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Venus in Furs
By Leopold von Sacher-Masoch. 2000
Obsession, infatuation, and sexual deviance fill this controversial psychodrama Titillating and taboo, Venus in Furs tells the story of one…
nineteenth-century gentleman of means, Severin von Kusiemski, and his voracious lover, Wanda von Dunajew. Severin falls so deeply in love with his mistress that he asks the bemused paramour to enslave him. Severin gets his wish: The beautiful Wanda, who has “a real talent for despotism,” takes to her role with unsettling aplomb. Days pass, and as she debases and brutalizes Severin, Wanda transforms into the whip-cracking dominatrix of his dreams. But even while Severin settles into his fantasy, events are unfolding that threaten to disrupt the power balance. This classic tale of sexual domination is as thrilling today as it was when it was originally published more than a century ago. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.The Velveteen Rabbit
By Margery Williams. 2005
Margery Williams’s magical nursery tale of a stuffed rabbit and his quest to become real Christmas morning, the room filled…
with the hustle and bustle of preparation, a rabbit stitched of velveteen sits perched on top of the little boy’s stocking. Those first two hours are the best of the young rabbit’s life: filled with hugs and play. But like most children, the boy is fickle and easily distracted—after Christmas morning, the Velveteen Rabbit is forgotten. Shy and intimidated by the new mechanical toys who sneer at him for being simple, the sawdust-filled rabbit sits quietly at the top of the toy closet, aching to be loved the way he was that wonderful Christmas morning. He’s soon taken in by the wise old Skin Horse, who sets him straight on the way to become real. It’s not about expensive mechanisms or shiny paint jobs. No, becoming real is all about the unadulterated love of a child. The Velveteen Rabbit is a timeless story about the importance of love, honesty, and friendship. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.Vanity Fair
By William Makepeace Thackeray.
This classic story of two nineteenth-century social climbers is the basis for countless films and TV series, and one of…
the UK’s “Best-Loved Novels.” Before the Real Housewives, there were Becky Sharp and Amelia Sedley. Ruthless and cunning, Becky may have been born in a lower class, but now that she’s graduated from school, she’s ready to climb up to a better life—and do whatever it takes to get there. Her friend Emmy, however, is the opposite. She may have mastered music, dancing, and embroidery like any young woman of her class, but she utterly lacks a backbone. Together these friends navigate the perils of Regency society as they search for love and happiness. Social battles are waged against the backdrop of the Napoleonic Wars, and when the smoke finally clears, there’s no telling who will come out victorious. A satirical masterpiece, Vanity Fair was #14 on The Guardian’s list of the 100 Best Novels and #122 in the BBC’s “Big Read” poll for the UK’s best-loved novel. It has inspired numerous adaptations, from early silent films to a 2004 movie by Mira Nair starring Reese Witherspoon as Becky.The Vampyre
By John William Polidori. 1990
This classic vampire story has inspired generations of authors, from Bram Stoker to Charlaine Harris. A young English gentleman of…
means, Aubrey is immediately intrigued by Lord Ruthven, the mysterious newcomer among society’s elite. His unknown origin and curious behavior tantalizes Aubrey’s imagination. But the young man soon discovers a sinister character hidden behind his new friend’s glamorous facade. When the two are set upon by bandits while traveling together in Europe, Ruthven is fatally injured. Before drawing his last breath, he makes the odd request that Aubrey keep his death and crimes secret for a year and a day. But when Ruthven resurfaces in London—making overtures toward Aubrey’s sister—Aubrey realizes this immortal fiend is a vampyre. John William Polidori’s The Vampyre is both a classic tale of gothic horror and the progenitor of the modern romantic vampire myth that has been fodder for artists ranging from Anne Rice to Alan Ball to Francis Ford Coppola. Originally published in 1819, many decades before Bram Stoker’s Dracula, and misattributed to Polidori’s friend Lord Byron, The Vampyre has kept readers up at night for nearly two hundred years. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.Uncle Silas
By J. Sheridan Le Fanu.
