David Eddings returns to The Elenium, the splendid fantasy series that began with the thrilling novels Diamond Throne and Ruby Knight. Finally the knight Sparhawk had come to possess Bhelliom, legendary jewel of magic that alone could save Queen Ehlana from the deadly poison that had felled her father. Sparhawk and Sephrenia, ageless instructor in Styric magics, made haste to free Ehlana from the crystalline cocoon that had preserved her life while they desperately sought a cure. But Bhellion carried dangers of its own. Once the stone came into his hands, Sparhawk found himself stalked by a dark, lurking menace. Whether the foul Zemoch God Azash was behind this threat, or some other enemy, even Sephrenia could not say—only that the sapphire rose held powers too dangerous for any mortal to bear. Restoring Queen Ehlana would be only the beginning of Sparhawk’s mission. With the aid of four stalwart knights, one from each Militant Order, he must thwart Ehlana’s prisoner, the Primate Annias, in his plot to assume the throne of the Church. For as Archprelate, Annias would serve his secret master, Azash, and deliver up to the dread God the one thing Azash thirsted for—Bhelliom itself!
The slave called Manfred was a human bull. Black, powerful, tireless, he existed for one purpose only: the sire more slaves like himself. He was untaught, but not ignorant or stupid. Deep within him, there was a hidden purpose stronger than his rippling muscles: to achieve two things--revenge and freedom. A great historical novel of the Civil War South.
"Miranda Jarrett performs magic in this very special romance. 4½" Romantic Times SPARHAWK'S ANGEL Having a bossy angel watching out for you was a bloody pain. Especially when she was determined to push her very much alive little sister in front of you at every turn. For, unlike her late older sibling, Miss Rose Everard was actually quite intriguing, and Nickerson Sparhawk had never found it easy to avoid temptation!
Is there any hope of a future together? On the eve of her wedding, well-to-do Jerusa wanders into the garden and meets a man named Michel. She is drawn to his angelic smile, but Michel has come to enact revenge on her father, his oldest enemy! Jerusa learns of his intentions after Michel kidnaps her. She should hate him—so why is she so drawn to him?
A Painter's Tragedy and Triumph Revealed With the recent surge of the American painter's popularity, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones: The Artist Who Lived Twice captivates readers by revealing little-known details about the journey of a woman (1885-1968) almost forgotten by the art world if not for an accidental discovery. As a golden girl of the art world-christened by New York critics as its "find of the year" in 1908, Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones, still in her teens, sold her American impressionism-style paintings for the equivalent of about fifty thousand dollars today. From a prominent family, she won nearly every award including the highest honor of the Pennsylvania Academy of the Fine Arts, two years study in Europe. In her notebook, she scribbled a quote by Walt Whitman: He only wins who goes far enough...And then, she disappeared. In a time when mental illness is associated with devil possession, Sparhawk-Jones leaves behind everything she's gained from her life-long devotion to painting. Reeling from two sudden deaths and a stolen fortune-along with being caught in a changing art world, she collapsed behind the doors of a hospital for the insane for the better part of three years. Attributing to her breakdown, she suffers the harsh blow of being forced to refuse the Academy's highest honor that awards a year's travel to study art in Europe. Her parents, a Presbyterian minister and his devout wife, refuse to entertain the idea that their daughter and her Jewish romantic interest, the yet-to-be discovered Morton Schamberg, would be abroad at the same time. What may have killed others makes Elizabeth Sparhawk-Jones only fight harder to regain what she'd lost. She loves only the most unattainable, like Edwin Arlington Robinson, the enigmatic Pulitzer Prize-winning poet who offers a strange reciprocation of her love; she believes in those sometimes hardest to love, like painter Marsden Hartley, who desired her friendship for perhaps less than virtuous reasons. With her famous wit and candor, she attracted admirers as much for her temperament as her fierce loyalty. Collectors and friends included film star Claude Rains, writer F. Scott Fitzgerald, and master painter William Merritt Chase among many others. Thirty years after her breakdown, American Artist magazine would call her "a phenomenon in the world of paint," painter Marsden Hartley would write she was "a thinking painter with a rare sense of the drama of poetic and romantic incident," and her works would belong to some of the country's most prestigious museums and collections, yet her story has nearly become forgotten. Structured around her last interview given to the Smithsonian Archives of American Art in 1964, The Artist Who Lived Twice tells of Sparhawk-Jones's tumultuous journey as one of the first women to carve out a place for herself in American art. The toll may have been higher than she ever imagined, but she held no regrets. She saw God when she painted, she believed, and what more could one ask?
