A prodigy is a talented youth. Put them together and people die. Welcome to the world of 271 B.C. Going further than historical fiction, the Clay Warrior Stories are adventure books that make you want to grab a gladius and join the fight. Set in the years before the First Punic War, they follow the exploits of a young, hot-headed swordsman. From a lad on his father’s farm, to a Legion training camp, to the Capital of the Republic, Alerio Sisera learns that sharp steel and quick reflexes aren’t always a Legionary’s best assets. Clay Legionary is the 1st book in the Clay Warrior Stories series Other books by author J. Clifton Slater Clay Warrior Stories series: Clay Legionary Spilled Blood Bloody Water Reluctant Siege Brutal Diplomacy Fortune Reigns Fatal Obligation Call Sign Warlock series: Op File Revenge Op File Treason Op File Sanction Galactic Council Realm series: On Station On Duty On Guard On Point Short Story: Serpent Circles

    Brunstetter.What happens when making an elderly Amish couple very happy means going along with a lie that gets bigger by the day? Michelle Taylor is not who her new family in Lancaster County believes her to be. The Lapps were looking for their long-lost granddaughter when they met Michelle and she assumed the identity of Sara Murray. Once homeless and hopeless, Michelle has come to love her new Amish friends and even considers the idea of romance among them. Finding an old blue jar in the barn that is filled with slips of paper containing thoughts, quotes, and prayers by an unknown author becomes a boost to Michelle’s budding faith— but also convicting. How can she tell the truth without hurting the ones she has truly come to love?

    Can lies do the same? Within minutes of arriving in the exotic, enigmatic, sweltering city of Marrakech, renowned author Jaspar Wills is kidnapped, blindfolded, bound, and beaten. As Wills struggles to survive the ordeal, he recounts his rise to fame and the tragic events that led him to Morocco. With the kidnapper’s demands left unmet, Wills faces death with fear, grief…and guilt. Is what happened in the past tied to his abduction? Is someone he loves responsible? Or is this payback for his sins? Living with a loss far greater than his own death, Jaspar yearns to be set free. But do some kinds of freedom come at too high a cost? Six months later, struggling reporter Katie Edwards travels to Morocco to stake her claim on the story with everything—international intrigue, mystery, celebrity, violence, sex, heartbreak, betrayal. Once there, she discovers a shocking truth. As the young journalist’s career soars, Jaspar Wills’ is destroyed…until an act of revenge leads to a stunning revelation that will change everything.

    HOW FAR WOULD YOU GO TO SAVE YOUR FAMILY?As soon as Gail and Jon Durbin bring home their adopted baby Maya, she becomes the glue that mends their fractured marriage. But the Durbin’s social worker, Paige, can’t find the teenage birth mother to sign the consent forms. By law, Carli has seventy-two hours to change her mind. Without her signature, the adoption will unravel. Carli is desperate to pursue her dreams, so giving her baby a life with the Durbins seems like the right choice – until her own mother throws down an ultimatum. Soon Carli realizes how few choices she has. As the hours tick by, Paige knows that the Durbins’ marriage won’t survive the loss of Maya, but everyone’s life is shattered when they—and baby Maya—disappear without a trace. Filled with heartrending turns, Other People’s Children is a riveting page-turner you’ll find impossible to put down.

    In her defense, she’s a little preoccupied as the caretaker of five younger siblings, one dog, one cat, facing a mountain of bills and determined to keep her family together. The eternal optimist, she just needs to try harder, be better, take a deep breath and definitely shouldn’t bring home another stray dog or an angry, scary and scarred boy who is obviously in desperate need of a hug. After a stint in juvie, Taz is back for senior year, and every minute is a struggle. His only defense is silence. Keeping quiet avoids the slaps, hits, threats and is as close to safe as he can manage. Until Tia West convinces him of possibilities he never knew existed. She fills every dark, empty space with a lightness he’s never experienced before, and the only way to keep her is by speaking up for himself. But his secrets are the kind that devastate and destroy.

    Ever since her husband, Pete, mentioned he wanted to start a family, Ness has been trying to convince herself she’s stoked to spawn despite her inability to keep a cactus alive—and a decade-old secret she doesn’t like to remember. So when she catches her slacker-cool coworker, Altan Young, stealing sleeping medication from the pharmaceutical company they both work for, she decides to try the pilfered pills to finally find some rest. But side effects of Morpheum include headaches, nausea, and possible mind melding—a fact Ness and Altan stumble upon when they share the same freaky sex dream. (Awkward.) Now these two colleagues are joined at the brain by night, experiencing dozens of fantastic sleep-staged adventures courtesy of a little imagination and a whole lot of drugs. With the stress of being caught between the men of her literal and figurative dreams (not to mention her nightmare of a boss), Ness starts to enjoy snoozing more than being conscious—and the company of her work husband more than her real one. If she doesn’t wake up and smell the coffee soon, her dreamy escape could become a dirt nap in this feisty debut novel about the dark side of dreams’ coming true.

     Sweet Christmas Kisses 5 brings you contemporary romances that celebrate the joy of the season around the world, including snowy Maine and the sun-kissed skies of Florida, the mountains of Colorado to small-town Illinois and Virginia, New York to San Francisco, and even the glittering lights of Paris and the old-world charm of Florence. Sweet Christmas Kisses 5 features nine all-new, standalone novellas that will make you smile and warm your heart with the Christmas spirit.

