Hodder Paperback strana 2 z 17

'Nobody in the world was more inadequate to act the heroine than I was.' Why did Agatha Christie spend her career pretending that she was 'just' an ordinary housewife, when clearly she wasn't? As Lucy Worsley says, 'She was thrillingly, scintillatingly modern'. She went surfing in Hawaii, she loved fast cars, and she was intrigued by the new science of psychology, which helped her through devastating mental illness. So why - despite all the evidence to the contrary - did Agatha present herself as a retiring Edwardian lady of leisure? She was born in 1890 into a world which had its own rules about what women could and couldn't do. Lucy Worsley's biography is not just of an internationally renowned bestselling writer. It's also the story of a person who, despite the obstacles of class and gender, became an astonishingly successful working woman. With access to personal letters and papers that have rarely been seen, Lucy Worsley's biography is both authoritative and entertaining and makes us realise what an extraordinary pioneer Agatha Christie was - truly a woman who wrote the twentieth century.

Olivia fled her abusive marriage to return to her hometown and take over the family beekeeping business when her son Asher was six. Now, impossibly, her baby is six feet tall and in his last year of high school, a kind, good-looking, popular ice hockey star with a tiny sprite of a new girlfriend. Lily also knows what it feels like to start over - when she and her mother relocated to New Hampshire it was all about a fresh start. She and Asher couldn't help falling for each other, and Lily feels happy for the first time. But can she trust him completely? Then Olivia gets a phone call - Lily is dead, and Asher is arrested on a charge of murder. As the case against him unfolds, she realises he has hidden more than he's shared with her. And Olivia knows firsthand that the secrets we keep reflect the past we want to leave behind ­­- and that we rarely know the people we love well as we think we do.

She found magic in the most unlikely of places. Mika Moon follows three rules: hide your magic, keep your head down, and stay away from other witches. Mika is good at being alone, and she doesn't mind it... mostly. But when an unexpected invitation arrives to teach three young witches at the mysterious Nowhere House, Mika jumps at the chance for a different life. As she comes to care for its quirky inhabitants - and Jamie, the handsome but prickly librarian - finally belonging somewhere feels like a real possibility. But magic isn't the only danger in the world - is it worth risking everything to protect the found family Mika didn't know she was looking for? A warm and uplifting novel about an isolated witch whose opportunity to embrace a new family - and a new love - changes the course of her life.

Her gift can save, or it can kill, in this exciting young adult fantasy from debut author Emily Thiede: Alessa's gift is supposed to magnify a partner's magic, not kill every suitor she touches. But with only weeks left before demons attack her island home, she must figure out how to use her gift, or risk losing everything... Her gift can save... or it can kill. Three weddings. Three funerals. Alessa's gift from the gods is supposed to magnify a partner's magic, not kill every suitor she touches. Now, with only weeks left until a hungry swarm of demons devours everything on her island home, Alessa is running out of time to find a partner and stop the invasion. When a powerful priest convinces the faithful that killing Alessa is the island's only hope, her own soldiers try to assassinate her. Desperate to survive, Alessa hires Dante, a cynical outcast marked as a killer, to become her personal bodyguard. But as rebellion explodes outside the gates, Dante's dark secrets may be the biggest betrayal. He holds the key to her survival and her heart, but is he the one person who can help her master her gift or destroy her once and for all? Serpent & Dove meets The Bodyguard in this romantic, thrilling fantasy debut!

The bride is a doll. The groom is the perfect gentleman. But the rest of the wedding party are the stuff of nightmares. Rich? Yes Vapid? Yes Entitled? Yes And the Best Man? More like the Worst Man. But Maid of Honor Franchesca takes her duties seriously. There's no way she's going to let that pretentious, judgmental jackhole ruin her best friend's wedding. No matter how sexy he is...

