Heaven, Texas by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

Come heck or high water, Gracie Snow is determined to track down the legendary ex-jock Bobby Tom Denton and drag him back home to Heaven, Texas, to begin shooting his first motion picture. But taming an egotistical cowboy in a '57 T-Bird might be more than this prim Ohio wallflower can handle.

Despite his dazzling good looks and killer charm, Bobby Tom has reservations about being a movie star--and no plans to cooperate with the bossy little virgin whom he can't get off his mind or out of his life. Instead, the hellraising playboy decides to make her over from plain Jane to Texas wildcat.

But nothing's more dangerous than a wildcat with an angel's heart in a town too small for a bad boy to hide. And all hell breaks loose when two unforgettable people discover love, laughter, passion--and a match that can be made only in Heaven.

Read "HEAVEN, TEXAS" here

It Had To Be You by Susan Elizabeth Phillips

The windy city isn't quite ready for Phoebe Somerville-the trendy, outrageous and curvaceous New York knockout who has just inherited the Chicago Stars football team. And Phoebe is definitely not prepared for the Stars' head coach Dan Celbow - an Alabama-born former gridiron legend and blond barbarian.

Calebow is everything Phoebe abhors - a sexist, jock taskmaster with a one-track mind. The beautiful new boss is everything Dan despises - a meddling bimbo whos doesn't know pigskin from a pitcher's mound, So why is he drawn to the shameless sexpot like a heat-seeking missile? And why does Dan's good ol'boy charm leave cosmopolitan Phoebe feeling awkward, tongue-tied and frightened to death?

Read "IT HAD TO BE YOU" here

Mirror, Mirror by Gregory Maguire

The year is 1502, and seven-year-old Bianca de Nevada lives perched high above the rolling hills and valleys of Tuscany and Umbria at Montefiore, the farm of her beloved father, Don Vicente. But one day a noble entourage makes its way up the winding slopes to the farm — and the world comes to Montefiore.
In the presence of Cesare Borgia and his sister, the lovely and vain Lucrezia — decadent children of a wicked pope — no one can claim innocence for very long. When Borgia sends Don Vicente on a years-long quest, he leaves Bianca under the care — so to speak — of Lucrezia.
She plots a dire fate for the young girl in the woods below the farm, but in the dark forest salvation can be found as well ...
A lyrical work of stunning creative vision, Mirror Mirror gives fresh life to the classic story of Snow White — and has a truth and beauty all its own.

Read "MIRROR, MIRROR" here

Eternal Series by Ann Lory

Dimitri Alexios lives alone in his San Francisco mansion, if one could call loathing what he is and hating his maker living. Until he beholds the mortal woman who appears on his doorstep. Her gentleness brings light to his darkness, and her innocence calls to him. Yet she knows nothing of his world, or the dangerous predator that constantly rages within him.

Museum curator Cassie Stephens, sent to catalog antiques at the Alexios estate, is surprised to discover Dimitri is anything but the old man she expected. He’s handsome and darkly mysterious, not the sort who’s usually attracted to her girl-next-door looks. Yet she’s ensnared by his irresistible charm—which makes it all the more crushing when he suddenly pushes her away.

Dimitri knows he’s doing the right thing, but it’s too late. Cassie’s passion has touched a heart he thought no longer capable of love. Now he must turn his strength to a deadly task: a battle to save the woman he loves from the maker who would love nothing more than to rip her away from him… 

Read "ETERNAL EMBRACE" here

Read "ETERNAL OBSSESS" here

Read "ETERNAL SURRENDER" here

Perfume by Patrick Süskind

Patrick Süskind's first novel, Perfume (Das Parfum) tells the horrific story of Jean-Baptiste Grenouille, an orphan born in Paris in 1738.  When Grenouille's abandoned body is found in the garbage, he is taken to an orphanage, where everyone who comes into contact with him finds something about him to be revulsive.   What they are unaware of is that Grenouille's body does not have any aroma, a distinction which is so subtle that nobody can place their finger on it, but which colors Grenouille's entire life.  Grenouille's strange relationship to odors is further highlighted by his own extremely sharp sense of smell, caused, perhaps, by the lack of necessity to sense past his own smell.

When he comes of age, Grenouille manages to apprentice himself to a perfumer and shows a strong aptitude for mixing strange and exotic perfumes.  This skill leads him to his desire to cover his own lack of smell and a quest to create the most unique perfume the world has ever known.

