With delicious treats all wrapped up and the ingredients packed away, Verity is looking forward to a relaxing few days with her new boyfriend.Good food, family and friends – it’s a simple recipe for true comfort and joy, and all Verity’s friends in the village are full of excitement about the holidays too.But the weather has other plans in store… Relentless rain leads to a power cut that spells disaster for many of Plumberry’s residents. It’s starting to look like this year’s celebrations could be a total washout.With dreams of a perfect Christmas dashed, will the last of the festive cheer be swept away in the downpour? Or can the cookery school create a Christmas miracle for everyone Verity holds dear?Your favourite authors have loved reading bestselling Cathy Bramley:‘Full of joy and fun' Milly Johnson‘Engaging characters and a sweeping romance. This is delightful!’ Katie Fforde‘Delightfully warm with plenty of twists and turns’ Trisha Ashley

    While on a book promotion tour, he is injured and agrees to call a masseuse. Little did he know that the masseuse would turn out to be someone with a secret!Arun sees a story in her, and in digging deeper, is amazed to discover her strength of character. Even though Lalita is a young survivor of human trafficking, she has unmatched determination.A single encounter with her makes Arun take decisions that he had never even thought of. He is willing to risk everything for her, his own life too.But the more he tries to help her, the deeper he drowns in the swamp.Will two broken people be able to heal each other? Will society ever accept a girl from the forbidden alleys of the city?The Girl in the Red Lipstick is a charming story of friendship, life and finding love where we least expect to.

    They knew it would be difficult, but they weren't prepared for the cruelty of the unknown. Coming to terms with new equations and ways of looking at the future is difficult enough, but can any relationship prevail when the only tie to the present starts to break down? "An astonishing debut." -- John Joseph Adams, host, Geeks Guide to the Galaxy This debut novelette by Jake Kerr is a modern classic of science fiction. Nominated for the Nebula Award, the Theodore Sturgeon Memorial Award, and the StorySouth Million Writers Award, it immediately established Kerr as a modern force in science fiction's humanist tradition. "Heartwrenching." SF Revu

    Owning the bake shop my parents always dreamed of means everything to me. And when opening day happens, I think I've finally got everything I've ever wanted. Until he walks in and reminds me of what used to be. Tall, dark and dangerous - that's what Caleb has always been. For my heart, at least. But when he places a special, sweet holiday order for his mother, I can feel my defenses crumbling just like the biscotti I'm teaching him to make. Can I save myself this time? Or will my heart be broken all over again?CALEBAn unexpected trip home turns my holiday plans upside down - especially when the girl I can't forget has come home too.I should have known my mom was setting me up, but I walked right into her sweet little trap. When I see Melissa standing behind the counter of the brand new bakery in town, I can't help but remember that she's the one that got away. Her curves are still as delicious as they used to be and I can't deny I want a taste. Can I convince her to give our love another try? Or will she get away one more time?Sugar & Spice Nights is a multi-author series of holiday inspired instalove stories with curvy women and their hot guys. Come find out how steamy and sweet the nights can get today!Don't forget to meet ALL the hunky sweeties!

    Whether it be granting himself immortality, stopping bullets in mid-air, or destroying his enemies with a mere thought, he is often feared as a god on Earth. However, outliving everyone he ever loved whilst losing friends to the limitations of his powers causes a heavy burden upon his shoulders, and in the 21st Century, Clarke is a stoic loner, traveling and living only to kill evil. He has no time for friends or family, but all that changes when he meets a dedicated doctor working in the dark streets of Detroit.In Detroit, Clarke vows to eliminate all gangs terrorizing the city's populace. However, after delivering a junkie with a broken leg to a hospital, Clarke is given a chance to end his decades of rampages, killing criminals and villains. Instead, he is offered a chance to work in the hospital along the idealistic Doctor Chloe Hall. His powers give him an incredible edge in the emergency room and he soon realizes that he could save everyone who comes through the hospital doors. But the gangs are still out there, and Clarke has to make a choice. Should he keep killing, or should he begin saving lives?"That which is destroyed cannot be repaired. That which is mended cannot be maintained."

