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Flowers for Mama (Lakeside #1)
Serafina Lyndon - 2015
Working for low pay as an aide in a special needs classroom, she is flattered when the handsome guardian of a student asks her out on a date. The chemistry between them is intense. But she can’t be fully honest with Chalton, scared that he’ll back off fast once he knows how out of control her brother is becoming. And what she doesn’t know is that Chalton isn’t being fully honest with her either . . . and the truth is worse than anything she could imagine.
All the Shiny Things
Robin Mahle - 2013
That is, until she discovers it was all a lie. Now, her desperate search for the truth begins.After learning of the terrible events that forever altered her childhood, Katie is compelled to dig into a past no one wants to relive. A past her parents kept hidden from her at all costs.A decades-old investigation is reluctantly unearthed when Katie discovers her role as the lone survivor. It is Detective Marshall Avery who lends her the resources needed to hunt down the person responsible. When that search breathes new life into an old monster—one who has left a trail of innocent blood in his wake—it is too late to turn back.Katie’s desire for retribution places her in great danger and costs her dearly. So when the tables are turned, and the hunted becomes the hunter, will Detective Avery be able to keep Katie from going too far?
The Finnish Girl
Dennis Frahmann - 2014
Not just those you choose to keep from others, or even those that others guard from you. There remains those secrets that you so desperately keep hidden from yourself. They all catch up with Lempi Makinen Lahti.When Lempi's teenage son Danny discovers her suicide, he seeks to solve the mysteries that defined her life and death. A pack of letters and clippings hidden in an old family trunk may be the only keep to understanding both his mother's past and his own future.The Finnish Girl is a richly told tapestry of interwoven characters - the family patriarch who emigrates from Finland to the United States to create his own future, a son who turns his back on his home as part of an ill-fated mission to Russia during the Depression, the elderly mother who faces deportation in an America driven by fear during the Red Scare, and the young Finnish girl who cares too much about the injustices she sees.Decisions in one generation propel another on unexpected paths, until on family's hope for the American dream threaten to be come its nightmare.
Shattered Rose
T.L. Gray - 2013
GrayAvery Nichols knows how to wear the mask. Perfect student, perfect daughter and perfect friend. Nobody would ever guess that inside, Avery is a prisoner to her own self loathing. Then she meets him…and everything changes. Handsome, charming and self assured, Jake Matthew sweeps Avery off her feet in an effortless fashion. Avery knows that Jake is everything she needs and all she has ever wanted. She would destroy herself to be loved by him…until he walks away.Broken and lost, Avery meets Parker. His genuine, caring nature reaches past the mask and the shattered pieces her heart begin to slowly heal. But just when Avery starts to feel whole again, she realizes the impossible.Jake never really left.
Megan's Way
Melissa Foster - 2009
What would you give up for the people you love? When Megan Taylor, a single mother and artist living on Cape Cod, receives the shocking news that her cancer has returned, she's faced with the most difficult decision she's ever had to make. The love she has for her daughter, Olivia, and her closest friends will be stretched and frayed. Megan's illness reawakens her best friend, Holly Townsend's, torment of a long-held secret and years of betrayal. How does one choose between a daughter and a life-long best friend? Can the secret she has been keeping be revealed after years of lying without destroying everyone in its wake? Meanwhile, fourteen-year-old Olivia's world is falling apart right before her eyes, and there's nothing she can do about it. She finds herself acting in ways she cannot even begin to understand. When her internal struggles turn to dangerous behavior, even the paranormal connection she shares with her mother might not be enough to save her - her life will hang in the balance. Megan's Way is a journey of self discovery and heartfelt emotions, exploring the depth of the mother-daughter bond, and the intricacies of friendship. WINNER, READERS FAVORITE AWARD: Fiction/DramaWINNER, BEACH BOOK AWARD: SpiritualFINALIST, Next Generation Indie Book Awards: New AgeFINALIST, READERS FAVORITE AWARD: Women's FictionHONORABLE MENTION, NEW ENGLAND FILM FESTIVAL: Spirituality***Olivia's story will be continued in LOVING LIVI, Harborside Nights new adult romance series. Sign up for Melissa's newsletter and follow her on her author page here on Amazon to be notified of this release!
