Can anything save them when the spirit decides they belong to him? Crying through Plastic Eyes-A messy divorce, a room filled with creepy dolls, and a missing six-year-old all create the perfect storm for a young mother’s worse nightmare. Will Work for Food- You see them everywhere begging for money or food. When an older couple decides to lend a helping hand to a young man and his son, someone gets more than they bargain for. Pieces-A battered woman confesses to the mutilation and death of her husband, but did she really commit this heinous crime? Paying the Hitchhiker-You see a beautiful young woman on the side of the road with her thumb out, asking for a ride. Who should be the most afraid: the hitchhiker or the person picking her up? Inheritance-A confession from Accalia’s grandmother about a curse and an inheritance are just the prologue to seven days of suffering through a living hell.

    But mercs of all species know that if you head to southwest Houston, near the Starport, there’s a particular run-down strip mall that looks like it’s been abandoned for years. The glass door second from the south end of the strip is plastered over on the inside with blue paper, and the faint golden outline of a rampant lion is the only clue. The door is locked, of course, and beyond the door is nothing but a darkened hallway with a downward slope and a slight curve to it. Once you follow this curve far enough, you are greeted by two very large, very well-armed Lumar. “Welcome to the Lyon’s Den,” the larger of the two says without a translator, and without a trace of an alien accent. “You know the rules?” Welcome back to the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Mark Wandrey and Chris Kennedy, “Tales from the Lyon’s Den” includes eighteen all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of bestselling authors—and some you may not have heard of…yet. Want to know what it’s like to do search and rescue while a battle is going on or what to do with that new manufactory you just won in a card game? Better learn the rules to the Lyon’s Den…and then step inside! Inside, you’ll find: Preface by Chris Kennedy “The Devil in the Pit” by Mark Wandrey “A Job to Do” by Quincy J. Allen “For the Honor of the Flag” by Doug Dandridge “Lucky” by James P. Chandler “Shit Day” by Marisa Wolf “The Charge of the Heavy Brigade” by Chris Kennedy “The Bottom Line” by Michael J. Allen “Midnight Diplomacy” by Tim C. Taylor “Desperta Ferro” by Eric S. Brown & N.X. Sharps “The Deadly Dutchman” by Kevin McLaughlin “The Felix” by RJ Ladon “The Heart of a Lion” by Terry Mixon “What Really Matters” by Chris Winder “Headspace and Timing” by Robert E. Hampson “Return to Sender” by Benjamin Tyler Smith “Grunwald” by David Alan Jones “The Quiet Was Fine” by Jake Bible “A Mother’s Favor” by Kacey Ezell

    WHAT are the dangers of getting directions from a fairy tale frog? WHERE do archangels go to kick back and relax? HOW can a garden gnome mend a broken heart? WHO is the last person you’d expect to visit you at Christmas? WHY shouldn’t you let Satan organise your funeral? Find out the answers to these and other pressing questions in this collection of short stories from the authors of the Clovenhoof series.

    Sawyer - called the dean of Canadian science fiction by the Ottawa Citizen and just about the best science fiction writer out there these days by the Rocky Mountain News - won the World Science Fiction Society's Hugo Award for his novel Hominids and the Science Fiction and Fantasy Writers of America's Nebula Award for his novel The Terminal Experiment, Iterations is Sawyer's first short story collection, gathering 22 fantastic tales from such diverse places as Amazing Stories, the Village Voice, the Globe & Mail, and Nature, Among them, these stories have: Won the Canadian Science Fiction and Fantasy Award (the Aurora) Won the Crime Writers of Canada's Arthur Ellis Award, Been nominated for the Hugo, Nominated for and the Horror Writers Association's Bram Stoker Award, Been performed on CBC Radio, and Appeared in best-of-the-year collections. In Iterations, you'll: See Sherlock Holmes solve the problem of the missing aliens, Find out what really happened to the bones of Peking Man, Learn the truth about the alligators in the sewers of New York, Visit a future Toronto sealed inside a steel dome, Encounter pure evil aboard the Russian space station Mir, Follow a serial killer as his consciousness is transferred into a Tyrannosaurus rex, and Meet a man doomed to commit murder over and over again because of the pressures of Canadian publishing. Each story is accompanied by Sawyer's own commentary, and the collection is introduced by award-winning SF author James Alan Gardner.

