One a Sicilian Hell's Kitchen gang leader, the other a sickly but brilliant Orthodox Jewish boy who lives next door, Vinny Vesta and Sidney Butcher meet on a fire escape during the blistering New York City summer of 1950. Their friendship develops over the course of a summer that will change Vinny's fortunes forever, at a cost he could never have imagined. Based on a true story, Mafia Summer brilliantly captures a pivotal moment in Mafia history and in the lives of the teenagers caught up by the Mob. "Influenced more by Billy Bathgate than by The Godfather...Sweet, affectionate, and bloody: a glance backward to a well-spent youth."-Kirkus Reviews "E. Duke Vincent hits the target dead center with this first novel set on the bloody streets of Hell's Kitchen. A mini-epic, complete with a full-scale crime war, Mafia Summer remains a detailed tale of friendship and of the best kind of loyalty. A masterful performance."-Lorenzo Carcaterra, author of Sleepers and Paradise City "One of the best books on the mafia I have ever read. Right up there with The Godfather."-New York Times bestselling author Jack Higgins

17-year-old Mushky Mendelssohn has big plans for the summer before her senior year of high school: study for the SATs, pad her college résumé with an extra English literature class, and visit her BGF (Best Guy Friend) Matthew Berkowitz out in sunny California. But when Barrie, Mushky's boy-crazy ABFF (Almost Best Friend Forever) from home, talks her into taking a job as a counselor at Camp Kippewanscot, a reform Jewish sleep-away summer camp in the Poconos with an optional kosher meal plan and cups of watered-down Manischewitz - "We're practically guaranteed to meet a hot Jewish guy," Barrie tells her - Mushky reluctantly agrees. When at the last second Barrie decides to bail and spend the summer with her newly divorced dad at a beach resort in Thailand, Mushky finds herself going to camp alone. Stuck in the middle of mosquito-infested rural Pennsylvania, at a camp where she knows absolutely no one, Mushky searches fruitlessly for the hot Jewish guy that Barrie promised. Which is when she meets Devin McGillicudy, aka "Dev," a fellow counselor who's hot, blonde, and 20-years-old. And definitely not Jewish.

The summer of 1992 had been exceptionally cold in southern Italy. But that’s not the reason why it is still remembered. On May 23, 1992, a roadside explosion killed the Palermo judge Giovanni Falcone, his wife and three police officers. A few weeks later judge Paolo Borsellino and five police officers were killed in the center of Palermo. These anti-mafia judges became heroes but the violence spread to the region of Bari in Puglia, where we meet a new, memorable character, Maresciallo Pietro Fenoglio, an officer of the Italian Carabinieri. Fenoglio, recently abandoned by his wife, must simultaneously deal with his personal crisis and the new gang wars raging around Bari. The police are stymied until a gang member, accused of killing a child, decides to collaborate, revealing the inner workings and the rules governing organised crime in the area. The story is narrated through the actual testimony of the informant, a trope reminiscent of verbatim theatre which Carofiglio, an ex-anti-mafia judge himself, uses to great effect. The gangs are stopped but the mystery of the boy’s murder must still be solved, leading Fenoglio into a world of deep moral ambiguity, where the prosecutors are hard to distinguish from the prosecuted.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER “At villa Donnafugata, long ago is never very far away,” writes bestselling author Marlena de Blasi of the magnificent if somewhat ruined castle in the mountains of Sicily that she finds, accidentally, one summer while traveling with her husband, Fernando. There de Blasi is befriended by Tosca, the patroness of the villa, an elegant and beautiful woman-of-a-certain-age who recounts her lifelong love story with the last prince of Sicily descended from the French nobles of Anjou. Sicily is a land of contrasts: grandeur and poverty, beauty and sufferance, illusion and candor. In a luminous and tantalizing voice, That Summer in Sicily re-creates Tosca’s life, from her impoverished childhood to her fairy-tale adoption and initiation into the glittering life of the prince’s palace, to the dawning and recognition of mutual love. But when Prince Leo attempts to better the lives of his peasants, his defiance of the local Mafia’s grim will to maintain the historical imbalance between the haves and the have-nots costs him dearly. The present-day narrative finds Tosca sharing her considerable inherited wealth with a harmonious society composed of many of the women–now widowed–who once worked the prince’s land alongside their husbands. How the Sicilian widows go about their tasks, care for one another, and celebrate the rituals of a humble, well-lived life is the heart of this book. Showcasing the same writerly gifts that made bestsellers of A Thousand Days in Venice and A Thousand Days in Tuscany, That Summer in Sicily, and de Blasi’ s marvelous storytelling, remind us that in order to live a rich life, one must embrace both life’s sorrow and its beauty. Here is an epic drama that takes readers from Sicily’s remote mountains to chaotic post-war Palermo, from the intricacies of forbidden love to the havoc wreaked by Sicily’s eternally bewildering culture.

