Beauty Is a Wound


Eka Kurniawan - 2002
    The beautiful Indo prostitute Dewi Ayu and her four daughters are beset by incest, murder, bestiality, rape, insanity, monstrosity, and the often vengeful undead. Kurniawan's gleefully grotesque hyperbole functions as a scathing critique of his young nation's troubled past: the rapacious offhand greed of colonialism; the chaotic struggle for independence; the 1965 mass murders of perhaps a million "Communists," followed by three decades of Suharto's despotic rule.Beauty Is a Wound astonishes from its opening line: "One afternoon on a weekend in May, Dewi Ayu rose from her grave after being dead for twenty-one years…" Drawing on local sources—folk tales and the all-night shadow puppet plays, with their bawdy wit and epic scope—and inspired by Melville and Gogol, Kurniawan's distinctive voice brings something luscious yet astringent to contemporary literature.

From Notting Hill with Love... Actually


Ali McNamara - 2010
    . . wishing he looked more like Hugh Grant. Scarlett loves the movies. But does she love sensible fiancé David just as much? With a big white wedding on the horizon, Scarlett really should have decided by now . . . When she has the chance to house-sit in Notting Hill - the setting of one of her favourite movies - Scarlett jumps at the chance. But living life like a movie is trickier than it seems, especially when her new neighbour Sean is so irritating. And so irritatingly handsome, too. Scarlett soon finds herself starring in a romantic comedy of her very own: but who will end up as the leading man?

Where the River Ends


Charles Martin - 2008
    She was the beautiful only child of South Carolina’s most powerful senator. Yet once Doss Michaels and Abigail Grace Coleman met by accident, they each felt they’d found their true soul mate. Ten years into their marriage, when Abbie faces a life-threatening illness, Doss battles it with her every step of the way. And when she makes a list of ten things she hopes to accomplish before she loses the fight for good, Doss is there, too, supporting her and making everything possible. Together they steal away in the middle of the night to embark upon a 130-mile trip down the St. Mary’s River—a voyage Doss promised Abbie in the early days of their courtship.Where the River Ends chronicles their love-filled, tragedy-tinged journey and a bond that transcends all.

Harley & Rose


Carmen Jenner - 2016
    So what if this isn’t her actual wedding day, and that she’s only here because Harley was left at the altar just a few hours earlier? Trading San Francisco for paradise and swapping her bridesmaid’s bouquet for a Blue Hawaii, Rose hopes she can finally escape the friend zone. Once upon a time they had been more than friends, but life got in the way. She’s spent every day since wishing Harley would get a clue. She’s always been his best friend. He’s always been hers. She’s in love with him. He’s … not in love with her. He’s … marrying someone else. He’s … hiding something. He’s … well—it’s complicated.

Crown of Death


Keary Taylor - 2017
     Her life is wrecked overnight by a single man—Cyrus, who seems to think she’s someone important in his bloody world. But they won’t know the truth until she’s dead, and he’s very anxious to help her get there. But Logan isn’t going down without a fight. She makes him a deal. She will die, but first he must spend a month getting to know her, a month to change his mind. What she doesn’t expect is a month filled with displays of incredible wealth, spontaneous trips across the country, and unbelievable acts of immortal power. And as Logan spends her last days with Cyrus, she stops seeing the monster and begins to see a lonely, broken man she can’t walk away from. If she isn’t careful, it won’t just be her life she loses at the end of the month, but her heart as well...

Soulmates


Holly Bourne - 2013
    Soulmates. But while the odds of this happening are about as likely as being struck by lightning, when these people do meet and fall in love…thunderstorms, lightning strikes and lashings of rain are only the beginning of their problems.Enter Poppy, the 17-year-old cynic with a serious addiction to banana milk, and Noah, the heart-throb guitarist; residents of mediocre Middletown, sometime students, and…soulmates. After a chance meeting at a local band night, Poppy and Noah find themselves swept up in a whirlwind romance unlike anything they’ve ever experienced before. But with a secret international agency preparing to separate them, a trail of destruction rumbling in their wake, (and a looming psychology coursework deadline), they are left with an impossible choice between the end of the world, or a life without love…

Undescribable


Shantel Tessier - 2013
    Focusing on her new friends and rebuilding her broken life, Samantha is content. Until she meets him – attorney by day and a cocky, foul mouth playboy by night. All girls want Slade Long, but not one has ever been able to keep his attention for long. Having a different woman in his bed every night is how he prefers it-no emotion, no connection. Until he meets her - an angel with the sweetest voice he has ever heard and the most enticing green eyes. Samantha makes him second guess his actions and has him wanting something he didn’t know existed. How can a man who has never been in love, be so sure? Can real love happen this fast? Burned by her past, Samantha struggles to keep up with the overwhelming passion she feels for Slade. She knows that he will be nothing but trouble to her already fragile heart, but how long can she continue to deny the love that she feels for him? Will Samantha let Slade prove his love is real, or will she push him away? She thought she knew love…… He thought he never wanted love….. Together they will show each other what they can’t live without.

