Kirjahaku

The classic novel of love and family in the nineteenth century has grown some fangs! An uproarious retelling of Little Women that will leave readers craving the bloodthirsty drama on every page.

Hattie Cross knows what you're thinking: Zombie sex? Ewwwww. But she also knows that since a virus turned 99.9999 percent of human males into zombies, it's statistically impossible to meet--let alone date--the remaining 0.00001 percent. So she writes "The Girls' Guide to Dating Zombies" to help her fellow single women navigate the zombie-relationship waters.Her practical how-to impresses the CEO of the largest drug company in the world, and before she knows it, Hattie, a reporter for a downmarket tabloid that specializes in conspiracy theories, is sitting down with the woman who single-handedly invented the zombie-behavioral-modification market. Granted access to the inner sanctum of zombaceuticals, she meets an actual, living, breathing M-A-N.Now Hattie, the consummate professional, is acting like a single girl at the end of the twentieth century: self-conscious, klutzy and unable to form a coherent sentence without babbling. Worst of all, the human male appears to have impaired her ability to think clearly. Because all of a sudden she's convinced a conspiracy is afoot at the drug company and it seems to go all the way to the top

Lights Cameras Inaction New York writer Ricki Carstone knows it's extremely unlikely a movie of her debut novel, Jarndyce and Jarndyce, will actually get made-the odds are like one in a hundred or something-but Moxie Bernard (hello most famous teen on the planet ) has signed on to star. Plus, the producer is throwing her a super fabulous party in Hollywood (with Moxie ) to celebrate the relaunch of her book with a younger, sexier cover. Clearly, this is one movie option that's going to make it all the way to the movie theater.Ricky is so confident, she quits her dead-end paralegaling job and moves out to Los Angeles to keep an eye on the project. There, with the encouragement of Harry Skimpole, a handsome out-of-work actor who knows all the ins, outs, overs and arounds of moviemaking, she decides to try her hand at screenwriting. Churning out a script seems so much easier than a full-length novel. Thankfully, experienced screenwriter John Vholes is willing to teach her the ropes-for a small fee, of course. (Well, the fee starts small.)A fish out of water, Ricki quickly adapts to the strange and puzzling ways of the entertainment industry. Or does she? Her cute neighbor Simon seems to think her new friends are taking advantage of her. But what does he know? He's a bitter ex-screenwriter who never got a single movie produced, and she's about to see her name in lights any day now. Or month. Or year.Bleak-a smart and funny update of Charles Dickens's classic Bleak House-is for anyone who's ever held on to a dream just a little too long.

Miss Emma Harlow hasn't earned the reputation as a hoyden for nothing. So when the Duke of Trent discovers her in his conservatory stealing one of his orchids, he's isn't surprised-charmed, delighted and puzzled, yes, but not surprised. It is Emma who is amazed. She has naturally concluded that the man reading in the conservatory must be the country cousin (who else in London would actually read?) and is quite vexed to discover that he is the Duke of Trent himself-imagine, stealing the duke's prize Rhyncholaelia digbyana under his very nose But her vexation doesn't last long. For Emma is a practical young lady with a mission: to end her dear sister Lavinia's engagement to the villainous (and dreadfully dull ) Sir Waldo Windbourne, and she thinks that the famous libertine is just the man for the job.If he would only seduce her sister away from Sir Waldo... Well, not seduce exactly, but flirt mercilessly and engage her interest. Perhaps then Lavinia would jilt the baron. The Duke of Trent is resistant, of course. Despite his reputation, he does not toy with the affections of innocents.And besides, it's not her sister he longs to seduce.

A woman in the British Horticultural Society The very idea horrifies everyone, including ardent horticulturalist Lavinia Harlow, whose own name has been put forth for membership by the provoking Marquess of Huntly. He does it as a joke, of course, to get back at her for an imagined slight-well, to be fair, she had insulted his writing-and Vinnie, older sister to the infamous Harlow Hoyden, is far too sensible to rise to his ridiculous challenge.Determined to head off further scandal (her name has already been recorded in the betting book at Brooks's ), Vinnie dashes off a polite note refusing the honor-which she has every intention of sending. Really. Only she can't help but chafe at the way everyone keeps demanding that she decline at once, even the marquess. Oh, especially the marquess, whose perfection she finds intolerable. Who ever heard of a gentleman being so handsome and so intelligent and so well informed about foreign flora? Clearly, the man needs to be taken down a peg, and somehow, despite all twenty-four years of faultless propriety, Vinnie is just the hoyden to do it.

