Showing results for "The Forbidden Book" in Coming of Age

“Fantastic. Wistful, mysterious, sparkling with secrets. I raced through Summer Hours in a day!” —Meg Donohue, USA Today bestselling author “A dreamy, nostalgic tale full of wisdom and heart. I love this book.” —Andrea Dunlop, author of She Regrets Nothing Five summers. A secret love...

This rich and nuanced portrait of eighteenth-century China follows a Chinese girl's path to enlightenment. At the midpoint of the Manchus' long sway over the largest empire in China's history, a young girl stands reluctantly on the brink of womanhood. Lotus, the Empress Dowager's servant, decides to follow a spiritual path through the Forbidden City. She travels down routes of erotic fancy in search of a place called Mandala, where life's troubles are left behind.

There are angels and demons at war inside my head. I had it all figured out: finish high school, attend seminary, and finally answer my calling of becoming a priest. What I hadn't counted in the equation was her. Grace Miller. The girl who was always out of my reach. The girl who still makes me lose my breath with just a look. Little did I know she would become my temptation and vice, and quite possibly, my ruin. Now I'm standing at a crossroads, and my head is a battlefield. How do I choose sides when it means losing a part of who I am?

I knew falling for him was wrong. I did it anyway, his half smiles and blue eyes pulling me deeper. Blue eyes that made me soar. He wasn't mine to keep, though. And like all good and rare things, it came to an end. Then, he strolls into my life, armed with dimples and gray eyes. Gray eyes that ground me. He smashes through my defenses, stealing what is left of my heart. Now, my heart is a war zone, past and present battling for my forever. They say lightning doesn't strike the same place twice. I call bulls--t on that theory.