Showing results by narrator "Laurel Laurel" in All Categories

The Age of Innocence is a powerful depiction of love and desire in New York's glamorous Gilded Age. When Newland Archer, happily engaged to May Welland, meets his fiancée's cousin Ellen, his entire future is cast into doubt: strong-willed, witty, and entirely unpretentious, Ellen is unlike any woman he has ever met. He is torn between his infatuation for her and his duty to marry May. In subtle and elegant language, Wharton delivers a critical look at the social mores of the time.

A powerful, blazingly honest memoir: the story of an 1100-mile solo hike that broke down a young woman reeling from catastrophe and built her back up again. At 22, Cheryl Strayed thought she had lost everything. After her mother's death, her family scattered and her own marriage was destroyed. Four years later, with nothing more to lose, she decided to hike the Pacific Crest Trail from the Mojave Desert through California and Oregon to Washington State - alone. She had no experience as a long-distance hiker, and the trail was little more than an idea: vague, outlandish, and full of promise.

Single-minded and spoilt, Undine Spragg arrives in New York determined to procure for herself a social status to match her family’s wealth. Ambition, greed and an arresting beauty soon secure her path to marriage...and also to divorce. The Custom of the Country is a sophisticated commentary on both, touching on the implications for a woman of ending a marriage at a time when the author herself was navigating that situation. As the mismatched Undine and Ralph travel to Europe, Wharton contrasts the pecuniary motivation of the nouveau riche in America with European tradition.

March 1294. Ireland is at a crossroads. The different factions - Irish, Danish, and English - are tearing the country apart with their constant warfare. Hoping to hammer out a treaty, David calls the Irish Parliament into session. Unfortunately, some lords are far more interested in fighting than talking, and it isn't long before the conference goes awry. With the future of Ireland at stake, David finds himself caught up in a far-reaching conspiracy that puts not only his own life on the line, but his family's as well.

The second novel by Donna Tartt, best-selling author of The Goldfinch (winner of the 2014 Pulitzer Prize), The Little Friend is a grandly ambitious and utterly riveting novel of childhood, innocence and evil. The setting is Alexandria, Mississippi, where one Mother’s Day a little boy named Robin Cleve Dufresnes was found hanging from a tree in his parents’ yard. Twelve years later Robin’s murder is still unsolved and his family remains devastated.

Anna has made a place for herself in 13th century Wales as a wife, mother, and healer. David has taken more of the kingdom's rule on his shoulders, even as his relationship with Lili has caused friction with his father, King Llywelyn. The King wants his son to seek a political marriage that will benefit his country - and possibly place the crown of England on David's head.

This set contains all 6 of the Wild Hunt books. Each of them is a steamy new adult fantasy romance featuring a different couple with their own happily ever after.

In 12 years, Michelle Lyons witnessed nearly 300 executions. First as a reporter and then as a spokesperson for the Texas Department of Criminal Justice, Michelle was a frequent visitor to Huntsville's Walls Unit, where she recorded and relayed the final moments of death row inmates' lives before they were put to death by the state. Michelle was in the death chamber as some of the United States' most notorious criminals, including serial killers, child murderers and rapists, spoke their last words on earth, while a cocktail of lethal drugs surged through their veins.

Secrets are revealed in more ways than one. The truth always has a way of revealing itself. What happens when everyone is hiding something from the other? When relationships and bonds are tested in more ways than one. Will these relationships end before they could fully start?

The Freedom Brothers are first cousins who built a brotherly bond while growing up in their grandmother's home in Terror Town. Epic, Angel, and Bishop Freedom eventually matured from little boys to men who run the blocks of the East Side of Chicago neighborhood. Women love them, and men want to be them. Yet, this story about the Freedom Brothers is far from your typical hood tale.

When I inherit a haunted bookstore in New Orleans, I go from demon hunter to my dream job. Unfortunately, there’s a dark side to my beautiful new life—the gorgeous demon who seems to think he owns the place. The attraction between us is insane, and we can’t keep our eyes off each other. But I don’t trust him one bit—especially not the way he uses his seductive charms to try to compel me to work for him.

They say I am a queen. They say I married a monster. That I did so willingly. They say he cannot die, that he does not age. That, together, we rule a ravaged world. They say I used to be one of them, but now I am a traitor. They say many things, all which I cannot remember, but.... I fear what they say is true. Then there is what they don't say, what I see in their eyes - the king terrifies them. He cannot be stopped. And, most worrisome of all.... He is coming for me.

Cain is my torturer. A gorgeous psychopath. Coldhearted. Brutal. And deadly mysterious. But I'm determined to stand strong. To survive. To somehow not be destroyed. Yet he keeps cutting. He keeps digging, until buried, forgotten emotions rise to the surface. He keeps bleeding me until my heart and soul collide to endless ruin, and I beg, I plead for the pain.

Landmark Essays, Volume 2 continues a wonderful journey to the heart of the matter of our lives, to what matters most. It points out what's possible if we step outside of what we know, and recognize and embrace our capacity to bring forth an entirely new possibility for living—not because it is better, but simply because that is what human beings can do.

Of all the universe's forces, the most mysterious, confounding, and humbling is the power of love. Alma Katsu's acclaimed trilogy - a supernatural epic that began with The Taker and sparked a chase around the world in The Reckoning - comes to a stunning conclusion, and brings Lanore McIlvrae to a final encounter with Adair, her powerful nemesis. Dismayed by Adair's otherworldly powers and afraid of his passionate temper, Lanore has run from him across time, even imprisoning him behind a wall for two centuries to save Jonathan, her eternal love.

Somalian native, Mila Ali, endured two broken engagements. She never seemed to be destined for true love until billionaire Blake Baldwin came storming into her life. With a trail of heartache in the past, a dead fiance, and family drama to last a lifetime, she's at a crossroads when it comes to saying “I do”. Now, Mila has become everything to Blake. His queen. His world. Blake is determined to make her his wife and wipe away all the pain of her past. Even if that means he has to bribe, lie, or kill. He will give her a happily ever after at any cost.

Krystina offered me her heart, and I’d given her mine freely and without reservation. She was the angel who guided me to salvation, lighting up all the places inside me that had been dark for most of my life. There was no denying the connection we shared. But now, she was the one who had fallen into darkness. I could control a great many things, but I couldn’t free her from the black abyss. As hard as I tried, I had no way to save her—especially after she changed all the rules.

Krystina Cole was a girl on a mission. She had big dreams and aspirations, none of which included a man by her side. She knew better than that - at least until she met Alexander Stone, the New York billionaire real estate tycoon. She saw the way that he looked at her, and the dark promises in his eyes. She was curious about his world and all that it entailed. But the shadows of her past haunted her, making her afraid to explore possibilities that she could never before have imagined....

My life couldn’t get any more ridiculous. A few days ago, my son’s teacher wanted to berate me on my parenting style. I politely told her to f--k off, in so many words. And now? She’s sitting across the table from me at my first blind date in years. You can’t make this s--t up. Nothing has been easy since my wife left me and Hunter years ago. And yet, we persevered. He’s my whole world, and the last thing I have time for is a woman.

Corporate lawyer Nicolo DeLuca is a made man. After the death of his beloved grandfather, he is sent by his cousin to live in Charlotte, NC, to head the mergers and acquisitions division of the DeLuca family business. As a condition of his new promotion, he must take a bride. Not any bride will do. He must take the hand of the daughter of the Baldwin family. Plus-sized diva Simone Baldwin will do anything for family, including marry a man to keep the peace. When a rogue FBI agent targets Simone, she will need the family’s support to save her.