A Crown-Worthy Romance! Melanie Summers put together wit and wisdom and weaved a fairy tale worth reading again and again. Add in a sassy heroine, a swoon-worthy price, blue cheese, and family sidekicks and you've got a hit. This is a book that will make you laugh, squeeze your heart, and give you a reason to dance. Kelly Collins, International Bestselling Author My Favorite author DOES IT AGAIN! This may be the best writing ever from Melanie Summers. This series will make you cry, and LOL! A Must Read! Kim, Effing Book Club Don't miss the irresistibly funny second installment of The Crown Jewels Romantic Comedy Series for fans of both Bridget Jones and The Princess Diaries... When most girls get engaged, at most they face a disapproving mother-in-law, but in Tessa Sharpe's case, it's a disapproving nation. No one in the tiny kingdom of Avonia wants the former anti-royal blogger to wed Prince Arthur. The anti-royals haven't forgiven her for abandoning ship and swimming over to the Prince's yacht, and the royal watchers won't ever forget all the horrible things she wrote about their beloved Royal Family. Up against all odds, Tessa has only six months to prove herself worthy of the title of Princess. Her nasty father-in-law is going to throw every obstacle in her way, including the beautiful, poised, and highly accomplished Lady Doctor Brooke Beddingfield. But Tessa is determined to make this work and keep her fledgling career as a reporter intact. Will Tessa manage to fight her way down the aisle and find her Prince Charming waiting? Or will one of them succumb to mounting pressure and run the other way before they can say I do? Get your copy today and be part of the feel-good fairy tale!
Eine royale Hochzeit mit Hindernissen ... Prinz Arthur, Kronprinz von Avonia, und Tessa Sharpe sind verlobt und könnten nicht glücklicher sein. Obwohl, eigentlich schon, denn die Hochzeitsvorbereitungen stellen sich als schwieriger als erwartet heraus. Die Bevölkerung ist nicht amused, dass ihr Prinz eine Bloggerin heiratet, die bis vor Kurzem noch regelmäßig über die Royals hergezogen hat. Und Tessas Schwiegervater in spe versucht vor ihren Augen, seinen Sohn mit einer anderen zu verkuppeln. Während Tessa sich bemüht, ihre Karriere als Journalistin und ein Leben als Prinzessin unter einen Hut zu bringen und dabei die Gunst des Volkes zu gewinnen, beginnt sie sich zu fragen, ob ihre Liebe zu Arthur all diese Probleme wert ist. "Ich habe dieses Buch geliebt. So sehr! Die Geschichte ist ein echter Pageturner." As Told By Nella Band 2 der unterhaltsamen und romantischen ROYAL-Reihe von Bestseller-Autorin Melanie Summers
Don’t miss the irresistibly funny conclusion of The Crown Jewels Romantic Comedy Duo for fans of both Bridget Jones and The Princess Diaries… When most girls get engaged, at most they face a disapproving mother-in-law, but in Tessa Sharpe’s case, it’s a disapproving nation. No one in the tiny kingdom of Avonia wants the former anti-royal blogger to wed Prince Arthur. The anti-royals haven’t forgiven her for abandoning ship and swimming over to the Prince’s yacht, and the royal watchers won’t ever forget all the horrible things she wrote about their beloved Royal Family. Up against all odds, Tessa has only six months to prove herself worthy of the title of Princess. Her nasty father-in-law is going to throw every obstacle in her way, including the beautiful, poised, and highly accomplished Lady Doctor Brooke Beddingfield. But Tessa is determined to make this work and keep her fledgling career as a reporter intact. Will Tessa manage to fight her way down the aisle and find her Prince Charming waiting? Or will one of them succumb to mounting pressure and run the other way before they can say I do? Get your copy today and be part of the feel-good fairy tale! ***PLEASE NOTE: The Crown Jewels Series is not a typical MJ Summers book. It’s a light romantic comedy, very heavy on the laughs with a low steam level (but lots of delicious sexual tension and some swearing). ***
Although Touchstone can stand alone, it is the first book of a brilliant, utterly engaging new fantasy series, Glass Thorns, from Melanie Rawn, the author of the bestselling Dragon Prince series. Cayden Silversun is part Elven, part Fae, part human Wizard—and all rebel. His aristocratic mother would have him follow his father to the Royal Court, to make a high society living off the scraps of kings. But Cade lives and breathes for the theater, and he's good—very, very good. With his company, he'll enter the highest reaches of society and power as an honored artist—or die trying. Cade combines the talents of Merlin, Shakespeare, and John Lennon: a wholly charming character in a remarkably original fantasy world created by a mistress of the art. The Glass Thorns Series #1 Touchstone #2 Elsewhens #3 Thornlost #4 Window Wall #5 Playing to the Gods At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
