A 14-year-old boy disappears from his home without a trace. Ninety years later, a series of chance DNA matches reveals what became of him. John had to grow up quickly — changing his identity, earning a living the hard way, and navigating love, friendship and death during some of the toughest times in American history.With nothing more than an 8th grade education, his journey takes us across America - through Prohibition, the Great Depression, the Dust Bowl, the gold mines of Colorado and the Second World War to eventually become a success in his own right. A semi-fictional account based on a true story.

    But it’s not what the storm took away that gets Matt’s attention – it’s what it left behind. Deep in the debris under what remains of his house, something has washed up that makes Matt the central target in a deadly conspiracy involving some very high-profile players. Not knowing who to trust, Matt must turn to his eccentric neighbor, his high school buddy, and ultimately his estranged wife to try and help him stay one step ahead – and alive – long enough to bring some order back into his life.

    In China’s six thousand-year history, there were countless Empresses, but only one female Emperor. Her name was Wu Tse-tien, and she was the Iron Empress. Collaborating with her lookalike mother, Madame Yang, she spares nothing and no one in her ascent from the rank of court concubine, starting with the murder of her infant daughter and then the sexual conquest of the T’ang Dynasty Emperor Kaotsung. Mediocre son of a great father, Kaotsung is always being compared, wantingly, to the late Emperor Taitsung. Before his death, the father had conferred authority on six elderly trusted advisors to represent Taitsung from beyond the grave. The wrinkled, aged Council of Six are not Taitsung’s only legacy—Kaotsung also inherits the smooth, fragrant and delectable Lady Wu, once a favored consort of his father’s. A lucky man! Or is he? Meanwhile, in the distant port city of Yangchou, another historical denizen of the T'ang, Magistrate Ti Ren-chieh (known to millions via Robert Van Gulik's series the Judge Dee mysteries), is obsessed with a string of murders. Educated, rational, and compassionate, he’s been called the Chinese Sherlock Holmes, putting himself in the minds, hearts, shoes and clothing of criminals and their victims. He goes where he needs to go to solve a crime, be it a fine house, a monastery or the stinking alleys and foul waters of the canal district of Yangchou. Anywhere but home, where his two wives, old mother and delinquent sons make his teeth hurt and his life miserable. As he cracks these baffling cases, his investigations take him far from the light of rational Confucianism and deep into the shadows of charlatan Buddhism, where hucksters, poseurs and opportunists abound. Little does he imagine where his perseverance will deliver him. Aided by her mother and eventually by her lover, Hsueh Huai-i, a rogue Tibetan monk-magician, the Empress Wu overcomes the final barrier to ultimate power: her sex. The challenge of Dee’s career arrives in the form of the bloody hoofprints of a horse on the shining floors of the mansions of slaughtered wealthy families in the capital city of Ch’angan. Clues in Buddhist sutras lead Dee into the world of demons, saints and prophecies, and ultimately to the palace, the Empress herself, and an extraordinary showdown with Hsueh Huai-i. "IRON EMPRESS is much better by far than THE NAME OF THE ROSE: More gripping, more understandable, more readable....A work at once entertaining and fascinating....enlightening, illuminating, boiling with surprises and alive with totally novel imagery....” —Le Figaro, Paris "If P.D. James and Umberto Eco collaborated on a novel set in T'ang China, it might be like this." —Sterling Seagrave "A skittish dance on the razor's edge of paranoia." —San Francisco Examiner "Wonderful...compelling...a hard-driven saga of good and evil without the car chases. Enough beheadings, poisonings and back-stabbings, both literal and figurative, to bloody a whole series of books..." —San Francisco Chronicle About the Authors: Eleanor Cooney is the author of DEATH IN SLOW MOTION (HarperCollins 2004, Kindle edition 2013). She recently completed a dark-but-humorous literary “noir” thriller set in Wisconsin in the present and in the 1890s. Daniel Altieri holds degrees in Oriental language and civilization from Brown University and the University of Pennsylvania.

    Unfortunately, assuming the throne proves to be the easy part. Yamada must then help Takahito renounce that throne in such a way as to hobble the power of the Fujiwara clan forever!"

