She leaves behind: one cat, one scarf, and a hypergeometric theory of everything with the potential to end physics. Her husband Benjamin is determined to bring her home. Papers will be read. Cults will be infiltrated. Cats will be petted. Benjamin Hare cannot tie his shoes, but he may well steer the course of human history. Thousands of years later and humans have migrated into a great digital playground called Arcadia. Light is smelled. Music is eaten. Physics is near completion. These new humans have their own trials, however; an experiment in mind-blending has gone horribly wrong, giving birth to a rampant colossus. It is the end of history, but long-dead mathematician (and mediocre ukulele player) Polly Hare might have something to say on the matter. What is the origin of space and time? Why is logic built into nature? And how, exactly, does God take his tea?

    No exceptions.It’s finally here.Friday.Girls’ night!And to celebrate, I got tickets to the hottest party in the city.That’s right…We’re going to the Banana Party!Single Girl Rules #BananaParty is a novella filled with love, laughs, and tons of bananas ;)

    18,000 words (72 pages)— Appearances can be deceiving… To Rolf, Mirabay is the city of dreams. Called the Jewel of the West, it is the place of kings and heroes and great deeds. The chance to visit is not an opportunity Rolf is willing to miss. At first glance, the city is everything he expects, but with an appearance and accent more suited to the Marches rather than the refined salons and sophisticated ballrooms of the city, he is met with the prejudice reserved for those from the rural provinces. Dreams and preconceptions rarely meet with reality, however and as the city begins to lose its lustre for Rolf, those he thought him an uncouth blow-in from the Marches learn the error of their ways.

    More than two million books sold worldwide in seven different languages! Description: After one hellish year in which their lives nearly were claimed by a madman—and with a new baby on the way in just a matter of weeks—Jennifer and Alex decide to spend this particular holiday season in Manhattan with their extended family of friends, if only so Jennifer can be close to her doctor. With that decision made and no travel plans on the horizon, one would think that this holiday should be a breeze, right? Not even close. First, Blackwell and Lisa butt heads over who’s the best choice to throw Jennifer’s baby shower. As infamously strong-willed as Blackwell is, she’s soon rattled to find out that Lisa is no pushover. In fact, she’s hellbent on proving that she can stand up to Blackwell with ideas of her own…in ways that might leave the reader howling. Second, there’s Cutter and Daniella, who are headed straight for a break-up due to Daniella’s insistence that they move in together Will they be kissing under the mistletoe after weeks of not speaking? After Blackwell has a heart-to-heart talk with her daughter, readers might be surprised by the outcome… Third—and perhaps most dire in this book—is the appearance of Ava Kent, Jennifer’s abusive and cunning drunk of a mother, who suddenly crashes back into Jennifer’s life in ways that are so corrosive and toxic, it sends an already fragile Jennifer literally to her breaking point. In “Annihilate Them: Holiday,” expect all the romance, love, sexy times and laughs that you’ve enjoyed in the previous Holiday books, but also expect much more drama, especially when it comes to Ava. When she dares to threaten Jennifer with one mother of a deception that sheds new insight into Jennifer’s past, she does so with a fierceness that darkens these holidays in the coldest of ways. Note: Make sure to read “Annihilate Them” before you read “Annihilate Them: Holiday.”

    He is so unlucky in love, in fact, that he has never been with another living person. And that's not about to change any time soon when his latest date is far from living...From Matt Shaw (Sick B*stards and 150 other titles) comes a new shocking story about a man desperate to lose his virginity. Please note: This is a dark read which raises some interesting questions along the way. It is not meant for the faint of heart.

    Machine revolves around a group of teenagers—both locals and wealthy out-of-towners—during a single summer at the shore. Steinberg captures the pressures and demands of this world in a voice that effortlessly slides from collective to singular, as one girl recounts a night on which another girl drowned. Hoping to assuage her guilt and evade a similar fate, she pieces together the details of this tragedy, as well as the breakdown of her own family, and learns that no one, not even she, is blameless.A daring stylist, Steinberg contrasts semicolon-studded sentences with short lines that race down the page. This restless approach gains focus and power through a sharply drawn narrative that ferociously interrogates gender, class, privilege, and the disintegration of identity in the shadow of trauma. Machine is the kind of novel—relentless and bold—that only Susan Steinberg could have written.

