When Germany invades and occupies France in the Second World War, the five Laskowski children lose everything: their home, their Jewish community and most devastatingly their parents who are abducted in the night. There is no safe place left for them to evade the Nazis, but they cling together, never certain when the authorities will come for what is left of them. Inspired by the poignant, true story of the author’s mother, this moving historical novel conveys the hardship, the uncertainty and the impossible choices the Laskowski children were forced to make to survive the horrors of the Holocaust.

    She's struggling to choose a gift (a watch? a wine subscription? a weekend bag? all too much?) for her old school friend Peter, who's just moved back from London following a messy divorce.Peter doesn't have a clue what to get for his teenage daughter Chloe - furious with her mother, she's decided to up sticks and move to Kent with him, but he worries that he really doesn't know her at all.Chloe wants to buy something special for her grandmother Irene, who lives alone on the other side of town.Irene doesn't get out much these days, but she'd really like to find the right gift for Alina, who's so much more than a carer, really - always stops to chat for a bit, have a cup of tea, even if it makes her late.And Alina, meanwhile, has her eye on something for...From the no. 1 bestselling author of The Versions of Us comes a novel about how wonderful and sad and difficult and happy and strange Christmas can be. Stories to inspire, move and comfort.

    With the release of her conceptual app-album Biophilia in 2011, and a huge retrospective exhibition at New York's Museum of Modern Art coinciding with her most recent album, Vulnicura, in 2015, her status as artpop auteur has been secured. The album that made all this possible, though is 1997's Homogenic, a turning point in Björk's career and still among her finest musical achievements. Produced under great strain, it moves beyond the stylistic magpie rush of Debut and the urbanophile future-pop of Post, to something darker, stronger and braver, full of dramatic assertions of independence, sharp, stuttering beats, rich strings and raw outbursts of noise. It created, as the Alexander McQueen designed sleeve clearly asserted, a new Björk, one who would never stop hunting.

    An on-line e-sampler available from Simon & Schuster's XOXO After Dark by the authors of Baby, It’s Cold Outside Warm Hearts contains sneak peeks of the following: Searching for Beautiful , book three in the Searching For series by Jennifer Probst. Tied , the final installment in the Tangled series by Emma Chase. Falling for Jillian , the lastest entry in the Love Under the Big Sky series by Kristen Proby. Her Unexpected Hero , the first book in a new series by Melody Anne. Flirting With Fire , the first full-length installment of Kate Meader's Hot in Chicago series.

    Nathan wants to become a federal judge. Susie's husband has taken a job in England. Jean has asked her boyfriend and (once-married) boss to meet her family. Paul has broken up with Dana, mother of their son Cal.But their parents have plans, too, and Liesel, the materfamilias, has invited Dana and Cal to stay, hoping to bring them back together. As the week unfolds, each of the Essingers has to confront the tensions and conflicts between old families and new.From one of Granta's Best Young British Novelists, Christmas in Austin beautifully explores the deep-rooted division between the world we grow up in, and the life we make for ourselves.

    ‘During my military career, I dealt regularly with fear, emotional breakdown, pain in hostile environments and the horrors of war. I summoned bravery during intense gun battles and, perhaps more courageously, raised my hand for help during my darkest moment - though it took a while. The psychological techniques I developed during my time as an elite operator still serve me today, in and out of danger.’ – Jason Fox We all face internal conflict, both at home and at work. Some pressures threaten to crush us mentally, others cause stress, anxiety and self-doubt. Whether serving in the Special Forces, rowing oceans or investigating some of the world's most notorious drug cartels, Jason Fox has overcome more than his fair share of these emotional and mental battles.Recounting stories of the military operations and expeditions that have tested his own resolve, in Life Under Fire he shares the tools he's developed at the cutting edge of an elite military career and shows how you, too, can build the resilience and inner strength to overcome whatever challenges life puts in front of you.

    Durrant, Roxie Voorhees, Spencer Hamilton, Carla Eliot, Cass Oakley, Christopher Badcock, Carmilla, Joe Clements, Marcus Hawke and Patrick Whitehurst.In this anthology, you'll find incredible stories from some of the freshest faces in horror: in 'My White Star', a bittersweet love story is told through the lens of a chilling spectral haunting; in 'The Violent Snow', a strange artefact summons more from the blizzard than bargained for; in 'Everyone to the Table', sickening wishes come true...Settle in for a cold one. These stories are hard to swallow...

    It gives full details of exactly how to play the game, explains basic theory and includes many examples of play.

    He wanders through the Indian countryside among other animals, enjoying a sense of freedom, belonging to nobody. The holidays approach, Diwali, the Festival of Lights; the monsoon season, when the skies go pitch dark and the rains come, has arrived. At a time when everyone is eager to be home with family and friends, Billi is alone--and lonely.Walking into a village, Billi gazes through windows and sees a cozy fire, a content dog, and a happy family with children. Inspired, an untamed soul begins the transformative journey to a new life of warmth and togetherness in a world of interconnectedness. With his inimitable storytelling gifts and his unparalleled ability to penetrate the feline psyche, Jeffrey Moussaieff Masson captures Billi's inner world, his aloofness, mischievousness, and ultimately his new perspective on the deep connection shared by humans and their feline friends.

