From the author whose warmth and magic have enchanted readers everywhere, and placed her two novels on the New York Times, bookstore chain, and the IndieBound bestseller lists, comes a sparkling story of love, family, and ghosts… rooms where the wallpaper changes by itself… clothes dryers that leave messages from the dearly departed… a woman who bakes cakes to find her long-lost love…. "Everything can be explained," Emily's mathematician mother always told her. But Emily is beginning to wonder if maybe her mother never returned to Mullaby because everything in her North Carolina hometown defied explanation. Her grandfather Vance-literally a giant of a man-has welcomed 17-year-old Emily into his home with open arms in spite of never setting eyes on her before. She has spent only one night in her mother's old bedroom and she has already seen the ghost light dancing through the yard. At least that can be explained, sort of. She is told it is the ghost of "the naked lady," Serena Coffey, a local legend who once streaked through Mullaby by moonlight to avoid an unwanted marriage. But Emily suspects a more logical explanation-such as a hoax perpetrated by the well-to-do Coffey family to promote the annual Festival of the Naked Lady. And she suspects the Coffey's handsome, self-assured, if eccentric, son, Win, of executing the sham, even if, like all the Coffeys, he never goes out after sunset. Emily isn't sure what to believe. She came to Mullaby to get answers and all she has found so far are more questions. How do you find the right answer when there are millions of wrong ones? In this town of loveable misfits, maybe the right answer is the one that just feels… different. Sarah Addison Allen is the author of Garden Spells and The Sugar Queen . She lives in Asheville, North Carolina.

Alan Campbell has set a new standard for epic fantasy. Now, the highly acclaimed author of Scar Night and Iron Angel returns with the third installment of his trilogy, in which man, angel, demon and god vie for a chance at heaven...and hell. Campbell first introduced readers to the awe-inspiring city of Deepgate and its denizens in Scar Night... He continued the plight of traitor assassin Rachel Hael and the fallen Angel Dill in Iron Angel... Now, in GOD OF CLOCKS, old enemies and new allies join in a battle the outcome of which could spell the end for all who call Deepgate home. A portal has been opened in the ruined city of Deepgate, releasing entities that threaten to turn the world into a killing field. And, as humanity finds itself pushed to the brink of extinction, its salvation lies with the most unlikely of heroes...Now, with time running out, Rachel must prepare herself for the final confrontation. It is one she has both sought and feared. And, one so dangerous, it may claim her heart, her life and her soul. Publisher's Weekly (starred review) praised Scar Night: "Campbell has Neil Gaiman's gift for lushly dark stories and compelling antiheroes, and effortlessly channels the Victorian atmospherics of writer and illustrator Mervyn Peak… this imaginative first novel will have plenty of readers anxiously awaiting his follow-up." That follow up-Iron Angel, published in May 2008-was praised by Kirkus Reviews as "Flavorsome, original, and leavened with a fierce sense of humor." Alan Campbell lives in Scotland.

New York Times bestselling author and "one of the finest mystery writers in the country" (Monterey Herald) Laurie R. King returns with THE LANGUAGE OF BEES. When the son of Sherlock Holmes appears unexpectedly on their cottage doorstep, Holmes' wife and partner, Mary Russell, detects that something is amiss... When the young man disappears, she knows she is in a race against time. Russell and Holmes' sleuthing will take them from the seedy underground of bohemian London to the fields of Scotland, where a horrifying ceremony must be stopped before it takes a life Sherlock Holmes barely knew existed, and now seeks desperately to protect. For lovers of brilliant detective fiction, Laurie R. King takes readers on a dizzying journey from a bucolic glade to the basement of a menacing and secretive society, spinning an intricate web to ensnare her two beloved sleuths. King garnered outstanding reviews and a Barry nomination for Keeping Watch and critics adored her recent hardcover, Touchstone-The Wall Street Journal called it, "A thriller with big themes...Like a well-managed Edwardian soirée, TOUCHSTONE is by turns relaxed, tense, amusing, thought-provoking -- and memorably satisfying." King's Kate Martinelli series has won both the Edgar and Creasey Awards. She lives in northern California, where she is at work on her next Russell and Holmes mystery, which Bantam will publish in 2010.

From a master of suspense comes a chilling new novel that explores the dangers lurking closer than you think. Even in the perfect family, you never know what is going on behind closed doors. This is what happened… It was a case guaranteed to spark a media feeding frenzy-a young mother, blond and pretty, disappears without a trace from her South Boston home, leaving behind her four-year-old daughter as the only witness and her handsome, secretive husband as the prime suspect. In the last six hours… With the clock ticking on the life of a missing woman and the media firestorm building, Jason Jones seems more intent on destroying evidence and isolating his daughter than on searching for his "beloved" wife. Is the perfect husband trying to hide his guilt-or just trying to hide? And will the only witness to the crime be the killer's next victim? Say Goodbye was Lisa Gardner's ninth New York Times bestseller and a critical success. The Chicago Sun-Times raved: "Say Goodbye is a haunting, mesmerizing story that challenges readers with its dark subject matter, but pays off in its fine execution.... Gardner has consistently delivered entertaining and suspenseful novels in recent years, but she's gone one better with Say Goodbye, perhaps her best book yet." She is the New York Times bestselling author of Hide, Gone, Alone, The Killing Hour, The Survivors Club, The Next Accident, The Other Daughter, The Third Victim, and The Perfect Husband. She lives with her family in New England, where she is at work on her next suspense novel.