In this picturesque exploration of Britain’s constructed landscape, an array of medieval lanes, Georgian crescents and Victorian squares make an appearance, together with the people – famous, infamous and unfamiliar – who designed, built and lived in them. From Bedford Square and Portobello Road in London, through to Grey Street in Newcastle and Charlotte Square in Edinburgh, Historic Streets and Squares takes you over the doorstep of some of the country’s most familiar addresses. Melanie Backe-Hansen takes us beyond the facades, delving into the evolution of ancient streets, the aspirations of builders and architects, and the extraordinary lives of past residents. She also reveals the fascinating stories of how some of our oldest and most valued crescents, lanes and avenues have survived into the twenty-first century, and the twists and turns of their journey along the way. Taken together, these fifty examples tell us much about Britain’s urban development over the centuries, while also highlighting more recent attempts to preserve our architectural heritage. The history of our streets, avenues, lanes and squares reveals more than just changes to architectural style, but offers a doorway into the heritage of our nation.
In what we tell ourselves is an age of reason, we are behaving increasingly irrationally. An astonishing number of people subscribe to celebrity endorsed cults, Mayan armageddon prophecies, scientism, and other varieties of new age, anti-enlightenment philosophies. Millions more advance popular conspiracy theories: AIDS was created in a CIA laboratory, Princess Diana was assassinated, and the 9/11 attacks were an inside job. In The World Turned Upside Down, Melanie Phillips explains that the basic cause of this explosion of irrationality is the slow but steady marginalization of religion. We tell ourselves that faith and reason are incompatible, but the opposite is the case. It was Christianity and the Hebrew Bible, Phillips asserts, that gave us our concepts of reason, progress, and an orderly world on which science and modernity are based. Without its religious traditions, the West has drifted into mass derangement where truth and lies, right and wrong, victim and aggressor are all turned upside down. Scientists skeptical of global warming are hounded from their posts, Israel is demonized, and the US is vilified over the war on terror—all on the basis of blatant falsehoods and obscene propaganda. Worst of all, asserts Phillips, this abandonment of rationality leaves the West vulnerable to its legitimate threats. Faced with the very real challenges of spiraling demographics and violent, confrontational Islamism, the West is no longer willing or able to defend the modernity and rationalism that it once brought into being.
For nearly two years, Cade has been rejecting his Fae gift, his prescient Elsewhens--simply refusing to see or experience them. But the strain is driving a wedge between him and his theater troupe, Touchstone, and making him erratic on stage and off. It takes his best friend Mieka to bully Cade into accepting the visions again. But when Cade finally looks into the possible futures, he sees a royal castle blowing up, though his vision does not tell him who is responsible. But he knows that if it is in his visions, he can take action to stop it from happening. And when he finally discovers the truth, he takes the knowledge to the only man in the Kingdom who would believe him: his deadly enemy the Archduke.
This intimate look at the bond between Queen Victoria and her granddaughter is “full of details regarding many European royals . . . thoroughly engrossing”(Kathryn J. Atwood, author of Women Heroes of World War II). When Queen Victoria’s second daughter Princess Alice married the Prince Louis of Hesse and Rhine in 1862, even her own mother described the ceremony as “more of a funeral than a wedding,” thanks to the fact that it took place shortly after the death of Alice’s beloved father, Prince Albert. Sadly, the young princess’s misfortunes didn’t end there and when she also died prematurely, her four motherless daughters were taken under the wing of their formidable grandmother, Victoria. Alix, the youngest of Alice’s daughters and allegedly one of the most beautiful princesses in Europe, was a special favorite of the elderly queen, who hoped that she would marry her cousin Prince Albert Victor, Duke of Clarence and one day reign beside him. However, the spirited and stubborn Alix had other ideas...