Family secrets and sinister plots abound in this beautifully atmospheric Victorian gothic thriller from a celebrated Irish author. For Maud…
Ruthyn, life is lonely in a mansion with no family besides her melancholic father. But when Madame de la Rougierre is hired to be her governess, Maud finds herself in the clutches of a mysterious and malevolent woman. When her caregiver is eventually dismissed, Maud is relieved to have the woman out of her life. But it isn’t long before she encounters the madame again. With the passing of her father, Maud is sent to live with her Uncle Silas at Bartram-Haugh until she can inherit the family estate. Feeling increasingly trapped in her uncle’s home, Maud is shocked to learn that Madame de la Rougierre is at her uncle’s service. And when Madame is instructed to escort Maud to London, the young girl begins to see through the shadows of deceit: No one intends for her to leave Bartram-Haugh alive. J. Sheridan Le Fanu’s most famous novel, Uncle Silas is an eerie psychological thriller and has been translated into several languages as well as adapted for film. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.The Wedding Group
By Elizabeth Taylor, Charlotte Mendelson. 1968
'You know,' Midge began, and paused. She was rather taken aback, and could not at once think of anything to…
say. 'Perhaps there's nothing so dangerous as having led a sheltered life.' Cressy has grown up in a world of women, presided over by her eccentric, artistic grandfather Harry Bretton. Rebelling against the wholesome, organic values of her home life, Cressy decides to leave home in search of more ephemeral pleasures. Taking a job in an antiques shop, she meets David, a self-satisfied journalist, also looking for means of fleeing the family nest. But as Cressy cannot fend for herself and David is securely tied to his mother's apron strings, this act of escape for both of them proves a powerful form of bondage.Trent's Last Case
By E. C. Bentley. 2009
On Wall Street, the mere mention of the name Sigsbee Manderson is enough to send a stock soaring—or bring it…
tumbling back to earth. Feared but not loved, Manderson has no one to mourn him when the gardener at his British country estate finds him facedown in the dirt, a bullet buried in his brain. There are bruises on his wrist and blood on his clothes, but no clue that will lead the police to the murderer. It will take an amateur to—inadvertently—show them the way. Cheerful, charming, and always eager for a mystery, portrait artist and gentleman sleuth Philip Trent leaps into the Manderson affair with all the passion of the autodidact. Simply by reading the newspapers, he discovers overlooked details of the crime. Not all of his reasoning is sound, and his romantic interests are suspect, to say the least, but Trent’s dedication to the art of detection soon uncovers what no one expected him to find: the truth. Delightfully irreverent yet ingeniously plotted, Trent’s Last Case is widely regarded as a masterwork of the mystery genre. This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.Deadly Dram: A Whisky Business Mystery (Whisky Business #3)
By Melinda Mullet. 2018
Distillery owner Abigail Logan discovers that high spirits are no match for a cold-blooded killer as the Whisky Business Mystery…
series puts a fatal twist on stiff competition. It’s been a year since globe-trotting photojournalist Abi Logan inherited Abbey Glen, a whisky distillery in the heart of the Scottish countryside. To her surprise, the village of Balfour already feels like home, and her new business partner, Grant MacEwan, continues to be too charming to resist. But Abi has a history of relationship disasters, so she struggles to avoid an ill-fated romance with Grant. Steering clear is hard enough on a day-to-day basis, but when the two head off to a whisky industry competition together, Abi panics. Five-star resort, four glorious days of nonstop whisky tasting, and a fatally attractive Scotsman—what could possibly go wrong? The night before the award presentations, with foreign and domestic whisky makers at one anothers’ throats, two judges are found dead under mysterious circumstances. What started with three dream-come-true nominations for Abby Glen’s whisky soon turns into a nightmare for Abi. With a killer on the loose, she must call on her investigative skills to stop another murder—before she gets taken out of the running herself. Melinda Mullet’s delightful Whisky Business mysteries can be read together or separately. Enjoy responsibly: SINGLE MALT MURDER | DEATH DISTILLED | DEADLY DRAMActs Of Violets: A Flower Shop Mystery
By Kate Collins. 2007
During the annual Pickle Fest, Abby's boyfriend Marco inexplicably disappears for a day. When he returns, he's the main suspect…
in the death of a clown. It seems the cops have found Snuggles pushing up water-spurting daisies-and Marco was the last person seen leaving Snuggles's house. Although Marco is still a mystery to her, Abby knows he's innocent. Now she has to find a way to prove it.The Curious Lobster
By Richard W. Hatch, Marion Freeman Wakeman. 2018
An American Wind in the Willows, this charming tale of Mr. Lobster and his underwater and dry land friends celebrates…
curiousity and having an open mind, and will be sure to delight children and parents.Whether you are five or one hundred and five, chances are you’ve never met a lobster as learned and charming as Mr. Lobster—and he’d be the very first to tell you so. Mr. Lobster has evaded the fisherman’s trap for decades, but life in his corner of the ocean seems duller by the day. The time has come to seek new adventures, new friends, and even—gasp!—new, dry lands. Dry land is of course perilous for a saltwater-dwelling creature, as are the folks you can meet there, like badgers, bears, birds, and snakes. But Mr. Lobster has a way of turning every enemy into a dear friend and of escaping the scrapes his curiosity gets him into.An American Wind in the Willows, The Curious Lobster stories have been delighting a small and devoted fellowship of readers for going on eighty years. Sweet but not cloying, instructive but not didactic, they acknowledge the challenges of getting along with others and celebrate the possibilities of a life lived beyond the normal swim of things.This edition collects all of Richard W. Hatch’s Mr. Lobster stories, originally published in two volumes The Curious Lobster and The Curious Lobster’s Island.The Dead Don't Get Out Much: A Camilla MacPhee Mystery
