Stars in the Southern Sky


Elizabeth Haran - 2003
    From its passionate people, to its mystic wildlife, the outback becomes its own character in Elizabeth Haran's novel about learning how to thrive in the face of adversity.London 1954: When Estella is abandoned by her lawyer husband, James, her life of luxury crumbles. Not only had he left his job and frittered away their savings, James was cheating on Estella - with her cousin Davinia. But the family secrets didn't end there.Heartbroken, Estella turns her back on England. Her distant uncle Charlie beckons her to Australia, where she accepts a new position - village veterinarian. She had studied veterinary medicine, but she'd never had a real job. As Estella sets off for the outback, she carries secrets of her own: she is pregnant with James' baby.Day one in the bush brings the young Londoner to tears. Kangaroo Crossing, population thirteen, was not what Estella had expected. Sweltering. Dusty. Fly-infested. From the gruff propeller plane pilot to the perpetually drunken town doctor, the locals eye the newcomer with suspicion.After a series of harrowing events, Estella strives to prove herself capable of the job. Just as the villagers of Kangaroo Crossing start to accept Estella - and a romance starts to blossom - her past catches up with her. She's been hiding things from them.Back in England, James has gotten wind of the baby. His new wife, Davinia, can't have children - but her lavish inheritance depends on an heir. James will stop at nothing to get what is his. Can Estella save her baby - and herself - from the wild Australian bush? Will she ever learn to love again?

The Glass Menagerie


Tennessee Williams - 1945
    As Williams's first popular success, it launched the brilliant, if somewhat controversial, career, of our pre-eminent lyric playwright. Since its premiere in Chicago in 1944, with the legendary Laurette Taylor in the role of Amanda, Menagaerie has been the bravura piece for great actresses from Jessica Tandy to Joanne Woodward, and is studied and performed in classrooms and theatres around the world. The Glass Menagerie (in the reading text the author preferred) is now available only in its New Directions Paperbook edition. A new introduction by the editor of The Tennessee Williams Annual Review, Robert Bray, reappraises the play more than half a century after it won the New York Drama Critics Circle Award. This edition of The Glass Menagerie also includes Williams's essay on the impact of sudden fame on a struggling writer, "The Catastrophe of Success," as well as a short section of Williams's own "Production Notes." (back cover)

Great Expectations


Neil Bartlett - 2007
    Stage adaptation of a Dickens novel by an accomplished director

The Highlander's Keep (Searching for a Highlander Book 2)


Bess McBride - 2017
    Just as she is packing her bags to leave, her long-time boyfriend ends their relationship, claiming that her love for him lacks passion and romance. Cynthia, the daughter of an absentee irresponsible archaeologist father, wants a steady reliable relationship devoid of drama. No sooner does Cyn set foot onto the foggy tidal sea stack of the Morrison stronghold than she falls headlong into a deep hole, all that remains of the keep that served as a lookout tower from rival feuding clans. A metal object slows her fall, the hilt of a medieval dagger. Cyn finds she has fallen not only in space, but in time, when she awakens in a world of rugged Highland Scotsmen who stand ready at all times to fight for their home, their women and children, their very lives. Steady and reliable they may be, but they are fiercely passionate about everything they hold dear. Cyn finds a sympathetic companion in Ann Borodell, the time traveling wife of the laird. But it is the wild ginger mane and compelling blue eyes of the brooding Highland warrior that capture her reluctant heart. Searching for a Highlander series Book 1 - The Highlander's Stronghold Book 2 - The Highlander's Keep Book 3 - The Highlander's Home (coming 2018)

Descendant


Ky Tyrand - 2016
    Imagine if you had the ability to change your appearance at will. To alter the color of your hair, eyes, lips, and nails; maybe even your skin? Perhaps give yourself a tan, freckles, or a tattoo. And then swap it again, all in the blink of an eye.What if you could change your clothes to anything you wanted – that dress you saw in the window; those boots you just couldn’t afford – all with a simple thought?Suppose your senses were perfect. Better than perfect. You could see and hear and smell more acutely than you ever thought possible. On occasion, you could even glimpse into the future.You were stronger. Healthier.You were a Princess. An heir to a Kingdom in a beautiful land.What if the most powerful warriors in the land wanted you dead, and would stop at nothing to kill you?In Princess of the Gods: Descendant, a peaceful Kingdom is turned upside down when a teenage Princess discovers her true lineage: She comes from an ancient bloodline that traces straight back to the Old Gods.But this makes her a threat to the New Gods.After an attack on her home destroys the world she knows, every moment of her life becomes a fight for survival.Armed with a pair of energy weapons powerful enough to cut into solid stone – and the ability to change her clothing and appearance with a simple thought – the girl fights back, knowing that it's the only way she’ll ever be able to save her Kingdom.But will her energy blades and superhuman powers be enough to save her from the forces that want her dead?

