Soon, she finds herself sitting before Leonardo da Vinci, who wants to ensure his own place in the ducal palace by painting his most ambitious portrait to date.Munich, World War II: After a modest conservator unwittingly places a priceless Italian Renaissance portrait into the hands of a high-ranking Nazi leader, she risks her life to recover it, working with an American soldier, part of the famed Monuments Men team, to get it back. Two women, separated by 500 years, are swept up in the tide of history as one painting stands at the center of their quests for their own destinies.

    Girls aren't allowed to get an education, they need permission to speak to boys, and all marriages are negotiated by contract. But Mina's grandmother has secretly been teaching her to read, leading Mina down a path of rebellion, romance, and danger that not only threatens to destroy her family's reputation, it could get Mina killed. Suspenseful and empowering, Time Zero is about what it's like to be powerless, underestimated, and manipulated and what it takes to go against society to assert who you actually want to be.

    This 12-hour free course examined the Holocaust, historical arguments surrounding it, whether it is unique and why it happened as and when it did.

    Second, focus on attaining her Marketing and Business degrees. When her roommate begs her to attend a fraternity party she reluctantly obliges, but gets more than she bargained for when she meets enticingly charismatic fraternity brother, Dean Parker. After a mishap causes her to wake up in the worst possible place she can imagine, she vows to stay away from anything or anyone fraternity related. Staying away from Dean is a daily battle, one she's slowly losing. When her feelings conjure up old demons from the past, her strategically planned future turns into chaos. Brooke is desperate to keep herself on track. Will Dean be her downfall or is he exactly what she needs? Valentine’s Day isn’t always complete bliss.

    Known only as The Cur, he leaves no traces, save for the torn bodies of girls, on the verge of becoming women, who are known as trouble-makers; those who refuse to conform, to know their place. Girls who don’t know when to shut up.2019: Thirteen-year-old Lila Sawyer has secrets she can’t share with anyone. Not the school psychologist she’s seeing. Not her father, who has a new wife, and a new baby. And not her mother—the infamous Caroline Sawyer, a unique artist whose eerie sculptures, made from bent twigs and crimped leaves, have made her a local celebrity. But soon Lila feels haunted from within, terrorized by a delicious evil that shows her how to find her voice—until she is punished for using it.2004: Caroline Sawyer hears dogs everywhere. Snarling, barking, teeth snapping that no one else seems to notice. At first, she blames the phantom sounds on her insomnia and her acute stress in caring for her ailing father. But then the delusions begin to take shape—both in her waking hours, and in the violent, visceral sculptures she creates while in a trance-like state. Her fiancé is convinced she needs help. Her new psychiatrist waves her “problem” away with pills. But Caroline’s past is a dark cellar, filled with repressed memories and a lurking horror that the men around her can’t understand.As past demons become a present threat, both Caroline and Lila must chase the source of this unrelenting, oppressive power to its malignant core. Brilliantly paced, unsettling to the bone, and unapologetically fierce, Such a Pretty Smile is a powerful allegory for what it can mean to be a woman, and an untamed rallying cry for anyone ever told to sit down, shut up, and smile pretty.

    The only wolf in this story is very real, and the only connection with vampires is the distant Transylvanian mountains in Romania, where this story begins.If you're looking for light-reading where they all live happily ever after then again, try somewhere else.If you want serious, no-holds-barred literary fiction set against the background of real historic events then this is for you.Saffina Desforges made her name writing hard-hitting crime fiction.This book is about that most horrific crime of all: genocide.

    He can't be the all American boy his dad wants him to be, he's bullied at school and he can't bear to look at himself in the mirror. While most boys his age are playing sports and kissing girls, John can only find comfort in the secret he keeps hidden away in a box in his room... When feisty Aureus crashes into his life, John starts the long process of realizing that it's what is inside us that counts and that true friends love us, no matter what our secrets are. It's time John learns to embrace the school taunt, "Ladybird" and grow into the person he is meant to be.

    Two sisters seek to overcome impossible odds to be reunited, in this utterly devastating and unforgettable novel about sisterhood, courage and survival.All they had left was each other. Until the Nazis tore them apart.After years of hiding from the Nazis, Rachel Epstein and her little sister Mindel are captured by the Gestapo and sent to the concentration camp at Bergen-Belsen. The only ray of light for either girl is that they are together.But on arrival they are separated. As she’s seventeen and deemed an adult, Rachel is sent to work in a brutal factory whilst four-year-old Mindel is sent into the so-called “star” camp for Jewish prisoners. All on her own, Rachel knows her sister will have no chance of survival—unless she can find someone to take care of her.Working in the windowless, airless factory—filling munitions casings with chemicals that burn her fingers and make her eyes sting—the only thing that keeps Rachel going is the thought of her little sister. Because if there’s even a chance Mindel is alive, Rachel knows she must try to save her.But, separated by barbed wire, and treated brutally by SS guards who do not even see them as human beings, can either of the orphaned sisters ever dare to hope that they’ll find their way back to each other? And to freedom?A completely heartbreaking, utterly gripping tale of courage, loss and overcoming impossible odds, perfect for fans of The Tattooist of Auschwitz, The Ragged Edge of Night and The Orphan’s Tale.