    She's loved one man for years and is about to give up on marrying for love entirely. When she receives a letter from a man in Texas looking for a bride, she considers marrying him to be close to her sister. She doesn't want to be alone for the rest of her life. Bernard agrees to work for Elizabeth after his life is shattered. As he slowly heals and picks up the pieces and gets to know his beautiful employer, he realizes he is falling for her more and more, but he knows his place in life. When she insists on taking a trip to Fort Worth to check out a potential groom, he knows he can't send her alone. Will he be able to survive the long train ride to Fort Worth without letting his feelings show? Or will Elizabeth somehow convince him that they are meant to be? USA Today Best Selling Author Callie Hutton Daniel’s Desire: In the Shadow of War Lt. Daniel McCoy escapes from a Union prison toward the end of the Civil War, his only thought to get far away from enemy territory. But he doesn’t count on saving young widow Rosemarie Wilson’s life. Rosemarie has no use for Rebels soldiers, having lost everything the last time they visited. But Daniel has not only saved her life, he is sticking around to help with the farm and her children until she recovers. With Union soldiers searching for him, every day that Daniel remains puts him in danger. Or is it the widow who has captured his heart the greater risk? Best-selling Author Caroline Clemmons Tabitha’s Journey Would you become a mail-order bride? Tabitha Masterson is certain whatever awaits her in Radford Crossing , Texas will be better than what awaits her in Boston. . She escapes to begin her new life in Texas, but trouble can’t be far behind. If she’s married when trouble arrives, surely she’ll be safe. But her fiancé is reluctant to accept her as a substitute for the mail-order bride he’d courted. Bear Baldwin is crushed when he receives a wire notifying him that the woman with whom he has corresponded for almost a year has passed him off to her friend. Do the two women believe he’s like an old shirt to be handed down? His mother urges him to give the substitute fiancée a chance, but his pride is stung and he hasn’t decided. Best-selling Author Sylvia McDaniel Scandalous Suffragette Brides: Abigail Women Wanted – Feisty, Head Strong Women Need Not Apply In New Hope, Texas women like children, are to be seen and not heard. Their only job in life is to marry, procreate and be a loyal, obedient wife. Thus the shortage of available women. Until, Abigail Vanderhooten is unexpectedly called home, her head filled with ideas of changing the world. Jack Turner likes being the mayor in a small, western town where the biggest rabble rousers are cowboys. Everything is about to change when Abigail, returns to town, ready to take on the local laws. While trying to keep the town from splitting apart, he’s surprised how her strong spirit captivates him. And he’s shocked when she manages to worm her way into his bachelor heart, with her controversial ideas. With a women’s revolution brewing, will Jack be forced to run her out of town, before he has a chance to convey how she’s changed him.

    The result: "The most creative, generous, and democratic of any of the annual volumes" (Rick Moody).Among its numerous awards, the Pushcart Prize has been chosen for the Poets Writers / Barnes Noble "Writers for Writers" Award and the National Book Critics Circle Lifetime Achievement recognition.

    It will feature the best sports writing from the website, delivered in a full-color book featuring original artwork and a host of print exclusives—including original fiction, new writing from editor-in-chief Bill Simmons, posters and pull-out sections, old-school baseball cards and mini-booklets, and a cover that looks and feels like you're holding a basketball. Like its namesake website, Grantland Quarterly will regularly include some of the most exciting and form-pushing sports writers currently plying the trade, including Chuck Klosterman, Malcolm Gladwell, Tom Bissell, Harris Wittels, John Brandon, Anna Clark, Chris Jones, Colson Whitehead, and many more.

    It is our greatest national drama, at once heroic, tragic, and epic—our Iliad, but also our Bible, a story of sin and judgment, suffering and despair, death and resurrection in a “new birth of freedom.” Drawn from letters, diaries, speeches, articles, poems, songs, military reports, legal opinions, and memoirs, The Civil War: The First Year brings together over 120 pieces by more than sixty participants to create a unique firsthand narrative of this great historical crisis.Beginning on the eve of Lincoln’s election in 1860 and ending in January 1862 with the appointment of Edwin M. Stanton as secretary of war, signaling a new energy and determination to the Union war effort, this volume collects writing by figures well-known—Ulysses S. Grant, Robert E. Lee, Mary Chesnut, Frederick Douglass, and Lincoln himself among them—and less familiar, like pro-slavery advocate J.D.B. DeBow, Lieutenants Charles B. Haydon of the 2nd Michigan Infantry and Henry Livermore Abbott of the 20th Massachusetts Volunteer Infantry Regiment, and plantation mistresses Catherine Edmondston of North Carolina and Kate Stone of Mississippi. Together, the selections provide a powerful sense of the immediacy, uncertainty, and urgency of events as the nation was torn asunder. Secessionist appeals by Georgia Governor Joseph E. Brown and Alabama legislator Stephen F. Hale give voice to the intense racial fears that helped drive the South toward disunion; Union corporal Samuel J. English and Confederate surgeon Lunsford P. Yandell evoke the shock, confusion, and horror of battle in Virginia and Missouri; memoirist Sallie Brock candidly records the impact of war on Richmond society; and Sam Mitchell recounts his liberation from slavery when the South Carolina Sea Islands fell to Union soldiers.The Civil War: The First Year includes headnotes, a chronology of events, biographical and explanatory endnotes, endpaper maps, and an index.

    Featuring brand new stories and some old favorites, many of these tell-all, gritty tales were originally published on the blog Make It MAD between 2010 and 2012, and have been rereleased in their originality for this special print and digital anthology.

