Falling Free

Sammy Mountjoy, artist, rises from poverty and an obscure birth to see his pictures hung in the Tate Gallery. Swept into World War Two, he is taken as a prisoner-of-war, threatened with torture, then locked in a cell of total darkness to wait. He emerges from his cell transfigured from his ordeal, and begins to realise what man can be and what he has gradually made of himself through his own choices. But did those accumulated choices also begin to deprive him of his free will.

“Shannan’s story feels at once familiar and spectacular, ordinary and exceptional. You will discover that at the same time her words make you squirm, you will wish you lived next door to her. You will want her wisdom and you will want her pickles.” —Jen Hatmaker (from the foreword) Shannan Martin had the perfect life: a cute farmhouse on six rambling acres, a loving husband, three adorable kids, money, friends, a close-knit church—a safe, happy existence. But when the bottom dropped out through a series of shocking changes and ordinary inconveniences, the Martins followed God’s call to something radically different: a small house on the other side of the urban tracks, a shoestring income, a challenged public school, and the harshness of a county jail (where her husband is now chaplain). And yet the family’s plunge from “safety” was the best thing that could have happened to them. Falling Free charts their pilgrimage from the self-focused wisdom of the world to the topsy-turvy life of God’s more being found in less. Martin’s practical, sweetly subversive book invites us to rethink assumptions about faith and the good life, push past insecurity and fear, and look beyond comfortable, middle-class Christianity toward a deeper, richer, and ultimately more fulfilling life.

“A thoughtful and powerful page turner.”—People Elvis Cole is just a detective who can't say no, especially to a girl in a terrible fix. And Jennifer Sheridan qualifies: Her fiancé, Mark Thurman, is a decorated LA cop with an elite plainclothes unit, but Jennifer's sure he's in trouble—the kind of serious trouble that only Elvis Cole can help him out of. Five minutes after his new client leaves his office, Elvis and his partner, the enigmatic Joe Pike, are hip-deep in a deadly situation as they plummet into a world of South Central gangs, corrupt cops, and conspiracies of silence. And before the case is through, every copy in the LAPD will be gunning for a pair of escaped armed-and-dangerous killers—Elvis Cole and Joe Pike. “Elvis Cole provides more fun for the reader than any L.A. private eye to come along in years.”—Joseph Wambaugh “Elvis lives, and he's on his way to being crowned the king of detectives.”—Booklist

From the author of Parallel comes a high-stakes romantic puzzler set in a near-future where everyone's life is seamlessly orchestrated by personal electronic devices. Imaginative and thrilling, this fast-paced story with two starred reviews is not to be missed. Fast-forward to a time when Apple and Google have been replaced by Gnosis, a monolith corporation that has developed the most life-changing technology to ever hit the market: Lux, an app that flawlessly optimizes decision-making for the best personal results. Just like everyone else, sixteen-year-old Rory Vaughn knows the key to a happy, healthy life is to follow what Lux recommends. When she's accepted to the elite boarding school Theden Academy, her future happiness seems all the more assured. But once on campus, something feels wrong beneath the polished surface of her prestigious dream school. Then she meets North, a handsome townie who doesn't use Lux, and begins to fall for him and his outsider way of life. Soon, Rory is going against Lux's recommendations, listening instead to the inner voice that everyone has been taught to ignore—a choice that leads her to uncover a truth neither she nor the world ever saw coming.

They say that your school years are supposed to be the best years of your life, and that you should make the most of them because you’ll miss them when you’re all grown up. Up until Maisie Preston’s senior year, she would have totally agreed with that statement. Life was great; she had everything going for her, excellent grades, great parents, an annoying yet caring twin brother, and an impossibly sweet boyfriend. Everything was perfect — that is until the arrival of Zach Anderson. A misfit delinquent that seemed to bring with him a lot of bad karma. Is it just a coincidence that his arrival marks a significant change in Maisie’s life? Up until senior year, life was perfect, but things seem to be going downhill fast. This is a companion novel for ‘Always You’ — though this novel stands alone so there is no need to read Always You first.

When four boys decide to spend the day exploring a cave, they have no idea that their fun afternoon is about to become a fight for survival Neil and his best friend, Randy, can’t wait to explore a nearby cave for the afternoon. But when Neil’s little brother, David, finds out, Neil is forced to bring David and his timid friend Terry along for the ride. What starts out as an exciting expedition soon turns dangerous when the four boys get lost in the cave’s labyrinth of winding passages. Neil knows it’s not David’s fault that they’re lost, yet he still lashes out at his brother with every wrong turn, and Randy and David’s constant bickering isn’t helping to calm his nerves. As tension builds between the boys, Neil and David try to address what they’ve kept hidden for years: the truth about David that can never be forgotten—or forgiven. Hopelessly lost, angry, hungry, and terrified, the boys are willing to do just about anything to find a way out of the cave before they end up killing one another. But to escape, Neil and David are going to have to figure out a way to put the past behind them and work together.

The closer she comes to the truth, the deadlier her chase gets. FBI behavioral analyst Alex Donovan and her colleague Logan Hart have been called upon to write a profile for a missing woman, but a little digging quickly turns up more disappearances in Virginia with the same physical description. Alex is in a race against the clock to rescue the missing victims, so when the UNSUB makes demands of her in exchange for information, Alex takes the bait. But when her life is put in jeopardy, Logan must do whatever it takes to track them down before time runs out. Alex works to think one step ahead of the suspect, but the more Logan and the BAU learn about the serial kidnapper, the more they fear Alex may not make it out alive. "The relentless pace will keep readers glued to their seats . . . This pulse-pounding romantic thriller is a wild ride."--Publishers Weekly