Athena Brkovich believes in true love. Born into a blue collar family in 1968, young Athena and her sisters are sent away when their mother is hospitalized and their father is unable to care for them. The beginnings of trauma, separation, denial and suffering set Athena on her path. Brilliant, but naive, Athena refuses to grow up and become part of an adult world she doesn’t trust. But as time unfolds, the guilt that swirls around her beloved sister Lejla, and the blossoming desire for her soulmate Niko, plunge Athena into confusion. When circumstances bring them all together in high school, betrayal threatens to engulf Athena in shame and hatred. No matter how many walls Athena builds to escape her painful past, she must confront the person she is becoming in a society where only the strong survive. Compelling, and at times tragic, Book 1 explores the themes of childhood trauma, family conflict, alcoholism, and teenage love. Despite the darkness, Athena struggles to follow the little light inside herself, guiding her to forgiveness, peace, redemption, and the ultimate prize, love.

Athena Brkovich believes in true love. Born into a blue collar family in 1968, young Athena and her sisters are sent away when their mother is hospitalized and their father is unable to care for them. The beginnings of trauma, separation, denial and suffering set Athena on her path. Brilliant, but naive, Athena refuses to grow up and become part of an adult world she doesn’t trust. But as time unfolds, the guilt that swirls around her beloved sister Lejla, and the blossoming desire for her soulmate Niko, plunge Athena into confusion. When circumstances bring them all together in high school, betrayal threatens to engulf Athena in shame and hatred. No matter how many walls Athena builds to escape her painful past, she must confront the person she is becoming in a society where only the strong survive. Compelling, and at times tragic, Book 1 explores the themes of childhood trauma, family conflict, alcoholism, and teenage love. Despite the darkness, Athena struggles to follow the little light inside herself, guiding her to forgiveness, peace, redemption, and the ultimate prize, love.

The night holds endless pleasures . . . and hides nameless terrors. As the broom end of her Sybil triad, Merilee Alexander has the sacred duty as a warrior witch of taking out the trash. Lately, though, she’s been a little overwhelmed: Manhattan is a mess. And her prophetic end-of-the-world nightmares aren’t helped by the waking fantasies of love. Or the fact that the object of her affections, gorgeous Jake Lowell of NYPD’s Occult Crimes Unit, is playing it so cool. Actually, Jake wants Merilee desperately, every luscious inch of her. Still, he’s holding back. He’s got secrets. Dark, dangerous, demonic secrets. But as Jake and Merilee trawl the city’s supernatural underbelly to out a demonic kingpin who, disguised as a charismatic leader, is amassing dark power, it’s make-or-break time. For their lives, their love, and the world are about to be sucked into the undertow of the tides of an unstoppable evil. From the Paperback edition.

“Sheer entertainment… Bennett infuses wit and an arch sensibility into her prose… This is not mere froth, it is pure confection.” – New York Times Book Review “[A] pitch-perfect murder mystery… If The Crown were crossed with Miss Marple…, the result would probably be something like this charming whodunnit.” – Ruth Ware, author of One by One The bestselling first book in a highly original and delightfully clever crime series in which Queen Elizabeth II secretly solves crimes while carrying out her royal duties. It is the early spring of 2016 and Queen Elizabeth is at Windsor Castle in advance of her 90th birthday celebrations. But the preparations are interrupted by the shocking and untimely death of a guest in one of the Castle bedrooms. The scene leads some to think the young Russian pianist strangled himself, yet a badly tied knot leads MI5 to suspect foul play. When they begin to question the Household’s most loyal servants, Her Majesty knows they’re looking in the wrong place. For the Queen has been living an extraordinary double life ever since her teenage years as “Lilibet.” Away from the public eye and unbeknownst to her closest friends and advisers, she has the most brilliant skill for solving crimes. With help from her Assistant Private Secretary, Rozie Oshodi, a British Nigerian officer recently appointed to the Royal Horse Artillery, the Queen discreetly begins making inquiries. As she carries out her royal duties with her usual aplomb, no one in the Royal Household, the government, or the public knows that the resolute Elizabeth won’t hesitate to use her keen eye, quick mind, and steady nerve to bring a murderer to justice. SJ Bennett captures Queen Elizabeth’s voice with skill, nuance, wit, and genuine charm in this imaginative and engaging mystery that portrays Her Majesty as she’s rarely seen: kind yet worldly, decisive, shrewd, and, most important, a superb judge of character.

No woman will have Ben without a proper bachelor's suit . . . and the tailor refuses to make him one. Back from war with a nameless enemy, Ben finds that his mother is dead and his family home has been reassigned by the state. As if that isn't enough, he must now find a wife, or he'll be made a civil servant and given a permanent spot in one of the city's oppressive factories. Meanwhile, Meeks, a foreigner who lives in the park and imagines he's a member of the police, is hunted by the overzealous Brothers of Mercy. Meeks' survival depends on his peculiar friendship with a police captain--but will that be enough to prevent his execution at the annual Independence Day celebration? A dark satire rendered with the slapstick humor of a Buster Keaton film, Julia Holmes' debut marries the existentialism of Fyodor Dostoevsky's """"Notes from Underground"""" to the strange charm of a Haruki Murakami novel. """"Meeks"""" portrays a world at once hilarious and disquieting, in which frustrated revolutionaries and hopeful youths suffer alongside the lost and the condemned, just for a chance at the permanent bliss of marriage and a slice of sugar-frosted Independence Day cake. Julia Holmes was born in Dhahran, Saudi Arabia, and grew up in the Middle East, Texas, and New York, where she is currently an assistant editor at """"Rolling Stone."""" She is a graduate of Columbia University's MFA program in fiction.

In this delightfully witty, provocative book, literature professor and psychoanalyst Pierre Bayard argues that not having read a book need not be an impediment to having an interesting conversation about it. (In fact, he says, in certain situations reading the book is the worst thing you could do.) Using examples from such writers as Graham Greene, Oscar Wilde, Montaigne, and Umberto Eco, he describes the varieties of "non-reading"-from books that you've never heard of to books that you've read and forgotten-and offers advice on how to turn a sticky social situation into an occasion for creative brilliance. Practical, funny, and thought-provoking, How to Talk About Books You Haven't Read-which became a favorite of readers everywhere in the hardcover edition-is in the end a love letter to books, offering a whole new perspective on how we read and absorb them.