    These are stories of ambition and young love, insecurity and awkwardness, where a poor boy with energy and intelligence can break into the upper classes and become a glittering success. This selection brings together the best of Fitzgerald's St Paul stories -- some virtually unknown, others classics of short fiction. Patricia Hampl's incisive introduction traces the trajectory of Fitzgerald's blazing celebrity and its connections to his life in the city that gave him his best material. Headnotes by Dave Page provide specific ties between the stories and Fitzgerald's life in St Paul.

    Welcome to our sweet collection of Regency romance novellas to delight and entertain through the season.This limited edition collection is filled with charming characters, daring to find love against society’s expectations.Contents:Kidnapping Lord Blaymire by Catherine BilsonThe Wallflower's Christmas Surprise by Isabella HargreavesI Wrote My Love by Fiona M. MarsdenThe Secret Letter by Joanne Austen BrownThe Widow and Mr Cat by Stephen HartLove's Sweet Arrow by Clyve RoseWhen We Were Wallflowers by Heidi Wessman KnealeSpying for the Earl by Susanne BellamyThe Mysterious Mr J by Erin GraceFetch the Earl by Ebony Oaten

    Soon, she encounters kindness, romance, and is pulled into a mystery centered on an old, abandoned church and the death of a special girl. Are the images that only she can see in the church's stained-glass windows a warning, or is someone trying to reach her, to help heal this broken community? Manchester Christmas illustrates how God often uses the most unlikely among us to spread grace and healing in a wounded world. Full of love, hope, and forgiveness, this debut novel from an Emmy-winning writer will touch your heart and have you longing for Christmas in Manchester.

    But his battle has only just begun... DI Ivan Winterman is a man with a troubled past. The Blitz has left his young son dead and his wife seriously injured. He has made enemies in high places and, with his career going nowhere, he returns to his home town in East Anglia, seeking to rebuild his life in a country gripped by post-war austerity and the coldest winter on record.As the first snow begins to fall, a drunken ex-clergyman stumbles on the semi-mummified body of a small child concealed in a ruined cottage. Days later, a second similar child's body is found in a Fenland dyke. Both bodies have been dead for several years, preserved in the Fens, the cause of death unknown.Winterman, supported by a small team of assorted misfits, finds himself leading the investigation, uncovering a web of connections and secrets in the small rural community. When a further murder victim is discovered, Winterman discovers that the secrets are darker and the threat far more immediate than he'd ever envisaged. And, as the snow finally begins to thaw over the Fens, Winterman realises that his worst nightmares are about to come true… Alex Walters is the best selling and critically-acclaimed author of the DI Alec McKay series, Winterman is a tense and gripping serial killer thriller which will appeal to fans of authors like Stuart Macbride, Damien Boyd and Mark Edwards.

     The Little Café at the End of the Pier is the Café at the End of the Pier novellas collected together for the first time. When Jo's beloved grandparents ask for her help in running their little café at the end of the pier in Salthaven-on-Sea she jumps at the chance. The café is a hub for many people: the single dad who brings his little boy in on a Saturday morning; the lady who sits alone and stares out to sea; the woman who pops in after her morning run.Jo soon realises that each of her customers is looking for love - and she knows just the way to find it for them. She goes about setting each of them up on blind dates - each date is held in the café, with a special menu she has designed for the occasion.But Jo has never found love herself. She always held her grandparents' marriage up as her ideal and she hasn't found anything close to that. But could it be that love is right under her nose...? **The Little Café at the End of the Pier is the collected Café at the End of the Pier novellas. If you have already read and enjoyed the novellas then you have already read The Little Café at the End of the Pier.** ******* Readers love The Café at the End of the Pier: 'Brings a smile to your face and a tear to your eye' - Goodreads reviewer 'Heartwarming and made me smile... I can't wait to read more' - Goodreads reviewer 'Perfectly charming and totally yummy' - Amazon reviewer

    A Marshal who is given the sudden responsibility of two children. A mail-order bride situation that has fallen to ruin. Can Lottie find a home and a family by Christmas? December 1880 When Lottie Reiner lost her father in the war, her mother fell to pieces. At the young age of eleven, Lottie began caring for her catatonic mother. But when both her mother and grandfather pass away months apart, Lottie becomes nothing but a burden to her family. Her grandmother pushes Lottie to get married before it’s too late. But Lottie is a twenty-seven-year-old spinster with no experience raising children. Isn’t it already too late?Deputy US Marshal Archer King comes from a family of law keepers. His father was a US Marshal, and his mother worked as a Pinkerton Agent with Kate Warne. When his only sister passed on in childbirth, his brother-in-law swore he could care for the children on his own. And Archer was to check in on them, but in almost two years, he’s neglected that duty to his sister. When the father, Sam Hodge, goes missing, he finds out exactly what kind of dire situation the children have been subject to.After being turned out of her home, Lottie heads to Durant, Oklahoma, where Sam Hodge and his two children live, in the hopes of becoming a new wife and mother. Only the mail-order situation does not turn out the way Lottie had hoped, and many of the things that Sam had told her in his letters turn out to be lies. The only thing true is the children, and Lottie is fast becoming attached to them. But what will happen when Sam is found? Will she have the opportunity to get a home and a family before Christmas?