But Iris is about to learn how wrong she is.When Louis accidently falls out of his second story window these two kindred souls are brought together. What unfolds is a most unlikely love story. One that will make you laugh and that will break—and remake—your heart.

    Fleeing boredom, bad marriages, and dead-end jobs, these adventurers wander south to Playa Paraiso—a lush, unspoiled village on Mexico’s idyllic Caribbean coast. There they find the unpredictable, hedonistic, and sometimes frightening world of the tropics.At the center of this extraordinary group is Poppa, the irreverent and savvy owner of the local beach bar. As he tries to make sense of his own vagabond existence, he offers his fellow expats booze, advice, and the occasional helping hand. It is Poppa who tells the tales of these intriguing runaways, as together they encounter true loves, vicious drug dealers, charming rogues, clueless do-gooders, and a devastating hurricane. Against a backdrop of stunning blue water and endless white sand, they experience the heart’s tug of war between the need for a place to call home and the desire for the freedom to roam.Author Anthony Lee Head is very familiar with the dream of living in paradise portrayed in Driftwood: Stories from the Margarita Road. After leaving a long career as a San Francisco trial lawyer, he moved to Playa del Carmen, Mexico where for ten years he ran a small hotel and margarita bar near the beach.Travelers, wanderers, explorers and dreamers alike will see themselves in these unforgettable characters, all the while craving an icy boat drink on a sprawling beach. But be careful: if you stick your feet in the sand and come along on this journey, you may not want to go home again."... Joseph Conrad collides with Jimmy Buffett in a journey through the dark heart of Mexico's Riviera Maya."~ Bob Calhoun, bestselling author and journalist"Truly wonderful and moving tales; the author is a writer to watch."~ Kirkus Reviews (starred review)"Beneath the 'palm and balmy breezes' tone, a deep, empathetic humanity affords each character and event vivid authenticity."~ Peter Coyote, bestselling author and actor

    Theirs is a seemingly idyllic life of summer softball games and Labor Day cookouts, snow days and skating on the pond. But when a tragic accident permanently injures the family’s youngest child, Eleanor blames Cam. Her inability to forgive him leads to a devastating betrayal: an affair with the family babysitter that brings about the end of their marriage.Over the decades that follow, the five members of this fractured family—and the many others who make up their world—make surprising discoveries and decisions that occasionally bring them together, and often tear them apart. As we follow the family from the days of illegal abortion and the draft through the early computer age, the Challenger explosion, the AIDS epidemic, the early awakenings of the #MeToo era, and beyond, through the gender transition of one of the children and another’s choice to cease communication with her mother, we witness a family forced to confront essential, painful truths of its past and find redemption in the face of unanticipated disaster.With endearingly flawed characters and a keen eye for detail, Joyce Maynard transforms the territory she knows best—home, family, parenthood, love, and loss—into the stuff of a page-turning thriller. In this achingly beautiful novel, she reminds us how great sorrow and great joy may coexist—and frequently do.

    You'll not find six more remarkable characters: a cashier-turned motivational speaker, an undertaker with a toenail fetish, a girl wrapped in dreams, a man who communicates with whales, a garbage man with a peculiar sense of smell, and a Guinness Book of World Records representative.

    When Donnie Huff survives a near-fatal logging accident, his ambitious mother-in-law insists that he has returned from the dead, and he embarks on a Pentecostal revival trail and a discovery of his own faith.

    When a letter arrives threatening to reveal the truth that could destroy her tight-knit family, Nadine embarks on a difficult journey to explain her painful decision, especially to her youngest daughter, Autumn.Meanwhile, Autumn Anderson, Speech Pathologist and mother of two, is struggling in her marriage. The discovery of a troubling letter addressed to her mother disrupts her already complicated life, leading Autumn to question what she’s always believed. When the unthinkable happens, Autumn digs deeper into her family’s past and unravels a tangled web of lies and deception surrounding her own birth. Meeting the one person her mother entrusted with her secret brings Autumn face-to-face with an unexpected and shocking revelation.A Mother’s Choice is a fast-paced, uplifting, emotional read, full of family drama, love, hope, and forgiveness.

    When it seems nothing else could possibly go wrong, her car skids off an icy road and plunges into a frozen lake. There, in the cold, dark depths of the water, Sophie experiences something profound and extraordinary--something that unlocks the secrets from her past, and teaches her what it means to truly live"--Publisher description.

