The lump soon morphs into a shape familiar to everyone but her, triggering her curiosity and her father's greatest fears. He frantically tries to intervene, but having a large phantom phallus in a curious maiden's bed is never a good combination.

    Where men stood tall and lived rough. But that West is no more. In its place Shann Ray finds washedup basketball players, businessmen hiding addictions, and women fighting the inexplicable violence that wells up in these men. A son struggles to accept his father’s apologies after surviving a childhood of beatings. Two men seek empty basketball hoops on a snowy night, hoping to relive past glory. A bull rider skips town and rides herd on an unruly mob of passengers as he searches for a thief on a train threading through Montana’s Rocky Mountains. In these stories, Ray grapples with the terrible hurt we inflict on those we love, and finds that reconciliation, if far off, is at least possible. The debut of a writer who is out to redefine the contours of the American West, American Masculine is a deeply felt and fiercely written ode to the country we left behind.

    It is not a full length book or novella. William Hampton, Viscount Worthe, prefers the remote stability and predictability of the stars to the perplexing changeability of people. An astronomer, he’s fashioned for himself a focused, industrious, simple life. He leaves his quiet retreat, however, when his mathematical computations, included in an article on orbital variations, are questioned. Miss Jane Tillney is volunteering at Half Moon House when Lord Worthe finds her. The Viscount is handsome and charming, but unfortunately his entire outlook is miscalculated, not just his astronomical equations. Lord Worthe is intrigued by Jane, her generous spirit and her unusual freckles, but can he find a way to open his heart and let her shine her light on his life?

    These stories span characters and emotional states with canny details that touch the depths of your soul. Picturing the complexities of love, misery and mystery, the stories try to gnaw your heart like never before.• What does a flower teach us we often fail to see?• “The belly is an ungrateful wretch.” Is it true?• Ever wondered about the sparseness and illusions in life?• Does death put an end to true love?• Have all the ascetics won over their emotions?With the power of simple language, this book transports the readers to a world scarcely thought of in our bustling lives. The allegories maintain an intense rhythm of life prompting the readers to perceive things from a unique angle.“A whole bookful to make you think, cry, think again and move on.”

    Will the cowboy find solace in this place or allow his regrets to consume him?RETURN received second place in the Missouri Literary Festival Award for Short Fiction in 2009 under the title For Everything A Time.

    But one day it wasn't enough...With their relationship now firmly in the rearview mirror, Penny's gotten on with her life and her veterinary practice. But a late night plea for help from an injured Beau brings the bull rider crashing back into her life, and she discovers that the fire between them burns as strong as ever.In fact, it might be even hotter than before. But this time Penny's not willing to be Beau's second best. Can they find a way to make it work? Or will her heart be scorched when he leaves again?

    To fill their sails and set out, they must sacrifice Agamemnon's daughter Iphigenia—and how does a human girl become the wind? The starkness and psychological insight of Rachel Swirsky's Tor.com story earned it a place among the finalists for the 2010 Nebula Award.Rachel Swirsky's short fiction has appeared in Weird Tales, Fantasy Magazine, and Subterranean Magazine, among others, and has been collected in Year's Best anthologies edited by Rich Horton, Jonathan Strahan, and the VanderMeers. She is also the submissions editor of Podcastle, an audio fantasy magazine.

    She quickly forms a friendship with a precocious girl named Katiann, until one of their visits leads her face to face with Katiann's father--the man who abandoned Gretchen on the eve of what she was sure would be a marriage proposal. Now a widower, Dirk Martinez is intent on gaining her trust and forgiveness. Can she risk getting swept up in their strong attraction once again, or will the danger of an impending flood decide her future for her?

    I don’t believe in that. Because love isn’t about falling for someone’s looks. Though she was beautiful in every single way, from her dark, wavy hair to her gorgeous brown eyes, to the soft curves of her body. But that’s not why I fell so hard for her that summer. She took my breath away for reasons that had nothing to do with her looks. It was the the movies, the conversations, the walks through the small town, the nights on the beach with the waves rolling in, the way I could hold her hand and feel as if the world had simply melted away and we were all that was left. So, there was no love-at-first-sight. That would come later, and if it happened first it would take away all the reasons that stayed with me for the next five years. Even though you’re not supposed to fall for your best friend’s little sister. But that didn't stop me...A prequel novella in the New York Times and USA Today Bestselling Caught Up in Love series.