"Rendered with humor and heart."-People

"A laugh-and-cry novel….Thoroughly enjoyable…readers will…fall in love with My Husband's Sweethearts."-Associated Press

"In this spirited debut, Asher creates an unconventional family….As each character's individual story is revealed, the reader is further enveloped by this humorous yet touching tale."-Booklist

"A parade of memorable women keep pages turning."-Publishers Weekly

"Witty [and] oddly sweet."-Kirkus Reviews


The critics agree: Bridget Asher's Bantam debut, My Husband's Sweethearts, is a roaring success! And, with 11 foreign publishers signed up to publish it, My Husband's Sweethearts is an international hit to boot! Now, in THE PRETEND WIFE, her second Bantam novel, Bridget explores the question, "What would life be like with the one who got away?" in a big-hearted, funny, fiercely perceptive tale about a happily married woman and the little white lie that changed everything… For Gwen Merchant, love has always been doled out in little packets-from her father, a marine biologist who submerged himself in work after her mother's death, and from her husband, Peter, who's always been respectable and safe. But when an old college boyfriend, the irrepressible Elliot Hull, invites himself back into Gwen's life, she starts to remember a time when love knew no limits. What does Elliot want? He wants Gwen to become his pretend wife for a weekend. He wants her to accompany him to his family's lake house so that he can pretend to fulfill his dying mother's last wish. Reluctantly, Gwen agrees to play along-with her husband Peter's full support. It's just one weekend-what harm could come of it? But as Gwen is drawn into Elliot's quirky, wonderful family-his astonishingly wise and open mother, his warm and welcoming sister, and his adorable, precocious niece-she starts questioning everything she's ever expected from love. And as she begins to uncover a few secrets about her own family, it suddenly looks like a pretend relationship just might turn out to be the most real thing she's ever known. Bridget Asher lives in Florida with her husband. My Husband's Sweethearts has been optioned as a major motion picture by producer Kevin Misher.

RECLAIMING VIRTUE: How We Can Develop the Moral Intelligence to Do the Right Thing at the Right Time for the Right Reason by John Bradshaw
Audio and Performance:
Author c/o The Bantam Dell Publishing Group,
212-782-9800 (F)

Through his groundbreaking New York Times bestsellers and compelling PBS specials, John Bradshaw has changed millions of lives and inspired the work of an entire generation of therapists. Now, in his first major book in a decade, he has taken on a new challenge: defining what it means to live a moral life in today's world. John Bradshaw has written this book for the millions of decent, caring people who are struggling every day with painful choices, who are appalled-as he is-by the greed and shamelessness that plague our society, and who long for guidance for themselves and their children in an increasingly complex world. Is the only solution a return to an oppressive, rules-based morality? Bradshaw says no. Instead, he shows that each of us has what he calls an inborn moral intelligence, an inner guidance system that can lead us-if we know how to cultivate it in ourselves and others. His fascinating discussion ranges from the ancient Greek philosophers to modern explorations of emotional development, from provocative historical insights to the recent discoveries of neuroscience. Why do so many attempts at moral education fail? What is willpower, and how can we develop it? How can we navigate the inevitable problems of love and work and aging? How can we begin again after addiction or failure? How can we lead and discipline our children? What emerges is a clear vision of a morality grounded in childhood, educated by the practice of both traditional and modern virtues, and culminating in the moment-to-moment ability to "do the right thing at the right time for the right reason." RECLAIMING VIRTUE is both an inspiring appeal to what Abraham Lincoln called "the better angels of our nature" and a wise guide to building a life of unshakable integrity and well-being. John Bradshaw was educated for the Roman Catholic priesthood and took advanced degrees in psychology, philosophy and theology before becoming a professional counselor. He is the author of such major bestsellers as Bradshaw On: The Family, Healing the Shame that Binds You, Homecoming, and Creating Love. He lives in Houston, Texas, and gives lectures and workshops nationwide. U.K. rights have been licensed to Piatkus Books.

In a unique and imaginative blend of epic fantasy, steampunk, humor, and heroism, this acclaimed young team follows up their epic fantasy debut, Havemercy (Bantam Spectra 7/2008) -"one of the truly notable titles of 2008" (SFReviews.net)-with SHADOW MAGIC, a novel that is both a stand-alone and a sequel, set in the chaotic aftermath of a hundred years of war. Here, amidst a treacherous dance of diplomacy and betrayal lie the darkest secrets of all… and a peace more deadly than war itself. The metallic dragons of Volstov have defeated their Ke-Han neighbors, but what happens after the last shots are fired? Charged with the tricky task of establishing diplomatic relations as well as a viable succession plan are four new characters: two from the conquering kingdom, and two from the defeated land. From their clash of cultures, a lasting peace must be forged. And amidst politics and plotting, the strengths and loyalties of these four men will be tested in the crucible of peace - which may prove deadlier than the crucible of war. Jones and Bennett once again merge heroism and humor in this imaginative new fantasy. Jaida Jones, born and raised in New York City, is a twenty-one-year-old graduate of Barnard College. Her poems have appeared in Hanging Loose Magazine, Mythic Delirium and Jabberwocky. A collection of her poetry, Cinquefoil, was published November 2006. Her blog is at ladyjaida.livejournal.com; and she shares a website with Danielle Bennett at www.jonesandbennett.com. Danielle Bennett is a twenty-one-year-old ex-Starbucks barista from Victoria, B.C. Her online ramblings can be found on her blog, danibennett.livejournal.com.

"Put Rucka on the short 'must read' list." -Philadelphia Inquirer

Acclaimed antihero Atticus Kodiak returns in a blistering crime blockbuster from Greg Rucka, the author whose "Kodiak stories always read like wildfire" (Dallas Morning News). It's a new beginning for bodyguard Atticus Kodiak in WALKING DEAD. Dead to the world, no longer hunted, he has lived with his common-law wife Alena for over a year in a small town in the Republic of Georgia. But when their new neighbors are brutally murdered, leaving behind their son, it falls to Atticus to rescue him. To do so, he must enter a web that takes him from Russia to Istanbul and that stretches from Dubai to Las Vegas. But what troubles Atticus the most is that Alena-once one of the world's most dangerous assassins and a woman who fears nothing-is clearly terrified of what he's uncovered. And as Atticus gets closer to learning why, the closer he gets to destroying the life they have made, and each other. Greg Rucka is the author of nine previous thrillers, as well as numerous graphic novels, including the Eisner Award-winning "Whiteout" series. He resides in Portland, Oregon, with his wife and two children, where he is at work on his next novel which Bantam will publish in 2010.

