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 Disgraced newsman Tyler West is desperate for a scoop that will save his career. When he investigates the baffling deaths of several of San Diego’s elite, he uncovers a common link: torture devices not used since the Dark Ages. Plunged into a mysterious world of medieval torture scholars, antiquities collectors and sadomasochists, he must break the brilliantly conceived series of slayings that has cast a dark shadow over a city better known for its sun, sand and surf. The elusive killer goes by the name Friar Tom, in tribute to his hero, Tomás de Torquemada, the first Grand Inquisitor of the Spanish Inquisition. As Ty scrambles to unmask the monstrous zealot, he is drawn into a lethal game of cat and mouse that could cost him everything.

**Read my review of this book HERE**

Secrets can kill, something Lauren Grant was finding out the hard way.

Thirteen years ago, she had been the innocent victim of a crime that still shaped her life to this day. Just as she is starting to build a new life for herself and her daughter, the past comes calling with a violence she could not have imagined. Her shop is vandalized, another female business owner is brutally murdered, and Lauren can’t shake the feeling that the past is catching up to her. Will she have the strength to finally face her demons and fight for the future, or will the past overwhelm her once and for all?
Secrets in the Shadows is the first book in the Shadows Collection, standalone Romantic Suspense novels set in small-town Indiana. Other titles include Under the Moon’s Shadow, Shadows from the Grave, and Hidden in the Shadows.

When struggling hardware store owner Bill Ferguson witnesses a kidnapping in progress, he reacts instinctively, breaking up the crime and saving a young girl. But the kidnapper, a sociopath known as the “I-90 Killer,” escapes and vows revenge, targeting Ferguson’s own daughter as his next victim. Now one terrified father must unravel a plot that may go much deeper than he realizes, racing against time to save his only child from an unthinkable fate.

In MOONLIGHT FALLS, novelist and photo journalist Vincent Zandri asks the question “If you knew your life could end at any moment, how far would you go to prove you murdered your lover? ” Albany, New York, is the setting of Zandri’s paranoid thriller (in the Hitchcock tradition) about Richard “Dick” Moonlight, former APD detective turned private investigator/massage therapist, who believes he killed Scarlet Montana – his illicit lover and wife of his ex-boss, Chief of Detectives Jake Montana. The problem is … Moonlight doesn’t remember what happened

Albert Fox is a demoralised young medic fighting in the heart of what was to be known as the ‘Battle of the Bulge’. Isolated from their command, Albert’s squad encounter hostile German forces amongst increasingly bizarre conditions and are forced to take refuge in a ram-shackled cottage whose custodian is a seemingly eccentric and mute old man. Albert is forced to make heart wrenching decisions which will not only affect the lives of his own friends but also the German soldiers with whom he encounters.
Trapped within the environs of the forest, Albert is forced to accept that as strange events and unexplained phenomena begin to reveal the true nature of Alberts universal importance, it is his destiny to determine the future of Mankind.

CALIGULA OF THE STARS

Though he was later accused of every crime and sexual perversion in the galaxy, Hope Hubris began as an innocent. Because he defended his older sister against the violent lusts of a wealthy scion, Hope and his peasant family were forced to flee Callisto, one of the moons of Jupiter. Pursued by the bloodthirsty scions across the airless desert, they barely escaped with their lives. The illegal space bubble was overcrowded with refugees, all hoping to reach Jupiter for asylum.

But the space travelers had not reckoned on the terrible threat of high space-the pirates, barbaric men who rape, rob, and murder, with no thought but to satisfy their bestial appetites. It will take all Hope’s ingenuity to survive, but the atrocities he witnesses will never die. There is only one way he can be rid of them . . . REVENGE

With her nearly broke and practically homeless mother about to land on her doorstep, Robyn Guthrie learns that desperation can play havoc with a daughter’s scruples. Otherwise, why would she even consider kidnapping a goat and holding it for ransom?

he Vietnam War defined a generation–on campus as well as in combat. This is a novel about the former.

Tolstoy said, “You may not be interested in war, but war is interested in you.” The Vietnam War is very interested in Danny. Surfing Vietnam is his coming-of–age tale. It is blackly comedic novel with a heart, a soul, and most of all, a conscience.

It is also a love story in 4 acts, a drug trip, and a morality play about a young writer who refuses to write and a patriot who refuses to fight…

Albert Camus said, “We used to wonder where war lived, what it was that made it so vile. And now we realize that we know where it lives…inside ourselves.” Danny is ultimately forced to look inside himself to find peace.

With a nod to the ironic brutality in Catch 22, the frenzied searching of On the Road, and the coming of age of Huck Finn, all accompanied by a psychedelic soundtrack, James Hockings puts together a uniquely American saga.

When Abraham Khan releases an e-book condemning radical Islam, the consequences hit him fast and hard — an armed fanatic smashes into his home one evening, trying to kill him. He survives the harrowing attempt. Just barely. But will he survive the next one?

Maya Raines is the security operator brought in to protect Abraham. She is tough and committed. The very best at what she does. Always one step ahead of the threat.

But Abraham is no ordinary principal — he will not hide, and he will not stay silent. And as rage explodes on the streets and the nation is propelled to the brink, Maya will have to ask herself the hardest question of all: how far would you go to protect one man’s right to speak?

Wrath, vengeance, hatred, cannot breathe the same atmosphere as love. And so it was that love began to wither and withdraw… Among the ageless quietude of the elves, Deacon, a mortal, suffers the inescapable awareness of mortality. He lived in what many deemed perfection, but a dark uncertainty plagued him that there lay treachery in it all. When secrets of his mysterious heritage are revealed, the young mage is thrown into a revolt of confusion, and in an unwholesome vent of misery, travels a path of unforgivable deeds. One of the few left of his kind – a race whose magical energies are vigorously interwoven with their lifeforce – Deacon is drawn into a world that turns into an involution of evil and death. The fate that awaits him will have immeasurable consequences far beyond his control.

Deputy Billy Lafitte is not unfamiliar with the law—he just prefers to enforce it, rather than abide by it. But his rule-bending and bribe-taking have gotten him kicked off the force in Gulfport, Mississippi, and he’s been given a second chance—in the desolate, Siberian wastelands of rural Minnesota. Now Billy’s only got the local girls and local booze to keep him company.

Until one of the local girls—cute little Drew, bassist for a psychobilly band—asks Billy for help with her boyfriend. Something about the drugs Ian’s been selling, some product he may have lost, and the men who are threatening him because of it. Billy agrees to look into it, and before long he’s speeding down a snowy road, tracking a cell of terrorists, with a severed head in his truck’s cab. And that’s only the start.

A psychopath walks the streets of Glasgow, selecting his first victim. He sees his ex-girlfriend everywhere, and he will have her back.

When a woman is savagely murdered, her body stabbed over a hundred times, the police know from the nature of the crime that the killer will strike again. DCI Bloonsbury, the once-feted detective, is put in charge of the investigation, but as the killer begins to hit much closer to home and an old police conspiracy starts to unravel, Bloonsbury slides further into morose alcoholic depression.

In the middle of it all is Detective Sergeant Thomas Hutton, juggling divorce, deception, alcohol, murdered colleagues, and Dylan. He could use a break but the dead will not rest and the past will not be buried until he can catch the latest serial killer to haunt the streets of his city.

Will the world change your children . . . or will your children change the world?

Time is short and lives are at stake. Right now, God is inviting your family to become part of a bigger story a vision that will engage your hearts to make a radical difference. One Million Arrows is an inspirational call to raise your kids to impact their culture, community, and world for Christ. If you want your kids to discover their purpose, if you want them to live with a passion for the Kingdom, if you want your family to go down in His-Story, accept the mission . . . and leave a mark for eternity.

A United States diplomat disappears in front of hundreds of onlookers while attending a religious ceremony in the bushveld of Zimbabwe.

Dominic Grey, Diplomatic Security special agent, product of a violent childhood and a worn passport, is assigned to investigate. Aiding the investigation is Professor Viktor Radek, religious phenomenologist and expert on cults, and Nya Mashumba, the local government liaison.

What Grey uncovers is a terrifying cult older than Western civilization, the harsh underbelly of a country in despair, a priest seemingly able to perform impossibilities, and the identity of the newest target.

Himself.

Kit Colfax is a sassy insurance investigator who is out to catch herself a suave Southern jewel thief any way she can. Her very career depends on it. But she’s in for the surprise of her life when she mistakenly snares handsome chief of police Simon “Beau” Beaulieux in her sting operation instead.

Lord have mercy, if the man didn’t have a voice custom made for smooth satin sheets on hot, sultry afternoons, dripping with the scent of honeysuckle and the taste of icy mint juleps sliding down kiss-parched throats.

Kit does her best to resist the sexy Louisiana aristocrat. But a series of disasters—certainly not his heated kisses—have her chasing Beau from Las Vegas to the bayous of his antebellum plantation, where she finds herself hopelessly caught in the sensual web of his love.

What’s a girl to do all alone with a rodeo cowboy for 1 month in the Wyoming wilderness?

Melanie Summers has something to prove! Being a zoologist is her dream and the only thing standing in the way of her going on an African expedition is her father and his fear.

So she strikes a deal. She has to spend a full month in the Wyoming wilderness and show her father she can handle being in a remote area while managing her Type 1 diabetes before he’ll agree to fund the expedition to Africa and allow her to go. But her daddy isn’t the only one convinced she’ll fail…

But she’s not about to let any man underestimate what she can do. Especially not the sexy rodeo cowboy she’s hired to help get her through the month in the wilderness.

Yes, he knows what he’s doing. But so does she! Yes, he’s ruggedly handsome…well, he can’t help that, can he? But no sexy cowboy is going to keep her down!

Stoney Buxton needs to raise cash fast to save the family ranch after a barn fire injured his father and left the family finances in ruin. Re-entering the rodeo circuit seems like the best way to get the money he needs. That is until Melanie Summers shows up at his ranch flashing easy money. T

To everyone else, Melanie’s offer seems like the answer to all his prayers. But one look at her long legs and pouting lips and Stoney knows this high society gal is going to be nothing but trouble…for his cowboy heart.

Granny was famous for her award-winning apple pies-and notorious for murdering her husband Jacob at their homestead in Julian, California. The only trouble is, Granny was framed, then murdered. For more than one hundred years, Granny’s spirit has been searching for someone to help her see that justice is served-and she hits pay dirt when she pops in to a séance attended by her great-great-great-granddaughter, modern-day divorced mom Emma Whitecastle. Together, Emma and Granny Apples solve mysteries of the past-starting with Granny’s own unjust murder rap in the final days of the California Gold Rush.

Caspia Chastain, art student and barista, is gifted (or plagued, if you ask her) with the ability to draw the future, usually at the worst possible times. Her parents are four years dead; everyday she watches her brother Logan fight his cancer diagnosis. Things get worse for Caspia the day she draws an angry stranger framed by planes of light and violent, bloody images. That exact same stranger walks up to her out of nowhere mere hours later knowing things he shouldn’t, like her name, her brother’s illness, and her strange ability. That’s when Caspia discovers her hometown is a refuge for supernatural beings both Light and Dark, and she and her brother find themselves caught up in a war between the two that predates their very birth. In order to protect herself and her brother, she turns to the one who seems to have started it all: the man who walked out of her sketchbook calling himself Ethan.

But Ethan has his own agenda, Logan’s getting sicker fast, and Caspia finds that drawing the future isn’t the only strange thing she can do. Meanwhile, someone really wants all of them dead. In a town where Dark doesn’t equal Evil and Light isn’t always Good, Caspia and Ethan find themselves making strange alliances and even stranger sacrifices in order to protect those they love.

As evening falls against the majestic backdrop of the Bavarian Alps, Charles Hirter, an American tourist, is savagely murdered. In the peace, quiet and pastoral splendor of this magnificent setting, Charles Hirter draws his last breath. Was Charles simply in the wrong place at the wrong time?Kommissar Franz Waldbaer, the German detective in charge of the case, faces an investigation that yields neither clues nor suspects nor motives. A gruff, go-it alone detective, Waldbaer is dismayed by the arrival of Robert Hirter, the victim’s brother, who insists on joining the investigation. But there is more to Robert than meets the eye.As Robert and the Kommissar uncover a nefarious nexus of evil past and evil present, they find themselves probing dark, long-forgotten episodes from the Third Reich in order to identify the present threat.Thrust into a violent world of fanatic passions, malevolent intentions and excruciating urgency, Robert Hirter and Kommissar Waldbaer must race against the clock to stop a sophisticated, covert, and deadly plot.

In a posh suburb of the nation’s capital, at the most exclusive high school in the world, the vampires who secretly run the government have created a game for America’s daughters of privilege. Show up to Homecoming in a black dress and you’ve entered yourself in a contest where the winner lives forever, and the loser becomes the winner’s first meal.

Only the wealthiest, most connected students can hope to win, so when new girl Nicky Bloom wears a black dress to Homecoming, everyone assumes she has a death wish. They don’t know that Nicky has her own agenda. As the dance continues into the night, they will find out that Nicky Bloom is far more than she seems.

For Secret McQueen, her life feels like the punch line for a terrible joke. Abandoned at birth by her werewolf mother, hired as a teen by the vampire council of New York City to kill rogues, Secret is a part of both worlds, but belongs to neither. At twenty-two, she has carved out as close to a normal life as a bounty hunter can.

When an enemy from her past returns with her death on his mind, she is forced to call on every ounce of her mixed heritage to save herself—and everyone else in the city she calls home. As if the fate of the world wasn’t enough to deal with, there’s Lucas Rain, King of the East Coast werewolves, who seems to believe he and Secret are fated to be together. Too bad Secret also feels a connection with Desmond, Lucas’s second-in-command…

Jazz can’t decide whether to scorch him with a fireball or jump into bed with him.

Jasmine Tremaine, a witch who can’t stay out of trouble.

Nikolai Gregorivich, a drop-dead gorgeous vampire cop on the trail of a serial killer.

The sizzling love affair between Jazz and Nick has been off-again, on-again-for about 300 years. Mostly off, lately. But now Nick needs Jazz’s help, and while Jazz and Nick try to figure out their own hearts and resist their ever-increasing attraction, they must steer clear of a maniacal killer with super-supernatural powers. They are surrounded by a hilarious cast of oddball paranormal characters, including Irma, the chain-smoking ghost who haunts Jazz’s sports car, Dweezil, her ghoul of a boss, and Fluff and Puff, a pair of bunny slippers with sharp teeth and short tempers (watch your ankles)!

In the latest series entry from Rose (The Delilah Complex) to feature psychiatrist Dr. Morgan Snow, a string of murders is plaguing Manhattan, and sexy sex therapist Snow’s new patient—a powerful judge with a reputation for being fair and an addiction to Internet pornography—is at the top of the suspect list. While Morgan works with patients addicted to real-time Web cam fantasy girls, someone is killing off the online girls and broadcasting their slow, grisly murders on their own Internet feeds. On the case is Det. Noah Jordain, who maintains a shaky romance with Snow. Soon the investigation is giving their already strained relationship a good rattle, pitting Morgan’s professional duty against Noah’s. Though creepy letters from the killer to “Dearest” break up the first-person narrative with stabs of dread, this psychological thriller is less thrilling but more thoughtful than the typical genre exercise. As in Rose’s first two series entries, Morgan charms as a sex shrink who’s seen it all, and the grisly details and bold sexual content blend nicely with themes of family, love and friendship to form a solid whole.

THE PRINCESS. . .
One reckless teenage night, well-to-do April Hollis tempted a boy from the wrong side of the tracks, and it changed her life forever. Motorcycle riding, leather jacket-clad Jesse Cawthorne was everything her family forbade: poor, dangerous, with no future that they could see. A man who would only break April’s heart. But April couldn’t resist Jesse, and they spent a lost, tempestuous summer together.

THE PAUPER. . .
As summer turned to fall, however, Jesse realized April was playing with his feelings, and his terrible pride forced them apart. He believed she was what he’d always thought: a spoiled, little rich girls from Windsor Estates. And knowing he would never fit into her wealthy world, he fled.

THE RECKONING. . .
Now, ten years later, Jesse was back, and he and April were forced to confront the same impossible passion that had once held them in thrall . . . and damn the consequences.

Liam never knew who his father was. The town of Derry had always assumed that he was the bastard of a protestant — his mother never spoke of him, and Liam assumed he was dead. But when the war between the fallen and the fey began to heat up, Liam and his family are pulled into a conflict that they didn’t know existed.

A centuries old conflict between supernatural forces seems to mirror the political divisions in 1970′s era Ireland, and Liam is thrown headlong into both conflicts! Only the direct intervention of Liam’s real father, and a secret catholic order dedicated to fighting “The Fallen” can save Liam… from the mundane and supernatural forces around him, and from the darkness that lurks within him.

Darina O’Malley watched the sun set in the bay from the great tower in O’Malley castle – saying a silent prayer for her cousin Kyra and hoping the message that was delivered to the MacCahan’s did not spell sudden doom for her and her people. If what her Uncle Ruarc had told her was true, she was to be married to a stranger in nearly a fort night and her world would turn upside down.

The realization that her clan held secrets which could destroy them forever chilled her blood. Who was this son of a Laird she was betrothed to and how would he react when he learned the truth?

A power kept secret for 2000 years. A brotherhood broken by murder. A woman who stands to lose everything.

Forged in the fire and blood of martyrs, the Pentecost stones have been handed down through generations of Keepers who kept their power and locations secret.

Until now.

The Keepers are being murdered, the stones stolen by those who would use them for evil in a world transformed by religious fundamentalism. Oxford University psychologist Morgan Sierra is forced into the search when her sister and niece are held hostage. She is helped by Jake Timber from the mysterious ARKANE, a British government agency specializing in paranormal and religious experience.

From ancient Christian sites in Spain, Italy and Israel to the far reaches of Iran and Tunisia, Morgan and Jake must track down the stones through the myths of the early church in a race against time before a new Pentecost is summoned, this time powered by the fire of evil.

The Indelibles bring you a one-of-a-kind young adult anthology! Sixteen original short stories, all from the point of view of our favorite male characters – some are old flames from our novels and some were dreamed up especially for this anthology.

Let these imminently crushable, swoon-worthy guys show you what romance looks like – in his eyes.

The contributors to IN HIS EYES include award winners, frequent “Top 100” placers, and hot 2011 debut authors.

There is serious trouble brewing on the cracked streets of Newark, New Jersey, and Shell, a former killer-for-hire, finds himself at the deep center of it all. Nevada, a past love interest, has gone missing from a seedy motel, leaving behind nothing but an impression in the wet spot on the bathroom sink counter consistent with the shape of a laptop, a haphazardly parked SUV in the lot, and blood splatter on the pillows and wall tile. What happened in the shabby motel room? Speculation ends with just one conclusion: Nevada had fallen into the rough trade of sex for money, nothing more than a trick/john transaction gone terribly wrong.

Case closed.

It makes sense for Shell to chalk it up as another dose of the bad luck and trouble that dispirited him on the killing game. But walking away is always easier said than done. The thought that Nevada is out there somewhere, hurt and praying for a savior, simply will not leave him.

He has no choice, really, but to roll up his sleeves.

In the blink of an eye, Shell is traveling a path littered with shocking betrayals, brutal ambushes, and senseless murders. One day he is ensnared in a Mob beef, and the next he is confronting an assortment of men linked to Nevada: a community activist with the comportment of a street thug, a possibly bent politician, an understated college professor, and a slick fire-and-brimstone preacher. At best, they are all very dangerous; at worst, at least one of them is a murderer.

And to survive, Shell is going to have to return to what he worked so hard to distance himself from being: a violent man with a conscience in foreclosure.

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Beth Chandler, bright, attractive but unassertive, is accidentally replicated in a flawed experiment at the government research institute where she works. A second Beth comes into being, complete with all her memories. To Sir Peter Ellis, MI5 chief, the replica is an embarrassment that must be hushed up and disposed of. Overhearing him, Beth Two goes on the run. With no official existence, homeless, penniless and pursued by Sir Peter’s agents, she has to find the inner strength and aggression to survive on icy London streets.

Meanwhile the original Beth, unaware of what has happened, becomes romantically involved with Nick Cavanagh, the spec op she believes is there to protect her. In fact, he’s hunting her double. Nick refuses to face his moral doubts about Beth Two – as far as he’s concerned, it’s not his problem. As events unfold, and the situation grows more complicated, he has to decide whose side he is on.

“Be mine for a year and a day and I will possess your heart forevermore!”

Driven from her late husband’s estate, Countess Eglantine de Crevy fled to wildest Scotland to claim a castle, only to find a ruin – and a clan chieftain standing guard. Kinbeath was hers, she declared, vowing to rebuild the manor and launch a bride quest so her daughters could marry for love. But Duncan MacLaren devised a bride quest of his own, swearing to win the land – and the fiery countess – in a war of sweet seduction…

Eglantine declared she would never be capture by this barbarian. Yet Duncan awakened passions she had never known before. She promised to fight him with every weapon at her command even as he vowed to woo her for a year and a day – and make her his pagan bride. Each thought Kinbeath the prize they most desired, a prize to be won at any price. Until passion turned to love, and the chieftain found himself fighting for the heart and hand of the woman he was born to possess.

Allie Quick has high aspirations – much higher than reporting on the latest celebrity gossip for the L.A. Informer, Hollywood’s most notorious tabloid. But if she’s going to join the ranks of the real reporters, she’s going to need a headline worthy story under her belt. Which is just what she gets when the producer of the trashiest reality shows on TV winds up murdered, and Allie convinces her editor, Felix Dunn, that this story has her name written all over it. Between an aging dance-off judge, a family with sextuplets and triplets, and the star of a little person dating show, Allie has no shortage of reality stars to question. But when she finds herself falling for her prime suspect, Allie’s relationship with her editor is suddenly on the rocks, and her life is in danger. This is one deadline Allie can’t afford to miss!

It’s 1957, and novelist Hec Lassiter—who followed Black Jack Pershing into Mexico to hunt Pancho Villa, befriended Hemingway, worked with Dashiell Hammett, bedded Marlene Dietrich, and helped Orson Welles script his films—is feeling his age. But when an old pal sets Villa’s head on the table of a cantina in the Mexican desert, Hec is up for another adventure: delivering the head to Senator Prescott Bush (father of 41, grandfather of 43) so that it can be used in secret ceremonies at Yale’s Skull and Bones Society. What follows is an exuberantly over-the-top romp conflating real events with legends and filled with murderous federales, murderous old Villistas, additional decapitations, mercenaries, unhinged Yale frat boys, CIA spooks (also Yalies), and enough gratuitous violence to fill several Steven Seagal films. There’s even a cameo from a callow, foul-mouthed Skull and Bones initiate named “George W.” Much of Head Games reads like a picaresque adventure, but McDonald’s portraits of Welles, Dietrich, and Pancho Villa are beguiling and seem knowing. This one is simply great fun! Gaughan, Thomas

For Birdie Jaworski, life as an Avon Lady was a bittersweet mix of embarking on gossip-worthy adventures, searching for Mr. Right, and making emergency lotion requests in the middle of the night… while managing as a single parent. This collection of short stories including “Mullet Madness,” “Fat Ass Evidence,” and “Wherein I Test a Product on an Animal” captures Jaworski’s complicated relationship with the cosmetics giant (and her customers) and reveals a surprising and touching account of her personal life.

India Butler, single and about to turn forty, travels to LA in an attempt to reinvent her life. In a world rarely illuminated by the flashbulbs of the paparazzi, she discovers the true meaning of “having it all.”

Two individuals clandestinely infiltrate the electronic trading platform of the New York Stock Exchange, steal sixteen million dollars in a fraction of a second, but incite a cascade of events leading to what Wall Street referred to as the “flash crash”.

Discovering the truth behind a massive government cover-up and a top secret assassination, C.I.A. covert operative Abby Churchland and Special Agent Lance Brooks become targets of the very government they serve.

It is a story of two courageous individuals who dare to match wits and plot revenge against the most powerful government on earth. Their resolve will be tested and their lives changed forever and in the process one of them will finally discover what they have spent their entire life searching for.

Led by the Catalyst of the Sixth Extinction and the only man immune to the metal contagion within her, a shattered humanity takes to the stars in a jihad against an alien race. The sequel to Enemy, An End transports the reader to another universe ravaged by the machine species known as silver.

The Yellowstone Caldera has erupted once every 600,000 years. We’re 40,000 years overdue.

A LAND OF ASH

Lava flows stretch for hundreds of miles. A cloud of ash billows east, burying the Midwest, destroying crops, and falling upon the Atlantic Coast like a warm, dead snow. The remnants of the United States flees south as the global temperatures plummet.

Amid this total devastation are stories of families, friends, sons and fathers and wives: the survivors. Within are eleven stories focusing on the human element of such a catastrophe, from an elderly couple gathering to await their death to a father sealing his shelter in hopes of keeping the air breathable for his daughter.

When Nicholas Peacock is cheated from his inheritance of Peacock Hall in Kent, he sails to South Carolina. He buys land, clears it, and plants cotton. Eventually he builds a magnificent house known as Paradise Plantation. He falls in love with the daughter of Bernard Jackson on the neighboring plantation, but when Civil War threatens circumstances force him to agree to a marriage in name only. The sexual tension is stretched to breaking point as the would-be lovers are torn between honor or surrendering to the love and longing in their hearts.

It may be Christmas in New York, but for ex-soldier turned élite bodyguard Ryan Lock it’s business as usual: his mission is to protect one of America’s most ruthless businessmen. Suddenly gunshots ring out. People run for cover. Innocent people are mown down. Amid the chaos, Lock’s hunt for the killers turns into an explosive game of cat and mouse. Lock’s search for the truth takes him from the rooftops of a New York skyscraper to a heavily fortified warehouse on the Hudson where he confronts one of the world’s most dangerous women.

As the clock ticks towards midnight on New Year’s Eve, all routes into and out of Manhattan are sealed, and Lock realises that not only is his own life in terrible danger but so are the lives of millions of others.

Maude Barrow smokes too much, drinks Wild Turkey, and desperately needs a job. When she sees a classified ad for a nanny in the wealthy Munford home, she fakes her resume and references, lies her way into the position, and seems to have it made. . . until they ask her to sign a contract with a mysterious, ominous clause.

A GOOD NANNY is a 4,000 word short story.

The Kingdom of Sieunes is rife with taverns, dirty streets, and clay pipe smoking citizens all toiling to feed their families and keep themselves in something little better than rags. With a foiled revolution just ten years prior still burning in the hearts of many, the royals enlist the aid of assassins to keep things in order.

The townsfolk entertain themselves by dreaming of better times to come and regaling in stories of the undead said to walk the graveyards at night… and of Cameo the killer with corpse-like eyes… Scarred and jaded Cameo is one of the most effective assassins in the employ of the Association, moving from one mission to the next as long as the alcohol keeps flowing.

Her acceptance of the murder-for-hire lifestyle is thrown into doubt when she meets a local highwayman with a penchant for fine clothes and women, and then she begins to think about breaking with the company but no one ever breaks with the Association under good terms.

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These eight tales run the gamut from small-town horror to old-school, whiskey-slugging noir, with a touch of coming-of-age adventure thrown in for good measure. We’re talking over a hundred print pages of pure pulp perfection that’ll cost you less than the paper it ain’t printed on.

NO WAY OUT–so says the note in the pocket of the murdered mayor.

The volcano beneath her town is seething, and the fate of Mammoth Lakes now rests in the hands of emergency planner Adrian Krom.

But Krom has his own agenda.

Investigating the case, forensic geologist Cassie Oldfield tracks mineral clues to discover how the mayor died–and what she found. As the volcano moves toward red alert, Cassie races to prevent ‘no way out’ from becoming a prophecy.

Nicolas de Montferraud, Chevalier and Vicomte d’Argentolle was born into a world in turmoil. Shunned by the court because of his father’s scandalous marriage, he is determined to restore the greatness and honor of his family’s proud name. Sérolène, Vicomtesse de La Bouhaire is beautiful, headstrong, willful, irresistible. She is the spark of passion that ignites the torch of Nicolas’ destiny. Defying age-old customs, they pledge themselves irrevocably to each other. All that stands in their way is family opposition, blood vendettas, a secret brotherhood of assassins, English frigates, a murderous psychopath and a disapproving King and court. Can their love survive these challenges? Can they?

Vice President Catherine Young has just been named the Democratic nominee for president. The polls show Catherine pulling ahead in the race against GOP candidate Jerusha Hutchins, with her large blonde hair and eight children, who is the darling of the far-right Liberty Party. With political wunderkind Zane Zarillo running her campaign, Catherine is sure to hold the lead.

Suddenly a medical emergency puts the President in the hospital and forces Catherine to become acting President… a good position for a candidate to be in. But when someone uncovers her long-ago love affair with a married man−and the pregnancy that followed−the Vice President finds herself being blackmailed. Could the American public accept a woman with a sexual past?

When Chloe Hawthorne is asked to chaperone her cousin during the London Season, it is with a heavy heart that she departs her home and family in Essex.Though she has been widowed for more than a year, she has yet to move on, and is loathe to do so. But when she meets her cousin’s fiancee, Lord Andrew Wetherby, she must choose between honoring her cousin’s impending marriage and following her heart.

Andrew Wetherby has chosen the perfect bride. She is well bred and beautiful – what more could the second son of a marquess ask for? However, when Lady Elizabeth’s new chaperone arrives on the scene, he knows he’s made a mistake of monumental proportions. The young widow with the russet curls captures his undivided attention, but as a gentleman, there is little he can do about it…or is there?

