Others are only too real in this modern-day thriller set amid the chaos of a global epidemic and a cultural uprising that set the world ablaze. She's Lucky one day-Jackie the next. Actress or con artist? Avenging angel or gold-digger? Hunter or prey? Straight or lesbian? Black Lives Matter activist? Only she knows the truth. Or does she? Controversial? No doubt. And all the while-the pandemic kills.

    Denied a privileged life, she is caught in the devious grip of an international trafficking ring. Confronted by the ultimate depravity of this underworld, she escapes, only for it to haunt her relationships, her future, her world.Ava’s former captors, Jeffrey Hoffman and his network of global elites, hold every option in keeping their secrets, silencing anyone who steps out of line. But Ava pursues them nonetheless.Only one woman, an accomplice in Hoffman’s criminal trade, might provide the closure Ava desperately seeks. Will she track her down? And will Ava get from her what she needs to resolve the ravages of the past?

    One at Bailey Hill and the other one was York Castle which has since become known as "Clifford's Tower." The original castles were constructed of timber. They were burned down by the people around York and their Danish Viking allies.Richard the First was the son of King Henry II and gained fame by his courage, becoming known as Richard the Lion Heart and who presided over the apparent massacre of Jews at the keep of York Castle in England.The Normans replaced it with a second timber castle keep which was destroyed in a storm in 1228. After that, the stone structure was built, and that still stands today. It was built of stone and is called Clifford's Tower because King Edward II had Baron de Clifford hanged from the battlements of the Keep of York Castle for treason in 1322 A.D.... [From the back cover]

    Iola meets Jim Lewis, who never served in the war but contributed in his own way to the war effort. They marry in post-war Philadelphia and raise a family against the backdrop of the paranoid era of McCarthyism. Their differences and a need for fulfillment propels them away from each other. Illicit liaisons and grief bring them life-changing insights.

    In the far west, Princess Isemay yearns for much more than frilly dresses and etiquette classes. While her twin sister, Alena, prepares for life as a monarch in a neighboring kingdom, Isemay roams the woods with her loyal cheetah, hunting dagger strapped to her belt. It's only when two surprising visitors arrive at the castle that Isemay must come to terms with her royal future - and a secret magical heritage. Now engaged to the king of the east, Isemay prepares for a position she never wanted.After saying good-bye to all that she loves, Princess Alena travels north in trepidation - fully prepared to marry a spoiled prince she does not desire and usurp the throne from his insane father who does not deserve it. But when tragedy strikes at her wedding ceremony and she is wrongfully imprisoned, she can only hope that her hurried plea for help will reach her father in time.Frantic to save her sister - and against the wishes of her betrothed - Isemay joins the army sent to free Alena. A mysterious encounter with a dragon in disguise leaves her with a warning that her life is in danger - but can it save her from the battle to come?

    He sees another man hunting nearby, astounded that they look exactly alike. After following this other man home, he witnesses a wife and child that brings forth a rush of memories of his own wife and child, except he's certain they do not exist in modern times-but from his life in the late 1800s. After recalling his name is Wyatt, he worms his way into his doppelganger Travis Barlow's life. Memories become unearthed the more time he spends, making him believe that he'd been frozen after coming to Alaska during the Gold Rush and that Travis is his great-great grandson. Wyatt is certain gold still exists in the area and finding it with Travis will ingratiate himself to the family, especially with Travis's wife Callie, once Wyatt falls in love. This turns into a dangerous obsession affecting the Barlows and everyone in their small town, since Wyatt can't be tamed until he also discovers the meaning of why he was able to be preserved on ice for over a century.A meditation on love lost and unfulfilled dreams, The Ancestor is a thrilling page-turner in present day Alaska and a historical adventure about the perilous Gold Rush expeditions where prospectors left behind their lives for the promise of hope and a better future. The question remains whether it was all worth the sacrifice….

    The theme of the Fantasies is Law and Order and the author and the good guys always win. In a few places, it is quite tame. In most of the others, it is twisted, gruesome, bloody, and void of any empathy. Read at your own peril, but remember, it is mainly a book of fiction, and no one really dies. This book is not a template for murder, but the thoughts do arise in the mind of the author and as far as the author knows, someone can not be put away for their thoughts.

