The ache of tragedy sunk deep, like the claws of a wicked monster. To heal was to remember what my godfather told me when I was six? Pain is a part of life. If you prepare for it, it will hurt less. He would know, after all. Lazarus Weston is pain personified. The scowling man with stormy eyes and tattoos covering his excessive muscles is not only my godfather, but also my dad's business partner and best friend. A permanent fixture in our lives. Well, in Dad's, not mine. But when grief mixes with confusing new feelings, I'm forced to see Lazarus differently, in a way that severely complicates my world. Because he's too old for me. He'll never be mine. I'm not allowed to have him, but obsession burns a fine line between can't and won't. I can't want her?The curse on my heart is heavy, the tale of my malediction drenched in brutal loss. Wearing ink like scars reminds me of the tomb I left behind. I've been expecting pain all my life, yet I'm still unprepared, failing to see my downfall until she's wrapped around my soul like barbed wire. Tracien Wright. My best friend's daughter. Part of my life strictly through association. She was never meant to be more than that. But Traci is a trickster. A skilled predator in the most unexpected package, oblivious to her own power. She'll learn the hard way that not all beasts should be hunted. I'm not what she thinks I am, having rose from a pit, only to bury myself in secrets and lies.Deep down I'd love nothing more than to have her. But I don't get to keep nice things. Burn with me, Lazarus.
What's an honest man to do? Isn't that always the question we find ourselves wondering when we get swept up in something bad... Something overpowering and tangibly wrong, with the ability to corrupt our morals down to the core? These boys, they're not mine, but they might as well be. I'm responsible for them, in a sense. And they couldn't be more different, identical in looks alone. One I've noticed... The other has noticed me. One needs me, the other needs him. Sometimes a hero will fall on his own sword, but in my case... I've fallen on two. ** Double-edged is a full-length taboo standalone novel that is intended for mature readers only. Some of the themes in this book could make readers uncomfortable. Please proceed with caution, and heed the author’s warnings.**
With his stunning debut novel, She's Come Undone, Wally Lamb won the adulation of critics and readers with his mesmerizing tale of one woman's painful yet triumphant journey of self-discovery. Now, this brilliantly talented writer returns with I Know This Much Is True, a heartbreaking and poignant multigenerational saga of the reproductive bonds of destruction and the powerful force of forgiveness. A masterpiece that breathtakingly tells a story of alienation and connection, power and abuse, devastation and renewal--this novel is a contemporary retelling of an ancient Hindu myth. A proud king must confront his demons to achieve salvation. Change yourself, the myth instructs, and you will inhabit a renovated world. When you're the same brother of a schizophrenic identical twin, the tricky thing about saving yourself is the blood it leaves on your bands--the little inconvenience of the look-alike corpse at your feet. And if you're into both survival of the fittest and being your brother's keeper--if you've promised your dying mother--then say so long to sleep and hello to the middle of the night. Grab a book or a beer. Get used to Letterman's gap-toothed smile of the absurd, or the view of the bedroom ceiling, or the influence of random selection. Take it from a godless insomniac. Take it from the uncrazy twin--the guy who beat the biochemical rap. Dominick Birdsey's entire life has been compromised and constricted by anger and fear, by the paranoid schizophrenic twin brother he both deeply loves and resents, and by the past they shared with their adoptive father, Ray, a spit-and-polish ex-Navy man (the five-foot-six-inch sleeping giant who snoozed upstairs weekdays in the spare room and built submarines at night), and their long-suffering mother, Concettina, a timid woman with a harelip that made her shy and self-conscious: She holds a loose fist to her face to cover her defective mouth--her perpetual apology to the world for a birth defect over which she'd had no control. Born in the waning moments of 1949 and the opening minutes of 1950, the twins are physical mirror images who grow into separate yet connected entities: the seemingly strong and protective yet fearful Dominick, his mother's watchful "monkey"; and the seemingly weak and sweet yet noble Thomas, his mother's gentle "bunny." From childhood, Dominick fights for both separation and wholeness--and ultimately self-protection--in a house of fear dominated by Ray, a bully who abuses his power over these stepsons whose biological father is a mystery. I was still afraid of his anger but saw how he punished weakness--pounced on it. Out of self-preservation I hid my fear, Dominick confesses. As for Thomas, he just never knew how to play defense. He just didn't get it. But Dominick's talent for survival comes at an enormous cost, including the breakup of his marriage to the warm, beautiful Dessa, whom he still loves. And it will be put to the ultimate test when Thomas, a Bible-spouting zealot, commits an unthinkable act that threatens the tenuous balance of both his and Dominick's lives. To save himself, Dominick must confront not only the pain of his past but the dark secrets he has locked deep within himself, and the sins of his ancestors--a quest that will lead him beyond the confines of his blue-collar New England town to the volcanic foothills of Sicily 's Mount Etna, where his ambitious and vengefully proud grandfather and a namesake Domenico Tempesta, the sostegno del famiglia, was born. Each of the stories Ma told us about Papa reinforced the message that he was the boss, that he ruled the roost, that what he said went. Searching for answers, Dominick turns to the whispers of the dead, to the pages of his grandfather's handwritten memoir, The History of Domenico Onofrio Tempesta, a Great Man from Humble Beginnings. Rendered with touches of magic realism, Domenico's fablelike tale--in which monkeys enchant and religious statues weep--becomes the old man's confession--an unwitting legacy of contrition that reveals the truth's of Domenico's life, Dominick learns that power, wrongly used, defeats the oppressor as well as the oppressed, and now, picking through the humble shards of his deconstructed life, he will search for the courage and love to forgive, to expiate his and his ancestors' transgressions, and finally to rebuild himself beyond the haunted shadow of his twin. Set against the vivid panoply of twentieth-century America and filled with richly drawn, memorable characters, this deeply moving and thoroughly satisfying novel brings to light humanity's deepest needs and fears, our aloneness, our desire for love and acceptance, our struggle to survive at all costs. Joyous, mystical, and exquisitely written, I Know This Much Is True is an extraordinary reading experience that will leave no reader untouched.
