Whats your name? Where were you born? What is your date of birth? Simple questions that we are asked throughout our life
- but
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Bea thinks shes the most boring seventeen-year-old in the world. Shes not pretty or popular or funny unlike her mother who had Bea when she was 17. The only glamorous thing about Bea is the French father who left before she was born & lives in Paris. She yearns for la vie Parisienne every moment of her dull existence. So when Ruby Davies the leader of her schools most elite clique picks Bea as her new best friend & asks her to go on holiday with them shes wary but delighted. If nothing else its two weeks away from her over-protective mother. But when the gang arrive in Spain Bea is crushed to realise that Ruby & her posse have simply been using her. Bea wreaks vengeance on her so-called friends & plans to decamp to Paris to find her father. But when she falls asleep on the train & wakes up in Bilbao she meets a group of American students who are backpacking around Europe & bonds with them straight away especially the gorgeous Toph who helps heals Beas hurting heart. Though Bea has a shock in store when they finally get to Paris. The City of Lovers really works it magic on Bea & Toph who spend a week wandering the sun-dappled streets of Paris talking holding hands & falling in love. When it comes time to go home to confront her Mum about her mysterious father the new version of Bea is determined that shell never go back to her old boring way of life
- shes no longer Nobodys Girl; she belongs to herself & to Toph... But with an ocean between them will he wait for her?
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When Laura Page returns to the remote Holderness village of Welwick it is to try & discover the mystery of her mother Susannah's early life. Now a prosperous businesswoman in Hull Susannah never speaks of her childhood when she was brought up with the terrible stigma of bastardy
- of being nobody's child. Susannah's own mother Mary-Ellen born into poverty & living in a labourer's cottage had the misfortune to fall in love with a local landowner's son. She was his one & only great love but was unable to acknowledge their child & had to watch her growing up in hardship. As the years passed & Laura began to be curious about her mother's past so too did she become aware of the mystery about her own father.
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Lizzie Miller worries about her beautiful eldest daughter. A mother shouldn't have favourites but Ruby wins a special place in Lizzie's heart. Money is short in their little house in Blackburn & Ruby yearns to give her beloved family a better life. Determined to enjoy the security only wealth can bring she stifles her feelings for handsome Johnny Ackroyd. Ruby knows he cannot offer her the life she craves. She works as a maid for Mr Banks & his daughter Cicely. The two girls hatch a mischievous plan to introduce Ruby to society at a party for the 'gentry' of Blackburn where Ruby meets Luke Arnold the dissolute heir to his father's fortunes. Seeing Ruby's dark beauty he determines to despoil her innocence. When Luke slyly turns his charm on Cicely Ruby feels compelled to warn her friend of his evil nature. Ruby quickly finds employment in a milliner's shop & eventually takes over the business. But her worldly success still leaves an emptiness that riches cannot fill & Ruby learns at last that the love of family & friends is beyond price... ...

Abandoned & alone you'll do anything to survive! A gritty saga from the bestselling author Kitty Neale. Abandoned on the cold stone steps of an orphanage only a few hours old & clutching the object which was to give her name Pearl Button had a hard start to life. Now 16 years old she's finally managed to escape the cruel confines of the orphanage & enter the real world. Finding work at a nearby cafe Pearl is thrilled to start earning her own money even if she must contend with sharp-tongued Dolly Dolby. But soon she becomes tangled up in the murky South London underworld in which Dolly's son -- the cruel but handsome Kevin -- operates. By chance she sees something she shouldn't something dangerous & her life is thrown into jeopardy. Can gentle giant Derek Lewis protect vulnerable Pearl from Kevin -- & her own heart? Meanwhile a local boy is snatched terrifying this close-knit community & at the orphanage where Pearl lived out her wretched childhood the past is coming back to haunt its owner -- & the secret she has promised to guard for so many years! ...

Nobu Matsuhisa still stands above all the other great world-class chefs in being the only one who is truly celebrated internationally. His ever-expanding empire of fabulously fashionable restaurants in the USA UK Italy & Japan now numbers thirteen & they still remain very much THE places to eat & to be seen in each of those cities. In Nobu Now he gives readers an exhilarating taste of how his repertoire has developed constantly expanded by his travels & experience as well as the rich cross-fertilization with cuisines of the nations in which his empire now operates. For the first time Nobu ventures beyond his favourite seafood into meat & poultry dishes applying his usual principles & using his signature sauces as in his Kobe Beef with Anticucho sauce & Foie Gras with Miso. For the vegetarian there are treats like Tomato & Vegetable Ceviche Watercress & White Asparagus Salad with Watercress Dressing & Avocado Egg Pudding while the desserts section really underscores the breadth & diversity of his repertoire. The art of using very simple techniques to bring out the latent flavours in the very best of ingredients is still at the heart of Nobu's cooking. In Nobu Now he amply demonstrates the essence of Japanese cuisine & quite how far this tenet can be applied. The result is the food that his legions of admirers all over the world absolutely adore
- light modern clean & fresh.
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Great for boys with a huge collectability factor bolstered by the cards in the back of the books & links to an excellent interactive website. Tom thinks he has defeated his enemy Evil Wizard Malvel. But he is wrong! Malvel lives & he intends to bring doom to Avantia by creating six deadly Beasts. Tom must first face Noctila the Death Owl! ...

The brilliant new thriller from the New York Times bestselling author of INFECTED & CONTAGIOUS. For centuries their race has lived beneath the earth emerging only at night to feed quietly on the dregs of society & slip back into the shadows. But now their time has come
- their time to rise up from their hiding places & take back what is theirs. San Francisco homicide detective Bryan Klauser is supposed to be hunting a serial killer. But a serial killer couldn't be responsible for the seemingly impossible DNA evidence the crime-scene techs keep finding
- or for the gory strangely prophetic dreams Bryan keeps having. & what about the connections he keeps finding to a century-old cult
- & his superiors' sudden reluctance to give him the answers he needs about cases that should be dead & buried? Ultimately Klauser's investigations will reveal a race of killers who've long lurked beneath San Francisco's streets
- & are preparing to take back the city. Klauser is the only man who can stop them because.. .he might not be a man at all.



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For many of us the moon & the chill light it casts are things we either ignore or take for granted. It wouldnt enter our heads therefore to set off around the world in search of moonlight. But as James Attlees eccentric quest proves we couldnt be more wrong. From Normandy to Naples Wales to Arizona Las Vegas to Japan Attlee explores moonlights many moods & meanings. Taking in the ancient & modern art & literature science & music Nocturne" travels far & deep to provide a portrait of an enigmatic light increasingly endangered in our over-illuminated world." ...

In this latest collection of poems Hill invokes people & place mythologizing & demythologizing city lives as they are led. From poignant vignettes & celebrations to urban-pastoral & elegy these poems extend Hills romance with Londons psychic & surreal fabric. Selected as a Next Generation poet Hill continues to delight us with sensuous observation & imaginative embrace. ...