Young Adult Fiction Books: Cover Attraction

Showing posts with label Cover Attraction. Show all posts

Tuesday, March 16, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

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For today's Cover Attraction post, I have posted two covers instead of one since the stories are interconnected. Both covers are lovely, but I have to say it is actually the second cover which has caught my attention in the first place.

Also, I am sad to say this will be my last CA post. Though I really enjoyed participating in this meme, and I always find joy in searching for more attractive covers, it bugs me to say I need some time to do that and at this moment I want to use those time for my reading and reviewing more books.

Nevertheless, I want to take this opportunity to thank Marcia, our lovely hostess for hosting this meme!

A Year on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball
ISBN-13: 9780425225875
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: March 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

Their husbands were gone, their families were grown, and the future stretched out before them like an unfulfilled promise...

Tired of always dreaming and never doing, Cici, Lindsay, and Bridget make a life-altering decision. Uprooting themselves from their comfortable lives in the suburbs, the three friends buy a run-down mansion, nestled in the picturesque Shenandoah Valley. They christen their new home "Ladybug Farm," hoping that the name will bring them luck.

As the friends take on a home improvement challenge of epic proportions, they encounter disaster after disaster, from renegade sheep and garden thieves to a seemingly ghostly inhabitant. Over the course of a year, overwhelming obstacles make the three women question their decision, but they ultimately learn that sometimes the best things can happen when everything goes wrong...

At Home on Ladybug Farm by Donna Ball
ISBN-13: 9780425229781
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: October 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

From the award-winning author of A Year on Ladybug Farm comes the continuing story of three women who learn what it takes to turn a house into a home.

A year after taking the chance of a lifetime, Cici, Lindsay, and Bridget are still trying to make a home for themselves on the newly-renovated Ladybug Farm. Life in the Shenandoah Valley is picturesque, but filled with unexpected trials- such as the introduction of two young people into the ordered life the women have tried to build for themselves.

As the walls of the old house reveal their secrets and the lives of those who have gone before begin to unfold, the cobbled-together household starts to disintegrate into chaos. And when one of their members is threatened by a real crisis, they must all come together to fight for the roots they've laid down, the hopes they share, and the family they've become.

Tuesday, March 9, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Dear Strangers by Meg Mullins
ISBN-13: 9780670021437
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: February 2010

Synopsis (From B&N):

A lyrical and romantic story of love, fate and family

In the high desert of the American southwest during the summer of 1982, the Finley family is awaiting the arrival of the baby boy they're due to adopt. Oliver, just seven, is eager for another playmate to join him and his sister in their idyll of swimming pools, climbing trees, and playing tag. But one hot afternoon, Dr. Finley dies suddenly and everything changes. Mrs. Finley, newly widowed, decides she cannot proceed with the adoption alone.

Twenty-one years later, Oliver believes he has finally found the brother his family was meant to adopt. Along the way, he also finds Miranda, an eccentric, charming photographer whose subjects are consenting strangers in their own homes after dark. Oliver and Miranda's love story collides with catastrophe when their worlds intersect in ways they could never have predicted.

A luminous, moving portrait of grief and atonement, romance and longing, Dear Strangers unearths the possibilities of hope and renewal in the unexpected bonds forged with family and strangers alike.

Tuesday, March 2, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Don't you love this cover? It leaves me a warm feeling just viewing at this lovely cover. It is not only the colourful blanket but also the beautiful bond between mother and child together.

Shelter Me by Juliette Fay
ISBN-13: 9780061673399
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: December 2008

Synopsis (From B&N):

Four months after her husband's death, Janie LaMarche remains undone by grief and anger. Her mourning is disrupted, however, by the unexpected arrival of a builder with a contract to add a porch onto her house. Stunned, Janie realizes the porch was meant to be a surprise from her husband—now his last gift to her.

