Showing results for "Swans" in Literature & Fiction

In this captivating historical novella narrated by Tony Award-winning actress Cynthia Erivo, New York Times best-selling author Patti Callahan Henry celebrates the life of the mother of modern nursing and one of history's greatest heroines: Florence Nightingale. In this poignant story, a young woman has just discovered her divine purpose to become a nurse, and struggles to make that dream a reality. While traveling abroad with her close friend, Selina Bracebridge - another strong woman living an unconventional life - a rare opportunity arises for Florence to practice medicine.

He was gorgeous, older and guarded. I knew he was trouble from the moment we locked eyes. We met at work, on my first day as a barista. He smiled, I melted...then he tasted my coffee and threw it away. Again, the next day, and the next. He hated the coffee, yet still came back. I knew his game. He called my coffee death in a cup. I called him god’s gift to women. I wasn’t lying.

I met him, the man of my dreams. On the worst day of my life. Catching my boyfriend out was bad. Coming out of the club in a daze, I stumbled upon a situation which was worse. Much worse. And it would have been deadly, too. If he wasn’t there to save me. My unsuspecting hero. He was rugged, wild, and powerful. The way he looked at me set me on fire.

Early one morning, a body is found lying next to the railway tracks just outside of Kuki Station in Saitama Prefecture, shot dead. It is identified as belonging to the owner of a local mill which is embroiled in a labour dispute. Suspicion initially falls on the workers' union, then on a new religious sect that has been gaining followers recently. Chief Inspector Onitsura and his assistant Tanna are called in to investigate, and soon set off in a journey across Japan, from Tokyo to Kyoto and Osaka, and finally to the island of Kyushu, in a hunt for the killer.

The glamorous capital city of Italy is brought to startling life in The Rome Affair, a compelling summer novel by Karen Swan. 1974 and Elena Damiani lives a gilded life. Born to wealth and a noted beauty, no door is closed to her, no man can resist her. At twenty-six, she is already onto her...

In the dying port town of Gdansburg, Sir Konrad Vonvalt finds the unthinkable: a fellow Justice imprisoned for the murder of a young boy. Despite the furious insistence of the townsfolk, the only evidence is a question written on a piece of paper by a dead man: What is The Scour?

Eine mutige Frau trifft auf einen geheimnisvollen Mann, für dessen Liebe sie alles riskiert... Ein fesselnder Liebesroman, der in das historische Venedig entführt Venedig, 1890: Marta leidet unter der Tyrannei ihres kriminellen Bruders, der sie zum Betteln zwingt, um das Leben ihrer Schwester zu retten. In dieser ausweglosen Situation trifft sie auf den geheimnisvollen Daniele, der eine unbändige Anziehungskraft auf sie ausübt und ihr erstmals das Gefühl von Freiheit gibt. Doch der düstere Mann hat seine ganz eigenen Geheimnisse, die ihr zerbrechliches Glück zerstören könnten.

Country music icon Shane Black is this year’s headliner for the New Year’s Eve bash in Times Square, but when violent riots break out, he’ll need more than a six string to escape New York City. After decades of abuse as the world’s reserve currency, the US dollar’s day of reckoning is at hand. Without a functioning monetary system to purchase basic goods, society rapidly descends into abject chaos. Protests, looting, and bloodletting take the place of civility in a country which becomes thoroughly unhinged.

When the rule of law fails, dishonest politicians get even dirtier. Shane and Julianna can’t compete with the debased dictators of Jackson County unless they are willing to bend a few rules of their own. Shane Black escaped the city by the skin of his teeth. But his well-stocked mountain retreat is now the target of a local despot who gained his power through bribes, payoffs, and shady politics. Mayor Hayes had few scruples before the collapse. Now that he’s the only law around, he’s down-right ornery. Road trips are always a bad idea in the apocalypse.

Nathan Mercer, the only man in my life. Loving him was never an option. We met 10 years ago, when we started at the same company on the same day. Both new in town and with nobody else to rely on, we quickly became friends. And while Nathan went on to rule San Francisco, I’m still doing the same job with the same people. We finish each other’s sentences, we spend Christmas together, and he sleeps at my house more than his. He’s beautiful...beyond belief. In another life, he’s probably my soul mate. However, lately things have changed.

