In this heartfelt memoir from one of the youngest recipients of the transorbital lobotamy, Howard Dully shares the story of a painfully dysfunctional childhood, a misspent youth, his struggle to claim the life that was taken from him, and his redemption.

At twelve, Howard Dully was guilty of the same crimes as other boys his age: he was moody and messy, rambunctious with his brothers, contrary just to prove a point, and perpetually at odds with his parents. Yet somehow, this normal boy became one of the youngest people on whom Dr. Walter Freeman performed his barbaric transorbital—or ice pick—lobotomy.

Abandoned by his family within a year of the surgery, Howard spent his teen years in mental institutions, his twenties in jail, and his thirties in a bottle. It wasn’t until he was in his forties that Howard began to pull his life together. But even as he began to live the “normal” life he had been denied, Howard struggled with one question: Why?

There were only three people who would know the truth: Freeman, the man who performed the procedure; Lou, his cold and demanding stepmother who brought Howard to the doctor’s attention; and his father, Rodney. Of the three, only Rodney, the man who hadn’t intervened on his son’s behalf, was still living. Time was running out. Stable and happy for the first time in decades, Howard began to search for answers.

Through his research, Howard met other lobotomy patients and their families, talked with one of Freeman’s sons about his father’s controversial life’s work, and confronted Rodney about his complicity. And, in the archive where the doctor’s files are stored, he finally came face to face with the truth.

Revealing what happened to a child no one—not his father, not the medical community, not the state—was willing to protect, My Lobotomy exposes a shameful chapter in the history of the treatment of mental illness. Yet, ultimately, this is a powerful and moving chronicle of the life of one man.

“Stitched together with love, this is a story just waiting for your favorite reading chair. With her signature style and skill, Susan Wiggs delivers an intricate patchwork of old wounds and new beginnings, romance and the healing power of friendship, wrapped in a lovely little community that’s hiding a few secrets of its own.”
   — Lisa Wingate, New York Times Bestselling author of Before We Were Yours

The #1 New York Times bestselling author brings us her most ambitious and provocative work yet—a searing and timely novel that explores the most volatile issue of our time—domestic violence.

At the break of dawn, Caroline Shelby rolls into Oysterville, Washington, a tiny hamlet at the edge of the raging Pacific.

She’s come home.

Home to a place she thought she’d left forever, home of her heart and memories, but not her future. Ten years ago, Caroline launched a career in the glamorous fashion world of Manhattan. But her success in New York imploded on a wave of scandal and tragedy, forcing her to flee to the only safe place she knows.

And in the backseat of Caroline’s car are two children who were orphaned in a single chilling moment—five-year-old Addie and six-year-old Flick. She’s now their legal guardian—a role she’s not sure she’s ready for.

But the Oysterville she left behind has changed. Her siblings have their own complicated lives and her aging parents are hoping to pass on their thriving seafood restaurant to the next generation. And there’s Will Jensen, a decorated Navy SEAL who’s also returned home after being wounded overseas. Will and Caroline were forever friends as children, with the promise of something more . . . until he fell in love with Sierra, Caroline’s best friend and the most beautiful girl in town. With her modeling jobs drying up, Sierra, too, is on the cusp of reinventing herself.

Caroline returns to her favorite place: the sewing shop owned by Mrs. Lindy Bloom, the woman who inspired her and taught her to sew. There she discovers that even in an idyllic beach town, there are women living with the deepest of secrets. Thus begins the Oysterville Sewing Circle—where women can join forces to support each other through the troubles they keep hidden.

Yet just as Caroline regains her creativity and fighting spirit, and the children begin to heal from their loss, an unexpected challenge tests her courage and her heart. This time, though, Caroline is not going to run away. She’s going to stand and fight for everything—and everyone—she loves.

A cabin in the woods.

A hostage situation.

A sabotaged mission.

The trauma that rocked her world as a young girl threatens her even in her adult life.

