These titles were recently added to the collection of Yakima Valley Libraries
A new new me
Oyeyemi, Helen, author.
What if you had to share your body and life with six different versions of yourself? Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day: On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath. Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life—between them is a matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion, and bossiness. It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges, and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.....
View in CatalogThe magician of Tiger Castle
Sachar, Louis, 1954- author.
The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us. Long ago and faraway (and somewhere south of France), lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance with Oxatania, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and the odious Oxatanian Prince. However, one month before the "Wedding of the Century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures -- the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold -- he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess -- or risk ruin?....
View in CatalogHouse of monstrous women
Fama, Daphne, author.
A young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the mazelike home of her childhood friend, a rumored witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines. Josephine del Rosario feels like a pariah in her town. Long orphaned after her father's political campaign ends in tragedy, she's all alone taking care of the family home while her older brother is off in Manila, where a revolution brews. And it's starting to feel like he's abandoning her. When she receives a letter from her cherished childhood friend Hiraya, inviting her to play a game, she jumps at the reason to leave town. Josephine will have whatever her heart desires if she wins. Maybe Josephine can change her life. It doesn't matter that dark rumors have always surrounded Hiraya. Except Hiraya's house is strange... labyrinthine and huge and something seems to be following Josephine everywhere she turns. What's worse is there's something her old friend isn't telling her. There's something insidious about this invitation, and if Josephine isn't careful, she'll find that change is sometimes bought with blood.....
View in CatalogSmuggler's cove
Michaels, Fern, author.
Growing up, Madison Taylor and her younger brother Lincoln lived in privilege, but their sheltered existence abruptly ended when their father was arrested for fraud and the family assets were seized. Since then, Madison has carved out a new path, studying fashion and working her way up to editor in chief of La Femme magazine, while Lincoln teaches wealth management at a small college outside the city. Both have separated themselves from their family and their past--until an unexpected bequest arrives from their late uncle. Madison and Lincoln are now the new co-owners of a marina at Smugglers Cove on the Navesink river. Instead of a fabulous, Hamptons-style property, Smugglers Cove offers little beyond a dilapidated dock, a few gas pumps, and a handful of clam boats. Madison's plan to sell the property goes awry when a dead body is found floating under their dock and transforms their new inheritance into a crime scene. Suddenly, Madison is swapping her city-girl wardrobe for cargo pants and flannel shirts, while she and Lincoln receive a crash course in small-town Jersey shore life, complete with quirky characters, pirate legends, and a mysterious treasure map. They're discovering more about themselves and each other every day, but with a mystery to solve, and big decisions to make, these are lessons they'll need to learn fast.......
View in CatalogStillwater : a thriller
Scott, Tanya, 1972- author.
When Jack Quinn's mother dies of a drug overdose, it's not his father that raises him, but Gus -- a ruthless crime boss who sees Jack for what he is: a whip-smart kid with untapped potential. It doesn't take long for Gus to forge Jack into a weapon. But Jack was also self-aware enough to know where this sort of life was going to lead him. When the time was right, he got out. Or so he thought. Seven years later, Jack is now Luke Harris, a regular guy putting himself through college and aiming for a real job and a real future. Falling in love. But Jack's past isn't so easily forgotten, and the bodies in his closet won't forgive him. When Luke's newfound life collides with Gus's underworld, survival becomes a deadly game. Luke must resurrect his dormant skills and confront the demons that threaten to consume him.....
View in CatalogCoded justice : a thriller
Abrams, Stacey, author.
Avery Keene is back! The fan-favorite former Supreme Court clerk has finally gone out on her own, securing a prestigious position at a high-end law firm in Washington, D.C., where she is about to earn real money and get her life in order after a tumultuous run working as a clerk on the Supreme Court. With her reputation preceding her, Avery is quickly tasked at her new job with becoming a corporate internal investigator. Her new client is Camasca -- a mega-tech firm that's on the forefront of developing a new integrated AI system poised to revolutionize the medical industry, particularly by delivering vastly improved health care to veterans. The AI potential is breathtaking, but some disturbing anomalies have plagued Camasca in early testing -- including the mysterious death of a Camasca engineer. Avery and her colleagues, Jared, Ling, and Noah, find themselves on a journey to determine whether the anomalies are mere technical glitches, or something much more concerning. ....
