Alexa Jackson is like most normal, outcast teens; until her sixteenth birthday that is. She’s not anxious about getting her driver’s license, only about being thrown straight into the dangerous world of vampires. Join Lexi on her journey of discovery starting with her family’s true heritage and ending in her transformation into a vampeen, all while on a crash course with her destiny: Kellan.<

From Publishers Weekly

Heavy on romance and light on mystery, Lowell's latest romantic thriller (after Running Scared), set in the art world, promises fireworks, then fizzles out. Art buyer and struggling southern California artist Lacey Quinn shows a few of her grandfather's paintings to renowned artist Susa Donovan, in the area for a charity event. The paintings are mostly landscapes, but also include a few samples from his dark later work, including detailed depictions of murder and death by fire and drowning. Believing that the landscapes are really the work of famous California plein air painter Lewis Marten, Susa asks Lacey to have them professionally appraised. Lacey resists Susa's pleas, fearing that her grandfather may have been guilty of forgery, but she discovers something far more complicated and horrifying. The murders her grandfather depicted actually took place, and as Lacey digs into her grandfather's past, strangely similar murder attempts and arsons begin cropping up. Her research leads her to Ward Forrest, a financier and real estate mogul who is obsessed with the paintings. In spite of the high-concept plot, most readers will guess the outcome well before the end of the book, and the speed and ease with which Lacey unravels three decades of murder and mayhem defy credibility. The wide array of characters and the engaging lesson on California art are enjoyable, but they can't make up for the lack of suspense.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Lacey Quinn makes her living selling odds and ends in her shop in Newport Beach, California, but to the consternation of her society parents, painting is her passion. Against her father's wishes, she unknowingly starts on a dangerous path when she has her grandfather's paintings appraised by the famous artist Susa Donovan at a charity event. Susa loves the paintings and the two become friends and painting partners along with Susa's bodyguard, Ian Lapstrake. Lacey and Ian, an investigator for Rarities Unlimited, set off sparks in a fiery love scene, but the heat of lust is dispelled by a series of mishaps involving Lacey and her grandfather's paintings, which generate unwanted publicity, attract a buyer who wants them at any cost, and put Lacey's life in danger. Ian extends his professional protection to include Lacey as they start investigating Lacey's grandfather. Was he a forger, or a murderer? And who so desperately wants the paintings now? Lowell tangentially touches on her well-loved Donovan family in this well-crafted, exciting romantic suspense novel. One of her best, this will enthrall Lowell fans and encourage others to join their ranks. Patty Engelmann
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Review

If there's a better horror novelist than Bentley Little working today then I don't know who it is. -- _Los Angeles Times_

Product Description

Jason Handford has a real gift for writing letters that get results-from complaints to love letters to editorials. Then he's offered a job to do it for a living. It consumes his time, his mind, and eventually, his soul. Jason really should have stuck with freelance.

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Amazon.com Review


Amazon Exclusive: Joe Hill Reviews Djibouti

The author of the critically acclaimed novels Djibouti:

In the spirit of Djibouti, his 48th novel.

10. The babes. The heroine of Djibouti would be one Dara Barr, who has touched down in Africa to make a documentary about the booming piracy business and maybe win herself another Oscar. Dara is as laconic and unflappable as any of Leonard’s finest heroes (see: waaaaaay overmatched.

9. The bad boys. Creative writing teachers who want to show their students how to draft an unforgettable antagonist ought to tear out chapter 18 and pass it around. That’s where Leonard tells us the story of James Russell, a clever Miami lowlife, who reinvents himself as Jamal Raisuli, al-Queda bomb-thrower… all in 7 pages of breezy, economical characterization.

8. The talk. Plenty has been written about Elmore Leonard’s mastery of dialogue, and I don’t need to rehash it. Why bother, when I could just quote some of it? An elderly terrorist, jailed in The States, gets talking with James Russell:
“What is it you hope to become in your life?”
“Famous,” James said. “I been looking at ways.”
“Become a prophet?
“I don’t tell what will happen. I do it.”

