She left the rural Yorkshire village where she grew up for life as a family lawyer in London, but what secrets did she take with her?When a familiar voice telephones her with tragic news, Anna knows that running away is no longer an option, and that she has to return to face her demons.What led Anna to flee from her home, and what is it that causes her to return?"Charcoal" unfolds a dramatic sequence of events that demonstrate the consequences of desires.

    Told from alternating viewpoints, one black and one white, Surviving the Fatherland author Annette Oppenlander delivers another stunning historical tale set against the epic backdrop of the American Civil War—a breathtaking examination of the power of hope and friendship, and the endurance of the human spirit to find a way home.Tennessee, 1861. Fifteen-year-old farm boy Adam Brown would do anything to protect his friend Tip, a slave at the neighboring plantation—even if it means fighting Nathan Billings, the rich and obnoxious landowner’s son. But when it seems his attack has killed Nathan, Adam has no choice but to run away and join the Union Army under an assumed name. Together with Wes, a chatty soldier with a few secrets of his own, Adam embarks on a traumatic odyssey through the war-torn Midwest. As his soul darkens with the atrocities of war, all he wants is to go home. But in order to do that—if he survives—he must face his past. Unbeknownst to Adam, sixteen-year old Tip is sold to a farmer who takes drunken pleasure in torturing his slaves. Tip quickly realizes that if he wants to survive he must run. Ahead lie hundreds of miles of unknown country, infested by slave owners, traders, starvation and cold. And so begins a journey of escape and recapture, of brutal attacks and unexpected kindness. When a rescue by the Underground Railroad goes terribly wrong, Tip finds himself caring for a pregnant runaway, his journey seemingly at an end. They have reached the Ohio River, a vast watery expanse impossible to cross. It is only a matter of time before roaming slave traders will pick them up—he will never see his mother and his best friend again.

    But while his mother can walk the Path of Verdure (to make plants grow faster) and his grandfather the Path of Ash (to move the earth around), Hei Louw is just unable to cultivate Qi in his core and has to make do with his limited abilities. And so the three of them are tending the fields one afternoon, bickering as usual, when they see a black fog descend upon them from the sky. They try to protect themselves from this thing, but the dark miasma kills everything it comes in contact with. As it turns out, every living organism—be it animal, plant or man—that was able to cycle the ambient Qi is slain on the spot. Now alone on his mountain, in a strange world that keeps on mutating, Hei Louw the Qi-cripple has to fend for himself and use his knowledge of plants to survive. Taking it one day at a time, he manages to build a small hut and slowly recreate some semblance of normalcy. However, one night, as he’s eating by the fire, he’s attacked by some monstrosity that seems to have been affected in disturbing ways by what he has come to call the ‘Blight’. Right away he knows that he will be no match for the corrupted beast which is larger, stronger and much more fearsome than the dog it used to be. His life hanging by a thread, Hei Louw decides to go for broke: he opens up his core to the Blight and lets the foul poison fill him up. That suffices to grant him enough power to best the beast. And thanks to his condition as a Qi-cripple, he manages to eject the Blight from his core before it has a chance to reduce him to a pile of rotting meat. That night, Hei Louw makes a promise to himself; he will turn that former weakness of his into absolute power. And so he embarks on a journey to test and master this new ability. He will use the Blight just like former cultivators used Qi, and learn to walk a new, Broken Path. But if the corrupted dog was only one of many dangerous beasts lurking within the mountains, and Hei Louw sets on a mission to hunt them down, he must beware. The mutated creatures are not the sole threat to his existence. Not only can the Blight kill him if he’s not cautious, the vile substance has a tendency to infest the mind and turn people crazy. That will reveal to be all the more problematic when Hei Louw finally stumbles upon other survivors…

    Sam MacAuley and his wife Annalize are total opposites. When Sam wants to leave city life in Halifax to get a plot of land on Cape Breton Island, where he grew up, his wife wants nothing to do with his plans and opts to move herself and their three boys back to her home country of South Africa. As Sam settles into a new life on his own, his friend Lachlan encourages him to get back into the dating scene. Although he meets plenty of women, he longs to find the one with whom he wants to share the rest of his life. Will Sam ever meet “the one”?Get to know Sam and discover the origins of the Songbird Cottage. This is the prequel to the rest of the Pleasant Bay series.

