When Dana, the police detective brings tragic news the next morning, Sadie Zook, the mother of Rebecca’s best friend, becomes drawn into the investigation to find the murderer. Sadie finds that Rebecca lived in a secret world of Englisch friends and possibly Englisch boyfriends. She also knows that Eli, Rebecca’s father, is very controlling and would not understand why Rebecca would be interested in the world outside the Amish community. Then there is the matter of Mark, a young jealous Amish boy, who wanted nothing more than to court Rebecca. As Sadie investigates further she finds herself drawn deeper into a pool of potential suspects and personal danger.

    This is the reality for Sheneya “Shene” Rivers whose life has always been filled with drama and pain. At 14, her life goes from bad to worse when she gets pregnant and sold into marriage. For the next few years she struggles to survive her initiation into womanhood until she escapes. Thinking she has found a moment of peace, she begins to rebuild her life but lurking in the shadows is a force from her past that will stop at nothing to return to a life she had worked so hard to escape or leave her in a grave. Will Shene find the strength to survive for her future or will she succumb to horrors of her past?

    Never had she imagined it would go by so quickly. Memories of friends that had long since come and gone. Laughter that still echoed through the corridors of her mind. Each thought of those people made her stomach turn on end. The betrayal she felt from them was more than she could comprehend. Xavier was dead. He had passed, and Dawnika knew it before they even got to the hospital. It came as a bit of a shock that he ended up like his father. He was healthy, never did anything that he shouldn’t have. For Christ’s sake he was captain of the soccer and football team. Xavier was as healthy as could be, yet he gave no sign of life. One moment, he was breathing, the next he was lying, sprawled out on the couch. They were watching cheesy horror flicks, and laughing at every flaw, when he started to appear uncomfortable. At first, she wasn’t really worried, of course that was the first mistake that she made. He was her boyfriend, and she should’ve always been concerned, however, she wasn’t. The reason why would remain unknown to her. Twenty minutes later, he was complaining of chest pains and asked her to call an ambulance. She did, but when they arrived, she knew they were too late. He wasn’t breathing. He wasn’t moving. That of course nearly gave her a heart attack. Moreover she passed out, and when she woke up she was at the hospital, lying in a bed.

    Her mother is dying and needs constant care; her father has returned to Leicester from the Second World War but is an emotional wreck; and her brother Mickey has turned to a life of crime that is putting the whole family at risk. Kelly's boyfriend Rodney and his sister Glenda know that she's scared of what Micky might do next. But they turn a blind eye to her fears - with disastrous consequences for them all. When Kelly has lost eveything she holds dear, she and Glenda pick up the pieces and start again. And one man in particular, Alec Alderman, is there when she needs him most. But Alec has problems of his own...

    The stakes are high and Sierra knows that if she wants to have that perfect family she’s always dreamed about, she would need to seek help. Ace Newman is a former Navy SEAL and a member of the elite security outfit, Silver Shields. Ace is good at two things: protecting his charges at all cost and keeping himself emotionally distant. When he meets Sierra, his walls slowly begin to crumble. Suddenly, nothing is more important to Ace than keeping Sierra safe and to do that, they hit the road. BOOK 2 Janey Moore led a simple and unpredictable life running her flower shop in a small town in Oklahoma. But when her sister mysteriously went missing she risked everything and went to Chicago in an effort to find her. When several strange things begin to happen, Janey realizes that her life might be in danger. The one person who can keep her safe is Silver Shields special operator, Drew Campbell but he is the last person she will ask for help. Drew Campbell is a man who is crushed by the weight of guilt. He can never open himself up to love again. Then he meets Janey Moore and his world tilts on its axis. When he hears that her life might be in danger, he decides that it’s up to him to save her. The only problem is that Janey does not want to be saved, not by Drew. BOOK 3 Nico Ortega is a man with a mission and that does not involve falling for the lovely and fiery woman who stole from him. Determined to get back what is his, he abducts her at gunpoint from a party and takes her to his private island. Now that he has her in his custody, he can get what she stole from him and send her on her way. However, things don’t turn out the way he plans. Tamika White lost everyone she’s ever cared about as well as her ability to laugh. A woman of few words, she retreated into a place deep down where no emotional connection can touch her. Then she meets Nico Ortega, the superhot, super rich hotelier. Sure that it's simply a case of mistaken identity, Tamika White decides to help Nico trace the woman he is after, a woman who looks remarkably like she does. BOOK 4 Hope Conran is the co-founder of one of the most popular dating sites. With an almost cult-like following among hackers, she is also one of the nicest people. But Hope hides a deep, dark secret from her childhood, one that is determined to creep out and consume her. She has had a series of life-threatening events that were too close for comfort and is afraid that someone might be after her life. Then to top it all, someone is systematically hacking into her servers and the damage is enough to wipe out years of hard work. She is at her wit’s end when a chance encounter leads her to Silver Shields operator and resident tech guru, Rusty Rosabelle. A former army engineer who served in the middle east, Rusty is very familiar with danger. As a techie and an ethical hacker, he is the perfect protector for Hope, but his arrogance rubs her the wrong way. Rusty puts his life on the line to protect Hope and in the process gets to see the beautiful, but broken soul that lives in her, making him question everything he has ever believed about love. BOOK 5 Emily Silver is the founder of Silver Shields, a security outfit that has earned a reputation as one of the best in the country. Several years ago, her life was shattered when she lost her seven-year-old daughter to kidnappers. Now there are two things that drive Emily: searching for her daughter and hating her ex-husband, tech billionaire, Wayne Carter.