Twenty-four-year-old Catherine Fellingham keeps a low profile-in society and in her family. A practical young woman, she leaves the spotlight to her beautiful younger sister and prefers quiet pursuits such as reading. But all that changes the moment she learns of her mother's very excellent scheme to keep the family out of debtors' prison. The scatter-brained Lady Fellingham has been selling commissions in the king's army, and Catherine must shake off her indifference in order to save her family from a potentially ruinous scandal. Lady Courtland, her mother's partner-in-crime, readily agrees to abandon the plan but only because she finds a more absorbing project: nabbing a husband for Catherine. Catherine pays no head to her ladyship's lavish claim that she'll have her engaged by the end of the season, but that's before she overhears Arabella instructing the handsome nonpareil, the Marquess of Deverill, to flirt outrageously with her and bring her into fashion. Mortified, Catherine resolves not to be taken in by the charming marquess's cruel game-and even implements a very excellent scheme of her own. This sensible young lady seems to have everything well in hand. Or is she about to learn that her heart is a great deal less practical than her head?

Earning the nickname Lady Agony was no minor achievement for Lady Agatha Bolingbroke.It required a great deal of effort to make herself so disagreeable, but she did it for a good cause: The fewer invitations she receives, the more time she has to paint. Her mother, refusing to accept an unpopular daughter-or, worse, a talented one-insists on dragging her to every event of the season.To thwart her parents and to vent her frustration, Agatha creates a wicked alter ego: a caricaturist whose mocking illustrations take ruthless aim at the ridiculousness of the ton. Her most recent target is Viscount Addleson, whom she dubs Viscount Addlewit for his handsome but empty head. Then one of Agatha's drawings goes too far and a villain threatens to reveal her true identity if she doesn't comply with his demands.Now she has an impossible choice-ruin herself or an innocent young lady-and to her utter amazement the only person who can help her is Lord Addlewit, whose handsome head, upon closer inspection, isn't empty at all and whose eyes are full of mischief.Suddenly, she finds it very difficult to be disagreeable to him.

A PATENT FOR PASSIONNo, no, no It doesn't matter how many times the Duchess of Trent (The Harlow Hoyden) requests her help with a delicate matter regarding a patent for her sister's invention, Tuppence Templeton will not lend a hand. She has a habit, yes, of coming up with ingenious plans to solve other people's problems, and it is true that she's clever and daring enough to pull off the proposed scheme.But there's no way she's going to confront the arrogant and dismissive Earl of Gage again. She is still shaken-or is it stirred?-from their last encounter when, rather than thank her for saving his sister from ruin, he railed against her for having the temerity to interfere in his family's business. And yet somehow when the opportunity arises, she finds herself unable to resist issuing the challenge.Nicholas Perceval, Earl of Gage, cannot believe it when the impertinent upstart who exposed his sister to disaster maneuvers him into escorting her to the Bill Patent Office. What a perfectly ridiculous request And then to discover that she manipulated him while they were there so that she could "find" a missing application-he has never been so angry in his entire life. And it's not because he'd unexpectedly enjoyed her charming and irreverent company. No, that has nothing to do with it at all.Although perhaps maybe a little...

Verity Lark knows everything.As the London Daily Gazette's popular gossip columnist, she is extremely adept at sneaking into houses, assuming disguises and overseeing a vast network of spies to ensure she stays abreast of the beau monde's comings and goings. If it sometimes seems as though she was hiding behind the settee during a particularly fierce quarrel between a husband and his wife, it's most likely because she was hiding behind the settee during their fierce quarrel.But nobody knows her.Writing under a pen name, Verity safeguards her anonymity via an elaborately constructed alter ego. Seemingly everywhere, Mr. Twaddle-Thum is in fact nowhere. He has never met with an informant or skulked in a dark alley. He simply does not exist. That is why she is so startled to discover he has recently been spotted at a variety of locations. A Twaddle-Sham is knocking about London and in such a ham-handed manner he is inciting people to murder.At least that's what Verity thinks is happening when she stumbles across a plot to kill him.Or her.Who is the real target?Well, see, that's just the problem because Verity can't actually say.For the first time in years, she isn't sure of anything.