    Raised by relatives, they become fiercely devoted to one another until tragic circumstances intervene. They are separated, Talia disappearing into a life of drugs and petty crime, Rachel fleeing to New Orleans. Years later, Rachel is living in New Orleans and married to the CEO of the Southeast’s largest provider of long-term healthcare. She lives what appears to be a perfect life, yet she struggles with anxiety, prescription drug abuse, and grief.One night, Rachel receives a phone call. The information she is given sets in motion a series of events that will unravel her life, force her to examine past decisions, and take her on a psychologically arduous journey to save her sister. Ultimately she is faced with the an almost impossible choice.Set against the backdrop of Hurricane Katrina, The Weight of Water tells the story of two sisters, their love for one another, and their struggle to survive and overcome the consequences of one of the greatest disasters in human history.WHAT ARE READERS SAYING ABOUT THE WEIGHT OF WATER?

    When her mother's health begins to fail, Erina Bridget Ring searches for something to do during the hours she spends at her mother's bedside. What she discovers is knitting--and a group of women knitters. But as she learns to knit and at the same time cares for her ailing mother, she finds that things at the knitting group are not what they seem to be.

    Drugs, crime and ennui pervaded every part of his day-to-day alienation. He dragged his way out of the pit without resorting to God or alcohol or any of the other crutches people commonly use. Here is his story. Pray your children don't make the same mistakes.~ ~ ~This is the 2019 expanded edition of the 2012 bestselling memoir Hammered, telling the true story of the author's twenty years plus of drug dependency and the resultant lifestyle as experienced in Australia.This new edition contains more than 20,000 extra words and gives a better insight into the emotional impact of the journey and more detail on the recovery.~ ~ ~"Fascinating, and very easy reading."~Joe Lansdale, author of the Hap & Leonard series~ ~ ~"This is a hard journey well shared and a book that risks real sadness to tell its human truth."~Kris Saknussemm, cult novelist and multimedia artist~ ~ ~"This book is to Australia what Trainspotting is to Scotland."~R.B. Clague, author

    His acceptance letter in hand, Jiyong is sure nothing will stand in the way of his dreams.When a street brawl lands him in a coma only weeks into the year, his chances of graduating are all but shot. With an unlikely digital companion, he’ll have to rebuild his magic core and catch up on all his classes, or risk being dropped from the academy at the end of the year.But kingdom life is not like the outer-cities, and kingdom kids are far more ruthless about who they’ll allow to climb to the top. Jiyong will have to train hard and fight for every score to make it in this wealthy academy for powerful families, all while supporting his own from afar.From J.D. Astra, author of Viridian Gate Online: Firebrand, comes a brand-new Cultivation Academy series, bursting at the seams with nanites, martial arts, and LitRPG goodness.

    A young priest on the other side of the screen is shaken by what he learns. A former college athlete with an MBA from a prestigious university, Father Joe Russo is not your typical man of God. Nine years earlier, his own life took a tragic turn and he gave everything up, committing his life to the church. Now his peaceful existence is being tested, and he finds himself questioning the God he serves, the vows he made, and someone he left behind.In this gripping thriller, a priest and an FBI agent work to uncover secrets and expose hidden crimes, but when it seems they have it all figured out, everything they think they know will be questioned.

