Showing results for "Brilliance" in Coming of Age

Frances believes she’s found a ticket to paradise when a wealthy couple hires her for the summer as their mother’s helper at their lakefront summer home in Maine. The vintage wooden boats, the days at the country club, a shiny new bicycle, and a tennis racquet—suddenly Frances has everything her modest childhood lacked. Best of all, she gets to spend the summer with Forrest Emerson, her father's charismatic childhood friend who escaped their neighborhood when he married into money.

Once a Runner captures the essence of what it means to be a competitive runner; to devote your entire existence to a single-minded pursuit of excellence. It has become one of the most beloved sports novels ever written. Originally self-published in 1978 and sold at road races out of the trunk of the author's car, reading the book became a rite of passage for many runners, and tattered copies were handed down like sacred texts from generation to generation.

After her parents moved her and her brother to America, Preeti Desai never meant to tear her family apart. All she did was fall in love with a white Christian carnivore instead of a conventional Indian boy. Years later, with her parents not speaking to her and her controversial relationship in tatters, all Preeti has left is her career at a prestigious Los Angeles law firm. But when Preeti receives word of a terrible accident in the city where she was born, she returns to India, where she’ll have to face her estranged parents...and the complicated past they left behind.

It’s the summer of ’69. While her peers revel in free love and rock and roll, Suzannah is home from college, sequestered inside her conservative Southern home. Her domineering father has condemned rock music and driven away her best friend. She’s counting the days until fall. But everything changes when her free-spirited best friend, Livy, resurfaces, urging Suzannah, a talented singer, to join her for three days of peace and music in upstate New York. Fed up with her father’s rules and fearful for her brother’s fate in Vietnam, Suzannah agrees to the road trip.

In a small Georgia town, Nelle’s life has been carefully scripted by her creator and captor, the reclusive author Wallace Quill. Born from ink and imagination, every breath she takes is dictated by his pen. But on a star-studded Fourth of July night, she meets James—a young man with dreams as vivid as the fireworks above them—and suddenly, the unwritten becomes possible.

When Sam walked herself down the aisle at the age of twenty-two, she never imagined wanting more than the life she had in that moment. Seven years later, with the ink still drying on both her law degree and her divorce papers, she arrives in Manhattan ready to start adulthood over and chase her dreams of becoming an entertainment lawyer, determined to prove to herself that upending her life was worth it.

The human “oddities” in the Museum of the Strange are less wondrous than the gawking rubes had been promised. But Alida is something else. The real thing. Traveling Depression-era America from carnival midways to speakeasies, Alida is resigned to an exploited and lonely life on the road as the museum’s golden ticket. Until she’s rescued by two compassionate strangers. Franklin and Loretta Fairchild see in Alida a gifted and uncannily well-read girl in need of a loving touch and a family. With the openhearted couple and their three precociously imaginative children, Alida finds it.

When floral designer Deli MacDonald’s heart is broken by unrequited love and her best friend’s abandonment, she flees to the Scottish Highlands and her estranged aunt Mo’s cliffside cottage by the sea. There, embraced by a village of eccentric locals and her aunt’s unconditional, unfamiliar love, she finds herself drawn to brooding pub owner Lachlan Scott—whose path once crossed hers twenty years ago on these same heather-strewn hills.

It’s the night before her wedding, and Cassidy Baum isn’t sure she wants to get married…Or maybe she just doesn’t want to get married on set, surrounded by cameras and crew, with the crushing weight of everyone watching. As a production assistant, Cassidy’s used to being behind the camera, not in front of it. But her fiancé is a former child star and musician, and their wedding makes the perfect spin-off for Honeymoon Stage, the groundbreaking celebreality show she once worked on.

