Determined to heal after the unexpected deaths of her parents, she is grateful that her longtime friend, Annie, still lives in Cherokee. Annie, who has been there for everything, great and small, in her life. Annie, who got her cabin back in order after the tenants trashed the place. When Amos gets sick unexpectedly, Annie once again comes to the rescue, giving her the number for the local vet. Isaac Hamilton is lonely. He’s also overworked and at the brink of exhaustion, being the only local vet. He never expected his world to turn upside down when he met Dixie. Yet, he’s drawn to her and despite his chaotic schedule, he makes time to get to know her and it’s not long before he realizes that she’s the one for him. Wedding bells ring but when faced with a tragedy, will they spend all their Christmases together?

    When he takes advantage of her and leaves her ruined and pregnant she answers a letter from Deputy Henry White to become his mail order bride. Arriving in Sanctuary, Montana with her new baby she finds herself without a husband, rejected by the judgmental deputy. Jack Fury came west to escape a shattered heart after finding his fiancée in the arms of another man. He vowed to never marry or love another, dedicating his life to upholding the law till death. When his deputy refuses to marry the mail order bride he sent Jack finds himself offing to marry her and take care of her child. Can Abbie-Ann learn to trust a man after her violation? Can Jack’s hard heart soften toward his new bride? Will two broken and scared individuals be able to heal each other? Or are they destined to live together in a loveless marriage? Will the past destroy their future before it even gets started? Can healing be found in the Sheriff’s Unexpected Family?

     With her already full schedule and her grandkids’ upcoming tree fort construction/sleepover, plus trying to plan a fall party at her farm; she calls on the Garden Girls to help her solve the mystery of the missing man. As the clues are uncovered, they point directly at a lovesick stalker, who also happens to be Gloria’s friend, as the prime suspect. On top of that, there’s also the possibility that perhaps the missing man doesn’t want to be found. Gloria’s intuition tells her that maybe he has met with foul play, especially once they discover possible ties to the mafia. Will they find Milt alive - or is it already too late? BOOK 8: Bully in the 'Burbs "Garden Girl" Gloria Rutherford is on cloud nine since her recent engagement to Officer Paul Kennedy,and wedding plans are at the top of Gloria's to-do list...or they were until Gloria ends up on the receiving end of a financial windfall. With a generous heart, Gloria shares her newfound wealth with her children but the gift presents its own set of problems. Soon, Gloria is desperately trying to make sure her daughter and family actually move into the home of their dreams once it becomes clear that someone is trying to scare them away; but who and why? Never one to run from a bully, especially when they're messing with one of her kids, Gloria jumps in with both fists swinging. As the clues and the suspect list grows, Gloria enlists the help of the other Garden Girls, but the closer they get to solving the mystery, the more obstacles that are thrown into their path. If all of that isn't enough to make Gloria's head spin, one of the Garden Girls has just been diagnosed with a deadly disease! BOOK 9: Fall Girl With Thanksgiving right around the corner, the townsfolk of Belhaven are busy preparing for the upcoming feast with friends and family. When a body is discovered in the vacant farmhouse across the street from Gloria Rutherford's place, Gloria is horrified to think that someone...a killer, is on the loose. Things go from bad to worse when she discovers that the body found in the house is none other than her best friend, Lucy Carlson's ex-boyfriend. The police uncover evidence that points to Lucy as the murderer and possibly Gloria as an accomplice. Police are hot on Lucy's trail and the lead investigator is gunning for her arrest. Can Gloria track down the real killer before it's too late? Or will Lucy take the fall and spend Thanksgiving in the slammer?

    But something’s not right. Monroe’s baby is weak and cries constantly. When Annie confronts Monroe about it, he goes into a rage and tells her to mind her own business. She tells her father but he thinks she’s exaggerating. Annie knows something is suspicious, but what? The next day she discovers something that makes her skin crawl. She nabs the baby and flees.Now she’s on the run. Her only hope is exposing Monroe’s deadly evil before it’s too late—for her and the baby. Take advantage of this special low price for a limited time!

