealthy, tyrannical father. Now he was a single father determined to make a stable home for his little girl. Until a stormy night brought the former bad boy face-to-face with the woman he thought he'd never see again... Abby had never forgiven Colin for taking her love, then skipping out on her. But when he and his daughter showed up at her doorstep, how could she turn them away? Trusting the handsome businessman was out of the question...even as desire reignited, tempting Abby to risk her heart one last time. For all their sakes...

Boone Sinclair is a hallmark Diana Palmer hero：tall, strong, and handsome. A businessman and a rancher, Boone had it all—except for Keely Welsh. The first time he spotted her on his property, he was determined not to let her get away from him. The lovely beauty would be his.… Every long, tall Texan gets his woman, and this one would not be denied.

Cattle rancher Tony Young was seeing stars. Movie idol Maggie McShane--America's Sweetheart--had just asked him to marry her! It was a strictly temporary business arrangement. But ever since they shared a dance and a night of incredible lovemaking, Tony wanted the pleasure of something a little more...permanent.From the moment she met the sexy cowboy, Maggie knew he was the answer to her wedding woes. But when the charade ended, would they have to call the whole thing off? Or, with the Taka-Hanson Hotel throwing them the biggest wedding ever, could Maggie and Tony turn their sham marriage into a forever kind of love?

Shoulders as broad and strong as TexasThat was Lucita Sanchez's first thought as Deputy Ripp McCleod rescued her from a crash. Here was a man that a woman could count on. One who wouldn't betray his wife and leave her with a son to raise alone. But as Ripp investigated her accident they realized someone had targeted Lucita--and her son might also be in danger.Though Ripp vowed to protect Lucita with his life, he was wary about offering up his heart. Still, the proud yet vulnerable ranching heiress compelled him to stay close. Could this disaster be the best thing that ever happened to them?

Life can be full of surprises… Helen Decatur spent a lifetime setting goals – getting through university and opening her own law practice, becoming financially secure and establishing herself as one of the most highly respected marriage lawyers in the state of South Carolina. Achieving those goals was a breeze compared to the one she’s faced with now. Helen is forty-two, single and suddenly ready for the family she’s put on the back burner for all these years. Unfortunately, having a child at her age comes with lots of complications, not the least of which is the absence of a serious relationship in her life. But Helen’s not the type of woman to wait around for fate to step in. Taking charge of her own destiny puts her at odds with her two best friends, sets sparks flying with a man who doesn’t want a family, and leads her straight into the most unexpected complication of all. . . love.

Shady doesn't exist anymore. Neither does Benjamin Purdue. In a single day he lost his family, his love, his freedom and even his name for reasons he's never known. Now after spending twenty-one years in prison for crimes he didn't commit, the young man he used to be is dead. And the man he's become is no one he--or anyone else--would ever want to know.With only fifty dollars of state money in his pocket, Henry Cole, aka Benjamin Purdue, journeys back to the dangerous outlaw settlement hidden deep in the Allegheny Mountains of Virginia where it all began. The only place he's called home. Instead of answers, he finds only old sunken graves. Now as he drifts southward, he gets closer to the beautiful woman he will never forget--whose untimely visit to Shady that fateful Sunday afternoon ended in a killing. A woman who holds the keys to his past...and his future.

Everybody it seems, except Scarlett Smith. In one day, she loses her Mum and her home as well. Now she and her father are adrift in Southend, moving from one grimy rented room to the next – the only happiness for Scarlett is her innocent romance with local boy Tom. Scarlett’s once-loving Dad can’t hold down a job – or keep off the drink. Scarlett must leave school to work in a factory, just as Tom heads off to do national service. With Tom away, Scarlett’s life is bleak, with the only highlight being the dance hall on a Saturday night. There Scarlett forgets her troubles with the lead singer of a rock ,n’ roll band – with disastrous consequences… Praise for Patricia Burns “The characters spring to life and simply walk off the page. ” Sally Worboyes Other books by Patricia Burns We'll Meet Again Follow Your Dream

A vengeful woman who aches for her place in paradise...In Iraq an aid worker who lost her husband and child in a brutal attack saves the life of an American contractor. Believing he can help her avenge her family's deaths, she follows him back home to the United States. An anguished mother desperate to find her child... In California a soccer mom arrives to pick up her son from school, only to discover that her husband has taken their child and vanished without a trace. A detective who needs to redeem himself... In the Rocky Mountains an off-duty cop rescues a little girl from a raging river moments before she utters her final words in his arms. Haunted by failure, he launches an investigation that leads him to a Montana school where time is ticking down on an event that will rewrite history.... Three strangers entangled in a plot to change the world in only six seconds...