    She loves them. She’s full of festive cheer. He’s brimming with Bah, Humbugs. Besides unreasonably seasonable names, the only thing Jonathan Frost and Gabriella Di Natale have in common is a healthy dose of mutual contempt. Well, that and the same place of employment at the city’s most beloved independent bookstore, Bailey’s Bookshop. But when the store’s owners confess its dire financial state, Jonathan and Gabby discover another unfortunate commonality: the imminent threat of unemployment.With the Baileys’ requests to minimize expenses, win new customers, and make record sales dancing in their heads, Jonathan and Gabby conclude—barring a financial Christmas miracle—one of them will soon be cut from the payroll. Neither are willing to step down from their position, so they strike a bargain: whoever has more sales in December gets to stay on in the new year; the loser will resign. With a lifetime's worth of festive tricks up her sleeve, Gabby should easily outsell her nemesis, except the unreadable Mr. Frost’s every move seems purely designed to throw her off her game.As if that wasn’t bad enough, Gabby's deceptive ex won't quit pursuing her, and her anonymous online friend suggests they take a break. Worst of all, as the pressure mounts to save the bookshop and her job, Gabby meets a new, tender side of Jonathan. Is this the same man she's called her cold-hearted enemy?Maybe he’s got a motive she just can’t figure out—or maybe Jonathan Frost isn’t as chilly as she once thought. Maybe Jonathan and Gabby already know—and love—each other in ways they never thought possible.This is an #OwnVoices story for its portrayal of autism by an autistic author.

    But what if it becomes daunting baggage and spills over into the future? A fiercely independent, career-driven girl, Angira, has recently changed her Facebook status to ‘single in Mumbai’. While work has been her only priority, a twist of fate brings Ved—a strikingly handsome footballer, the heart-throb of the college—into her life. He seems genuine and fun-loving, but based on past experiences, Angira knows better than to trust him!Despite their contrasting personalities, the two develop an unexpected bond—a link for which they are about to risk everything they have.A riveting tale about incorrigible lovers with a dark past, It’s Not Right but It’s Okay is a true story about finding friendship and love again.

    . .…tiara tiaras and all.Holly's biggest client insists on having a Skype call on Christmas day to secure a deal of a lifetime, which is fine with her, because this year she's going to make a new tradition. ; Celebrating Christmas alone with her cat at her snowy remote family cabin as family and friends go their separate ways to celebrate the holiday.When things everything start starts to go array, Holly has to call on her hunky neighbor for help in order to secure the her deal of a lifetime. Will it all work out or will Holly pull the quilt over her head waiting for Christmas to be over?

    It's on India's southwestern coast, bounded by the Arabian Sea to the west and the Kaliamma River to the south and east. It's blessed with rich soil and scenic beauty, and it's been around for centuries. Of its 193,432 residents, only 89 declare themselves to be without religion or caste. And if the characters in Between the Assassinations are any indication, Kittur is an extraordinary crossroads of the brightest minds and the poorest morals, the up-and-coming and the downtrodden, and the poets and the prophets of an India that modern literature has rarely addressed. A twelve-year-old boy named Ziauddin, a gofer at a tea shop near the railway station, is enticed into wrongdoing because a fair-skinned stranger treats him with dignity and warmth. George D'Souza, a mosquito-repellent sprayer, elevates himself to gardener and then chauffeur to the lovely, young Mrs. Gomes, and then loses it all when he attempts to be something more. A little girl's first act of love for her father is to beg on the street for money to support his drug habit. A factory owner is forced to choose between buying into underworld economics and blinding his staff or closing up shop. A privileged schoolboy, using his own ties to the Kittur underworld, sets off an explosive in a Jesuit-school classroom in protest against casteism. A childless couple takes refuge in a rapidly diminishing forest on the outskirts of town, feeding a group of "intimates" who visit only to mock them. And the loneliest member of the Marxist-Maoist Party of India falls in love with the one young woman, in the poorest part of town, whom he cannot afford to wed. Between the Assassinations showcases the most beloved aspects of Adiga's writing to brilliant effect: the class struggle rendered personal; the fury of the underdog and the fire of the iconoclast; and the prodigiously ambitious narrative talent that has earned Adiga acclaim around the world and comparisons to Gogol, Ellison, Kipling, and Palahniuk. In the words of The Guardian (London), "Between the Assassinations shows that Adiga...is one of the most important voices to emerge from India in recent years." A blinding, brilliant, and brave mosaic of Indian life as it is lived in a place called Kittur, Between the Assassinations, with all the humor, sympathy, and unflinching candor of The White Tiger, enlarges our understanding of the world we live in today.

    But Emma is completely different from every other woman he's met. Suddenly he's the one seemingly doing the chasing.Can he turn this flirtationship into something real?

