They captivate us with their forbidden mystery and promises of excitement. Yet once inside us, they become toxic; compelling us to infect others, who in turn want nothing more than to be bitten. It's a vicious cycle that ensures nothing remains secret forever. The only way to protect yourself from their destructive energies is to simply turn the other way when offered one. To resist the lure of the forbidden fruit. But sometimes, something just happens to you - or you just happen to witness something - that forces one upon you; like an uninvited guest that arrives without warning, and leaves only under great duress. Unfortunately, I have been burdened by such a secret for over twenty years. You see, my childhood was stolen from me in broad daylight, right under my nose, by a cunning thief who dazzled me with his charms, only to run away with my innocence forever. It was the perfect crime, and at the time I was the perfect victim. But thankfully, I was able to pick up the pieces of my life and gradually go on to live quite normally. In fact, I even forgot all about my childhood trauma. Or so I thought. Because it was during a recent chance encounter with my old teenage diary that I realized my demons had never truly left me. They had only been lurking in the shadows all along as I busied myself with other things. I suppose I learned the hard way that a secret kept in darkness only grows in potency.  But there is one way to diffuse a secret. To take away all of its power. And that is to make it public. For no vampire can survive in the cold light of day. So it is at the behest of my wonderfully supportive husband that I have decided to lay bare the ghosts of my childhood in this book, in the hope that in doing so, I'll finally be able to lay them to rest forever. It's been a long, hard journey for me to get to this point. And I thank you, dear reader, for playing your part in my recovery. Emily WARNING: This book is based upon a true story of child abuse, and as such contains passages that some readers may find disturbing.

    Their blood merged and formed a new species of shape shifters that changed the dark world forever—the Sycamore. The Sycamore is a unique species of shifters that have not only been in the realm of humans but in the realm of the supernatural as well. Among all shape shifters, Sycamores cannot be killed by silver. Only ten Sycamores have been in existence. Their death is brought forth by the curse of mortality caused by the cutting of one’s own flesh while denouncing the bloodline. This has happened because a Sycamore would end up falling in love with a human. This 17,000 word Novella is Part 1 of a six part series. This story is written by Joni Grimes, whose love for everything paranormal has created an unquenchable thirst to tell fascinating stories. Sycamores provided blood to the ancient lycans and vampires. Their shape shifter blood helped the vampire and the lycan bloodlines survive for the longest time. As more dark creatures merge and proliferate, the Sycamores continued to dwindle in number. Now, the future of the Sycamores lies in the hands of the last two who are yet to find each other.

    A serial killer, a seller of computers and a young Muslim girl’s lives are connected by a series of tragic events. DC Rosie Probert investigates the gangland shooting of a Brixton man, but could his brother really be responsible for a number of vigilante reprisals? A story of coincidence, murder, terrorism, and vengeance, Precarious Infatuations will thrill, frighten, and enthral you.

    Nothing in life was handed to her, she had to work for it. Although she was smart academically none of that mattered, school wasn't an option, bills had to be paid. Using her doting eyes, alluring smile, and firm back side, Yssa was determined to keep a roof over her head, food in her stomach and clothes on her back. When life takes a sharp right turn she finds herself running into Pierre.Pierre wasn't your typical guy. With a hardworking single mother his priority was school and sports. Being skilled in multiple sports landed him opportunities that would have him set for life, until he meets her. The moment his eyes met Yssa, the hood chick with the 'around the way girl' persona, he falls in love. Determined to help her out of her bind, Pierre goes out of his way to make Yssa see herself for the queen she truly is. He loves her, breathes her, cherishes her; however, in Yssa eyes he's just her best friend.Pierre isn't Yssa typical pick in guys, she was a hood chick that craved that hood love. He was too well mannered, too attentive, too motivating, too good for her tainted soul. Pierre's good boy ways was only enough to earn him a seat in the friend zone, where Yssa felt he was safe. When unfortunate events separate the two Yssa is forced to reevaluate herself and the choices she's made; however, her revaluations may be a little too late.

    With a gorgeous, successful husband who whisks her away on romantic trips, a beautiful home in one of the country's richest zip codes, and two wonderful daughters, life couldn't be better. However, she'll soon discover that an enviable marriage comes at a deadly cost. Who is Faith, and why are dozens of emails between her and Alicia's husband hidden in his draft folder? Why were the messages never sent? As Alicia embarks on a desperate quest to uncover Faith's identity, a shocking death hits close to home and sends her reeling. Was it a tragic accident or cold-blooded murder? In this beautiful town of wealth and privilege, nothing is as it seems, and everyone has something to hide. As Alicia struggles under the weight of dark secrets from her own past, someone knows more than they're saying--someone who knows the truth will come at a devastating price. Emotionally gripping and expertly plotted, this heart-pounding, compulsive read is the perfect domestic thriller for fans of The Wife Between Us, The Husband's Secret and The Couple Next Door.

    A ship goes down, a plane crashes, a party of travellers is cut off.But when the panic and confusion subside and the dead are counted, the survivors must find a way to keep surviving. And in desperation, unconstrained by law or conventional authority, the tactics they resort to can be both horrifying and ultimately self-destructive.Learmonth and Tabakoff outline the physical and neurological changes that typically affect the victims of disaster. Then, using true stories from history as case studies, they investigate the scenario famously imagined by William Golding in Lord of the Flies and borne out by the extraordinary Robbers Cave experiments of the 1950s. As this fascinating book unfolds the awful truth becomes clear. In extremity, humans are capable of a descent into murderous savagery so swift and complete it could—literally—take your breath away.

