In this distinct selection of stories marked by struggle and compassion, Pieces Like Pottery is a powerful examination of the sorrows of life, the strength of character, the steadfast of courage, and the resiliency of love requisite to find redemption. Filled with graceful insight into the human condition, each linked story presents a tale of loss and love mirroring themes from each of the five Sorrowful Mysteries. In Expect Dragons, James Hinri learns that his old high school teacher is dying. Wanting to tell Mr. Smith one last time how much his teaching impacted him, James drives across the country revisiting past encounters with his father's rejection and the pain of his youth. Disillusioned and losing hope, little did James know that Mr. Smith had one final lesson for him. In The Gravesite, Lisa and Mike's marriage hangs in the balance after the disappearance of their only son while backpacking in Thailand. Mike thinks the authorities are right--that Chris fell to his death in a hiking accident--but Lisa has her doubts. Her son was too strong to die this young, and no one can explain to her why new posts continue to appear on her son's blog. Twenty-Two looks in on the lives of a dock worker suffering from the guilt of a life not lived and a bartender making the best of each day, even though he can see clearly how his life should have been different. The two find their worlds collide when a past tragedy shockingly connects them. A collection of nine stories, each exquisitely written and charged with merciful insight into the trials of life, Pieces Like Pottery reminds us of the sorrows we all encounter in life and the kindness we receive, oftentimes from the unlikeliest of places.

    The interview with the professor was followed by a quick hit with a grumpy detective in a wrinkled suit tossing out the inevitable quote that the first forty-eight hours are the most vital in a case. He didn't mention the fact that twice that time had passed." One woman's disappearance unlocks dark secrets in Mark Allen's brisk new detective novel, Six Months of September. As the suspects pile up, it falls on one unemployed reporter to figure out what the police cannot. Duncan Walsh has recently been fired from his job at Channel 8 news after an intense altercation with a local news icon. While contemplating his next move, he spends his days at the Chicago Museum of Natural History where he quickly befriends a beautiful tour guide named Agnes. A local university student, Agnes reveals that she is soon heading off on a paleontology dig. But when Agnes never shows up for the assignment, her disappearance becomes headline news. Unable to sit back while Agnes's life may be in danger, Duncan launches his own investigation with the assistance of his best friend. Along the way, another volunteer joins up, the last person Duncan ever wants to meet: James, Agnes's boyfriend. The ragtag group of amateur detectives struggles to gain leads, a task made all the harder by James's father, the Chicago Police Commander who may just hold a secret of his own. The danger heats up and more secrets are revealed as their investigation brings them closer to the university where Agnes studied. When one of them is attacked by an unknown assailant, Duncan begins to suspect that they may have gotten themselves in over their heads. Readers will find Six Months of September a compulsively readable page turner, right down to the right down to the shocking final confrontation.

    She's seen it fail a number of times and knows the probability of it working out is not great. She is a scientist, after all. Over the years, she's found it smarter to invest in something that will pay back the effort she puts into it. Something like her career. But she wakes up one morning to realize she's overworked, underpaid, with no one to share her life with, and she wonders if she's been right about love. Jack Wheeler not only just lost his dad, but he's about to lose their family ranch and home. Unable to allow that to happen, Jack does everything he can, including selling all of his personal belongings to protect the land that has been in their family for generations. But when even that isn't enough, Jack isn't sure what to do.  When Tessa flies to Blue Falls to spend Christmas with her family and she meets Jack, the chemistry is immediate. But she's from New York, and his life is in Blue Falls. She's one of the heirs to the Heathcliff billions, and he can barely scrape together his next mortgage payment. Can they see past their differences and find some common ground to cultivate their fledging love? Or will this Christmas come and go without any miracles? Grab your copy today!The ninth book in the sweet and wholesome Heathcliff Family Romances series. Read all of the Heathcliff Family Romances by Julia Keanini! 1. His to Save2. His to Marry3. His to Protect4. Her Favorite Risk5. Her Forever Love6. Her Perfect Mistake7. Their Second First Kiss8. The Island Patriot9. Their White Christmas