Summer at Sea
Beth Labonte - 2015
Have you ever helped your parents pack for a weeklong cruise? No? I didn't think so. So shut it. So begins vacation for Summer Hartwell - twenty-six years old, living with her anxiety-ridden parents, and unwillingly booked by her brother on a weeklong cruise to Bermuda. Despite the nightmare of being trapped aboard a cruise ship with Mom and Dad, Summer sees a rare opportunity to fulfill The Prophecy – her mother’s declaration that she will live at home until she gets married. With two thousand passengers onboard, at least one of them must be husband material, right? The only problem is Graham Blenderman – her brother’s best friend who is joining them for the week, in all of his tall, blonde, extroverted glory. Graham doesn’t believe Summer needs a husband in order to break free from her parents. He thinks she just needs a little bit of nerve. And to Summer’s introverted horror, he’s willing to spend the entire week proving that he’s right.
The First
Jason Mott - 2013
Read how it all begins in this short story, The First.It's been just over a year since Edmund Blithe died, and just over a month since his fiancée, Emily, stopped wearing her engagement ring. Emily has finally begun to move on… Until Edmund mysteriously and inexplicably returns, sending the world—and Emily—into a tailspin.Edmund is only just the beginning. Around the world, people's loved ones are returning from beyond, seeking only to reenter the lives they left behind. As the world dives deep into uncertainty, Emily and Edmund are determined to find their way back to one another…even if it means risking everything.The reappearances continue in The Sparrow, and look for The Returned from Harlequin MIRA, a moving tale of a family given a second chance at life and a world where nothing—not even death—is certain.
Malaika
Van Heerling - 2010
Not sure if it was the scent of coffee lackadaisically meandering across the Serengeti that brought us to our serendipitous moment (do big cats drink coffee?), or if it was that she had told me she'd be here soon. I generally don't have conversations with animals- other than the human kind. I suppose if the dialogue occurs while dreaming you aren't crazy, right? As far as how I came about to live just inside Kenya at the Tanzanian border overlooking the Serengeti, well, that is another lifetime dappled with hurt and a lost love elsewhere in the world- I won't bore you with the details. I wanted to get as far away from that pain as I could. The 'geti is about as distant as I could travel. Funny, no matter how far one travels the past is just a moment, just a thought away. I will not taint this story with that past. This is a story of a more recent past, of a friendship- the most important friendship I've ever had. I live east of a village. I am the only white man for probably twenty miles or more. I suppose there could be a few around or many in town but I haven't seen any. This life can be hard to adapt to, especially when one is accustomed to the rote American life of excess for its own sake. Pressure. That is part of the reason why I left. No, this is a lie. It's not why I left, but I promised I wouldn't scar this story with my American past. There may be a trace of it betrayed here and there but I will do my best to check such impulses. Where was I, oh yes- life is slower here; not in a dimwitted way, but in a take-a-deep-breath-and-live kind of way. Speaking of breaths, I promised that I wouldn't start smoking again. But that was in my old life. I made a lot of promises then, this is now. I don't smoke processed cigarettes- Western market contraband. No, my good friend Abasi is a tobacco farmer. Did I say he is a good friend; he's a great friend, genuine, forthright and not afraid to smack the hell out of you when you need it, or deserve it. More often than not I am the latter. Who would have known I'd have to travel half way around the world to find a friend that wasn't a sycophant. One of his virtues is that he doesn't know the meaning of the word. I teach Absko, his son, English in exchange for fresh tobacco, among other things. Truth told I'd do it for free. He knows this. Sometimes I work the fields with him. Wielding a machete and tying bundles is unbearably taxing at times but I try not to let it show on my face- though everyone knows, I'm not fooling anyone. One could say I'm paying for my deep-seated American complacency I suppose. I must make one point very clear: I am not "anti-American-way." Far from it. This is, like I said, just a different way of life. It is nothing here to slaughter your own food or dig your own latrine, or hear of children starving to death, despite Doctors Without Borders. Unsheltered is what I'm saying. Far from texting and Ipods. I will one day go back. Maybe.
