Silhouette sensation

> People work hardest when they are working for no material reward. The cause need not be very great, providing it is greater than one man's advantage; quite a small crusade is enough to set a light to humanity's too little used enthusiasm. This is the theme of the novel. >The story concerns the Theatre Working-Party. It was born out of a public meeting, at which a young man worked off his personal grievances by calling attention to the barren communal life of his under-privileged little town. If an adroit councillor had not turned the challenge back upon the challenger, if his disillusioned wife had not nagged him about it afterwards, it might have been a still-birth. >But the Working-Party grew, and swept up in its course many unexpected people, clerks, teachers, miners, railwaymen, shop assistants, country gentlemen, children, complicating all their lives with problems of growth, change and responsibility. By the time the first production takes the stage, the whole world may have changed for some of the players. >For an old widower, for instance, adventurously adrift from his station because his anchor is gone; for a spoiled little boy, suddenly brought up against values for which a doting parent and carefully selected schools have failed to prepare him; for a husband and wife whose mutual disappointment in their marriage has been based on a series of mistaken observations; for a young son trying ardently to live up to his adored father, and always depressingly convinced in advance of his inevitable failure. >For all these the curtain that rose on The Tempest rose also on a translated world, beset with dangerous adjustments from which they might have retreated had they been warned in time, but offering also unsuspected rewards. >In the words of one of the moving spirits: 'Nobody's going to come out of this venture quite the same person as he went into it we may as well make up our minds to it.'

GORGEOUS AND GUTSY! Toni del Rio specialized in turning real-life crime into bestselling fiction, and she was aware that danger came with the territory. This time, however, she was in over her head. While researching the New York underworld for her latest book, she'd witnessed a mob hit. Now a thug was pointing a gun at her in a shadowy alley, and she knew she was a goner .... Undercover FBI agent Nick Manelii wasn't about to kill anyone, but if he didn't hide the woman immediately, they would both be dead. So he brought her to the only haven he knew--his place. Alone with Nick in close quarters, Toni couldn't help fantasizing about her rugged captor--and the desire, she soon discovered, was mutual ....

THERE'S NO PLACE LIKE HOME .... Kirk Callaghan: A loner and determined to stay that way, he'd come back to town planning to put the past behind him .... Rachel Reed: A part of that past, as alluring ever--and now with a young son in tow .... Nine years ago, Kirk Callaghan had blown out of town like a cloud of dust. Now he'd returned, willing to lay his ghosts to rest. Kirk was ready for anything--except his surprising desire for lovely Rachel Reed. Anything but becoming an instant father to her troubled young son. The past had left Kirk wary of love and family ties, but with Rachel in his arms, suddenly anything seemed possible. AMERICAN HEROES: Men who give all they've got for their country, their work--the women they love.

ONCE UPON A TIME, THERE LIVED A BEAUTIFUL PRINCESS...WHO WAS FORCED TO MARRY A HANDSOME PRINCE. For as long as Princess Amelia could remember, Prince Reginald had always been a royal pain. But to secure an alliance for her country, she had to marry him. Hardly a fairy tale come true. Especially when her real prince is Lord Russell, Reginald's right-hand man. Lord Russell, Duke of Carrington, had always put his duty before everything. But for love and Amelia, could he betray his country and future king? Will there be a happily-ever-after for Amelia and Russell?

Single mother Summer Robey was really at the end of her financial rope and in desperate need of a rescuer. Little did she realize that the lawyer on the other side of the bench just might be the savior she has been looking for.

PRINCE OF PUBLIC RELATIONS TO WED PREGNANT PRINCESS!It seems royal PR man Chase Savage is involved in a scandal. Savage announced his engagement to Sydney Conner, the illegitimate princess from Naessa, who is pregnant with our late Prince Reginald's heir. Savage was reportedly sent to bribe the ravishing royal, only to find himself dodging bullets and fleeing the country with her.There was no denying the white-hot passion between the pulchritudinous pair as they treated reporters to an ardent display of affection. With Sydney's life still endangered and tensions mounting, one wonders if the engagement is simply the greatest spin of Savage's career--or if the confirmed bachelor has truly met his match!