    But a blunt nurse explains the truth: Emily is giving birth. The seventeen-year-old has tricked her mind and body into believing she isn’t pregnant, when the baby is full term and already being born.A life-affirming, feel-good story of love, family and the special way new babies can inspire, Making Hearts introduces a character readers will strongly care about and root for. Noelle wins the hearts of all with her loving enthusiasm for life, her wit, and by personally defeating the villain’s lowdown scheme in an astonishing climax readers will never forget.

    After losing her job when the Garmin factory shuts down, Nonie is left with major money issues—as in, she has none. Desperate, she has to turn to the one place she’s avoided working since dropping out of college--her family’s funeral home.It wasn’t that Nonie feared the dead. In fact the opposite was true. She sees them—literally, and had been seeing the dead ever since she can remember. She tried telling her parents about it when she was a child, but they’d vehemently dismissed it to imaginary friends, so she’d stopped talking about it. There were only two people who actually knew Nonie’s secret and knew she was the real deal. One was Buggy Mouton, her best friend since kindergarten, and the other was Guy Skinard, whom Nonie considered her one true love since the day she’d laid eyes on him in high school. Buggy now worked at MeeMaw’s Café off of Main in Clay Point, and Guy, as usual, remained ever at her side—the only difference being he’d died in a freak boating accident nine years ago. Still the prankster even in death, Guy loved causing chaos, especially with men Nonie occasionally dated. She could only imagine what mayhem he might stir up while mirroring her at the funeral home and mingling with the newly departed.Only hours into the first day of her new job, pandemonium engulfs the funeral home, and much to Nonie’s surprise, it has nothing to do with Guy. It’s brought on by the family they’re serving. Seventy-two–year-old Dover Fontenot, the Major of Clay Point, dies in a car accident after indulging in a little extra-curricular activity—only the activity wasn’t with his wife , Hazel. And when Dover’s mistress, Anna Mae Turner, shows up at the funeral home for the visitation hell’s gates rip open and Broussard’s Funeral Home suddenly turns into a geriatric war zone.Amidst the flying hairpieces, canes and curses, Nonie’s best friend, Buggy, decides to drop by the funeral home with news she can’t wait to share. A cable network in New Orleans wants to put together a paranormal investigation team and have them check out purported haunted locations in Louisiana. For every location with solid filming potential, each member of the team gets a five hundred dollar pay check. And Buggy knows without question that if anyone can sniff out the ‘restless’ dead, it’s Nonie.Knowing nothing about paranormal investigation, but lured by the sound of the adventure and the dollar signs circling through her head, Nonie agrees to become part of the Boo Krewe, the name Buggy has formally given the makeshift team.The lure of money may be one thing, but what Nonie doesn’t realize is that occasionally the dead, so excited that someone can actually see and hear them, decide to follow her home, into her bed—the bathroom—the shower. And adding to this new-found frustration, Nonie barely finishes her first investigation when she gets a visit from Anna Mae Turner—the mayor’s former mistress—now dead, as well, and harassingly insistent that Nonie bring her killer to light.Nonie quickly learns that the ‘gift’ she’s carried since birth is really a giant wart on the butt of life—and no amount of Compound W is going to make it go away!

    It is a Pandoras box of emotions, situations, opportunities, and failures, all wrapped into a package we call life. Nobody is immune, but everyone has the opportunity to grow tall or wither like a flower in harsh light. Its completely up to us how we choose to respond. Finding Hope in the Darkness of Grief is a gleaning of insights from artist Diamante Lavender. For her, life has been a long, difficult road, but it has taught many poignant lessons. Her poetry collection is an exploration of the human soul, a traversing of situations that life throws at us. Diamante has always been intrigued by the ability to overcome and move on to bigger and better things. She writes to encourage hope and possibility in those who read her stories. If she can help others heal, as she has, then Diamantes work as an author and artist will have been well spent. She believes that everyone should try to leave a positive mark on the world, to make it a better place for all. Writing is the way that she is attempting to leave her markone story at a time.

