C.C.'s bookshelf: read en-US Fri, 02 May 2025 07:06:37 -0700 60 C.C.'s bookshelf: read 144 41 /images/layout/goodreads_logo_144.jpg <![CDATA[This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir]]> 221289749 Award-winning comedian Zarna Garg turns her astonishing life story into aĚýhilarious memoir—from narrowly escaping an arranged marriage in India to carving her own path in America and launching a dazzling second act in midlife.

Growing up in India, everyone called Zarna “so Americanâ€� just for reading the newspaper, having deep thoughts, and talking back to anyone over the age ofĚýthirty. When Zarna’s dad tried to marry her off at ageĚýfourteen, Zarna fled the whole subcontinent for the glittering paradise of Akron, Ohio, where she got to become American for real.

On Zarna’s very American quest to find herself and her calling, she threw herself whole-heartedly into roles like dog-bite lawyer, crazy perfectionist stay-at-home mom, Indian matchmaker, prize-winning screenwriter, and more. It wasn’t until a dare led her to a stand-up comedy open mic that Zarna finally found her spiritual getting paid cold hard cash for her big fat mouth.

And as Zarna discovered,Ěýafter surviving the brutal streets of Mumbai, the cutthroat world of stand-up comedy is nothing.

This American Woman is an exuberant story of fighting for your right to determine your own destiny and triumphing beyond what you ever dreamed was possible. And as Zarna always reminds If Zarna can do it, you can too.]]>
320 Zarna Garg 0593975022 C.C. 0 to-read 4.52 This American Woman: A One-In-A-Billion Memoir
author: Zarna Garg
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.52
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/02
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Borders of Infinity (Vorkosigan Saga, #5.3)]]> 5073782 [Publisher's Note: The Borders of Infinity was originally published as a stand-alone novella in the anthology Free Lancers in September 1987. It was then included in the novel Borders of Infinity (October 1989). For the novel, Ms. Bujold added a short "framing story" that tied the three novellas together by setting up each as a flashback that Miles experiences while recovering from bone-replacement surgery. Fictionwise is publishing these novellas separately, but we decided to leave in Ms. Bujold's short framing story for those who may also wish to read the other two novellas (he Mountains of Mourning and Labyrinth).]
Locus Poll Award Nominee]]>
84 Lois McMaster Bujold C.C. 0 owned-but-unread 4.25 The Borders of Infinity (Vorkosigan Saga, #5.3)
author: Lois McMaster Bujold
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.25
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/05/01
shelves: owned-but-unread
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)]]> 21611 278 Joe Haldeman C.C. 0 to-read 4.14 1974 The Forever War (The Forever War, #1)
author: Joe Haldeman
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.14
book published: 1974
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)]]> 51901147
The odds are against him. He's been given the humiliating assignment of mentoring the female tribute from District 12, the lowest of the low. Their fates are now completely intertwined -- every choice Coriolanus makes could lead to favor or failure, triumph or ruin. Inside the arena, it will be a fight to the death. Outside the arena, Coriolanus starts to feel for his doomed tribute... and must weigh his need to follow the rules against his desire to survive no matter what it takes.]]>
541 Suzanne Collins C.C. 0 to-read 3.99 2020 The Ballad of Songbirds and Snakes (The Hunger Games, #0)
author: Suzanne Collins
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Shadow's Heart (Immortals After Dark, #19; The Dacians, #3)]]> 213696694 In this heart-stopping installment in the #1 New York Times bestselling Immortals After Dark series, a vampire swordswoman and a ruthless sorcerer become inmates in a hellplane prison.

A FALLEN PRINCESS . . .
Sheltered Kosmina Daciano has always yearned for adventure. But her first trip to the mortal world turns dark when a foe curses her with bloodlust—ensuring her exile in the sinister dimension of Nightside.

AN OUTLAW SORCERER . . .
For millennia, Silt Harea has flouted the laws of the Lore with all the arrogance of a king, remaining one step ahead of ruination. Yet then a mysterious bounty hunter schemes to capture him, dispatching him straight to hell.

FIGHT TO ESCAPE A DYING REALM . . .
Within Nightside, Silt clashes with the hunter’s sister, also condemned. Never imagining that she might be the key to his escape—and his future—he vows revenge against her. But Mina is no easy quarry.

Can two doomed immortals survive long enough to salvage a nightmare, turning hatred into love and vengeance into bliss?]]>
375 Kresley Cole C.C. 0 to-read 4.31 2025 Shadow's Heart (Immortals After Dark, #19; The Dacians, #3)
author: Kresley Cole
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2025
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Witch Queen of Halloween (Immortals After Dark, #18.5)]]> 199671073
A demon soldier of fortune . . .
Rök Kours dives into a dangerous mission, only to cross swords with the one woman who bewitched him.

A cursed Wiccan mercenary . . .
Poppy Dyer has never let her uncontrollable magic interfere with her work, but she can barely withstand one demon's charms.

Trapped in a terrifying lair.
If the two rivals can defeat Halloween's worst nightmares to escape a haunted castle, can they overcome their pasts to claim a spellbinding future together?]]>
179 Kresley Cole C.C. 5 4.20 2024 The Witch Queen of Halloween (Immortals After Dark, #18.5)
author: Kresley Cole
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2024
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2025/04/23
shelves:
review:

]]>
Possession 41219 A beautiful hardback edition of the Booker Prize-winning novel. A romance, a literary quest, a modern classic.

A pair of young scholars investigate the lives of two Victorian poets. Following a trail of letters, journals and poems they uncover a web of passion, deceit and tragedy, and their quest becomes a battle against time. Possession is an exhilarating novel of wit and romance, at once a literary detective novel and a triumphant love story.]]>
555 A.S. Byatt 0679735909 C.C. 0 to-read 3.89 1990 Possession
author: A.S. Byatt
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1990
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/04/03
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Women 127305853
Women can be heroes. When twenty-year-old nursing student Frances "Frankie" McGrath hears these words, it is a revelation. Raised in the sun-drenched, idyllic world of Southern California and sheltered by her conservative parents, she has always prided herself on doing the right thing. But in 1965, the world is changing, and she suddenly dares to imagine a different future for herself. When her brother ships out to serve in Vietnam, she joins the Army Nurse Corps and follows his path.

As green and inexperienced as the men sent to Vietnam to fight, Frankie is over-whelmed by the chaos and destruction of war. Each day is a gamble of life and death, hope and betrayal; friendships run deep and can be shattered in an instant. In war, she meets—and becomes one of—the lucky, the brave, the broken, and the lost.

But war is just the beginning for Frankie and her veteran friends. The real battle lies in coming home to a changed and divided America, to angry protesters, and to a country that wants to forget Vietnam.

The Women is the story of one woman gone to war, but it shines a light on all women who put themselves in harm's way and whose sacrifice and commitment to their country has too often been forgotten. A novel about deep friendships and bold patriotism, The Women is a richly drawn story with a memorable heroine whose idealism and courage under fire will come to define an era.]]>
471 Kristin Hannah 1250178630 C.C. 4 4.58 2024 The Women
author: Kristin Hannah
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.58
book published: 2024
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2025/02/15
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Silver Metal Lover (Silver Metal Lover, #1)]]> 567708
Love is made of more than mere flesh and blood. . . .

For sixteen-year-old Jane, life is a mystery she despairs of ever mastering. She and her friends are the idle, pampered children of the privileged class, living in luxury on an Earth remade by natural disaster. Until Jane's life is changed forever by a chance encounter with a robot minstrel with auburn hair and silver skin, whose songs ignite in her a desperate and inexplicable passion.

Jane is certain that Silver is more than just a machine built to please. And she will give up everything to prove it. So she escapes into the city's violent, decaying slums to embrace a love bordering on madness. Or is it something more? Has Jane glimpsed in Silver something no one else has dared to see—not even the robot or his creators? A love so perfect it must be destroyed, for no human could ever compete?]]>
291 Tanith Lee 0553581279 C.C. 0 to-read 4.04 1981 The Silver Metal Lover (Silver Metal Lover, #1)
author: Tanith Lee
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.04
book published: 1981
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Wolf Tower (Claidi Journals, #1)]]> 293395 223 Tanith Lee 0142300306 C.C. 0 to-read 3.74 1998 Wolf Tower (Claidi Journals, #1)
author: Tanith Lee
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.74
book published: 1998
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/16
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims]]> 210905876 Infidel meets The Handmaid's Tale

Since September 11th, 2001, the Western world has been preoccupied with Islam and its role in terrorism. Yet public debate about the faith is polarized—one camp praises "the religion of peace" while the other claims all Muslims are terrorists. Canadian human rights activist Yasmine Mohammed believes both sides are dangerously wrong.

In Unveiled: How Western Liberals Empower Radical Islam, Yasmine speaks her truth as a woman born in the Western world yet raised in a fundamentalist Islamic home. Despite being a first-generation Canadian, she never felt at home in the West. And even though she attended Islamic schools and wore the hijab since age nine, Yasmine never fit in with her Muslim family either. With one foot in each world, Yasmine is far enough removed from both to see them objectively, yet close enough to see them honestly.

Part Ayaan Hirsi Ali's Infidel, part The Handmaid's Tale, Yasmine's memoir takes readers into a world few Westerners are privy to. As a college educator for over fifteen years, Yasmine's goal is to unveil the truth. Is FGM Islamic or cultural? Is the hijab forced or a choice? Is ISIS a representation of "true" Islam or a radical corruption? And why is there so much conflicting information? Like most insular communities, the Islamic world has both an "outside voice" and an "inside voice." It's all but impossible for bystanders to get a straight answer.

Without telling anyone what to believe, Unveiled navigates the rhetoric and guides truth-seekers through media narratives, political correctness, and outright lies while encouraging readers to come to their own conclusions.

]]>
294 Yasmine Mohammed 1999240588 C.C. 0 to-read 4.31 2019 Unveiled: How the West Empowers Radical Muslims
author: Yasmine Mohammed
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.31
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2025/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Nightingale 21853621 Der Weltbestseller � die Nr. 1 aus den USA.
Zwei Schwestern im von den Deutschen besetzten Während Vianne ums Überleben ihrer Familie kämpft, schließt sich die jüngere Isabelle der Résistance an und sucht die Freiheit auf dem Pfad der Nachtigall, einem geheimen Fluchtweg über die Pyrenäen. Doch wie weit darf man gehen, um zu überleben? Und wie kann man die schützen, die man liebt?
In diesem epischen, kraftvollen und zutiefst berührenden Roman erzählt Kristin Hannah die Geschichte zweier Frauen, die ihr Schicksal auf ganz eigene Weise meistern.]]>
564 Kristin Hannah 0312577222 C.C. 0 to-read 4.63 2015 The Nightingale
author: Kristin Hannah
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.63
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/12/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Problem of Pain 13650513
The greatest Christian thinker of our time sets out to disentangle this knotty issue. With his signature wealth of compassion and insight, C. S. Lewis offers answers to these crucial questions and shares his hope and wisdom to help heal a world hungry for a true understanding of human nature.]]>
162 C.S. Lewis 0007461267 C.C. 4 4.24 1940 The Problem of Pain
author: C.S. Lewis
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.24
book published: 1940
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/12/08
shelves:
review:

]]>
Mansfield Park 45032 488 Jane Austen C.C. 4 romance 3.86 1814 Mansfield Park
author: Jane Austen
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.86
book published: 1814
rating: 4
read at: 2021/06/02
date added: 2024/11/27
shelves: romance
review:

]]>
This Thing Between Us 56269269
“This intense cosmic horror with a touch of Mexican American folklore is incredibly creepy and moving.� —Margaret Kingsbury, BuzzFeed

It was Vera’s idea to buy the Itza. The “world’s most advanced smart speaker!� didn’t interest Thiago, but Vera thought it would be a bit of fun for them amidst all the strange occurrences happening in the condo. It made things worse. The cold spots and scratching in the walls were weird enough, but peculiar packages started showing up at the house—who ordered industrial lye? Then there was the eerie music at odd hours, Thiago waking up to Itza projecting light shows in an empty room.