As the host of a popular TV show, Tara Lewis has learned to control every aspect of her life. But all that changes when she goes to Scotland to get married and encounters a time-traveling knight intent upon stopping her wedding.

Tara is not accustomed to roadblocks. Or to idealistic Knight Templars. Or to terrifying events like the ones set in motion when her car veers off a lonely road in Scotland.

As Tara’s wedding day approaches, she realizes not just her career is in jeopardy, but her life and her heart as well. She must find a way to stop running—from her past, the evil that threatens her, but most of all—from the forbidden love of a spellbound knight.

Enter a world of fierce wolves, stunning magic and romance…

It’s bad enough feeling different among the human crowd, but feeling different among wolves?

No one said returning to her pack would be easy, especially after ten years without them, but seventeen year old Caia Ribeiro is unprepared for the realities of the transition. Raised in a world where kids aren’t scared by bedtime tales of the bogeyman but by the real life threat of enemy supernaturals who might come creeping into their community to kill them in their sleep, Caia is used to the darkness; she’s used to the mystery and the intrigue of the ancient underworld war she’s bound to by chance of birth. What she’s having trouble with are pack members treating her with wary suspicion, the Elders tucking secrets behind their backs, and her young Alpha, Lucien, distracting her with a dangerous attraction from her decision to uncover the truth.

But as the saying goes ‘the truth will out’ and when it does, Caia will only have so long to prepare herself before the war comes pounding on their door threatening to destroy the safe, secret lives of the wolves… and the girl they protect.

Curbchek is the story of a damaged cop, Zach Fortier. Fortier worked in the police department for the city where he grew up. One foot in the world of the cops, courts and legal system. The other in the world of gangs, drugs, thugs and street violence. Where the laws and rules are made by the strongest, the schemers and most brutal. Read about the transformation of Fortier from a green rookie to a damaged paranoid veteran seeing danger in every situation. Follow along as he walks this tight rope. Trying to make difference, breaking the laws he promised to enforce. This is a story of law and order uncensored.

Sold into slavery to pirates, Summer learns to survive the rough seas of subterfuge and thieves through silence. When the boat she’s lived on most of her life is destroyed, Summer is washed up on the shore of a new world, a phantom universe full of the bizarre and extraordinary. When death looms, will Summer finally call out? Or will all be lost in the fathomless depth of silence?

When criminal defense attorney Maeven Dayne decides not to walk away from her job to defend a teenage girl with no family and no money, she not only finds herself fighting a corrupt juvenile justice system, but she winds up in the middle of a murder plot forced to choose between saving her client or her family.

When Martie Fleming breezed into Pontotoc, Mississippi, determined to settle down, she never expected to land next door to the minister. She never expected her golden retriever to steal his shorts right off the clothes line. And she certainly never expected to fall in love. Everybody in town would agree they are so wrong for each other – everybody but Paul Donovan.

Kiera Rowan has led a quiet life, as one of the immortal SpellKeepers. Her life is dedicated to the preservation of magical knowledge until the day one unspeakable act of violence rips her world apart. With her sister murdered by a savage rogue wolf and one of the Books of Power missing, Keira must cross a frozen landscape in a desperate bid to bring her sister’s killer to justice.

Haunted by his past, Bastian Mallek has abandoned his pack in the desperate pursuit of the wolf that murdered his mate. Broken and alone, his life threatens to spin dangerously out of control, until the day when the hauntingly beautiful witch offers him the key to his own salvation-the destruction of the murderous rogue but first he must regain control of his own dark impulses and put aside his growing hunger for Kiera.

A red-eyed assassin, an unready princess, a sadistic politician, and an adulterous queen all desire the secret behind a magical dust known as safra. Safra is said to bring happiness, but these characters’ desperate attempts to obtain it will cost them all dearly. Their salacious and violent deeds bring three great nations to the brink of warfare. And little do they know, their scrambling efforts are being carefully watched by a much greater power: the gods behind the beguiling drug that ensnares them all.

The View from Here focuses on the beauties and hardships of marriage; the betrayals and promises made between husbands and wives; and the grief of one woman haunted by secrets.

Nicole Baxter has always tried to control every element of her life, but that control is slipping away. She has issues. Abandonment issues. Marital issues. Conception issues. And she thinks her house in the hills is haunted. It doesn’t help that her husband Truman spleunks and climbs, making her worry more with each adventure he takes. As the two grow apart, Nicole makes decisions that may ultimately shatter her fragile marriage.

Her life changes on the afternoon she receives a phone call from the harbor. During a scuba dive, Truman disappears. No one — not his diving instructor, not the Coast Guard — can find him. Is he still alive? Or is grief making her believe the impossible?

Lou Drake was once the pride of the NYPD detectives until the high profile Hennings murder case went terribly wrong, nearly ending his career. Ten years later, fifty pounds heavier and three months from retirement, Drake works patrol in the backwater borough of Malcolm New York. He spends his idle time reading crime novels and writing one of his own. When Drake breaks protocol on another brutal murder scene, endangering his rookie partner, his captain demotes him to the booking cage. But when another body is discovered and both victims are identified as struggling literary agents, the NYPD Chief of Detectives decides Lou’s writing experience could benefit the case and pairs him with his old partner one last time. As they look for clues in the struggling publishing industry, Drake finds himself thrust into the middle of a serial murder case where a methodical perpetrator is systematically killing those who rejected him. Drake must revive his old detective prowess and trust his writer’s intuition to try and solve the case, while possibly exposing the truth about the old Hennings investigation – a secret that would expose a web of corruption that could shake the NYPD to its core.

Thirty-something teacher and professional shopper Grace has a passion for shoes. In fact they were responsible for her meeting her partner, Mark, when she speared his foot with one of her dangerously sharp heels whilst running for a train.

Mark is the other passion in her life, or so she thinks…. When he suggests they try for a baby – but is reluctant to tie the knot on their very long-term engagement – the cracks in her champagne lifestyle start to appear. As Mark becomes ever more controlling, Grace begins to see her blond and sexy boss, Tom, in a different light. A conventionally one-man woman who doesn’t ‘do’ affairs, she suddenly finds herself in the midst of the sort of tangled lifestyle she has only read about in the celeb pages. Throw in the added complications of an untimely pregnancy, a case of mistaken identity and some pretty zany friends and Grace’s life is thrown into turmoil. Retail therapy and even the comfort of her vast shoe collection can’t help her out of this dilemma…..

Love. Betrayal. Revenge.

When Kane Rider’s partner is murdered, he has no time to grieve. He is quickly thrust into a world of secrets and lies, pursued by criminals for something he knows nothing about.

He thought he had the perfect life, but all that changes the night Ryan Cassidy is stabbed to death. As Ryan’s secrets slowly come to light, Kane must challenge what he thought to be the truth with what he knows could kill him.

With nowhere to hide, and no one to turn to, he has only one choice – survive or die.

From the author of ‘The Camel Trail’ comes a taut thriller that will keep you page-turning far into the night.

Master thief Michael Dane lands in jail after being snared by the FBI. During his stint he learns his deaf father has died, and he is the sole inheritor of land worth millions outside Boulder, Colorado.

Released on bail, he returns to the home he swore he’d never go back to. Michael Dane soon discovers his father’s death was no accident and finds he now has two choices: dig through the broken pieces of an abusive past to solve his father’s murder or become a fugitive.

CONTAINS A FREE PREVIEW OF SONS OF SILENCE – TO BE RELEASED
SPRING 2012. #2 IN THE MICHAEL DANE SERIES.

A disheartened girl finds hope in a gifted boy and a mystic mountain.

SOLSTICE-Of The Heart, book one of the SOLSTICE SERIES, relates the story of the budding romance of Julissa Grant and Aaron Delmon, as seen through the eyes of Julissa who, like any high school teenager, struggles through the pitfalls of school and life.  Her life turns anything but normal as she becomes infatuated and intertwined with the high school’s outsiders, Beaumont, Belmont, and, her new-found beau, Aaron Delmon.

Three years after her husband, Simon, and his brother, Mickey, go missing on Mount Hood, Dierdra Grant moves her 16-year-old daughter, Julissa, cross-country and sets up house in Mickey’s cabin in Shasta City, California.  Having lost a friend and her father in a short time, Julissa has become disheartened with the world.  Dierdra, broken-hearted and unable to find closure over the death of her husband, is more of a hindrance than a help to Julissa.  Julissa turns away from her Catholic upbringing and runs renegade with her best new-found friend, Cherrie.  While “boy-hunting” in the Crags with Cherrie, Julissa meets, for the first time, Aaron Delmon, a gifted boy who will change her life forever.

Unknown to Julissa, Aaron Delmon is a descendant of the ancient civilization, Lemuria.  He has been sent “from below” to blend in as a teenager in a high school while working with a cell of Lemurians to prepare the framework for a return to the Way of the Lemurian known as the Law of One.  When he meets Julissa, he is being schooled as a memorizer and trained in vampirism, which allows him to control, manipulate, and store life-force energy.

A lie that brings a smile… or the truth that draws tears?
Dr. Olivia Crane lives a quiet life. No one questions why she doesn’t socialize or where she spends every weekend.

When the visiting physician from France strolls into her office, with open arms and a confident smile, her perfect control is about to crumble.
Good God, he can’t be Dr. Luc George, the man she loved ten years ago? Should she return his scorching kisses, or should she lock her door before he digs into her many secrets?

Secret daughter, secret friend, secret enemy. Had Luc really known his sweet Olivia back then? He wants her back, but he wants the truth, too. Now, Olivia has to face her past before she can grab her second chance.

***Read my review of the book HERE!***

Romance, adventure, murder and revenge, Christina Matthews does it all. An obsessed fly-girl with the Right Stuff and True Grit finds love in the oddest place, the cockpit. A beautiful and brainy college girl born with jet-fuel in her blood is haunted by a gripping family tragedy and the violent murder of her best friend. The only thing she truly fears is sleep. Tortured by nightmares, this test pilot’s daughter has to find a way to save her sanity or die. Mike Clark, call-name Lazer and a real Top Gun, looks to be the best kind of therapy.  With dreams of becoming an Astronaut-Commander, Christina struggles through heart-stopping perils in the cockpit and crash-lands on a deserted island. Without hope for rescue, she concocts an oddball plan to return survivors to civilization.   Risking her future at NASA, Christina delivers on a promise to a dying friend and faces her evil nemesis in the sky. Only by overcoming deep-seated fears can she exorcise her ghosts and pursue a lifelong dream of flying in space.   Will true love conquer Christina’s curse, or will she auger in?

As one of New York’s top sex therapists, Dr. Morgan Snow sees everything from the abused to the depraved. The Butterfield Institute is the sanctuary where she tries to heal these battered souls.

The Scarlet Society is a secret club of twelve powerful and sexually adventurous women. But when a photograph of the body of one of the men they’re recruited to dominate — strapped to a gurney, the number 1 inked on the sole of his foot — is sent to the New York Times, they are shocked and frightened. Unable to cope with the tragedy, the women turn to Dr. Morgan Snow. But what starts out as grief counseling quickly becomes a murder investigation, with any one of the twelve women a potential suspect.

The case leads Detective Noah Jordan — a man with whom Morgan has shared a brief, intense connection — to her office. He fears the number on the man’s foot hints that the killings have just begun. With her hands tied by her professional duty, Morgan is dangerously close to the demons in her own mind — and the flesh-and-blood killer.

Livie Saunders is fluent in the language of flowers; she taught the meanings to her fiancé, Cotton O’Dell, but then Cotton vanishes without explanation on their wedding day forcing Livie to learn the language of desolation. Heartbroken, she buries her wedding gown beneath a garden pond and resolves to move on, but there are nights when she slips . . . into a sequined red dress and a pair of stiletto heels, a stranger’s bed, a little anonymous oblivion that is not without consequence. Still, she recovers a semblance of ordinary life and imagines she is content. But then, six years later, Cotton returns and her carefully constructed world shatters. The old questions bite like flies. Questions that Cotton O’Dell prays he can answer. He prays that Livie, whom he has never stopped loving, will be moved to forgive him. But there is more than Livie to be concerned about. There is Cotton’s act of cowardice that caused him to become a fugitive in the first place . . . that crime he committed for which the legal clock is still ticking. That thing he did that will shock Livie to her core once she learns of it. Livie is desperate to trust Cotton, but then he goes missing again. Time telescopes, avenues of escape close, and as lives hang in the balance, choice dithers between mercy and revenge. And a decision that will take only a moment will carry the consequences of a lifetime.

In Saudi Arabia, two American missionaries are targeted by the infamousreligious police—Muttawa. The man is tortured and killed; his wife arrestedon trumped-up charges before being deported to the United States. Compelledby the injustice of her plight, young attorney Brad Carlson files anunprecedented civil rights suit against Saudi Arabia and the ruthless head ofthe Muttawa. But the suit unleashes powerful forces that will stop at nothingto vindicate the Arabian kingdom. Witnesses are intimidated and some disappear;jurors are bribed; and a member of Brad’s own team may be attemptingto sabotage the case. As Brad navigates a maze of treachery and deception,he must gamble his case, his career, and the lives of those he loves on hisability to bring justice to one family, challenge the religious intolerance of anation, and alter the course of international law.

Imagine a moment of unseen intervention on your behalf. What would you do if you discovered invisible beings surrounding you? What if you were the key to their survival? SON OF EDEN introduces a world where unseen beings really do exist, love has no limits, and the realization of one’s self worth is pivotal. Tormented by sadness over her mother’s death, Emily Wallace wonders if life really has any purpose. Her question is answered when she meets Alexander. After transgressing the laws of his kind, Alexander reveals his true nature to Emily and the two find life without one another is not an option. But, forming such a cosmically unique relationship comes with a price. It becomes apparent that some will stop at nothing to ensure an ancient prophecy surrounding these two is never fulfilled. Is the Opposition motivated by knowledge of Alexander’s true identity? Or, are they more concerned with who Emily is destined to become.

When lifetime friendship mixes with romance, things can get weird.

Tessa Monroe may not be able to operate a toaster oven safely, but she sure knows how to create and execute a marketing plan. Christian Douglas, her best friend since eating paste was in vogue, is a wedding photographer as romantic as his craft, engaged to a woman he believes is the one. Unexpectedly, his fiancée dumps him because she senses he’s in love with someone else—someone he “proposed to” on the third grade playground, someone who grew up without plans for romance, marriage, or a family thanks to her high powered career.

Love each other? Not as anything more than friends, think both Christian and Tessa. But when a new “perfect” woman and the ultimate job opportunity threaten to drive the friends apart for good, Christian and Tessa must finally confront their true feelings for each other. Their lives have led them to very different destinations; can love bridge the gap between them?

Since his commanding officer in the Peninsula took a bullet meant for him, James Moore, now the Earl of Rutledge, feels responsible for the dead man’s young son and the boy’s exquisite mother, Carlotta Ennis so responsible that he offers to marry the lavender-eyed beauty. Though their marriage was not to be a love match, Carlotta’s torturing presence has James yearning to make her his true wife.

Though she did not love his lordship, her desperate situation forced her to accept his proposal. Little did she know she would come to crave being with him, would hunger for his every touch. If only she could be worthy of the fine man she’s married, if only she can keep him from learning her dark secret . . .

A disturbing glimpse into a digital future, not far from now.

Mathew Grey is a brilliant scientist who accidentally unleashed a man-made plague that ravaged America’s heartland, and now threatens the rest of the planet. Riddled with guilt and running out of time, he decides to use a dangerous technology to enter a computer-generated reality called Cyberdrome, hoping to unravel a mystery that could be the key to Earth’s survival.

Alek Grey was an athlete whose career was cut short by a near-fatal accident. Now he is a software hacker with the unique ability to outsmart the best Artificial Intelligence programs of his day. When he is called in after one of his programs inadvertently attacks Cyberdrome, he is shocked to learn that both his father and ex-fiancée have become trapped inside the simulation, unable to be removed without risk of death.

Alek knows of only one way to rescue the people he loves, but will he risk all of humanity to save them?

He hasn’t spoken her name in fourteen years. She keeps a journal hidden in the back of her closet and permits herself to write about him once a year—on the anniversary of the first and only time they made love. They promised to love one another forever, but tragedy tore them apart. Now, destiny may just bring them back together.

At eighteen, Rourke Flannigan and Kate Redmond thought they’d spend the rest of their lives together—until a family tragedy tore them apart. Fourteen years have passed and they’ve both carved out separate lives hundreds of miles apart—hers as a wife and mother, his as a successful, driven businessman. But once a year, on the anniversary of her daughter’s birth, Kate pulls out a red velvet journal and writes a letter, which she’ll never send, to the man who still owns her heart. Once a year, on the anniversary of the first and only time they made love, Rourke permits himself to read the annual investigative report detailing an ordinary day in Kate’s life.

When a subcontractor at one of Rourke’s holding companies is killed, Rourke decides to pay the widow a visit and offer condolences, never dreaming the widow will be Kate. As they embark on a cautious journey of rediscovery, one far greater than they could have imagined, secrets and lies threaten to destroy their newfound closeness—forever.

Fresh off a marriage that spiraled into a dangerous tailspin, Ellie Coulter doesn’t believe in fate or luck. She’s been surrounded by darkness since her parents’ untimely death, and harbors a secret that never lets her forget that she’s different.

Ellie builds a safe bubble around her life that includes nothing but her coffee shop, her few friends, and her dog. Then a handsome young doctor, David Mitchell, starts to break through her protective shell and Ellie realizes there may be a risk worth taking.

Then one of Ellie’s friends abruptly leaves town; entrusting her home to Ellie’s care. The house has its own mysterious past that draws Ellie into a new darkness. Her ex-husband resurfaces with premonitions of Ellie’s death. And suddenly Ellie’s life is being turned upside down yet again, and even David can’t help her make it right.

Ellie is running out of time. Something old and evil has awakened and it wants Ellie all to itself. She must solve a century-old mystery and keep a grip on her sanity in order to survive.

In a time when the world was ravaged by chaos, one kingdom remains; ordered, isolated, protected. Then Tabitha Serannon awakens an ancient power and the world begins to change.

She is hunted for her talent. The Shadowcasters whisper in her ears as their evil closes around her. Soon the Riddler walks beside her, but is he on her side? She has a moment to learn the magic before she loses her grasp of the Lifesong, but the path she must follow leads into Darkness; into terror, treachery and desire.

To survive she must give voice to a music that she hardly understands, an enchantment that will echo through all time.

Edwina is a small town librarian and loves her predictable lifestyle. But her stepsister Cecilia has other plans. As they are about to board a plane for Scotland, Cecelia is suddenly called away. Exhausted and alone in Edinburgh, Edwina collapses into the arms of a tall Scot. Anxious to meet his fiance, Alex Dunnegin whisks Edwina off to his castle and that’s when the trouble begins.

We show one face to our family and another to the world. Who are we really? Who am I, and who do I want to be?

Keira Maddock lives in a dark future in which the Elite have everything, and everyone else suffers. She is a survivor. Out of necessity, she has become a skilled seductress, thief and bounty hunter – a Freelancer. When a typical job goes awry, it changes everything. Alliances are formed, long kept secrets are revealed and lives are forever changed.

Will he secure his future by ruining hers, or will she ruin his plans by securing him? A new twist on the old fortune hunter plot puts an impoverished earl in a position to gain his fortune only by ruining an innocent’s reputation without offering marriage. The innocent he’s selected, however, has no plans to settle for anything less than marriage and will go to almost any length to secure him.

When the impoverished Andrew Black, Earl of Townson, hits rock bottom, he makes an agreement that will end his eight year poverty streak once and for all. In order to gain his fortune he must do but one simple thing: ruin an innocent girl’s reputation enough to make her flee to America.

Brooke Banks isn’t interested in marriage, or so she thinks. She came to London to have a good time, and that’s exactly what she’s doing. Widely known for her tendency to flout the rules, she suspects nothing when a handsome stranger appears on her doorstep.

Thirteen days, a handful of kisses and one scandalous situation later, Andrew and Brooke will have to choose to stick to their original plans, or decide if a life together is worth the risk.

An armed—and armored—terrorist breaks into the Longview Police department, shooting anything in his path before detonating the explosives hiding beneath his body armor. As retired police detective Alex Mendez waits for news of his injured cop wife’s condition, the whole of East Texas begins to dig out from the carnage visited upon it. While Alex sits with Lisa, the television screams with reports of similar attacks in small towns all across the country. They’ve struck again. And just as it had on September 11th, 2001, the game has dramatically changed.
As the local law enforcement adapts to being overwhelmed for such carnage, Alex is forced to wrestle with demons both personal and professional.

When terrorists connected to the cell group responsible for the Texas attacks kidnap a severely injured Lisa Mendez, the stakes are raised for Alex yet again as he weighs the hazards and benefits of coming out of retirement or sitting on the sidelines, leaving his family’s fate in the hands of strangers. Terrorists have invaded his country. They’ve destroyed his town. Now they’ve raided his home. They’ve drawn the line in the sand. Badge or no badge, Alex Mendez is just the man to take the fight right back to them.

When someone begins killing New Orleans street people, it affects the City’s tourist trade just beginning to recover from Hurricane Katrina. More than just simple acts of murder, voodoo is involved, the killer likely an actual Vodoun deity. Homicide detective Tony Nicosia seeks the help of gumshoe, and Big Easy insider Wyatt Thomas. Wyatt enlists Mama Mulate, Tulane English professor, and actual voodoo mambo. Together, they try to unravel the strangest mystery to hit the venerable City since the era of Marie Laveau.

What’s the price of sin?  Human Paige Sloan once loved werewolf Drake Wyler more than life, but then that life was taken away from her. Attacked by vampires, Paige was bitten, and, on a cold, dark night, the life she’d known ended. She was reborn as a vampire–a werewolf’s deadliest enemy.

Paige ran from the vampires who attacked her, and she ran away from her lover. She didn’t want Drake to know what she’d become, and she didn’t want to face the fury of his pack. But a girl can only run for so long until the past catches up with her.

Some sins mark your soul.  When Paige learns that Drake is being targeted for death, she knows that she can’t hide in the shadows any longer. She has to return to him, and she will do anything–anything–in order to make sure that he keeps living. The vampires might have destroyed her chance to live and love Drake, but they won’t take him. Not over her undead body. She’ll slay them all…and maybe, just maybe…she’ll even have the chance to sin–one more time–with the werewolf who’d marked her as his mate.  Some sins are worth dying for…

Seventeen-year old princess, Clara Williamson, lives an old-fashioned existence in a biosphere of the future.  When her sadistic mother, Queen Ada, betroths her to an abusive prince of a neighboring sphere, Clara determines to escape Outside where savages roam free.  Clara escapes tyranny only to discover the savages are not the only people who survived the cataclysmic events of one hundred forty years prior.  Once Outside, Clara finds herself trapped, unable to return to the abusive life of the sphere while facing certain danger Outside.  Can Clara find love and freedom with the peril that threatens to consume her?

A teenage time traveler accidentally takes her secret crush back in time. Awkward.

Boy watching with her best friend would be enough excitement for fifteen year old Casey Donovan. She doesn’t even mind life at the bottom of the Cambridge High social ladder, if only she didn’t have this other much bigger problem. Unscheduled trips to the nineteenth century!

When Casey gets talked into going to the Fall Dance, the unthinkable happens–she accidentally takes Nate Mackenzie, the cutest boy in the school, back in time.

Protocol pressures her to tell their 1860 hosts that he is her brother and when Casey finds she has a handsome, wealthy (and unwanted) suitor, something changes in Nate. Are those romantic sparks or is it just ‘brotherly’ protectiveness?

When they return to the present things go back to the way they were before: Casey at the bottom of the social totem pole and Nate perched on the very the top. Except this time her heart is broken. Plus, her best friend is mad, her parents are split up, and her little brother gets escorted home by the police. The only thing that could make life worse is if, by some strange twist of fate, she took Nate back to the past again.  Which of course, she does.

Every year the best colleges reject thousands of the brightest young minds in the country. But what might happen if a large number of them refused to take no for an answer?

One morning, Shepherdton College receives 437 envelopes from twenty-eight states. Each contains the same two-word message: Still coming.

That’s just the beginning. The college president’s house burns down; the water in the country club swimming pool turns red; the ghost of a local war hero appears.

Another message is received: We’re Here.

Nerves fray, and if the “comers” aren’t trouble enough, a Peeping Tom turns into a home invader, and shows signs of becoming a full-blown sexual predator.  The town fragments and people take up arms after one last message is received…  Won’t Be Long Now.  Still Coming is a psychological thriller for anyone, student or parent, who’s ever sweated a college admission decision.

Can a disgraced Special Forces soldier find redemption, and will redemption cost him more than just his own life?

North American Federation Navy Commander Evan Gabriel was dishonorably discharged after losing his covert team on a far off world called Eden. Now, he’s being offered an opportunity to command a new team, on a new world, with a new mission, but the true motives behind the mission are unclear.

From the decaying Caribbean to politically-charged South America, from the slums of Mars to a tiny colony on a planet six hundred light years from Earth, Gabriel’s Redemption follows the disgraced Commander Gabriel as he leads a Special Forces team to an ice-bound world. Their given mission: to eradicate a drug cartel that is producing a highly-addictive stimulant brutally extracted from the bodies of the native inhabitants. Upon arriving, Gabriel and his team find the mission isn’t exactly what it appeared to be, and that they weren’t the only force dispatched to the planet.

After a family tragedy, Brett Macklin has sworn to take the law into his own hands and make the guilty pay. This time, Macklin’s target is Wesley Saputo, porn kingpin and murderer, who has slipped through the courts time after time, only to kidnap, rape and kill again…and again. Macklin’s mission: locate and destroy Saputo before he finds another innocent life to destroy.

Ellen Harris, a glamorous singer with a major contract, is haunted by nightmares of childhood abuse and the brutal murder of a loved one. Just as life is turning around for her, she must face the terrors of her past — and a new terror, even more vivid, in the form of a murderer who will stop at nothing. Ellen has no choice — she is alone, and she must pursue the murderer to the bitter end — even if it means losing her own life

Ace is on the run from everyone, it seems. He’s running from a busted Witness Protection Program assignment, an international collection of gangsters and arms merchants he pissed off working undercover, and worst of all—from his own scarred self-image and the nightmares that haunt him.

After two lonely years on the road he risks a short visit with his old friend, Granville Tubbs, who lives in the sleepy small town of Ferris’ Bluff, Arkansas. He hasn’t even had a tingle that anyone has been on his trail for almost a year. What could go wrong in a few days?

Plenty, it turns out. But some things go right, too…shotgun ambushes aside.

The ultimate loner, Ace is soon brought under the spell of the quirky small town and its residents. As he tries to help Tubbs, all the while jealously guarding his alias, the friendliness of the townsfolk chips away at the wall of solitude he’s built. It’s as if Leets and Dicky and Art Drury are determined to become his new friends. And the pretty widow, Annie Travers—well, try as he might he can’t deny the growing mutual attraction between the two of them.

He runs smack up against the dark side of Ferris’ Bluff in no time. The greedy lawyer, Tremont, and his slutty wife, Reena, are after something in Tubbs’ estate. The local mechanic, Pink, is out to mess him up, too. Ace is soon enmeshed in a battle of wits and wills with some of the locals.

And if that ain’t thorny enough, Russian arms dealers who Ace hurt badly on his last assignment have been keeping a loose watch on Tubbs. When he discovers that Annie’s husband’s accident wasn’t an accident at all and Dicky Stover, the victim of a brutal beating, is killed while in the hospital, hitting the road is no longer an option.

CFBI agent Jasmine McLellan is assigned a hot case—one that requires the psychic abilities of the PSI Division, a secret government agency located in the secluded town of Divine, BC.

Jasi leads a psychically gifted team in the hunt for a serial arsonist—a murderer who has already taken the lives of three innocent people. Unleashing her gift as a Pyro-Psychic, Jasi is compelled toward smoldering ashes and enters the killer’s mind. A mind bent on destruction and revenge.

Jasi’s team, consisting of Psychometric Empath and profiler, Ben Roberts, and Victim Empath, Natassia Prushenko, is led down a twisting path of dark, painful secrets. Brandon Walsh, the handsome, smooth-talking Chief of Arson Investigations joins them in a manhunt that takes them across British Columbia—from Vancouver to Kelowna, Penticton and Victoria.

While impatiently sifting through the clues that were left behind, Jasi and her team realize that there is more to the third victim than meets the eye. Perhaps not all of the victims were that innocent. The hunt intensifies when they learn that someone they know is next on the arsonist’s list.

The case heats to the boiling point as Jasi steps out of the flames…and into the fire. And in the heat of early summer, Agent Jasi McLellan discovers that a murderer lies in wait…much closer than she imagined.

Ghost in Her Heart: Dark Lands Book 5

Every man has a little beast inside…every woman longs to tame him. Where will you be when the beast roars for you?

The quintisential geek, Vana had never had a lover. The ultimte warrior, Dagon had never had a wife. Thanks to a rift in space, she’s about to become both.

Beast Wars: Dark Lands Book 6

Dey has a taste for ancient treasure—Keg is the one assigned to guard it. Ancient ziggurats protected by forgotten technology are no match for Dey, but Keg is one challenge she can’t dismiss.

Sexy and irrepressible, Keg doesn’t understand why the woman in the pink snakeskin jacket would swagger around with a gun. With war looming, what better way to keep her out of trouble than to make her his own?

She’s been uprooted from her small hometown and enrolled at Evernight Academy, an eerie Gothic boarding school where the students are somehow too perfect: smart, sleek, and almost predatory. Bianca knows she doesn’t fit in.