    Each book features one of the childhood friends in the group nicknamed the Danger Girls, and each story is a complete romance. Color of Danger, Taste of Danger, and Touch of Danger were also published as solo books.Welcome to Rios Azules, a small south Texas town, where rivers and emotions run deep, and the secrets are deadly. Book 1: Color of Danger Life as the sister of a serial killer is never easy, especially when a former runaway Mari Del Lobo becomes a target herself. A recent crime has her late brother's signature and MO, what Mari finds highly unusual, as she still blames herself for her only sibling's death. Soon Mari encounters an unexpected - and a very attractive - ally in Dr. Luke Goodman. Luke couldn't save his fiancée from the Smiling Killer, but he'll do anything to prevent more murders, even ask help from the serial killer's sister. Finding a kindred tortured soul in Mari, Luke is determined to keep her alive, but it's not easy to protect the stubborn ex-rebel. Can Mari survive to solve the mystery, renew her faith, and find love and redemption? Book 2: Taste of Danger Small-town librarian Soledad Sokolova has three days to find a hidden Russian treasure - or she and her father will die. Out of options, she turns for help to a hunky stranger, private investigator James O'Hara. But she knows better than to let a ladies' man break her heart for the second time. Bound by his word to Soledad's father, James is ready to protect her at all costs. However, once betrayed, he's reluctant to fall in love again. Will James and Soledad escape danger and find treasures of faith, love, and hope? Book 3: Touch of Danger Rookie cop Ivan Vargas blames small-town accountant Julia Morrison for his brother's suicide, as claimed in the note. When Julia is attacked, Ivan wonders if she's right about the suicide being staged. He's determined to find his brother's killer and keep Julia safe but reluctant to lose his heart to the stubborn beauty who's known to break them...Hurt in the past, Julia has avoided letting men too close. But she needs Ivan's help to uncover traumatic secrets someone would kill to keep hidden. Can she stay alive long enough to learn to love and trust again?

    But as a 43-year-old divorcee with an empty nest staring me in the face, I can hardly say no when my mama finally breaks down and does the impossible. She asks for help.I expect to lend a hand with running the family business.Instead, I end up inheriting witch powers and a magical family legacy.My mama's been hiding a secret for my whole life. The merciless gods and goddesses from Ancient Rome are trapped in my hometown... Unfortunately for me, I'm the only thing standing between them and all hell breaking loose…With the fate of the world hanging in the balance, I’ve only got three weeks to solve the mystery of why my Earth witch powers don't work.Saving the world won’t be easy. Of course, neither is being a middle-aged woman.I might be midlife, but sugar, I’m just getting started!Dive into this paranormal women's fiction story about midlife women, mythical gods, and the magic that happens when life forces you to change.

    The theory is sound, but something goes wrong, and a highly contagious combination of virus and prion is unleashed, a middle-stage organism too dangerous to test. With emergency services overwhelmed, a small community hospital tries to combat the unthinkable--an illness that causes aggression, spreads through violence, and won’t allow the dead to rest.

    In one narrative, a man wakes up one morning to find the odor of dead fish won't go away, but no one else can smell it. In another, a couple's visit with friends to watch the Academy Awards has the protagonist envying his friends' lawn and lifestyle. In these and eleven other stories, Christopher Meeks balances tragedy and wit. As novelist David Scott Milton explains, "In this collection, Christopher Meeks examines the small heartbreaks of quiet despair that are so much a part of all our lives. He does it in language that is resonant, poetic, and precise.... If you like Raymond Carver, you'll love Meeks. He may be as good--or better."

