ANNA -- In love with a woman he had only seen once and could not find, the Highlander, Kevin MacGreagor was growing older and needed a wife to give him sons. No other woman pleased him, not even the daughters of other lairds, so he finally settled for Anna sight unseen. But when his men went to meet her guard, she was all alone and badly beaten. Who could have done such a thing and why? RACHEL -- had a dark secret and even she didn't know what it was. She was seventeen, determined to become as good a warrior as any Highlander, and was firmly against taking a husband. Connor had other ideas. He loved Rachel and when a rival clan took her, he thought he would lose his mind. How would he ever get her back and if he did, would her dark secret separate them forever?CHARLET -- The King of England asked the Highlander, Kevin MacGreagor, to hide a baby girl and save her life. But sixteen years later, someone discovered where she was. To Blair Cameron fell the duty of hiding and protecting Charlet. It was not an easy task. She was furious, head-strong and determined to run from him. Could Blair keep her alive? And if he did, could he keep himself from falling in love with her?

    It pulls the reader in and holds on! I cannot wait for more from this writer! Wish I could give her ten stars myself!" When headmaster James Leibinger finds one of his teachers dead, the police write it off as suicide. After all Dorian Jones had plenty of problems. However James is convinced Dorian was murdered, but how can he prove it? The he remembers a chance encounter with a female private detective – Jayne Belmont. Would she be able to solve this mystery? Jayne is faced with an entire staff of teachers and an ex-wife who would all like to see the back of Dorian. What's more they all seem to have had opportunity. Jayne slowly narrows down her suspects, but when another body falls to their death and all the suspects were in the same room, the case becomes impossible to solve. Or does it? Join Jayne on her ups and downs in this murder mystery set in the city of Palmerston in Australia's torrid Northern Territory where the heat and humidity combine with circumstances to test Jayne's wits almost to breaking point. Scroll up, buy now and see if you can find out who did it!

    There are dozens of witnesses, and the crime is captured on the security cameras. To the police, it’s an open-and-shut case.To Naomi, the daughter of the couple, it’s evidence of dark magic. She hires her ex-lover, a private investigator named Jonathan Shade to prove her father is innocent.Shade specializes in paranormal cases, but he isn’t buying it. Still, he takes the case, hoping to rekindle their relationship. Instead, Shade finds himself mixed up in supernatural intrigue with wizards, magically engineered assassins, and an ancient sorcerer returned to life who’s willing to kill anyone who stands in his way.Too bad Shade doesn't have any magic. The Jonathan Shade series so far: Modern Sorcery Acheron Highway Dragon Gate Anubis Nights Sunset Specters Wizard's Nocturne

    I'm back on shores of Lake Erie, but the cold waters are silent. There is nothing here for me but ghosts and the beach glass that litters the rocky shore. Long ago, I lived below the waves. Now, I am the sole survivor, and at long last, my mermaid glamour is leaving me. Every day, I walk the beach. Every day, I wonder what happened to my people. The little pieces of colored glass that wash ashore give me simple pleasure. They are gifts from the lake, reminders of home. I fashion them into trinkets: necklaces, earrings, bracelets. They are beautiful things. The humans seem love them. Every day, I walk the beach. Nothing ever changes, until the day he says hello. Cooper I'm dying. It's not a question, it's a fact. The cancer is eating me alive. They told me I have six months to live, maybe less. I came home, back to Chancellor on Lake Erie, to die. The sunsets are vivid there, and I will relish every one. I've never seen anything more beautiful than a Lake Erie sunset until I see her. All life is as fragile as glass. What would you sacrifice to save the one you love?

    The source of their power has been hidden around the world in the form of 39 Clues. But the Cahills have shadow enemies, the Vespers, and they’re closer than the Cahills know. Will the power of the 39 Clues be used for good…or for the darkest evil?Seven stories reveal their never-before-told secrets of the Cahill family. Follow the Cahills from the chilling attack that caused Grace Cahill to launch an all-out hunt for the 39 Clues, to the rise of Vesper One and the first step in his terrifying plan for world domination. The Cahills are counting on you to keep their secrets. Remember: Trust no one.

    For over two decades, the late Marion Zimmer Bradley, best-selling and beloved author, discovered and nurtured a grand generation of popular and acclaimed writers including Mercedes Lackey, Jennifer Roberson, and a host of others. Authors who have appeared within the pages of Sword and Sorceress represent the full spectrum of some of the brightest talent working today from C.J. Cherryh, Charles de Lint, and Emma Bull... to Deborah J. Ross, Diana L. Paxson, Steven Brust, and Laurell K. Hamilton. We are proud to continue the classic and vibrant feminist tradition with this twenty-fifth volume of new magical adventures edited by Elisabeth Waters, secretary and co-editor to Mrs. Bradley. Here are twenty original stories of remarkable women of power, swashbuckling and magic, spells and duels, arcane sorcery and fabled heroism, written by familiar word-weavers of excitement and adventure, and bright newcomers who are sure to become favorites. Enter a wondrous universe... Marion Zimmer Bradley's Sword and Sorceress Volume 25 includes stories by Dave Smeds, Amy Griswold, Michael H. Payne, Michael Spence, Elisabeth Waters, Deborah J. Ross, Catherine Soto, Pauline J. Alama, L. M. Townsend-Crow, K. D. Wentworth, Helen E. Davis, Robin Wayne Bailey, Steve Chapman, Steven Brust, Kate Coombs, Jonathan Moeller, Lauren K. Moody, Josepha Sherman, Barbara Tarbox, Jonathan Shipley, and Susan Wolven.