By following Grenouille from his birth, when his mother abandoned him to death among the discarded fish guts through his childhood when he discovered how different he was to his apprenticeship, Süskind is able to evoke several different emotions from the reader, ranging from sympathy for the young orphan to curiosity to disgust and hatred.   Grenouille's lack of aroma can be seen as representative of his lack of morals in a world in which the amoral and the ethical were struggling to find a new common ground.

Part horror, part mystery, part historical fiction, it offers insight into the mind of the criminally insane while speculating on the role the sense of smell plays in our lives.  

Read "PERFUME" here

By the River Piedra I Sat Down and Wept by Paulo Coelho

Rarely does adolescent love reach its full potential, but what happens when two young lovers reunite after eleven years? Time has transformed Pilar into a strong and independent woman, while her devoted childhood friend has grown into a handsome and charismatic spiritual leader. She has learned well how to bury her feelings . . . and he has turned to religion as a refuge from his raging inner conflicts.

Now they are together once again, embarking on a journey fraught with difficulties, as long-buried demons of blame and resentment resurface after more than a decade. But in a small village in the French Pyrenees, by the waters of the River Piedra, a most special relationship will be reexamined in the dazzling light of some of life's biggest questions. 

Read "BY THE RIVER PIEDRA I SAT DOWN AND WEPT" here

Eleven Minutes by Paulo Coelho

The book tells the story of Maria, a young girl from a Brazilian village, whose first innocent brushes with love leave her heartbroken. At a tender age, she becomes convinced that she will never find true love, instead believing that "Love is a terrible thing that will make you suffer . . ." A chance meeting in Rio takes her to Geneva, where she dreams of finding fame and fortune. Instead, she ends up working as a prostitute.

In Geneva, Maria drifts further and further away from love as she develops a fascination with sex. Eventually, Maria's despairing view of love is put to the test when she meets a handsome young painter. In this odyssey of self-discovery, Maria has to choose between pursuing a path of darkness, sexual pleasure for its own sake, or risking everything to find her own "inner light" and the possibility of sacred sex, sex in the context of love.

Read "ELEVEN MINUTES" here

Brida by Paulo Coelho

Brida, a young Irish girl, has long been interested in various aspects of magic but is searching for something more. Her search leads her to people of great wisdom. She meets a wise man who dwells in a forest, who teaches her to trust in the goodness of the world, and a woman who teaches her how to dance to the music of the world. As Brida seeks her destiny, she struggles to find a balance between her relationships and her desire to become a witch. 

Read "BRIDA" here

The Witch of Portobello by Paulo Coelho

This is the story of Athena, or Sherine, to give her the name she was baptised with. Her life is pieced together through a series of recorded interviews with those people who knew her well or hardly at all -- parents, colleagues, teachers, friends, acquaintances, her ex-husband. The novel unravels Athena's mysterious beginnings, via an orphanage in Romania, to a childhood in Beirut. When war breaks out, her adoptive family move with her to London, where a dramatic turn of events occurs! Athena, who has been dubbed 'the Witch of Portobello' for her seeming powers of prophecy, disappears dramatically, leaving those who knew her to solve the mystery of her life and abrupt departure.

Read "THE WITCH OF PORTOBELLO" here

The Alchemist by Paulo Coelho

The Alchemist is subtitled "A Fable About Following Your Dreams." Fables are cautionary tales that have a point to make. The universal point this story makes is that everyone has a special destiny, and yet not everyone resolves to attain it because it takes hard work. Reaching one's destiny requires leaving behind familiar surroundings. It also demands persistence, the ability to change when appropriate and the willingness to respond to omens that point the way.

Read "THE ALCHEMIST" here

Me & Emma by Elizabeth Flock

The title characters in Me & Emma are very nearly photographic opposites--8-year-old Carrie, the raven-haired narrator, is timid and introverted, while her little sister Emma is a tow-headed powerhouse with no sense of fear. The girls live in a terrible situation: they depend on an unstable mother that has never recovered from her husband's murder, their stepfather beats them regularly, and they must forage on their own for food.

Stop here and you have a story told many times before, as fiction and nonfiction in tales like Ellen Foster, or I Know Why the Caged Bird Sings --stories in which a young girl reveals the horrors of her childhood. Me & Emma differentiates itself with a spectacular finish, shocking the reader and turning the entire story on its head. Through several twists and turns the reader learns that things are not quite the way our narrator led us to believe and everything crescendos in a way that (like all good thrillers) immediately makes you want to go back and read the whole book again from the start. --Victoria Griffith

Read "ME and EMMA" here

Boy Heaven by Laura Kasischke

They were seventeen, with perfect tans and perfect bodies. They planned on a joyride in a convertible on a hot summer day. They planned on skinny-dipping in a beautiful, secluded lake. They planned on making it back to camp before anyone noticed they were gone. What they didn't plan on was being followed by two guys in a beat-up station wagon. . . .