    Her police internship would never prove more useful. Hoofing it through the wilderness, she makes it to her university dorm, disheveled but delightfully deflowered.Enter a full vampire: one wielding dark magic and a ride out of Canada. A fugitive from the law, Karo complies with his demands to escape, unsure whether his requests are bewitched. She vows to clear her name and avenge her mother's death, but Karo's family secrets aren't so easily left behind.

    Most teenagers feel unnoticed and unseen, but for Zylia, it's something much worse. She's disappearing from this world and doesn't know how to stop it. At times, she's not sure she wants to. Until she stumbles across a family mystery surrounding the disappearance of her great-aunt Angelica years earlier. During her quest to unravel the mystery, Zylia discovers she's able to cross the boundary and enter the "in between" world. Now, it's up to Zylia to save herself before she's trapped "in between" forever.

    But Tsula Walker, Special Agent with the National Park Service’s Investigative Services Branch, isn’t so sure.Tsula’s investigation will lead her deep into the park and face-to-face with a group of lethal men on a mission to reclaim a historic homestead. The encounter will irretrievably alter the lives of all involved and leave Tsula fighting for survival – not only from those who would do her harm, but from a looming winter storm that could prove just as deadly.A finely crafted literary thriller, Twentymile delivers a propulsive story of long-held grievances, new hopes, and the contentious history of the land at its heart.PRAISE FOR TWENTYMILE:"[A] taut, page-turning thriller . . ." --Atlanta Journal-Constitution"In C. Matthew Smith’s engrossing novel Twentymile, a park service biologist turns up dead in the Great Smoky Mountains National Park, and discord regarding annexed land fuels a treacherous chase....a disturbing, potent thriller about ownership and trespassing, as well as unrealized dreams and aggression." --Foreword Reviews"Twentymile is packed with everything I love: A strong, female character; a wilderness setting; gripping storytelling; masterful writing. . . I loved every word. A beautiful and brutal and extraordinary debut." --Diane Les Becquets, bestselling author of Breaking Wild and The Last Woman in the Forest"Original, intelligent. . . Twentymile is an accomplished first novel from a talented and fully-formed writer." --James McLaughlin, Edgar Award winning author of Bearskin“Twentymile is a moody, atmospheric tale of family, vengeance, and anger too-long held, all set in the heart of the Great Smoky Mountains. Ultimately, it is the story of reaching for- discovering and recovering- home, and how such a complicated yearning can play out on both sides of the law." --Steph Post, author of Miraculum, Lightwood, and A Tree Born Crooked​"Smith’s spellbinding debut takes readers on a murderous journey through the backwoods of Great Smoky Mountains National Park. . . A thrilling and evocative tale." --Scott Graham, National Outdoor Book Award-winning author of Canyonlands Carnage"A highly enjoyable read suited best to those who like their thrillers to simmer for awhile before erupting in a blizzard of action and unpredictability with a future promise of grander adventures." --Kashif Hussain, Best Thriller Books"C. Matthew Smith's gripping tale centers around the history of our public lands and the people who use and protect them. Twentymile is a tremendously entertaining first novel from a writer who knows how to spin a good yarn." --Rob Phillips, bestselling author of The Cascade Killer, Cascade Vengeance, and Cascade Predator

    The Kovid family, who live somewhere in the Eastern US make the best of it through planned shopping maneuvers, family togetherness at dinner time and the TV set. Mom and Dad Kovid have three sons aged 17, 16 and 13. The middle son has a sweetheart named 'Amber', who at the beginning of the quarantine is a patient on a hospital ship, and is dying from COVID-19, when a miracle takes place.

    With no grown-ups around to take care of them, the other kids simply spend their days drinking Silly Juice while playing meaningless games without a care in the world. But unlike them, she has never felt like she has truly belonged. It is not until Harmonia discovers a secret like none other that her life changes forever. For on the far side of the sun sits a planet like none other, a place called Eidos. Joined by runaways from Sky, along with the infamous Captain Jessi and her makeshift crew, they set off across the endless seas of space.Yet before they can reach Eidos, a long journey awaits young Harmonia and her friends. Between a broken planet, a maniacal woman bent on bringing them back, and the sheer boredom, they have a long journey ahead of them. But in the end, Harmonia just might find a place she can finally call home.