View in CatalogUnder the stars : a novel
Williams, Beatriz, author.
Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher's glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop's past and its many secrets... attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America's greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas? On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law.... or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity -- the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape... before the sea swallows her without a trace.....
View in CatalogThe book of lost hours : a novel
Gelfuso, Hayley, author.
Enter the time space, a soaring library filled with books containing the memories of those have passed and accessed only by specially made watches once passed from father to son -- but mostly now in government hands. This is where eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy finds herself trapped in 1938, waiting for her watchmaker father to return for her. When he doesn't, she grows up among the books and specters, able to see the world only by sifting through the memories of those who came before her. As she realizes that government agents are entering the time space to destroy books and maintain their preferred version of history, she sets about saving these scraps in her own volume of memories. Until the appearance of an American spy named Ernest Duquesne in 1949 offers her a glimpse of the world she left behind, setting her on a course to change history and possibly the time space itself. In 1965, sixteen-year-old Amelia Duquesne is mourning the disappearance of her uncle Ernest when an enigmatic CIA agent approaches her to enlist her help in tracking down a book of memories her uncle had once sought. But when Amelia visits the time space for the first time, she realizes that the past--and the truth--might not be as linear as she'd like to believe.....
View in CatalogFor richer for poorer : a novel
Steel, Danielle, author.
After working as head designer for Oscar de la Renta, Eugenia Ward started her own company when she turned forty, fourteen years ago. She is now a major name in evening gowns and wedding gowns, ready-to-wear and haute couture. But with the fashion business in major downturn, she has recently suffered heavy losses, and Eugenia desperately needs new investors — and new ideas. At the same time, she is the matriarch and guiding light for her five adult children, a single mother for more than a decade, since her divorce from the spendthrift Italian prince she’d married young. As the family gathers for a summer vacation at a beach house, wedding plans for her daughter Gloria are ballooning in expense even as the loutish behavior of Gloria’s fiancé causes Eugenia to question her daughter’s judgment. Meanwhile, Gloria’s sister Daphne is due to deliver twins right around the wedding date... which is also very close make or break New York Fashion Week. The silver lining in it all may be meeting Patrick Hughes, a successful real estate developer who’s also going through a rough patch. A brilliant and creative businessman, Patrick gives her valuable advice about her business challenges. Eugenia finds friendship with Patrick sailing on his yacht and starts to imagine a new beginning, independent of her roles as mother and entrepreneur. But as the family gathers for the big wedding, tensions are running high, money may be running out, and a hurricane is looming on the horizon.....
View in CatalogSmuggler's cove
Michaels, Fern, author.
Growing up, Madison Taylor and her younger brother Lincoln lived in privilege, but their sheltered existence abruptly ended when their father was arrested for fraud and the family assets were seized. Since then, Madison has carved out a new path, studying fashion and working her way up to editor in chief of La Femme magazine, while Lincoln teaches wealth management at a small college outside the city. Both have separated themselves from their family and their past--until an unexpected bequest arrives from their late uncle. Madison and Lincoln are now the new co-owners of a marina at Smugglers Cove on the Navesink river. Instead of a fabulous, Hamptons-style property, Smugglers Cove offers little beyond a dilapidated dock, a few gas pumps, and a handful of clam boats. Madison's plan to sell the property goes awry when a dead body is found floating under their dock and transforms their new inheritance into a crime scene. Suddenly, Madison is swapping her city-girl wardrobe for cargo pants and flannel shirts, while she and Lincoln receive a crash course in small-town Jersey shore life, complete with quirky characters, pirate legends, and a mysterious treasure map. They're discovering more about themselves and each other every day, but with a mystery to solve, and big decisions to make, these are lessons they'll need to learn fast.......