    This book is about, what some may call, the alternative explanation.Picked up by a larger publisher--the retitled, second, and final edition of the cult hit, Spent Shell Casings.Created as a counterweight for all the politicized and ghost-written books about the Global War on Terror, No Joy is the transgressive memoir to set the record straight! Dark. Hilarious. Disturbingly Honest—this collection of short stories from your average frustrated American teen turned one of its most elite brand of warriors, No Joy rips the veneer off the thank-you-for-your-service Boy Scout façade.Centered on the 2004 Battle of Fallujah, this mosaic of meditation and madness asks the necessary question: what really draws modern young men to war?

    The gift she possessed was just a hint of something far beyond her wildest imagination.Sophia will be pulled, kicking and screaming, into an unseen, ancient world that challenges all that she thought to be true of herself, her family and the origins of humanity.Original sin, forbidden love and her life in constant danger.Will Sophia survive this dark twist of fate?Will the devil be her saviour?Will an Angel be her downfall?

    Few know the truth about the one-armed Rift King, and he prefers it that way. When people get too close to him, they either betray him or die. The Rift he rules cares nothing for the weak. More often than not, even the strong fail to survive.When he’s abducted, his disappearance threatens to destroy his home, his people, and start a hopeless and bloody war. There are many who desire his death, and few who hope for his survival. With peace in the Six Kingdoms quickly crumbling, it falls on him to try to stop the conflict swiftly taking the entire continent by storm.But something even more terrifying than the machinations of men has returned to the lands: The skreed. They haven’t been seen for a thousand years, and even the true power of the Rift King might not be enough to save his people — and the world — from destruction.

    But when her stash of money is stolen by her brother, she finds herself faced with a death sentence from her crime lord boss.Desperate to pay off her debt, she searches for a score big enough to earn her freedom. Instead, she finds the orison, a magical artifact that could tip the balance of power between the city and the Empire seeking to conquer it.The power to change the world is now in the hands of a sneak thief — if it doesn’t kill her first.

    The price we paid for becoming intelligent was to become painfully ignorant of the difference between good and evil.Adi, a 10-year-old boy, works together with two old philosophers as they try to unravel the prophecy of a promised King. With insatiable curiosity, Adi must work with the wise men as they rationalize with each other on why and how humans became intelligent. Together they attempt to answer some of the most profound questions related to existence. Does evolution end with human beings or is there an ‘Overman’ who can reach evolution’s pinnacle? Will this Overman be able to define values for humankind?Centuries later a young boy promises his mother that he will always uphold the love that she has taught him. It is a promise that drowns him in the nectar of the gods. Krish grows up to be an engineer and joins a team of scientists as they try to create artificial consciousness in a machine.Krish soon realizes that he has a bigger fight on his hands. A fight to preserve love in a desolate world. His quest for true love ultimately leads him down a path where he comes face to face with a fearsome snake delivering a kiss of death.Humans have come a long way by questioning the nature of objects around us and pushing the limits of our intelligence, but it’s now time that we ask the greatest question yet: when does intelligence transcend to become consciousness?

    The only thing missing is a baby. Unable to get pregnant, Cameron turns to in vitro fertilization in hopes of becoming mother. When the positive pregnancy test comes back, she thinks she can finally have it all. That is, until she gives birth and realizes her baby’s blood type is not compatible with her own.There is just one explanation: a mistake at the IVF clinic. An investigation reveals that the baby is genetically related to Avery and Graham, another couple who went through IVF at the same clinic. They also recently had a baby—who happens to be Cameron and Andy’s genetic child.When the mix up is discovered, a heated battle ensues: should the couples switch babies so they can raise their genetic child, or should each keep the baby the mother nurtured inside her for nine months?The ethical and legal dilemma plays out in the character’s personal lives and the courtroom where multiple questions are raised: Does nature or nurture make someone a mother? What is better for the babies?My Heart from Inside is an emotional page turner with unexpected twists and turns. It will make you think about the meaning of motherhood, and what you would do in the characters’ shoes. Perfect for fans of Jodi Picoult, Lisa Wingate, and Liane Moriarty.