    Avram Escovitz, a young Jew, arrives in Glasgow from Russia. He dreams of playing football until WWI intervenes and he begins work as a credit draper, peddling goods to Highlanders. A stranger in a strange land, Avram must set up a new business and capture the heart of a Highland lass. But how easy will it be to shake off his Jewish roots?

     On a steamy August day in 1953, Rick Snedeker, then just three years old, stepped off an Arabian American Oil Co. (Aramco) company airliner with his family into a life as different from what they left behind as sandpaper is to silk. It was to prove fabulously exotic and at the same time just like “home” in many ways. In his charming memoir — 3,001 Arabian Days: Growing up in an American Oil Camp in Saudi Arabia (1953-1962) — author Snedeker describes via a series of vignettes his fond and strange remembrances of living for nearly a decade in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia. Aramco, then the fledgling national oil company, was in those years run by several American oil giants including Standard Oil, and was hastily hiring American experts to develop the far-flung Saudi oil fields. To ease life for the new residents, Aramco built comfortable communities, some aspects of which were reminiscent of how families lived in the States. While a child, Snedeker considered the camels, endless sand dunes and kindly Saudis that filled his childhood in the desert as nothing unusual. Kids enjoyed the live Nativity pageants at King’s Road baseball field; Santa’s arrival on a camel or by helicopter at Christmas; the crowded, boisterous annual tri-camp desert fairs; Pep Flakes cereal, powdered whole milk, and chocolate milkshakes churned in his dad’s new-fangled Waring blender; the Dining Hall’s culinary delights. Then, too, Aramcons occasionally had to confront dangerous diseases, some unknown in America (polio, for example, ravaged Dhahran children in the fifties). But everywhere, watchful eyes looked out for the kids, creating an enveloping sense of safety and security and, Snedeker recalls, a great deal of happiness. Aramco provided generous biannual “long vacations,” allowing round-the-world travel to visit the planet’s most glittering metropolises, unusual getaways and remote hideaways. London. Hong Kong. Zurich. Honolulu. Asmara. Bangkok. Venice. Hofuf. Bahrain. New York City. Being raised in the unique, exotic environment of oil-camp Dhahran made the kids who grew up there different from other American children. When the expatriate Aramco dependents returned to the U.S., they were often seen as “other” by their untraveled peers. But it all turned out fine, as the entertaining read of 3,001 Arabian Days makes clear.

    Trying to fill the gap, her adult daughter, Julia, is looking for love in all the wrong places, and wreaking havoc on the lives that she touches along the way.Just what will it take to shock Catherine back into life?

    Instead of having to sit down with the actual best-seller, you can find out all of the major details of the book right here! Your next book club meeting will have you standing out as the star of the show because you will know all about Where the Crawdads Sing! Yes, this is a summary, not the actual novel. However, this summary contains major plotlines and details, telling the entire story in a quick, concise manner without losing any steam! Learn why the main character is called the Marsh Girl! Discover a beautiful coming-of-age story without all of the unnecessary information included in the actual novel! Find out the answer to the biggest mystery in the story! All of this information and much more lies within this book, so don't be shy – buy it now! Who really has time to sit down and read hundreds and hundreds of pages in a novel? Not when you can get the heart of the story right here, in less than 40 pages! Enjoy, and please check out our other summary books coming soon!Disclaimer: This is a summary and not the original book.

    And yet, when she finally does have something like that life, as a wife and mother in 1980s London, she is the one blaring music from her room, necking vodka and valium and making an almighty mess of her home and family.Cleaning other people’s houses, eventually, is the only option left. At 50 years old, post rehab, living alone in a Hackney bedsit, Michele finds herself finishing her working life as she had begun, “in a dumb job that you do when you can’t really do anything else...”This is a remarkable, powerful, and often unbearably funny memoir in which cleaning and getting clean intertwine as a strange and magical form of redemption. Michele Kirsch is a Nora Ephron for the modern age.

    He is pushed to the brink of a breakdown when he is tormented by mysterious knocks at the window and eerie cries on the wind. His sanity is stretched even further when an intruder breaks into his home to leave items of her clothing. With no idea why she has been taken or by whom, Mike decides to investigate her disappearance himself, determined to bring home the woman he loves. But is the loch ready to disgorge its secrets?

    The Land of Stories Chirs Colfer Collection 3 Books Set RRP £ 20.97 Titles in the Set The Wishing Spell, The Enchantress Returns, A Grimm Warning

    They hoped it would be over by Christmas... Britain is at war and the proximity of the docks means that life in and around London's Turnbury Buildings is hard and dangerous. Chances are taken, people have secrets, hearts are broken. And feelings about foreigners are running high. Sixteen-year-old Freddie Jarrett is secretly seeing a girl from the local Chinese community - a relationship that would be frowned on by both families, despite the fact that they all support the fight for freedom from oppression. And his sister Grace has her own secret to hide. A secret that no one outside the immediate family must ever know. As the threat of the Luftwaffe looms over the docks, the community is threatened with being torn apart by prejudice, fear and separation, and the disturbing loss of stability that brings with it the feeling that it is only what happens today that counts for anything...

    From obscurity to overnight success, Ellie soon realises life in the public eye isn’t all it’s cracked up to be as dark secrets become headline news and old conflicts are re-ignited. When a fake feud meant to boost the band’s popularity threatens to rip the boys apart for real, Ellie finds herself torn – a position which only gets more uncomfortable when her loyalty to Jason collides with her blossoming relationship with Drew.Nobody knows how deep their issues run; nobody but Ellie. With friendship, a music career and a new love on the line, can Ellie keep their tangled pasts from ruining their futures?