When Frankie's mother died and her father left her and her siblings at an orphanage in Chicago, it was supposed to be only temporary - just long enough for him to get back on his feet and be able to provide for them once again. That's why she is not prepared for the day that he arrives for his weekend visit with a new woman on his arm and out-of-state train tickets in his pocket. Now Frankie and her sister, Toni, are abandoned alongside so many other...

The daughter of notorious, high-profile thief Bobby Rose, journalist Sophie Rose leaves her job at a major Chicago newspaper for a small local paper, but when she stumbles into the middle of a bizarre story, she follows the trail of the mystery north to Prudhoe Bay, Alaska, accompanied by a bodyguard, Jack Prescott, a sexy FBI agent.

From the day of its troubled publication in 1900 to its inclusion in Modern Library's list of Top 100 Novels of the 20th Century, "Sister Carrie" has been a source of controversy and debate. Regarded as the "first masterpiece of the American naturalist movement," this 100th Anniversary Edition of the classic includes material by the author and a new introduction by the definitive Dreiser biographer.

On wealthy philanthropist Cecil Wyatt's eightieth birthday, all the money in the world won't bring back his missing grandson, William Wyatt. The family, the police and the media all have tried in vain to discover the young man's fate. Now suspicion has turned shockingly toward William's own half-brother, the rather distant and enigmatic Mitchell Wyatt. Kate Donovan is tagged as a suspect in a high-society murder case, after a chance romantic encounter...

Before taking a job with the FBI, Chicago detective Alec Buchanan has one last assignment to protect hotel heiress Regan Hamilton Madison from a serial killer. The serial killer is targeting people Regan placed on a list she created while attending a seminar of Dr. Lawrence Shields. The list names people who have hurt or deceived Regan over the years and now those people are turning up dead.

"Just weeks into her year-long training at the Blessing Hospital in North Dakota, Miriam Hastings is called home to Chicago, where her mother is gravely ill. Miriam pleads to be allowed to finish her training in Chicago and her nursing supervisor grants her a brief reprieve, but extracts a promise that Miriam will return to fulfill her commitment. In Chicago, Miriam has tried to get Trygve Knutson and Blessing out of her mind, but his letters make...

Maya Aziz, seventeen, is caught between her India-born parents world of college and marrying a suitable Muslim boy and her dream world of film school and dating her classmate, Phil, when a terrorist attack changes her life forever.

This book tells the story of Esperanza Cordero, a young girl growing up in the Hispanic quarter of Chicago, whose neighborhood is one of harsh realities and harsh beauty. Esperanza doesn't want to belong, not to her run-down neighborhood, and not to the low expectations the world has for her. Capturing her thoughts and emotions in poems and stories, she is able to rise above hopelessness and create a quiet space for herself in the midst of her oppressive...

"Annika (rhymes with Monica) Rose is an English major at the University of Illinois. Anxious in social situations where she finds most people's behavior confusing, she'd rather be surrounded by the order and discipline of books or the quiet solitude of playing chess. Jonathan Hoffman joined the chess club and lost his first game--and his heart--to the shy and awkward, yet brilliant and beautiful Annika. He admires her ability to be true to herself,...

Chicago, 1871 A nighttime rendezvous, a secretive masquerade, and a city engulfed in flames… Most days, Kathleen O'Leary is a penniless maid. But tonight, she takes a risk and masquerades as a glamorous heiress, thanks to a borrowed gown and her friends' sense of adventure. To her surprise, the ruse succeeds-even Dylan Kennedy, Chicago's most eligible bachelor, seems enraptured. But like Kathleen, Dylan isn't who he says he is. And before...