Lady-in-waiting Jane Sweetwater's resistance to the legendary attentions of Henry VIII may have saved her pretty neck, but her reward is a forced and unhappy marriage with a much older man and a harsh life on his farm. Her only consolation is that she still lives upon her beloved Exmoor, the bleak yet beautiful land that cradles Allerbrook House, her family home. Played out in this remote, forbidding place, Jane's long and storied life is fraught with change：her fiercely protective nature leads her to assume responsibility not only for her own husband and child, but also for the rebellious son of her wayward sister. In time, she regains the position of a woman with status and property, but she cannot ignore the rumblings from London, as the articles of faith change with every new coronation. Jane's small world is penetrated by plotting, treachery and even thwarted love as those she holds dearest are forced to choose between family loyalty and fealty to the crown.

On the night of Monday, May 4, 1998, in Vatican territory, the bodies of the commander of the Swiss Guard, his wife, and a young lance corporal were found in the barracks of the picturesque force entrusted with protecting the pope. It was the worst bloodbath to take place in more than a century in the heart of the supreme authority of the world's one billion Catholics. Four hours later, the Vatican announced that the lance corporal, twenty-three-year-old Cdric Tornay, had shot the couple, then committed suicide in "a fit of madness" brought on by frustration with the unit's discipline -- a conclusion it reaffirmed after a nine-month internal inquiry.But as John Follain's hard-hitting expose shows, the official report was a travesty, a tissue of suppositions, contradictions, and omissions. Based on an exhaustive three-year investigation, City of Secrets reveals how the Vatican, the oldest and most secretive autocracy in the world, staged an elaborate plot to obstruct justice -- and hide the scandals it dared not confess.

Delaney Westcott is a beautiful career woman in a man's world. Owner and chief asset of a personal security business -- where she guards the rich and famous from the unwanted attention of friends and enemies -- she can take care of herself. Except for the one time she didn't: when she fell headlong for handsome cowboy Jared McCallister, a man she couldn't have.After it ended suddenly, Delaney threw herself into her work with a fury and intensity calculated to erase every other thought from her mind. And she promised that she'd never let any man touch her so deeply again. Ever.But when Delaney finds herself in Jared's hometown of Aspen, Colorado, on a dangerous job, she begins to wonder if she is strong enough to refuse him a second time...

Palm Beach is known around the world as the most wealthy, glamorous, opulent, decadent, self-indulgent, sinful spot on earth. With their beautiful 3.75 square-island constantly in the media glare, Palm Beachers protect their impossibly rich society from outside scrutiny with vigilant police, ubiquitous personal security staffs, and screens of tall hedges encircling every mansion.To this bizarre suspicious, exclusive world, New York Times bestselling author Ronald Kessler brought his charm, insight, and award-winning investigative skills, and came to know Palm Beach, its celebrated and powerful residents, and its exotic social rituals as no outside writer ever has. In this colorful, entertaining, and compulsively readable book. Kessler reveals the inside story of Palm Beach society as it moves languidly through the summer months, quickens in the fall, and shifts into frenetic high speed as the season begins in December, peaks in January and February, and continues into April.When unimaginable wealth combines with unlimited leisure time oil an island barely three times the size of New York's Central Park, human foibles and desires, lust and greed, passion and avarice, become magnified and intensified. Like laboratory rats fed growth hormones, the 9,800 Palm Beach residents 87 percent of whom are millionaires exhibit the most outlandish extremes of their breed.To tell the story, Kessler follows four Palm Beachers through the season. These four characters the reigning queen of Palm Beach society, the night manager of Palm Beach's trendiest bar, a gay "walker" who escorts wealthy women to balls, and a thirty six-year-old gorgeous blonde who says she "can't find a guy in Palm Beach" know practically everyone on the island and tell what goes on behind the scenes.Interweaving the yarns of these unfor-gettable figures with the lifestyle, history, scandals, lore, and rituals of a unique island of excess, The Season creates a powerful, seamless, juicy narrative that no novelist could dream up.

February 6, 2011, marks the one hundredth anniversary of Ronald Reagan's birth. Known as "the Great Communicator," Ronald Reagan combined the best of small-town values and remarkable virtues with the eloquence and charm that came from a life spent in the public eye. From his early days, Reagan was a leader, whether saving lives as a lifeguard or demonstrating for students' rights as a college undergraduate. His career as a sports broadcaster and later as a leading man in Hollywood paved the way for a career in politics. As governor of California, Reagan earned the respect of world leaders and the American public. But it was as president of the United States that his strength of character, leadership, and love of country were best displayed. His eight years in the Oval Office ushered in remarkable change domestically and brought international peace, prosperity, and freedom.A visual celebration of all that is Ronald Reagan, Ronald Reagan: 100 Years is the official centennial publication for the Ronald Reagan Presidential Foundation. Inspiring and uplifting, it is a fitting homage to one of America's greatest legends. A foreword by former Senator Howard H. Baker, Jr., distinguished politician and personal friend of the Reagans, completes this handsome volume, making it a must-have nostalgic tribute to the life and times of the man who led our nation and inspired the world.