    Lynch was a British slave owner in the West Indies. He was invited to the colony of Virginia in 1712 to teach his methods to slave owners. He argues that he can ensure that slaves remain slaves for a 1000 years by way of dividing rule, using, age, gender, skin shade and geography, as strategy that appears to have worked with great success.

    Nineteen extraordinary stories. One bestselling universe. It’s the Twenty-Second Century. The galaxy has opened up to humanity as a hyperactive beehive of stargates and new technologies, and we suddenly find ourselves in a vast playground of different races, environments, and cultures. There’s just one catch: we are pretty much at the bottom of the food chain. What do you do when the odds are stacked against you? Mercs plan, strategize, and sometimes even scheme, but there is one thing they all believe—luck is never a factor. Unless it is. Enter the Four Horsemen universe, where only a willingness to fight and die for money separates Humans from the majority of the other races. Edited by bestselling authors and universe creators Chris Kennedy and Mark Wandrey, “Luck is Not a Factor” includes all-new stories in the Four Horsemen universe by a variety of bestselling authors—and some you may not have heard of…yet. The nineteen authors take on various aspects of the universe, giving you additional insight into a galaxy that isn’t at war…but definitely isn’t at peace. There’s only one thing for sure—anything’s possible for a fistful of credits! Inside, you’ll find: Preface by Chris Kennedy “Luck is Not a Factor” by Mark Wandrey “Jury-Rigged” by Paul E. Cooley “Hunting Trip” by Jon R. Osborne “To Sell Your Cloak” by Joseph Capdepon, II “Sattara” by Christopher Woods “Test and Devaluation” by Thomas A. Mays “The Humans Inside” by Jamie Ibson “A Sword for Striking” by Rob Howell “Confluence” by Lee Dunning “Hell Hath No Fury” by Brad R. Torgersen “All’s Fair in Love and Mercs” by Jon Del Arroz “The Price of Devotion” by Michael Ciaravella “A Simple Recon Mission” by Philip Wohlrab “Three Gladiators” by T. Allen Diaz “Target of Opportunity” by Terry Maggert “Scooping the Competition” by Terry Mixon “A Token of Affection” by Kacey Ezell “To Save the Earth” by Chris Kennedy “CASPer’s Widow: The Last Goodbye” by JR Handley

    "A wonderful, sexy, empowering read from beginning to end!"" Ariella.For as long as I can remember, I've had a boring, predictable life. I work at a low-paying job and have ho-hum missionary sex with my long-term boyfriend, who calls me "pear shaped" (and not in a good way). I've never been with more than one man or explored myself sexually. That's for sexy, skinny girls. Girls with exciting lives. Girls I'm not.When a series of events send my life into a tailspin, I find myself at a mansion in the Hollywood Hills, locking eyes with a gorgeous, sexy stranger who sends my heart racing. He’s a millionaire Olympic skier who rocks my world, but does he have a secret side? I’ll never forget our first night together. Or the next. Shockingly, he wants to pay me lots of money just to have me as his personal sex goddess. Best of all, he's not the only one.Soon, I'm discovering my sexuality for the first time, caught up in the exciting, glamorous world of high-class escorting. I'm also discovering myself: the independent, sexy, confident woman I was meant to be. Trouble is, I can't give my body without giving my heart. I'm falling in love with more than one man, and they with me. I can't choose just one... Or can I? THE BOX SET INCLUDES:1.Beautiful People2.Snow3.Darkness4.Art5.Twins6.Choose7.One8.HEA9.Christmas in SeattleGet your copy today and find out why readers say it’s a delicious turn on, unique, exciting, sensual, thrilling, and highly addictive.

    Smith is determined to help her heal, and he has a decidedly decadent plan to replace her nightmares with a hot fantasy involving their friend Dex.

    He is a sensation, a rising star. He is also a slave, owned wholly and completely by NewWorld Media.But before he was a star, he was a frightened child from a bad place with a promising, if limited, future ahead of him. In "The New Kid", young Daniel begins his schooling. Then, for a slave, the simple pleasure of a "Bathroom Break" is sometimes the only pleasure to be had. Later, Daniel doesn't know it, but "A Chance Encounter" might be the most important of his life. Next, in "Camera Obscura", one of Daniel's colleagues reflects on the fact that as much as the camera may show, it can hide even more. Finally, when you're a slave, "Independence Day" is just another day.Exclusive Bonus Content!Excerpt from "Anchored" by Rachel Haimowitz, the debut novel in the Belonging seriesThe never-before-published prologue to "Anchored"A sneak peek at "Counterpunch", the upcoming Belonging novel by Aleksandr Voinov

    When their existence is no longer a secret, enemies will arise and new allies will be made all to protect their future.As their pride grows, the females will prove their worth, rising to stand alongside the Guardians who’ve vowed to protect them. Ancient traditions will be broken as they band together to fight off those who wish them harm.Book 1- TalonBook 2- WinterBook 3- SavageBook 4- The Birth of an Alpha