It was funny and strange right up until Vera was killed, and Thiago’s world became unbearable. Pundits and politicians all looking to turn his wife’s death into a symbol for their own agendas. A barrage of texts from her well-meaning friends about letting go and moving on. Waking to the sound of Itza talking softly to someone in the living room . . .

The only thing left to do was get far away from Chicago. Away from everything and everyone. A secluded cabin in Colorado seemed like the perfect place to hole up with his crushing grief. But soon Thiago realizes there is no escape—not from his guilt, not from his simmering rage, and not from the evil hunting him, feeding on his grief, determined to make its way into this world.

A bold, original horror novel about grief, loneliness and the oppressive intimacy of technology, This Thing Between Us marks the arrival of a spectacular new talent.]]>
272 Gus Moreno 0374539235 C.C. 0 to-read 3.70 2021 This Thing Between Us
author: Gus Moreno
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead]]> 51648276
A deeply satisfying thriller cum fairy tale, Drive Your Plow over the Bones of the Dead is a provocative exploration of the murky borderland between sanity and madness, justice and tradition, autonomy and fate. Whom do we deem sane? it asks. Who is worthy of a voice?

Duration: 11 hours 39 minutes.]]>
274 Olga Tokarczuk C.C. 0 to-read 3.93 2009 Drive Your Plow Over the Bones of the Dead
author: Olga Tokarczuk
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)]]> 50659468
Feyre has undergone more trials than one human woman can carry in her heart. Though she's now been granted the powers and lifespan of the High Fae, she is haunted by her time Under the Mountain and the terrible deeds she performed to save the lives of Tamlin and his people.

As her marriage to Tamlin approaches, Feyre's hollowness and nightmares consume her. She finds herself split into two different one who upholds her bargain with Rhysand, High Lord of the feared Night Court, and one who lives out her life in the Spring Court with Tamlin. While Feyre navigates a dark web of politics, passion, and dazzling power, a greater evil looms. She might just be the key to stopping it, but only if she can harness her harrowing gifts, heal her fractured soul, and decide how she wishes to shape her future-and the future of a world in turmoil.

Bestselling author Sarah J. Maas's masterful storytelling brings this second book in her dazzling, sexy, action-packed series to new heights.]]>
626 Sarah J. Maas 1635575583 C.C. 0 currently-reading 4.65 2016 A Court of Mist and Fury (A Court of Thorns and Roses, #2)
author: Sarah J. Maas
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.65
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #1)]]> 58539300 From Stephanie Garber, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Caraval, Once Upon a Broken Heart is the first book in a new series about love, curses, and the lengths that people will go to for happily ever after.


When Evangeline Fox learns that the love of her life is about to marry another, she feels her heart begin to break in two. Desperate and distraught, she offers the charismatic but wicked Prince of Hearts whatever he wishes in exchange for his help to stop the wedding. His request: three kisses. At first, it seems simple enough, but Evangeline quickly learns that bargaining with a Fate is a dangerous game, and it could cost her far more than she intended. For the prince has plans for Evangeline, plans that will either end in the greatest happily ever after, or in the most exquisite tragedy...]]>
384 Stephanie Garber C.C. 3 3.77 2021 Once Upon a Broken Heart (Once Upon a Broken Heart, #1)
author: Stephanie Garber
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2021
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/10/16
shelves:
review:
Much more juvenile than I expected. I would have loved this in middle school. Not bad, but not for me.
]]>
<![CDATA[Absolution (Southern Reach, #4)]]> 210367505 TOP SECRET: A clear and present threat exists. Open-ended. Existential. Confirmation via uncanny op. Nature of same: Unknown. Initiating entity: Unknown. Priority: High.

Ten years after the publication of Annihilation, Authority, and Acceptance � award winners and international bestsellers all, the first the basis for a now-classic film � Jeff VanderMeer brings us back for a surprise fourth and final foray into Area X.

Absolution opens decades before Area X forms, with a science expedition whose mysterious end suggests terrifying consequences for the future � and marks the Forgotten Coast as a high-priority area of interest for Central, the shadowy government agency responsible for monitoring extraordinary threats.

Many years later, the Forgotten Coast files wind up in the hands of a washed-up Central operative known as Old Jim. He starts pulling a thread that reveals a long and troubling record of government agents meddling with forces they clearly cannot comprehend. Soon, Old Jim is back out in the field, grappling with personal demons and now partnered with an unproven young agent, the two of them tasked with solving what may be an unsolvable mystery. With every turn, the stakes get higher: Central agents are being liquidated by an unknown rogue entity and Old Jim’s life is on the line.

Old Jim’s investigation culminates in the first Central expedition into what has now been labeled Area X. A border has come down, and a full team � well trained but eccentric � has been assembled to find Area X’s “off switch� somewhere in the volatile, dangerous terrain that has mysteriously defied all attempts to be explored, mapped, or controlled. A landscape that, one way or another, seems to consume all who enter it.

Sweeping in scope and rich with ideas, iconic characters, and unpredictable adventure, Absolution converges the past, present, and future in terrifying, ecstatic, and mind-bending ways. It is the final word on one of the most provocative and popular speculative fiction series of our time.]]>
441 Jeff VanderMeer 0374616590 C.C. 0 to-read 3.60 2024 Absolution (Southern Reach, #4)
author: Jeff VanderMeer
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.60
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/13
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Kinder Poison (The Kinder Poison, #1)]]> 53925610 Perfect for fans of Victoria Aveyard and Holly Black, this enthralling fantasy adventure follows a teenage girl chosen to be the human sacrifice in a deadly game between three heirs who will do anything for the crown.

Zahru has long dreamed of leaving the kingdom of Orkena and having the kinds of adventures she’s only ever heard about in stories. But as a lowly Whisperer, her power to commune with animals means that her place is serving in the royal stables until the day her magic runs dry.

All that changes when the ailing ruler invokes the Crossing: a death-defying race across the desert, in which the first of his heirs to finish—and take the life of a human sacrifice at the journey’s end—will ascend to the throne and be granted unparalleled abilities.

With all of the kingdom abuzz, Zahru leaps at the chance to change her fate if just for a night by sneaking into the palace for a taste of the revelry. But the minor indiscretion turns into a deadly mistake when she gets caught up in a feud between the heirs and is forced to become the Crossing’s human sacrifice. Zahru is left with only one hope for survival: somehow figuring out how to overcome the most dangerous people in the world.]]>
402 Natalie Mae C.C. 0 to-read 3.96 2020 The Kinder Poison (The Kinder Poison, #1)
author: Natalie Mae
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.96
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/10
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Northanger Abbey 50398 Northanger Abbey is often referred to as Jane Austen's "Gothic parody." Decrepit castles, locked rooms, mysterious chests, cryptic notes, and tyrannical fathers give the story an uncanny air, but one with a decidedly satirical twist.

The story's unlikely heroine is Catherine Morland, a remarkably innocent seventeen-year-old woman from a country parsonage. While spending a few weeks in Bath with a family friend, Catherine meets and falls in love with Henry Tilney, who invites her to visit his family estate, Northanger Abbey. Once there, Catherine, a great reader of Gothic thrillers, lets the shadowy atmosphere of the old mansion fill her mind with terrible suspicions. What is the mystery surrounding the death of Henry's mother? Is the family concealing a terrible secret within the elegant rooms of the Abbey? Can she trust Henry, or is he part of an evil conspiracy? Catherine finds dreadful portents in the most prosaic events, until Henry persuades her to see the peril in confusing life with art.

Executed with high-spirited gusto, Northanger Abbey is a lighthearted, yet unsentimental commentary on love and marriage.]]>
260 Jane Austen 1593082649 C.C. 0 to-read 3.85 1817 Northanger Abbey
author: Jane Austen
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.85
book published: 1817
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/10/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Hoarded by the Dragon (Monstrous Matches, #4)]]> 75424169 He’s powerful and wealthy and he hates me.
But I have something he wants.
It wasn’t a part of the plan.
I’m the thief stupid enough to break into a dragon’s hoard� and walk away pregnant with his baby.

More details to come...]]>
379 Lillian Lark C.C. 3 4.06 2023 Hoarded by the Dragon (Monstrous Matches, #4)
author: Lillian Lark
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.06
book published: 2023
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/30
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Blood of the Sands (The Ballan Desert, #1)]]> 212129057
Keera is an exile struggling to survive, forced to rob passing travelers or face starvation. When she steals from the wrong man—a vicious masked warrior named the Viper—his hand around her throat awakens an ancient magic within her, and she uses it to escape his clutches. Now, Keera must master her power to protect the city of Kelvadan—the only place an exile like her can find a home—from the Viper and his growing army.

The Viper serves the magic of the desert, but the sins of the past threaten to destroy it. To protect his home, he will do everything it takes, even marching on the great city of Kelvadan. However, the real key to healing the desert’s magic might lie in the infuriating but intriguing exile who slipped through his fingers and now fights for his sworn enemies.

Keera and the Viper are on opposite sides of a war to save the Ballan desert, but the strange bond they share could be the key to saving their home—or destroying their world as they know it.

Blood of the Sands is a slow burn, enemies-to-lovers fantasy romance perfect for fans of Carissa Broadbent and L.J. Andrews..]]>
415 S.C. Grayson C.C. 0 to-read 4.04 2024 Blood of the Sands (The Ballan Desert, #1)
author: S.C. Grayson
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark, #0.5)]]> 6388558
She eludes him for five years, but he has finally chased her to ground and stolen the jewel which commands her, giving him absolute power over her. While he possesses it, he can make her do anything, and he plans to in order for her to experience firsthand the agonizing, unending lust she'd purposely subjected him to for half a decade. Yet when Wroth realizes he wants more from her and frees her, will she come.

Note: First published in the 2006 anthology, Playing Easy to Get.]]>
163 Kresley Cole C.C. 5 fantasy-and-scifi, romance 4.04 2006 The Warlord Wants Forever (Immortals After Dark, #0.5)
author: Kresley Cole
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.04
book published: 2006
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2024/09/14
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, romance
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Heart of Blood and Ashes (A Gathering of Dragons, #1)]]> 46021762 A generation past, the western realms were embroiled in endless war. Then the Destroyer came. From the blood and ashes he left behind, a tenuous alliance rose between the barbarian riders of Parsathe and the walled kingdoms of the south. That alliance is all that stands against the return of an ancient evil—until the barbarian king and queen are slain in an act of bloody betrayal.

Though forbidden by the alliance council to kill the corrupt king responsible for his parents� murders, Maddek vows to avenge them, even if it costs him the Parsathean crown. But when he learns it was the king’s daughter who lured his parents to their deaths, the barbarian warrior is determined to make her pay.

Yet the woman Maddek captures is not what he expected. Though the last in a line of legendary warrior-queens, Yvenne is small and weak, and the sharpest weapons she wields are her mind and her tongue. Even more surprising is the marriage she proposes to unite them in their goals and to claim their thrones—because her desire for vengeance against her father burns even hotter than his own…]]>
534 Milla Vane 0440000513 C.C. 3 /review/show...

Merged review:

It would be pointless for me to write a review when all my thoughts are quite perfectly said by Val ⚓️ Shameless Non-Snowflake ⚓️ here: /review/show...]]>
3.86 2020 A Heart of Blood and Ashes (A Gathering of Dragons, #1)
author: Milla Vane
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2020
rating: 3
read at:
date added: 2024/09/11
shelves:
review:
It would be pointless for me to write a review when all my thoughts are quite perfectly said by Val ⚓️ Shameless Non-Snowflake ⚓️ here: /review/show...

Merged review:

It would be pointless for me to write a review when all my thoughts are quite perfectly said by Val ⚓️ Shameless Non-Snowflake ⚓️ here: /review/show...
]]>
Demon Copperhead 60194162 Alternate cover edition of ISBN 9780063251922.

"Anyone will tell you the born of this world are marked from the get-out, win or lose."

Set in the mountains of southern Appalachia, this is the story of a boy born to a teenaged single mother in a single-wide trailer, with no assets beyond his dead father's good looks and copper-colored hair, a caustic wit, and a fierce talent for survival. In a plot that never pauses for breath, relayed in his own unsparing voice, he braves the modern perils of foster care, child labor, derelict schools, athletic success, addiction, disastrous loves, and crushing losses. Through all of it, he reckons with his own invisibility in a popular culture where even the superheroes have abandoned rural people in favor of cities.