A worldly Frenchwoman with looks to kill...and a knack for disappearing...and English rose with less-than-innocent ways of escaping unwanted attention... Noah Colter had encountered both women...yet saw through the skillful deception to the one woman who hid behind both facades. Her disguises and accents were practically flawless, but his heart - his body - knew better. Who was this woman who now called herself Celie Sherwood? What danger had forced her to sacrifice any chance at a normal life? Noah had to know. He was a man who got his every desire, and he wanted this woman without a name...

eBOOK SPECIAL FEATUREIncludes a preview of Ridley Pearson's next book, THE BODY OF PETER HAYES Friendship comes at a cost. For beautiful Mary-Ann Walker, who struggled with the challenges of a difficult family history, that cost proves to be her life. With Mary-Ann’s past as its only guideline, the Seattle homicide unit must delve into the relationships between a misguided young woman and her family, friends, and lover. Let the psychological games begin. Seattle Police forensic psychologist Daphne Matthews, who volunteers as a teenage runaway counselor, is haunted by the loss of a suicide, a “jumper”, a year earlier. When a woman’s body is found beneath the Aurora Bridge, Matthews is one of the first at the scene – and begins a puzzling investigation that becomes entangled with her own past, that of the victim, and even that of Seattle itself. Mary-Ann’s boyfriend has a record of physical abuse, and an attitude that Matthews finds difficult to crack. When the victim’s grieving brother surfaces, throwing blame onto the boyfriend and craving revenge, Matthews gains an unstable ally she does not want. Then the stalking begins: the eerie phone calls, the noises outside the house, the shadows that move in the night. Someone has his eye on Matthews – but to stop her, to kill her, or to help solve the crime? While her colleagues Lieutenant Lou Boldt and Sergeant John LaMoia pursue a hotel room peeper in hopes of solving a series of disappearances, the police and Matthews herself are led into the “Underground” – a perfectly preserved city-under-a-city, hidden beneath present-day Seattle. Matthews engages in a mental game of cat-and-mouse, never knowing whom she can trust. Crisscrossing Seattle, diving below the streets to ancient tunnels, running for her life, Matthews must unlock the psychological secrets behind Mary-Ann’s death before she herself is buried alongside her. Matthews’ very survival will depend on her skills at the art of deception. The pace is always racing, the detail always exacting, the characters fascinating. This is classic Ridley Pearson, keeping tension and excitement up until the climactic ending, which of course involves a life in jeopardy, a fantastic chase scene, and a plot twist.

Past transgressions haunted Hope Barrister, whose beauty helped her rise from a tenant farm to a Texas fortune. But her quiet loveliness concealed dark secrets she’d long kept safe, to protect her young son…. Chase Barrister found Hope enigmatic and elegant—but she tasted of forbidden fruit. Years ago, Chase had fled his father’s legacy, but he’d taken memories of his stepmother and his own bittersweet desire. After his father’s death, Chase returned to Texas and Hope. Would he be caught in the web of familial deceit…or untangle an honest love and truly come home?

Stranded by a storm, a woman must rely on a seductive stranger whom she begins to suspect is a murderer With a megahit on Broadway, a gorgeous wife, and a legion of adoring fans, Justin Magnasun has the world at his feet—but it all comes crashing down one snowy night that ends in a brutal murder. Now the world-famous playwright lives a solitary life in the New England countryside, far from the relentless glare of the spotlight. Until Boston reporter Kristin Kennedy shows up. Braving the worst blizzard to hit Massachusetts in decades, Kristin finds herself stranded in the middle of nowhere with no hope of rescue. Then she wakes up buck naked in a stranger’s bed. She couldn’t have predicted the desire that would spark between them, plunging her into an affair with a man shadowed by secrets. Is Justin a cold-blooded killer? As Kristin tries to piece together what happened five years ago, she finds that she’s playing with fire, at the mercy of a murderer preparing to bring down the curtain on her final act.

Annabelle Donohoe, the CEO of World Tech, is mad as hell. Her dreams of world domination died the day Zac Robillard discovered her evil plans and fled World Tech, taking his greatest creation, his beloved I-Bots, and all his research, with him. (Read about their origins in Isaac Asimov's History of I-Bots!) More than super-machines, more than robots, the I-Bots are eerily human in appearance, but not in abilities. Their genetic components--based on human DNA--and mechanical infrastructures give them pshyical strength and powers humans can only imagine, and a measure of free will impossible in robots. Annabelle wants them back and will stop at nothing to get her way, including hiring the world's deadliest assassin to find Zac, and his I-Bots--the beautiful Radiant and Killaine, clever Itazura, Psy-4, and Stonewall--and bring them in...or kill them. For if Annabelle cannot have the I-Bots she vows that no one else can either. But Janus, the ruthless killer, is not the only hunter they must elude...Surrounded by enemies, Zac and the I-Bots can find no safe place, not even the streets. In the year 2013, the Silver Metal Stompers, a neo-Nazi gang, roam the nation's cities wreaking havoc on robots, especially Scrappers, outmoded homeless robots who huddle in hobo camps, rusting away unless they are repaired by a mysterious humanitarian and robotarian called DocScrap. In an unlucky twist of fate, the Stompers discover DocScrap is none other than Zac Robillard and that the I-Bots aren't exactly human...and vow to crush Zac and the I-Bots into wreckage. Based on an original concept by Isaac Asimov, Time Was is a nonstop action adventure combining all the excitement of Golden Age SF with the technological wonders of modern cybernetics and quantum science. This remarkable collaboration between the greatest science fiction genius of all time and a team of brilliant young writers is a major publishing event. Only the Grand Master himself could have foreseen the awesome wonders depicted in Isaac Asimov's I-Bots. And only today's finest storytellers could have brought them so vividly to life.