    Before the vampire can kidnap her, there is an unexpected rescue by a group of vampire hunters. Overwhelmed by the feeling of safety, Chloe passes out and they whisk her away to their small community. When Chloe wakes, she comes face to face with the only other living relative, besides her mother, whom she has ever met: her grandfather.Through her grandfather, she learns her mother was a vampire hunter. In fact, her entire family is descended from the powerful bloodlines of vampire hunters. Chloe agrees to join the family she has never known for one reason only: Chloe vows to kill the vampire responsible for her mother’s murder.With vengeance in her soul, Chloe is even more determined to follow through on her vow when she discovers the true identity of her enemy and how he is connected to her.So, she begins to train hard, mentored by Drew, the young hunter who saved her and lives with her grandfather. Although she is directly descended from ancient, powerful vampire hunters, the rigorous training schedule begins to break her down.Chloe also experiences her first Christmas without her mother. As part of the grieving process she visits her mother’s grave for the first time and there, she is visited by Sostrate, the immortal demi-god from whom she is descended.As she comes of age, Chloe is changing and developing the gifts unique to her heritage. She discovers a new power she must learn to use and control. During this emotionally chaotic time in her life, the community is attacked, her grandfather injured and hunters are killed. After almost losing her only remaining family, Chloe questions whether her continued presence in the community will sacrifice everyone she has come to care about.

    The only problem is they haven't spoken to each other in a hundred and fifty years.

    His wife surprises him by insisting they did. And then she's gone. He knows this can't be true. Can it? They only met later in life, so why would Grace's departing words hint at a shared youth? Haunted by this notion, Daniel journeys into the past to discover the truth. 'Remember' is a unique love story. Find out how it really began...

    & Mrs. McGregor, a couple who come to help while Jane takes a temporary job in London. And there are, of course, the children -- Jane's two and the McGregor child -- around whom explosive jealousy and hate swiftly begin to condense. During the long, wet summer, the failing architect and his career wife, the television personality, Jane's girlfriend and the baleful McGregors slowly build their relationship into... murder.

    A dollhouse, filled with life-sized toys. A doorway into other realms. And girls who keep disappearing...When Cassie’s best friend, Aisha, vanishes during a school hike, Cassie sets off with Aisha's boyfriend and their friend Lacey, determined to find her. Instead, the three teens fall into a carefully-laid trap—deep into the surreal nightmare and dark secrets of the Dollhouse.Now, Cassie must uncover the mysteries of the Dollhouse and her own connection to it-- before it's too late.With the horror and otherworldliness of Miss Peregrine's Home for Peculiar Children and the gothic romance of A Great and Terrible Beauty, Dollhouse is a tantalizing start to The Dark Carousel series.

    Quinn O'Brion and Kate Tassel, two small-town journalists, became the Prince of Sanheim and used that power to defeat a serial killer.In Band of Demons, Quinn and Kate battled a new threat, two legendary creatures who had already destroyed everyone in their path. But Kate and Quinn's victory came at a heavy price. In Give the Devil His Due, Kate's only hope to save Quinn is to trust the man who took him from her. Don't miss the epic finale to the trilogy that has readers raving about its great characters, plot twists and deft combination of urban fantasy, mystery and suspense.The Lord Sanheim rules forever...

    Craven. A psychopath takes Trick or Treating a step too far. And a woman's dream of a quiet life is shattered by a knock on the door.Afraid Of The Shadows is a collection of gripping- sometimes funny, always spooky- short stories from some of the biggest names in crime fiction.From possessed sweaters to creepy wardrobes and disco shape shifters, there’s something for everyone in this Halloween bucket of short story goodies making it the perfect companion to snuggle up with as the nights draw in. Though be warned, you might want to leave the lights on...****************************************************************CONTRIBUTORSAfraid Of The Shadows is brought to you by twenty bestselling crime and thriller writers who between them have topped the Sunday Times and Amazon charts, won the Crime Writers’ Association Diamond Dagger Award, Gold Dagger Award and New Blood Dagger Award, the Bath Novel Award, the UK National Book Awards and the WHSmith Best Crime Author of All Time Award.Special guests:M.W. CravenPeter JamesT.M. LoganMatt WesolowskiTrevor WoodRachael BlokElle Croft (Shortlisted for the 2021 CWA Short Story Dagger Award)Heather CritchlowJames Delargy (Shortlisted for the 2021 CWA Short Story Dagger Award)Clare EmpsonJo FurnissT.E. KinseyN.J. MackayS.R. MastersPhoebe MorganDominic Nolan (Shortlisted for the 2021 CWA Short Story Dagger Award)Robert Scragg (Shortlisted for the 2021 CWA Short Story Dagger Award)Victoria Selman (Shortlisted for the 2021 CWA Short Story Dagger Award)Kate SimantsAdam Southward (Longlisted for the 2021 CWA Short Story Dagger Award)****************************************************************Profits from the sale of Afraid Of The Shadows will be donated to the Barnardo's Children in Crisis Covid AppealThis delivers practical and emotional support to vulnerable children caught in a downward spiral of deprivation as a result of the coronavirus crisis.Children and families across the UK are increasingly in or on the brink of poverty as a result of coronavirus.The impact of the second wave is pushing a generation of the most vulnerable children into a downward spiral of deprivation. With your support Barnardo’s can deliver the practical and emotional support families in crisis need.