As she reluctantly allows construction to begin, Janie clings to the familiar outposts of her sorrow—mothering her two small children with fierce protectiveness, avoiding friends and family, and stewing in a rage she can't release. Yet Janie's self-imposed isolation is breached by a cast of unlikely interventionists: her chattering, ipecac-toting aunt; her bossy, over-manicured neighbor; her muffin-bearing cousin; and even Tug, the contractor with a private grief all his own.

As the porch takes shape, Janie discovers that the unknowable terrain of the future is best navigated with the help of others—even those we least expect to call on, much less learn to love.

Tuesday, February 23, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Born Under a Million Shadows by Andrea Busfield
ISBN-13: 9780805090611
Publisher: Henry Holt & Company
Published: February 2010

Synopsis (From B&N):

A moving tale of the triumph of the human spirit amidst heartbreaking tragedy, told through the eyes of a charming, impish, and wickedly observant Afghan boy

The Taliban have withdrawn from Kabul’s streets, but the long shadows of their regime remain. In his short life, eleven-year-old Fawad has known more grief than most: his father and brother have been killed, his sister has been abducted, and Fawad and his mother, Mariya, must rely on the charity of parsimonious relatives to eke out a hand-to-mouth existence.

Ever the optimist, Fawad hopes for a better life, and his dream is realized when Mariya finds a position as a housekeeper for a charismatic Western woman, Georgie, and her two foreign friends. The world of aid workers and journalists is a new one for Fawad, and living with the trio offers endless curiosities—including Georgie’s destructive relationship with the powerful Afghan warlord Haji Khan, whose exploits are legendary. Fawad grows resentful and worried, until he comes to learn that love can move a man to act in surprisingly good ways. But life, especially in Kabul, is never without peril, and the next calamity Fawad must face is so devastating that it threatens to destroy the one thing he thought he could never lose: his love for his country.

A big-hearted novel infused with crackling wit, Andrea Busfield’s brilliant debut captures the hope and humanity of the Afghan people and the foreigners who live among them.

Tuesday, February 16, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Pictures at an Exhibition by Sara Houghteling
ISBN-13: 9780307266859
Publisher: Knopf Doubleday Publishing
Published: February 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

A sweeping and sensuous novel of a son’s quest to recover his family’s lost masterpieces, looted by the Nazis during the occupation.

Max Berenzon’s father is the most successful art dealer in Paris, owner of the Berenzon Gallery, home to both Picasso and Matisse. To Max’s great surprise, his father forbids him from entering the family business, choosing instead to hire a beautiful and brilliant gallery assistant named Rose Clément. When Paris falls to the Nazis, the Berenzons survive in hiding, but when they return in 1944 their gallery is empty, their priceless collection vanished. In a city darkened by corruption and black martketers, Max chases his twin obsessions: the lost paintings and Rose Clément.

Tuesday, February 9, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

As It Was Written by Sujatha Hampton
ISBN-13: 9780312584122
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: February 2010

Synopsis (From B&N):

The epic journey of an Indian-American family which unfolds when men and women, Hindus and Catholics, histories and curses, collide

In McLean, Virginia, Dr. Raman Nair lives a life of abounding satisfaction with his tiny wife, Jaya, and his harem of enormous and beautiful daughters. He has been away from his native Kerala, India for so long that he has happily forgotten the ancient Brahmin curse that follows his family like a black cloud, killing one girl for love in every generation. But his wife hasn’t forgotten, nor has his baby sister, Gita. Suddenly his daughters are up to no good and Dr. Raman Nair doesn’t know which way to turn.

As It Was Written marks the arrival of a wonderful new voice in fiction, and a storyteller of the highest order.

Tuesday, February 2, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

(Paperback)

(Hardcover)

The Devlin Diary by Christi Phillips

Synopsis (From the author's site):

From the acclaimed author of The Rossetti Letter comes a dazzling novel of intrigue, passion, and royal secrets that shifts tantalizingly between Restoration-era London and present-day Cambridge.

