Cantonese Love Stories: Twenty-Five Vignettes of a City


Dung Kai-cheung - 2017
    Two lovers ruminate on the power of their photo booth stickers to keep them together. Peach-pocket Girl reads stolen love letters at a café. Pui Pui knows a Portuguese egg tart is authentic if she dreams of riding a boat-like egg tart. Each character inhabits a different corner of Hong Kong’s dreamscape; together they bring to life Dung Kai-cheung’s imaginative vision of the city.

Flock of Brown Birds


Ge Fei - 1989
    The protagonist, a writer, is at a publisher-sponsored retreat to finish his novel. The beauty of the location however cannot compensate for the anxiety and hallucinations he experiences while watching a flock of brown birds pass by his window, and his sense of temporal disorientation is further compounded by the appearance of a strange woman who calls him Ge Fei. Fiction and reality blend into one as the story unfolds. Ge Fei’s prose renders in exquisite detail the fragility of time."It is impossible to enter the deeper aspects of contemporary Chinese literature without also entering the world of Ge Fei." - Enrique Vila-Matas

The Best of Me: by Nicholas Sparks | Summary & Analysis


Book*Sense - 2014
    In his novel The Best of Me, Nicholas Sparks relates the stories of Dawson Cole and Amanda Collier as they return to the town of their youth and rekindle, if only for a short time, the romance they had shared as teenagers. Along the way, they confront and meet the challenges of their past, coming to a neat resolution common to the romance novel and reminding readers why Sparks is a dominant voice in the genre. Most of The Best of Me is set in and around Oriental, North Carolina, a small town still mired in much of the Old South pseudo-feudal mentality. Summer 2009 sees one off its older and more stable members, Tuck Hostetler, die and one of its prodigal sons return, as well as the fallout from it. Its antebellum past is noted early on in the text, and its retention of many of the older patterns of behavior and social fixity is remarked upon throughout the text. You also get the following in this Summary & Analysis of The Best of Me: • Book Review • Story Setting of The Best of Me • Details of Characters & Key Character Analysis • Summary of the text, with some analytical comments interspersed • Discussion & Analysis of Themes, Symbols… • And Much More! This Analysis of The Best of Me fills the gap, making you understand more while enhancing your reading experience.

Stone Age Husband Raising Journal


Jué Jué, 决绝
    What should you do when the person you like is no longer loyal? Find another one!This time, in order to avoid trouble, Xiong Ye chose the weakest man in the tribe as his new companion.In any case, he can afford him!With his strength, he’ll definitely be able to let his own man eat meat every day instead of grass.* *Zhou Jing, the ‘weakest man’ who had just transmigrated over from the apocalypse and likes to indulge in eating ‘grass’, “…”He’s not the same person anymore! He was clearly capable of killing the entire tribe by himself!

Last Words from Montmartre


Qiu Miaojin - 1996
    Unfolding through a series of letters written by an unnamed narrator, Last Words tells the story of a passionate relationship between two young women—their sexual awakening, their gradual breakup, and the devastating aftermath of their broken love. In a style that veers between extremes, from self-deprecation to pathos, compulsive repetition to rhapsodic musings, reticence to vulnerability, Qiu’s genre-bending novel is at once a psychological thriller, a sublime romance, and the author’s own suicide note.The letters (which, Qiu tells us, can be read in any order) leap between Paris, Taipei, and Tokyo. They display wrenching insights into what it means to live between cultures, languages, and genders—until the genderless character Zoë appears, and the narrator’s spiritual and physical identity is transformed. As powerfully raw and transcendent as Mishima’s Confessions of a Mask, Goethe’s The Sorrows of Young Werther, and Theresa Cha’s Dictée, to name but a few, Last Words from Montmartre proves Qiu Miaojin to be one of the finest experimentalists and modernist Chinese-language writers of our generation.

Working Men Series Books One to Three: The Mechanic, The Carpenter, The Bartender


