A terrible sacrifice. A second chance... 1952. In the fragile atmosphere of post-war Paris, Sophie Bernot is training as a heart surgeon. A young woman in a man's world, Sophie is determined to bury her past and forge her medical career, whatever the costs.Across the channel, Sebastian Ogilvie is burning with ambition for his first architectural project. As his schemes lead him to France, and to a chance encounter with Sophie, his future seems full of promise.But when Sophie and Sebastian find themselves entangled in a brief, passionate affair, they each face a choice that will change their lives irrevocably, and a secret that will take years to be uncovered... Sweeping from Paris to London, to the snow-capped peaks of the Alps, this is an unforgettable story of passion, heartache and forgiveness. Perfect for fans of Santa Montefiore and Lucinda Riley

    But as a penniless and partnerless house-painter with an expired lease on her flat and a twelve-year-old daughter, she could hardly turn down her parents' offer to take them on a once-in-a-lifetime trip to the Caribbean. She'd just have to put up with her sister Theresa (making no secret of preferring Tuscany as a holiday destination) and brother Simon (worrying that there might be some sinister agenda behind their parents' wish to take them all away) with their various spouses, teenagers, young children and au pair. In a luxury hotel, with bright sunshine, swimming, diving, glorious food and friendly locals, any family tensions should have melted away in the fabulous heat. The children should have been angelic, the teenagers cheerful, the adults relaxed and happy. But...some problems just refuse to be left at home.

    Though Samad attempts to persuade his mother to join them in Australia, she insists on remaining in Karachi even while Pakistan is facing turmoil. It's 1985. The mullahs and the generals are in control, and an insurgency is beginning in Kashmir. Meanwhile, Bilqis's servant girl, Mumtaz, enters a relationship with Omar, a young man caring for a neighboring house. Omar is an intense man who resents Pakistan's class system, and his frustration leads him to the freedom movement in Kashmir. But Mumtaz is in love and willing to sacrifice her honor to be with him. The intertwining stories of Bilqis, Samad, and Mumtaz offer a powerful and nuanced portrait of Pakistan in the modern era-a place of conflicting loyalties, rich with history and culture, and plagued by violence. Abidi's precise and elegant prose illuminates the struggle between a mother and son to reconcile their love for each other with their love for home.

    When Sabby is sent to a boarding school in northern India, he witnesses a strict regime in which the schoolboys are beaten and brutalized by the teachers.The boys themselves take on their abusers' cruel traits, mindlessly killing animals and hanging their skins on a cactus, before their thoughts turn to even more sinister schemes. Conspiratorial whisperings and plans of revenge spiral into a tragedy engulfing Sabby in a chilling exploration of human nature's darkest facets.

    But when tragedy strikes his family, he turns to alcohol to deaden his pain and grief. He becomes an alcoholic and eventually loses his home, his job, and his faith. Thirty years later Jacob lives in poverty in the shadow of the now defunct power plant, where he works as a janitor. Jacob's life takes one more unexpected turn when he becomes trapped in the pitch-black recesses of the plant. In his forced sobriety, the bitter memories he has been drowning for decades begin to surface all around him, dragging him into a pit of regret and despair. Suffering the ravages of alcohol withdrawal combined with the chilling effects of sensory deprivation, he embarks on an emotional and spiritual journey that will take him to the brink of insanity and back. Before his captivity comes to an end, Jacob -- like his namesake from the Old Testament -- will find himself wrestling with God. The town sheriff, a State Police detective, and even a local priest, follow different clues as they search for Jacob. The widening mystery touches off a cascade of changes in the lives of those connected to him. A friendship broken by betrayal is mended, a long abandoned romance is rekindled, dark secrets about the power plant and its caretakers come to light, and a young man's life is forever altered as he uncovers the tragedy that sent Jacob spiraling downward so many years ago.

    The text reads simply: 'Miss you. Love you. Come back soon.'Daniel has always been popular with women, she knows that. But until this moment she has had no cause for worry. Has something shifted within their marriage without her realising?As the family gathers for the summer break, Rose's faith in Daniel is shaken. How well does she really know him? She fears that, after decades of marriage and children, the man who lies beside her at night is lying in other ways too. Then events take a tragic turn.Wise, wry and richly entertaining, THE SECRETS WOMEN KEEP celebrates the passionate, emotional lives women lead as wives, mothers and grandmothers.

    Encountering ‘Life’ itself in a dream, he’s convinced into playing a game with it. A game that ends when Life's travails get so hard that Sam is pushed to tears.A girl enters Sam’s life. The moment he sets eyes on her he knows she’s going to play hard to get, but sparks do indeed fly between them, taken into a world of romance. When everything looked like its going according to the plan, it just wasn't. This is when Life starts pressing down on Sam. Though Sam’s attitude about living life is to be happy and cool, he finds himself being tested.Circumstances pushes him into a world of discomfort and guilt. Amidst such emotional turmoil, he manages to grip on to hope. Sam is expected to worry, complain, and give up. One event after another sets him on edge to make him shed that tear which veritably ends Life's game. Does he win the game with Life, or will he spiral into what so many people who've given up the fight have fallen into? You simply need to be part of his life to find out.