    Jimmy Carter is in office. The Walters are a good, churchgoing family who stand for holiness, purity, grace, and Christian love. Except when they don't. Family patriarch and fanatic preacher, Victor Black, knows many things for sure, including the fact that abortion is murder and should be punishable by death--a position he defends live in a televised debate. Black’s youngest granddaughter, Stephanie Walters, sits in the front row wearing her frilly Sunday dress, listening carefully to every word. But it doesn't take long for cracks to appear in the Walters upstanding family facade. Stephanie's mother, Lily, begins telling unsettling stories about having a baby who died, and her story keeps changing. It’s clear Lily has a secret--one that righteous Victor Black would kill her for if he knew. This family secret burns more than the lies . . .From the Moon I WatchedHer is a coming-of-age tale about the skeletons that lurk under church pews and the little girl who goes looking for and finds them. Amid the dark and quirky terrain of camp revivals, burning crosses, and public shunnings, one child from the Southern Churches of Christ cries out.

    During the arduous sea voyage from the Netherlands to the ends of the earth, he encounters artist Bethari de Groot traveling to the colonies with her father, an executive with the Dutch East India Company.Hannes is a hothead, Bethari is headstrong, and their initial encounter is less than cordial. When they are shipwrecked off the coast of South Africa, Bethari discovers an admirable man inside the adventurer while he, in turn, is captivated by the young beauty’s courage and determination.While Bethari waits in Cape Town to begin her journey to Asia, she and Hannes discover their love for each other. When Hannes is dispatched to Ceylon on a mysterious mission, Bethari follows him and discovers that her beloved is entangled in a dangerous web of intrigue and skullduggery. Together they must fight for their future and their happiness.

    She isn't even human. Hunted by an alien race, can she discover the truth before it's too late?Valerie Carling's life is quite normal for a divorced, single mother. She misses her ex-husband, but her world now revolves around her young daughter. That is, until a band of strangers show up and turn everything upside down.It's Charlotte's sixth birthday, and she's loving it. Presents, games, and cake! For Valerie, it's not that simple. Being with her ex and his new wife is always a strain, but not as hard as finding out that you're not who you think you are.When a group of strangers unexpectedly shows up at the party, suddenly Valerie's whole life feels like a lie. Why do they look so familiar? Why do they act like they know her? Stranger yet, why do they have the same startling green eyes as Charlotte?Catapulted into a world she doesn't remember, Valerie needs to trust these strangers to help save her daughter and herself from a terrible fate. She and Charlotte are pure-bloods, the only chance for an alien race on the brink of extinction.On the run and hunted like animals, her enemies will not rest until they have them in their clutches. But as her memories return, can Valerie tap into the powers she didn't even know she possessed and save their lives?Make Me Exist is a heart-pounding sci-fi adventure that will keep you riveted to your seat in a journey of mind twisting awakenings.

    But this year someone new has come into her life: Fred, who truly gets her, and who knows how to make her happy. The only problem is that Enid has Asperger’s and doesn’t like to leave her comfort zone—and Fred lives in Australia.Like Enid, Fred has survived heartbreak and is searching for a way to start again. Could a stranger on the other side of the world really bring new meaning to his life, or is he just setting himself up for another fall?When Fred invites Enid to Australia for Christmas, her vivacious sister Bess begs her to take a risk for the first time ever. But Enid’s whole life is structured around familiarity. As the festive season approaches, she has a decision to make: play it safe, or embark on a momentous journey into the unknown?

    all of them.When he finds out he asks me for my favorite scene.It's a dangerous road to go down, these kind of dirty talks, because we're aboutto spend a LOT of time together working alone in his penthouse.At the rate things are heating up, though, we might not get any work done at all.

    The war comes late to Budapest. Nineteen-year-old Marika, forced out of nursing school, believes she and her Jewish family will remain safe, even as Nazi soldiers fill their cobbled streets. With Russians to their east, the Allies to their west, everyone assumes the war is nearly over. Her father, once a prominent engineer, returns to his passion for puppet making. Soon, she is pulled into the resistance to rescue orphans and displaced Jews while keeping her family one step ahead of Eichmann’s extermination plans.As the world turns dark around her, the fanatical Arrow Cross Party, a ruthless group that listens to no one including the Germans, unleashes a killing spree on the remaining Jews of Europe. One day, as peril intensifies, she must make a decision that puts her in extreme danger to save herself, her family, and the orphans she’s sheltered.Will she regret that moment for the rest of her life?

    Like right now. When his editor sends him to interview a beautiful city trader, his luck might just have changed…. Then an old school friend shows up on Ollie’s doorstep and things get…complicated. Three Way is a humorous yarn told through the eyes of a man desperate to get his love life back on track. Or at the very least dodge the relationship wrecking ball swinging his way.

    While her little sister Rose is sent to the UK to keep her safe from the invading German army, Estelle is left behind on Jersey to help her grandmother run the family farm. When the Germans occupy the island, everything changes and Estelle and the islanders must face the reality of life under Nazi rule.Interspersed with letters from Rose back in London, the novel is also inspired by the real life stories from the author’s own family who were on the island during the occupation and is a true testament to the courage and bravery of the islanders.