Imagine spending a carefree summer in the Italian sun, beachcombing, eating and drinking with abandon, drifting without restraint from island to island, from port to port. Summer in the Islands is the record of Matthew Fort doing just that in his third Italian voyage on a Vespa – first down the length of Italy in Eating Up Italy, then around Sicily in Sweet Honey, Bitter Lemons, and now hopping between the Aeolian Islands, something he hadn’t done since his early 20s. Traveling by Vespa and by ferry, Fort tours the islands at his leisure. He takes us to Elba, where Napoleon was once imprisoned; to Salina, famous for its capers, just as Pantelleria is famous for its dessert wine; to Pianosa, where dangerous Mafia bosses were kept and which Joseph Heller used as the setting for Catch-22; to Capri, where Maxim Gorky ran a school for revolutionaries which was visited by Lenin and Stalin... ...to all of Italy’s 52 islands which he has never written about before. With 30 years of experience as a food critic, travel writer and adventurer, Fort is an excellent guide through the culinary and cultural history he encounters during his summer in the islands.

Indulge in this sexy mafia romance series by USA Today Bestselling steamy contemporary billionaire romance author Summer Cooper. His life for hers. Who would want to harm a Mafia boss’s wife? A lot of people… but who would dare? When the sexy mafia married Marie, he thought all of her suffering would be over. He thought that would protect her. He thought he could protect her. But the mafia man was wrong. Maybe someone hates her that much, they want her dead? Or maybe someone’s trying to kill her to get to him? Either way, he’s going to get to the bottom of it. He’ll make sure she’s safe if it’s the last thing he’ll do. He won’t let history repeat itself. This is an adult only steamy contemporary romance, appealing to readers who love sexy mafia romance, smokin' hot small town romance, and sizzling enemies to lovers romances. This book is sizzling hot book (and not suitable for prudish readers), perfect for readers who love Luna Mason, Eva Winners, Michelle Heard, K.Bromberg and Lucy Darling.

Set in 1979, the story of Mafia Only Kills In Summer unfolds through the eyes of one young boy, Salvatore, and his family, the Giammarresi's. Major historical events, investigations, crimes and politics intertwine with their normal daily life... an apparent normality that is in fact back dropped by a continuing and intrusive conflict.

Drawing on seventeen years of research, thousands of recently declassified files, and dozens of interviews, Ultimate Sacrifice re-creates and, in many ways, rewrites the crucial period of our history leading up to November 22 1923. In the process, this groundbreaking account provides the missing pieces to the greatest tragic puzzle of post-war America: the true circumstances behind the assassination of President John F. Kennedy. · Ultimate Sacrifice details a previously unknown “Plan for a Coup in Cuba” authorized by President John Kennedy, run by Attorney General Robert Kennedy and set for December 1, 1963. · The Kennedy plan, unique and different from ant previously disclosed operation, was – as detailed in a Joint Chiefs of Staff memo – to have included a “palace coup”, a provisional Cuban government and, if necessary, a “full-scale invasion” by “invited” US military forces. · The CIA’s code name for their part of the operation, AMWORLD, has never previously surfaced in any government investigation, nor in any book or article, making it one of the most covert operations in United States history. · Ultimate Sacrifice will detail how the Kennedy plan was penetrated by three mafia godfathers – Carlos Marcello, Santo Trafficante, and Johnny Roselli – being vigorously pursued by Attorney General Robert Kennedy, along with a dozen of their associates, six of whom were also working on the Coup plan. · The crime bosses then used parts of the Coup Plan/AMWORLD to arrange JFK’s assassination in a way that would prevent a truly thorough government investigation in order to protect the Coup Plan, its participants, and national security. · By using the secrecy surrounding the Plan, the mob bosses would target JFK not only in Dallas but in two earlier attempts, one in Chicago on November 1 and them one in Tampa on November 18, which Ultimate Sacrifice reveals for the first time in any book. · Ultimate Sacrifice has finally pieced together the whole story by building on the work of the seven governmental committees that have investigated aspects of the assassination, on the work of former government investigators, and on the four million documents that were declassified in the 1990s, in addition to exclusive interviews with dozens of witnesses and participants including Secretary of State Dean Rusk, Press Secretary Pierre Salinger, and the Kennedys’ closest Cuban exile aide, Harry “Ruiz” Williams.

What's in a name? Everything... if you have my name. At her exclusive Manhattan high school, half the guys lust after seventeen-year-old Gia. The other half are afraid to even walk near her. After all, everyone knows who she is. They know that her father doesn't have a boss. He is the boss—the capo di tutti, boss of all bosses. But they don't know the real Gia. She's dreaming of a different life—one where she can be more than her infamous name. And lately, she's thinking way too much about Michael, the green-eyed cop who's wrong for her for so many reasons. And yet being with him feels so right. Now the real Gia is keeping secrets of her own alongside her family's. And she's breaking all the rules to get what she wants.

Read the forbidden dark mafia romance between Salvatore and Delphine from the very beginning in this special edition boxset. It's true what they say: you never forget your first love. When Salvatore Mancino returns, I'm left reeling. I'm swimming in memories of his passionate kiss. And memories of him breaking my heart. Over a decade later, the violent mafia boss intends on making me his. But dark and wicked forces seek to hurt me. And, in the process, destroy him. The Gangsters & Roses special edition boxset includes: 0 - Forbidden Roses 1 - Wicked Roses 2 - Twisted Roses 3 - Savage Roses ....and BRAND NEW bonus scenes and special short story never before shared! The Gangsters & Roses dark mafia romance series is not suitable for readers under the age of 18. This series includes content that may upset some readers. PLEASE ensure you read the content warning at the beginning of the series before proceeding, or check siennevega.com for more info.