As a seven-year-old, Seabring Roberts was held captive in a cabin with her younger brother, Andrew, while her father was forced to sabotage a crucial military jet engine project. In spite of his cooperation, things went south when negotiating the safe return of his children. His treason cost him not only his life but that of his four-year-old son. The seven-year old daughter was left alone in the middle of the woods, with the bodies of her younger brother and her father, with no resources or instruction on how to survive the wilderness. A trucker found her in the desert, hungry, cold and terrified.

The perpetrators were never found, and her father’s treachery remains well-documented.

Two decades after Seabring’s safe return home, and having spent years dealing with the mental trauma of her capture, she works as a reporter at the San Francisco Daily Chapter. The history is dead and buried. The case has been closed, naming Tom Roberts as the saboteur, as no contrary evidence could be recovered.

The Air Force Special Investigations team did make one attempt, ten-years ago, to find some evidence to clear her father’s name and failed. Only one officer, Captain Nick Anderson believed that there was more to this mothballed case. After this lengthy absence, he is back in Seabring’s shadow, watching her movements. She follows increasingly more dangerous leads in a bid to bring justice to the memory of her father and brother. Until finally, she gets so close to the truth it starts boxing her in.

In a clash as past meets the present – it’s fight or flight.

When sixteen-year-old Hannah Sheraton is arrested for the murder of her stepgrandfather, the chief justice of the California Supreme court, her distraught mother turns to her old college roommate, Josie Baylor-Bates, for help. Josie, once a hot-shot criminal defense attorney, left the fast track behind for a small practice in Hermosa Beach, California. But Hannah Sheraton intrigues her and, when the girl is charged as an adult, Josie cannot turn her back. But the deeper she digs the more Josie realizes that politics, the law and family relationships create a combustible and dangerous situation. When the horrible truth is uncovered it can save Hannah Sheraton or destroy them both.

"This story was inspired by a case my husband handled. As a superior court judge he had to sentence a minor to life in prison. It made me wonder how I felt about minors arrested for violent crimes. Are they most vulnerable among us - capable or horrible violence, perceived as adults and yet emotionally still children?" Rebecca Forster

"An enthralling read, with colorful, well-developed characters and the unique atmosphere of the California beach communities." Nancy Taylor Rosenberg

"Blending complex psychological character portraits with spot-on accurage courtroom drmaa, Forster's riveting legal thriller keeps the plot twists coming until the last, satisfying page." - Alafair Burke
 

A disrespected ship, exiled to lonely patrol in the dark corners of the solar system.
A crew of screw-ups, written off by the entire fleet.
They're about to change everything.
If they don't blow themselves up first.

Join the Endurance's crew - a trigger-happy first officer, a hyperactive engineer, a shy covert operative, a conspiracy-spouting physicist, and a captain trying to earn his way back into his superiors' good graces - as they explore the galaxy by accident and trip their way into saving the world.

This anthology includes all five Endurance novellas, as well as two bonus short stories.

In this modern-day "lively re-imagining of classical mythology" (Deborah Harkness), when a string of women are murdered in an ancient pagan ritual, Selene DiSilvia -- known by some as the goddess Artemis -- hears their cries for help and takes up her bow once more.
Manhattan has many secrets. Some are older than the city itself.

The city sleeps. In the predawn calm, Selene DiSilva finds the body of a young woman washed ashore, gruesomely mutilated and wreathed in laurel. Her ancient rage returns, along with the memory of a promise she made long ago -- when her name was Artemis.
Jordanna Max Brodsky's acclaimed debut sets Greek Gods against a modern Manhattan backdrop, creating an unputdownable blend of myth and mystery.

The Olympus Bound series:The ImmortalsWinter of the GodsOlympus Bound
For more from Jordanna Max Brodsky, check out:The Wolf in the Whale

Captured by Comanche as a child, Molly Hart was assumed dead. Ten years later, Texas Ranger Matt Ryan finds a woman with the same blue eyes.

