Honor Donovan is a shrewd businesswoman, yet she has been shut out of Donovan International by her father and four brothers. When her favorite brother Kyle vanishes, along with a fortune in stolen amber, Honor's questions are ignored by the Donovan males. Defying them, she heads to the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest in search of answers.Honor needs a guide because she knows nothing about running a boat -- and she knows nothing about Jake Mallory until he answers her ad. One of the things she doesn't know is that Jake is much more than a fishing guide. Until Kyle disappeared, Jake was brokering amber deals in the Baltic for Donovan International. Honor is completely unaware of the old wars, new politics, greed, and stolen amber that have lured ruthless, high-stakes players from around the globe.Jake wants no part of the intrigue, or of a Donovan woman in his life, but he suspects the Donovans have set him up to take the fall for Kyle's treachery. The way Jake sees it, some Donovan is going to pay for his troubles, and it just may turn out to be HonorJake and Honor cast off on a journeys moldering with distrust, betrayal, vengeance... and temptation. A hunger grows between them that is as dangerous as the secrets they keep. Alone at sea, they pursue the stubborn mystery of the Amber Room, flee from relentless enemies, and fight against trusting each other. Yet when Honor and Jake dare to confide in one another, they face a final truth: the penalty for betrayal is death; the reward is a lifetime...together.Amazon.com ReviewWhen her brother Kyle vanishes, along with a fortune in stolen amber, Honor Donovan settles into his cottage in the San Juan Islands of the Pacific Northwest and hires fishing guide Jake Mallory to help her search the surrounding islands for him. What Jake doesn't want Honor to know is that, until recently, he brokered amber deals for Donovan International, run by Honor's brothers, and is now suspected by them of having stolen the missing amber, along with a priceless Russian antiquity called the Amber Room. As Honor and Jake search the high seas for Kyle, dodging wily international operatives and mysterious intruders, their smoldering distrust eventually gives way to explosive passion. But there's no guarantee that they'll survive, or that they'll forgive their mutual deceptions and create a future together. Fascinating details about amber, and less fascinating descriptions of boating, lend authenticity to this contemporary romance marked by its edgy repartee, highly charged love scenes, and gorgeous geography. --Ellen EdwardsFrom Kirkus ReviewsA well-made, completely predictable and unchallenging second hardcover from Lowell (Winter Fire, 1996)--a romance that offers all the sexual tension, adventure, and squishy clich‚s that fans of the genre could possibly want. Tough Jake Mallory (Jake being this year's romance-novel nom de choice for soldiers of fortune and macho men) passes himself off as a fishing guide in order to keep tabs on Honor Donovan, a jewelry designer who's searching for her lost brother Kyle in the San Juan Islands. (Honor needs a boat to find Kyle, and she doesn't know how to pilot a boat; in fact, she hates boats, and she hates fishing.) Kyle, it seems, has disappeared from Russia with a million dollars' worth of Baltic amber and, perhaps, a priceless panel from the famous Amber Room, which had been disassembled and taken from a czar's palace by the Nazis. Jake (Been there . . . done that . . . got the T shirt'') is a former government agent who now manages his own international investment company. Like most heroes of his ilk, he comes complete with scars, black stubble, and the requisiteclean fingernails'' (which is typical for the genre: only villains have problems with personal hygiene). Jake believes that Kyle and the Donovans, a colorful family, have framed him for the crime; Kyle's family believes that Jake has set Kyle up; and the CIA is trailing Jake and Honor to get its hands on the Amber Room, as are the Russian mafiya, a Lithuanian freedom fighter, ex-employees of the former KGB, and the Coast Guard. While he strives to clear his name, Jake teaches Honor how to drive a speedboat, catch salmon, and have good sex, which heretofore she'd always found pretty ``boring.'' Some parts of his job are, obviously, more fun than others. Much livelier than Winter Fire, and perhaps the beginning of a series. -- Copyright ©1997, Kirkus Associates, LP. All rights reserved.

This epic saga chronicles the eternal war of the “Others,” an ancient race of humans with supernatural powers who must swear allegiance to either the Dark or the Light. The agents of the Dark – the Night Watch – oversee nocturnal activity, while the agents of the Light keep watch over the day. For a thousand years both sides have maintained a precarious balance of power, but an ancient prophecy has decreed that a supreme Other will one day emerge, threatening to tip the scales. Now, that day has arrived. When a mid-level Night Watch agent named Anton stumbles upon a cursed young woman – an uninitiated Other with magnificent potential – both sides prepare for a battle that could lay waste to the entire city, possible the world. With language that throbs like darkly humorous hard-rock lyrics about blood and power, freedom and responsibility, Night Watch is a chilling, cutting-edge thriller, a pulse-pounding ride of fusion fiction that will leave you breathless for the next instalment.

These poems — intrepid, obsessive, and erotic — tell the story of a woman's attempt to overcome despair. Claudia Rankine, whose first collection was the prize-winning Nothing in Nature is Private, creates a transfixing testimonial to a woman facing her own disease. Drawing on voices from Jane Eyre to Lady MacBeth, Rankine welds the cerebral and the spiritual, the sensual and the grotesque, courting paradox into the center of her voice.

