Bingo is a child-friendly and enjoyable way for children to learn French vocabulary. Topics include numbers, food, animals and clothes. Three types of lotto board are provided for each topic: words only, words and pictures and pictures only. Handy call sheets make adminstration easy.

If you've ever wondered why Squibs are never offered a place at Hogwarts, what happened when Vernon Dursley first met James Potter, or how Dumbledore and McGonagall formed their lifelong friendship, From the Wizarding Archive should go straight to the top of your reading list. Containing 80 articles and anecdotes written by J.K. Rowling for the original Pottermore website, Harry PotterTM fans everywhere are in for a treat. If there's one thing Harry Potter fans have in common (apart from impeccably good taste), it's questions... so many questions. From the simple details that perplex us all - was Professor Umbridge always that awful? Why don't wizards just use phones? - to the personal details that bring us closer to J.K. Rowling's writing process - from her least favourite school subject and its impact on Professor Snape's career, to the personal significance of King's Cross and why it's always where the Hogwarts Express departs - this is a veritable treasure trove of answers. With editorial writing linking and exploring the articles in greater depth than ever before, plus an exclusive foreword by Evanna Lynch, this is essential reading for any Harry Potter afficionado. These articles were originally featured on pottermore.com and are still free, and available to read in English, on the official Wizarding World website. Note: This eBook is also available as two separate volumes. The articles in Volume 2 were previously published as three Pottermore Presents eBooks. If you already own those, you might prefer to read From the Wizarding Archive: Volume 1 instead of the combined edition. Pottermore Limited will be donating author royalties to the Lumos Foundation on behalf of J.K. Rowling, expected to be equivalent to a minimum of ?1 (or the local currency equivalent) for each copy of From the Wizarding Archive sold. The Lumos Foundation is a registered charity in England and Wales with charity number 1112575.

Learn to design and implement reliable Python applications on the Raspberry Pi using a range of external libraries, the Raspberry Pis GPIO port, and the camera module About This Book Learn the fundamentals of Python *ing and application programming Design user-friendly command-line and graphical user interfaces A step-by-step guide to learning Python programming with the Pi Who This Book Is For This book is designed for those who are unfamiliar with the art of Python development and want to get to know their way round the language and the many additional libraries that allow you to get a full application up and running in no time. What You Will Learn Fundamentals of Python applications Designing applications for multi-threading Interacting with electronics and physical devices Debugging applications when they go wrong Packaging and installing Python modules User interface design using Qt Building easy to use command-line interfaces Connecting applications to the Internet In Detail The Raspberry Pi is one of the smallest and most affordable single board computers that has taken over the world of hobby electronics and programming, and the Python programming language makes this the perfect platform to start coding with. The book will start with a brief introduction to Raspberry Pi and Python. We will direct you to the official documentation that helps you set up your Raspberry Pi with the necessary equipment such as the monitor, keyboard, mouse, power supply, and so on. It will then dive right into the basics of Python programming. Later, it will focus on other Python tasks, for instance, interfacing with hardware, GUI programming, and more. Once you get well versed with the basic programming, the book will then teach you to develop Python/Raspberry Pi applications. By the end of this book, you will be able to develop Raspberry Pi applications with Python and will have good understanding of Python programming for Raspberry Pi. Style and approach An easy-to-follow introduction to Python *ing and application development through clear conceptual explanations backed up by real-world examples on the Raspberry Pi.