BLACK AND WHITE
by Jackie Kessler and Caitlin Kittredge
Performance: Folio Literary Management,
212-400-1494, ext. 28 (P); 212-967-0977 (F);
Under the Sign of the Unicorn, 212-604-0330 (P);
212-675-1381 (F)

From two exciting voices in paranormal romance comes a super-heroine tale and the kick-off a new series. They were best friends at an elite academy for superheroes in training, but now Callie Bradford, code-name Iridium, and Joannie Greene, code-name Jet, are mortal enemies. Jet is a by-the-book hero, using her shadow power to protect the citizens of New Chicago. Iridium, with her mastery of light, runs the city's underworld. For the past five years, the two have played an elaborate, and frustrating, game of cat and mouse. But, now playtime's over. Separately, Jet and Iridium uncover clues that point to a looming evil, one that emanates from within the academy. As Jet works with Bruce Hunter-a normal man with an extraordinary ability to make her weak in the knees-she is convinced that Iridium is involved in a scheme that will level the power structure of America itself. And Iridium, teaming with the mysterious vigilante called Taser, uncovers an insidious plot that's been a decade in the making… a plot in which Jet is key. They're both right. And they're both wrong. Because nothing is as simple as… BLACK AND WHITE. Jackie Kessler is the author of the "Hell on Earth" series from Kensington/Zebra Books, which includes Hell is Where the Heart Is. Please visit her at www.jackiekessler.com. Caitlin Kittredge is the author of Night Life. You can visit her online at www.caitlinkittredge.com/blog. They are at work on their next book in our series, to be published in 2010.

THE BURNING SKIES by David J. Williams
Performance:
Lori Perkins Associates, 212-279-6418 (P)

The author of the critically-acclaimed debut novel, The Mirrored Heavens, returns with the second book in his military Sci-Fi "Autumn Rain" series. Praised by masters of space opera Peter Watts and Stephen Baxter and a king of military SF, Jack Campbell, David J. Williams proved with his genre-busting The Mirrored Heavens, that he is a rising star to watch. In his electrifying debut, Williams created a futuristic world grounded in the military rivalries, terror tactics, and political wrangling of our own time. Now, in THE BURNING SKIES, life as U.S. counterintelligence agent Claire Haskell once knew it is in tatters-her mission betrayed, her lover dead, and her memories of the past suspect. The defeat of the brilliant and mysterious insurgent group known only as Autumn Rain was not as complete as many believed. It is quickly becoming clear that their ultimate goal is not simply to destroy the tenuous global alliances of the 22nd Century-but to rule all of humanity. Now it's up to Claire, with her ability to jack her brain into the nets of the enemy, to pick up the pieces. Navigating a complex world filled with both steadfast loyalists and ruthless traitors, Claire must be ready for Rain's next move… so she can make hers. But her true enemy may be one step ahead of her. David J. Williams is at work on his next book in this series, which Bantam will publish in 2010.

THE DOULA GUIDE TO BIRTH: Secrets Every Pregnant Woman Should Know
by Ananda Lowe and Rachel Zimmerman
Translation and Performance:
Zachary Shuster Harmsworth, 617-262-2400 (P);
212-262-2468 (F)

Recently highlighted in every major parenting magazine in the country, including Child, Parents, and Parenting, and in newspapers including The New York Times, The Washington Post, and The Wall Street Journal, the use of doulas (professional birth coaches) by mothers-to-be has increased rapidly in the past decade. Formally trained and with extensive experience working with doctors, nurses and patients, doulas are today's experts in labor, staying with women nonstop throughout delivery. THE DOULA GUIDE TO BIRTH is the definitive and comprehensive guide to finding and working with a professional birth coach. Addressing practical questions of why to use a doula, how to choose one, what to ask along the way, and with information on labor techniques anyone can use, pain medication, when to go to the hospital, how to prepare for unexpected medical procedures, and complete with a clip-out chart of labor techniques and detailed worksheets for creating a birth plan, THE DOULA GUIDE TO BIRTH includes everything an expectant woman needs to know about one of the fastest trends in childbirth. Ananda Lowe served for seven years as Assistant Director of the Association of Labor Assistants and Childbirth Educators, which conducts the oldest doula training program in the country. She has participated in the field's major studies at Harvard-affiliated hospitals, and is currently a senior-level doula in Boston as well as a maternity massage specialist. Rachel Zimmerman is an award-winning reporter who covers both health and medicine for The Wall Street Journal's Boston bureau. She has also written for The New York Times, the Seattle Post-Intelligencer, the Portland Business Journal, and Willamette Weekly. Zimmerman is the recipient of the 2008-09 Knight Science Journalism Fellowship, a nine-month program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology. She lives in Cambridge, Massachusetts.

IN THE GARDEN OF SIN by Louisa Burton
Performance: Lowenstein-Yost Associates, Inc.,
212-206-1630 (P); 212-727-0280 (F)

Award-winning author Louisa Burton, praised for her "Exquisite and riveting literary erotica" (Romantic Times), tempts readers back to the Castle of the Hidden Grotto with the deliciously sensual IN THE GARDEN OF SIN, the fourth book in her "Hidden Grotto" series. Indulge yourself in the most clandestine of desires in the series lauded Best Erotic Fiction of 2007 by Romantic Times. In IN THE GARDEN OF SIN, two seductive tales are set in an ancient castle where four beautiful beings who thrive on carnal energy entice and ravish their human guests... Hannah Leeds is "The English Courtesan," a 17th century maiden who apprentices herself as a courtesan-in-training to Venetian nobleman Domenico Vitturi, offering her body in exchange for his patronage. Don Domenico has resigned himself to a life without love, his once handsome face disfigured by the scars of war. He brings Hannah to the Castle of the Hidden Grotto to be tutored in the arts of love by its insatiable and inventive residents, little knowing that she has come for more than just an erotic education... In "Hunger," vampires Anton Turek and Galiana Solsa satisfy their voracious erotic appetites while feeding on their prey. Weary of playing lapdog to the powerful, sadistic Galiana, Anton renews his quest to possess Lili, the beautiful succubus with whom he's been obsessed for centuries-while Galiana sets her sights on the godlike, sexually ravenous Elic, whom Lili loves but can never make love to. Desire and vengeance reach a fever pitch at the castle during an invitation-only renaissance festival with a BDSM twist. Louisa Burton invites readers to explore their most sinful fantasies with these two thrilling and edgy new tales of eroticism and romance. Louisa Burton is a lifelong devotee of Victorian erotica, mythology, and history. Her previous offerings in the "Hidden Grotto" series include: Whispers of the Flesh, Bound in Moonlight, and House of Dark Delights.