Many generations ago, Charles Dickens wrote David Copperfield from his experience as a survivor of institutional poverty and its damages to children in his society. Those problems have yet to be solved in ours. Dickens is not a prerequisite for readers of this novel, but he provided its inspiration. In transposing a Victorian epic novel to the contemporary American South, Barbara Kingsolver enlists Dickens' anger and compassion, and above all, his faith in the transformative powers of a good story. Demon Copperhead speaks for a new generation of lost boys, and all those born into beautiful, cursed places they can't imagine leaving behind.]]>
560 Barbara Kingsolver C.C. 0 to-read 4.46 2022 Demon Copperhead
author: Barbara Kingsolver
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.46
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/09/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[White Cat (The Curse Workers, #1)]]> 9851536 ĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚýĚý
Cassel has carefully built up a façade of normalcy, blending into the crowd. But his façade starts to crumble when he finds himself sleepwalking, propelled into the night by terrifying dreams about a white cat that wants to tell him something. He’s noticing other disturbing things too, including the strange behavior of his two brothers. They are keeping secrets from him. As Cassel begins to suspect he’s part of a huge con game, he must unravel his past and his memories. To find out the truth, Cassel will have to outcon the conmen.]]>
7 Holly Black 030771182X C.C. 0 to-read 3.92 2010 White Cat (The Curse Workers, #1)
author: Holly Black
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2010
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Claiming the Dragon King (The Elite Guards #2)]]> 40041761 He’s honor bound to avenge his people and take back his palace by any means necessary.
Blane has kept his people hidden from the Horde since the day they came in and wiped out the dragon race, but they didn’t kill them all. Now he’s back, and making a move against the Horde. He’s going to take back what’s rightfully his in a step to wage war against those who took everything from him. The one thing he didn’t expect was to find her instead of the Horde King’s offspring.
Ciara has lived in the shadows and survived torture at the hands of her own father. She’s trained hard to find her place among the Elite Guard. Until she is captured by him…changing her destiny along with it in one fateful night.
Now, she will taste unbridled passion at the hands of her captor, and she isn’t sure she’ll survive the heat of the Dragon King.
Not suited for anyone under 18. If you don't like alpha a-holes, this book isn't for you. Trigger warnings and adult content. I write a-holes who get knocked down by strong, sassy females that earn and demand the respect from the men.
]]>
410 Amelia Hutchins 0997720107 C.C. 2 4.14 2018 Claiming the Dragon King (The Elite Guards #2)
author: Amelia Hutchins
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2018
rating: 2
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match]]> 59816803
For generations, every Frankenstein has found their true love and equal, unlocking lifetimes of blissful wedded adventure. Clever, pretty (and odd) Angelika Frankenstein has run out of suitors and fears she may become the exception to this family rule. When assisting in her brother Victor's ground-breaking experiment to bring a reassembled man back to life, she realizes that having an agreeable gentleman convalescing in the guest suite might be a chance to let a man get to know the real her. For the first time, Angelika embarks upon a project that is all her own.

When her handsome scientific miracle sits up on the lab table, her hopes for an instant romantic connection are thrown into disarray. Her resurrected beau (named Will for the moment) has total amnesia and is solely focused on uncovering his true identity. Trying to ignore their heart-pounding chemistry, Angelika reluctantly joins the investigation into his past, hoping it will bring them closer. But when a second suitor emerges to aid their quest, Angelika wonders if she was too hasty inventing a solution. Perhaps fate is not something that can be influenced in a laboratory? Or is Will (or whatever his name is!) her dream man, tailored for her in every way? And can he survive what was done to him in the name of science, and love?

Filled with carriages, candlesticks, and corpses, Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match is the spooky-season reimagining of the well-known classic that reminds us to never judge a man by his cadaver!]]>
364 Sally Thorne 0062912836 C.C. 0 to-read 3.31 2022 Angelika Frankenstein Makes Her Match
author: Sally Thorne
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.31
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[King of Battle and Blood (Adrian x Isolde, #1)]]> 56651967
Isolde de Lara considers her wedding day her death day. To end a years-long war, she is to marry vampire king, Adrian Aleksandr Vasiliev, and kill him.

But her assassination attempt is thwarted and Adrian threatens that if Isolde tries to kill him again, he will raise her as the undead. Faced with the possibility of becoming the thing she hates most, Isolde seeks other ways to defy him and survive the brutal vampire court.

Except it isn’t the court she fears most � it’s Adrian. Despite their undeniable chemistry, she wonders why the king � fierce, savage, merciless � chose her as consort.

The answer will shatter her world.]]>
391 Scarlett St. Clair C.C. 0 to-read 3.66 2021 King of Battle and Blood (Adrian x Isolde, #1)
author: Scarlett St. Clair
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.66
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/28
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Death in Her Hands 52878453
While on her normal daily walk with her dog in the forest woods, our protagonist comes across a note, handwritten and carefully pinned to the ground with a frame of stones. "Her name was Magda. Nobody will ever know who killed her. It wasn't me. Here is her dead body". Our narrator is deeply shaken; she has no idea what to make of this. She is new to area, having moved her from her longtime home after the death of her husband, and she knows very few people. And she's a little shaky even on best days. Her brooding about this note quickly grows into a full-blown obsession, and she begins to devote herself to exploring the possibilities of her conjectures about who this woman was and how she met her fate. Her suppositions begin to find echoes in the real world, and with mounting excitement and dread, the fog of mystery starts to form into a concrete and menacing shape. But as we follow her in her investigation, strange dissonances start to accrue, and our faith in her grip on reality weakens, until finally, just as she seems be facing some of the darkness in her own past with her late husband, we are forced to face the prospect that there is either a more innocent explanation for all this or a much more sinister one - one that strikes closer to home.

A triumphant blend of horror, suspense, and pitch-black comedy, 'Death in Her Hands' asks us to consider how the stories we tell ourselves both guide us closer to the truth and keep us at bay from it. Once again, we are in the hands of a narrator whose unreliability is well earned, only this time the stakes have never been higher.]]>
259 Ottessa Moshfegh 1984879359 C.C. 0 to-read 3.25 2020 Death in Her Hands
author: Ottessa Moshfegh
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.25
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Under the Skin 123063 Under the Skin takes us on a heart-thumping ride through dangerous territory—our own moral instincts and the boundaries of compassion.]]> 296 Michel Faber 1841954802 C.C. 0 to-read 3.76 2000 Under the Skin
author: Michel Faber
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2000
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Beach 43233 0 Alex Garland 3526435677 C.C. 0 to-read 3.69 1996 The Beach
author: Alex Garland
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.69
book published: 1996
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Cruel Intentions (Blackmore University, #1)]]> 207581362
Her mother is a homewrecker; I have no doubt that she is, too.
She bats her eyelashes and pretends she’s innocent, but I know the truth.
The blood in her veins is made of mud, and I will purify it.

Kaye Pennington is the daughter of the woman that ruined my life, now I will ruin hers.

It’s not fair; nothing in life ever is.

When her innocence has been plucked like a flower�
When she’s been made to pay for her sins�
When she stands before me a broken reed�
Her mother’s debt will be repaid.

Until then� she’s mine.
And I do whatever I want with my property.

Note: Cruel Intentions is Xavier and Kaye's story. This novel features dark themes, steamy scenes, and mature content. Please read the first chapter for a full list of TWs.

Each book in the Blackmore University series can be read as a standalone novel.]]>
329 Cora Kent C.C. 0 to-read 3.62 Cruel Intentions (Blackmore University, #1)
author: Cora Kent
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.62
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Thrum 210835673 Meg Smitherman C.C. 0 to-read 3.93 2024 Thrum
author: Meg Smitherman
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.93
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/08/06
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Thousand Splendid Suns 128029
With the passing of time comes Taliban rule over Afghanistan, the streets of Kabul loud with the sound of gunfire and bombs, life a desperate struggle against starvation, brutality and fear, the women's endurance tested beyond their worst imaginings. Yet love can move people to act in unexpected ways, lead them to overcome the most daunting obstacles with a startling heroism. In the end it is love that triumphs over death and destruction.

A Thousand Splendid Suns is a portrait of a wounded country and a story of family and friendship, of an unforgiving time, an unlikely bond, and an indestructible love.]]>
372 Khaled Hosseini 1594489505 C.C. 0 to-read 4.44 2007 A Thousand Splendid Suns
author: Khaled Hosseini
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.44
book published: 2007
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)]]> 50523477 Empire of Sand and Realm of Ash Tasha Suri's The Jasmine Throne, beginning a new trilogy set in a world inspired by the history and epics of India, in which a captive princess and a maidservant in possession of forbidden magic become unlikely allies on a dark journey to save their empire from the princess's traitor brother.

Imprisoned by her dictator brother, Malini spends her days in isolation in the Hirana: an ancient temple that was once the source of the powerful, magical deathless waters � but is now little more than a decaying ruin.

Priya is a maidservant, one among several who make the treacherous journey to the top of the Hirana every night to clean Malini’s chambers. She is happy to be an anonymous drudge, so long as it keeps anyone from guessing the dangerous secret she hides.

But when Malini accidentally bears witness to Priya’s true nature, their destinies become irrevocably tangled. One is a vengeful princess seeking to depose her brother from his throne. The other is a priestess seeking to find her family. Together, they will change the fate of an empire.]]>
533 Tasha Suri 0356515648 C.C. 0 to-read 4.12 2021 The Jasmine Throne (The Burning Kingdoms, #1)
author: Tasha Suri
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.12
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/06/18
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Lies Young Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free]]> 1518189 Ěý
“I know God should be the only thing that satisfies, but if it could be Him and my friends, then I could be happy.�

"It seems like I have been struggling with depression forever. I always feel like I am not good enough.�

“I tell myself that I don’t really listen to the song lyrics, but once I hear a song a few times and start thinking about what they’re saying I realize that it's too late.Ěý It's already stuck in my head."
Ěý
"For me, the whole wife and mom thing is overrated. It isn’t cool to want a husband and a family.�

Maybe you can identify. Trying to listen to the right voices can be difficult. This book has been written by friends who will help you find the Truth. Maybe your heart is telling you that some things in your life are way off course. Certain habits and relationships have left you confused and lonely. This is not the way it’s supposed to be.

In this book, Nancy and Dannah expose 25 of the lies most commonly believed by your generation. They share real-life accounts from some of the young women they interviewed, along with honest stories about how they’ve overcome lies they themselves believed . They get down in the trenches of the battle with you. Best of all, they’ll show you how to be set free by the Truth.]]>
208 Nancy Leigh DeMoss 080247294X C.C. 4 2015 4.00 2006 Lies Young Women Believe: And the Truth that Sets Them Free
author: Nancy Leigh DeMoss
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.00
book published: 2006
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/06/15
shelves: 2015
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Terrorist Factory: ISIS, the Yazidi Genocide, and Exporting Terror]]> 39655114
With testimony drawn from more than 200 interviews with Yazidi survivors—girls, women, boys, and men—recorded during 11 investigative trips to refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan.

"If you read only one book on this subject, it should be this one.”—Lara Logan, 60 Minutes

The massacre of the Yazidi people by ISIS was nothing less than genocide. In refugee camps in Iraqi Kurdistan, the authors brought a skilled team to interview more than a hundred ISIS survivors and document what they experienced and saw. These former slaves observed their torturers and know from the inside the secret facilities that ISIS has kept hidden from the world. What their testimony reveals is an organization whose ambition is power, regardless of their claim to be "soldiers of God." Their fighters are paid with sex, money, and the power of life and death over captives. Their promised paradise is here and now, not after death.
Men who didn't swear allegiance were executed. Women became slaves for sex or reproduction, and their offspring may still serve the cause. In mobile training camps, the captured children were drugged, indoctrinated, and taught to shoot Kalashnikovs, plant explosives, and handle suicide vests. They are the intended products of the terrorist factory. In this taut, disturbing account, the authors document a utilitarian genocide that still holds an implicit threat to other counties, including those in the West.]]>
159 Father Patrick Desbois 1628729481 C.C. 0 to-read 3.97 The Terrorist Factory: ISIS, the Yazidi Genocide, and Exporting Terror
author: Father Patrick Desbois
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.97
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: War Through the Lives of Women]]> 40539112
In Our Bodies, Their Battlefields , longtime intrepid war correspondent Christina Lamb makes us witness to the lives of women in wartime. An award-winning war correspondent for twenty-five years (she’s never had a female editor) Lamb reports two wars—the “bang-bang� war and the story of how the people behind the lines live and survive. At the same time, since men usually act as the fighters, women are rarely interviewed about their experience of wartime, other than as grieving widows and mothers, though their experience is markedly different from that of the men involved in battle.

