From the Booker Prize-nominated author of The Water Cure comes a chilling new feminist fable based on the true story of an unsolved mystery... A Good Housekeeping recommended read for 2023 'Sensual, luminous, transcendent. It confirms Mackintosh as one of our finest young writers' The Bookseller 'A thrilling and subversive fable' i-D If you eat the bread, you'll die, he said. The statement made no sense, but it filled me with an electric dread. Elodie is the baker's wife. A plain, unremarkable woman, ignored by her husband and underestimated by her neighbours, she burns with the secret desire to be extraordinary. One day a charismatic new couple appear in town - the ambassador and his sharp-toothed wife, Violet - and Elodie quickly falls under their spell. All summer long she stalks them through the shining streets: inviting herself into their home, eavesdropping on their coded conversations, longing to be part of their world. Meanwhile, beneath the tranquil surface of daily life, strange things are happening. Six horses are found dead in a sun-drenched field, laid out neatly on the ground like an offering. Widows see their lost husbands walking up the moonlit river, coming back to claim them. A teenage boy throws himself into the bonfire at the midsummer feast. A dark intoxication is spreading through the town, and when Elodie finally understands her role in it, it will be too late to stop. Audacious and mesmerising, Cursed Bread is a fevered confession, an entry into memory's hall of mirrors, a fable of obsession and transformation. Sophie Mackintosh spins a darkly gleaming tale of a town gripped by hysteria, envy like poison in the blood, and desire that burns and consumes. Praise for Sophie Mackintosh: 'Be sure to read everything Sophie Mackintosh writes' Deborah Levy on Blue Ticket 'An extraordinary debut - otherworldly, luminous, precise' Guardian on The Water Cure 'Dreamlike, tense, compelling, with a pitch-perfect ending' The New York Times on Blue Ticket 'An unsettling dark fantasy... It lingers long after the final page' Daily Telegraph on The Water Cure 'Blue Ticket will worm its way under your skin and haunt your dreams' Red

The price of deception is about identical twins who are the only children of King Lerole, the king of a rural South African state called Dipororo. The twins, Naledi and Noko, went to Johannesburg to study medicine on the insistence of their mother, Queen Dudu, who conceived them at the age of forty-seven by artificial insemination without the king's knowledge and consent. A ritual was performed for them before they began with their medical studies, and they were given beads by a traditional healer, Lenaka, who instructed them not to take them off, but the twins took them off and lied about it. As a result, bad luck followed them, and the younger twin, Noko, failed her first year of medical studies, and her twin sister, Naledi, decided to commit fraud by assisting Noko to obtain a medical qualification by impersonating her during tests and examinations. Naledi was impregnated by a player, Wandi, who didn't love her, and she gave him money to marry her, but he did not turn up for their wedding, which led to the king's poor health to deteriorate further, and he eventually died at the hands of his brother, Monate, who blackmailed the twins to abdicate, and he crowned himself as the next king after his brother's funeral. Naledi was mugged by thugs in an upmarket suburb of Johannesburg and was raped and assaulted by one of the thugs. Naledi was found lying naked and unconscious by a homeless man by the side of the road, her face bruised and unrecognizable. The homeless man covered her with his filthy jacket and took out his worldly possessions from his trolley, carried Naledi in it, and pushed her to the hospital. Naledi was mismanaged by her twin sister during labor, resulting in a ruptured uterus and other complications, and she ended up in Intensive Care Unit. During her recovery, she was diagnosed with postpartum psychosis and was transferred to a mental institution.

Lia's secret life of torment and abuse appears to take a turn for the better when she crosses paths with a mysterious young man. Adam's angry demeanor and murderous reputation create a strange and fearful arousal in Lia. Sharing a background of child abuse, the two find temporary solace in each other's arms.

Unfortunately, their newfound happiness proves short-lived, due to an act of explosive violence on Adam's part, and even worse, to Lia's twisted stepfather's continued obsession with her. Wishing to spare Adam any more bloodletting, Lia decides to take matters into her own hands - wishing, once and for all, to rid herself of the man who ruled the nightmares of her childhood.

But how much more abuse is Lia willing to endure to bait the elaborate trap for her stepfather?

This book is about the lives of three devoted college friends who loved, lost and magically found love again. These women stood by each other through physical and emotionally abusive relationships. Alease Avery almost lost her life at the hands of her abusive husband; Mavis Maxwell almost lost her freedom after she attempted to murder her husband and Bridgett found love across racial lines after she lost the man she loved. If you are a romantic, love reading about matters of the heart or perhaps searching for Mr. Right, Love Requited will capture and inspire you. You will find yourself spell bound and dreaming of finding Mr. Right as love finally comes at last.

My God Kidnapping Lord David, single father and reclusive architect, still couldn't quite believe he'd done it. He knew the moment he and his sister entered Laurel Andrews' home that he needed to hire her decorator. Imagine his surprise when the realtor informed him that Laurel, married for twenty years to Greg, was the decorator, the house had predominately been done in three weeks time, and that it was her "hobby." He should have known.

He had never seen anything like her home or felt anything like her home. Every room had a comfort that drew you in and made you feel at ease as if in slippered feet looking for your favorite chair. Her home emanated the feel one gets only from well worn furniture and yet everything was flawless and only marked if intended by design. Each room had touches of nature and as one turned from here to there a surprise just waited to delight the eye. No one would be able to recreate the combination of texture, color and warmth permeating his senses. He would have done anything to give his children the home he had always wanted for them.

Lord David might have turned the plane back to California if he had known the emotional pandemonium about to reign over Whitethorn Castle

Reeling from the pain of being abandoned by her husband-the father of her son-Megan Richardson's world is closing in around her in a dark haze of depression. She feels lost, without hope or answers.

Worse, she must face the death of her beloved mother. She reaches for answers, wondering what really matters in life. Her mother's final letter to her may hold some of these answers, and Megan clings to hope once again. She reads the letter over and over, desperate to find the meaning of her mother's last words. Megan tries to understand the lesson the Lord is supposed to be teaching her, but she has pulled away from her faith of late.

Perhaps that lesson is hidden within her work as a nurse on a cancer ward. When a patient, a frail young girl, reaches out to save Megan from a panic attack, they make a connection. Sarah heals a bit of Megan's heart with that moment, and Megan's life begins to change. She starts searching for God's place in her life ... and for the man who will make her heart whole again.

Megan returns to her family farm in search of the solitude she needs. There she meets Darrin, the new hired man. Is he the answer to her prayers?