Chilling Effect

Chilling Effect
Author: Valerie Valdes
Publisher: HarperCollins
Total Pages: 400
Release: 2019-09-17
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 0062877240

“Jam-packed with weird aliens, mysterious artifacts, and lovable characters... a tremendous good time and an impressive debut.” -- Kirkus Reviews (starred) A hilarious, offbeat debut space opera that skewers everything from pop culture to video games and features an irresistible foul-mouthed captain and her motley crew, strange life forms, exciting twists, and a galaxy full of fun and adventure. Captain Eva Innocente and the crew of La Sirena Negra cruise the galaxy delivering small cargo for even smaller profits. When her sister Mari is kidnapped by The Fridge, a shadowy syndicate that holds people hostage in cryostasis, Eva must undergo a series of unpleasant, dangerous missions to pay the ransom. But Eva may lose her mind before she can raise the money. The ship’s hold is full of psychic cats, an amorous fish-faced emperor wants her dead after she rejects his advances, and her sweet engineer is giving her a pesky case of feelings. The worse things get, the more she lies, raising suspicions and testing her loyalty to her found family. To free her sister, Eva will risk everything: her crew, her ship, and the life she’s built on the ashes of her past misdeeds. But when the dominoes start to fall and she finds the real threat is greater than she imagined, she must decide whether to play it cool or burn it all down.

Losing It

Losing It
Author: Valerie Bertinelli
Publisher: Simon and Schuster
Total Pages: 288
Release: 2008-02-25
Genre: Biography & Autobiography
ISBN: 1416570195

Valerie Bertinelli, then: bubbly sitcom star and America's Sweetheart turned tabloid headline and rock star wife. Now: actress, single working mother of teenage rock star, and weight-loss inspiration to millions. We all knew and loved Valerie Bertinelli years ago when she played girl-next-door cutie Barbara Cooper in the hit TV show One Day at a Time, and then starred in numerous TV movies. From wholesome primetime in America's living rooms, Valerie moved to late nights with the hardest-partying band of the decadent eighties when she became, at twenty, wife to rock guitarist Eddie Van Halen. Losing It is Valerie's frank account of her life backstage and in the spotlight. Here are the ups and downs of teen stardom, of her complicated marriage to a brilliant, tormented musical genius, and of her very public struggle with her weight. Surprising, uplifting, and empowering, Losing It takes you behind the scenes of Valerie's acting career and marriage, recalling the comforts, friendships, and problems of her television family, her close relationships with her parents and brothers, the stress and worries of being the wife of a rock star, and the joys of motherhood. Like many women, Valerie often remembers the state of her life by the food she ate and the numbers on her scale. So despite her celebrity, Valerie's voice is so down-to-earth, honest, and appealing that you'll feel as if you're talking with a girlfriend over coffee. Funny and candid, Valerie recounts her attempts to maintain a healthy self-image while dealing with social pressures to look and act a certain way, and to overcome career insecurities and relationship problems, all of which will be familiar to the hundreds of thousands of women who struggle every day with these same issues. From marital turmoil to the joys of a new career, from being named among Penthouse's ten sexiest women in the world to overhearing whispers about her weight gain in the grocery store, this is Valerie's inspiring journey as she finds new love, raises a terrific kid, and motivates other women as a spokesperson for Jenny Craig.

The Last Lecture

The Last Lecture
Author: Randy Pausch
Publisher:
Total Pages: 0
Release: 2010
Genre: Cancer
ISBN: 9780340978504

The author, a computer science professor diagnosed with terminal cancer, explores his life, the lessons that he has learned, how he has worked to achieve his childhood dreams, and the effect of his diagnosis on him and his family.

