Kelsey Waters, a wedding consultant to the stars, doesn’t believe in love or marriage. But that all changes when she catches the bouquet at her cousin’s wedding, and her life takes a magical turn worthy of some romantic fairy tale. Unfortunately, it doesn’t last. To her dismay, her prince charming is already married. To make matters worse, she has to spend the next two weeks working closely with him on his sister’s private wedding. Can Kelsey survive two weeks beside this handsome romantic? Or will she succumb to her inner desires with reckless abandon?

Band of Gold is the exciting story of singer and actress Freda Payne. While she is best known for her 1970 Number One hit "Band of Gold", and her 1971 Grammy nominated album, Contact, her story is an inspiring adventure, lived alongside the "who's who" of the show business world including Duke Ellington, Bob Hope, Frank Sinatra, Sammy Davis Jr., Pearl Bailey, Omar Sharif, Quincy Jones, Liza Minneli, and Sarah Vaughn. Freda's compelling memoir is a celebration of a glamorous life well-lived.

The McCallister family settles in the northern section of the Oregon Territory in the year of 1853. There they settled and, through many tribulations and sacrifices, they came to love this wild and undeveloped country. Author Patricia N. Richards delivers an auspicious fiction debut that is romantic, compelling, and graceful.

"Robert Clive's suicide (1774), Rajah Nandakumar’s hanging (1775), to Ellenborough’s grabbing of the Gwalior throne (1843), and Ram Mohan Roy's embassy on behalf of Akbar II, and his untimely death in England (1833); the Gurkha Wars (1814-16) and the First Afghan War (1838-1842) — started, unnecessarily, in the midst of the ferocious famine of 1837— One ring and one narrative, binds them all together. The stage is set in 19th-century India—a time when racial prejudice is beginning to harden with the support of the law makers. What seems to be an innocent circus performance presentation turns into a real life police arrest and the account of the struggles of an English-Indian boy starts to unfold. Accused of being a thug and of murdering an Englishman, an officer of the East India Company army, Jonathan Lord, aka Gora Mirza, is forced into signing a confession under the Thugee Act of 1836, made a fugitive from British justice, and hunted down and hanged. Gora Mirza’s tragic end is not his alone, but one bound up with several other individuals—a senior officer, two English soldiers, a teenaged Indian widow, a nawab, a rajah and many others. Marcus, a German diarist, records it all. The story—the mystery and the chase; and the spine-chilling end—is in the matrix of the historical events of the time. Does the ring find its rightful owner…? "

Book three in the best-selling Smuggler's Wife series by one of our leading historical novelists. Kitty Farrell, headstrong and passionate as ever, is heartbroken over the apparent death by drowning of her husband Rian. Alone and grieving on the goldfields of Ballarat she turns to Rian's long-time shipmate Daniel, who has loved her from afar for many years. The consequences will be disastrous and challenge every character in this brilliant third instalment in Deborah Challinor's extraordinary Smuggler's Wife series. Vividly drawn, meticulously researched and driven by a powerful page-turning narrative, Band of Gold will resonate in the hearts of readers for a long time. 'Challinor is extraordinarily talented.' - New Zealand Books

In The Shape of Inca History, Susan Niles considers the ways in which the Inca concept of history informed their narratives, rituals, and architecture. Using sixteenth-century chronicles of Inca culture, legal documents from the first generation of conquest, and field investigation of architectural remains, she strategically explores the interplay of oral and written histories with the architectural record and provides a new and exciting understanding of the lives of the royal families on the eve of conquest.Niles focuses on the life of Huayna Capac, the Inca king who ruled at the time of the first European incursions on the Andean coast. Because he died just a few years before the Spaniards overturned the Inca world, eyewitness accounts of his deeds as recorded by the invaders can be used to separate fact from propaganda. The rich documentary sources telling of his life include extraordinarily detailed legal records that inventory lands on his estate in the Yucay Valley. These sources provide a basis—unique in the Andes—for reconstructing the social and physical plan of the estate and for dating its construction exactly.Huayna Capac's country palace shows a design different from that devised by his ancestors. Niles argues that the radical stylistic and technical innovations documented in the buildings themselves can be understood by referring to the turbulent political atmosphere prevalent at the time of his accession. Illustrated with numerous photographs and reconstruction drawings, The Shape of Inca History breaks new ground by proposing that Inca royal style was dynamic and that the design of an Inca building can best be interpreted by its historical context. In this way it is possible to recreate the development of Inca architectural style over time.

When Beth Bernstein’s mother unexpectedly passed away, Beth’s life was forever changed, as she knew that she’d lost not only her best friend, but also a big part of herself. In this heartwarming and moving memoir, Beth learns how to link together the platinum memories of the jewelry handed down to her by the woman who taught her how to love, overcome obstacles, and (most important) accessorize. As a young girl, Beth learned that not all engagements came with a ring. The unconventional engagement watch Beth’s father gave her mother, her mom’s postdivorce transformation from wearing Jackie O pearls to donning love beads--each piece of jewelry represents an intimate memory, a reminder to rise above life’s challenges and enjoy its triumphs. And there are also Beth’s own experiences with rocky romances, of the too many engagement rings she fell in love with and the too few men who could commit. She tells the story of these relationships with sparkles of hilarity and glimmers of hope, conjuring up lost keepsakes and fiery moments--until she realizes that the brightest gems are the ones you give yourself, and finds freedom she never thought possible.

Do you want to be in a band? Well, here's how! First, bug your two older sisters to start a band, and then beg them to join. (It helps if they already know how to sing and play guitar.) Then there are some tricky parts, like getting over STAGEFRIGHT and practicing until the tips of your fingers ache and playing gigs at not-so-big-time music clubs. At least, that's the way our little sister narrator explains it in her "guide" on how to start a band, based on the real-life experiences of author Suzzy Roche.