THE ISLAND by Tim Lebbon
First Serial, British, Translation, Audio, and Performance: Howard Morhaim Literary Agency, Inc., 212-222-8400 (P); 212-222-5056 (F)

"Tim Lebbon displays the sort of cool irony and uncanny mood-making that drive the best 'Twilight Zone'' stories." -The New York Times Book Review. Winner of two British Fantasy Awards, a Bram Stoker Award and a Tombstone Award, and a finalist for International Horror Guild and World Fantasy Awards, Tim Lebbon is the author of Dusk, Dawn, and Fallen, all published by Bantam. Although set in the same world as these works, THE ISLAND is his first stand-alone novel. He thought he'd seen the worst… No one was supposed to know of the presence of the Strangers, and it was the Core's job to make sure it stayed that way. Kel Boon was once an agent of Noreela's most secret organization, tracking, observing, and eliminating the Strangers as part of an elite Core team. Until one horrifying encounter left his superior officer-and lover-dead amidst an orgy of slaughter from which Kel has been running ever since. But the worst was still to come… Forsaking magic, living as a simple woodcarver, Kel came to Pavmouth Breaks because the remote fishing village seemed a place where trouble would never find him. But when a mysterious island rises from the sea after a cataclysmic storm, his Core training tells him to expect the worst. How can he warn the villagers-especially the beautiful young witch Namior-that the visitors arriving from the island may not be the peace-loving pilgrims they claim? They might be the advance wave of an invasion the Core had feared all along-an invasion Kel may be Noreela's last best chance to stop? Tim Lebbon lives in South Wales with his wife and two children. He is also co-author of Mind the Gap and The Map of Moments , the "Hidden Cities" series written with Christopher Golden.

ONE GOOD AFFAIR by Tess Stimson
British, Translation, and Performance:
Blake Friedmann Literary Agency, +44-207-284-0408 (P); +44-207-284-0442 (F)

With her gift for "surprising emotional honesty...[and] an impressive ability to get inside the heads of [her characters]" (Publishers Weekly), Tess Stimson delivers a great story with this internationally bestselling novel about six lovers, two affairs, and what happens when one husband's death threatens to unravel all their secrets. Tess Stimson's debut novel, The Adultery Club (Bantam 2/2008), was hailed by the Boston Globe as "perfect beach reading. Titillating…well-written…engaging, amusing, sexy, and surprisingly thought-provoking." Published originally in the UK, it was a Sunday Times paperback bestseller. In ONE GOOD AFFAIR, Ella Stuart is a pediatrician with a fulfilling career and a marriage any woman would envy. William Ashfield is a devoted husband, a good father, a successful businessman. Beth Ashfield married the love of her life and loves him still, but the light inside her is going out and she has one last chance to rekindle it. Cate, their brilliant but troubled teenaged daughter, is trying to negotiate the rough waters between adolescence and womanhood. When tragedy strikes, the repercussions reverberate through all of their lives, revealing secrets that will bring each of them to a crucial turning point. With sharp wit and moving honesty, Tess Stimson has written a brazenly unsentimental yet deeply felt novel of hearts gone astray. Tess Stimson lives in Florida and Vermont with her family, and is currently at work on her next novel, The Cradle Snatcher, which Bantam Dell will publish in 2010.

THE SHORTEST DISTANCE BETWEEN TWO WOMEN
by Kris Radish
Translation and Performance: Frances Goldin Literary Agency, Inc., 212-777-0047 (P); 212-228-1660 (F)

In her new novel, Book Sense, reading group and critics favorite ("The characters are immediately likeable and the plot is fast moving. This will be No. 1 on my list of 2007 recommends." -The Seattle Post-Intelligencer on Sunday List of Dreams) Kris Radish shows yet again novel why she has won such a passionate and devoted following. After all these years is there any way you would see me again? When Emma Lauryn Gilford heard the voice on her answering machine, she thought, "How dare he?" She'd put a lot of distance between herself and Samuel, filling her life with work and family, lavishing her attention on her lovely nieces and a garden that's the pride of Higgins, South Carolina. So why does his voice still have the power to make her heart skip? Why can't she stop thinking about this man she had forgotten so long ago? Emma has always been the dependable daughter, the sensible sister, the mediator of the controlled chaos surrounding her high-strung sisters and her widowed mother, Higgins's own senior citizen seductress. But with the annual Gilford family reunion just around the corner, at least two of her sisters approaching meltdown, and her favorite teenaged niece taking sanctuary in her home, Emma's concrete wall of self-denial is showing cracks. And on the other side is a life she can't put off living a moment longer. Kris Radish is the author of six novels, including The Elegant Gathering of White Snows and Annie Freeman's Fabulous Traveling Funeral (film rights optioned to producer Joni Levin's Point Blank Productions). She lives in Wisconsin where she is at work on her next novel, which Bantam will publish in 2010.

SNAKESKIN ROAD by James Braziel
First Serial and Performance:
Queen of Angels Media, 310-869-9264 (P)

In SNAKESKIN ROAD, the lyrical companion novel to Braziel's debut Birmingham, 35 Miles (Bantam 3/2008) ("Poetic, grim and hallucinatory, this harrowing work is not for the faint of heart, though it will appeal strongly to anyone who loved Cormac McCarthy's The Road."-Publishers Weekly), a woman begins a harrowing journey of survival along a passage of terror-and hope… They call it Snakeskin Road. An ever-changing network of highways, rivers, and forgotten trails, it is used by profiteers in human cargo. The catastrophic climatic changes that transformed the Southeast into a vast inhospitable desert have left its desperate inhabitants with little choice but indentured servitude. Jennifer Harrison is among those destined for the farms, mines, casinos, and brothels of the Midwestern "Free Zones." Carrying the unborn child of her deceased husband Mathew, Jennifer hopes that in three years' time she'll be free to reach Chicago-and a world better than the one she is leaving. Along with a thirteen-year-old refugee entrusted to her care, Jennifer begins a hazardous pilgrimage across a countryside of barricaded city-states, lawless camptowns, marauding gangs, and what's left of a corrupt government. But nothing she faces is more dangerous than a man named Rosser-a ruthless, opportunistic bounty hunter determined to bring her back to Birmingham. In a world where hope is always a mile ahead, Jennifer has one last chance before the road disappears forever. James Braziel's short fiction has appeared in over a dozen literary journals, including the Berkeley Fiction Review and the Chattahoochie Review. His poetry (published as a collection called Weathervane in 2003) has been twice nominated for the Pushcart Prize, and he was the recipient of the Individual Artist Grant from the Georgia Council for the Arts. He currently teaches creative writing at the University of Cincinnati.

THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME
by Samantha Wilde
British, Translation, Audio, and Performance:
Jane Rotrosen Literary Agency,
212-593-4330 (P); 212-935-6985 (F)

This funny and fizzy debut novel peeks inside the mind of a frazzled first-time mom and the hilarious, messy, sometimes hair-raising thoughts it contains. Meet Joy, a woman on the brink. Two weeks post-mortem-that is, post-partum-and she's struggling to keep it all together while her body screams for sleep and her mind screams for sanity. She loves her newborn son, but is beginning to resent her distracted and work-obsessed husband. Bewildered, Joy turns to her own mother for support, but she is too busy planning her fourth wedding to oblige. Cranky, weepy, exhausted-all her mommy friends tell Joy it will pass. But she's not so sure. Heading for a meltdown, Joy's getting ready to go to her 10th college reunion-the same reunion that Jake, Joy's former flame, will be attending. As Joy scrambles to recapture the person she used to be-single, skinny, able to speak in complete sentences-she takes another look at the woman she is: a stay-at-home mom in love with her son, if a bit addled about everything else. And maybe her husband's just done something charming… Fresh, funny, and full of keenly self-aware observations, THIS LITTLE MOMMY STAYED HOME brings a candid and hilarious perspective to a story of new motherhood. A graduate of Yale Divinity School, Samantha Wilde has worked as a yoga teacher and a minister. She lives in Belchertown, Massachusetts, where she is at work on her next novel.

TOO MANY COOKS/CHAMPAGNE FOR ONE by Rex Stout Translation and Performance:
Rebecca Stout Bradbury /Diversified Business Solutions, 858-496-4541 (F)

Fans of Sue Margolis's Gucci Gucci Coo ("A wickedly prescient novel… Likable characters and a clever concept make this silly confection a guilty pleasure."-USA Today) and Apocalipstick ("[An] irreverent, sharp-witted look at love and dating." -Houston Chronicle) have been eagerly anticipating her next book, and in FORGET ME KNOT she delivers a wickedly funny and original novel of love blossoming in a London florist shop. Florist Abby Crompton has a knack for arranging the most exquisite bouquets for the hippest clientele. If only her personal life could run as smoothly. Although her fiancé, Toby, proposed a month ago, Abby is still waiting for the ring. An up-and-coming lawyer, Toby has been far too busy to shop-let alone muster the energy for romance. If that wasn't frustrating enough, the night she is supposed to meet her future mother-in-law, Abby gets stuck in an elevator-with a sexy stranger bearing fine wine. Needless to say, a tipsy Abby arrives late for dinner and doesn't make the best impression. Shortly after that disaster, Abby is thrilled to learn that a film studio wants to use her shop in an upcoming movie. But when she meets the director, Dan, she is shocked to discover that he is none other than the same man with whom she shared the elevator-and some highly personal information. Now, with Toby putting in more overtime, Abby is feeling even more neglected, and her attraction to Dan is growing daily-as her own life begins to mirror the romantic comedy he is shooting. Featuring an irrepressible heroine, FORGET ME KNOT blooms with charm, wit, and fun. Sue Margolis's previous titles include: Original Cyn, Breakfast at Stephanie's, Neurotica, and Spin Cycle. She lives in England, where she is currently at work on her next novel for Bantam Dell, The Grapes of Froth, coming in 2010.

An unexplored island in the South Pacific…a research ship wired for a reality TV show… a discovery that could shape the fate of mankind… This blockbuster debut novel, which set off a bidding war at the London Book Fair and is licensed to 13 publishers, heralds a new voice in suspense fiction. As brilliantly imagined as Jurassic Park and The Ruins, FRAGMENT is an utterly original, all-too-believable journey into alien life at the heart of our own planet. For in FRAGMENT, scientists have made a startling discovery: an island with an ecosystem unlike any ever seen before-an ecosystem that could topple ours like a house of cards… The time is August, 2010. The place is the Trident, a floating TV studio for the reality show "Sealife," anchored just off Henders Island. Aboard is a cast of fresh young scientists. With a director dying for drama, the tiny island might just be what the show needs. Until the first scientist sets foot on Henders-and the ultimate test of survival begins… Lavishly illustrated, FRAGMENT is a pulse-pounding work of imagination. Warren Fahy was born in Hollywood, California. He has been a bookseller, a statistical analyst, and managing editor of a video database where he wrote hundreds of movie reviews for a nationally syndicated column. He currently is the lead writer for Wowwee, generating creative content for their line of advanced robotic toys. Bantam will publish his next novel in 2010.

Hailed by The Washington Post as "one of the best crime novelists in America," the #1 internationally bestselling author Karin Slaughter returns with a lit powder keg of a thriller. GENESIS brings together, for the first time, her beloved characters from Faithless ("The people in Faithless are so real and so well-developed that the reader can't help but feel empathy for them… This is the best thing Slaughter has written, both shocking and painful, but also gripping and resonant." -Chicago Sun-Times) and Fractured ("…a superior crime novel"-Washington Post). Karin Slaughter's powerful novels of suspense set in the backwoods of Georgia and the mean streets of Atlanta have enthralled readers and shot to the top of bestseller lists worldwide. Now she puts the small-town residents of Grant County, Georgia, and the hard-bitten cops of Georgia's Bureau of Investigation on a collision course, in a relentlessly gripping novel guaranteed to keep the surprises coming. Sarah Linton has fled to Atlanta seeking refuge from the terrible act which ripped her life apart in Grant County. But when a tortured young woman becomes a patient in her ER, she'll find herself deeply ensnared in a case which rips the lid off secrets as dark and complex as they are disturbing. When Special Agents Will Trent and Faith Mitchell join forces to probe into the life of the victim, they embark on an investigation which will change all of them forever. Wonderfully crafted and absolutely terrifying, filled with superbly drawn characters and the medical and police procedural details that are her trademark, GENESIS is the most thrilling Slaughter novel yet. Karin Slaughter is the New York Times bestselling author of seven novels. She is a native of Georgia, where she currently lives and is working on her next novel, which Delacorte Press will publish in 2010.

