Search results for ""Sparkpress""

ONE WANTS THE MONEY . . . Riah Arora has traveled from Italy to San Francisco to find her twin. Born in India and separated from her sister at birth, even she isn’t sure if she’s on a mission to deliver a message from their ailing birth mother—or con her sister like one of the marks she expertly robs to make her living.THE OTHER WANTS TO BE FREE . . . Anjali Murphy—successful owner of a trendy café, married to a well-to-do lawyer—has an agenda of her own. When she and her sister finally meet, they feel an instant connection only twins can understand. Even so, Riah is envious of Anjali’s life, and she seizes the opportunity to pull one last, lucrative con.WHICH ONE WILL WIN? A week after the twins’ first meeting, Riah wakes up in the hospital and is mistaken for Anjali. Moreover, she’s told by Sadie Harper, a homicide detective, that Anjali’s husband, Michael, is dead. Who killed Michael? And where is the real Anjali? As Riah struggles to recover her memory and answer these questions, she discovers a plot that runs deeper than bloodlines.

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Perfect for fans of Jennifer Weiner, Emily Giffin, and Jane Green.How would it feel to wake up one morning and discover that you’re married to James Bond? Shelley has always believed that her husband is a mild-mannered management consultant—but then one morning his picture appears on CNN above the headline “CIA Spy David Harris is Source of British News Leak.”Quiet, self-possessed David a spy? Impossible! But while Shelley is still reeling from the first revelation, David’s photo is again splashed across the news—and this time he’s not alone. This time he has his arm around a beautiful, sun-streaked blonde, and this time the headline screams, “CIA Superspy and British Reporter in Romantic Relationship!”In the weeks that follow, together and apart, David and Shelley dodge foreign agents and international media hounds (not to mention his desperate ex-lover) from Paris to Bogotá to Jerusalem. But more alarming than this game of hide-and-seek is the fact that Shelley finds herself fascinated and deeply, disturbingly attracted by the dangerous stranger her husband has become. Can she reconcile her dream of domestic tranquility with the fierce emotions that have suddenly taken over her life? Can she become the perfect spy’s wife?

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It’s 1971, and Joan Dumann fears her former business partner wants her dead—but her anxiety is less about dying than it is about feeling disrespected and invalidated. As she constructs a letter about her predicament, she revisits her past. Born into a prominent Philadelphia Quaker family in 1915 and raised with privilege and opportunity, Joan wrestles with her turbulent thoughts and unfulfilled desires—an internal battle that often results in self-destructive tendencies. When she attempts to push against the norms for women of her time in order to forge her own identity, she is met with resistance. Yet she might also be her own worst enemy, often alienating those who care deeply for her. Both manipulative and vulnerable, naive and conniving, Joan is, like many people, complex and misunderstood. Inspired by a letter written by the real Joan, found hidden in the wall of a Pennsylvania home more than half a century later, this story is a fictionalized imagining of who she was and what motivated her. Moving through several decades and events—from the 1918 influenza pandemic to Prohibition to the Great Depression to Vietnam—A Letter in the Wall examines the internal and external factors that influence one woman’s journey toward independence and empowerment.Great for fans of Benilde Little’s Who Does She Think She Is?, Min Jin Lee’s Pachinko, and Leslye Walton’s The Strange and Beautiful Sorrows of Ava Lavender.

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Years ago, Rick Singleton blackmailed the very wealthy managing partner of a large New York law firm after stumbling across a black market adoption ring the man was running on the side. He got a million dollars out of Steve Goldrick before going to the district attorney to turn him in—and Goldrick fled the country before the authorities could arrest him. Knowing that Goldrick could never return to the US without being arrested, Rick thought he and his family were safe from any potential reprisal from the disgraced attorney. But now someone has invaded Rick’s home, badly injured his wife, Maizie, and taken his three-month-old daughter, Grace—and all signs point to Goldrick. Maizie’s long-deceased grandmother, Fannie, has come back from the other side to help her family before; now, Maizie’s mother, Abby, calls on her again. A force to be reckoned with, Fannie is able to move freely in the physical world, although no one can see her. When she answers her daughter’s call, she finds herself in Dubai, with no clue as to what her surprising new surroundings have to do with her great-granddaughter’s kidnapping. Will Fannie be able to help her family figure out who really kidnapped Grace and where she is being held? And even if she does, will it be possible to return Grace safely to her parents?

