A construction worker discovers a pleasant distraction in the surgical locker room; two friends share a walk on the wild side in Amsterdam's Red Light district; a femme top welcomes her lover home from the road; a woman enjoys a lazy summer afternoon with solo pleasures; a missed flight leads to a memorable limo ride for two women stranded in the fog on Cape Cod...and more than twenty other hot-wired encounters guaranteed to spark more than just your imagination.

    Shoes? £60. The perfect date? Priceless... Charlie Black has found the one. And this time it’s for real. Not like the last time. Or the time before that. Or the time before that… And now she’s going to parade the one in front of everyone at her sister’s upcoming wedding. She wants to prove that her new girlfriend Lucy is special. She’s going to show everyone she can make it work. Especially her judgmental sister Maddie, Bride-Zilla herself. But a few weeks before the wedding, Charlie gets dumped. Again. And she can’t face the humiliation of going to Maddie’s wedding stag. Not after loudly and repeatedly telling her family that this one is different. She needs a date to the wedding and fast. Maybe she could get someone to go with her, but how the hell is she supposed to convince anyone to pretend to be Lucy, her very serious girlfriend of four months? It’s too humiliating. But the wedding creeps closer and closer, with no obvious solution in sight. Then Charlie happens across a website. ‘Rent-a-Date. It's just the thing Charlie needs to save her from the embarrassment of admitting that her sister was right again. That’s one wedding gift Charlie refuses to give her. So after booking herself a date from the company, she’s guaranteed that a hot woman will show up to the wedding with enough knowledge to pretend to be the real Lucy, at least for the length of the big day. But when Charlie turns up at the church, her date has a surprise in store…

    Grace is smart, beautiful, and most unfortunately, straight. Life would’ve been perfect if Grace had only loved her back, but when Grace gets married, Dex knows it’s time to move on. Then Dex meets Emma Lawson, and her life takes a whole new direction. Only trouble is, she never expected to have to choose between her best friend and her new love.Emma Lawson is successful and happy except when it comes to love. She’s been alone for a year and has no intention of giving love another chance, until falling for Dex changes everything. When Grace comes between them, Emma refuses to be second best. Can Emma show Dex what true love really looks like?

    A town where nearly all of the volunteer firemen are named Jim, where The Dirty Shame—the only bar in town—refuses to serve mixed drinks (too much work), where the locals hate the newcomers (then again, they hate the locals, too), and where the town softball team has never even come close to having a winning season. Until now.Rachel Flood has snuck back into town after leaving behind a trail of chaos nine years prior. She’s here to make amends, but nobody wants to hear it, especially her mother, Laverna. But with the help of a local boy named Jake and a little soul-searching, she just might make things right.In the spirit of Empire Falls and A League of Their Own, with the caustic wit of Where’d You Go, Bernadette thrown in for good measure, Richard Fifield’s hilarious and heartwarming debut will have you laughing through tears.

    A lot can happen. There are three things that Amy Forrester loves most in the world: Jo, her wife of fifteen years; spending time with her closest friends; and her cabin in the woods. What better way to spend the week between Christmas and New Year's than having all three! When she invites her three best friends to join her and Jo in their mountain hideaway, all she expects is good food, fine wine, and lively conversation.Unfortunately for Amy, there are three things that she doesn't count on: her best friend's relationship is falling apart; her two other friends share a secret that causes nothing but conflict and discomfort; and the arrival of Jo's fly-by-the-seat-oher-pants niece Darby, who has a habit of leaving broken hearts in her wake.Childhood friends, new lovers, and old rivals share beginnings, endings, and the uncommon bonds of friendship in a story filled with romance and possibility.

    She’s a rising star at her Chicago tech start up. She’s well liked, she’s funny, she’s smart, she’s pretty. But despite all this, for some strange reason, Amy’s had an absolutely awful love life. It couldn’t possibly be Amy’s fault… right? Enter Josephine Taft, rich and successful tech investor, swooping in to save Amy’s company from financial ruin. In addition to being wealthy and accomplished, Josephine is also a total fox and Amy can’t help but swoon over her. No pressure here. As our quirky heroine maneuvers through this stylized romantic comedy, often butting heads with a whimsical cast of characters, she’ll have to look within to both save her company and get the girl. Will Amy be able to rein in her eccentricities and prove to Josephine that she’s worth the investment?

