Despite religious vows and despite themselves, love grows between Luca and Isolde as they travel across Europe with their faithful companions, Freize and Ishraq. The four young people encounter werewolves, alchemists, witches and death-dancers as they head toward a real-life historical figure who holds the boundaries of Christendom and the secrets of the Order of the Dragon.
In UNDER HEAVEN, Guy Gavriel Kay told a vivid and powerful story inspired by China’s Tang Dynasty. Now, the international bestselling author revisits that invented setting four centuries later with an epic of prideful emperors, battling courtiers, bandits and soldiers, nomadic invasions, and a woman battling in her own way to find a new place for women in the world --- a world inspired this time by the glittering, decadent Song Dynasty.
Evie O'Neill has been exiled from her boring old hometown and shipped off to the bustling streets of New York City --- and she is pos-i-toot-ly thrilled. New York is the city of speakeasies, shopping and movie palaces! Soon enough, Evie is running with glamorous Ziegfield girls and rakish pickpockets.
A lonely man’s desire for a wife is the catalyst for the creation of a golem like no other. When she’s left master-less on the streets of New York City, she fights her ingrained impulse to help and protect those around her. A jinni, captured and enslaved hundreds of years ago, is free of his flask but not truly free as the iron cuff that keeps him in human form remains on his wrist. The golem and the jinni are drawn to each other, kindred spirits of long-forgotten fairy tales.
A terrifyingly atmospheric ghost story by the Orange-prize-winning Helen Dunmore.
In the summer of 1954, newly wed Isabel Carey arrives in a Yorkshire town with her husband Philip. As a GP he spends much of his time working, while Isabel tries hard to adjust to the realities of married life. Life is not easy: she feels out-of-place and constantly judged by the people around her, so she spends much of her time alone.
One cold winter night, Isabel finds an old RAF greatcoat in the back of a cupboard that she uses to help keep warm. Once wrapped in the coat she is beset by dreams. And not long afterwards, while her husband is out, she is startled to hear a knock at her window, and to meet for the first time the intense gaze of a young Air Force pilot, handsome, blond and blue-eyed, staring in at her from outside.
His name is Alec, and his powerfully haunting presence both disturbs and excites Isabel. Her initial alarm soon fades, and they begin a delicious affair. But nothing could have prepared her for the truth about Alec's life, nor the impact it will have on her own marriage.
In the winter of 1952, Isabel Carey, a lonely housewife who has recently relocated to the Yorkshire countryside with her new husband Philip, discovers an old RAF greatcoat hidden in the back of a cupboard of her house. While sleeping under the coat for warmth that night, she is visited by a young RAF pilot named Alec and begins an affair with him. She is unprepared, however, to face the truth of who Alec really is.
In an ancient time, in a faraway land, a young woman named Aoife is allowed a rare apprenticeship to become her kingdom’s mapmaker, tasked with charting the entire domain. Traveling beyond its borders, she finds a secretive people who live in peace, among great wealth. They claim to protect a mythic treasure, one connected to the creation of the world. When Aoife reports their existence to her kingdom, the community is targeted as a threat.
Lord John Grey --- aristocrat, soldier and occasional spy --- finds himself in possession of a packet of explosive documents that exposes a damning case of corruption against a British officer. But they also hint at a more insidious danger.
In her small early 19th century Welsh town, Morgana is unique. Though her mind is sharp, she has not spoken since she was a young girl, and she possesses a strange magic that allows household objects to move at her command and brings bad luck to those who do her ill. Concerned for her safety, her mother is anxious to see her married. Cai Jenkins, the widowed drover from the far hills takes her as a wife. Morgana is wary of this strange man, but she soon falls in love with his farm as well as him. But Morgana's strangeness is soon noticed by the people of her new village, and one person will stop at nothing to turn the townspeople against her.
Investigator Vissarion Lom has been summoned to the capital in order to catch a terrorist --- and ordered to report directly to the head of the secret police. A totalitarian state, worn down by an endless war, must be seen to crush home-grown insurgents with an iron fist. Lom has been chosen because he is an outsider, not involved in the struggle for power within the party. And because of the sliver of angel stone implanted in his head.
A Note from Carol
Thus far this year has been a fabulous one for readers. And reading ahead I will share that there are more great books ahead!
Tell us your current reading recommendations with your comments and a rating of 1 to 5 stars. During the contest period from May 10th to May 24th, FIVE lucky readers each will be randomly chosen to win a copy of AND THE MOUNTAINS ECHOED by Khaled Hosseini, INFERNO by Dan Brown, and THE REDEEMER by Jo Nesbø.
We all know that The Great Gatsby will be coming to theaters this month. But there are a number of other films releasing in May that you may want to check out, including Iron Man 3, The Iceman, Epic and Shadow Dancer. If you want to stay inside and need some options for TV viewing, tryBehind the Candelabra,which premieresMay 26th on HBO, or pop in a DVD of Jack Reacher, Safe Haven, or Cloud Atlas.