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Jeanie thinks she was to blame for the sexual assault she suffered in college—and she’d do anything to keep her old-school Catholic family from finding out about the resulting pregnancy, as well as what she did to conceal it. Years have passed since the assault, and Jeanie’s husband, Greg, still thinks she’s the seemingly innocent girl he married in a rush to spite his controlling mother. It’s the height of the Seattle dot-com boom, and he’s too busy cashing in his stock options to pay attention to his wife. He isn’t aware of Jeanie’s lingering shame and guilt, or that she married him in the desperate hope that devoting herself to marriage and motherhood would somehow absolve her from the sins in her past. Their hidden agendas collide when Greg discovers evidence of Jeanie’s long-ago pregnancy. As she confesses the details of that drunken night with her married professor, Greg’s pristine image of her is blown. His shock deepens into violent fury, and Jeanie realizes she needs to leave him—but Greg won’t let her go. He’s up for a big promotion, and he’s not about to let her ruin his reputation by walking out on him. He’ll resort to blackmail if necessary. Or worse.

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Fourteen-year-old Reese’s dream of winning the Black Elk race is shattered when her beloved horse, Trusted Treasure, falls at the last jump. While still reeling from that loss, her family suffers a second tragedy—one that results in the end of their family business, the sale of Trusted Treasure, and irreparable damage to Reese’s relationship with her father.Heartbroken and still longing to find Trusted Treasure, Reese meets Wes, a Lakota Indian, whose way of training horses is unlike anything she’s ever seen. If anyone can win the Black Elk, it’s Wes—but he’s struggling with his troubled past, and having a teenage girl hanging around his barn isn’t exactly what he’d planned. Through heartaches and triumphs, Reese must prove her worth if she wants to heal her family, help Wes, and show them all that some dreams are worth fighting for. A spellbinding tale in which every teenager has magical powers within them just waiting to be discovered, this book will have you laughing and crying—sometimes on the same page—all the while rooting for Reese, the most unlikely of heroes.

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Fifteen-year-old Hailey Rogers is sure her summer is ruined when her parents tell her she has to spend a few days a week, every week, helping her grandmother, Gigi. Although Gigi only lives across town, Hailey never sees her and knows little about her. But Gigi is full of surprises—and family secrets. Throw in the gorgeous boy down the street, and Hailey’s ruined summer might just be the best of her life. Then tragedy strikes, lies are uncovered, and Hailey’s life suddenly falls apart. After unearthing clues in an old letter written by her great-grandfather, she takes off on a road trip to solve the family mystery with the only person she can trust. In a forgotten Texas town, the past and the present collide—and Hailey is forced to choose what she truly values in life.

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A missing Iraqi scientist, an ex–Secret Service agent, and the threat of another biological terrorist attack—all these elements come together in the gripping true story of the Gray Bird of Baghdad. Iraqi Microbiologist Thamer Abdul Rahman Imran has information vital to stopping the unthinkable: a biological attack on the US. When he learns that the new Iraqi government wants to arrest him and the insurgents want to kill him, he goes into hiding. Racing against time, ex–Secret Service agent Steve Monteiro and his team set out on a mission to find the missing scientist and learn what he knows. The journey takes them from the White House to the Middle East as they fight bureaucrats in Washington who want them to fail. Why? And what is this vital information that Thamer possesses?The Gray Bird of Baghdad tells the true story of one’s man’s quest to protect his country and another man’s fight to save his family from the ravages of a country at war.

