Leap Year 2016
A special feature here on Gone With The Books to a rare event
My first feature is about something that only happens every four years and what we call a leap year.
It begins in a Stockholm city park where the abused body of a young boy is discovered. Detective Superintendent Jeanette Kihlberg heads the investigation, battling an apathetic prosecutor and a bureaucratic police force unwilling to devote resources to solving the murder of an immigrant child. But with the discovery of the mutilated corpses of two more children, it becomes clear that a serial killer is at large.
Superintendent Kihlberg turns to therapist Sofia Zetterlund for her expertise in the psychopathology of those who kill, and the lives of the two women become quickly intertwined – professionally and personally. As they draw closer to each other and to the truth about the killings, what surfaces is the undeniable fact that these murders are only the most obvious evidence of an insidious evil woven deep into Swedish society.
Hundreds of thousands of people thinking in common mode, act, feel: that is the coherence, the biggest thread to mankind. Only the 17-year-old Christopher, once the most famous hacker of the world, dares to take up the fight with this gigantic power. When the group around visionary Jeremiah Jones, where Christopher has taken refuge, gets blown up, he and Jones´ daughter Serenity can escape at the last second.
But then Christopher notes to his horror, that he has to deal with a very special opponent – an enemy in his own head …
An ambitious intern. A.perfectionist executive. And a whole lot of name calling.
Whip-smart, hardworking, and on her way to an MBA, Chloe Mills has only one problem: her boss, Bennett Ryan. He´s exacting, blunt, inconsiderate – and completely irresistible. A Beautiful Bastard.
Bennett has returned to Chicago from France to take a vital role in his family´s massive media business. He never expected that the assistant who´d been helping from abroad was the gorgeous, innocently provocative – completely infuriating – creature he now has to see every day. Despite the rumors, he´s never been one for a workplace hookup. But Chloe´s so tempting he´s willing to bend the rules – or outright smash them – if it means he can have her. All over the office. As their appetites for one another increase to a breaking point, Bennett and Chloe must decide exactly what they´re willing to lose in order to win each other.
Seventeen years ago, an eclipse cloaked the kingdom of Relhok in perpetual darkness, and in the chaos, an evil chancellor murdered the king and queen and seized their throne. Luna, the kingdom´s lost princess, has been locked away in a tower in the cursed Black Woods ever since. Luna´s survival depends entirely on the world believing she is dead.
But that doesn´t stop Luna from longing for a life beyond the stifling tower walls. When she meets Fowler, a mysterious archer who has braved the Black Woods in search of a land where the sun still shines, Luna is drawn to him despite the risk. When the tower is attacked, Luna and Fowler escape together. But this world of darkness is far more treacherous than Luna ever realized. Hideous, flesh-hungry creatures lurk behind every corner and each stranger they encounter has frightening ulterior motives. With every threat stacked against them, Luna and Fowler find solace in each other. But with secrets still unspoken between them, falling in love might be their most dangerous journey yet.
Ethan Quinn is a waterman. He wasn´t born to the tradition but has embraced it. He´s a quiet man whose heart runs as deep as the waters he loves. And now, with his father gone, Ethan is determined to make the family boatbuilding business a success. But amidst his achievements lie the most important challenges of his life …
There´s a young boy who needs him and a woman and child he loves but never believed he could have. To shape his life around them, Ethan must face his own dark past – and accept not only who he is but what he hopes to become.
Shelby Foxworth lost her husband. Then she lost her illusions… The man who took her from Tennessee to an exclusive Philadelphia suburb left her in crippling debt. He was an adulterer and a liar, and when Shelby tracks down his safe-deposit box, she finds multiple IDs. The man she loved, wasn´t just dead. He never really existed.
Shelby takes her three-year-old daughter and heads south to seek comfort in her hometown, where she meets someone new: Griff Lott, a successful contractor. But her husband had secrets she has yet to discover. Even in this small town, surrounded by loved ones, danger is closer than she knows – and threatens Griff, as well. And an attempted murder is only the beginning …
A World in which no one is alone. A 17-year-old, who has unique skills. And a hunt, that will stay unprecedented. Christopher is on the run. Together with the peers Serenity he is on the road in the desert of Nevada. Somewhere out there must live Serenity´s father, the visionary Jeremiah Jones, who has forsworn all technique, after he had seen which danger the worldwide connection could bring.
But an elopement from the technique – is that today even possible? Serenity soon senses, on what and especially to whom she got involved with. ´Cause the inscrutable Christopher is not just somebody. Christopher has once done the most famous hack in history. And now he is in the possessing of a secret, that couldn´t be any more dramatic: The days of humankind, as we know her, are numbered.
What if, the knowledge and the thoughts of an individual are now available for an entire group? Wouldn´t then freedom and unity rule on earth? Would the human being finally no more be so horrendous alone? Or could thereby a power arise that would become the world´s biggest thread?
As the sole assistant to a famous upscale interior designer, Lane Harmon, mother to five-year-old Katie, is accustomed to visiting opulent homes around the tri-state area. A born optimist, Lane finds the glimpse into these gilded worlds fascinating, and loves the reward of exceeding the expectations of their often-demanding owners. When she is called to assist in redecorating a modest townhouse in Bergen County, she knows the job is unusual. Then she learns the home belongs to the wife of a notorious and disgraced financier named Parker Bennett.
