Holly was the plump one, a dreamer who longed to be an artist. Nicola was the shy, plain one who wanted nothing more than to be beautiful. Their cabin nemesis was Lexi. Rich, spoiled, evil Lexi. One night, Holly and Nicola team up to pull one, daring act of vengeance. But they never dream that this one act will have repercussions that will reach into the future, even twenty years later. And they never realize the secret pain that Lexi holds very close, and how their need for revenge costs Lexi a great deal.Today, Holly is a successful gallery owner, who has put her own artistic dreams on hold. She struggles with her weight and for approval from her constantly-criticizing boyfriend. Nicola, is an almost-famous actress who believes that one little plastic surgery fix is just what she needs to put her over the edge into fame. And Lexi…Lexi is down on her luck and totally broke.Holly will do anything to be thin. Lexi will do anything to be rich. And Nicola will do anything to be pretty.

    Which of them will win the much-coveted gold statue and what price will they be forced to pay as they travel the red carpeted-path to Hollywood glory? Amidst all the press-schmoozing and angsting over which designer gown to wear, these Oscar contenders feud, commiserate, and face a succession of personal crises – scandalous secrets come to light, marriages implode, accidents land two nominees in the hospital while another receives news that could derail her career, all culminating on Tinsel Town’s biggest night when anything can happen, and does.BLAME IT ON THE FAME is the debut novel of author Tracie Banister whose writing is similar in tone (sexy, humorous) to the works of Lauren Weisberger and Candace Bushnell. This is a full-length novel that runs approximately 136,000 words.***AUTHOR’S NOTE*** The characters in BLAME IT ON THE FAME are a naughty bunch who live and work in the notoriously debaucherous film world, so you will find some colorful language and a few spicy love scenes in this book.

    . . Sent away to convent school at the age of six, Irini McGuire has never really known her celebrated archaeologist mother, Bridget, who lives on the paradise island of Santorini. So, when Irini receives news that Bridget has been injured at a dig and is in coma she knows it is time to return to the island of her birth. Discovering her mother's notes, and driven by rumours that her mother's injury was no accident, Irini starts to reveal the dark secrets behind her family's separation.Can she unearth the truth about her parents and her past before it is too late?

    Next goes her flat and then her job. Single, unemployed and living in a rented room, Bea is flying without a safety net for the first time in thirty-eight years.So what is she supposed to do now that she’s rewound her life to start again?She has no idea how to date anymore. It’s all gone online and with so much competition at the click of a button, her aging bosom might not be up to the job. People are waxing in places she can’t even reach and posting red carpet-worthy selfies every ten seconds.She used to dream of a musical career but is only getting gigs as background music for drunks in pubs. And her ex is being a hundred times more charming in trying to win her back than he bothered to be when he had her.Maybe grasping life with both hands won’t be so easy after all… Can she really become who she wants to be?

    This cloak and dagger assignment at the Glass Slipper would be the last time he'd go undercover for his father's corporation. Someone was stealing from the Las Vegas casino, and his research told him to begin by investigating Shawn Maclnnes, the fiery redhead who turned cards in the casino. At first glance, she seemed like an untouched innocent. But Michael knew that nothing was a sure bet in a city of wild cards.For Shawn, dealing blackjack in a Vegas casino was like returning to the scene of the crime. Compulsive gambling had killed her father. But for now, the Glass Slipper Casino offered her a good living and a chance to break free from the past.But when her shift was over, Shawn wanted nothing to do with the high-stakes world of gambling. Dealing cards was a job -- not a forum to fraternize with fellow employees like Michael DeNiro. With topaz eyes and lean good looks, Michael was one of those men who oozed sex appeal and charm. Shawn steered clear of his type, just as she avoided the Nevada desert sun. Both were scorchers.