Nothing to Lose shot to #1 in hardcover in its first week on sale on The New York Times, The Wall Street Journal, The Washington Post, the IndieBound and the Publishers Weekly bestseller lists! In the same season, Bad Luck and Trouble landed at #1 in paperback on the New York Times bestseller list! Now, Lee Child returns with a scorching blockbuster that will delight his ever-growing legion of fans. New York City. Two in the morning. A subway car heading uptown. Jack Reacher, plus five other passengers. Four are okay. The fifth isn't. No law enforcement officer will ever forget the list of behaviors that indicate a suicide bomber going into action. Reacher was a military cop for thirteen years. The fifth passenger is scoring eleven for eleven on the list. In the next few tense seconds Reacher will make a choice-and trigger an electrifying chain of events in this gritty, gripping masterwork of suspense... The New York Times says that Nothing to Lose is "Electrifying…utterly addictive…[it] dazzles. Not for nothing has the cover art of his recent books depicted a bull's-eye." "With his powerful sense of justice, dogged determination and the physical and mental skills to overcome what most would be overwhelming odds, Jack Reacher makes an irresistible modern knight-errant" cites Publisher's Weekly on Nothing to Lose, and Entertainment Weekly states "Child's hard-boiled meal ticket shows no signs of drying up anytime soon. Thank goodness." Lee Child is the author of twelve Jack Reacher thrillers, including the New York Times bestsellers Persuader, The Enemy, One Shot, The Hard Way. His debut, Killing Floor, won both the Anthony and the Barry awards for Best First Mystery, and The Enemy won both the Barry and the Nero awards for Best Novel. Foreign rights in the Jack Reacher series have sold in forty territories. Child, a native of England and a former television director, lives in New York City.

SEDUCING AN ANGEL by Mary Balogh
First Serial, Translation, Audio, and Performance:
Maria Carvainis Agency, Inc., 212-245-6365 (P);
212-245-7196 (F)

With nearly seven million copies of her books sold, New York Times bestselling author Mary Balogh, "a veritable treasure, a matchless storyteller who makes our hearts melt with delight" (Romantic Times), is renowned for her deft plotting, sizzling characters, and deep emotional appeal. In SEDUCING AN ANGEL, she continues the series begun with First Comes Marriage, Then Comes Seduction, and At Last Comes Love with a hardcover summer treat. The fourth novel of her dazzling Regency-era quartet featuring the ravishing and audacious Huxtable family, SEDUCING AN ANGEL spotlights brother Stephen, the young earl whose innocent facade hides a rogue within. Banished, destitute, and labeled a murderess, Cassandra, Lady Paget arrives in Regency London, determined to overcome the reputation that has preceded her and to find a wealthy gentleman who can restore her to the extravagant life to which she's grown accustomed. She sets her sights on Stephen, Earl of Merton-an angelic-looking man of means who surely cannot resist her. Intrigued by Cassandra's charms, Stephen agrees to make her his mistress. But despite his cherubic looks and mild disposition, Stephen is no angel, and Cassandra soon realizes that there is a price to be paid for trying to tempt one. Mary Balogh is the author of the acclaimed "Slightly" novels: Slightly Married, Slightly Wicked, Slightly Scandalous, Slightly Tempted, Slightly Sinful, and Slightly Dangerous, and the "Simply" novels: Simply Unforgettable, Simply Love, Simply Magic and most recently Simply Perfect, as well as the romances No Man's Mistress, More than a Mistress, and One Night for Love. A former teacher, Balogh grew up in Wales and now lives in Canada. She is at work on her next novel for Dell.

For fans of the incomparable wit of Edward Gorey and the deceptive serenity of Ian McEwan's England, a wicked debut mystery this way comes… Alan Bradley, the winner of the Debut Dagger Award introduces a new breed of detective: a pigtailed eleven-year-old with disturbing fascinations and a passion for poison. Great literary crime detectives aren't always born; they're sometimes discovered, blindfolded and tied up in a dark closet by their nasty older sisters. Flavia de Luce's bitter home life and vicious sibling war inspires her solitary diversions and "strange talents"-tinkering with the chemistry set in the laboratory of their inherited Victorian house, plotting vengeance on Ophelia (17) and Daphne (13), and delving into the forbidden past of her taciturn, widowed father, Colonel de Luce. It comes as no surprise, then, that the material for her next scientific investigation will be the mysterious corpse that she uncovers in the cucumber patch… An enthralling mystery, a piercing depiction of class and society, THE SWEETNESS AT THE BOTTOM OF THE PIE is a masterfully told tale of deceptions-and a rich, literary delight. Alan Bradley has published many children's stories as well as lifestyle and arts columns in Canadian newspapers. His adult stories haven been broadcast on CBC radio and published in various literary journals. He won the first Saskatchewan Writers Guild Award for Children's Literature. He lives in British Columbia where he is at work on his next novel for Bantam Dell, The Weed that Strings the Hangman's Bag, scheduled for 2010.

In this extravagant, inventive and joyous debut, love's heart beats tomato red under a sultry Tuscan sun. TOMATO RHAPSODY is a passionate, ribald, and virtuosic romance for those who savor the comedies of Shakespeare or the captivating mixture of history and romance in Corelli's Mandolin. It is August in Tuscany in the heart of the 17th century. The rising sun throws orange and purple colors across the land. And on this day, God (or Fate-whichever you believe in) sets in motion a series of great and tiny events-in a tale of love in all its guises, of braying beasts and rhyming peasants, of a duke who wants to be a farmer, a boy who wants to be a girl and a man who wants revenge… Magical, wondrous, rich in literary delights, TOMATO RHAPSODY is also the almost-true story of how the tomato came to Italy-told with all lusty richness of a sun-ripened "love apple" crushed open in an unsuspecting mouth. Adam Schell holds a master's degree in creative writing from Antioch University. He has worked as a screenwriter, directed commercials, cooked professionally in New York City and then later for a celebrity clientele in Hollywood, picked coffee beans in Guatemala, grapes and olives in Tuscany. He got fired as a food critic for writing an April Fools review about a Tibetan-Mexican fusion restaurant famous for their fermented yak urine tea, then moved to Los Angeles, where he is a yoga teacher. He is working on his next book, which Delacorte will publish.