View in CatalogThe break-in : a novel
Faulkner, Katherine, author.
Alice, a professional mother of one, is hosting a playdate with friends at her upscale London home when a disturbed man breaks in. With her child in the next room, Alice panics and kills him -- an act later ruled to have been in self-defense. Everyone tries to encourage Alice to move on with her life -- but with strange comments appearing online, a mysterious phone call telling her all is not as it seems, and her husband, nanny, and friends behaving strangely, Alice finds herself drawn to the mystery of who her intruder really was. As she digs deeper, she discovers a trail of dark secrets that spiral closer to home than she ever could have imagined.....
View in CatalogWhile the getting is good : a novel
Riordan, Matt, author.
Amid the gangland wars of Prohibition, one fisherman's long-shot play to secure his family's future brings disaster to everyone he loves. Eld knows better. War taught him to know better. But with Prohibition expiring in a matter of months, his turn from fisherman to smuggler will be temporary. Running Canadian whiskey across Lake Huron seems the perfect plan to get his family out from behind the eight ball. Even Maggie, Eld's normally sensible wife, is on board. So together they tempt fate and throw the dice. Ill-gotten gains soon roll in, but when the underwild empires battle to capture what's left of a shrinking pie, Eld's family operation is caught in the cross fire. Hunted by gangsters and squeezed by the Depression, Eld, Maggie, and the children are scattered. Eld crosses to Canada on a doomed quest, while Maggie and her daughter are forced to find sanctuary in a religion more cult than creed. When the family finally reuintes, they are not the same strivers who took a chance on a better life. In the end, Eld pays a staggering price for his version of the American Dream, and those he loves most pay even more. ....
View in CatalogStillwater : a thriller
Scott, Tanya, 1972- author.
When Jack Quinn's mother dies of a drug overdose, it's not his father that raises him, but Gus -- a ruthless crime boss who sees Jack for what he is: a whip-smart kid with untapped potential. It doesn't take long for Gus to forge Jack into a weapon. But Jack was also self-aware enough to know where this sort of life was going to lead him. When the time was right, he got out. Or so he thought. Seven years later, Jack is now Luke Harris, a regular guy putting himself through college and aiming for a real job and a real future. Falling in love. But Jack's past isn't so easily forgotten, and the bodies in his closet won't forgive him. When Luke's newfound life collides with Gus's underworld, survival becomes a deadly game. Luke must resurrect his dormant skills and confront the demons that threaten to consume him.....
View in CatalogJenny Cooper has a secret : a novel
Fielding, Joy, author.
A dementia patient reveals a deadly secret -- and one woman must decide whether to believe her... Reeling from her husband's death and best friend's dementia diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old Linda Davidson feels lost and alone. Her beloved daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick have moved into her house to keep her company, but the constant bickering quickly turns their presence into yet another worry on Linda's long list. Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people. Linda dismisses the so-called secret as the confusion of an ailing mind, but Jenny seems strangely lucid during their visits as she recounts stories of her many victims -- mostly men who hurt her. Then a fellow patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees it as the natural death of an sick old man, but Linda can't help but wonder: is there any chance Jenny's telling the truth?....
View in CatalogThe book of lost hours : a novel
Gelfuso, Hayley, author.
Enter the time space, a soaring library filled with books containing the memories of those have passed and accessed only by specially made watches once passed from father to son -- but mostly now in government hands. This is where eleven-year-old Lisavet Levy finds herself trapped in 1938, waiting for her watchmaker father to return for her. When he doesn't, she grows up among the books and specters, able to see the world only by sifting through the memories of those who came before her. As she realizes that government agents are entering the time space to destroy books and maintain their preferred version of history, she sets about saving these scraps in her own volume of memories. Until the appearance of an American spy named Ernest Duquesne in 1949 offers her a glimpse of the world she left behind, setting her on a course to change history and possibly the time space itself. In 1965, sixteen-year-old Amelia Duquesne is mourning the disappearance of her uncle Ernest when an enigmatic CIA agent approaches her to enlist her help in tracking down a book of memories her uncle had once sought. But when Amelia visits the time space for the first time, she realizes that the past--and the truth--might not be as linear as she'd like to believe.....