Design a complete workflow with Blender to create stunning 3D scenes and films step-by-step! About This Book Give life to a character within a full animated short film by learning the rigging and animation process Make use of the powerful tools available in Blender to produce professional-quality 3D characters and environments Discover advanced techniques by adding fur to a character, creating a grass field, and fine-tuning a shot with post-processing effects to enhance your creations Who This Book Is For This book will give any beginner the necessary skills and knowledge to create own 3D projects with Blender. You don't need to have any previous experience in 3D modeling, but if you do, then this book is a great way get you started with Blender. This book is for anyone who wants to learn Blender by creating concrete projects. What You Will Learn Understand the basics of 3D and how to navigate your way around the Blender interface Create a 3D robot toy model from start to finish using the basic modeling tools of Blender Make a full alien character using the skin mesh modifier and the sculpting tools with an artistic approach Use re-topology techniques to create a clean 3D version of the previously sculpted alien Model a full haunted house and its environment using more advanced modeling tools and techniques such as the Array Modifier, Instance duplication, or Curves Discover the power of the texture paint tool in order to add color to the haunted house Get to know the Cycles render engine by creating different materials for the house and the environment In Detail Blender is a powerful tool, stable, with an integral workflow that will allow you to understand your learning of 3D creation with serenity. Today, it is considered to be one of the most complete 3D packages on the market and it is free and open source! It is very efficient for many types of productions, such as 3D animated or live action films, architecture, research, or even game creation with its integrated game engine and its use of the Python language. Moreover, Blender has an active community that contributes to expanding its functionalities. Today, it is used in many professional products and by many companies. Through this book, you will create many types of concert projects using a step-by-step approach. You will start by getting to know the modeling tools available in Blender as you create a 3D robot toy. Then, you will discover more advanced techniques such as sculpting and re-topology by creating a funny alien character. After that, you will create a full haunted house scene. For the last project, you will create a short film featuring a rat cowboy shooting cheese in a rat trap! This will be a more complex project in which you learn how to rig, animate, compose advanced material, composite, and edit a full sequence. Each project in this book will give you more practice and increase your knowledge of the Blender tools. By the end of this book, you will master a workflow that you will be able to apply to your own creations. Style and approach This is an easy-to-follow book that is based on four concrete projects, with increasing levels of difficulty. Each chapter will teach you how to create these projects step-by-step. New tools and techniques are introduced in a theoretical and practical way, so you can apply them in your own projects later.

Design and develop modern web applications with Google's bold and productive language through engaging example projects About This Book Full of engaging and varied example projects to equip you to build your own web applications Learn the Dart language and key libraries Productively create fast and reliable web applications Who This Book Is For If you are a front- or back-end web developer who is looking to build complex full-featured web applications without the quagmire of disconnected JavaScript frameworks, this book is a practical walkthrough of substantial applications that will have you and your team coding Dart in a productive manner. This book will give you a compiled, optional typed, scalable environment to rapidly develop applications. As Dart was designed to be familiar, any developer with even a small amount of knowledge of JavaScript or another programming language will be at home with the language immediately and will be coding quickly. What You Will Learn Master the core Dart language, type system, and key development tools Connect to existing web services, process JSON, and create your own framework for the data display Run and debug the Dart server and web applications and compile them in JavaScript Handle form data and encryption Build and deploy server applications on the major OSes and implement the REST API Work with PostgreSQL—an industry standard relational database system Create robust applications with unit tests, documentation, and diagnostic logging Develop command-line applications, and explore the key data structures and libraries In Detail Designed to create next generation apps, Google’s Dart offers a much more robust framework and also supersedes JavaScript in several aspects. Familiar yet innovative, compact yet scalable, it blows away the accumulated JavaScript legacy limitations. Dart was designed for great tool-ability and developer productivity, allowing you to create better application faster than before. Google chose it for their billion dollar advertising business and you have its power for your projects too. This book will introduce you the Dart language starting from its conception to its current form, and where it headed is through engaging substantial practical projects. You will be taken through building typical applications and exploring the exciting new technologies of HTML5. With example code projects such as a live data monitoring and viewing system, a blogging system, a slides presentation application, and more, then this book will walk you through step by step through building data-driven web applications with ease and speed. Style and approach A varied collection of compelling practical Dart projects that are developed progressively with full explanations of concepts and implementation. Each project introduces features of the language and environment, demonstrating how Dart can be used in rich structured web applications.