7. The walk. Everyone hustles in an Elmore Leonard novel; you can’t stand still and hope to score. From the slums, where life is the only thing cheaper than khat, to the clubs, where it’s easier to find a pirate than out on the open ocean, everyone is on their way up or on their way down… in a hurry.

6. The sound.
Leonard famously said that if his sentences sound like writing, he rewrites them, but don’t be fooled. These sentences jump to their own dirty, hothouse jazz rhythm. There isn’t a better stylist anywhere in American letters.

5. The seduction. Dara isn’t just curious about piracy; she spends thirty days on a boat with 73-year-old Xavier LeBo, long enough to fall a little in love with her best friend, and wonder if the old dude can still get it up. Xavier bets her ten-thousand dollars he can. It’s the book’s biggest gamble; trust me, it earns out big.

4. More boom for your buck. A lot of the suspense in Djibouti revolves around a tanker filled with enough liquefied natural gas “to set off an explosion a hundred times bigger than the Hindenburg disaster.” It’s an atom bomb with a rudder and all it needs is a target.

3. The place. Leonard doesn’t beat anyone over the head with his research, but from Djibouti to Eyl to New Orleans (the three backdrops for this story), the details are crisp, unforgettable, and right. You don’t read Djibouti. You live there.

2. The pay-off. Everyone in an Elmore Leonard story wants one, but only the reader is guaranteed to get one, and boy do they, in a final chapter that seems inevitable, yet comes as completely unexpected.

1. The know-how. Let’s get to it. In the fifty-plus years he’s been turning out lean, loose, laid-back thrillers, Elmore Leonard has cast his indelible stamp on American crime fiction, inspired his peers, and spawned a thousand imitators. He’s the kind of guy critics describe as old school, but that’s missing it. Elmore Leonard isn’t old school. He built the school.

(Photo of Joe Hill by Shane Leonard)



From

*Starred Review* Crime fiction grand master Leonard, who turns 85 in October, remains in top form. He has a new publisher and a new subject—Somalian pirates—but all the signature Leonard elements are shining as brightly as ever: the back-and-forth banter, always oozing wit but never too smart for the room; the cast of wonderfully idiosyncratic characters, each capable of a star turn; the always startling juxtaposition of the mundane against the violent. This time, mixed in with all of that, Leonard gives us one of his trickiest plots and cleverest turns of storytelling. Dara Barr is an award-winning documentary filmmaker, recently arrived in Djibouti, on the Horn of Africa (the gateway to Islam . . . or the back door to the West) to film Somalian pirates in action. With her assistant, a 72-year-old sailor named Xavier, Dara, armed with a concealed spy camera, sets off onboard the Buster in search of pirates. She finds plenty, but she and Xavier also land in the middle of an al-Qaeda plot to blow up a tanker loaded with liquefied natural gas. Portions of the tale are related in real time, but much of the narration comes in the form of Dara and Xavier viewing film of what’s already happened and debating how to structure the documentary. This curious dramatic technique works magnificently, taking us inside the characters in a way that straight, action-oriented narration might not do. Leonard never tells a story in the expected way, but this time he outdoes himself. Marvelous entertainment. --Bill Ott
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SUMMARY: Beloved Commissario Guido Brunetti once again finds himself pursuing a puzzling case his fellow policemen would rather leave closed. What appears to be a cut-and-dried murder case pinpoints an elderly lady's maid as her killer. However, Brunetti comes to a different conclusion and decides--unofficially--to take on the case himself.<