The boys are at the top of their theatrical game. Nevertheless, the past years of financial struggle, since their manager proved to have been embezzling, have taken a toll on the group's creativity. A shocking event brings all that to an end and brings Touchstone back together to create a play that will rattle the ceilings and shatter all the glass in palaces and theaters alike
Melanie Rawn returns to her rich high fantasy world in Thornlost, the sequel to Touchstone and Elsewhens. Cayden is part Elf, part Fae, part human Wizard—and all rebel. His aristocratic mother would have him follow his father to the Royal Court, to make a high-society living off the scraps of kings. But Cade lives and breathes for the theater, and he's good, very good. He's a tregetour—a wizard who is both playwright and magicwielder. It is Cade's power that creates the magic, but a tregetour is useless without a glisker—an elf who can spin out the magic onto the stage, to enchant the audience. And Cade's glisker, Mieka, is something special too. So is their fettler, Rafe, who controls the magic and keeps them and the audience safe. And their masker, Jeska, who speaks all the lines, is every young girl's dream. They are reaching for the highest reaches of society and power, but not the way Cade's mother thinks they should. They'll change their world, or die trying. The Glass Thorns Series #1 Touchstone #2 Elsewhens #3 Thornlost #4 Window Wall #5 Playing to the Gods (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
Harlequin Presents brings you three new titles for one great price, available now for a limited time only from December 1 to December 31! Escape with brooding bodyguards, untamed sheikhs and forbidden royals in these three stories. This Harlequin Presents bundle includes A Royal World Apart by USA TODAY bestselling author Maisey Yates, Woman in a Sheikh's World by USA TODAY bestselling author Sarah Morgan and Surrendering All But Her Heart by USA TODAY bestselling author Melanie Milburne. Look for 6 passionate new stories every month from Harlequin Presents!
In Tira Virte, art is prized for its beauty and as a binding legal record of everything from marriages to treaties. Yet not even the Grand Duke knows how extraordinary the Grijalva family's art is, for certain Grijalva males are born with the ability to alter events and influence people in the real world through that they paint. Always, their power has been used for Tira Virte. But now Sario Grijalva has learned to use his Gift in a whole new way. And when he begins to work his magic both the Grijalvas and Tira Virte may pay the price.
From Buckingham Palace to Loch Ness, Bantam Travel Guide to Great Britain explores the British Isles thoroughly and accurately. This distinct guide helps the traveler plan a unique experience from horse-back riding to pub crawling.
The Year of Magical Thinking meets Fifteen Days in this literary exploration of one Canadian's decision to enlist and go to war. What compels a young, affluent Canadian to put on a uniform and risk his life for the controversial mission in Afghanistan? And how does his family cope with his loss when he is killed there? Jeff Francis was a thirty-year-old doctoral candidate and student of Buddhism when he decided that joining the armed forces was the best way to make a difference in the world. In elegant, spare prose that captures both the hardness of war and the nuances of a grieving family, Melanie Murray - Captain Francis's aunt - uses the lens of his life and death to give Canada's war in Afghanistan the perceptive, literary treatment its soldiers, families and citizens deserve.
This book is about how to shine as an authentic “Woman of God,” personifying excellence, selflessness and pure purpose. The image of sagacity, loyalty and love as depicted in the Book of Esther as she laid her life down for her people. Esther is an excellent example and model of being “Royally Robed!” This book will set the trajectory for discovering who you were created to be, however in the end, the onus is on you. You are responsible for your own spiritual, personal, and professional development. You are called, not self-appointed. You are rooted in your ministry, not with selfish desires to self-actualize, but to “God-actualize.” This book will set you on a path to bloom as the Royal daughters of God! The Royal sons of God, that you were created to be. Our quest to improve spiritually personally, and professionally is a lifelong process. Personal development is a way for people to assess their skills and qualities, consider their aims in life, and set goals in order to realize and maximize their potential. God loves the whole person that you are, and He has a Royal plan for His children. Matthew 6:33 reminds us of the best posture and approach in achieving permanent, lasting success: “The kingdom first and all other things shall be added.” This book is designed to whet your appetites, build your spiritual muscles, equip you with understanding, position you at the starting line, and place you in position for victory. The victory is in knowing that you are, indeed, Royalty, without any apology. Royally Robed aims to enhance your beauty, internally and externally; spiritually and physically. It aims to build your confidence, finesse, delicacy, diplomacy, grace, charm, wit, style, vivacity, and spiritual acumen. Royally Robed will help you to grow and mature, first spiritually, and allow for the Spirit of God to refine you, to impart sagacity and meticulous fervor in seeking Him and becoming doers of His Living Word. This book will cultivate your purposeful integrity, and help you to become pedagogues of His Word, not just in speaking, but in walking- your aura beaming excellence! This book is an ephemeral presentation, more of an appetizer to motivate and cause God’s extravagantly blessed people to fly like eagles and blaze trails! You will walk as Royals! You will use that which God has placed in your hands to move mountains and build God’s kingdom. The concept of being “Royally Robed” is deep and profound. This book covers a wide variety of topics that we will not be able to exhaust in this first edition. The aim is to arouse your appetite and inspire you to start on the journey of developing spiritual acumen and a physical presence that marks that of “Royalty.”
