«Throughout the centuries, royal mistresses have been worshiped, feared, envied, and reviled. They set the fashions, encouraged the arts, and, in some cases, ruled nations. Eleanor Herman's «Sex with Kings» takes us into the throne rooms and bedrooms of Europe's most powerful monarchs. Alive with flamboyant characters, outrageous humor, and stirring poignancy, this glittering tale of passion and politics chronicles five hundred years of scintillating women and the kings who loved them. Curiously, the main function of a royal mistress was not to provide the king with sex but with companionship. Forced to marry repulsive foreign princesses, kings sought solace with women of their own choice. And what women they were! From Madame de Pompadour, the famous mistress of Louis XV, who kept her position for nineteen years despite her frigidity, to modern-day Camilla Parker-Bowles, who usurped none other than the glamorous Diana, Princess of Wales. The successful royal mistress made herself irreplaceable. She was ready to converse gaily with him when she was tired, make love until all hours when she was ill, and cater to his every whim. Wearing a mask of beaming delight over any and all discomforts, she was never to be exhausted, complaining, or grief-stricken. True, financial rewards for services rendered were of royal proportions — some royal mistresses earned up to $200 million in titles, pensions, jewels, and palaces. Some kings allowed their mistresses to exercise unlimited political power. But for all its grandeur, a royal court was a scorpion's nest of insatiable greed, unquenchable lust, and vicious ambition. Hundreds of beautiful women vied to unseat the royal mistress. Many would suffer the slings and arrows of negative public opinion, some met with tragic ends and were pensioned off to make room for younger women. But the royal mistress often had the last laugh, as she lived well and richly off the fruits of her «sins». From the dawn of time, power has been a mighty aphrodisiac. With diaries, personal letters, and diplomatic dispatches, Eleanor Herman's trailblazing research reveals the dynamics of sex and power, rivalry and revenge, at the most brilliant courts of Europe. Wickedly witty and endlessly entertaining, «Sex with Kings» is a chapter of women's history that has remained unwritten — until now.»

«The Reign of Terror has washed the streets of France blood-red. And in England a terrified aristocracy awaits the next blow. Secure in their wealth and power, the noble Lazenders remain safe from history's violent storm behind the walls of their opulent «little kingdom». But theirs is a house under siege. With the family's heir, Toby Lazender, away in revolution-torn France hunting the brutal murderers of the woman he loved, a secret cabal of powerful and dangerous assassins—the Fallen Angels—conspires to bring the chaos to England's shores by seizing the vast resources of Lazen Castle. And only one obstacle stands in their way: Toby's sister, Lady Campion Lazender. Caught in an ever-tightening net of conspiracy, Campion sees treachery all around her—even as she follows a mysterious horseman into a realm of fascination and desire. And in the clashing of nations—as traitors, spies, and their masters move furtively through the night—Campion's heart could be leading her to destruction... by the hand of one she trusts above all.»

Rarely does adolescent love reach its full potential, but what happens when two young lovers reunite after eleven years? Time has transformed Pilar into a strong and independent woman, while her devoted childhood friend has grown into a handsome and charismatic spiritual leader. She has learned well how to bury her feelings... and he turned to religion as a refuge from his raging inner conflicts. Now they are together once again, embarking on a journey fraught with difficulties, as long-buried demons of blame and resentment resurface after more than a decade. But in a small village in the French Pyrenees, by the waters of the River Piedra, a most special relationship will be reexamined in the dazzling light of life's biggest questions.

They were young, popular, the perfect couple — an all-American boy and a beautiful cheerleader. But the youthful passion that led them to Lookout Point that terrible evening would prove fatal. For Richie Walters the end came swiftly, as death descended upon him in a savage orgy of horrific violence. Elaine Murray would live long enough to learn just how lucky her boyfriend had been ... Two brutal slayings have rocked a stunned city. But the murders are merely the nightmare's beginning, flinging open a terrifying Pandora's box of sordid secrets and dark revelations more deadly than the bloodlust that lives in the rock-hard heart of a killer.

So what if he's a bit older and usually regards a human female as dinner, not a dinner date? Yes, Roman Draganesti is a vampire, but a vampire who lost one of his fangs sinking his teeth into something he shouldn't have. Now he has one night to find a dentist before his natural healing abilities close the wound, leaving him a lop–sided eater for all eternity. Things aren't going well for Shanna Whelan either...After witnessing a gruesome murder by the Russian mafia, she's next on their hit list. And her career as a dentist appears to be on a downward spiral because she's afraid of blood. When Roman rescues her from an assassination attempt, she wonders if she's found the one man who can keep her alive. Though the attraction between them is immediate and hot, can Shanna conquer her fear of blood to fix Roman's fang? And if she does, what will prevent Roman from using his fangs on her...