Echopraxia

Echopraxia
Author: Peter Watts
Publisher: Macmillan
Total Pages: 384
Release: 2014-08-26
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 142994806X

Prepare for a different kind of singularity in Peter Watts' Echopraxia, the follow-up to the Hugo-nominated novel Blindsight It's the eve of the twenty-second century: a world where the dearly departed send postcards back from Heaven and evangelicals make scientific breakthroughs by speaking in tongues; where genetically engineered vampires solve problems intractable to baseline humans and soldiers come with zombie switches that shut off self-awareness during combat. And it's all under surveillance by an alien presence that refuses to show itself. Daniel Bruks is a living fossil: a field biologist in a world where biology has turned computational, a cat's-paw used by terrorists to kill thousands. Taking refuge in the Oregon desert, he's turned his back on a humanity that shatters into strange new subspecies with every heartbeat. But he awakens one night to find himself at the center of a storm that will turn all of history inside-out. Now he's trapped on a ship bound for the center of the solar system. To his left is a grief-stricken soldier, obsessed by whispered messages from a dead son. To his right is a pilot who hasn't yet found the man she's sworn to kill on sight. A vampire and its entourage of zombie bodyguards lurk in the shadows behind. And dead ahead, a handful of rapture-stricken monks takes them all to a meeting with something they will only call "The Angels of the Asteroids." Their pilgrimage brings Dan Bruks, the fossil man, face-to-face with the biggest evolutionary breakpoint since the origin of thought itself. At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

A Valerie Law FBI Suspense Thriller Bundle: No Mercy (#1), No Pity (#2), and No Fear (#3)

A Valerie Law FBI Suspense Thriller Bundle: No Mercy (#1), No Pity (#2), and No Fear (#3)
Author: Blake Pierce
Publisher: Blake Pierce
Total Pages: 735
Release: 2022-08-18
Genre: Fiction
ISBN: 1094377376

A bundle of books #1 (NO MERCY), #2 (NO PITY), and #3 (NO FEAR) in Blake Pierce’s Valerie Law mystery series! This bundle offers books one, two, and three in one convenient file, with over 150,000 words of reading. In NO MERCY (Book #1), when a serial killer escapes from a mental hospital, the FBI creates an elite unit to target criminally-insane killers. FBI Special Agent Valerie Law, a rising star, is the perfect candidate—but for Valerie, this case may just hit too close to home. With an insane killer on a spree, the clock is ticking for Valerie and her partner—and the brilliant psychiatrist on their team—to enter his mind and stop him before he strikes again. The twisted pathway to his psyche takes them down the dark road of the killer’s past, into orphanages, alienated family members, and shattered survivors. It is a road that may be too dark for even Valerie—one of the best BAU agents—to head down. She has tried too hard to escape her own past to withstand much more on her psyche. And when the killer sets his sights on her, it may just be her final undoing. Is Valerie one step ahead of this killer? Or has she walked right into a trap? In NO PITY (Book #2), when a serial killer writes taunting letters to the press, FBI Special Agent Valerie Law and her elite team are summoned. But this killer is truly deranged, and with the trail soon cold, Valerie may just be the only who can enter his mind and crack the baffling case. Valerie, still reeling from the last case, is sure she sees a pattern when a second victim is discovered. But when everything she thinks she knows with this killer turns out to be wrong, she questions her own judgement. Is she losing her touch? Or is her far more diabolical than she thought? After a shocking twist, then answer may just come too late. In NO FEAR (Book #3), the FBI’s elite new unit targeting criminally-insane killers is summoned when a series of murders occurs that bears the signature of a psychotic killer. But something bothers FBI Special Agent Valerie Law about this case: this killer, she fears, may just be more normal than anyone suspects. Faced with an unpredictable killer and a lack of information, Valerie must use her brilliant mind to connect the dots—and fast. Her only hope of catching him is to work backwards, and to delve into his past. Will she crack the killer’s code in time to save the next victim? Or will she be too late? A page-turning crime thriller featuring a brilliant and haunted new female protagonist, the VALERIE LAW mystery series is packed with suspense and driven by a breakneck pace that will keep you turning pages late into the night. Books #4-#9 are also available!