    The king found her as a child, the lone survivor of a poor village slaughtered by the Red Fever. Suddenly she became a princess of Runa Realm, the first of nine orphans adopted by the king.By her eighteenth year, Maelyn rules over Runa and a family of nine sisters. But some call the princesses frauds and imposters, a handful of urchins raised into royalty. Even Uncle Jarrod, the High King of Grunwold, seems determined to prove that Maelyn no longer deserves to be a princess. With a family losing faith in her, and a kingdom growing dangerously hostile, even Maelyn begins to wonder if she is truly a real princess. And if her riches will turn to rags once again….The Nine Princesses Novellas is a series that chronicles the adventures of an unconventional family of princesses, the struggles they face in a kingdom often hostile to their humble origins, and the day-to-day dramas of nine young women whose personalities often clash like swords. Fans of Gail Carson Levine and Shannon Hale would enjoy this young-adult series. Recommended for ages 12 and up.

    It should be here today. My acceptance - or, God forbid, my rejection - to Stable College in Northern Maine. It was the one school I actually cared about getting into out of the seven I applied to. It was a small school compared to a University, but it was of the larger colleges I had come across during my search. Jack was applying there too, and I had always hoped we would stick together past high school since the start of our friendship freshman year. I think he thought the same thing, though he would never admit to it out loud. My feet nearly slid on the slick ground, wet from the first of spring’s cold rain, as I hurried myself to open the mailbox. A fat stack of various envelopes sat inside, waiting for a human hand to rescue them from the cold tin can they were subject to. I snatched them up and quickly sorted through various junk, mostly addressed to my mom. Nothing. I sighed with disappointment. A knot formed in my stomach; the tardiness of the letter felt like a bad sign. I shook my head, forcing negative thoughts out of my mind. It would probably just be here tomorrow. Mail arrives late sometimes.

    To her, the war was nothing more than an inconvenience on her shopping trips to Berlin. But when she is walking her dogs, Tirpitz and Bismarck, on the far side of her estate, she discovers something that changes her life forever.Obersturmführer Meyer is an SS officer who works in the camp close to the Burbeck estate. He despises those in his charge and considers them to be no more than animals for the slaughter. But the arrogant Countess with a father who is a General in the Wehrmacht in Berlin was rapidly becoming a bigger nuisance than the smell from the burial pits.Helga’s discovery of Jewish children hiding on her estate leads her to investigate the nearby camp. What she finds there shocks her to the soul. She decides to take the children to France and somehow to safety. It begins as a self-destructive whim borne on the bitterness and anger of her discovery, but slowly and surely Helga is drawn inexorably down the path to smuggling and eventually, spying. She engages Jacob, one of the children, to help in her plans. And soon she is embroiled with the French Resistance. But her continued trips across occupied Europe to the South of France with “children from her estate” soon attract even more attention from Obersturmführer Meyer. It isn’t long before both know exactly what the other is doing; it becomes a game, but a game that will lead to final bloodshed in a French forest.Captain Taylor of the US Army has met Helga only once. But that meeting and everything he learns about her afterwards plants a seed of love that won’t stop growing. But Helga isn't easy to find once lost. And when Captain Taylor visits a Convent in the Southern French resort of Antibes in 1948 he soon finds out that the end of the war isn’t the end of the story. But what connects a German Countess in the war with a Catholic nun in Cyprus in 1946? And will Captain Taylor finally track her down?

    As a commoner, he is one of very few without noble blood to hold a rank. When he challenges the son of a duke over an insult, the subsequent duel lands him in hot water with the nobility and the royal cabal of Privileged sorcerers. Tamas is soon drawn into a conflict that goes to the very highest office in the land, and his only ally is the most unlikely of people; a young noblewoman named Erika, who needs Tamas to teach her how to wield her powers as a powder mage.Occurs about 35 years before the events in Promise of Blood.

    For Florence Peterson, it was to leave her teaching position in Missouri or have her life relegated to the same thing day in and day out. On a lark, she sent a letter to a school in Oregon, never dreaming they’d answer! Now all she has to do is decide if she should take the position. Because it’s one thing to dream, another to have it come to life. Alton Cutter had made the trip West more often than he’d like. Montana was fresh and new, and his brother was already there. With his wagons readied, the families in his wagon train readied too, all was well. Except for the crazy schoolmarm that had it in her head she could just “tag along.” He’d been planning this for too long to let some slip of a woman put a hitch in his plans. Let alone, his heart …

    New scene from Shadow and Bone told from Genya's point of view.