'Really liked! V interesting, gripping and unusual!' - Sophie Hannah, bestselling author of 'Little Face' and 'Kind of Cruel.' doG Backwards is the story of six lives that come together through an unimaginable opportunity: to meet with the dead for just one hour. Michael works in an office and is mourning the loss of his five-year-old daughter, Milly. Barbara has her own cleaning company and the death of her stepfather, Eric, hangs heavy on her conscience. Connor is ten and, despite having the love of his aunt and uncle, still misses his mother, who has been dead for over a year. Liam lives in his big family home all by himself, where he hides from his past and yearns for the return of his mother, father and sister, all of whom are gone for good. Shelley, friend and lover to Liam, also has her losses, but keeps these a secret from him. Their reactions are very different. Michael’s is very positive: he simply cannot believe his luck. The others, however, do not react in the same way: Shelley is disgusted, Barbara cannot face making a decision and ten-year-old Connor simply doesn’t understand. There are further complications. Michael has to consider his estranged wife, Susan: she has not been chosen for the program. Barbara discovers the experience is likely to leave her penniless. Connor has not only lost his mother, but also his father. So he is faced with a dilemma that no ten-year-old boy should ever have to face: which one to choose?

    Leaving college, she returns home to find her younger sister mute with shock, her mother too depressed to function, and their beloved Thoroughbred horse ranch on the verge of going under. She’s barely arrived when she’s forced to accept help from Brett Dawson—the man who once broke her heart—when a marauding mountain lion threatens one of the prized horses they depend on for survival. Brett would rather be anywhere but the Swearingen ranch. Caught between his feelings for Megan and the powder keg of the ongoing feud between their families, he feels his only choice is to help Megan, regardless of the consequences. If it weren’t for Brett’s father, Megan’s dad might still be alive, and she wouldn’t be here now sacrificing her future to save her family’s ranch. As the long-simmering attraction between Megan and Brett resurfaces, it is threatened almost before it begins by dark family secrets swirling around them—secrets that turn to danger and could very well destroy not only their new beginning, but the lives of everyone they both love.

    One cabin on a lake. Four thirtysomething sisters. Anything can and does happen.Imagine spending an entire summer in a cabin on a lake - simply because you can. That’s exactly what Samantha McGreggor, a thirtysomething eco-journalist, does in SUMMER OF FIREFLY MEMORIES. She trades Arizona’s summer heat for Minnesota’s cool lake breezes by spending her summer at the same resort her family used to go to when she was young. Her summer agenda - relaxation, beach reads, soul-searching, bonding with her three grown sisters. Her concerns - she and her sisters haven’t been back to the resort since their parents’ death twenty years ago when they were all practically teenagers, and, well, they tend to act like emotional teenagers when they’re all together. Her summer reality – fun in the sun, secrets, sibling rivalries, lost memories, new love, hope. If you enjoy feeling nostalgic any time of the year, then you'll enjoy SUMMER OF FIREFLY MEMORIES! Come dive in!

    Their excitement of living in a piece of history fades, however, as they slowly became convinced of something malevolent in the walls of their rental property. From the ghostly footsteps at night to the splatters of blood they woke to on their sheets each morning, it was evident that they weren't in the house alone... Although they only lived in the house for four months, for a child it was a time of chilling terror that she would never forget. In this short tale, Rebecca calls upon her child's memory to recollect the experiences of her time in the haunted house that still trouble her today. **One of the top true ghost stories and hauntings in the Occult and Ghosts & Haunted Houses categories, FOUR MONTHS OF TERROR was updated in 2015 to include new anecdotal evidence of the house, as communicated by another former resident.

    Somewhere between routine discipline with horsewhips, gun-waving gambling debt collectors, and LSD-laced breakfast cereal adventures, tragedy strikes a blow from which Jules may never recover. Jules's story alternates with that of her grandfather, Szaja, an Orthodox Jew who survives the murderous Ukranian pogroms of the 1920s, the Majdanek death camp, and the torpedoing of the Mefkura, a ship carrying refugees to Palestine. Unable to deal with the horrors he endures at the camp, Szaja develops a dissociative disorder and takes on the persona of a dead soldier from a burial ditch, using that man's thoughts to devise a plan to escape to America. While Szaja's and Jules's sorrows are different on the surface, adversity requires them both to find the will to live despite the suffering in their lives--and both encounter, in their darkest moments, what could be explained as serendipity or divine intervention. For Jules and Szaja, these experiences offer the hope they need to come to the rescue of their own fractured lives.