Then she meets Lucas. He’s not the “Evernight type” either, and he likes it that way. Lucas ignores the rules, stands up to the snobs, and warns Bianca to be careful—even when it comes to caring about him.

“I couldn’t stand it if they took it out on you,” he tells Bianca, “and eventually they would.”

But the connection between Bianca and Lucas can’t be denied. Bianca will risk anything to be with Lucas, but dark secrets are fated to tear them apart . . . and to make Bianca question everything she’s ever believed.

How far would you go to save your dream? Seventeen-year-old Ariceli Pisa is a senior at the prestigious Cambridge High School and has her sights set on Northwestern University. She’s a cheerleader, a member of the National Honor Society…and a drug dealer. That’s not the only secret she has to keep from her best friend Naomi–she’s also madly in love with Naomi’s ex-boyfriend, James Bartlett.

After their teacher assigns a persuasive essay challenging students to improve one aspect of their life, Daniel discovers that Jazmin is still fighting demons from her past. Daniel is ready to become her hero as he comes up with a plan to have Jazmin run for the Board of Education in order to stop an abusive principal. Little did he know, their actions would change their school forever.

FOUR PEOPLE from dissimilar backgrounds, and with no prior knowledge of one another, are forever linked by unrelenting danger and by evil on scale that betrays comprehension. ERIC, a successful businessman and ZOE, a beautiful social worker, set out on a quest for the truth . . . a quest that leads them through a labyrinth of extreme danger and unspeakable wickedness

David Chance can see messages in the sea of words around him, messages that warn him of future events.

Words are everywhere– on labels, magazines, sign posts, t-shirts– everywhere. And as much as David Chance would like to hide from them, he can’t. Words keep leaping off objects around him, forming messages in his mind. But how is this possible? Has his brain suddenly taken an evolutionary leap forward, or are the mysterious messages proof of divine intervention?

Driven to answer a question he’d long ago abandoned, and stalked by the killer he’s trying to stop, David risks everything to follow the messages to a dirty bomb set to go off in the heart of Boston. But can he trust the author of the messages to protect him from a terrorist who seems to know his every move.

Two years ago, The Boy Who Never Smiled was Skyla’s best friend.

Two years later, he smashes her into pieces.

Now it’s up to the optimistic and slightly-annoyed Skyla to find out what’s wrong with her best friend.  And at the same time, stop her friendship group, The Stupendous Six, from falling apart. She’ll have to tolerate with Olivia, the girl Adam’s supposedly dating, to bring her old best friend back.  But something happened to Adam in those two years; there was something which destroyed his mental stability. Something unspeakable; deadly.  Once Skyla finds out, she’ll wish she never knew

When twenty-five-year-old Madeleine Duffy wakes up after a terrifying cycling accident to hear she’s the newest member of the Afterlife Club, Cyclists’ Chapter, she’s thinks it’s a place more horrifying than hell itself. After all, the only reason she even hauled her bulk onto that torture machine every morning was the chance to see London’s hottest cyclist (aka Corduroy Man) go by each day — and maybe lose a few pounds in the process. Things get even worse when Madeleine discovers she’s expected to get back on the bike to help protect the living from traffic doom. How can a woman whose life revolved around shopping and croissants be expected to change in death? But when Madeleine’s own reluctance to let go results in disastrous consequences, she must decide: is she strong enough to fulfill the new role she’s been given, or should she cling to the empty life she no longer lives? And now that she’s dead, how in heaven’s name is she ever going to attract Corduroy Man?

Spunky, down-on-her-luck Laurel Mayfield didn’t believe in vampires. She didn’t believe in the supernatural. Not until she met the enigmatic and darkly alluring Sebastian Thorn, a man shrouded in mystery and intrigue. Discovering he was a Prince turned out to be only the beginning of a harrowing journey that took them back to the Tudor Court during the reign of King Henry the Eighth. Caught up in the conspiracy of Whitehall, Laurel’s love and devotion were put to the ultimate test.

Would she return to the future to find her Dark Prince waiting? Or had the executioner’s blade taken more from her than just Sebastian’s head?

Author’s Note: The Callahans: The Complete Series, in five volumes, is available in one Kindle book at Amazon with a discount price below the five separate novels.

Vol. I – Destiny: Fleeing an abusive father and a hopeless life in Ireland in 1895, nineteen-year-old Tom Callahan takes passage on a ship bound for America. On board, he meets Katrina Hansen, a young Norwegian woman traveling to Utah. It’s not a likely match. The brash Irishman is a Catholic, a brawler and a young man without prospects. Katrina is a refined young woman, yet naive in the ways of the world. Lured into a polygamous marriage, she finds herself abandoned on a remote Mexican beach as the man she loves, unaware of her status, seeks his fortune in Alaska. Destiny is a sprawling historical novel set at the turn of the 19th century, played out in such far-flung places as New York City, the gold fields of Alaska and Old Mexico.

Vol.II – Conflict:  Tom Callahan strikes it rich in the Alaska goldfield while Katrina struggles to remain alive in Mexico. Demonstrating her determination and faith, the reader is shown the resilience of this young woman who has grown beyond her years. Continuing through 1912 and the disastrous voyage of HMS Titanic, Conflict will keep you on the edge of your seat.

Vol. III – Reunion: It’s 1917 and American has entered World War I. Tom and Katie’s son, in an effort to prove his worth to his father, has joined what President Woodrow Wilson is calling  – the fight to make the world safe for democracy-. As the war ends, Tommy is selected for appointment to the Naval Academy, while his father is arrested and imprisoned in Ireland for gun running in the great Irish Civil War. Set against turbulent events in world history and filled with vivid scenes as well as tender emotions, Reunion takes the reader around the world.

Vol. IV – Prelude: Tom and Katrina Callahan continue their story in the years between the two world wars. Their three children have grown up and are making their way in a world that is propelling itself toward World War II. Tess has her heart set on a Hollywood movie career; PJ is a successful sheep rancher in New Zealand and Tommy is pursuing his career in the Marine Corps and learning not only about war, but about the perils of romance. When Tommy finds himself in England prior to WWII, Winston Churchill calls on him to examine the economic growth of the German nation as they secretly prepare for war.

Vol. V – Reprisal – Continuing the series into WWII as Marine Corps Lieutenant Colonel Thomas Callahan III faces personal tragedy during the Blitz in London as the war presents a very personal face. As he leaves his Embassy post to return to the United States, America joins Europe in the worldwide conflagration. For the second time in his young life, the son of Thomas and Katrina Callahan finds himself immersed in front-line battle, torn between his duty and the love of a beautiful woman who desires only his safety.

The conclusion of The Callahans will leave you enthralled as the children and grandchildren of a once-young Irish immigrant and his Norwegian bride leave their mark upon the world.

Be careful what you wish for… because you just might get it.

At least, that’s what Trevor Thomas is starting to realize. He’s spent his whole life wishing he could be a hero; so when he stumbles into the magical land of Dragonshold, you’d think it’d be a dream come true.
After all, this is a place Trevor could only read about-a world of endless adventure, of dragons and elves, magic spells and rune crystals.  But even the most wonderful dreams can turn to nightmares.  Trevor still hasn’t found Mariah Murphy, the girl of his dreams, and now three hideous monsters are tracking him down… and won’t stop until he’s dead.  And when his friends are forced to abandon him, Trevor has no choice but to journey to The City of Ancients in search of answers.  Yet some questions are best left unanswered, as Trevor soon discovers what it truly means to be a hero.   Now, his greatest adventure becomes a desperate struggle… one that will finally bring him back home.

Diane Berger is missing from her wealthy parents’ San Francisco home and Lucky Lucas goes hunting. In this rapid paced follow up to Scar Tissue, Lucas finds the girl in L.A., but also finds a corpse in the apartment where she’s been staying. What began as a favor for a friend spins out of control and has Lucas caught in a world damaged by corporate crime, marital infidelity,and murder.

***This book was on my Fav 15 from 2011! Read my review HERE***

What would you do if you held fate in your hands?

Macy Lockhart is a normal girl with an abnormal bird-shaped birthmark on her wrist. She doesn’t even think twice about the odd marking until strange things begin happening to her and an anonymous gift is left on her doorstep… a beautiful, blood-red pendant. A bloodstone.

It isn’t long before she is surrounded by craziness… ancient high priests, visions and memories that she can’t explain. And that’s just the beginning.

She quickly comes to the realization that the bloodstone wasn’t just given to her… it was returned to her. It has been hers all along, for thousands of years. She has lived hundreds of lives and all of them have been important.

But before she can even come to terms with that craziness, she is forced to return to one of them that was particularly tragic….a previous doomed life where she lived as Cleopatra’s handmaiden, Charmian.

Fate, the very thing that she is born to protect, is being threatened in a way that would destroy history as we know it. The fate of the world literally sits on her shoulders. But of course, just handling that small issue would be too easy.

Unless she interferes with destiny, her soul-mate will die. Can she really stand aside and allow the love of her life to die all over again?

Adam Stanford, Earl of Ashworth, is a man who has always done the right thing. That is until he meets the beautiful Lady Catherine Bourgeault, wife to the Baron Bourgeault. Honor and gentlemanly conduct fly in the face of a love Adam cannot deny. He will risk his reputation and all he holds dear to possess this amazing woman. But what seems like a simple, straightforward effort to “steal” another man’s wife is fraught with deceit and the dark secrets of an evil, demented man who will do anything to save his empty marriage.

*** Great book if you love magic!  Read my review HERE ***
All she wanted was a vacation – but Dumnos offered a new life.

Lilith Evergreen has always lived in the California desert, but when she receives an antique ring as a gift, she dreams of a magnificent tree at cliff’s edge, a castle by the sea, and a mysterious woman who bids Lilith to come to Dumnos, a land of mist and rain.

Cade Bausiney is the future Earl of Dumnos, but at present he just wants to bolster the local economy with a scheme to increase tourism. When Cade and Lilith meet, they’re overwhelmed with longing for each other – but their desire might be magically induced.

Long ago a witch’s spell ended in disaster that left two souls to haunt Dumnos to this day. Lilith and Cade must find a way to make things right – or be forever possessed by the spirits who’ve waited a millennium to consummate their love.

Book 1 of Legends of the Guardian King which follows the life of Abramm Kalladorne in his turbulent search for truth and self, a search that will transform him from a sickly, head-in-the-clouds youth to a legendary hero of strength and courage. Set in a world of swords and cloaks, of glittering palaces and mystical temples, of galley ships and ancient, mist-bound cities, his journey illustrates how God pursues and how He uses suffering to mold His children into something greater than was ever thought possible. Written by Karen Hancock, the acclaimed author of Arena.

Tom and Marybeth partners in a Rural Auxiliary police unit, search for two lost children. During their investigations they encounter, among others, an injured postmaster with an interesting past, a dead dog, an angry, abusive lodge owner who has a challenging health problem, the pilot of a little red airplane and too many identical boats. Will Marybeth and Tom find the children before it’s too late and will they be able to hide how they feel about each other?

He fights for his freedom. She fights for her life. Together, they fight for each other.

After watching Roman soldiers drag his parents away to their death, David, a young Hebrew, is sold and enslaved to serve at a villa outside of Rome. As David trains to become a skilled fighter, he works hard to please his master and hopes to earn his freedom. However, an opportunity to escape tempts him with its whispering call. Freedom beckons, but invisible chains hold him captive to the master’s granddaughter, an innocent girl with a fiery spirit. David vows to protect Alethea from his master, the murderous patriarch, and contrives a daring plan—sacrifice his own life to save hers.

***Very Good Suspense/Thriller!  Read my review HERE***

The human body consists of two-thirds water.

As concertgoers on a steamy day in Boston find out, water can kill as much as it gives life.

A terrorist attack at City Hall Plaza has the authorities perplexed. The government, in response, sends in a capable but young agent – an agent born from the ashes of terrorism itself – to handle it.

But as her partner dies and the terrorist strikes again, Jaclyn Johnson – code named Snapshot – finds herself in a situation she has trained a decade to face: She’s up against a man with enough money to finance a war against his competition. With a deadline in place to stop him – and with a car holding enough hidden tricks to evade capture – Snapshot infiltrates his hidden installation and finds out her target’s true end game, a secret that could have the world fighting over water.

This is book one of the Stacy Justice mystery series–laugh out loud crime fiction with a paranormal twist.

Stacy Justice did not expect to be set on fire that night, but being raised by witches prepares one for life’s little surprises. When her cousin is accused of arson, Stacy is determined to clear her family name–until something cryptic is discovered in the rubble that changes everything. Now, someone wants her dead and she finds herself dodging angry motorists, exploding chickens and a very creepy man lurking in the shadows. As she begins to dig up the past, Stacy learns that even those closest to her have something to hide–and she’s about to discover a destiny she never imagined. Suddenly, she finds herself running from a killer that will stop at nothing to keep a secret.

“She thought he was special, but; he turned out to be much more than that.”

Palena, princess of Belgium was dead inside the four walls of palace. She was not meant to be born in that family, she thought. She felt even more lost, not just in life, but had lost her soul after sudden death of the only person who ever understood her, her brother, Prince Eldon. But, then Maverick came, and showed her the way to her destiny, which led her to find the biggest secret of her life. He was nothing special he thought, but, he was her Royal Guard.

When Manhattan chef and notorious playboy Kelly Spicer realizes his recently widowed sister needs help, he turns to the most dangerous answer he knows: sorcery. Using the magic cookbook passed down through his family’s generations, Kelly conjures up a recipe of chocolate-laced persuasion to enlist the only woman he thinks can pull his sister out of her grief.

That woman is Mery Black, grief counselor to the stars, who secretly thinks she’s a jinx when it comes to men and love. When she lets that secret slip, her latest book deal gets canceled. Dating Kelly suddenly becomes the antidote to her damaged public persona. She vows she won’t fall in love again, but little does she know she’s about to do even more damage.  To his heart.

Seventy thousand years is a long time to live without true love.

As queen of the Seelie Fae, Aaibhe led her people to a new world when their own had been destroyed by war. She accepted the responsibility of maintaining the magic-built walls that imprisoned the evil Dark Fae. She kept the Seelie Hallows safe. And though she enjoyed the companionship of an occasional Fae lover, she never took a royal Fae as her king or a non-royal as her consort.

Conall is a Druid high priest from the MacTalbots, one of the families chosen by Aaibhe centuries before to perform the rituals needed to strengthen the Unseelie prison walls. Though a skilled and loyal Druid priest, he is but a mortal human, not a fit match for a powerful, formidable, immortal ruler.

And yet… she wants him. In all her seventy thousand years, she has never been blasted with such desire—and need. She has never before laughed with total abandon, loved with all her essence.

In Conall’s arms, Aaibhe discovers she can be both a queen and a woman, but jealousy, pride, and bitterness threaten the love that is at last within her grasp.

Jane Everett is the average teenage actress with a preppy aura surrounding her.

Instantly disliked by her peers, she can’t help feeling isolated. Which is why she takes up acting, hoping if she pretends to be somebody else, she’d have an excuse.  But her theory is proven wrong when River –shameless, laid-back River– moves in next door, seeing through her mask immediately.  Playing the prince in the school play, Sleepless Beauty and Prince Charmless, a parody of the original, Jane is forced to mix with this relaxed, seemingly-clueless boy.   Everybody else is cautious around him. A few years back, he used to live in this town before moving back.   Something caused him to leave. Something nobody is willing to mention.  Jane doesn’t understand why everybody keeps their distance.  But she’s about to find out.

In 1980 a terrorist attack hits the United States where it is most technologically advanced. A technology amusement park, Techno-Joy. The attack causes a collapse which creates massive explosions. These explosions cause cataclysmic rips in the time-space continuum. The rip spreads into a dragon world as well. Now groups of survivors and a Dragon Queen are stranded in a digital world, TECHNO-FEAR.

Ava Delaney calls herself a hybrid – a living, breathing human who happens to have vampire poison running through her veins. The only thing greater than her thirst for human blood is her capacity for guilt. She does her best to avoid the human world, for everyone’s sake.

When Ava accidentally enslaves a human while saving him from a vampire, she realises she has to look for help setting him free. Despite her misgivings, she expands her world but finds herself dragged into a possible vampire civil war. With the help of some new friends with ambiguous loyalties, she tries to find a way to keep her human, and herself, alive.

He left all he loved behind…

Will he be able to return and win her heart?

An earth-shattering secret revealed in his recently deceased mother’s diary causes harsh words between Noah Garrett and his brother. Desolate and totally bewildered, Noah leaves Pilot Isle and has no contact with his family or even Elle Beaumont, the girl who has been his shadow all through childhood. Now, ten years later, Noah is a renowned biologist and returns to Pilot Isle to head up a research lab. Coming back home opens up old wounds and uncovers buried feelings. Hoping to have a few days to cope with all the old emotions welling up within him, Noah really isn’t ready to face anyone yet. However, it’s just his luck that the first person he literally bumps into is Elle. The only difference is, Elle is no longer a thin red headed mischievous imp who is constantly in trouble and always needing to be rescued. This Elle is a gorgeous, passionate young woman who sets Noah’s blood on fire.

Marielle Claire Beaumont has loved Noah since she was a child. As a sad little girl who’d recently lost her mother and couldn’t speak English, Elle met Noah when he saved her from taunts at school. Ever since then Elle has loved Noah unconditionally and followed him around like a little puppy. Her world was shattered when he left so suddenly. His silence all these years has been very difficult, and Elle is stunned when she slams into him so unexpectedly. It’s not long before she’s disrupting Noah’s life again as sparks of passion fly in every direction between the two.

An exciting, fast-paced time-travel thriller from science fiction writer Graham Storrs.

In the year 2050, London is on the verge of destruction. A thrill-seeker calling himself Sniper is about to jump back in time to create a time paradox. It’s called timesplashing. It is exciting, dangerous, and the people who do it love every moment. Best of all, it doesn’t change a thing – except in the present. When the acausal backwash from the splash hits the present, all hell breaks loose. Make a big enough timesplash, far enough back, and it can devastate a whole city.

Once, timesplashing was an extreme sport and an excuse for a big party. Then Sniper took it too far. People started dying. Sandra and Jay are two people whose lives were shattered in a timesplash that went badly wrong in 2047. Now, each in their own way, they are hunting the timesplashers. And if they don’t find them, millions could die.

Porter, Oklahoma, holds a dark secret-and troublesome dreams plague Tulsa Police Detective, Kenny Elliot, who grew up in the small town. When a bizarre murder catapults Elliot into his past, he’s brought face-to-face with the fabric of his nightmares. A shiny necklace dangles from the rearview mirror of the vehicle where Lagayle Zimmerman, the victim, is discovered. Nine years earlier, in Porter, a similar necklace swung from the mirror of a Mustang that harbored the mutilated bodies of Elliot’s friends, Jonathan Alexander (Johnnie Boy), and Marcia Barnes. Most of the town believed Elliot killed his classmates, but no arrest was ever made. Risking his job and his sanity, Elliot digs into his past to solve the murders and expose the truth.

In their quest to create a stronger fighting force, the elite Black Knights unwittingly give birth to a dark force, led by a man of evil. Now the Knights must battle their counterparts to keep civilization out of harm’s way. There is one man whose destiny it is to keep humanity safe, but Mason Alexander will need the help of his soulmate to accomplish his goal. Forever changed by the medical experiments he underwent, Mason needs Holly Heart to teach him how to control his special talents. Holly, a doctor who has devoted her life to genetic research, is frightened by the changes she finds in Mason, yet she is spellbound by the desire she feels for him. As Mason and Holly join forces to defeat the enemy, passion explodes, burning as hot as a raging fire. And as their souls unite, Mason fears that if Holly ever sees the beast within him she will run forever, dooming him to the dark side.

“I have always existed, not just me but all of us, the un-embodied spirits who wait to live.”

Tess is an unborn spirit, who is about to embark on a much awaited journey into mortality to a brand new planet called Earth. She is chosen by the Eternals for an important mission, and is put under a rigorous training by a half-human, half-lion Seraph. This training exposes Tess to some of her darkest fears and insecurities. These experiences force Tess to work on her gift as a discerner of thoughts and reader of auras—thus helping her become one of Heaven’s most powerful angels. But even angels falter, and deep inside her a gnawing fear is growing. Will she meet her soul mate in life? Will their love be strong enough to overcome the forgetting effects of the Veil? And, is she prepared to take on the responsibility of keeping the most dangerous renegade and leader of the Fallen Angels at bay during mortality?

Venture Delving is a bonded servant, a member of the lowest class in the world. Already fatherless, when he loses his mother, he veers from energetic to out of control. But when Venture’s rage saves the life of Jade, his best friend and his master’s daughter, Venture finds himself in the last place he ever expected—a center renowned for training young boys to be professional fighters.

When Venture realizes he’s fallen in love with Jade, he knows that the only way he’ll ever have her, the only way he’ll ever be free to live the life he’s meant to live, is to defy convention, common sense, the trust of those he cares about most—and sometimes the law—and become the best fighter in the world, the Champion of All Richland. Venture must battle not only rival fighters, but the ghosts of his past and the members of a privileged warrior class who stand between him and his dream.

Stockbroker Jack Skinner has worked hard to make a good life for his wife and newborn daughter. But the diaper changes, long commutes and pressures of the job have worn him down. The chance to sneak away to Las Vegas to party with an old friend seems like the perfect way to recharge.

A world away from manicured lawns and two-car garages, Rob Hollister is in deep. Real deep. In love with a prostitute and hooked on drugs, he knows walking away is not in his cards. These guys kill for amusement as much as business, and they don’t believe in new beginnings.

In this fast-paced thriller, a suburban family man in pursuit of a weekend getaway finds himself trying to get away with his life. In the grip of evil men with dangerous connections, it’s a party that could come at the price of his family.

Lyss Brewer is starting the new year in a cheap motel with a wrinkled party dress and mascara stains on her cheeks. No job. No money. And as of New Year’s Eve: No boyfriend and no place to live.

Just when everything is going completely wrong, something finally goes right. Lyss is given the chance to start over when she is offered a live-in position at an historic inn. The inn will become her sanctuary, and the colorful characters who work there will become her family. However, Lyss will soon discover that the walls which surround her hold much more than history.

As fear of a serial killer spreads throughout the city of Santa Fe, Lyss begins to wrestle with her own sanity. Is she hallucinating or is she really seeing ghosts? Just when she thinks she’s found the connection, her world is turned upside down.  Will Lyss listen to the voices that haunt her? Or will she trust the one person who can’t be trusted

Cinderella is dead and one of Odin’s hellhounds has gone rogue. The Woodcutter, protector of peace between the Twelve Kingdoms of Man and the Realm of Faerie, is charged with finding the beast and returning him to the Wild Hunt.

Unfortunately, it seems the forces of evil have other plans.

Leaving his beloved wife and the comforts of his quiet home, the Woodcutter shoulders his ax and begins a journey to set things right. Instead, he finds a pixie dust trade raging out of control and a power hungry Wicked Queen who will stop at nothing to take over the world. The lives of Snow White, Rapunzel, and Little Red Riding Hood are at stake in this dark, fairytale mash-up.

It is a race against time as the Woodcutter travels east of the sun and west of the moon, up beanstalks and down to the bowels of the earth to unravel a mystery that can only be described as Grimm.

A collection of short-stories centered around the working world. Surreal aspects of everyday workplaces and exaggerated characters, that we can all, unfortunately, relate to. Working for heat is a direct translation of the Portuguese idiomatic expression – “trabalhar para aquecer” – which, very roughly, translates into working to no avail. A humorous satire about the working world.

Morning Kindle-ites! Today’s spotlight is the very lovely Ms. Kristen Simmons author of the upcoming (dystopian) novel “Article 5.” I stumbled (quite ungracefully I might add) onto this book about 2 months ago on another blog (no, I don’t remember which one) and just KNEW that I HAD TO HAVE IT! So, I scooted my happy little booty over to Amazon and per-ordered it, right there on the spot.  Then… (cause I’m a bit of an internet stalker) I befriended Kristen on her Facebook page, (which -to my delight- informed me that she is a “Walking Dead” fan! YAY!) and now here we are, getting a glimpse into her glamorous life! And… even better (because I adore y’all and have decided y’all need a little treat…) I’m going to give you a chance to WIN a COPY of this little post-apocalyptic ditty.  *Trows confetti*  Sooo here you go… 3 Questions with Kristen!

What Everyone is Saying!

“Subversion. Defiance. Desperate, struggling humanity in the face of state-sponsored tyranny. This book was engrossing, unpredictable and thoroughly REAL. Loved it.”–Jay Kristoff, author of Stormdancer

“Fast-paced, emotional and nail-bitingingly intense, Article 5 gripped me from page one and didn’t let me go once.”--Parajunkee.com

“There are only a few books that managed to keep me up at night this year, and ARTICLE 5 is one of them. A MUST read for any fan of the dystopian genre…even if you are not, it’s a must read anyways.”–Book Reader Addicts

The Book!

New York, Los Angeles, and Washington, D.C., have been abandoned.

The Bill of Rights has been revoked, and replaced with the Moral Statutes.

There are no more police—instead, there are soldiers. There are no more fines for bad behavior—instead, there are arrests, trials, and maybe worse. People who get arrested usually don’t come back.

Seventeen-year-old Ember Miller is old enough to remember that things weren’t always this way. Living with her rebellious single mother, it’s hard for her to forget that people weren’t always arrested for reading the wrong books or staying out after dark. It’s hard to forget that life in the United States used to be different.

Ember has perfected the art of keeping a low profile. She knows how to get the things she needs, like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes, and how to pass the random home inspections by the military. Her life is as close to peaceful as circumstances allow.

That is, until her mother is arrested for noncompliance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. And one of the arresting officers is none other than Chase Jennings…the only boy Ember has ever loved.

3 Questions with Kristen!

 Q: During my extensive research into your background (*cough* I read your bio *cough*) I noticed that you have a Masters Degree in social work.  Did you draw on your experiances in this field while you were writing “Article 5″, or did you just make shit up as you went along? For example:

“She knows how to get the things she needs—like food stamps and hand-me-down clothes—and how to pass the random home inspections by the Federal Bureau of Reformation.”

I don’t know about you, but that one sentence alone sounds like a girl who knows what she’s talking about.

A:  Yes and no. Perhaps the most important thing I learned from a career in social work is how tenacious we all are. In that line of work you often see people at their most difficult moments. Your job is to help them rise up, reclaim their strength. Witnessing someone recover after they’ve stumbled is the kind of thing that makes you believe in almost anything. It changes the way you look at the world. So yeah, it’s sort of hard not to write through that lens.

Chase and Ember have been through some traumatic things, and as a result, are dealing with some pretty hefty emotional consequences. Things that anyone might feel after experiencing what Chase and Ember have. But they’re resilient. Like with anyone struggling with a hardship, there is hope as long as they can learn to trust and support each other.

All that aside, most of it I made up as a I went along.

Q:  Now, while I’d love to focus on the fact that you actually taught Jazzercize, (this, I’m only assuming, is where your love for Spandex and scrunchy sock stemmed from) tell me about your choice to write a Dystopian survivial novel. (Not that I’m judging.. I’m a total Dystopian whore. I should probably take pills for it.)

A: Teach Jazzercise. Teach, my friend! There is no past tense here! And it didn’t just cultivate my love of Spandex, but also gave me a deep appreciation for the music of N’Sync, which was super popular when I was becoming an instructor.

But anyways…

You know, I didn’t really make a conscious choice to write a Dystopian novel. When I wrote Article 5 I was convinced it was a romance. I had heard the term Dystopian used a little bit, but really considered my book a love story. I didn’t realize until later that the setting, and the way Ember and Chase are forced to react to it, made it something else. Now I love Dystopians. They’re an exaggeration of the world we live in – a more extreme focus on the challenges we face every day – finding food, finding work, surviving. All of the frightening, negative things that we are confronted with here come to life in a bigger, bolder way. And though the world may be a harsher place, it actually highlights resilience and humanity. It forces characters to be stronger, and braver. To make choices that impact their survival, choices that, in the end, have potential to show great growth. And as a reader, and a writer, that gives me hope that I can survive this world.

Q:  And lastly… cause I know you are working on book #3 in this series and I don’t want to take up too much of your time, (we can’t have you “angst baking” again) Can you tell us a little story? No, no…that’s too vague. Can you tell us how you felt when the cop you were doing a ride along with (for research) pulled a machete out of a suspects car?

A: Ha. Well at first I thought OMG THAT’S A MACHETE! And it was kind of cool, you know? Like, how often do you see something like that? And then I realized it wasn’t a movie, and that guy who’d had the machete was now sitting directly behind me in the back of the cop car, and from that point forward I was, well, sort of uncomfortable. My cop was great though. The whole time I was with him I never felt unsafe.

Thanks Misty!

To learn more about Kristen click on her pretty face to visit her website!

The Excerpt!

CHAPTER 1

Beth and Ryan were holding hands. It was enough to risk a formal citation for indecency, and they knew better, but I didn’t say anything. Curfew rounds wouldn’t begin for another two hours, and freedom was stolen in moments like these.

“Slow down, Ember,” Ryan called.

Instead I walked faster, pulling away from our pack.

“Leave her alone,” I heard Beth whisper. My face heated as I realized how I must look: not like a conscientious friend who was minding her own business, but like a bitter third wheel who couldn’t stand seeing other couples happy. Which wasn’t true—mostly.

Sheepishly, I fell into step beside Beth.