Lamb chronicles extraordinary tragedy and challenges in the lives of women in wartime. And none is more devastating than the increase of the use of rape as a weapon of war. Visiting warzones including the Congo, Rwanda, Nigeria, Bosnia, and Iraq, and spending time with the Rohingya fleeing Myanmar, she records the harrowing stories of survivors, from Yazidi girls kept as sex slaves by ISIS fighters and the beekeeper risking his life to rescue them; to the thousands of schoolgirls abducted across northern Nigeria by Boko Haram, to the Congolese gynecologist who stitches up more rape victims than anyone on earth. Told as a journey, and structured by country, Our Bodies, Their Battlefields gives these women voice.

We have made significant progress in international women’s rights, but across the world women are victimized by wartime atrocities that are rarely recorded, much less punished. The first ever prosecution for war rape was in 1997 and there have been remarkably few convictions since, as if rape doesn’t matter in the reckoning of war, only killing. Some courageous women in countries around the world are taking things in their own hands, hunting down the war criminals themselves, trying to trap them through Facebook.

In this profoundly important book, Christina Lamb shines a light on some of the darkest parts of the human experience—so that we might find a new way forward. Our Bodies, Their Battlefields is as inspiring and empowering is as it is urgent, a clarion call for necessary change.]]>
384 Christina Lamb 150119917X C.C. 0 to-read 4.62 2020 Our Bodies, Their Battlefields: War Through the Lives of Women
author: Christina Lamb
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.62
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State]]> 34346848 WINNER OF THE NOBEL PEACE PRIZE

In this intimate memoir of survival, a former captive of the Islamic State tells her harrowing and ultimately inspiring story.

Nadia Murad was born and raised in Kocho, a small village of farmers and shepherds in northern Iraq. A member of the Yazidi community, she and her brothers and sisters lived a quiet life. Nadia had dreams of becoming a history teacher or opening her own beauty salon.

On August 15th, 2014, when Nadia was just twenty-one years old, this life ended. Islamic State militants massacred the people of her village, executing men who refused to convert to Islam and women too old to become sex slaves. Six of Nadia's brothers were killed, and her mother soon after, their bodies swept into mass graves. Nadia was taken to Mosul and forced, along with thousands of other Yazidi girls, into the ISIS slave trade.

Nadia would be held captive by several militants and repeatedly raped and beaten. Finally, she managed a narrow escape through the streets of Mosul, finding shelter in the home of a Sunni Muslim family whose eldest son risked his life to smuggle her to safety.

Today, Nadia's story - as a witness to the Islamic State's brutality, a survivor of rape, a refugee, a Yazidi - has forced the world to pay attention to an ongoing genocide. It is a call to action, a testament to the human will to survive, and a love letter to a lost country, a fragile community, and a family torn apart by war.]]>
13 Nadia Murad 0525493212 C.C. 0 to-read 4.45 2017 The Last Girl: My Story of Captivity, and My Fight Against the Islamic State
author: Nadia Murad
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.45
book published: 2017
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/05/11
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder]]> 61714633 From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Killers of the Flower Moon, a page-turning story of shipwreck, survival, and savagery, culminating in a court martial that reveals a shocking truth. The powerful narrative reveals the deeper meaning of the events on the Wager, showing that it was not only the captain and crew who ended up on trial, but the very idea of empire.

On January 28, 1742, a ramshackle vessel of patched-together wood and cloth washed up on the coast of Brazil. Inside were thirty emaciated men, barely alive, and they had an extraordinary tale to tell. They were survivors of His Majesty's Ship the Wager, a British vessel that had left England in 1740 on a secret mission during an imperial war with Spain. While the Wager had been chasing a Spanish treasure-filled galleon known as "the prize of all the oceans," it had wrecked on a desolate island off the coast of Patagonia. The men, after being marooned for months and facing starvation, built the flimsy craft and sailed for more than a hundred days, traversing nearly 3,000 miles of storm-wracked seas. They were greeted as heroes.

But then . . . six months later, another, even more decrepit craft landed on the coast of Chile. This boat contained just three castaways, and they told a very different story. The thirty sailors who landed in Brazil were not heroes - they were mutineers. The first group responded with countercharges of their own, of a tyrannical and murderous senior officer and his henchmen. It became clear that while stranded on the island the crew had fallen into anarchy, with warring factions fighting for dominion over the barren wilderness. As accusations of treachery and murder flew, the Admiralty convened a court martial to determine who was telling the truth. The stakes were life-and-death--for whomever the court found guilty could hang.

The Wager is a grand tale of human behavior at the extremes told by one of our greatest nonfiction writers. Grann's recreation of the hidden world on a British warship rivals the work of Patrick O'Brian, his portrayal of the castaways' desperate straits stands up to the classics of survival writing such as The Endurance, and his account of the court martial has the savvy of a Scott Turow thriller. As always with Grann's work, the incredible twists of the narrative hold the reader spellbound.]]>
331 David Grann 0385534264 C.C. 4 4.14 2023 The Wager: A Tale of Shipwreck, Mutiny and Murder
author: David Grann
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at:
date added: 2024/05/07
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories]]> 125078483 With the current rise of antisemitism, this important book looks at how one Jewish family —the Rothschilds—became a lightning rod for the conspiracy theories of the last two centuries, and how those theories are still very much alive today.

In 2018, Congresswoman Marjorie Taylor Greene took to social media to share her suspicions that the California wildfires were started by "space solar generators" that were funded by powerful, mysterious backers. Instantly, thousands of people rallied around her, blaming the fires on “Jewish space lasers� and, ultimately, the Rothschild family.

For more than 200 years, the name "Rothschild" has been synonymous with two things: great wealth, and conspiracy theories about what they're "really doing" with it. Almost from the moment Mayer Amschel Rothschild and his sons emerged from the Jewish ghetto of Frankfurt to revolutionize the banking world, the Rothschild family has been the target of myths, hoaxes, bizarre accusations, and constant, virulent antisemitism. Over the years, they have been blamed for everything from the sinking of the Titanic to the Great Depression and even for the COVID-19 pandemic.

Jewish Space Lasers is a deeply researched dive into the history of the conspiracy industry around the Rothschild family--from the "pamphlet wars" of Paris in the 1840s to the dankest pits of the internet today. Journalist and conspiracy theory expert Mike Rothschild, who isn't related to the family, sorts out myth from reality to find the truth about these conspiracy theories and their spreaders. Who were the Rothschilds? Who are they today? Do they really own $500 trillion and every central bank, in addition to "controlling the British money supply"? Is any of this actually true? And why, even as their wealth and influence have waned, do they continue to drive conspiracies and hoaxes?]]>
336 Mike Rothschild 1685890644 C.C. 0 to-read 3.82 2023 Jewish Space Lasers: The Rothschilds and 200 Years of Conspiracy Theories
author: Mike Rothschild
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.82
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Sunken City (The Sunken City #1)]]> 59841008
After a fateful storm plunges her to the depths of the ocean, Amare wakes to find herself in a strange new world: an underwater kingdom, where magic exists, but is strictly outlawed by the King—a man who claims to be her true father.

