Showing results for "Happiness" in Literature & Fiction

Seventeen-year-old Noel Crowe is idling in the unexpected sunshine when Christy makes his first entrance into Faha, bringing secrets he needs to atone for. Though he can't explain it, Noel knows right then: something has changed. As the people of Faha anticipate the endlessly procrastinated advent of the electricity, and Noel navigates his own coming-of-age and his fallings in and out of love, Christy's past gradually comes to light, casting a new glow on a small world.

Rachel and Becca are stepsisters living far apart, with little in common. Rachel is the successful one: happily married with three children and a big house. Becca, meanwhile, lurches from one dead-end job to another and has given up on love. The two of them have lost touch, but when Rachel doesn't come home one night, Becca is called in to help. As Becca begins to untangle Rachel's secrets, she is forced to confront some uncomfortable truths.

Waterloo Bridge, London. Two strangers collide. Attila, a Ghanaian psychiatrist, and Jean, an American studying the habits of urban foxes. From this chance encounter in the midst of the rush of a great city, numerous moments of connections span out and interweave, bringing disparate lives together. Attila has arrived in London with two tasks: to deliver a keynote speech on trauma and to check up on the daughter of friends, his 'niece', Ama, who hasn't called home in a while.

Sabrina Brooks is a wildly successful bestselling author of gripping thrillers. Unlike her fictional characters, Sabrina lives a quiet life in the Berkshires with her two beloved dogs. But behind this peaceful exterior is a dark, painful past. As a child raised by an emotionally distant father, Sabrina rarely felt love. And as an adult, her marriage twisted into an abusive relationship from which she had to escape.

Molly Baker is living her best life. Thirty-eight years old, she lives on the 25-acre Hope Farm in Buckinghamshire, surrounded by (mostly) four-legged friends and rolling hills. An ex-teacher, Molly runs the farm as an alternative education for kids who have special needs or behavioural issues. It's full on, but she wouldn't have it any other way. So when the well-groomed Shelby Dacre turns up at Hope Farm asking to enrol his son Lucas, Molly isn't fazed. But Lucas is distant, and soon Molly realises he might be more of a handful than she anticipated.

Danniella is running from her past, so when she arrives at the beautiful seaside resort of Whitsborough Bay, the last thing on her mind is making friends. Alison is fun, caring and doesn't take herself too seriously. But beneath the front, she is a lost soul. Karen's romance has taken a back seat to her fitness business. But she doesn’t want to give up on love quite yet. When the women meet at their local bootcamp, a deep friendship blossoms. And soon they realise that the secret to happiness is where they least expected to find it....

Mia Parkson's life is turned upside down when her stay-at-home dad, the family's anchor, goes missing. The only witness? Eugene - her nonverbal teenage younger brother. As the Police struggle for leads, and her mother and twin brother struggle to keep things together at home, Mia gains access to key clues about her father's disappearance. Headstrong, hyper analytical, and with secrets of her own, she decides to try and solve the case. But could Mia's impulsive actions be putting her whole family in danger?

The only things in Jersey Kincaid's world that she has time for are keeping her grades up so that she doesn't lose her scholarship to South Texas University, playing the bass in her band, The Prototype, and satisfying her coffee addiction. Oh, and the occasional random hook-up she indulges in to pass the time. Love? Eh, not so much. Save that crap for a Katherine Heigl or Natalie Portman movie. That's why when Jersey meets Isaiah "Zay" Broussard, with his soulful gray eyes, quick wit, and easy charm, she's determined to remain aloof.

Running Heritage View Stables is everything Hazel ever dreamed of. She loves working with the horses and managing the business with her brother. But after a terrible incident, she’s not sure whether she'll ever be able to put things back the way they were. Gus is ready to start over. He’s moved him and his ten-year-old daughter, Abigail, to Heritage Cove, where he’s opening his own vet practice. Everything is falling into place, especially as he watches Abigail start to come out of her shell for the first time since the accident.

