Could it be that our fate is decided for us by some mysterious higher power? For example, is there a special someone...a soul mate...made for each and every one of us? Seems like a silly and, not to mention, unfair idea...but what if it were true...and worse still what if we did not recognise our soul mate when the time came for us to meet? Suppose it were true, but that either through our fault, or due to some other circumstance beyond our control we lost our chance with that one perfect match, would it upset the balance of destiny in some way? Imagine for a moment that it was the truth...would the higher power try to put it right, even though death and time had intervened to prevent, seemingly forever, that which was supposed to be. Intrigue, passion, humour, violence, sex, murder and even a ghostly spectre are the hallmarks of this pleasant and gripping tale.

Travelling to Norway for the wedding of her friend, Sonja was ill-prepared for the advent of the silent one or indeed what was consequently to happen, but then Lars Bjork-birch was a completely different character to others she had met. But then Sonja herself had a secret, a child who was fast reaching his maturity and one who regarded his mother only as a money making machine even when she found herself as a guest of Soviet Russia. Yet Lars himself also held a secret close to his heart. What that was Sonja had eventually to find out!

INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTELLER In love for the first time, a son's decisions about the future divides his family in this fearless and thought-provoking novel from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of life-changing fiction. When eighteen-year-old Tommy Baxter declares to his family that he wants to be a police officer after graduation, his mother, Reagan, won't hear of it. After all, she's still mourning the death of her own father on September 11 and she's determined to keep her son safe from danger. But Tommy's father, Luke, is proud of Tommy's decision. He would make a kind and compassionate cop. Meanwhile, Tommy is in love for the first time. His sweet relationship with Annalee Miller is almost too good to be true. Tommy begins seriously thinking about the far off day when he can ask her to marry him but she hasn't been feeling well. Tests reveal the unthinkable. While his girlfriend begins the fight of her life, Tommy is driven to learn more about the circumstances surrounding his birth and the grandfather he never knew. Secrets come to light that rock Tommy's world, and he becomes determined to spend his future fighting crime and bringing peace to the streets. Or is this just his way to fight a battle he cannot win-the one facing Annalee? Blending romance and family drama, Truly, Madly,Deeply shows us that, in the shadow of great loss, the only way to live with passion is truly, madly, deeply.

Love is a war in which only the fearless may conquer. The loss of love is a test in survival. Love. It's such an understated word. It has the ability to grip you so hard you become completely consumed by it, and when it releases you, you find yourself on your knees. Lilly Parker has me on my knees and I cannot muster the will to stand. Betrayal. It's all worse when it comes from those we love. The pain, that much more intense. The loss, that much more heart breaking. I took a chance on Theodore Ellis and I lost. How hard is Theo willing to fight for the woman he loves? Can Lilly fight her demons, or will she push away the only man capable of facing them with her? Conquered is the emotional, gritty second part of Lilly and Theo's story.

"I'll read anything she writes" EMILY HENRY Can a little Christmas magic mend a broken heart? "Sparkles with wit and warmth . . . I'll read anything Lindsey writes, but this one might just be my new favourite of her novels"-BETH O'LEARY, author of The Flatshare Newly single lawyer Gwen Baker is hoping that a family Christmas-countryside, a mountain of food and festive films-will salve the sting of her career hanging by a thread and her heart being trampled on. Because everyone else has their life sorted: even Dev, her boy-next-door crush, is now a tall, dark and handsome stranger with a fiancee. She can't help wishing her future was clearer. Then Gwen wakes up to discover it's Christmas day all over again. Like Groundhog Day but with eggnog. And family arguments. On repeat. As she figures out how to escape her own particular Christmas hell, Dev is the one bright spot. He might be all grown-up but underneath he's just as kind and funny as she remembers. Maybe, just maybe, her heart can be mended after all. But how do you fall in love with someone who can't remember you from one day to the next? AUTHORS LOVE LINDSEY KELK "The kind of book you can't put down, but also want to last forever"-EMILY HENRY "I fell head over heels in love"-BETH O'LEARY "The literary equivalent of opening a glass of wine with your best friend"-MHAIRI MCFARLANE "So uplifting and wildly romantic"-MARIAN KEYES