    With three bright, beautiful daughters who are still single Maggie decides that a little romantic matching is needed.However matchmaking is not as easy as it seems and Maggie's quest to find the perfect partner for each of her reluctant daughters is proving difficult.Her architect daughter Grace has had enough of heartbreak and given up on men deciding instead to concentrate on her career. Poetry obsessed Anna believes that no man can ever live up to her hero W.B.Yeats. While single-parent Sarah devotes so much time to her little girl Evie that romance constantly passes her by.Determined to get 'rings on those fingers' Maggie Ryan believes that the arrival of bachelor Mark McGuinness, who has just purchased a house on 'The Square', is an opportunity far too good to be missed!

    Virginia and meets a small-town woman and her son who open his eyes to a richer life than he could have imagined.On the surface, Charlie Burden and Natty Oaks could not be more different: She, the daughter of many generations of rural farmers; he, an executive at a multi-national engineering firm. But, in each other, they find the new lease on life they both so desperately need.Natty dreams of a life beyond her small town. She is unhappily married to her high school crush (who now spends more time at the bar than at home) and passes the time nursing retired miners, coaching her son, The Pie Man's, soccer team and running the mountain trails she knows by heart, longing to get away from it all. Charlie has everything he ever thought he wanted, but after 25 years of climbing the corporate ladder, he no longer recognizes his own life: his job has become bureaucratic paper-pushing, his wife is obsessed with their country-club status, and his children have grown up and moved on. When he is sent to West Virginia to oversee a mining project, it is a chance to escape his stuffy life; to get involved, instead of watching from the sidelines. Arriving in Red Bone, though, he gets more than he bargained for: his new friends become the family he was missing and Natty, the woman who reminds him what happiness feels like. When his company's plans threaten to destroy Natty's family land, his loyalties are questioned and he is forced to choose between his old life and his new love in a fight for Redemption Mountain.

    So she needs some sisterly advice, in between rolling dice and drinking frozen margaritas, as to her next move.While considering subtracting Spencer from her life, Georgia meets the very handsome Dave Hernandez. Unfortunately when a Bunco night gets a little out of hand, Georgia reveals more of herself to Dave than she intended. Now, as she helps the Babes prepare for a Bunco Black Tie fundraiser, she needs to search her heart?and keep her shirt on?long enough to decide if a love affair with Dave might be a dream come true.

    And so the expectant mother believes that she is about to face parenthood alone. Instead, Mel finds herself introduced to the world of pain relief and labour positions with a group of women who quickly become valuable friends in the terrifying new world of motherhood...Katy, a rich and successful professional woman with the dream husband, has her birth designed to perfection but soon realises that nature doesn't always follow plans.Lexi, loud and confident, is doing pregnancy alone, and coping well. Until the only man she has ever loved makes a reappearance at the most unexpected moment.Rebecca, the youngest of the group, is an independent and strong-minded woman who is determined to hold onto her dreams.Erin already seems to be an expert on babies, but her over-protective attitude towards her bump is hiding a tragic story from the past.Each of these women has a different kind of complicated life, but as mums-to-be the five discover together that preparing for the birth of a baby is one time when every woman needs four new friends.

    . . He wondered why he was even trying. He felt certain there was nothing he could ever say or do to compete with a man like Hugh Montgomery, and he was fooling himself to believe that he could ever truly be a contender for Gillian Brierley’s heart. The year is 1862, and the setting is Salt Lake City. Gillian—Ian and Wren’s eldest daughter—has grown into a lovely young woman who is a source of help and strength to her family. Little does she realize that her life is about to be turned upside down. Suddenly she must choose between two men who love her, yet whose lives and lifestyles are completely divergent. Honorable and trusted family friend Hugh Montgomery is safe and steady, while young Jamie MacBrier, recently arrived from Scotland, is impetuous, passionate, worldly, and completely unschooled in the principles of the gospel. Yet he has created feelings in Gillian that are new and exciting—and frightening. Can she be true to both her faith and her heart? In this deeply moving conclusion to the Shadows of Brierley series, beloved LDS author Anita Stansfield delivers an unforgettable story of love and the many ways in which it can break our hearts and heal them. In the Valley of the Mountains is compelling and tender, with insights that linger long after the last page has been read.

