It's all for life

Paul Marron's cover...

Lynne Graham - Jess's Promise

Bedroom bargain...baby deal...

Cesario di Silvestri isn't just fast with women, he's supersonic. After mere minutes spent in his charismatic presence, many of Europe's most glamorous women tumble into his bed...With the exception of one - shy vet Jessica Martin, who refuses to become his weekend plaything. But when Jess's feckless relatives steal from Halston Hall, Cesario's country retreat, he has all the ammunition he needs! For now he'll enjoy her creamy-skinned beauty, but in the future he'll need an heir...

SECRETLY PREGNANT

With this ring, I claim my baby! 

Selama lebih dari 150 tahun, Pride and Prejudice tetap menjadi salah satu novel Inggris terpopuler

“Sejak awal, perangaimu, keangkuhanmu, sikap acuh tak acuhmu, jadi landasan kebencianku padamu. Sebelum sebulan mengenalmu, aku sudah tahu bahwa kau adalah pria yang takkan mungkin kunikahi.”

Di mata Elizabeth, Mr. Darcy tidak pernah menjadi sosok yang memesona. Baginya laki-laki itu angkuh, sombong, dan menyebalkan. Elizabeth membenci tatapannya yang merendahkan, cara bicaranya yang meremehkan, dan segala hal tentang bangsawan kaya raya itu. Kebencian itu semakin bertambah ketika Elizabeth mengetahui bahwa Mr. Darcy telah melakukan hal yang menurutnya tidak bisa dimaafkan. 

Butuh waktu lama bagi Elizabeth untuk memahami sisi lain Mr. Darcy dan menerima kenyataan akan kebaikannya yang tersembunyi. Dan, ketika akhirnya gadis itu menyadari perasaannya pada Mr. Darcy telah berkembang menjadi cinta, dia pun jadi ragu, akankah dia bisa menebus prasangkanya yang sangat buruk pada laki-laki itu? Lalu, akankah cintanya yang baru tumbuh itu menjadi sia-sia?

Dalam Pride and Prejudice, Jane Austen menuangkan detail yang memikat mengenai kaum menengah ke atas pada abad-19. Karakter-karakternya yang memukau, juga narasinya yang cerdas, menjadikan novel ini sebagai salah satu roman terpopuler sepanjang masa.

"Kecerdasan Jane Austen setara dengan kesempurnaan cita rasanya."
—Virginia Woolf

"Miss Austen tentu merupakan penulis yang luar biasa. Dia melakukan segalanya dengan hebat. Hingga saat ini, karyanya sama sekali tidak bercela."
—Anthony Trollope

"[Jane Austen] berbakat dalam menggambarkan ciri khas, rasa, dan tokoh-tokoh dalam
kehidupan sehari-hari, yang menurutku adalah hal paling mengagumkan."
—Sir Walter Scott

NAMA: RICARDO ESTEBAN AMADEO SANTOS

TAHUN KELAHIRAN: 1459

TAHUN KEMATIAN: 1492

TAHUN KELAHIRAN KEMBALI: 1492

PEKERJAAN: PENJAGA ABADI

Selama berabad-abad Santos mengasingkan diri dalam mansion besarnya di puncak bukit. Namun semuanya berubah ketika suatu malam ia didatangi seorang wanita yang mengaku telah melihat Santos dalam penglihatannya. Erin Brady, wanita itu, mendapat peringatan mengerikan bahwa pada hari ulang tahunnya yang ketiga puluh ia akan dibunuh---dan hanya ada satu pria yang sanggup menolongnya... Santos.

Santos yang tak bisa menahan ketertarikannya pada wanita cantik yang bisa membaca pikiran dan hatinya itu, akhirnya sadar Erin merupakan Pasangan Takdir-nya. Sayang, tak ada ruang untuk Erin di dalam kehidupan Santos yang masih memendam luka lama. Dengan ancaman yang semakin mendekat menjelang hari ulang tahun Erin, mampukah Santos melindungi wanita itu... atau haruskah ia hidup sendirian selamanya?

Reborn moments after Queen Isabella of Spain ordered her lover's death, Santos accepted eternal life in exchange for protecting humanity. For centuries, he's kept himself secluded in a hillside mansion. But all that changes one night when he takes in a woman who claims to have seen him in a vision.

He was a Guardian. An immortal fighter of evil.

The sexy, sword-wielding stranger standing before Julie Carpenter claimed he was out to destroy a demon and that she was its next target. As he whisked her away to his fortresslike mansion high in the Hollywood hills, she could only hope Kieran was not the true danger.