"Exceptional." -Publishers Weekly, starred review, on Written In Bone

From the author of the international bestsellers The Chemistry of Death and Written In Bone, comes WHISPERS OF THE DEAD, the latest thriller starring forensic anthropologist Dr. David Hunter. After nearly losing his life to a crazed killer, David Hunter is hoping for a fresh start. In order to ease back into work and prove to himself he is still capable of the job, he accepts an invitation to Tennessee's Outdoor Anthropology Research Facility-better known as the legendary "The Body Farm." But almost immediately, Hunter is drawn into the investigation of a bizarre murder-one that appears to have been elaborately staged by a serial killer. Stranger still is the information that his local colleagues seem to be protecting. All around him, egos and hierarchies clash-from the boasts of a renowned criminal profiler to the dogged work of a young female investigator-while fate pushes Hunter further into the heart of the manhunt. And the killer keeps coming up with surprises: booby-trapping corpses, faking times of death, swapping bodies-finally turning his sights on after Hunter himself… An electrifying race against time, a fascinating journey into the world of forensic science, and a terrifying portrait of a killer in love with death itself, WHISPERS OF THE DEAD is a thriller of the highest order. Simon Beckett is a freelance journalist and the author of The Chemistry of Death, shortlisted for the Duncan Lawrie Dagger Award for Best Crime Novel of the Year and A Deadly Pleasures Best Novel of the Year, and Written in Bone. He is married and lives in England where he is at work on his next thriller featuring Dr. David Hunter to be published by Delacorte.

Discover the groundbreaking path to mindful meditation…with 100 short, inspiring verses selected from Jon Kabat-Zinn's classic bestseller, Full Catastrophe Living. In this international bestselling work, Jon shared his innovative approach to reducing stress and achieving mindfulness, helping millions live healthier, richer lives. Now, in this new companion volume, 100 short verses-carefully selected from Kabat-Zinn's landmark stress reduction program-take us further down the path to awareness, healing and joy. Whether you're trying to learn patience, cope with pain, manage stress, improve your relationships, or simply let go of destructive thoughts and behaviors, these deceptively simple meditations will help you achieve the balance and clear-eyed, practical vision that is true mindfulness. LETTING EVERYTHING BECOME YOUR TEACHER will be a beautifully designed, small trim package with french flaps, two-color text against a graphic background on every page, and two dozen pages of photographs. Bantam Dell will repromote Full Catastrophe Living in a color-coordinated package alongside this gift book. Jon Kabat-Zinn, Ph.D., is a scientist, writer, and meditation teacher engaged in bringing mindfulness into the mainstream of medicine and society. He is the founding director of the Stress Reduction Clinic and the Center for Mindfulness in Medicine, Health Care, and Society at the University of Massachusetts Medical School, as well as Professor of Medicine Emeritus. He is also Vice Chair of the Mind and Life Institute. In 2007, he received a Pioneer in Integrative Medicine Award from the Bravewell Philanthropic Collaborative for Integrative Medicine. Dr. Kabat-Zinn lives in Massachusetts.

Robert Goddard, one of the most acclaimed British mystery writers working today, whom Entertainment Weekly calls the undisputed "master of the clever twist," is back with a new novel, never before published in the U.S., a labyrinthine tale of buried and forgotten mysteries. When Tim Harding agrees to do a favor for a friend, bidding on his behalf for an antique ring at auction, little does Tim know of the secrets that tie the ring to three tragedies: the sinking of HMS Association off Sicily in 1707, a murder in Penzance thirty years later and the drowning of a journalist in 1999. The ring is stolen before it can be sold, and a shocking murder follows. Harding is quickly drawn into a web of conspiracies surrounding the ring's origins. At the heart of the mystery a perilous truth awaits him, coupled with a terrible realization: those who uncover the truth are not allowed to live... Since Dell began its six-book commitment to Goddard in 2006, he has received remarkable attention from national reviewers delighted to see his return to this country. Stephen King called In Pale Battalions "Riveting... clever...A book to remember." Robert Goddard is the author of sixteen bestselling novels, including Into the Blue, Play to the End, Hand in Glove, Borrowed Time, Sight Unseen, and In Pale Battalions, all now available in Delta editions. He lives in England.

Calling all dog lovers, boat lovers, and armchair adventurers! Fresh on the heels (or keels) of the book the Boston Globe hails as, "A smart comic telling of an adventurous undertaking....[Darlington] to the end maintains what is no façade but an enviable, raucous joy of living," Narrow Dog to Carcasonne (Delta 4/2008), Terry Darlington is at it again-this time navigating the American Southeast coastal waters. Join the author, his wife Monica, and their cowardly dog, a whippet named Jim, on this wild, unforgettable odyssey through the South aboard one of the most unlikely crafts ever to sail U.S. waters. Everyone said it couldn't be done, so Terry Darlington had to prove them wrong. He brought their canal narrowboat across the Atlantic for a leisurely sail down the 1,150-mile Intracoastal Waterway to the Gulf of Mexico. But no sooner do they set out than they encounter an unheard-of ice storm in Virginia, 12-foot-long alligators and crafty piranhas and so discover why no one had ever sailed an English narrowboat in the U.S. before. Yet, as their six-foot-ten-inch-wide boat takes them through a South few of us have ever seen, they enjoy frequent stops to dine on sweet tea, grits, and the freshest of the day's catch, encounter ex-CIA agents and the Good Old Boys of the Deep South, and discover that everyone has a story that they're only too willing to share over a drink... or seven. With his irreverent voice and charming insight, NARROW DOG TO INDIAN RIVER-a Top Ten Sunday Times (UK) bestseller-is Terry Darlington's rare and unique portrait of the hearts and minds of the sometimes perplexing, often uproarious, but always generous folk of America's coastal south. Like Narrow Dog to Carcasonne ("one of the most hilarious travel memoirs ever written" -- Booklist), NARROW DOG TO INDIAN RIVER will be filled with illustrations and two maps in color.

