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.

    They've had their difficulties with Ro's health, but with Christmas coming once again, they couldn't be happier. Get Ro's point of view for the first time as he and Maggie plan the next party for their colleagues, including Kez and Bia, Zir and Lois, and Khy and Anna! This is the first in a series of four shorts, each 20,000 words, designed to be little seasonal episodes in the lives of the Office Aliens couples. Ro's story is told in The New Guy, which should be read first.

    What starts as a simple search ultimately reveals a conspiracy stretching across the entire city. And as Maeko and Chaff discover feelings for each other neither was prepared to admit, she’s forced to choose whether she’ll stay with him or finally escape the life of a street rat. But with danger closing in around them, the only way any of them will get out of this alive is if all of them work together.

    I love Christmas, but I’m not in the mood for merriment and mistletoe this year. I have a different plan—camping out at my lakefront cabin to nurse a bottle of wine and a broken heart. It’s all going smooth, until my ex-fiancée, Jackson, shows up on the doorstep with the same plan. There may be a blizzard outside, but I’m far more worried about the inferno smoldering between Jackson and me—one he insists on stoking every chance he gets. Looks like there’s more than one way to keep warm this Christmas.

    To do so, she sets out to host the grandest holiday celebration Foldger’s Hall has ever seen; proving to everyone—including herself—that she has more to offer than the hardship and loss she has brought to her family. A woman forging a new path in life... Mrs. Ruby Jakeston is tired of others taking care of her. She is ready to show everyone that she can look after more than just herself and her new husband; she also wants to set her overprotective friend at ease, and bring her hellion sister to heel. A girl lost and in search of a place to belong… Lady Ellington is on the brink of losing the only home she’s ever known. The last thing she wants is to attend a grand soirée. However, when her older sister demands her presence at a country Christmas party, she is compelled to attend. With only a stablehand as her companion, she arrives at a house teeming with unfamiliar faces—and nowhere to hide. A trio of women holding out hope for three different holiday miracles… Christmas ever more.

    He is her dusk of wounds... Closed within her shell and withdrawn from society, Catherine Barnet suffers both from shame over her brother’s actions and the scars his abusive behavior left on her. Patrick Conolly, Baron of Ramshay, has been loving Catherine from afar all of his life...until the day she finally notices him. But they are unaware of something crucial: someone is watching them and, enraged by their sudden closeness, things are about to change for both of them... When Catherine finds out that Patrick, just like her brother, is involved with notorious criminals, she loses her trust in him. Desperate to win her back and clear his name, Patrick visits Catherine’s brother in prison. But he is not prepared for what he is about to hear...

    While his brother is fair of hair and lithe in body, Eamon sparks fear with his fiery locks and massive frame --a nd rumors of a mysterious power. But when his brother has the good fortune to be betrothed to a beautiful stranger, it's Eamon's help -- and quick wit and romantic heart -- that he needs. Eamon agrees to write the noble lady... a generous offer that will forever leave him a changed man. Lady Luella Jane Moran has no interest in an arranged marriage and tries valiantly to dissuade her betrothed from afar. Though her own letters plainly state her case, the words her husband-to-be writes her leave her aching for his touch. Will Lu give in to the desire the missives have kindled within her? Or will desire turn cold when she discovers their true author?

    

    And holiday kisses...the Season of Magic. Wrap yourself in the holiday spirit with five romantic stories filled with fun and forever after.Noel Noel Noel by Merry Holly (Marian Lanouette)Dumped and lonely, is it possible to find love at the local mall? Noelle thinks not, but a chance encounter with Chase Clayborne has her rethinking her rigid set of rules as sparks flare between them. A Cinderella Christmas by Cara Marsi Jessica Gallo no longer believed in fairy tales or happy endings. And she certainly didn’t believe she’d find her Prince Charming at Saks Fifth Avenue. Her Fairy Godmother thought differently. Matchmaker Matchmaker by Bobbi LermanWith Chanukah around the corner, is there enough magic left for a matchmaker to bring a cynical heart back to life. Holiday Disaster by Vicki BatmanThe week before Christmas and all is in disarray when a librarian experiences horrible plumbing issues and a Mr. Maintenance Man who isn’t nearly as jolly as Santa Clause. This Christmas is a disaster. Yuletide Bride by Gerri BrousseauThe Dowager Duchess’s decree that her grandson must marry before Twelfth Night or relinquish his title and fortune sends him into a tail spin. Without any prospects and with only two weeks until Christmas will Stuart Nelson find himself destitute or will he find The Yuletide Bride.