    After risking her life at sixteen to escape the camp, she finds it hard to understand the runaway teenager she's been hired to find. With each step on the trail to find her, Jan realizes the girl is running to the same part of Idaho she fled, a digital age version of her father's way of life.Complicating her mission is the new owner of the security firm she works for, a former British agent who has her own secrets to hide. When the sparks fly between them, Jan finds Catherine wanting to share not only her bed, but also her quest to find the missing teen. The journey to the deep woods of Idaho is a voyage to the heart of darkness for Jan, where the reality of her past can no longer be contained, nor her feelings for Catherine denied.

    The executive director of Boston’s Fledger Foundation, she and her wife, Carrie, are raising three children, one from Julia’s first marriage…but being content is not the same as being happy.Katie Brennan is the popular host of a network television morning show. She has two children and a husband who plays major-league baseball. Rumors of her husband’s infidelity are troubling, but she knows how often the media reports innuendo and half-truths instead of facts.When the two women collaborate on a fundraising program for a new diversity center, they immediately strike up a friendship, one that only grows stronger when Katie discovers her husband has indeed been unfaithful.As Katie’s marriage fails, she realizes she is intensely attracted to her friend. Surprised by her own feelings, Katie distances herself from Julia, straining their relationship.For her part, Julia needs time to heal the wounds of her marriage. She’s not sure Katie will accept a romantic relationship, however, a doubt that gives her pause.Before either woman can move on, they need to find and accept themselves. Love might feel like falling through shooting stars, but sometimes it takes time for the stars to fall.

    . ."On a brisk autumn day in 1686, eighteen-year-old Nella Oortman arrives in Amsterdam to begin a new life as the wife of illustrious merchant trader Johannes Brandt. But her new home, while splendorous, is not welcoming. Johannes is kind yet distant, always locked in his study or at his warehouse office--leaving Nella alone with his sister, the sharp-tongued and forbidding Marin.But Nella's world changes when Johannes presents her with an extraordinary wedding gift: a cabinet-sized replica of their home. To furnish her gift, Nella engages the services of a miniaturist--an elusive and enigmatic artist whose tiny creations mirror their real-life counterparts in eerie and unexpected ways . . .Johannes' gift helps Nella to pierce the closed world of the Brandt household. But as she uncovers its unusual secrets, she begins to understand--and fear--the escalating dangers that await them all. In this repressively pious society where gold is worshipped second only to God, to be different is a threat to the moral fabric of society, and not even a man as rich as Johannes is safe. Only one person seems to see the fate that awaits them. Is the miniaturist the key to their salvation . . . or the architect of their destruction?Enchanting, beautiful, and exquisitely suspenseful, The Miniaturist is a magnificent story of love and obsession, betrayal and retribution, appearance and truth.

    The same applies to Catherine’s personal life. Her next self-imposed deadline is looming, and all that’s left to do is to meet the perfect man. At her friend’s urging, skeptical Catherine meets with a psychic who tells her to look for the color blue, and that’s when life spirals from her control. Prospective client, quirky Imogene Harris, is reluctant to hire anyone to help with her inheritance, but when she sees what’s being offered, she has a change of heart. Catherine denies her attraction to Imogene. Imogene is falling for the woman behind the numbers. Not even a rocky start, secret past, or misinterpreted predictions can stop the women from being drawn to one another. Together they learn that perhaps blue isn’t the color of sadness after all…

    When Emerson tragically passes away, she leaves one final wish for her best friends: to conquer the fears they still carry as adults.For each of them, that means something different. For Marley, it's coming to terms with the survivor's guilt she's carried around since her twin sister's death, which has left her blind to the real chance for romance in her life. For Georgia, it's about learning to stop trying to live up to her mother's and brother's ridiculous standards, and learning to accept the love her ex-husband has tried to give her.But as Marley and Georgia grow stronger, the real meaning of Emerson's dying wish becomes truly clear: more than anything, she wanted her friends to love themselves.