    But only in death could I confirm this ... So begins the haunting and captivating tale, set in 1935 China, of the ghost of a young woman named Leiyin, who watches her own funeral from above and wonders why she is being denied entry to the afterlife. Beside her are three souls—stern and scholarly yang; impulsive, romantic yin; and wise, shining hun—who will guide her toward understanding. She must, they tell her, make amends.As Leiyin delves back in time with the three souls to review her life, she sees the spoiled and privileged teenager she once was, a girl who is concerned with her own desires while China is fractured by civil war and social upheaval. At a party, she meets Hanchin, a captivating left-wing poet and translator, and instantly falls in love with him.When Leiyin defies her father to pursue Hanchin, she learns the harsh truth—that she is powerless over her fate. Her punishment for disobedience leads to exile, an unwanted marriage, a pregnancy, and, ultimately, her death. And when she discovers what she must do to be released from limbo into the afterlife, Leiyin realizes that the time for making amends is shorter than she thought.Suffused with history and literature, Three Souls is an epic tale of revenge and betrayal, forbidden love, and the price we are willing to pay for freedom.

    However, things turn dangerously complicated when she meets the lavish Philip, and she soon finds herself unable to resist him, and the fierce desire that burns between them. How long can she hide herself from her fiancé and her father, who are both desperately looking for her? When her secret is revealed, will this growing romance be doomed forever?Philip Hoskins, the Duke of Bambury, is a man with a tarnished past. No apologies, no excuses. Philip knows that he must marry soon and he must marry well, but fate may have other plans for him. Even though he believes marriage is nothing but a business arrangement, when he meets the gorgeous Emma, his world instantly turns upside down. But he quickly realises that, even though they might be a match made in heaven, her public outbursts, her wild temper and the rumours that she's run away from her fiancé, are enough to destroy every possibility of having a happily ever after. Will he take all of his courage to face a peril that could destroy everything he has ever achieved in the name of all- consuming love?In the midst of their passionate love affair, Emma struggles with telling the truth of who she is. As her life of deception grows ever more tangled, and her feelings for Philip ever deeper, Charles Gregory, her fiancé, the most dangerous man she's ever known, is coming for her. He'll do whatever it takes to possess her and make her pay, for what she has done to him... Will she manage to run away from him once again, and find happiness in a dashing Duke's arms? After all, with such a difficult beginning, can Emma and Philip ever hope to trust one another, let alone find everlasting love?"Temptations of a Mysterious Lady" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    This new series takes place in the Stars Realm’s Universe and has some of the species from the Annihilation Series. With new Characters and powerful enemies, the series will hook you from the start.The powerful advance of aggressive civilizations has taken a toll on thousands of peaceful civilizations and the Realm is losing ground. With the loss of psychic abilities, there is no one to fly the most powerful warships of the Realm and many of the enemies possess more advanced technologies. A psychic species that kills everything it touches has killed all life on thousands of planets and are expanding into the Realm. Three infants are the only ones to ever survive a Dremor attack and no one knows why they weren’t killed. These three brothers will play an important role in determining the possible survival of the Realm. The three know they share a common destiny but first they must don the armor of a Life Warrior.The action continues in Life Warrior as the Bristone Realm continues the struggle to survive a tsunami of enemy warships led by a species that has never tasted defeat.

    But before Meg can take her first steps into the unknown alone, she must look to her past. Why, she wonders, did her mother wear a wedding ring but never marry? Why, for instance, does the tallyman never call at No. 3 Tippet's Yard to collect any rent? He does everywhere else. With Ma gone, Meg must go back to her roots to uncover her 'family tree'. However, the process of simplfying her life leads to unforseen complications. But there's always Kip, reliable and loving, to pick up the pieces of her unsolved life and love.

    It tells the story of a family under siege. From the time the Dandy family moved to their "home in the country" in 1970 until they fled it in 1974, they were plagued but unexplainable and terrifying events. When they tell you ghosts can't harm you, take it with a grain of salt. Perhaps they can't affect you directly but they can sure cause incidents that can kill. The book is told in semi-diary form to keep it in (hopefully) order. If you don't believe in the paranormal, you'd better not read this book. If you want to learn something, by all means read it and learn.