    So he makes two neighborhood girls promise him that if they are ever in a bind but are afraid to call their parents, they must call him. Several nights later, the call comes at two a.m. The next day, a girl is missing and Myron is the last person who saw her. Racing to find her before she’s gone forever, Myron must outrun his own troubled past and decide once and for all who he is and what he will stand up for...NO SECOND CHANCEShot twice by an unseen assailant, Dr. Marc Seidman lies in a hospital bed. His wife has been killed. His six-month-old daughter has vanished. But just when his world seems forever shattered, the ransom note arrives: We are watching. If you contact the authorities, you will never see your daughter again. There will be no second chance. With no one to trust, and mired in a deepening quicksand of deception and deadly secrets, Marc clings to one unwavering vow: bring home his daughter, at any cost.JUST ONE LOOKWhen Grace Lawson picks up a newly developed set of family photographs, there is a picture that doesn't belong-a photo from at least twenty years ago with a man in it who looks strikingly like her husband, Jack. And though Jack denies it's him, he disappears that night, taking the photo with him. Now, to save her family from a fierce, silent killer who will stop at nothing to get the photo, Grace must confront the dark corners of her own tragic past...

    Amy Hempel's collection of 16 stories seems to ask: "What if people could be just a little more like dogs - -forever loyal, ardent and loving in our hearts?"

    

    But she isn't ready. Not for the whispers in her ear, for the divinations... for the blood. Her people's history and their future, carved by ancients into the bones of long dead behemoths, are now her burden. Only she can read them, interpret the instructions, and guide them to the Promised Land.Their journey is almost at an end, but now, without the Prophet, she must find a way to guide them to the place they will call Home. Through blood and through sand, against the will of her own flock, against the horrors that haunt the darkness, only she can bring her people Home.The Prophet is dead. Long live the Prophetess.

    Monica Esteban grew up poor, on occasion helping her single mother clean houses. That’s when she first saw the big white house on Pine Terrace. Her mother called her princess and told her that one day she would marry a rich prince and live in a castle. The castle she dreamed of was the big white house. But that would never happen on a cop’s salary. At least that’s what she thought until she received an inconceivable dinner invitation from the most unlikely man imaginable. Dinner is everything she hoped it would be. Dan Emery is a perfect gentleman, making the next two months pass like a fairy tale…until her dream comes to an end and she finds out just how much it costs to live in the big white house on Pine Terrace. Don’t miss any of these exciting stories from Thriller 2: The Weapon by Jeffery Deaver Remaking by Blake Crouch Iced by Harry Hunsicker Justice Served by Mariah Stewart The Circle by David Hewson Roomful of Witnesses by R.L. Stine The House on Pine Terrace by Phillip Margolin The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away by Marcus Sakey On the Run by Carla Neggers Can You Help Me Out Here? by Robert Ferrigno Crossed Double by Joe Hartlaub The Lamented by Lawrence Light Vintage Death by Lisa Jackson Suspension of Disbelief by Tim Maleeny A Calculated Risk by Sean Chercover The Fifth World by Javier Sierra Ghost Writer by Gary Braver Through a Veil Darkly by Kathleen Antrim Bedtime for Mr. Li by David J. Montgomery Protecting the Innocent by Simon Wood Watch Out for My Girl by Joan Johnston Killing Time by Jon Land Boldt’s Broken Angel by Ridley PearsonOriginally published in THRILLER 2 (2009),edited by #1 New York Times bestselling author Clive Cussler.

    In the title story, a teenage girl must choose between allegiance to her Catholic father and gratitude to the British soldiers who have saved the family's horse. The young hero of Hunger Strike, a novella, tries to replicate the experience of his uncle, an IRA prisoner on hunger strike. And in Wood, a small boy does his part for the Protestant marches, concealing his involvement from his blind father.

    His overprotective streak has blossomed in the absence of his wife, leaving his teenage daughter sneaking out at every opportunity, trying to find herself and her place in the world without any parental support. But she knows the woods, and she knows what she wants to do with her life; it's just a question of whether she can keep herself alive long enough to actually accomplish her planned future.Thomas Price is a man still paying for his past. He's smart enough to understand that his assignment is essentially an exile, and has enough of a sense of self-preservation not to argue. Those who vex the Covenant of St. George rarely live long enough to explain themselves. At least in Buckley Township, he'll be far away from danger...unless you're counting Alice Healy.Worlds will collide and a new story will begin as Thomas Price arrives in his new home, and Alice Healy does her best to stay alive long enough to say hello for the first time.

    Every game played with your child has the potential to become a lifelong memory.The Rookie is a flash fiction piece (just over 500 words) based on a childhood memory.

    When one of the Duke's former lovers manipulates it so that Raff and Catherine are caught in a compromising situation the pair are forced into a hasty marriage of convenience, one that Catherine fears will end in disaster. Raff William James D'Alton, Sixth Duke of Albright had always been a huge admirer of wives --provided that they belonged to other men, of course. When his old love takes her revenge by forcing him into an unwanted marriage with a dowdy spinster, Raff vows that he will not let an inconvenient thing like a bride ruin his bachelor lifestyle. However, as time passes Raff and Catherine begin to realise that the sparks that fly between the pair have more to do with attraction than tension and that this inconvenient marriage might just have a happy ending --if only they'll allow it.