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Food, Sex and Money


Liz Byrski - 2005
    It’s almost forty years since they left the convent and went their separate ways, but now the old school friends are planning to meet again.Bonnie, shattered by the death of her husband, is back in Australia after decades in Europe, and she’s discovering that while financial security eliminates worry, she seems not to have a life.Fran, long divorced, is a struggling freelance food writer, battling to balance her diet, her bank balance and her relationship with her adult children.And Sylvia, marooned in a long and sterile marriage to an ambitious Anglican minister, and facing a crisis that will crack her world wide open.They had almost forgotten how it feels confide in women friends, but back together again, sharing their past lives, their secrets, their aspirations and their deepest fears Sylvia, Fran and Bonnie embark on a creative venture that will challenge everything they thought they knew about themselves and will change their lives for ever.

Paris Mon Amour


Isabel Costello - 2017
    The second is the reason I'm here. When Alexandra discovers that her husband Philippe is having an affair, she can’t believe he’d risk losing the love that has transformed both their lives.Still in shock, Alexandra finds herself powerfully attracted to a much younger man. Jean-Luc Malavoine is twenty-three, intense and magnetic. He’s also the son of Philippe’s best friend.With every increasingly passionate liaison, Alexandra is pulled deeper into a situation that threatens everyone she holds dear.Beautifully told through the boulevards and arrondissements of the City of Light, Paris Mon Amour is a sensual novel about inescapable desire and devastating betrayals. It is the story of one woman and two men, and what happens when there is no way out.‘A truly emotional ride. A story of lust, love and loss with a beautifully described Paris as its backdrop. I galloped through it in a couple of days’ Claire Fuller, author of Our Endless Numbered DaysIsabel Costello is the host of the Literary Sofa blog, which features authors from new talent to New York Times bestselling novelists. Guest writers on the blog have included Patrick Gale, Linda Grant, Tracy Chevalier and Karen Joy Fowler. She read Modern Languages (French and German) at Oxford, before pursuing a career in marketing and communications. She is now a full-time writer, and lives in London.

Sweet Shattered Dreams


Stanley Gordon West - 2005
    Then, just when he's convinced his life has passed him by, Sonny, by a stroke of fate, is given a second chance at living. Can he get it right?  Will he be able to evade the grinding loneliness that stalks him? Will he find a way to overcome the unbearable regret that haunts him? Will he ever risk loving again, to find someone with no good-byes in her heart? And, most of all, will he become the man he always could have been?

Kissing is the Easy Part


Christine Duan
    Some of the words she hates include economy class, second-hand clothes, and budget. She likes fashion, dating, not being on time and getting what she wants - until she meets Sean, who is like the clock striking midnight; he makes all her magic power wear off.He is as mature and sophisticated as the dark roasted coffee he drinks, while she is a lollipop, colorful on the outside with empty calories and artificial sweeteners on the inside.The attraction is instant, but getting a kiss is only the first step. Flora is soon to learn that getting the perfect guy doesn't guarantee a perfect relationship, and what brought them together in the first place may turn out to be what pushes them apart.

Suspending Reality


Kelly Rimmer - 2012
    Each has a secret, and each will stop at nothing to find freedom.Suspending Reality is a novel that asks the question - can you ever outrun consequence?

Apeirogon


Colum McCann - 2020
    Rami Elhanan is Israeli. They inhabit a world of conflict that colors every aspect of their daily lives, from the roads they are allowed to drive on, to the schools their daughters, Abir and Smadar, each attend, to the checkpoints, both physical and emotional, they must negotiate.Their worlds shift irreparably after ten-year-old Abir is killed by a rubber bullet and thirteen-year-old Smadar becomes the victim of suicide bombers. When Bassam and Rami learn of each other's stories, they recognize the loss that connects them and they attempt to use their grief as a weapon for peace.McCann crafts Apeirogon out of a universe of fictional and nonfictional material. He crosses centuries and continents, stitching together time, art, history, nature, and politics in a tale both heartbreaking and hopeful. Musical, cinematic, muscular, delicate, and soaring, Apeirogon is a novel for our time.

Daring the Duke for a Kiss: A Steamy Historical Regency Romance Novel


Scarlett Scarlett - 2021
    

All Blacked Out & Nowhere to Go


Bucky Sinister - 2007
    His love affair with punk comes full circle as he learns to hate it and then learns to love it again. The pieces in this book take us from his Southern roots, his brief stay in St. Louis, and his journey to California on a quest for punk bliss. Sinister finds himself in Oakland, where he gets exactly what he wanted, but it may just kill him. From recounts of specific shows to metaphorical dreams of Abraham Lincoln to the tragic stories of circus elephants, All Blacked Out & Nowhere to Go mixes tragedy and comedy into a book that's louder and faster than any book of its kind.

The Dark Circle


Linda Grant - 2016
    Sent away to a tuberculosis sanatorium in Kent to learn the way of the patient, they find themselves in the company of army and air force officers, a car salesman, a young university graduate, a mysterious German woman, a member of the aristocracy and an American merchant seaman. They discover that a cure is tantalisingly just out of reach and only by inciting wholesale rebellion can freedom be snatched.

