'If you read one historical novel this year, make it THE QUEEN'S MARY by Sarah Gristwood. It's a superb fictional rendering of a difficult subject. I could not put it down.' - bestselling author Alison Weir

Mary Seton is lady-in-waiting to the legendary Mary Queen of Scots.

Torn between her own desires and her duty to serve her mistress, she is ultimately drawn into her Queen's web of passion and royal treachery - and must play her part in the game of thrones between Mary and Elizabeth I.

Must she choose between survival, and sharing the same fate as the woman she has served, loyally and lovingly, since a child?

The Queen's Mary is an engaging and insightful novel, which allows the reader to peek behind the curtain of history - and see into the heart and mind of a forgotten woman who helped shape the Tudor era.

Fans of Phillipa Gregory, Alison Weir and The Tudors will love The Queen’s Mary.

Praise for The Queen’s Mary

'Sarah Gristwood breathes new life into the deeply tragic story of Mary Queen of Scots by telling it through the perspective of the invisible woman who sacrificed her life to serve her.' Elizabeth Freemantle, bestselling author of The Girl in the Glass Tower

Beyond the famous name on a script, Shakespeare remains a stranger to many of us.

First published in 1912, Shakespeare is a magnificent compilation of essays tackling different aspects of Shakespearean literature.

Herford seeks to single out what is most vital to our understanding of both Shakespeare’s life and work, enticing the reader to explore each play he analyses in depth.

From the early plays, through Shakespeare’s rise, to the last works Shakespeare created, Herford provides a detailed and knowledgeable account

In dealing with the separate plays, attention has been concentrated upon the cardinal situations and characters.

Quotations alongside analysis enable for a fuller handling of the whole of Shakespeare’s work, and result in an enriched learning with much needed insight into Shakespeare and his plays.

Shakespeare is an astute look into the meaning behind and within Shakespearean literature.

Charles Harold Herford (1853-1931) was born in Manchester. He was an English literary scholar and critic, who is remembered particularly for his biography and edition of the works of Ben Jonson. Herford was also a professor of English Literature at both University College of Wales in Aberystwyth, and Victoria University of Manchester.

Winner of the 2016 Paranormal Romance Guild Reviewer’s Choice Award for Best Paranormal Romance/Suspense Series

"Those with an interest in parapsychology will be fascinated by this artfully written series starter." —PUBLISHERS WEEKLY

All of Cate’s problems are in her head. That may be her greatest strength.

Cate Duncan is a promising young therapist, dedicated to her work. But after her mother’s suicide, she is seized by a paralyzing depression. To save her job, Cate agrees to enter a program with Dr. Angeline MacGregor, run by her stern son, Ben, and housed in a repurposed church. Cate doesn’t quite understand what the program entails, but she soon learns that the skills she will develop there may not only help her learn how to cope with her own problems, but will also lead her to a much greater purpose.

The MacGregor Group is a collection of alternative healers whose unconventional approaches include crystals, aura reading, and psychics. They know that their life’s work invites skepticism, and welcome the chance to prove naysayers wrong. But they need the unique abilities that Cate can bring, and as she slides ever closer to her own abyss, they will do everything in their power to protect Cate from those who wish her harm—including herself.

A powerful novel of suspense and a wildly inventive start to this paranormal romance series, ALL THE BROKEN PLACES engages readers with its striking blend of the supernatural and the psychological.

"With the introduction of a charismatic group of alternative healers, Eden creates a unique world that readers will find fascinating."—RT BOOK REVIEWS

"ALL THE BROKEN PLACES is not simply an engaging paranormal romance. Peopled with broken characters the reader wants to see mended, it tackles the subjects of mental health and suicide with empathy and grace.” —Rosanna Leo, author of VICE

He paid her to have his baby.
But he never expected twins…

Sheikh Omar Fakim Al-Daqqa has a problem: as presumptive heir to the throne of Al-Thakri, the Middle-Eastern nation’s constitution demands that he must have a child in order to accede to the throne. Knowing that his power-hungry brother is desperate to usurp his throne and have a baby before him, Omar knows he must act quickly, and he already has a potential mother in mind…

Carrie Green is Sheikh Omar’s personal physician, and she’s quickly growing disillusioned with life in Al-Thakri. Wishing to travel the world and put her skills to better use, she needs a way out. However, when the Sheikh makes her a scandalous offer – an outrageous sum of money to have his child, and as quickly as possible - Carrie cannot turn him down.

