Kate Stenson lives in Asheville, NC and is now happily married to Jax Harper. They met in high school, fell in love, but circumstances kept them apart for many years. Kate first married Ken Burnett. They have two children, a biological daughter Emma, and an adopted son, named Logan. By the time Logan turned six, he had suffered from severe mental health issues. His behavior alternated between violent, hateful rages and sweet, loving tenderness. Throughout the difficulties with Logan, Ken is distant and of little actual help to Kate. After several hospitalizations and countless doctor visits, the decision is made to move Logan to a care facility. Though living with Logan was nearly impossible, the thought of him going away wrenched Kate and Ken's hearts. After Logan was gone, Ken became even more distant and withdrawn from Kate. They divorce after Kate discovers the skeleton in the Burnett family closet.
Indiana Jones meets the Men in Black... 'Fun and fascinating new world.' Book Sprout Death or Glory - just another day in the office. When a priceless Fabergé egg comes to light everyone is after it. Neith Salah is a quantum curator. It's her mission to get the egg; she doesn't know what it looks like, or where it is, but she knows it's not on her earth. Julius Strathclyde lives on a parallel earth. He's a Cambridge professor and an archivist; he loves tea, research and a quiet life. It's a pity then, that he's the only person alive who knows where the egg is. She has guns and attitude, he has a fountain pen. Together they are going to have to race against time to save the egg, before a hidden enemy gets there first. For fans of Ben Aaronovitch, Genevieve Cogman and Jodi Taylor. Download this fast-paced, witty novel today and enjoy a new take on adventure.
The cryptic question of what really happened to Russia's royal family on July 16, 1918, is answered in this sensational bestseller that is predicated on Rasputin's prophecy that the murder of the Romanovs was not the final chapter in their story.
In Stradivari’s Genius, Toby Faber charted the fascinating course of some of the world’s most prized musical instruments. Now, in this enthralling new book, he tells the story of objects that are, to many, the pinnacle of the jeweler’s art: the Fabergé imperial eggs. The Easter presents that Russia’s last two czars gave to their czarinas have become synonymous with privilege, beauty, and an almost provocative uselessness. They are perhaps the most redolent symbols of the old empire’s phenomenal craftsmanship, of the decadence of its court, and of the upheavals that brought about its inevitable downfall. Fabergé’s Eggs is the first book to recount the remarkable story of these masterpieces, taking us from the circumstances that inspired each egg’s design, through their disappearance in the trauma of revolution, to their eventual reemergence in the global marketplace. In 1885, Carl Fabergé created a seemingly plain white egg for Czar Alexander III to give to his beloved wife, Marie Fedorovna. It was the surprises hidden inside that made it special: a diamond miniature of the Imperial crown and a ruby pendant. This gift began a tradition that would last for more than three decades: lavishly extravagant eggs commemorating public events that, in retrospect, seem little more than staging posts on the march to revolution. Above all, the eggs illustrate the attitudes that would ultimately lead to the downfall of the Romanovs: their apparent indifference to the poverty that choked their country, their preference for style over substance, and, during the reign of Nicholas II, their all-consuming concern with the health of the czarevitch Alexis, the sickly heir to the throne–a preoccupation that would propel them toward Rasputin and the doom of the dynasty. More than a superb new account of a classic tragedy, Fabergé’s Eggs illuminates some fascinating aspects of twentieth-century history. The eggs’ amazing journey from revolutionary Russia features a cast of characters including embattled Bolsheviks, acquisitive British royals, eccentric artifact salesmen, and such famous business and society figures as Arm and Hammer, Marjorie Merriweather Post, and Malcolm Forbes. Finally, Toby Faber tantalizingly suggests that some of the eggs long thought lost may eventually emerge. Darting from the palaces of a besieged Russia to the showcases of New York’s modern mega-wealthy, Fabergé’s Eggs weaves a story unparalleled in its drama and extravagance. Praise for Stradivari’s Genius “Fascinating . . . lively . . . more enthralling, earthy and illuminating than any fiction could be.” –The New York Times Book