Verity Lark, Unraveling Deception.Verity Lark - England's most tenacious gossip, the London Daily Gazette's most dogged reporter - relishes a challenge, which is why she refuses Colson Hardwicke's offer of menial employment. If the infuriating scoundrel really needs the sister of a radical reformer to be distracted with girlish chitchat, he can bloody well erupt into giggles She has more important things to do - figuring out why Hardwicke is interested in the radical reformer. During her previous run-in with him, he had shown himself to be the superior tactician, and she is determined to even the score. Proving that the radical reformer is an escaped fugitive is one way. Saving the country from a Luddite insurrection is another.But when Verity stumbles across a dead man in a rundown boarding house, the competition suddenly stops being a game. There is more going on than she had ever imagined, and as she struggles to untangle Hardwicke's web of machinations, she is forced to wonder if she has been a pawn all along.Welcome to the second installment of the Verity Lark Mysteries, where secrets run deep, and every move could be her last.

Nothing ruins a lovely house party like bloody murder.At the decrepit old age of six-and-twenty, Miss Beatrice Hyde-Clare has virtually no hope of landing a husband. An orphan living off her relatives' charity, her job is to sit with her needlework and to keep her thoughts to herself.When Bea receives an invitation to an elegant country party, she intends to do just that. Not even the presence of the aggravatingly handsome Duke of Kesgrave could lead this young lady to scandal. True, she might wish to pour her bowl of turtle soup on his aristocratic head - however, she would never actually do it. But a lady can fantasize.But, when she stumbles upon the dead body of another houseguest, all Bea's good intentions fly out the well-appointed window. Although the magistrate declares it a suicide, she knows better.Time for some very unladylike behavior.

As much as Beatrice Hyde-Clare relished the challenge of figuring out who murdered a fellow guest during a house party in the Lake District, she certainly does not consider herself an amateur investigator.So when a London dandy falls dead at her feet in the entryway of a London Daily Gazette, she feels no compulsion to investigate. It was a newspaper office, after all, and reporters are already on the case as are the authorities. She has her own problems to deal with anyway-such as extricating herself from a seemingly harmless little fib that has somehow grown in into a ridiculously large fiction.Truly, she has no interest at all. Except the dagger that killed the poor earl seemed disconcertingly familiar...And so Bea is off to the British Museum because she cannot rest until she confirms her suspicion, while trying to allay her family's concerns and comprehend the Duke of Kesgrave's compulsion.For the handsome lord has no reason to waste his time solving a mystery alongside a shy spinster. And yet he turns up everywhere she goes.

Having solved the two murders that somehow fell in her path, Beatrice Hyde-Clare is on the lookout for a third. Through an absurd quirk of stupid fate, the shy spinster has fallen in love with the thoroughly unattainable Duke of Kesgrave and is desperate for something, anything, to occupy her mind. A dead body would do nicely.Fortunately for her, a fellow guest from a Lake District house party appears on her doorstep with exactly that: the lover of his fianc e's mother expired after a wretchedly painful episode just that morning in an apparent poisoning.As unorthodox as it is, he would like Bea to investigate rather than calling the authorities. Bea begins her inquiry into Mr. Wilson's death at once and almost immediately finds herself in the company of Kesgrave, who is as determined as ever to assist her.'Twas patently unfair, for the whole point of the investigation was to get away from the handsome lord. Now Bea is faced with the daunting challenge of exposing the villain without revealing her heart.

Having long abandoned any hope of making a match, twenty-six-year-old Beatrice Hyde-Clare finds herself a little overwhelmed by her engagement to the Duke of Kesgrave.Cloying society matrons clamor for her attention while her aunt reels off an endless list of servants she will have to oversee. Even the most intrepid female would quake at the prospect of managing eight footmen Fortunately, Bea knows the perfect distraction-an intriguing mystery-and pays a call on the Countess of Abercrombie, who had promised her that very thing only the evening before.But her ladyship is reluctant to discuss the details with a newly minted duchess-to-be, and it dawns on Bea that the investigation cuts closer to home than she could have ever imagined. Because this time the murder victims are her own mother and father, who had died twenty years before in a seemingly straightforward boating accident.Alas, nothing is straightforward, and as Bea digs into her past, she discovers with growing horror that she has no more idea how to be a daughter than she does a duchess.