I really enjoyed the story... the great visual language and descriptions helped to paint detailed and vivid scenes in my mind as I read. Lauren (14) Ontario, Canada A good read. Dan New Brunswick, Canada I enjoyed the story very much. I would recommend it. I would like to read other Bobbie Baxter stories if you write any. Isobel (11) UK I would like to read more to find out what happens. If you do write more, can we read it? Molly and Erica (11 & 12) Ontario, Canada
Theater, magic, art, and politics all blend in Elsewhens, the second installment of the amazing high-fantasy series, Glass Thorns, from the imagination of Melanie Rawn. Touchstone, the magical theater troupe, continues to build audiences. But Cayden is increasingly troubled by his "elsewhens," the uncontrolled moments when he is plunged into visions of the possible futures. He fears that his Fae gift will forever taint his friendships; his friends fear that his increasing distance will destroy him. But worldly success follows them-an apparent loss in the Trials leads to Touchstone being selected to travel to the Continent with a Royal Embassy to collect Prince Ashgar's new bride. They are the first theater artists to appear outside Albeyn for at least seventy years-for magic is suspect and forbidden elsewhere, and the Kingdom's easy race mixing and magic use horrifies the people they are to travel among. The Glass Thorns Series #1 Touchstone #2 Elsewhens #3 Thornlost #4 Window Wall #5 Playing to the Gods (forthcoming) At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.
p.p1 {margin: 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px 0.0px; font: 14.0px Verdana} As an art form, jewelry is defined primarily through its connection to and interaction with the body—extending it, amplifying it, accentuating it, distorting it, concealing it, or transforming it. Addressing six different modes of the body—Adorned, Divine, Regal, Transcendent, Alluring, and Resplendent—this artfully designed catalogue illustrates how these various definitions of the body give meaning to the jewelry that adorns and enhances it. Essays on topics spanning a wide range of times and cultures establish how jewelry was used as a symbol of power, status, and identity, from earflares of warrior heroes in Pre-Colombian Peru to bowknot earrings designed by Yves Saint-Laurent. These most intimate works of art provide insight into the wearers, but also into the cultures that produced them. More than 200 jewels and ornaments, alongside paintings and sculptures of bejeweled bodies, demonstrate the social, political, and aesthetic role of jewelry from ancient times to the present. Gorgeous new illustrations of Bronze Age spirals, Egyptian broad collars, Hellenistic gold armbands, Japanese courtesan hair adornments, jewels from Mughal India, and many, many more explore the various facets of jewelry and its relationship to the human body over 5,000 years of world history.
This biography of the seventeenth-century English princess tells a sweeping tale of war and exile, marriage and scandal, and a triumphant reversal of fortune. Henrietta Anne Stuart, youngest child of Charles I and Henrietta Maria, was born in June 1644 in the besieged city of Exeter at the very height of the English Civil War. The hostilities had separated her parents, and her mother was on the run from Parliamentary forces when she gave birth with only a few attendants on hand. Within a few days she was on her way to the coast for a moonlit escape to her native France, leaving her infant daughter in the hands of trusted supporters. A few years later, Henrietta Anne would herself be whisked, disguised as a boy, out of the country and reunited with her mother in France, where she stayed for the rest of her life. But Henrietta’s fortunes dramatically changed for the better when her brother, Charles II, was restored to the throne in 1660. After being snubbed by her cousin Louis XIV, she would eventually marry his younger brother Philippe, Duc d’Orlans, and quickly become one of the luminaries of the French court—though there was a dark side to her rise to power and popularity when she became embroiled in love affairs with her brother-in-law Louis and her husband’s former lover, the dashing Comte de Guiche, giving rise to several scandals and rumors about the true parentage of her three children. However, Henrietta Anne was much more than just a mere court butterfly. She also possessed considerable intelligence, wit, and political acumen, which led to her being entrusted in 1670 with the delicate negotiations for a secret treaty between her brother Charles II and cousin Louis XIV—which ensured England’s support of France in their war against the Dutch. This is the story of her remarkable life.