A 2010 Florida Book Award finalist! One fateful fall evening, as the sun sinks and the darkness expands, wildlife photographer Remington James ventures deep into the river swamp to try out some new equipment and check his camera traps. While checking his camera traps, scanning the eerie images of overexposed deer and bats and foxes, Remington comes across the most haunting images of his life--the frame-by-frame capture of a shocking crime. By exposing the criminal, Remington has exposed himself to danger, even possible extinction. Hunted like an animal by the predator and his psychotic friends, Remington must do two things: make it through the night and make it to the river--and the odds of doing either are slim to none. " Double Exposureis absolutely riveting! I sat down, plugged in and didn't get up until the last page. With elegiac prose, insightful characterization and a wonderfully ingenious plot, Michael Lister has squeezed every ounce of terror and thrills out of a dark night in the woods." --Michael Connelly, author of The Scarecrow "A Hitchcockian thriller. A spellbinding page-turner." - Booklist "Lyrical, evocative prose, reminiscent of Cormac McCarthy‘s 'The Road.'" - Panama City News Herald "Mr. Lister's eloquent evocation of the beauty of the area and its non-human inhabitants makes clear to the reader what has drawn his protagonist back and easily explains James' return to the profession on which he had turned his back. The threats to the region's ecosystem are made equally vivid. The novel is thought-provoking, while at the same time the author deftly maintains and steadily builds suspense. Mr. Lister's writing is stylistically fresh, frequently alliterative, and distinctive. "Double Exposure" is a wholly original and ultimately haunting work, and it is highly recommended." -Gloria Feit

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Former Emperor's consort Ling Suyin is renowned for her beauty; the ultimate seductress. Now she lives quietly alone—until the most ruthless warlord in the region comes and steals her away....

Li Tao lives life by the sword, and is trapped in the treacherous, lethal world of politics. The alluring Ling Suyin is at the center of the web. He must uncover her mystery without falling under her spell—yet her innocence calls out to him. How cruel if she, of all women, can entrance the man behind the legend....<

From Publishers Weekly

In this elegant, compelling fantasy from the prolific author of the Valdemar series (Arrows Fall, etc.), Lackey combines meticulously detailed dragon lore with emotionally intense, realistic human characters. In the arid desert country of Tia, the Altan serf Vetch has to scramble after whatever crumbs are left over after the servants, the slaves and the animals have been fed, while doing the work of three or four full-grown boys. Being hungry is hard enough to take at the best of times, but being a hungry, growing boy, sorely overworked during the dry season when even the beasts of burden are sheltered against the cruel sun, is intolerable. By chance (or the will of the gods), this dreadful situation comes to the notice of one who can change it. Jouster Ari, a dragon rider and a warrior of the Great King of Tia, dislikes cruelty to animals, men and even to mere serfs. In a neat turn of events, Vetch becomes Ari's dragon boy and the caretaker of Ari's dragon, Kashet. What follows is a detailed look at the lives of Tia's dragons, their dragon riders and those who care for them. This uplifting tale, which contains a valuable lesson or two on the virtues of hard work, is a must-read for dragon lovers in particular and for fantasy fans in general.
Copyright 2003 Reed Business Information, Inc.

From Booklist

Starred Review Hunger, anger, and hatred are constants for young Vetch, rendered a brutally mistreated and overworked serf by the Tian conquest of his homeland. But everything improves when a Tian jouster requisitions Vetch to become the first serf ever to be a dragon boy. His training is intense, and his duty clear-cut: to tend his jouster, Ari, and his dragon, Kashet. He discovers that, because Ari himself had hatched Kashet, the dragon is different from others that have been captured live in the wild and must be drugged to be made tractable. Vetch finds he really likes and understands dragons, and soon he becomes the best dragon boy of all. He still harbors anger, however, toward the Tian invasion. Could he, perhaps, hatch a dragon, and then escape to help his people? In Vetch's world, Lackey gives us a wonderfully visualized society, similar in terrain, climate, religion, and the differing circumstances of slave, serf, and free person to ancient Egypt. Moreover, she fills the book with well-limned characterizations and convincing, detailed dragon lore to make up a whole in which Vetch's coming-of-age becomes an integral part. Fans of McCaffrey's Pern will love it, but they won't be the only ones who do. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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From Publishers Weekly

In Lackey's well-crafted third Dragon Jousters book (after 2004's Alta), wing-leader Kiron, the former serf known as Vetch, and a disparate group of refugees from the countries of Alta and Tia flee to the desert, to a hidden refuge that the gods have uncovered and named Sanctuary. In Sanctuary, Kiron and a small cadre of Jousters are safe from the evil Magi, who are draining Alta and Tia of their "gifted ones." Kiron and the Jousters with their magnificent dragons, who have as much personality as the human characters, must learn to co-exist in a land of extremes. Kiron discovers that it might be possible to deal with some of the freed dragons of Tia who have gone wild. Even though Sanctuary may be concealed from the diabolical Magi, no one living there can forget their presence. Once again, Kiron and friends must face their fear and brave danger to help save Alta from the Magi's depravity. Spot-on dialogue and just the right amount of exposition mark this rip-roaring adventure as superior fantasy fare.
Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved.