My best friend was tall for a girl, with an explosion of dark freckles centered at her nose and a cap of squiggly red hair that was untamable on chilly days like this one. She traded Ryan’s arm for mine—which, if I was honest, did make me feel a little safer—and without a word, we danced on our tiptoes around the massive cracks in the sidewalk, just like we’d done since the fourth grade.

When the concrete path succumbed to gravel, I raised the front of my too-long khaki skirt so the hem didn’t drag in the dust. I hated this skirt. The matching button-up top was so boxy and stiff that it made even busty Beth look flat as an ironing board. School uniforms were part of President Scarboro’s new Moral Statute—one of many that had taken effect after the War—mandating that appearances comply with gender roles. I didn’t know what gender they’d been aiming for with this outfit. Clearly it wasn’t female.

We stopped at the gas station on the corner out of habit. Though it was the only one in the county still open, the lot was empty. Not many people could afford cars anymore.

We never went inside. There would be snacks and candy bars on the racks, all priced ten times higher than they’d been last year, and we didn’t have any money. We stayed where we were welcome—on the outside. Three feet removed from the hundreds of tiny faces imprisoned behind the tinted glass. The board read:

MISSING! IF SIGHTED, CONTACT THE FEDERAL BUREAU OF REFORMATION IMMEDIATELY!

Silently, we scanned the photographs of the foster-care runaways and escaped criminals for anyone we might know, checking for one picture in particular. Katelyn Meadows. A girl with auburn hair and a perky smile, who’d been in my junior history class last year. Mrs. Matthews had just told her she’d gotten the highest grade in the class on her midterm

when the soldiers had arrived to take her to trial. “Article 1 violation,” they’d said. Noncompliance with the national religion. It wasn’t as if she’d been caught worshiping the devil; she’d missed school for Passover, and it had gone on to the school board as an unauthorized absence.

That was the last time anyone had seen her.

The next week Mrs. Matthews had been forced to take the Bill of Rights out of the curriculum. There was no discussion permitted on the topic. The soldiers posted at the door and at the recruiting table in the cafeteria made sure of that.

Two months after Katelyn’s trial, her family had moved away. Her phone number had been disconnected. It was as if she’d never existed.

Katelyn and I hadn’t been friends. It wasn’t that I didn’t like her; I thought she was all right, actually. We always said hi, if not much more. But since her sudden disappearance, something dark had kindled inside of me. I’d been more on guard. As compliant with the Statutes as possible. I didn’t like to sit in the front row of class anymore, and I never walked home from school alone.

I couldn’t be taken. I had to look out for my mother.

I finished my review. No Katelyn Meadows. Not this week.

“Did you hear about Mary What’s-her-name?” Beth asked as we resumed our walk to my house. “She’s a sophomore I think.”

“Let’s see, Mary What’s-her-name,” said Ryan pensively, pushing the glasses up his sharp nose. His uniform jacket made him look studious, whereas the other guys at school always looked like their mothers had dressed them up for Easter Sunday.

“No. What happened to her?” A chill tickled my skin.

“Same thing as Katelyn. Moral Militia came to take her to trial, and no one’s seen her in a week.” Beth’s voice lowered, as it did when she suspected someone might be listening.

My stomach sank. They weren’t actually called the Moral Militia, but they might as well have been. The uniformed soldiers actually belonged to the Federal Bureau of Reformation— the branch of the military the president had created at the end of the War three years ago. Their purpose was to enforce compliance with the Moral Statutes, to halt the chaos that had reigned during the five years that America had been mercilessly attacked. The hammer had come down hard: Any violation against the Statutes led to a citation, and in the worst cases, resulted in a trial before the FBR Board. People who went to trial—like Katelyn—didn’t usually come back.

There were all sorts of theories. Prison. Deportation. A few months ago I’d heard a crazy homeless man spouting off about mass executions, before he’d been carted away. Regardless of the rumors, reality was bleak. With each new Statute issued, the MM became more powerful, more self-righteous. Hence the nickname.

“They took a freshman from gym, too,” said Ryan soberly. “I heard they didn’t even let him change back into his uniform.”

First Katelyn Meadows, now Mary Something and another boy. And Mary and the boy within the last two weeks. I remembered when school had been safe—the only place we didn’t have to think about the War. Now kids never ditched. There weren’t any fights. People even turned in their homework on time. Everyone was scared their teacher would report them to the MM.

As we turned up my empty driveway, I glanced next door. The boxy house’s white paneling was stained by dust and rain. The bushes had overgrown so much that they connected over the concrete steps. Long, fragile cobwebs sagged from the overhang. It looked haunted. In a way, it was.

That had been his house. The house of the boy I loved.

Deliberately, I looked away and climbed our front porch stairs to let my friends inside.

My mother was sitting on the couch. She had at least four too many clips in her hair and was wearing a shirt that she’d stolen from my closet. I didn’t mind. The truth was I wasn’t much into clothes. Sorting through a collection of worn handme-downs at a donation center hadn’t exactly cultivated my desire to shop.

What I did mind was that she was reading a paperback with a half-naked pirate on the cover. That stuff was illegal now. She’d probably gotten it from someone she volunteered with at the soup kitchen. The place was chock-full of unemployed women spreading their passive-aggressive contraband beneath the Moral Militia’s nose.

“Hi, baby. Hi, kids,” my mother said, hardly moving. She didn’t look up until she finished reading her page, then she jammed a bookmark in place and stood. I kept my mouth shut about the book, even though I probably should have told her not to bring that stuff home. It obviously made her happy, and it was better than her reading it on the porch, like she sometimes did when feeling particularly mutinous.

“Hi, Mom.”

She kissed me noisily on the cheek, then hugged my friends at the same time before releasing us to our homework.

We pulled out our big heavy books and began deciphering the mechanical world of precalculus. It was horrid work—I detested math—but Beth and I had made a pact not to drop. Rumor was, next year, girls weren’t even going to be able to take math anymore, so we suffered through in silent rebellion.

Smiling sympathetically at my expression, my mother patted my head and offered to make us all hot chocolate. After a few minutes of frustration, I followed her into the kitchen. She’d forgotten to water her ficus plant again, and it drooped pitifully. I filled a glass from the sink and poured it into the pot.

“Bad day?” she ventured. She spooned the chocolate powder into four mugs from a blue canister with a picture of a sunrise on the front. Horizons brand food was government owned, and all we could get with our meal rations.

I leaned against the counter and scuffed my heel against the floor, still thinking about the two new abductees, the contraband. The empty house next door.

“I’m fine,” I lied. I didn’t want to scare her by telling her about Mary Something, and I still didn’t want to rag her about the book. She hated when I got on her back about the rules. She could be sort of reactive sometimes.

“How was work?” I changed the subject. She didn’t get paid at the soup kitchen, but we still called it work. It made her feel better.

She didn’t miss my obvious avoidance, but she let it drop and launched into a full story about Misty Something dating Kelly Something’s boyfriend from high school, and…I didn’t bother keeping up. I just nodded and soon was smiling. Her enthusiasm was infectious. By the time the teakettle whistled, I felt much better.

She was reaching for the mugs when someone knocked on the door. I went to answer it, thinking that it was probably Mrs. Crowley from across the street, stopping by to visit my mother like she did every day.

“Ember, wait—” The fear in Beth’s voice made me stop and turn back toward the living room. She was kneeling on the couch, her hand on the curtain. The color had drained from her already-fair complexion.

But it was too late. My mom unlatched the dead bolt and opened the door.

Two Moral Militia soldiers stood on our front steps.

They were in full uniform: navy blue flak jackets with large wooden buttons, and matching pants that bloused into shiny boots. The most recognized insignia in the country, the American flag flying over a cross, was painted on their breast pockets, just above the initials FBR. Each of them had a standard-issue black baton, a radio, and a gun on his belt.

One of the soldiers had short brown hair that grayed around his temples, and wrinkles around the corners of his mouth that made him appear too old for his age. His narrow companion brushed at his tawny mustache impatiently.

I sagged in disappointment. Somewhere in the back of my mind, I had hoped that one of them was him. It was a fleeting moment of weakness whenever I saw a uniform, and I kicked myself for it.

“Ms. Lori Whittman?” The first soldier asked, without looking her in the face.

“Yes,” my mother replied slowly.

“I need to see some ID.” He didn’t bother to introduce himself, but his name tag read BATEMAN. The other was CONNER.

“Is there a problem?” There was a snarky tinge to her tone, one I hoped they didn’t pick up on. Beth came up close behind me, and I could feel Ryan beside her.

“Just get your ID, ma’am,” Bateman said irritably.

My mother pulled away from the door without inviting them in. I blocked the threshold, trying not to look as small as I felt. I could not let them search the house; we had too much contraband out to avoid a citation. I tilted my head subtly to Beth, and she meandered back to the couch, stuffing the romance novel my mother had been reading beneath the cushions. My mind raced through the other things she had: more inappropriate paperbacks, old magazines from before the War, a home manicure kit. I’d even heard that my favorite book, Mary Shelley’s Frankenstein, had made the list, and I knew that was right on top of my nightstand. We weren’t scheduled for an inspection tonight; we’d just had one last month. Everything had been left out.

A burning ignited in my chest, like the flicker of a lighter. And then I could hear my heart, thudding against my ribs. It startled me. A long time had passed since I’d been aware of that feeling.

Bateman tried to look past me, but I blocked his view. His brow lifted in judgment, and my blood boiled. Over the past year the MM’s presence in Louisville—and all the remaining U.S. cities—had increased tenfold. It seemed there wasn’t enough for them to do; harassing citizens appeared to be a high priority. I stuffed down the resentment and tried to stay composed. It was unwise to be impolite to the MM.

There were two cars parked on the street, a blue van and a smaller car that looked like an old police cruiser. On the side of each was the FBR emblem. I didn’t need to read the motto below to know what it said: One Whole Country, One Whole Family. It always gave me a little jolt of inadequacy, like my little two-person family wasn’t whole enough.

There was someone in the driver’s seat of the van, and another soldier outside on the sidewalk in front of our house. As I watched, the back of the van opened and two more soldiers hopped out onto the street.

Something was wrong. There were too many soldiers here just to fine us for violating a Statute.

My mom returned to the door, digging through her purse. Her face was flushed. I stepped shoulder to shoulder with her and forced my breath to steady.

She found her wallet and pulled out her ID. Bateman checked it quickly before stuffing it into the front pocket of his shirt. Conner lifted a paper I hadn’t seen him holding, ripped off the sticky backing, and slapped it against our front door.

The Moral Statutes.

“Hey,” I heard myself say. “What are you—”

“Lori Whittman, you are under arrest for violation of the Moral Statutes, Section 2, Article 5, Part A revised, pertaining to children conceived out of wedlock.”

“Arrest?” My mom’s voice hitched. “What do you mean?”

My mind flashed through the rumors I’d heard about sending people to prison for Statute violations, and I realized with a sick sense of dread that these weren’t rumors at all. It was Katelyn Meadows all over again.

“Article 5!” Ryan blurted from behind us. “How could that apply to them?”

“The current version was revised on February twenty-fourth. It includes all dependent children under the age of eighteen.”

“February twenty-fourth? That was only Monday!” Beth said sharply.

Conner reached across the threshold of our home and grabbed my mother’s shoulder, pulling her forward. Instinctively, I wrapped both hands around his forearm.

“Let go, miss,” he said curtly. He looked at me for the first time, but his eyes were strange, as if they didn’t register that I was present. I loosened my hold but did not release his arm.

“What do you mean ‘arrest’?” My mother was still trying to process.

“It’s quite clear, Ms. Whittman.” Bateman’s tone was condescending. “You are out of compliance with the Moral Statutes and will be tried by a senior officer of the Federal Bureau of Reformation.”

I struggled against Conner’s firm hold on her shoulder. He was pulling us outside. I asked him to stop, but he ignored me.

Bateman restrained my mother’s opposite shoulder, dragging her down the steps. Conner released her arm for a moment to jerk me aside, and with a stunted cry, I fell. The grass was cold and damp and soaked through my skirt at the hip, but the blood burned in my face and neck. Beth ran to my side.

“What’s going on here?” I glanced up and saw Mrs. Crowley, our neighbor, wrapped in a shawl and wearing sweatpants. “Lori! Are you all right, Lori? Ember!”

I sprang to my feet. My eyes shot to the soldier who had been waiting outside. He had an athletic build and gelled blond hair, neatly parted on the side. His tongue slid over his teeth beneath pursed lips, reminding me of the way sand shifts when a snake slithers beneath it.

He was walking straight toward me.

No! The breath scraped my throat. I fought the urge to run.

“Don’t touch me!” my mother shrieked at Bateman.

“Ms. Whittman, don’t make this harder than it has to be,” responded Bateman. My stomach pitched at the apathy in his voice.

“Get the hell off my property,” my mother demanded, fury stabbing through her fear. “We’re not animals; we’re people! We have rights! You’re old enough to remember—–”

“Mom!” I interrupted. She was just going to make it worse. “Officer, this isn’t right. This is a mistake.” My voice sounded far away.

“There’s no mistake, Ms. Miller. Your records have already been reviewed for noncompliance,” said Morris, the soldier before me. His green eyes flashed. He was getting too close.

In a split second, his vicelike fists shot out and trapped both my wrists. I bucked against him, retracting my arms in an attempt to shake him loose. He was stronger and jerked me close, so that our bodies slapped together. The breath was squashed from my lungs.

For a second I saw the hint of a smirk cross his face. His hands, cuffing my fists, slipped behind my lower back and drew me in tighter. Every part of me went rigid.

A warning screamed in my head. I tried to get away, but this seemed to drive new excitement into him. He was actually enjoying this. His hard grip was making my hands prickle with numbness.

Somewhere in the street I heard a car door slam.

“Stop,” I managed.

“Let go!” Beth shouted at him.

Conner and Bateman pulled my mother away. Morris’s hands were still on my wrists. I heard nothing over the ringing in my ears.

And then I saw him.

His hair was black and gleaming in the last splinters of sunlight. It was short now, cleanly cut like the other soldiers’, and his eyes, sharp as a wolf’s, were so dark I could barely see the pupils. JENNINGS was spelled out in perfect gold letters over the breast of his pressed uniform. I had never in my life seen him look so grave. He was nearly unrecognizable.

My heart was beating quickly, fearfully, but beating all the same. Just because he was near. My body had sensed him before my mind had.

“Chase?” I asked.

I thought of many things all at the same time. I wanted to run to him despite everything. I wanted him to hold me as he had the night before he’d left. But the pain of his absence returned fast, and reality sliced at my insides.

He’d chosen this over me.

I grasped on to the hope that maybe he could help us.

Chase said nothing. His jaw was bulging, as though he was grinding his teeth, but otherwise his face revealed no emotion, no indication that the home he’d been raised in was twenty feet away. He stood between where Morris held me and the van. It occurred to me that he was the driver.

“Don’t forget why you’re here,” Bateman snapped at him.

“Chase, tell them they’re wrong.” I looked straight at him.

He didn’t look at me. He didn’t even move.

“Enough. Get back in the van, Jennings!” ordered Bateman.

“Chase!” I shouted. I felt my face twist with confusion. Was he really going to ignore me?

“Don’t speak to him,” Bateman snapped at me. “Will someone please do something with this girl?”

My terror grew, closing off the world around me. Chase’s presence didn’t soothe me as it had in the past. The mouth that had once curved into a smile and softened against my lips was a hard, grim line. There was no warmth in him now. This was not the Chase I remembered. This wasn’t my Chase.

I couldn’t take my eyes off of his face. The pain in my chest nearly doubled me over.

Morris jerked me up, and instinct tore through me. I reared back, breaking free from his grasp, and wrapped my arms around my mother’s shoulders. Someone yanked me back. My grip was slipping. They were pulling her away from me.

“NO!” I screamed.

“Let go of her!” I heard a soldier bark. “Or we’ll take you, too, Red.”

Beth’s fists, which had knotted in my school uniform, were torn from my clothing. Through tear-filled eyes I saw that Ryan had restrained her, his face contorted with guilt. Beth was crying, reaching out for me. I didn’t let go of my mother.

“Okay, okay,” I heard my mother say. Her words came out very fast. “Please, officer, please let us go. We can talk right here.”

A sob broke from my throat. I couldn’t stand the obedience in her tone. She was so afraid. They were trying to separate us again, and I knew, more than anything else, that I could not let them do that.

“Be gentle with them, please! Please!” Mrs. Crowley begged.

In one heave, Morris ripped me from my mother. Enraged, I swiped at his face. My nails caught the thin skin of his neck, and he swore loudly.

I saw the world through a crimson veil. I wanted him to attack me just so I could lash out at him again.

His green eyes were beady in anger, and he snarled as he jerked the nightstick from his hip. In a flash it was swinging back above his head.

I braced my arms defensively over my face.

“STOP!” My mother’s pitch was strident. I could hear it above the screaming adrenaline in my ears.

Someone pushed me, and I was flung hard to the ground, my hair covering my face, blocking my vision. There was a stinging in my chest that stole the breath from my lungs. I crawled back to my knees.

“Jennings!” I heard Bateman shout. “Your CO will hear about this!”

Chase was standing in front of me, blocking my view.

“Don’t hurt him!” I panted. Morris’s weapon was still ready to strike, though now it was aimed at Chase.

“You don’t need that.” Chase’s voice was very low. Morris lowered the stick.

“You said you’d be cool,” he hissed, glaring at Chase.

Had Chase told this soldier—Morris—about me? Were they friends? How could he be friends with someone like that?

Chase said nothing. He didn’t move. “Stand down, Jennings,” Bateman commanded.

I scrambled up and glared at the man in charge. “Who the hell do you think you are?”

“Watch your mouth,” snapped Bateman. “You’ve already struck a soldier. How much deeper a hole are you looking to dig?”

I could hear my mother arguing through her hiccuping sobs. When they began to move her toward the van again, I lunged forward, my hands tangling in Chase’s uniform. Desperation blanketed me. They were going to take her away.

“Chase, please,” I begged. “Please tell them this is a mistake. Tell them we’re good people. You know us. You know me.”

He shook me off as though some disgusting thing had touched him. That stung more than anything could in this moment. I stared at him in shock.

The defeat was devastating.

My arms were pulled behind me and latched into place by Morris’s strong grip. I didn’t care. I couldn’t even feel them.

Chase stepped away from me. Bateman and Conner ushered my mother to the van. She looked over her shoulder at me with scared eyes.

“It’s okay, baby,” she called, trying to sound confident. “I’ll find out who’s responsible for this, and we’ll have a nice long chat.”

My gut twisted at the prospect.

“She doesn’t even have her shoes on!” I shouted at the soldiers.

There were no more words as they loaded my mother in the back of the van. When she disappeared inside, I felt something tear within me, loosing what felt like acid into my chest. It scalded my insides. It made my breath come faster, made my throat burn and my lungs clench.

“Walk to the car,” Morris ordered.

“What? No!” Beth cried. “You can’t take her!”

“What are you doing?” Ryan demanded.

“Ms. Miller is being taken into custody by the federal government in accordance with Article 5 of the Moral Statutes. She’s going into rehabilitation.”

I was getting very tired all of a sudden. My thoughts weren’t making sense. Blurry lines formed around my vision, but I couldn’t blink them back. I gulped down air, but there wasn’t enough.

“Don’t fight me, Ember,” Chase ordered quietly. My heart broke to hear him say my name.

“Why are you doing this?” The sound of my voice was distant and weak. He didn’t answer me. I didn’t expect an answer anyway.

They led me to the car, parked behind the van. Chase opened the door to the backseat and sat me down roughly. I fell to my side, feeling the leather dampen from my tears.

Then Chase was gone. And though my heart quieted, the pain in my chest remained. It stole my breath and swallowed me whole, and I tumbled into darkness.

Article 5 © Kristen Simmons 2012

 

 

The Giveaway!!!

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Police Chief Luke Granger’s witness to a murder, Amy Griffin, has been on the run for years. Her family thinks she was murdered eight years ago, but Amy chose to accept a life in the shadows in order to protect her sisters’ lives. Now unveiled secrets about their father have thrust the sisters into the public spotlight. The man who wants Amy dead now sees her sisters as the way to locate her. Luke and two of his homicide detectives are determined to stand in the way. They are each falling in love with a different sister, and it’s become a personal mission to keep them safe. But chances are that at least one of them will fail, and facing the future will take a faith deeper than any of them currently knows.

Kathleen Findlay is married to a cad, her mother is driving her crazy and her life is falling apart. Then her uncle dies, leaving her the family’s Revolutionary-era home and, she believes, an escape from her chaotic marriage. But one afternoon, while searching for a rake, she discovers a man in her garden shed — and a free fall through the centuries.

As her life spins wildly out of control, Kathleen finds her heart and in the process, her own place in time.

Melvin Arbuckle, Wanda Nell’s boss at the Kountry Kitchen, has been arrested for killing a waitress with an unsavory reputation. Convinced of Melvin’s innocence, Wanda Nell puts herself on the trail of a ruthless killer–and almost gets her goose cooked.

Beneath the bright lights of New York City, gangsters and criminals scurry about like cockroaches on a day old pizza. The Gutson Gang has their sights set on stealing The Secret Formula for a perfume that makes the wearer irresistible. Doc Gutson, Johnny Sequins and Pauly Three Toes also want cold, hard revenge and will stop at nothing to get it. But standing in their way are Bella Street, a cool, skateboarding champ and tech genius Felix Samson, a wannabe detective. Can Bella and Felix stop the evil trio, or will they both end up in the East River wearing cement shoes?

Beyond All Price is a historical novel, based on the real life story of Nellie M. Chase, a Union nurse during America’s Civil War. She had eloped at the age of nineteen with a man she later discovered was a “drunk, a gambler, a liar, a forger, and a thief.” She was strong enough to escape from that potentially abusive relationship and resourceful enough to find a job as wardrobe mistress for a theater. The woman with whom she shared a single room in a squalid tenement took an overdose of opium in an effort to escape a life of prostitution. Nellie joined the Union Army, because life in the midst of a war seemed safer than the one she had been living.
She found a home with the 100th Pennsylvania Regiment, a band of volunteers whose nickname was “The Roundhead Regiment” because of their strong religious beliefs. She believed so passionately in her country’s cause that she displayed a soldier’s bravery. Her skill and compassion led one of her patients to write, “Even here, amid the roar and carnage, was found a woman with the soul to dare danger; the heart to sympathize with the battle-stricken; sense, skill, and experience to make her a treasure beyond all price.”

She was equally at home managing a southern plantation full of abandoned slaves, a battlefield operating station, or a 600-bed military hospital. But after the war, her deep-seated need to dedicate her life to a worthy cause continued to drive her efforts until she faced an enemy more lethal than war.

Daniel Horowitz wins a prestigious music competition and stands on the brink of a stunning career as a virtuoso violinist. But he’s also a fourteen year old Jewish kid who loves to play baseball with his friends. His talent has come to the attention of famed Spanish classical conductor and competiton judge, Rafael Santamaria Gomez, and he takes a special interest. He invites Daniel to his annual Symposium for young talented musicians in Washington D.C. But when his parents forbid him his hobby, Daniel refuses to play the violin.

Daniel’s great-grandparents were wealthy Berlin bankers and owned a superb collection of musical instruments, including a rare 1742 Guarneri del Gesu violin, but lost them when their home was looted in 1939. Their son, Daniel’s grandfather, Simon, shares with Rafael the story of his family’s destruction at the hands of the Nazis and his six year struggle to survive in Dachau.

The conductor begins to suspect that the magnificent del Gesu violin owned by his friend and powerful arts patron, billionaire Russian ex-pat Sergei Valentino, is the same instrument. Sergei’s grandfather was a Russian General who helped to liberate Berlin in 1945 and he brought the violin back for Sergei’s beloved aunt, Yulena, who was a concert violinist. She fought the Stalinist regime at every turn and when they suspected she was planning to defect, she was murdered by the KGB whilst in London on tour.

So who does the violin belong to? The family who owned it for 150 years or the family who have owned it for the last 65? Both have suffered huge losses and survived the darkest times in human history and both have enormous emotional attachments to the instrument. How does Rafael prove its provenance? Then how does he get it back and what will that cost him? And will Daniel agree to play it? So many secrets, held tight for so many years, the shocking revelations will be explosive.

Sophie Hegel is a shy New York lawyer from small-town Florence Arizona, known not for the Renaissance but for housing a large prison. She’s just graduated from Yale Law School and landed her first job when, one evening she feels a fist-like ball form at the base of her throat. Diagnosed with the psychological condition Globus Sensate, this “fist-ball” wreaks havoc on her life, causing difficulty eating, speaking, and eventually breathing. With a cast of characters that includes a pornographer father, a sister with a knack for getting knocked up by denizens of the town pen, a tough-talking fashion maven, a painter of male nudes, an eccentric Sing Sing-residing client and a bevy of privileged Manhattan attorneys and judges, Swallow is a dark comedy about the distance that can separate fathers and daughters, and about a young woman’s struggle to survive in a world of pedigreed professionals for which she has no preparation.

Well on his way to realizing his dream of becoming a successful surgeon-scientist, Eli Branch seems destined for academic stardom. After years of research, Eli is on the cusp of a groundbreaking discovery that could light the way for the future. But, as Eli will soon learn, today’s medicine has a dark side.While investigating the suspicious death of one of his patients, Eli uncovers an elaborate web of lies spun by his late father, a longtime professor of anatomy at Mid-South Medical College in Memphis. Instead of finding answers, Eli only finds more questions-and more victims, each meeting a sudden, violent end.Eli joins forensic pathologist Meg Daily to find a common thread among the victims. As they piece together the chilling puzzle, Eli and Meg plunge headfirst into the world of deadly medicine-a world way too close to home.Trapped in the paradox of ending one life to save another, Eli and Meg find that in this life-or-death race against time, one false step could be fatal.

To have and to hold from this day forward…
Darren McLaughlin thinks he’s having a nightmare as he watches his wife, Lilly, being abducted from a gas station in Chandler, Arizona. Things then go from bad to worse, when it’s revealed that her captor is one of the students she taught at a local high school.

For better or worse…
In Manhattan, US Attorney Aaron Eicher cringes upon learning the identity of the man who abducted Lilly McLaughlin. Nick was the one thing holding his case together against the son of Russian crime boss, Viktor Sarvydas—but now his star witness was on the run, and in mortal danger. It is just the latest surprise in a case that went against everything he’d learned in school—when it came to the Russian Mafya 1+1=3.

Seeking refuge in Israel, fleeing the fallout of his son’s arrest, Viktor Sarvydas smiles when he learns the news about Nick. He knows that it’s now just a matter of time before he comes face to face with the man who was going to testify against his son.

With the FBI, media, and dueling Russian assassins in a cross-country race to get to Nick and Lilly, it becomes clear that the only one who can truly save them is Darren. Will he get to them first, or will…death do us part?

In a world where ghosts are an accepted reality, Stout Roost, reality star and host of the Network’s The Ghost Toucher reality series has vanished. But Israel, the spiritual detective they hire, doesn’t exactly have a plan to find him. Kelly Greene, a customer service rep, is tapped to assist the detective, but he quickly realizes that as far as unconventional methods go, Israel’s are insane. He informs Kelly there is an afterworld and it was already populated by pesty ghosts. They also hate humans because they eventually become ghosts and are seeking a ‘clean’ way to exterminate us all. The two learn finding Stout is the least of their worries as they are pursued through metro-Detroit by obsessive compulsive wannabe warriors, mutants who worship an insane deity, weapons from the other side and a mysterious, perpetually pregnant, augmentative woman with a gender complex.

Will drama and desire make her dreams come true? Kara Smith wants revenge on the father who rejected and abandoned her mother. She sets her sights on her father’s right hand man, Brent Stevens. As they are both drawn into a dangerous game of desperate secrets and passionate schemes, Kara finds herself caught between desire and disaster

Working in a wedding cake shop sucks when you’ve just been dumped.

Bailey Frost has a recipe for disaster: one cheating ex, one big glass of liquor, and three well-meaning male friends who think her lack of a sex life is funny. Before she knows it, she’s confessed that she’s never had an orgasm with a man.

Now Bailey has to navigate sappy couples at work, while her friends are hell-bent on helping her get revenge on evil Craig…by dressing up as werewolves, on YouTube.

And one of those friends– the tall, shy-but-gorgeous Linc–might just want to help Bailey with that other little problem..

Is there a twelve-step program for recovering assassins?  Kayla McKenna is a covert assassin—and she likes it. After her father was murdered by terrorists, she was consumed by the need for retribution. But landing her dream job as a CIA assassin turns out to be merely a stepping stone in her plot to avenge the heartaches of the past… and present. One botched mission earns Kayla a burn notice, a bullet hole and a one-way ticket back to suburbia.

Banished to her childhood stomping grounds with a meddling, shopping-addicted mother intent on grandkids, three overprotective cop brothers, a sexy criminal who can’t decide whether he wants to shoot her or date her, and a new boyfriend even her family loves, Kayla may finally get the chance to find out what really matters in life.

A powerful, corrupt group of individuals have set their sights on Murhkin Mocado to help carry out a nefarious scheme. Born of relentless greed and hunger for power, these men are willing to sacrifice countless lives to bring their insidious plans to fruition. However, the purveyors of evil deeds are also being watched by one Joelle Barstow, an operative well versed in the tradecraft of industrial espionage. Initially sent to gather information on the CEO of a specific corporation, Barstow rapidly gets in over her head and uncovers a web of deceit involving big business and government.

Once Barstow crosses paths with Murhkin Mocado her skills are pushed to the limit, as she tries desperately to navigate this dangerous and deadly world. Mocado, expertly manipulated by his devious handlers, initiates a chain of events leading to one of the worst man-made ecological disasters the world has ever known. Will the pair escape with their lives in order to bring those responsible to justice?