Polly Solo-Miller Demarest is the perfect flower of the Solo-Miller family. The Solo-Millers have everything: looks, brains, money, a strong, fortified sense of clan, and branches in Boston, Philadelphia, and New York, as well as London, just like a banking house. And Polly, along with Henry Demarest, a big handsome lawyer, has a beautiful household of her own and two nice, sturdy children. But one day—completely unexpectedly—she finds herself entangled in a sweet yet painful love affair with a painter.

In a city graveyard, a resident unrolls a threadbare Persian carpet between two graves. On a concrete sidewalk, a baby appears quite suddenly, a little after midnight, in a crib of litter. In a snowy valley, a father writes to his five-year-old daughter about the number of people who attended her funeral. And in the Jannat Guest House, two people who've known each other all their lives sleep with their arms wrapped around one another as though they have only just met.

Al-Ghazālī's writings were meant to help man to live a life in accordance with the sacred law, and by doing so gain a deeper understanding of its meaning. Al-Ghazali believed in practical-ethical perfection and that by exercising his capacity for reason, man would be drawn to the spiritual alchemy that transforms the soul from worldliness to complete devotion to God. This alone, he believed, could produce ultimate happiness.

Three years ago, Stacey Duguid's happily ever after imploded messily, snottily, disastrously, and she is still clearing up the debris. The dream marriage she'd spent an entire lifetime pursuing shattered, leaving her half a person and angry. Who suggested 'happily ever after' was even a given thing? In this collection of essays, Stacey draws upon her own life to touch upon everything taboo today: divorce, dating and sex in mid-life, affairs, miscarriage, drugs, and challenges the societal expectations and ideologies of needing a partner to live a full life.

Precious Ramotswe, traditionally-built proprietor of Botswana's No. 1 Ladies' Detective Agency, contemplates the two sorts of problems that we all face in life: the major ones (such as drought), about which very little can be done, and the other sort which people make for themselves through human weakness and an inability to resist temptation. Like the inability to resist cake, for instance.

This December, Ruby Marlowe is relocating everything she owns to the pretty seaside village of Happiness. With her best friend Willow already there, and a heartbreaking past she’d rather forget, Ruby jumped at the offer of a cosy cottage and a fresh start. But she wasn’t the only one.... The last person Ruby expects to find in Happiness is her summer fling, the gorgeous Jacob Harrington. Falling in love again is something Ruby has vowed never to do. But Jacob is determined to change her mind. As the snow begins to fall, can Jacob convince Ruby that love is worth the risk?

Willow McKay needs a fresh start. Her recent break-up may not have left her heartbroken, but it’s wounded her pride. Desperate for change, an advert offering free homes in a picturesque village in Cornwall sounds perfect. Without thinking, Willow packs up and heads to the village of Happiness. But when Willow arrives, she finds ramshackle cottages, empty shops and miserable villagers. It's nothing like the picture the advert had boasted. That is until she meets the handsome estate manager Andrew Harrington.

Leo Tolstoy: The Novellas includes unabridged recordings of Leo Tolstoy's 10 greatest novellas in one audiobook, all read by Audie Award-winning narrators.

Rebecca Saunders isn't Baron Tiele Raukema van den Eck's type - she's already heard him describe her as a thin mouse! But he's been very kind, rescuing her from an intolerable home life and giving her a job nursing his mother. As Tiele's got a gorgeous girlfriend, Becky knows it's useless to love him - but it's already too late....

From a small town outside Edinburgh comes the news that a young boy has been recounting vivid recollections of a past life: a perfect description of an island off the coast of Scotland which he couldn't possibly know and a house there where he claims to have spent his former life. When the boy's mother asks Isabel to investigate his claims, she feels she must - of course! - help them learn the truth, and she and her husband, Jamie, set off for the island.

Glasgow, 1942. To please his father, Sandy Mclean is training to be a surgeon. But Sandy's real passion is for painting. And when he meets Sophie, the stunning French girl who models for the local art school, he spies a second reason to become an artist.