    History professor Erik Mueller is a model citizen and a family man. He’s also a decorated sergeant in the Gestapo. Proving his courage on the battlefields of Poland and the Soviet Union, and proud of the German army’s victories across Europe, he embraces what he thinks is the righteousness of the Third Reich’s cause.But his loyalties are soon tested when he crosses paths with his old university friend Trude Bensheim. Forced into unemployment for being Jewish, Trude and her husband start a secret organization to help Jews escape Germany. But when they are betrayed by someone they thought they could trust, their lives hang in the balance.Erik feels responsible for Trude’s capture, and he knows he’s in a position to help them. But when everything he holds dear is at stake, will he save his friends…or himself?

    The thought of giving up his friendship is bad enough. But how can he relate to someone who forgets his grandson's name, wears adult diapers, and thinks dog biscuits are people cookies-someone who could die in the night and scare Buzz right out of puberty. Buzz thinks Alzheimer's is caused by a traumatic event, such as the train accident that killed Grandpa's brother Barkley in childhood. The situation turns deadly when Buzz and Mitch-whose friendship Buzz refuses to end-attempt to cure Grandpa of Alzheimer's disease by recreating the train accident on a hot summer day. (Ages 12-14/YA)

    Includes The Amplified, The Dissenters, and The Restrainers.

    Escaping deportation to an extermination camp by hiding in the home of a Polish woman and using the papers of the woman's deceased, illegitimate daughter, Gerda never let go of the hope that she would one day reunite with her beloved father. Here, she tells her amazing story. Gerda's determination is what led her to survive the terrifying experience of the Holocaust. Since arriving in the United States as an immigrant, she has spoken about her experiences to community groups, schools, churches, and synagogues. She hopes to spread her message of peace, hope and tolerance to as many people as possible.

    While her parents and two older sisters were taken to the gas chambers, she and her twin, Miriam, were herded into the care of the man known as the Angel of Death, Dr. Josef Mengele and subjected to sadistic medical experiments and forced to fight daily for their own survival. Through this book, readers will learn of a child's endurance and survival in the face of truly extraordinary evil. The book also includes an epilogue on Eva's recovery from this experience and her remarkable decision to publicly forgive the Nazis. Through her museum and her lectures, she has dedicated her life to giving testimony on the Holocaust, providing a message of hope for people who have suffered, and working toward goals of forgiveness, peace, and the elimination of hatred and prejudice in the world.

    Warren Wade's fingerprints are all over the murder weapon, he has no alibi, and Sylvia broke up with him the night she was killed. After another young woman friend of Sylvia's is bludgeoned to death, Paula is dismayed when the police keep Warren in jail. They claim the second murder could have been committed by a copy-cat and remind her Warren's fingerprints are still on the weapon that killed Sylvia.Working with her best friend who often hires Paula to investigate cases and who is Warren’s lawyer, Paula searches for answers. Paula and her computer guru lover narrow down the suspects to the victim's friends. The group is led by a mesmeric young man with political ambitions. Paula doesn’t trust him, especially when she learns that all of Sylvia's friends have lied during her interviews. At the preliminary hearing, some answers begin to emerge. Paula zeros in on the killer and sees firsthand how friendship and loyalty can be used for personal gain. With Warren’s freedom on the line, she has to find a way to capture the real killer. But in doing so, she doesn't realize she’s putting herself and her own best friend in danger.First in a series featuring Paula as a feisty private investigator.

    Fans of Sheriff Walt Longmire will fall in love with Sergeant Maggie Blackthorne, the spirited protagonist with a tragic past and an acid wit.When Maggie Blackthorne returns to her hometown after nearly twenty years to serve as an Oregon State Police Sergeant, she expects to deal with the usual suspects — drunk drivers, oxy slingers, and the occasional rural scofflaw.But after she stumbles upon the bullet-ridden bodies of twin brothers, she realizes she’s stepped into something much more sinister. With little homicide experience, Maggie and her partner, Trooper Hollis Jones, find themselves thrust into a murder investigation.And when a third man turns up dead, the pair fears it’s only a matter of time before the killer strikes again. As they race to piece together what happened, Maggie and Hollis discover a tangled web of theft, deceit and deals gone bad.Faced with multiple motives and several persons of interest, Maggie and Hollis finally catch a break — but are they willing to risk everything to put the murderer behind bars?