Download or read book The Thirteenth Tale written by Diane Setterfield and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007-10-09 with total page 448 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: In this rousingly good ghost story, Setterfield's debut novel rejuvenates the genre with a closely plotted, clever foray into a world of secrets, confused identities, lies, and half-truths.

Download or read book The Thirteenth Tale written by Diane Setterfield and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2007 with total page 513 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt:

Download or read book The Thirteenth Tale written by Diane Setterfield and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2006-09-12 with total page 417 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Instant #1 New York Times bestseller “Readers will feel the magnetic pull of this paean to words, books and the magical power of story.”—People “Eerie and fascinating.”—USA TODAY Sometimes, when you open the door to the past, what you confront is your destiny. Reclusive author Vida Winter, famous for her collection of twelve enchanting stories, has spent the past six decades penning a series of alternate lives for herself. Now old and ailing, she is ready to reveal the truth about her extraordinary existence and the violent and tragic past she has kept secret for so long. Calling on Margaret Lea, a young biographer troubled by her own painful history, Vida disinters the life she meant to bury for good. Margaret is mesmerized by the author's tale of gothic strangeness—featuring the beautiful and willful Isabelle, the feral twins Adeline and Emmeline, a ghost, a governess, a topiary garden and a devastating fire. Together, Margaret and Vida confront the ghosts that have haunted them while becoming, finally, transformed by the truth themselves.

Download or read book Bellman Black written by Diane Setterfield and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-11-05 with total page 336 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Killing a bird with his slingshot as a boy, William Bellman grows up a wealthy family man unaware of how his act of childhood cruelty will have terrible consequences until a wrenching tragedy compels him to enter into a macabre bargain with a stranger in black.

Download or read book Once Upon a River written by Diane Setterfield and published by Atria/Emily Bestler Books. This book was released on 2019-07-02 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the instant #1 New York Times bestselling author of the “eerie and fascinating” (USA TODAY) The Thirteenth Tale comes a “swift and entrancing, profound and beautiful” (Madeline Miller, internationally bestselling author of Circe) novel about how we explain the world to ourselves, ourselves to others, and the meaning of our lives in a universe that remains impenetrably mysterious. On a dark midwinter’s night in an ancient inn on the river Thames, an extraordinary event takes place. The regulars are telling stories to while away the dark hours, when the door bursts open on a grievously wounded stranger. In his arms is the lifeless body of a small child. Hours later, the girl stirs, takes a breath and returns to life. Is it a miracle? Is it magic? Or can science provide an explanation? These questions have many answers, some of them quite dark indeed. Those who dwell on the river bank apply all their ingenuity to solving the puzzle of the girl who died and lived again, yet as the days pass the mystery only deepens. The child herself is mute and unable to answer the essential questions: Who is she? Where did she come from? And to whom does she belong? But answers proliferate nonetheless. Three families are keen to claim her. A wealthy young mother knows the girl is her kidnapped daughter, missing for two years. A farming family reeling from the discovery of their son’s secret liaison stand ready to welcome their granddaughter. The parson’s housekeeper, humble and isolated, sees in the child the image of her younger sister. But the return of a lost child is not without complications and no matter how heartbreaking the past losses, no matter how precious the child herself, this girl cannot be everyone’s. Each family has mysteries of its own, and many secrets must be revealed before the girl’s identity can be known. Once Upon a River is a glorious tapestry of a book that combines folklore and science, magic and myth. Suspenseful, romantic, and richly atmospheric, this is “a beguiling tale, full of twists and turns like the river at its heart, and just as rich and intriguing” (M.L. Stedman, #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Light Between Oceans).

Download or read book The Seduction of Water written by Carol Goodman and published by Ballantine Books. This book was released on 2003-12-30 with total page 402 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: Iris Greenfeder, ABD (All But Dissertation), feels the “buts” are taking over her life: all but published, all but a professor, all but married. Yet the sudden impulse to write a story about her mother, Katherine Morrissey, leads to a shot at literary success. The piece recounts an eerie Irish fairy tale her mother used to tell her at bedtime—and nestled inside it is the sad story of her death. It captures the attention of her mother’s former literary agent, who is convinced that Katherine wrote one final manuscript before her strange, untimely end in a fire thirty years ago. So Iris goes back to the remote Hotel Equinox in the Catskills, the place where she grew up, to write her mother’s biography and search for the missing manuscript—and there she unravels a haunting mystery, one that holds more secrets than she ever expected. . . .