As Amare struggles to fit into her new role as Princess of the Sunken City, she finds herself tangled in a web of love between two brothers—one good, one not so good. And as strange powers manifest within her, she must question everything she was raised to believe—especially if she has any hope of stopping the evil brewing at the bottom of the ocean.

~~~

"Fans of Pirates of the Caribbean will be captivated by this swash buckling adventure on the high seas. A complex and rich narrative... that immerses you fully in the storytelling - a fantasy you won't want to end!" - Kate W. J. White, author of the Caskets of Ice series]]>
376 Emma V.R. Noyes C.C. 0 to-read 3.83 2022 The Sunken City (The Sunken City #1)
author: Emma V.R. Noyes
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)]]> 61215351 One Ring to rule them all, One Ring to find them, One Ring to bring them all and in the darkness bind them.

In ancient times the Rings of Power were crafted by the Elven-smiths, and Sauron, the Dark Lord, forged the One Ring, filling it with his own power so that he could rule all others. But the One Ring was taken from him, and though he sought it throughout Middle-earth, it remained lost to him. After many ages it fell into the hands of Bilbo Baggins, as told in The Hobbit.

In a sleepy village in the Shire, young Frodo Baggins finds himself faced with an immense task, as his elderly cousin Bilbo entrusts the Ring to his care. Frodo must leave his home and make a perilous journey across Middle-earth to the Cracks of Doom, there to destroy the Ring and foil the Dark Lord in his evil purpose.]]>
432 J.R.R. Tolkien C.C. 0 4.52 1954 The Fellowship of the Ring (The Lord of the Rings, #1)
author: J.R.R. Tolkien
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.52
book published: 1954
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/16
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, favorites, currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)]]> 60784546 After centuries of sleep, the gods are warring again�

All eighteen-year-old Iris Winnow wants to do is hold her family together. With a brother on the frontline forced to fight on behalf of the Gods now missing from the frontline and a mother drowning her sorrows, Iris’s best bet is winning the columnist promotion at the Oath Gazette.

But when Iris’s letters to her brother fall into the wrong hands � that of the handsome but cold Roman Kitt, her rival at the paper � an unlikely magical connection forms.

Expelled into the middle of a mystical war, magical typewriters in tow, can their bond withstand the fight for the fate of mankind and, most importantly, love?

An epic enemies-to-lovers fantasy novel filled with hope and heartbreak, and the unparalleled power of love.]]>
357 Rebecca Ross 1250857430 C.C. 4 4.14 2023 Divine Rivals (Letters of Enchantment, #1)
author: Rebecca Ross
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.14
book published: 2023
rating: 4
read at: 2024/03/16
date added: 2024/03/16
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2023, romance
review:

]]>
Swordheart 42771121 "Dive in...if you are looking to be charmed and delighted." - Locus Return to the world of Clockwork Boys in this all-new novel from T. Kingfisher! Halla is a housekeeper who has suddenly inherited her great-uncle's estate... and, unfortunately, his relatives. Sarkis is an immortal swordsman trapped in a prison of enchanted steel. When Halla draws the sword that imprisons him, Sarkis finds himself attempting to defend his new wielder against everything from bandits and roving inquisitors to her own in-laws... and the sword itself may prove to be the greatest threat of all...]]> 426 T. Kingfisher C.C. 0 currently-reading 4.34 2018 Swordheart
author: T. Kingfisher
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.34
book published: 2018
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/16
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans]]> 134245114 AN INSTANT #1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

It’s often said that China is in a cold war with America. The reality is far the war is hot, and the body count is one-sided.

China is killing Americans and working aggres­sively to maximize the carnage while our leaders remain passive and, in some cases, compliant. Why?

If anyone could crack the code, it’s the renowned nonpartisan investigator Peter Schweizer. Schweizer’s previous three number one New York Times bestsellers sent shock waves through official Wash­ington, sparking FBI investigations and congres­sional probes that continue to this day.

For Blood Money, Schweizer and his team of forensic investigators spent more than two years scouring a trove of restricted Chinese military documents, data-mining a mountain of American financial records, and tracking US political lead­ers� investments and family businesses. Schweizer unloads bombshell after bombshell, exposing the Chinese Communist Party’s covert operations in the American drug trade, social justice movement, and medical establishment to sow chaos and deca­dence in the United States.

A towering achievement of investigative jour­nalism, Blood Money is one of those rare books that makes you clearly see the world anew.]]>
316 Peter Schweizer 006306121X C.C. 0 to-read 4.39 2024 Blood Money: Why the Powerful Turn a Blind Eye While China Kills Americans
author: Peter Schweizer
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2024
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/14
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)]]> 23168817 512 Liu Cixin C.C. 0 to-read 4.39 2008 The Dark Forest (Remembrance of Earth’s Past, #2)
author: Liu Cixin
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.39
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/03/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Moms on Call | Basic Baby Care 0-6 Months | Parenting Book 1 of 3 (Moms On Call Parenting Books)]]> 19023109 199 Laura Hunter 0985411449 C.C. 0 currently-reading 4.21 2012 Moms on Call | Basic Baby Care 0-6 Months | Parenting Book 1 of 3 (Moms On Call Parenting Books)
author: Laura Hunter
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.21
book published: 2012
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/27
shelves: currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us]]> 6452796 The New York Times bestseller that gives readers a paradigm-shattering new way to think about motivation

Most people believe that the best way to motivate is with rewards like money—the carrot-and-stick approach. That's a mistake, says Daniel H. Pink (author of To Sell Is Human: The Surprising Truth About Motivating Others). In this provocative and persuasive new book, he asserts that the secret to high performance and satisfaction—at work, at school, and at home—is the deeply human need to direct our own lives, to learn and create new things, and to do better by ourselves and our world.

Drawing on four decades of scientific research on human motivation, Pink exposes the mismatch between what science knows and what business does—and how that affects every aspect of life. He examines the three elements of true motivation—autonomy, mastery, and purpose—and offers smart and surprising techniques for putting these into action in a unique book that will change how we think and transform how we live.]]>
242 Daniel H. Pink 1594488843 C.C. 0 to-read 3.94 2009 Drive: The Surprising Truth About What Motivates Us
author: Daniel H. Pink
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.94
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/02/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, #1)]]> 40914165 An alternate cover edition for ISBN 978-1492671527 can be found here.

In 1936, tucked deep into the woods of Troublesome Creek, KY, lives blue-skinned 19-year-old Cussy Carter, the last living female of the rare Blue People ancestry.

The lonely young Appalachian woman joins the historical Pack Horse Library Project of Kentucky and becomes a librarian, riding across slippery creek beds and up treacherous mountains on her faithful mule to deliver books and other reading material to the impoverished hill people of Eastern Kentucky.

Along her dangerous route, Cussy, known to the mountain folk as Bluet, confronts those suspicious of her damselfly-blue skin and the government's new book program. She befriends hardscrabble and complex fellow Kentuckians, and is fiercely determined to bring comfort and joy, instill literacy, and give to those who have nothing, a bookly respite, a fleeting retreat to faraway lands.]]>
309 Kim Michele Richardson C.C. 0 to-read 4.17 2019 The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek (The Book Woman of Troublesome Creek, #1)
author: Kim Michele Richardson
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.17
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/27
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America]]> 223428
Born Fighting is the first book to chronicle the full journey of this remarkable cultural group, and the profound, but unrecognized, role itĚýhas played in the shaping of America. Written with the storytelling verve that has earned his works such acclaim as “captivating . . . unforgettableâ€� (the Wall Street Journal on Lost Soliders ), Scots-Irishman James Webb, Vietnam combat veteran and former Naval Secretary, traces the history of his people, beginning nearly two thousand years ago at Hadrian’s Wall, when the nation of Scotland was formed north of the Wall through armed conflict in contrast to England’s formation to the south through commerce and trade. Webb recounts the Scotsâ€� odyssey—their clashes with the English in Scotland and then in Ulster, their retreat from one war-ravaged land to another. Through engrossing chronicles of the challenges the Scots-Irish faced, Webb vividly portrays how they developed the qualities that helped settle the American frontier and define the American character.

Born Fighting shows that the Scots-Irish were 40 percent of the Revolutionary War army; they included the pioneers Daniel Boone, Lewis and Clark, Davy Crockett, and Sam Houston; they were the writers Edgar Allan Poe and Mark Twain; and they have given America numerous great military leaders, including Stonewall Jackson, Ulysses S. Grant, Audie Murphy, and George S. Patton, as well as most of the soldiers of the Confederacy (only 5 percent of whom owned slaves, and who fought against what they viewed as an invading army). It illustrates how the Scots-Irish redefined American politics, creating the populist movement and giving the country a dozen presidents, including Andrew Jackson, Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, Ronald Reagan, and Bill Clinton. And it explores how the Scots-Irish culture of isolation, hard luck, stubbornness, and mistrust of the nation’s elite formed and still dominates blue-collar America, the military services, the Bible Belt, and country music.

Both a distinguished work of cultural history and a human drama that speaks straight to the heart of contemporary America, Born Fighting reintroduces America to its most powerful, patriotic, and individualistic cultural group—one too often ignored or taken for granted.]]>
384 James Webb 0767916891 C.C. 0 to-read 3.79 2004 Born Fighting: How the Scots-Irish Shaped America
author: James Webb
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.79
book published: 2004
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Life of Jesus 25204 192 Shūsaku Endō 0809123193 C.C. 0 to-read 3.90 1973 A Life of Jesus
author: Shūsaku Endō
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.90
book published: 1973
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Silence 25200 "In my opinion one of the finest novels of our time." - Graham Greene

Shusaku Endo is Japan's foremost novelist, and Silence is generally regarded to be his masterpiece. In a perfect fusion of treatment and theme, this powerful novel tells the story of a seventeenth-century Portuguese priest in Japan at the height of the fearful persecution of the small Christian community.]]>
219 Shūsaku Endō 0800871863 C.C. 0 to-read 4.11 1966 Silence
author: Shūsaku Endō
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.11
book published: 1966
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/09
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories]]> 179311306 272 Brett Gelman 0063315971 C.C. 0 to-read 3.68 The Terrifying Realm of the Possible: Nearly True Stories
author: Brett Gelman
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.68
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2024/01/05
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)]]> 196864520

The viral TikTok friends-to-lovers dark romantic comedy full of murder, chaos, and spice—unlike anything you’ve read before—now available in all bookstores.


When a chance encounter sparks an unlikely bond between rival murderers Sloane and Rowan, the two find something elusive—the friendship of like-minded, pitch-black souls. From small town West Virginia to upscale California, from downtown Boston to rural Texas, the two hunters collide in an annual game of blood and suffering, one that pits them against the most dangerous monsters in the country.


But as their friendship develops into something more, the restless ghosts left in their wake are only a few steps behind, ready to claim more than just their newfound love. Can Rowan and Sloane dig themselves out of a game of graves? Or have they finally met their match?

]]>
360 Brynne Weaver C.C. 0 to-read 3.99 2023 Butcher & Blackbird (The Ruinous Love Trilogy, #1)
author: Brynne Weaver
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.99
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts, #1)]]> 49826643
Ripped from a forgotten homeland as a child, Tisaanah learned how to survive with nothing but a sharp wit and a touch of magic. But the night she tries to buy her freedom, she barely escapes with her life.

Desperate to save the best friend she left behind, Tisaanah journeys to the Orders, the most powerful organizations of magic Wielders in the world. But to join their ranks, she must complete an apprenticeship with Maxantarius Farlione, a handsome and reclusive fire wielder who despises the Orders.

The Orders� intentions are cryptic, and Tisaanah must prove herself under the threat of looming war. But even more dangerous are her growing feelings for Maxantarius. The bloody past he wants to forget may be the key to her future� or the downfall of them both.

But Tisaanah will stop at nothing to save those she abandoned. Even if it means gambling in the Orders� deadly games. Even if it means sacrificing her heart.

Even if it means wielding death itself.

Fans of epic romantic fantasy like Sarah J. Maas and Raven Kennedy will devour this tale of dark magic, passionate romance, vengeance, and redemption.]]>
520 Carissa Broadbent C.C. 0 to-read 4.03 2020 Daughter of No Worlds (The War of Lost Hearts, #1)
author: Carissa Broadbent
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2020
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/30
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens]]> 150038752 Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens - a thoughtful, funny exploration of the founding fathers and mothers of England, and subsequently Britain.

Think you know your kings and queens? Think again.

In Unruly, David Mitchell explores how England's monarchs, while acting as feared rulers firmly guiding their subjects' destinies, were in reality a bunch of lucky sods who were mostly as silly and weird in real life as they appear today in their portraits.

Taking us right back to King Arthur (he didn't exist), David tells the founding story of post-Roman England right up to the reign of Elizabeth I (she dies). It's a tale of narcissists, inadequate self-control, excessive beheadings, middle-management insurrection, uncivil wars, and at least one total Cnut, as the population evolved from having their crops nicked by the thug with the largest armed gang to bowing and paying taxes to a divinely anointed king.