View in CatalogWhile the getting is good : a novel
Riordan, Matt, author.
Amid the gangland wars of Prohibition, one fisherman's long-shot play to secure his family's future brings disaster to everyone he loves. Eld knows better. War taught him to know better. But with Prohibition expiring in a matter of months, his turn from fisherman to smuggler will be temporary. Running Canadian whiskey across Lake Huron seems the perfect plan to get his family out from behind the eight ball. Even Maggie, Eld's normally sensible wife, is on board. So together they tempt fate and throw the dice. Ill-gotten gains soon roll in, but when the underwild empires battle to capture what's left of a shrinking pie, Eld's family operation is caught in the cross fire. Hunted by gangsters and squeezed by the Depression, Eld, Maggie, and the children are scattered. Eld crosses to Canada on a doomed quest, while Maggie and her daughter are forced to find sanctuary in a religion more cult than creed. When the family finally reuintes, they are not the same strivers who took a chance on a better life. In the end, Eld pays a staggering price for his version of the American Dream, and those he loves most pay even more. ....
View in CatalogFor richer for poorer : a novel
Steel, Danielle, author.
After working as head designer for Oscar de la Renta, Eugenia Ward started her own company when she turned forty, fourteen years ago. She is now a major name in evening gowns and wedding gowns, ready-to-wear and haute couture. But with the fashion business in major downturn, she has recently suffered heavy losses, and Eugenia desperately needs new investors — and new ideas. At the same time, she is the matriarch and guiding light for her five adult children, a single mother for more than a decade, since her divorce from the spendthrift Italian prince she’d married young. As the family gathers for a summer vacation at a beach house, wedding plans for her daughter Gloria are ballooning in expense even as the loutish behavior of Gloria’s fiancé causes Eugenia to question her daughter’s judgment. Meanwhile, Gloria’s sister Daphne is due to deliver twins right around the wedding date... which is also very close make or break New York Fashion Week. The silver lining in it all may be meeting Patrick Hughes, a successful real estate developer who’s also going through a rough patch. A brilliant and creative businessman, Patrick gives her valuable advice about her business challenges. Eugenia finds friendship with Patrick sailing on his yacht and starts to imagine a new beginning, independent of her roles as mother and entrepreneur. But as the family gathers for the big wedding, tensions are running high, money may be running out, and a hurricane is looming on the horizon.....
View in CatalogUnder the stars : a novel
Williams, Beatriz, author.
Audrey Fisher has struggled all her life to emerge from the shadow of her famous mother by forging a career as a world-class chef. Meredith Fisher's glamorous screen persona disguises the trauma of the tragic accident that haunts her dreams. Neither woman wants to return to the New England island they left behind and its complicated emotional ties, but Meredith has one last chance to sober up and salvage her big comeback, and where else but discreet, moneyed Winthrop Island can a famous actress spend the summer without the intrusion of other people? Until Audrey discovers an old wooden chest among the belongings of her estranged bartender father, Mike Kennedy, and the astonishing contents draw the women deep into Winthrop's past and its many secrets... attracting the interest of their handsome neighbor, Sedge Peabody. How did a trove of paintings from one of America's greatest artists wind up in the cellar of the Mohegan Inn? And who is the mysterious woman portrayed on every canvas? On a stormy November night in 1846, Providence Dare flees Boston and boards the luxury steamship Atlantic one step ahead of the law.... or so she believes. But when a catastrophic accident leaves the ship at the mercy of a mighty gale, Providence finds herself trapped in a deadly game of cat and mouse with the one man who knows her real identity -- the detective investigating the suspicious death of her employer, the painter Henry Irving. As the Atlantic fights for her life and the rocky shore of Winthrop Island edges closer, a desperate Providence searches for her chance to escape... before the sea swallows her without a trace.....