“A rousing, spicy story of long lost love in the gritty Old West. The Wren will make your pulse flutter and your heart sing.” —Ann Charles, USA Today Bestselling Author of the Award-winning Deadwood Mystery Series

Ten years have passed since Molly Hart’s ranch was attacked, her folks murdered and she was abducted. Now, at nineteen, she’s finally returning home to North Texas after spending the remainder of her childhood with a tribe of Kwahadi Comanche. What she finds is a deserted home coated with dust and the passage of time, the chilling discovery of her own gravesite, and the presence of a man she thought never to see again.

Matt Ryan is pushed by a restless wind to the broken-down remains of the Hart ranch. Recently recovered from an imprisonment that nearly ended his life, the drive for truth and fairness has all but abandoned him. For ten years he faithfully served the U.S. Army and the Texas Rangers, seeking justice for the brutal murder of a little girl, only to find closure and healing beyond his grasp. Returning to the place where it all began, he’s stunned to encounter a woman with the same blue eyes as the child he can’t put out of his mind.

A sensuous historical western romance set in 1877 Texas.

2003 CAPA WINNER The Romance Studio ~ Best New Author Traditional
2004 Holt Medallion FINALIST ~ Best First Book
2004 Texas Gold FINALIST ~ Historical Category

“…McCaffrey’s mastery of setting and historic details gives this western gritty realism.” ~ RT Book Reviews

“…a heart wrenchingly emotional story…” ~ Coffeetime Romance

“The main characters were well matched and the secondary characters were just as good. Don’t miss this incredible read in what is sure to be a great series to follow.” ~ The Romance Studio

“Handsome, rugged heroes, strong heroines and a super storyline make The Wren a keeper.” ~ The Best Reviews

“…well written…captivated me from the first line to the poignant last.” ~ Novelspot

Don’t miss all the books in the series~
The Wren: Book 1
The Dove: Book 2
The Sparrow: Book 3
The Blackbird: Book 4
The Shiny Penny: Short Story 4.1 (available free exclusively to Kristy’s newsletter subscribers)
Song Of The Wren: Novella 4.2 (available free exclusively to Kristy’s newsletter subscribers)
The Bluebird: Book 5
Echo of the Plains: Novella 5.5

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“With characters so real they feel like dear friends and a compelling storyline, this is a beautiful, special novel. I loved it and didn’t want it to end!”  
—Liane Moriarty, #1 New York Times bestselling author of Big Little Lies
 
“A captivating tale of love, friendship, and self-actualization.”
—People

Set in Depression-era America, a breathtaking story of five extraordinary women and their remarkable journey through the mountains of Kentucky and beyond, from the author of Me Before You

Alice Wright marries handsome American Bennett Van Cleve hoping to escape her stifling life in England.  But small-town Kentucky quickly proves equally claustrophobic, especially living alongside her overbearing father-in-law. So when a call goes out for a team of women to deliver books as part of Eleanor Roosevelt’s new traveling library, Alice signs on enthusiastically.

The leader, and soon Alice's greatest ally, is Margery, a smart-talking, self-sufficient woman who's never asked a man's permission for anything. They will be joined by three other singular women who become known as the Packhorse Librarians of Kentucky. 

What happens to them--and to the men they love--becomes an unforgettable drama of loyalty, justice, humanity and passion. These heroic women refuse to be cowed by men or by convention. And though they face all kinds of dangers in a landscape that is at times breathtakingly beautiful, at others brutal, they’re committed to their job: bringing books to people who have never had any, arming them with facts that will change their lives.

Based on a true story rooted in America’s past, The Giver of Stars is unparalleled in its scope and epic in its storytelling. Funny, heartbreaking, enthralling, it is destined to become a modern classic--a richly rewarding novel of women’s friendship, of true love, and of what happens when we reach beyond our grasp for the great beyond. 

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE!

Three years.

Three years I’ve fantasized about my boss. Three years wondering what it would be like to have him touch me, to be trapped under that deliciously hard body while he makes every one of my fantasies come true.

I’m not his type. Hell, I’m not even sure the man knows my first name. But I’d make a deal with the devil himself for one night in his bed. I never suspected that beneath his cold exterior there was a fire that burned for me. Why would I? He’s never even touched me.