When Marilyn Kleinman is caught making out with the rabbi’s son in front of the whole congregation, her parents ship her off to her great-aunt Ada for the summer. If anyone can save their daughter’s reputation, it’s Philadelphia’s strict premier matchmaker. Either that or Marilyn can kiss college goodbye. To Marilyn’s surprise, Ada’s not the humorless septuagenarian her mother described. Not with that platinum-blonde hair, Hermès scarf, and Cadillac convertible. She’s sharp, straight-talking, takes her job very seriously, and abides by her own rules…mostly.

In the summer of 1967, the Levitsky family convenes for a long weekend at their home in the suburbs—an idyllic holiday for the perfect family. But Nora has always known better. Growing up, she learned to tiptoe around her mother Lillian’s explosive temper. Her father did the same. Nora’s sole confidante was their housekeeper, Clara, and their bond has only strengthened through the years.

Here is the slim, stunning debut novel from the acclaimed author of Geek Love. Attic follows a young woman named Kay who has joined a cult-like organization that sells magazine subscriptions in small towns. When Kay tries to cash a customer’s bad check, she lands in jail, and Dunn’s visceral prose gives us a vivid, stream-of-consciousness depiction of the space in which she’s held. As Kay comes to know the other inmates, alliances and rivalries are formed, memories are recounted, and lives are changed.

1975. In the town of Rexburg, Idaho, aspiring artist Aran Rigby, his younger sister, Tamsin, and their two brothers are locked in orbit around their emotionally abusive father. Gad is the kind of man who soothes the failures of his own life by controlling the lives of others. But Aran and Tamsin are united in rebellion against their father. They understand each other. They have dreams beyond their small town.

Caecilia, Roman born but Etruscan wed, forsakes Rome to return to her husband, Vel Mastarna, exposing herself to the enmity of his people while knowing the Romans will give her a traitor's death if Veii falls. Semni, a reckless Etruscan servant in the House of Mastarna, embroils herself in schemes that threaten Caecilia's son and Semni's own chance for love. Pinna, a destitute Roman prostitute, uses coercion to gain the attention of Rome's greatest general at the risk of betraying Caecilia's cousin.

Life went terribly wrong for Addie Bates in San Diego, and she's been running from dark memories ever since. For 15 years, the Sleepy Valley Nudist Colony has provided a safe haven for Addie to hide from the crime she committed. But when the residents pack up to go on exhibit at the 1935 world's fair in San Diego, Addie returns and must face the thrilling yet terrifying prospect of reuniting with her estranged sister, Wavey.

Courtly intrigue and rumors of invasion plunge Kingfountain into turmoil as the search for Trynne’s father begins in earnest. But Trynne’s quest to learn the truth of Owen’s sinister disappearance is sidetracked when tragedy strikes her family once again. Suddenly, the future of the kingdom rests in her hands as she struggles to learn - and control - the power that can keep the threatening Deep Fathoms at bay.

It's been a long seventeen years since Jess last saw her grandmother or visited the family cottage set on an idyllic lake in Northern Michigan. For all that time, she's been haunted by loss - of her innocence and her ability to trust and, most of all, of a profound summer romance that might have been something more. So when her grandmother leaves the house to her, Jess summons her courage and returns to a place full of memories - and secrets.

A hungry, stray dog is the last thing Cara Butter needs. Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara's heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone - on foot.

First, math genius and gamer-nerd Samaya gets dumped by her boyfriend. Then he sabotages her job and hooks up with her frenemy. What could be worse? Clearly, her golden-boy ex is winning the breakup. The only way Samaya can get some rebound cred is to find someone new. Even if she has to fake it.

Belle Simon was just 12 years old when she was one of six girls plucked from obscurity to star in reality TV sensation The Real Deal. Under the wing of dazzling star Donna Mayfair, she and the other five girls were meant to become world-famous actresses, singers and dancers. But at 26, Belle is trying to live anonymously, away from being loved or loathed. The public eye has never fully shut, however, and when a producer offers Belle a big paycheck to join a reunion special for The Real Deal, she finds it hard to say no.