    But he’s determined to show her everything the season has to offer…including love. For Andi Williams, Christmas represents everything she’s supposed to have—and doesn’t. Running away to a remote mountain lodge seems like the perfect way to escape the season. And it would have been if it weren’t for the snow storm and a booking mix-up that finds her stranded. That is, until a rough around the edges, green eyed stranger offers a solution.  There was no way in good conscious that Colin Hartford could leave the woman with nowhere to stay. Especially on Christmas. He knows all too well what it’s like to be alone for the holidays. It isn’t long before Colin’s determination to enjoy the festivities he’s missed for so long sweeps Andi into the season of joy that she’s not so sure she’s ready for.  If Andi can allow herself to open up—just a little—she might finally have the chance to experience everything the holidays can really offer…including love.

    But just before she sets off for a fun-filled New York hen party weekend, she finds a letter addressed to her sister Caroline. Dated only weeks before Caroline died in a tragic accident, it contains some startling information which forces Ellie to face some truths about herself, Caroline's death - and even her forthcoming marriage. Ellie has spent the three years since Caroline's death running from the truth. But as the weekend in New York comes to a close, she makes a drastic decision. As Ellie finally lays old ghosts to rest, she realises that the truth can set you free. But will she be willing to take the risk?

    Jhumpa Lahiri praises: "One Amazing Thing collapses the walls dividing characters and cultures; what endures is a chorus of voices in one single room." Late afternoon sun sneaks through the windows of a passport and visa office in an unnamed American city. Most customers and even most office workers have come and gone, but nine people remain. A punky teenager with an unexpected gift. An upper-class Caucasian couple whose relationship is disintegrating. A young Muslim-American man struggling with the fallout of 9/11. A graduate student haunted by a question about love. An African-American ex-soldier searching for redemption. A Chinese grandmother with a secret past. And two visa office workers on the verge of an adulterous affair. When an earthquake rips through the afternoon lull, trapping these nine characters together, their focus first jolts to their collective struggle to survive. There's little food. The office begins to flood. Then, at a moment when the psychological and emotional stress seems nearly too much for them to bear, the young graduate student suggests that each tell a personal tale, "one amazing thing" from their lives, which they have never told anyone before. And as their surprising stories of romance, marriage, family, political upheaval, and self-discovery unfold against the urgency of their life-or-death circumstances, the novel proves the transcendent power of stories and the meaningfulness of human expression itself. From Chitra Divakaruni, author of such finely wrought, bestselling novels as Sister of My Heart, The Palace of Illusions, and The Mistress of Spices, comes her most compelling and transporting story to date. One Amazing Thing is a passionate creation about survival -- and about the reasons to survive.

    But his estate on Ireland’s rugged south-west coast is left to his three daughters. The two eldest, Ottie and Pip, inherit in line with expectations, but to everyone’s surprise – and dismay – it is the errant baby of the family, Willow, who gets the castle.Why her? Something unknown – something terrible - made her turn her back on her family three years earlier, escaping to Dublin and vowing never to return. So when Willow quickly announces she is selling up, her revenge seems sweet and the once-close sisters are pushed to breaking point: in desperation, Pip risks everything to secure her own future, and Ottie makes a decision that will ruin lives. It’s each woman for herself.Before moving in, Connor Shaye, the prospective new owner, negotiates throwing a lavish party at the castle just days before Christmas – his hello, their goodbye. But as their secrets begin to catch up with them, Ottie, Willow and Pip are forced to ask themselves which is harder: stepping into the future, or letting go of the past?

    Jacob loves finding the perfect gift for everyone. When Scrooge and Santa volunteer at a local thrift store together, will the mix be Holly Jolly?Toni Shiloh- I'll be Home: What could be worse than being laid off right before the holidays? For Starr Lewis that would include returning home jobless, single, and, oh yeah, just in time to attend her sister's wedding on Christmas Eve... to Starr's ex-boyfriend. In the midst of it all, her brother's best friend soon has her wondering if she can take another chance on love.Cathe Swanson- Season of Change: Charlea’s ready to sell Serenity Hill, but Drew is back in town, 15 years after their dream date ended in disaster, helping her mother and daughter turn the old commune into a commercial Christmas wonderland. Between poinsettias and sleigh rides, angst and romance collide in this Christmas second-chance romance!Chautona Havig- The 12 Dates of Christmas: When Reagan runs into Alex, her high school nemesis, he is stunned to discover that's how she saw him. It'll take twelve dates and a lot of forgiveness on both sides to even hope for a Christmassy-ever-after.Brighten your day with these four lighthearted novellas today!