The second book in Lois Lowry's Giver Quartet, which began with the bestselling and Newbery Medal-winning The Giver. Left orphaned and physically flawed in a civilization that shuns and discards the weak, Kira faces a frighteningly uncertain future. Her neighbors are hostile, and no one but a small boy offers to help. When she is summoned to judgment by The Council of Guardians, Kira prepares to fight for her life. But the Council, to her surprise, has plans for her. Blessed with an almost magical talent that keeps her alive, the young girl faces new responsibilities and a set of mysteries deep within the only world she has ever known. On her quest for truth, Kira discovers things that will change her life and world forever. A compelling examination of a future society, Gathering Blue challenges readers to think about community, creativity, and the values that they have learned to accept. Once again Lois Lowry brings readers on a provocative journey that inspires contemplation long after the last page is turned. “This extraordinary novel is remarkable for its fully realized characters, gripping plot, and Lowry’s singular vision of a future.” —VOYA The Giver has become one of the most influential novels of our time. Don't miss the powerful companion novels in Lois Lowry's Giver Quartet: Gathering Blue, Messenger, and Son.

Childhood friends Mackensie, Parker, Laurel and Emmaline have formed a very successful wedding planning business together but, despite helping thousands of happy couples to organise the biggest day of their lives, all four women are unlucky in love. Photographer Mackensie Elliot has suffered a tough childhood and has a bad relationship with her mother, which makes her wary of commitment. But when she meets Carter Maguire, she can't stop herself falling for him, although his ex-girlfriend is prepared to play dirty to keep him. Mackensie soon realises she has to put her past demons to rest in order to find lasting love . . .

Enter into the world of medieval Baghdad as Zaytuna and Tein solve mysteries and come to terms with the legacy of their mother and the violence that has consigned them to lives without love. Widely used in university courses, each mystery uncovers a different aspect of medieval Islamic history. "Completely engrossing and richly atmospheric. Tenth century Baghdad comes alive through the eyes of a dazzling cast of characters." —Ausma Zehanat Khan, critically acclaimed author of Blackwater Falls, A Deadly Divide from The Getty-Khattak Mysteries, and The Khorasan Archives The Lover Book One in The Sufi Mysteries Baghdad, 295 Hijri (907 CE) Zaytuna just wants to be left alone to her ascetic practices and nurse her dark view of the world. But when an impoverished servant girl she barely knows comes and begs her to bring some justice to the death of a local boy, she is forced to face the suffering of the most vulnerable in Baghdad and the emotional and mystical legacy of her mother, a famed ecstatic whose love for God eclipsed everything. The Lover is a historically sensitive mystery that introduces us to the world of medieval Baghdad and the lives of the great Sufi mystics, washerwomen, Hadith scholars, tavern owners, the enslaved, corpsewashers, police, and children indentured to serve in the homes of the wealthy. It asks what it means to have family when you have nearly no one left, what it takes to love and be loved by those who have stuck by you, and how one can come to love God and everything He’s done to you. The Jealous Book Two in The Sufi Mysteries Baghdad, 295 Hijri (907 CE) When a distinguished scholar dies at the Barmakid hospital in Baghdad, nearly everyone points the finger at his enslaved servant Mu’mina, as the one who called a demon to kill him. Tein, a former frontier fighter turned investigator with the Grave Crimes Section, has no time for religion, let alone jinn, and sets out to prove her innocent. But Ammar, Tein’s superior and old wartime friend, has already pushed her case before the Police Chief’s court where she’s sure to be executed or condemned to rot in the prisons built into the damp walls of Baghdad’s Round City. With the help of his twin sister, Zaytuna, his childhood friend, Mustafa, and Zaytuna’s friend, the untamable Saliha, Tein plunges into a dangerous investigation that takes them into the world of talisman-makers and seers, houses of prostitution and gambling, and the fractious secular and religious court systems, all in an effort to turn back the tragic circumstances set in motion by Ammar’s destructive fear of a girl horribly wronged. The Unseen Book Three in The Sufi Mysteries Baghdad, 295 Hijri (908 CE) When a young man is found dead, killed in the exact manner as a martyr slain on the fields of Karbala some two hundred years before, there is no mistaking it as anything other than an attack on the Shia community of Baghdad. The city is on edge as religious and political factions are exposed sending the caliph’s army into the streets. Investigators, Ammar and Tein, have to clear the case, one way or another, before violence erupts. But amateur sleuth, Zaytuna, has had a visionary dream of the murder that holds the key to solving the murder. Can she can read its signs? And will Tein and Ammar listen? The Peace Book Four in The Sufi Mysteries Baghdad, 297 Hijri (909 CE) When an unscrupulous young scholar who claims to possess a controversial Quran manuscript goes missing, most of his colleagues are only too happy to see him gone. Is he merely drunk in one of Baghdad’s gambling houses? Is he hiding while he considers what to do with the manuscript? Or is his life in danger for the claim of having the manuscript at all? A friend of the missing man asks Mustafa for help, pulling Tein, Ammar, and Zaytuna into a case that forces them to make choices threatening their hard won peace.