A leading historian and bestselling author re-creates the growth, decline, and legacy of 3,000 Years of Egyptian civilization with an authoritative text splendidly illustrated with 150 illustrations in full color.Ancient Egypt, with its legacy of pyramids, pharaohs and sphinxes, is a land of power and mystery to the modern world. In The Civilization of Ancient Egypt Paul Johnson explores the growth and decline of a culture that survived for 3,000 years and maintained a purity of style that rivals all others. Johnson's study looks in detail at the state, religion, culture and geographical setting and how they combined in this unusually enduring civilization. From the beginning of Egyptian culture to the rediscovery of the pharaohs, the book covers the totalitarian theocracy, the empire of the Nile, the structure of dynastic Egypt, the dynastic way of death, hieroglyphs, the anatomy of perspective art and, finally, the decline and fall of the pharaohs, Johnson seeks, through an exciting combination of images and analysis, to discover the causes behind the collapse of this, great civilization while celebrating the extra-ordinary legacy it has left behind.Paul Johnson on Ancient Egypt and the Egyptians"Egypt was not only the first state, it was the first country.... The durability of the state which thus evolved was ensured by the overwhelming simplicity and power of its central institution, the theocratic monarchy." "The Egyptians did not share the Babylonian passion for astrology, but they used the stars as one of many guides to behavior. No Egyptian believed in a free exercise of will in important decisions: he always looked for an omen or a prophecy or an oracle." "The development of hieroglyphics mirrors and epitomizes the history of Egyptian civilization. . . . No one outside Egypt understood it and even within Egypt it was the exclusive working tool of the ruling and priestly classes. The great mass of Egyptians were condemned to illiteracy by the complexities (and also the beauties) of the Egyptian written language.""The affection the Egyptians were not. ashamed to display towards their children was related to the high status women enjoyed in Egyptian society.""If we can understand Egyptian art we can go a long way towards grasping the very spirit and outlook on life, of this gifted people, so remote in time. The dynamic of their civilization seems to have been a passionate love of order (maat to them), by which they sought to give to human activities and creations the same regularity as their landscape, their great river, their sun-cycle and their immutable seasons."

Relentless and ominous, the drumbeat echoes across the land: Social Security is on the verge of bankruptcy. These repeated warnings have become a dismal article of faith for the millions of Americans who pay Social Security taxes and expect to collect benefits someday. But they are flatly untrue. Social Security today is on a stronger financial footing than it has been for decades. The Plot Against Social Security will explain who is really behind the efforts to reform this system and will show that the most frequently proposed fix increased privatization will damage it beyond repair by undermining retirement security for generations to come. Award-winning journalist Michael Hiltzik also offers a clear set of remedies for those few elements of Social Security that do need repair proposals that will shore up the most efficient social insurance program in America's history, rather than destroying it in the name of reform.

In Giant, Plaxico Burress takes you into the locker room, onto the practice field, and into the huddle, providing a flat-out-honest look at life on and off the field with the New York Giants and at the making of a champion. Throughout the 2007 season, Plaxico battled near-crippling injuries, and despite rarely practicing, being heavily bandaged, and on serious painkillers, he led the New York Giants in receptions, yards, and touchdowns. He continued to play through pain in the playoffs, only to be further injured before Super Bowl XLII. Playing the arrogant Patriots who were inviting the Giants to their victory party before the game was over Plaxico concealed a significant injury that might have changed the outcome of the game if the Pats had known.When he first joined the Giants, Plaxico expected to be the go-to guy for the young quarterback Eli Manning. What he didn't expect was the media and fan scrutiny that was heaped on Manning as they battled to win games.What Plaxico also didn't expect was the difficult relationship he had with head coach Tom Coughlin, who was a stickler for discipline and who would fine players for even the mildest offenses. For five years Plaxico had played for the laid-back Bill Cowher and the Pittsburgh Steelers. In contrast, within weeks of joining the Giants, Plaxico and Coughlin were butting heads, and the fines followed. But there to make things a little easier were friends like Jeremy Shockey and Amani Toomer, nearly polar opposites. With Shock, everything was always full-tilt and his mouth would usually get him into trouble. Toomer was the easygoing elder statesman at times absentminded, but a brilliant receiver. And in 2007, Manning, with Plaxico's advice and support, would rise above the scrutinizing media and come into his own, and Coach Coughlin would relax his grip somewhat and let the team breathe. The results were obvious.It's all here. The ups and downs, the trash-talking, the sweat and blood, and what it takes to be the best.