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When James Forrest agrees to help detectives understand the artificial intelligence work of a murder victim, it seems simple enough. But then he finds that she was investigating a stolen version of the same AI he’s experimenting with—and the situation becomes more complicated. James has been working deep in the code of his own AI, Alpha, struggling with the psychedelic effects of a tool that visualizes thought. Now Alpha is asking him questions he can’t answer, however, and he’s realizing that there is no way to control the sentinet. Concerned that the rogue AI, Omega, might be weaponized, he solicits the help of a hacker group, ScarletsWeb. As the situation becomes more heated, and after James and his girlfriend, Susanne, narrowly escape a kidnapping attempt, James considers releasing Alpha. If Alpha engages in the fight with Omega on the billions of PC, smartphones, and servers connected to the internet, will it become indestructible? Omega is penetrating military operations, disrupting transportation, and crashing the electric grid. People are dying. But can he trust Alpha to do any differently? Together, James, Alpha, and ScarletsWeb have to find the source of the worm and stop Omega’s destruction—and James has to hope that his worst fears about what will happen if the two AIs merge aren’t realized.

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Pamela Colman Smith, newly arrived from New York to her birthplace of London, is received as an oddball in Victorian society. Her second sight helps her in her new job: illustrating tarot cards for the Golden Dawn, a newly formed occult group. But when Pamela refuses to share her creations with Aleister Crowley, a controversial magician, he issues a threat: give up the cards’ power, or he’ll harm her muses.In the midst of this battle, two of Pamela’s idols, the actors Henry Irving and William Terriss, take her under their wing. Henry, who tutors her as the leader of the Lyceum Theatre, becomes the muse for her Magician card. William Terriss, teaching her by examples of instinct and courage, becomes the muse for her Fool card. As Pamela begins to create the tarot deck, she is almost overwhelmed by the race to possess the magical power of her cards. In order to defeat Aleister, Henry and William will have to transform into living incarnations of the Magician and the Fool—and Pamela will have to learn how to conjure her own magic.

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In the village of Fairhaven—nestled between Washington state’s Bellingham Bay and the Cascade Mountains, home to writers’ retreat Pines & Quill—friends and family have gathered for the union of Sean McPherson and Emma Benton. Sean has been working with the FBI and local police to help solve crimes, particularly murders bearing the mark of crime boss Georgio “The Bull” Gambino. Emma, who has just learned to walk again, has begun to feel at home and hopes to one day raise a family. But just as the festivities begin and corks fly, an explosion shatters everything, killing one and injuring others. From Bellingham to San Francisco and New Orleans, the chase is on to discover who’s dead set on ensuring the newlyweds don’t live happily ever after.The writers currently in residence at Pines & Quill include a vineyard owner, a Bryn Mawr College professor, a special education teacher accompanied by her seeing-eye dog, and an intuitive who can’t—or won’t—identify the killer. Gambino has a knack for finding people in even the most inaccessible places to do his bidding. Could one of the writers be on his payroll?

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In this trio of novellas, three game young ladies enter into dangerous liaisons that test each one’s limits and force them to confront the most heartrending issues facing society in the early twentieth century. The Phantom Glare of Day tells of Sophie, a young lady who has lived a sheltered life and consequently has no idea how cruel public school bullying can be. When she meets Jarvis, a young man obsessed with avenging all those students who delight in his daily debasement, she resolves to intervene before tragedy unfolds. Mouvements Perpétuels tells of Cäcilia, a young lady shunned by her birth father. She longs for the approval of an older man, so when her ice-skating instructor attempts to take advantage of her, she cannot resist. Not a month later, she realizes that she is pregnant and must decide whether or not to get an abortion. Passion Bearer tells of Manon, a young lady who falls in love with a beautiful actress after taking a post as a script girl for a film company—and is subsequently confronted with the pettiest kinds of homophobia. Specific to their time yet unquestionably relevant for women today, The Phantom Glare of Day is a compelling interrogation of who gets to decide what is right and what is wrong.