Stryder (The Billionaire Cowboys of Clearwater County #1)
Bonnie R. Paulson - 2018
He wants Melody Steel.Growing up, they'd been inseparable but a last minute choice had stolen his heart and made him rich beyond measure. Too bad he could never buy what he truly wanted...
Flint and Steel made fire and she was done getting burned.
With more debt than she can comprehend after her dad died, Melody doesn't need her poverty rubbed in her face or that Stryder found happiness and money without her. All she'd ever done was make her loved ones miserable.Well, no more. Stryder was free and Melody was going to keep it that way - no matter how much it tore her apart.
***Books by Bonnie R. Paulson***
Clearwater County CollectionTHE BILLIONAIRE COWBOYSStryderTrevorBrodyMacZackWyattVanceJacobDeeganEthanShaneChanceThe MONTANA TRAILS SERIESBroken Trails (book 1) Forbidden Trails (book 2)Unbridled Trails (book 3)Hidden Trails (book 4)Forgotten Trails (book 5)Endless Trails (book 6)Forsaken Trails (book 7)Lonesome Trails (book 8)Lost Trails (book 9)Untamed Trails (book 10)Boxset – Books 1, 2, 3Boxset – 4, 5, 6Boxset – 7,8,9Full Boxset – 1-10LONELY LACE SERIESSpurs and Lace (book 1)Secrets and Lace (book 2)Sorrows and Lace (book 3)Boxset (all 3 books)REDEMPTION SERIESRomancing Redemption (book 1)Riding for Redemption (book 2)Resisting Redemption (book 3)Regretting Redemption (book 4)Rewarding Redemption (book 5)Boxset (all 5 books)Contemporary RomanceCLICKANDWED.COM SERIESWith This Click, I Thee Wed (book 1)IDo.com (book 2)DIY Vows (book 3)eHoneymoon (book 4)Keyword: I Do (book 5)Let US-B Wed (book 6)The Right Click (book 7)MADE FOR LOVE SERIESMade for Me (book 1)Made for You (book 2)Made for Love (book 3)DOWNSHIFT SERIESDownshift (book 1)Full Throttle (book 2)Block Pass (book 3)
The Watcher
Jo Robertson - 2011
Working with a single-minded tenacity, she sets out to prove it.Deputy Sheriff Ben Slater hides his personal pain behind the job, but Kate's arrival in his county knocks his world on its axis. He wants to believe her wild theory, but the idea of a serial killer with the kind of pathology she proposes is too bizarre.Together they work to find a killer whose roots began in a small town in Bigler County, but whose violence spread across the nation. A Janus-like killer, more monster than man, he fixates on Kate. The killer wants nothing more than to kill the "purple-eyed girl again."
Intimate Enemies
Joan Swan - 2012
Searching for closure, Cassie returns to her childhood home on the Pacific Coast of Baja, Mexico, where she launches her own investigation into the accident. She never expected to find an adversary in the man who had once touched her heart with kindness in her darkest moment.Rio’s been fantasizing about reconnecting with Cassie for months. But not here and sure as hell not now. As an undercover agent with U.S. Immigration and Customs Enforcement, he’s working the biggest sting operation in all of northern Mexico, and he definitely doesn’t have time for the wild attraction he feels for Cassie.Not only is his cover on the line, so is his heart. Because as the end of a yearlong operation draws closer, Rio knows if he tells Cassie the truth about who and what he is, it won’t only jeopardize his mission, it may result in him losing her forever. And if he doesn’t, his lies and deception could get them both killed.Note: Also appears in the 2013 anthology Dark Nights Dangerous Men
Shaking the Tree (The Man with Three Names)
Michael Donohue - 2011
Out of prison, but still on parole, the only thing he wants is to keep his head down, go to work and maybe grab a cold beer at the end of his shift. He doesn't even care that the program stuck him in Essex - a nice, but nowhere small town. With his head already full of bloody and painful memories, he'd like it just fine if his past and future stayed nice and quiet.Too bad the present just got really messy.A body in a tree. A missing briefcase. A Russian hit man. A DEA agent bent on revenge. A corrupt mayor. Not to mention a sheriff with dangerous ambition. A meth lab in the woods. And some pissed off bikers. Things are suddenly very interesting in sleepy Essex county. Bodies are turning up. Secrets are coming out. Questions are being asked. Fingers are being pointed. It's not good being the new guy in a small town.