Download or read book Curse of the Thirteenth Fey written by Jane Yolen and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2012-11-08 with total page 117 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: You think you know the story of Sleeping Beauty, but the real story is far more spellbinding… Gorse is the thirteenth and youngest in a family of fairies tied to the evil king’s land and made to do his bidding. When accident-prone Gorse falls ill just as the family is bid to bless the new princess, a fairytale starts to unfold. Sick as she is, Gorse races to the castle with the last piece of magic the family has left—a piece of the Thread of Life. But that is when accident, mayhem, and magic combine to drive Gorse’s story into the unthinkable, threatening the baby and the kingdom.

Download or read book Kiss Me First written by Lottie Moggach and published by Bond Street Books. This book was released on 2013-07-09 with total page 247 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: A chilling and intense first novel, this is the story of a solitary young woman drawn into an online world run by a charismatic web guru who entices her into impersonating a glamorous but desperate woman. When Leila discovers the website Red Pill, she feels she has finally found people who understand her. A sheltered young woman raised by her mother, Leila has often struggled to connect with the girls at school; but on Red Pill, a chat forum for ethical debate, Leila comes into her own, impressing the website's founder, a brilliant and elusive man named Adrian. Leila is thrilled when Adrian asks to meet her, and is flattered when he invites her to be part of "Project Tess." Tess is a woman Leila might never have met in real life. She is beautiful, urbane, witty, and damaged. As they email, chat, and Skype, Leila becomes enveloped in the world of Tess, learning every single thing she can about this other woman--because soon, Leila will have to become her. An ingeniously plotted novel of stolen identity, Kiss Me First is brilliantly frightening about the lies we tell--to ourselves, and to others, for good, and for ill.

Download or read book Forever Odd written by Dean Koontz and published by Bantam. This book was released on 2007-06-29 with total page 342 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER I see dead people. But then, by God, I do something about it. Odd Thomas never asked for his special ability. He’s just an ordinary guy trying to live a quiet life in the small desert town of Pico Mundo. Yet he feels an obligation to do right by his otherworldly confidants, and that’s why he’s won hearts on both sides of the divide between life and death. But when a childhood friend disappears, Odd discovers something worse than a dead body and embarks on a heart-stopping battle of will and wits with an enemy of exceptional cunning. In the hours to come there can be no innocent bystanders, and every sacrifice can tip the balance between despair and hope. You’re invited on an unforgettable journey through a world of terror and transcendence to wonders beyond imagining. And you can have no better guide than Odd Thomas.

Download or read book The Thirteenth House written by Sharon Shinn and published by Penguin. This book was released on 2007-02-27 with total page 500 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The first book of The Twelve Houses, Mystic & Rider, was hailed as “spellbinding” (Publishers Weekly), and introduced readers to the troubled land of Gillengaria. Now, national bestselling and award-winning author Sharon Shinn continues her epic tale, as a beautiful shapeshifter finds that intrigue and danger can be found even in the safest of havens… After joining an unlikely band of soldiers and sorcerers to rescue the regent Romar Brendan from a cabal of rebellious minor lords, the shiftling Kirra returns to her home of Danalustrous—and learns that her half-sister, Casserah, has been proclaimed heir to the land. Though Casserah is obligated to attend a circuit of social events held by the great Houses of Gillengaria, she obstinately refuses to go. So Kirra shapeshifts into her sister’s form and makes the rounds for her. In the royal city of Ghosenhall, she unexpectedly joins up with her steadfast compatriots from her previous adventures, and together they embark on a tour of the Twelve Houses acting as guardians for the enigmatic queen of Gillengaria and her alluring daughter. The motley group of mystics and warriors faces many dangers in their travels. But Kirra places herself willingly in peril when she falls in love with the irresistible—but already married—Lord Romar. Revealing her true identity to him, Kirra begins a tempestuous affair that places them both in mortal danger, and leads them both into the stronghold of the devious lords of the Thirteenth House…