Tree of Codes


Jonathan Safran Foer - 2010
    With a different die-cut on every page, Tree of Codes explores previously unchartered literary territory. Initially deemed impossible to make, the book is a first — as much a sculptural object as it is a work of masterful storytelling. Tree of Codes is the story of an enormous last day of life — as one character's life is chased to extinction, Foer multi-layers the story with immense, anxious, at times disorientating imagery, crossing both a sense of time and place, making the story of one person’s last day everyone’s story. Inspired to exhume a new story from an existing text, Jonathan Safran Foer has taken his "favorite" book, The Street of Crocodiles by Polish-Jewish writer Bruno Schulz, and used it as a canvas, cutting into and out of the pages, to arrive at an original new story told in Jonathan Safran Foer's own acclaimed voice.

Escape to the Country


Sheila Norton - 2017
    Working as a receptionist in a London vets, Sam is living far from her idea of a simple life. She’s always broke, rents a tiny flat, and is constantly arguing with her boyfriend. But the worst part is that her career is going nowhere. She wants to be a vet, but the most contact time with the animals she has is a quick hello when she books in their next appointment.Something’s got to give, so when her parents suggest visiting her Nana Peggy in a small quiet picturesque village, she agrees, thinking a bit of R&R could do her good. But rest and relaxation may not be the order of the day. Poor Nana Peggy’s lovely dog Rufus is unwell, and Sam can’t help but grow fond of him. With the help of Joe the local vet, a charming yet strangely distant man, Sam sets out on looking after him, despite her London life trying to call her back…Note: this is part one of a four part serialised novel. The full length paperback will be available in June.

Robin Hood and the Castle of Bones


Angus Donald - 2020
    

Christmas Romance Collection: 3 Contemporary Romances


Jennifer Youngblood - 2018
     Love on the Rebound Add a little Aloha to your Christmas this year! When Everly Watson takes her young son Jordan to Hawaii, she’s not just celebrating Christmas but also searching for answers surrounding a tragedy from her past. She doesn’t expect to be faced with a tsunami threat her second day on the island. Nor does she count on meeting the famous Christian Ross, superstar of a hit action-movie series. Sparks fly as Everly and Christian have an instant attraction. But things spiral out of control when Everly realizes someone is following her and watching her every move. Christian soon finds himself drawn into Everly’s complicated world of betrayal and deceit and feels the need to protect her from a perilous threat. Can Christian and Everly’s newfound love withstand the growing obstacles? Or are they doomed to keep reliving the heartaches of the past? Loving the Movie Star Actor Blade Sloan gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he lands a leading role in the new Jase Scott action movie, co-starring with Hollywood megastar Christian Ross. Too bad Blade’s having stress issues brought on by a longtime stalker who’s getting more aggressive. If Blade can’t find a way to loosen up on set and perform to the best of his ability, he’ll lose everything he’s worked so hard to achieve. Dani Fairchild is trying hard to turn over a new leaf and transcend into adulthood. Yes, she may have been irresponsible in the past when she jilted billionaire Liam Barclay and ran off with a surfer, but that’s all behind her. Dani has a food blog she wants to take to the next level, and she’s holding down a full-time job. Granted, being a receptionist isn’t her dream job by any means, but hey, it’s a start. Too bad she can’t keep her big mouth shut and gets fired when the boss acts like a jerk. An unlikely encounter on the public bus brings Blade and Dani together where sparks fly and attraction sizzles. But Dani isn’t having it. No matter how charismatic Blade is or how good he looks with his chiseled abs and piercing blue eyes she’s vowed to never again get involved with someone who doesn’t live on the island permanently. Long distance relationships are a kick in the pants, and she’s tired of being hurt. Home alone for Christmas while Samantha and her family go to the mainland, Dani settles in for a quiet, predictable holiday. But fate has other plans when Dani and Blade are unwittingly thrown into a cycle of events that lead to a heart-pounding climax. Can Dani and Blade find a strong enough love to sustain them in the face of danger? Or will the stalker win in the end? False Identity Believe in miracles … believe in hope … believe in love. It's Christmastime, and Chancy Hamilton can’t bear the thought of spending the holidays without her late husband Max who died in a plane crash. When Chancy and her teenage son, Travis, have an argument, Travis storms out of the house and ends up in the wrong part of town where he is attacked by a group of thugs. When a homeless man comes to his rescue, he invites the man home to have a meal with his mom and little sister. Gabe Jones is not like any other homeless man Chancy has ever seen—he’s confident, intelligent, and devastatingly handsome. Jake, Chancy’s boyfriend, takes an instant dislike to Gabe and warns Chancy to stay away from him.

The Other Side Of The Table


Madhumita Mukherjee - 2013
    A bond punctuated by absence and distance...Two continents. Two cities. Two people.And letters. Hundreds of them.Over years. Across oceans. Between hearts.Between Abhi, who is training to be a neurosurgeon in London, and Uma, who is just stepping into the world of medicine in Kolkata. As they ink their emotions onto paper, their lives get chronicled in this subtly nuanced conversation through letters ... letters about dreams, desires, heartbreaks, and longings... about a proverbial good life falling apart, about a failed marriage, a visceral loss, and about a dream that threatens social expectations...Letters that talk. And don't. Letters about this and that. Letters about everything...Letters with a story you would never expect.

The Unthinkable Thoughts of Jacob Green


Joshua Braff - 2004
    If only his mother hadn’t started college at thirty-six (and fallen for her psychology professor). If only he were more like his rebellious older brother (suspended from Hebrew school for drawing the rabbi in a threesome with a lobster and a pig). If only Jacob could confront his overbearing father and tell him he doesn’t want to sing in synagogue, attend est classes, write the perfect thank-you note, or even live in the same house with Abram Green. But, of course, he can’t. That would be unthinkable.