Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me.Lies.Words destroyed me. "I'm sorry. She didn't make it.""Daddy, he can't breathe!" "There's nothing more we can do for your son."Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me.More lies.Those syllables and letters became my executioner. I told myself that, if I didn't acknowledge the pain and the fear, they would have no power over me. But, as the years passed, the hate and the anger left behind began to control me.Two words-that was all it took to plunge my life into darkness."He's gone." In the end, it was four soft, silky words that gave me hope of another sunrise. "Hi. I'm Charlotte Mills."
Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. Whoever coined that phrase is a bald-faced liar. Words are often the sharpest weapon of all, triggering some of the most powerful emotions a human can experience. "You're pregnant." "It's a boy." "Your son needs a heart transplant." Sticks and stones will break my bones, but words will never harm me. Lies. Syllables and letters may not be tangible, but they can still destroy your entire life faster than a bullet from a gun. Two words-that was all it took to extinguish the sun from my sky. "He's gone." For ten years, the darkness consumed me. In the end, it was four deep, gravelly words that gave me hope of another sunrise. "Hi. I'm Porter Reese."
The night she'll never forget…is a night he can't remember Audrey Thomas can't forget the night of passion she shared with Lucas Slade, the man she's loved for years. But it seems the sexy, superrich rancher has no clue who warmed his bed! The mystery seductress at his Lake Tahoe retreat was Audrey? His best friend's off-limits kid sister? Now she's back at Sunset Ranch…and having his baby! Honor bound to do the right thing, Lucas never reckons she'll say I won't to his proposal—or that she'll settle for nothing less than all this cowboy has to give.
In her 55th bestselling novel, Danielle Steel explores the seasons of an extraordinary friendship, weaving the story of three couples, lifelong friends, for whom a month’s holiday in St. Tropez becomes a summer of change, revelation, secrets, surprises, and new beginnings . . . As Diana Morrison laid the table for six at her elegant Central Park apartment, there was no warning of what was to come. Spending New Year’s Eve together was a sacred tradition for Diana, her husband of thirty-two years, Eric, and their best friends, Pascale and John Donnally and Anne and Robert Smith. The future looked rosy as the long-time friends sipped champagne and talked of renting a villa together in the South of France the following summer. But life had other plans . . . Just two weeks after New Year’s, tragedy strikes the heart of their close circle, as Robert Smith suffers a sudden, unexpected loss. Without hesitation, Diana and Eric, Pascale and John rally to his side, united in their support, love, and shared grief. Convinced that a change of scenery is just what Robert needs, they urge him to join them on the Riviera in August. But as they soon discover, the ramshackle old mansion they rented in St. Tropez--sight unseen--is far different from the exquisite villa and sun-drenched gardens touted in the brochure. Cobwebs hang from the ceiling. Beds collapse beneath them. All while a would-be housekeeper in a leopard-skin bikini and six-inch heels sashays through the house with a trio of yapping poodles at her heels. But the biggest surprise of all is the woman Robert invites to the villa as his guest--a lovely, much-younger film actress with mile-long legs and a million-dollar smile. Diana and Pascale hate her on sight. But the men are dazzled. And amid the crumbling furniture and the glorious sunsets, the strained relationships and the acts of forgiveness, more surprises are in store for the villa’s occupants. With the last days of summer fast approaching, each couple finds themselves changing in unexpected ways, as old wounds are healed, new love discovered, and miracles unfold...all beneath the dazzling sun of St. Tropez. By turns wise and moving, heartbreaking and wickedly funny, Danielle Steel’s new novel is about forgiving without forgetting, about the sorrow that shadows our lives and the hope that saves us. And it is about once-in-a-lifetime friendships . . .the kind that heal, sustain, and change us forever.
Pull up a lounge chair and have a cocktail at Sunset Beach – it comes with a twist. Drue Campbell’s life is adrift. Out of a job and down on her luck, life doesn’t seem to be getting any better when her estranged father, Brice Campbell, a flamboyant personal injury attorney, shows up at her mother’s funeral after a twenty-year absence. Worse, he’s remarried – to Drue’s eighth grade frenemy, Wendy, now his office manager. And they’re offering her a job. It seems like the job from hell, but the offer is sweetened by the news of her inheritance – her grandparents’ beach bungalow in the sleepy town of Sunset Beach, a charming but storm-damaged eyesore now surrounded by waterfront McMansions. With no other prospects, Drue begrudgingly joins the firm, spending her days screening out the grifters whose phone calls flood the law office. Working with Wendy is no picnic either. But when a suspicious death at an exclusive beach resort nearby exposes possible corruption at her father’s firm, she goes from unwilling cubicle rat to unwitting investigator, and is drawn into a case that may – or may not – involve her father. With an office romance building, a decades-old missing persons case re-opened, and a cottage in rehab, one thing is for sure at Sunset Beach: there’s a storm on the horizon. Sunset Beach is a compelling ride, full of Mary Kay Andrews' signature wit, heart, and charm.