For centuries Kieran had heard the legend of Destined Mates…but he never believed until now. He could read Julie's thoughts, sense her deepest desires. And he knew she wanted him just as he knew joining with her would make him strong enough to defeat any demon from hell. But the cost might be losing the woman who was his true salvation.

Character basis

Roarke is in his mid-thirties; he is an immigrant from Dublin, Ireland; in NYC, he is the CEO of Roarke Industries, and one of the richest men in the world, possibly the richest.

He owns an old mansion off of Central Park that he remodeled to his specifications with very high tech security. Also in the home is his own personal collection of firearms, which are illegal in 2058 unless one possesses a collector's license. Roarke also owns maces, swords, daggers, medieval armor, and other assorted weapons. He is quite skilled in electronics and can dismantle any type of security, lock, or coding, as well as hacking into any electronic database—including but not limited to the FBI, Interpol, and Homeland Security.

He convinces Eve to move in with him in Glory in Death and then proposes at the end of the book. Roarke's house officially becomes a home once Eve moves in, and after this, Roarke is happiest at home rather than traveling. He also enjoys helping Eve with her cases, finding the role reversal quite entertaining.

Official Statistics

Date of Birth: October 6, 2024

Residence: 222 Central Park West

Roarke Industries Headquarters: 500 Fifth Avenue

Established Roarke Industries in 2042

Eve's computer in Naked in Death actually lists his birth to be in 2023, making Roarke's apparent age 34, but as Roarke discovers in Portrait in Death, his official record makes him one year younger than he actually is. Therefore he is really 33. Additionally, October 6 is an estimate; apparently Roarke simply picked this date as he knew he was born in the first week of October, as he tells Delia.

Roarke has a conversation with Summerset that indicates that at one point in time, Roarke had wanted to get rid of his name, as he did not like being connected with his father. Summerset convinces him to keep it and make it his own, but as seen in the In Death books, Roarke is only known as Roarke, a name that should be his surname, and has no apparent given name.

Physical characteristics

Eve looks up his statistics in Naked in Death. They are as follows:

Height: 6 feet, 2 inches

Age: appromixately 34 years old (but see above)

Weight: 173 pounds

Eye color: blue

Hair color: black

His black hair is long enough that he can and has tied it back.

Personality

Roarke appears to be very even-tempered, but he does in fact have a very nasty temper if riled. He does not lash out indiscriminately, however, and usually is only angry when the situation calls for it. He has his own personal sense of justice separate from legality; if he believes something should be done, he will do it, even if it is illegal. A case in point is the revenge murders he commits for the rape and murder of Summerset's daughter.

He wanted money because it gave him security, and makes no compunctions about enjoying its benefits. Roarke has a very nice mansion, tastefully but expensively decorated, particularly since Roarke has a fondness of antique furniture, old master paintings, and in general, anything with a past to it. This is, as Roarke dryly comments to Mira, because he has no real past of his own.

In addition, he can use the money to buy clothing (which he likes very much) for both himself and his wife. In particular, he enjoys dressing his fashion-unconscious wife, much to her distaste. Roarke also gives Eve as many gifts as he can possibly get away with, justifying it because he wants to make up for everything she was not given before.

When Eve is semi-living with him in Glory in Death, Roarke decides to get rid of the last remaining illegal businesses he has out of a desire to not make her life difficult. His illegal activity is mostly restricted to conducting illegal searches if he feels it necessary, and occasionally carrying illegal weapons with him (only police officers are allowed to carry stunners, but he has several).

Roarke's greatest and most impossible desire is to take revenge for Eve, impossible because the perpetrator, her father, is already dead. Her nightmares cause him immense suffering because he knows that they will never fully go away, as her father can never truly be beaten. That said, he is given a minor chance at reprisal when he discovers that in Divided in Death that the Homeland Security organization knew that Eve was with and being raped by her father, but instead recommended a course of nonaction. Roarke wants to hunt down and kill the people who made and complied with the order, but does not because Eve says she won't be able to handle it if he does. It is likely his largest concession to Eve.

Children are not likely to happen any time soon. Though Roarke has expressed a desire, the simple fact is that neither of them is ready.

History

Roarke grew up in the slums of Dublin, Ireland, directly after the last and worst part of the series' fictional "Urban Wars", a period of unrest, violence, and corruption. Roarke believed his mother to be his father's wife, Meg Roarke, an abusive woman who lived with his father, Patrick Roarke and walked out on him when the young boy was five. In reality, his mother was an eighteen year-old woman named Siobhan Brody, who Patrick beat to death after she ran away with Roarke.