The conclusion to the worldwide bestselling FALLEN series, with exclusive content from the darkly romantic world of FALLEN and an excerpt of Lauren Kate's novel TEARDROP. A USA Today bestseller A New York Times bestselling series More than 3 million series copies in print! When evil triumphs . . . when the world ends . . . trust your love. The sky is dark with wings. . . . Like sand in an hourglass, time is running out for Luce and Daniel. To stop Lucifer from erasing the past, they must find the place where the angels fell to earth. Dark forces are after them, and Daniel doesn't know if he can do this—live only to lose Luce again and again. Yet together they will face an epic battle that will end with lifeless bodies . . . and angel dust. Great sacrifices are made. Hearts are destroyed. And suddenly Luce knows what must happen. For she was meant to be with someone other than Daniel. The curse they've borne has always and only been about her—and the love she cast aside. The choice she makes now will be the only one that truly matters. In the fight for Luce, who will win? The astonishing conclusion to the Fallen series. Heaven can't wait any longer. “Sexy and fascinating and scary . . . I loved loved loved it!” —P. C. Cast, New York Times bestselling author on Fallen
To the unassuming observer, Ben Lockwood is your typical, suburban dad. Aside from the fact that he's only thirty-six and his daughter is a sophomore in college. He and his wife, Jessica, had their only daughter, Hailey, when they were in high school. So you can imagine the unease Ben is feeling when said daughter brings her new boyfriend home for Thanksgiving¿ To stay, in their house, for the whole weekend. Ryan Harper, otherwise known as The Boyfriend, is every dread Ben's ever had in his daughter dating come to fruition. There's nothing wrong with Ryan. He's polite, smart, and charming¿ He doesn't have any neck tattoos or facial piercings, and he drives a BMW. But still, he's dating Ben's daughter. That makes him a threat. It's in Ben's best interest to keep an eye on the kid. You know, to make sure there's no funny business going on under his roof. Unfortunately for him, the tension in the house is less about Ryan being his daughter's boyfriend, and more about him being a strangely intriguing human. And soon enough, Ben can't tell if he's watching Ryan to protect his daughter's innocence, or obliterate his own. It seems like the boring married-guy image isn't going to hold up for long¿ Not after this bizarre, life-changing weekend. What are these new, strange feelings and desires? Where did they come from? And why do they have to center around what belongs to his daughter?Ben and Ryan's situation couldn't get much more complicated¿ Until Jessica steps into the mix. An unexpected push is all it took for their lives to change forever.
