Books with author Catherine Lo

A trio of sharp-witted British whodunits featuring Detective Inspector Sloan—from a CWA Diamond Dagger winner and “a most ingenious” author (The New Yorker). In her debut novel in the long-running mystery series, The Religious Body, Catherine Aird introduced the sleuthing team of shrewd Detective Inspector C. D. Sloan and his less-than-shrewd sidekick, Detective Constable William Crosby, in the fictional County of Calleshire, England. Over the course of twenty-four crime novels, the award-winning author has maintained the perfect balance between cozy village mystery and police procedural. The Religious Body: When Sister Anne’s body is found at the bottom of a steep set of cellar stairs, her veil askew and her head crushed, it’s clear she’s been viciously attacked. Heaven help Detective Inspector Sloan as he’s called to the Convent of St. Anselm to determine why someone would want to murder a nun. Henrietta Who?: In a quiet English village, a woman’s body is found in the road, the victim of a hit-and-run. Miles away, her daughter, Henrietta, is given the bad news. But an autopsy brings even more shocking news: Not only was Mrs. Jenkins’s death no accident, the woman never had a child. If Henrietta is not her daughter, who is she? It’s up to Detective Inspector Sloan to find out. The Stately Home Murder: To survive financial hard times, the Earl of Ornum has opened his estate to tourists. One curious young boy sees a full suit of armor and lifts the visor . . . only to see a face staring back at him. Now Ornum House is a crime scene, with Sloan and Crosby determined to discover how a murdered man ended up in knight’s garb.

Catherine Reef brings history vividly to life in this sumptuously illustrated account of a confident, strong-minded, and influential woman. Victoria woke one morning at the age of eighteen to discover that her uncle had died and she was now queen. She went on to rule for sixty-three years, with an influence so far-reaching that the decades of her reign now bear her name—the Victorian period. Victoria is filled with the exciting comings and goings of royal life: intrigue and innuendo, scheming advisors, and assassination attempts, not to mention plenty of passion and discord. Includes bibliography, notes, British royal family tree, index.

From Catherine Linka, the sequel and explosive conclusion to A Girl Called Fearless. Having survived a violent confrontation with the US government, Avie is not out of danger. Both she and the young man she loves, Yates, have been declared terrorists, and Yates is hospitalized in critical condition, leaving Avie with the perilous task of carrying information that can bring down the Paternalist party, if she can get it into the right hands. Forced on the run with handsome, enigmatic woodsman Luke, Avie struggles when every turn becomes a choice between keeping the two of them alive or completing their mission. With her face on every news channel and a quarter million dollar reward from the man who still owns her marriage Contract, Avie's worst fears are about to come true.Equal parts thrilling and romantic, A Girl Undone is sure to keep your heart racing right until the very end.

"We have buried the putrid corpse of liberty." -- Benito MussoliniIt's not like I'm surprised my mom picked the Mussolini quote for her wedding invitation. She's never been what one would call "conventional." I was a little surprised (but happy) when she agreed to marry my English teacher, Max Medina. Which makes my summer even busier -- with my classes at Chilton, the wedding planning, and, as Paris so efficiently pointed out, about ten years of extracurricular activities to catch up on, it makes me wonder: whatever happened to the good ol' days of summer loving, had me a blast?