    Jaden is the new boy in town, as quiet and stoic as a teenager can be. From the moment they meet, their lives entwine. They’re meant to be together, simply fated since they laid eyes on each other. Together, they outlast the odds for years, through high school and college, loving and learning as they go. Headed in different directions, as Hazel develops a talent for writing and speech, while Jaden has harbored a romantic athlete inside him all his life, somehow they stay as united as two souls in love should be. But there are warnings, small signs which hint at an impending disaster. What will happen when that tragedy strikes, and upends everything they made together?

     For ten long years young Dirk Blackthorn has followed his drunken father from one city to another, always having to cheat and steal for his next meal, and never knowing what the future might hold. A magician turned con artist, Dirk’s father Thad has taught him everything he knows. After being driven out of just about every southern city in Agora, they have come to Kell-Torey in search of a new beginning. With winter on its way, and all but a rusty coin spent on his father’s drinking, Dirk must make full use of his skills if they are to survive the harsh northern cold. As Thad descends deeper into his drunken delirium, Dirk becomes determined to make a name for himself in the city’s criminal underworld. Featuring two of Legends of Agora’s most beloved characters, Blackthorn Rising is a fast-paced coming of age tale wrought with sword and sorcery, it is a story of failure and triumph, and a testament to the unrelenting spirit of defiance and adventure within us all. FROM THE EDITOR Blackthorn Rising is a book that sticks with you. Michael Ploof’s stimulating prose and evocative cast of characters are incapable of boring you on any single page. The plot is sharp, charged with dark wit, adventure, intrigue, and emotion. Enjoy Dirk Blackthorn’s bumbling journey to manhood as he rises to become a great thief, and an even greater man. I loved every minute of editing this tale, and I know you’ll love every minute of reading it. --Holly M. Kothe, espressoeditor.com

    Both need to relax after a car accident and brutal work schedules, but a madman has other ideas. A man who calls himself The Boss has set out to hold all 3,000 passengers and crew hostage to his demands. No one is safe, and it is up to ex-homicide detective Redmond James and FBI Special Agent Daisy Chain to determine who the Boss really is and what he truly wants. The fate of every man, woman, and child on board are in their hands. Will they discover the truth in time? Or will Redmond and Daisy just be two more victims? Find out for free - go ahead and click on the button, right now, and start reading. You'll be glad you did.

    She goes beyond the call of duty with the most exotic sexual encounters along with a spiral emotional setting. This is one side chick you don’t want to cross, because she will do everything in her power to be number one. See how a side chick can go from number two to number one in this roller coaster book.

    Presidential candidate. Murderer. Unpunished is a tale of murder, ambition, corruption, and the redemptive power of love. Leonard Pilcher, a scion of entitlement and privilege, is a congressman, presidential candidate...and a murderer. As an American pilot interned in Sweden during WWII, he kills one of his own crewmen and gets away with it, without suspicion. Two people have witnessed the murder--American airman Joe Gelardi and his secret Swedish lover, Pola Nilsson-MacLeish--but they cannot speak out without paying a devastating price. Tormented by their guilt and separated by a vast ocean after the war, Joe and Pola maintain the silence that haunts them both...until 1960, when Congressman Pilcher's campaign for his party's nomination for president gains momentum. As he dons the guise of war hero, one female reporter, anxious to break into the "boy's club" of TV news, fights to uncover the truth against the far-reaching power of the Pilcher family's wealth, power that can do any wrong it chooses--even kill--and remain unpunished. Just as the nomination seems within Pilcher's grasp, Pola reappears to enlist Joe's help in finally exposing Pilcher for the criminal he really is. As the passion of their wartime romance rekindles, they must struggle to bring Pilcher down before becoming his next victims.

