The Nightingale by Kristin Hannah

The New York Times number one bestselling title.
Bravery, courage, fear and love in a time of war.
Despite their differences, sisters Viann and Isabelle have always been close. Younger, bolder Isabelle lives in Paris while Viann is content with life in the French countryside with her husband Antoine and their daughter. But when the Second World War strikes, Antoine is sent off to fight and Viann finds herself isolated so Isabelle is sent by their father to help her.
As the war progresses, the sisters' relationship and strength is tested. With life changing in unbelievably horrific ways, Viann and Isabelle will find themselves facing frightening situations and responding in ways they never thought possible as bravery and resistance take different forms in each of their actions.
Vivid and exquisite in its illumination of a time and place that was filled with atrocities, but also humanity and strength, Kristin Hannah's The Nightingale will provoke thought and discussion that will have readers talking long after they finish reading.

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Alone by Robert J. Crane

The first pulse-pounding, action-packed novel in the Sienna Nealon series, from million-selling author Robert J. Crane.

Sienna Nealon was a 17 year-old girl who had been held prisoner in her own house by her mother for twelve years. Then one day her mother vanished, and Sienna woke up to find two strange men in her home. On the run, unsure of who to turn to and discovering she possesses mysterious powers, Sienna finds herself pursued by a shadowy agency known as the Directorate and hunted by a vicious, bloodthirsty psychopath named Wolfe, each of which is determined to capture her for their own purposes...

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Through Space and Time FREE on Wattpad

Raegan's heart jumped into her throat and started to pound viciously, even harder than when she faced the monsters only moments before. Could this be real? Or did he mean he knew her father from before? That didn't seem likely since he was clearly around the same age as her, but just because she couldn't recall anyone other than her father, didn't mean others were the same. 

Either way, she needed to establish facts before she got too excited.

"He...he's alive?" she bit out, her voice hoarse with emotion. "You've seen him?"

"Yes, your father is definitely alive. You didn't know that?" Raegan shook her head, silenced. This was the news she'd always wanted but now it overwhelmed her. "He's an incredible man, the things he's achieved are unbelievable."

"Achieved? What are you talking about?"

"He's created the largest settlement of humans I've ever seen."

Raegan didn't know how to take this; her father was with people. She was alone, and others got to be with him. It wasn't fair...but also, this was good news, wasn't it?

"I see...a settlement..."

"He's trying to get everyone back to Earth."

"But isn't Earth uninhabitable?"

"Well, your father believes that the wormhole created by the nuclear blast will have gotten rid of the radiation, so by now it should be fine."

Raegan remembered her father as an incredible man, but she was his daughter and only eight at the time, of course she would think that. Miguel only just met him as an adult, and he seemed to think so too.

"He's saved so many people, you know."

"So, where is he now?"

"The settlement moves around every so often as they hunt for Earth, trying to get back home, and that's how I ended up here. I got lost. It was a hostile place and I got caught up in a mess of my own making." Miguel's eyes fell downwards. "I seem to have bad luck, I've created a lot of issues. But you've seen that yourself."

Raegan could see that Miguel needed comfort, but her head span too rapidly for that to happen. She wasn't great with sympathy anyway, that wasn't really her forte. Not ever letting anyone in too close did that to her.

"That doesn't matter, I'm not bothered about saving you, or whatever, I just want to find my dad."

"I want to find him too. That's what I'm in the middle of doing. I just...I can't believe that I've met Alan's daughter. That's unbelievable." He suddenly narrowed his eyes suspiciously. "You are her, aren't you? This isn't some sort of joke."

"I should be asking you the same question. Of course he's my father."

"I'm sorry, I'm just a bit...this is overwhelming."

"Tell me about it! I've spent the last decade looking for my dad and now you're here telling me that you know him, that you've spent time with him."

Unexpectedly, a small sob escaped Raegan's lips. Emotion hit her from nowhere. She now knew that her father was around...but he remained just out of her reach. Still.

"I'm sorry," Miguel gasped. "I didn't want to upset you."

"No, it's okay." Raegan tried her hardest to get control of herself. "Tell me more."

"Well, I met him quite early on, to be honest, when there weren't many people around, and he told me about you right away. He knew then that you were still alive, and he was right. As a pretty fragile nine year old who was just trying to figure the world out by myself, that was a massive comfort."

"So, you were alone? When you found my father, I mean."

"Yeah. I guess my parents could be out there somewhere, but I don't know. I kinda have this memory that they died in the blast but I'm not quite sure. That might just be the way my child brain interpreted it."

"Wow, that's...I hope you find them one day. It must be hard."