Extend and enhance your Java applications with domain-specific *ing in Groovy About This Book Build domain-specific mini languages in Groovy that integrate seamlessly with your Java apps with this hands-on guide Increase stakeholder participation in the development process with domain-specific *ing in Groovy Get up to speed with the newest features in Groovy using this second edition and integrate Groovy-based DSLs into your existing Java applications. Who This Book Is For This book is for Java software developers who have an interest in building domain *ing into their Java applications. No knowledge of Groovy is required, although it will be helpful. This book does not teach Groovy, but quickly introduces the basic ideas of Groovy. An experienced Java developer should have no problems with these and move quickly on to the more involved aspects of creating DSLs with Groovy. No experience of creating a DSL is required. What You Will Learn Familiarize yourself with Groovy *ing and work with Groovy closures Use the meta-programming features in Groovy to build mini languages Employ Groovy mark-up and builders to simplify application development Familiarize yourself with Groovy mark-up and build your own Groovy builders Build effective DSLs with operator overloading, command chains, builders, and a host of other Groovy language features Integrate Groovy with your Java and JVM based applications In Detail The times when developing on the JVM meant you were a Java programmer have long passed. The JVM is now firmly established as a polyglot development environment with many projects opting for alternative development languages to Java such as Groovy, Scala, Clojure, and JRuby. In this pantheon of development languages, Groovy stands out for its excellent DSL enabling features which allows it to be manipulated to produce mini languages that are tailored to a project’s needs. A comprehensive tutorial on designing and developing mini Groovy based Domain Specific Languages, this book will guide you through the development of several mini DSLs that will help you gain all the skills needed to develop your own Groovy based DSLs with confidence and ease. Starting with the bare basics, this book will focus on how Groovy can be used to construct domain specific mini languages, and will go through the more complex meta-programming features of Groovy, including using the Abstract Syntax Tree (AST). Practical examples are used throughout this book to de-mystify these seemingly complex language features and to show how they can be used to create simple and elegant DSLs. Packed with examples, including several fully worked DSLs, this book will serve as a springboard for developing your own DSLs. Style and approach This book is a hands-on guide that will walk you through examples for building DSLs with Groovy rather than just talking about "metaprogramming with Groovy". The examples in this book have been designed to help you gain a good working knowledge of the techniques involved and apply these to producing your own Groovy based DSLs.

Build exciting games with Unity on iOS and publish them on the App Store About This Book Take advantage of Unity 5's new tools to create a fully interactive mobile game Learn how to connect your iTunes developer account and use Unity 5 to communicate with it Use your Macintosh computer to publish your game to the App Store Who This Book Is For This book is for iOS developers who want to learn how to build games with Unity for the iOS platform. Some prior experience in game development would be useful. What You Will Learn Create your own iTunes Connect Developer account and create an app within it Set up iTunes Game Center features in iTunes Connect so you can use them within Unity 5 Construct a game using C# that allows users to interactively control the game character Use Unity 5's editor window to create a custom editor tool specific for the game made in the book Store and keep track of data so the player is able to collect in-game pick-ups that can be used to purchase in-game goods Use all game features so the player is able to fully navigate menus between the front menu and in the game state Make, test, and finally release builds so you can play on your device and then submit the game to Apple for review In Detail Over recent years, the market for mobile game development using Unity has grown multi-fold with an overwhelming 600 million gamers playing games developed using Unity engine. The newly launched Unity 5 offers a wide range of dedicated and powerful tools for iOS developers who intend to follow the basics and gradually elevate their skills to revolutionize the way they design and publish games for the App Store. From beginners, to those who are experienced making video games, this book goes through the steps of using Unity 5 to make a game from the ground up and setting the game up with iTunes Game Center features. The book begins with an introduction to setting up an iTunes Connect developer account, this will allow you to use Unity to its full potential with iOS. You will create a new app in iTunes Connect with the settings for Apple approval. You will learn, in detail, how to use Unity 5 and the programming language C# to make a fully interactive game that keeps track of player progress, Game Center Leaderboards, and Achievements, as well as displaying iAds and offering In-App purchases. Moving on, you’ll discover how to create development and release builds, enabling you to test the game on your device before finally submitting the game for Apple’s approval. By the end of the book, you will have a complete understanding of how iTunes and Unity can be used in combination to build and publish a fully interactive and reliable game to the App Store. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide that covers the fundamentals of gaming and reveals the secrets of building and monetizing games for the iOS platform.