Their day soon takes a drastic turn -- all because Kristy Sweetland smiled at the wrong time, in the wrong place, at the wrong boys.

Now the girls feel prying eyes on them all the time -- during pep practice, on the path through the woods, outside the window of their cabin. The boys are stalking them, leaving threatening notes on their beds, and watching their every move.

Boy Heaven is a provocative, page-turning mystery, and a must-read for anyone who loves an urban legend.

Read "BOY HEAVEN" here

The Woman on the Bus by Pauline McLynn

The bus from Dublin to Limerick has never meant much to the inhabitants of Kilbrody, until a woman steps off it, marches into the pub and drinks herself into oblivion. When she finally wakss up, several days later, it is to discover that Charlie Finn (who put her to bed); the local garda and indeed the whole village are talking about her. Who is the woman on the bus? The question is, will she tell them?

Read "THE WOMAN ON THE BUS" here

Fat Free and Fatal by G. A. McKevett

When curvy P.I. Savannah Reid signs on to guard the newly svelte body of a star on the comeback trail, she finds herself rubbing elbows with the rich, famous--and deadly. Getting the skinny on the killer soon has Savannah starring in a real-life murder mystery that gives "location shoot" a whole new meaning... There's nothing like a makeover story to get people hooked, and America is certainly addicted to the weight-loss saga of once celebrated actress Dona Papalardo. Savannah's no exception although she can't imagine wanting to shed her own hourglass figure by undergoing gastric bypass surgery like Dona did. After Dona's personal assistant is shot dead in the star's mile-long driveway, Savannah becomes her bodyguard. The victim was wearing one of Dona's fur coats, indicating that Dona was the target. And when Dona's hunky gardener takes a bullet between the eyes, Savannah and Detective Sergeant Dirk Coulter know they must act quickly to find the killer. Knocking around Dona's palatial estate gives Savannah plenty of opportunity to hobnob with A-list celebrities and compile a list of suspects that proves some people can never be too rich, too thin, or too vindictive. There's the resentful best friend whose dream of shared singing stardom crumbled when Dona made it big as an actress instead; the loyal boyfriend who loved Dona through thick and thin but now lacks luster next to the hotties beating a path to her door; and the most potentially dangerous jiltee of all: Dona's litigious former agent. But just when Savannah's sure she's had her fill of the macabre, the shooter strikes again, and this time Savannah is nearly caught in the crossfire. Now, as the case turns ever more personal, Savannah's determined to find the truth. After all, it's pretty hard to enjoy fifteen minutes of fame--or a double chocolate brownie--from six feet under...

Read "FAT FREE AND FATAL" here

The Devil and Miss Prym by Paulo Coelho

In a small village Viscos, everyone was satisfied with their lives working hard and fulfilling their dreams. Then one day, a stranger (figuratively, the Devil) visits this quiet village and hides 11 golden bars in the mountain of Viscos. He brings Miss Prym to the buried site and tells her that he needs to do an experiment to test whether or not all human beings are good or evil. The stranger is looking forward to involve all the villagers into his experiment, but Miss Prym is feeling extremely uncomfortable to realize that she is now responsible to save the village and herself. Unfortunately, all of the people in Viscos get involved in this Devil's game and are confused whether to keep up their village history of being moral and honest or to sacrifice one villager to achieve the gold for the good sake of the its future.
This modern fiction questions all readers about one of the most basic questions: are human beings good or evil? With its additional introduction before each chapter, the book further sets the ground for the later story. Throughout the book, all of the village residence and the stranger seek the true meaning of human life by introducing different anecdotes to villagers and the readers and justifying human evilness.

Read "THE DEVIL AND MISS PRYM" here

The Manual of the Warrior of Light by Paulo Coelho

Do you look at life and the universe with the wonder of a child? Do you accept failure with equanimity? Do you believe in fighting for your dreams? These are some of the questions raised by Paulo Coelho’s Manual of the Warrior of Light.

Read "THE MANUAL OF THE WARRIOR OF LIGHT" here

Life of Pi by Yann Martel

Pi Patel is an unusual boy. The son of a zookeeper, he has an encyclopedic knowledge of animal behavior, a fervent love of stories, and practices not only his native Hinduism, but also Christianity and Islam. When Pi is sixteen, his family emigrates from India to North America aboard a Japanese cargo ship, along with their zoo animals bound for new homes.

