This is the Lucy Stone holiday short that was included in Gingerbread Cookie Murder.

    Silvia Metzger feels deep down that her days could be numbered. Following the stirring inside her soul, Silvia leaves her faculty position as a university professor in search of peace and tranquility. She relocates to Lancaster County in Pennsylvania, renting a tiny cabin on the farm of an elderly Amish couple. Meanwhile, the couple's neighbor, eligible bachelor Joseph Zook, has been doing what he can to help out with the farmwork despite having a lame foot. He wonders if his disability is partly why he's been unable to win the heart of an Amish woman. As Silvia settles into her new surroundings, she realizes that this community's ways are exactly what she's been looking for and makes a life-changing decision to become Amish. And when Silvia meets Joseph, God plants a seed that could grow into something beautiful. Experience the incredible power of love and second chances in this charming prequel to Silvia's Rose.

    There she meets Marta Bayer, a mysterious lay-midwife who desperately needs help after an Amish client and her baby die.Lexie steps in to assume Marta’s patient load even as she continues the search for her birth family, and from her patients she learns the true meaning of the Pennsylvania Dutch word demut, which means “to let be” as she changes from a woman who wants to control everything to a woman who depends on God.A compelling story about a search for identity and the ability to trust that God securely holds our whole life—past, present, and future.

    Centuries later, as the day nears, Myrad, a young magi acolyte, flees for his life when his adoptive father and others are put to death by a ruthless Parthian queen.Having grabbed only a few possessions, Myrad escapes the city, and searching for a way to hide from the soldiers scouring the trade routes, he tries to join the caravan of the merchant Walagash. The merchant senses that Myrad is hiding secrets, but when the young man proves himself a valuable traveler, an epic journey filled with peril, close escapes, and dangerous battles begins.With every day that passes, the calendar creeps closer to the coming Messiah. And over everything shines the dream of a star that Myrad can’t forget and the promise that the world will never be the same.

    But after two broken engagements, she's content to forget romance and run her Christmas shop in Jingle Bells, Arkansas. She thinks her biggest fear is making it down the aisle as maid of honor in her best friend's Christmas wedding, with at least one ex-fiancé looking on. But when her beloved Jingle Bells is threatened, Kristianna struggles to sort through her jumbled feelings concerning the handsome lawyer hired to change the town name and her childhood sweetheart who has returned just in time to come to her aid. Will her heart discover the truth before both her town and her Christmas spirit is extinguished?

    First published as e-originals, they are now available in one volume and in print for the first time

    Bricker. -- the perfect gift to yourself or someone else at this most wonderfully stressful time of year. In "Once Upon a Jingle Bell", a Bah! Humbug cruise to the Mexican Riviera is Joss Snow's answer to this year's quest to avoid the holidays completely; at least until she's rebooked on a different kind of cruise altogether. Candy canes, holly wreaths, reindeer and ornaments seem to be stalking her on the 12 Days of Christmas holiday cruise extravaganza. An escape back to land is her only goal . . . until she meets a kindred spirit in rugged Irishman Patrick Brenneman, and then the game is on! Avoid Christmas festivities at all costs . . . except maybe for that one stop under the mistletoe. In "It Came Upon a Midnight Deer", Reese's guilt over abandoning best friend Joss on their holiday tradition of avoiding all things Christmas is trumped by the joy of her recent engagement. Meeting Damian's family for the first time on idyllic Sugarloaf Mountain is about as far from that Bah! Humbug cruise as she can get, and Reese can hardly wait to get there. But from the moment they hit that deer in the road just two miles from the cabin, everything seems to go wrong. There are no drummers drumming or pipers piping this particular year! And once she sets her future in-laws' family cabin ablaze, she's pretty sure there won't be even ONE golden ring in her future.

    She and her two young children must now face a holiday season filled with so many reminders of what they've lost. But when a coworker who’s raising his young nephew moves next door, Rae discovers that the support of a good friend, and the gift of a child, can bring back some of the joy of the season.

    When he rescues her from the snow and takes her into his home, the spirit of Christmas and his little girl's love work their magic.