«Meet Californian Téa Caruso... her mother drives her crazy, her sisters give «advice». She has a family just like any other, except for one tiny difference... Her grandfather isn't just in the mob... he is the mob! And no one knows this better than Johnny Magee. The Caruso family destroyed his dad. Now, it's payback time—and he's going to need an unsuspecting insider... one who won't realize what he's really after. Téa loves her family but hates what they do. She's tried to stay far away from her notorious relatives, making a legit name for herself as an interior designer. But her grandfather Cosimo's gala 80th birthday is coming up. Every mobbed-up member of the family from San Francisco to Sarasota will be there—and it's time for Téa to face the family or face the consequences. Intent on using Téa for revenge, Johnny hires her to redo his home, but then she makes him «offers» he can't refuse. Soon he's falling in love with the enemy and when all the secrets are revealed, what will Téa do... and even worse, what will her family?»

With the help of letters her husband left her before he died, and a little nudging from an eccentric assortment of family and friends, a young widow learns to laugh, overcome her fears, and discover the world.

For more than sixty years, the imagination of Ray Bradbury has opened doors into remarkable places, ushering us across unexplored territories of the heart and mind while leading us inexorably toward a profound understanding of ourselves and the universe we inhabit. In this landmark volume, America's preeminent storyteller offers us one hundred treasures from a lifetime of words and ideas. The stories within these pages were chosen by Bradbury himself, and span a career that blossomed in the pulp magazines of the early 1940s and continues to flourish in the new millennium. Here are representatives of the legendary author's finest works of short fiction, including many that have not been republished for decades, all forever fresh and vital, evocative and immensely entertaining.

A few nights after Jessica Day arrives in Bixby, Oklahoma, she wakes up at midnight to find the entire world frozen, except for her and a few others who call themselves 'midnighters'. Dark things haunt this midnight hour — dark things with a mysterious interest in Jessica. The question is...why? The Secret Hour is a compelling tale of dark secrets, midnight romance, eerie creatures, courage, destiny, and unexpected peril.

«Now in paperback from the brilliant author of «Sex and the City» — a sharply observant, keenly funny, wildly entertaining latter-day comedy of manners centered on modern-day heroine Janey Wilcox, a lingerie model whose reach often exceeds her grasp.»

Written and illustrated by the one and only Dr. Seuss. Introducing a host of zany creatures and wacky situations, this charming tale looks at all the wonderful things that children get up to on their birthdays in the imaginary land of Katroo. First published in 1959, this is the first UK publication of this delightful book.

A breathtaking novel of suspense from the co-author of five No 1 James Patterson bestsellers including Judge and Jury and Lifeguard, and the hit thrillers The Blue Zone and Don't Look Twice Ty Hauck has left law enforcement for a job with a big-time private security firm. But he quickly learns that life in the private sector can be every bit as dangerous as wearing a badge — if not more so. When a successful trader at one of Wall Street's largest firms is murdered his suburban home along with his wife and daughter, it seems at first to be a case of burglary gone wrong. Then another financial executive is found dead in a very suspicious 'suicide'. As Hauck digs deeper he uncovers a horrifying financial conspiracy that stretches from New York to Central Europe to London. And its perpetrators will kill anyone who gets in their way...

Bestselling author and Orange Prize winner Ann Patchett's first work of non-fiction is a searing, emotionally wrenching account of her long friendship with the critically acclaimed, and recently deceased author, Lucy Grealy. 'It is remarkable for me to remember now that I thought it would be possible to walk away from her, that she might have gone on living, but without me. I know now I never would have had the strength of my convictions. I am living in a world without Lucy. I have no choice about that. If she were alive and I had that choice, I wouldn't have been able to last without her for a day. 'What happens when the person who is your family is someone you aren't bound to by blood? What happens when the person you promise to love and to honour for the rest of your life is not your lover, but your best friend? In her frank and startlingly intimate first work of nonfiction, Truth & Beauty, Ann Patchett shines light on the little explored world of women's friendships and shows us what it means to stand together. Ann Patchett and Lucy Grealy met in college in 1981, and, after enrolling in the Iowa Writer's Workshop, began a friendship that would be as defining to both of their lives as their work. In her critically acclaimed and hugely successful memoir, Autobiography of a Face, Lucy Grealy wrote about the first half of her life: losing part of her jaw to childhood cancer, the years of chemotherapy and radiation, and then the endless reconstructive surgeries. In Truth & Beauty, the story isn't Lucy's life or Ann's life, but the parts of their lives they shared together. This is a portrait of unwavering commitment that spans twenty years, from the long cold winters of the Midwest, to surgical wards, to book parties in New York. Through love, fame, drugs and despair, this is what it means to be part of two lives that are intertwined. This is a tender, yet sometimes brutal book about loving the person we cannot save. It is about loyalty, and about being lifted up by the sheer effervescence of someone who knew how to live life to the fullest.

