The Bakers’ Dozen Trilogies


Book Description

During the 1980s through 1990s, Washington, DC, leadership was in shambles following the arrest of Mayor Marion Barry on drug charges. When Barry was reelected as mayor after being released from prison, the outraged United States Congress slashed every cent possible from the city budget, a decision that would ultimately take revenge on the entire city. The Congresss retaliation was swift and widespread throughout the city government . . . and the Metropolitan Police Department. Congress defunding the citys metropolitan police had a devastating effect on everything from crime rates to the restructuring of the entire department. Not one cent was budgeted for the police department. Congresss view of city management echoed that of a national opinion in that a city reelecting a jailbird as their mayor deserved everything it got. Long-established hiring practices that had once made the Metropolitan Police Department a premiere agency were all but eliminated. Many times, the hiring of new officers was left to the discretion of a few persons within the agency. Cronyism was rampant, and hiring standards were lowered. The friends of some city officials were hired as police recruits even though their drug arrest convictions would have excluded them from being hired under earlier standards. During the late 1980s, one recruit class had over 40 percent of their recruit officers subjected to department disciplinary action or were terminated during their very first year of service. One academy class was embarrassed by the arrest of seven new recruits for outstanding felony warrants. Apparently, no one had bothered to check the applicants names through the National Criminal Database for outstanding warrants. Or perhaps had this been a carefully planned strategy to hire unqualified and unemployed city residents and lessen a growing unemployment problem? Either way, anyone with a prior arrest record and fortunate enough to have friends in high places could be a police officer. One high-ranking police official was heard to privately comment, Hire them now, fire them later. Operation Tarnished Shield is the third fictional story in the Bakers Dozen series of novels. This is based on an actual criminal investigation that was conducted by the Washington, DC, Metropolitan Police Departments Office of Professional Standards (OPS) and the Federal Bureau of Investigation (FBI) in the mid-1990s that led to an eighteen month investigation and the subsequent arrest and conviction of twelve metropolitan police officers. Had the entire operation not been hastily closed down because of the impending murder of one of their own, its certain that there would have been more officers arrested, making it a bakers dozen.




Baker's Dozen


Book Description

Tells the stories of a vampire, buried treasure, Zulu magic, a war between clans, a terrible curse, an alternate world, a quest for knowledge, and a brave knight




Always the Baker, Never the Bride


Book Description

They say you can’t have your cake and eat it too. But who would want a cake they couldn’t eat? Just ask Emma Rae Travis about that. A baker of confections who is diabetic and can’t enjoy them. When Emma meets Jackson Drake, the escapee from Corporate America who is starting a wedding destination hotel to fulfill a dream that belonged to someone else, this twosome and their crazy family ties bring new meaning to the term "family circus." The Atlanta social scene will never be the same!




Heirloom Series No. 1 of Caira's Bakers Dozen Book Series Caira_s Comic Crafters, The Bottlebottoms


Book Description

The book Caira's Comic Crafters begins as a how-to heirloom series of thirteen books, the Baker's Dozen. This series was created with the high hopes of uniting families. A special family was created for the basis of this heirloom book. They show you how to assemble your craft project or to make a few changes to make it all yours. The most important lesson for this craft project is having good family time. This heirloom series has patterns that are all fun and useful to do. The Bottlebottom family enjoys their craft time because they know they will be creating many opportunities for personal satisfaction and entrepreneurial growth. Join the Bottlebottom family on their craft adventures!




Bite-Sized Magic


Book Description

This third book in Kathryn Littlewood's acclaimed Bliss trilogy mixes the down-home heart punch of Ingrid Law's Newbery Honor Book Savvy, the always-on-the-edge-of-chaos comedy of Cheaper by the Dozen, and a humorous magic all its own to create a thoroughly original confection, a delicious guilty pleasure for readers of all ages. Rose won back her family's magical Cookery Booke in an international baking competition in A Dash of Magic, the second novel in the series. Rose is now world famous—so famous, in fact, that Mr. Butter, head of the Mostess Corporation, has kidnapped her so that she can develop new and improved magical recipes for his company's snack cakes. With the magically enhanced Dinkies and Moony Pies, Mr. Butter plans to take over the world. Together with her brothers, their talking cat and mouse, and an unlikely team of bakers, Rose must overthrow Mr. Butter before he destroys civilization, one magically evil snack cake at a time.