As a kid, I loved history. But whenever a history book started a boring dive into the economy, class structure, and archaeological finds of this or that era, I turned off my flashlight and went to sleep.Kids like stories. Whether these are stories of heroism in scary wars, or of the wisdom and intrigue of ancient kings and rebels, or of the sudden turns of fate that befall fortune-seekers, kids are always fascinated by a story with a plot. They learn from stories, not from dense paragraphs about the phases of the Bronze age, the location of trade routes, or the injustices of the social order here and there. I discovered that my kid remembers minute details of Greek mythology - which is a story-based narrative - and can't recall any cities of Ancient Greece, or any historical figures after reading non-fiction on the subject. To him, Ancient Greece is Odysseus and the Sirens. Because that's a memorable story, while the development of agricultural tools is not.This book follows the old-fashioned, story-based, traditional route of teaching history - through the stories of heroes and kings, with no tribute paid to modern economic and social perspectives. If my kid remembers who Solon was because he recalls a couple funny anecdotes about him, I know he will put two and two together when he is studying the agricultural subsistence economy of that era down the road in Social Studies. But if he knows all about the injustices of slavery in Ancient Greece and doesn't know who Themistocles was, he will grow up lacking in cultural education. Culture is memes. And that means historical figures, and anecdotes about them. The suggested reader age for this book is 8 to 14 years old. To write this book, I went back to Herodotus, Plutarch, Diogenes Laertius, and other ancient sources of biographical anecdotes, and extracted from them the stories that will be most memorable to a modern kid. I retold them without adding any fictional color. I have omitted some things, however. Anything gruesome or seriously cruel is not included. Anything off-color, or outside traditional-family-friendly morality is not included. I have included only accounts of the most major battles, and without much detail. Battles are important, but as a kid - maybe as a girl - I was falling asleep over the ancient battles. Politics: Again, I have included only major turns of events.I wove the information about the social order and geography of Ancient Greece into the stories of the era's historical figures. So, no worries, the kid will learn about the Agora and Acropolis of Athens, the city-states of Corinth and Sparta, daily life in an Ancient Greek household, the major Greek temples, and the three orders of Ancient Greek architecture.vThis book is richly illustrated. I don't agree that if you are 13 or 16 you should be content with pages and pages of text and no pictures. Illustrations help both kids and grownups to visualize - and therefore to remember - events and descriptions. I have illustrated the book mostly with paintings portraying historical figures or everyday life in classical Greece. Whenever I could, I chose late 19th century and early 20th century art over the older neoclassical paintings for a more accurate representation of the Ancient Greek costume and environment. I added some photos of the sculpture, artifacts, and architectural monuments of Ancient Greece.Important: I have selected illustrations with absolutely no nudity, so it's safe to take this book to school!Here is a list of the historical figures included in this book: Homer, Aesop, Drakon, Solon, Croesus, Pythagoras, Pheidippides, Leonidas, Themistocles, Pericles, Phidias, Socrates, Aspasia, Hippocrates, Alexander the Great, Diogenes, Plato, Herostratus, Aristotle, Archimedes.

Okay, let's face it. My mom and I are never going to have a "normal" mother-daughter relationship because my mom isn't just my mother, she's my best friend. She would do anything for me, including asking her parents for the tuition money to send me to Chilton, this prestigious prep school that just accepted me. That was probably one of the toughest things she's ever done, although agreeing to weekly dinners in exchange for the loan probably runs a close second. My mom's just miserable at the mere thought of this. But the way I look at it? -- I'd just say life is going to get a lot more interesting.

What if only your very worst enemy could help you save the world? Fireseed One, a futuristic YA thriller, is set on a near-future earth with soaring heat, toxic waters, tricked-out amphibious vehicles, ice-themed dance clubs and fish that grow up on vines. Varik Teitur inherits a vast sea farm after the mysterious drowning of his marine biologist father. When Marisa Baron, a beautiful and shrewd terrorist, who knows way too much about Varik's father's work, tries to steal seed disks from the world's food bank, Varik is forced to put his dreams of becoming a doctor on hold and venture with her, into a hot zone teeming with treacherous nomads and a Fireseed cult who worships his dead father, in order to search for Fireseed, a seemingly magical hybrid plant that may not even exist. Fans of Divergent will likely enjoy this as well as those who like romance with their page-turners. ***Indie Reader notable, YA finalist in sci-fi & YA in USA News International Book Awards and Amazon bestseller.Includes discussion questions for book club or classroom.Readers say: 5-stars from: Parafantasy: “Amazing world-building and romance, extremely clever plot!” Magick Pen: “Sweet romance in this action adventure.” Electrifying Reviews: “Emotional thrill ride!” Indie Ereader: “Three-dimensional, vivid, fresh.” “So full of startling ideas I couldn't stop reading. Recommended for fans of sci-fi, thrillers or anyone looking for a story full of big surprises.” - Amy Kathleen Ryan, author of The Sky Chasers series “Extraordinary thriller with a fascinating setting and rich, engaging characters.” - Katia Lief, international bestselling author of You Are Next and Soul Catcher “Stine's uncanny world building is both horrifying and hilarious.” - reader review