From the two defining personalities of post-cyberpunk SF, a brilliant collaboration to rival 1987's The Difference Engine by William Gibson and Bruce Sterling
In the interest of full-disclosure, Midnight City started out as my odd variation of The Walking Dead fanfiction. I know... It sounds weird, right? But I will assure you that this story has nothing to do with finding love in the zombie apocalypse. It's actually based on the lives of actors outside of the fictional characters they play on TV. I had a strange obsession with TWD's Andrew Lincoln, and came up with a story based loosely on the idea of a person like him - famous, gorgeous, and technically unavailable - meeting a regular, albeit beautiful girl, and falling in love. It goes without saying that this is completely fictional, as are all of the events which occur in Midnight City and its sequels. But being the imaginatarian that I am, I fabricated this story in my mind, and it promptly spun its way into a lengthy tale of romance, sex, exploring the taboo of infidelity, and peeking behind the curtain of Hollywood. Add to that the drama surrounding our female lead's marriage to a US Army Sergeant, conspiracy to cover up crimes, danger and blackmail, and you've got Midnight City! On the outside, Tessa Woodrow is your ordinary, beautiful, professional working young woman in New York City. She has a great job, a killer apartment in the trendy part of Brooklyn, and a wardrobe that would make just about any twenty-seven-year-old female jealous. Unfortunately, Tessa also has secrets, and hers happen to be much more complicated than she would ever let on to the outside observer. Andrew James, on the other hand, has very few secrets. After all, it's hard to have them when you're a world-famous actor. When he's not busy starring in the smash-hit TV series, Hell Storm, Andrew spends his time in London with his wife and kids, or gallivanting around New York City with his best friend and costar, Noah Richards. It seems as if Andrew and Tessa are the last two people the universe would ever bring together. But clearly the universe has other plans... Midnight City, like any other books of mine that you happen upon, is not intended for the faint of heart. That's a nice way of saying there is a metric-ton of explicit language and sexual content in this work of fiction. It is an erotic novel, and while the relationships, drama, and comedy are what makes it a fun, light-hearted story, the sex is very much present, and it is certainly steamy, to say the least. If you don't like the graphic parts of love stories, then this book may not be for you. But I promise if the romance genre is your thing, then you will absolutely love this book!
In the shadows of the night in Caldwell, New York, there’s a deadly war raging between vampires and their slayers. And there exists a secret band of brothers like no other—six vampire warriors, defenders of their race. And now, a dutiful twin must choose between two lives... Fiercely loyal to the Black Dagger Brotherhood, Phury has sacrificed himself for the good of the race, becoming the male responsible for keeping the Brotherhood's bloodlines alive. As Primale of the Chosen, he is to father the sons and daughters who will ensure that the traditions of the race survive and that there are warriors to fight those who want all vampires extinguished. As his first mate, the Chosen Cormia wants to win not only his body but his heart for herself- she sees the emotionally scarred male behind all his noble responsibility. But while the war with the Lessening Society grows more grim, and tragedy looms over the Brotherhood's mansion, Phury must decide between duty and love.
A panoramic vision - suspenseful, comedic, prophetic - set in a near-future California that has been devastated by NK3, a memory-destroying virus from North Korea. The H LYW OD sign presides over a Los Angeles devastated by a weaponized microbe that has been accidentally spread around the globe, deleting human identity. In post-NK3 Los Angeles, a sixty-foot-tall fence surrounds the hills where the rich used to live, but the mansions have been taken over by those with the only power that matters: the power of memory. Inside the Fence, life for the new aristocracy, a society of the partially rehabilitated who call themselves the Verified, is a perpetual party. Outside the Fence, in downtown Los Angeles, the Verified use an invented mythology to keep control over the mindless Drifters, Shamblers and Bottle Bangers who serve the gift economy until no longer needed. The ruler, Chief, takes his guidance from gigantic effigies of a man and a woman in the heart of the Fence. They warn him of trouble to come, but who is the person to watch: the elusive Eckmann, holed up with the last functioning plane at LAX; Shannon Squier, the chisel-wielding pop superstar from the pre-NK3 world, pulled from the shambling masses; a treacherous member of Chief's inner circle; or Hopper, the uncommon Drifter compelled by an inner voice to search for a wife whose name and face he doesn't know? Each threatens to upset the delicate power balance in this fragile world. In deliciously dark prose, Tolkin winds a noose-like plot around this melee of despots, prophets and rebels as they struggle for command and survival in a town that still manages to exert a magnetic force, even as a ruined husk.
“A smart, sensitive, and gripping story about the courage it takes to do what’s right.” —Deb Caletti, National Book Award finalist Critically acclaimed memoirist Aaron Hartzler, author of Rapture Practice, takes an unflinching look at what happens to a small town when some of its residents commit a terrible crime. The party at John Doone's last Saturday night is a bit of a blur. Kate Weston can piece together most of the details: Stacey Stallard handing her shots, Ben Cody taking her keys and getting her home early... But when a picture of Stacey passed out over Deacon Mills's shoulder appears online the next morning, Kate suspects she doesn't have all the details. When Stacey levels charges against four of Kate's classmates, the whole town erupts into controversy. Facts that can't be ignored begin to surface, and every answer Kate finds leads back to the same questions: Who witnessed what happened to Stacey? And what responsibility do they have to speak up about what they saw? This honest, authentic debut novel—inspired by the events in the Steubenville rape case—will resonate with readers who've ever walked that razor-thin line between guilt and innocence that so often gets blurred, one text at a time.