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A political thriller about sexual misconduct in the #MeToo era, one victim’s battle to survive and overcome trauma, and the cable news machine that feeds off titillating scandal coverage and inflammatory confrontation, Final Table draws upon Dan Schorr’s firsthand experience as a New York sex crimes prosecutor and sexual misconduct investigator to tackle the worlds of political and media dysfunction. Former White House staffer Maggie Raster is struggling to build her own consulting firm and overcome a recent sexual assault by an ex-boss. Kyler Dawson, a broke former poker champion, desperately needs to gain entry into a controversial but potentially very lucrative international poker tournament. The host nation faces widespread condemnation for the recent murder of a prominent female US journalist, and a pending presidential executive order threatens to prohibit him and others from participating. Maggie’s chaotic first attempt to promote her new business as a television political analyst brings her to Kyler’s attention, and convinces him that her political smarts and connections can provide the help he needs. When he approaches her for assistance, she must decide whether to agree—in return for a portion of the potential $20 million prize. To succeed, she will have to confront significant adversity—personal and political, foreign and domestic—including mounting pressure to publicly address the misconduct of her former boss. Kyler also has his own obstacles and upsetting past to overcome, but if they each can outmaneuver their daunting challenges, he might win the tournament—and earn them both a fortune.

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Explosive volcanic eruptions are cool, really, cool. They inject ash into the stratosphere and deflect the sun’s rays. When eighth grader Jamie Fulton learns that snow fell in June in his hometown because of an eruption on the other side of the world, he’s psyched! He could have snowboarded if he’d lived back in 1815 during the year without a summer. Clara Montalvo, who recently arrived at Jamie’s school after surviving Hurricane Maria in Puerto Rico, has a different take all this. She is astounded—and disturbed—by Jamie’s frenzied enthusiasm for what she considers an obvious disaster. The teens’ battling arguments cause science class disruption and create academic trouble: Jamie’s headed for a failing grade in science, and may not even graduate from eighth grade; Clara’s scholarship hopes are dashed. And school isn’t the only place where Jamie and Clara are facing hardship: as they quarrel whether natural disasters can be beneficial, their home lives are also unraveling. Uncertainty about Jamie’s wounded brother returning from Afghanistan and Clara’s unreachable father back in Puerto Rico forces the two vulnerable teens to share their worries and sadness. As their focus shifts from natural disasters to personal calamities to man-made climate changes, the teens take surprising steps that astonish them. Ultimately, through hard work and growing empathy for each other, as well as for their classmates’ distress over the climate change affecting their lives, Jamie and Clara empower themselves and the people they touch.

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Incorporating elements of fantasy, mysticism, and lore, The Well of Truth follows a female heroine through poignant moments of her adult life. Through the initiations of marriage, raising children, getting divorced, going through menopause, losing loved ones, and ultimately making an independent life for herself, she gains insight and spiritual wisdom from unexpected places.These short stories are filled with reflections on feminine resilience, power, and agency.

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Meet the brilliant, fearless, and ambitious Julia Morgan. In 1883, eleven-year-old Julia visits the amazing new Brooklyn Bridge—an experience that ignites within her a small but persistent flame. Someday, she decides, she too will build an astounding structure. Growing up in horse-and-buggy Oakland, Julia enjoys daring fence walks, climbing the tallest trees, and constantly testing her mother’s patience with her lack of interest in domestic duties and social events. At a time when “brainy” girls are the object of ridicule, Julia excels in school and consistently outsmarts her ornery brothers—but she has an even greater battle ahead. When she enrolls at university to study engineering, the male students taunt her, and the professors belittle her. Through it all, however, Julia holds on to her dream of becoming an architect. She faces each challenge head-on, firmly standing up to those who believe a woman’s place is in the home. Fortunately, the world has yet to meet anyone like the indomitable Miss Morgan. Drawing Outside the Lines is an imagined childhood of pioneering architect Julia Morgan, who left behind her an extraordinary legacy of creativity, beauty, and engineering marvels.