How this happened, who it happened to and why it matters in modern Britain are all questions David answers with brilliance, wit and the full erudition of a man who once studied history - and won't let it off the hook for the mess it's made.

A funny book about a serious subject, Unruly is for anyone who has ever wondered how we got here - and who is to blame.]]>
431 David Mitchell 1405953179 C.C. 0 to-read 4.13 2023 Unruly: A History of England's Kings and Queens
author: David Mitchell
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.13
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Miss Pearly's Girls: A Captivating Tale of Family Healing]]> 58230489
Raising four very different daughters on her own in rural Arkansas wasn't easy for Miss Pearly Bell. And she's always regretted that the sisters went their separate ways for good—and never wanted to see each other again. But when Pearly is stricken with a terminal illness, she summons them all home—determined to somehow help them get right with each other and forgive...But that means dealing with past secrets and lies first.

As the oldest sister, pastor's wife Maxine took her responsibility way too seriously—and never fails to judge everyone else. But a secret she can no longer keep will explode everything she stands for. Youngest sister Leslie is all about making a very different life with her new love—but she didn't expect a shattering past truth to be suddenly revealed and uproot everything she ever thought she knew. Elegant PR professional Stella and her earthy twin, Star, don’t see eye-to-eye on anything—and now a long-ago deception could wipe out their last chance at a relationship.

Soon each sister must confront the illusions they've taken refuge in for so long and deal with each other woman-to-woman. But can building an all-too-fragile trust repair the damage done—and help them come together when they are needed most?]]>
272 ReShonda Tate Billingsley 1496735390 C.C. 0 to-read 4.24 Miss Pearly's Girls: A Captivating Tale of Family Healing
author: ReShonda Tate Billingsley
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.24
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/12/01
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Impossible Creatures 134979103
Mal and Christopher embark on a wild adventure, racing from island to island, searching for someone who can explain why the magic is fading and why magical creatures are suddenly dying. They consult sphinxes, battle kraken, and negotiate with dragons. But the closer they get to the dark truth of what's happening, the clearer it becomes: no one else can fix this. If the Archipelago is to be saved, Mal and Christopher will have to do it themselves.]]>
368 Katherine Rundell 1408897415 C.C. 0 to-read 4.16 2023 Impossible Creatures
author: Katherine Rundell
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.16
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/29
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices]]> 7779696 265 Mosab Hassan Yousef 1414333072 C.C. 0 to-read 4.20 2011 Son of Hamas: A Gripping Account of Terror, Betrayal, Political Intrigue, and Unthinkable Choices
author: Mosab Hassan Yousef
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.20
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/26
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
The Villain Duology 43785485 "Dark, gothic, and sizzling hot, The Villain is Jane Eyre meets Fifty Shades." -NYT Times Bestselling Author Anna Zaires

Book One: The Villain
A heartless villain�
Lady Daphne Fairchild braves the journey from London to the wilds of Scotland alone with one purpose in mind: confront the man who purposely and methodically set out to ruin the men of her family. But what he demands in exchange for answers will thrust Daphne into a world of mystery, hatred, and lust.

An indecent proposal�
Thirty days and nights in the bed of the Earl of Hartmoor � this is the price she must pay to learn the truth of the dark lord’s vendetta against her family. Yet, when she accepts the offer, Daphne never expects to find that nothing is what she thought it was, and the truth proves far harder to stomach than she ever imagined.

Book 2: The Dove
An unexpected obsession�
After thirty days and nights in his bed, Adam sends Daphne back to London a fallen woman, the final blow that will see the Fairchild family scorned by society. However, he is hard-pressed to forget the beauty of her submission, or the brief moments of peace and balance she brought his tortured existence. Despite the bad blood between their families, he is determined to possess her, to stake his claim on her beyond the thirty nights she gave him. She will fight him at every turn � which will only make the chase, and her inevitable surrender, all the better.

A choice between love and retribution�
When the consequences of Adam’s deeds begin to fall back on not only him, but Daphne, as well, he is forced to bring her under his protection. He will end this feud between his family and hers once and for all, and is determined to put her behind him when all is said and done. Yet, it becomes increasingly clear that setting her aside will not be as simple as he thought. Her heart could be his for the taking, but only if he will abandon his vendetta against her family once and for all. Will Adam choose a lifetime of peace and love with Daphne � or will the need for revenge consume him, and eventually, destroy him?]]>
579 Victoria Vale C.C. 0 to-read 4.44 The Villain Duology
author: Victoria Vale
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.44
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne (Rescued from Ruin, #1)]]> 24314975 His revenge will be her seduction.

The night that changes everything�

Life for Victoria Lacey should be perfect. And it is—perfectly boring. Agree to marry a lord who has yet to inspire a single, solitary tingle? Why, of course. Smile as though this is not the thousandth time he’s mentioned hounds and hunting? It’s all in a day’s work for the oh-so-proper sister of the Duke of Blackmore. Surely no one would suspect her secret longing for heart-racing, head-spinning passion. Except, perhaps, a dark stranger� on a terrace� at a ball where she should definitely not be kissing a man she has only just met.

The obsession that leads to ruin�

Hatred, not love, drives Lucien Wyatt, Viscount Atherbourne, to tempt the “Flower of Blackmore� into sin. Her brother has done unthinkable damage to Lucien’s family, and he intends to exact revenge in the only way left to him: Ruining his enemy’s sister, then stealing her from Blackmore by making her his own.

The woman who will set fire to her husband’s heart�

As Lucien carries out his ruthless plan, tutoring his new bride in the finer points of pleasure, her surrender leaves him breathless� and soon a new obsession awakens—a scandalous fascination with his irresistible wife.]]>
290 Elisa Braden C.C. 0 to-read 3.78 2015 The Madness of Viscount Atherbourne (Rescued from Ruin, #1)
author: Elisa Braden
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.78
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[His Favorite Mistake (His, #1)]]> 48899226 James Bradford, Duke of Rushton, is a man obsessed with revenge. When his sister’s lover, the Earl of Westwood, refuses to wed her to save her from disgrace and give her child a name, he latches onto a nefarious scheme of his own: an eye for an eye. Or, more appropriately, a sister’s dishonor for a sister’s dishonor.


Lady Jillian Kittridge has been crossed in love before, with absolutely no inclination to set herself up for disaster yet again. At twenty-two, she is very nearly on the shelf and is simply awaiting the day that the funds set aside for her dowry will fall under her control. But when the handsome Duke of Rushton begins to court her, she finds herself unwillingly tempted.


The fact that James finds himself actually liking Jillian is an unwelcome complication. As his scheme draws ever closer to fruition, he wonders: Can he truly destroy the life of an innocent woman, a woman he admires and respects? Or has he been caught in his own trap?


]]>
241 Aydra Richards C.C. 0 to-read 3.80 2019 His Favorite Mistake (His, #1)
author: Aydra Richards
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.80
book published: 2019
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)]]> 61431922 Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders...

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general—also known as her tough-as-talons mother—has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you’re smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don’t bond to “fragile� humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother’s daughter—like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She’ll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda—because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die]]>
528 Rebecca Yarros 1649374046 C.C. 0 to-read 4.56 2023 Fourth Wing (The Empyrean, #1)
author: Rebecca Yarros
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.56
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/15
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Lemonade 25730909
After a lifetime of harboring shame and resentment, Christopher, a ruthless con artist, wants revenge, and unfortunately for Anna, he’s decided that she will be the perfect pawn in his terrible plot. With a fierceness of spirit uncommon in well-bred young ladies in the nineteenth century, Anna will have to use her intelligence and courage to protect her loved ones. But can she also save herself?]]>
466 Nina Pennacchi 1503999408 C.C. 0 3.64 2011 Lemonade
author: Nina Pennacchi
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.64
book published: 2011
rating: 0
read at: 2023/11/14
date added: 2023/11/14
shelves:
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel, #3)]]> 13570315 Librarian's Note: Alternate-cover edition for ASIN B007SWLLHE is located here

He should have left her and never looked back�....

That's not how things played out for Caine, a nearly one thousand year old Pyte, who should have known better. Instead of walking away years ago, he has been watching over the only human who has touched his heart. He stays to protect her, at least that is what he tells himself. When trouble finds her, he knows that he should just cut his losses and walk away, but there is no fighting the hold the child, who has become a woman, has on him. Now they are both paying the price.

Danni knows that she isn’t technically a Sentinel and is putting her life in danger every time she goes out on patrol. She isn't worried, she has a job to do. It is the only thing that matters to her anymore and she isn’t going to let it go without a fight. Unfortunately for her, she didn’t foresee her ex-boyfriend selling her out to a Master, being captured, getting locked up and stuck in a room with the cranky Pyte. The same Pyte that broke her heart years ago and wont stop glaring at her as if their little predicament is all her fault.]]>
433 R.L. Mathewson 0983212597 C.C. 2 4.23 2012 Tall, Dark & Heartless (Pyte/Sentinel, #3)
author: R.L. Mathewson
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.23
book published: 2012
rating: 2
read at: 2023/11/13
date added: 2023/11/13
shelves: fantasy-and-scifi, read-in-2023, romance
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Winter's Promise (The Mirror Visitor, #1)]]> 40969531
Ophelia lives on Anima, an ark where objects have souls. Beneath her worn scarf and thick glasses, the young girl hides the ability to read and communicate with the souls of objects, and the power to travel through mirrors. Her peaceful existence on the Ark of Anima is disrupted when she is promised in marriage to Thorn, from the powerful Dragon clan. Ophelia must leave her family and follow her fiancée to the floating capital on the distant Ark of the Pole. Why has she been chosen? Why must she hide her true identity? Though she doesn’t know it yet, she has become a pawn in a deadly plot.]]>
446 Christelle Dabos 1787701425 C.C. 0 3.89 2013 A Winter's Promise (The Mirror Visitor, #1)
author: Christelle Dabos
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/13
shelves: currently-reading, read-in-2023, fantasy-and-scifi
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn]]> 28693693 Winner of the Jewish Book of the Year Award

The first comprehensive yet accessible history of the state of Israel from its inception to present day, from Daniel Gordis, "one of the most respected Israel analysts" (The Forward) living and writing in Jerusalem.

Israel is a tiny state, and yet it has captured the world’s attention, aroused its imagination, and lately, been the object of its opprobrium. Why does such a small country speak to so many global concerns? More pressingly: Why does Israel make the decisions it does? And what lies in its future?

We cannot answer these questions until we understand Israel’s people and the questions and conflicts, the hopes and desires, that have animated their conversations and actions. Though Israel’s history is rife with conflict, these conflicts do not fully communicate the spirit of Israel and its people: they give short shrift to the dream that gave birth to the state, and to the vision for the Jewish people that was at its core. Guiding us through the milestones of Israeli history, Gordis relays the drama of the Jewish people’s story and the creation of the state. Clear-eyed and erudite, he illustrates how Israel became a cultural, economic and military powerhouse—but also explains where Israel made grave mistakes and traces the long history of Israel’s deepening isolation.

With Israel, public intellectual Daniel Gordis offers us a brief but thorough account of the cultural, economic, and political history of this complex nation, from its beginnings to the present. Accessible, levelheaded, and rigorous, Israel sheds light on the Israel’s past so we can understand its future. The result is a vivid portrait of a people, and a nation, reborn.]]>
560 Daniel Gordis 0062368761 C.C. 0 to-read 4.26 2016 Israel: A Concise History of a Nation Reborn
author: Daniel Gordis
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.26
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War]]> 20104169
Morris stresses the jihadi character of the two-stage Arab assault on the Jewish community in Palestine. Throughout, he examines the dialectic between the war's military and political developments and highlights the military impetus in the creation of the refugee problem, which was a by-product of the disintegration of Palestinian Arab society. The book thoroughly investigates the role of the Great Powers—Britain, the United States, and the Soviet Union—in shaping the conflict and its tentative termination in 1949. Morris looks both at high politics and general staff decision-making processes and at the nitty-gritty of combat in the successive battlesĚýthatĚýresulted in the emergence of the State of Israel and the humiliation of the Arab world, a humiliation that underlies the continued Arab antagonism toward Israel.

Ěý]]>
544 Benny Morris 0300145241 C.C. 0 to-read 4.36 2008 1948: A History of the First Arab-Israeli War
author: Benny Morris
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.36
book published: 2008
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/07
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning, #1)]]> 75302266 Angharad—Emrys Myrddin’s epic about a mortal girl who falls in love with the Fairy King, then destroys him—is the only thing keeping her afloat. So when Myrddin’s family announces a contest to redesign the late author’s estate, Effy feels certain it’s her destiny.