    When Amelia's long lost brother tries to reconnect with her, Emma is utterly unprepared for the challenges and lies that are about to follow and land on her path. The only thing she knows is that he is the most beautiful man she has ever seen. When the lines of loyalty begin to blur, will their growing feelings turn into a true love?When Lord Eric Price becomes the Earl of Elsben, he accidentally discovers some of his late father's treasures. The unexpected revelation of some old love letters leads him to the shocking realisation that he has a sibling he knew nothing about. All he wants is a chance to meet his sister, but little did he know how much this would cost him. While he is trying to win her trust, he will start growing other, deeper feelings for her best friend. Could Emma be the salvation he has been looking for?When a long buried secret comes to surface, a chance at love may finally be within reach. But Eric's scandal and Emma's tension with her friend will stand in the way of love. Faced with the dilemma of choosing between true love and friendship, what will they end up sacrificing? A tale of revenge, hope, and determination, where love is constantly challenged. Can a true, captivating romance be growing in such an unfortunate situation? Or will the many testing sacrifices end up putting out the flame of their love?"Dare to Love a Lord" is a historical romance novel of approximately 80,000 words. No cheating, no cliffhangers, and a guaranteed happily ever after.

    She will discover the truth about her past, even if that means outwitting the most feared thief-catcher of them all...Relentless, handsome and determined, Han sees life—and love—as black and white. Until he finally captures the spirited, courageous Li Feng, who makes him question everything he thought he knew about right and wrong. Soon he's faced with an impossible choice: betray the elusive sword dancer he is learning to love, or trust his long-disregarded heart and follow her to dangerous, tempting rebellion...

    

     When her father’s men steal from the wrong nobleman, Beatrix finds herself negotiating her freedom with the most unusual Marquess. And she’s the bargaining chip. Callum Ahern, Marquess of Bellton, is burdened with precious cargo: his late mother’s wedding diadem. Assaulted by a band of thieves, his only hope of reclaiming it comes in the form of an unexpected hostage: the beautiful daughter of the outlaw that ambushed him. Trapped between social rules and their burgeoning feelings for each other, Beatrix and Callum must overcome not only a brush with death but also their past. The red thread of fate connects them all, and when Beatrix’s father comes out of hiding to save her, he holds the spinning wheel: a twenty-year-old secret, from the night Beatrix was born…

    As Fergus tries to make sense of the mad world around him—his brother on hunger-strike in prison, his growing feelings for Cora, his parents arguing over the Troubles, and him in it up to the neck, blackmailed into acting as courier to God knows what—a little voice comes to him in his dreams, and the mystery of the bog child unfurls.Bog Child is an astonishing novel exploring the sacrifices made in the name of peace, and the unflinching strength of the human spirit.

    During and after dinner he had nothing to excite him save the receipt of a letter which somewhat annoyed him, and that his wife consumed rather more wine than he considered to be good for her health. Immediately after retiring to his room he was seized with symptoms of irritant poisoning, and despite every effort made on his behalf, he succumbed to its effects. An inquest was held, which vexed the minds of the Coroner’s jury to a degree without precedent in Coroners’ Inquest Law, and an open verdict was returned. However, the matter will not rest there, for after questions in Parliament, a second inquest has been called under suspicion that Mr Charles Petrie was murdered. * * * Who poisoned Charles Petrie? Dr James Collymore, a man familiar with poisons, a man harbouring a dark secret that, if exposed, would ruin his career; Florrie, the maid who supplied Charles with his bedtime drink; Bert Kemp, a disgruntled groom, who used poisons in his work, who four months previously had predicted Charles’ dying day; Mrs Jennet Quinn, a lady’s companion with a deep knowledge of poisons, and a deep fear of dismissal; or Grace Petrie, Charles’ wife of four months, a woman with a scandalous past, a woman shunned by polite society. With crowds flocking to the courtroom and the shadow of suspicion falling upon Grace in the shape of the hangman’s noose, could dashing young advocate, Daniel Morgan, save her?