Las Vegas

No blacklisted gambler escapes the sharp eye of professional casino spotter Dottie! Irresistible but untouchable, Dottie is second to none at cooling the ardor of overly enterprising clients, even if it means incurring the wrath of such luminaries as the great Frank Sinatra himself. During off-hours, Dottie returns to the apartment she shares with her friend Millicent. A novelist in desperate search of a publisher, Millicent is more importantly the daughter of Bugsy Siegel, the infamous gangster who met his fate under a hail of mob bullets. Dottie is assaulted by a killer who mistakes her for Millicent, and finds herself embroiled in her friend’s dark world despite her best intentions. Then a mysterious young woman introduces her to Hugh Hefner, creator of Playboy magazine…

This first volume of the six-part series introduces us to the crazy world of the orphaned Tsagoi (aka Gypsy) and his little sister, Oblivia. After swearing to himself and Oblivia that he’d find a way to make his fortune and get them both out of their down-and-out beginnings, Tsagoi disappears from Oblivia’s life for the next 12 years. The only contact Oblivia has with her roguishly handsome big brother are the money packages he sends in order to pay for her expensive boarding school in Switzerland that he has her enrolled in. And she was just fine with that… right up until the money runs out. Oblivia is left with no choice but to seek out her brother in Port Radium, where the pair embarks (against Oblivia’s will) on one of Tsagoi’s totally illegal money-making ventures. Living within the confines of Tsagoi’s trusty truck, the modern-day Gypsy’s caravan, Oblivia is forced to face up to the reality of what her brother has become: not the noble benefactor she had hoped for, but a first-rate scoundrel!

Two women, in two different times, and for two very different reasons, choose to be initiated into the harem. One is the harem of the Black Sultan in 20th century Istanbul, dominated by the captivating Jade. The other is the only remaining one of its kind, an echo of a bygone era, hidden away in the middle of the Turkish desert, far from prying eyes. Both women must carry out certain rites of passage before they can truly attain the heart of the harem. Both women are doing it for Jade. Plots and manipulation abound within those dark and sensual spaces behind the walls of the harem…

Steve Rowland. It’s under this name that XIII received the fateful and nearly fatal wound that deprived him of his memory. By then the real Rowland was already dead, breathing his last in his wife Kim Carrington’s arms. But what had driven that man, a patriot and war hero, to betray his government? What events, what trauma—what manipulations—had made him into someone capable of assassinating the President of the United States?

Things aren’t going Dottie’s way. Howard Hugues hasn’t kept his promise to free Gary from the Russians, and Dottie isn’t sure she’ll succeed in helping him escape the gulag, or even in freeing herself from the ever-watchful eye of the megalomaniac billionaire. It seems nothing can be accomplished without the help of… Poison Ivy! This sixth volume beautifully concludes the second triptych of the “Pin-Up” series.

Going into their last year of middle school, Valentine and her friends are at that defining time of their lives when new experiences are coming thick and fast. They’ve got their finals just around the corner, but that doesn’t stop them from bunking classes and flirting with guys (even if, in Valentine’s case, they’re not the guys she actually wants to flirt with… the gorgeous Felix is as aloof as ever). Valentine struggles to find her feet in this emotional whirlwind.

On a forgotten cul-de-sac in a nameless city, a child is born. It doesn’t take long for the charming little girl to work her way into the hearts of all the residents on this cozy little street. Does it really matter that she’s invisible? The child’s mother delivered a stillborn, fatherless baby. Two months later, she becomes convinced that her child has returned from heaven. The neighbors don’t have the heart to tell her otherwise, and so they play along. After all, “why bring somebody pain when it’s so easy to bring joy instead?” …But is Lydie really a figment?

The gorgeous Jazz Maynard is back. With Judas in prison, El Raval seems at last to have found its peace. Jazz plays gigs at Club Canem, Teo’s engaged, Laura’s getting her life together. But it’s not long before a certain Caligula takes it upon himself to fill the vacancy left by Judas in the neighbourhood. Will Jazz be able to avoid yet again being dragged back down into Barcelona’s underworld in spite of his honourable efforts to get clean of it?

Valentine is a secondary-school student like many others. Her daily life is filled with all the upheavals and self-questioning of adolescence. Self-conscious, she tries to assert herself within a group in which she is “the shy one”. She spends most of her time with her girlfriends, at school or at parties on the weekend. She also tries desperately to get the attention of Felix, the boy she’s in love with – and who has no idea she exists. To make things worse, he’s in the “rival” class to her own… Little by little, this young woman learns to express herself and find her place in the cruel and treacherous world of adolescence, from MP3 players and Japanese mangas, to her first parties and her first whiskey and Coke.

This is the tale of Luisa Casati Amman, otherwise known as ‘The Marchesa’, an Italian heiress whose life ambition was to transform herself into a living, breathing work of art. She was obsessed with beauty and extravagance, and devoted her entire family fortune to purchasing the means to astonish her contemporaries with her daredevil style. But her originality extended to more than just the adornment of her own person; she embellished her whole life with a succession of fantastical parties, large houses, ostentatious pets and outrageous public appearances. But, as ever, such exorbitance can hardly last forever… This intriguing biography traces the rise and fall of one of the 20th century’s most fascinating personalities.