The Seven Steps to Closure


Donna Joy Usher - 2012
    Things go from bad to worse when she discovers that, not only is her ex-husband engaged to her cousin - Tash, the woman he left her for - but that Jake is also running for Lord Mayor of Sydney.Desperate to leave the destructive relationship behind and with nothing to lose, she decides- with encouragement from her three best friends - to follow the dubious advice from a magazine article, Closure in Seven Easy Steps.The Seven Steps to Closure follows Tara on her sometimes disastrous- always hilarious - path to achieve the seemingly impossible.

An Awakened Heart


Jody Hedlund - 2017
    Ministering to one of the most deprived parts of New York City, the chapel aims at making a difference in the lives of the impoverished immigrants flooding the city. After seeing firsthand the hopelessness of the poor women and orphans, Christine is convinced more can be done to help them.Guy Bedell has been serving at the chapel and pouring his heart out for the people he's grown to care about. When Christine begins to challenge his methods and offers a new vision for reaching out to the community, can he trust that perhaps God has bigger plans in store for him--plans that may include this feisty socialite?

Outta the Bag


MaryJanice Davidson - 2010
    In Outta the Bag, Clive Better—the better-than-best plumber in town—attends a speed dating event where—instead of attempting to score phone numbers—he recounts his recent run-in with a freaked-out cat and a sexy-but-psychotic woman that has left him confused, scratched up, and rather aroused.

This Telling


Cheryl Strayed - 2020
    Ever since, she’s lived an alternative narrative. Decades later, it’s time for Geraldine to reconcile the telling of her life, to finally grieve, and to discover what happened to that part of her past that slipped away.Cheryl Strayed’s This Telling is part of Out of Line, an incisive collection of funny, enraging, and hopeful stories of women’s empowerment and escape. Each piece can be read or listened to in a single thought-provoking sitting.

Once Upon A Curse


Yasmine GalenornC. Gockel - 2016
    More Grimm than Disney, in this collection you’ll find twists on Snow White, Hansel & Gretel, Rumplestilstskin, The Snow Queen, Cinderella, The Pied Piper, Alice in Wonderland, and Red Riding Hood, plus new tales paying homage to the old traditions. Shadows cannot exist without light, however, and you’ll find enough happily-ever-afters to lift your spirits in this anthology full of adventure, dark powers, and ultimately the enduring power of true love.   YARROW, STURDY AND BRIGHT by Devon Monk – Sweet music cannot hide a wicked heart… FAE HORSE by Anthea Sharp – Faerie bargains can grant any desire, but be careful what you wish for. THE QUEEN OF FROST AND DARKNESS by Christine Pope - Her heart is the only thing colder than a Russian winter…. BONES by Yasmine Galenorn - Sometimes, your most cherished dream can turn out to be a nightmare. MAGIC AFTER MIDNIGHT by C. Gockel – The Wicked Stepmother is about to meet her match… DANCE WITH THE DEVIL by Donna Augustine - When the devil makes a deal with a dancer, he gets more than he bargained for. NO GIFT OF WORDS by Annie Bellet - Never steal from a witch... THE GRIM BROTHER by Audrey Faye – Not all walks in the wood end well… BEAUTY INSIDE BEAST by Danielle Monsch - Happily Ever After ain't guaranteed when Once Upon a Time is here. FAESCORNED by Jenna Elizabeth Johnson - The Morrigan, Celtic goddess of war and strife, must relive a painful memory that reminds her of what she can never have. DRAWN TO THE BRINK by Tara Maya - Sajiana's job is to hunt down monsters brought alive from paintings. She never expected to meet one so handsome... or to need his help. THE VARIANCE COURT by Alexia Purdy - Anna, a struggling college student, discovers a mysterious ring that turns her quiet life chaotic when the ring's magic doesn't do what it's told. THE MORRIGAN by Phaedra Weldon – A young man discovers he has leprechaun blood – and is wanted by dark faerie forces. ALICE by Julia Crane - A twisted tale of Alice and Wonderland. Facing madness and an ominous prophecy, Alice chooses to follow her heart despite knowing her world is about to change forever. STILL RED by Sabrina Locke – When the Hunters come, can there be any escape? THE FINAL STRAW by Jennifer Blackstream - To banish a gold-spinning demon, first you must guess his name... THE UNICORN HUNTER by Alethea Kontis – Only Snow White knows what really happened in the forest…

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.

