Six Weeks by Jessica L. Degarmo5/21/2023 ![]() ![]() Visit Jessica's website for Jessica Degarmo grew up in Upstate New York and now lives with her husband, children and dogs in rural Pennsylvania. Her publishing credits include: How to Meet a Guy at the Supermarket (November 2010) Hooking Up (May 2011) Decisions (July 2011) The Storm Within, A Johns Creek Novel #1 (September 2011) Six Weeks (October 2011) Historically Yours, A Johns Creek Novel #2 (August 2012) Blood Lust (Lust Trilogy #1) (October 2012) Holding On, Sequel to Hooking Up (August 2013) Height of Passion, A Johns Creek Novella #3 (April 2016) She is currently working on several other projects. When she is not writing, she is an insurance agent, the lead singer in a classic rock band, a country music DJ and an avid collector of gemstones. ![]() Jessica Degarmo grew up in Upstate New York and now lives with her husband, children and dogs in rural Pennsylvania. ![]()
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Bloodleaf by crystal smith5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() ![]() But there's something deeply amiss in her new home, too, and soon she finds herself swept into a deadly new mystery with a secretive prince, the ghost of an ancient queen, and a poison vine called Bloodleaf.Īurelia is entangled in a centuries-long game of love, power, and war, and if she can't break free before the Tribunal makes its last move, she may lose far more than her crown. ![]() You have the political machinations of different factions trying to gain power. You have the blend of feudal law, which exacts a strict and often violent penalty for any infraction. When a devastating assassination attempt reveals her magical abilities, Aurelia is forced to flee her country with nothing but her life.Īlone and adrift in an enemy kingdom, Aurelia plans her revenge against the Tribunal, desperate to bring down the dark organization that has wrought terror upon her people for hundreds of years. Loosely based on the fairy tale The Goose Girl, Crystal Smith’s debut novel is a rich story that will satisfy any fantasy reader.This world is truly incredible. Surrounded by spirits and burdened with forbidden magic, she lives in constant fear of discovery by the witch-hunting Tribunal and their bloodthirsty mobs. “BLOODLEAF feels like a classic in the making.” – Sara Holland, New York Times bestselling author of EverlessĪ roar of a dark and luscious epic fantasy that’s layered with heady romance, bloodthirsty magic, and ghostly intrigue-an absolutely wicked delight.Īurelia is a princess, but they call her a witch. “Enchanting, visceral, and twisty”- New York Times bestselling author of Ash Princess, Laura Sebastian ![]() The Pact by Robert Patrick Lewis5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() Some of the fiercest warriors from the team are lost or sacrifice themselves on missions in Book II, and the men are given the option of enacting retribution against those invaders who attempted to destroy their nation. The team encounters things they cannot explain, and are helped by someone from their past who was given unique talents through his time in a classified CIA Special Projects assignment.Rob also meets Natalie, a woman with special abilities of her own to whom he finds himself magnetically drawn. ![]() The Masonic connection to the resistance is further explained, as well as a hidden part of Rob’s past that is brought to light with a unique twist. His job is to capture the men and inflict as much pain as possible, as Rob learns when he lands in Dmitri’s grisly interrogation. The men come into contact with other freedom fighters and are taken to the front lines of WWIII.As they spread out to take part in the national battle plan, the team is hunted by Dmitri, a former Spetsnaz-turned SVR operative. The Pact Book II follows Rob and the men of ODA 022 from their battles against the invaders (China, Russia, Iran & Hezbollah) in Colorado to joining the resistance to take back the nation. ![]() The Last Concubine by Lesley Downer5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() Before she dare dream of a life with him, Sachi must unravel the mystery of her own origins – a mystery that encompasses a wrong so terrible that it threatens to destroy her …From the timeless beauty of the Women’s Palace in Edo to bloody battles fought outside its walls, The Last Concubine is an epic evocation of a country in revolution, and of a young woman’s quest to find out who she really is. ![]() Rescued by a rebel warrior, she finds unknown feelings stirring within her but this is a world in which private passions have no place and there is not even a word for ‘love’. As civil war erupts, Sachi flees for her life. ![]() Lesley Downer has had several non-fiction books published and there is no doubt that she knows her subject. ![]() Black Ships have arrived from the West, bringing foreigners eager to add Japan to their colonial empires. An epic novel closely based on historical events, The Last Concubine is the story of a shogun, a princess and the three thousand women of the women’s palace. Sachi, a beautiful fifteen-year-old girl, is chosen as his concubine. Bristling with intrigue and erotic rivalries, the palace is home to three thousand women and only one man – the young shogun. This is the story of a shogun, a princess and the three thousand women of the women’s palace – all of whom really existed – and of the civil war that brought their way of life to an end …Japan, 1865: the women’s palace in the great city of Edo is a sprawling complex much like a middle-eastern harem. How do you fall in love when your society has no word for it? The Last Concubine is an epic love story closely based on historical events, chronicling 19th century Japan’s extraordinary change from a medieval to a modern country. Shortlisted for the Romantic Novel of the Year Award 2009 ![]() Roddenberry archive5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() Colt: Gene Roddenberry created the character of USS Enterprise crew member Yeoman J.M. “Recreated 1:1 scale” USS Enterprise interiors as they appeared in the Star Trek episode: The CageĮarly split screen tests for Yeoman J.M. Butler has provided the archive with hours of behind the scenes materials, and in March 2022, reviewed the 1:1 scale USS Enterprise’s bridge in a virtual production environment to confirm that it faithfully matches the physical set he filmed nearly 60-years ago. The Cage, which predates Star Trek: The Original Series by two-years was written and produced by Gene Roddenberry, and directed by Robert Butler. The