Having inexplicably nabbed the Duke of Kesgrave, twenty-six-year-old spinster Beatrice Hyde-Clare is determined to marry him at once.And no amount of handwringing from anxious family members, worried friends and well-meaning acquaintances will convince her to delay. Except...maybe she is a littleswayed by her uncle's efforts to make amends for treating her with cold indifference during her childhood. While her aunt's concern about the growing scandal around her unfortunate habit of unmasking murderers in the middle of society events isn't entirely unfounded.Then there's the truly unfathomable appearance on her doorstep of the former Miss Brougham, the spiteful heiress whose cruel taunts derailed Bea's social career. Remarkably, the society matron has a mystery to solve and knows Bea is the only person who can help her. A dead grandfather, a missing jewel, a cryptic letter, an opportunity to condescend to her archnemesis-the case seems simple enough.And yet somehow it all goes terribly, horribly wrong.

The former Beatrice Hyde-Clare is having a little trouble adjusting to her new situation. Now installed as the Duchess of Kesgrave in elegant splendor in Berkeley Square, she is confounded by the stately residence's seemingly endless array of rooms and every time one of the maids addresses her as "your grace," she flinches. And the butler Oh, yes, that imposing servant holds her in utter contempt and has no qualms about sharing his opinion with the rest of the staff. It's all so wretched. But just as Bea begins to despair-a bright spot.A neighboring house has suffered a ghastly tragedy, and although the constable deems it an inadvertent decapitation, she can't believe anyone could be so careless as to accidentally lose his head. Determined to discover the truth, the new duchess pays her first social call.Because even if she can't find her way around her palatial home, she certainly knows her way around a murder.

Finally, Flora Hyde-Clare has wrest the narrative from Beatrice by finding her own compelling murder mystery to solve.Well, it's not entirely her own because the victim is her cousin's former beau, Mr. Theodore Davies, whose father cruelly separated the young lovers (though not socruelly, for it left the door open for Bea to woo the Duke of Kesgrave). Bea insists, of course, that the law clerk's death was merely an accident.If only he had not been in the path of that wretched carriage Oh, but Flora knows that evasive look on her cousin's face.Bea is hiding something. Clearly, Davies had gotten himself entangled in some nefarious business, and Flora is determined to discover the truth despite the danger it puts her in.Or is that because it puts her in danger? After all, any heroine worth her salt must be willing to take on a great deal of personal risk. And Flora has her mind set on being a heroine of the highest order.

Since the new Duchess of Kesgrave cannot be swayed from her unfortunate interest in dead bodies, Lady Abercrombie decides to confront the matter head-on by hosting a murder mystery dinner party.Gathering together several of society's most influential members, she concocts an amusing puzzle-play, assigns roles, and stands back to allow Bea to impress them all with her ingenuity.The former spinster will be the height of fashion in no time. Huzzah No, she won't, Bea thinks. Her status has increased with her marriage, yes, but so have the insecurities that bedeviled her first season. Far from charming everyone with her wit, she will appall them with her inability to form coherent or interesting sentences.'Tis a three-act tragedy in the making.But then one of the guests is killed in the same manner as her ladyship's victim and the evening turns genuinely tragic. Horrified, the august company scurry for the exits, and Bea, determined to detain all her lovely suspects, throws herself bodily against the door.Intimidated or not, she will identify the murderer-even if it guarantees her social ruin.

Despite suffering a few initial setbacks, the former Beatrice Hyde-Clare has settled into her new position nicely. Thanks to Lady Abercrombie's machinations, she has secured the admiration of society and finally earned the respect of her staff. Even the lessons in defending herself, which her husband, the Duke of Kesgrave, insists she take if she wants to continue in her dangerous avocation, are going well. Save for the dreaded pineapple chunks chef Andr insists on putting in her beloved rout cakes, everything is perfect.But then she learns from a most unlikely source that Kesgrave's malevolent uncle is scheming to destroy her happiness. Determinedly, she resolves to meet the threat head on-a plan that immediately goes awry when the duke asks her to allow him to handle the matter.Stand idly by while dark forces muster?Well, no, Bea can't possibly do that-especially not when the villainous relation winds up bludgeoned to death with a candlestick.