Brilliantly funny, teenage angst author Louise Rennison's first book about the confessions of crazy but lovable Georgia Nicolson. Now repackaged in a gorgeous new paperback and looking even fatter than ever. Louise is an international best-selling author and her books can't fail to make you laugh out loud. There are six things very wrong with my life: I have one of those under-the-skin spots that will never come to a head but lurk in a red way for the next two years; it is on my nose; I have a three-year-old sister who may have peed somewhere in my room; in fourteen days the summer hols will be over and then it will be back to Stalag 14 and Oberfuhrer Frau Simpson and her bunch of sadistic 'teachers'; I am very ugly and need to go into an ugly home; I went to a party dressed as a stuffed olive. Follow Georgia's hilarious antics as she tries to overcome the dilemma's that are weighing up against her, and muddle her way through teenage life and all that it entails: how to replace accidentally shaved-off eyebrows; how to cope with Angus, her small labrador-sized Scottish wildcat; her first kiss with Peter — afterwards known as Whelk Boy; annoying teachers; unsympathetic friends and family; and how to entice Robbie the Sex God! Phew — she's really got her work cut out!

Brilliantly funny, teenage angst author Louise Rennison's second book about the confessions of crazy but lovable Georgia Nicolson. Now repackaged in a gorgeous new paperback and looking even fatter than ever. Louise is an international best-selling author and her books can't fail to make you laugh out loud. What is the matter with my life? Why is it so deeply unfab? It's a day and a half now since I snogged the Sex God! I think I have snog withdrawal. My lips keep puckering up! I tried snogging the back of my hand, but it's no good! It's been over a week. I wonder if it's my nose! I have a huge nose that means I have to live for ever in the ugly home.

Read along with your favorite I Can Read Book characters I Can Read Books are the premier line of beginning readers encouraging children to learn-and love-to read. Featuring award-winning authors and illustrators, I Can Read Books offer a full spectrum of entertaining stories for every stage of a child's reading development. Now the beloved characters and adventures from this popular line of books come to life with I Can Read Book and CDs. Each package includes a best-selling beginning-reader storybook and a lively audio recording featuring: Word-for-word narration Music and sound effects One version with turn-the-page signals One version of uninterrupted reading.

This work continues the most ambitious and imaginative epic fantasy since The Lord of the Rings. Bloodthirsty, treacherous and cunning, the Lannisters are in power on the Iron Throne in the name of the boy-king Tommen. But fear and deceit are in the air: their enemies are poised to strike. The Martells of Dorne seek vengeance for their dead, and the heir of King Balon of the Iron Isles, Euron Crow's Eye, is as black a pirate as ever raised a sail. Across the war-torn landscape of the Seven Kingdoms, Brienne the Beauty (thus named in mockery of her great size and strength) seeks for Sansa Stark, having vowed to protect Sansa from the wrath of Queen Cersei, Tommen's power-hungry mother. Meanwhile apprentice Maester, Samwell Tarly brings a mysterious babe in arms south to the Citadel from the cruel frozen north where the sinister Others threaten the Wall! A Feast for Crows brings to life dark magic, complex political intrigue and horrific bloodshed. Against a backdrop of incest and fratricide, alchemy and murder, victory may go to the men and women possessed of the coldest steel and the coldest hearts.

The Frankenstein story is updated to the 21st century by the great American storyteller Dean Koontz. Now someone new is playing god. The legendary monster has survived the centuries to become a haunted and heroic figure dedicated to battling the truly monstrous evil that has also survived the years: the cruel genius who gave him life, Dr Frankenstein. His name is Deucalion. Having failed to kill his maker, scarred and strange, he lives with monks in Tibet until news reaches him of the next generation of Dr Frankenstein's monsters. He travels to New Orleans where they are wreaking havoc, and where a cool, tough cop, Detective Carson O'Connor, doesn't know she is pursuing killers that are more — and less — than human. But Deucalion does. Dean Koontz, the master storyteller, creates a bold new legend.

This New York Times bestseller by the lead singer of the Red Hot Chili Peppers is a compelling story of the price of success and excess, dedication and debauchery, intrigue and integrity, and recklessness and redemption that could only come from the world of rock.

Some people wait their whole lives to find their soul mates. But not Holly and Gerry. They were childhood sweethearts — no one could imagine Holly and Gerry without each other. Until the unthinkable happens. Gerry's death devastates Holly. But as her 30'th birthday looms Holly discovers that Gerry has left her a bundle of notes, gently guiding her into her new life without him, each signed 'PS, I Love You'. With some help from her friends, and her noisy and loving family, Holly finds herself laughing, crying, singing, dancing — and being braver than ever before. Life is for living, she realizes — but it always helps if there's an angel watching over you.