    One Day meets Sliding Doors in this outstanding debut that is causing a buzz across the publishing worldSome moments can change your life for ever. Have you ever wondered, what if...?A man is walking down a country lane. A woman, cycling towards him, swerves to avoid a dog. On that moment, their future hinges. There are three possible outcomes, three small decisions that could determine the rest of their life.Eva and Jim are nineteen and students at Cambridge when their paths first cross in 1958. And then there is David, Eva's then-lover, an ambitious actor who loves Eva deeply. The Versions of Us follows the three different courses their lives could take following this first meeting. Lives filled with love, betrayal, ambition but through it all is a deep connection that endures whatever fate might throw at them.The Versions of Us explores the idea that there are moments when our lives might have turned out differently, the tiny factors or decisions that could determine our fate, and the precarious nature of the foundations upon which we build our lives. It is also a story about the nature of love and how it grows, changes and evolves as we go through the vagaries of life.

    When one of her sons becomes depressed, Mary Beth focuses on him, only to be blindsided by a shocking act of violence. What happens afterwards is a testament to the power of a woman's love and determination, and to the invisible lines of hope and healing that connect one human being with another. Ultimately, as rendered in Anna Quindlen's mesmerizing prose, Every Last One" is a novel about facing every last one of the things we fear most, about finding ways to navigate a road we never intended to travel, and about living a life we never dreamed we'd have to live, but find ourselves brave enough to try.

    It was in order to balance clock time with the movement of the earth. Byron Hemming knew this because James Lowe had told him and James was the cleverest boy at school. But how could time change? The steady movement of hands around a clock was as certain as their golden futures.Then Byron's mother, late for the school run, makes a devastating mistake. Byron's perfect world is shattered. Were those two extra seconds to blame? Can what follows ever be set right?

    The first, an expensive lawyer. The second, suicide. Robert Derby used the first one. I’m using the second."Mara was celebrating her 21st birthday when her family was killed by a drunk driver. Two years later, Mara wants justice. She wants the drunk driver to understand how it feels to lose everything. She has a plan and a gun and she knows how to use it. But is she capable of murder?Garrett can’t help the family he was born into. His name puts a target on his back. Maybe that’s why he always dates women who need help. But can helping the wrong person lead to disaster?She Had to Kill Him is a gripping story about the things people do for their loved ones. Perfect for fans of Lisa Jewell, Colleen Hoover, and Paula Hawkins.

    After having her confidence unwound by her ex, she falls hard for a true gentleman. But once she realizes that her crush is her communications professor, her world is turned upside down.Haunted by dreams of the alluring Professor Hunter, Penny can't seem to dismiss her fantasies and the temptation to have him grows deeper. Will the excitement, danger, and mystery surrounding Professor Hunter bring her to her knees?ADDICTION (The Hunted Series Book 2)Temptation has quickly turned into addiction. Penny Taylor fell hard for the sexy, mysterious, exciting, and dangerous Professor Hunter. But scandalous affairs are meant to go down in flames. Now that he's not speaking to her, she feels numb. And what hurts the most is that he appears to be completely fine. As she struggles to accept that their relationship is really over, her best friend's crude advice is in the back of her mind- the best way to get over someone is to get under someone else.Will she be able to move on, or is her addiction to her alluring professor only just beginning?JAMES THE GRINCH (Exclusive Short Story)Penny and James are newly engaged. In a new city. With new friends. For Penny, all this change doesn't put a damper on the excitement she's had for Christmas ever since she was a child. And she's thrilled to combine her childhood traditions with James' for their first Christmas together. The only problem is that she's just learned that her new fiancé is a total Grinch.The stockings are hung, the lights are aglow, and the mistletoe is ready for kisses to be stolen beneath it. The only problem is that none of those decorations are in their apartment. For years, James has been celebrating an anti-Christmas with his friends. He's lost the Christmas spirit that he had when he was a child. And he doesn't seem to want to thaw his frozen heart.Penny decides that it's her new mission to make him believe again. And with extra love and a little sprinkle of Christmas magic, it might just be possible.CITY OF SIN (The Hunted Series Book 2.5)Nothing seems to be going Bee's way. She's been knocked down by her ex, her job, and the city in general. Could a blind date really be the start to the much needed change she's been hoping for?When Bee is already running late, a sexy stranger steals her cab. And once she finally arrives at the restaurant and finds out that he's her date, the night takes an unexpected turn. Maybe this sexy stranger is exactly what she's needed this whole time...Except Mason Caldwell is not a good man. A renowned playboy, heir to his family's fortune, and willing to do whatever it takes to make his dreams come true, he's not looking for a change. He's looking for vengeance. And a woman he barely knows is definitely not going to get in his way. But he can't stop thinking about her.Sometimes you don't know what you really want until it's right in front of you.

