The tragedy of war is measured by destruction, death, and heartache. In the end, politicians negotiate, and soldiers come home. But the seldom-discussed tragedy of captivity leaves deep and lasting scars in those who return as well as in their families. Prisoners of war suffer immeasurable humiliation and pain at their captors' hands. Historically, the mortality rate for American POWs averages 12 percent. The one exception was the POWs held in North Korea from 1950 to 1953; they died at a rate of 42 percent, nearly four times more than any other war. Letters from a Captive Heart is not a war story, as little of the tale takes places on the battlefield. It's a story of honor, strength, and heartbreak in the POW camps of North Korea and back home in America's heartland. This historical novel starkly portrays the contrast between the innocence of the early 1950s in rural Kentucky and the horrific reality of the POW camps. In this moving and poignant saga about the effects of war, we find there is nothing more fragile than a captive's heart and nothing more powerful than its story of survival.

Elena, In order to protect you, I needed to lose you-to give you up. For years I've been tormented knowing another man is touching you, earning moans from you that should be mine, and knowing you love him for it. In order for this to work though, I must wait my turn. But now I'm back, Dolly, and I'm coming for you. Remember the games we played in high school? We're all grown up now, so this round will be on an entirely new level, and I hope you're ready. I'll steal your happiness, and then when you're alone with nothing and no one, I'll steal you. After all, it's fair, don't you think? You think I'm the monster, when all I've ever done is defend you from the true villain. And this time is no different. Ready? Set... Go. Ruthlessly yours, Ryker

After working late one night, Ruby misses her bus home. Taking a shortcut through town down a dark alleyway, she is abducted and taken to a remote location where she is held captive by her kidnapper. Ruby must find a way to escape before she becomes a serial killer's next victim.

When Richard Slater receives a letter of complaint from one of his constituents, a Margaret Hayton, he merely responds with his standard letter of empty promises. Clearly, this woman is insane and must be avoided at all costs. But she will not be dismissed so easily, and when Richard finally sets eyes on the ‘twenty-something vision in stone-washed denim, with a cloud of dark ringlets and huge, serious eyes’ he risks losing his heart, his head and quite possibly his political career.

"I've spent every day of the last seven years regretting mine: he left, and I didn't follow. A thousand letters went unanswered, my words like petals in the wind, spinning away into nothing, taking me with them. But now he's back"--Page 4 of cover.

An intimate portrait of a marriage intertwined with a meditation on reality TV that reveals surprising connections and the meaning of an authentic life. A VINTAGE ORIGINAL. In Lucas Mann's trademark vein--fiercely intelligent, self-deprecating, brilliantly observed, idiosyncratic, personal, funny, and infuriating--Captive Audience is an appreciation of reality television wrapped inside a love letter to his wife, with whom he shares the guilty pleasure of watching "real" people bare their souls in search of celebrity. Captive Audience resides at the intersection of popular culture with the personal; the exhibitionist impulse, with the schadenfreude of the vicarious, and in confronting some of our most suspect impulses achieves a heightened sense of what it means to live an authentic life and what it means to love a person.

World War One ended well for the Franklins, prosperous Clydeside shipbuilders. But trouble is brewing behind their respectable facade... Rebellious teenager Maeve McCulloch has arrived from Ireland to stay with the Franklins, much to the dismay of her aunt Lindsay. Maeve's mother caused nothing but grief and heartache for Lindsay and it seems that Maeve may do the same. Meanwhile, Lindsay's husband has been swept off his feet by the wealthy and manipulative Stella Pickering. And Lindsay herself is torn between love and loyalty when handsome navy hero Geoffrey Paget unexpectedly walks back into her life. As the slump of the 1920s begins to bite on Clydeside, troubles both financial and personal invade all their lives. Once again Jessica Stirling has evoked a whole world at the moment when - for better or worse - it is about to change forever.