You don't fall for your brother's high school sweetheart, your boss's daughter, or your ex-wife's best friend. Especially when they're all the same woman. Under Brick Callan's mile-wide chest beats a loyal heart with a few cracks in it. He's the steadfast, overprotective type. Especially when it comes to the one woman he can never have. When Remi Ford returns to Mackinac Island in the dead of winter with a secret, Brick makes it his mission to find out what put the shadows in those green eyes. Even if it means breaking down the walls he's built between them. Even if it means falling for the one girl he'll never get over.

From Sunday Times and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Things We Never Got Over Fire Chief Lincoln Reed is known for his heroics in the fire department and in the bedroom. Life is a never-ending good time. Until flight trauma surgeon Mackenzie O'Neil lands right in the middle of an accident scene he's working, as well as in his back yard. Too bad she's immune to flirty first responders... After experiencing severe burnout, Mackenzie's temporary job as a small-town family physician is just what the doctor ordered. She'll learn to meditate. Sleep more. Take up gardening. But Linc and his tattoos are very persuasive. It's all naked fun and games until the shadows from Mack's past find their way into her present. Can Linc be her hero when she needs him the most? One thing is certain: Someone is going to get burned.

In 2017, a company known as Tencent overtook Facebook to become the world's fifth largest company. It was a watershed moment, a wake-up call for those in the West accustomed to regarding the global tech industry through the prism of Silicon Valley: Facebook, Google, Apple and Microsoft. Yet to many of the two billion-plus people who live just across the Pacific Ocean, it came as no surprise at all. Founded by the enigmatic billionaire Pony Ma, the firm that began life as a simple text-message operator invested in and created some of China's most iconic games en route to dreaming up WeChat - the Swiss Army knife super-app that combines messaging, shopping and entertainment. Through billions of dollars of global investments in marquee names from Fortnite to Tesla and a horde of start-ups, Ma's company went on to build a near-unparalleled empire of influence. In this fascinating narrative - crammed with insider interviews and exclusive details - Lulu Chen tells the story of how Tencent created the golden era of Chinese technology, and delves into key battles involving Didi, Meituan and Alibaba. It's a chronicle of critical junctures and asks just what it takes to be a successful entrepreneur in China.

From Sunday Times and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Things We Never Got Over Luke Garrison is a hometown hero, a member of the National Guard ready to deploy again. The last thing he's looking for is a woman to ruin his solitude. When the wildly beautiful Harper stumbles into his life, though, he realises she's the perfect decoy: a fake girlfriend to keep his family off his back until he's deployed. Harper was on her way to starting a new life . . . again. But something about Luke makes her want to settle down in this small town and make his house a home. Luke never thought he'd feel this way about a woman again. But he knows that he can't tell her the truth about his dark past. And she can't reveal what she's running from. At least this isn't a real relationship. It's only for a month. It's only pretend. Until it isn't...

From Sunday Times and #1 New York Times bestselling author of Things We Never Got Over Gloria is due a happily ever after. She's lost ten years to a toxic, dangerous relationship. Now that she's finally free - and medicating with makeovers and margaritas in her mother's kitchen - she has a long road ahead of her remembering who she really is. And just when she has sworn off men for at least a decade more, along comes larger-than-life, hometown hero Aldo Moretta. He's saying all the right things and flirting in all the right ways, but he is leaving for six months. One dazzling kiss, and he's gone. Or so Gloria thought...

My night. My darkness. My power. The spellbinding conclusion to the stunning fantasy romance These Hollow Vows. After Abriella's sister was sold to the fae, she thought life couldn't get any worse. But when she suddenly finds herself caught in a web of lies of her own making ­- loving two princes and trusting neither - things are not quite as clear as she once thought. As civil war wages in the Court of Darkness, Brie finds herself unable to choose a side. How can she know where she stands when she doesn't even know herself anymore? In this darkly romantic thrill ride, the more Faerie is torn apart from the inside, the clearer it becomes that prophecies don't lie and Brie has a role to play in the fate of this magical realm - whether she likes it or not.