Download or read book The Thirteenth Unicorn written by Newman and published by W. D. Newman. This book was released on 2011 with total page 250 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: While spending the summer with their grandparents, on a remote farm in South Carolina, Ben Alderman and his sister Casey uncover a hidden world of magic; a world their grandmother is secretly visiting. It is a world where elves and dwarves are locked in mortal combat against a witch who is trying to free the last surviving wizard from exile. The witch has been defeated once before, but with the combined power of the wizard, no one will be able to stand against them. Much to Ben's dismay, he learns that he is the one foretold in the ancient elfin prophecies to bring about the downfall of the witch and save this exciting new world from destruction.

Download or read book Never After The Thirteenth Fairy written by Melissa de la Cruz and published by Roaring Brook Press. This book was released on 2020-12-01 with total page 320 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: *A B&N Young Reader Monthly Pick!* *Finalist in the 2021 Goodreads Choice Awards!* *A New York Times Bestseller!* Discover a new middle-grade fantasy saga from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of The Descendants series, Melissa de la Cruz, where real life and fairy tales collide! Nothing ever happens in Filomena Jefferson-Cho’s sleepy little suburban town of North Pasadena. The sun shines every day, the grass is always a perfect green, and while her progressive school swears there’s no such thing as bullying, she still feels bummed out. But one day, when Filomena is walking home on her own, something strange happens. Filomena is being followed by Jack Stalker, one of the heroes in the Thirteenth Fairy, a series of books she loves about a brave girl and her ragtag group of friends who save their world from an evil enchantress. She must be dreaming, or still reading a book. But Jack is insistent—he’s real, the stories are real, and Filomena must come with him at once! Soon, Filomena is thrust into the world of evil fairies and beautiful princesses, sorcerers and slayers, where an evil queen drives her ruthless armies to destroy what is left of the Fairy tribes. To save herself and the kingdom of Westphalia, Filomena must find the truth behind the fairytales and set the world back to rights before the cycle of sleep and destruction begins once more.

Download or read book The Princess and the Pea written by Diane Setterfield and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2013-10-29 with total page 11 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From the New York Times bestselling author of The Thirteenth Tale and Bellman & Black comes an imaginative retelling of the classic children’s tale—with a slight twist.

Download or read book Rough Animals written by Rae DelBianco and published by Simon and Schuster. This book was released on 2018-06-05 with total page 295 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: The 25 Best Thriller Books of the Summer—New York Post Best New Books Coming Out Summer 2018 —Southern Living 46 Great Books to Read This Summer—Nylon Dazzling Debuts"—WYPR, "The Weekly Reader" Summer Thrillers That Will Have You at the Edge of Your Chaise Lounge—Refinery29 8 New Books You Should Read This June—vulture.com What We Read, Watched, and Listened to in May—Outside “Furious and electric . . . a fever dream."—Publishers Weekly, *Starred Review!* Breaking Bad meets No Country for Old Men... Ever since their father's untimely death five years before, Wyatt Smith and his inseparably close twin sister, Lucy, have scraped by alone on their family's isolated ranch in Box Elder County, Utah. That is until one morning when, just after spotting one of their steers lying dead in the field, Wyatt is hit in the arm by a hail of gunfire that takes four more cattle with it. The shooter: a fever-eyed, fearsome girl-child with a TEC-9 in her left hand and a worn shotgun in her right. They hold the girl captive, but she breaks loose overnight and heads south into the desert. With the dawning realization that the loss of cattle will mean the certain loss of the ranch, Wyatt feels he has no choice but to go after her and somehow find restitution for what's been lost. Wyatt's decision sets him on an epic twelve-day odyssey through a nightmarish underworld he only half understands; a world that pitches him not only against the primordial ways of men and the beautiful yet brutally unforgiving landscape, but also against himself. As he winds his way down from the mountains of Box Elder to the mesas of Monument Valley and back, Wyatt is forced to look for the first time at who he is and what he’s capable of, and how those hard truths set him irrevocably apart from the one person he’s ever really known and loved. Steeped in a mythic, wildly alive language of its own, and gripping from the first gunshot to the last, Rough Animals is a tour de force from a powerful new voice.