Of course, it doesn’t hurt that Carrie has long harbored feelings for her gorgeous Sheikh employer, but she soon encounters second thoughts. Can Carrie really go through with it, and become pregnant by royalty?

This is a standalone Sheikh romance novel from best-selling author Holly Rayner. It contains a guaranteed HEA, and a tale of romance that will capture your heart.

A sexy marriage of convenience romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club. Features another free bonus book.

Looking for work, Carrie finds a job as a temporary waitress at the exclusive Elite Club; a club packed full of billionaires with snobby attitudes.

One night her car breaks down and a billionaire playboy Patrick offers her a ride home.

Sparks fly instantly and a hot one night stand ensues.

He’s awesome in bed, but Carrie decides it was just a one off fling and she should move on.

Until down the line she finds out she’s pregnant.

Patrick tells his parents, who say he should marry Carrie so he doesn’t ruin the family name.

But Patrick’s new girlfriend Sophia isn't too keen on the idea...

And Carrie thinks Patrick’s hot, sure, but she doesn’t love him.

With family pressures, secret affairs and complicated feelings, the situation is packed with drama.

Will Carrie and Patrick’s baby end up with a loving family and a financial legacy?

Or will they inherit nothing but chaos?

Find out in this hot yet stormy romance by Katie Dowe of BWWM Club.

Suitable for over 18s only due to sex scenes so hot, you’ll be picturing your own red hot potential baby daddy.

Jaeron thought he understood the streets of Islar. He thought he had come to accept his decision to follow his father's plan for him, to become a thief in a city rife with corruption rather than pursue his own interest in the priesthood. Family came first. Then he and his siblings return home from their first 'job' to find their father dying - murdered - and a package stained in his blood. A package containing three exceptional wooden toys and a decade old letter hinting at their lives prior to their adoption. THIEVES OF ISLAR is a 130,000 word sword and sorcery fantasy novel that delves into Jaeron's struggle between protecting his family during their quest for justice and his personal need for uncovering the past, a need driven by a ten year-old song he cannot get out of his head.

Adapted for a magnificent George Roy Hill film three years later (perhaps the only film adaptation of a masterpiece which exceeds its source), Slaughterhouse-Five (1969) is the now famous parable of Billy Pilgrim, a World War II veteran and POW, who has in the later stage of his life become "unstuck in time" and who experiences at will (or unwillingly) all known events of his chronology out of order and sometimes simultaneously.

Traumatized by the bombing of Dresden at the time he had been imprisoned, Pilgrim drifts through all events and history, sometimes deeply implicated, sometimes a witness. He is surrounded by Vonnegut's usual large cast of continuing characters (notably here the hack science fiction writer Kilgore Trout and the alien Tralmafadorians who oversee his life and remind him constantly that there is no causation, no order, no motive to existence).

The "unstuck" nature of Pilgrim's experience may constitute an early novelistic use of what we now call Post Traumatic Stress Disorder; then again, Pilgrim's aliens may be as "real" as Dresden is real to him. Struggling to find some purpose, order or meaning to his existence and humanity's, Pilgrim meets the beauteous and mysterious Montana Wildhack (certainly the author's best character name), has a child with her and drifts on some supernal plane, finally, in which Kilgore Trout, the Tralmafadorians, Montana Wildhack and the ruins of Dresden do not merge but rather disperse through all planes of existence.

Slaughterhouse-Five was hugely successful, brought Vonnegut an enormous audience, was a finalist for the National Book Award and a bestseller and remains four decades later as timeless and shattering a war fiction as Catch-22, with which it stands as the two signal novels of their riotous and furious decade.

ABOUT THE AUTHOR

Kurt Vonnegut (1922-2007) is one of the most beloved American writers of the twentieth century. Vonnegut's audience increased steadily since his first five pieces in the 1950s and grew from there. His 1968 novel Slaughterhouse-Five has become a canonic war novel with Joseph Heller's Catch-22 to form the truest and darkest of what came from World War II.