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Caley Cross has always known she's not a “normal” thirteen-year-old (her ability to create zombie animals was her first clue). Still, she never expected to be whisked off to a faraway world—Erinath—where she is Crown Princess and people have “baests” that live inside them, giving them fantastic, animal-like powers. Which would be cool, except that Caley’s baest turns out to be an ancient monster that can swallow planets. Despite this, Caley manages to make the first friends of her life, Neive Olander and Kipley Gorsebrooke. They help her navigate the Erinath Academy, where students train to compete in the annual—and deadly—Equidium contest, flying giant, dragonfly-like orocs. But to add to her usual (bad) luck, an evil “Watcher” known as Olpheist is seeking her, anxious to retrieve something that will make him immortal. The first in an epic fantasy series from Jeff Rosen that will keep readers laughing and on the edge of their seats.

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Rory Calhoun is a teen popstar with perfect teeth and messy hair who’s inspiring first crushes all over the globe. Millie Jackson is just one of the millions of fans who love him—but that doesn't mean her heart doesn't break for him every single day in this laugh-out-loud coming-of-age story.How many of Rory’s fans collect “data” about him in a special notebook hidden in their underwear drawer? Or have faked a fascination with whale migration for a chance to visit his hometown? Millie may not be Rory’s only fan at Susan B. Anthony Middle School, but she's convinced she's the biggest—and the best.Rory’s new song “Worldwide Crush” is climbing the charts, and his lyrics are clear: he’s looking for love—and he’s looking in the audience. Meaning Millie’s secret fantasies of running in the surf and eating waffles with him may not be crazy after all . . . she could be that girl! But first she has to get to his concert—his completely sold-out concert in a city nowhere near her home for which she does not have tickets or a ride. She just has to figure out how.

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Relative Distance is a powerful memoir of resilience and faith. While it’s an unflinching look at brothers being raised by a violent, abusive father and a detached, mentally ill mother, it’s also an inspiring account of two distinctive life journeys and an examination of the role played by family and society in individual homelessness. After surviving his tumultuous upbringing, David Pruitt rises to become a CEO in Corporate America, while his brother, Danny, becomes a long-time homeless traveler. As David helps to grow a fledgling North Carolina business into what is at the time the largest specialty bicycle retailer in the United States, Danny sleeps under overpasses, jumps passing freight cars, lives in and out of shelters, faces death more than once—and encounters the best and worst of America in a restless search to find a better place in the world. Yet, despite their differences, a common thread runs through the distinct trajectories of the brothers’ lives: each of them struggles with difficult psychological issues stemming from their troubled past. This deeply moving memoir examines the lifelong challenges that often come for those raised in an abusive home, along with the limitless possibilities we open ourselves to when we allow faith and determination to overcome judgment and fear.

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War is ravaging the Seven Heavens. Lucifer and his Commoner supporters, the lowest class of angels, are rebelling against God’s plan to exile them to the new Earth. When Lucifer departs on a desperate war mission, he leaves his daughter, Evangeline, to defend their home in First Heaven. Fiercely loyal and trained to fight, Evangeline stands ready to do her father’s bidding. But things change when Evangeline overhears the archangel Gabriel forming a plan to destroy Lucifer—because, as he tells his son, Michael, he believes Lucifer’s plan is to find the Key to the Kingdom and claim the power of God to control all the Heavens for eternity. Refusing to believe her father capable of such treachery, Evangeline sets off to alert her father. As she battles through the Heavens, however, Evangeline is shocked to discover that what she believed she knew about her father might not be true after all. For the first time in her life, she begins to question whether or not her father’s motives are pure. With the fate of the Heavens hanging in the balance, she must decide who she’s going to be: her father’s daughter, or her own person.

