In 1995, Ukrainian girl, Lena Petrenko is trying to survive in a criminal world. When she is claimed as the winner's trophy at a cage fight, she finds herself at the mercy of a strange, powerful man whose need for her is as mysterious as he is.

ReviewMargot Berglund owns a needlework and wool store called Crewel World. She's fifty-three, a widow and an expert in her field. Her store does very well for a small town, and she is able to support two part time staff as well as other casual workers. Her husband Aaron had been a wealthy man but despite this she lives a simple life, causing speculation among the town's people. Margot's older sister, Betsy, comes to live with her. When Betsy was young she ran off to join the navy and married a sailor and now her second husband is divorcing her. Betsy seems to be planning to sponge off Margot, she sees living off Margot an easy solution to her problems, at least for the short term. In the idyllic world of Margot there are some problems. Her landlord wants her building so he can build something new and charge more, but Margot has a cheap lease that is good for another four years. So Joe sues Margot regularly and threatens her too, but she has a good lawyer to protect her. She also has a "Wanta be" successor who wants to run her own needlework store in a town that cannot support two. Irene is a little nuts and readily admits that she wants something to happen to Margot so that she can take over. Unfortunately for Irene she has no people skills and is not very successful with the customers. A few nights after her arrival, Betsy comes home and finds Crewel World trashed and Margot murdered. The mystery begins and Betsy takes it into her own hands when she thinks the police aren't doing enough. I LOVED THIS BOOK. Admittedly I am biased. I love to knit and cross-stitch and I love to read mysteries. This was the book written for me. Monica Ferris obviously knew what she was talking about too; she had the entire lingo down pat. But, you don't have to like these hobbies to enjoy this book. The characters are all strong and the plot develops well. The small town setting allows for colourful characters which Monica Ms. Ferris takes advantage of. Betsy is interesting as the sleuth, she is blunt and not very subtle and the character's reactions to her are amusing. I hope there are more books to come from Monica Ferris. Crewel World is one of the best books I have ever read! Monica Ferris has written a page turner! It's not often that a mystery is set in a cozy wool store, but she makes it work. I will recommend this book to everyone I know, especially my knitting pals! Michelle Sawyer -- Copyright © 030199 Literary Times, Inc. All rights reserved -- From Literary Times

For Tributes, Conjunctions invited a number of contemporary writers to pay homage to American literary masters who made something possible for them—whether that was the act of writing itself, writing a certain book, writing in a particular manner, or living in a way that was consonant with the act of writing. This is an anthology of personal enthusiasms, a colloquium Whitman might have seen as a progress of vistas. John Sayles offers an appreciation of Nelson Algren, Robert Creeley of Edwin Arlington Robinson, Nathaniel Mackey on Walt Whitman. And then there's Rick Moody on John Cheever, Ben Marcus on Dr. Seuss, Mona Simpson on Henry James, Ana Castillo on Ana\u00efs Nin, Anne Waldman on Jack Kerouac, Lydia Davis on Edward Dahlberg. All in all, forty-five authors share compelling tales of their adopted literary parentage.

A mother — and still a virgin! Award-winning author Veronica Sattler brings you a compelling story of love in the nineties. Nurse Randi Terhune has never had a husband or a lover. But she does have a wonderful son, Matt. She never thought she'd meet the boy's father. Ex-CIA agent Travis McLean has avoided paternity all his life. The McLean family was virtually dysfunctional. Why would a family of his own be any different? But then he meets Matt, the image of himself as a youngster, and Randi, Matt's beautiful mother. Can he come to terms with the past to give them all a future? WILD HONEY

In Thomson’s The Color of Distance (1995), Dr. Juna Saari was accidentally abandoned on the planet Tiangi. Despite life-threatening allergic reactions to that world’s life-forms, she managed to survive thanks to the biological wizardry of the Tendu, Tiangi’s intelligent native species, who radically altered her body to thrive in their environment. Now, returned to human form, Juna comes back to Earth accompanied by two Tendu. They must learn aboard ship, while visiting a series of Earth orbital habitats, and then on Earth to adapt to a human environment, but it isn’t clear whether humanity will accept them in return. Despite the great biological gifts the Tendu can offer an environmentally distressed Earth, many humans find the aliens frightening. Escorting the Tendu through Earth society, Juna finds her life spun upside down when she discovers that she is accidentally pregnant, an illegal act on an Earth struggling to overcome critical overpopulation. Much of the novel’s tension stems from attempts to force Juna either to abort or to give up her baby attempts stemming, in part, from the father’s refusal to allow his child to be raised with aliens. Thomson is an excellent prose stylist with an obvious love for the kind of wild country that is the Tendu’s preferred habitat. Her major characters are well developed, though her secondary characters, particularly the good guys, are not properly differentiated. Overall, this is an amiable, unusually thoughtful novel of first contact that should boost Thomson’s growing reputation.

Thanks to the machinations of the Pharmakon corporation, a plague of zombies has descended upon the Earth! While the world at large prepares to fight off these undead invaders, the sleepy hollow that is the West Coast of Newfoundland thinks that its isolation makes it safe. Little do they know that there are Zombies... on the Rock!

More than darkness lurks in the shadows… When the balance in the world is threatened, human survival rests in the hands of two unlikely saviors, a disgraced angel and a reformed demon.

Rumors say riches, secrets, and cures for all ailments rest within its borders that dismal place. However, they hide between roaming abnormalities, monsters that defy the laws of nature and human understanding. Seven accounts from unfortunate souls prove that only the mad and the desperate would dare to discover what truly lies inside that unhallowed kingdom.

Private, the world's most renowned investigation firm, has been commissioned to provide security for the 2012 Olympic games in London. Its agents are the smartest, fastest, and most technologically advanced in the world, and 400 of them have been transferred to London to protect over 10,000 competitors who represent more than 200 countries. The opening ceremony is still hours away when Private investigator and single father of twins, Nigel Steele, is called to the scene of a ruthless murder. A high-ranking member of the games' organizing committee and his mistress have been killed. It's clear that it wasn't a crime of passion, but one of precise calculation and execution. Newspaper reporter Karen Pope receives a letter from a person who calls himself Cronus, claiming responsibility for the murders. He also proclaims that he will restore the Olympics to their ancient glory and will destroy all who have corrupted the games with lies, cheating, and greed. Karen immediately hires Private to examine the letter, and she and Nigel uncover a criminal genius who won't stop until he's ended the games for good. "America's #1 storyteller" (Forbes) delivers an exhilarating, action-packed thriller that brings the splendor and emotion of the Olympics to a wildly powerful climax.