Critics are in awe of Carolyn Wall's debut novel, SWEEPING UP GLASS: "deserves a place on the shelf next to classics like…To Kill a Mockingbird" (O Magazine)... "The strong, fresh narrative voice pulls the reader in and doesn't let go in Wall's stunning debut." (Publishers Weekly, starred review). At once a mystery, a love story, and a haunting rumination on secrets, bigotry and devotion, SWEEPING UP GLASS is a work of astonishing depth and beauty. Olivia Harker Cross owns a strip of mountain in Pope County, Kentucky, where whites and blacks eek out a living in separate, tattered kingdoms, and where Olivia's wolves howl in the night. Her grandson Will'm, Olivia's pride and joy, shares her love of the fierce, gorgeous creatures. Someone is killing the wolves of Big Foley Mountain, sending Olivia on a shattering journey through her town's history, to uncover relationships, grudges, and secrets-including one hiding in plain sight. Now, this simple, proud, lonely woman will confront her mother and daughter, her neighbors and the wolf hunters of Big Foley Mountain. And when she does, she'll ignite a conflict that will embroil an entire community-and change her own life in the most surprising of ways. Carolyn Wall is an editor and lecturer. As Artist-in-Residence for the Oklahoma Arts Council, she has taught creative writing to more than 4,000 children in Oklahoma, where she is at work on her second novel coming from Bantam in 2010.

A fresh new voice in erotic romance, Sydney Croft serves up more steamy suspense with the fourth novel in her scintillating paranormal ACRO series. He came to the underground London club for a night of extreme sex play with the enigmatic "Mistress Rik." But the special agent known as Trance is really on a search-and-rescue mission to keep her alive. Part predator, Ulrika "Rik" Jaegar possesses feral powers that make her a danger to others-and to herself. That's why the Agency for Covert Rare Operatives (ACRO) wants to recruit her to their side….To do so, Trance will have to pull off the impossible: capture and control Rik. On the run from the deadly agency that changed her into a pleasure-seeking shape-shifter, Rik uses sex to rein in her own raging desires. Operating on pure instinct, she trusts no one…especially the magnificent alpha male with the power to seduce her into submission. An undercover agent with unique hypnotic gifts, Trance is surprised by his instinct to hold Rik and keep her safe-but he has a job to do. And as he hunts her down, as Rik and Trance are thrust into the ultimate game of domination and submission, they'll enter a place where surrender is their sole hope of survival-and the only thing that can tame the wild beast in both of them.…Following Seduced by the Storm, Unleashing the Storm, and Riding the Storm, TAMING THE FIRE takes the phrase "primal desire" to enticing new levels. Sydney Croft is the alter-ego of two published authors who came together to blend their very different writing interests into adventurous tales of erotic paranormal fiction. The authors behind Sydney Croft live in different states and communicate almost entirely through e-mail, though they often get together for conferences and book signings. They are at work on their next erotic romance coming from Delta in 2011.

Top-secret societies… bizarre initiation rites… campus love triangles… political shenanigans… Diana Peterfreund has dazzled readers and critics alike with her "Ivy League" novels, hailed by Publishers Weekly as "impossible to put down." In this final installment, Eli University senior Amy "Bugaboo" Haskel and her fellow Diggers are preparing to face real life far beyond the hallowed halls of Eli University. For Amy, the countdown to graduation has begun-and suddenly the perfect ending to a perfectly iconoclastic Eli career is slipping from her grasp. Her love life threatens to implode. The employment offers aren't exactly rolling in. And the student she's chosen to take her place in Rose & Grave-the country's most powerful and notorious Secret Society-seems to come complete with a secret life already in place. Lunging toward the finish line, Amy suddenly is dealing with some serious unfinished business-from former flames and Society intrigues to stalkers, lovers and other strangers. Surely, it couldn't get worse… until Initiation Night explodes into a terrifying scene-and into one last test of wits for a young woman just trying to make it out of the Ivy League in one piece… Diana Peterfreund graduated from Yale University in 2001 with degrees in geology and literature. A former food critic, she now lives with her husband in Washington, D.C., and writes full time.

This beautifully written memoir, from a Pulitzer Prize-winning journalist who was a foreign correspondent for Newsday, is a son's tribute to a mother who poured her love into everything she cooked, and gave her children, in their first years, enough love to nourish them forever. At first, McAllester's childhood was idyllic, a time when his mother placed heavenly, delicious food at the center of a family life brimming with fun and laughter. Then came the terrible years-years when, still a boy, Matt watched his warm, quick-witted mother, Ann, succumb to mental illness. After decades of estrangement, in which time he grew up and became a foreign correspondent reporting from the most dangerous places in the world, from Beirut to Baghdad, Matt was pole-axed by his overwhelming grief at her sudden death. In the weeks and months that followed, Matt found himself poring over old family photos and letters, trying to reach out to the beautiful, caring woman who had now vanished forever. But as he looked anew at her cookbooks, it occurred to him that the best way to find her was through something they both loved: the food she had once prepared for him, food that introduced him to a thousand sources of joy-from spare ribs to the homemade strawberry ice cream that seemed in memory the very essence of happy times. With a reporter's precision and a storyteller's grace, McAllester guides us through a long season of grief-cooking, eating and remembering-at the same time recounting his and his wife's efforts to have and nourish a child of their own. Complete with recipes to soothe the body and soul, BITTERSWEET is a memoir of extraordinary power, told with eloquence and candor, love and acceptance. Matt McAllester was a foreign correspondent for Newsday, before returning to London, where he now lives with his wife Pernilla. Winner of a number of awards, including the Osborn Elliott Award for Excellence for his coverage of Nepal in 2006, and several Overseas Press Club citations for his international reporting, he is currently a contributing editor at Details. He is the author of two well-reviewed books, Beyond the Mountains of the Damned (about the war in Kosovo) and Blinded by the Sunlight (about his own imprisonment in Abu Ghraib under Saddam Hussein).