Kim Nelson, the beautiful English granddaughter of the Sultan of Istanbul’s favorite courtesan, gets ever more wrapped up in the mysteries of Africa in her quest to reclaim the black pearl that is the key to her ancestor’s long-hidden treasure. Like her grandmother before her, she must go through initiations of fire and flesh to prove her worth, as she gets ever nearer the coveted and powerful jewel. The problem is she’s not the only one who’s after it…
This second and final volume of the Natty adventure picks up where it left off: Natty is alone in the underworld fighting for her survival while her family up above engages in a wild search for her. Sami manages to escape from prison, and thanks to their agility, strong will, and a dose of luck, he and Natty make their way back to the palace. After some initial difficulties, Natty is recognized by her parents as the Princess, and she and Sami live happily ever after. They even find a solution to bring sunlight to the lower levels of the kingdom.
During the depths of the Great Depression, an orphan reinvents himself as Al Chrysler and strives to win the heart of the local grocer’s daughter. In doing so, he falls in with a newly arrived petty criminal who soon has him and his friends working for the local mafia. As the stakes get higher, Al soon realizes he’s gotten in too deep, and is caught up in a chain of events beyond his control.
March 1932, New York. Dan Shackelton is an Irish migrant. Like many of his fellow countrymen, he has found work on the construction site of the Rockefeller Center. He is to replace Ryan Murphy, a worker who died on the site. Dan works with a quiet, broad-shouldered man named Giant who is in charge of informing Ryan Murphy’s family of the news. But Giant decides not to say anything. Instead, he sends a substantial sum of money accompanied by an unsigned, typewritten letter. When he receives a response from Ryan’s widow, Mary Ann, Giant writes to her again, tangling himself up in a web of lies. Little by little, the enigmatic Giant starts to come out of his shell, until one day, when Mary Ann shows up in New York with her three children, ready to join her husband.
In this second gripping volume, Nanami grows more comfortable in her role as warrior princess in a parallel world that only appears when she and her fellow actors start rehearsing their play, but the pressure on her is building from all sides: she must fight ever greater threats in the Invisible Kingdom, her parents are on her case, her nemesis at school won’t stop pestering her, her best friend feels left out, she’s lost the magical book entrusted to her, her cat’s gone missing, and a mysterious stranger asks her for a very dangerous and very forbidden favor…
Emma and Violette are sisters who share the same dream of attending Paris’s most prestigious dance school. Violette passes the first audition with flying colors, but Emma doesn’t, and their world comes crashing down. But there may be more than one way to dance through life… This is the revelation at the heart of the first volume of this lively and graceful narrative.
In “The Ant,” the plot thickens. The Stingray is put in charge of finding a prostitute named Opal and ends up in the vises of the Ant, the self-proclaimed ruler of the Paris underworld. On his search, the Stingray will encounter a slew of strange and fearsome characters. Some of them will help him on his quest, others will make his life that much harder. Dufaux and Jamar’s inspiration remains the great French novelists of the 19th century – Dumas, Victor Hugo – who dared to plunge into the depths of the gritty Paris of their day.
Vince is still wondering why and how his brother, believed dead for the last ten years, has ended up (very much alive) aboard the yacht of the directors of the New Temple. Entrusted with the mission of finding out the nature of Cardinal Di Origio’s dealings with the secret society, the keeper finds himself confronting one of the most sinister pages in the history of the church! But will he win this fight with weapons? Or with forgiveness…?
It is the early 1900s and the three Francœur children are struggling to survive in the slums of Paris. But their lives change forever with the arrival of a mysterious stranger from their father’s past. Countess Aristophania Bolt from the Kingdom of Azur claims she has come to help the trio, but between disturbing phenomena—tricks or sorcery?—and invisible threats, it is hard to know whom to trust…
It’s 1969 and the Faldérault family is headed south on their annual summer vacation. Despite unexpected delays and detours, picking up new friends along the road, one way or another they’ll make it to their destination: a picturesque calanque in southern France!