View in CatalogThe break-in : a novel
Faulkner, Katherine, author.
Alice, a professional mother of one, is hosting a playdate with friends at her upscale London home when a disturbed man breaks in. With her child in the next room, Alice panics and kills him -- an act later ruled to have been in self-defense. Everyone tries to encourage Alice to move on with her life -- but with strange comments appearing online, a mysterious phone call telling her all is not as it seems, and her husband, nanny, and friends behaving strangely, Alice finds herself drawn to the mystery of who her intruder really was. As she digs deeper, she discovers a trail of dark secrets that spiral closer to home than she ever could have imagined.....
View in CatalogA new new me
Oyeyemi, Helen, author.
What if you had to share your body and life with six different versions of yourself? Kinga is a woman who is just trying to make it through the week. There’s a Kinga for every day: On Mondays, you can catch Kinga-A deleting food delivery apps. By Friday, Kinga-E is happy to spend the days soaking, wine-drunk, in the bath. Kingas A–G, perhaps unsurprisingly, live a varied life—between them is a matchmaker, a scent-crazed perfumer, and a window cleaner, all with varying degrees of apathy, anger, introversion, and bossiness. It’s an arrangement that’s not without its fair share of admin, grudges, and half-truths. But when Kinga-A discovers a man tied up in their apartment, the Kingas have to reckon with the possibility that one of them might be planning to destroy them all.....
View in CatalogThe Grand Paloma Resort : a novel
Natera, Cleyvis, author.
Vida is a curandera, a local healer, who has been called to the resort to attend to a crisis. A young guest lies unconscious due to negligent resort childcare. Vida wants nothing to do with it, as she has her own unborn child to think about. Laura, a mid-level manager at the Grand Paloma Resort, is forced to call Vida for help. She's made it this far through sheer hard work. Her brainchild, which pairs platinum guests with a resort employee to attend to their every need, has been wildly successful. She's mere weeks away from a promotion that will blaze a path off the resort, to a life of freedom and opportunity. If only her little sister, Elena, could get with the program. Elena has tried her best to live up to her own ideals and her sister's expectations; to escape the endless monotony of her life, she's become increasingly dependent on pills and partying. As a babysitter at the resort, she's at the mercy of guests who are only interested in having fun, cheating on each other, and getting a break from their screen-addicted kids. Now one of those kids is believed to be dead and it's all her fault. At a local beachfront watering hole, Elena runs into the child's father. High and clueless, he offers her an obscene amount of money to give him private time with two young local girls. Elena pockets the cash and prays she's gotten the girls out of harm's way -- until they disappear.....
View in CatalogCarved in blood
Bennett, Michael, 1964- author.
When Detective Inspector Jaye Hamilton stops at an Auckland liquor store for a bottle of champagne, it is supposed to be celebratory: his daughter Addison has just gotten engaged. Instead, he is suddenly gunned down at the register by a balaclava-clad assailant in what appears at first to be a random act. The getaway car is quickly recovered, containing the cell phone of a young Māori man, Toa Davis, who is immediately the object of an all-out police search. Jaye's ex-wife, former Māori detective Hana Westerman, asks in on the investigation. Her instincts suggest that the vehicle was meant to be found, and that Jaye had been targeted. The gun used in the assault is distinctive, and she learns that a local gang leader, Erwin Rendall -- who had threatened Hana in the past -- owns such a weapon. When Davis turns up dead, the hunt for Rendall is on. Yet when Rendall slips through the dragnet and escapes the country, and in the wake of Jaye's death, Hana decides to rejoin the force, acknowledging that she now has unfinished business. Skillfully plotted, inviting readers ever further into the appreciation of Māori culture, and with vibrant characters determined to overcome tragedy with resolve, Carved in Blood takes Michael Bennett's highly praised series to new heights.....