Roarke is ten when he first meets Summerset and Summerset's eight year old daughter, Marlena. The father and daughter typically run cons. Shortly after their meeting, according to Roarke's account in Immortal in Death, Patrick beats Roarke almost to death and leaves him for dead. Summerset, who had medical training, saves and helps Roarke recover.

When Roarke is twelve, he finds out that his father has been murdered; he immediately heads down to the alley where the death supposedly occurred. Patrick Roarke is indeed dead, stabbed in the throat, an apparent victim of a mugging. Roarke checks his father's pockets and leaves.

It is revealed in Portrait in Death that the killing was not random. In fact Summerset killed Patrick, a fact he confirms only to Eve, who has guessed it. As of Memory in Death, Roarke still does not know that Summerset killed Patrick. Summerset's motivation was to protect Roarke.

When Roarke is sixteen, his gambling operation is earning a very high profit, too high for a competing group. Marlena confesses her love to Roarke and offers herself to him; horrified, Roarke rejects her and sends her away, thinking she would go back to her room. Instead, Marlena leaves the house and is captured by the competing group, and six men rape and torture her until she dies. They then drop off her body at Summerset's doorstep in the morning. When Roarke and Summerset call the police, they discover that the police have been bought off and will not pursue the case. Roarke thus takes his own justice by murdering those six men over a three year period.

Roarke founds Roarke Industries in 2042, when he is (supposedly) nineteen years old. Presumably he must have immigrated to America by this point in time.

Further detailed information—at least in terms of years—is given throughout the books, revealing that Roarke worked as a pickpocket as a child (he sometimes takes Eve's badge from her without her knowledge to tease her) and as an adult, a thief of very expensive jewels.

Roarke has left most of his friends behind; he has one who tends a bar in Dublin, and another dies in Betrayal in Death. Many others have died or are unknown to him by the time the In Death books occur. With that, Eve's friends are also his friends.

Continuity errors

In Divided in Death, it is revealed that Richard Troy picks up Patrick Roarke at the airport in Dallas shortly before Troy dies, on May 13th, 2036. Eve is eight when she kills Troy; Roarke declares 'prior to finding out his real age' that he was twelve when his father dies which he would be because he would turn thirteen ( actually he turns twelve) after Troy dies. However, in 2036, Roarke is supposedly thirteen, making it an error on the part of either Roarke's memory or the author.

Since Roarke's b-day is in Oct he would not turn 13 until then so in May he would in fact still be 12

In Vengeance in Death, Roarke tells Eve how he met Summerset and Marlena working as a father-daughter pair of con artists, and occasionally worked with them. Sometime after, Roarke's father nearly kills him, and Summerset is the one to heal him. However, in Memory in Death, he says that after Summerset healed him, Roarke thought he was an easy target, and tried to steal from him, which Summerset quickly stopped. If Vengeance is true, it does not make any sense that Roarke would then try to steal from a man he had been working with, however it could also have been that Roarke targeted Summerset as a mark, and tried lull him into complacency by gaining his trust.

Character Basis

Eve was found in an alley in Dallas, Texas, when she was supposedly eight years old. She had a broken arm, was covered in old blood, and had no memory. Unable to remember anything at all, her social worker named her and put Eve into a foster home, the beginning of Eve's life in the system. After reaching the age of majority, she moves to New York City where she becomes a police officer. The dates of all her promotions are not specific, but it is mentioned that she became a detective, second grade in early 2051, and eventually, by the start of the series, is lieutenant in the Homicide squad as a way of dealing with her own psychological issues.

Throughout the series, her memories return, mostly through a series of nightmares, revealing a history of incestual rape and patricide with her father, Richard Troy. It is revealed that he was raising her in order to sell her out to child molesters looking to easily rape a child. Her mother, Stella, was a prostitute and a drug addict and was occasionally beaten and raped by Troy herself, but hated her daughter. If Stella is alive, her whereabouts are unknown.

It was implied that since Eve had lost her memory, she had forgotten her name, as well, but it is eventually revealed in Reunion in Death that the reason Eve cannot remember her name is because her parents never gave her one. The fact that no one in Dallas could track down her ID indicates one of two things: that either Homeland Security interfered and deleted her data, or that her parents never had her registered in the first place. For all intents and purposes, Eve did not exist in any records before she was eight years old.