The ship sinks. Pi finds himself alone in a lifeboat, his only companions a hyena, an orangutan, a wounded zebra, and Richard Parker, a 450-pound Bengal tiger. Soon the tiger has dispatched all but Pi, whose fear, knowledge, and cunning allow him to coexist with Richard Parker for 227 days lost at sea. When they finally reach the coast of Mexico, Richard Parker flees to the jungle, never to be seen again. The Japanese authorities who interrogate Pi refuse to believe his story and press him to tell them "the truth." After hours of coercion, Pi tells a second story, a story much less fantastical, much more conventional-but is it more true?

Read "LIFE OF PI" here

The Chronicles of Narnia by C.S. Lewis

Journeys to the end of the world, fantastic creatures, and epic battles between good and evil -- what more could any reader ask for in one book? The book that has it all is the lion, the witch and the wardrobe, written in 1949 by C. S. Lewis. But Lewis did not stop there. Six more books followed, and together they became known as The Chronicles of Narnia. For the past fifty years, The Chronicles of Narnia have transcended the fantasy genre to become part of the canon of classic literature. Each of the seven books is a masterpiece, drawing the reader into a world where magic meets reality, and the result is a fictional world whose scope has fascinated generations.

Read here:
The Chronicles of Narnia 01-The Magician's Nephew
The Chronicles of Narnia 02-The Lion, The Witch and The Wardrobe
The Chronicles of Narnia 03-The Horse and His Boy
The Chronicles of Narnia 04-Prince Caspian
The Chronicles of Narnia 05-The Voyage of the Dawn Treader
The Chronicles of Narnia 06-The Silver Chair
The Chronicles of Narnia 07-The Last Battle

Where Rainbows End by Cecelia Ahern

From naughty children to rebellious teenagers, Rosie and Alex have stuck by each other through thick and thin. But just as they're discovering the joys of teenage nights on the town and dating disasters, they're separated. Alex's family moves from Dublin to America – and Alex goes with them. For good. Rosie's lost without her best friend. But on the eve of her departure to join Alex in Boston, Rosie gets news that will change her life forever – and keep her at home in Ireland. Their magical connection sees them through the ups and downs of each other's lives but neither of them knows whether their friendship can really survive the years and miles – as well as new relationships. And at the back of Rosie's mind is whether they were meant to be more than just good friends all along. Misunderstandings, circumstances and sheer bad luck have kept them out of each others' arms, but when presented with the ultimate opportunity, will they gamble everything – including their friendship – for true love? Destiny, Alex and Rosie discover, is a funny thing and fate isn't quite done with them yet…

Read "WHERE RAINBOWS END" here

The Deadly Series by Brenda Joyce

Read here:
Deadly Love
Deadly Pleasure
Deadly Affairs
Deadly Desire
Deadly Caress
Deadly Promise
Deadly Illusions

Th1rteen R3asons Why by Jay Asher

Clay Jensen returns home from school to find a mysterious box with his name on it lying on his porch. Inside he discovers several cassette tapes recorded by Hannah Baker--his classmate and crush--who committed suicide two weeks earlier. On tape, Hannah explains that there are thirteen reasons why she decided to end her life. Clay is one of them. If he listens, he'll find out how he made the list.

Read "TH1RTEEN R3ASONS WHY" here

Bridget Jones The Edge of Reason by Helen Fielding

Lurching from the cappuccino bars of Notting Hill to the blissed-out shores of Thailand, everyone's favorite Singleton Bridget Jones begins her search for The Truth in spite of pathetically unevolved men, insane dating theories, and Smug Married advice.

Read "BRIDGET JONES, THE EDGE OF REASON" here

Bridget Jones's Diary by Helen Fielding

Bridget Jones's Diary portrays a year in the life of 30-something, career-minded Bridget Jones. Bridget is a self-involved woman concerned with her weight, appearance and securing a boyfriend. The book is written as a diary and tracks Bridget's life during a twelve-month span, beginning with her New Year's Resolutions. Her resolutions include quitting smoking, drinking less, losing weight, finding a boyfriend, getting a better career, and not dating emotionally unavailable men.

Read "BRIDGET JONES'S DIARY" here

The Pilgrimage by Paulo Coelho

Here Paulo Coelho details his journey across Spain along the legendaryroad of San Tiago, which pilgrims have travelled since Middle Ages. On this contemporary quest, he encounters a Chaucerian variety of mysterious guides and devilish opponents and learns to understand the nature of truth through the simplicity of life. The Pilgrimage holds an important place in Paulo Coelho's literary canon.His first book, it not only paved the way for his phenomenal novel The Alchemist , but it also fully expresses his humanist philosophy and the depth of his unique search for meaning.