    Here two very different women discover how to find their place in the world--no matter how out of place they feel. Emily Benedict came to Mullaby, North Carolina, hoping to solve at least some of the riddles surrounding her mother’s life. Such as, why did Dulcie Shelby leave her hometown so suddenly? And why did she vow never to return? But the moment Emily enters the house where her mother grew up and meets the grandfather she never knew--a reclusive, real-life gentle giant--she realizes that mysteries aren’t solved in Mullaby, they’re a way of life: Here are rooms where the wallpaper changes to suit your mood. Unexplained lights skip across the yard at midnight. And a neighbor bakes hope in the form of cakes.Everyone in Mullaby adores Julia Winterson’s cakes--which is a good thing, because Julia can’t seem to stop baking them. She offers them to satisfy the town’s sweet tooth but also in the hope of rekindling the love she fears might be lost forever. Flour, eggs, milk, and sugar . . . Baking is the only language the proud but vulnerable Julia has to communicate what is truly in her heart. But is it enough to call back to her those she’s hurt in the past? Can a hummingbird cake really bring back a lost love? Is there really a ghost dancing in Emily’s backyard? The answers are never what you expect. But in this town of lovable misfits, the unexpected fits right in.

    The stories take place after the events of Threshold, the third full-length novel in the series, and before the events of Ragnarok, the fourth. The novellas are all co-authored by Jeremy Robinson and one of six other fantastic authors. The Chesspocalypse novellas are designed to introduce readers to the series. If you haven't read the novels, no worries. Enjoy the ride!The stories were released in the following order:Callsign: King–Book 1Callsign: QueenCallsign: RookCallsign: King–Book 2–UnderworldCallsign: BishopCallsign: KnightCallsign: Deep BlueCallsign: King—Book 3—BlackoutThis collection contains the standalone Queen, Rook and Bishop stories.CALLSIGN: QUEENAt the beginning of her search for Rook, a missing Chess Team member, Zelda Baker, Callsign: Queen, is redirected to Pripyat, Ukraine, a ghost town on the radioactive outskirts of Chernobyl. Intel indicates that splinter cell of Manifold Genetics—a ruthless corporation dismantled by Chess Team—may be operating in the area. Tasked with confirming the existence of a Manifold facility, Queen begins a recon sweep of the abandoned town in search of clues, but soon finds herself fighting for her life. Something sinister lurks beneath the decaying, surreal remnants of Pripyat's never-used amusement park, and it rises up to greet Queen.In Pripyat, the streets are empty, the derelict buildings crumble, but the bodies...are fresh.CALLSIGN: ROOKAfter a failed mission claims the lives of his five-man support team, Stan Tremblay, Callsign: Rook, flees Siberia and finds himself on the secluded coast of Norway, north of the Arctic Circle. Exhausted, cut off from the outside world, and emotionally beaten from his defeat in Russia, Rook just wants to find a place to rest. The small coastal town of Fenris Kystby seems like the perfect place.Within hours of arriving, he discovers that the town is not as tranquil as it appears. The townspeople are mistrustful of outsiders, a pack of mysterious wolves stalk the local tundra, and two villagers have been killed by a creature that defies explanation. To make things worse, there are rumors of something sinister, something the townspeople refuse to discuss.Despite the hostility of the locals, Rook commits to stopping the creature murdering townspeople. As the body count rises, he quickly learns that the greatest threat might walk on two legs. And when he uncovers the town's hidden past, Rook knows only one thing for certain: something is rotten in Norway.CALLSIGN: BISHOPAn Iranian terrorist cell has gotten their hands on weaponized Ergot-B—a compound that causes violent hysteria, madness and death within 24 hours—and plan to unleash the weapon on major cities around the world. Successful deployment would begin a bloodbath, as those exposed would kill everyone they encountered before succumbing to the compound's lethal effects.Erik Somers, Callsign: Bishop, is called in to investigate, but his first discovery shocks him to the core. Dawoud Abbasi, the terrorist leader planning to unleash Ergot-B, is his biological father.

    Patrick is a struggling restaurateur who wishes he could spend more time with his wife. As they drift apart, Jane decides she wants more from her relationship than friendship, and so at age thirty-six she sets off on a journey to find what it takes to complete her life. She travels to India where she falls rapturously in lust with her tour guide, Rajiv. Meanwhile Patrick falls for baby-faced American food critic Stella, who could lose him more than his peace of mind; she could lose him his restaurant. Both affairs are disastrous and as their lives spiral toward disaster, Patrick and Jane reassess the decisions they’ve made. Has Jane thrown away true love with both hands?Prue Leith, one of England’s top chefs, displays her expertise in her insider’s details of the restaurant business and the breathtaking food of India. In Leaving Patrick, Leith has created a well-written and moving story with wry humor and intelligence about the real choices adults have to make once they start taking stock of their lives.