Envy of Angels


Matt Wallace - 2015
    It's like I dropped a heroic dose of acid and turned on the Food Network for eight hours. It's funny and demented and sticks in you like a pinbone. Matt Wallace writes like someone just jammed a needle full of adrenaline in his heart - and then, in yours. From this point forward, I'll read anything this guy writes."-Chuck Wendig, author of BLACKBIRDS and ZER0ES"No one makes me think, 'Dammit, I should have thought of that!' like Matt Wallace. The Sin du Jour series is something I read with equal amounts of envy and delight." - Mur Lafferty, Campbell Award winning author of THE SHAMBLING GUIDE TO NEW YORK CITY

One Perfect Night


Bella Andre - 2012
    One kissThe first time Noah Bryant meets Colbie Michaels they collide at the top of a snowy mountain in California and sparks fly. Swamped by sudden emotion – and a desire she can't control – Colbie panics. Before he can get her phone number or last name, she's gone. When they serendipitously meet again in Seattle one week later, Noah is certain Colbie is his destiny, and he can't make the mistake of losing her again.One night... One forever loveColbie wants to believe in a happily-ever-after, but experience tells her falling for Noah is more likely to lead to a broken heart. But how can she resist him as he sets out to prove that they're destined to be together? Especially when he's intent on fulfilling every last one of her secret desires and he’s willing to keep proving it to her every day...and every sweet and sinful night.

Love by the Letter


Melissa Jagears - 2013
    He's been too busy helping to provide for his family. Now that he's heading west, Dex is hoping to start a family of his own. However, his attempt to acquire a mail-order bride fails miserably when the lady writes back ridiculing his terrible spelling. Rachel Oliver may be the last person he wants to know what a dunce he is, but she's also the smartest woman in town--and it's clear he needs her help.Rachel Oliver has lingered in town for three years secretly mooning over Dex Stanton, but now she's done. If the fool wants to write to a mail-order bride company, so be it. Once she begins giving Dex lessons, however, Rachel realizes she may not be prepared to give up just yet.As their time together runs short, can two of the most stubborn people in town set aside their pride long enough to find love?Love by the Letter is a companion novella to A Bride for Keeps, Melissa Jagears's full-length debut novel available fall 2013. Includes an extended sneak peek at A Bride for Keeps.

Kissed by a Cowboy


Lacy Williams - 2014
    She thinks she’s ready for this homecoming. She’s spent years escaping her perpetual shyness and being Katie Michaels’ tag-along friend, but being back in her hometown brings back a lot of old memories, especially when she is faced with the cowboy she never forgot — Katie’s older brother, Maddox. Twelve years ago, Maddox Michaels was supposed to be somebody. He had everything. A football scholarship. A Division I team scouting him. Maybe even a chance at the pros. Now, he’s a burned-out cowboy working day and night to stay ahead of his brother’s medical bills and keep their family farm from going bankrupt. And trying to be a father-figure for his niece, Olivia. When Haley and Olivia start spending time together, Maddox can’t help remembering those dreams that died alongside his sister. Will being with Haley open his heart to new dreams?

The Hotel Under the Sand


Kage Baker - 2009
    Winston, a Bell Captain ghost, befriends her. A motley crew staffs the newly risen Wenlocke Hotel, newly arisen after a century: one-eyed cook and peg-leg pirate, and the imperious boy heir to the Wenlocke fortune. Emma soon learns that things are not always as lost as they seem, especially if you have a brave heart and good friends.<

The Possession of Natalie Glasgow


Hailey Piper - 2018
    Natalie spends her days comatose, but at night she prowls her mother’s home, unnaturally strong and insatiably carnivorous. With doctors baffled, Natalie’s mother reaches out to Margaret, an expert in the supernatural. But even Margaret is mystified and terrified by Natalie’s condition. She’s dying, and before she dies, she might kill someone. Has a demon clawed its way inside an eleven-year-old girl? Or does the source of this nightmare lie with Natalie’s dead father?A tight, tense novella, The Possession of Natalie Glasgow twists the exorcism tale at every turn down to its final grave confrontation.

The Turn of the Screw


Henry James - 1898
    Half-seen figures who glare from dark towers and dusty windows- silent, foul phantoms who, day by day, night by night, come closer, ever closer. With growing horror, the helpless governess realizes the fiendish creatures want the children, seeking to corrupt their bodies, possess their minds, own their souls... But worse-much worse- the governess discovers that Miles and Flora have no terror of the lurking evil. For they want the walking dead as badly as the dead want them.