Miguel Hidalgo had been left for dead by the minions of De Colores's evil dictator, but he was very much alive--and determined to exact revenge and return his country to freedom. But even a man of Miguel's determination and talents couldn't accomplish that alone. He needed Veronica Harper. Ronnie had flown into De Colores on a mission of mercy only to find herself hijacked at gunpoint, forced to fly the handsomest man she'd ever seen to safety. Soon guns were no longer necessary, because once Ronnie heard Miguel's story she was eager to help him rescue his island home, and even more eager to spend the future by his side.

60 year old Franklin Blue Cat is dying and desperately needs a marrow transplant. But he has no family…other than the a child he's not even sure exists. He needs the help of Adam Two Eagles, the local medicine man and ex Army Ranger to help him find his missing child. Sonora Jordan, undercover DEA agent and tough biker chick, is laying low. After a drug bust, the Garcia brothers--who Sonora helped put in jail--have put out a contract on her and she's forced to go on vacation. She’s unaware that there is yet another Garcia brother hot on her trail. Strange dreams--visions really--are pulling Sonora east. When Sonora meets Adam, she'll be drawn out of her world and led by both instinct and magic to find the father she never knew she had, and the love she never knew she wanted.

WHO WAS SHE? Private detective Angus MacDougall was used to finding missing persons. But the woman standing before him was a completely different story. She had absolutely no idea who she was. From the first, he wanted her. But he knew that the delicate mystery woman wouldn't remain unclaimed for long. Some lucky man would come for her, and Angus would lose her forever. He couldn't let himself fall for her, couldn't let his young daughter start calling her "Mommy." Yet how could he resist this precious lost lady when she'd already claimed both their hearts?

Who's been sleeping in her bed? Nothing could shock Flannery O'Shea -- or so she thought. So when she returned home from a trip and found a naked, gorgeous, sexy man sleeping in her bed, she could only stare, open-mouthed. Was the luck of the Irish finally coming her way? She got her answer when Jack McKeegan awakened and demanded to know what she had done with his clothes! And when he started shouting that he'd been swindled, robbed and played for a fool by a strange little man who claimed to be a leprechaun, Flannery knew that her eccentric grandfather was up to something. St. Patrick's Day was going to be very interesting for Jack and Flannery. With pots of gold and four-leaf clovers, who knew what they'd find at the end of the rainbow?

"Honey, You don't really want this."But Tess Montoya knew exactly what she wanted-a hot, no-strings-attached night with town bad boy Eli Garrett, her old high-school boyfriend. After all, when you're being stressed by your unreliable ex, why not blow off steam with the one man who knows you best? Besides, there was no way she was ever going to let sexy Eli back in her heart....Out of all the mistakes Eli made growing up, walking away from Tess was the one he regretted most. But the feisty, take-care-of-business woman she'd become-and the lonely children she was struggling to raise-was making the idea of home and family irresistible. And in spite of everything against them, Eli swore he'd do whatever Tess wanted-except let her get away again.

Five years ago, Lieutenant Colonel Lucas Quade had watched his wife of mere moments die. Forced to flee from a war-torn country, he'd had to leave her body behind. The guilt had nearly consumed him.Five years ago, Sarafina Quade's death had been faked. Forced to live under the protection of a "family friend," she'd agreed in order to protect Lucas's baby. The hope of eventual freedom had kept her alive.Now fate had brought husband and wife face-to-face. On a dangerous trek through the jungle a man would learn he was a father, a woman would learn her past was a lie and a child might finally have the family she always craved. If they survived the journey.

DREAM WARRIOR... Sara Jane Yates was a black satin sheets woman hidden in the guise of a pistol-packin’ peace officer. Gideon Ironheart could tell that just from the sound of her voice. No other woman had ever made him want to quit his wandering ways before. But then, no other woman had ever rescued him at gunpoint from a barroom brawl, either. Tall, powerful— and ready to take on the whole town Gideon Ironheart was “an Indian with an attitude,” all right. Deputy Sheriff Sara Yates was sure of it. But there was something else about him—something hidden, sensual. Something that made her want to tell him her darkest fears. And her deepest desires... CONARD COUNTY: Where the Wyoming sky spreads bold and blue above men and women who draw their strength from the land—and from the bonds of love they share.