    Well, she got neither. But as luck would have it, a casting director for fall’s hottest new television show happens to be at the Julliard auditions, and Annie wows him. He thinks her look is exactly what his show, a teen soap set at a posh New York school, has been missing. And just like that, Annie gets cast as the naive “new girl,” and her life is turned upside down. Sure, the perks are great, the wardrobe is awesome, and her tutor is a super hot genius… but being stalked day and night by paparazzi out to catch her in her worst light---not so fun! Can Annie learn to balance her life-- and her partying-- before the press, and the public, write her off for good?

    This is a satellite-dish-free zone of tall houses, standing shoulder to shoulder with big front doors, five floors apiece. Come inside, shut the door and smell the coffee: you could almost be in Kensington. This is where the actors, writers and media types live, where small children wearing smart uniforms and shoes in the shape of lightbulbs get ferried every day to schools that are not local. Some people are luckier than others; fortune smiles on some and gobs on the rest. Jo Metcalf (no. 95) smokes and spies on the smug Cunninghams down the street as they play their bile-inducing game of happy families. Why is the grass greener on the other side of the fence? But happiness is a fragile thing and hairline cracks in a perfect world can become craters of misery. Each story is full of comic insight and realistic observation of contemporary British life and focuses on the very different lives of a set of characters living in the same street.

     A sweeping family saga, from the grand homes of Yorkshire and London in the Edwardian era, to the heartbreak of a French nursing station during World War I, and the glamour of American high society in the 1920s. Lally Leeds is just a baby when wealthy Black Jack Pollock finds her abandoned in a Yorkshire street and decides to raise her alongside his own children. As Lally blossoms into a young woman, the love and loyalty she feels towards her adoptive family bring her both happiness and heartache. Over time, it is Lally’s strength and devotion which hold the Pollock family together: her dashing brother, Jon; her selfish and self-destructive sister Margaret; and fragile Alice, who must been protected from herself. And the family’s fortunes become entwined with those of another foundling ‒ the mysterious, self-made businessman Brock Weymouth. Lally discovers to her cost that sometimes the most difficult promises to keep are to those we love. The latest historical blockbuster from the bestselling author of The Property of a Gentleman and The Summer of the Spanish Woman. An enjoyable page-turner that you won’t be able to put down. Perfect for fans of Barbara Taylor Bradford, Danielle Steel and Downton Abbey.

    Her friends know it, her parents know it—even Laura acknowledges she lives either with her head in the clouds or buried in a romance novel. It’s proved harmless enough, even if it hasn’t delivered her a real-life dashing hero yet. But when her latest relationship ends in a disaster that costs her friendships, her job, and nearly her sanity, Laura swears off men and hopeless romantic fantasies for good. With her life in tatters around her, Laura agrees to go on vacation with her parents. After a few days of visiting craft shops and touring the stately homes of England, Laura is ready to tear her hair out. And then, while visiting grand Chartley Hall, she crosses paths with Nick, the sexy, rugged estate manager. She finds she shares more than a sense of humor with him—in fact, she starts to think she could fall for him. But is Nick all he seems? Or has Laura got it wrong again? Will she open her heart only to have it broken again?

    For Katie, navigating life and love is trickier than walking barefoot on a beach full of broken shells. Maybe Katie will break the family cycle of alcoholism. Maybe she won’t. Set against the backdrop of picturesque, seaside Cape May, Cape Maybe traces the push and pull of Katie’s conflicting love for her erratic mother and steadfast grandfather, and her ever-growing attraction to her best friend, Dennis. Katie’s life is shaped by her vow to be nothing like her alcoholic mother. Her reckless teenage choices test the strength of family ties, friendship, and first love. Ultimately about hard-earned hope, what we inherit, and what we choose to let go, Katie discovers what she never expected about motherhood, forgiving yourself, and creating your own second chances.