"In 1903, a fifteen-year-old girl named Ichi Aoi is sold to the most exclusive brothel in Kumamoto, Japan. Despite her modest beginnings in a southern fishing village, she becomes the protégée of an oiran, the highest-ranking courtesan at the brothel. Through the teachings of her oiran, Shinonome, Ichi begins to understand the intertwined power of sex and money. And in her mandatory school lessons, her writing instructor, Tetsuko, encourages Ichi...

The Pure Land resurrects the dramatic life of Thomas Glover, the Scottish businessman who helped overthrow the shogun and whose tumultuous love affairs inspired the opera Madame Butterfly and the musical Miss Saigon. Alan Spence has transformed this true story into an unforgettable hundred-year saga that culminates in the annihilation of Nagasaki. Thomas Glover is a gutsy eighteen-year-old in Aberdeen in 1858 who grasps the chance of escape to foreign...

"During the violent upheaval of the Bakumatsu era, Hitokiri Battosai was a feared and ruthless assassin. But now that the Meiji Restoration has begun to heal the wounds of civil war, Battosai has taken up a new name...and a new calling! He is now Himura Kenshin, a rurouni wanderer who has vowed to only draw his sword to protect those in need. But not everyone is pleased with Kenshin's new direction and enemies from his dark past have vowed to bring...

At last, Kenshin's past has caught up to him. He and everyone he loves are targeted by an alliance of warriors bent on revenge for the assassinations commited as Himura Battōsai. The time has come for Kenshin to reveal everything that happened during the war. One story in particular must be told: that of the woman Battōsai loved and wed...

"Felled by grief, Kenshin is powerless to stop Enishi's conquest of Tokyo. His friends struggle to fill in, with Yahiko taking on the criminal powerhouse Kujiranami and Sanosuke defending the city from yakuza. But without Kenshin, the dream of a new Japan founded on peace will never be realized. In the misery of the Fallen Village, Kenshin must somehow find hope...and lift his sakabato for the final time!"--Provided by publisher.

"Kenshin and his comrades have finally discovered the location of Enishi's island compund, but to free Kaoru from captivity, a good deal of fighting will be necessary. Woo Heishin, Enishi's mysterious second-in-command, meets them on the beach and brings his deadly bodyguards, the Su-Shin or the "Four Stars," to serve as a welcoming committee. Yahiko, Sanosuke, Saito and Aoshi dive into combat with Woo Heishin's warriors as Kenshin prepares himself...