Nancy Martin has taken a breather from her best-selling Blackbird Sisters series to pen a sidesplitting new mystery novel.

One day, mulling over possible job options, college student Melissa Febos had a chat with her neighbor, a professional dominatrix. And so began a long journey of self-discovery.

In this lively critique, scholar Susan J. Douglas debunks the myth of a post-feminist society, stating that women are actually living in a time of "enlightened sexism"-a seductive form of patriarchy that encourages women to behave as sex objects in celebration of their alleged sexual equality.

Now in her early 40s, Emily White has suffered from crippling loneliness on and off since childhood, and it dominated her life for four years, beginning in 2002.

On the first page of The Storm, Margriet de Moor reveals the novel's ending.