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Blue Dress Girl
by E. V. ThompsonWhen She-she is sent as a concubine to the household of Li Hung, chief customs official for the busy port of Canton, her parents impress upon her the honour of her position. But the reality proves to be far from honourable. For She-she finds she is to be a blue dress girl, little better than a prostitute, whose task is to pleasure visiting foreign traders. Ashamed and terrified, She-she finds life tolerable only because of her friendship with the lively Kau-lin. It is not long before her first "foreign devil", an English trader, comes to call; but she is spared the ultimate disgrace when he dies unexpectedly in her room. With Britain and China already virtually at war, the suspicious death of an Englishman provokes further hostility, and Li Hung sends the blue dress girls along the coast to the north to avoid incriminating himself. It is to prove a fateful journey. When their boat is caught in crossfire, She-she is badly injured. To her rescue comes Second Lieutenant Kernow Keats of the Royal Marines. Instantly moved by her fragile beauty, the young man takes her and Kau-lin to Hong Kong, to the home of missionaries Hugh and Hannah Jefferies, where she can regain her strength. Kernow's aptitude for languages makes him a natural choice to become an interpreter on Admiral Seymour's staff, and although he does not wish to desert active combat, he welcomes the chance to spend more time in the company of the pretty girl Fate has thrown in his path. On She-she's side, gratitude soon turns to love for the handsome hero. But a love affair between a Chinese peasant girl and an English officer seems unthinkable in 1857. And as the Taiping rebellion gets underway, Kernow is torn from She-she's side to do his patriotic duty. Can their great love cross the chasm of race, class and background that divides them? E. V. Thompson's new novel is a masterpiece of storytelling. At once a stirring tale of adventure and a moving and tender love story, it is played out against the exotic background of China at one of the most turbulent periods in its history.
The Blue Lagoon
by H. de Vere StacpooleThe Blue Lagoon is the story of two cousins, Dicky and Emmeline Lestrange, stranded on a remote island with a beautiful lagoon. As children, they are cared for by Paddy Button, a portly sailor who drinks himself to death after only two and a half years in paradise. Frightened and confused by the man's gruesome corpse, the children flee to another part of Palm Tree Island. Over a period of five years, they grow up and eventually fall in love. Sex and birth are as mysterious to them as death, but they manage to copulate instinctively and conceive a child. The birth is especially remarkable: fifteen-year-old Emmeline, alone in the jungle, loses consciousness and awakes to find a baby boy on the ground near her. Naming the boy Hannah (an example of Stacpoole's penchant for gender reversals), the Lestranges live in familial bliss until they are unexpectedly expelled from their tropical Eden.
The Good Marriage: How and Why Love Lasts
by Judith S. WallersteinIn this ground breaking study, Walerstein gives valuable insights into the factors which make for a happy and lasting marriage. Whether traditional, convenient, romantic or rescue marriage is involved, she identifies several psychological tasks which must be coped with successfully for the marriage to succeed. She points out the special pitfalls which face the couples involved in each type of marriage she has identified, and also identifies common themes or patterns which are present in all the happy marriages. Based on a study sample of 50 couples, almost all of whom are white and middle class, the book is not and does not claim to be an all-encompassing definitive study of what makes a good or happy marriage. But with most of the published work concentrating on disfunctional and problem marriages and divorce, this book is a ray of sunshine and hope in a generally bleak landscape.
Forever in My Heart
by Jo GoodmanAward-winning author Jo Goodman knows what her readers want after 12 Zebra titles with over 2 million copies in print. In her new historical romance, set in 1880's Colorado, an arranged marriage reunites a rancher and a past love, but the heiress bride remembers nothing of the encounter.
A Forbidden Loving
by Penny JordanMatchmaking mischief. Hazel had imagined her daughter's new 'boyfriend' to be just that -a boy. Instead, Silas Jardine was nearer her own age than Katie's. He was all man- the first for a long time to make Hazel feel like a real woman, with a real woman's needs.
The Man Who Loved Christmas
by Kathryn ShayThey're the men and women who risk their lives to save others.
Mexican Standoff (McMasters #5)
by Lee MorganDown near the Rio Grande, Captain Boyd McMasters of the Cattleman's Protective Association is on the trail of a bunch of moonlight rustlers. Word is, the boss of the robbers is a powerful honcho across the border. Folks say this midnight cowboy has some mean hombres in his employ. But McMasters has the big .70 working for him.