    Ships That Pass tells the story of Tara and Shaan, near strangers to each other after fourteen years of being married, and Tara's sister, Radhika, recently engaged, almost on a whim, to someone she barely knows. Even as Radhika tries to understand how a once ideal marriage has come undone, and struggles with her own feelings for an older man, tragedy strikes: Tara dies in mysterious circumstances and Shaan is arrested for murder. In the aftermath, Radhika realizes that while life may seldom turn out as expected, the only hope lies in finding the courage to take one's chances. A meditation on the nature of love and marriage, this subtle novella is vintage Shashi Deshpande. '[A] mesmerizing writer. . .you can never walk away from her stories.' About the AuthorShashi Deshpande, daughter of the renowned Kannada dramatist and Sanskrit scholar Shriranga, was born in Dharwad. She studied economics in Mumbai, then moved to Bangalore, where she gained a degree in law. Her writing career began in 1970, initially with short stories, of which several volumes have been published. She is also the author of eight novels, the best known of which are That Long Silence, which won the Sahitya Akademi award and is considered a landmark in Indian writing in English; The Dark Holds No Terror; Small Remedies; Moving On; and The Country of Deceit.

    Her father’s will bequeathed the land to whichever of his offspring would put in a crop and stake a claim to it. Olivia insists, “I’m sprung off him just as much as Avis or Tobey.”The problem: she’s seventeen, female, and it’s 1841.She has a friend who would make a perfect partner for this endeavor. Mourning Free knows how to run a farm, having worked many years for local farmers. More importantly, Olivia has complete trust in him and no fear of a romantic entanglement developing between them. Mourning will put in the crop for her and she will then help him buy land of his own.The problem: Mourning is black, the orphaned son of runaway slaves, and reluctant to travel and work with a white girl. He especially fears the private agents from the south who patrol the free states, hunting fugitive slaves.Olivia believes she and Mourning can make their partnership work and they set off together. All goes well, despite the drudgery of survival in an isolated log cabin. Incapable of acknowledging her feelings for Mourning, Olivia thinks her biggest problem is her unrequited romantic interest in their young, single neighbor. Then she is betrayed and violated and her world falls apart.Strong-willed, vulnerable, and compassionate, Olivia is a compelling protagonist on a journey to find a way to do the right thing in a world in which so much is wrong.Awards2010 YWO Book of the Year2013 Amazon Breakthrough Novel Award, Quarter-Finalist

    Now the couple must see if they can overcome one big obstacle in their way. Savanna thinks they’re able to make it down the aisle until she finds out that Ray has been keeping some secrets from her, now she isn’t sure if marrying him is what’s best for her. Makai walks back into Savanna’s life after three years. What she thought was just a childhood crush quickly turns into more then she bargained for. Not only does Makai come back with a girlfriend but he also comes back with an eye-opener that Savanna wasn’t prepared for. Now she must battle her feelings and decide if she can forgive Ray and get married or if she should act on her feelings for Makai. Jazlynn was content in her life the only problem she had was her deadbeat baby daddy that was until Kordell, her previous boyfriend, comes back to shake up her life. Still dealing with the heartbreak he caused her, she fights her feelings not truly ready to open up to him again. Kordell knows he messed up and will do anything to have Jazlynn back. Will, she finally forgive his past mistakes, or will she fully close their chapter all together? Ma’Loni just wants to strip and stack her money, falling for the boss was never a part of the equation. Kolby sees something in Ma’Loni that he refuses to let go. What started off as just a physical relationship quickly turns into more. When Ma’Loni learns Kolby has been holding something back from her she quickly leaves their situation where it’s at. Now Kolby must show Ma’Loni he’s ready to give up the games and focus on her, the only issue is will Ma’Loni believe him? Join the crew in the crazy journey of heartbreaks, love, drama, and secrets and find out what it really means when they say, This Heart Plays No Games.