But musty, decrepit Hiraeth Manor is an impossible task, and its residents are far from welcoming. Including Preston Héloury, a stodgy young literature scholar determined to expose Myrddin as a fraud. As the two rivals piece together clues about Myrddin’s legacy, dark forces, both mortal and magical, conspire against them—and the truth may bring them both to ruin.]]>
378 Ava Reid 0063211505 C.C. 0 to-read 3.73 2023 A Study in Drowning (A Study in Drowning, #1)
author: Ava Reid
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/11/04
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Where the Wind Leads: A Refugee Family's Miraculous Story of Loss, Rescue, and Redemption]]> 18126604
Knowing that their children would have no future under the new government, the Chungs decided to flee the country. In 1979, they joined the legendary "boat people" and sailed into the South China Sea, despite knowing that an estimated two hundred thousand of their countrymen had already perished at the hands of brutal pirates and violent seas.

Where the Wind Leads follows Vinh Chung and his family on their desperate journey from pre-war Vietnam, through pirate attacks on a lawless sea, to a miraculous rescue and a new home in the unlikely town of Fort Smith, Arkansas. There Vinh struggled against poverty, discrimination, and a bewildering language barrier--yet still managed to graduate from Harvard Medical School.

Where the Wind Leads is Vinh's tribute to the courage and sacrifice of his parents, a testimony to his family's faith, and a reminder to people everywhere that the American dream, while still possible, carries with it a greater responsibility.]]>
368 Vinh Chung 0849947561 C.C. 0 4.38 2014 Where the Wind Leads: A Refugee Family's Miraculous Story of Loss, Rescue, and Redemption
author: Vinh Chung
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.38
book published: 2014
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/28
shelves: nonfiction, read-in-2023, currently-reading
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Gentle Rogue (Malory-Anderson Family, #3)]]> 891812
The black sheep of a proud and tempestuous family, the handsome ex-pirate once swore no woman alive could entice him into matrimony. But on the high seas his resolve will be weakened by an unrestrained passion and by the high-spirited beauty whose love of freedom and adventure rivals his own.

Also see: Alternate Cover Editions for this ISBN [ACE]
ACE #1 ]]>
426 Johanna Lindsey C.C. 4 2015, romance, read-in-2023 4.19 1990 Gentle Rogue (Malory-Anderson Family, #3)
author: Johanna Lindsey
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.19
book published: 1990
rating: 4
read at: 2023/10/27
date added: 2023/10/27
shelves: 2015, romance, read-in-2023
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Duke of Sin (Maiden Lane, #10)]]> 27073530 A MAN OF SIN

Devastatingly handsome. Vain. Unscrupulous. Valentine Napier, the Duke of Montgomery, is the man London whispers about in boudoirs and back alleys. A notorious rake and blackmailer, Montgomery has returned from exile, intent on seeking revenge on those who have wronged him. But what he finds in his own bedroom may lay waste to all his plans.

A WOMAN OF HONOR

Born a bastard, housekeeper Bridget Crumb is clever, bold, and fiercely loyal. When her aristocratic mother becomes the target of extortion, Bridget joins the Duke of Montgomery's household to search for the incriminating evidence-and uncovers something far more dangerous.

A SECRET THAT THREATENS TO DESTROY THEM BOTH

Astonished by the deceptively prim-and surprisingly witty-domestic spy in his chambers, Montgomery is intrigued. And try as she might, Bridget can't resist the slyly charming duke. Now as the two begin their treacherous game of cat and mouse, they soon realize that they both have secrets—and neither may be as nefarious—or as innocent—as they appear . . .]]>
368 Elizabeth Hoyt 1455539074 C.C. 5 3.97 2016 Duke of Sin (Maiden Lane, #10)
author: Elizabeth Hoyt
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.97
book published: 2016
rating: 5
read at: 2023/10/27
date added: 2023/10/27
shelves: favorites, romance, read-in-2023
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Highwayman (Victorian Rebels, #1)]]> 23723798 They’re rebels, scoundrels, and blackguards—dark, dashing men on the wrong side of the law. But for the women who love them, a hint of danger only makes the heart beat faster�

STEALING BEAUTY
Dorian Blackwell, the Blackheart of Ben More, is a ruthless villain. Scarred and hard-hearted, Dorian is one of London’s wealthiest, most influential men who will stop at nothing to wreak vengeance on those who’ve wronged him…and will fight to the death to seize what he wants. The lovely, still innocent widow Farah Leigh Mackenzie is no exception—and soon Dorian whisks the beautiful lass away to his sanctuary in the wild Highlands�

COURTING DESIRE
But Farah is no one’s puppet. She possesses a powerful secret—one that threatens her very life. When being held captive by Dorian proves to be the only way to keep Farah safe from those who would see her dead, Dorian makes Farah a scandalous proposition: marry him for protection in exchange for using her secret to help him exact revenge on his enemies. But what the Blackheart of Ben More never could have imagined is that Farah has terms of her own, igniting a tempestuous desire that consumes them both. Could it be that the woman he captured is the only one who can touch the black heart he’d long thought dead?]]>
356 Kerrigan Byrne 1250076056 C.C. 0 to-read 4.03 2015 The Highwayman (Victorian Rebels, #1)
author: Kerrigan Byrne
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/24
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Coven (Coven of Bones, #1)]]> 75396525
There are no whispered words here. No condemnation for the blood that flows through my veins. The only animosity I face comes from the beautiful and infuriating Headmaster, Alaric Grayson Thorne, a man who despises me just as much as I loathe him and everything he stands for.

But that doesn’t mean secrets don’t threaten to tear the school in two. No one talks about the bloody massacre that forced it to close decades prior, only the opportunity it can afford to those fortunate enough to attend.

Because for the first time in fifty years, the Coven will open its wards to the Thirteen: thirteen promising students destined to change the world.

If the ghosts of Hollow’s Groves� victims don’t kill them first...

The Coven is book one in the Coven of Bones series and ends on a cliffhanger. This is a gothic, dark-academia, paranormal romance and includes elements that may be triggering to some listeners.]]>
298 Harper L. Woods C.C. 0 to-read 3.73 2023 The Coven (Coven of Bones, #1)
author: Harper L. Woods
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.73
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/23
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Man of My Dreams (Sherring Cross, #1)]]> 419289 405 Johanna Lindsey 0380756269 C.C. 0 to-read 4.05 Man of My Dreams (Sherring Cross, #1)
author: Johanna Lindsey
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.05
book published:
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Rogue of My Own (Reid Family, #3)]]> 5945363
The devastatingly handsome ne’er-do-well is the cousin of Raphael Locke, with whom Rebecca was once infatuated. . . . He’s also a secret agent of the crown who leads a double life. Certain that guileless Rebecca is spying on him, Rupert seduces her—then, forced to wed, he believes she has set a trap of the worst sort in order to marry into his powerful family! But as he comes to know Rebecca’s true heart, his vow of revenge and infidelity becomes a desire to share many passionate nights�only with his beautiful wife.]]>
368 Johanna Lindsey 141659888X C.C. 0 to-read 3.77 2009 A Rogue of My Own (Reid Family, #3)
author: Johanna Lindsey
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.77
book published: 2009
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/22
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Separate Beds 572626 464 LaVyrle Spencer 0399151311 C.C. 0 to-read 3.89 1985 Separate Beds
author: LaVyrle Spencer
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.89
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Love Only Once (Malory-Anderson Family, #1)]]> 891813 344 Johanna Lindsey 0380899531 C.C. 0 to-read 4.05 1985 Love Only Once (Malory-Anderson Family, #1)
author: Johanna Lindsey
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.05
book published: 1985
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Chasing Her Fire (Bailey Brothers, #5)]]> 63083638
And no matter how much he wants to lie to himself, he has to admit, it was mind-blowing.

Cara will not be tempted by the one night she spent with prince dickhead—even if her traitorous body remembers every earth-shattering moment. It was a mistake and she’s stronger than that. She’ll just keep avoiding him and pretend it didn’t happen.

But the feuding small town of Tilikum might not be big enough for the both of them. Avoiding each other isn’t working. And with every moment they’re forced to spend together, the sparks get hotter, the flames grow brighter, and the tension borders on unbearable.

Until they both reach their breaking point and their fiery relationship explodes.


Author’s note: a sexy firefighter and the sassy redhead who drives him crazy. All the banter, delicious tension, a heartwarming family, and Kindle-melting steam. Enemies to lovers is as hot as it gets and these two are FIRE.

The Bailey Brothers is meant to be read in order. Start with book one, Protecting You.]]>
456 Claire Kingsley C.C. 0 to-read 4.15 2021 Chasing Her Fire (Bailey Brothers, #5)
author: Claire Kingsley
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.15
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Love's Choices 6232389
He had seduced her from the shelter of the convent, then made her his pawn as he quested hungrily after revenge. She had been only an innocent girl, but at his hands she became a woman --- and now the world was hers.

In California, Hope Stanford found success and adulation and an inner strength that gave her freedom. Once a man had told her that for everything there was a price to be paid. Now he was back, but if Alexei Serivace wanted her again, he would find that the price was very high indeed.]]>
383 Penny Jordan 037383327X C.C. 5 romance, favorites 3.06 1984 Love's Choices
author: Penny Jordan
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.06
book published: 1984
rating: 5
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: romance, favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Deceive Not My Heart (Louisiana, #3)]]> 1833392
Leonie's only interest in the despicable cad she had been forced to marry was the return of her dowry. She had not seen her husband in five years, and now Morgan Slade angrily denied there had ever been a marriage.

HER PASSION PROMISED LOVE

But in the cool shadows of the enchanting forest that surround Morgan Slade's elegant southern plantation, the fury of her hatred yields to the fierce hunger of unquenched longing. In the powerful arms of the dark and handsome husband she thought she despised, Leonie trembles with the sweet agony of awakened desire and helplessly surrenders to the wild, intoxicating ecstasy of blazing passion. And together they abandon themselves to the exquisite pleasure of the love their hearts cannot escape.]]>
454 Shirlee Busbee 0380860333 C.C. 0 to-read 3.96 1984 Deceive Not My Heart (Louisiana, #3)
author: Shirlee Busbee
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.96
book published: 1984
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Wrong (Cafe, #1) 26850194
Now I can’t stop fantasizing about one of the customers at the coffee shop I work at between classes. It’s just a harmless crush, right? It’s not like I ever see this guy outside of the coffee shop. It’s not like I’m going to see him while attempting to get birth control at the student clinic. While wearing a paper gown. While sitting on an exam table. Because he’s the doctor. Shoot. Me.

But what if, for once, the man I’ve had the dirtiest, most scandalous fantasies about turned out to be everything but wrong?]]>
286 Jana Aston 069252777X C.C. 0 to-read 3.86 2015 Wrong (Cafe, #1)
author: Jana Aston
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[The Devil Gets His Due (The Devils, #4)]]> 63184308 An accidental pregnancy, grumpy-sunshine romance
Last January, I drunk-married my nemesis—hot, oversized geek Graham Tate. With no memory of how it came about, there was only one run off before he woke up and pretend it didn’t happen. It would have worked perfectly if I hadn’t wound up pregnant.

Graham is the opposite of everything I want in a man—practical, disciplined, frugal—but living with him until the baby arrives has me wondering if, perhaps, I’ve been wanting the wrong things all along. And if that drunk version of me last January might have been onto something.


I never planned to have kids, and I certainly wouldn’t have planned on one with Keeley Connolly—a woman who does not believe in savings accounts or personal safety and thinks Lucky Charms is a health food because of the non-marshmallow bits.

A woman who also didn’t think twice about marrying me in Vegas and ditching me hours later.

I can’t wait to put this behind me and return to my careful, chaos-free life in New York. But the more time I spend with Keeley, the more I’m remembering the things that led me to marry her in the first place…and wondering if I can live without them when this ends.]]>
337 Elizabeth O'Roark C.C. 0 to-read 4.03 2022 The Devil Gets His Due (The Devils, #4)
author: Elizabeth O'Roark
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.03
book published: 2022
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
A Ruthless Proposition 29008047 All that glitters may lead right to his heart�

The last thing Cleopatra Knight expects on her business trip to Tokyo is to fall into bed with her arrogant, irresistibly hot boss, Dante Damaso. It’s a mistake—a steamy, mind-blowingly satisfying mistake. But a few nights of passion with the superwealthy bad boy prove to have long-term effects when Cleo’s world is unexpectedly turned upside down.

Dante has cultivated an enviable, jet-setting lifestyle: beautiful women, exotic destinations, and luxury without limits. He’s not looking to be domesticated, and certainly not by his assistant—even though he can’t get her out of his mind. Still, he knows he has both the responsibility and the financial means to help Cleo.

Though Cleo has no interest in Dante’s money, her lack of prospects gives her little choice but to accept his help. But living under the same roof, Dante discovers he wants more, and if Cleo lets down her guard, she just might find what her heart’s wanted all along.]]>
Natasha Anders C.C. 0 to-read 3.83 2016 A Ruthless Proposition
author: Natasha Anders
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.83
book published: 2016
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[What Angels Fear (Sebastian St. Cyr, #1)]]> 39149
Now a fugitive running for his life, Sebastian calls upon his skill as an agent during the war to catch the killer and prove his own innocence. In the process, he accumulates a band of unlikely allies, including the enigmatic beauty Kat Boleyn, who broke Sebastian's heart years ago. In Sebastian's world of intrigue and espionage, nothing is as it seems, yet the truth may hold the key to the future of the British monarchy, as well as to Sebastian's own salvation....]]>
410 C.S. Harris C.C. 0 to-read 3.89 2005 What Angels Fear (Sebastian St. Cyr, #1)
author: C.S. Harris
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.89
book published: 2005
