Take an inside look at Jamaican culture and lifestyle through a collection of award-winning stories. You will laugh, cry and commiserate with a compelling cast of characters, who conquer their challenges in unique ways.

    One that we take for granted.Until it's too late and you're trapped in a place that not even your darkest imagination could conjure.It’s too late for regrets.Too late for what ifs.Too late to be saved.Or is it?Dive into 11 intense, emotional, fictional romantic suspense stories intended to bring the issue of human trafficking out of the shadows and into the light.Sadly, the buying and selling of people is the fastest growing criminal industry on the planet. There are approximately forty million victims of human trafficking globally.Only one percent of victims are ever rescued.All proceeds will be donated to Thorn, who build tools to defend children from sexual abuse.Stories by the following authorsJane BlytheRyleigh SloanIndia R. AdamsPatricia D EddyAmanda SiegristEmily GrayLindsay BecsLouise DawnJo-Anne JosephDani ReneAnna Blakely

    'The Graveless Doll of Eric Mutis' is narrated by a young adolescent named Larry Rubio who, with his three Anthem City, New Jersey, buddies Mondo, Gus, and Juan Carlos, discovers a scarecrow lashed to an oak tree in the city park.

    There's not a bad story in the lot." --Bud Webster

    This is a place where teenage love and friendships are tested by the violence that threatens to erupt at the slightest provocation. A town that always pulls you back into its ways, no matter how cosmopolitan the city has made you.In 'Diwali in Muzaffarnagar' - Tanuj Solanki's new book of short stories after 'Neon Noon' - young men and women straddle the past and the present, the metropolis and the small town, and also the parallel needs of life: solitude and family.

    Burroughs on crack!" - Thomas F. Monteleone, New York Times bestselling authorThe bacon storm is rolling in. We hear the grease and sugar beat against the roof and windows. The doughnut people are attacking. We press close together, forgetting for a moment that we hate each other. In Die You Doughnut Bastards, amputees, lonely young people, and talking animals struggle for survival against the freakish whims of nature. A typewriter made of fetuses is the source of woe for an expecting couple. A girl with a glass jaw hides an otherworldly secret. A demonic loner goes to a birthday party in Hell. You'll encounter a killer in a marsupial mask, a prison for anorexics, haunted pancakes, and a songwriter with a cult following.Surreal prose poems give way to personal accounts of alienation and modern love. Vegetarian narwhals are sold at the supermarket. And in a city that might be your own, zombie doughnuts are rising up. Kill yourself before they kill you. Or just kill yourself.Featuring original illustrations in the style of Daniel Johnston, Die You Doughnut Bastards is the latest way to drown, brought to you by Wonderland Book Award-winning author Cameron Pierce.

    A woman who receives calls over her cell phone from people who have recently died. A man who suddenly finds strange objects appearing in his life—and just as suddenly disappearing.These characters and more fill the pages of Sharon Shinn’s collection of seven short stories. Romance, mystery, and a little bit of magic follow each of them as they grapple with the past so they can move forward into the future.Chief Executed Officers is never before published. The other six stories have appeared previously in anthologies published 2004 through 2012.The Sorcerer's AssassinIn the House of Seven SpiritsChief Executed OfficersThe Unrhymed Couplets of the UniverseCan You Hear Me Now?The Double-Edged SwordWintermoon Wish

    But a few quick tasks became a long lunch-and now things could go too far with a man who isn't what he seems....The Killer's Wife (with Max DiLallo): Four girls have gone missing. Detective McGrath knows the only way to find them is to get close to the suspect's wife...maybe too closeWe. Are. Not. Alone (with Tim Arnold): The first message from space. It will change the world. It's first contact. Undeniable proof of alien life. Disgraced Air Force scientist Robert Barnett found it. Now he's the target of a desperate nationwide manhunt-and Earth's future hangs in the balance.

    With a fluency of tone and a gifted eye, he examines the dark and unfathomable moments in the most committed relationships; the small distances that stretch into miles between generations and couples when long-buried secrets tumble out into the light; or the eccentricities that may label us as odd yet mark us as unique. Capturing the bewilderment and tenderness in failed connections or missed moments, his characters stand vivid in their human frailty and we warm to them almost despite ourselves. A lonely wife determined to gather her far-flung family for a reunion invents the perfect lie to persuade them; an old woman recalls how she once trained a black crow the art of thieving; and the off-duty small-town cop on his last round of the evening who does a distressed family a great service when he summons the courage to shoot their gravely injured dog.These poignant tales reveal the subtleties in love and indifference or the strange, sad, breathtaking tricks of chance that can change a life in a second. As Lychack moves among these characters with all their virtues and failings, he observes the inevitable disparity between their realities and their dreams even while investing their stories with wit, humility, and a large measure of grace. That he succeeds so remarkably in transferring it all to the page is evidence of his prodigious talent.

    These classic tales are as fresh and lively as when they were first written. Young readers will love discovering Milly-Molly-Mandy for the first time in a dainty, accessible format - they're sure to want to collect other titles in this charming series.

    The afterword explains where the ideas for the stories came from.

    Duperre, author of The Fall: The Rift Book I. Also contributing to this collection are the talented Mercedes M. Yardley, David Dalglish, David McAfee, and Daniel Pyle.

    Novella that was the basis for the movie, Hush...Hush Sweet Charlotte

    But when he unexpectedly runs into her, the attraction is still strong—so he asks her to become his mistress! Amber only accepts so her baby boy can have a better Christmas. But Rocco's plan for revenge changes as he begins picturing a future with Amber…and their son.A Marriage Proposal for Christmas by Carole MortimerCally Turner thinks Noel Carlton is an egotistical playboy! The only reason she's agreed to work for him is so she can give her daughter a Christmas to remember. But as she spends more time with Noel, she begins to wonder what's more irritating—his infuriating arrogance or unexpected tenderness?A Bride for Christmas by Marion LennoxWealthy businessman—and contented bachelor—Guy Carver is in Australia to take ownership of Jenny Westmere's wedding salon. It's strictly business. So no one is more surprised than Guy himself when he realizes that the deal he really wants to ink is making Jenny and her little boy his family by Christmas!

    Now, at twenty-five, I answer to no one; everything I own is mine and no one can take it from me.I’m not one of those sob-story people who shake their ass on a pole to get by, I do it because I’m great at it—because I love it. I thrive on the money and sense of power I get every time I take the stage, taking my clothes off is a small price to pay for what I get in return. Love and fun are two words that haven’t been part of my vocabulary, at least not until there’s some serious changes made to the club I work at. With light comes the dark, and there are heavy shadows I have never noticed before—shadows that are cast by the man who won’t leave me alone, the man who wants me all to himself. This isn’t only about me though, there’s also the man who keeps me safe, the guy who makes me laugh, and the other one一who takes some of the control I’ve never given away before. Tempting Distractions is book one in the Dancing with Desire series—a dark romance, and it will end on a cliffhanger. Please beware of triggers such as: violence, foul language, explicit sexual content, and stalker/obsessive themes.