Become an expert at writing fast and high performant code in Clojure 1.7.0 About This Book Enhance code performance by using appropriate Clojure features Improve the efficiency of applications and plan their deployment A hands-on guide to designing Clojure programs to get the best performance Who This Book Is For This book is intended for intermediate Clojure developers who are looking to get a good grip on achieving optimum performance. Having a basic knowledge of Java would be helpful. What You Will Learn Identify performance issues in Clojure programs using different profiling tools Master techniques to achieve numerical performance in Clojure Use Criterium library to measure latency of Clojure expressions Exploit Java features in Clojure code to enhance performance Avoid reflection and boxing with type hints Understand Clojure's concurrency and state-management primitives in depth Measure and monitor performance, and understand optimization techniques In Detail Clojure treats code as data and has a macro system. It focuses on programming with immutable values and explicit progression-of-time constructs, which are intended to facilitate the development of more robust programs, particularly multithreaded ones. It is built with performance, pragmatism, and simplicity in mind. Like most general purpose languages, various Clojure features have different performance characteristics that one should know in order to write high performance code. This book shows you how to evaluate the performance implications of various Clojure abstractions, discover their underpinnings, and apply the right approach for optimum performance in real-world programs. It starts by helping you classify various use cases and the need for them with respect to performance and analysis of various performance aspects. You will also learn the performance vocabulary that experts use throughout the world and discover various Clojure data structures, abstractions, and their performance characteristics. Further, the book will guide you through enhancing performance by using Java interoperability and JVM-specific features from Clojure. It also highlights the importance of using the right concurrent data structure and Java concurrency abstractions. This book also sheds light on performance metrics for measuring, how to measure, and how to visualize and monitor the collected data. At the end of the book, you will learn to run a performance profiler, identify bottlenecks, tune performance, and refactor code to get a better performance. Style and approach An easy-to-follow guide full of real-world examples and self-sufficient code snippets that will help you get your hands dirty with high performance programming with Clojure.

Develop complete web applications from scratch through practical examples and tips for beginners and more advanced users About This Book Improve your programming experience and become a full stack developer Master real-life web applications, and create and manage four different projects Step-by-step guidance to develop real-world web applications smoothly Who This Book Is For This book is for anyone who wants to discover and explore Yii Framework. Basic programming experience with PHP and object oriented programming is assumed. What You Will Learn Understand basic concepts, along with the installation and customization of Yii Discover models, controllers, and views—concepts applied in a web context—and how they are employed in Yii Use ActiveRecord to manipulate a database Add access control to your web application through authentication and authorization Install and customize an advanced template for multiple applications in the same project Create a RESTful Web Service to allow remote access to data Develop a console application to launch a command in the console as an automated task (cron job) Make code reusable through widgets and components and localize text messages to make a multilanguage web app In Detail Yii is a high-performance PHP framework best for developing Web 2.0 applications. It provides fast, secure, and professional features to create robust projects, however, this rapid development requires the ability to organize common tasks together to build a complete application. It's all too easy to get confused; this is where this book comes in. This book contains a series of practical project examples for developers starting from scratch. Each section contains the most relevant theories for every topic as you walk through developing each project, focusing on key aspects that commonly confuse users. The book starts with all the framework’s basic concepts, such as controllers and views, to introduce you to Yii and creating your first application, a simple news reader. You will be learn to configure URL rules to make a pretty URL, essential for search engine optimization. Next, you will walk through Model and ActiveRecord, key concepts in database interaction. The second application you will develop is a reservation system that allows you to manage rooms, customers, and reservations. For this, you will use database connection through SQL and ActiveRecord. More complex than the first one, this application will introduce you to the advanced template of Yii 2, splitting the app into two parts: a frontend for all visitors and a backend for the admin. Finally, you will move on to the last two applications: one that allows connections from remote clients, through RESTful components of Yii 2, and another that creates and organizes automatic tasks using the console application structure of Yii 2. Style and approach This is a step-by-step guide with each topic introduced in the context of real-world applications, highlighting common cases where users may encounter difficulties.