Bliss


Book Description

For thirty-nine years Harry Joy has been the quintessential good guy. But one morning Harry has a heart attack on his suburban front lawn, and, for the space of nine minutes, he becomes a dead guy. And although he is resuscitated, he will never be the same. For, as Peter Carey makes abundantly clear in this darkly funny novel, death is sometimes a necessary prelude to real life. Part The Wizard of Oz, part Dante's Inferno, and part Australian Book of the Dead, Bliss is a triumph of uninhibited storytelling from a writer of extravagan gifts.




Being Jamie Baker


Book Description

An accident that should end in tragedy instead gives seventeen-year-old Jamie Baker a slew of uncontrollable superhuman abilities. To keep her secret safe Jamie socially exiles herself, earning the title of Rocklin High's resident ice queen. But during a supercharged encounter with star quarterback Ryan Miller she literally kisses anonymity goodbye. Now the annoyingly irresistible Ryan will stop at nothing to melt the heart of the ice queen and find out what makes her so special. Unfortunately, Ryan is not the only person on to her secret. Will Jamie learn to contain her unstable powers before being discovered by the media or turned into a government lab rat? More importantly, can she throw Ryan Miller off her trail before falling in love with him?




The Seventh Handmaiden


Book Description

Darya does not remember how she came to be a slave or who she was before she was bought by an army captain for his motherless daughter in the ancient Persian city of Susa. Protected and nurtured by the housekeeper and her daughter, Darya has as good a life as a slave can have, even acquiring the rare skill of reading and writing, which she learns alongside her young mistress. When the captain dies and the household is broken up, this skill proves to be her lifeline. She becomes the seventh handmaiden to the mysterious Esther, who is being housed at the Royal Palace while in contention to be King Xerxes’ new Queen. However, life in Ancient Persia is precarious for women and outsiders, wherever they are in the hierarchy. When the king appoints a new prime minister called Haman, Darya and Esther are drawn into his murderous conflict with the Judean community and Mordechai, their leader, who lives just outside the palace gates. In a world of discord and uprising, Darya seeks to fix the world around her and protect her friends, while also trying to unravel the mysteries surrounding who she is and how she became a slave. As she grows from childhood to womanhood she grapples with her own identity, her aspirations and desires and begins to understand the true meaning of both slavery and freedom.




Bliss


Book Description

The perfect novel for young readers who love baking and magic! Rosemary Bliss's family has a secret. It's the Bliss Cookery Booke—an ancient, leather-bound volume of enchanted recipes like Singing Gingersnaps. Rose and her siblings are supposed to keep the Cookery Booke locked away while their parents are out of town, but then a mysterious stranger shows up. "Aunt" Lily rides a motorcycle and also whips up exotic (but delicious) dishes for dinner. Soon boring, non-magical recipes feel like life before Aunt Lily—a lot less fun. So Rose and her siblings experiment with just a couple of recipes from the forbidden Cookery Booke. A few Love Muffins and Cookies of Truth couldn't cause too much trouble . . . could they? Kathryn Littlewood's culinary caper blends rich emotional flavor with truly enchanting wit, yielding one heaping portion of hilarious family adventure.




Hidden Warrior


Book Description

A trick of magic, a twist of fate. As the orphaned nephew of the king, trusted companion to his cousin, and second heir to the throne of Skala, Prince Tobin’s future is clear. But not as clear as the spring in which a hill witch shows him his true face--and his secret destiny.... Now Tobin carries a burden he cannot share with even his closest friend, Ki, his squire. He is to rule--not as he is but as he was born: a woman. Given the shape of a boy by dark magic, Tobin is the last hope of the people of Illior--those who desperately seek a return to the old ways, when Skala was ruled by a line of warrior queens. They still believe that only a woman can lift the war, famine, and pestilence that have run rampant through the land since the king usurped his half sister’s throne. It is these outlaw wizards and witches who protect Tobin--and it is for them that Tobin must accept his fate. With the unsuspecting yet fiercely loyal Ki at his side, Tobin must turn traitor against the only blood ties he has left. He must lift the masks of Skala’s rulers to show their true colors--before he can reveal the power of the woman within himself.




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