     Growing up with paranormal entities in all shapes, sizes and species in the Victorian mansion of her eccentric Aunt Penelope Trevelyan, who probably would have been burnt as a witch in another time, Caitlin had been told countless times that she was fated to travel to Cornwall “when the time is right” and find? Her aunt had said it would be love with a happy ending, but Caitlin had her doubts. So far, she hadn’t found any man she was willing to spend more than a few hours with let alone a lifetime. But when she opens the letter from Thane Edmunds requesting her help, she feels a strange, intense pull that shoots a shiver of awareness through her entire being. Deep down, all the way to her toes, she knows the time was finally “right” and destiny had come banging on her door. Caitlin’s knack for ghost hunting had started in her college years, when she founded North East Paranormal Investigative Services, largely to protect her Goth friend and then roommate, Moira Smoot, from her own inept dabblings in the occult…something that had almost cost her more than her life. Since then, rules had been set up to help guard their safety in a setting, where anything could happen. Rules an excited Caitlin seems to forget, when she arrives in Cornwall ahead of her team and disregards NEPIS’ first rule of ghost hunting….”never go in alone”… by driving out to the site for a quick look around before night fall. Expecting a caretaker, she is disappointed to find the dilapidated manor locked up tight and no one there, at least no one living, for she senses more than one pair of ghostly eyes witness her arrival. Circling the outside, listening to the pound of the surf on the rocks below the cliffs, she finds the lock broken on the kitchen door and enters. Looking around the fast darkening, cavernous room, she notices that a cot had been set up in one corner and the swing door to the rest of the manor both padlocked and painted with a crudely drawn red cross. Knowing that can’t be good…knowing she should get her keister out of there, but fast, and head back to the safety of the village, she finds herself battling an inexplicable compulsion to spend the night…and losing. All alone in the dark, she begins to think she may have made a “horror”ble mistake, when she senses not only the usual ghosts and spirits that go ‘bump in the night’, but also the distant presence of Colin, the long dead fifth Earl of Eastwythe, now a restless incubus who plots to ensnare her in his delicious web of dark sexuality, since feeding his lust has been his sole antidote to an eternity he finds both “ducedly boring” and very lonely. But, listening to Caitlin moving about in the kitchen from his attic lair, he feels a twinge of conscience and decides to leave her “unmolested”…at least for the night. And so Caitlin, wrapping herself in the comforting memories of the past…cold…hungry…and more than a little scared, waits out the long, dark night unaware she has been given a short reprieve. One that Colin already regrets. But when Thane Edmunds arrives in the morning, and hears Caitlin knocking out the hinge pins in his kitchen door in order to satisfy yet another compulsion to see the rest of the manor before she leaves for the village, the atmosphere heats up quickly in the old manor.

    Her old nightmare is back. And now the timid kindergarten teacher is convinced that someone is following her--watching her every move. It could just be coincidence that she and the chillingly memorable man seem to show up at all the same places. Perhaps her paranoia is just a result of her deep fear of change. After all, so much has changed in her life recently. To make matters worse, Laura is now supposed to travel halfway across the country to take possession of a family estate she has inherited. As unnerved as she is with her 'stalker' in St. Louis, the plantation in Virginia seems even more frightening to Laura. And what is a Mormon girl going to do with miles of tobacco crop?But then again, maybe the family estate holds the secret to why Laura's parents would never talk about their past. In hopes of finding clues to this mystery, Laura packs her bags and catches a bus to Bufordville, a tiny town with more than its fair share of rumors, suspicions, and deadly secrets. Then panic sets in as Laura finds her returning nightmare is, in fact, a twenty-year-old reality--a reality that could very well repeat itself."

    James taught him how to be a bounty hunter, and Beau has been content with his life. When Beau gets word his father has died, he travels back home to Arkansas to see his mother and brother. Upon arrival, he learns of his father’s will, demanding that Beau marry within ninety days of the elder Dawson’s death. He even ordered his attorney to place an advert for a Mail Order Bride for his youngest son. Rose Lancaster was born and bred in Boston. After her husband dies, she thinks her life is over. Her father is determined to help and makes a contract for her with a Mail Order Bride Agency. When Beau and Rose finally meet, sparks fly. Can this mismatched couple ever find a way to live together, let alone live happily ever after?