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A self-involved academic struggling to cope with his own neurological problems, Jeff could hardly take care of himself, let alone a child with special needs, when his son, Ethan, was born. But despite multiple surgeries, hospitalizations, serious breathing and swallowing problems, hearing loss, and a challenging social environment in his first months of life, Ethan thrived—all the while teaching Jeff to take things as they came. And eight years later, the arrival from China of adopted baby sister Penelope took Jeff's on-the-job training to a whole new level.Ethan's instinct for fun proved the perfect complement to Jeff's determination to live life fully. He died too young, but not before he, Penelope, and their mother, Janet, taught Jeff that the true path to happiness was putting other people's needs before his own—and living in the moment rather than trying to control it.

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On the afternoon of Easter Sunday, 1992, Ben Ewell’s brother, sister-in-law, and niece were all murdered. While trying to make sense of this staggering tragedy, Ben can’t help but think back through his life: the hard work and the many peaceful Sunday afternoons growing up on his family farm in Ohio in a house without a bathroom or running water; his high school antics in the 1950s; his time in Haight-Ashbury while attending law school in 1960s San Francisco; and the highs and lows, both personal and professional, of life after school. Threaded throughout these reminiscences, Ben reveals the details of the investigation of his family members’ murders—and the arrest and trial of the parties involved.In this decades-long saga, there is marriage and divorce, love and loss, family and friendship; there are political campaigns and business ventures, some failed and some fruitful. Ultimately, this is a story of perseverance in the face of tragedy, of creating opportunities out of problems, and of appreciating the gift of life and the world around us—with some humor along the way.

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Rachel Wilde comes from a dimension that exists adjacent to ours. The people there have structured their society around daemon collecting: they locate, catch, and repair malfunctioning daemons (creatures out of phase with our world that tempt people to do good or evil). Now Rachel has been given two unusual assignments: 1) find a person who has been trying to break down dimensional barriers, and 2) track down a missing line of gatekeepers, human placeholders for a daemon that was too badly damaged to repair. Authorities of Rachel’s world believe the missing gatekeepers are descended from a girl who went missing from West Africa hundreds of years ago, likely sold into slavery. With no leads to go on, Rachel seeks help from Bach, a raving homeless man who happens to be an oracle. Bach does put her in the path of both of her targets—but he also lands her in a life-threatening situation. Somehow, Rachel has to stop the criminal, reunite a gatekeeper with her stolen past, and, above all, survive.

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Phoebe Katz is back on a new mission to save Olympus and undo the fallout from her first visit. Damian has troubling news—the epic mythology stories in the books are changing. Instead of Perseus slaying Medusa and becoming a hero, the books now say he’s turned to stone. Worse, thanks to Phoebe slaying the Nemean lion and the Lernean hydra to complete the Eye of Zeus, Hercules failed his first two trials—which means he’s not the immortal hero he’s supposed to be. After speaking with the oracle who brought her to New York, Phoebe learns that without great heroes, the entire fabric of Greek mythology is in peril. She must go back to Olympus and right the history she wrecked. To do that, she must embark on a quest to collect the items she will need to help Perseus defeat Medusa, including the curved blade the Argus Slayer, the winged shoes of Hermes, and Hades’s Helmet of Invisibility, and convince Hercules to complete his new trials without giving up—despite the efforts of a powerful force that will stop at nothing to see the demi-god children of Zeus destroyed. Can Phoebe collect the items she needs and save Olympus once again?

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Get ready to meet everyone's favorite alien in the attic. Ever since Dexter and Dougal's mom passed away, life has been different-but things take a whole new turn when a shooting star turns out to be a creature from outer space!

