Some people are ordained for greatness?Those people usually have a lot of drama in their life. Drama I happily do without. I live in a forgotten corner of nowhere for a reason: there is safety in anonymity. I have enough problems just trying to get by.But when Kieran, a sinfully sexy demigod at the pinnacle of power, crashes into my life, suddenly my whole world is turned upside down.He's harboring a deadly secret, one that could destroy all he holds dear. He thinks I'm the key to his salvation, and he wants me to help him claim vengeance.He also wants me with a passion that burns my body from the inside out.To ignore him is impossible, but to give in to my desires, even for a night, would thrust me into danger I might not survive.But can I resist the temptation?
I've agreed to work for a Demigod to find the spirit of his mother and release her before his vengeful father finds out and kills us all. Thankfully, Kieran has brought in a Necromancer to help - and also to help me learn to control my magic. But as we work deeper into magical San Francisco, I'm learning that there are far worse things than death.
Valens has noticed his two missing employees. It won't be long before he knows who is responsible. It won't be long before he claims his vengeance. The race is on. Kieran and Lexi must scrape together an army worthy of taking on the Demigod of San Francisco before he destroys them all.But Valens isn't Lexi's only problem. Mordecai's rapid recovery has been noticed, and he has once again become a threat to his old pack. Lexi's little family is in jeopardy of being torn apart, and to save them...she must finally embrace what she is.
Chocolate layer cake. Fudge brownies. Chocolate chip cookies. Boxes of chocolate truffles. Cups of cocoa. Hot fudge sundaes. Chocolate is synonymous with our cultural sweet tooth, our restaurant dessert menus, and our idea of indulgence. Chocolate is adored around the world and has been since the Spanish first encountered cocoa beans in South America in the sixteenth century. It is seen as magical, addictive, and powerful beyond anything that can be explained by its ingredients, and in Chocolate Sarah Moss and Alec Badenoch explore the origins and growth of this almost universal obsession. Moss and Badenoch recount the history of chocolate, which from ancient times has been associated with sexuality, sin, blood, and sacrifice. The first Spanish accounts claim that the Aztecs and Mayans used chocolate as a substitute for blood in sacrificial rituals and as a currency to replace gold. In the eighteenth century chocolate became regarded as an aphrodisiac—the first step on the road to today’s boxes of Valentine delights. Chocolate also looks at today’s mass-production of chocolate, with brands such as Hershey’s, Lindt, and Cadbury dominating our supermarket shelves. Packed with tempting images and decadent descriptions of chocolate throughout the ages, Chocolate will be as irresistible as the tasty treats it describes.
Dulcinea "Cin" Craven, having inherited magical powers and become the target of a vampire and a demon who want them for themselves, teams up with the warriors of the Righteous, meeting and falling in love with Michael who gives her the option to remain human or become immortal like him.
Kieran has stepped up as the ruler of magical San Francisco. As his girlfriend, I'm in the spotlight, getting noticed by the Hades Demigods. They'll do anything to get me on their team - including killing Kieran and taking me by force.