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Lord Dashwood Missed Out (Spindle Cove, #4.5)]]> 26115826 A snowstorm hath no fury like a spinster scorned!

Miss Elinora Browning grew up yearning for the handsome, intelligent lord-next-door…but he left England without a word of farewell. One night, inspired by a bit too much sherry, Nora poured out her heartbreak on paper. Lord Dashwood Missed Out was a love letter to every young lady who’d been overlooked by gentlemen—and an instant bestseller. Now she’s on her way to speak in Spindle Cove when snowy weather delays her coach. She’s forced to wait out the storm with the worst possible companion: Lord Dashwood himself.

And he finally seems to have noticed her.

George Travers, Lord Dashwood, has traveled the globe as a cartographer. He returned to England with the goal of marrying and creating an heir--only to find his reputation shredded by an audacious, vexingly attractive bluestocking and her poison pen. Lord Dashwood Missed Out, his arse. Since Nora Browning seems to believe he overlooked the passion of a lifetime, Dash challenges her to prove it.

She has one night.]]>
144 Tessa Dare 0062458280 C.C. 0 to-read 3.59 2015 Lord Dashwood Missed Out (Spindle Cove, #4.5)
author: Tessa Dare
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.59
book published: 2015
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3) 129621
ELIZABETH CAMERON

The Countess of Havenhurst possessed a rare gentleness and fierce courage to match her exquisite beauty. But her reputation is shattered when she is discovered in the arms of Ian Thornton, a notorious gambler and social outcast.

IAN THORNTON

A dangerously handsome man of secret wealth and mysterious lineage, his voyage to Elizabeth's heart is fraught with intrigue, scandal, and a venomous revenge.

Destined for each other, yet wary of each other's motives, Elizabeth and Ian engage in a dance of suspicion and passion that tests the very soul of their star-crossed love. As a twisting path of secrets takes them from London's drawing rooms to the mysterious Scottish Highlands, Elizabeth must learn the truth: is Ian merely a ruthless fortune hunter at heart?]]>
544 Judith McNaught 0671011332 C.C. 0 favorites 4.33 1989 Almost Heaven (Sequels, #3)
author: Judith McNaught
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.33
book published: 1989
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
Ravished 367689
There was no doubt about it. What Miss Harriet Pomeroy needed was a man. Someone powerful and clever who could help her rout the unscrupulous thieves who were using her beloved caves to hide their loot. But when Harriet summoned Gideon Westbrook, Viscount St. Justin, to her aid, she could not know that she was summoning the devil himself. . . .

Dubbed the Beast of Blackthorne Hall for his scarred face and lecherous past, Gideon was strong and fierce and notoriously menacing. Yet Harriet could not find it in her heart to fear him. For in his tawny gaze she sensed a savage pain she longed to soothe . . . and a searing passion she yearned to answer. Now, caught up in the Beast’s clutches, Harriet must find a way to win his heart–and evade the deadly trap of a scheming villain who would see them parted for all time.

RAVISHED is a retelling of the classic tale, Beauty and the Beast.]]>
385 Amanda Quick 0553588699 C.C. 0 to-read 3.99 1992 Ravished
author: Amanda Quick
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.99
book published: 1992
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Infamous (Rebels of the Ton, #3)]]> 56680927 Bridgerton fans and readers of Scarlett Scott, Darcy Burke, and K.J. Jackson won’t want to miss this smart and stirring new holiday love story from the acclaimed author of Outrageous.

A mean girl reformed...

Once the reigning beauty of her social set, Celia--whom the newspapers dubbed Lady Infamous--has fallen on hard times and is practically destitute, her reputation in shreds. When Celia is forced to attend a society wedding as a companion to an elderly guest, she must confront the clique she once commanded; the gentleman she'd once hoped to marry--who is now wed to a girl Celia relentlessly taunted; and the powerful man who ruined her life a decade before--and is threatening to do so again...

A hero transformed...

Then there is Richard, the studious boy Celia used to ridicule, who is now gorgeous, wealthy, and more-than-a-little famous. As a youth, Richard was infatuated with Celia. He still seems intrigued, but Celia has acquired a shocking secret along with her hard-won humility. Will it put an end to the love blossoming between them? Does she have the courage to find out?]]>
352 Minerva Spencer 1496732871 C.C. 0 to-read 3.76 2021 Infamous (Rebels of the Ton, #3)
author: Minerva Spencer
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.76
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/21
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[A Rogue's Rules for Seduction (Last Chance Scoundrels, #3)]]> 61401702
After Dominic Kilburn left Lady Willa Ransom at the altar, she vowed never to reveal how badly she was hurt. Following a year abroad, Willa wants to move on with her life, so she accepts an invitation to a house party. She’s determined to leave her humiliation behind, as well as the scorching attraction she still feels for the man who jilted her.

When dark secrets from his past surfaced right before his wedding, Dom knew he didn’t deserve Willa. So, he bolted. But he still burns for the only woman who ever claimed his heart. To escape the memories of all he lost, Dom heads to a friend’s estate on an isolated Scottish isle. Yet one of the other guests is the very woman who haunts his every thought and makes him wish for the impossible.

Thrown together by well-meaning family and friends, Willa and Dom try to resist the fiery pull between them. Soon the line between love and loathing begins to blur, and their attraction explodes. But Dom’s past lurks on the edge of their rekindled passion and Willa fears she’ll be devastated all over again. Can these star-crossed lovers find their happily ever after, or will everything detonate a second time?]]>
349 Eva Leigh 0063086298 C.C. 0 to-read 3.70 2023 A Rogue's Rules for Seduction (Last Chance Scoundrels, #3)
author: Eva Leigh
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.70
book published: 2023
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[An Arranged Marriage (Company of Rogues, #1)]]> 765920 In the tradition of Amanda Quick, New York Times bestselling author Jo Beverley has won the hearts of readers everywhere with her historical romances set in the Georgian and Regency periods. "An Arranged Marriage" is the first of Beverley's beloved tales that began her popular "Company of Rogues" series.

Eleanor Chivenham didn't put much past her vile brother, but even she had not anticipated his greedy scheme to dupe a rich earl into mistaking her for a lightskirt! With her reputation in shreds and her future ruined, a defeated Eleanor was forced to agree to a hasty wedding. But marriage to the mysterious Nicholas Delaney was more than she'd bargained for. He doubtless thought the worst of her, but when society gossip soon told her all about his beautiful French mistress, Eleanor tried to act with the cool dignity required in a marriage of convenience. But how long could she hold out against his undeniable charm -- or the secret desires of her heart?

For the sake of family honor, Nicolas Delaney agreed to wed a wronged lady. In truth, such chivalry ran counter to his carefully wrought image of a carousing, dissolute rogue -- the guise so vital to his secret political mission. He hoped to keep his new wife in the background until a spy was trapped, but Eleanor's beauty and fighting wit were impossible to ignore. In fact, she presented quite a challenge to his prowess with women -- and a test of his formidable will!

]]>
351 Jo Beverley 0821764012 C.C. 0 to-read 3.44 1991 An Arranged Marriage (Company of Rogues, #1)
author: Jo Beverley
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.44
book published: 1991
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Surrender To Love 1249437 704 Rosemary Rogers 1551667169 C.C. 0 favorites 3.70 1982 Surrender To Love
author: Rosemary Rogers
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.70
book published: 1982
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Wicked Loving Lies (Morgan #6)]]> 448077 In the sweeping tradition of Sweet Savage Love, New York Times bestselling author Rosemary Rogers takes readers on an epic journey that spans continents and explores the depths of human passions.

Born of scandal and denied his birthright, Dominic Challenger took to the sea, charting his own future. A true rogue, Dominic answers to no one, trusting only himself. Until Marisa.

Born of wealth and privilege, Marisa is a prisoner to her father's expectations. When the sanctuary she has found behind the walls of a convent is threatened by the news that her father has arranged for her to marry, Marisa flees...right into the arms of a pirate.

From the safety of a sheltered convent to a sultan's harem, from the opulence of Napoleon's court to the wilds of the new frontier, Marisa and Dominic brave all that they encounter in this thrilling age: intrigue, captivity and danger. And above all, an enduring passion that ignites into an infinite love.

]]>
768 Rosemary Rogers 1551669277 C.C. 5 romance, favorites 3.92 1976 Wicked Loving Lies (Morgan #6)
author: Rosemary Rogers
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.92
book published: 1976
rating: 5
read at: 2018/06/09
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: romance, favorites
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[This Heart of Mine (Chicago Stars, #5)]]> 73100 This Heart of Mine..

Molly Somerville knows she has a reputation for trouble. She did give away her fifteen-million-dollar inheritance, but, hey, nobody's perfect. Still, if anyone has an almost perfect life, it's Molly. While her Daphne the Bunny children's books could be selling better, she loves her cramped loft, her French poodle, and her career creating the fictional animals who live in Nightingale Woods. She even loves her sister, Phoebe.

True, it was a little tough growing up in her shadow. Phoebe is beautiful, blissfully married, and the owner of the most successful professional football team in America. But who other than your sister knows you're about to do something drastic every time you change your hair? Yes, Molly's happy about almost everything ... except her long-term crush on the daredevil quarterback for the Chicago Stars, that awful, gorgeous Kevin Tucker, a man who can't even remember her name!

One night Molly's penchant for running into trouble runs right into Kevin himself, turning her world upside down. Heartbreak follows, and just when she's certain things can't get worse, Kevin forces his way back into her life. If only the overpaid, Ferrari-driving, poodle-hating jock was as shallow as she wants him to be, she could get on with her almost perfect life. But Kevin's hidden depths and iron will propel Molly out of her comfortable existence into an unforgettable summer at a place called Wind Lake. Surrounded by paintbox cottages and a charming old bed-and-breakfast, she and Kevin battle their attraction while trying to cope with an aging sexpot actress, a cranky world-famous artist, and a pair of teenage newlyweds.

Their careers and lives are in crisis ... yet they can't seem to stay away from each other. Before the summer is over, will they be able to learn one of life's most important lessons? Sometimes falling in love hurts, sometimes it makes you mad as hell, and sometimes if you're very lucky it can heal in the most special and unexpected way.]]>
432 Susan Elizabeth Phillips C.C. 0 to-read 4.07 2001 This Heart of Mine (Chicago Stars, #5)
author: Susan Elizabeth Phillips
name: C.C.
average rating: 4.07
book published: 2001
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/20
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
<![CDATA[Bound by Night (MoonBound Clan Vampire, #1)]]> 16130410 A WOMAN OUT FOR BLOOD

Nicole Martin was only eight years old when the vampire slaves rose up in rebellion and killed her family. Now she devotes her life to finding a vaccine against vampirism, hoping to wipe out her memories—along with every bloodsucker on the planet. But there’s one thing she cannot destroy: her searing, undeniable attraction for the one man she should hate and fear the most . . .

A VAMPIRE OUT FOR REVENGE

A member of the renegade vampire MoonBound Clan, Riker is haunted by demons of his own. When he recognizes Nicole and remembers how her family enslaved his loved ones, his heart burns for vengeance. But when he kidnaps Nicole and holds her in a secret lair, his mortal enemy becomes his soul obsession, his greatest temptation, and, perhaps, his only salvation—a hot-blooded lover who could heal him with her touch . . . or bury him forever.]]>
400 Larissa Ione 1476700192 C.C. 0 to-read 3.95 2013 Bound by Night (MoonBound Clan Vampire, #1)
author: Larissa Ione
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.95
book published: 2013
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Gilded (Gilded, #1) 56614597
Or so everyone believes.

When one of Serilda's outlandish tales draws the attention of the sinister Erlking and his undead hunters, she finds herself swept away into a grim world where ghouls and phantoms prowl the earth and hollow-eyed ravens track her every move. The king orders Serilda to complete the impossible task of spinning straw into gold, or be killed for telling falsehoods. In her desperation, Serilda unwittingly summons a mysterious boy to her aid. He agrees to help her... for a price.

Soon Serilda realizes that there is more than one secret hidden in the castle walls, including an ancient curse that must be broken if she hopes to end the tyranny of the king and his wild hunt forever.

Marissa Meyer, #1 New York Times-bestselling author, returns to the fairytale world with this haunting retelling of Rumpelstiltskin.]]>
502 Marissa Meyer 1250618843 C.C. 0 to-read 3.86 2021 Gilded (Gilded, #1)
author: Marissa Meyer
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.86
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>
Nightshade (Nightshade, #1) 59479184 A love so forbidden, it would shake the heavens.

My father called them messengers.
He once told me they walked among us, and that somewhere in this dark and godless city, there shined a faint sliver of hope. I had only to look for the signs.

Well, I’ve spent my whole life investigating the inexplicable, and all I've found are the unsettling vestiges of iniquity - the evidence of another world shrouded by the obscure. Purgatory to some, where depravity hides in shadows, and girls like me are little more than delicious bites of temptation.

Others call it Nightshade.

This peculiar place is where I first met the cold and callous recluse living in a decaying cliffside cathedral. Jericho Van Croix is the epitome of everything I’ve been told to fear. A raven-winged harbinger who wears intrigue like a warm black cloak. An enigma that I’m determined to unravel � even if it means getting closer than I should.

One touch is forbidden. Even so much as a kiss would be my demise. But the sin on his lips burns me up like a wild flame, and his growing infatuation weakens my resolve.

Giving him what he wants, though, will mean no chance for redemption, or escape. What's worse is, the signs I’ve followed yet failed to see all these years begin to unmask a terrifying reality:

That falling may be my only saving grace.]]>
676 Keri Lake C.C. 0 to-read 3.92 2021 Nightshade (Nightshade, #1)
author: Keri Lake
name: C.C.
average rating: 3.92
book published: 2021
rating: 0
read at:
date added: 2023/10/19
shelves: to-read
review:

]]>