    The tourists think it's all a show: the vampires, the werewolves, the witches, the occasional gargoyle flying through the sky. But the supernaturals populating the town know better.Living in Nocturne Falls means being yourself. Fangs, fur, and all.Bridget Merrow has almost everything a werewolf could wish for. And it’s not that her awesome family and popular business aren’t enough – she just wants someone to share it all with this Christmas. Too bad the someone she wants doesn’t want her. Or does he?Also in Hex the Halls anthology

    Maggie’s husband was killed during the holidays two years before, leaving her to raise her little boy on her own. Losing his father during the Christmas season has caused five-year-old Rickey to lose faith in Santa Claus—but the bright little boy has managed to retain his faith in God. He prays to Him each night to send him a daddy.When the small family begins receiving unexpected visitors at Christmas time that cause all sorts of unwanted complications, Police Officer John comes to the rescue. The handsome officer is truly a godsend. Has God answered Rickey’s prayers? He thinks so. But can he convince his uncertain mother that God has a plan for all of them?

    “My…heart?”“He wants you dead, and he will stop at nothing. You have to go.” When she hesitated, the assassin roared, “Go!”*An heiress on the run.A heartbroken Amish man, sleep-walking through life.Can true love's kiss break the spell?After his wife dies and he returns to his Amish community, Dominic feels numb and frozen, like he's under a spell. When he rescues a woman from an exploding car wreck in a snowstorm, he brings her home to his mother and six younger siblings. They care for her while she sleeps for several days, and when she wakes up in a panic, she pretends to have amnesia.But waking up is only the beginning of Snow's story. Snow's real name is Adriana Daniels, and in order to protect herself and her niece from a dangerous relative, she must keep her true identity a secret from Dominic and his family. So, she pretends to have amnesia, hiding out within the Amish community, lying to everyone--especially Dominic.Dominic's sister Damaris is set on convincing him to court her best friend Margaret so he stays with them in the Amish community, but Dominic’s mother sees how Snow has brought light back into Dominic’s eyes once again, and how she makes him laugh. As Adriana and Dominic grow closer, she feels more guilty with each passing day about lying, especially after they took her in when she was a stranger.But time is running out, and Adriana’s niece needs her now more than ever.Can Adriana trust Dominic with her secret, even if it means he’d risk losing everything to help them? Though Dominic pulls Snow from the wreckage, Snow is the one who rescues him. Amish Snow White is a HEA standalone novella in the Amish Fairytale Series.

    Hightower Enterprises, one of their biggest donors since way back when Olivia’s grandmother ran the charity, has been taken over by Ebenezer Scrooge the Second, aka CFO Guy Hightower, and he’s declared there will be no more money coming to Christmas from the Heart.Guy is simply being practical. Hightower Enterprises needs to tighten its belt, and when you don’t have money to spare, you don’t have money to share. You’d think even the pushy Olivia Berg could understand that.With charitable donations dwindling, Olivia’s Christmas budget depends on Hightower’s contribution. She’s focused her whole life on helping this small town, even putting her love life on hold to support her mission.When Guy’s Maserati breaks down at the edge of the Cascade foothills, he’s relieved to be rescued by a pretty young woman who drives him to the nearby town of Pine River. Until he realizes his rescuer is none other than Olivia Berg. What’s a Scrooge to do? Plug his nose and eat fruitcake and hope she doesn’t learn his true identity before he can get out of town. What could go wrong?

    Will fiscal responsibility replace Christmas their traditions when times are tough?Though their priorities and methods clash, Roni Elliot and Jake Brisco want the same thing---the town to prosper. As the two get to know each other better, each begins to gain a new perspective on what the real wealth of Nativity---and the season---might be.

    Her new job with neighbor Noah Raber's furniture business seems promising—until she and the woodworker clash over everything from the best way to reach new costumers to how to raise his mischievous six-year-old twin boys.Though Sarah longs for a home of her own, she fights the appeal of this ready-made family, resolved to maintain a professional distance. But when she and Noah both agree to help with the school's annual Christmas program, Sarah finds her heart touched by the motherless boys and Noah's quiet strength. Thrown together at work and at the school, their feelings continue to grow, and Sarah struggles to keep Noah at arms' length. Loving Noah may seem impossible, but with faith, love, and a little help from their close-knit community, there may yet be a Christmas home for them both.