From Booklist

The Magi continue their evil machinations in the sequel to Alta (2004) by draining the powers from other magic workers to enhance their own and to keep themselves young. They also have developed the Eye of Light, a terrible weapon that can kill anything in its path. Kiron and his fellow jousters and dragons, together with some members of the royal family and friends, are forced to flee into the desert to a lost city now known as Sanctuary. They know they need to hide from the Magi and increase the number of jousters and dragons to wage a war. Refugees from both Alta and Tia begin to straggle into Sanctuary, seeking asylum. The jousters make desperate forays to rescue those being drained of their powers and get set for the forthcoming battle with the Magi. The tension is palpable throughout as Lackey wraps up the trilogy begun by Joust^B (2003) in fine style, remaining true to the characters and their world. Sally Estes
Copyright © American Library Association. All rights reserved

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Kiron and his friends, established in a desert cliff dwelling seemingly made for dragons, must not only bring order to the new society, but be on guard against Magi who might try to achieve conquest surreptitiously after failing to win with violence.<

Review

'This is fantasy with thunder and chase, with peril and breathtaking escapes.' Fantasy Newsletter

Product Description

A kingdom hangs in the balance...and a young boy answers the call.

Carrying a sealed message from the war-hero Dragon King to the queen, Quentin and his outlaw companion, Theido, plunge headlong into a fantastic odyssey and mystic quest.  Danger lurks everywhere in the brutal terrain, and particularly in the threats from merciless creatures, both human and not-so-human.

While at the castle, the wicked Prince Jaspin schemes to secure the crown for himself, and an evil sorcerer concocts his own monstrous plan.  A plan that Quentin and Theido could never imagine.

In the youth's valiant efforts to save the kingdom and fulfill his unique destiny, he will cross strange and wondrous lands; encounter brave knights, beautiful maidens, and a mysterious hermit; and battle a giant, deadly serpent.

In this first book of the Dragon King Trilogy, Stephen R. Lawhead has deftly woven a timeless epic of war, adventure, fantasy, and political intrigue.

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"A memoir as finely crafted as one of Lithgow's performances."—Steve Martin

Emmy Award-winner John Lithgow presents a charming, witty, and revealing memoir about his family, his work, and his life in Drama—an intimate story of insights and inspirational reflections from one of America's most beloved actors. Lithgow pays tribute to his father, his greatest influence, and relives his collaborations with renowned performers and directors including Mike Nichols, Bob Fosse, Liv Ullmann, Meryl Streep, and Brian De Palma. A compelling reflection on the trials, triumphs, and changes across his long career, Lithgow's Drama illuminates the inner life of a celebrated talent, and points the way forward for anyone aspiring to greatness in their own life.

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Rivalries rage, hearts are broken, and stars are born in this novel set at an exceptional summer camp for the performing arts.<

The Near Future: A dizzy world of Mindseye implants, Maternosuppressor pills, Erotoroutines, Psychotrichology and notorious, vicious virospooks such as Sick Nick. And the Dreambox, the ultimate in electronic entertainment, harnessing the power of the human psyche to transport you to your personal paradise. As the morphomercials proclaim: The Only Limitation Is Your Own Imagination. For a hard-headed career woman like Sesha Roffey, all this lying around dreaming your life away is strictly for losers and nerds. And for a struggling young mother like Ruth Deitch, hooking up and tripping is hardly an option. Ruth's boyfriend, though, is hopelessly addicted. Except that Paulie Rayle is no ordinary dreambox junkie: he aims to dream into being a whole new reality--kinder, gentler and more real than this one. But like no-nonsense Sesha and down-to-earth Ruth, Paulie is in for some horrible shocks.<

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