When disgraced sales associate, Darby Stansfield, discovers he has six months to save his job, he does what any normal person would do. He freaks.

Desperate to resurrect his career at Teleco Wireless, he conjures up an international scheme filled with the promise of endless high-spending clients. It’s brilliant, it’s successful, and it involves doing business with organized crime.

But soon those closest to him find themselves caught up in his dangerous plan and one of these unknowingly has the power to destroy him. Darby must now make a tough decision––give up on the one good idea he ever had or risk it all.

A sleeping beauty may be the damsel in distress, but her White Knight? Why her rather un-knightish best friend of course. And the White Knight’s White Knight? Well… none other than her reluctant mortal enemy…

When Haydyn falls victim to the mysterious Sleeping Disease, the world of Phaedra is thrown into Chaos.

Rogan, Haydyn’s best friend and handmaiden, is the only one who can save her. Together, with the Royal Guard and their young Captain, Wolfe Stovia, Rogan must set off across the provinces to find the Somna Plant that will wake Haydyn from her dying sleep.

Beset on all sides by the chaos, Rogan tumbles into a dark world of kidnapping, prejudice, betrayal and love… a journey that will change her forever, and a journey that will change their world forever, if she does not retrieve the cure.

Lalla Bains, ex-model and Ag pilot has plenty to keep her busy during another long hot summer in the San Joaquin Valley of California. But when a homeless veteran litters her vintage red caddy with paper snowflakes Lalla figures it?s time for a showdown. Unfortunately, someone else has the same idea leaving Lalla with a dying man at her feet and only his strange last words, ?The more there is, the less you see,” as the only clue to his killer. No one wants her involved in the investigation; certainly not the creepy detective who slithers across her path every chance he gets, and not the local newspaper reporter whose annoying high-jinks cause her to want to set fire to the last three hairs on his head, nor Lalla’s love interest, Sheriff Caleb Stone, who can only wish he could reign in Lalla’s enthusiasm for sleuthing where she?s not welcome. Ultimately, the question: What would you do if the love of your life lost their chance at a heart transplant to a convicted felon brings Lalla to the answer of the killer as well as the dubious responsibility of proving it before the killer strikes again

Unto These Hills is an unforgettable novel of love, scandal, family, and roots by one of the most emotionally authentic authors of our time. Taking us into the deep South’s Tucapau Mill Hill, it introduces us to the unforgettable Sunny Acklin. Betrayed, abandoned, and violated, Sunny faces one seemingly insurmountable challenge after another. But she never loses her spirit or the memory of the love that once so richly illuminated her world. As years go by, Sunny does everything she can to make something of her life until at last an opportunity arises, one charged with promise…and undeniable risk.

Will the past ruin their future together?

CeCe Williams and Nate Richardson were not looking to fall in love. After being deserted by her son’s father, CeCe was content making a life for herself and her four-year-old son. Nate, recovering from a recent divorce, devoted his energies to his job as director of Genesis House, a social services center in inner city Atlanta. Neither is prepared for what grows between them when CeCe comes to work at Genesis House. Can they let go of the pain of the past and build a life together or will secrets from CeCe’s past destroy any hope they have for a future?

Book One: Diamonds – 16-year-old Tomika Drake, her conceited half-sister and her half-sister’s mother move to a new city and learn that the neighboring burg has been tackling an issue with mutants and other terrors, including a gang that Tomika’s half-sister gets caught up in. Using her inherited abilities, Tomika must do away with the doubts incited by her mother’s death and save the city.

A thief in the night. A missing sacred artifact. An evil warlord from ancient history, out to rule the world. These are only a few of the problems facing Tennen, the newly appointed Lord Protector of Melin. Thrown into a desperate race against time, Tennen, his dragon friend Berrinn, and his men chase the thief and his mysterious companion over land and sea to a cursed island where they try to wrench the Chalice of Ringtar from the enemy’s hands before it’s too late. All while under the watchful eye of a mysterious black hawk.

Famous photojournalist Ryan Hunter has come back to a family torn apart by mistrust and resentment’to the father who disowned him, to the brother who betrayed him, to the little bou who shares his features. Ryan, the charismatic “bad boy” son, has returned’stirring up past conflicts like a whirlwind . . . and throwing Kara Delaney’s fragile, passionate heart into turmoil.

. . . and love is Waiting

Kara has struggled back from a disastrous marriage to build a new life for herself and her little girl—a peaceful existence now jeopardized by vicious, smalltown politics, by her daughter’s fanciful ghost stories… and by Ryan’s return. Now nature’s impending fury threatens to expose long-buried secrets. And Kara must join with the enigmatic, misunderstood Ryan-to discover the truth that will save their families … and to explore a dangerous, irresistible love as mighty and enduring as the onrushing river.

What’s that saying about the devil you know? For Bernadette Murphy, it’s the devil she never expected that changes everything. Her father’s sudden death leaves a gaping void in her life and is one in a series of events that rock her world. But with the discovery of her father’s book of cryptograms, Bernie realizes his encoded lessons in living may be exactly what she needs to survive.

When Bernie finds herself in trouble at home, out of work and banned from the mall after a confrontation at the cosmetic counter, she discovers what her father always knew. In life, you either choose to sing a rainbow, or you don’t.

For Bernie, the singing is about to begin.

Retired dentist Paul Osborne hasn’t fly fished since his wife died. He hasn’t had a woman tell him what to do since then either. But in the company of Lewellyn Ferris, he’s relearning both. And when he and his lady instructor find a well-dressed body floating in the moonlight, Paul adds deputy to his list of experiences…Whether the death is accidental — or accidentally on purpose — Lewellyn is determined to rell in the truth. She enlists Pail and his walleye-expert buddy, Ray, to help her get to the bottom of the murky mystery. Whoever thought small-town retirement could be this dangerous?

Jake Forrester, a controlled, self-reliant security expert scarred by his father’s murder, is pursuing his goal of an independent life, relying on himself and logic, until he’s forced to accept the help of an impulsive, spirited goldsmith who follows her instincts, wherever they may lead. When Tempest MacKenzie witnesses a gorgeous stranger being bundled into a van, she tries to help him, but becomes tangled in a complex web of intrigue. Tempest finds stubborn Jake attractive, compelling and infuriating, his logic the complete antithesis of her reliance on her instincts. And Jake is fascinated and attracted to the feisty redhead. As they spend time together trying to thwart a heist at the British Museum, the attraction between them flares out of control. The thief has a grudge against Jake, and danger stalks their every move. Will Jake learn to trust Tempest’s intuition, before it’s too late?

Dashing and dangerous Andre Raveneau is the Revolutionary War’s most reckless privateer captain when Devon Lindsay stows away aboard his ship after her Connecticut town has been burned by the British. Raveneau sardonically agrees to deliver her to her childhood sweetheart in Virginia but doesn’t count on his own potent attraction to the enchanting, courageous Devon.

Through high adventure, swashbuckling sea battles, and the colorful history of America’s revolution, the couple battles the fiery passion that binds them together.

The lives of three people collide over mass murder at a Kansas City residence that Special Agent Jack Davis has carefully staked out for weeks. Kate Scranton, whose job is spotting lies for high-priced courtroom lawyers, is convinced that mild-mannered Latrell Kelly knows something about the crime. But Latrell is hiding far more than Kate can guess. And with Jack half-blinded by an imploding personal life, and someone on his own side leaking crucial information, they’re headed straight for the ultimate danger zone.

Someone ripped off Jake Lassiter’s favorite client, octogenarian Sam Kazdoy, stealing $1.6 million in negotiable bonds. Then Jake’s old Buddy, Berto Zaldivar, a lawyer-turned-smuggler, ends up dead. The trail of clues from both crimes leads to a sinister professional windsurfer and his companion, Lila Summers, herself a champion athlete and a lethal femme fatale. Jake chases the missing money and the mysterious woman from Miami to Bimini to Maui where, in an explosive finale he learns lessons never taught on the football field or in the courtroom.

Sixty years ago Abe Griffin saved the world and gained eternal youth.  Or so he thought.

Now, a man that Abe believed to be long dead is killing the surviving members of Abe’s old squad in order to reclaim the relics that they have kept hidden for decades.

The relics form an ancient beacon that must never be used, in a ritual that must never be completed. But the end of the world requires more than just activating the beacon.   It requires Abe.

With help from the granddaughter of his oldest friend, Abe must learn the truth about his immortal body, while at the same time trying to stop a horrifying series of supernatural opponents from sweeping away everything that he cares about.

Hannah Talbot has no one. Forced to leave the only home she’s ever known, she works for a cruel employer who brutally takes the one thing she has left–her dignity. When she is banished from London, she is certain God has turned his back on her.

John Bradshaw was a successful businessman whose untamed spirit sometimes wanted more. When he is betrayed by those closest to him, he loses everything–his wife, his business, even his freedom. John’s and Hannah’s paths are about to cross. Aboard a ghastly, nineteenth-century prison ship from London to Australia, John and Hannah must keep hope alive and trust God’s unconditional love.

Ruby Torvald and her young sister, Opal, have received an inheritance from their long-lost father who left home years ago to seek his fortune in the Black Hills. When they leave their comfortable situation in Chicago and arrive at the mining town of Medora to claim their inheritance, the sisters discover that rather than the legacy of gold they expected, their father has left them a shocking bequest. Ruby’s bold determination in the face of scandal leads the reader on a journey both heartwarming and inspiring.

Fifteen years old. Wanted:Dead or Alive”Don’t love a spy,” warns fifteen year old Pinkerton agent Maddie Bradford, a lonely, rebellious outsider with a mind on fire and a photographic memory. It is 1861, the Civil War has just started and this motherless teen must move with her soldier-father from New Hampshire to Washington, DC; a city at war, packed cheek by jowl with soldiers, Rebel spies, slave catchers, and traitors of all stripes bent on waging a war of destruction against the Union, and President Lincoln himself.Maddie’s journal, written in secret, of course, begins with her arrival at her aunt’s DC boardinghouse through the first year of the Civil War, a time as Maddie puts it, “full of dips and dangers,” when she becomes a fearless Union spy. And then there is the mysterious, maddening Jake Whitestone, a young man who awakens something equally dangerous in Maddie: Love in a time of terror.

When a radical lawyer discovers that his innocent clients are being convicted as state policy, he strives to give them a voice in the political arena. But revealing the government to be an elite club leaves his own freedoms under threat and with his lover, a suffering client, he’s thrown into a global adventure pursued by the British Government, its navy and its allies.

Engaged against her will, Calista, a young Roman aristocrat, grapples with the annihilation of her world at the hands of her would-be husband. The violent aftermath uncovers a connection to the mythological land of Atlantis, shattering Calista’s conception of family, the gods—and herself.

As the Weather Wars consume the planet and resources run out, Dr. Killiam is rushing to perfect synthetic reality as the solution to save the world. Synthetic reality opens more than just doors to virtual worlds and wealth and power, however, and Dr. Killiam unwittingly awakens an ancient evil dwelling in quantum spaces as man and machine hurtle together over the singularity event.

“I used to be human, but now, I’m just a monster.”

A beautiful monster.

That’s what Scarlet Prince became after she was damned to a nocturnal world crawling with sphinxes, gargoyles, and necromancers. If only she’d heeded the warnings of the local legend, none of this would have happened.

With a dark destiny haunting her and unearthly powers she can’t control, she is torn between freeing the inhabitants of Dark World and satiating her lust for souls, until she finds the one thing she never expected in a war-torn netherworld: Love.

Only he’s the enemy. Loving him could very well destroy the entire realm—and every human on earth.

“Life isn’t like a romance novel.”

For Jenna Lansing, meeting the star of her favorite TV drama was a strange fluke, as well as a thrill. When Kinsey Sutton tells her he’d like to continue seeing her, that was icing on the cake. But there’s one big problem with this budding relationship: geography.

He’s west coast, she’s east coast. Spending time together is no easy task. And lesser problems are myriad: he’s an LA actor with a crazy schedule, she’s a suburban soccer-mom who keeps regular family hours. Not to mention the difference in their love lives… One’s a Hollywood player and other a divorced single mother–a recipe for certain disaster. What’s the likelihood of this mismatched pair having a “happily ever after”? Their feelings for each other are not the issue. It’s everything else that threatens to get in the way.

MYSTERY DANCE: An omnibus edition containing more than 200,000 words.

Features the complete text of the #1 bestselling mystery and suspense novel Disintegration, The Skull Ring, Crime Beat, two short stories, a bonus deleted chapter from Disintegration, and two essays about the novels.

DISINTEGRATION– Two brothers view for a family empire built on deceit, dark secrets, and blood, and one woman stands between them while another waits in the shadows. Jacob’s life falls apart when his brother Joshua returns to town after a tragic fire and they return to the twisted roles of their childhood.

THE SKULL RING– Julia Stone pieces together her shattered childhood memories, but then the past comes closing in when she finds a mysterious silver ring. Three men want to help her, but choosing the wrong ally can cost not only her heart but her soul.

CRIME BEAT– Crime doesn’t pay…but neither does journalism. When a new reporter moves to a small town, a crime spree escalates into serial killing.

Above by Leah Bobet  -  Release Date: April 1, 2012

Matthew has loved Ariel from the moment he found her in the tunnels, her bee’s wings falling away. They live in Safe, an underground refuge for those fleeing the city Above–like Whisper, who speaks to ghosts, and Jack Flash, who can shoot lightning from his fingers.

But one terrifying night, an old enemy invades Safe with an army of shadows, and only Matthew, Ariel, and a few friends escape Above. As Matthew unravels the mystery of Safe’s history and the shadows’ attack, he realizes he must find a way to remake his home–not just for himself, but for Ariel, who needs him more than ever before.

Croak by Gina Damico  -  Release Date: March 20, 2012

Fed up with her wild behavior, sixteen-year-old Lex’s parents ship her off to upstate
New York to live with her Uncle Mort for the summer, hoping that a few months of
dirty farm work will whip her back into shape. But Uncle Mort’s true occupation is
much dirtier than shoveling manure.

He’s a Grim Reaper. And he’s going to teach Lex the family business.
She quickly assimilates into the peculiar world of Croak, a town populated by
reapers who deliver souls from this life to the next. But Lex can’t stop her desire for
justice—or is it vengeance?—whenever she encounters a murder victim, craving to
stop the attackers before they can strike again. Will she ditch Croak and go rogue with
her reaper skills?

Cinder by Marissa Meyer  -  Release Date: January 3, 2012

Humans and androids crowd the raucous streets of New Beijing. A deadly plague ravages the population. From space, a ruthless lunar people watch, waiting to make their move. No one knows that Earth’s fate hinges on one girl. . . .

Cinder, a gifted mechanic, is a cyborg. She’s a second-class citizen with a mysterious past, reviled by her stepmother and blamed for her stepsister’s illness. But when her life becomes intertwined with the handsome Prince Kai’s, she suddenly finds herself at the center of an intergalactic struggle, and a forbidden attraction. Caught between duty and freedom, loyalty and betrayal, she must uncover secrets about her past in order to protect her world’s future.

Born Wicked by Jessica Spotswood  -  Release Date: February 7, 2012

Blessed with a gift…cursed with a secret.  Everybody knows Cate Cahill and her sisters are eccentric. Too pretty, too reclusive, and far too educated for their own good. But the truth is even worse: they’re witches. And if their secret is discovered by the priests of the Brotherhood, it would mean an asylum, a prison ship – or an early grave.

Before her mother died, Cate promised to protect her sisters. But with only six months left to choose between marriage and the Sisterhood, she might not be able to keep her word . . . especially after she finds her mother’s diary, uncovering a secret that could spell her family’s destruction. Desperate to find alternatives to their fate, Cate starts scouring banned books and questioning rebellious new friends, all while juggling tea parties, shocking marriage proposals, and a forbidden romance with the completely unsuitable Finn Belastra.  If what her mother wrote is true, the Cahill girls aren’t safe. Not from the Brotherhood, the Sisterhood – not even from each other.

The Book of Blood and Shadow by Robin Wasserman  -  Release Date: April 10, 2012

It was like a nightmare, but there was no waking up.  When the night began, Nora had two best friends and an embarrassingly storybook one true love.  When it ended, she had nothing but blood on her hands and an echoing scream that stopped only when the tranquilizers pierced her veins and left her in the merciful dark.

But the next morning, it was all still true: Chris was dead.  His girlfriend Adriane, Nora’s best friend, was catatonic. And Max, Nora’s sweet, smart, soft-spoken Prince Charming, was gone. He was also—according to the police, according to her parents, according to everyone—a murderer.

Desperate to prove his innocence, Nora follows the trail of blood, no matter where it leads. It ultimately brings her to the ancient streets of Prague, where she is drawn into a dark web of secret societies and shadowy conspirators, all driven by a mad desire to possess something that might not even exist. For buried in a centuries-old manuscript is the secret to ultimate knowledge and communion with the divine; it is said that he who controls the Lumen Dei controls the world. Unbeknownst to her, Nora now holds the crucial key to unlocking its secrets. Her night of blood is just one piece in a puzzle that spans continents and centuries. Solving it may be the only way she can save her own life.

Bewitching by Alex Flinn  -  Release Date: February 14, 2012

Bewitching can be a beast. . . .Once, I put a curse on a beastly and arrogant high school boy. That one turned out all right. Others didn’t.

I go to a new school now—one where no one knows that I should have graduated long ago. I’m not still here because I’m stupid; I just don’t age.  You see, I’m immortal. And I pretty much know everything after hundreds of years—except for when to take my powers and butt out.

I want to help, but things just go awry in ways I could never predict. Like when I tried to free some children from a gingerbread house and ended up being hanged. After I came back from the dead (immortal, remember?), I tried to play matchmaker for a French prince and ended up banished from France forever. And that little mermaid I found in the Titanic lifeboat? I don’t even want to think about it.

Now a girl named Emma needs me. I probably shouldn’t get involved, but her gorgeous stepsister is conniving to the core. I think I have just the thing to fix that girl—and it isn’t an enchanted pumpkin. Although you never know.

Monstrous Beauty by Elizabeth Fama  -  Release Date: August 21, 2012

Fierce, seductive mermaid Syrenka falls in love with Ezra, a young naturalist. When she abandons her life underwater for a chance at happiness on land, she is unaware that this decision comes with horrific and deadly consequences. Almost one hundred forty years later, seventeen-year-old Hester meets a mysterious stranger named Ezra and feels overwhelmingly, inexplicably drawn to him. For generations, love has resulted in death for the women in her family. Is it an undiagnosed genetic defect . . . or a curse? With Ezra’s help, Hester investigates her family’s strange, sad history. The answers she seeks are waiting in the graveyard, the crypt, and at the bottom of the ocean—but powerful forces will do anything to keep her from uncovering her connection to Syrenka and to the tragedy of so long ago.

The Treachery of Beautiful Things by Ruth Frances Long  -  Release Date: August 16, 2012

The trees swallowed her brother whole. And Jenny was there to see it. Years later, when she returns to the woods where Tom was taken to say good-bye at last, she finds herself lured into a world where stunning beauty masks the most treacherous of evils, and strange and dangerous creatures await—creatures who seem to consider her the threat. Among them is Jack, mercurial and magnetic, with allegiances that shift as much as his moods. Determined to find her brother, with or without Jack’s help, Jenny struggles to navigate a faerie world where nothing is what it seems, no one is who they say, and she’s faced with a choice between salvation or sacrifice—and not just her own.

Arcadia Awakens by Kai Meyer  -  Release Date: February 14, 2012

To Rosa Alcantara, the exotic world of Sicily, with its network of Mafia families and its reputation for murder and intrigue, is just that—exotic and wholly unknown. But when her life in Brooklyn begins to fall apart, she must travel there, to her family’s ancestral home, where centuries of family secrets await her.

Once there, Rosa falls head over heels for Alessandro Carnevare, the son of a Sicilian Mafia family, whose handsome looks and savage grace both fascinate and unsettle her. But their families are sworn enemies, and her aunt and sister believe Alessandro is only using Rosa to infiltrate the Alcantara clan. And when Rosa encounters a tiger one night—a tiger with very familiar eyes—she can no longer deny that neither the Carnevares nor the Alcantaras are what they seem.

Hidden caves, dangerous beasts roaming the hills, and a history of familial bloodlust mean that Rosa can’t trust anyone. Torn between loyalty to her family and love for their mortal enemy, Rosa must make the hardest decision of her life: stay in Sicily with her new love…or run as far and as fast as she can.

All That Bleeds by Kimberly Frost  -  Release Date: January 3, 2012

As the last heiress of the House of North, Alissa knows that striking up a secret friendship with a half-vampire enforcer is dangerous, but Merrick is a temptation she can’t resist. But when Alissa is kidnapped, Merrick proves that he will do anything to protect the woman who tempts him with her very existence.

Dark Companion by Maria Acosta  -  Release Date: July 3, 2012

When foster teen Jane Williams is invited to attend elite Birch Grove Academy for Girls and escape her violent urban neighborhood, she thinks the offer is too good to be true. She’s even offered her own living quarters, the groundskeeper’s cottage in the center of the birch grove.

Something’s not quite right about the school — or is it Jane? She thinks she sees things in the birch grove at night. She’s also beginning to suspect that the elegant headmistress and her sons are hiding secrets. Lucky is the gorgeous, golden son who is especially attentive to Jane, and Jack is the sardonic puzzling brother.

The school with its talented teachers and bright students is a dream for a science and math geek like Jane. She also loves her new friends, including hilarious poetry-spouting rich girl, Mary Violet. But the longer Jane stays at Birch Grove, the more questions she has about the disappearance of another scholarship girl and a missing faculty member.

Jane discovers one secret about Birch Grove, which only leads to more mysteries. What is she willing to sacrifice in order to stay at this school…and be bound to Birch Grove forever?

Darkness Before Dawn by J.A. London  -  Release Date: May 29. 2012

This electrifying new trilogy blends the best of paranormal and dystopian storytelling in a world where the war is over. And the vampires won.

Humans huddle in their walled cities, supplying blood in exchange for safety. But not even that is guaranteed. Dawn has lost her entire family and now reluctantly serves as the delegate to Lord Valentine, the most powerful vampire for miles. It isn’t until she meets Victor, Valentine’s son, that she realizes not all vampires are monsters….

Dark Kiss by Michelle Rowen  -  Release Date: May 22, 2012

After her soul is stolen in a kiss, a 16-year-old must join a force of demons and angels to protect humanity from an immortal threat.

Dead to You by Lisa McMann  -  Release Date: February 7, 2012

Ethan was abducted from his front yard when he was just seven years old. Now, at sixteen, he has returned to his family. It’s a miracle… at first. Then the tensions start to build. His reintroduction to his old life isn’t going smoothly, and his family is tearing apart all over again. If only Ethan could remember something, anything, about his life before, he’d be able to put the pieces back together. But there’s something that’s keeping his memory blocked. Something unspeakable…

Faery Tales & Nightmares by Melissa Marr  -  Release Date: February 21, 2012

Dangerous promises and beguiling threats swirl together in a dozen stories of enchantments dark and light by New York Times bestselling author Melissa Marr. Uncanny and unexpected creatures appear from behind bushes, rise from beneath the seas, or manifest from seasonal storms to pursue the objects of their attention—with amorous or sinister intent—relentlessly.

Everneath by Brodi Ashton  -  Release Date: January 24, 2012

Last spring, Nikki Beckett vanished, sucked into an underworld known as the Everneath. Now she’s returned—to her old life, her family, her boyfriend—before she’s banished back to the underworld . . . this time forever. She has six months before the Everneath comes to claim her, six months for good-byes she can’t find the words for, six months to find redemption, if it exists.

Nikki longs to spend these precious months forgetting the Everneath and trying to reconnect with her boyfriend, Jack, the person most devastated by her disappearance—and the one person she loves more than anything. But there’s just one problem: Cole, the smoldering immortal who enticed her to the Everneath in the first place, has followed Nikki home. Cole wants to take over the throne in the underworld and is convinced Nikki is the key to making it happen. And he’ll do whatever it takes to bring her back, this time as his queen.

As Nikki’s time on the Surface draws to a close and her relationships begin slipping from her grasp, she is forced to make the hardest decision of her life: find a way to cheat fate and remain on the Surface with Jack or return to the Everneath and become Cole’s queen.

Enchanted by Alethea Kontis  -  Release Date: May 8, 2012

It isn’t easy being the rather overlooked and unhappy youngest sibling to sisters named for the other six days of the week. Sunday’s only comfort is writing stories, although what she writes has a terrible tendency to come true. When Sunday meets an enchanted frog who asks about her stories, the two become friends. Soon that friendship deepens into something magical. One night Sunday kisses her frog goodbye and leaves, not realizing that her love has transformed him back into Rumbold, the crown prince of Arilland—and a man Sunday’s family despises. The prince returns to his castle, intent on making Sunday fall in love with him as the man he is, not the frog he was. But Sunday is not so easy to woo. How can she feel such a strange, strong attraction for this prince she barely knows? And what twisted secrets lie hidden in his past—and hers?

Sisterhood of Dune by Brian Herbert & K. Anderson  -  Release Date: January 3, 2012

It is eighty-three years after the last of the thinking machines were destroyed in the Battle of Corrin, after Faykan Butler took the name of Corrino and established himself as the first Emperor of a new Imperium. Great changes are brewing that will shape and twist all of humankind.

The war hero Vorian Atreides has turned his back on politics and Salusa Secundus. The descendants of Abulurd Harkonnen Griffen and Valya have sworn vengeance against Vor, blaming him for the downfall of their fortunes. Raquella Berto-Anirul has formed the Bene Gesserit School on the jungle planet Rossak as the first Reverend Mother. The descendants of Aurelius Venport and Norma Cenva have built Venport Holdings, using mutated, spice-saturated Navigators who fly precursors of Heighliners. Gilbertus Albans, the ward of the hated Erasmus, is teaching humans to become Mentats…and hiding an unbelievable secret.

The Butlerian movement, rabidly opposed to all forms of “dangerous technology,” is led by Manford Torondo and his devoted Swordmaster, Anari Idaho. And it is this group, so many decades after the defeat of the thinking machines, which begins to sweep across the known universe in mobs, millions strong, destroying everything in its path.

Every one of these characters, and all of these groups, will become enmeshed in the contest between Reason and Faith. All of them will be forced to choose sides in the inevitable crusade that could destroy humankind forever….

Dragonswood by Janet Lee Carey  -  Release Date: January 5, 2012

Wilde Island is not at peace. The kingdom mourns the dead Pendragon king and awaits the return of his heir; the uneasy pact between dragons, fairies, and humans is strained; and the regent is funding a bloodthirsty witch hunt, hoping to rid the island of half-fey maidens.

Tess, daughter of a blacksmith, has visions of the future, but she still doesn’t expect to be accused of witchcraft, forced to flee with her two best friends, or offered shelter by the handsome and enigmatic Garth Huntsman, a warden for Dragonswood. But Garth is the younger prince in disguise and Tess soon learns that her true father was fey, making them the center of an exciting, romantic adventure, and an ancient prophecy that will bring about peace between all three races – dragon, human, and fairy.

Disenchanted by Sherry Soule  -  Release Date: February 2012 (no Amazon Listing yet)

Elizabeth Blackburn, an intelligent and sassy New Yorker, doesn’t believe in the supernatural until she moves into Summerwind Mansion and begins having nightmares about a young woman murdered in the house. She suspects there’s something strange about this place and it’s not just the bad dreams.

Determined to unlock secrets that have remained hidden for centuries, Elizabeth is plunged into an otherworldly mystery that not even she can explain away. Not to mention, her uncontrollable attraction to the former owner, Dorian Knight. But soon after meeting Dorian, all of her beliefs are tested. He seems so familiar, and as close to Mr. Darcy as she’ll ever get—but Jane Austen never wrote a hero like him–someone who both excites and frightens her.

As the dark history of the Knight family begins to unravel, tensions heighten and old resentments turn deadly. Even though Dorian warns her about a terrible curse–she doesn’t know what to believe anymore.

And Elizabeth starts to wonder which she would rather hold onto—her sanity…or her life…

Fated by Alyson Noel  -  Release Date: May 22, 2012

Strange things are happening to Daire Santos. Crows mock her, glowing people stalk her, time stops without warning, and a beautiful boy with unearthly blue eyes haunts all her dreams. Fearing for her daughter’s sanity, Daire’s mother sends her to live with the grandmother she’s never met. A woman who recognizes the visions for what they truly are—the call to her destiny as a Soul Seeker—one who can navigate the worlds between the living and dead.

There on the dusty plains of Enchantment, New Mexico, Daire sets out to harness her mystical powers. But it’s when she meets Dace, the boy from her dreams, that her whole world is shaken to its core. Now Daire is forced to discover if Dace is the one guy she’s meant to be with…or if he’s allied with the enemy she’s destined to destroy.

Hollow Pike by James Dawson  -  Release Date: February 2, 2012

Something wicked this way comes… She thought she’d be safe in the country, but you can’t escape your own nightmares, and Lis London dreams repeatedly that someone is trying to kill her. Lis thinks she’s being paranoid – after all who would want to murder her? She doesn’t believe in the local legends of witchcraft. She doesn’t believe that anything bad will really happen to her. You never do, do you? Not until you’re alone in the woods, after dark – and a twig snaps… Hollow Pike – where witchcraft never sleeps.

