Into the Vines – Kim Troike

Published in 2015 and written by American author Kim Troike. 

While driving on the road Daniela got to witness a terrible accident, she quickly pulled the passenger from the vehicle but wasn’t that lucky when she attempted to save the driver. This event will change Francis’ life forever.

Sometime later she gets enrolled in a cooking school in France, there she has the chance to meet handsome Olivier who owns the grape vines where the school is located. In her class she also gets acquainted with Brie; a 40-year-old woman who’s trying to get the best of the experience by learning the French cuisine.

Shortly after Daniela and Olivier start going out and a new attraction arises between them. Olivier shows her around town and they promise to keep in touch after the course is over and she have to go back to the US where she’s from. But… things were not as simple as they planned and tragedy strikes on both sides.

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What I love about Dublin – Amanda Laneley

A romance novel published in 2016 and written by Chilean author Amanda Laneley. 
Sara has always dreamt about traveling and touring around the world, but her boyfriend Antonio has already designed a scheme for their future together. Settling down in Chile with a stable job and a wedding to ensure a well-planned existence is the most sensible conclusion Antonio has come up with.

Sara has been putting off her fantasy trip to Dublin and the delay has caused differences in their relationship, leading them to a breakup. As a result Sara makes up her mind to give a try to a job proposal at an Irish university in Dublin, and right then and there she sets off in search of new experiences and whatever fate throws at her.

Upon arriving to the new city Sara rents a room in a house shared by a group of friends from different countries. Among them there is Daniel, a handsome Irish lad eager to visit Australia; and determined to make his dream come true.

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Till Life Do Us Part – Carmen Stefanescu

Published in 2016 and written by Romanian author Carmen Stefanescu.

Barbara Heyer has been able to communicate with the spirits of the deceased ever since she lost her grandfather when she was a child. And it was while driving her car that she heard a female voice, named Kathleen, telling her she had just been murdered. Barbara did not have the chance to figure out whose voice was it until later when the news of her brother Colin’s girlfriend’s death was revealed. As a consequence, Colin became the main suspect of the crime.

Detective Patrick Fischer is assigned to the case and will team up with Barbara and use her power to work along with the police and try to prove Colin’s innocence. But in the process, what they’re about to discover goes way beyond current circumstances and they will be thrown back in time in order for them to understand where they really come from and why they’re together in this venture at this time. There might be a stronger connection between them than the one they’re working on.

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Stone Cottage – Maighread MacKay

Published in 2015 by Canadian author Maighread MacKay. Victoria Anne is waiting at the window, impatiently wishing for her husband’s arrival; because as soon as he comes home everything will be alright again. 

More than a hundred years later there’s Rebecca, a contemporary woman working at her father’s company. Struggling to prove herself by her own merits and build her place in the business.

Tragedy strikes Annie’s life and she’s hoping her husband can fix it, what she hasn’t realized though is that everybody has long gone, including herself. Unable to face what’s happened in her life she’s stuck in this plane, turning away from the light every time it appears before her. Thus she won’t move on until Rebecca comes to save her.

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Introducing Charlotte - Charlotte Hains

Puablished in 2015. Badly battered and bruised Charlotte hardly escaped from an abusive relationship that had sent her to hospital. Right after being allowed to leave the medical center she runs into old school friend Anthony; who, visibly shocked at the sight, offers to take her in for as long as she wanted.

Not knowing how to handle depression she spends some time at Anthony’s place; locked away from others and trying hard to get her life back on track. To go through the process of recovering she will need Anthony’s friends to help her to learn the life lessons that will guide her out of the darkness. With the purpose of starting anew she will have to get a new life, find a job and meet new people.

What she doesn’t know though is that acquiring the desirable lifestyle will require a lot of strength and an open-mind to understand different ways of thinking and eventually accept modern concepts she might not have been prepared for up till now.

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Cassie’s Hope – Sue Lloyd

Published in 2016. Cassie is a fourteen-year-old girl who is undergoing a medical treatment in order to fight leukemia. While still in hospital she falls in love with an adorable beagle when watching a TV report on biomedical research at an animal lab called MARK. The dog had been on a trial to test the side effects of a second version of Diosyl; a new medication that is attempted to be used on patients just like Cassie.

Even through the screen Cassie could not resist the hypnotic influence those big hazel eyes put onto her, and decided right there and then that she would become Hope’s savior. Hope was her name and she was about to turn everybody’s world around. From now on a strong bond arises between the two of them.