View in CatalogJenny Cooper has a secret : a novel
Fielding, Joy, author.
A dementia patient reveals a deadly secret -- and one woman must decide whether to believe her... Reeling from her husband's death and best friend's dementia diagnosis, seventy-six-year-old Linda Davidson feels lost and alone. Her beloved daughter Kleo and son-in-law Mick have moved into her house to keep her company, but the constant bickering quickly turns their presence into yet another worry on Linda's long list. Eager to escape the tension at home, Linda goes to visit her friend at Legacy Place, a memory care facility for the elderly, where she meets Jenny Cooper, a ninety-two-year-old dementia patient who makes a shocking confession: she kills people. Linda dismisses the so-called secret as the confusion of an ailing mind, but Jenny seems strangely lucid during their visits as she recounts stories of her many victims -- mostly men who hurt her. Then a fellow patient at Legacy Place dies. Everyone else sees it as the natural death of an sick old man, but Linda can't help but wonder: is there any chance Jenny's telling the truth?....
View in CatalogCoded justice : a thriller
Abrams, Stacey, author.
Avery Keene is back! The fan-favorite former Supreme Court clerk has finally gone out on her own, securing a prestigious position at a high-end law firm in Washington, D.C., where she is about to earn real money and get her life in order after a tumultuous run working as a clerk on the Supreme Court. With her reputation preceding her, Avery is quickly tasked at her new job with becoming a corporate internal investigator. Her new client is Camasca -- a mega-tech firm that's on the forefront of developing a new integrated AI system poised to revolutionize the medical industry, particularly by delivering vastly improved health care to veterans. The AI potential is breathtaking, but some disturbing anomalies have plagued Camasca in early testing -- including the mysterious death of a Camasca engineer. Avery and her colleagues, Jared, Ling, and Noah, find themselves on a journey to determine whether the anomalies are mere technical glitches, or something much more concerning. ....
View in CatalogHouse of monstrous women
Fama, Daphne, author.
A young woman is drawn into a dangerous game after being invited to the mazelike home of her childhood friend, a rumored witch, in this gothic horror set in 1986 Philippines. Josephine del Rosario feels like a pariah in her town. Long orphaned after her father's political campaign ends in tragedy, she's all alone taking care of the family home while her older brother is off in Manila, where a revolution brews. And it's starting to feel like he's abandoning her. When she receives a letter from her cherished childhood friend Hiraya, inviting her to play a game, she jumps at the reason to leave town. Josephine will have whatever her heart desires if she wins. Maybe Josephine can change her life. It doesn't matter that dark rumors have always surrounded Hiraya. Except Hiraya's house is strange... labyrinthine and huge and something seems to be following Josephine everywhere she turns. What's worse is there's something her old friend isn't telling her. There's something insidious about this invitation, and if Josephine isn't careful, she'll find that change is sometimes bought with blood.....
View in CatalogThe magician of Tiger Castle
Sachar, Louis, 1954- author.
The beloved author of Holes presents his first adult novel, a modern fantasy classic of forbidden love, a crumbling kingdom, and the unexpected magic all around us. Long ago and faraway (and somewhere south of France), lies the kingdom of Esquaveta. There, Princess Tullia is in nearly as much peril as her struggling kingdom. Esquaveta desperately needs to forge an alliance with Oxatania, and to that end, Tullia's father has arranged a marriage between her and the odious Oxatanian Prince. However, one month before the "Wedding of the Century," Tullia falls in love with a lowly apprentice scribe. The king turns to Anatole, his much-maligned magician. Seventeen years earlier, when Anatole first came to the castle, he was regarded as something of a prodigy. But after a long series of failures -- the latest being an attempt to transform sand into gold -- he has become the object of contempt and ridicule. The only one who still believes in him is the princess. When the king orders Anatole to brew a potion that will ensure Tullia agrees to the wedding, Anatole is faced with an impossible choice. With one chance to save the marriage, the kingdom, and of most importance to him, his reputation, will he betray the princess -- or risk ruin?....