What does it take to make it to the top of your game? As a chess champion, Jennifer Shahade has travelled the world playing major tournaments. At the top, she finds rivalry and friendship; sexism and feminism; ecstatic highs and excruciating losses. Chess Queens invites us behind the scenes of this ultra male-dominated sport. We meet today's elite, as well as the pioneering female players in history who fought against the odds to get to the top. An essential guide for all aspiring chess queens, Jennifer's story reveals what it takes to break through the glass ceiling.

Escape to Hotel Nantucket for a summer of sunshine, secrets and scandal... The ultimate summer page-turner from the internationally bestselling Queen of Beach Reads Reeling from a bad break-up, Lizbet Keaton is desperately seeking a fresh start. When she's named the new general manager of the Hotel Nantucket, a Gilded Age gem whose glamour has been left to tarnish, she hopes that her local expertise and charismatic staff can transform the hotel's fortunes - and her own. All she needs to do is win over their new billionaire owner from London, Xavier Darling - and the wildly popular Instagram influencer, Shelly Carpenter, who can help put them back on the map. But behind the glossy fa ade, complete with wellness centre and celebrity chef-run restaurant, a perfect storm is brewing. Hotel Nantucket can't seem to shake off the scandal of 1922, when a tragic fire killed nineteen-year-old chambermaid Grace Hadley - and the guests have complicated pasts of their own. With Grace gleefully haunting the halls, secrets among the staff, and Lizbet's own romantic uncertainty, there's going to be trouble in paradise...

She'd failed them. All of them. And now she was paying the price. Kiva thought she knew what she wanted-revenge. But feelings change, people change . . . everything has changed. After what happened at the palace, Kiva is desperate to know if her friends and family are safe, and whether those she wronged can ever forgive her. But with the kingdoms closer to the brink of war than they've ever been, and Kiva far away from the conflict, more is at stake than her own broken heart. A fresh start will mean a perilous quest, forcing mortal enemies and uneasy allies together in a race against the clock to save not just Evalon, but all of Wenderall. With her loyalties now set, Kiva can no longer just survive-she must fight for what she believes in. For who she believes in. But with danger coming from every side, and the lives of everyone she loves at risk, does she have what it takes to stand, or will she fall?

Legendary storyteller Stephen King goes into the deepest well of his imagination in this spellbinding novel about a seventeen-year-old boy who inherits the keys to a parallel world where good and evil are at war, and the stakes could not be higher - for their world or ours. Charlie Reade looks like a regular high school kid, great at baseball and football, a decent student. But he carries a heavy load. His mom was killed in a hit-and-run accident when he was ten, and grief drove his dad to drink. Charlie learned how to take care of himself - and his dad. Then, when Charlie is seventeen, he meets a dog named Radar and her aging master, Howard Bowditch, a recluse in a big house at the top of a big hill, with a locked shed in the backyard. Sometimes strange sounds emerge from it. Charlie starts doing jobs for Mr. Bowditch and loses his heart to Radar. Then, when Bowditch dies, he leaves Charlie a cassette tape telling a story no one would believe. What Bowditch knows, and has kept secret all his long life, is that inside the shed is a portal to another world. King's storytelling in Fairy Tale soars. This is a magnificent and terrifying tale about another world than ours, in which good is pitted against overwhelming evil, and a heroic boy - and his dog - must lead the battle.

A fierce revolutionary. A desperate prince. Together they will face the Storm, or be swept away. Prince Dalca was born for one purpose: to protect his home from the Storm, a deadly force that surrounds his city and curses everyone it touches. Vesper Vale is the daughter of failed revolutionaries. Since the Queen sentenced her mother to death by the Storm, she and her father have been on the run. So when the queen's soldiers - led by Prince Dalca - catch up to Vesper's father, she will do whatever it takes to save him from sharing her mother's cruel fate. Even arm herself with her father's book of dangerous experimental magic. Even infiltrate the prince's elite squad of soldier-sorcerers. Even cheat her way into his cold heart. But when Vesper learns that there's more to the story of her mother's death, and that her home is in dire peril, she has little choice: trust the devious prince with her family's secrets, or follow her mother's footsteps into the Storm...