Buried


Matt Shaw - 2012
    Not because I'm not scared. I just know panicking won't help the situation. It'll only serve to make it worse. Need to try and remain calm for as long as possible. Control my breathing. Save my oxygen. I breathed in and coughed. The air in here is stale. I hope I'm not in here for long. Please, dad. Don't let me be here for long. Please. I started to cry. Helpless.* * * * *The day after his 21st Birthday Party, Todd woke to find himself trapped in a box with nothing but broken memories for company. Told through his eyes, live his fear and feel his claustrophobia as he frantically tries to peace together what happened, who buried him and why in Matt Shaw's new horror novella.Cover Design: Yaryshev Evgeny (www.yd84.deviantart.com)

Rite of Wrongs


Mica Stone - 2016
    Now she’s facing an especially gruesome crime: a pediatrician’s wife has been brutally murdered, and a Bible verse written in her blood is found at the scene. As the tranquil city of Union Park, Texas, is left reeling, Detective Rome pursues every possible lead in her search for the murderer.When a second slaying—and second bloody quote—seems to confirm that a serial killer is at large, Rome is forced to turn to her former partner for his particular insight. Father Augustine Treece had walked away from police work, but now Rome’s request has drawn him back into the grisly world he thought he’d left behind.Working to stay ahead of the murders, Detective Rome and Father Treece must forgive their past to protect the next victim…a task that tests Rome’s limits when the killer hits too close to home.

Normal


Warren Ellis - 2016
    There are two types of people who think professionally about the future: foresight strategists are civil futurists who think about geo-engineering and smart cities and ways to evade Our Coming Doom; strategic forecasters are spook futurists, who think about geopolitical upheaval and drone warfare and ways to prepare clients for Our Coming Doom. The former are paid by nonprofits and charities, the latter by global security groups and corporate think tanks. For both types, if you're good at it, and you spend your days and nights doing it, then it's something you can't do for long. Depression sets in. Mental illness festers. And if the "abyss gaze" takes hold there's only one place to recover: Normal Head, in the wilds of Oregon, within the secure perimeter of an experimental forest. When Adam Dearden, a foresight strategist, arrives at Normal Head, he is desperate to unplug and be immersed in sylvan silence. But then a patient goes missing from his locked bedroom, leaving nothing but a pile of insects in his wake. A staff investigation ensues; surveillance becomes total. As the mystery of the disappeared man unravels in Warren Ellis's Normal, Dearden uncovers a conspiracy that calls into question the core principles of how and why we think about the future—and the past, and the now.

Loss


Glen R. Krisch - 2012
    Though her soul mate is gone, her memories of Paul linger as she tries to recover at their secluded wooded estate. Ostracized from Paul's family--the only family she has really known--Angie's life spirals down a dark path of alcohol and pills. In the blur of constant self-medication, Angie is in no position to know what is happening to her. Is Paul haunting her? Has she gone mad? Or is there another possibility, something far worse?

Summer Frost


Blake Crouch - 2019
    Except the minor non-player character in the world Riley is building makes her own impossible decision—veering wildly off course and exploring the boundaries of the map. When the curious Riley extracts her code for closer examination, an emotional relationship develops between them. Soon Riley has all new plans for her spontaneous AI, including bringing Max into the real world. But what if Max has real-world plans of her own?Blake Crouch’s Summer Frost is part of Forward, a collection of six stories of the near and far future from out-of-this-world authors. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

Dawn of Eden


Julie Kagawa - 2013
    What's worse strange things are happening to the remains of the dead the and by the time she befriends Ben Archer she's beginning to wonder if a global pandemic is the least of her problems....

The Cormorant


Stephen Gregory - 1987
    The one condition of the inheritance is that they keep the uncle's beloved pet cormorant. They soon discover, however, that the cormorant is no mere bird, but a foul and malignant creature that may exact a greater price than they are willing to pay. Produced by the BBC as a TV film starring Ralph Fiennes.

Comfort Me with Apples


Catherynne M. Valente - 2021
    Her perfect husband. She can feel it in her bones. He is perfect. Their home together in Arcadia Gardens is perfect. Everything is perfect.It's just that he's away so much. So often. He works so hard. She misses him. And he misses her. He says he does, so it must be true. He is the perfect husband and everything is perfect.But sometimes Sophia wonders about things. Strange things. Dark things. The look on her husband's face when he comes back from a long business trip. The questions he will not answer. The locked basement she is never allowed to enter. And whenever she asks the neighbors, they can't quite meet her gaze...But everything is perfect. Isn't it?