Read "THE PILGRIMAGE" here

The Zahir by Paulo Coelho

The narrator of The Zahir is a bestselling novelist who lives in Paris and enjoys all the privileges money and celebrity bring. His wife of ten years, Esther, is a war correspondent who has disappeared along with a friend, Mikhail, who may or may not be her lover.
Was Esther kidnapped, murdered, or did she simply escape a marriage that left her unfulfilled? The narrator doesn't have any answers, but he has plenty of questions of his own. Then one day Mikhail finds the narrator and promises to reunite him with his wife. In his attempt to recapture a lost love, the narrator discovers something unexpected about himself. 


Read "THE ZAHIR" here

Saving Zoe by Alyson Noel

In Alyson Noël's newest teen novel, one sister's secrets save the other's life--in more ways than one. Meet fifteen-year-old Echo, a typical teen trying to survive high school without being totally traumatized by boy trouble, friend drama, and school issues. As if she didn't have enough on her plate, Echo is also still dealing with the murder of her sister Zoë. Although it's been over a year, Echo is still reeling from tragedy that changed everything. Beautiful and full of life, Zoë was the glue that held her family together, and although the two sisters were as different as night and day, they still had a bond that Echo can't let go of. When Zoë's old boyfriend Marc shows up one day with Zoë's diary, Echo doesn't think there's anything in there she doesn't already know. But as she gives in to curiosity and starts reading, she learns that her sister led a secret life that no one could have guessed--not even Echo.

Read "SAVING ZOE" here

Calling Romeo by Alexandra Potter

Juliet can't help wishing she had more romance in her life. She loves her boyfriend Will, but after living together for two and a half years, she's come to realise that thirtysomething monogamy isn't all it's cracked up to be. Will used to whisk her off to candlelit restaurants. Now his idea of a perfect evening is a video and vindaloo. He used to leave post-it notes saying 'I love you' on the bathroom mirror. Now the only things she finds are his dirty socks on the bathroom floor. So, when Juliet meets a sexy, dark-eyed Adonis from a rival London advertising agency she is sorely tempted. And when he invites her away for an illicit, no-expense-spared weekend in Verona it's almost impossible to resist. Her very own Romeo. But does she want to risk losing Will and all they have shared together? Juliet must work out what's really important in life and whether romance really is all about sexy lingerie and red roses.

Read "CALLING ROMEO" here

In The Blood by Adrian Phoenix

Weeks have passed since the tumultuous events of A Rush of Wings, and Heather and Dante are each coping in their own ways. In Seattle, Heather is determined to solve the mystery surrounding her mother's death. In New Orleans, Dante has cut all ties with his father Lucien, even as he struggles to understand his past. When Dante and Heather cross paths again, they learn that dangerous forces are plotting to use Dante for their own ends, with mysterious powers that rival Dante's own supernatural abilities. They'll stop at nothing until Dante is theirs to control...

Read "IN THE BLOOD" here

A Rush of Wings by Adrian Phoenix

Bienvenue to dark streets where nightkind hunt, and above in the star-pricked skies one hears the rush of wings...
Begin the journey with A RUSH OF WINGS.

HIS NAME IS DANTE.

Dark. Talented. Beautiful. Star of the rock band Inferno. Rumored owner of the hot New Orleans nightspot called Club Hell. Born of the Blood, then broken by an evil beyond imagination.

HIS PAST IS A MYSTERY.

FBI Special Agent Heather Wallace has been tracking a sadistic serial murderer known as the Cross Country Killer...and the trail has led her to New Orleans, Club Hell, and Dante. But the dangerously attractive musician not only resists her investigation, he claims to be nightkind: in other words, a vampire. Digging into his past for answers reveals little. A
juvenile record a mile long. No social security number. No known birth date. In and out of foster homes for most of his life before being taken in by a man named Lucien De Noir, who appears to guard mysteries of his own.

HIS FUTURE IS CHAOS.

What Heather does know about Dante is that something links him to the killer -- and she's pretty sure that link makes him the CCK's next target. Heather must unravel the truth behind this sensual, complicated, vulnerable young man -- who, she begins to believe, may indeed be a vampire -- in order to bring a killer to justice. But what Heather doesn't know is that Dante's past holds a shocking secret, and once it is revealed not even Heather will be able to protect him from his destiny...

Read "A RUSH OF WINGS" here