Named a 2022 People Magazine best book of the summer! A riveting Harlem Renaissance Mystery featuring Louise Lloyd, a young Black woman working in a hot new speakeasy when she gets caught up in a murder that hits too close to home... Harlem, 1927. Twenty-seven-year-old Louise Lloyd has found the perfect job! She is the new manager of the Dove, a club owned by her close friend Rafael Moreno. There Louise meets Nora Davies, one of the girls she was kidnapped with a decade ago. The two women—along with Rafael and his sister, Louise’s girlfriend, Rosa Maria—spend the night at the Dove, drinking and talking. The next morning, Rosa Maria wakes up covered in blood, with no memory of the previous night. Nora is lying dead in the middle of the dance floor. Louise knows Rosa Maria couldn’t have killed Nora, but the police have a hard time believing that no one can remember anything at all about what happened. When Louise and Rosa Maria return to their apartment after being questioned by the police, they find the word GUILTY written across the living room wall in paint that looks a lot like blood. Someone has gone to great lengths to frame and terrify Rosa Maria, and Louise will stop at nothing to clear the woman she loves.
Harper-Joy Miller hopes that the past is the past, but somehow the past catches up to her. She is falling madly in love with Jay Wilson, who was there that night that her whole world came crashing to the ground. He waited years to tell her his true feelings for her, but will life get in the way? Meanwhile, Dr. Fizzer and his soda pack gang are coming after her in hopes to finish her off. She was supposed to be his first kill, but Jay got to her before she bled out. Now Joy and Jay are on the run and hiding in plain sight, but will Dr. Fizzer and his gang of misfits find her first? Or will Jay save the day like always? Is Joy going to have to live in fear for the rest of her life? So many questions and not enough time before the sunset fades into the background.
Born in Los Angeles at the dawn of the 1960s to parents who quickly departed, Kathryn Harrison was received by her maternal grandparents as a late-life child. Harry Jacobs and Margaret Sassoon, true wandering Jews, had emigrated to L.A. after leading whirlwind lives in Shanghai, London, Alaska, Russia, and beyond. Harrison grew up in their fading Tudor mansion on Sunset Boulevard, a kingdom inhabited by gleaming memories from their extraordinary past. Their photos, letters, and souvenirs sparked endless family stories that spanned cultures, dynasties, and continents—until declining finances forced them to sell the house in 1971, and night fell fast. Vivid and poignant, filled with the wisdom of retrospect and the wonder of childhood, On Sunset seeks to recover a foundational time in her life, affirming the power of storytelling and the endurance of memory.
Unanswered questions. A sailing adventure gone wrong. The Sheridan sisters face the end of the season that changed their lives forever. Lola Sheridan is the youngest Sheridan sister: a whip-smart journalist with a flair for the dramatic. As her older sisters settle into new lives on the Vineyard, Lola demands more out of the summer season with a fantastical sailing expedition up from the Florida Keys to Martha's Vineyard. The sailor who takes her? The mysterious, dark-eyed loner, Tommy Gasbarro--the ex-stepson of the Sheridan sisters' greatest enemy. He represents so much of what went wrong in Lola's life--and knows secrets about her mother that she was never allowed to learn. Susan continues on with her chemotherapy, and her illness remains on the forefront of the sisters' minds. Wes Sheridan grapples with his dementia, as Christine continues to find new ways to push beyond her traditional gloomy behavior. All the while, Lola's only daughter, the nineteen-year-old Audrey, inches through her pregnancy, and comprehends the depths of her mistake and what second-chances are really all about. August on Martha's Vineyard is a last grasp at the beauty of summer. As the tourist season comes to a close, the Sheridan sisters find opportunity for rest, for renewal, for strength, and for acceptance. Surrounded by crystal blue waters and white sandy beaches, they turn inward--toward one another and the memories they've kept within them for many years--to find peace, to be better lovers, to accept what came before and build something new for the future. If this season has taught them anything, it's that together, anything is possible. Come to the Vineyard, to the last of the Vineyard Sunset Series--and find out what happens to Lola, Susan, Christine, and everyone else they hold dear.