    She is a girl looking to be rescued from her own insecurities and bad decisions. Unable to afford rent in New York City proper, she is craving a life of luxury that isn’t hers, while subsisting on bagels and coffee. In desperate need of support - emotional and otherwise -, she clings to potential saviors, never bothering to question if the attachments she forms really fit her. In a parallel storyline, her mother, Maria, is trying to reject all offers of help, especially those of her estranged husband, whose unexpected generosity forces her to revisit past mistakes she hasn't come to terms with. Enmeshed in her own drama, she doesn’t notice her daughter’s troubles until it’s too late. Desperate to keep Liliana from making a mistake that will alter the course of her life, Maria reveals her best-kept secret, a story so shocking it might have the power to jerk Liliana back to reality. It could, on the other hand, alienate her forever. DOGS WITH BAGELS is a story about the American dream gone bad. It is also a story about mothers and daughters, about female friendships, the struggle to survive in one of the world’s most expensive cities, and women’s secret desire to have wild passionate sex with their exes. A cross between Bridgett Jones’ Diary and Sex and the City - with an accent! -, DOGS WITH BAGELS is as addictive as a trashy tabloid you can't seem to put down.

    But when an attempt to help her star-crossed brother goes awry, she finds herself married to the Duke of Kerstone. Can the hopeless romantic Miranda prove to her impeccably proper husband that fairy tales really do come true?The Star-Crossed BrideEver a gentleman, Viscount Valentine Fenster steps aside when the woman he loves, Lady Emily Wertherly chooses another man. When he discovers Emily's fiance is a fortune-hunting murderer, Valentine tosses caution—and decorum—to the wind to save her. But he’ll have to move fast since the headstrong and highly-imaginative Emily is intent on saving herself…The Unintended BrideShy Hero Fenster loves two things—books and Arthur Watterly. But Arthur, the heir to a dukedom and pledged to another since birth, is the one thing she can never have—that is until the quest for a rare Arthurian manuscript and a night of passion in a bookshop change everything.The Infamous BrideNotorious flirt Juliet Fenster enjoys the delights of the London season far too much to consider settling down—particularly with a stuffy American like Romeo “RJ” Hopkins. But when the unlikely pair are cast in an amateur production of Romeo and Juliet, they find themselves doing far more than “playing” at love…

    Inspired by the facts of a true crime, Hard Place is set against the background of the war in Afghanistan from where the drugs are coming. Ratso must place his career on the line by pursuing a high-risk strategy against the drug-baron who has used corruption to gain protection. He enters a political minefield involving Scotland Yard and the Ministry of Defence in London and the Pentagon and State Department in Washington DC. The trail leads to the USA and the Bahamas where Ratso is helped by Kirsty-Ann Webber, a svelte Florida detective. Ratso races against the clock from country to country towards a series of dramatic confrontations.

    Young Trace LaFon counted that a good thing or he’d never have lived long enough to become a Texas Ranger or partnered up with Xavier Falcon. But the two become a part of history the very first time the Rangers were ever used as an arm of law enforcement in the Lone Star state. GUNS ALONG THE RIO is the first of this pair’s adventures as both they and the Rangers grow up on the Texas Frontier gaining experience and wisdom mixed with a lot of cowboy common sense and humor. As any cowpoke knows, good judgment comes from experience, and a lot of that comes from bad judgment. Colorful and historical characters make up this tale base on “The Cortina War” along the Rio Grande in 1859.

    She has everything a street bitch would want the cars, money, clothing, looks, and to top it off the best plug to the dope game in the world, yet all she really wants is the love her father use to give. Have you ever been in love? No! Hurricane hasn’t either up until her father’s dead. Until she thought she meet the man of her dream. She married him, they work together side by side in the street. Yeah he did normal nigga shit, lie, and cheat, but that’s what men do. Hurricane father schooled her on that when she was younger. He would say if you leave nigga because he cheats you will never have a man. He told her street don’t need love, they need money that was her daddy motto. Hurricane catered to her husband, head every morning, breakfast in bed, clothing laid out, bath water ran daily! So tell me this why would he try to kill her??? You can’t believe it? Me either gone read the book you haven’t heard the half of it.