This young adult story will surely move your heart, as Cassie bravely focuses on her own healing as much as on rescuing her little buddy who is inexorably scheduled to be put to sleep after the trial is over. Cassie then wants to offer her a forever home and a happy life.

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Thorn of a Soldier – Piper Presley

It was published in 2016. Marisa, a young lady recently married to soldier Clark Brody, with whom she tries to start a life together, finds it hard to cope with the typical difficulties of married life with a military husband. The challenges she must deal with, due to the conditions imposed by her husband’s profession, makes her wonder what life would be if instead of having a soldier husband she had a rich man willing to indulge her with expensive gifts that an ordinary recruit could ever grant her.

In addition to this they will have to spend a year apart since the Army requires Brody’s deployment, and while the couple plans how to survive the distance Marisa reunites with her ex-boyfriend who thought she had long forgotten. Kenneth then is a mature and wealthy man who knows how to use his strategies to captivate a woman without a bit of shyness or guilt.

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Born - Tara Brown

Published in 2012. Emma, a 19-year-old girl, who has lived alone in a hut in the woods for a decade since her father passed away, was taught the basic rules of survival and how she should hide and protect herself from the infected. Up to this day she has followed the rules as she was instructed and avoided any contact with other human beings; she only has her faithful wolf Leo as her sole company.

But one day she hears the chilling knocking at her hut’s door; a crack she had feared all these years and now the panic confirmed that the time had come. For a few seconds she tries to make up her mind on what to do, and then takes her gun and decides to pull the door ajar.

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The Trojan Horse (2) – Masada – JJ Benítez

Written in 1986. Trojan Horse 2 reproduces the second time travel Jason and Elysium made back to Palestine year 30, two American travelers who stayed 11 days in the company of Jesus during his passion and death and the preceding days. The first trip ended after the Galilean apparent resurrection which the explorers had no opportunity to confirm.

An unexpected incident occurred during the first trip forced the Trojan Horse project to send the two militars on a new expedition. Among the instruments that Jason and Elysium took with them to carry out their mission was a microphone that the Major had hidden in a vase in the room where the Last Supper took place, and due to an earthquake Jason was forced to leave and return to the spaceship for the journey back to 1973.

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Mrs. Dalloway – Virginia Woolf

Written in 1925. Clarissa Dalloway plans to throw a party tonight; so she will get some flowers to decorate her home and will make all arrangements for the great evening. Unexpectedly a visitor comes to her residence, an old boyfriend of hers she hasn’t seen for a long time and so she spends a short while having a superficial conversation in order to avoid alluding to episodes that Peter Walsh does not want to reveal.

The story unfolds in the early twentieth century and describes the features of English society at the time, being Mrs. Dalloway the typical upper-class woman who organizes meetings in which the senior members of the community regularly attend.

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As a Man Thinketh – James Allen

Published in 1902. "The man is literally what he thinks, his character is the sum of all his thoughts", James Allen carefully explains the process behind a sustained positive thinking and the impact it generates in our circumstances.

The events in our lives do not occur by chance but are the logical result of a persistent mental process through constant practice and patience that human being becomes the master of his life.

Certainly man can not directly influence on the conditions of everyday life, but actually can, through his thinking, influence indirectly and affect his reality, and thus shape his experiences.

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The Gravedigger’s Daughter – Joyce Carol Oates

It was published in 2007. After the escape of Nazi Germany, the Schwart family makes its journey across the Atlantic towards the American territory. And it is during this expedition that Rebecca Schwart comes into this world, a creature that joins the family not like the joy of a new descendent but as the straw that breaks the camel’s back, due to the load of difficulties in which is immersed this group of Jews who aspires to become immigrants of the United States.

Having reached the new continent, the father, a former school teacher is forced by circumstances to take the position of the town gravedigger, taking his entire family to an old shack built of stone within the domains of the cemetery.

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And Then There Were None - Agatha Christie

Published in 1939. Eight people were called to spend a holiday on an island. The invitations were sent on behalf of Mr. and Mrs. U.N. Owen, identified as old acquaintances with whom they had a brief encounter at some time in the past. And now with the pretext of a job offer or participation in a business they are drawn to the island to spend a few summer days.

