Compelled by curiosity, he approaches the door, and, standing before the entrance feels the unmistakable sensation of a small hand creeping into his own, 'as if a child had taken hold of it'.Intrigued by the encounter, he determines to learn more, and discovers that the owner's grandson had drowned tragically many years before. At first unperturbed by the odd experience, Snow begins to be plagued by haunting dreams, panic attacks, and more frequent visits from the small hand which become increasingly threatening and sinister ...

    If she could do it without feeling a thing, I would let her go forever.Bronwyn--Getting roped into a photo shoot wasn’t my idea of fun. The worst part was that it turned out to be nothing like I expected.But when I met Quinton, the guy behind the camera, I was ready to do a lot more than strike a pose.And I did.I found myself being uncharacteristically agreeable, relaxed my poise, and fed off the carnal craving the photographer ignited in me.But before I embarrassed myself, I snapped to my senses.Helping people find comfort in front of the camera was his job. I’d seen the photos adorning his studio walls. He captured personalities not just likenesses.The best thing I could do was take the advice I gave all of my employees… Believe that the world is watching, and always keep your wits about you.Quinton--I’d worked with all types and had a knack for getting people to open up during photo shoots. But when Bronwyn stepped in front of my camera, I felt like an amateur. I filled my camera roll with close-up shots of her, amongst the smattering of shots I was supposed to be snapping for the school's community partnership photo shoot.She’d captivated me. Her essence was a collage of beauty, power, and femininity.Convinced I could make her mine, I pushed for more, but when reality reinserted itself, she shot me down.The blow struck my ego but destroyed my heart.Certain I hadn’t misread her cues, I took another look at her proofs. It was unmistakable. We had something.If it was the last thing I ever did, I would capture a lot more than her photograph. I was going to capture her heart.

    But before long they can’t deny something is very wrong with their new residence, and they find themselves trying to make sense of the unexplainable. After a year of coping with disembodied voices, flying objects, phantom footsteps, and apparitions of red eyes, the family moves away. But things will get even stranger at their new house. The Cottage details the true paranormal experiences of a real family in Southern California. If you enjoy The Cottage, please look for its sequel, The Bungalow.

    

    How much longer can she deny the feelings she has secretly harbored for her brother’s best friend?After he saved her kitten, Megan Price knew that Prince Charming didn’t always ride a white horse. Sometimes he was your brother’s best friend. As the years moved on Kingston became more and more handsome and so did the long line of broken hearts he left in his wake. The first time Kingston Halloway noticed that little Megan had grown up, was the evening of her prom. He had paid for it with a bloody nose and a promise to Alex to never look her way again. For years he has ignored her chestnut hair and amber eyes and the way her smile lit up a room.When Megan unwittingly buys the house next to Kingston and hires him to help her renovate, can they both keep denying the attraction between them?

    Now, in Stay Awake, Chaon returns to that form for the first time since his masterly Among the Missing, a finalist for the National Book Award.In these haunting, suspenseful stories, lost, fragile, searching characters wander between ordinary life and a psychological shadowland. They have experienced intense love or loss, grief or loneliness, displacement or disconnection—and find themselves in unexpected, dire, and sometimes unfathomable situations.A father’s life is upended by his son’s night terrors—and disturbing memories of the first wife and child he abandoned; a foster child receives a call from the past and begins to remember his birth mother, whose actions were unthinkable; a divorced woman experiences her own dark version of “empty-nest syndrome”; a young widower is unnerved by the sudden, inexplicable appearances of messages and notes—on dollar bills, inside a magazine, stapled to the side of a tree; and a college dropout begins to suspect that there’s something off, something sinister, in his late parents’ house.Dan Chaon’s stories feature scattered families, unfulfilled dreamers, anxious souls. They exist in a twilight realm—in a place by the window late at night when the streets are empty and the world appears to be quiet. But you are up, unable to sleep. So you stay awake.

    Her dad left. Boys at school can’t keep their hands to themselves. A lecherous stepfather has moved in. Her only refuge is an abandoned lot on her suburban cul-de-sac, crawling with feral felines—one of which follows Mia home. Ghostly white and affectionate, she is Mia’s new companion and—as Mia’s tormenters will soon discover—her fierce protector.Joyce Carol Oates’s Miao Dao is part of Dark Corners, a collection of seven heart-stopping short stories by bestselling authors who give you so many new reasons to be afraid. Each story can be read in a single sitting. Or, if you have the nerve, you can listen all by yourself in the dark.

    The man on the bed breathes his way into the darkness, filled with rage.Was there ever really a choice?From the queen of searing family drama and suspense comes a short story about the fierce bonds between mother and child, the things we sacrifice to protect the ones we love and the desperate choices we make when there's nowhere left to run.'Powerful and thought provoking writing with a telling edge of reality.' Women's Weekly on Nicole Trope's The Secrets in Silence, AWW Pick of the Month.

    Whyborne just wants a quiet Christmas Eve at home, but Griffin has other plans.WARNING: Contains spoilers from Bloodline.