Arizona, 1884, and Vera Palmer, a 23 year old widow from genteel Connecticut arrives in the frontier town of Goose Flat to take up a prospecting claim inherited from her dead husband, and a part-time job as a bookeeper in a local boarding house. The boarding house is in fact a brothel but, needing the money, Vera takes the job anyway. She's soon drawn into the violent, abused lives of the working girls and Sadie, their Madame. Vera is attracted to bar regular Will Keane, a local lawyer, who helps her investigate the mining claim. Can love offer her an escape or will the unpredictable, dangerous world surrounding the Star Mansion brothel destroy the relationship and Vera's hopes of a new life? Here Allyson Stack offers a gripping, beautifully wrought love story amidst a wholly authentic evocation of the Wild West at its most threatening. 'An astonishing, accomplished novel. The vivid, visceral descriptions transport the reader to the Arizona of the 1880s and French Battlefields of 1918 as we follow the life of the extraordinary Vera Palmer. Alive with memorable characters, from the working girls in the brothel where Vera works as bookkeeper, to the pioneering and brave young woman doctor, ‘Tosh’, whom she befriends in wartime France, this is a novel to be savoured and remembered.' Maureen Myant, author of The Search 'An impressive debut that juxtaposes two periods in history which, though close in time, often seem so far apart in our imagination. From the Wild West to the Western Front, in Vera we have a protagonist, vulnerable and adventerous, open-hearted and independent, in whose company it is a pleasure to travel. The writing is luxurious and sensual. Under the Heartless Blue is a bewitching story of love, loss and survival told with humour and heart-breaking honesty." Iain Maloney, author of The Waves Burn Bright, Silma Hill and First Time Solo 'Allyson Stack brings us a committed, luminous debut; a historical novel you won’t forget. Set beneath the capricious skies of 1918 Europe and the wild old Arizona Territory, Vera's story is gutsy, effervescent and mesmerizing.' Alan Warner, author of Morven Callar, The Stars in the Bright Sky and Dead Man's Pedal

In this Bonnie and Clyde story of love and betrayal, a band of outlaws fight for control of the brutal Brazilian outback. Set in the sparse frontier settlements of northeastern Brazil—a dry, forbidding, and wild region the size of Texas, known locally as the Sertão—Backlands tells the true story of a group of nomadic outlaws who reigned over the area from about 1922 until 1938. Taking from the rich, admired—and feared—by the poor, they were led by the famously charismatic bandit Lampião. The gang maintained their influence by fighting off all the police and soldiers the region could muster. A one-eyed goat rancher who first set out to avenge his father's murder in a lawless land, Lampião proved to be too good a leader, fighter, and strategist to ever return home again. By 1925 he commanded the biggest gang of outlaws in Brazil. Known to this day as a "prince," Lampião had everything: brains, money, power, charisma, and luck. Everything but love, until he met Maria Bonita. "You teach me to make lace, and I'll teach you to make love"—this was the song the bandits marched to, across the vast open reaches of their starkly beautiful backlands, and it was Maria Bonita who made it come true. She was stuck in a loveless marriage when she met Lampião, but she rode off with him, becoming "Queen of the Bandits." Together the couple—still celebrated folk heroes—would become the country's most wanted figures, protecting their extraordinary freedom through cunning. Victoria Shorr's stunning literary debut tells Maria's story, her narrative of the intense freedoms, terrors, and sorrows of this chosen life, the end of which is clear to her all along. With the federal government in Rio mobilizing against the bandits, Backlands describes the epic final days of Lampião’s "fatal month," July on the River of Disorder, as the gang struggles to summon their good star to save them one more time.

One of the most popular novelists of the twentieth century, winner of a Pulitzer and Nobel Prize for Literature and an active social and political campaigner, particularly in the field of women's issues and Asian-American relations, Pearl Buck has, until now, remained 'hidden in public view'. Best known, perhaps, as the prolific author of The Good Earth, Buck led a career which extended well beyond her eighty works of fiction and non-fiction and deep into the public sphere. In this critically acclaimed biography, Peter Conn retrieves Pearl Buck from the footnotes of literary and cultural history and reinstates her as a figure of compelling and uncommon significance in twentieth-century literary, cultural and political history.

Here for a new generation of readers and students are two major poetic works of Robinson Jeffers (1887-1962).

Contains monthly column of the Sequoya League.

Late nineteenth century novel about Edna Earl, an intelligent and ambitious young girl with a strong moral compass. Orphaned at a young age, Edna is adopted by Mrs. Murray. Edna encounters numerous conflicts with Mrs. Murray's son, the Byronic St. Elmo, a harsh, cruel man with a dark past. Edna's sweet nature touches the lives of many around her, and her ambition causes her to strive for nearly unattainable heights. Throughout the novel, Edna faces a constant battle between her passions and her conscience. In the end, Edna's convictions and her love act as a redeeming force to a suffering, desolate soul.

Kingdom Hearts II begins where Kingdom Hearts: Chain of Memories and Kingdom Hearts 358/2 Days leave off. Sora and his companions have been asleep for about a year, regaining their memories. When Sora awakens, he eventually arrives in Twilight Town, the place where a mysterious boy, Roxas, lived before he suddenly left. Gaining new clothes and powers, Sora began his journey anew, unaware of the events that have taken place in Chain of Memories. Sora continues his quest by unlocking paths to new worlds, learning of Nobodies and fighting the Heartless, as well as facing the remaining members of the mysterious Organization XIII. As the game progresses, Sora learns about Roxas and how much they have in common. Birth By Sleep is the origins of the series' hero and villain, Sora and Xehanort, and delves deep into the mysteries of Xehanort's bleak past and forgotten memories as well as how Sora and Riku came to wield the Keyblade in the first place. It deals with three Keyblade Wielders: Terra, Aqua and Ventus and each character has their own scenario. Kingdom Hearts II and Birth by Sleep will take you to many places and we have them all covered here. Inside you will find: - Complete walkthrough coverage for both Kingdom Hearts 2 and Birth By Sleep. - Side quests covered in detail from Absent Silhouettes to Atlantica. - Gummi ship missions and details. - Mirage Arena covered extensively. - Mini-games discussed and much, much more.