    But instead of a lunatic, Katharine discovers a genius inventor with his own set of rules, who employs a village of nine hundred people rescued from the workhouses of London. Katharine is now torn between protecting her own inheritance and preserving the peculiar community she grows to care for deeply. And her choices are made even more complicated by a handsome apprentice, a secretive student, and fears for her own sanity. As the mysteries of the estate begin to unravel, it is clear that not only is her uncle's world at stake, but also the state of England as Katharine knows it. With twists and turns at every corner, this heart-racing adventure will captivate readers with its intrigue, thrills, and romance.

    Wells as a time-traveling investigator.Characters real and imaginary come vividly to life in this whimsical triple play of intertwined plots, in which a skeptical H. G. Wells is called upon to investigate purported incidents of time travel and to save lives and literary classics, including Dracula and The Time Machine, from being wiped from existence.What happens if we change history?

    It’s also the epicenter of our past scandal that nearly killed me and my parents when it broke.Trust me, it made the local TV news every night for two weeks. One night, it went national.Guess who never left King City?Channing.The curb turd.As relentless as he was on the field, I would’ve thought he’d go on to play in the NFL. He never did. Knee injury. Oh, the cliche.Small pond, meet big fish.Only this fish has grown bigger than anyone ever expected, built up his own business empire. Turns out he’s better at business than he ever was at football, and that’s saying something. Despite his knee injury, he managed to keep his college football body, abs and all. Wherever he goes, it’s raining money and marriage proposals.When he finds out I’m home for the holidays, he just has to come knocking at my parents’ house bearing meaningless gifts.News flash, unless he’s hoping for an immaculate conception, he has another thing coming, and it definitely won’t be me.

    Where some artists see images in dabs of paints, Melisande imagines landscapes made from the fabric of the dresses worn at a tea party. After her refusal of the third man put forth by famed matchmaker Madame Treszka, she’s informed she must choose from three groom candidates arranged by her mother. Thinking Texas can’t be as bad as Newport, Rhode Island, for social engagements, Melisande pens her response and boards a westbound train.Widower Quinton Aznar has a six-year-old son who wants a mama. Since his late wife’s passing four years ago, Quint divides his days between breaking horses for the Army and parenting his son with no time for courting. His mother manages the household and tends to her youngest grandchild, although she would love to move to Galveston to live with her sister. The telegram announcing the arrival of his mail-order bride—a woman his mother corresponded with—on the next stagecoach is a shock. Quint drives the wagon into town, intending to pay for her return ticket. The beautiful, but disheveled, woman who disembarks the stage is too dazed to trust traveling on her own. What has his mother arranged for his life?

    except the "thing" inside her.When a young lord tries to take advantage of Finley, she fights back. And wins. But no normal Victorian girl has a darker side that makes her capable of knocking out a full-grown man with one punch...Only Griffin King sees the magical darkness inside her that says she's special, says she's one of them. The orphaned duke takes her in from the gaslit streets against the wishes of his band of misfits: Emily, who has her own special abilities and an unrequited love for Sam, who is part robot; and Jasper, an American cowboy with a shadowy secret.Griffin's investigating a criminal called The Machinist, the mastermind behind several recent crimes by automatons. Finley thinks she can help and finally be a part of something, finally fit in.But The Machinist wants to tear Griff's little company of strays apart, and it isn't long before trust is tested on all sides. At least Finley knows whose side she's on even if it seems no one believes her.

    Syrus Reed’s Tinker family has always served and revered the Unnaturals from afar, but when his family is captured to be refinery slaves, he finds that his fate may be bound up with Vespa’s—and with the Unnaturals.As the danger grows, Vespa and Syrus find themselves in a tightening web of deception and intrigue. At stake may be the fate of New London—and the world.