She is living a lonely life. Her parents have died and her sister, Brooke, hasn't spoken to her in years. When Brooke shows up with her son in tow and asks Serra to watch him while she and her husband go on vacation to France, Serra's whole life is turned upside down. Serra's decision to hide from Brooke's in-law's create problems she doesn't anticipate. When the tires to her new SUV are slashed, she knows she has more to fear than having her nephew taken.

    Then she meets the mysterious Lola and finds out she’s wrong. More weapon than woman, Lola pursues a predator with a method of murder like no other.The Tormenta. If you think you’ve never encountered Tormenta, think again. You’re friends with one. Have worked for one. Maybe even fallen in love with one. They walk amongst us—looking like us, talking like us. Coercing our subconscious with their actions. Like the long-legged beauty that seduces the goofy geek only to break his heart, causing him to break his own neck in a noose. Or the rockstar, whose every song celebrates self-harm, inspiring his devoted fans to press knives to their own throats. The pusher who urges the addict toward one more hit, bringing him a high from which he’ll never come down. The tyrannical boss, crushing an assistant’s spirit until a bridge jump brings her low. We call it a suicide. Tormenta call it a score, their demonic powers allowing them to siphon off the unspent lifespan of those who harm themselves. To Bianco, being a cop is about right and wrong. Working with Lola is about this world and the next...and maybe the one after that. Because everything is about to change. The coming of a mighty Tormenta is prophesied, a dark messiah known as the Mosca. To stop him, Bianco and Lola must fight their way through a cryptic web of secret societies and powerful legends to crack an ancient code that holds the only answer to the Mosca’s defeat. If this miscreant rises before they can unmask him, darkness will reign, and mankind will fall in a storm of suicides.Nobody’s safe. Everyone’s a threat.

    Demonstrating a range of styles, topics, and themes these stories display each writer's craftsmanship and talent and together form a testament to the grand literary tradition of the South.Includes:Final season by Marlin BartonThe blues is dying in the place it was born by Rick BraggBitsy by Jill Conner BrowneS. Trident by C. Terry ClineMy heart's content by Pat ConroyThe octopus alibi by Tom CorcoranI would like to go back as I am, now, to you as you were, then by Beth Ann FennellyThe girl from Soldier Creek by Patricia FosterChristmas 1893 by Tom FranklinCome home, come home, it's suppertime by William GayEverything must go by Jim GilbertGoing back to the bridge in Berlin by W. E. B. GriffinJust a little closer to the Lord by Winston GroomLove like a bullet by Melinda HaynesLeft behind by Frank Turner HollonThe last days by Silas HouseThe fall of the Nixon administration by Suzanne HudsonA modern tragedy by Douglas KelleyPayback by Tom KellyKilling Stonewall Jackson by Michael KnightWhite sugar and red clay by Bev MarshallBlackbird by Barbara Robinette MossAnd when I should feel something by Jennifer PaddockHow this song ends by Judith RichardsFrom Tucson to Tucumcari, from Hatchabee to Tonopah by Richard ShackelfordVietnam by George SingletonJesus, beans, and butter rum Lifesavers by Monroe ThompsonArnold's number by Sidney ThompsonThe dead girl by Brad WatsonThe right kind of person by Steve Yarbrough

    IWhen Evie Parker meets Lucas Spencer she begins to feel hope again. Lately she's been going through life in a fog and Lucas is all about teaching her how to have fun again. For the first time since the accident she knows what it means to be happy.So who cares if Lucas is a little odd. It isn't that strange that she's never met his parents, or that teachers never seem to notice when he's late for class. Evie tries not to care, but on top of all his peculiar behavior she's been feeling kind of sick lately-- ever since she met Lucas actually.When Lucas decides it is time to come clean with all his secrets Evie has to make some hard decisions. Vol. IIAll Evie wants is a little bit of normal in her life-- is that really too much to ask?Lucas isn't normal, but he makes her happy. That should count for something. Evie thinks she can find a balance that will let her be normal and also be with him. Of course she hadn't counted on adding his family into the mix, or his ex-girlfriend.Life with an elf is never boring. Vol IIILucas and Evie were finally at a place where Evie was comfortable with her mix of normal human teenager and fantastical elf boyfriend. Then she went and got herself crushed by a tree.Evie wakes up with a whole lot of extra issues to deal with. Not the least of which is a trip inside the Veil to see Lucas's home. She never would have agreed to go if she'd known she was going to have her own secret to hide.

    The clues lie buried in the past amidst epic battles and horrific losses but reliving that failed mission uncovers fresh challenges and fearsome threats that reunite his old team.Symon must deal with his own hidden demons and confront the menace that threatens the delicate balance of power. When the darkest of all evils lures Symon into springing a long-planned trap, an unsuspecting world will confront the unthinkable.When all that stands between Heaven and Hell is magic, more than faith will be tested.

    A young policeman's first day on duty becomes a violent initiation into the nastier aspects of law enforcement (2 acts, 4 men, 2 women).