Ramona Gray - 2019
     If you’re looking for quick, one-handed (ahem) reads with insta-love, over-the-top alpha, blue-collar men, then the trope-alicious Working Men series is for you! The Mechanic Lily I grew up with everything I ever wanted. Wealth and privilege, and an attitude that practically screamed “I’m better than you”. Only, things went wrong and now I have nothing. The people in this town don’t give a damn that I live in a broken-down trailer and am one sandwich away from starving. They figure I got what I deserve. They’re not wrong. Now, I’m standing in front of the town’s sexy-as-sin mechanic, Jack Williams, and offering to let him… do things to me with those big, dirty hands of his, in exchange for car repairs. Things that the old me would be horrified by. I should be ashamed. Instead, all I can think about is how good it would feel to have Jack touch me. Jack I grew up on the wrong side of the tracks. Raised by a man who liked to talk to me with his fists and didn’t give a damn if I lived or died. Taking care of myself is my number one priority, and I’m not interested in other people’s troubles. Especially trouble in the form of a stuck-up, former rich girl like Lily Carson. It’s not my problem her money, family and friends are gone. Only, she’s standing in my repair shop offering me something I’ve wanted for a very long time. One touch of her soft skin and I’m lost. Lily belongs to me now, and I’ll make damn sure she and everyone else in this town knows it. The Carpenter Madison He says it’s wrong. He says we can’t be together. But I’ve been in love with carpenter, Jacob Marken, for years and I’m tired of waiting. I don’t care about the age difference. I’m doing everything in my power to make Jacob see that we belong together. I want to be with him. And what I want, I get. Jacob She’s a temptation I need to resist. Before my best friend died, I promised I would take care of Madison, not try to take her to my bed. When Madison asks me to build her some bookshelves, I can’t resist. Being alone with her is a very bad idea. I can’t be with her. I shouldn’t be with her. But what Madison wants, Madison gets. And now that she’s mine, I’m never letting her go. The Bartender Rachel Being a twenty-three-year-old virgin isn’t the worse thing in the world. Being a twenty-three-year-old virgin in love with a man who doesn’t know I exist? Tragic, right? Local bartender, Ren Parker, might not be into librarians with questionable fashion taste, but it doesn’t stop me from fantasizing about getting him alone in the library and breaking all the rules about quiet time. But, a girl’s gotta be realistic, and I can’t stay a virgin forever. Picking up a nice guy at the bar to take my v-card is surprisingly easy. That is, until Ren discovers what I’m doing. Suddenly, the man I thought wouldn’t give me the time of day, has his hands all over me until my insides are shaken and stirred. He says my virginity belongs to him and I’m more than happy to prove him right. Ren I’ve wanted Rachel Banks from the moment I saw her.

My Husband is Suffering from a Terminal Illness


不会下棋
    Then he transmigrated into a simple and superficial novel about the entertainment circle.The protagonist of the novel was handsome, smart, and reborn. The female protagonist of the novel was beautiful, inspirational, and had a golden finger. Some male and female roles were also beautiful and had a deep background. If he casually transmigrated into one of them then he could close his eyes and enjoy himself. However, he didn’t transmigrate into any of them and instead became the hidden husband of the biggest villain in the novel, the male protagonist’s uncle.He was called a husband but it was more similar to a babysitter. This was because the biggest villain in the novel was a terminally ill patient with a terrible personality and a sick brain (really sick). They got married for the sake of happiness.Xie Yang: It doesn’t matter if you are the male lead, the female lead or the villain, whoever dares to stop me from living a comfortable life will die.

The Girl From the Workhouse


Lynn Johnson - 2020
    Ginnie Jones’s childhood is spent in the shadow of the famous Potteries, living with her mother, father and older sister Mabel. But with Father’s eyesight failing, money is in short supply, and too often the family find their bellies aching with hunger. With no hope in sight, Ginnie is sent to Haddon Workhouse.Separated from everything she has known, Ginnie has to grow up fast, earning her keep by looking after the other children with no families of their own. When she meets Clara and Sam, she hopes that she has made friends for life… until tragedy strikes, snatching away her newfound happiness.Leaving Haddon three years later, Ginnie finds work as a mouldrunner at the Potteries, but never stops thinking about her friends in the workhouse – especially Sam, now a caring, handsome young man. When Sam and Ginnie are reunited, their bond is as strong as ever – until Sam is sent to fight in WW1. Faced with uncertainty, can Ginnie find the joy that she’s never had? Or will her heart be broken once again?An emotional, uplifting and nostalgic family saga that will make you smile, while tugging on your heart-strings. Fans of Sheila Newbury, Kitty Neale and Sheila Riley will love this beautiful read.

Young Babylon


Lu Nei - 2014
    At age nineteen in 1990s China, he feels pressure to follow suit with those around him and takes a job at the town’s saccharin factory. Slowly, he adjusts to the bureaucratic factory routine, making the best of the situation by bonding with coworkers, flirting with girls, and refusing to give in completely to the expectations of those around him.As Lu Xiaolu finds his way, a startling portrait of an economically expanding China comes into view; the propaganda of a common goal gives way to a bottom-line system that he sees as indifferent to individual happiness. But thanks to the relationships he develops, Lu Xiaolu decides to fight for the life he wants.

The Personal Shopper


Carmen Reid - 2007
    In fact, this super-skilled dresser can be relied on to solve everyone's problems . . . except her own.Although she's a busy single mum to stroppy teen Lana and painfully shy Owen, there's a gap in Annie's wardrobe - sorry, life - for a new man. But finding the perfect partner is turning out to be so much trickier than finding the perfect pair of shoes.Can she source a genuine classic? A life long investment? Will she end up with a mistake from the sale rail, who'll have to be returned? Or maybe, just maybe, there'll be someone new in this season who could be the one . . .