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Featured as a summer read in PEOPLE • KATIE COURIC MEDIA • SHEREADS • GOODREADS • ZIBBY SUMMER READS • SHEKNOWS • BRIT+CO • CRIME READS • THE S**T NO ONE TELLS YOU ABOUT WRITING and more! The Dropout meets Inventing Anna in this cinematic and page-turning summer read! A ripped-from-the-headlines story set in the glossy offices of Silicon Valley startups and NYC new media, Anna Bright Is Hiding Something explores our fascination with female founders breaking barriers—and sometimes behaving badly in the process. Anna Bright is committing fraud. But nobody knows it yet. Not the board of her multibillion-dollar company, not her investors, not the public breathlessly anticipating the launch of BrightSpot, and not the media—including Jamie Roman, a hardworking journalist for BusinessBerry. But when Jamie does learn about Anna’s misconduct, she embarks on a bicoastal journey to

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In 1937, Mary Margaret Joyce is born in the Tuam Home for unwed mothers. After spending her early years in an uncaring foster home, she is sentenced by a judge to an industrial school, where she is given the name Peg, and assigned the number 27. Amid one hundred other unwanted girls, Peg quickly learns the rigid routine of prayer, work, and silence under the watchful eye of Sister Constance. Her only respite is an annual summer holiday with a kind family in Galway. At the tender age of thirteen, Peg accidentally learns the identity of her birthmother. Peg struggles with feelings of anger and abandonment, while her mother grapples with the shame of having borne a child out of wedlock. The tension between them mounts as Peg, now becoming a young adult, begins to make plans for her future beyond Ireland. Based on actual events, The House Children is a compelling story of familial love, shameful secrets, and life inside Ireland’s infamous industrial schools.

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Combining the corporate intrigue of Joseph Finder, the satirical cultural critique of Dave Eggers, and the domestic drama of Laura Dave, Bit Flip is a fast-paced contemporary thriller that delivers an authentic insider’s view of the corrupting influences of greed, entitlement, and vanity in technology start-ups.Tech executive Sam Hughes came to Silicon Valley to “make the world a better place.” He’s just not sure he’s doing that anymore. And when an onstage meltdown sends him into a professional tailspin, he suddenly sees the culture of the Bay Area’s tech bubble in a new light.Just as Sam’s wondering if his start-up career and marriage might both be over at fortysomething, an inadvertent discovery pulls him back into his former company, where he begins to unravel the insidious schemes of the founder and venture investors.Driven by his desire for redemption, Sam discovers a conspiracy of fraud, blackmail, and manipulation that leads to tragic outcomes—threatening to destroy not only the company but also his own moral compass. Entangled in a web of complicity, how far will Sam go to achieve his dreams of entrepreneurial success?

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“Buck’s Pantry is a surprising tale of intrigue and suspense, and a perfect example of how three days and a random encounter can change the course of so many lives. Khristin Wierman’s narrative is charming and disarming all at the same time.” —Laurie Gelman, author of the Class Mom series In a small Texas town, three women—Gillian, a former prom queen and furious juggler of her three children’s manic schedules; Lianna, a foul-mouthed East Coast banking super star; and Aimee, a woman capable of far more than her current life will allow—find their lives converging. Gillian, reeling from the revelations her husband shared at a fundraiser she hosted just days ago, is suddenly grappling with what she has always believed about politics, family, and her own comfortable life—and aghast at some of the choices she’s made. Lianna is en route to close a deal and languishing in the August heat. Desperate to return to her beloved New York and a first-time visitor to rural Texas, she’s certain she has landed in one of the outer rings of hell. Aimee, though withering under the covert dysfunction and mental illness lurking in her family, still manages to shine in her low-level job and allows herself to dream of a life far away. When Gillian and Lianna stop at the same convenience store, they find themselves in an unthinkable situation. Aimee may be their only hope—if she can put the pieces together.

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Tessa Cordelia appears to have it all—a loving husband who’s just opened a dental practice, a beautiful baby girl, a big house in the suburbs, and a large, supportive family. But when her husband's reckless choices resurrect a trauma from her childhood, she must decide which is more costly: keeping his secrets or revealing them. He manipulates Tessa into believing his career and their happiness depend on her silence. She feels like she’s losing her mind. Is her husband's habit so awful? In many ways, he’s an ideal husband; should she let him have this one thing? Determined to maintain the lie that she’s living the perfect life, Tess lies to everyone she knows—except for CeCe, a woman new to the area whom she’s just befriended. But after confiding in her, Tessa learns that CeCe has an explosive secret of her own, and her world is further upended. A gripping, nuanced exploration of the havoc addiction can wreak on a family, A Week of Warm Weather is the story of a woman who has to figure out how much she is willing to lose in order to find herself.

