A conflicted pulp-fiction writer is tempted by a devil's bargain in a bid for supreme success in Zafón's absorbing follow-up to his bestseller 'The Shadow of the Wind.' Wanted: talented, desperate writer to pen a book for the Devil.

Friends & Fauxs A NovelWritten by Tracie HowardTrade Paperback, 288 pages | Broadway | Fiction - Contemporary Women | $13.99 | July 28, 2009 | 978-0-7679-2993-6 (0-7679-2993-4)Tracie Howard is back with all of the Gucci, glitz, and glamour in this steamy follow-up to her smash hit Gold Diggers!Gillian Tillman learned all about landing a wealthy man from her globe-trotting mother, Imelda, but this second-generation gold digger has a style all her own. With big dreams of becoming a huge star, she slept her way right into the million-dollar mansion of her now-husband, star-producer Brandon Russell. He not only launched Gillian’s film career, but landed her the starring and Oscar-nominated role in the hit film Gold Diggers. But all that glitters may not be gold. Gillian wrestles with the real possibility that Brandon may be a mob-connected money launderer, and worse yet, may have had a hand in the murder of her friend Paulette. When pictures of her naked surface on the Internet, both Gillian’s Oscar dreams and her marriage are threatened, even though she swears they aren’t of her. Meanwhile her best friends are struggling with issues of their own. Reese’s beloved son falls ill and she’s forced to decide between spilling a long-kept secret and saving his life, and Lauren’s hard-won happiness is threatened by a shocking betrayal.Buckle your seatbelt as the lives of these larger-than-life characters intersect in a wild, page-turning romp.

Appetite A NovelWritten by Erika J. KendrickTrade Paperback, 304 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $14.00 | June 23, 2009 | 978-0-345-49498-6 (0-345-49498-9)MANY CULTURES • ONE WORLDWith her exotic looks and killer body, Kennedy Lee is a rising star in the reality TV and soap opera worlds. Now she’s really hit the big time and landed a role on the hugely popular daytime drama America’s Next Sweetheart.As this great news coincides with Kennedy’s birthday, her friends take her out for a wild night on the town. So wild, in fact, that the next morning Kennedy wakes up with a hard-bodied hunk in her bed, a vicious headache, and no recollection of how this gorgeous guy ended up beside her–naked. Not only that, but it’s her first day at the new gig, and Page Six has already chronicled her previous night’s exploits, calling her “America’s Next Lush.” Now Kennedy must endure dirty looks on the set, abuse from the soap’s bitchy diva, and the shocker that the guy who broke her five-year celibacy streak is none other than her co-star, Jesse James. As she battles catty actors, snarky production assistants, malicious gossip, and her growing appetite for food and sex, she struggles to fit in, find her true Prince Charming, and eat a slice of red velvet cake without any guilt.

Children of the Waters A NovelWritten by Carleen BriceTrade Paperback, 336 pages | One World/Ballantine | Fiction | $14.00 | June 23, 2009 | 978-0-345-49907-3 (0-345-49907-7)Still reeling from divorce and feeling estranged from her teenage son, Trish Taylor is in the midst of salvaging the remnants of her life when she uncovers a shocking secret: her sister is alive. For years Trish believed that her mother and infant sister had died in a car accident. But the truth is that her mother fatally overdosed and that Trish’s grandparents put the baby girl up for adoption because her father was black.After years of drawing on the strength of her black ancestors, Billie Cousins is shocked to discover that she was adopted. Just as surprising, after finally overcoming a series of health struggles, she is pregnant–a dream come true for Billie but a nightmare for her sweetie, Nick, and for her mother, both determined to protect Billie from anything that may disrupt her well-being.

On the Laps of Gods The Red Summer of 1919 and the Struggle for Justice That Remade a NationWritten by Robert WhitakerTrade Paperback, 400 pages | Three Rivers Press | History | $16.00 | June 23, 2009 | 978-0-307-33983-6 (0-307-33983-1)They Shot Them Down Like Rabbits . . . September 30, 1919. The United States teetered on the edge of a racial civil war. During the previous three months, racial fighting had erupted in twenty-five cities. And deep in the Arkansas Delta, black sharecroppers were meeting in a humble wooden church, forming a union and making plans to sue their white landowners. A car pulled up outside the church . . . What happened next has long been shrouded in controversy.In this heartbreaking but ultimately triumphant story of courage and will, journalist Robert Whitaker carefully documents–and exposes–one of the worst racial massacres in American history. On the Laps of Gods is the story of the 1919 Elaine massacre in Hoop Spur, Arkansas, during which white mobs and federal troops killed more than one hundred black men, women, and children; of the twelve black men subsequently condemned to die; of Scipio Africanus Jones, a former slave and tenacious black attorney; and of Moore v. Dempsey, the case Jones brought to the Supreme Court, which set the legal stage for the civil rights movement half a century later.