When the exotic stranger Vianne Rocher arrives in the old French village of Lansquenet and opens a chocolate boutique called “La Celeste Praline” directly across the square from the church, Father Reynaud identifies her as a serious danger to his flock. It is the beginning of Lent: the traditional season of self-denial. The priest says she’ll be out of business by Easter. To make matters worse, Vianne does not go to church and has a penchant for superstition. Like her mother, she can read Tarot cards. But she begins to win over customers with her smiles, her intuition for everyone’s favourites, and her delightful confections. Her shop provides a place, too, for secrets to be whispered, grievances aired. She begins to shake up the rigid morality of the community. Vianne’s plans for an Easter Chocolate Festival divide the whole community. Can the solemnity of the Church compare with the pagan passion of a chocolate éclair? For the first time, here is a novel in which chocolate enjoys its true importance, emerging as an agent of transformation. Rich, clever, and mischievous, reminiscent of a folk tale or fable, this is a triumphant read with a memorable character at its heart. Says Harris: “You might see [Vianne] as an archetype or a mythical figure. I prefer to see her as the lone gunslinger who blows into the town, has a showdown with the man in the black hat, then moves on relentless. But on another level she is a perfectly real person with real insecurities and a very human desire for love and acceptance. Her qualities too - kindness, love, tolerance - are very human.” Vianne and her young daughter Anouk, come into town on Shrove Tuesday. “Carnivals make us uneasy,” says Harris, “because of what they represent: the residual memory of blood sacrifice (it is after all from the word "carne" that the term arises), of pagan celebration. And they represent a loss of inhibition; carnival time is a time at which almost anything is possible.” The book became an international best-seller, and was optioned to film quickly. The Oscar-nominated movie, with its star-studded cast including Juliette Binoche (The English Patient) and Judi Dench (Shakespeare in Love), was directed by Lasse Hallstrom, whose previous film The Cider House Rules (based on a John Irving novel) also looks at issues of community and moral standards, though in a less lighthearted vein. The idea for the book came from a comment her husband made one day while he was immersed in a football game on TV. “It was a throwaway comment, designed to annoy and it did. It was along the lines of...Chocolate is to women what football is to men…” The idea stuck, and Harris began thinking that “people have these conflicting feelings about chocolate, and that a lot of people who have very little else in common relate to chocolate in more or less the same kind of way. It became a kind of challenge to see exactly how much of a story I could get which was uniquely centred around chocolate.” Rich with metaphor and gorgeous writing...sit back and gorge yourself on Chocolat.
Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi explores the history and cultural importance of our most beloved tastes, paying homage to the ingredients that give us daily pleasure, while providing a thoughtful wake-up call to the homogenization that is threatening the diversity of our food supply. Food is one of the greatest pleasures of human life. Our response to sweet, salty, bitter, or sour is deeply personal, combining our individual biological characteristics, personal preferences, and emotional connections. Bread, Wine, Chocolate illuminates not only what it means to recognize the importance of the foods we love, but also what it means to lose them. Award-winning journalist Simran Sethi reveals how the foods we enjoy are endangered by genetic erosion—a slow and steady loss of diversity in what we grow and eat. In America today, food often looks and tastes the same, whether at a San Francisco farmers market or at a Midwestern potluck. Shockingly, 95% of the world’s calories now come from only thirty species. Though supermarkets seem to be stocked with endless options, the differences between products are superficial, primarily in flavor and brand. Sethi draws on interviews with scientists, farmers, chefs, vintners, beer brewers, coffee roasters and others with firsthand knowledge of our food to reveal the multiple and interconnected reasons for this loss, and its consequences for our health, traditions, and culture. She travels to Ethiopian coffee forests, British yeast culture labs, and Ecuadoran cocoa plantations collecting fascinating stories that will inspire readers to eat more consciously and purposefully, better understand familiar and new foods, and learn what it takes to save the tastes that connect us with the world around us.
t's the moment Kieran and Lexi have been preparing for. The Magical Summit.Ready or not, they will take their assembled team into the belly of the beast. The stakes couldn't be higher. If the powers that be don't approve of Kieran, he will not earn the official title of the Demigod of San Francisco. The real danger concerns Lexi, however. With Kieran away in meetings, she must brave the treacherous halls of the Summit with just her crew and her wards, fighting for social placement and status, open to attack from all angles.She could've never expected what comes at her. No one could've
One thing has become incredibly clear to Alexis and Kieran, if they hope to last in the arena of Demigods, they'll need a more robust defense team. They must take two incredibly dangerous journeys, seeking the prized talents other Demigods would kill for. Except, there is a reason other Demigods don't have these magical workers--they are as ruthless as they are dangerous, and the last thing they want is to be on a Demigod's team.If that isn't enough, Alexis has received an invitation from Demigod Lydia, the only Hades Demigod who hasn't openly declared war. She's talking like they could be allies, but those of Hades cannot be trusted. A trap is just as likely as a handshake. Still, it's a chance they must take. Any one of these trips could be their last, but to back down would be the most dangerous of all.