Until tonight. Tonight, he’s determined to make me his and – God help me – I’m going to let him.

Author’s note: This novel contains explicit and steamy sex scenes that may not be your cup of tea. It is intended for mature readers only.

Register entry: 3987, Sheffield, England, 1912.

When a mute criminal known as 'the Street Arab' is taken into custody, police call on court missionary, Robert Elliott, to try and unravel the enigma. With the help of Mary O' Driscoll, a sharply perceptive nurse, Elliott reveals the prisoner to be Walter Stanford, a man with a blemished past and who is about to change their lives forever.

As Elliott tries to understand the significance of a mysterious note found in a locket on the cell floor, Mary becomes haunted by a series of lucid dreams about Walter's life and a dark harrowing crime. But why have they all been brought together? Is it simply fate? Or could it be strange intervention to bring closure to a chilling past?

One thing is certain…the answers have consequences!

What readers are saying…

“I adored reading this book...”
“Dark and foreboding one minute - so genteel the next - absolutely brilliant!”
“Some days I found it difficult to put down as I was so engrossed.”

In the near future, a virus has whittled down the human race. The remaining population struggles to survive in a world ravaged by extreme weather. A reticent government provides food, vaccines and keeps the ultra-fast trains running. Cities are empty, farms deserted, factories abandoned. The world is running on a skeleton crew.

Nick lives at High Meadow med center. The people there stay hopeful as they work toward self-sufficiency. He counts survivors for Angus’s research. He wants his life to stay as normal as possible in a world he barely understands.

Wisp is a fugitive. He lives off the land, moving from town to town, hiding his extrasensory skills. He is a Finder and will accept the right kind of job. Silence and subterfuge keep him alive.

Lily is a young girl with long brown hair and eyes the color of ripe cherries. She is searching for her brother. They were separated while fleeing armed men. She is part of something that started before her birth.

When these three lives intersect, a chain reaction of death and violence will change the course of the future and impact the very survival of the human race.
 

In this spellbinding novella, E.J. Stevens weaves a tale of murder, necromancy, and demonic possession that brings together characters from her Whitechapel Paranormal Society Victorian horror series and award-winning Ivy Granger Psychic Detective urban fantasy series on the fog-shrouded cobblestones of 36 Craven Street.

The discovery of bricked up skeletal remains at 36 Craven Street point to something more diabolical than an illegal anatomy school. The tool marks on the bones, arcane sigils of great power, indicate more than mere butchery, more than enlightened experimentation. The signs, omens, and portents support the crown's greatest fears. A great evil is being unleashed upon the gaslit streets of London, a blood-drenched shadow reaching skeletal fingers beyond the slums of Whitechapel.

We must stamp out this demonic plague for the sake of our Queen, our Country, and our immortal souls. - Cora Drummond, Whitechapel Paranormal Society

Collecting human souls is a thankless job, nearly as tedious as acting as solicitor to the fae. But when the demon Forneus enters an opium den searching for men eager to trade their souls for the ill-smelling weed, he stumbles on a plot so devious, so heinous, he's jealous that he hadn't thought of it himself.

There's nothing like a maniacal plot to unleash Hell on earth to break the boredom of immortality. - Forneus, Grand Marquis of Hell

Five seemingly ordinary women with minor psychic gifts and an exceptional ability to solve supernatural crimes, skills honed during their service with the Special Paranormal Research Branch a secret security agency tasked with protecting Queen and country from inhuman forces, must now use their singular expertise to unravel a dreadful string of brutal murders.

Much maligned by their male counterparts within the S.P.R.B., the women of the Whitechapel Paranormal Society are on their own to face a sinister dark mastermind as dismembered bodies are set across London's East End like figures on a game board.

Can they predict the killer's next move--a bloody, ritualistic murder that might tip the scales and give demons dominion over all of London--before he strikes again?