    Leigh Blackburn, the main character of Deliberate, finally has the life she’s dreamed of and fought for. Happily divorced and living on a shabby chic farm with her sixteen-year-old son, she owns an upscale consignment store and has been building a new life free of tension. Free that is until her mother gets herself thrown out of her assisted living facility and moves in with Leigh. Abba Gee, Leigh's mother, will be familiar to those who have read, Spit of a Minute. Last seen at age fifteen, Abba Gee is seventy-years-old and still herself... Only More So!

    But when the handsome John Beck-a former Methodist preacher turned novice whaler with a mysterious past-arrives at the Davidson's door pleading to join her father's crews, suddenly Mary's world is upended.As her family struggles to survive the scarcity of whales and the vagaries of weather, and as she navigates sibling rivalries and an all-consuming first love for the newcomer John, nineteen-year-old Mary will soon discover a darker side to these men who hunt the seas, and the truth of her place among them. Swinging from Mary's own hopes and disappointments to the challenges that have beset her family's whaling operation, RUSH OH! is an enchanting blend of fact and fiction that's as much the story of its gutsy narrator's coming-of-age as it is the celebration of an extraordinary episode in history.

    Most citizens are immune to it, but a few, always born with physical disabilities, can bend it to their will. For fifty years, the ruling Eagle Knights, who fly on the back of giant birds, have killed these Imperfects, fearing the return of the old royal family, who used icefire to cut out people's hearts, turning them into ghostly servitors. The old king's grandson Tandor only sees the good things icefire brought: power and technology now forgotten while the people of the south live in dire poverty. He's had enough of seeing his fellow kinsfolk slaughtered by ignorant Knights, of Imperfect babies being abandoned on the ice floes to be eaten by wild animals. His grandfather's diary tells him how to increase the beat of the Heart the first step to making the land glorious once more. Arrogant as he is, he sets the machine in motion. All he needs is an army of Imperfect servitors to control the resulting power.Isandor is Imperfect, an ex-Knight apprentice, betrayed by his best friend and running for his life. The queen Jevaithi is Imperfect, living like a prisoner amidst leering Knights, surviving only because the common people would rebel if their beloved queen were harmed. Both are young and desperate and should be grateful that Tandor wants to rescue them from their hopeless situations. Or so he thinks. The youngsters, however, have no inclination to become heartless ghosts, but while they defy Tandor, the Heart beats, and he alone cannot control its power.

    She can listen to a dog’s chest and know instantly how to save its life. What she can’t seem to do is work her way through her own personal pain. Sadness over her husband’s death hasn’t lessened with time, as the world promised it would. In fact, every year her grief burrows in more deeply, making good days seem dull, and upsetting days almost unbearable.So when someone tries to do away with a litter of puppies, her world unravels.She saves the pups and adopts them out to people in her community of Milk River, Wisconsin—on one condition. They must agree to gather monthly on her radio call-in show. It soon becomes clear that people cannot talk about their dogs’ lives without revealing what’s happening at home. Anna finds herself helping her new circle of friends work through their most intimate problems, live on air. Meanwhile, the good doctor searches for a way to heal her own heart.

    Stranded in Georgia with only her backpack and a few dwindling dollars, she already has too much baggage. Like her twin sister, Hana, who has broken Cara’s heart one too many times. After a lifetime of family troubles, and bouncing from one foster home to another, Cara decides to leave it all behind and strike out alone—on foot.Cara sets off to Florida to see the home of her literary hero, Ernest Hemingway, accompanied only by Hemi, the stray dog who proves to be the perfect travel companion. But the harrowing trip takes unexpected turns as strangers become friends who make her question everything, and Cara finds that as the journey unfolds, so does her life—in ways she could never imagine.

    As their relationship grows the girl and her puppy find they share something in common, a broken heart. Their time together pays tribute to the richness dogs bring to our lives and the lessons they teach us about love. This short story is 50 pages in length.

    At thirty-four, he's already outlived his doctor's "expiration date," but that doesn't stop him from giving all he can to his students and his work. When he takes on Caitlin, his landlady's daughter, as a private student, the budding teen painter watches in torment as other people, especially women, treat Daniel like a freak because of his condition. To Caitlin, Daniel is not a disease, not someone to pity or take care of but someone to care for, a friend, and her first real crush. Convinced one of those women is about to hurt him, Caitlin makes one very bad decision.