The letters of invitation allude to the occasion that the alleged interview with Mr. and Mrs. U.N. Owen took place, although none of the addressees had a very clear memory of the event, the details described in the missive on the other hand leave no doubt that they actually met up once in the past.

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Landry Saga – Ruby (1) – VC Andrews

One of the best sagas Virginia Andrews "wrote" in 1994. Ruby is a teenager who lives with her grandmother in the swamps of Louisiana; there they lead a precarious life and she helps her grandmother by selling paintings made by herself, among other gadgets and groceries she displays in a stand on the edge of the road.

Despite how hard the situation is Ruby seems to enjoy her life in the swamps. At school she meets Paul Tate, a very attractive guy son of one of the wealthiest families of the marshes and it is only when they attempt to establish a formal relationship that her grandmother Catherine reveals the truth that will keep them apart for a long time. This confession impels Ruby to put distance between them with the excuse that she wants to meet other guys.

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Schopenhauer: A Very Short Introduction

1819, this booklet contains a collection of arguments and considerations made by  philosopher Arthur Schopenhauer about love, women, death and other subjects such as art and morality.

The author refers to these issues by analyzing the factors that influence them in order to reach his own conclusion; thus, for instance, he argues that the attraction (or love) that arises between two people is nothing more than nature’s command on both subjects for the sole purpose of perpetuating the species.

From his view, women are creatures of little understanding and little talent. Beautiful and useful objects that are good to perform household chores and can coexist within a herd in such company under the regime of a man.

And death is the one that truncates everything without considering for a moment how sublime is the task we have devoted to with such passion.
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Hotel Life (1)- Patricia Ainger

Published in 2007 and written by English Patricia Ainger. Rachel has just inherited a hotel and other properties from her recently deceased Aunt Connie. Being Rachel her nearest relative she was declared sole heir of all Connie’s possessions, which caused her conflicts with other members of the family once the will reading was carried out.

Rachel, a divorced woman bringing up her 17-year-old daughter Holly, and still in love with Sebastian, the love of her life and of whom she lost contact with 20 years ago, faces a new stage in which she will learn the business on management of the hotel industry.

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The Selection (1) - Kiera Cass

Published in 2012. Prince Maxon is looking for a wife who would become the future queen of Illéia. For that purpose the palace has scheduled a contest in which 35 candidates will compete to win the prince’s love and rule the nation in the future.

America Singer is our favorite candidate, but she is caught in the dilemma of choosing between the prince’s proposal and Aspen’s love.

The novel is set in a dystopia which is divided into castes, being caste one the highest status, right where the king, the queen and the prince belong; and caste eight where the homeless are.

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The Last Empress (2) - Anchee Min

2007, second part of the novel that chronicles the period of activity of the Empress Tzu Hsi in the Forbidden City; the saga continues from the moment Lady Yehonala and her counterpart the Empress Nuharoo assume the power of the empire, until her passing at the age of 72.

The sequel describes the most tragic and political events in history, Orchid must endure her loved ones’ deaths and get on governing with the shrewdness and the skill of a juggler so the empire does not collapse.

Her son’s erratic behavior, his apathy towards Chinese people and their political conflicts, and to top it all, the total indifference toward his mother, sum up the most excruciating sufferings in Orchid’s life; not to mention that in return the Empress had to give up the love of her life.

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Empress Orchid (1) - Anchee Min

Published in 2004, this is the first part of the historical novel that tells the biography of the last Empress of China, since her teenage years when she moved in to the Forbidden City as one of the concubines of Emperor Hsien Feng, until she becomes one of the Widows Empresses of the throne.

This story recreates all the torments and vicissitudes that Lady Yehonala had to cope with in a fierce competition among 3000 concubines, (not to mention, seven imperial consorts, including Nuharoo the first Empress of China), to win the affection and the protection of the Emperor.

A rivalry caused by the desire to give a descendant to the throne (the heir to the empire) and the struggle to survive in a chaotic and risky environment ruled by extreme measures that led to execution to anyone who dared commit the slightest indiscretion.

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Aphrodite: A Memoir of the Senses - Isabel Allende

In this occasion (1998) the Chilean Isabel Allende provides a rich recipe book for aphrodisiac dishes with a high level of efficiency, which conveniently accompanied by a collection of erotic stories, composed of both: her own experiences and close friends, can immerse us in a quotidian world that considered in the proper perspective will offer countless ways to enjoy the company of a good lover.

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