This was published as a Clarkesworld audiobook podcast in 2020.

    She’s determined to keep her hands to herself, so she really shouldn’t be tempted to seduce her employer’s prim and proper companion, Alice. But how can she resist when Alice can’t seem to keep her eyes off Molly?Finds her own heartFor the first time in her life, Alice Stapleton has absolutely nothing to do. The only thing that seems to occupy her thoughts is a lady’s maid with a sharp tongue and a beautiful mouth. Her determination to know Molly’s secrets has her behaving in ways she never imagined as she begins to fall for the impertinent woman.Has been stolenWhen an unwelcome specter from Alice’s past shows up unexpectedly at a house party, Molly volunteers to help the only way she knows how: with a little bit of mischief.

    In this novella, Trans-Siberian Orchestra creator Paul O'Neill spans generations, from WWII Germany to the modern inner-city, and fearlessly dives into the darkest places of the human condition to spin a modern parable about how, even in the grip of great evil, redemption is possible and the spark of hope can burn brightly.

     She learned how to be strong again and break the shackles her old life had hobbled her with. While Paya is out making waves in London, Lenore is assigned as the driver for the contractor, McGrath, who is renovating a building for the Flotilla, which will allow people who had fallen upon hard times to have a place to call their own. The problem? Lenore finds McGrath to be the most infuriating, cocky, and egotistical woman on the planet. They mix like oil and water and Lenore wants nothing more than to throw a match on the mixture and be done with the woman. She just can’t figure out what it is that boils her blood around McGrath, though apparently all of her smug and smiling friends have an inkling… The Flotilla series is a spinoff of the bestselling London Harmony series.

    But there’s one more evening she must endure - a fake date with her best friend Barry Chang. They must convince her family they are in love, an act which may (or may not) be easy to pull off, thanks to the magic of some mistletoe. This 10,000 word short story is perfect for your lunch break, workout or while you wait in line at the mall. Read it today to get in the Christmas spirit any time of the year!Love listening to music while you read? If so, check out The More The Merrier's playlist, available now on Soundcloud and YouTube! Go here: soundcloud.com/2square2behip/sets/the...YouTube: youtube.com/watch?v=WA4iX5D9Z64&l...Song List:1. We Are Never Ever Getting Back Together - Taylor Swift2. Winter Wonderland/Don't Worry Be Happy - Pentatonix (ft. Tori Kelly)3. Falling For You - Colbie Caillat4. Beauty and A Beat - Justin Bieber5. All I Want For Christmas Is You - Mariah Carey6. Thinking Out Loud - Ed Sheeran

    Whether you enjoy celebrating Christmas or Hanukkah, Winter Solstice or New Year's there's something here for everyone. So curl up by the fireplace and get cozy. You have twelve reasons this season to stay indoors and fall in love.

    It follows the relationship between Jord and Aimeric and is set during the events of Prince’s Gambit.

    Life has been hard, but everything changes the night she is snatched from an alley behind a theatre, tossed into a nobleman’s carriage, and receives an offer she cannot afford to refuse. It has been less than a fortnight since Julian Beckford returned to London after a sojourn in India, and he’s already up to his top-boots in one of his cousin’s mad schemes. When his foolish cousin decides to engage an actress to play his wife over the holidays at Danby Castle, Julian becomes an unwilling party to the lady’s abduction. Along their journey to Yorkshire, Julian makes a stunning discovery about his cousin's pretend wife....and finds it’s possible to love Twice Upon a Time.

    Jo is the tomboy, the bookish rebel with a passion to make the world more fair; Bethie is the pretty, feminine good girl, a would-be star who enjoys the power her beauty confers and dreams of a traditional life.But the truth ends up looking different from what the girls imagined. Jo and Bethie survive traumas and tragedies. As their lives unfold against the background of free love and Vietnam, Woodstock and women’s lib, Bethie becomes an adventure-loving wild child who dives headlong into the counterculture and is up for anything (except settling down). Meanwhile, Jo becomes a proper young mother in Connecticut, a witness to the changing world instead of a participant. Neither woman inhabits the world she dreams of, nor has a life that feels authentic or brings her joy. Is it too late for the women to finally stake a claim on happily ever after?

    Her mother had assured her in no uncertain terms that asking for a pony was the same as asking for the moon. Besides, the only extra mouths they needed at their boarding house were the paying kind. But when an interesting pair of strangers comes to town, Lucy starts to believe her Christmas wishes might just come true after all. The queen of the Christmas novel, Melody Carlson pens another magical tale of expectation and excitement as one little girl dreams big and the impossible becomes possible.

    The revelry of the ton is a reminder of Christmas four years ago, when his first love, Thomas Bennett, broke his heart and fled to New York without a word. So when he encounters Thomas at a holiday ball, Alexander is determined not to let on how much he still hurts. Thomas has returned for one reason only: Alexander. Having finally come to terms with his forbidden desires, he will do whatever he must to convince Alexander to give their love another chance. But instead of the happy, carefree man Thomas once knew, Alexander is now hard and cynical. Saddened to know he's to blame for the man's bitterness, Thomas resolves to reignite the passion he knows lies hidden behind the wall of disdain...28,000 wordsAlso part of the Men Under the Mistletoe Anthology

    One shopkeeper.And the one wish that brings them together.Candy shop provisioner Emma has more than enough on her plate: her small-town business is struggling, the weather is cold and rainy, and her young daughter is a precocious handful.Yet when daughter Dani asks Santa for the impossible, Emma has another problem on her hands.Because Dani wants a stepmom. More specifically, she wants her mom Emma to get married!Enter city girl Tamryn, who is on assignment on behalf of her law firm. From the moment Emma sees her in a coffee shop, she’s infatuated – and from the moment Dani sees her mom’s eyes wander?Nothing will stop one little girl from bringing Emma and Tamryn together!The cozy tourist town of Cannon Beach is about to vibrate from the cosmic electricity of fate. Good thing Christmas is the season of everything sweet… with just a hint of spice.

    A tourist from Montenegro desperately seeks a magic soup dumpling that can cure his fear of death. An aspiring chef realizes that butter and soul are the key ingredients to win a cooking competition that could win him the money to save his mother’s life. Welcome to Hungry Hearts Row, where the answers to most of life’s hard questions are kneaded, rolled, baked. Where a typical greeting is, “Have you had anything to eat?” Where magic and food and love are sometimes one in the same. Told in interconnected short stories, Hungry Hearts explores the many meanings food can take on beyond mere nourishment. It can symbolize love and despair, family and culture, belonging and home.

    In the darkest days of the Great Depression, New York Times reporter Whit Stoddard has lost the heart to do his job and lives a lonely hand-to-mouth existence with little hope of recovery, until he meets Peter, a man in even greater need of new hope.

    Soon he is mixed up in the affairs of Sir Francis Dashwood and his notorious Hellfire Club.