Vonnegut began his career as a science fiction writer, and his early novels--Player Piano and The Sirens of Titan--were categorized as such even as they appealed to an audience far beyond the reach of the category. In the 1960s, Vonnegut became closely associated with the Baby Boomer generation, a writer on that side, so to speak.

Now that Vonnegut's work has been studied as a large body of work, it has been more deeply understood and unified. There is a consistency to his satirical insight, humor and anger which makes his work so synergistic. It seems clear that the more of Vonnegut's work you read, the more it resonates and the more you wish to read. Scholars believe that Vonnegut's reputation (like Mark Twain's) will grow steadily through the decades as his work continues to increase in relevance and new connections are formed, new insights made.

ABOUT THE SERIES

Author Kurt Vonnegut is considered by most to be one of the most important writers of the twentieth century. His books Slaughterhouse-Five (named after Vonnegut's World War II POW experience) and Cat's Cradle are considered among his top works. RosettaBooks offers here a complete range of Vonnegut's work, including his first novel (Player Piano, 1952) for readers familiar with Vonnegut's work as well as newcomers.

1865, and as the Appomattox Campaign gets underway the Civil War enters its final stages.

From investing Petersburg to the battle of White Oak Road and the battle of Five Forks, the Union Army under Grant is pursuing Lee across a battle-scarred Virginia.

Amongst them is Brigadier General J. L. Chamberlain, commanding the 1st Brigade of the Union Army’s V Corps.

At Appomattox, Lee, his line of retreat cut and his army surrounded, was left with little choice but to surrender.

On April 12, Chamberlain presided over the formal parade marking the surrender of the Confederates’ arms and colours.

Impressed by the demeanour of Lee’s soldiers, and recognising the day’s significance, he had his men salute their former foes; it would prove a controversial, yet defining moment.

Treating troop movements, the storm of battle, the army’s spirit and an unusual respect for the enemy with equal eloquence, this is a very human account of a war that divided a nation.

"This is one of the finest accounts of a campaign penned by a Federal soldier....A stellar work of Civil War history -- a classic." - The Civil War in Books

“One of the knightliest soldiers of the Federal Army.” General John Brown Gordon.

Joshua Lawrence Chamberlain (1828-1914) was a college professor from Maine who volunteered for the Union Army in 1862. Awarded the Medal of Honor for his actions at Gettysburg, he ended the war a Brevet Major General. A Republican, after the war he entered politics, serving four consecutive terms of office as the Governor of Maine.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

He stalks you when you’re sleeping. He kills when you’re awake…

Reporter Rebekka Franck is ready to escape the headlines for a relaxing holiday with her family. Small town Cocoa Beach, Florida seems like the perfect getaway for sunny days and silent nights. At least, until a boy’s dead body is found stuffed in the chimney…

Rebekka learns that the boy is the latest in a long line of victims preyed upon by a local legend. But a demon cloaked in red with sharp fingernails who comes down the chimney can’t be real. Can it?

With the help of a local teen whose dad fell victim to the creature, Rebekka investigates the growing body count. But as Christmas creeps closer, the reporter must catch the demon before it checks her and her family’s names off the naughty list…

Better Not Cry is a spine-tingling Christmastime horror story featuring Willow Rose’s iconic characters Rebekka Franck and Jack Ryder. If you like pulse-pounding scares, imaginative plots, and hellish new takes on Santa, then you’ll love Willow Rose’s holiday horror.

Buy Better Not Cry now to see Santa slay!

Is there Power in your Prayers?

Do you want to experience God's power in your life?

Prayer is a mystery that we struggle to understand. Do you realize that your prayer life is a reflection of your relationship with Christ? Almighty God has given us unlimited access to His throne of grace and with that access there is power!

Power to transform your life and the lives others. I have experienced this power in my own life. God in His goodness rescued me from the dark and dangerous path my life was headed down.

In this award winning book, you will read about some of the magnificent blessings available to you as you strengthen your prayer life while seeking God in prayer.

