Sandry, Daja, Briar, and Tris, are older now and back together again, in an exciting and much-awaited, stand-alone novel by everyone's favorite mage, Tamora Pierce. For years the Empress of Namorn has pressed her young cousin, Lady Sandrilene fa Toren, to visit her vast lands within the Empire's borders. Sandry has avoided the invitation for as long as it was possible. Now Sandry has agreed to pay that overdue visit. Sandry's uncle promises guards to accompany her. But they're hardly a group of warriors! They're her old friends from Winding Circle: Daja, Tris, and Briar. Sandry hardly knows them now. They've grown up and grown apart. Sandry isn't sure they'll ever find their old connection again - or if she even wants them to. When they arrive at the pala

In this exciting novel from USA Today best-selling author Amanda Roberts, the story of the slow march toward the fall of the Qing Dynasty comes to life in vivid detail, revealing a world of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue surrounding the world of empresses, princesses, consorts, and concubines, and the emperors they served. History books may tell about the fall of the Qing Dynasty. But they haven't told my story… Born to a family of wealth and privilege, Zhenxiu was trained from a young age to become the wife of a very powerful man, though she prayed it would not be Prince Yizhu, the future Xianfeng Emperor, a man with cruel and salacious appetites. The sudden death of the prince's consort, however, thrusts fifteen-year-old Zhenxiu into the prince's bed and the center of the Qing Court, a court still reeling from the aftershocks of the Opium War. Zhenxiu finds solace in the friendship of a girl named Lanhua, and she does her best to help her friend rise in the emperor's estimation. When the emperor dies and leaves only Lanhua's five-year-old son as his heir, Zhenxiu finds herself as the de facto ruler of China, a position she was never trained to occupy. As she leans more and more on Lanhua for help, she slowly comes to realize that Lanhua's ambition has no bounds. An ambition that could get them both killed. The Other Empress is a riveting historical drama that brings to light the story of an empress who stood at the helm of the Qing Dynasty for more than twenty years. An empress overshadowed by the strong presence of the woman who would prove to be her dearest friend—and her most dangerous rival. Keywords: historical fiction, historical Chinese fiction, 19th century, China, Qing Dynasty, Philipa Gregory, Amy Tan, saga, series, epic, Asia, classics, dark ages, royalty, dark history, royal, imperial, genealogy, medieval, middle ages, kings, queen, emperor, empress, romance, drama

History books may tell about the fall of the Qing Dynasty. But they haven't told my story...Born to a family of wealth and privilege, Zhenxiu was trained from a young age to become the wife of a very powerful man, though she prayed it would not be Prince Yizhu, the future Xianfeng Emperor, a man with cruel and salacious appetites. The sudden death of the prince's consort, however, thrusts fifteen-year-old Zhenxiu into the prince's bed and the center of the Qing Court, a court still reeling from the aftershocks of the Opium War.Zhenxiu finds solace in the friendship of a girl named Lanhua, and she does her best to help her friend rise in the emperor's estimation. When the emperor dies and leaves only Lanhua's five-year-old son as his heir, Zhenxiu finds herself as the de facto ruler of China, a position she was never trained to occupy. As she leans more and more on Lanhua for help, she slowly comes to realize that Lanhua's ambition has no bounds. An ambition that could get them both killed.

In this exciting novel from USA Today best-selling author Amanda Roberts, the story of the slow march toward the fall of the Qing Dynasty comes to life in vivid detail, revealing a world of love, sex, ambition, and intrigue surrounding the world of empresses, princesses, consorts, and concubines, and the emperors they served. History books may tell about the fall of the Qing Dynasty. But they haven't told my story... Born to a family of wealth and privilege, Zhenxiu was trained from a young age to become the wife of a very powerful man, though she prayed it would not be Prince Yizhu, the future Xianfeng Emperor, a man with cruel and salacious appetites. The sudden death of the prince's consort, however, thrusts fifteen-year-old Zhenxiu into the prince's bed and the center of the Qing Court, a court still reeling from the aftershocks of the Opium War. Zhenxiu finds solace in the friendship of a girl named Lanhua, and she does her best to help her friend rise in the emperor's estimation. When the emperor dies and leaves only Lanhua's five-year-old son as his heir, Zhenxiu finds herself as the de facto ruler of China, a position she was never trained to occupy. As she leans more and more on Lanhua for help, she slowly comes to realize that Lanhua's ambition has no bounds. An ambition that could get them both killed. The Other Empress is a riveting historical drama that brings to light the story of an empress who stood at the helm of the Qing Dynasty for more than twenty years. An empress overshadowed by the strong presence of the woman who would prove to be her dearest friend--and her most dangerous rival.

She was a female doctor of economics in the twenty-first century, one of the top five hundred senior officials of the world, yet she died from a blood cancer on the operating table. She had just opened her eyes when she was called a witch, set on fire, and almost died on the first day of her journey through the world. She had gone too far, fighting back one by one, causing the ignorant villagers to spin around in circles. Once she returned to court, she became the daughter of the current Prime Minister, who had long since exterminated her family. When she met a similarly renowned person, she became a notorious figure in the world. He bullied her, teased her, teased her, provoked her, and spent all his time trying to please her. She mocked him, avoided him, struck him, and married him in the end. One was dark while the other was crafty. They would watch how the golden couple would conquer the foreign world together and play with the imperial court.

As a former director of TEAM in Indonesia, Marvin Newell knows the challenges and dangers of missionary work. Now he tells the story of messengers of Christ who didn't survive to tell their own. Newell's sobering look at 21 students of Moody Bible Institute in Chicago rides the momentum of DC Talk's Jesus Freaks and the major motion picture The End of the Spear.