London, 1672. The past twelve years have brought momentous changes: the restoration of the monarchy, a devastating plague and fire. Yet the city remains a teeming, thriving metropolis, energized by the lusty decadence of Charles II’s court and burgeoning scientific inquiry. Although women enjoy greater freedom, they are not allowed to practice medicine, a restriction that physician Hannah Devlin evades by treating patients that most other doctors shun: the city’s poor.

But Hannah has a special knowledge that Secretary of State Lord Arlington desperately needs. At the king’s Machiavellian court, Hannah attracts the attention of two men, charming courtier Ralph Montagu and anatomist Dr. Edward Strathern, as well as the attention of the powerful College of Physicians, which views her work as criminal. When two influential courtiers are found brutally murdered, their bodies inscribed with arcane symbols, Hannah is drawn into a dangerous investigation by Dr. Strathern, who believes the murders conceal a far-reaching conspiracy that may include Hannah’s late father and the king himself.

Cambridge, 2008. Teaching history at Trinity College is Claire Donovan’s dream come true — until one of her colleagues is found dead on the banks of the River Cam. The only key to the professor’s unsolved murder is a seventeenthcentury diary kept by his last research subject, Hannah Devlin, physician to the king’s mistress. With help from the eclectic collections of Cambridge’s renowned libraries, Claire and historian Andrew Kent follow the clues Devlin left behind, uncovering secrets of London’s dark past and Cambridge’s equally murky present, and discovering that events of three hundred years ago may still have consequences today….

A suspenseful and richly satisfying tale brimming with sharply observed historical detail, The Devlin Diary brings past and present to vivid life. With wit and grace, Christi Phillips holds readers spellbound with an extraordinary novel of secrets, obsession, and the haunting power of the past.

Tuesday, January 26, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Every time I look at this cover, I always have this urge to turn the book the other way around. Do you feel the same way? Or is it just me?

The Opposite House by Helen Oyeyemi
ISBN-13: 9781400078769
Publisher: Random House Inc
Published: June 2008

Synopsis (From B&N):

Lyrical and intensely moving, The Opposite House explores the thin wall between myth and reality through the alternating tales of two young women.

Growing up in London, Maja, a singer, always struggled to negotiate her Afro-Cuban background with her physical home. Yemaya is a Santeria emissary who lives in a mysterious somewherehouse with two doors: one opening to London, the other to Lagos. She is troubled by the ease with which her fellow emissaries have disguised themselves behind the personas of saints and by her inability to recognize them. Interweaving these two tales. Helen Oyeyemi, acclaimed author of The Icarus Girl, spins a dazzling tale about faith, identity, and self-discovery.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Not only I find this cover attractive but I think the premise is very appealing too!

The Book of Fires by Jane Borodale
ISBN-13: 9780670021062
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: January 2010

Synopsis (From B&N):

Reminiscent of Year of Wonders, a captivating debut novel of fireworks, fortune, and a young woman's redemption

It is 1752 and seventeen-year-old Agnes Trussel arrives in London pregnant with an unwanted child. Lost and frightened, she finds herself at the home of Mr. J. Blacklock, a brooding fireworks maker who hires Agnes as an apprentice. As she learns to make rockets, portfires, and fiery rain, she slowly gains his trust and joins his quest to make the most spectacular fireworks the world has ever seen.

Jane Borodale offers a masterful portrayal of a relationship as mysterious and tempestuous as any the Brontës conceived. Her portrait of 1750s London is unforgettable, from the grimy streets to the inner workings of a household where little is as it seems. Through it all, the clock is ticking, for Agnes's secret will not stay secret forever.

Deeply atmospheric and intimately told from Agnes's perspective, The Book of Fires will appeal to readers of Geraldine Brooks, Sarah Waters, Sheri Holman, and Michel Faber.