When you make prayer a priority and pray with purpose; God’s power will be revealed and lives are transformed!

Are you ready to unleash God’s power in your life?

˃˃˃ There are so many blessings from an intimate prayer life with God

Stronger faith, a closer relationship with God. You can have assurance that He hears your prayers, and you receive direction when you hear from Him. Talking with God gives you indescribable hope that will transform your life!

Scroll up and grab a copy today.

Chosen by FreshFiction.com as their Fresh Pick for October 22, 2013
Kat Bastion's award-winning debut in the Highland Legends Series:

Isobel MacInnes wakes up in present-day California, lunches in medieval Scotland, and by ten days' end, falls in love with a man and his country, only to lose them in a heart-wrenching twist of fate . . .

Found in the arms of her second soul mate . . .

Forced to balance the delicate strands of time between two millennia . . .

Shocked by revelations rewriting the very foundations of history . . . of everything.

Isobel, a rising-star archaeology student, is dropped into two ancient worlds without warning . . . or her permission. Her fiery spirit resists the dependency thrust upon her. Amid frustration at her lack of control, she helplessly falls in love. Twice.

She struggles to adjust to the unimaginable demands of two leaders of men--a laird in the thirteenth-century Highlands and a Pict chieftain in a more ancient Scotland. Isobel transforms from an academic, hell-bent on obtaining archaeological recognition, to a woman striving to care for those she loves, and ultimately . . . into a fearless warrior risking everything to protect them.

*** PLEASE NOTE ***
Scorching (explicit) sex scenes.
Fire extinguisher highly recommended.

They were heading for Venus. Somewhere else found them first…

When a sudden impact sends a spacecraft bound for a distant research station hurtling towards a previously unseen and inexplicable planet, responsibility for the safety of its passengers immediately falls on Ivy ‘Holly’ Wood, a former poster-child of the public space program now fleeing Earth’s tyrannical leadership.

The mysterious planet’s startlingly Earth-like atmosphere initially breeds optimism among Holly’s group of stranded survivors, but before long it becomes clear that Earth’s rules don’t apply and that nothing can be taken for granted.

With all hopes of escape dependent on discovering the true nature of this increasingly hostile planet, Holly and the rest of the desperate survivors know only one thing for sure: their newly discovered world will not give up its secrets without a fight.


Terradox is a sci-fi thriller/adventure novel from the author of the breakout bestseller Not Alone, an Audible.com ‘Best of 2016’ finalist. [Paperback length: 550 pages]

The last words of a dying teenage car thief set off a race across Europe to find an SUV that may be harboring a terrible secret. If the device that could be hiding in the truck, fell into the hands of those who murdered its inventors, the world would usher in a new unprecedented era of terrorism. Carter knows that it’s no coincidence that his old FBI boss, Agent Saunders reaches out to him once again—two days before Carter and Stella are to leave on vacation—for Europe. The only reason why he reluctantly agrees to help is because he knows only too well what would happen if the device was weaponized. The car theft ring spans two continents and the police on both ends have been watching it for some time. Still, no one, least of all Carter would have thought that beside the dangerous invention that may be hiding in the SUV, other far more deadlier goods are being smuggled out of California’s laboratories.

Within seventy-two hours of landing in Nice, Carter and Stella are in the proverbial eye of the storm. What swirls around them in a deadly funnel is a chilling conspiracy that reaches the highest spheres of money and political power in Europe. And just as Carter is asking himself whether the vacation could get any more dangerous, something even more sinister than political machinations rises in their path. A mythological entity that even Stella thought was a pure myth, forces them to take a challenge neither is prepared for.

Eric Beckman, a mind-reading private investigator, is spending Christmas in snowy Vermont with his wife and daughter. He needs a break from solving cases, but the townspeople convince him to look into the village mystery: Every holiday season, someone switches the baby Jesus with one of the other figures in the town’s nativity scene.

With the help of his ten-year-old daughter, also a mind reader, he soon learns that some of the residents of the small town are not who—or even what—they seem to be. There’s something supernatural going on in Newburn, Vermont.