View in CatalogCarved in blood
Bennett, Michael, 1964- author.
When Detective Inspector Jaye Hamilton stops at an Auckland liquor store for a bottle of champagne, it is supposed to be celebratory: his daughter Addison has just gotten engaged. Instead, he is suddenly gunned down at the register by a balaclava-clad assailant in what appears at first to be a random act. The getaway car is quickly recovered, containing the cell phone of a young Māori man, Toa Davis, who is immediately the object of an all-out police search. Jaye's ex-wife, former Māori detective Hana Westerman, asks in on the investigation. Her instincts suggest that the vehicle was meant to be found, and that Jaye had been targeted. The gun used in the assault is distinctive, and she learns that a local gang leader, Erwin Rendall -- who had threatened Hana in the past -- owns such a weapon. When Davis turns up dead, the hunt for Rendall is on. Yet when Rendall slips through the dragnet and escapes the country, and in the wake of Jaye's death, Hana decides to rejoin the force, acknowledging that she now has unfinished business. Skillfully plotted, inviting readers ever further into the appreciation of Māori culture, and with vibrant characters determined to overcome tragedy with resolve, Carved in Blood takes Michael Bennett's highly praised series to new heights.....
View in CatalogThe possession of Alba Díaz
Cañas, Isabel, author.
When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn't trust... In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family's isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family's legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin's betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can't help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them... and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon's thirst for blood grows stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and one another... not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.....
View in CatalogThe Grand Paloma Resort : a novel
Natera, Cleyvis, author.
Vida is a curandera, a local healer, who has been called to the resort to attend to a crisis. A young guest lies unconscious due to negligent resort childcare. Vida wants nothing to do with it, as she has her own unborn child to think about. Laura, a mid-level manager at the Grand Paloma Resort, is forced to call Vida for help. She's made it this far through sheer hard work. Her brainchild, which pairs platinum guests with a resort employee to attend to their every need, has been wildly successful. She's mere weeks away from a promotion that will blaze a path off the resort, to a life of freedom and opportunity. If only her little sister, Elena, could get with the program. Elena has tried her best to live up to her own ideals and her sister's expectations; to escape the endless monotony of her life, she's become increasingly dependent on pills and partying. As a babysitter at the resort, she's at the mercy of guests who are only interested in having fun, cheating on each other, and getting a break from their screen-addicted kids. Now one of those kids is believed to be dead and it's all her fault. At a local beachfront watering hole, Elena runs into the child's father. High and clueless, he offers her an obscene amount of money to give him private time with two young local girls. Elena pockets the cash and prays she's gotten the girls out of harm's way -- until they disappear.....
View in CatalogThe possession of Alba Díaz
Cañas, Isabel, author.
When a demonic presence awakens deep in a Mexican silver mine, the young woman it seizes must turn to the one man she shouldn't trust... In 1765, plague sweeps through Zacatecas. Alba flees with her wealthy merchant parents and fiancé, Carlos, to his family's isolated mine for refuge. But safety proves fleeting as other dangers soon bare their teeth: Alba begins suffering from strange hallucinations, sleepwalking, and violent convulsions. She senses something cold lurking beneath her skin. Something angry. Something wrong. Elías, haunted by a troubled past, came to the New World to make his fortune and escape his family's legacy of greed. Alba, as his cousin's betrothed, is none of his business. Which is of course why he can't help but notice her every time she enters a room or the growing tension between them... and why he notices her deteriorate when the demon's thirst for blood grows stronger. In the fight for her life, Alba and Elías become entangled with the occult, the Church, long-kept secrets, and one another... not knowing that one of these things will spell their doom.....
View in Catalog