After the death of her parents, young Andrina Maldon has selflessly borne the responsibility not only for the running a household impoverished by her father's profligacy but also for the future happiness of her two sisters. Strikingly beautiful as they are, there is no hope of their finding a suitable suitor without someone to introduce them to the Social world. So she travels unchaperoned to London to seek the assistance of the Duke of Broxbourne, her father's friend and the Godfather she has never met. On the stagecoach journey Andrina has a frightening encounter with a gentleman at a Posting inn - and on arrival at Broxbourne House she is appalled to find that this man is none other than the Duke of Broxbourne himself. At first unwilling to help her, the Duke grudgingly agrees to her requests and although grateful, Andrina despises this arrogant and insensitive man - until, little by little, his true nature is revealed and a very different emotion begins to stir in her heart.

Richard Tempest is lost. His boring, prosaic existence has left him wondering if his life has nothing more to offer than teaching ungrateful students, fending off the political manoeuvring of his peers and occassionally indulging in obligatory, unimaginative, unsatisfying sex. That is until he meets the enchanting and mysterious Ligeia.He finds himself drawn into a darker, altogether more exhilarating, reality. Intoxicated by Ligeia's licentious lifestyle, Richard embarks on a journey of self-discovery that all-too-quickly threatens to spiral out of control. As he becomes increasingly infatuated with her, he is plunged into a seductive world that includes late-night sexual encounters in cemeteries, troilism and the occasional episode of terrifying violence. Theirs is a relationship that is as dangerous as it is exciting. Obsessed with sex, art and death, Ligeia leads him along a devastating path that is impossible for him to resist, where choices must be made that will change his life forever.

Travelling out to Gibraltar Dawn Middleton fully expected to receive an engagement ring and certainly not the ring of a hollow bullet. Nevertheless as a language expert Dawn soon found her services were required by H.M. Intelligence. Yet whilst she was aware of Governmental ideas to curb illegal immigration, she never expected to find herself involved in a mission to actually bring one such person back to Europe. Neither come to that had she expected to become involved with the likes of Callum Seddon. Even so during the extent of this mission many things came to pass that caused her to change her mind, not only on the task she had to undertake but also on the person she had now fallen in love with. Sometimes however fate can often provide tricks such as Marcus Sanchez, whom Dawn had believed to be dead, entering her life again and this in itself provided some soul searching.

He lost everything. Then he found himself . . .

In the spring of 1995, Nate Cartwright is at a loose end: his parents are dead, his older brother has disowned him, and he’s been fired from his job. Looking for a sense of direction, he returns to his family’s summer cabin in Oregon.

The cabin should be empty – but it’s not. Inside is a man named Alex, and an extraordinary little girl who calls herself Artemis Darth Vader. There’s far more to Art than meets the eye. But as Alex and Nate bond over just how special she truly is, they discover that powerful forces are closing in – forces that want nothing more than to control her.

As danger draws near, Nate decide whether to drown in the memories of his past, or fight for Art and a future he never thought possible.

Zoe, Al, Rachel, Rob, Yas and Indie. Six friends who were inseparable at university, who have all had their secret or not so secret passions for each other, their hopes and fears.

Over the years, they have gone their separate ways. Rob is a history teacher, with a string of broken relationships behind him. Yas is a surgeon and very much her own woman. Indie is married and a successful coffee entrepreneur. Rachel is a stay at home mum with two children. Al, widowed young, is about to take over his father's funeral business.

When Rob's engagement party throws the gang together once more, some passions are reignited, old connections and resentments resurface. Over the next twelve months, there will, among the friends, be a birth, a marriage, and a death – but whose?

BIRTHS, DEATHS AND MARRIAGES is an era-spanning, globe-trotting novel about love, friendship, and how to stay at least relatively sane in an ever crazier world. It’s about a group of friends growing older, the possibility of second chances, about kindness and joy. It’s about births, deaths, marriages... and everything in between.

She’s meant to be catching flights, not catching feelings…

Molly and Andrew are just trying to get home to Ireland for the holidays, when a freak snowstorm grounds their flight.

Nothing romantic has ever happened between them: they’re friends and that’s all. But once a year, for the last ten years, Molly has spent seven hours and fifteen minutes sitting next to Andrew on the last flight before Christmas from Chicago to Dublin, drinking terrible airplane wine and catching up on each other’s lives. In spite of all the ways the two friends are different, it’s the holiday tradition neither of them has ever wanted to give up.