Parker Bennett has been missing for two years. He dropped out of sight just before it was discovered that the $5 billion dollars in the fund he had been managing had vanished. Bennett had gone out on his sailboat in the Caribbean. Was it suicide or had he staged his disappearance? The scandal around his name has not died down. His clients and the federal government all want to trace the money and find Bennett if he is still alive.
Lane is surprised to find herself moved by Mr. Bennett´s calm dignity and apparently sincere belief in her husband´s innocence. Gradually, Lane finds herself drawn to Eric, the Bennett´s son, who is similarly determined to prove that his father is not guilty. Lane doesn´t know that the closed she gets to the Bennetts, the more she puts her life – and her daughter´s life – in jeopardy.
Layken and Will´s love has managed to withstand the toughest of circumstances and the young loves, now married, are beginning to feel safe and secure in their union. As much as Layken relishes their new life together, she finds herself wanting to know everything there is to know about her husband, even though Will makes it clear he prefers to keep the painful memories of the past where they belong. Still, he can´t resist his wife´s pleas and so he begins to untangle his side of the story, revealing for the first time his most intimate feelings and thoughts, retelling both the good and bad moments, and sharing a few shocking confessions of his own from the time when they first met.
When Sabrina Boggs stumbles upon a mysterious collection of her father´s possessions, she discovers a truth were she never knew there was a lie. The familiar man she grew up with is suddenly a stranger to her. An unexpected break in her monotonous daily routine leaves her just one day to unlock the secrets of the man she thought she knew. A day that unearths memories, stories and people she never knew existed. A day that changes her and those around her forever.
Rachel takes the same commuter train every morning and night. Every day she rattles down the track, flashes past a stretch of cozy suburban homes, and stops at the signal that allows her to daily watch the same couple breakfasting on their deck. She´s even started to feel like she knows them. Jess and Jason, she calls them. Their life – as she sees it – is perfect. Not unlike the life she recently lost. And then she sees something shocking. It´s only a minute until the train moves on, but it´s enough. Now everything´s changed. Unable to keep it to herself, Rachel goes to the police. But is she really as unreliable as they say? Soon she is deeply entangled not only in the investigation but in the lives of everyone involved. Has she done more harm than good?
Long ago, dragons were hunted to near extinction by the Order of St. George, a legendary society of dragon slayers. Hiding in human form and growing their numbers in secret, the dragons of Talon have become strong and cunning, and they're positioned to take over the world with humans none the wiser. Ember and Dante Hill are the only sister and brother known to dragon kind. Trained to infiltrate society, Ember wants to live the teen experience and enjoy a summer of freedom before taking her destined place in Talon. But destiny is a matter of perspective, and a rogue dragon will soon challenge everything Ember has been taught. As Ember struggles to accept her future, she and her brother are hunted by the Order of St. George. Soldier Garret Xavier Sebastian has a mission to seek and destroy all dragons, and Talon's newest recruits in particular. But he cannot kill unless he is certain he has found his prey—and nothing is certain about Ember Hill. Faced with Ember's bravery, confidence and all-too-human desires, Garret begins to question everything that the Order has ingrained in him—and what he might be willing to give up to find the truth about dragons.
They said she was a murderer. They said she killed her sister. But they lied. As a teenager, Toni Murphy had a life full of typical adolescent complications: a boyfriend she adored, a younger sister she couldn´t relate to, a strained relationship with her parents, and classmates who seemed hell-bent on making her life miserable. Things weren´t easy, but Toni could never have predicted how horrific they would become until her younger sister was brutally murdered one summer night. Toni and her boyfriend, Ryan, were convicted of the murder and sent to prison. Now thirty-four, Toni is out on parole and back in her hometown, struggling to adjust to a new life on the outside. Prison changed her, hardened her, and she´s doing everything in her power to avoid violating her parole and going back. This means having absolutely no contact with Ryan, avoiding fellow parolees looking to pick fights, and steering clear of trouble in all its forms. But nothing is making that easy – not Ryan, who is convinced he can figure out the truth; not her mother, who doubts Toni´s innocence; and certainly not the group of women who made Toni´s life hell in high school and may have darker secrets than anyone realizes. No matter how hard she tries, ignoring her old life to start a new one is impossible. Before Toni can truly move on, she must risk everything to find out what really happened that night. But the truth might be the most terrifying thing of all.
Layken and Will have proved their love can get them through anything; until someone from Will´s past re-emerges, leaving Layken questioning the very foundation on which their relationship was built. Will is forced to face the ultimate challenge … how to prove his love for a girl who refuses to stop `carving pumpkins.`
The night Quin Kincaid takes her Oath; she will become what she has trained to be her entire life. She will become a Seeker. This is her legacy, and it is an honor. As a Seeker, Quin will fight beside her two closest companions, Shinobu and John, to protect the weak and the wronged. Together they will stand for light in a shadowy world. And she'll be with the boy she loves--who's also her best friend. But the night Quin takes her Oath, everything changes. Being a Seeker is not what she thought. Her family is not what she thought. Even the boy she loves is not who she thought. And now it's too late to walk away.