His investigation causes an escalation of strange happenings, and soon, swapped manger figures are the least of the town’s worries. If Beckman can’t adjust his view of the world—force himself to believe in things he never thought possible—the Christmas vacation could turn out to be his family’s last.

A Mind Reader’s Christmas may be read as a standalone book or as Book Four in the Eric Beckman series.

WHEN YOUR EX ARRESTS YOUR MOM FOR MURDER, YOU…
(A) SET UP A GoFundMe FOR BAIL
(B) BUST HER OUT
(C) INVEST IN A MAGNIFYING GLASS… (ANSWER BELOW)
Missy DeMeanor, voluptuous craft queen extraordinaire, is big and beautiful, disciplined, ambitious, hard-working, resourceful, creative, and – yes, suspected of murder.

Not even a sighting of Missy’s hot ex-boyfriend at the bookstore where she works can deter her from her flea market quest. It’s a perfect September Saturday for garage sale shopping in tiny Grove City, Pennsylvania -- blue skies, seventy-five degrees – and Missy DeMeanor is set on scoring that cabinet she’s had her eye on. Driving a hard bargain is one thing, but now the seller is dead – and the so-handsome investigating office says it’s murder!

Who should the investigating officer turn out to be but Tyler Brock, the boy Missy dated in high school, recently returned to Grove City after a decade in Philadelphia, with an undetermined marital status. And he’s acting like he still has feelings for her – when he’s not asking pointed questions and scribbling in his notebook. Surely Tyler doesn’t think she’s a killer!

But the whole town seems in on family secrets Missy’s just learning that could be a strong motive – secrets about a business deal gone bad between the murdered man and Missy’s own father, and about a violent incident involving her mother, whom even Tyler acknowledges to be “the sweetest woman on earth.” Even worse than being suspected of murder? Missy’s mother being suspected of murder. Things have gotten so out of hand that Missy deduces her friend Noreen, the avid mystery reader, is right: it’s up to Missy to find the killer! And like that: a talented amateur sleuth is born.

Since Missy works in a bookstore, devotees of Carolyn Hart’s Death on Demand series will think they've come home again. Animal lovers will fall for her dog Cody, and fans of women sleuths, especially light, delicious cozies you can read fast, with no cliffhangers, on-the-page violence or graphic scenes will eat this series up. If you like Gina LaManna, Jana DeLeon, Mary Daheim, and Leighann Dobbs, give Missy a try!

EDITOR'S NOTE: In an earlier version of this book, Missy's distress came out in a couple of unseemly expletives. She has since gotten hold of herself; this one is squeaky clean!

“From the forest depths there burst forth the terrible uproar of battle. The deep tones of the cannon marked time to the incessant roll of musketry, which, like the explosion of long strings of fire-crackers, ran along the whole line where the contestants retreated or advanced to the attack…”

Recollections of a Private is a vibrant and exhilarating account of what life was like as an ordinary Union soldier in the Army of the Potomac. Unusually for an account of the Civil War of the mid-1800s, Warren Lee Goss describes with detail life behind-the-scenes in the soldiers’ camps, lending as much detail to these prosaic but intimate scenes as to the violent battle scenes. Grave accounts of skirmishes, campaigns, human losses, injuries are juxtaposed with humorous interjections about the diets of mules – did you know “they eat anything, including canal boats and rubber blankets”? – or snippets of the playful conversations between the young men. These lend this Civil War account an unparalleled sense of honesty. Bursting with vivid, colourful details about life interacting with civilians, both friend and foe, the perils of marching through mud, and the heart-stopping first experiences on the battle-field, Goss’s writing is sure to transport you back in time with his eye-opening, frank-yet-funny recollections.

Albion Press is an imprint of Endeavour Press, the UK's leading independent digital publisher. For more information on our titles please sign up to our newsletter at www.endeavourpress.com. Each week you will receive updates on free and discounted ebooks. Follow us on Twitter: @EndeavourPress and on Facebook via http://on.fb.me/1HweQV7. We are always interested in hearing from our readers. Endeavour Press believes that the future is now.