After her relationship and subsequent marriage to Roarke, Eve is a much happier and, to some extent, calmer person; she is more willing to work with and depend on other people. They celebrate their one-year anniversary in Reunion in Death, in July of 2059. Eve's relationship with Roarke is central to the series and her character (see below).

Eve's official residence is 222 Central Park West, New York, NY with Roarke.

Physical Characteristics

Eve is typically described as having whiskey-colored eyes and tawny hair and being tall and slim, with a distinctive dent in her chin. Her measurements are specifically revealed in Immortal in Death.

Height: 5 feet, 9 inches

Age: appromixately thirty years old in Naked in Death

Weight: 120 pounds

Waist: 26.2 inches

The latter two likely fluctuate throughout the series (it is mentioned in Holiday in Death that Eve has lost a lot of weight from injuries sustained in Vengeance in Death), but no numbers are given thereafter.

It has been noted repeatedly during the series that Eve does not have large breasts, which is in line with Eve's weight. In fact, in Naked in Death, Eve is not wearing a bra when she first has sex with Roarke and throughout the series, is not mentioned to wear one very often—even during scenes describing her dressing, presumably because she does not need one. In regards to her face, Trina, Mavis's friend, occasionally does make-up for Eve, and has commented several times that Eve has very good bone structure. In Origin in Death, Eve's aide/partner, Peabody, comments that Eve's nose is 'chiseled' while they are in a body-sculpting clinic (and considering if she, Peabody, might do well to have a similarly 'chiseled' nose).

Personality

Eve is a fiercely dedicated cop; she initially has very few friendships and remarks that she can "count on her hands" how many people there are who really mean something to her. Roarke says to her in Memory in Death that for someone who intrinsically doesn't like people, there's no one more determined to find them justice.

She comments once (to Roarke) that she was never sick upon seeing a body at a scene (if she was sick, it was later), as she feels that there has to be someone who can handle it.

Eve prefers to do things on her own, as it has less complications that way, both in her personal and professional lives. For instance, Eve sleeps with Roarke—a suspect in her murder case—an act that jeopardizes her job. However, she does not tell Roarke, even when he calls and asks her if anything has happened. As for her job, she chose to be a police officer because that way she could have definite control over her own life, something she didn't have until she was eighteen. She initially has, and still does have, difficulty in opening up to and depending on people. For example, she doesn't tell Peabody that she was repeatedly raped by her father and that she killed him in self-defense until Visions in Death. For another example, prior to Roarke, she had no serious romances. In fact, her relationship with Don Webster implies that she had rare one-night stands as opposed to relationships.

Given Eve's past—her memories indicate that her father started raping her when she was around five or six—she is extremely sickened by experiences with rape victims and has more difficulty with these cases. Due to this, she desires to save children and greatly regrets their deaths; at the same time, she has trouble in dealing with live children. They generally confuse her and she desires to stay as far away from them as possible.

Her darker past aside, however, Eve is rough, often brusque, in manner, tends to a great deal of sarcasm, adores chocolate and coffee, and can be very considerate. She wasn't particularly good in school, but nonetheless is very clever and has excellent intuition.

Society

The series is set in late 2050s New York, following a period of urban warfare sometime in the preceding decades that caused tremendous damage to cities and human populations. Whites are a minority in Eve's futuristic society, where most citizens are of mixed race. Other planets have been discovered and humans have built man-made worlds where they travel for holidays and where the most dangerous prisoners are confined. Androids or "droids" are commonly used as mechanical servants or extra office labor. Food is prepared by machines called "Auto Chefs."

Tiba-tiba saja Patrick Cameron mendapat tamu tak diundang. Dengan bayi mungil di gendongan dan amarah meledak-ledak, Claire Franklin mengatakan bahwa Patrick harus mengakui bayi itu sebagai anaknya.

Akhirnya Patrick tahu bahwa saudara kembarnya sempat menjalin hubungan dengan adik perempuan Claire. Dan hubungan mereka menghadirkan Jess ke dunia. Sayangnya, kedua orangtua Jess telah meninggal. Bagi Patrick, Jess seakan menjadi warisan terakhir saudara kembarnya. Jadi Patrick setuju untuk mengasuh Jess bersama Claire, terutama saat akhir pekan.

Tanpa diduga, kehidupan baru ini terasa begitu nyaman dan menyenangkan hingga akhir pekan tak lagi cukup. Apalagi kehadiran Claire menghidupkan kembali kehangatan dalam hati Patrick yang hampir padam saat saudara kembarnya meninggal dunia.