    3 passionate women who fall under their spell. 3 hot and tender love stories.BOOK 1: PLAYING WITH FIREEmbroiderer Uma is all kinds of wrong for single dad Zach.She’s his son’s nanny, still chaste at 23... and falling for him, hard and fast. In short, she’s completely off-limits. And just as completely irresistible. BOOK 2: PLAYING FOR KEEPSEx-player Isabelle takes a job as a publicist for a Paris water-polo team.That means she must face amnesiac coach Lucas, the jerk who broke her heart six years ago. But Lucas is a brand-new man after his head trauma. He has no idea why Isabelle is avoiding him — or why he is so drawn to her. BOOK 3: PLAYING DIRTYIn his pimply teens, Julien was led on, played and publicly humiliated by Noemi.Now a heartthrob and a sports star, he craves revenge. Even as he still craves Noemi.If you like single dad romances, revenge plots filled with angst and passion, and heartwarming second chance novels, you’ll love the PLAYING TO WIN series!

    When he died, at the age of 41, he was arguably the most celebrated Irish writer of the twentieth century.After the Wake is a collection of seven prose works and a series of articles. It includes all that exists of an unfinished novel, 'The Catacombs', and pieces together items whose comic and fanciful accounts evoke Flann O'Brien. Also featured are works of acknowledged excellence, 'The Confirmation Suit' and 'A Woman of No Standing'. This writing bears all the hallmarks of the author's talent - an ability to bring characters to life quickly and unforgettably, a sharp ear for dialogue and dialect, and a natural vocation for story-telling.This diverse collection is a delightful and entertaining windfall from one of Ireland's most colourful writers. An essential complement to Behan's master works.

    Part of a set containing the following volumes:[1] A treasury of the world's best loved poems.[2] The sonnets of William Shakespeare.[3] Rubáiyát of Omar Khayyám.[4] Sonnets from the Portuguese.

    Rather than quibble, Short opts for inclusiveness. Here is a dazzling array: 100s of pieces (under 1250 words) from 24 Western countries, written over five centuries by more than 200 contributors, including major authors of every era. Fables, histories, aphorisms, anecdotes, faux dictionary entries, a faux job application, hint fiction, lists, tableaus, meditations, chants, rants, and much more. Intensely pleasurable.Contributors include: Montaigne, von Kleist, Leopardi, Poe, Baudelaire, Bierce, Chopin, Stein, Jacob, Woolf, Kafka, J. Roth, Toomer, Borges, Queneau, Kunitz, Beckett, Milosz, Cortazar, Paz, Barthes, Calvino, O'Hara, Merwin, Lispector, Transtromer, Sanchez, Edson, Simic, Atwood, Valenzuela, Wideman, L. Davis, Komunyakaa, A. Carson, Forche, Harjo, Hempel, Wenderoth, Keret, B. Marcus, A. Bender, Eggers, B. Lerner, T. Brimhall.

    Johnson's critically acclaimed novels - "Alberto Angelo", "Trawl" and "House Mother Normal - A Geriatric Comedy".

    What she does have a problem with is what she would have least expected, a guy. Smart and sexy, Doug is focused on school responsibilities and post-graduation plans. Their paths intersect and Amanda must accept his help or risk losing her scholarship. Determined to maintain appearances, Amanda begins to lie to family and friends. The ease at which she repeatedly deceives those closest becomes disturbing and leaves her questioning: “Is this me?” Can Amanda find her way out of her contrived world?

    Written over twenty years, the many pieces form an eclectic treasury of stories from Latin America, Asia, Africa, and beyond. Some consider the lives of women in society, both in East and West. The women-only police stations of Brazil, for instance, as well as the female inmates waiting to die on America's Death Row, or the young widows who clear landmines for a living in northern Cambodia. More still look at Morocco, where Shah and his family reside in a mansion set squarely in the middle of a sprawling Casablanca shantytown. And, yet more reflect on the oddities and contradictions of the modern world. Such as why, in India each summer, hundreds of thousands line up to swallow live fish; or how the Model T Ford sounded the death knell of lavish Edwardian ostrich-feather hats.

    Now the sacrifices begin…In 1921, in the ruined city of Carthage near Tunis, a red-haired French archaeologist hears the cries of long-dead children as he stumbles upon a legendary sacrificial site. Shortly afterwards, he is viciously attacked by a hawk.Back in present-day London, flame-haired journalist Rebecca Burns investigates strange and macabre events which seem to be directed against redheads worldwide. Together with young astrophysicist Dr Jim Cavendish and Professor Larry Burton, an authority on ancient civilisations, she is drawn into an age-old feud…a feud that threatens the very existence of redheads everywhere.

    Eshleman and his present collaborator, Jose Rubia Barcia, have not only rendered these complex poems into brilliant and living English, but have also established a definitive Spanish test based on Vallejo's densely rewritten manuscripts. In recreating this modern master in English, they have also made a considerable addition to poetry in our language."