Molly isn’t that bothered by Christmas, but—in yet another way they’re total opposites—Andrew is a full-on fanatic for the festive season and she knows how much getting back to Ireland means to him. So, instead of doing the sane thing and just celebrating the holidays together in America, she does the stupid thing. The irrational thing. She vows to get him home. And in time for his mam’s famous Christmas dinner.

The clock is ticking. But Molly always has a plan. And—as long as the highly-specific combination of taxis, planes, boats, and trains all run on time—it can’t possibly go wrong.

What she doesn’t know is that, as the snow falls over the city and over the heads of two friends who are sure they’re not meant to be together, the universe might just have a plan of its own…

In this romantic adventure story David Greason Walker applauds youth, life, love, adventure and the wide landscapes that are far beyond the restrictions of a cosy fireside. The story explores the twilight world between youth and adulthood, with its mixture of idealism, love, realism and sheer caprice. When Carl Hafod first meets Vreni outside a busy pub on a cold, snow-blown winter's day, he is totally unaware of the new direction his life will follow; including the discovery of a hoard of Nazi gold and how the gold has political implications that have remained buried in secrecy since World War Two. The story revolves not only around Carl and Vreni, and Carl's business interests in Fiji, but also around the lives of six other closely knit students. How they become victims of the ever increasing value of the gold. The final decisions they make and the all-encompassing passion Carl feels for Vreni and her abject beauty.

When beautiful nineteen-year-old Roberta's beloved father, the Earl of Wentworth, dies, she is left alone and bereft in North Africa. Now she must travel to America to live with her aunt, Lady Margaret. On finally arriving, she is dismayed to find that she has died, her preacher husband has disappeared and that a cruel local Minister lives there instead, savagely mistreating Lady Margaret's young adopted son, Danny. When the Minister dies of a heart attack, Roberta flees with young Danny and his loyal dog, posing as the boy's mother and, finding herself lost and in danger, she calls at an isolated shack for help. When the door opens, she is staggered to see the handsome stranger, Adam, she had encountered on the train from New Orleans - and that he is a talented Impressionist artist. Before long, love blossoms, bringing a new set of problems that send Roberta fleeing once more. It seems that her love for Adam is not to be -

The handsome and aristocratic, thirty-five year old diplomat Lord Athelstan knows that he is heading for trouble on his mission to the Caucasus to investigate how long the legendary Shamyl, the Imam of Daghestan, can hold out against the invading Russians. But little does he expect to be faced with another kind of conflict - with a beautiful young hostage imprisoned in the Imam's stronghold. The lovely Natasha is only nineteen and she was seized along with a Royal party by the Imam's followers and held to ransom against the release of the Imam's only son by the Russians. Orphaned, she has no hope of raising a ransom and instead has reluctantly agreed to be given to the Sultan of Turkey as a 'wife' for his vast harem in return for the release of her nine-year-old brother. The Imam implores Lord Athelstan to escort Natasha safely to Constantinople - a favour he cannot grant lest it anger the Russians and compromise Great Britain. But then he meets her - undoubtedly the most glorious woman he has ever seen, with fire in her eyes, when he informs her that he cannot agree to Shamyl's request. Ultimately Natasha gives him no choice and, when she appears among his party in disguise, Lord Athelstan is furious. Soon their mutual hatred turns to all-consuming love - a love surely doomed by Natasha's pledge to sacrifice herself to the Sultan's harem for the sake of her brother -

Banished by her malicious stepmother, Lady Cranleigh, after the death of her father, Melita braves a long and lonely sea voyage from England to the Caribbean island of Martinique. With a heavy heart at leaving her childhood home, as her father has left her penniless, she has no choice but to comply with her stepmother's bidding and accept her reduced circumstances with grace. As the ship sails ever closer to her destiny, Melita is determined to face her new life as a lowly Governess to motherless little Rose-Marie with fortitude. Arriving in the French colony, Melita is delighted to discover Martinique is a sun-drenched island blessed with beauty. Overwhelmed by the clear blue skies and the abundance of colourful flowers and shrubs, she begins to believe that she can be happy again, especially when she meets the handsome and surprisingly young, Comte de Vesonne, her new employer. Gazing at each other in astonishment, both are pleasantly surprised to discover something that they were not expecting. But not everyone at the sugar plantation is so pleased to welcome her and, when Melita hears drums pounding softly in the night, shattering the tranquility of the safe haven she has found at Vesonne, she remembers with foreboding the warnings she has heard about Voodoo practiced by the African slaves. Can the mysterious old woman that the slaves call their Mamba really call on the spirits of the dead? And if so, do they mean to help or harm her and the Comte she so much admires and is beginning to love? One thing is for sure - she will protect her young charge, little Rose-Marie, with her life if needs be.