Handsome, New York City, Beatles-music-obsessed prep school graduate, Colin falls for free spirit and wild child Jasmine from Laguna Beach, California in this teenage love story. Green eyes, high cheekbones, long blond hair. He thinks she is beautiful. Colin find himself madly in love with Jasmine, believes he has met "the one" and experiences all the agony and ecstasy of a first romance. But dating Jasmine turns out be a rollercoaster ride that changes Colin's life forever.

After centuries of religiously motivated war, the world has been split in two. Now the Blessed Lands are ruled by pure faith, while in the Republic, reason is the guiding light-two different realms, kept apart and at peace by a treaty and an ocean.

Children of the Republic, Helena and Jason were inseparable in their youth, until fate sent them down different paths. Grief and duty sidetracked Helena's plans, and Jason came to detest the hollowness of his ambitions.

These two damaged souls are reunited when a tiny boat from the Blessed Lands crashes onto the rocks near Helena's home after an impossible journey across the forbidden ocean. On board is a single passenger, a nine-year-old girl named Kailani, who calls herself The Daughter of the Sea and the Sky. A new and perilous purpose binds Jason and Helena together again, as they vow to protect the lost innocent from the wrath of the authorities, no matter the risk to their future and freedom.

But is the mysterious child simply a troubled little girl longing to return home? Or is she a powerful prophet sent to unravel the fabric of a godless Republic, as the outlaw leader of an illegal religious sect would have them believe? Whatever the answer, it will change them all forever... and perhaps their world as well.

“The book is like a salve.  I think the world feels disordered right now.  The count’s refinement and genteel nature are exactly what we’re longing for.” – Ann Patchett

“How delightful that in an era as crude as ours this finely composed novel stretches out with old-World elegance.” —The Washington Post

He can’t leave his hotel. You won’t want to.

From the New York Times bestselling author of Rules of Civility—a transporting novel about a man who is ordered to spend the rest of his life inside a luxury hotel.

In 1922, Count Alexander Rostov is deemed an unrepentant aristocrat by a Bolshevik tribunal, and is sentenced to house arrest in the Metropol, a grand hotel across the street from the Kremlin. Rostov, an indomitable man of erudition and wit, has never worked a day in his life, and must now live in an attic room while some of the most tumultuous decades in Russian history are unfolding outside the hotel’s doors. Unexpectedly, his reduced circumstances provide him entry into a much larger world of emotional discovery.

Brimming with humor, a glittering cast of characters, and one beautifully rendered scene after another, this singular novel casts a spell as it relates the count’s endeavor to gain a deeper understanding of what it means to be a man of purpose.

“And the intrigue! . . . [A Gentleman in Moscow] is laced with sparkling threads (they will tie up) and tokens (they will matter): special keys, secret compartments, gold coins, vials of coveted liquid, old-fashioned pistols, duels and scars, hidden assignations (discreet and smoky), stolen passports, a ruby necklace, mysterious letters on elegant hotel stationery . . . a luscious stage set, backdrop for a downright Casablanca-like drama.” —The San Francisco Chronicle

Soon to be a major motion picture from Pascal Pictures, starring Tom Holland.

Based on the true story of a forgotten hero, the #1 Amazon Charts bestseller Beneath a Scarlet Sky is the triumphant, epic tale of one young man’s incredible courage and resilience during one of history’s darkest hours.

Pino Lella wants nothing to do with the war or the Nazis. He’s a normal Italian teenager—obsessed with music, food, and girls—but his days of innocence are numbered. When his family home in Milan is destroyed by Allied bombs, Pino joins an underground railroad helping Jews escape over the Alps, and falls for Anna, a beautiful widow six years his senior.

In an attempt to protect him, Pino’s parents force him to enlist as a German soldier—a move they think will keep him out of combat. But after Pino is injured, he is recruited at the tender age of eighteen to become the personal driver for Adolf Hitler’s left hand in Italy, General Hans Leyers, one of the Third Reich’s most mysterious and powerful commanders.

Now, with the opportunity to spy for the Allies inside the German High Command, Pino endures the horrors of the war and the Nazi occupation by fighting in secret, his courage bolstered by his love for Anna and for the life he dreams they will one day share.

Fans of All the Light We Cannot See, The Nightingale, and Unbroken will enjoy this riveting saga of history, suspense, and love.