By Mary Jane Maffini. 2005
Remembrance Day is a proud day for Camilla MacPhee’s good friend, Mrs. Violet Parnell, one of five thousand Canadian women…
to go overseas during World War II. But the next day she has vanished. Camilla, with only a few letters and documents to guide her, follows her friend to Tuscany, chasing though historic towns, across high promontories and along steep mountain roads. Vanishing old partisans and Allied aircraft crash sites keep Camilla hopping as she tries to find Mrs. P. before someone with a deadly serious reason to keep the past hidden finds her first. The fifth Camilla MacPhee takes the irascible Ottawa lawyer’s adventures to an exotic new locale, with the usual murderous results.Scheduled to Death (A Maggie McDonald Mystery #2)
By Mary Feliz. 2017
Professional organizer Maggie McDonald has a knack for cleaning up other people’s messes. So when the fiancée of her latest…
client turns up dead, it’s up to her to sort through the untidy list of suspects and identify the real killer.Maggie McDonald is hoping to raise the profile of her new Orchard View organizing business via her first high-profile client. Professor Lincoln Sinclair may be up for a Nobel Prize, but he’s hopeless when it comes to organizing anything other than his thoughts. For an academic, he’s also amassed more than his share of enemies. When Sinclair’s fiancée is found dead on the floor of his home laboratory—electrocuted in a puddle of water—Maggie takes on the added task of finding the woman’s murderer. To do so, she’ll have to outmaneuver the suspicious, obnoxious police investigator she’s nicknamed “Detective Awful” before a shadowy figure can check off the first item on their personal to-do list—Kill Maggie McDonald.“Fans of Feliz’s first book as well as newcomers to the series won’t be disappointed…Moves forward quickly with freshness, a few surprises and a couple of real scares.” —Kirkus Reviews on Scheduled to DeathMembership Drive
By Murray F. Yaco. 2012
The Camp Fire Girls on the March
By Jane L. Stewart. 2013
A Fatal Romance (A Twin Sisters Mystery #1)
By June Shaw. 2016
Fixing up homes can be tricky. Finding true love can be even trickier. But finding a killer can be plain…
old deadly . . . Twin sister divorcees Sunny Taylor and Eve Vaughn have had their fill of both heartaches and headaches. So when they settle down in the small Louisiana town of Sugar Ledge and open a remodeling and repair company, they think they’ve finally found some peace—even though Eve is still open for romance while Sunny considers her own heart out-of-business. Then their newest customer ends up face-down in a pond, and his widow is found dead soon after. Unfortunately, Sunny was witnessed having an unpleasant moment with the distraught woman, and suspicion falls on the twins. And when an attempt is made on Eve’s life, they find themselves pulled into a murder mystery neither knows how to navigate. With a town of prying eyes on them, and an unknown culprit out to stop them, Sunny and Eve will have to depend on each other like never before if they’re going to clip a killer in the bud.How the Witch Stole Christmas (Witchless In Seattle Mysteries Ser. #5)
By Dakota Cassidy. 2017
The game is afoot in Ebenezer Falls, Washington, and this time someone is trying to ruin Christmas!With twists, turns, and…
suspects aplenty, amateur sleuth Stevie Cartwright is determined to find a murderer and her missing familiar before the silver bells tarnish! USA Today bestselling cozy mystery author Dakota Cassidy serves up mayhem and murder in How the Witch Stole Christmas, Book 5 of her bestselling series, Witchless in Seattle MysteriesIt's beginning to look a lot like Christmas--!Er, not so much. . .It's Christmas, and I, ex-witch, Stevie Cartwright declare this my favorite time of year! I love the decorations! The food! The Hallmark Channel holiday specials! This year promises to be better than ever because for the first time in a very long time, I'm going to have more than just Cheez Whiz, Triscuits and the wish to be surrounded by family and friends. My carefully planned holiday bonanza includes all the usual suspects. My bat familiar Belfry, my dog Whiskey, my ever-present ghostly spy friends--dashing Brit Winterbottom, stalwart Russian Arkady and my parents. However, nothing comes easy for this amateur sleuth, not even a neighborhood decorating contest. You know, the one I've been painstakingly prepping for months? Something goes horribly awry with my Christmas display (think bikini-clad carolers, pink flamingos and real, live turkeys) to start. But the worst? The dead body of the famous Chef Pascal Le June in my nativity scene! It becomes clear someone's trying to ruin my Christmas, and that someone must pay! But when Belfry goes missing, and the danger takes on a paranormal edge, I find I have more to lose than ever before. . .This cozy mystery has a complete cast of oddball characters from witches to ghosts and bats to psychics. Witchless In Seattle Mysteries is a spin-off of Dakota Cassidy's bestselling paranormal romance series, A Paris, Texas Romance.Bride of the Dark One
By Florence Verbell Brown. 2012
The outcasts; the hunted of all the brighter worlds, crowded onto Yaroto. But even here was there salvation for Ransome,…
the jinx-scarred acolyte, when tonight was the night of Bani-tai ... the night of expiation by the photo-memoried priests of dark Darion?The Terrible Answer
By Arthur G. Hill. 2012
The Camp Fire Girls Solve a Mystery
By Hildegard G. Frey. 2013
The Black Tide
By Arthur G. Stangland. 2012
Space in its far dark reaches can be fickle with a man; it can shatter his dreams, fill him with…
fear and hate. It can also cure a man--if he is strong enough.