Download or read book The Girl Who Reads on the M tro written by Christine Féret-Fleury and published by Flatiron Books. This book was released on 2019-10-08 with total page 122 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: “With a cast of characters reminiscent of the French film Amélie, Féret-Fleury creates a world that is delightful and enchanting...Light and sweet as a bonbon, this little confection of a book is delicious.” —Kirkus Reviews For fans of Amélie and The Little Paris Bookshop, a modern fairytale about a French woman whose life is turned upside down when she meets a reclusive bookseller and his young daughter. Juliette leads a perfectly ordinary life in Paris, working a slow office job, dating a string of not-quite-right men, and fighting off melancholy. The only bright spots in her day are her métro rides across the city and the stories she dreams up about the strangers reading books across from her: the old lady, the math student, the amateur ornithologist, the woman in love, the girl who always tears up at page 247. One morning, avoiding the office for as long as she can, Juliette finds herself on a new block, in front of a rusty gate wedged open with a book. Unable to resist, Juliette walks through, into the bizarre and enchanting lives of Soliman and his young daughter, Zaide. Before she realizes entirely what is happening, Juliette agrees to become a passeur, Soliman’s name for the booksellers he hires to take stacks of used books out of his store and into the world, using their imagination and intuition to match books with readers. Suddenly, Juliette’s daydreaming becomes her reality, and when Soliman asks her to move in to their store to take care of Zaide while he goes away, she has to decide if she is ready to throw herself headfirst into this new life. Big-hearted, funny, and gloriously zany, The Girl Who Reads on the Métro is a delayed coming-of-age story about a young woman who dares to change her life, and a celebration of the power of books to unite us all.

Download or read book The Oracle Glass written by Judith Merkle Riley and published by Sourcebooks, Inc.. This book was released on 2012-11-06 with total page 496 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: New York Times and USA Today Bestseller! "An outstanding historical novel of 17th–century France ... based on a real–life scandal known as the Affaire des Poisons, this tale is riveting from start to finish."—Library Journal Her ability to see the future may prevent her from living in the present... For a handful of gold, Madame de Morville will read your future in a glass of swirling water. You'll believe her, because you know she's more than 150 years old and a witch, and she has all of Paris in the palm of her hand. But Madame de Morville hides more behind her black robes than you know. Her real age, the mother and uncle who left her for dead, the inner workings of the most secret society of Parisian witches: none of these truths would help her outwit the rich who so desperately want the promise of the future. After all, it's her own future she must control , no matter how much it is painted with uncertainty and clouded by vengeance. More Praise for The Oracle Glass: "Absorbing and arresting."—New York Times "Fascinating and factual."—Los Angeles Times "Chilly, witty, and completely engrossing ... great, good fun."— Kirkus Reviews "Take a full cup of wit, two teaspoons of brimstone, and a dash of poison, and you have Judith Merkle Riley's mordant, compelling tale of an ambitious young woman who disguises herself as an ancient prophetess in order to gain entry into the dangerous, scheming glamour of the Sun King's court. Based on scandalous true events, The Oracle Glass brims with our human foibles, passions, and eccentricities; it's a classic of the genre and unlike any historical novel you have ever read."—C. W. Gortner, author of The Confessions of Catherine de Medici

Download or read book The Thirteenth Cat written by Mary Downing Hahn and published by Clarion Books. This book was released on 2021-09-07 with total page 241 pages. Available in PDF, EPUB and Kindle. Book excerpt: From master of middle grade horror Mary Downing Hahn, a new thriller about bravery, unexpected friendship, and sinister cats that will captivate readers with its chilling mix of mystery and magic. Zoey loves spending the summer with her Aunt Alice, and her aunt's new house is the perfect place to cozy up with a good book. But she's unnerved by the overgrown forest next door, which is creepy even in the daytime and full of eerie sounds at night. Worse, there are rumors in town of a dark force in those woods. And Zoey can't deny that the wild black cats who live there seem to be watching her. When she encounters a mean old woman who claims to be their owner, Zoey realizes there's more to the cats than meets the eye. But little does she know that the closer she comes to discovering their secret, the more danger she's in . . .