As a child in a small rural village in Sierra Leone Mariatu Kamara lived peacefully surrounded by family & friends. Rumors of rebel attacks were no more than a distant worry. But when 12-year-old Mariatu set out for a neighboring village she never arrived. Heavily armed rebel soldiers many no older than children themselves attacked & tortured Mariatu. During this brutal act of senseless violence they cut off both her hands. Stumbling through the countryside Mariatu miraculously survived. The sweet taste of a mango her first food after the attack reaffirmed her desire to live but the challenge of clutching the fruit in her bloodied arms reinforced the grim new reality that stood before her. With no parents or living adult to support her & living in a refugee camp she turned to begging in the streets of Freetown. In this gripping & heartbreaking true story Mariatu shares with readers the details of the brutal attack its aftermath & her eventual arrival in Toronto. There she began to pull together the pieces of her broken life with courage astonishing resilience & hope. ...

Rule 1: Never get involved with someone who wont be there for you when the sun comes up. Rule 2: Never kiss a vampire.. .it can be a pain in the neck. Once bitten twice shy
- & sexy PI Jackie Morrisey *so* wasnt going there again with a vampire. Vincent Argeneau might be the hottest guy shed ever met living or dead but shed been hired to stop a killer from turning him into dust not to jump into bed with him. So what if Vincents had four hundred years to perfect his kissing skills & looks incredibly tempting when he runs around the house shirtless. Hes also charming protective.. .and did we mention he can kiss? Jackie needs to be on her guard or else shell have to come up with a new rule: if youre going to fall in love with a vampire make sure its a bite to remember.
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In this landmark series literary"ations legend Fred Metcalf builds on the success of his bestselling series of"ations books for Penguin to produce classic far-ranging volumes of humorous"es on just about every subject you will ever need. This amazing new series is a must-have for every bookshelf. ...

Turned into a vampire against her will Merit found her way into the dark circle of Chicagos vampire underground where she learned there was more to supernaturals than met the eye & more supernaturals than the public ever imagined. & not all the secrets she learned were for sharing
- among humans or inhumans. Now Merit is on the hunt charging across the stark American Midwest tailing a rogue supernatural intent on stealing an ancient artefact that could unleash catastrophic evil on the world. But Merit is also the prey. An enemy of Chicagoland is hunting her & hell stop at nothing to get the book for himself. No mercy allowed. No rules apply. No lives spared. The race is on.
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Ive been fighting it all night. Im going to lose.. . Nature wins out. It always does. Elena Michaels didnt know that her lover Clay was a werewolf until he bit her changing her life forever. Betrayed & furious she cannot accept her transformation & wants nothing to do with her Pack
- a charismatic group of fellow werewolves who say they want to help. When a series of brutal murders threatens the Pack
- & Clay
- Elena is forced to make an impossible choice. Abandon the only people who truly understand her new nature or help them to save the lover who ruined her life & who still wants her back at any cost.


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Now that the threat to the vampires of Morganville has been defeated the gravest danger to the human residents is the enemy within.. . For years the human & vampire residents of Morganville have managed to coexist in peace. But thanks to the eradication of the parasitic creatures known as the draug the vampires of Morganville have now been freed of their usual constraints. With the vampires indulging their every whim the town's human population is determined to hold on to their lives by taking up arms. College student Claire Danvers with ties to both humans & vampires isn't about to take sides. To make matters worse a television show comes to Morganville searching for ghosts just as vampire & human politics collide. Now Claire & her friends have to figure out how to keep the peace without ending up on the nightly news.. .or worse. ...

Laure seventeen beautiful & already abandoned twice in her young life. Once by the glamorous mother she can barely remember a woman who brought shame on the St Lazare family name & fled to America; & then again by a handsome soldier who left her pregnant & alone facing the wrath of her grandmother. Amelie caught in a world where shes neither servant nor mistress trapped between the St Lazare family shes always worked for & the simmering hostility of a country on the verge of meltdown. With a past she knows nothing about & no family of her own she yearns to find a place that can be home. Melanie the rock stars daughter who has everything money can buy except the love she craves. A daddys girl caught in a whirl of damaging relationships testing those closest to her. In one man she sees the chance to change her life for ever but at what price? In a story that begins in the relentless heat of a Haitian summer & sweeps through the luxury of Americas elite to the colourful chaos of East End London BITTER CHOCOLATE is a glorious tale of the quest for love marriage & finding a place to belong. ...

In July 2007 Zimbabwe's worsening economy saw inflation skyrocket to 7 634 per cent deepening the already chronic food shortages in a country where only one in five of the adult population is in employment. Months later on 20 November 2007 Ian Smith the former Prime Minister of Rhodesia died leaving behind him a lifetime of resistance to black majority rule & the dangers that he believed it would bring to his country. Ian Smith was a man with the ability to excite powerful emotions in all who heard his name. To those who still revere his memory he was a hero a mighty leader a man whose formidable integrity led him into head-to-head confrontation with the Labour Government of Britain in the 1960s. To others he was & remains a demon a reactionary whose intransigence long delayed majority rule in an important corner of Africa. The last decades of the twentieth century & the first years of the new millennium have seen Zimbabwe spiral into a chaos of violence & towards the brink of economic collapse prompting many to reappraise Smith's role & the prescience of his actions. In this revealing & important historical document Ian Smith charts the rise & fall of a once-great nation. He tells the remarkable story behind the signing of the Unilateral Declaration of Independence as well as the excesses of power that Mugabe has used to create the virtual dictatorship which exists in Zimbabwe today. ...

This is not a political book but simple a somewhat impressionistic study of the moods & atmospheres of Cyprus during the troubled years 1953-6." So wrote Lawrence Durrell in the preface to Bitter Lemons. Durrell who lived abroad for much of his life brilliantly captures the romance beauty excitement & sadness of the island & the lives of the people of Bellapaix where he bought a house. In a compelling & atmospheric account beautifully suited to the Spoken Word medium Durrell charts affectionately the romances & relationships of the many characters he befriended there. " Bitter Lemons of Cyprus" is both an evocative & memorable picture of village life & a social & historical document of a lost community. Written during the gradual uprising of the Greek Cypriots who wanted union with Greece Durrell observes the people's struggles on an intimate & personal level. Sadly some fifty years later the Cypriot situation remains unresolved. The reader Andrew Sachs is one of Britain's best-loved actors famous for playing the role of Manuel in Fawlty Towers." ...

Consuelo is sixteen heavily pregnant & married to an unemployed gangster. The last thing she needs is a negligent doctor. When she is rushed into the Friendship private hospital the staff are reluctant to treat her. Fortunately she has Vic Warshawski family friend & ex-lawyer with her. But Consuelo & her baby are the tragic victims of a system so corrupt that it pays her husband to keep quiet. Anyone who can discover anything about the unorthodox dealings of the Friendship is in danger. & Vic's investigations are just about to begin.. . ...