M. Butterfly


David Henry Hwang - 1988
    a visionary work that bridges the history and culture of two worlds."--Frank Rich, New York TimesBased on a true story that stunned the world, and inspired by Giacomo Puccini's opera Madama Butterfly, M. Butterfly was an immediate sensation when it premiered in 1988. It opens in the cramped prison cell where diplomat Rene Gallimard is being held captive by the French government--and by his own illusions. He recalls a time when Song Liling, the beautiful Chinese diva, touched him with a love as vivid, as seductive--and as elusive--as a butterfly.How could he have known that his true love was, in fact, a spy for the Chinese government--and a man disguised as a woman? The diplomat relives the twenty-year affair from the temptation to the seduction, from its consummation to the scandal that ultimately consumed them both.M. Butterfly is one of the most compelling, explosive, and slyly humorous dramas ever to light the Broadway stage, a work of unrivaled brilliance, illuminating the conflict between men and women, the differences between East and West, racial stereotypes--and the shadows we cast around our most cherished illusions.The original cast included John Lithgow as Gallimard and BD Wong as Song Liling. During the show's 777-performance run, David Dukes, Anthony Hopkins, Tony Randall, and John Rubinstein were also cast as Gallimard. Hwang adapted the play for a 1993 film directed by David Cronenberg, starring Jeremy Irons and John Lone.TEXT OF THE BROADWAY REVIVAL

The Last Citadel


K.M. Ashman - 2011
    A solitary fortress isolated in an endless sea. A city of secrets where the elite dominate with an iron fist and ambition ends at the city walls. Ordinarily the city is surrounded by water but one day a month when the moon is at its highest, the water recedes and uncovers the causeways linking the city to the outer towers. This is Moon-day, the time when the trades bring their specialities to market and the whole Citadel enjoy the celebrations the festival brings, so when the city’s stargazer predicts the water level will drop even further, nobody takes any notice.Soon enough and despite the people's indifference, the predictions are proved correct and as the sea falls it reveals secrets that have never been known before. Secrets that are at first exciting....then disturbing .....and ultimately.....terrifying

Convergence


Thomas Settimi - 2007
    But for the men on the ground below they were a puzzlement. And no wonder: the year was 1863 and the men were Confederate soldiers marching toward the most significant battle of the American Civil War.Thousands of miles away and 105 years later, Navy pilot Nathaniel Booth and his navigator complete their air mission over Laos and are headed back to the deck of the USS Enterprise when their aircraft mysteriously vanishes. Our hero Booth is declared Missing In Action. Years later when Rose Booth, the family matriarch, learns that her son may not have been a casualty of the war as previously believed, she enlists a prominent history professor and his protégé to uncover the truth.In this carefully researched historical novel with a cosmic twist, the author traces the convoluted struggle to weave together the threads of a lost airman's life and bring solace to a grief-stricken mother. 352 pages, 88,000 words, 73 Chapters.

Angelique


Lorena Gale - 2000
    Gale has fashioned a spare but powerful tale that thrusts the indignities of slavery and the stupidity of racism out of the murky 18th century and into the here and now.—Martin Morrow, Calgary Herald

King of Shadows


Susan Cooper - 1999
    So he is thrilled when he is chosen to join an American drama troupe traveling to London to perform "A Midsummer Night's Dream" in a new replica of the famous Globe theater.Shortly after arriving in England, Nat goes to bed ill and awakens transported back in time four hundred years -- to another London, and another production of "A Midsummer Night's Dream." Amid the bustle and excitement of an Elizabethan theatrical production, Nat finds the warm, nurturing father figure missing from his life -- in none other than William Shakespeare himself. Does Nat have to remain trapped in the past forever, or give up the friendship he's so longed for in his own time?

The Quiet Earth


Elizabeth Harris - 1995
    For Nina, an ecologist working alongside local archaeologists, the discovery of a baby’s grave dating from the thirteenth century is of far more interest than just academic. Nina is mourning the loss of her own baby – a fact that seems not to have gone un-noticed by the spirits disturbed by the dig. And she is not alone in feeling an unusual affinity with the dig site: her boss Mark also senses strange presences there. Nina is drawn to Mark, but she is unsure of their relationship, and unable to communicate her feelings. Mark, meanwhile, is not a man given to clear expressions of affection and he too is mourning – mourning the failure of his engagement. As Mark and Nina continue to work on the Wye Valley site, their developing relationship has uncanny echoes of the past. The baby buried in the Wye Valley is the child of Gawyn, a headstrong Crusader knight who once travelled from France to Wales with a sacred secret; a secret that has lain dormant for hundreds of years. Until now...The baby’s mother, his wife Roese, followed a hugely challenging and at times death-defying path to find her home in the quiet Wye Valley. As Nina and Mark delve ever deeper into the past, they find out more of Gawyn's story, his travels across Europe and – perhaps most important of all – his encounter with a group of religious believers who held to their beliefs despite being mercilessly persecuted by the Crusaders. With their own story developing and sometimes mirroring that of Roese and Gawyn, will Nina and Mark find a spiritual home? Only time will tell…