Set against the backdrop of pre and post-Ripper Victorian London, Whitechapel Paranormal Society series answers the question of how cases such as the Thames Torso Murders, Craven Street Bones, Tottenham Court Road Mystery, Whitechapel Murders, Goswell Road Mystery, and the Vanishing Girls of West Ham might have been solved if put in the capable hands of a team of female special agents.

The Ivy Granger Psychic Detective series is an award-winning urban fantasy series known for heart-pounding action, quirky characters, and supernatural horrors. The Whitechapel Paranormal Society series is a gaslamp fantasy series set in London's East End.

The USA Today Bestseller

From the author of The Only Woman in the Room comes the mesmerizing tale of what kind of woman could have inspired an American dynasty.

Clara Kelley is not who they think she is. She's not the experienced Irish maid who was hired to work in one of Pittsburgh's grandest households. She's a poor farmer's daughter with nowhere to go and nothing in her pockets. But the other woman with the same name has vanished, and pretending to be her just might get Clara some money to send back home.

If she can keep up the ruse, that is. Serving as a lady's maid in the household of Andrew Carnegie requires skills she doesn't have, answering to an icy mistress who rules her sons and her domain with an iron fist. What Clara does have is a resolve as strong as the steel Pittsburgh is becoming famous for, coupled with an uncanny understanding of business, and Andrew begins to rely on her. But Clara can't let her guard down, not even when Andrew becomes something more than an employer. Revealing her past might ruin her future — and her family's.

With captivating insight and heart, Carnegie's Maid tells the story of one brilliant woman who may have spurred Andrew Carnegie's transformation from ruthless industrialist into the world's first true philanthropist.

From the author of the multi-million copy bestseller The Tattooist of Auschwitz comes a new novel based on a riveting true story of love and resilience.

Her beauty saved her — and condemned her.

Cilka is just sixteen years old when she is taken to Auschwitz-Birkenau Concentration Camp in 1942, where the commandant immediately notices how beautiful she is. Forcibly separated from the other women prisoners, Cilka learns quickly that power, even unwillingly taken, equals survival.

When the war is over and the camp is liberated, freedom is not granted to Cilka: She is charged as a collaborator for sleeping with the enemy and sent to a Siberian prison camp. But did she really have a choice? And where do the lines of morality lie for Cilka, who was send to Auschwitz when she was still a child?

In Siberia, Cilka faces challenges both new and horribly familiar, including the unwanted attention of the guards. But when she meets a kind female doctor, Cilka is taken under her wing and begins to tend to the ill in the camp, struggling to care for them under brutal conditions.

Confronting death and terror daily, Cilka discovers a strength she never knew she had. And when she begins to tentatively form bonds and relationships in this harsh, new reality, Cilka finds that despite everything that has happened to her, there is room in her heart for love.

From child to woman, from woman to healer, Cilka's journey illuminates the resilience of the human spirit—and the will we have to survive.

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER 
Two starcrossed magicians engage in a deadly game of cunning in The Night Circus, the spellbinding bestseller that has captured the world's imagination. 

The circus arrives without warning. No announcements precede it. It is simply there, when yesterday it was not. Within the black-and-white striped canvas tents is an utterly unique experience full of breathtaking amazements. It is called Le Cirque des Rêves, and it is only open at night.

But behind the scenes, a fierce competition is underway: a duel between two young magicians, Celia and Marco, who have been trained since childhood expressly for this purpose by their mercurial instructors. Unbeknownst to them both, this is a game in which only one can be left standing. Despite the high stakes, Celia and Marco soon tumble headfirst into love, setting off a domino effect of dangerous consequences, and leaving the lives of everyone, from the performers to the patrons, hanging in the balance.

Look for Erin Morgenstern's new novel, The Starless Sea, coming November 2019. 

THE FIRST NOVEL IN THE USA TODAY BESTSELLING ALEX CRAFT SERIES!

Grave witch Alex Craft can speak to the dead, but that doesn’t mean she likes what they have to say.