"I feel like I know you," Miguel says with a soft smile. "Your dad has told me so much about you, and he's shown me a picture from his wallet too. You still look quite similar."

"I do?" Raegan thought she's changed a lot!

"It's the wild curly red hair and your violet eyes."

"Oh wow." Automatically, she ran her fingers through the hair that usually drove her wild, but today had brought her some good. It made Miguel recognise her.

"Alan has always talked about finding you, and now he has. Or...I have."

Sadness flew through Raegan. She was closer than she'd ever been before, but still light years away. It crushed her chest so hard she could barely breathe.

"But he hasn't, has he? There's no way we can find him. The exit holes are random, we can't guarantee that we'll find him."

"No...I know you're right, but if he's searching for Earth, maybe that's what we should do too. It's unlikely and it will be hard, but together we can do it, can't we?"

Raegan knew that if she agreed to spending time with Miguel then she risked letting someone actually in to her hard heart. This wouldn't be someone random who she could just choose to not get close to, this would be a link to her father...

But how would throwing away her one shot feel? Sure, she could hunt for Earth without Miguel, but perhaps it was time to let her barriers slide down, just a little bit.

Every day of this life was different, and more often than not, she embraced every challenge, this was just another one.

"Okay." She nodded, her chest twisting up painfully as she did. She didn't feel as certain as her voice sounded. "Let's do it. Let's look for Earth."

Raegan looked at Miguel and he stared right back at her. It wasn't ever a duo she expected to find herself in, but there was a chance it could turn out to be the best decision she'd ever made.

Maybe.

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AM13 Outbreak Shorts by Samie Sands FREE on Wattpad

"Are you okay, Oliver?" I ask him anxiously as he speeds down the road. "You're driving a bit...erratically."

He doesn't even wince as he slams yet another dead one from the front of his vehicle to God knows where. Blood and guts cover the windshield but he merely flicks the windscreen wiper on with water to wash it away.

Grime from the undead is harder to wipe away than the usual dirt covering a car so it doesn't go easily, but even that doesn't bother Oliver. He's got a one-track mind at the moment.

"I'm fine, I just need to get away from there." he growls, pointing backwards.

"Do you have a plan where we're going?"

"Well, the guys said that they've cleaned out the nearby places, so we need to go quite far."

I nod silently, knowing this is much more about him escaping the situation with Ryan than supplies. I'll go wherever the hell he needs to go, just to keep an eye on him. I can't let anything bad happen to him. Just because he's becoming ever so slightly unhinged, doesn't mean he was always this way. When I met him, he was the strongest, best man I've ever known. Even from before.

"There have to be shops somewhere that haven't been ransacked yet. It's just finding stuff that's still edible. Over a year into this apocalypse and things are going downhill."

"It's lucky they grow things back at camp," I comment idly. "That's the only way to keep surviving."

"Especially since Gas goes out of date eventually. I don't know what we'll do then. We won't be able to get around as easily then."

Every time he reminds me of things like this I get a painful bolt in my stomach. The world isn't going back to how it was. I don't know how to deal with that. Admittedly, I didn't have much going for me back then. I lived alone, worked the lonely night shift in a gas station, didn't do too much outside of work...it wasn't the best life, but it wasn't this.

This is anger, fear, struggle, survival every single day and it's horrible.

The camp might be a glimpse of normality, but nothing lasts forever. The infected always win out. Either that or we, as humans, self-destruct in some way.

"It'll be back to horse and cart then," I laugh as I make a feeble joke. "Like the good ol' days."

"Except...there aren't many animals left either."

"Hmm, yeah that's true. I guess we'll have to find some way to reinvent the wheel..."

I don't manage to finish the sentence because something sucks all the air out of my body. I don't even know what it is at first, it's one of those quietly shocking moments. Everything rushes at the speed of light around me and it takes a moment for my brain to catch up.

Spinning, tumbling, falling...

Ignorance is preferable, because when the realization comes it isn't a pleasant one. We're flying through the air, twisting and turning as we go, our ragdoll bodies being tossed about as if we weight nothing, no idea how or when we're going to land...

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Let Me Lie: The Number One Sunday Times Bestseller by Clare Mackintosh

'Let Me Lie will keep you guessing until the very last line. No one writes a twist like Clare Mackintosh' PAULA HAWKINS
'Brilliantly clever . . . Let Me Lie is a work of genius' JOANNA CANNON
'I LOVED it. I think this is Clare Mackintosh's best yet. An engaging, engrossing read'MARIAN KEYES
***
The police say it was suicide.
Anna says it was murder.
They're both wrong.
One year ago, Caroline Johnson chose to end her life brutally: a shocking suicide planned to match that of her husband just months before. Their daughter, Anna, has struggled to come to terms with their loss ever since.
Now with a young baby of her own, Anna misses her mother more than ever and starts to ask questions about her parents' deaths. But by digging up the past, is she putting her future in danger? Sometimes it's safer to let things lie . . .
***
The stunning, twisty new psychological thriller and number one bestsellerfrom Clare Mackintosh, author of I LET YOU GO and I SEE YOU.

