But when a crack appears at the bottom of the pool, they are cast out into an unforgiving world without comfort or relief. One of these swimmers is Alice, who is slowly losing her memory. For Alice, the pool was a final stand against the darkness of her encroaching dementia. Without the fellowship of other swimmers and the routine of her daily laps she is plunged into dislocation and chaos, swept into memories of her childhood and the Japanese internment camp in which she spent the war. Narrated by Alice's daughter, who witnesses her stark and devastating decline, The Swimmers is a searing, intimate story of mothers and daughters, and the sorrows of implacable loss, written in spellbinding, incantatory prose. The most commanding and unforgettable work yet from a modern master.

    Then he learns that the unthinkable has happened: she’s been kidnapped. Too much time and too many secrets have come between Andres and Marabela, but now that she’s gone, he’ll do anything to get her back. Or will he?As Marabela slips farther away, Andres must decide whether they still have something worth fighting for, and exactly what he’ll give up to bring her home. And unfortunately, the decision isn’t entirely up to him, or up to the private mediator who moves into the family home to negotiate with the terrorists holding Marabela. Andres struggles to maintain the illusion of control while simultaneously scrambling to collect his wife’s ransom, tending to the needs of his two young children, and reconnecting with an old friend who may hold the key to his past and his wife’s future.Set in Lima, Peru, in a time of civil and political unrest, this evocative page-turner is a perfect marriage of domestic drama and suspense.

    Now that his ship has been decommissioned at the end of the Napoleonic Wars, he has nothing to do but accept the invitation of one of his fellow naval officers to convalesce for the summer at a remote country estate in Yorkshire. Septimus would do anything to get back to sea……until a pair of blue eyes and a mischievous smile tempt him to forget everything, including discretion.Adam Seymour has had to fight for everything he has, from the scholarship that allowed him to attend university to the right to be himself. Now, as tutor to the Duke of Malton’s precocious children, he has a comfortable life in a grand country estate far away from ridicule. His goal of starting a school for underprivileged children once his noble charges outgrow his tutelage seems well within reach……until temptation arrives at Wodehouse Abbey in the form of handsome, older, irresistible Septimus.It doesn’t matter how hard Septimus fights his feelings for Adam, the two men can’t seem to stay away from each other. But when Septimus is offered the chance of a lifetime in the form of the ship he’s always wanted to command, he will have to choose between the possibility of lifelong love and the dream that is finally within his reach.PLEASE BE ADVISED: Steam Level - Smokin' hot! This includes explicit scenes between male lovers, so if that isn't what you want to read, please feel free to pass on this book.

    Follow each of their stories in The King’s Cousins, a new trilogy by bestselling author Alexa Aston. 1338 A.D. – Exiled to a convent after her father’s execution for treason, Katelyn de Blays has fleeting memories of the man she adored and the outside world. When her brother’s search leads him to finding Katelyn after many years, she is eager to leave with Landon and begin a new life. He brings her to the court of her cousin, Edward III, who betroths Katelyn to a powerful earl of Northumberland, using her as a political pawn to show his continued support of his northern noblemen.When Sir Nicholas Mandeville returns from patrolling his family’s lands along the Scottish border, he discovers his father has died—and left a widow—whom his uncle wed Nicholas to by proxy during his absence. Angry at becoming the Earl of Northmere and having no choice regarding his wife, Nicholas vows to leave the widow untouched until he knows whether or not she carries his father’s child. As time passes and Nicholas loses his heart to this brave, young woman, he is astonished to learn Katelyn wishes for their union to be annulled. Can he convince Kate to remain wed to him—or will Nicholas sacrifice his own happiness and let the enigmatic beauty go?Each book in The King’s Cousins Trilogy is a standalone story that can be enjoyed out of order.Series Order:Book #1: The PawnBook #2: The HeirBook #3: The BastardFor those who savor romance on the high seas, you might enjoy the standalone prequel to The King’s Cousins Trilogy. GOD OF THE SEAS is part of the Pirates of Britannia World and features Godwin de Blays and Melisent Winchester, great-grandparents to Quill, Landon, and Katelyn.

    When things look bleak, a mysterious benefactor steps in with an offer that could be a win-win situation... or a catch-22. This started - and finished - as a serial on the auhtor's blog. If you read it there, there is NOTHING new here.

    She is one of a handful of western women who have joined the international recruits to the Kurdish forces in Syria and is the first woman fighter to tell her story.Joanna was born to Iranian-Kurdish parents in a refugee camp in Iraq, before her family were accepted in to Denmark. During the Arab Spring, Joanna realized she needed to do something to protect the values she believes in, and the culture she loves. Leaving behind her life as a student, Joanna underwent considerable military training and travelled to the Middle East, where she spent time over several years fighting on the front line, including at the devastating battle for Kobani.

    The poems weave between personal narrative and pop-cultural criticism, examining and confronting modern media, consumption, feminism, and Blackness. This collection explores femininity and race in the contemporary American political climate, folding in references from jazz standards, visual art, personal family history, and Hip Hop. The voice of this book is a multifarious one: writing and rewriting bodies, stories, and histories of the past, as well as uttering and bearing witness to the truth of the present, and actively probing toward a new self, an actualized self. This is a book at the intersections of mythology and sorrow, of vulnerability and posturing, of desire and disgust, of tragedy and excellence.