From the New York Times bestselling author of The Swans of Fifth Avenue and The Aviator’s Wife, a “rich exploration of two Hollywood friends who shaped the movies” (USA Today)—screenwriter Frances Marion and superstar Mary Pickford “Full of Old Hollywood glamour and true details about the pair’s historic careers . . . a captivating ode to a legendary bond.”—Real Simple NAMED ONE OF THE BEST BOOKS OF THE YEAR BY REAL SIMPLE It is 1914, and twenty-five-year-old Frances Marion has left her (second) husband and her Northern California home for the lure of Los Angeles, where she is determined to live independently as an artist. But the word on everyone’s lips these days is “flickers”—the silent moving pictures enthralling theatergoers. Turn any corner in this burgeoning town and you’ll find made-up actors running around, as a movie camera captures it all. In this fledgling industry, Frances finds her true calling: writing stories for this wondrous new medium. She also makes the acquaintance of actress Mary Pickford, whose signature golden curls and lively spirit have earned her the title “America’s Sweetheart.” The two ambitious young women hit it off instantly, their kinship fomented by their mutual fever to create, to move audiences to a frenzy, to start a revolution. But their ambitions are challenged by both the men around them and the limitations imposed on their gender—and their astronomical success could come at a price. As Mary, the world’s highest paid and most beloved actress, struggles to live her life under the spotlight, she also wonders if it is possible to find love, even with the dashing actor Douglas Fairbanks. Frances, too, longs to share her life with someone. As in any good Hollywood story, dramas will play out, personalities will clash, and even the deepest friendships might be shattered. With cameos from such notables as Charlie Chaplin, Louis B. Mayer, Rudolph Valentino, and Lillian Gish, The Girls in the Picture is, at its heart, a story of friendship and forgiveness. Melanie Benjamin brilliantly captures the dawn of a glittering new era—its myths and icons, its possibilities and potential, and its seduction and heartbreak. “A boffo production . . . Inspiration is a rare and unexpected gift in a book filled with the fluff of Hollywood, but Benjamin provides it with The Girls in the Picture.”—NPR “Profoundly resonant, The Girls in the Picture is at its core, an empowering and fascinating tale of sisterhood.”—Bryce Dallas Howard
In this compelling new time-slip mystery, a little girl goes missing from her family’s castle in the Thousand Islands of New York. Eighty-five years later, a journalist teams up with a woman living on Koster Isle to find out what happened to Poppy, once and for all. 1907. On the eve of her fifth birthday, Poppy Pendleton is tucked safely in her bed, listening to her parents entertain New York’s gilded society in their Thousand Islands castle; the next morning, she is gone, and her father is found dead in his smoking room. 1992. Though Chloe Ridell lives in the shadows of Poppy’s castle, now in ruins, she has little interest in the mystery that still captivates tourists and locals alike. She is focused on preserving the island she inherited from her grandparents and reviving their vintage candy shop. Until the day a girl named Emma shows up on Chloe’s doorstep, with few possessions, save a tattered scrapbook that connects her to the Pendleton family. When a reporter arrives at Chloe’s store, asking questions about her grandfather, Chloe decides to help him dig into a past she’d thought best left buried. The haunting truth about Poppy, they soon discover, could save Emma’s life, so Chloe and Logan must work together to investigate exactly what happened long ago on Koster Isle. “[A] propulsive time-swapping tale. . . . Fans of WWII inspirationals will love this.” Publishers Weekly on The Curator’s Daughter “Readers will delight in this story that illustrates how the past can change the present.” Lisa Wingate, national bestselling author of Before We Were Yours, on Catching the Wind Standalone dual-timeline historical mystery Clean, suspenseful historical fiction, perfect for fans of Susan Meissner or Lisa Wingate Book length: 95,000 words Includes discussion questions for book groups
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