What everyone is saying about LET ME LIE:
'Another one-more-chapter, stay-up-late sensation from Clare Mackintosh. No doubt about it now - she's a major talent' LEE CHILD
'Clare Mackintosh does it again. A brilliantly twisting tale of toxic families' ERIN KELLY
'It's phenomenal, super-twisty and, incredibly, EVEN BETTER than I Let You Go and I See You' JILL MANSELL
'Brilliant. Tense and surprising but heartbreaking and sensitively written . . . I expect no less from Clare but she seems to get better with each novel' GILLIAN McALLISTER
'One word - wow! Compelling, twisty and wickedly good, I loved it!' ALICE FEENEY
'Fantastically twisty, utterly gripping and kept me guessing until the very end' LUCY DIAMOND
'Shocking, dark and brilliant, I loved it!' SAM HEPBURN
'So very clever. Totally absorbing and original' SABINE DURRANT
'Clare Mackintosh has nailed it again. Let Me Lie is an emotional ride with fantastic twists' FIONA BARTON
'Raced through Let Me Lie . . . Inventive, twisting and perfectly controlled' SARAH VAUGHAN
'Let Me Lie is a triumph for Clare Mackintosh and a must read for 2018' LOUISE CANDLISH

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Before We Were Yours by Lisa Wingate

THE BLOCKBUSTER HIT—A New York Times, USA Today, Wall Street Journal, and Publishers Weekly Bestseller

For readers of Orphan Train and The Nightingale comes a “thought-provoking [and] complex tale about two families, two generations apart . . . based on a notorious true-life scandal.”*

Memphis, 1939. Twelve-year-old Rill Foss and her four younger siblings live a magical life aboard their family’s Mississippi River shantyboat. But when their father must rush their mother to the hospital one stormy night, Rill is left in charge—until strangers arrive in force. Wrenched from all that is familiar and thrown into a Tennessee Children’s Home Society orphanage, the Foss children are assured that they will soon be returned to their parents—but they quickly realize the dark truth. At the mercy of the facility’s cruel director, Rill fights to keep her sisters and brother together in a world of danger and uncertainty.

Aiken, South Carolina, present day. Born into wealth and privilege, Avery Stafford seems to have it all: a successful career as a federal prosecutor, a handsome fiancé, and a lavish wedding on the horizon. But when Avery returns home to help her father weather a health crisis, a chance encounter leaves her with uncomfortable questions and compels her to take a journey through her family’s long-hidden history, on a path that will ultimately lead either to devastation or to redemption.

Based on one of America’s most notorious real-life scandals—in which Georgia Tann, director of a Memphis-based adoption organization, kidnapped and sold poor children to wealthy families all over the country—Lisa Wingate’s riveting, wrenching, and ultimately uplifting tale reminds us how, even though the paths we take can lead to many places, the heart never forgets where we belong.

*Library Journal

Publishers Weekly’s #3 Longest-Running Bestseller of 2017 • Winner of the Southern Book Prize •If All Arkansas Read the Same Book Selection 

“A [story] of a family lost and found . . . a poignant, engrossing tale about sibling love and the toll of secrets.”—People

“Sure to be one of the most compelling books you pick up this year. . . . Wingate is a master-storyteller, and you’ll find yourself pulled along as she reveals the wake of terror and heartache that is Georgia Tann’s legacy.”—Parade
“One of the year’s best books . . . It is impossible not to get swept up in this near-perfect novel.”—The Huffington Post

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That Month in Tuscany by Inglath Cooper

That Month in Tuscany . . .

Ren Sawyer and Lizzy Harper live completely different lives. He’s a rock star with a secret he can no longer live with. She’s a regular person whose husband stood her up for a long planned anniversary trip.

On a flight across the Atlantic headed for Italy, a drunken pity party and untimely turbulence literally drop Lizzy into Ren’s lap. It is the last thing she can imagine ever happening to someone like her. But despite their surface differences, they discover an undeniable pull between them. A pull that leads them both to remember who they had once been before letting themselves be changed by a life they had each chosen.

Exploring the streets of Florence and the hills of Tuscany together - two people with seemingly nothing in common - changes them both forever. And what they find in each other is something that might just heal them both.

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