Concoct dynamic business intelligence dashboards for financial analysis with QlikView About This Book Get accustomed to QlikView features for effective data analysis and visualization in Finance Employ the Memory data store, which refreshes data in real time, providing a faster response to business financial information A step-by step guide to using Qlikview features such as key performance indicators, interactive charts, and tables for financial analysis Who This Book Is For If you are a finance professional with basic knowledge of QlikView functions and wish to increase your knowledge of QlikView to apply it in the field of finance, then this book is for you. A good knowledge of financial aspects is an must-have. What You Will Learn Design Key Performance Indicators and extend your revenue ratio reporting Set up actions within a Text Object and create variables to make a chart toggle between visible and not visible Merge data from multiple sources to get more asset management options Examine good and bad practices in dashboard design and create a Group button to make more data available in less space Analyse the sales dashboard by adding tending lines and forecasting Create input boxes and use the input in formulas to perform “What If” analysis Examine the Key Performance Indicator (KPI) and Inventory Turnover, and investigate the usefulness of Pivot Create a QlikView analysis document and add data to it to gain deep insights In Detail This book is an effective step-by-step tutoring guide for financial analysis using Qlikview. It begins by teaching you the crucial concepts of Qlikview Finance to help you develop an effective understanding of financial data analysis and finance. The book then goes on to cover real-world, practical examples on the use of Qlikview for financial planning and analysis, expense management, risk management, and more. Moving on, topics such as Asset Management QlikView Dashboard and Retail Sales Analysis are covered in a strategic way. We then shift the focus to deal with the concepts of Inventory, Supply Chain, and Plant Coverage Dashboards. The book then reaches its conclusion by dealing with ways to share your QlikView insights. By the end of this book, you will have a good understanding of how to use Qlikview for numerous applications in finance. Style and approach This book is designed to explore what can be done in QlikView to facilitate Financial Analysis. It follows a step-by-step approach and each chapter has easy-to-follow, hands-on examples of important concepts.

Master the skills you need to develop portable, highly-functional Android applications using NDK About This Book Develop portable games using Android NDK and debug them on your desktop Familiarise yourself with different popular C++ libraries on Android and use them in your games Write multi-threaded code with graphics, sound, networking, and resource storage Who This Book Is For If you want to leverage your C++ skills in mobile development and increase the performance of your Android applications, then this is the book for you. Knowledge of C or C++ is assumed, including pointer manipulation, multi-threading, object-oriented programming concepts, and the basics of C++11. It would be an added advantage if you know how to develop applications without any IDE. What You Will Learn Explore popular C++ libraries and use them on Android Write portable, multithreaded native networking code Create portable audio framework using OpenAL Implement portable rendering framework using OpenGL ES 3 Debug mobile applications on your desktop machine Access resources from APK archives Render text with FreeType In Detail Android NDK is used for multimedia applications that require direct access to system resources. NDK is also the key for portability, which in turn allows a reasonably comfortable development and debugging process using familiar tools such as GCC and Clang toolchains. This is a hands-on guide to extending your game development skills with Android NDK. The book takes you through many clear, step-by-step example applications to help you further explore the features of Android NDK and some popular C++ libraries and boost your productivity by debugging the development process. Through the course of this book, you will learn how to write portable multi-threaded native code, use HTTP networking in C++, play audio files, use OpenGL ES 3, and render high-quality text. Each chapter aims to take you one step closer to building your application. By the end of this book, you will be able to create an engaging, complete gaming application. Style and approach This book adopts a step-by-step approach and each chapter is based on the material from the previous ones. The book focuses on putting to your knowledge of C++ use while you develop Android applications of your own.

Hugo, the Duke of Wynchester enjoys many affaires de coeur and his latest lover, the beautiful but scheming and spoilt Olive Lady Brandon, is trying to blackmail him into marriage by forcing her husband to divorce her. Storming angrily from her house, Hugo finds a strange stowaway aboard his carriage. It transpires that this frail elfin beauty is none other that Janeta Brandon, Olive’s step-daughter, and that she is fleeing the marriage her stepmother has arranged to an old man known to beat not only his servants and horses but also his late wife. When the Duke realises that Janeta means to kill herself rather than face a loveless marriage, he is struck by a cunning way to rescue them both by announcing their ‘engagement’. They are then married in a quiet ceremony in the Duke’s private Chapel. It is only when Janeta saves him from death by poisoning by the hand of her stepmother that the Duke realises that he has been in love with her from the moment he first saw her. But surely the scorned Olive’s fury will ensure their love is doomed before it can blossom.