    Haunted by a recurring dream, Nat suffers from endless restless nights. The dreams show vivid images of the events leading up to Jess’s final moments, on the night she passed away. As the dreams start to progress, it soon becomes apparent that Jess’s death was more than just an accident and Nat is forced to delve into her sister’s past. She focuses on a year Jess spent travelling in Australia when she was younger, turning her attention to the places she visited and the people that she met there. Nat soon discovers that Jess held a secret, which she had kept hidden until the day she died. Could this secret be linked to her death?As the past unravels and Nat is lead closer to the truth, she starts to wonder how many other secrets Jess had kept from her, and questions if she ever really knew her sister at all...

    Fatigued from overwork and dismayed by relentless cost cutting, Captain Reilly finds himself developing an unhelpful aversion to the very people who pay his salary: passengers and managers.Riding aboard a typical flight, we follow John Reilly as he struggles with the challenges facing today’s airline pilot: trying to stay awake, keeping crew food down, fending off flirtatious cabin crew and completing the crossword before landing.The Life of Captain Reilly is a shocking but hilarious tale of the low cost airline, and reveals its great secret: glamour doesn’t fly anymore.PLEASE NOTE: IF YOU HAVE A ROMANTICIZED PERCEPTION OF AIRLINE PILOTS AND COMMERCIAL AVIATION -- AND YOU WISH TO KEEP IT -- DON'T BUY THIS BOOK!ALSO, THIS IS QUITE A SHORT BOOK.

    An elderly woman who sat down in her recliner to take a nap and never woke up. But Sheriff Weber would soon learn there was nothing routine about this case at all.When an autopsy revealed that she had been murdered, things take a bizarre turn. The sheriff discovers that there were many people who had reason to want Edna Knowles dead, among them relatives she had cheated out of an inheritance, two adult stepchildren she had treated cruelly, and a high school sweetheart from long ago upon whom she had committed the ultimate betrayal.As the sheriff and his deputies investigate the case, they find that searching for the old woman’s killer is only one mystery awaiting them in a house filled with secrets. Who was Edna Knowles, and why did she do the bizarre things she did? There is no doubt that she was an oddball, a recluse, and a hoarder. Maybe even a monster?

    They found a habitable planet and erased everything in the colony ship’s data banks about Earth in the hopes that none of their descendants would ever attempt to find mankind’s home world. Now, thousands of years after Britannia was settled, a war is looming between the Union and Coalition. Captain Grady Henricks is given a secret mission to discover how a small scout ship’s hull survived destruction from powerful blaster beams that destroyed everything but the hull. However, time is running out for Grady to finish his mission; the Coalition is becoming more aggressive and the war is going to kick off before Grady can complete his assignment. During his mission, Grady discovers that the scout wasn’t attacked and destroyed by Coalition warships. An alien civilization has found Britannia and it quickly becomes clear that not only is the Union threatened by the Coalition but all of Britannia is in danger of being attacked by the aliens. War breaks out and the aliens decide to strike in the aftermath. The Fight for Britannia is on and it appears that the humans living on Britannia don’t have long to live. Grady is forced to do something that the original colonists prayed would never happen; he goes in search of an ancient planet that might be able to save the remaining humans on Britannia. Earth must be found and quickly. Excerpt from The Fight for Britannia: Taffy stood behind the Hermit and saw the computer’s screen activate. She saw the startup screen appear and then go dark, as the Hermit turned a nob on the keyboard. Each time it clicked, another dark screen appeared. After ten clicks, a view appeared on the display. She heard the Hermit mutter to himself, “They left the polar satellite alone.” He began moving the cursor and the view changed. An image began zooming in and she saw a city appear. The image grew larger and she recognized that it was the city she lived in just over the mountains; the Government Tower was in the center of the city and that building couldn’t be anywhere else. She suddenly saw three large shapes move out of the mountains toward the outskirts of the city. Suddenly, brilliant beams of light stabbed out of the three objects hitting the ground. Her heart started pounding harder; where those light beams hit, massive explosions erupted, and everything caught on fire. The three-large objects moved out over the city and the only thing left behind them was a fire bright enough to be seen from space. She watched the fires move out into the city and saw her parent’s neighborhood go up in massive flames. The Hermit moved the cursor again and she saw numerous star ships moving toward the monitor. The Hermit pressed a button on the wall turning on the lights in the giant facility as he jumped up out of his chair and ran across the huge room. She followed him and suddenly saw a small ship in the center of the large cavern. The Fight for Britannia is a thriller and is the latest novel from the international bestselling author Saxon Andrew.

