Perfect Girl

The New York Times bestselling author of What She Knew returns with an electrifying new novel about how the past will always find us... "Literary suspense at its finest.”—Mary Kubica, New York Times bestselling author of Pretty Baby “A wonderfully addictive book with virtuoso plotting and characters - for anyone who loved Girl on the Train, it’s a must read.” — Rosamund Lupton Zoe Maisey is a seventeen-year-old musical prodigy with a genius IQ. Three years ago, she was involved in a tragic incident that left three classmates dead. She served her time, and now her mother, Maria, is resolved to keep that devastating fact tucked far away from their new beginning, hiding the past even from her new husband and demanding Zoe do the same. Tonight Zoe is giving a recital that Maria has been planning for months. It needs to be the performance of her life. But instead, by the end of the evening, Maria is dead. In the aftermath, everyone—police, family, Zoe’s former solicitor, and Zoe herself—tries to piece together what happened. But as Zoe knows all too well, the truth is rarely straightforward, and the closer we are to someone, the less we may see.

New insights and practical solutions for overworked and stressed-out girls and their parents. In today's achievement culture, many girls seem to be doing remarkably well—excelling in honors and sports and attending top colleges in ever greater numbers—but beneath the surface, girls are stressed out and stretched too thin as they strive to be “perfect.” In their efforts to juggle schoolwork and extracurriculars, family life and social lives, friends and frenemies, as well as relationships online and IRL (in the real world), many girls begin to lose sight of who they really are, and instead work overtime to please their friends, parents, teachers, and others. With honesty, empathy, and a fresh perspective, The Myth of the Perfect Girl presents advice to empower both parents and girls themselves to discover what true success and happiness means to them — and how to work to achieve it.

Out of the blue, Ruthie has fallen in love with the boy next door, Perry. He's suddenly grown up and made her heart go thwang, and Ruthie has no idea what to do about it. Then a new girl shows up at school, and Ruthie realizes she has to do something, and fast. Jenna is perfect, from her perfectly straight hair to her perfectly manicured toes. Perry's noticed her, too, and worse, Jenna has noticed him right back. Ruthie knows she has to call her aunt, New York's "Goddess of Love." If Aunt Marty, romance columnist and woman of the world, can't turn Ruthie into a perfect girl, no one can . . . but she might also turn Ruthie's entire world upside down.

Out of the blue, Ruthie has fallen in love with the boy next door, Marcus. He's suddenly grown up and made her heart go thwang, and Ruthie has no idea what to do about it. Then new girl, Jenna, shows up at school, and Ruthie realizes she has to do something, and fast. Jenna is perfect, from her perfectly straight hair to her perfectly manicured toes. Marcus has noticed her, too, and worse, Jenna has noticed him right back. Ruthie knows she has to call her aunt, New York's "Goddess of Love." If Aunt Marty, romance columnist and woman of the world, can't turn Ruthie into a perfect girl, no one can . . . but she might also turn Ruthie's entire world upside down.

While their parents deal with a scandal, 16-year-old Annie and her brother, Jay, spend winter break with an aunt and uncle they barely remember and uncover family secrets in this novel from the "New York Times"-bestselling author of the adult novel "The Descendants."

Based on the evocative and haunting story of her journey from fashion to faith, the principles of true beauty and proper body image shared by professional model Strickland will shatter the illusion that worldly beauty and success satisfy, leading young women and teens to the powerful, lasting knowledge of who they are in God's sight.

The Story begins when Ben and Carol meet as children and we watch their deep and enduring friendship grow along with their feelings of undeclared love. We experience the deportment of a sweeter and more restrained time. Destined to be no more than acquaintances, Ben and Carol are soul mates and are dedicated to each other. In 1941 the US enters World War II and Ben and Carol's lives take diverging paths. Together with his childhood best friend Mark, Ben eventually enters the service to become part of the first paratrooper unit, the 501st Army regiment. Due to their language fluencies, from the 501st they are drafted into the OSS. During an undercover mission, Mark is captured and Ben left for dead until he is found by Julia in the French countryside. She saves his life and he changes hers. The two are called upon to be unlikely heroes as they develop a friendship based on trust and respect. At home, Carol believes Ben is dead and is swept off her feet by Dr. David Butler. Carol's life evolves very differently than the one she imagined with Ben. Circumstances and challenges teach Ben and Carol and Julia and Mark to rely on God for their strength and to trust Him with their lives. In the end lives are saved and changed by faith and providence, friendship and benevolent love; especially the love of the most perfect girl. Reen Christie is a Registered Nurse, who has been privileged to learn about the true life stories related to her by her patients. An author since her youth, Reen was encouraged by a special couple to write their love story and weave it into her imagination. With God's direction, the result of weaving their wonderful stories together is this inspired novel.

Through extensive research and hair-raising anecdotes, a journalist exposes the variety and extremes of the epidemic of eating disorders among young women and issues a wake-up call that cannot be ignored.

She was beautiful, popular and successful, the one they all wanted to be. So who, or what, was she running from?When reclusive writer, Jock falls for vivacious Tea Shop owner, Sapphire, he is amazed that she seems to feel the same way about him. He watches with pride as Sapphire is crowned May Queen at the town's May Day celebrations, but his joy turns to heartbreak when she runs off into the crowd, never to return.As the days pass, he becomes increasingly desperate. Everyone he speaks to seems to love Sapphire. No one has a bad word to say about her. So why did she run away like that, and what is stopping her from coming back?The Perfect Girl is a claustrophobic British thriller set on the English/Welsh border.Ideal for fans of Paula Hawkins, Julia Crouch, Rachel Abbott and S.J Watson Get your copy now!

"Why does every one of my friends have an eating disorder, or, at the very least, a screwed-up approach to food and fitness?" writes journalist Courtney E. Martin. The new world culture of eating disorders and food and body issues affects virtually all -- not just a rare few -- of today's young women. They are your sisters, friends, and colleagues -- a generation told that they could "be anything," who instead heard that they had to "be everything." Driven by a relentless quest for perfection, they are on the verge of a breakdown, exhausted from overexercising, binging, purging, and depriving themselves to attain an unhealthy ideal. An emerging new talent, Courtney E. Martin is the voice of a young generation so obsessed with being thin that their consciousness is always focused inward, to the detriment of their careers and relationships. Health and wellness, joy and love have come to seem ancillary compared to the desire for a perfect body. Even though eating disorders first became generally known about twenty-five years ago, they have burgeoned, worsened, become more difficult to treat and more fatal (50 percent of anorexics who do not respond to treatment die within ten years). Consider these statistics: Ten million Americans suffer from eating disorders. Seventy million people worldwide suffer from eating disorders. More than half of American women between the ages of eighteen and twenty-five would pre fer to be run over by a truck or die young than be fat. More than two-thirds would rather be mean or stupid. Eating disorders have the highest mortality rate of any psychological disease. In Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters, Martin offers original research from the front lines of the eating disorders battlefield. Drawn from more than a hundred interviews with sufferers, psychologists, nutritionists, sociocultural experts, and others, her exposé reveals a new generation of "perfect girls" who are obsessive-compulsive, overachieving, and self-sacrificing in multiple -- and often dangerous -- new ways. Young women are "told over and over again," Martin notes, "that we can be anything. But in those affirmations, assurances, and assertions was a concealed pressure, an unintended message: You are special. You are worth something. But you need to be perfect to live up to that specialness." With its vivid and often heartbreaking personal stories, Perfect Girls, Starving Daughters has the power both to shock and to educate. It is a true call to action and cannot be missed.