As a private investigator and consultant for the police, Alex Craft has seen a lot of dark magic. But even though she's on good terms with Death himself, nothing has prepared her for her latest case. When she's raising a "shade" involved in a high profile murder, it attacks her, and then someone makes an attempt on her life.

Someone really doesn't want her to know what the dead have to say, and she'll have to work with mysterious homicide detective Falin Andrews to figure out why....

Journey to the country of Jaiya, in a world not quite like ours. Here the humans wield magical powers and fight against an Empire which seeks to enslave them, but they share their world with insect people and trollfolk, and stranger things lurk in the shadows…

Vanti would be happy to spend her life in dance and choreography, but her family chooses her as their champion in a deadly gladiators’ tournament. To save her country from enslavement, she must defeat King Obiar the Conqueror and his magical powers. But will the brooding trainer named Gurion be her guide in the battle to come…or a dangerously handsome distraction?

Note: Tyrant is meant as a standalone with a “happily ever after” ending. However, the heroes in the later books in this series are descended from Vanti and Gurion, who are also the ancestors of some of the characters in the original Jaiya series. The romance is on the sweet side, but there is some violence due to the villains’ actions and the tournament in which the main characters fight.

The first novel in the New York Times bestselling Lost Fleet series!

The Alliance has been fighting the Syndics for a century—and losing badly. Now its fleet is crippled and stranded in enemy territory. Their only hope is a man who's emerged from a century-long hibernation to find he has been heroically idealized beyond belief....

Captain John “Black Jack” Geary’s exploits are known to every schoolchild. Revered for his heroic “last stand” in the early days of the war, he was presumed dead. But a century later, Geary miraculously returns and reluctantly takes command of the Alliance Fleet as it faces annihilation by the Syndics.

Appalled by the hero-worship around him, Geary is nevertheless a man who will do his duty. And he knows that bringing the stolen Syndic hypernet key safely home is the Alliance’s one chance to win the war. But to do that, Geary will have to live up to the impossibly heroic “Black Jack” legend....

Soon to be a feature film from the creators of Downton Abbey starring Elizabeth McGovern, The Chaperone is a New York Times-bestselling novel about the woman who chaperoned an irreverent Louise Brooks to New York City in the 1920s and the summer that would change them both.
 
Only a few years before becoming a famous silent-film star and an icon of her generation, a fifteen-year-old Louise Brooks leaves Wichita, Kansas, to study with the prestigious Denishawn School of Dancing in New York. Much to her annoyance, she is accompanied by a thirty-six-year-old chaperone, who is neither mother nor friend. Cora Carlisle, a complicated but traditional woman with her own reasons for making the trip, has no idea what she’s in for. Young Louise, already stunningly beautiful and sporting her famous black bob with blunt bangs, is known for her arrogance and her lack of respect for convention. Ultimately, the five weeks they spend together will transform their lives forever.
 
For Cora, the city holds the promise of discovery that might answer the question at the core of her being, and even as she does her best to watch over Louise in this strange and bustling place she embarks on a mission of her own. And while what she finds isn’t what she anticipated, she is liberated in a way she could not have imagined. Over the course of Cora’s relationship with Louise, her eyes are opened to the promise of the twentieth century and a new understanding of the possibilities for being fully alive.
 
Drawing on the rich history of the 1920s, ’30s, and beyond—from the orphan trains to Prohibition, flappers,  and the onset of the Great Depression to the burgeoning movement for equal rights and new opportunities for women—Laura Moriarty’s The Chaperone illustrates how rapidly everything, from fashion and hemlines to values and attitudes, was changing at this time and what a vast difference it all made for Louise Brooks, Cora Carlisle, and others like them.

A forbidden romance about pain that binds us together...

Five years ago we lived in the same house. He was the ultimate bad boy.

And my foster brother.

Now he's back. Tougher, harder, meaner. All of it aimed at me, because I was the one who sent him away. It's payback time. He wants his pound of flesh, and I am helpless to say no.

****************

BETTER WHEN IT HURTS is a full-length romance that does stand alone. Fair warning: Blue is a cruel bastard and a dirty talker!