    In this book, Nikhil continues taking his readers along for a journey which try to solve the riddles of basic human existence - riddles of love, of childhood's lost and found, of relationships and of our day to day trials.His characters vary from a gangster who chooses love over looting, a couple trying to steal their first kiss in a right-wing nightmare, children playing one-tip one-hand cricket to an early jobber trying to rise above his mundane job to an old man contemplating the purpose of life after getting replaced by technology.Nikhil's characters are immensely relatable and his stories are his voice speaking out your own stories. This book reminds you of the smell of summer sunshine hitting garden leaves and takes you to back to a kinder gentler and simpler time.

     Its companion series – Alt.Chronicles, The Illustrated Chronicles and Chronicle Worlds – are similarly ground-breaking in their coverage of less mainstream tropes such as alternative history and shared universes. Created by award-winning author Samuel Peralta, and edited by some of the most-respected editors in the genre, each volume brings together work from visionary new voices and from the grandmasters of modern science fiction and fantasy. This Future Chronicles Special Edition volume is a compendium of stories selected from the Chronicles’ standalone titles, and includes five new stories, never before published, from some of today’s best writers in speculative fiction.

    The first is that he died. The second is that he didn't stay dead. Now he's hunted by the Church, the cult that revived him, and Her Majesty's Department of Ethereal Affairs. Gilbert must keep his head long enough to save London, the Queen, and his brassy and opinionated mother from the forces of evil and good alike.

    Ward, a tier-one operator turned mercenary, has just flung himself off the cargo deck of a doomed C-130. Now he’s out of the Drop Zone and evading the undead as a terrible new breed of hunter enters the Wyrd. But these new, faster predators might not be the only thing to fear in an apocalypse beset by zombies, nukes and killer A.I.’s. One of the last warriors of a collapsed government is planning on putting up some big numbers in this final, ultimate game of Survivor, until he finds a mysterious new companion... a stranger dressed in black.

    

    Heaven and hell had other plans.Joey Benton is the mortal child of an angel; a title that sits heavy on her shoulders. She has no interest in serving Heaven until a handsome stranger forces her to question the world around her. Ursus, an Archangel, doesn't want another charge--especially one so defiant as Joey. Protecting her from Hell might very well be the biggest challenge of his immortal life. But when his feelings for Joey get in the way of his duty, it's a challenge he refuses to lose.

     While trying to support her grieving Goth office manager, Ellen ponders the mysterious flashes of light she saw in another part of Santa Fe, wondering if they are related to Captain Dusenberry, the tearoom's resident ghost. She asks for help from the local spirit-tour guide, Willow Lane, who takes curiosity about the captain's unsolved murder to a new level, where Ellen finds herself exploring the very meaning of spirit. Will a séance in the tearoom finally provide the answers to her questions? (This is a novella, a short companion story to the Wisteria Tearoom Mysteries series. It is recommended that you read A Masquerade of Muertos before reading this story.)

    Sock Monkey And The Other Toys Marvel At The Prismatic Spectrum On The Parlour Floor, Coming From The Glass Door Knob. Winter Turns To Spring, And The Apple Tree Sprouts New Leaves, Casting A Warm Green Shadow On The Door. The Door Knob Seems To Be Broken, Ending The Light Show, Until Mr Crow Plans To End The Door Knob With Scientific Techniques.

    Czerneda11 • The Eightfold Career Path; or Invisible Duties • short story by James Alan Gardner23 • Porter's Progress • short story by Isaac Szpindel43 • Catalog of Woe • short story by Mindy L. Klasky63 • Ferret and Red • short story by Josepha Sherman82 • A Man's Place • novelette by Eric Choi108 • Dancing in the Dark • novelette by Nancy Kress130 • The Siren Stone • novelette by Derwin Mak154 • Feef's House • novelette by Doranna Durgin179 • Attached Please Find My Novel • novelette by Sean P. Fodera202 • Field Trip • novelette by Janet Stirling and S. M. Stirling236 • Come All Ye Faithful • short story by Robert J. Sawyer252 • Riggers • short story by Michael E. Picray272 • Suspended Lives • novelette by Alison Sinclair297 • I Knew a Guy Once • novelette by Tanya Huff320 • Editor's Bio (Space Inc.) • essay by Julie E. Czerneda