Tuesday, January 12, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

The Girl Who Chased the Moon by Sarah Addison Allen
ISBN-13: 9780553807219
Publisher: Random House Publishing
Published: March 2010

Synopsis (From B&N):

In her latest enchanting novel, New York Times bestselling author Sarah Addison Allen invites you to a quirky little Southern town with more magic than a full Carolina moon. Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world—no matter how out of place they feel.

Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew—a reclusive, real-life gentle giant—she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.

Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes—which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past?

Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

Tuesday, January 5, 2010

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Where the God of Love Hangs Out by Amy Bloom
ISBN-13: 9781400063574
Publisher: Random House Publishing Group
Published: January 2010

Synopsis (From B&N):

Love, in its many forms and complexities, weaves through this collection by Amy Bloom, the New York Times bestselling author of Away. Bloom's astonishing and astute new work of interconnected stories illuminates the mysteries of passion, family, and friendship.

Propelled by Bloom's dazzling prose, unmistakable voice, and generous wit, Where the God of Love Hangs Out takes us to the margins and the centers of real people's lives, exploring the changes that love and loss create. A young woman is haunted by her roommate's murder; a man and his daughter-in-law confess their sins in the unlikeliest of places. In one quartet of interlocking stories, two middle-aged friends, married to others, find themselves surprisingly drawn to each other, risking all while never underestimating the cost. In another linked set of stories, we follow mother and son for thirty years as their small and uncertain family becomes an irresistible tribe.

Insightful, sensuous, and heartbreaking, these stories of passion and disappointment, life and death, capture deep human truths. As The New Yorker has said, "Amy Bloom gets more meaning into individual sentences than most authors manage in whole books."

Tuesday, December 15, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

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This will be one of those books that I will pick based on the cover alone. Then again, I thought the blurb sounds good and intriguing, especially if it's a mystery featuring Daphne du Maurier, the author of Rebecca.

Murder on the Cliffs by Joanna Challis
ISBN-13: 9780312367145
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: November 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

The storm led me to Padthaway.

I could never resist the allure of dark swirling clouds, windswept leaves sweeping down cobbled lanes or a view of the sea stirring up its defiant nature. The sea possessed a power all of its own and this part of Cornwall, an isolated stretch of rocky cliff tops and unexplored beaches both enchanted and terrified me.

It is not a lie to say I felt drawn out that day, led to a certain destiny...

So begins this new mystery series featuring young Daphne du Maurier, headstrong, adventurous, and standing at the cusp of greatness.

Walking on the cliffs in Cornwall, she stumbles upon the drowned body of a beautiful woman, dressed only in a nightgown, her hair strewn along the rocks, her eyes gazing up to the heavens. Daphne soon learns that the mysterious woman was engaged to marry Lord Hartley of Padthaway, an Elizabethan mansion full of intriguing secrets.

As the daughter of the famous Sir Gerald du Maurier, Daphne is welcomed into the Hartley home, but when the drowning turns out to be murder, Daphne determines to get to the bottom of the mysteries of Padthaway—in part to find fresh inspiration for her writing, and in part because she cannot resist the allure of grand houses and long buried secrets.

Tuesday, December 8, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

I think the title is catchy, but the cover is the one that speaks the most to me.

Too Much Money by Dominick Dunne
ISBN-13: 9780609603871
Publisher: Crown Publishing Group
Published: December 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

"My name is Gus Bailey...It should be pointed out that it is a regular feature of my life that people whisper things in my ear, very private things, about themselves or others. I have always understood the art of listening."

The last two years have been monstrously unpleasant for high-society journalist Gus Bailey. His propensity for gossip has finally gotten him into trouble -- $11 million worth. His problems begin when he falls hook, line, and sinker for a fake story from an unreliable source and repeats it on a radio program. As a result of his flip comments, Gus becomes embroiled in a nasty slander suit brought by Kyle Cramden, the powerful congressman he accuses of murder, and he fears it could mean the end of him.