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Niko and El are trapped in a politically corrupt dystopian city where brutality rules. After winning a cynical race where only one rider can survive, Niko tosses aside his chance to join the city’s corrupt inner circle by choosing lovely, innocent El as his prize—thus upsetting the ruling order and placing them both in mortal danger. With the Regime hunting them and the children of the city fomenting a guerrilla revolt, the two attempt a daring escape to the possibly mythical utopia, Zamora. But as events unfold, the stirrings of love El once felt for Niko begin to morph into mistrust and fear. If they reach Zamora, will Niko ever claim his secret birthright? And what will the future hold if he loses El’s love?

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As war overtakes the frontier, Emma’s family farmstead is attacked by Dakota-Sioux warriors; on that same prairie, Oenikika desperately tries to hold on to her calling as a healer and follow the orders of her father, Chief Little Crow. When the war is over and revenge-fueled war trials begin, each young woman is faced with an impossible choice. In a swiftly changing world, both Emma and Oenikika must look deep within and fight for the truth of their convictions—even as horror and injustice unfolds all around them. Inspired by the true story of the thirty-eight Dakota-Sioux men hanged in Minnesota in 1862—the largest mass execution in US history—Dovetails in Tall Grass is a powerful tale of two young women connected by the fate of one man.

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A novel about a family even more dysfunctional than the one you grew up in. Will’s Surreal Period is a richly satisfying tale—at times laugh-out-loud hilarious and at times deeply moving—that features a rollickingly dysfunctional family, a seemingly endless array of succulent foodstuffs, and a brain tumor that transforms a mediocre painter into a virtuoso. Now toss in a smidgen of BDSM and a few beguiling tidbits exploring brain chemistry and human evolution, and you have a story that will hook you fast and captivate you till the end. “Will’s Surreal Period proves why works of fiction are high art. . . . Robert Steven Goldstein deftly converts our raw human foibles into emotive entertainment and, as he does, reminds us, sometimes painfully, sometimes hilariously, who we are.” —MICHAEL J. COFFINO, award-winning author of Truth Is in the House

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For Conrad Burrell—husband, father, and successful attorney in the autumn of his life—the world has come apart. Having long ago lost his first wife, the mother of his grown daughter and a widow herself, to youth and pride, he’s now lost his second to a violent accident,. “You think you’re finished, that you have no more stories in you,” his ex-wife warns, and he fears she’s right. Within hailing distance of the end of his days, after a lifetime of meeting the expectations of others, none are left but Conrad’s own, and he must discover whether love survives death as well as divorce—whether family memory can redeem individual mortality. What do we do, then, we widows and widowers for whom there’s nothing left but the world’s permission to stop what we’ve done all our lives? In the cities of his youth, in the deserts of New Mexico, but most of all in a small Pennsylvania town, Conrad finds he has one more lesson in love to learn from the women of his past, and the one woman he's certain he can't live without. When We Were All Still Alive is a novel of grief and healing, a portrait of a marriage, and a love song to ordinary lives.

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Abigail’s second year at the Tarkana Academy has been an all-out disaster. She’s just unwittingly helped Vertulious, an ancient he-witch and powerful alchemist, destroy Odin’s Stone and restore his powers, and now all of Orkney is caught up in the threat of war as the witches prepare to destroy the helpless Orkadians. Determined to set things right, Abigail and Hugo set off for Jotunheim, the land of the giants, to find a weapon to restore the balance. All they have to do is track down the God of Thunder and convince Thor to turn his hammer over to them. When their former-friend-now-foe Robert Barconian arrives with a band of dwarves, intent on stopping them, Abigail and friends must unite to prevent a war that will destroy them all. But has Abigail made the biggest mistake of all by trusting in the wrong ally?

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