Milk and Honey


Rupi Kaur - 2014
    About the experience of violence, abuse, love, loss, and femininity. It is split into four chapters, and each chapter serves a different purpose. Deals with a different pain. Heals a different heartache. 'milk and honey' takes readers through a journey of the most bitter moments in life and finds sweetness in them because there is sweetness everywhere if you are just willing to look.

A Hopeless Romantic


Harriet Evans - 2006
    Her friends know it, her parents know it—even Laura acknowledges she lives either with her head in the clouds or buried in a romance novel. It’s proved harmless enough, even if it hasn’t delivered her a real-life dashing hero yet. But when her latest relationship ends in a disaster that costs her friendships, her job, and nearly her sanity, Laura swears off men and hopeless romantic fantasies for good. With her life in tatters around her, Laura agrees to go on vacation with her parents. After a few days of visiting craft shops and touring the stately homes of England, Laura is ready to tear her hair out. And then, while visiting grand Chartley Hall, she crosses paths with Nick, the sexy, rugged estate manager. She finds she shares more than a sense of humor with him—in fact, she starts to think she could fall for him. But is Nick all he seems? Or has Laura got it wrong again? Will she open her heart only to have it broken again?

The Story of Us


Dani Atkins - 2014
    But then a tragic accident changes everything, and introduces a stranger, Jack, into her life. Gorgeous and mysterious, Jack is like no-one Emma has met before. But Richard is the man she loves...Two different men. Two different destinies. How will Emma end her story?

My Side


Tara Brown - 2013
    Sometimes it’s where you find Mr. Random shacked up and sprawled out on what was supposed to be your new bed.Between the bear spray and the handcuffs, she discovers a terrible mistake has been made.Lochlan hasn't broken into her new home to sleep with a seedy barmaid...he owns half.With emotions running on high, Erin is determined to tough it out until a solution can be found.The tight quarters seem smaller with his accumulated clutter and bizarre sleeping schedule. It also doesn't help that he's the new lead singer for Thin Ice, an indie band on its rise to fame.What happens when a quiet bookworm gets stuck with a relentless rocker?What happens when the things you see are not the things you get?

The State of Us


Shaun David Hutchinson - 2020
    But still that doesn’t mean Dean wants to be part of the public spectacle that is the race for the White House—at least not until he meets Dre.The only problem is that Dre Rosario's on the opposition; he’s the son of the Democratic nominee. But as Dean and Dre’s meet-ups on the campaign trail become less left to chance, their friendship quickly becomes a romantic connection unlike any either of the boys have ever known.If it wasn’t hard enough falling in love across the aisle, the political scheming of a shady third-party candidate could cause Dean and Dre’s world to explode around them.It’s a new modern-day, star-crossed romance about what it really means to love your country—and yourself—from the acclaimed author of We Are the Ants and Brave Face, Shaun David Hutchinson.

Pillow Thoughts


Courtney Peppernell - 2016
    It is divided into sections to read when you feel you need them most. Make a cup of tea and let yourself feel.

Her


Pierre Alex Jeanty - 2017
    Every woman should know the feelings of being loved and radiating those feelings back to her mate. This is a beautiful expression of heartfelt emotion using short, gratifying sentiments. If there is a lover in you, you will not get enough of "Her."

At the End of the Matinee


Keiichirō Hirano - 2016
    Their bond forms instantly.Upon their first meeting, after Makino’s concert in Tokyo, they begin a conversation that will go on for years, with long spells of silence broken by powerful moments of connection. She’s drawn by Makino’s tender music and his sensitivity, and he is intrigued by Yoko’s refinement and intellect. But neither knows enough about love to see it blooming nor has the confidence to make the first move. Will their connection endure, weaving them back together like instruments in a symphony, or will fate lead them apart?Blending the harmonies of Kazuo Ishiguro’s Nocturnes and the sensuality of Ian McEwan’s Enduring Love, At the End of the Matinee is an enchanting and thought-provoking love story.