Partials by Dan Wells  -  Release Date: February 28, 2012

The human race is all but extinct after a war with Partials—engineered organic beings identical to humans—has decimated the population. Reduced to only tens of thousands by RM, a weaponized virus to which only a fraction of humanity is immune, the survivors in North America have huddled together on Long Island while the Partials have mysteriously retreated. The threat of the Partials is still imminent, but, worse, no baby has been born immune to RM in more than a decade. Our time is running out.

Kira, a sixteen-year-old medic-in-training, is on the front lines of this battle, seeing RM ravage the community while mandatory pregnancy laws have pushed what’s left of humanity to the brink of civil war, and she’s not content to stand by and watch. But as she makes a desperate decision to save the last of her race, she will find that the survival of humans and Partials alike rests in her attempts to uncover the connections between them—connections that humanity has forgotten, or perhaps never even knew were there.

Intangible by J Meyers  -  Release Date: January 2012 (No Amazon listing yet)

Twins Sera and Luke Raine have a well-kept secret—she heals with a touch of her hand, he sees the future. All their lives they’ve helped those in need on the sly. They’ve always thought of their abilities as being a gift.

Then Luke has a vision that Sera is killed. That gift they’ve always cherished begins to feel an awful lot like a curse. Because the thing about Luke’s ability? He’s always right. And he can’t do anything about it

Incarnate by Jodi Meadows  -  Release Date: January 31, 2012

NEWSOUL
Ana is new. For thousands of years in Range, a million souls have been reincarnated over and over, keeping their memories and experiences from previous lifetimes. When Ana was born, another soul vanished, and no one knows why.

NOSOUL
Even Ana’s own mother thinks she’s a nosoul, an omen of worse things to come, and has kept her away from society. To escape her seclusion and learn whether she’ll be reincarnated, Ana travels to the city of Heart, but its citizens are suspicious and afraid of what her presence means. When dragons and sylph attack the city, is Ana to blame?

HEART
Sam believes Ana’s new soul is good and worthwhile. When he stands up for her, their relationship blooms. But can he love someone who may live only once, and will Ana’s enemies—human and creature alike—let them be together? Ana needs to uncover the mistake that gave her someone else’s life, but will her quest threaten the peace of Heart and destroy the promise of reincarnation for all?

The Immortal Rules by Julie Kagawa  -  Release Date: April 24, 2012

In the dark days since the insidious Red Lung virus decimated the human population, vampires have risen to rule the crumbling cities and suburbs. Uncontested Princes hold sway over diminished ranks of humans: their “pets.” In exchange for their labor, loyalty and of course, their blood, these pets are registered, given food and shelter, permitted to survive.

Unregistered humans cling to fringes, scavenging for survival. Allison Sekemoto and her fellow Unregistereds are hunted, not only by vampires, but by rabids, the unholy result of Red Lung-infected vampires feeding on unwary humans. One night, Allie is attacked by a pack of rabids, saved by an unlikely hero…and turned vampire.

Uncomfortable in her undead skin, Allie falls in with a ragtag crew of humans seeking a cure, or cures: for Rabidism and for Vampirism. She’s passing for human…for now. But the hunger is growing and will not be denied. Not for friendship—not even for love

Illuminate by Aimee Agresti  -  Release Date: March 6, 2012

Haven Terra is a brainy, shy high school outcast. But everything changes when she is
awarded a prestigious internship at a posh Chicago hotel under the watchful eyes of a
group of gorgeous strangers: the powerful and alluring hotel owner Aurelia Brown; her
second-in-command, the dashing Lucian Grove; and their stunning but aloof staff of
glamazons called The Outfit.

As Haven begins falling for Lucian, she discovers that these beautiful people are
not quite what they seem. With the help of a mysterious book, she uncovers the evil
agenda of Aurelia and company: they’re in the business of buying souls. Will they succeed
in wooing Haven to join them in their recruitment efforts, or will she be able to
thwart this devilish set’s plans to take the souls of her classmates on prom night at the
hotel?

Hollow by Richard Denney  -  Release Date: May 2012 (No Amazon listing yet)

In a dystopian future, sixteen-year-old Leah Munro has been sold to a rich woman in a crippling mansion. Soon Leah discovers that there is something mysterious going on around the home, and with the help of three other girls, she attempts to uncover what is truly happening… what lies beyond all of the plexiglass windows and the hideous screams in the middle of the night? Leah will soon find out.

Hemlock by Kathleen Peacock  -  Release Date: May 8, 2012

Mackenzie and Amy were best friends. Until Amy was brutally murdered.

Since then, Mac’s life has been turned upside down. She is being haunted by Amy in her dreams, and an extremist group called the Trackers has come to Mac’s hometown of Hemlock to hunt down Amy’s killer: A white werewolf.

Lupine syndrome—also known as the werewolf virus—is on the rise across the country. Many of the infected try to hide their symptoms, but bloodlust is not easy to control.

Wanting desperately to put an end to her nightmares, Mac decides to investigate Amy’s murder herself. She discovers secrets lurking in the shadows of Hemlock, secrets about Amy’s boyfriend, Jason, her good pal Kyle, and especially her late best friend. Mac is thrown into a maelstrom of violence and betrayal that puts her life at risk.

Kathleen Peacock’s thrilling novel is the first in the Hemlock trilogy, a spellbinding urban fantasy series filled with provocative questions about prejudice, trust, lies, and love

Harbinger by Sara Wilson Etienne  -  Release Date: February 2, 2012

When sixteen-year-old Faye arrives at Holbrook Academy, she doesn’t expect to find herself exactly where she needs to be. After years of strange waking visions and nightmares, her only comfort the bones of dead animals, Faye is afraid she’s going crazy. Fast.

But her first night at Holbrook, she feels strangely connected to the school and the island it sits on, like she’s come home. She’s even made her first real friends, but odd things keep happening to them. Every morning they wake on the floors of their dorm rooms with their hands stained red.

Faye knows she’s the reason, but what does it all mean? The handsome Kel tries to help her unravel the mystery, but Faye is certain she can’t trust him; in fact, he may be trying to kill her – and the rest of the world too.

Halflings by Heather Burch  -  Release Date: January 17, 2012

Split. After being inexplicably targeted by an evil intent on harming her at any cost, seventeen-year-old Nikki finds herself under the watchful guardianship of three mysterious young men who call themselves halflings. Sworn to defend her, misfits Mace, Raven, and Vine battle to keep Nikki safe while hiding their deepest secret—and the wings that come with. A growing attraction between Nikki and two of her protectors presents a whole other danger. While she risks a broken heart, Mace and Raven could lose everything, including their souls. As the mysteries behind the boys’ powers, as well as her role in a scientist’s dark plan, unfold, Nikki is faced with choices that will affect the future of an entire race of heavenly beings, as well as the precarious equilibrium of the earthly world.

Glimmer by Phoebe Kitandis  -  Release Date: April 17, 2012

What if you forgot your identity and had to rely on other people to tell you who you were?

And what if to discover your true self, you first had to unravel a mystery so big and terrifying you were not sure you’d survive solving it?

When Marshall and Elyse wake up in each other’s arms with zero memory of how they got there or who they are, it’s the start of a long journey through their separate pasts and shared future.

Terrified by their amnesia, the two make a pact to work together to find the answers that could jog their missing memories. As they piece together clues, they discover they’re in the idyllic mountain resort town of Summer Falls, where everyone seems mysteriously happy, but as Marshall and Elyse quickly learn, darkness lurks beneath the town’s perfect facade. Not only is the town haunted by sinister ghosts, but none of its living inhabitants retain bad memories of anything—not the death of Marshall’s mom, not the hidden shame in Elyse’s family, not even the day-to-day anguish of high school.

Lonely in this world of happy zombies, Marsh and Elyse fall into an intense relationship…but the secrets they uncover could be the death of this growing love—and the death of everyone, and everything, they love in Summer Falls

Fracture by Megan Miranda  -  Release Date: January 17, 2012

Eleven minutes passed before Delaney Maxwell was pulled from the icy waters of a Maine lake by her best friend Decker Phillips. By then her heart had stopped beating. Her brain had stopped working. She was dead. And yet she somehow defied medical precedent to come back seemingly fine
-despite the scans that showed significant brain damage. Everyone wants Delaney to be all right, but she knows she’s far from normal. Pulled by strange sensations she can’t control or explain, Delaney finds herself drawn to the dying. Is her altered brain now predicting death, or causing it?

Then Delaney meets Troy Varga, who recently emerged from a coma with similar abilities. At first she’s reassured to find someone who understands the strangeness of her new existence, but Delaney soon discovers that Troy’s motives aren’t quite what she thought. Is their gift a miracle, a freak of nature-or something much more frightening?

Forbidden by Syrie James & Ryan James  -  Release Date: January 24, 2012

She should not exist.

Winter Previews!

Anya Michaels is having the time of her life. She has the man of her dreams by her side. She has graduated at the top of her class. She has the job others were lining up for. Between late night drinks at her favourite bar and fancy dinners at the most expensive restaurants, she has a string of adoring friends. Everything changes when she hears the dreaded words, “You are sick.”

Being diagnosed with a rare neurological disorder, her world starts to fall apart, one piece at a time. Now dumped, her four year relationship is nothing but a memory filled with pictures, thoughts and a very broken heart. Her job becomes an even further challenge as she tries to hide her condition. Her friends suddenly have more important things to do, what is a party without a party girl? Perfect could not crumble any faster.

Soon, caught between situations, people and pieces of life that she never dreamed of planning for herself, Anya begins to wonder if her brain condition is all that bad. As she absorbs the changes in her life and realization sets in, she begins to wonder if she is the only one saying: Excuse Me, My Brains Have Stepped Out.

When Lauren divorces her husband, she has one thought on her mind…stepping off the merry-go-round. However, her life quickly turns into a three-ring circus: her hypochondriac father moves in, her ex is using her shower when she’s not home, and her perky assistant is pushing her out into the fearsome dating world. She also has to decide if the dilapidated barn and vintage merry-go-round she was awarded in the divorce settlement is a blessing or a bane. As if Lauren’s personal life isn’t chaotic enough, this slightly jaded attorney is overrun with a cast of quirky characters who can’t stay on the right side of the law. What’s a woman to do? She can allow life to spin her in circles forever. Or she can reach out and grab the brass ring.

In his debut novel, James J. Kaufman delivers a gripping and unforgettable story of two strong men from separate worlds – one touched by tragedy, the other by greed – brought together with unexpected results. In chronicling how their lives and those they touch are dramatically changed by their encounter, Kaufman reveals the power of relationships, the nature of love, and ultimately the meaning of life.

Wilmington, Delaware is one of those cities that feels more like a small town. Neighbors know one another, and businesses cater to the needs of the citizenry. But what happens when the local car salesman suffers one lost sale too many, when one more customer decides to buy from the competition because the price is too high, interest rates aren’t friendly, or that shade of blue just won’t work? In J. Gregory Smith’s electrifying thriller, Final Price, Shamus Ryan’s frustration works like a thorn under his skin until psychotic urges take over and he commits murder—serial murders, in fact—his victims chosen from prospective clients who dared to walk away. With Smith’s chilling scenes of massacre, readers are pulled into the vortex of a warped mind, one man justifying heinous acts, and two detectives running a race against time, trying to solve seemingly random killings. Paul Chang, a Chinese-American homicide detective, is struggling to understand why these murders are taking place. Assisted by his neurotic partner, Nelson Rogers, Chang goes after the killer with logic, tenacity, and no small measure of fear.

TERRIFIED…It was supposed to be a harmless camping trip. Six wayward teenagers who’d run into trouble with the law, and their court-appointed guardians, Sara and Martin Randhurst. Three nights on a small, deserted island off of Michigan’s upper peninsula. A time to bond, to learn, to heal.

Then Martin told a campfire story about the island’s history. Of the old civil war prison hidden in there, and the starving confederate soldiers who resorted to cannibalism to stay alive. Everyone thought it was funny. They even laughed when Martin pretended to be dragged off into the woods.  But Martin didn’t come back. And neither did Sara when she went in search of him.

Then the laughter stopped.

…TO DEATH…The group soon began to realize that this deserted island wasn’t so deserted after all. And perhaps Martin’s ridiculous story had more truth to it than anyone thought.  What’s the most horrifying thing you can imagine?  This is a hundred times worse…    A Word of Warning:  This is the long-awaited follow-up to AFRAID

As a girl, Maggie had been happy, mischievous, and coddled by loving parents. Now her parents are gone, and she’s running from an abusive marriage. She has no choice but to take refuge in the wilds of Missouri. When her Uncle Ned gets her a job as a live-in housekeeper to the intriguing Nick Revelle, Maggie feels an immediate attraction – mixed with fear – for her employer. Nick has been hardened by a past marriage, and Maggie’s afraid her hidden secrets will make him hate her…

Ready the guns & set sail with this heart-pounding tale of revenge and deception. The waters of the Caribbean run red in an unflinching account of life among murderous scoundrels during the closing years of the golden age of piracy.

The life of Katherine Lindsay, a timid young woman from London, is forever altered when a nefarious band of pirates murder her husband and take her hostage. Whisked aboard a fearsome brigantine named “Harbinger”, she must contend with an ambitious pirate captain who wants her for his own, and a devious quartermaster who firmly believes that women bring bad luck upon a ship. With no means of escape in sight, she quickly makes friends with a dashing young deckhand and a cowardly surgeon. As Katherine grows accustomed to life among pirates, she finds it increasingly difficult to resist her attraction to their wayward lifestyle and the thrill of high-seas adventure. But the memory of her dead husband weighs heavily on her conscience, and her rising guilt may prove to be the ultimate undoing of her kidnappers.

Matthew Sterling is a man on the way up. As Assistant City Manager in the Wasatch Range community of Snowy Ridge, Utah, and a law school graduate, the 21st century looks promising, especially when a beautiful English Ph.D genetic biology candidate, Kasia Somerset, reaches in and captures his heart.

Returning to New York on family business Matt discovers the historic journal of Major Andrew McBride, his sixth-great grandfather, plus a Revolutionary War manuscript that uncloaks a true patriot, unjustly pilloried and cast into public shame.

As a modern-day political scandal unfolds and Matt’s professional standing is challenged, Kasia wonders if he is the man she thought she loved. The similarity to Matt’s early American ancestor challenges everything he believes about fairness, integrity, and justice. But when Kasia reveals her astonishing DNA discovery, she demonstrates that life may well be influenced by Love, Honor, & Consequence.

The Dog is in Livingston, Montana, daydreaming about fishing the Stone and, as usual, subsisting on Swisher Sweets, vodka-Tang, and the hope that pretending to forget will be enough.

He’s forged a few tenuous friendships, and now finds himself watching from the bank as troubled local girl Jesse Ringer leads D’Ontario Sneed into the swift current of young love. It’s sweet, really . . . but some of the locals object to the relationship on the basis of Sneed’s skin color.

Then the unthinkable: vibrant, wild Jesse is found shot in the head, and Sneed is passed out in her car, gun beside him, window seams taped, and engine running. Sneed is hospitalized for severe carbon monoxide poisoning and can’t string together a sentence to defend himself, so it falls to the Dog.

If only the Dog could run from his life without ending up in the tangle and snarl of the lives of others. A man who wants to lose himself in the current must be careful of his backcast; it’ll always keep him tethered to a life he’s trying to forget.

They call it the Bad Luck Wedding Dress, and now Jenny Fortune’s dressmaking clientele has begun staying away in droves. Yet, Jenny is sure that she can turn her luck around if she wears the dress herself at her very own wedding–all she needs is a groom.

Trace McBride is an attractive widower raising three little girls–or outlaws–and he badly needs a woman’s loving touch. Jenny isn’t sure she knows how to win a marriage proposal, but she is willing to take off her spectacles, let down her golden hair, and even give flirtation a try. When seduction turns to passion, Jenny risks everything–even her life–in the hope that she’ll be lucky in love.

Set in New York and Paris amid the glamorous and competitive worlds of art and real estate, Scorpio Rising takes the reader from the late 1940s to the 1960s through the tumultuous lives of its heroes.There is Alex Ivanov, the son of a Russian immigrant and part-time prostitute. He yearns to escape his sordid life and achieve fame and fortune. His dreams of becoming a world-class builder are met with countless obstacles, yet he perseveres in the hope of someday receiving the recognition he craves.Half a world away, Brigitte Dartois is an abused teenager who runs into the arms of a benefactor with an agenda all his own. When she finds out that her boss has an ulterior motive, she flees again, determined to earn her living through her art. This career brings her fame, but also the unwanted attention of her early abuser.

A perpetual wallflower destined for spinsterhood, Lady Elaine Warren is resigned to her position in society. So when Evan Carlton, the powerful, popular Earl of Westfeld, singles her out upon his return to England, she knows what it means. Her former tormenter is up to his old tricks, and she’s his intended victim. This time, though, the earl is going to discover that wallflowers can fight back.

Evan has come to regret his cruel, callow past. At first, he only wants to make up for past wrongs. But when Elaine throws his initial apology in his face, he finds himself wanting more. And this time, what torments him might be love…

Nothing can save you from your fate…

BJ Kincaid was a genius, a former child prodigy who had built a multimillion dollar software and gaming empire. But the danger she was facing now was no game.  She was losing chunks of time, coping with the sudden onset of crippling headaches.  Threats to her company, her friends, her life, now shook her sheltered and shy existence to the core. She’d dealt with enemies pirating her ideas before, and had solved any problem she’d ever faced. But this was a puzzle she couldn’t solve, an enemy she couldn’t defeat on her own. Was she the traitor this time? Or did the mysterious blackouts and terrorization of LadyTech mean she was simply going insane?

Brodie Maxwell is the security consultant BJ’s partners hire to investigate the threats to their company and their friend.  But this beast of a man with deep battle scars inside and out is unlike anyone BJ has known.  Powerfully drawn to Brodie, BJ soon discovers he is a self-imposed outcast from society, and a kindred spirit who understands how hard it is to be different.  His loneliness matches her own, and his mix of fiery kisses and surprising compassion rock BJ’s heart.  She has no doubt this former soldier can protect her physically.  But will this man of mystery, who claims the woman who loves him is destined to die, destroy her soul?

Are they fighting an ancient curse? Or battling an enemy who’s all too real? Either way, BJ and Brodie are fated to be together…if they live long enough to make the fairy tale come true.

Jake, Becca, Ryan and Harriet are kidnapped by Dr Crookshanks and his accomplice, Professor Kaufman. Against their will, the gang have to jump ‘into’ the world’s best known adventure stories to steal important artefacts, using an incredible invention called the Nautilus. If they don’t get what Crookshanks wants, what will he do to their parents? And what will Becca do without her dad’s credit card?

Crookshanks explains that in order to keep their families safe, the children must bring him back the actual treasure map from Treasure Island. Their parents’ lives are in the hands of a complete madman! The Booksurfers have little time to argue. Before they know it, they are thrown into Treasure Island; they’re talking to Jim Hawkins, running away from pirates and risking their lives to get their hands on that map!

Ever wondered what it would be like to not just read a book, but actually experience it? Throughout these books you’ll find something rather ingenious: hyperlinks. They’re pretty easy to spot; look out for an underlined word or phrase or sentence. And whenever you see one, you can just click on it, and – KA-POW! – you’ll be zipped into the actual book the Booksurfers are exploring at the exact point they are discovering it! Have fun tagging along; you never know what story you’ll end up in next…

Romance can be a hairy business–especially when you’re a werewolf.

As the owner of Get a Mate Dating Service, Rylie is more than happy to step in and lend a hand to lonely lycanthropic hearts all over town. No matter how hopeless Rylie might be in finding her own soul mate, she has a knack for helping others find theirs.

Convinced that she is stuck with a family curse, Rylie is positive she will never find her true love. But when drool-worthy Jack Chandler shows up at her door, Rylie wonders if maybe the curse is finally broken.

But Rylie’s life is about to become complicated courtesy of the after-dark crowd. When she begins receiving strange notes and harassment from a jilted client, events careen out of control.

Jack knows she’s more hassle than he can handle. What he doesn’t know is whether she’s seriously in trouble . . . or simply delusional.

Time in a bottle…

Her inheritance amounted to a treasure map, a bottle of whiskey, and a wanted poster of the Old West gentleman outlaw she had resented her whole life.

One sip of the amber liquid tumbles her back in time and into the arms of the very man she resents.

But live and in person, his penetrating eyes and cocky swagger put her heart on the line. And his life…Wanted–Dead or Alive.

Norah Johnson is at a crossroads and is in desperate need to heal after a highly publicized breakup from her major league baseball player boyfriend. To escape, she moves to her summer home at the beach with her sister and best friend where she journals, attends therapy and works on her pending clothing line. When a gorgeous stranger finds her lost journal, he seeks to find the author and make her fall in love with him. But is Norah ready to love again?

Myranda is a young woman more interested in staying alive than being a hero. Orphaned by a continent-spanning war that has gone on for decades too long and shunned for failing to support it, she has been on the move since she was only a child. One can hardly blame her when she thinks that the chance discovery of a fallen soldier’s priceless cargo is the moment that will change her life. No one could predict just how great that change would be. It will lead her through an adventure of rebels and generals, of wizards and warriors, and of beasts both noble and monstrous. Each step of the way will take her closer to the truth of her potential, of the war, and of the fate of her world.

A woman of science.
A man of magic.
Hunted for their HeartsBlood.

Dr. SalistaCalon knew that she worked in a bad part of San Francisco, but nothing could prepare her for the horror that awaited her at the hospital. After her best friend is slaughtered, Salista’s only clue is a mysterious man dressed in leather. A man who claims to know not only the secret behind her best friend’s death, but the key to controlling a force that could rend both their worlds…

Blood Magic.  Drawn into a world beyond her comprehension and control, Salistamust choose between science and magic. Her mind and her heart.

Moon has spent his life hiding what he is – a shape-shifter able to transform himself into a winged creature of flight. An orphan with only vague memories of his own kind, Moon tries to fit in among the tribes of his river valley, with mixed success. Just as Moon is once again cast out by his adopted tribe, he discovers a shape-shifter like himself… someone who seems to know exactly what he is, who promises that Moon will be welcomed into his community. What this stranger doesn’t tell Moon is that his presence will tip the balance of power… that his extraordinary lineage is crucial to the colony’s survival… and that his people face extinction at the hands of the dreaded Fell! Now Moon must overcome a lifetime of conditioning in order to save and himself… and his newfound kin.

The prequel to King of Swords, Night of the Assassin charts the early life of El Rey, the super-assassin who specializes in impossible-to-execute sanctions on behalf of his brutal narco-trafficking cartel clients. Night of the Assassin is a glimpse into the making of the monster, and is an intense, no-flinching, gritty epic that will leave even the most jaded thriller fan gasping.

Her fate was to hold the world together. His destiny was to tear it apart.

Durga was named for a warrior with twelve arms – and she could use them all. After the events of Space Junque, she’s chosen by the goddess to rule Red City, home base of the chalices who provide natural-born heirs to kings. Khai, the scion of Luxor, falls hard for Durga, and he isn’t afraid to show it. Khai offers Durga the love she never expected – but to accept him is to disobey the goddess.

Jake Ardri is positioned to become king of an emerging city-state and desperately wants Char Meadowlark to be his queen, but kings are commanded by the goddess to provide natural-born heirs. Can Char share Jake with a beautiful chalice, trained to take Jake to the heights of sexual ecstasy?

The Delphi Chronicle is a serial trilogy chronicling the saga of Michael Derrigan, who must run for his life after coming into possession of a secret so shocking it would bring down the U.S. Government. In a race from NY to NV to Mexico to Havana, Michael must hunt the hunters if he is to survive their wrath. In Book 1, a literary agent receives an anonymous manuscript that triggers the pursuit.

THE HISTORY: Over five thousand years ago, a renegade faction of angels abandoned the spiritual realm and began their inhabitation of earth. Worshiped as gods for their wisdom and power, they corrupted the realm of the physical and forever altered the course of history.

THE PROPHECY: Amidst the chaos of a dying world, a lone voice foretold the awakening of a warrior who would bring an end to this evil perpetrated against all of creation. But with the cataclysmic destruction of earth and rebirth of humanity, the prophecy went unfulfilled and eventually faded from the memory of our kind—until now!

THE AWAKENED: The physical dimension is fractured. What remain now are numerous fragmented worlds moving simultaneously through time, sharing a common history, connected only by a guarded portal. On a parallel earth, in the city of Bastul, Colonel Adair Lorus disappears while investigating the death of an informant, triggering a series of events which will tear his family apart and set in motion the resolution of an ancient struggle. Kael, sentenced to death after rising up against the cruel leadership of his new step-father, is rescued from prison and trained in the arts of war by a mystical order of clerics. Excelling in every aspect of his training, Kael inwardly struggles to give himself fully to the methods of his new family, or the god they worship. Maeryn, bitter over the disappearance of her husband and supposed execution of her son, fears for her life at the hands of her newly appointed husband. Finding comfort and purpose in her unborn child, she determines to undermine his authority by reaching out to an underground social movement known as the Resistance. After being forced from his home, Kael’s former mentor, Saba, uncovers a clue to Adair’s disappearance. Sensing a connection to his own forgotten past, Saba begins an investigation which leads to the discovery of a secret military organization operating within the Orudan Empire.

Since witnessing the brutal death of his parents, Sheldon Delaney swore to never step foot outside again. The Horribles are out there. They’re everywhere, threatening the residents of Poe’s Creek. Sheldon’s life changes again when a savage motorcycle gang parades through town with a deafeaning roar, leather, chrome, and evil. They’re here for the children. Nothing will get in their way. The Horribles have arrived for real this time and for Sheldon to do anything about it, he has to confront every fear he’s ever had or risk being choked by his poisonous memories.

On October 15 at 2:15 a.m. everyone on Earth vanished.
Well, almost everyone.
A scattered few woke alone in a world where there are no rules other than survival… at any cost.

A journalist wanders the horrible reality of an empty New York in search of his wife and son.
A serial killer must hunt in a land where prey is now an endangered species.
A mother shields her young daughter from danger, though every breath fills her with terror.
A bullied teen is thrilled to find everyone gone. Until the knock at the door.
A fugitive survives a fiery plane crash. Will he be redeemed, or return to what he’s best at: the kill?
An eight year old boy sets out on a journey to find his missing family. What he finds will change him forever.

These survivors aren’t alone…
Someone or something is watching them.
And waiting…

Strangers unite.
Sides are chosen.
Will humanity survive what it never saw coming?
The only certainty is that Yesterday’s Gone.

You’ve never read anything like Yesterday’s Gone – the epic, groundbreaking, thrilling new series. Look for a new 100 page episode each month.  Click HERE for episode 2

Lexi’s kids love the Jared Strong novels, written by Kyle, who beheads a snowman to hide his villain’s ‘weapon’ inside. Unfortunately, the snowman was for Lexi’s TV show. Can there be more than unlikely friendship for a woman afraid to get close and a man with childhood shadows? Families join together and hearts are healed as this couple goes walking in a winter wonderland.

Runaway bride Louisa Honeycut is looking for a quick escape when she passes the Double Dare, Inc sign and the slogan “Are you ready for the time of your life?” seems like divine intervention. Sheltered by her overbearing father, Louisa has years of catching up to do and can think of no better person than gorgeous Sam Rawlins to show her. Is she ready for the time of her life? Hell, yes.

A classic Christmas novella by a beloved bestselling author, now in ebook for the first time! Janelle Taylor is the author of more than 50 romance novels, with nine New York Times bestsellers and sales in the millions. The western frontier. Deadly winter weather. New bride Carrie Sue Jamison wonders if she will be widowed before spending even one Christmas with her husband Thad, a Texas Ranger. He’s left home to track a gang of murderous bank robbers through the wilderness.

Pull a trigger and everything changes.Medical student Laura Nelson had just finished examining her first patient when she is forced to make a split-second decision that will alter the course of her life – forever. One life will end, and one life will never be the same. But keeping her dreadful secret will be one of the toughest challenges Laura will ever face. With a persistent and perceptive detective hot on her trail and a host of eerie incidents suggesting that maybe her secret isn’t really a secret, Laura is drawn into an unseemly web of peril, deceit, and treachery and is forced to risk both her freedom and her sanity. Will her deadly secret come to light, or must she live forever in the shadow of death? Set amidst the upheaval and smoldering chaos of the Detroit riots of 1967, Shadow of Death is a haunting tale of unrest, fear, and consequences.

Bill Travis, an unmarried, unattached investment counselor rapidly approaching his fortieth birthday, conceives that he may not live the most exciting of lives, yet Julie Simmons, his first appointment that Monday, is deeply in trouble. She has taken a North Texas quarter horse racer and liquor baron named Archie Carpin–the last of a dynasty of criminals from the 1920′s–for a ride and cleaned him out of a neat two million bucks. And thus begins the adventure of Bill’s life.

Ensues a chase north across Texas to recover the money and shake the pursuit of a couple of rednecks with a penchant for rifles and rigged explosives. Yet, through all this action the compelling tale of yet another mystery—an 80-year old missing person’s case—begins to unravel.

The first time I stole something was on a dare. I was fifteen and reckless, determined to prove I could be a bad ass. It was hardly a covert mission but I did it. I did it, I loved it and I’ve been stealing ever since. Every time I take something I have to wonder if this is the day my luck will run out.

Portia Mullins had always lived the life of a normal teenager, up until her sixteenth birthday. She is then informed by her grandma that she is actually a witch who is a descendant of a long line of witches and warlocks. When she meets up with a warlock who becomes her boyfriend, she finds her life, and his, in precarious waters when they are hunted by an evil greater than they have ever known.