Free online fiction. Novelette. This is the story of the time that Granny Weatherwax didn't win the Witch Trials and was nice about it, too. It was horrifying. "It's not right! She's got no right to go around being cheerful at people!" Originally published in the collection Legends Vol. 3.

From the author of the bestselling 'Night's Dawn' trilogy, a novella and six stories set in the same brilliantly realised universe.

An Invitation to the Ball...By Fifteen of Your Favorite Historical Romance Authors! You are cordially invited to the most anticipated event of the Season — Lord and Lady Whitwell's annual ball! This year's theme is the most extravagant yet...A Midsummer Night's Dream, filled with fairytale gardens and fantastical costumes, sparkling champagne, and heartwarming romance. Opportunities abound for secret trysts in the shadows of moonlit walks, mistaken identities, delicious unmaskings, and perhaps even a magical spell or two. But one thing is certain—fifteen pairs of hearts will never be the same again. Enjoy this collection of never-before-released novellas by your favorite historical romance authors! Grace Burrowes Erica Ridley Ella Quinn Jennifer Ashley May McGoldrick Sabrina York Bronwen Evans Jade Lee Anna Harrington Madeline Martin Elizabeth Essex Eileen...

Stephen R. Donaldson's unique talents have placed his work alongside that of J.R.R. Tolkien and established him as a writer with the rare ability to expand readers' imaginations. Now he presents a magnificent new collection of eight stories and novellas--three of which have never before been published. This outstanding volume commences with the fablelike title story, "Reave the Just," which highlights one of Donaldson's favorite themes: the individual's power to overcome adversity. This collection also introduces the morbid, soul-taking hero of "Penance," the mysterious beggar woman in the dark fairy tale "The Woman Who Loved Pigs," and the pampered antihero forced to make a choice between virtue and vice in "The Djinn Who Watches Over the Accursed." Boasting exotic settings and suspense fueled by sudden plot twists, Reave the Just and Other Tales is a testament to Stephen R. Donaldson's talent to spin unforgettably spellbinding stories, and the astonishing scope of his mastery of magic and myth.

There's a new rumor in town. Someone has discovered an item that proves life on other planets exists. And they've been hiding it on a base called Zone 91. The Most Secret Place On Earth. Cassie, the other Animorphs, and Ax already know about life on other planets. Too well. They also realize the Yeerks will try to access Zone 91 to find out if what's there will threaten their mission. So the Animorphs decide to pay Zone 91 and the Yeerks a little visit. But what they discover is not at all what they expect.

Bennie Rosato, the head of her own law firm, specializes in police misconduct cases. However, nothing can prepare her for a meeting with her new client, Alice Connolly. Accused of murdering her lover, a highly decorated police officer, Connolly claims the police framed her. What shocks Bennie is that Connolly looks just like her. Pleased to meet you. I'm your twin. Your identical twin. Connolly tells Bennie, who grew up an only child, or so she thought. But Connolly knows too many intimate details about Bennie s life and family. With the trial only a week away, Bennie plunges into the mystery of the murder and her family s dark secrets.

Each in turn may call this a fairy story, a dog story, an allegory or a satire, but all will be moved by the beauty and the meaning--a beauty and a meaning that seems to live within the realm of those books that go on and on making friends and spreading enchantment. Gissing, its hero, is a dog who searches the world for an ideal, and then finds in the smoke of his own furnace fire a hint of the heavenly blue that he had been seeking.

Where has she been? The rumors fly throughout the Scottish countryside about Lady Alanna, the beautiful and mysterious displaced mistress of Fionnaway Manor. And now she has emerged from hiding, only to find her beloved estate besieged by greedy relatives. . .and coveted by a darkly handsome Englishman. Ian Fairchild knows that Fionnaway belongs to him alone. For years he yearned for the cherished place where he passed his childhood. He can secure his rights to the manor only through marriage with the enigmatic Alanna, but the exquisite hellion has warned him at knifepoint to leave her house. Now with skill and charm, Ian must penetrate the lady's defenses, and boldly lay claim to her body and spirit. But first he must prove himself worthy, and he holds the power to enchant and delight, inflame and inspire. . .and to convince this lady her true home is in her lover's heart.

In this spooky page-turner, Mary Anne takes a job in a bookstore which might be haunted...by Edgar Allan Poe

The author of the beloved novels Gospel and Emma Who Saved My Life, Wilton Barnhardt is a writer of rare and extraordinary talent who has yet to walk the same ground twice. With Show World he offers a contemporary woman's story that will haunt its every reader. Samantha Flint, the figure at the book's center, flees the Midwest for Smith College to shake her past, to invent a future she can live with. There she meets the redoubtable Mimi Mohr; together and apart they move from New York to DC to LA. Yet even as each new city takes them to fresh heights of power and wealth, everything Sam wants seems to elude her—and after a series of lapses, both desperate and careless, she finds her dreams have turned against her.A work of withering satire and unmatched imagination, Show World is Wilton Barnhardt's clear-eyed estimate of America and what we all want out of her.