Review “A celebration of six instruments and the master craftsman who made them . . . [Faber] brings to the subject an infectious fascination with Stradivari’s life and trade. . . . He writes with clarity and fluency.” –Chicago Tribune “An extraordinary accomplishment and a compelling read. Like strange totems that cast an irresistible spell, these instruments bring out the best and the worst of those who would own them, and Faber deftly tells the stories in all their rich and surprising detail.” –Thad Carhart, author of The Piano Shop on the Left Bank “A worthy contribution to the ongoing legend of Stradivari.” –Minneapolis Star Tribune “Fascinating, accessible, and enjoyable.” –Tracy Chevalier, author of Girl with a Pearl Earring
Be careful what you wish for... Alice Reynolds had always dreamt of escaping her grimy corner of South London for the fairytale world of the privileged aristocratic elite. Cricket whites, Pimms and summer balls were the stuff of Alice's dreams. But when those dreams come true, the friends and enemies she makes on a trip to Russia draw her into a completely different world. Fifteen years later, it's another journey to Russia - this time to procure a priceless Faberge egg for the dangerously sexy Zander Sinclair - which shatters Alice's fragile existence, exposing lethal secrets from the past and throwing her together once again with the one man she could never forget.
It has taken over 40 years to piece together the story of Anya, Willi, and the Icon, like trying to put together a priceless Faberge egg shattered intentionally without a clue as to how it once looked. Anna (Anya) and Wilhelm (Willi) lived in a small German village when we met half a century ago. Their remarkable life stories are the heart of this novel. Real life has many detours and contradictions, each piece of their stories led to another story. An Icon hung on the wall of the entry to their home and it was there that fact met fiction. Weaving related stories into this novel, preserving the memory of each individual and the times in which they lived, required some manipulation of facts. It is the story of a much-travelled Icon and a treasure (not an ARC “Traveling Treasure”) including the lives it touched. And it is a story of love found late in life.
A late-night joyride takes a sharp turn into nightmare territory when a group of college students tries to cover up a crime of carelessness A moment of inattention on a winding roadway in the Smoky Mountains leaves a stranger dead and his accidental killers at the mercy of a possible witness. Finney Durant, Nick Laymon, and Reed Tucker are desperate not to be linked to the crime. Finney and Tucker insist on hiding the corpse, and Nick, hard up for money, takes the man’s cash. But the hit-and-run is just the beginning of their problems once they use a key found in the victim’s pocket to open a bus locker—and find a videotape that opens an ever-widening doorway into horror.
Dream walkers don't die! A phoenix is immortal! She was sent to kill him, and he was ready to kill the phoenix hunting for his power. Now, they must find their way back to each other to unite their family and save their child from the goddess Aphrodite who means to kill her or use her families combined bloodline power. The whole family is dead or stuck in a dreamscape. Phoenix is her only protector left alive. Will Phoenix keep their daughter from turning to the dark arts and ultimately destroying mortals, immortals, gods, and goddesses? Is the child capable of being good? Will the stress of constantly being hunted cause her to choose the dark arts? Will Phoenix have to fight Aphrodite alone? Or will phoenix slit her wrist to save the whole family? Will love for one child save the dream-walker bloodline? "I have heard people talking about you." "Really! What do they say?" "That you're permanent death."
Object Lessons is a series of short, beautifully designed books about the hidden lives of ordinary things. This book is about a strange object-strange in part because it is something that we all have been, and that many of us eat. Nicole Walker's Egg relishes in sharp juxtapositions of seemingly fanciful or repellent topics, so that reproductive science and gustatory habits are considered alongside one another, and personal narrative and broad swaths of natural history jostle, like yolk and albumen. Mapping curious eggs across times, scales, and spaces, Egg draws together surprising perspectives on this common object-egg as food, as art object, as metaphor and feminist symbol, as cultural icon. Object Lessons is published in partnership with an essay series in The Atlantic.