    She's also way too smart to fall for the charms of man-slut and slimy school hottie Wesley Rush. In fact, Bianca hates him. And when he nicknames her "the Duff," she throws her Coke in his face. But things aren't so great at home right now, and Bianca is desperate for a distraction. She ends up kissing Wesley. Worse, she likes it. Eager for escape, Bianca throws herself into a closeted enemies-with-benefits relationship with him. Until it all goes horribly awry. It turns out Wesley isn't such a bad listener, and his life is pretty screwed up, too. Suddenly Bianca realizes with absolute horror that she’s falling for the guy she thought she hated more than anyone.

    . . A boy and his cat. It's an unconventional friendship, perhaps, but for Charlie and Lily, it works beautifully. It was Charlie who chose Lily from among all the cats in the shelter. He didn't frown, the way other humans did, when he saw her injured back leg, the legacy of a cruel previous owner. Instead, Charlie insisted on rescuing her. Now Lily wants to do the same for Charlie.She's the only one who's seen the bruises on Charlie's body. If she knew who was hurting him, she'd scratch their eyes out. But she can't fix this by herself. Lily needs to get the rest of the family to focus on Charlie--not easy when they're wrapped up in their own problems. Charlie's mother kicked his father out weeks ago and has a new boyfriend who seems charming, but is still a stranger. Oldest son Kevin misses his father desperately. Victoria, Charlie's sister, also has someone new in her life, and Lily is decidedly suspicious. Even Charlie's father, who Lily loves dearly, is behaving strangely.Lily knows what it's like to feel helpless. But she also knows that you don't always have to be the biggest or the strongest to fight fiercely for the ones you love . . .Praise for Sandi Ward's The Astonishing Thing "A beautiful and touching look into the intricacies of marriage and family life, all seen through the loving and unique perspective of the family pet." --Modern Cat "The Astonishing Thing feels like a bit of a miracle and we all could use a miracle." --Holly Chamberlin, author of The Summer Nanny

    That’s how she likes it, even if she can’t stop the town she loves from being overrun by wealthy tourists each summer. When she’s not working at her family’s paddleboard shop or spending time with her lovable but infuriating brothers, she puts her energy into writing professionally, a dream that has yet to materialize.Valerie Maycomb used to summer in Lake Cabot with her family when she was younger, until school and planning for her future became the driving forces in her existence. For the first time in years, following her college graduation, she’s spending a few months in the small, lakeside town she loved as a child. All she wants is a little time to decompress before law school in the fall and maybe even strike up the courage to talk to a woman.A chance meeting at the lake opens up the possibility of a summer romance, with the explicit understanding that it can’t become something more. Olivia’s not built for falling in love, and Val needs to keep her eye on the prize of a successful career. But neither of them can deny the attraction, and summer quickly takes on a life of its own.

     Selene McAlister is a successful author who had it all. Best selling novels, a beautiful beach house, a fast car and perfect health…until one rainy night that changed her life forever. Selene had to be cut from the wreckage of her sports car, and despite horrific injuries, she survived. Whether that was a good thing or a bad thing, she couldn’t decide…not when she had to deal with the aftermath of her injuries every day after that. Broken and battered, scarred and in pain, she was a ghost of her former self, but that wasn’t the worst of it. The accident had taken something more important from her than physical health…it had robbed her of the ability to write…and taken huge chunks of memory along with it. Now, at forty years old, she’s being forced to move back to Healing Springs and return to the small family Inn her mother owns. Returning to her childhood home was never a part of her plans. On top of everything else that happened, it only served to convince her that her life was a total failure, and that she had nothing left to look forward to other than a lifetime of pain and isolation. Amy Fontaine is a successful businesswoman and photographer. She is also Selene’s best friend and has been since before High School. She’s not the type to let Selene retreat from life and succumb to self-pity, not if she has anything to say in that matter. Maybe that’s why Amy was the last person Selene wanted to see when she returned to Healing Springs. Fortunately for Selene, her friends and family were having none of it. They would find a way to reach Selene and show her that she still had worth…and in Amy’s case…that she was still worthy of love. This novel is dedicated to all the strong women out there that wake up every day and struggle with disabilities, both visible and invisible. Your fight is what inspired this novel. You ladies rock. *Loosely based on the short story, The Potter’s Wheel.