The stress of the lawsuit makes it difficult for Gus to focus on the novel he has been contracted to write, which is based on the suspicious death of billionaire Konstantin Zacharias. It is a story that has dominated the party conversations of Manhattan's chattering classes for more than two years. The accused murderer is behind bars, but Gus is not convinced that justice was served. There are too many unanswered questions, such as why a paranoid man who did not go anywhere without bodyguards was suddenly left without protection the very night he perished in a tragic fire. Gus believes the answers lie with Konstantin's hot-tempered and vengeful wife, Perla. He intends to uncover the truth, even though doing so will gain him another dangerous enemy.

In true Dominick Dunne fashion, Too Much Money is peppered with thinly veiled fictions, keeping readers guessing about the real-world villains and intrigues that lie beneath its chapters. Dunne revives the world he first introduced in his mega-bestselling novel People like Us, and he brings readers up-to-date on favorite characters such as Ruby and Elias Renthal, Lil Altemus, and, of course, the beloved Gus Bailey. Once again, he invites us to pull up a seat at the most important tables at Swifty's, get past the doormen at esteemed social clubs like The Butterfield, and venture into the innermost chambers of the Upper East Side's most sumptuous mansions.

Too Much Money is a satisfying, mischievous, and compulsively readable tale by the most brilliant society chronicler of our time -- the man who knows all the secrets and isn't afraid to share them.

Tuesday, December 1, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Death Without Tenure by Joanne Dobson
ISBN-13: 9781590587096
Publisher: Poisoned Pen Press
Published: December 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

Professor Karen Pelletier is about to realize her dream; after six years in the English Department at New England’s exclusive Enfield College, she is up for tenure. Then Professor Joseph Lone Wolf, her rival for the one tenured spot in the department, whose ethnicity gives him minority-preference status, is found dead from an overdose of Peyote buttons. First on the list of suspects, Karen is harassed by a homicide cop with a grudge against his colleague, the love of Karen’s life, Lieutenant Charlie Piotrowski. On campus, political passions rage. Two of Karen’s favorite students, Khalida Ahmed, a hijab-wearing Muslim, and Hank Brody, a coal-miner’s son on full scholarship, are caught up in the furor. Without the presence of her beloved Charlie, now serving a tour of duty with the National Guard in Iraq, will Karen be able to survive the investigation, protect her students, and find a permanent niche in the world of academe? And what if the killer feels the need to strike again?

Tuesday, November 24, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

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What do you think of these two covers? I have to say I love the first cover most!

Magic Under Glass by Jaclyn Dolamore

Synopsis (From B&N):

Nimira is a foreign music-hall girl forced to dance for mere pennies. When wealthy sorcerer Hollin Parry hires her to sing with a piano-playing automaton, Nimira believes it is the start of a new and better life. In Parry's world, however, buried secrets are beginning to stir. Unsettling below-stairs rumors swirl about ghosts, a madwoman roaming the halls, and Parry's involvement with a league of sorcerers who torture fairies for sport. Then Nimira discovers the spirit of a fairy gentleman named Erris is trapped inside the clockwork automaton, waiting for someone to break his curse. The two fall into a love that seems hopeless, and breaking the curse becomes a race against time, as not just their love, but the fate of the entire magical world may be in peril.

Tuesday, November 17, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

The Everafter by Amy Huntley
ISBN-13: 9780061776793
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: September 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

Madison Stanton doesn't know where she is or how she got there. But she does know this - she is dead. And alone in a vast, dark space. The only company Maddy has in this place are luminescent objects that turn out to be all the things she lost while she was alive. And soon she discovers that, with these artifacts, she can reexperience - and even change - moments from her life.

Her first kiss.

A trip to Disney World.

Her sister's wedding.

A disastrous sleepover.

In reliving these moments, Maddy learns illuminating and frightening truths about her life - and death.

Wednesday, November 11, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

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I found two covers for Angels of Destruction by Keith Donohue. Which one do you prefer?