Roddenberry Archive team has allowed the cast and crew of “The Cage” to step back in time 58-years and revisit 1:1 life-size virtual sets, costumes, characters, and props (including fully working Enterprise interiors). Star Trek luminaries Mike and Denise Okuda explore the production and inception of Gene Roddenberry’s 1964 “Star Trek” Pilot – ‘The Cage’ – and its profound impact on Star Trek history. ![]() Graham norton novel a keeper5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() “Now we’re all available all the time, but it used to be you wouldn’t see people for weeks,” he says. Reassured that his latest book is wicked fun, he notes that dispensing with mobile phones and social media meant he could more easily spin a mysterious disappearance. ![]() “It’s a bit dark, isn’t it, a bit gothic, but hopefully not too brutal?” Norton asks. Without spoiling too much, let’s just say the sections set in the ‘70s take a pretty wild turn. Protagonist Elizabeth Keane returns to Ireland from contemporary New York after the death of her estranged mother and uncovers a secret stash of letters that change everything. His second novel A Keeper, which follows the critical and popular success of his London Times bestseller Holding (2016), is a dual-narrative page-turner that draws on the bad old days. He barely recognises the country now, in a good way, post-marriage equality and winning abortion rights. The overbearing morality of the Catholic Church in rural County Cork in the ‘70s prolonged Norton’s stay in the closet, with his Protestant upbringing meaning he was doubly an outsider. ![]() “We spent a very long winter during our summer, living in his parents’ garage. “I remember now,” he chuckles at his own forgetfulness while speaking over the phone as he waited for a train on a bustling Monday morning in the British capital. ![]() Brace for impact gabe montesanti5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() Louis, she is determined to put the baggage of her childhood behind her. A competitive swimmer, she turned to perfectionism and self-control to create a sense of safety, only to develop an eating disorder and constantly second-guess her instincts. Growing up queer in a conservative Midwestern town, Gabe Montesanti never felt comfortable in her own skin. ![]() ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR: Book Riot “A universal story of healing and triumph, made all the more beautiful, wild, and free by Gabe’s fierce love for roller derby and her team, who become her family.”-ABBY WAMBACH, Olympian, activist, and author of the #1 New York Times bestseller Wolfpack A powerful and redemptive story of how the dazzling world of roller derby helped one young woman transform her fear and self-doubt into gutsy, big-hearted, adventurous living ![]() Author of on chesil beach5/20/2023 ![]() ![]() ![]() “Her doubts could be neutralized only by plunging in deeper.”) Speaking of the way that the brain surgeon Henry Perowne, of his 2005 novel, “Saturday,” struggles with the impulse to take revenge on a man who invades his home, McEwan made reference to brain scanners: “When people take revenge, the same reward centers of the brain are activated that are associated with satisfying hunger, thirst, sexual appetite. ![]() (“She trapped herself, she marched into the labyrinth of her own construction,” McEwan writes of Briony. After discussing his many duplicitous characters-such as Briony Tallis, the precocious adolescent of his 2001 novel, “Atonement,” who ruins two lives when she makes a false accusation of rape-McEwan pointed to a “study in cognitive psychology” suggesting that “the best way to deceive someone is first to deceive yourself,” because you’re more convincing when you’re sincere. On a recent hike through the woods surrounding his new country house-a renovated seventeenth-century brick-and-flint cottage, in Buckinghamshire-he regularly punctuated his observations about Homo sapiens with the citation of a peer-reviewed experiment. ![]() One of McEwan’s goals is to “incite a naked hunger in readers.” Photograph by Steve PykeĪll novelists are scholars of human behavior, but Ian McEwan pursues the matter with more scientific rigor than the job strictly requires. ![]() The giving tree picture5/19/2023 ![]() ![]() Of course, maybe we’re just projecting, but to those who would say that Silverstein’s book is a moving, sentimental depiction of the unyielding love of a parent for a child, I’d say, Learn better parenting skills. (I’m not even going to get into the biblical implications of Silverstein’s decision to make the tree of the book’s title apple-bearing.) “And the tree was happy,” reads the last line of the 52-page story, a sentiment repeated by Silverstein so many times that it sends some, like me, into paroxysms of reflexive indignation. ![]() “The Nazis would have loved it,” one man raged, proving that everything up to and including beloved children’s picture books will eventually fall prey to Godwin’s Law - that as an online discussion grows, so does the likelihood that someone or something will be compared to a Nazi.įor those who need a recap: Boy meets adoring, obliging apple tree and eventually, through a combination of utter impotence and blatant manipulation, makes off with her branches, her trunk and, of course, the literal fruits of her labor. “One star or five, there is no middle ground,” declared another. ![]() A passionate and very vocal minority of reviewers on sites like Amazon and Goodreads seems to find the story an affront not just to literature but to humanity itself. A 2010 post about “The Giving Tree” in this paper’s MotherLode blog, “Children’s Books You (Might) Hate,” attracted more than 300 comments. ![]() Joseph fink and jeffrey cranor5/19/2023 ![]() ![]() More recently there is a trend towards telling us about those characters we don’t know much about. Most series start with new characters and where they will go. ![]() Origin stories for characters are a big draw in fantasy. In the end, her dealings with Craig and her history in nineteenth century Europe will come together in the most unexpected and horrifying way. Told in a series of eerie flashbacks, the story of The Woman is revealed, as she guides, haunts and sabotages an unfortunate Night Vale resident named Craig. In the town of Night Vale, there's a faceless old woman who secretly lives in everyone's home, but no one knows how she got there or where she came from. Price – £8.99 paperback £10.99 Kindle eBook I would like to thank Nazia from Orbit for an advance copy of this novel in exchange for a fair and honest review ![]() |