Guarded by Hellhounds (Hell Baited Wolves, #1)


Cali Mann - 2021
    Any man... but him. So I run.In the midst of a wild storm, three hot men save me. Men with dark secrets and a demonic nature my pack might never accept, but my heart's already claimed them. They're mine.Grab this steamy why choose shifter romance now and enter the world of Hell Baited Wolves, a sexy demon paranormal romance series by Cali Mann and Freya Black.

Blood Fund: A Novel


R.C. Westyn - 2017
    Gripping, salacious and irresistible." —BestThrillers.comWall Street, 2000. A naive twenty-year-old from Nebraska, Laura Ellyson doesn’t belong in New York's male-dominated Financial District. Against all odds, her wit, beauty, and determination lead her to a promising career at Aqua Capital, Lower Manhattan's hottest new hedge fund. Suddenly Laura finds herself living in a triumphant fairy tale—including a newfound romance that eclipses her deepest desires. But hidden behind Aqua Capital's stratospheric profits and megalomaniac manager, lies a shady, treacherous secret: the Mafia. Now, after witnessing unspeakable horror, she must confront an unforeseen, tempestuous destiny as she is forced to fight for her own life.This book is intended for mature audiences."Character-driven, unfolding at breakneck speed, this novel compels the reader to read on until the very last line in a satisfying conclusion." —Readers' Favorite

A Tracers Trilogy: Untraceable / Unspeakable / Unforgivable


Laura Griffin - 2011
    But when one of her clients vanishes for real, Alex fears the worst and embarks on a mission to uncover the truth with the help of an elite forensics team known as the Tracers and jaded, sexy homicide cop Nathan Devereaux. As a grim picture of what really happened begins to emerge, Nathan realizes this investigation runs deeper than they could have guessed. And each step nearer the truth puts Alex in danger of being the next to disappear.UNSPEAKABLE Elaina McCord's dream of being an FBI profiler is threatened by her very first case--investigating a string of murders near a Texas beach resort. Her hunch--met with disbelief by local police--is that these are only the latest offerings from a serial killer who has been perfecting his art for years. Her only allies in a case that's turning dangerously personal are a team of forensic experts known as the Tracers and true-crime writer and irresistable playboy Troy Stockton. A killer is taunting Elaina, letting her know how ruthless he is and how close he's getting. Now it's not just her career that's in jeopardy--it's her life.UNFORGIVABLE A DNA espert, Mia Voss has made it her mission to put away vicious criminals. When her already lousy day ends with a carjacking, it seems like just the icing on top of the cake. But what what Mia thought was a random incident is followed by another sinister episode. Suddenly, she's found herself the target of a sadistic madman. And the only way to protect the people she loves most is to either deliberately destroy her reputation and risk letting a killer walk free or put her trust in Detective Ric Santos, whose turbulent past ruined his chances with Mia in the past. Only Mia can uncover the truth behind the case, but first, Ric will have to get her to entrust him with her secrets...and her life.

Hua Hua You Long [花花遊龍]


Xing Bao Ni
    * Note: There's a manhua adaptation here - Hua Hua You Long 1

Lucky Harbor Collection 1: Simply Irresistible, The Sweetest Thing, Head Over Heels


Jill Shalvis - 2015
    The first three books in New York Times bestseller Jill Shalvis's award-winning series are guaranteed to make you laugh and fall in love. In SIMPLY IRRESISTIBLE, Maddie's whole life needs a makeover. She's lost her boyfriend (her decision) and her job (so not her decision), so what better time to leave LA for Lucky Harbor - the little place she used to call home. Renovating the ramshackle inn left by her mother is the perfect opportunity for a fresh start. Facing a tall, dark hottie contractor, and a past she needs to overcome, will Maddie learn that there's no place like home?In THE SWEETEST THING, Tara has a million reasons not to return to Lucky Harbor. But anywhere away from her unfulfilled dreams and sexy ex-husband will do. So joining her sisters getting their newly renovated inn up and running is the perfect chance to get her life back on track. But with a sexy, green-eyed sailor on the scene, and her ex appearing out of the blue, three is most definitely a crowd. Can she face up to her past, and find her heart's desire?In HEAD OVER HEELS, Chloe likes living on the edge. A quiet life running the family inn just isn't for her. But it's not long before her misbehaviour draws the attention of the rugged, sexy sheriff - who'd love to tame her wild ways. Suddenly she can't put a foot wrong without him hot on her heels. And for the first time, she actually wants to get caught. Will Chloe's colourful past and rebellious ways stop her from find finding love in Lucky Harbor? Return to this heartwarming little town in the other exclusive Lucky Harbor collections. And don't miss Jill's Cedar Ridge books - the gorgeous series set in the Colorado mountains, that we promise will capture your heart.