Synopsis (From B&N):

From a talented new author comes a poignant and haunting novel of creation and desire, passion and madness, art and love.

Margaret Quinn lives alone, quietly mourning the disappearance of her only child, who fled ten years earlier to join a radical student group known as the Angels of Destruction.

On a cold winter’s night, a nine-year-old girl arrives on Margaret’s doorstep, claiming to be an orphan with no place to go. This child beguiles Margaret, and together they hatch a plan to pass her off as her newly found granddaughter, Norah Quinn.

Their conspiracy is made vulnerable by Norah’s magical revelations to the children of the town, and by a lone figure shadowing the girl, who threatens to reveal the child’s true identity and purpose. Who are these strangers really? And what is their connection to the past, the Angels, and Margaret’s long-missing daughter?

Tuesday, November 3, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

Sunflowers by Sheramy Bundrick
ISBN-13: 9780061765278
Publisher: HarperCollins Publishers
Published: October 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

"I'd heard about him but had never seen him, the foreigner with the funny name who wandered the countryside painting pictures."

From a talented new author comes a poignant and haunting novel of creation and desire, passion and madness, art and love.

A young prostitute seeking temporary refuge from the brothel, Rachel awakens in a beautiful garden in Arles to discover she is being sketched by a red-haired man in a yellow straw hat. This is no ordinary artist but the eccentric painter Vincent van Gogh—and their meeting marks the beginning of a remarkable relationship. He arrives at their first assignation at No. 1, Rue du Bout d'Arles, with a bouquet of wildflowers and a request to paint her—and before long, a deep, intense attachment grows between Rachel and the gifted, tormented soul.

But the sanctuary Rachel seeks from her own troubled past cannot be found here, for demons war within Vincent's heart and mind. And one shocking act will expose the harsh, inescapable truth about the artist she has grown to love more than life.

Tuesday, October 27, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

* * * * *

The Concubine's Daughter by Pai Kit Fai
ISBN-13: 9780312355210
Publisher: St. Martin's Press
Published: September 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

An epic, heart-wrenching story of a mother and daughter’s journey to their destiny.

Lotus Feet. He would give his daughter the dainty feet of a courtesan. This would enhance her beauty and her price, making her future shine like a new coin. He smiled to himself, pouring fresh tea. And it would stop her from running away…

When the young concubine of an old farmer in rural China gives birth to a daughter called Li-Xia, or “Beautiful One,” the child seems destined to become a concubine herself. Li refuses to submit to her fate, outwitting her father’s orders to bind her feet and escaping the silk farm with an English sea captain. Li takes her first steps toward fulfilling her mother’s dreams of becoming a scholar—but her final triumph must be left to her daughter, Su Sing, “Little Star,” in a journey that will take her from remote mountain refuges to the perils of Hong Kong on the eve of World War II.

Tuesday, October 20, 2009

Cover Attraction

This is a weekly event hosted by Marcia of The Printed Page every Wednesday.

Marcia says:

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The Girl on Legare Street by Karen White
ISBN-13: 9780451227997
Publisher: Penguin Group (USA)
Published: November 2009

Synopsis (From B&N):

Acclaimed author Karen White returns with the sequel to the national bestseller The House on Tradd Street.

Melanie has grown accustomed to renovating old houses, but she never imagined she'd have to renovate her own life to include her estranged mother. Ginnette Prioleau Middleton left Charleston thirty-five years ago. She's returned wanting to protect the daughter she's never really known after receiving an ominous premonition.

Melanie never wanted to see her mother again, but with some prodding from her partner, Jack Trenholm, she agrees-and begins to rebuild their relationship. Together Melanie and Ginnette buy back their old home. With their combined psychic abilities they expect to unearth some ghosts. But what they find is a vengeful dark spirit whose strength has been growing for decades. It will take unearthing long buried secrets to beat this demon and save what's left of Melanie's family...