She Belongs to Me
Carmen DeSousa - 2011
Charlotte police officer Jordan Monroe is used to being in control. Ever since his father died, he has provided for his mother and sisters and even hired his two brothers-in-law to help run his successful construction company. On a chance business trip, however, he meets the one person who throws his life into a whirlwind--Jaynee.Jaynee has lived a tragic life and has sworn off all men. That is until a rugged southern gentleman lands in her seating area, refusing to take no for an answer. From the moment they meet, Jordan sweeps her off her feet, assuring her that happiness exists. But can she really escape her past?Five years later, Jordan finds Jaynee on their back porch with a gunshot wound to the head. While Jaynee lies in a coma, Jordan has to go back to their beginning and figure out what went wrong. Did he push his wife to the edge, or has her past come back to haunt them? ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "You'll be swept off your feet along with Jaynee as she discovers the man of her dreams. You'll be drawn into the drama. And you'll flip the pages fast as Jordan must desperately figure out the truth in time. I was and did!" -- New York Times bestselling author Jaime Rush⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐ "SHE BELONGS TO ME is definitely a good suspenseful read. Ms. DeSousa is a talented author and I had no problem in connecting with the characters. The story displayed a realistic relationship between Jordan and Jaynee." -- The Romance Reviews
Misisipi
Michael Reilly - 2012
She packs a bag. She books a flight. She leaves a note on the kitchen counter. She departs her Boston home and disappears, without a warning, without a goodbye.For husband Scott, the initial shock carries a strange relief: their slide--from storybook soul mates to virtual strangers--could only end one way and it's been a long time coming.And anyway, Julianna has always been... unconventional.All that remains is to decipher the meaning behind her cryptic note. But that's before Scott finds evidence of her secret other actions on the day she left. A torrent of discovery shows just how little of Julianna's past he truly knew. They also cast a whole different light on the couple's present difficulties and offer Scott a sliver of hope for rescuing their future.His only course is to follow her to the place where her dark history has called her back, where two powerful and ruthless adversaries are waging the endgame of a long and bloody feud. Julianna is the key. She's the only one who can stop it, because she's the one who started it.Julianna is going home for the last time--to the city by the sea at the mouth of the river."A secret is a rotting anchor, hidden in deep water. You drop it and convince yourself that it's safe, tethered beyond sight. In that peculiar comfort, you forget that it binds you. And when a storm rolls in, it will not raise."Connect with /Misisipi.Novel on Facebook#MisisipiNovel
Close to Home
Suzanne Ferrell - 2012
I’m Lorna Doone. Yep, spelled just like the cookie and I own the Peaches ‘N Cream Café here in Weston. You might think nothing much happens in a small mid-western town, but as my friend Harriett says, things aren’t always what they appear. Take our girl Emma for example…”Emma Lewis has a lot on her plate. The single mother of two precocious twin boys and an aging mother who is having trouble getting through each day, the last thing Emma needs is a man in her life, especially a doctor. So when the town’s doctor goes on vacation and his handsome nephew takes over, Emma is shocked to not only find him standing in her bedroom, but accusing her of being a neglectful parent.Clint Preston came to Westen for the year to fill in as the town doc while his uncle took a long needed vacation. Clint also needed a sense of peace and calm to try to find his passion for medicine burned out by long shifts in an urban hospital’s ER. Angered to find two boys in his clinic with broken wrists and no accompanying parent, he is determined to confront their mother. The feisty redhead he meets quickly dispels his belief that she’s a neglectful mother, but he can see her situation is more critical than she wishes to face and finds himself volunteering to help care for her sons and the remodeling of her home.As Emma and Clint forge a relationship among the slightly off-beat characters that inhabit Weston a menace from Emma’s past threatens her and her sons. Clint and Emma join forces to prevent the loss of either boy and the love they’ve discovered in each other’s’ arms.