Twenty world leaders meet for the G8 Summit at the beautiful Cheyenne Resort in Colorado Springs. But an ugly plot lurks beneath the surface: a terrorist group, The Fallen Angels, plans to wreak havoc on the Summit.With the Secret Service, the FBI, Homeland Security, the military, and security from twenty different governments on-hand, shouldn’t the resort be the safest place in the world? It seems impossible that a terrorist group could infiltrate the Summit. And yet they do. Within minutes, twenty world leaders are taken hostage, and Richard Coffee, the group’s leader, makes his first demand: release twenty detainees from Guantanamo Bay, or he’ll execute one leader each hour until his demands are met.Only one man can disrupt this plot. Derek Stillwater is that man.Working undercover as a maintenance man at the resort, Stillwater will wage war on the world’s deadliest, most sophisticated terrorist organization, picking off the terrorists one by one-until he comes face-to-face with an evil force from his past, Richard Coffee, The Fallen Angel himself.

When Sula overhears a shocking revelation about a drug being developed by her employer, she’s paralyzed with indecision. She desperately needs her job to gain the judge’s favor in a custody hearing for her son. Yet hundreds of patient lives could be at stake. Two days later when the drug’s lead scientist disappears, Sula is compelled to search for the incriminating data. But Prolabs’ CEO is a desperate man determined to stop her. Can Sula get the proof and expose the drug’s fatal flaw before the CEO risks everything to silence her?

The fourth appearance of maverick Miami lawyer Jake Lassiter, an ex-football player and ex-public defender who lives by his own rules. This time he uncovers a ruthless scheme to despoil the Florida Everglades, and his own client may be his worst enemy.

Set in Vermont in the mid-1990s, this uneven thriller from physicians Shlian (Rabbit in the Moon with Joel Shlian) and Reid (Where Angels Fear to Tread) addresses some important medical ethics issues. Sammy Greene, a communications major at Ellsford University, loves hosting her controversial radio show about campus events, such as an animal rights protest by a conservative Christian group. When the crusading student journalist pursues a scoop about the suspicious suicides of some Ellsford University students and faculty members (a genetics professor blows his brains out after Sammy attempts to interview him), Sammy whirls into Nancy Drew hyperdrive. The at times far-fetched plot leads to a pharmaceutical institute using unsuspecting students as guinea pigs. Readers should be prepared for a cartoonish bad guy

Christmas, 1958: Elvis is on the radio, Ike is in the White House, the Lord is in his holy temple . but there is no peace in Mt. Jefferson. In a small town where everybody seems to know everybody, there are still a few secrets. Three families find they are connected in ways they never suspected: an angry teen, a dying man, a lonely wife, a daughter in trouble . just ordinary people, muddling their way through ordinary challenges. Illness. Marriage. Bad decisions. Friendship. Faith. Forgiveness. Spanning three generations, O Little Town is a tender tale of love and redemption, and a lonely gravesite where roses mysteriously appear every Christmas. It will touch your heart.

In the harsh Scottish highlands of 1565, superstition and treachery threaten a truce between rival clans. It’s a weak truce at first, bound only by an arranged engagement between Anne MacGregor and Niall Campbell-the heirs of the feuding families.

While Niall wrestles with his suspicions about a traitor in his clan, Anne’s actions do not go unnoticed. And as accusations of witchcraft abound, the strong and sometimes callous Campbell heir must fight for Anne’s safety among disconcerted clan members. Meanwhile his own safety in threatened with the ever-present threat of someone who wants him dead.

Will Niall discover the traitor’s identity in time? Can Anne find a way to fit into her new surroundings? Will the two learn to love each other despite the conflict?

Something’s hot in Seattle, and it’s not just the espresso. Madison’s needs are simple. All she wants are two things: Make Ooo La Latte the newest trend in espresso, and seduce the sexiest cop in Seattle. But things aren’t going exactly as planned.

First, Gabe’s a little hung up on the fact that she’s his best friend’s little sister, and he’s determined to keep his hands off. Second, her shop gets robbed by the increasingly violent Espresso Bandit, and now she’s the only one who can identify him.

Gabe whisks her into hiding for her own protection, but soon finds his heart is under assault by the luscious–and persistent–Madison. But no matter where they hide, danger follows. On such dangerous grounds, the trick will be to live long enough to keep the flame alive.

Gemologist Andrea Adams is suffering a bad case of burnout at her plum job in the New York Diamond District. So she swaps the Big Apple for Louisville, Kentucky, and joins the S.T.U.D. television shopping network as its newest host. When she’s paired up with a hunky but clueless Ken doll of a cohost, Andrea wonders if she made the right move. Top it all off with foul play, a trip to Myanmar, and lots and lots of rubies, and you’ve got a story any woman would like to read.

Is love timeless?
Does only one true love exist for each person?
Can the course of history be changed in order to save a future generation?

Sophie Ford, awaiting a heart transplant, thought she was sleeping in the arms of her beloved husband, Jamie. However, she has woken to find herself in Harrisburg, Pennsylvania 1863, without explanation as to how she got there, or where her husband is.  Taking refuge with a doctor and his family, she finds herself in a volatile relationship with their neighbor, Richard Madden. His expectations and desires become difficult to ignore, and Sophie must find a way to hold off his pursuit.  She rejoices when a soldier, looking identical to Jamie, arrives. Although he claims he doesn’t know her, she’s convinced he’s her husband and sets out to make him remember. Sophie races against time as she faces increasing pressure from Richard, who threatens their chance to reunite.  Can she break through Jamie’s barriers and bring his memory back? And once found, can their love survive living in a different century?

7 years ago a woman with too many secrets and a man with too many lies fell in love. Then she left him.

Isabel’s quiet life as an assistant to one of London’s famous apothecaries hides a deadly secret. A secret that could see her put on trial for witchcraft if the authorities uncover the truth. But when the authority figure who turns up at her shop is Sir Nicholas Merritt, she’s at risk of losing more than her life. She could lose her heart and soul, and the man she loves.

Royal spy Sir Nicholas Merritt can’t believe his luck when he stumbles upon Isabel during an investigation. He’s been searching for her for seven long years and now he has her again, in his bed and his life. Except she’s resisting all the way. Worse still, she’s somehow tangled up with a plot to assassinate the queen. To hold onto her this time, he must find out why she left him while hiding a secret of his own that could tear them apart forever.

Firefighter Michael McGinnis is no stranger to intense situations. Veteran of New York’s Ladder Twenty-One Company as a search and rescue man, he has seen his share of burning infernos, high-rise saves, and intense emergency situations. Despite McGinnis’ years on the job, nothing can prepare him for getting tangled in his brother’s mistakes as a drug addict and gambler, especially when a blood thirsty bookie gets involved. A romance sparks between him and fellow paramedic, Eva Crisante, catching him even more off guard. Morals are tested, lies are told, and relationships are built and then torn to ruins. The problems ahead are more challenging than any fire McGinnis has experienced. He learns that bravery is not only needed in his job with the department, but also in dire situations away from work. His tough love for his brother is tested, proving that there truly are things more dangerous than a five-alarm fire.

Imperial law enforcer Amaranthe Lokdon is good at her job: she can deter thieves and pacify thugs, if not with a blade, then by toppling an eight-foot pile of coffee canisters onto their heads. But when ravaged bodies show up on the waterfront, an arson covers up human sacrifices, and a powerful business coalition plots to kill the emperor, she feels a tad overwhelmed.

Worse, Sicarius, the empire’s most notorious assassin, is in town. He’s tied in with the chaos somehow, but Amaranthe would be a fool to cross his path. Unfortunately, her superiors order her to hunt him down. Either they have an unprecedented belief in her skills… or someone wants her dead.

Indigo:

I never asked to be famous—or infamous. Such is my fate for briefly dating (and dumping) Adam Spade. Yes, the Adam from the indie rock band Blank Stare who wrote “Indigo Blues”—the song that gave the band overnight success, propelled them to New York City, and stole my precious anonymity. Now I’m pawed by fans, stalked by reporters, and pegged as a vicious heartbreaker. And Adam is still calling me. Doesn’t he have better things to do?

Adam:

With a hit single and a promising career, I should be on top of the world. People on the street are beginning to recognize me, which is cool. And scary. The band is counting on me to write another hit, but I can’t stop thinking about Indigo. Why won’t she answer the phone?

Sixteen year-old Kara Nightingale’s ordinary life is suddenly turned upside-down when she dies in a freak accident, and she wakes up in a strange new world with a new career—as a rookie for the Guardian Angel Legion. Kara is pulled into the supernatural, where warrior Angels crusade against Demons.

But falling for her Petty Officer, the incredibly handsome, David, isn’t even the worst of her problems. Suddenly, the Legion turns against her, and David starts to pull away. Hunted by Demons, Kara hurtles towards dangerous missions and faces her most dangerous challenge yet—to save the Legion. But can she do it?

San Francisco PI Jake Diamond is a hero who plays both sides of the Private Eye street. He is a careless dresser with a sloppy lifestyle and he couldn’t keep his marriage from falling apart. But he also epitomizes the best of the modern shamus. He has the kinds of friends a man in his profession needs-jailbirds, mob bosses, and a cop who can surreptitiously run license plate numbers for him.

Jake has been down on his luck lately, barely making enough money to pay the bills and it looks like business might finally be picking up. A woman comes to his office begging him to find her missing husband who has been accused of murder. Jake remembers that his mentor Jimmy Pigeon always says “Whenever I’m asked to locate a missing spouse, the words ‘no, but thanks for asking’ always come to mind” and almost turns the case down, but then he learns that the murder victim was Jimmy Pigeon.

Determined to discover the identity of Pigeon’s killer, Diamond scrambles between Los Angeles and San Francisco following leads that range from weak to delusional. With the help of his trusty and sarcastic assistant, Darlene Roman, compulsive gambler Vinnie “String” Stradivarius, and Italian-American “businessman” Joey Russo, Jake slowly uncovers the motives behind Pigeon’s murder.

It’s time someone explained to Helen exactly what’s going on. Why did she and Dad have to leave London so suddenly and who is the strange burnt man following her around? But as she and new best friend Maggie start to uncover the truth she begins to wonder if maybe she was better off not knowing after all.

Lissa has important things to do – find her brother, save the world from the evil sovereign. You know, the usual kind of stuff. Only somehow Millie’s managed to inadvertantly take Lissa’s place and not only does nobody believe she isn’t actually Lissa, now she’s the one who has to sort all this mess out. And if she starts to fall in love along the way, that’s something she can really do without!

Seven different special bloodlines run through the selected humans living in the world of Gaea. But these bloodlines were treated as a threat, instead of a gift. This is a story of war between two beliefs, a story of truth and betrayal, a story of love, peace, and faithfulness, and lastly, a story about the different bloodlines which, through the years, became full of confusions, lies, and deceit.

18 year old Bristol has to go without love for 225 years in order for her and her family to receive all of their powers. It has been 220 years, and she has just met a 17 year old human named Marvin. Can Bristol go the extra 5 years without falling for Marvin?

Steward and Jet are returning a stolen jewel— an emerald coveted by a woman Steward loves and Jet hates. To place the jewel on its altar half the world away, they’ll need to evade a misguided group of rescuers, hired thieves, and the greed of Steward’s gun-toting paramour. The odds seem bad, but Steward and Jet are armed with Magna Stealth Gecko Suits and shocking quantities of good karma.

Haley Farrell is taking a chance on herself. After receiving her interior design certificate, she quits her job at the local furniture store and decides to open her own interior decorating business. But with all the advantages of her new career-meeting new people, and decorating new and old homes-comes a huge pitfall. Her new job allows her access into her clients’ homes and their lives . . . but also their deaths. When Haley’s mentor, Marge Norwalk, is murdered, Haley becomes the prime suspect. Armed only with the confidence that Marge instilled in her, Haley sets out to find the real murderer. But as she sets forth, she has no idea what twists and turns will bring her face-to-face with her long-hidden past.

The engaging village of Candlewood in 1840s New York provides a glimpse into the past that will inspire and uplift today’s readers. Fifty-one-year-old Emma Garrett runs Hill House, a boardinghouse on a hill at the edge of town. Emma ministers to her guests, both the transient and those who call Hill House home. Gifted with an uncanny ability to see the unique strengths of her guests, Emma serves and challenges them with homespun wisdom and absolute faith in God. When eighty-year-old Widow Leonard shows up at Hill House to escape a heated land dispute between her two sons, Emma welcomes her and tries to help her heal the family feud. But tragedy soon hits closer to home when Emma’s very ownership of Hill House is called into question!

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A Minneapolis attorney inherits a small California winery, reawakening memories that have lain dormant for twenty years. One summer of her childhood is a mystery she intends to solve. But digging up her past also lays bare the skeletons of others, including her mother’s. Entangled between what she once believed and a new reality, will she be able to live with the consequences of full disclosure?

Alice Love is a planner and a saver, so when her bank account is drained, her credit cards maxed, and creditors come calling, the only thing more shocking is that the culprit turns out to be her new best friend, Ella. With the help of her stepsister Flora’s husband, Stefan, and his friend Nathan, a charming investigator, Alice sets out to prove that Ella is a professional con artist. As Alice follows Ella’s transactions, she gets a taste of the glamorous, well-lived life Ella hid from her: dance and cooking classes, fancy lingerie and dresses, and spontaneous trips. Even as Nathan warns her of the dangers of getting obsessed, Alice is secretly seduced by this lifestyle.

When fifteen-year-old Jacob Lau is pulled from the crumpled remains of his mother’s car, no one can explain why he was driving or why the police can’t find his mother’s body. A beautiful and mysterious neighbor offers to use her unique abilities to help him find his mom. But in exchange she requires Jacob to train as a Soulkeeper, a protector of human souls. He agrees to her demands, desperate for any clue to the mystery of his mother’s disappearance. But soon Jacob finds himself trapped in a web of half-truths, and questions her motives for helping him.

Lt. Joe Gunther of the Brattleboro, Vermont police force has a serious problem: in a community where a decade could pass without a single murder, the body count is suddenly mounting. Innocent citizens are being killed—and others set-up—seemingly orchestrated by a mysterious ski-masked man. Signs suggest that a three year-old murder trial might lie at the heart of things, but it’s a case that many in the department would prefer remained closed. A man of quiet integrity, Lt. Gunther knows that he must pursue the case to its conclusion, wherever it leads.

Last year after falling through the ice, seventeen-year-old Abby Craig woke up from death.

But she woke into a world she barely recognizes. She can’t see colors, memories have been erased, and her friends all hate her. And then there’s Jesse, who she loves, but who refuses to forgive her the one mistake she made long ago.

Just when she thinks it can’t get any worse, the visions begin. In them, she sees a faceless serial killer roaming the streets. While the police believe that there have been a lot of accidents in town lately, Abby knows differently. And she soon realizes that it’s up to her to find him.

But to stop him, she’ll have to confront more than just the killer. She’ll have to face something else that was lost in those dark waters. The truth.

The women of ancient Egypt were the freest of any civilization on earth, until the modern era. In several dynasties of ancient Egypt the God’s Wives of Amun stood tall, priestesses of wealth and power, who represented the pinnacle of female power in the Egyptian state. Many called The God’s Wife of Amun second only to the Pharaoh in dominance. THE GOD’S WIFE follows the adventures of a 16-year-old girl, Neferet, who is thrust into the role of The Gods Wife of Amun without proper training. Surrounded by political intrigue and ensnared by sexual stalking, Neferet navigates the temple, doing her duties, while keeping her family name pristine and not ending up like her predecessor—dead. Meanwhile, a modern-day Chicago dancer, Rebecca, is rehearsing for a role in an ancient Egyptian production and finds herself blacking out and experiencing realistic dreams about life in Egypt. It’s as if she’s coming in contact with Neferet’s world. Are the two parallel worlds on a collision course? They seem to be, for Neferet has just used an old spell to bring protection to her world, and Rebecca meets a mysterious Egyptian man who says he’ll whisk her away to Alexandria. Magic and realism mix for a powerful ending in THE GOD’S WIFE.

Vampires on a quest for knowledge attempt to create the perfect offspring, but from the shadows an even more demonic evil threatens their immortality. Severina is an exotic beauty from the jungles of Brazil whose family is brutally murdered by the same man she later calls lover. Julien is a knight who serves as guardian angel to his family but has no clue about his predestined fate.

Fairy godmother Ambrielle is having an off year. Placed on probation by the fairy council, she’s going to have to perform a miracle in twenty-four hours in order to stay in the godmothering game. Her assignment? To help a reluctant young bachelor woo back his ex-girlfriend while turning his failing career around. But with her stubborn charge fighting her at every turn and her godmother license on the line, is Ambrielle about to lose her first battle? One thing’s for sure, she’s not going to hang up her wand without a fight.

After the inexplicable disappearance of Lilly Taylor’s parents, she has no choice but to move to Canada where she unravels some frightening yet intriguing family secrets… Raven is a fantasy novel for children and young adults set in the beautiful province of British Columbia.

The assumed death of Frederick Duval’s secret lover, Jane, sends him on a rampaging mission to destroy every vampire in existence – of course to do this, he must become one himself.1857: Hep, a slave hand, has a dangerous secret he wants to share with one person, Jane.A fiery slave revolt gives him the opportunity to reveal it, damning her forever.Certain that Jane died violently in the uprising,Frederick devotes his life to avenge her.

An historical fiction set in Munich, Germany in the early 1930’s before the outbreak of War World II. Eli Levin and Rebecca Baum fall passionately in love and while their differences should have separated them, they instead forged a passionate bond that would change their lives forever.

While religious and social differences weigh heavily on their families in an increasingly tense Germany, the lovers remain unadulterated in spite of the prejudices. After overcoming family issues and social pressures, the two must sustain under a growing violent governmental regime. When the Nazi party heightens in popularity and the party’s ideas influence law, they must face the harsh reality of life and death.

An infected priest stumbles out of the jungles of South American; 10 years later the zombie infection has spread across the globe. Out of this pre-apocalyptic world emerges Donavan Leeds, an ordinary man who dreams of becoming a Samurai. Van hires out his samurai sword and a river of zombie blood follows. Blinded by love and a secret, Van must decide who to kill to prevent the zombie apocalypse.

Hunted since before her birth, Jessica Baxter relies upon the protection of her father to keep her safe from harm. What neither of them knows is that her father has his own dark legacy bequeathed by a father he never knew. The bonds of family are tested as the fate of two Earths, each a shadow of the other, rests upon the hunted becoming the hunter.

52 Wonderful Twitter Chats for Writers

Writing is often a lonely endeavor for professionals and college students alike, but it doesn’t have to be. There are many places for writers to find help and inspiration for every part of the writing process. One of the newest sources of support is on Twitter, through a wide variety of writing chats. Writers on Twitter only need to use and search for a given hashtag to participate, and most groups are very welcoming to those with different interests and levels of experience. Here, we’ve listed some of the most popular and potentially valuable chats on Twitter. Covering a wide range of topics, you’re bound to find a chat that meets your personal needs as a writer, and you may just make a few new friends in the process.

Slow Chats

These chats don’t always have a set time or day that they meet. Writers and readers simply post to them whenever they come across something they’d like to share with the community.

1. #litchat: This group is not only a great place to get inspired to write, it can also help hook you up with some great books to read. Chats are held every Monday, Wednesday, and Friday but if you miss a meeting there are transcripts on the group’s blog.
2. #storycraft: While the official chat takes place on Sunday nights, writers often post items to this hashtag all week long, sharing links to great fiction writing updates and sometimes looking for help. Follow @Story_Craft for more information.
3. #wip: WIP stands for “work in progress” and that’s just what these writers share, offering tips to make your writing better and excerpts from their own.
4. #iamwriting: This chat is exactly what it sounds like. Anytime writers are working, they share their progress, or lack thereof, to this hashtag chat. It can be great to motivate you to get your own writing done.
5. #writermoms: Moms who love to write can find like-minded women through this ongoing Twitter chat.
6. #writerslife: Laugh about all the funny quirks (and some of the more annoying bits, too) of the life of a writer with this perpetual chat.
7. #writingparty: Writing can be lots of fun, and you can celebrate getting those words down by joining in this chat all about the good, the bad, and the ugly of being a writer.
8. #writers: With new tweets posted every few minutes, this is a super active chat to take part in. Writers will find a very wide range of links, tips, writing commentary, and more to keep them entertained.
9. #writing: From inspirational quotes to job postings related to writing, this hashtag covers just about anything you could want to know more about, with respect to writing.
10. #novelists: Keep in touch with your fellow authors and novelists through this chat. Right now, advice for National Novel Writing Month is one of the most popular topics of discussion.
11. #author: If you want to be an author, start chatting like one. Use this chat hashtag to keep up with working authors and to find help with your own literary endeavors.

Weekly Chats

If you’re looking for a more structured chat, any of these options for writers can be a good choice.

1. #tuesdayserial: If Dickens can do it, why not you? Here you’ll find a chat where writers can share their serial work and to follow the stories written by others.
2. #storyfriday: Join in this chat every Friday to share excerpts from your work and to see what other writers are cooking up. It can be a fun exercise for both avid readers and writers alike.
3. #ScreenwritingSaturday: Every Saturday, screenwriters come together to talk about their unfinished works, the business, and other topics of interest. For more information, screenwriting buffs can contact the moderator of the group at @UncompletedWork.
4. #WNW: WNW is short for Wednesday Night Writer, which is a fantasy and fiction discussion group held on, you guessed it, Wednesday nights.
5. #fictionfriday: Spend your Friday sharing your short stories through Twitter when you join in this chat.
6. #fridayflash: Boost your quick writing skills with this Friday chat, where writers can post or write flash fiction to share with others.
7. #poettues: Every Tuesday this group, led by moderator @robertleebrewer, meets on the web to talk about all things poetry.
8. #writechat: Writers can find a wealth of information and a thriving community through the weekly chats held at this hashtag. Simply head to Twitter from 3-6 p.m. EST to join in the fun.
9. #storychat: Share any progress you’re making (or not making) with your short stories and other writings through this weekly chat.

Not Just Novels

While many of the chats on Twitter are geared towards novelists, there are still plenty of options for those who prefer screenplays, memoirs, poems, and other forms of writing.

1. #undeadpoets: This chat goes on all week, but special topics may be raised on Wednesday nights. It’s the perfect place for inspiration on writing a truly creepy poem.
2. #poetry: Whether you’re a reader, writer, or just a great fan of poetry, you’re bound to find something of interest in this Thursday night chat.
3. #memoirchat: Every other Wednesday at 8 p.m. EST, writers working on their memoirs can head to Twitter to engage in a thoughtful chat, offering tips, advice, and excerpts of their writing.
4. #scriptchat: New and practiced screenwriters come together to share advice and inspiration in this weekly chat. Simply sign on to Twitter at 8 p.m. EST on Sundays to join.
5. #poets: One of the best chats for poetry writers, this slow chat is a great place to connect with other poets, showcase your work, and learn about great poems you might not have read.
6. #JournalChat: Journals can be a great way for writers to practice, get down ideas, and explore emotions. Join this chat on Thursdays to share in the discussion about good journaling techniques.
7. #journchat: Discuss issues pertinent to journalism and PR through this chat, held on Monday evenings.

Genre

These chats focus on a single genre, like sci-fi, romance, or young adult literature.

1. #FlitChat: This fantasy literature chat is a great way to meet others who are interested in writing fantasy works and to get help with your own work. Chats are held each Saturday, with topics that vary from week to week.
2. #storyappchat: These days, many books head straight to the iPad, especially if they’re for kids. With the help of this chat, you can meet other developers and writers who are creating amazing storybook apps for kids. There are new topics each week and the group meets at 9 p.m. EST on Sundays.
3. #scifichat: Lovers of the sci-fi genre can learn more about writing and reading great science fiction through this engaging chat, held every Friday afternoon.
4. #romancewriter: Find others who share your love of writing romance through this hashtag.
5. #kidlitchat: This chat is the perfect place for writers penning works for young readers to keep in touch with others in the field. The chat begins at 9 p.m. EST on Tuesdays, and topics are announced before the chat.
6. #thrillerchat: Ever dreamed of writing a gripping thriller? Through this chat, held on Wednesdays, writers and fans of the genre can share work, get advice, and more.
7. #scifiwrite:Meet up with your fellow sci-fi enthusiasts on this ongoing chat.
8. #yalit: This chat is pretty popular with both readers and writers alike. It’s the perfect slow chat forum for those who want to share their work or learn about amazing young adult reads.
9. #rwa: The Romance Writers of America chat is a great place to meet other romance writers, especially those who’ve been published. For more info, head to the RWA’s Twitter feed at @romancewriters.
10. #sfwa: From the professional to the personal, this chat from the Science Fiction Writers Association is perfect for learning about other writers, finding reviews, or just keeping up with the world of sci-fi.
11. #UFchat: This weekly chat, held on Saturdays, is moderated by urban fantasy fans (and writers) @inkygypsy and @snowppl. Anyone interested in the genre is welcome to join in, and if you miss a meeting, there are transcripts available.
12. #scbwi: If creating books for young adults and kids is your cup of tea, make sure to join this chat from @SCBWI. You’ll meet fellow Society of Childrens’ Book Writers and Illustrators members and may even get some help in your own work.
13. #mglit: The #mglit chat is the perfect place to share insights into writing for those tweens or middle-grade readers.

Professional

Learn more about what it takes to work as a writer, get published, and have a successful book with some help from these professional chats.

1. #editing: Join in this chat to get advice on editing your work or keep up with those working as professional editors.
2. #askagent: Have a question you want to ask a book agent? While chats often go on all week, Tuesdays provide the biggest opportunities to talk with professionals.
3. #bookmarket: If you’ve already completed your novel or other book, this chat can help give you pointers on how to market and sell it. If you’re looking for that kind of help, head to Twitter at 4 p.m. EST on Thursdays.
4. #publishing: Learn more about the publishing industry though this slow chat. Your newfound knowledge could just help you get your own book published.
5. #IBchat: The Indie Author Book Chat just started in October of 2011, and is held every week on Tuesday afternoon. Writers (or readers) can learn more about the chats from the related Twitter feed at @IndieBookIBC.
6. #scribechat: Join your fellow writers on Thursday nights to network, get inspired, and share help with writing and publishing issues.

Help and Inspiration

Whether you need some writing help or a creative spark to get you going, these chats offer a way to find it.

1. #writetip: Need some helpful writing tips to hone your fiction? Here you’ll find advice aplenty, with new tweets posted to the chat every hour.
2. #writegoal: Setting goals for writing can be a very important part of actually getting a work done. Use this chat to share your goals and your successes as you move through the writing process.
3. #storystarters: We all need a little help with inspiration now and again, and this chat offers writers a chance to get story ideas and starters from other creative minds out there.
4. #wordcount: How far along is your story? Join in this chat to brag or bemoan your word count.
5. #wordathon: Similar to the #wordcount chat, this chat pushes tweeters to write, write, write.
6. #creativity: Get into your creative groove with a little help from the chat that goes on pretty continuously under this hashtag.

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Aric Brennan is a whisperer – a perfectly engineered human/alien hybrid, designed specifically to charm and seduce. When Lucy is stalked by his unearthly creators, she has no choice but to trust him to help her navigate a way through a horrifying reality – a reality filled with creatures which should really only exist in nightmares.

“…His face drew nearer, and I caught my breath at the closeness of such an impossibly perfect person. Despite every instinct which told me I was in danger, I couldn’t help but stare back at him, and be pulled into the spell he was weaving. The panic receded as I looked into his eyes and listened to the hypnotic timbre of his voice. The room filled with a strange buzz which permeated my body, vibrating and pulsing through every part of me. I didn’t care – I was still listening to his voice. Paralysis overtook me, but I had no will to fight it. The creatures moved closer and he backed away…”

In her debut novel of what she calls “spirited romance for the Jane Austen soul,” author Linore Rose Burkard tells the intriguing story of Miss Ariana Forsythe, a young woman caught between her love for a man who doesn’t share her faith and her resolution to marry only a fellow believer in Christ.

Trouble at home sends the young woman to her aunt’s townhome in the fashionable Mayfair district of London. There she finds worse troubles than those that prompted her flight from home. Ariana is soon neck–deep in high society and at odds with Mr. Phillip Mornay, London’s current darling rogue. Then a scandal changes Ariana forever. Her heart, her faith, and her future are all at stake in an unexpected adventure that gains even the Prince Regent’s attention.

Will Ariana’s faith survive this test? And what about her heart? For it’s Ariana’s heart that most threatens to betray the truths she has always believed in. When she finds herself backed against a wall, betrothed to the wrong young man, how can it ever turn out right?

Jane Austen readers and fans of Regency romances everywhere will love Before the Season Ends.

Miracles still happen in modern day New York when “Scrooge” (Nathaniel Danvers) meets “Heaven Can Wait” (Daphne), who has been sent to give him one last chance at redemption. ANGEL BE GOOD captures the essence of the classic Charles Dickens’ “A Christmas Carol” and offers a touch of humor and romance.

This fast-paced debut novel merges the medical with the political thriller, following an intrepid FDA scientist hot on the trail of a conspiracy that leads her through the corridors of power. The culprit: genetically engineered food that causes unexpected seizures and death. And the question of food safety is not fanciful fiction but a real-life issue currently on the front burner of the American consciousness.

In Capitol Reflections the culprit is coffee and the villains are corporate entrepreneurs and power-hungry, greedy government officials. The hero is a division chief in the Food and Drug Administration trying to uncover the truth about her friend’s sudden and unexplained death. Suspenseful and action-packed, Capitol Reflections is a riveting narrative that is sure to entertain readers even as they reach for their favorite cup of Joe and wonder, What if…

This well-loved classic won the RITA for romantic suspense.