The handsome Viscount Trent finally makes up his mind to accede to the pleadings of his family and get married. He is twenty-seven and for a long time they have been begging him to take a wife and produce an heir to his illustrious title, his famous stately home and his vast estate. On the whole he finds debutantes extremely boring and has enjoyed a number of affaires-de-coeur with older married women. However there is one girl, Marigold Marlow, he considers outstanding and she is the acknowledged great beauty of the Season. As she is so beautiful, the Viscount is convinced that Marigold will make him a perfect wife, but he is astonished when, having proposed to her, she tells him that she has not quite made up her mind. She will let him know on Wednesday if she accepts his proposal of marriage. As the Viscount expects her to fall immediately into his arms, he is surprised, but content to wait until Wednesday for her answer, which he is certain will be ‘yes’. As he drives away from Marigold’s house, a young girl holding a white Pekingese in her arms begs him to give her a lift to London. He sees no reason to refuse and finds as they drive off that she is Salvia, a cousin of the beautiful Marigold. He then learns that Marigold has her eyes on the son of the Duke of Northerncliff, who is seriously ill. In fact if he dies as expected, she intends to marry his heir as one day soon he will be a Duke. Feeling surprised and angry, he is even more astonished to learn that Marigold is cruel to animals and that Salvia is running away because she is so unkind to her dog as well as to her. How the Viscount dreams up a way to avenge himself on Marigold and, if the Duke does recover, how he can escape marrying her as he has now changed his mind. How the Viscount’s plan succeeds. And how Salvia takes London by storm, faces appalling danger and finally finds the love of her life is all told in this unusual story by BARBARA CARTLAND.

Horrified when her beloved dog, Rufus, is caught in a cruel snare while out walking in the estate of Arrow Castle, local Parson’s daughter Shenda is at first relieved when a handsome stranger comes to poor Rufus’s rescue and then at once she is abashed and confused when he claims a kiss – Shenda’s very first – as his reward. But then she is told that her father has been killed by a savage bull and that she must leave the family’s Vicarage forthwith. Penniless Shenda is obliged to take a job at Arrow Castle as a seamstress, where she stumbles across a letter from one of Napoleon Bonaparte’s spies to Society beauty Lucille Gratton, ‘the most beautiful Lady in England’, who is staying at The Castle. Reporting the discovery to the Earl, she finds that he is no other than her ‘gentleman stranger’ and just as she realises that she is falling in love with the heroic Earl of Arrow, she is embroiled in a counter-espionage plot that puts her young life – and her love for the Earl – in deadly peril.

After years of caring for her ailing father, the Earl of Medwin, the ethereally beautiful young Lady Ancella Winn is pale, drawn and exhausted now that he has died and she is devastated. Worse still, she has nowhere to go, except for the home of her strait-laced and disapproving aunts. So when family friend and doctor, Sir Felix Johnson, suggests that it would be good for her health to travel to the French Riviera to work as the nurse-companion to an ageing Russian Princess, she nervously agrees. Although her new employer is difficult and demanding, Ancella is bewitched, first by the beauty of the C?te d’Azur and then by the Princess’s ineffably handsome son, Prince Vladimer. Caught up in the glamour of the Monte Carlo Casino, the den of iniquity against which her aunts had warned her in no uncertain terms, it seems that she has won the Prince’s heart as the feckless aristocrats around her lose fortunes at Roulette and Baccarat. But then to her horror her hopes of the love she has always dreamt about are dashed when it she finds that Prince Vladimer has betrayed her with the grasping but alluring Marchioness of Chiswick.