    Unfortunately, the only person Destiny knows with red hair is her best friend, Eve.Amid two personal tragedies and a shocking story of deceit, Destiny is sent plunging into a nightmarish depression that prompts her to flee back to her roots on Topsail Island, North Carolina—first with her husband and then by herself with the hope of healing her heart and piecing her life back together after their marriage unravels. But when fate keeps leading her back to the island's handsome police chief, Chase McKenzie, Destiny soon realizes that her racially-charged past has risen up to meet a more progressive present and opened the door for a second chance at first love. Now only one question remains: is this the right time for both of them?In this contemporary romance, a heartbroken journalist embarks on a journey of self-discovery where she must overcome her personal pain and find tranquility before she can realize true love.

     Kek has spent his life being treated like a dog, but he's only dog-like in appearance. You see, he's a kobold who originally came from a dungeon. And he's spent most of his life enslaved to a gang of exiled mercenaries hiding out in a deadly jungle. When Kek gains the power to see the hidden mechanics of reality and learns to "game" them to expand his skills and find hidden meanings, he is soon entrusted with a noble quest. He must return to the dungeon where he came from and rescue his people from servitude to the dungeon lord! Faced with untold dangers, Kek is going to need allies—such as a sweet muck fairy with a killer streak, a deadly-beautiful siren who fights best au natural, and a sensual cat woman with lightning quick moves. They are sure going to keep this lone kobold on his toes. Throughout this quest, Kek will learn the hard way that one of the greatest opponents a hero confronts is his own self-doubt. This is a LitRPG with a twist. There is no VR. The fantasy world is real. The game mechanics are part of a unique magical power that only the lucky few obtain. If you're not into this sort of thing, maybe it's time you give it a go. There's also a fun and adventure-packed story that will keep any fantasy reader engrossed right up until the end. Book two in the series is planned for launch early 2018!

    On the outside, she is a shy plain Jane that you wouldn’t even spare a second glance. However, she has a dirty little secret—a sexy vixen of an alter ego. Also known as Miss O, Akira secretly writes erotica stories for one of the most popular magazines around. Trapped within her small town’s social norms, she must keep that secret hidden or face humiliation and disgrace. Everything was going well, that is until her sizzling hot teacher, Ethan Whitmore, stumbles upon her journal with her latest erotica story. Things spiral out of control as she struggles to keep her secret under wraps. But with Ethan threatening to expose her, will she be able to actually keep it for long? Full of steamy rendezvous, unexpected betrayal, and forbidden romance, Virgin Exotica is an incredibly hot book you surely wouldn’t want to miss. Grab a copy now!

    And she’s not happy about it."FINALLY! A pregnant woman who...Loved being Pregnant!"Kindergarten teacher/wine saleswoman Casey Samms has always wanted to be a mother. Now that the blessed event is actually going to happen, she's ready to give up the wine and chocolate brownies and prepare for the swollen ankles and sleepless nights.But she has no idea what to do about the father.Her plan for immaculate conception—or as close as she could get to it via sperm donor—is ruined by the one drunken night with her roommate J.B. and the expired condom that spoils everything.Who knew condoms had expiry dates?Sexy J.B., with his long list of past girlfriends, is the last person Casey expects to stick around for the morning sickness and doctor visits but this time J.B. isn’t running away. He's reading the baby books and asking the questions and that time when he touched her belly...Casey has nine months to get ready to do the baby thing on her own, but J.B. isn’t making a move to get out of the way.One night changed Casey’s life. Is J.B. ready to change as well?Find out how Casey deals with the unexpected in this sweet, laugh-out-loud, friends-to-lovers romantic comedy about second chances (and third...and fourth...)