Jobless, flat broke and itching for some new scenery, disc jockey Maddie Smith figures a trip to Nebraska to see what’s going on with her flaky, estranged sister is as good a plan as any. It seems that after a brief encounter with sexy reclusive Eddie Berlin, baby sister vanished without a trace.

Living in the shadow of ‘greatness’ can be a difficult thing. Just ask Desdemona Fortune.

When her father, the magnificent J. Caesar Fortune, is found murdered inside the offices of the Faculty of Art, there is no shortage of people who may have carried a grudge. From the lover who could not capture his affection to the colleagues whose efforts were repeatedly ignored, many resented the immensity of his literary success.

For though the ‘Man of Words’ is lying dead on a slab, his legacy will live on. But as Desdemona knows, the legacy of greatness can carry a heavy price.

In a household pummeled by the dual forces of addiction and narcissism, Desdemona must face the fact the father she loved has hurt those closest to him. Now, as the head of a once illustrious family, she must do whatever is necessary to save her one surviving sister from the far-reaching influence of an immortal.

If you live LONG enough… love (and danger) will find you.

A new family has just arrived in the isolated mountain town of Telluride, Colorado. Welcome the Johnstons – Jason (a doctor), Rachel (a designer), and their niece Emily (a current High School Senior).

Emily has lived the life of a quiet loner in the past, trying to go unnoticed. But with Telluride being such a small and welcoming town, she finds a group of friends at school almost immediately. When Emily meets Link (another new transplant in town) her world turns upside down. She doesn’t understand why she feels a magnetic pull toward him, or why she unknowingly lets her guard down around him. Link is just as confused by his own need to be with her.

Emily knows she is playing with fire. She should be doing whatever she can to keep herself isolated, to keep Link from getting too close. Danger has a way of finding Emily’s family – that is what keeps them on the move. They arrive in a new town every few years – it is safer that way.

Because… Emily isn’t really Emily… her real name is Charity – and Charity has an even bigger secret. Charity and her family are not like other people, they have “skills” that mere mortals cannot begin to comprehend.

Before long, Charity is struggling with the reality that her two lives are coming closer to each other with each passing day. Soon Link will find himself wrapped in a supernatural world that he never knew existed – and discover that mortals are not the only beings that walk this earth.

Meet dentist Brian Mallory. He’s always considered himself a grounded man. A rational man. A reasonable man. But what he finds in the mouth of nineteen year old Amy Gladwell one afternoon during a routine cleaning makes him begin to question his own sanity. It’s amazing how quickly everything can change in a a blink of an eye. **a short story**

There is a place where nightmares are real. It is a dark and terrifying place, hidden from the world we know, by borders that only the most unfortunate of souls will ever cross. James Halldon woke up in the dark, alone, without any food or water, without a clue where he was, and with no memory of where he came from. It only got stranger.

Tommy West was a brilliant academic, until a breakdown stopped him in his tracks 12 years ago. He has reinvented himself as a successful interior designer. His new life is comfortable, in every way, and safe. But life without the intellectual challenge is slowly suffocating him.

Charles Shaw is a world-famous professor of theology and sensualist: unpopular with all his colleagues, loathed by his ex-wife and, as of five minutes ago, dead.

As a student, Shaw was Tommy’s mentor. Now Tommy must draw on the professor for inspiration one more time in order to find his killer. But all he has to go on are a handful of papers for the controversial research the professor was working on when he died.

The unspeakable truth about the Professor’s death lies buried in the past: somewhere between the night his daughter was born – and her twin sister stillborn – and the day Tommy broke down. But for Tommy the past is a dangerous place, a long way from the safety he has so carefully built for himself. Can he find the answers before time, and his sanity, run out?

When the Betelgeuse message was detected, it changed a lot of things on Earth. We began to look seriously outward, not with the heady optimism of the early days, but with deliberate calculation. We knew that Someone was out there, and that eventually, they’d be coming. If Earth didn’t occupy the High Frontier, it could be ours to lose.

Esther “Star” Svensdotter’s job is overseeing the completion of the American Alliance’s first O’Neill cylinder — a massive space hab capable of supporting thousands of colonists. It’s just weeks away from commissioning, and she’ll be damned if Luddite terrorists, squabbling bureaucrats, military takeovers or rogue AIs will stand in the way. Frontier justice on Ellfive sometimes involves an airlock — you don’t want to be on the wrong side of justice. Or the wrong side of Star Svensdotter.

The first in Dana Stabenow’s Star Svensdotter trilogy, Second Star is a tale of first contact, declarations of independence, and new frontiers.

Percy’s father, a famous anthropologist, died in Africa four years ago; and Percy has taken on his father’s eyes to see the world as a brilliant Observer. He and his friend Elissa are fascinated by the ritualistic world called Grade Twelve: the Jock tribe; the Teacher tribe; the Born Again tribe; the Cool and Detached tribe; the Lipstick/Hairspray tribe, not to mention Mr. Verplaz, the Shaman.

For Percy it’s crucial to withdraw, analyze, and remain above it all. But waitÐhe’s studying real people, who complicate things. Like Elissa, the only person who can come close to him, maybe too close. The only person who knows how painful it was last year when their best friend Willard died. As graduation approaches, the looming ritual ratchets up Percy’s deepest, hidden feelings and reveals the truth about his father’s disappearance.

Dark Creations Part One is the first half of a paranormal romance novel about a genetically perfected boy created without emotion who falls in love with a classmate despite modifications made to his DNA. He must conceal his feelings to avoid the wrath of his maker who threatens to unleash his darkest creation

Sixteen-year-old mermaid Abby Carson thought her secret was under control. But when she witnesses a murder off the coast of Cape Cod, everything changes. Hiding in the water is a must. Getting seen by Brian Baker, a boy from school, isn’t. Neither is falling for him. Soon, Abby is pulled into a world of shades and monsters, and the only one she can hurt more than herself is the boy she loves.

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 Joseph, a man in his late thirties, awakens disoriented and uneasy in a place he doesn’t recognize. Several people are near him when he opens his eyes, all strangers. All of them seem perfectly friendly, but none of them can explain to him how he got there. They offer him a delicious meal and pleasant conversation in a beautifully decorated room. This would be a very nice experience if not for one thing: Joseph doesn’t know where he is and he has no way to contact his wife, who he is sure is worried sick over him. Thanking the people for their hospitality, he leaves to make his way back home. The only problem is that whatever happened to him has stripped him of most of his memories. He knows he needs to get back to his wife, but he doesn’t know how to find her. He sets out on a journey to find his home with no sense of where he’s going and only the precious, indelible vision of the woman he loves to guide him.

Antoinette is an elderly woman in an assisted living facility. She’s spent the last six years there since her husband died, and most of those years have been happy. She enjoys the company of others in her situation and her son comes to visit often. But in recent months, she’s had a tougher and tougher time leaving her room. Her friends seem different to her and the world seems increasingly confusing. She spends an escalating amount of time on a journey inside her head. There, her body and mind haven’t betrayed her. There, she’s a young newlywed with a husband who dotes on her and an entire life of dreams to live. There, she is truly home.

Warren, Antoinette’s son, is a man in his early forties going through the toughest year of his life. His marriage ended, he lost his job, and in the past few months, his mother has gone from hale to increasingly hazy. Having trouble finding work, he spends more and more time by his mother’s bedside. But her lack of lucidity both frustrates and frightens him. With far too much time on his hands, he decides to try to recreate his memories of home by attempting to cook his mother’s greatest dishes using the rudimentary appliances available in her room. He finds the challenge surprisingly rewarding, especially because the only time he feels his mother is truly with him anymore is when she is eating the meals he prepares for her.

Joseph, Antoinette, and Warren are three people on different searches for home. How they find it, and how they connect with one another at this critical stage in each of their lives, is the foundation for a profound and deeply moving story.

Coyote Crossing is a dusty little town in western Oklahoma, a sleepy little pit stop for truckers, not a lot going on. So a dead body in the middle of the street at midnight is quite an event. The chief of police wants all hands on deck, so he calls Toby Sawyer to come baby-sit the body.

Steven Ashton, a billionaire from New York, and Emily Grant, on the run from the law…and when they meet he can’t help falling for her. What he doesn’t know is that interfering in her life will put his own life in danger.

When billionaire Steven Ashton couldn’t stand his high society social life anymore, he left the stress of New York on a vacation for his soul. The need to meet real down to earth people led him to a small Nebraska town. He didn’t want to lie about who he was, but he couldn’t exactly tell them the truth.

Emily could have easily fallen in love with Steven, under different circumstances, but her past was catching up with her and she needed a new life. If the authorities found out about her, she could lose the one thing that meant everything, her four year old son.

Miranda Fenster was known as the Fairy Tale Miss during the one disastrous London season that convinced her she would never have a happily-ever-after. But when her brother’s love match is thwarted by the impossibly proper Duke of Kerstone, Miranda sets off to convince the duke to champion her brother’s cause for love. Unfortunately, he is too proper to consider love a suitable reason for marriage, and too proper not to marry Miranda when they find themselves compromised. Now, Miranda has a second chance for happily-ever-after, if she can uncover her new husband’s darkest secret.

Everybody in her family and in the Gulf Coast town of Fairhope views Gilly as a woman whose life is plain and simple, one who has been content to spoil her great-niece Ann while living out her days in Windchime House. Only her best friend Margaret knows the heroic story of Gilly Debeau.

When Ann’s Christmas gift of wind chimes catapults Gilly back in time, she finds herself seated at the café Parisiene, having tea with her Papa and enjoying her eighteenth birthday gift – passage on the maiden voyage of the Titanic. As the string quintet entertains the passengers, Gilly can’t take her eyes off the handsome, talented violinist from West Yorkshire. Under William’s spell, she falls for both the music and the musician. But does an over-protected, unsophisticated girl from Alabama dare defy convention in order to become a woman? And how will she ever explain to Papa that she is planning a future with a man she’s known only three days?

On April 14, 1912, Gilly is wrenched away from everything and everyone she loves. Can she survive the icy Atlantic? Can William? Can their love survive a lifetime and beyond?

Two guys, one girl, and two dark secrets that threaten to tear her world apart.

Alice Wright is a young vampire going to high school for the first time at the age of seventeen at the behest of her eccentric mother. In many ways, she’s more afraid of the human students than they would be of her.

She feels lost and awkward in human society, but she soon develops a strong bond with the cousin of one of her human classmates, nineteen year old Kai. He is beautiful, but somewhat of an enigma. She discovers a dark secret in Kai’s life, and she instantly wants to shelter him from the pain that has tormented him all his life.

Then she meets Maksim Augustine, the incredibly gorgeous guy who seems more like he should be a model than a high school student. She is overwhelmingly attracted to him physically, but her love for Kai causes her to continually push him away. Eventually, she discovers a frightening secret about Max, too.

But Max’s secret threatens to destroy everything…

Gabriella’s past is a mystery, but that never stopped her from achieving her goals. As a supernatural specialist, and far more intelligent than anyone her age, she has always been ignored by her peers. Because of the isolation she has always felt, she put her life and soul into her job. Being a supernatural specialist hasn’t given her the divine intervention she always longed for, until one day a shipment arrives from Italy containing three dead bodies with an uncanny ability to regenerate. Gabriella is frightened and intrigued, but not as scared as she becomes when a dark creature attacks her.

As the bodies come back to life, the plot takes an unexpected twist that you won’t see coming. The supernatural world only begins to unfold before her as angels appear, her dreams start to haunt her, and the very past she has forgotten comes back with startling clarity. Romance blooms, escape plans are made, an assassin is out to kill her, and death is only around the corner. But what is more terrifying than all of it is the fact she is the chosen one, the Illuminator, the one who will save them all.

Every man has a little beast inside…every woman longs to tame him. Where will you be when the beast roars for you?

The quintisential geek, Vana had never had a lover.
The ultimte warrior, Dagon had never had a wife.
Thanks to a rift in space, she’s about to become both.

Joe Holiday, an ex Metro cop, finds himself dragged into an investigation by Mia, an IHOP waitress. The probing they do into the murder of Mia’s sister years earlier turns into a deadly manhunt with Joe and Mia suddenly becoming the targets of a vicious plot.

After 7 years in prison for a crime he didn’t commit, Kellen Malone rode into Redhawk… and death rode with him! Clay Adkins had stolen his wife, his son and his ranch. But now that Kellen was free, he was coming back for overdue justice … with a vengeance!

Flea has always been different: he has a pointy nose, pointy chin and pointy ears, one of which is split down the middle. He has an inexplicable ability to build whatever he wants in shop class in the matter of seconds and can melt snowballs in midflight. He learns that he’s a Christmas elf but when he travels to the North Pole, he learns that he’s not normal there either.

A red-eyed assassin, an unready princess, a sadistic politician, and an adulterous queen all desire the secret behind a magical dust known as safra. Safra is said to bring happiness, but these characters’ quest to obtain it will bring three great nations to the brink of warfare.

As the only male witch enrolled in magic studies, Seiran Rou deals with harassment and indifference on a daily basis. When his on-campus job proves to be too much, he quits and turns to the only person he can handle asking for help—Gabe, vampire, bar owner, and Sei’s occasional lover.

Sei had never seen himself as a waiter, but he’s willing to do just about anything to stay in his apartment, as long as it means he doesn’t have to involve his overbearing mother, Tanaka Rou.

He takes the opportunity that Gabe gives him, and with the help of the waitress who’s training him, he learns that his natural assets are more than enough to win anybody over.

ONLY AVAILABLE UNTIL NOVEMBER 18TH  – use the coupon code EY97Y

Sam thinks she’s months away from freedom. After spending her life in a secret school, rented out to the rich and powerful as a paranormal spy, she is ready to head to college like any normal eighteen-year-old.

Only Sam isn’t normal. She reads minds. And just before her big going-away party, she links to the mind of a young man who changes everything.
Drake wasn’t raised as a ‘Rent-A-Kid.’ He was kidnapped and taken there by force. But his exceptional physical strength and powers of mind control make him very dangerous, especially to Sam.

When they meet, Sam is forced to face the truth of her situation, and to acknowledge that not all is as it seems in her picture-perfect world. For what awaits her on her eighteenth birthday isn’t a trip to college, but an unexpected nightmare from which she may not be able to escape.

To survive, they must work together.

But will their powers be enough to save them before it’s too late?

Not really into comic books or don’t know if this is something you would enjoy? How about a sneak peak at what they look at to help you decide.

Below are the first 6 pages from the 1st edition.  Happy Reading!

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House of Night #1 (Jenny Frison cover)

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Seventeen-year-old Tucker Ellison wants a normal life, but life in Springdale is anything but normal. As if ghost trains and unsolved murders aren’t enough, he is falling in love with Ellen, an art class weirdo who has her finger on the pulse of small town strangeness. Following Ellen’s lead, Tucker quickly tumbles into a world he never imagined–a world which threatens the safety of those closest to him.

In Angel Ridge, Tennessee, not much goes on around town in the winter. After Christmas, folks usually hunker down and wait for spring to come to the Smokey Mountains. But given recent events, which included a bombing and newspaper publisher Jenny Thompson’s disappearance, people in town are understandably on edge. Now Jenny’s in hiding on a nearby mountain, waiting for trouble to catch up with her and none too sure it hasn’t, when reclusive mountain man Cord Goins comes to her rescue. Stuck between a beginning and an ending, both she and Cord feel powerless to control the dangerous situation they’ve found themselves in, along with the unexpected consequences of falling in love.

Encountering the kind of wildlife that made him want to be a photographer in the first place, Remington James gets some of the best shots of his life, but he’s about to happen upon the most dangerous animal of all – a feral, patient, sociopath who wants Remington dead.

Alice knows something about the freedom of reinvention-it makes those tough years in the past a little easier to bear. So when she meets Clayton, she understands why he wants to shrug off his old life. Their unlikely friendship seems stable-until Alice discovers Clayton has betrayed her in the worst possible way. With a gift for believable characters, Erica James deftly tackles infidelity, bereavement, and family breakdown, and her blend of sparkling wit and real emotional power has her poised to take over the States.

The gold standard in Florida crime fiction was established by John D. MacDonald with his color-coded Travis McGee series back in the 1960s and 1970s. More recently, it’s often been said—and meant as a high compliment—that Randy Wayne White’s Doc Ford was the closest successor to McGee. Well, move over Doc because H. Terrell Griffin’s Matt Royal may be cut in even more of the McGee mold. Royal is a former Green Beret and former lawyer living in Sarasota (where McDonald resided), though this adventure, which involves finding his ex-wife’s missing stepdaughter, takes place on Blood Island in the Florida Keys (where McGee occasionally moored his houseboat). Royal displays the mixture of street smarts, physical prowess, and hypersensitivity that made McGee a paperback icon. Some of MacDonald’s less admirable features, such as amazingly lethal old friends who pop up when the plot requires their presence, also find their way into Blood Island; but even so, this is a thoroughly entertaining, old-school Florida mystery novel that fans of the region and the genre will love. –Steve Glassman

Eighteen-year-old Astrid Bjorklund has always dreamed of becoming a doctor. She had intended to study medicine in Chicago or Grand Forks, but when a disaster wiped out a major portion of her family’s income, Astrid stayed home instead, receiving hands-on training from Dr. Elizabeth.

Joshua Landsverk left Blessing two years ago, but he’s never forgotten Astrid. Returning to town, he seeks to court her. Astrid is attracted to him, and when the opportunity unexpectedly opens for her to go to Chicago for medical training, she finds it difficult to leave. Love blossoms through their letters, but upon arriving back home, she makes a heartbreaking discovery. Will she have to give up love to pursue her dream?

In Victorian Texas, Christina Delaney stirs up scandal when she befriends unsavory characters while offering her special recipe of Texas Red for sale in the town square. After she’s crowned Chili Queen of San Antonio, her socially prominent family has had enough. They ship her off to live with her grandfather on his grand English estate, hoping he’ll be able to transform her from independent chili queen to cool, controlled countess.

Cole Morgan would do anything for Christina’s mother, Elizabeth, even escort her incorrigible daughter across the Atlantic. Besides, he has his own business in England. Cole needs to locate the missing copy of the Republic of Texas’ Declaration of Independence. But when an English lord offers Christina marriage, Cole faces the fact that the girl he grew up with is now the woman he desires. He sets out to prove to Chrissy that she doesn’t want a life of luxury in England. What Christina Delaney wants–what she needs–is a modest home deep in the heart of Texas with the only man who can make the Chili Queen…Simmer All Night.

A grisly murder case takes Jake Lassiter from the beaches of Miami to the slopes of Aspen in the greatest challenge yet for the linebacker-turned-lawyer.Lassiter helps Blinky Baroso beat a fraud rap, then gets stiffed for his fee. Not only that, when an associate ends up dead, Lassiter is the prime suspect. If he doesn’t find the killer, he’ll face a murder charge.The trail leads to a search for buried treasure under the Colorado ski slopes. With his 12-year-old delinquent nephew in tow, Lassiter encounters the twin dangers of a mysterious ex-girlfriend and a rancher who’s handy with a nail gun and will kill anyone between him and a priceless artifact of the Old West.

Cute as a pink Persian kitten, this scamper of a romance is populated by a whimsical cast of characters: Humphrey the baby dragon, Obo the talking cat, a villainous vizier, a cross-dressing High Master genie, the Egyptian goddess Bastet, and a hunky carpenter. Centuries-old genie Eden (her name one of several nods to the book’s namesake TV show) escapes her bottle only to fall for Matt Ewing, the handsome jogger she’s been watching from her glass prison’s position in the window of Murphy’s Antiques. When Eden’s magic malfunctions, the nonstop cinematic gee-whiz results will keep the reader enraptured. Fennell (Catch of a Lifetime) also tosses in sultry sex scenes, a bubble-gum sweet but passionate romance, quick-moving action, and a variety of puns and riddle-making beasts, many of which are sure to reappear in the two planned sequels

Set in South Florida, this middling thriller from Bruns (Barbados Heat) never quite manages to persuade the reader to buy into its concept. Best friends Skip Moore and James Lessor have partnered in various hare-brained schemes since grade school, but their latest lands them in the midst of murder and international intrigue. After Lessor gets Moore to join him in a moving business, the pair are hired by an attractive divorcee, Jackie Fuentes, to haul away the possessions her ex-husband, Rick, left behind. That routine assignment turns into something quite different when they accidentally open one of Rick’s letters and find a severed finger inside, a discovery that enmeshes them in a plot by Cuban exiles to topple Castro. A prose style that falls short of the standard set by such chroniclers of the Florida crime scene as Carl Hiaasen and Tim Dorsey fails to compensate for a plot that on the improbabilities.

The year is 1945. The war is over and 21-year-old Betty Lake has been invited to Europe to sing in a USO tour for American soldiers who now occupy Hitler’s Germany. The first night’s performance is a hit. Betty becomes enthralled with the applause, the former Nazi-held mansion they’re housed in and the attention of Frank Witt, the US Army Signal Corps Photographer. Yet the next night this songbird is ready to fly the coop when Betty’s dear friend, Kat, turns up missing. Betty soon realizes Frank’s photographs could be the key to finding Kat. Betty and Frank team up against post-war Nazi influences and the two lovebirds’ hearts may find the answers…in each other. But will they have a chance for their romance to sing? The truth will be revealed under a German moon.

‘I fear nobody. But my enemies fear me . . . Without ruthlessness and savagery I would not survive even a week of the life I lead. I am the witch assassin of the Malkin clan.’Meet Grimalkin the fearsome witch assassin and find out how she came to take the role she now holds.This exclusive digital short story set in the world of Joseph Delaney’s best-selling series The Wardstone Chronicles first appeared in the spine-tingling collection The Spook’s Stories: Witches. Now available separately for the first time and including a preview of the first chapter of I Am Grimalkin this is perfect for existing fans and newcomers alike. The only question is are you brave enough . . .

Allie calls it her New York jinx. Already she’s had to deal with her boyfriend’s obnoxious band groupies, a stalker leaving cryptic notes, having to watch a seer get tasered. She also keeps running into this weird cop who’s got some kind of issue with her. But when she’s targeted by a religious cult for an end of the world ritual, her visit goes from annoying to quite probably fatal.

The werewolf king Gorgoza is dead leaving the west in turmoil. With the king’s passing it is only a matter of time before someone has claimed the western empire for themselves, leaving the east ripe for invasion. But all hope is not yet lost for Cada Varl the Immortal, the being responsible for the creation of the werewolves may know of a way to destroy them once and for all.

“He looked down at the dead man’s blood seeping across the carpet, and decided it wasn’t time for cocktails.” A stormy night: Paul Brightland needs a specialist to find the men who attacked his daughter. St Cloud needs Brightland’s money and a chance to forget his troubles. But soon, as he is dragged into London’s underworld, he will discover his troubles are only just beginning…

Peace and tranquility on the island of Aster, home to both humans and merfolk’, has long been broken by a devastating phenomenon, recurring every five years. A storm including gusting winds and huge waves mysteriously appeared and eradicated much of the population. Secrets, intense emotions and strange phenomena will upset their lives forever.

Life jumps the rails, runs away from you and there’s no catching it up. Not ever. A free short story from Iain Rowan, winner of the Derringer Award for best short crime story. “I mean it,” the gunman shrieked, and he pointed the revolver at Ward, the end of the barrel moving in tiny circles with the shaking of his hands. “I mean it. One step closer…”

Here are just 5 of the recommended books that I couldn’t help but agree with. Happy Reading!

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Recommended By: Susan Summers

When the Creeds move into a beautiful old house in rural Maine, it all seems too good to be true: physician father, beautiful wife, charming little daughter, adorable infant son — and now an idyllic home. As a family, they’ve got it all…right down to the friendly cat.

But the nearby woods hide a blood-chilling truth — more terrifying than death itself…and hideously more powerful.

Recommended By: Neal Hock from Bookhound’s Den

Tommy O’Brien once hoped to leave his run-down industrial hometown. But marriage and fatherhood have kept him running in place, working a job that doesn’t even pay the bills. And now he seems fated to stay for the rest of his life. Tommy’s just learned he’s going to die young–and soon. But he refuses to leave his family with less than nothing–especially now that he has nothing to lose.

Over a couple of beers with his best friends, John and Sherm, Tommy launches a bold scheme to provide for his family’s future. And though his plan will spin shockingly out of control, it will throw him together with a child whose touch can heal–and whose ultimate lesson is that there are far worse things than dying.

Recommended By: Emily Bridges

Past midnight, Chyna Shepard, twenty-six, gazes out a moonlit window, unable to sleep on her first night in the Napa Valley home of her best friend’s family. Instinct proves reliable. A murderous sociopath, Edgler Foreman Vess, has entered the house, intent on killing everyone inside. A self-proclaimed “homicidal adventurer,” Vess lives only to satisfy all appetites as they arise, to immerse himself in sensation, to live without fear, remorse or limits, to live with intensity. Chyna is trapped in his deadly orbit.

Chyna is a survivor, toughened by a lifelong struggle for safety and self-respect. Now she will be tested as never before. At first her sole aim is to get out alive—until, by chance, she learns the identity of Vess’s next intended victim, a faraway innocent only she can save. Driven by a newly discovered thirst for meaning beyond mere self-preservation, Chyna musters every inner resource she has to save an endangered girl…as moment by moment, the terrifying threat of Edgler Foreman Vess intensifies.

Recommended By: Tony Valente & Sarah Scott

A promise made twenty-eight years ago calls seven adults to reunite in Derry, Maine, where as teenagers they battled an evil creature that preyed on the city’s children. Unsure that their Losers Club had vanquished the creature all those years ago, the seven had vowed to return to Derry if IT should ever reappear. Now, children are being murdered again and their repressed memories of that summer return as they prepare to do battle with the monster lurking in Derry’s sewers once more.

Recommended By: Ann Simon (author of Jaguar Sees: The Lacquer Box)

The time is now.

We are in a small room with the vampire, face to face, as he speaks, as he pours out the hypnotic, shocking, moving, and erotically charged confessions of his first two hundred years as one of the living dead. . .

He speaks quietly, plainly, even gently . . . carrying us back to the night when he departed human existence as heir–young, romantic, cultivated–to a great Louisiana plantation, and was inducted by the radiant and sinister Lestat into the other, the “endless,” life . . . learning first to sustain himself on the blood of cocks and rats caught in the raffish streets of New Orleans, then on the blood of human beings . . . to the years when, moving away from his final human ties under the tutelage of the hated yet necessary Lestat, he gradually embraces the habits, hungers, feelings of vampirism: the detachment, the hardened will, the “superior” sensual pleasures.

He carries us back to the crucial moment in a dark New Orleans street when he finds the exquisite lost young child Claudia, wanting not to hurt but to comfort her, struggling against the last residue of human feeling within him . . .

We see how Claudia in turn is made a vampire–all her passion and intelligence trapped forever in the body of a small child–and how they arrive at their passionate and dangerous alliance, their French Quarter life of opulence: delicate Grecian statues, Chinese vases, crystal chandeliers, a butler, a maid, a stone nymph in the hidden garden court . . . night curving into night with their vampire senses heightened to the beauty of the world, thirsting for the beauty of death–a constant stream of vulnerable strangers awaiting them below . . .

We see them joined against the envious, dangerous Lestat, embarking on a perilous search across Europe for others like themselves, desperate to discover the world they belong to, the ways of survival, to know what they are and why, where they came from, what their future can be . . .

We follow them across Austria and Transylvania, encountering their kind in forms beyond their wildest imagining . . . to Paris, where footsteps behind them, in exact rhythm with their own, steer them to the doors of the Théâtre des Vampires–the beautiful, lewd, and febrile mime theatre whose posters of penny-dreadful vampires at once mask and reveal the horror within . . . to their meeting with the eerily magnetic Armand, who brings them, at last, into intimacy with a whole brilliant and decadent society of vampires, an intimacy that becomes sudden terror when they are compelled to confront what they have feared and fled . . .

In its unceasing flow of spellbinding storytelling, of danger and flight, of loyalty and treachery, Interview with the Vampire bears witness of a literary imagination of the first order.

Blood Alley by David Wisehart (Horror)   Read

Scriber by Ben S Dobson (Fantasy)   Read

Sweet Tea and Secrets by Nancy Naigle (Suspense)   Read

Where Dreams are Born by Joyce DeBacco (Chick-Lit)   Read

Hellbait by Lisa Scullard (Zombie/Horror)   Read

Hardball by V.K. Sykes (Contemporary Romance)   Read

Dagon’s Blood by Virginia Lee (Action/Adventure)   Read

In The Blood by Steve Robinson (Crime/Mystery)   Read

Etchings of Power by Terry C Simpson (Fantasy)   Read

Vampyres: The Legend of Graystone Manor by Lisa McCourt Hollar (Paranormal)   Read

Eulogy’s Secret by Grace Elliot (Historical Romance)   Read

The Forever Girl by Rebecca Hamilton (Paranormal)   Read

Diavolino by Steve Emmett (Supernatural Thriller/Horror)   Read

Call of the Jaguar by Pamela Beason (Romance/Suspence)  Read

The Chronicles of Augustus Seton by William Meikle (Highlander Fantasy)   Read

Eleven by Carolyn Arnold (Thriller)   Read

Find Me by Linda S Prather (Psychic Thriller)   Read

The Ranch Next Door by Elisabeth Grace Foley (Western Fiction)   Read

The Crying Pennant by Stephen Jennison-Smith (Fantasy Humor)   Read

Resort Debauch by Roxanne Smolen (Sci-Fi/Romance)  Read