    Goodbye, Vitamin is the wry, beautifully observed story of a woman at a crossroads, as Ruth and her friends attempt to shore up her father's career; she and her mother obsess over the ambiguous health benefits - in the absence of a cure - of dried jellyfish supplements and vitamin pills; and they all try to forge a new relationship with the brilliant, childlike, irascible man her father has become.

    Described as a narrative collection in three parts, My Darling from the Lions “threads experiences of the learning and unlearning of shame, the body, sex, faith, blackness, lineage, prophecy and healing”

    The Book of Echoes is filled with beauty, devastation and the power of ancestral connections that ripple through the ages' IRENOSEN OKOJIE'So bewitching I almost felt like I time-travelled back into Brixton 1981. A gorgeous book – totally recommended.' ALEX WHEATLE A sweeping, uplifting story of how a boy from Brixton and a girl from Lagos escape their dark past to find themselves a bright future. 1981: England looks forward to a new decade. But on the streets of Brixton, it’s hard to hold onto your dreams, especially if you are a young black man. Racial tensions rumble, and now Michael Watson might land in jail for a crime he did not commit.Thousands of miles away, village girl Ngozi abandons her orange stall for the chance to work as a maid. Alone in a big city, Ngozi’s fortunes turn dark and soon both her heart and hopes are shattered.From dusty roads to gritty pavements, Ngozi and Michael’s journey towards a better life is strewn with heartache and injustice. When they finally collide, their lives will be transformed for ever.With irresistible joy and grace, Rosanna Amaka writes of people moving between worlds, and asks how we can heal and help each other. Humming with beauty and horror, tragedy and triumph, THE BOOK OF ECHOES is a powerful debut from an authentic new voice in British fiction.

    Can he resist?CharlotteI’ve dreamt of opening my own bakery since I was a little girl helping my mom bake pies back home in Iowa. Sure, running my own pasty cart in the lobby of Pierce Industries isn’t exactly living the dream but hey, it’s a start. Plus, it gives me the chance to ogle the sexy and elusive stranger that frequents my cart a few times a week. I can’t help but be captivated by his commanding presence. His deep, blue eyes fixating on me as we exchange pleasantries leave me wanting more. I may be a 23-year-old virgin but my bodily reaction to him is anything but innocent. PrestonI don’t do pure. I don’t do naïve. And I certainly don’t do forever. I know better than to look twice at the beautiful woman in my lobby. Her milky skin and long, slender neck beg me to taste her. She’s young, naïve and practically dripping with purity. She’s too innocent for someone like me. I know I should walk away from her. But I can’t stop thinking about having her on her knees...

    With the compassion and wit that have made her a social media sensation among mothers around the world, Bunmi Laditan puts into evocative and relatable words what so many of us feel but can’t quite express. For mothers who love their children with a fiery fierceness but know what it is to feel crushed at the end of those long days, Dear Mother is like a warm hug that says, “I get it.”

    Being undocumented, however, has significantly curtailed the family’s opportunities: Ana is indebted to a loan shark who calls herself Mama, and is stretched thin by unceasing shifts at her factory job. To make matters worse, Ana must also battle both criticism from Lucho’s cousin—who has made it obvious the family is not welcome to stay in her spare room for much longer—and escalating and unwanted attention from Mama’s husband. As the pressure builds, Ana becomes increasingly desperate. While Lucho dreams of returning to Peru, Ana is deeply haunted by the demons she left behind and determined to persevere in this new country. But how many sacrifices is she willing to make before admitting defeat and returning to Peru? And what lines is she willing to cross in order to protect her family? The Affairs of the Falcóns is a beautiful, deeply urgent novel about the lengths one woman is willing to go to build a new life, and a vivid rendering of the American immigrant experience.

    Desperate to outrun her troubles, she accepts a governess position at the crumbling gothic manor of the mysterious Ravensdale family. Caring for three orphaned children gives her a purpose, but her vulgar employer, Bly Ravensdale, holds dangerous secrets that may shatter Clara's newfound safe haven. Yet this stubborn brute compels Clara to abandon her etiquette at every turn, and she can't stay away. Disowned by his family, Bly Ravensdale travels the globe as an explorer and agent of the British Crown until his brother’s passing leaves him saddled with three young wards. Charged with returning them to the family's vacant ancestral seat in the English countryside—the one place he wishes to avoid at all costs—Bly quits the role of spy to play family man. But a man nicknamed Devil rarely gets a clean start in life, even with the aid of the prudish yet lovely governess, Clara. Despite her cold exterior, Bly finds himself drawn to her, even as an enemy from his deadly past resurfaces seeking vengeance. Can he protect all that he has suddenly come to hold dear?

    He’s dirty. He’s everything I want.He’s the reason I’ve avoided coming home for summer break.It’s not because I’m scared, or mistreated.It’s the opposite, actually.I’ve caught him doing unspeakable things to himself, things I can’t get out of my head. Things I would like to do to him myself.So, what’s stopping me?Well, it isn’t the fact he’s old enough to be my father. It’s the fact he’s dating my mom.Coming home is inevitable, and I’m going to have to face him. It’s been four years, I can do this. I can handle one summer, right?Sweet Girl is a very steamy MF, age gap novel. Some instances in this book may be considered taboo.Read at your own risk.There is adult content in this book and it is not meant for readers under the age of 18.This books ends with a HFN.