Love comes in many forms and always at a price. At twenty-three, Princess Isabella must settle down for the sake of her kingdom. Caught up in a secret affair with her lady-in-waiting, Hannah, the princess knows it can only last for so long. When Prince Alexander arrives to court her, he confides that his father is on his death bed, and he will be crowned king soon. Isabella hastily agrees to the proposal, desiring to be queen, knowing little about her soon-to-be husband. This steamy medieval romance is not for the faint of heart.
“An intoxicating fusion of fantasy and historical fiction. . . . Wecker’s storytelling skills dazzle." —Entertainment Weekly A marvelous and absorbing debut novel about a chance meeting between two supernatural creatures in turn-of-the-century immigrant New York. Chava is a golem, a creature made of clay by a disgraced rabbi knowledgeable in the ways of dark Kabbalistic magic. She serves as the wife to a Polish merchant who dies at sea on the voyage to America. As the ship arrives in New York in 1899, Chava is unmoored and adrift until a rabbi on the Lower East Side recognizes her for the creature she is and takes her in. Ahmad is a jinni, a being of fire born in the ancient Syrian desert and trapped centuries ago in an old copper flask by a Bedouin wizard. Released by a Syrian tinsmith in a Manhattan shop, Ahmad appears in human form but is still not free. An iron band around his wrist binds him to the wizard and to the physical world. Chava and Ahmad meet accidentally and become friends and soul mates despite their opposing natures. But when the golem’s violent nature overtakes her one evening, their bond is challenged. An even more powerful threat will emerge, however, and bring Chava and Ahmad together again, challenging their very existence and forcing them to make a fateful choice. Compulsively readable, The Golem and the Jinni weaves strands of Yiddish and Middle Eastern literature, historical fiction and magical fable, in a wondrously inventive tale that is mesmerizing and unforgettable.
From the bestselling author of Tuxedo Park, the extraordinary story of the thousands of people who were sequestered in a military facility in the desert for twenty-seven intense months under J. Robert Oppenheimer where the world's best scientists raced to invent the atomic bomb and win World War II. In 1943, J. Robert Oppenheimer, the brilliant, charismatic head of the Manhattan Project, recruited scientists to live as virtual prisoners of the U.S. government at Los Alamos, a barren mesa thirty-five miles outside Santa Fe, New Mexico. Thousands of men, women, and children spent the war years sequestered in this top-secret military facility. They lied to friends and family about where they were going and what they were doing, and then disappeared into the desert. Through the eyes of a young Santa Fe widow who was one of Oppenheimer's first recruits, we see how, for all his flaws, he developed into an inspiring leader and motivated all those involved in the Los Alamos project to make a supreme effort and achieve the unthinkable.
The untold story of Marie-Antoinette's perfumer, Jean-Louis Fargeon. Montpellier, 1748: Jean-Louis Fargeon is born into a family of perfumers and soon becomes apprentice to his father's modest perfumery. But he dreams of the glittering court of Versailles and of becoming perfumer to the young queen, Marie Antoinette. His ambition carried him to Paris where his boutique became one of the most elegant and well-patronised in France. Concocting sumptuous perfumes and pomades for most of the French nobility, Fargeon eventually caught the attention of the queen. After meeting Marie Antoinette in the Trianon Palace, he began creating lavish bespoke scents that perfectly reflected her moods and personality. He served as her personal and exclusive perfumer for fourteen years until 1789 when the darkness of Revolution swept across France, its wrath aimed at the extravagance of a now hated queen. Fargeon, a lifelong supporter of the Republican cause but a purveyor to the court, was in a dangerous position. Yet he remained fiercely loyal to Marie Antoinette, beyond her desperate flight to Varennes, her execution and even through his own imprisonment and trial...
An 18th-century portrait of the palace most recognized as an official home of several British royal family members focuses on the Hanover family during the reigns of George I and II, describing the intrigue, ostentatious fashions and politicking that marked court life. By the author of Cavalier.
Enter a magical world full of friendship and fun! Ellie, Summer, and Jasmine are the very best of friends. Then one day, they find a magical box that whisks them away to the Secret Kingdom, a world full of every wonderfully magical thing under the sun. But an evil queen wants to ruin the Secret Kingdom so she can rule it for all time. Can the friends help Trixi the pixie save King Merry's 1000th birthday party from Queen Malice's spiky thunderbolt before it's too late?
Agra, India - the city of the Taj Mahal. The Bureau of Archaeology (BoA) receives a bizarre petition under the Right-To-Information (RTI) Act, demanding the bureau disclose authentic historical evidence for the legend of the World Heritage monument. The bureau dumps the case on Vijay Kumar, a brilliant but maverick archaeologist, who discovers that the RTI case is not as straightforward as it sounds. Mysterious deaths and an Interpol alert make matters worse. Vijay Kumar sets off on an international pursuit to discover the truth where he can trust no one but himself. Has someone set up Vijay Kumar? Is he in danger? And above all, will he be able to unveil the truth, OR . . . will it forever remain a secret . . . Raaz? “A thrilling novel of one of the world’s wonders. Neal Nathan may well be the Dan Brown of the Indian subcontinent.” - Thierry Sagnier, author of ‘Dope’, and Pushcart Prize nominee “An absolute thriller, page-turner, memorable characters, and well researched.” - Sameer Bhide, author of ‘One Fine Day’, and Literary Titan Book Award winner “If you’re at all interested in the Taj Mahal … and who isn’t? … you will love reading this thriller and also learn its true history.” - Kenneth Korba, Richmond, Virginia
Sunny and Rex are royal puppies! Sunny is a ladylike goldendoodle, and Rex is a mischievous beagle. They love living in the palace together with their owners and best friends, Princess Annie and Prince James. Now there's a new addition to the royal family—James and Annie have a baby sister! Unfortunately, little Baby Rose makes a whole lot of noise. On a rainy day at Glimmer Rock palace, everyone is stuck indoors, and no one can escape her cries. Sunny, Rex, and their new puppy friend Blix take refuge in the library, where they stumble on an old map of secret passages within the castle walls. Their drizzly day has turned into an adventure! As the puppies follow the clues on the map, they meet new friends, discover secrets hidden for centuries, and search for lost treasure!
Struggling to move on after her husband's death, thirty-five-year-old Anna receives an unexpected phone call from her estranged grandmother, Goldie, summoning her to New York. A demanding woman with a sharp tongue and a devotion to fashion and etiquette, Goldie has not softened in the five years since she and her granddaughter last spoke. Now she wants Anna to drive her to San Francisco to return a collection of exquisite Japanese art to a long-lost friend. Hours of sitting behind the wheel of Goldie's Rolls-Royce soften Anna's attitude toward her grandmother, and as the miles pass, old hurts begin to heal. Yet no matter how close they become, Goldie harbors painful secrets about her youthful days in 1940s San Francisco that she cannot share. But if she truly wants to help her granddaughter find happiness again, she must eventually confront the truths of her life. Moving back and forth across time and told in the voices of both Anna and Goldie, The Secret of the Nightingale Palace is a searing portrait of family, betrayal, sacrifice, and forgiveness—and a testament to the enduring power of love.
