Showing results by narrator "Justine Eyre" in All Categories

By the author of the acclaimed Passion Blue, a Kirkus Reviews Best Teen Book of 2012 and "a rare, rewarding, sumptuous exploration of artistic passion," comes a fascinating companion novel.

Artistically brilliant, Giulia is blessed—or cursed—with a spirit’s gift: she can hear the mysterious singing of the colors as she creates them in the convent workshop of Maestra Humilitá. It’s here that Giulia, forced into the convent against her will, has found unexpected happiness and rekindled her passion to become a painter—an impossible dream for any woman in 15th century Italy.

But when a dying Humilitá bequeaths Giulia her most prized possession—the secret formula for the luminously beautiful paint called Passion blue—Giulia realizes she’s in danger from those who have long coveted the famous color. Faced with the prospect of a life in the convent barred from painting as punishment for keeping Humilitá’s secret, Giulia is struck by a desperate idea: What if she disguises herself as a boy? Could she make her way to Venice and find work as an artist’s apprentice?

Along with the truth of who she is, Giulia carries more dangerous secrets: the exquisite voices of her paint colors and the formula for Humilitá’s Passion blue. And Venice, she discovers, with its gilded palazzos and masked balls, has secrets of its own. Trapped in her false identity in this dream-like place where reality and reflection are easily confused, and where art and ambition, love and deception hover like dense fog, can Giulia find her way?

This stunning, compelling novel explores timeless themes of love and illusion, gender and identity as it asks the question: what does it mean to risk everything to pursue your passion?

Writing under the pseudonym A. M. Barnard, Louisa May Alcott wrote a series of what she called "blood and thunder" thrillers for a weekly pulp magazine. In the first, Pauline's Passion and Punishment, she explores the unfair roles of men and women, as well as the societal expectations and forbidden desires that play an important role in this story of love and vengeance.

When a group of Jeri McKane’s friends help Abby present a birthday dinner for her home-ec project, the party ends up in the trashcan… literally. Is it just an unfortunate event, or have the friends been intentionally poisoned? Jeri’s instinct says something isn’t right, and the girls follow a trail that leads to some not-so-sweet evidence.Tween girls can wonder why God doesn’t step in when meanness and injustice happens. This story helps them see how he often uses ordinary people to help uncover the truth!

It's hate at first sight for two television antiques show personalities - an aristocratic Brit and a loud, foul-mouthed American - staying at the Hemlock Falls Inn. Their bitter rivalry heats up when they decide to have it out in a cooking contest. It's a good thing that inn owners Meg and Sarah Quilliam are experts at appraising motives for murder when one of them keels over on camera - because the suspects are piling up.

The good ladies of Hemlock Falls are protesting a nudie bar, and the MacAvoy barn has just burned to a crisp - with someone inside. The Quilliam sisters have a feeling the two incidents are connected, but they have problems of their own.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah "Quill" Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls while her sister, Meg, keeps the patrons happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits.

Little Men brilliantly extends the March family saga begun in Louisa May Alcott's classic Little Women. Jo---now married to the good-natured Professor Bhaer and with sons of her own---has become the unflappable matron of an extended family at Plumfield, a school that the Bhaers have founded with Aunt March's legacy. Jo's rambunctious youngsters grow up in an atmosphere full of high spirits and misadventure---a world enlivened by Alcott's unique powers of observation and sympathy.

At first, the case appears to be one of simple misadventure. Sonet van Rensburg, a base jumper, falls to her death while attempting to parachute off a newly built 65-story Sandton skyscraper. But Sonet’s jumping partner, Chris Theron, insists that this was no accident, and he hires private investigator Jade de Jong to uncover the truth. Glad of the distraction from her conflicted and seemingly doomed relationship with police superintendent David Patel, Jade immerses herself in the case. She discovers that Sonet worked for a charity that helped impoverished communities become self-supporting farming units.

Fanny Hill: Memoirs of a Woman of Pleasure is one of the most notorious texts in English literature. As recently as 1963, an unexpurgated edition was the subject of a trial, yet in the 18th century John Cleland's open celebration of sexual enjoyment was a best-selling novel. Fanny's story, as she falls into prostitution and then rises to respectability, takes the form of a confession that is vividly colored by copious and explicit physiological details of her carnal adventures.