He is powerful, older, and my boss, a lethal combination. Job satisfaction has taken on a whole new meaning. When I lied on my resume, I didn’t expect it to matter. I mean any child would love me; I was born to be a nanny. I applied for a position working for a woman, or so I thought. But Julian Masters is definitely all man...the kind you dream of licking chocolate from. The first day was bad. The kids were the spawn of the devil and I spied through a window and caught him doing something obscene...and equally fascinating.

1075 and Dowager Queen Edith has died. Her niece Gunnhild longs to leave Wilton Abbey, but is her suitor, Breton knight Count Alain of Richmond, interested in her inheritance as the daughter of King Harold and Edith Swan-Neck, or does he love her for herself? Is her own love for Count Alain an enduring love, or has she made a terrible mistake? The Swan Daughter is woven around a true 11th-century tale of elopement, love and courage.

“Affecting narrative about consent, power and loneliness.”—Time “Intoxicatingly ominous.”—Kirkus Reviews In a hothouse of collegiate sex and ambition, one young woman mysteriously disappears after a wild campus party, and another becomes obsessed with finding her. It’s Halloween...

In this debut collection from C. S. E. Cooney, a swan princess hunted for her bones, a broken musician and his silver pipe, and a rat named Maurice bring justice to a town under fell enchantment. A gang of courageous kids confront both a plague-destroyed world and an afterlife infested with clowns but robbed of laughter. In an island city, the murder of a child unites two lovers, but vengeance will part them. Only human sacrifice will save a city trapped in ice and darkness.

"You can either choose love or you can choose hate, because where one lives, the other will die." Kidnapped a day short of her twenty-fourth birthday, Skye Sedgewick struggles to uncover her captor's motives. Damian Caballero is not only impossible to read, but also dark, troubled, and unflinchingly brutal. For twenty-one days, Skye holds on. But on Day Twenty-Two, she yearns for the sweet slumber of death. Because on Day Twenty-Two, Skye realizes that her only way out means certain death for one of the two men she loves.

The grand plantation of Swan's Quarter still echoes with memories of another time. It is there that Ginna Jones meets Neal Frazier, a recovering plane crash survivor. Young and handsome, but disturbingly familiar, Ginna is instantly drawn to this mysterious man. When a walk in the garden sends the pair spiraling back through the veils of time, their fates become entwined with those of two young lovers separated by the Civil War.

1913. Eighty-three-year-old Silvestre Swan has dedicated his life to the care of his Newfoundland lighthouse. His petition to relocate Swan Light from its precarious cliff’s edge is going unheard by town patriarch Cort Roland—that is, until a terrible storm brings an unlikely ally into Swan’s life. But is it too late for the stone lighthouse?

A new novel, funny, wise, moving, true, as only Lisa Alther can write ("she had me laughing at 4 in the morning" --Doris Lessing), set on a cruise ship, about a woman, a doctor in charge of the ship's clinic, recovering from the loss of her longtime female lover, a much-admired writer, and...

In 1988, before her senior year of high school, Nina and her best friend spend the summer alone on Cape Cod. Nina has grown up with her ailing grandmother - and she yearns for the chance of a deeper connection. When she enrolls in an acting course, she soon finds romance with Sarah, one of the teaching assistants. Nina's own world revolves around Sarah, while the rest of the world moves urgently on. Nina's high school teacher does not take the end of their relationship well; her best friend feels abandoned; the AIDS epidemic rages; her fellow actors grow and hone their talents.

Alexander Feldmann is a revered and sought-after performer whose prodigious talent, striking good looks, and worldly charm prove irresistible to all who hear and encounter him. After years of searching, he acquires a glorious cello, the Silver Swan, a rare Stradivarius masterpiece long lost to the world of music. Mariana is Alexander’s only child and the maestro has large ambitions for her. By the age of 19 she emerges as a star cellist in her own right, and is seen as the inheritor of her father's genius. There are whispers that her career might well outpace his.