    Courtney Sullivan’s Maine meets the works of Elin Hilderbrand in this delicious summer read involving three strangers, one island, and a season packed with unexpected romance, well-meaning lies, and damaging secrets. Anthony Puckett was a rising literary star. The son of an uber-famous thriller writer, Anthony’s debut novel spent two years on the bestseller list and won the adoration of critics. But something went very wrong with his second work. Now Anthony’s borrowing an old college’s friend’s crumbling beach house on Block Island in the hopes that solitude will help him get back to the person he used to be.Joy Sousa owns and runs Block Island’s beloved whoopie pie café. She came to this quiet space eleven years ago, newly divorced and with a young daughter, and built a life for them here. To her customers and friends, Joy is a model of independence, hard-working and happy. And mostly she is. But this summer she’s thrown off balance. A food truck from a famous New York City brand is roving around the island, selling goodies—and threatening her business.Lu Trusdale is spending the summer on her in-laws’ dime, living on Block Island with her two young sons while her surgeon husband commutes to the mainland hospital. When Lu’s second son was born, she and her husband made a deal: he’d work and she’d quit her corporate law job to stay home with the boys. But a few years ago, Lu quietly began working on a private project that has becoming increasingly demanding on her time. Torn between her work and home, she’s beginning to question that deal she made.Over the twelve short weeks of summer, these three strangers will meet and grow close, will share secrets and bury lies. And as the promise of June turns into the chilly nights of August, the truth will come out, forcing each of them to decide what they value most, and what they are willing to give up to keep it.

    But they didn′t know they were from rival gangland families in London′s criminal underworld. Going public with their relationship would have brought them more trouble than they could handle, so for years they concealed the truth. But their house of cards won′t be safe for much longer.Maggie′s violent father Max has always been out for the Taylors′ blood and treats his own family with barely more sympathy. There′s a long-buried reason for the vendetta that no one talks about, a secret so shocking it could tear each family - and Maggie and Johnny - apart...A gritty story of bitter feuds and unbreakable bonds, Trapped is the perfect read for fans of Mandasue Heller and Martina Cole.

    KATE AND JAKE CONNORS are research professors at the Atlantic University Institute which is dedicated to peacefully resolving international conflicts caused by climate change.They also serve as covert agents for a privately-funded, secretive subdivision of the Institute known simply as the Agency.The Agency assigns its operatives to investigate and eliminate natural and human threats to the environment. As cover for their missions, the agents pose as visiting professors and graduate students at universities near crisis areas...sometimes walking the thin line between activists and extremists.While vacationing at Venice's Lido Beach, Kate and Jake witness one of the first cases of a normally passive waterborne bacterium attacking a person. Along the shores of the Mid-Atlantic States and Coastal Europe, one in ten people begin dying from exposure to the bacteria, and all of them are young adults in their twenties and thirties.When the CDC and WHO extrapolate for the bacteria entering the world's aquifers, they predict the death of an entire generation.Racing against time and across continents, Kate and Jake must find the cure for Bacillus nocturne, track down the rogue scientist who genetically modified the bacterium, and solve the mystery surrounding its specifically targeted victims…before it contaminates the world's water supply.

    What we cannot lose.A sweeping masterwork of love and loss, secrets and survival, On the Sickle's Edge is told through the voices of three characters who lay bare their family's saga: the endearing, scrappy South-African born Lena, transported to Latvia and later trapped in the USSR; her granddaughter Darya, a true Communist whose growing disillusionment with Soviet ideology places her family at mortal risk; and Steven, a painter from Boston who inadvertently stumbles into the tangled web of his family's past. Against the roiling backdrop of twentieth-century Russia and Eastern Europe, the novel delivers equal parts historical drama, political thriller and poignant love story.On the Sickle's Edge takes the reader on a roller-coaster ride through some of the most tumultuous events of the 20th century. Instantly immersed in seven generations of the Shtein family, we witness their exhilarating celebrations and provocative controversies, and gain an intimate understanding of the pivotal events in South Africa, Latvia and the Soviet Union. Neville Frankel's ability to combine historical insight and human passion is spellbinding. I couldn't put it down. --Pamela Katz, The Partnership: Brecht, Weill, Three Women, and Germany on the BrinkIn the hands of a masterful storyteller, On the Sickle's Edge pits the weight of an oppressive regime against individual tenacity and profound personal courage. Inspired by Frankel's own family history, this multi-generational epic holds up a mirror to a universal truth: all immigrants face the powerful tension between assimilation and cultural identity. We have--all of us--lived life on the edge of the sickle. --Rabbi Andrew Baker, Director of International Jewish Affairs, American Jewish Committee

    It is 1939 and the war has just broken out. Russians invade Poland and confiscate Adam’s family’s house and farm. They are sent to live with another family nearby, but are then moved on and put on a train for a Russian labour camp as refugees, prisoners of Russia.