If everything about you changes, what remains?Seventeen year-old Ruby, long-pledged to the much older Stiles from the Fireseed desert cult, escapes with only a change of clothes, a pouch of Oblivion Powder and her mute little brother, Thorn. Arriving at The Greening, a boarding school for orphaned teens, she can finally stop running. Or can she? The Greening is not what it seems. Students are rampaging out of control and as she cares for the secret Fireseed crop, she experiences frightening physical changes. She’s ashamed of her attraction to burly, hard-talking Blane, the resident bodyguard, and wonders why she can’t be happy with the gentler Armonk. She’s long considered her great beauty a liability, a thing she’s misused in order to survive. And how is she to stop her dependence on Oblivion to find a real beauty within, using her talent as a maker of salves, when she has nightmares of Stiles without it?When George Axiom, wealthy mogul of Vegas-by-the-Sea offers a huge cash prize for the winner of a student contest, Ruby is hopeful she might collect the prize to rescue her family and friends from what she now knows is a dangerous cult. But when Stiles comes to reclaim her, and Thorn sickens after creating the most astonishing contest project of all, the world Ruby knows is changed forever. This romantic fantasy set in 2099 on earth has a crafty heroine in Ruby, and a swoonworthy cast, which will surely appeal to both YA and a general audience.Ruby’s Fire, a YA finalist in the Next Generation Indie awards and an Amazon bestseller, is the companion book to Fireseed One, but can be read as a standalone.Reviewers say:5 stars from Teen Blurb: “A world full of magic, and unexpected romance!”5 stars from The (Mis) Adventures of a Twenty-Something Year-Old Girl: “You know when you get a book, and it's much better than you thought it was going to be? Ruby's Fire was definitely one of those books! I absolutely loved it… One of my favorite reads of 2013. What an amazing plot! Also, there is a fantastic twist that I didn't see coming.”5 stars from Books for YA: “Stine continued to amaze me in Ruby’s Fire with her futuristic world. She made me believe that it was real, and that hybrid-species were possible. I really enjoyed her characters especially Thorn. He's such an intelligent little kid whose heart is huge. Also, if I could have my own friendly Red, I would be the happiest person ever.”"With an astounding creativity and unique world-building, Catherine Stine created a futuristic adventure that will surely keep you turning the pages until you beg for more." -Books for YA!“A thrilling adventure led by an exciting cast of characters, and the romance is really well handled.” -YA’s The WordAuthors say:“Gripping and addictive, Ruby has imagination packed into every page and scene! Unexpected and original.” -M. Pax, author of The Backworlds series“A heart-pounding tale of deception and danger set in a futuristic world teetering perilously between metamorphosis and destruction.” -Ciara Knight, author of Amazon bestsellers Weighted and Escapement “What’s revealed is even creepier than expected in a world already steeped in exotic technology and bioengineered strangeness. Great science fiction imaginatively told, Ruby’s Fire is a wonderfully crafted story that will make you think.” -Susan Kaye Quinn, author of The Mindjack trilogy

I spent my 11th wedding anniversary planning my husband's funeral. If I could just figure out how to make that rhyme, it would be the beginning of a great country song. Involuntarily single. That's the true story of where Catherine Tidd finds herself just three weeks after turning thirty-one. Widowed with three children under six years old, a rusty resume, no fix-it skills, and no clue how to live life as a widow, Catherine can't help but be a little exasperated with her dead husband for leaving her to deal with life on her own. Catherine's now in charge of her life in a way she never wanted to be, in a way that would have most of us reeling and numb. But she soon realizes that when you call the shots, you can make pedicures one of the stages of grief—and that moving forward might be more fun in a new sports car. Her honest Confessions of a Mediocre Widow is a glimpse into the heartbreaking and sometimes humorous world of a young woman who learns that it is possible to find joy in an unexpected life.

The Brontë sisters are among the most beloved writers of all time, best known for their classic nineteenth-century novels Jane Eyre (Charlotte), Wuthering Heights (Emily), and Agnes Grey (Anne). In this sometimes heartbreaking young adult biography, Catherine Reef explores the turbulent lives of these literary siblings and the oppressive times in which they lived. Brontë fans will also revel in the insights into their favorite novels, the plethora of poetry, and the outstanding collection of more than sixty black-and-white archival images. A powerful testimony to the life of the mind. (Endnotes, bibliography, index.)

Twelve-year-old Midnight Reynolds has a huge secret—she's a spectral protector, someone who helps ghosts cross over into the afterlife. Alongside her best friend Tabitha, Midnight is busy juggling the wilds of middle school with her undercover ghost-hunting job. When mysterious and dangerous robberies start happening in their small town, all signs point to some sort of spectral manipulation, and Midnight's boss asks her to take over the investigation. Can Midnight find the culprit and stop them before the spectral energy endangers their town?This series has twists and turns galore for budding mystery lovers, all seen through the lens of a lovable and smart heroine. And the positive female friendships and hysterical writing will keep series fans coming back for more.