Garden of Fiends: Tales of Addiction Horror


Mark MatthewsGlen Krisch - 2017
    It's the promise of heaven on earth, but the hell that follows is a constant hunger, a cold emptiness. The craving to get high is an intense yearning not unlike that of any other blood-thirsty monster.The best way to tell the truths of addiction is through a story, and dark truths such as these need a piece of horror to do them justice.The stories inside feature the insidious nature of addiction told with compassion yet searing honesty. Drug overdoses are now the leading cause of accidental deaths, and some of the most incredible names in horror fiction have tackled this modern day epidemic. A WICKED THIRST, by Kealan Patrick BurkeTHE ONE IN THE MIDDLE, by Jessica McHughEVERYWHERE YOU'VE BLED AND EVERYWHERE YOU WILL, by Max Booth IIIFIRST, JUST BITE A FINGER, by Johann ThorssonLAST CALL, by John FD TaffTORMENT OF THE FALLEN, by Glen KrischGARDEN OF FIENDS, by Mark MatthewsRETURNS, by Jack Ketchum

If It Ain't Love


Tamara Allen - 2011
    In the darkest days of the Great Depression, New York Times reporter Whit Stoddard has lost the heart to do his job and lives a lonely hand-to-mouth existence with little hope of recovery, until he meets Peter, a man in even greater need of new hope.

The Last of the Stanfields


Marc Levy - 2017
    Two strangers unite in this novel of family secrets. When London journalist Eleanor-Rigby Donovan receives an anonymous letter alluding to a crime committed by her deceased mother, her life is turned upside down. It points her to a bar on the Baltimore Harbor, where she finds a stranger who has received the same mysterious letter about his own mother. Together, Eleanor-Rigby and this young man, George-Harrison Collins, embark on a quest through the shadowy past of the Stanfields, a moneyed Maryland family full of unimaginable secrets. These secrets will transport them back decades, across continents, and to a mysterious crime long buried…until now.

My Sister's Song


Gail Carriger - 1999
    To protect her lands and her tribe, Mithra comes up with a sticky solution to an impossible problem. Written in 1998, this short story was New York Times Bestselling author Gail Carriger’s first professional sale.

The Woods at Barlow Bend


Jodie Cain Smith - 2014
    At the age of fourteen, Hattie learns that her mother, Addie, is dead, and her father, Hubbard, stands accused of Addie's murder, along with countless other shocking betrayals. Overnight, Hattie becomes mother to her three siblings while still very much a child herself. The life she had dreamt of now seems impossible to achieve. How will Hattie break away from the father who prevents her from living the life she desperately wants? Will her heart ever be able to heal in the height of The Great Depression?

Amelia's Last Secret


Eric Wilson - 2012
    Was she part of an American spy mission? Was she eloping to escape a suffocating lifestyle and marriage? Or did she die as a stowaway on a remote island? With Hillary Clinton's announcement that a team would be investigating new evidence in the Phoenix Islands, this story is as timely as it is well-researched.Take flight in this fast-paced adventure, from a NY Times bestselling novelist.

Sunlight and Joy: An eBook Original Short Story


Barbara Delinsky - 2011
    Also included is an exclusive conversation with Barbara about what inspires her writing and an advance peek at her newest novel, Escape.  Blessed with three wonderful children and a life full of material comforts, Rick and Ellen have always had a happy, if increasingly busy, marriage. But when Rick announces that he’s been offered a promotion that will make the family pick up and move across country for a fourth time, Ellen is dismayed; she and their children have made a life for themselves in Portsmouth, not to mention that she is about to reach a pivotal point in her own teaching career. Ellen has always supported Rick’s dreams. What will he do when she tells him that she doesn’t want to start all over again for a job that will only make their lives more frantic?

One Basket


Edna Ferber - 1947
    You passed her on the street with a surreptitious glance, though she was well worth looking at-in her furs and laces and plumes. She had the only full-length mink coat in our town, and Ganz's shoe store sent to Chicago for her shoes. Hers were the miraculously small feet you frequently see in stout women. Usually she walked alone; but on rare occasions, especially round Christmastime, she might have been seen accompanied by some silent, dull-eyed, stupid-looking girl, who would follow her dumbly in and out of stores, stopping now and then to admire a cheap comb or a chain set with flashy imitation stones-or, queerly enough, a doll with yellow hair and blue eyes and very pink cheeks. But, alone or in company, her appearance in the stores of our town was the signal for a sudden jump in the cost of living. The storekeepers mulcted her; and she knew it and paid in silence, for she was of the class that has no redress. She owned the House with the Closed Shutters, near the freight depot-did Blanche Devine.

The House by the River


Lena Manta - 2007
    And so, before each girl leaves the small house on the riverside at the foot of Mount Olympus, Theodora makes sure they know they are always welcome to return.A devoted and resilient mother, Theodora has lived through World War II, through the Nazi occupation of Greece, and through her husband’s death, and now she endures the twenty-year-long silence of her daughters’ absence. Her children have their own lives—they’ve married, traveled the world, and courted romance, fame, and even tragedy. But as they become modern, independent women in pursuit of their dreams, Theodora knows they need her—and each other—more than ever. Have they grown so far apart that they’ve forgotten their childhood house in its tiny village, or will their broken hearts finally lead them home?