A cop as well as an art historian, Marco Valoni leads a crack team of investigators in a race to solve a crime he's certain is about to shock the world: someone is planning to steal the Holy Shroud of Turin.

Sisters Meg and Sarah Quilliam make sure guests feel right at home when they visit the Inn at Hemlock Falls. Located in upstate New York, Hemlock Falls is a small town renowned for its scenic beauty - and scenes of crime. Disaster strikes a mere week before the Hemlock Falls Ladies’ Auxiliary hosts the annual Spring Fete when the festival’s chairwoman - the redoubtable Adela Henry - gives up her job in a huff. Who’s going to judge the justly renowned Jell-O architecture contest? Who will stop the members of the Craft Guild from sabotaging their rivals, the Crafty Ladies? More to the point, who’s got the tact, diplomacy, and iron will necessary to organize the booths and settle quarrels over the programming? Hemlock’s mayor hopes to assure the fete’s success when he recruits professional organizer Linda Connally and her staff to take over Adela’s duties. But when Connally’s body turns up in the trunk of a used car at Peterson’s Automotive, Meg and Sarah are back in the detecting business.

Domesticity and creativity wrestle in these hilariously skewed tales of postmodern family life.

An exciting new series from the acclaimed author of Red Glass. Zeeta's life with her free-spirited mother, Layla, is anything but normal. Every year Layla picks another country she wants to live in. This summer they’re in Ecuador, and Zeeta is determined to convince her mother to settle down. Zeeta makes friends with vendors at the town market and begs them to think of upstanding, “normal” men to set up with Layla. There, Zeeta meets Wendell. She learns that he was born nearby, but adopted by an American family.

When P.I. Jade de Jong invites Superintendent David Patel on a scuba diving holiday in St. Lucia, she hopes the time away will rebuild their conflicted relationship. Jade's dreams are soon shattered when David calls off their affair, forcing her into the arms of environmentalist Craig Niewoudt. But the next morning, romantic issues are put aside when a scuba diving instructor, Amanda Bolton, is found brutally stabbed to death.

The most tragic love story in history...Juliet Capulet didn't take her own life. She was murdered by the person she trusted most, her new husband, Romeo Montague, a sacrifice made to ensure his own immortality. But what Romeo didn't anticipate was that Juliet would be granted eternity, as well, and would become an agent for the Ambassadors of Light. For 700 years, she's fought Romeo for the souls of true lovers, struggling to preserve romantic love and the lives of the innocent. Until the day she meets someone she's forbidden to love.

Letters of a Nation is a unique and timeless collection of extraordinary letters spanning more than 350 years of American history, from the arrival of the Pilgrims to the present day. Many of the more than 200 letters are published here for the first time, and the correspondents are the celebrated and obscure, the powerful and powerless, including presidents, slaves, soldiers, prisoners, explorers, writers, revolutionaries, Native Americans, artists, religious and civil rights leaders, and people from all walks of life.

Abby Wright, with her cute English accent and cool way of saying things, is Jeri McKane’s biology lab partner and close friend. When a mysterious explosion in their lab sends Abby to the hospital, Jeri’s sleuthing nose smells more than just smoke. Can she unravel the mystery before anyone else gets hurt? And, worse yet, is the firebug at Landmark School targeting her? Danger and mystery abound for the group of middle-school friends as they are faced with the daily choice to trust God.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah “Quill” Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls, while her sister, Meg, keeps the guests happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits. This year, March comes in like a lion, and it’s Meg and Quill who take the brunt of the bite. First, a notorious state supreme court justice has decided to sequester the jury of a high-profile case at their cozy inn.

Things are not going well for wealthy, spoiled Samantha Crowley, who thought her world would never collapse until her superstar novelist husband filed for divorce. Samantha's pursuit of "divorce justice" in tinsel town lands her in an even more perilous situation. Within 24 hours of meeting with her, the people from whom she seeks help turn up dead in dramatic fashion. Samantha, the unwanted wife, is now a wanted woman.

Hemlock Falls is a pretty little town in upstate New York. Sarah Quilliam, with her talent for business, runs the Inn at Hemlock Falls, while her sister, Meg, keeps the guests happy with her culinary abilities. But when it comes to murder, the Quilliam sisters have to rely on other skills - spotting clues, solving crimes, and catching culprits. The History Days festival is the highlight of the year in Hemlock Falls, and the reenactment of the 17th-century witch trials is the highlight of the festival.