With her flaming red hair and emerald green eyes, Xenia's unusual beauty makes her stand out in any crowd - that is until she unexpectedly meets her long lost cousin, Johanna, amidst the wreckage of a railway accident. Incredulous at finding her mirror image and desperate for a friend, Xenia's initial joy is soon replaced by misgivings when Johanna suggests an outrageous plan to swap lives for two weeks. However, these are soon swept aside by her forceful cousin and Xenia finds herself agreeing to help Johanna enjoy ten final days of freedom with the Englishman she loves before her arranged Royal marriage. As her cousin steals away from the site of the train crash, Xenia suddenly realises all that impersonating Johanna, even for a short while, will entail. Especially as her cousin was travelling to meet and marry her fiance, King Istvan of Luthenia, and the journey must continue so suspicions are not aroused. Surrounded by servants and diplomats, Xenia struggles to assume the Royal role that Johanna inhabits so easily and prays that her true identity will not be discovered. Arriving in Luthenia, Xenia is instantly plunged into a world of political intrigue and drama a million miles away from the quiet life she previously enjoyed in the English countryside. With a Constitutional crisis threatening and rumours of revolution, Luthenia desperately needs this arranged wedding to go ahead to cement allegiances and maintain the balance of power in Europe. As the Luthenian Court prepares for a grand State wedding and the nuptial date grows ever nearer, it seems that the beautiful cousins have only one desire in common - they both want to marry for love. But who shall be their bridegrooms?

The 6th book in the bestselling "A Shade Of Vampire" series has arrived Welcome back to The Shade... Derek and Sofia are finally enjoying a well-deserved break. Staying at a resort with good food, sun and sea, Sofia is thrilled to witness Derek's re-introduction to the human world. They would almost be mistaken for a normal young couple, if it were not for the red-eyed monster lurking in the shadows and watching their every move, waiting for his signal to pounce...

To any outsider it was a case of boy meets girl on that boat which crossed the Baltic, but then Joseph Heiman was on a mission and Olga Larson was shortly to find herself arrested by the Russian Authorities. Yet although their separation suggested that others would enter their lives and assume some degree of importance; and despite the spectre of that large Russian female who appeared to be constantly present, this was a story that was finally played out in the Orkney Islands where a tenet of suspicion haunted both of their lives! The question was not only who would Olga now choose but also how the Commander's wife, a person whom Joseph had met when on a training exercise now fitted into this equation, and what of the Commander himself, a man whom Joseph had once believed to be stern and relentless but who now showed additional characteristics?

Karoliena Kapp is ’n alleenkind. Haar pa is vroeg-vroeg deur ’n weerligstraal doodgeslaan en sy het die bos aanvaar as haar oermoeder. Nog voordat sy twintig is, trou sy met Johannes en moet sy haar plek as dorpsvrou volstaan. Maar Karoliena gebruik die eerste kans om weg te loop. Die dag ná die troue weet sy: Sy het verkeerd gekies. Sy het van die bos af weggevlug en haar vryheid verruil vir ’n kou. Nou is sy bang, en sy vat die pad terug.

An epic, sweeping historical novel of second chances and lovers reunited . . .

Flora MacQueen has always dreamt of more than life on the small Scottish island of St Kilda. So, when she catches the eye of visiting adventurer and wealthy businessman James Callaghan, her future seems brighter. Winter seas separate the lovers, but the island’s evacuation the following summer promises to reunite them – until tragedy strikes.

Heartbroken and needing to support her family on the mainland, a chance meeting offers hope. Soon, Flora is the toast of glamorous Paris; fame and fortune are hers for the taking. But at a high price.

When a scandal erupts back home, Flora is implicated, along with her friends Effifie and Mhairi. As dark secrets come to light, it is a lie by a fellow islander that changes everything . . .