THE GIVER is soon to be a major motion picture starring Jeff Bridges, Katie Holmes and Taylor Swift. Now available for the first time in the UK, THE GIVER QUARTET is the complete four-novel collection.

Enjoy this bad boy billionaire romance. Falling for my billionaire mentor has trouble written all over it. It’s too much to risk, Not just my heart, But my music career I’ve worked so hard to build. The way he looks at me, The way he touches me, It’s like we were meant for each other. I can’t deny the way he makes my body feel, The way he makes me yearn for more. But there’s more about my past he doesn’t know, And it seems the closer we get, The further away everyone else in my life becomes. Can I have it all? Or will one happily ever after mean the demise of another? Keywords: Billionaire romance, bad boy, new adult, instalove, age gap romance, alpha male, new adult romance, steamy romance, age gap romance older man younger woman, sweet romance, romantic novels, love, action, adventure, sexually romantic books, hot, alpha hero, contemporary romance, guaranteed HEA, no cliffhangers, sweet romance, love books, love stories.

Unlike the other Birthmothers in her utopian community, teenaged Claire forms an attachment to her baby and sets out to find him when he is removed from the community.

Here together in a convenient ebook bundle, the four thrilling mysteries in the Highway Quartet Collection from Edgar Award-winning, New York Times bestselling author C.J. Box: Back of Beyond Cody Hoyt, although a brilliant cop, is an alcoholic struggling with two months of sobriety when his friend Hank Winters turns up dead in a remote mountain cabin. At first it looks like suicide, but Cody knows Hank better than that. As Cody digs deeper into the case, all roads lead to foul play. After years of bad behavior with his department, Cody in no position to be investigating a homicide. But he will stop at nothing to find out who murdered Hank. And why... The Highway When two sisters set out across a remote stretch of Montana road to visit their friend, little do they know it will be the last time anyone might ever hear from them again. The girls—and their car—simply vanish. Convinced by his son and his former rookie partner, Cassie Dewell, former police investigator Cody Hoyt begins the drive to the girls' last known location. As Cody makes his way to the stretch of highway where they went missing, Cassie discovers that Gracie and Danielle Sullivan aren't the first girls who have disappeared in this area. This majestic landscape is the hunting ground for a killer. Can Cassie overcome her doubts and lack of experience and use her innate skill? Can Cody Hoyt battle his own demons and find this killer before another victim vanishes on the highway? Badlands Twelve-year-old Kyle Westergaard dreams of getting out of Grimstad and leading a better life. One day, while delivering newspapers, he witnesses a car accident and takes a mysterious bundle from the scene. Suddenly he’s in possession of a lot of money—and packets of white powder—and Kyle can’t help but wonder whether his luck has changed...for better or for worse. When a gang war heats up, it’s up to Cassie Dewell to help restore law and order. As she is propelled on a collision course with a murderous enemy, she finds that the key to it all might come in the most unlikely form: a boy on a bike named Kyle. He seems to know something that Cassie does not about what lies beneath the surface of this small and troubled town... Paradise Valley For three years, Investigator Cassie Dewell has been on a hunt for a serial killer known as the Lizard King whose hunting grounds are the highways and truck stops where runaways and prostitutes are most likely to vanish. Cassie almost caught him...once. Now, she has set what she believes is the perfect trap. But the plan goes horribly wrong, and the blame falls on Cassie. Disgraced, she loses her job. At the same time, Kyle Westergaard, has disappeared and Kyle's grandmother begs Cassie to find him. Cassie agrees—all the while hunting the truck driver. Kyle's disappearance may have a more sinister meaning than anyone realizes. With no allies, no support, and only her own wits to rely on, Cassie must take down a killer who is as ruthless as he is cunning.