The Time Traveler's Daughter


Emma Strike - 2021
    In the box is also a medallion that can take her into the past, and he has left her breadcrumbs to the largest pirate treasure that has ever been lost, a treasure her ancestors have sought for generations…Sebastian Talbot is a disgraced former Duke who trades in antiquities. He meets the alluring Catherine at The Great Exhibition of 1851, unaware that she is 80 years before her time and is laying a trap for the pendant he always wears around his neck. She seduces him, gets her hands on the necklace and plunges them both into the past…As Catherine and Sebastian embark on the adventure of a lifetime, the pull of their desire is as magnetic as their magical medallion. The closer they get to finding the lost treasure, the closer they get to each other. But Sebastian still doesn’t know who she really is. Will Catherine reveal her secret and give them a chance at love?This is the first book in the All Who Wander series, time-travel romance novels that sizzle with passion and adventure. If you are a fan of love stories that are a wild romp, you’ll love The Time-Traveler’s Daughter.

Rewriting Justice: The Complete D.C. Series: Justice Served Cold, Vengeance Served Hot, Bounty Hunter Inc, Beware The Hunter


Martha Carr - 2019
    Here's your chance to get the complete D.C. Series starring Leira Berens and her swearing troll. Justice Served Cold: Leira Berens has split with the Feds and has gone out on her own to save her corner of the world. Magic is on the loose and the werewolves, Elves and Witches are causing trouble. Leira’s working on a new world with her Light Elf by her side and a certain swearing troll. There are whispers among the dark Wizarding families that she’s a new kind of bounty hunter. Time to show them how it’s done. They’ll never see her coming. Vengeance Served Hot: Once a cop, always a cop? Not if they become a bounty hunter... Leira Berens, former homicide detective must clean the streets, but this time it is against magic infused folks, shifters and dark wizards. There are no laws on the books to handle this situation. So, she is going to help make some. With a fireball in one hand and a pair of cuffs in the other, those she hunts can take their pick. A Light Elf and a swearing troll by her side… the world’s got a fighting chance at surviving the return of magic. Bounty Hunter Inc.: Hey dark wizards, there’s a new law in town. Her name is Leira Berens, part Jaspar elf, part human and she’s done playing nice.Leira Berens is the world’s first bounty hunter of magical criminals and she likes her job. Elves, gnomes, dark wizards and even a few humans want her to take early retirement…six feet under. Good thing she can throw a mean fireball, run toward trouble and is done playing by everyone else’s rules. Magic has returned and a bounty hunter is just what the planet needed. Beware The Hunter: The hunt is on – but who’s the prey? Leira Berens is the government’s newest bounty hunter of magical thugs – the first in the country. That’s not sitting well with a lot of dark magic. Leira, Correk and that troll YTT can see them coming. Too bad they don’t know that’s just the beginning of the story. Dark elementals have shown up in our world and no one knows what to do with them, but everyone wants control. Everything Leira has learned will be tested in order to keep the balance between Earth and Oriceran. --- NOTE: This book contains cursing. Perhaps humorous cursing, but cursing nevertheless. If this offends you, we don't suggest reading this book.

The Moon Hunters


Anya Pavelle - 2019
    A group of survivors finds an island sanctuary.Three generations later, no one has heard from the outside world in years. The old radio only crackles with static. The Pestilence either finished its job or the world tore itself apart.In the Village of Lehom, Leilani has been called to court as a Virtue by the King. Going to court means losing her independence and self-respect. Unfortunately, she doesn’t have a choice.Leilani decides to take a stand; the King be damned. She plans a daring escape and sets in motion a series of events that will shake the foundation of her village and the island to its core.

Queen of Egypt


Kylie Quillinan - 2019
    She just doesn't know why yet.Ankhesenamun needs to produce an heir to the throne -- quickly. Pharaoh Tutankhamun is young and weak. His chief advisors are planning his quiet removal and Ankhesenamun hopes to hold them off by producing an heir who can become a stronger Pharaoh.When Pharaoh's advisors move the court from the desert city of Akhetaten back to ancient Memphis, Ankhesenamun is thrown into a new world of danger, secrets, and old gods. Her dreams warn her of a blond-haired man who she will fall desperately in love with -- and who will die by her own hand.When the man from her dreams suddenly enters her life, she realises just how hard it's going to be to stay away from him. Forgetting the warnings, she throws herself into an affair with him. After all, she's supposed to be producing an heir. As his secrets start to be revealed, she searches for a way to save him. But saving his life might lead him to a fate worse than death.Queen of Egypt is the first book in a new series set in 18th Dynasty Egypt in a world where the old gods have been worshipped for thousands of years and magic is a matter of belief. For readers of dark fantasy who enjoy an historical setting.