The beautiful Ariana Dancer is orphaned and has led a cheerless life in London with her disagreeable Guardian, Uncle Konstantin Bardici. He has shown little interest in his niece and she has been left very much to her own devices. One day Uncle Konstantin suggests that Ariana marry an Albanian Prince – one who is seeking an English wife and who claims to have fallen in love with her portrait – and it does not take much to persuade her to agree. Even before she sets out for Albania, she begins to dream of romance and her lonely heart ensures that she quickly fancies herself in love with a man she has never seen. She is sure in her heart that she will find everlasting happiness with Prince Stefan of Dukka in the depths of Albania.! But the journey she must take to fulfil her dreams is longer and more treacherous than she could ever have imagined. When she and her hapless maid are kidnapped en route to Castle Dukka by brigands, the rosy future she dreamed of becomes bitterly compromised. Soon life in the wild mountains begins to exert an unexpected pull, while the King of the Brigands turns out to possess an irresistible charm. Ariana discovers that love can have a double meaning and that image is not all that it seems. Forced to choose between honour and passion and faced with the responsibility of deciding life or death for the man she loves, she bravely makes the ultimate sacrifice. Even then Ariana’s torment is not over – Find out how Ariana unexpectedly finds all that she has been seeking, and more, in this exciting and unusual romantic tale by BARBARA CARTLAND

It was a time of miraculous change in America, as the cry for justice and equality rang out, from the Deep South to the West Coast. And in the Motor City, a new sound was about to explode that would break down the barriers between white and black. Three close friends from the Detroit streets, Effie, Deena, and Lorrell, had the electrifying talent to bring any audience leaping to its feet—and with the help of C.C.'s groundbreaking music and Curtis's vision and ruthless ambition, they were poised on the giddy brink of greatness. But fame never comes cheap. And truth, loyalty, and love will always have to struggle to survive in the spotlight's merciless glare . . .

Squarely in the crosshairs of the Church's heresy hunters, can Pastor Sam survive?It's a madcap year in Harmony, Indiana, as Sam Gardner struggles through his fourth year as pastor of the Harmony Friends Meeting. Join the thousands of readers who have fallen in love with the charming small town that hosts what BookPage calls "the biggest collection of crusty, lovable characters since James Herriot settled in Yorkshire."

Surviving the wrath of the fearsome Sauur—a hideous race of invading serpents—noble Erik and cunning Roo have delivered a timely warning to the rulers of the Midkemian Empire, and are now free to pursue their separate destinies. Erik chooses the army—and the continuing war against Midkemia's dread enemies. Roo lusts for wealth and power—rising high and fast in theworld of trade. But with luxury comes carelessness and a vulnerability to the desires of the flesh. And a beautiful seductress with her ruthless machinations threatens to destroy everything Roo has built and become—summoning catastrophe into his future . . . and terror into his world.

Top ten New York Times bestselling author J.A. Jance brings another stunning novel of passion, violence, and dreams turned deadly, featuring Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont.There are many bizarre and terrible ways to die. Seattle Homicide Detective J.P. Beaumont thought he had seen them all—until he saw this body, its wounds, and the murder weapon: an elegant woman's shoe, its stiletto heel gruesomely caked with blood. The evidence is shocking and unsettling, even for a man who prowls the shadows for a living, for it suggests that savagery is not the exclusive domain of the predatory male. And the scent of a stylish killer is pulling Beaumont into a world of drugs, corruption, and murder to view close-up a cinematic dream at its most nightmarish...and lethal.

Tras la muerte de sus padres en un accidente automovilístico, el joven Andrés Segovia y sus hermanos se ven obligados a mudarse a México con el resto de la familia. Esta decisión, a pesar de haber sido tomada con la mejor de las intenciones, es un error que trastornará para siempre la vida de Andrés.Después de varios a?os de vivir en México luchando contra el estigma de ser un hispano nacido en Estados Unidos y sintiéndose siempre fuera de lugar, Andrés decide regresar a los Estados Unidos. Las autoridades lo detienen un día y lo ponen bajo la tutela de una terapeuta llamada Grace Delgado, una viuda que vive en El Paso. Su relación se convierte pronto en una gran amistad, y justo cuando comienzan a florecer y a disfrutar de su vida juntos, se descubren secretos inconcebibles acerca de la muerte de los padres de Andrés . . . secretos que bien pueden destruir la posibilidad que tienen de ser felices.