She needs a lifetime... When Viscountess Kinsley’s father lost all but their home and then drank himself to death, creditors stood ready to seize what remained. Anne’s only hope of saving her family is to find a husband through Lady Peddington’s School for Young Ladies. Only, upon graduation, Anne finds herself the victim of jealous gossip that claims she seeks multiple lovers. Now, no respectable man will have her. RAKE RUINER Hatred is only a kiss away from love. When her husband dies in a duel over another woman, Charlotte Fairhaven sets childish notions of love aside in favor of something more reliable – pleasure. Unfortunately, the gentlemen of Scotland have little appreciation for her newfound freedom. Offers of marriage abound, driving her to a remote corner of the Highlands to evade her admirers. There, Charlotte discovers the most aggravating man she’s ever met, and the only one with any hope to mend her heart. THE WIDOW’S TREASURE Two years after her husband’s death, Lady Derwent is finally enjoying a life of freedom and delicious intrigue. She travels to the Scottish Highlands only to sell the estate of Ardbeag, but when Stirling James suggests Rob Ogilvy of Lochgarron as a possible buyer, her plans begin to unravel. Rob believes the scandalous English widow has set her wicked sights on his nephew. But after only one masked encounter with her, he determines to make her his own. MARRYING THE BELLE OF EDINBURGH A foul murder, a beautiful widow, and one man who will risk everything for love. Lord William Brandon has spent torturous days and desperate nights in love with his best friend’s wife. He resolves to marry another with the help of the Marriage Maker, but when the Belle of Edinburgh appears at a ball and asks for his help, he once again is powerless to resist her. A MATCH MADE IN THE HIGHLANDS Captain Logan Graham hoped to find peace and solitude at Blackstone Abbey, but painful memories from the battlefield, along with his lingering injuries, refuse to let him rest. He’s not fit for polite company let alone a wife, especially not one as beautiful as the lady who arrives at his door at the behest of the Marriage Maker. SEDUCTION OF A WIDOW She intends to win the race. He intends to win her heart... Evan MacLaren prefers to find his thrills on the high seas. Stormy waters might be fickle, but not as fickle as a woman—particularly a high-spirited widow. Yet Lady Carr’s adventurous spirit calls to him just as the sea does. Here is a woman who will never bore him. A woman who is as free and dangerous as any ocean. And he must have her. THE MARRIAGE OBLIGATION Confirmed spinster meets British spy. What could possibly go wrong? At eighteen years old, Cornelia Hardcastle discovered an ugly family secret that could ruin her family. There is only one way to ensure the world doesn’t learn the truth: never marry. Now that she's twenty-four, however, her parents have put their foot down. She must marry. THE MAID OF INVERNESS Despite Douglas Randolph’s attempt to avoid Society and his responsibility as the future Duke of Inverness, news he is has inherited the dukedom reaches him deep in the Scottish Highlands. That problem pales into comparison to the wager he makes with the man known as The Marriage Maker. Sir Stirling James swears he can find suitable husbands for four ladies directly descendant from Robert the Bruce. Little does Douglas know he is to be the first groom.

    He wears his temper like a badge of honor, would rather step over a homeless beggar than walk around him, and engages in petty warfare with his staff over expense receipts. He's also never been much bothered with monogamy, but when one morning he spontaneously seduces his temp in an office storeroom, he's definitely crossed a line in blatancy. Miller has made few friends and many enemies—not to mention the fact that the storeroom is a notorious trysting place and he and the temp both emerge covered in dust and airmail stickers—so the news doesn’t take long to reach his cold, beautiful wife. Conveniently, it just happens to be their anniversary. Imagine the celebratory dinner, capped by her returning her house keys and consummating her desire to sleep with the neighbor.Not a man to suffer rejection well, Miller heads for a London media hangout, where two employees introduce him to cocaine. By morning, his exploits are public (a photographer captured him snorting the cocaine in public), his career is over (thanks to a damning interview he gave a journalist from a rival paper), he's not only painted the word 'WANKER' on the cuckolding neighbor's car, but misspelled it, and his house is on fire (never leave a goodbye bonfire of wedding photos unattended). . . . Clearly, it’s time to leave town. Miller has an engagement to speak to the boys at his old prep school, but he can't seem to stop pouring gasoline on the fire that his life has become, showing up hungover after a night partying with an old school friend and a gaggle of Spanish flight attendants, and calling the headmaster by his behind-the-back nickname of "Stiffo" to the students, for a start. After the speech, he speaks with his doctor and learns that his father-in-law plans to kill him.Leigh, the old school friend, works for an English language school in Barcelona, and Miller wrangles its address out of him, for he clearly can't go home. He gets the job and adapts surprisingly well to a life of an underpaid teacher, despite the fact that some of his students will clearly never learn the language (there are hilarious scenes of their attempts in this section) and even starts up a romance with a tough-talking English girl who's one of his fellow teachers—but he doesn't tell her who he really is when he has the opportunity, and when she figures it out on her own she is livid and that bridge is burnt. To make matters worse, his father-in-law's goons have tracked him down.Miller flees again, winding up in Florida, in a town populated by ex-circus freaks and presided over by the Half Man, a criminal and sadist with no legs who welcomes Miller to town by shoving a gun barrel in his mouth and breaking his teeth. But ironically, it seems that despite the fleas in his trailer, the one-eyed albino hit man who seems to overhear every compromising conversation between Miller and the Half Man’s beautiful wife the Lizard Woman, and the fact that the Half Man’s stranglehold on the local police mean that Miller isn’t actually free to leave, it seems that Miller somehow belongs among the freaks. These misfits—among them a black dwarf, a gay clown with a penchant for altar boys, a heroin addict who is their unlicensed doctor, a biker hit man named Hollis after Grove’s erstwhile publicist, and the Lizard Woman’s wonderful eight-year-old daughter—unwittingly teach Miller what normal life never could—how to love, and how to stand up for something he truly believes in. When Miller's wife tracks him down and has him sign over the spoils of his old life to her, he gets enough money out of her to hire the albino to hit the Half Man. And though all certainly does not go smoothly with the hit—someone as vicious as the Half Man is unlikely to go quietly—Miller and the Lizard Woman are able to close that chapter and start a new life together.

    

    

    The action-packed finale to THE NEW ENEMY. Full story available in hardback on January 1st.

    

    Her wish comes true when she finds Mr. Right injured and stranded, but will they survive the dangerous storm?Rebecca York – Christmas Miracle 1935: Can he trust her enough to help free her father from jail?Patricia Rosemoor – Marrying Molly: Dear Santa, Please let me meet a McKenna man who will help me end Sheelin O’Keefe’s horrible curse on both our families. Molly KavanaughSusanne Matthews – What Dottie Wants: All Ronnie wants is to give Dottie a great Christmas, but not being able to find the doll she wants may make that impossible.Traci Hall – Christmas Kiss: Can a teenage crush become forever love?Angela Stevens – Dear Sinterklaas: Dan had his heart stolen by a girl on summer vacation, now it’s Christmas time, and with a little bit of magic from Sinterklaas, he hopes to make his Christmas wish come true.Melinda Colt – Saving Maddie: The only reason demons exist is because angels do, too.Stacy Eaton – Finding Love with Dear Santa: All Faith wants is to get her life back on track.Stephanie Queen – He Has Santa: A second chance hockey romance.Josie Riviera – A Chocolate Box Christmas Wish: He’s been all over the world. She’s a home-town girl. Can a holiday wish bridge the gap?Mona Risk – Dalia's Christmas Wish: Will the doctor make the right decision between an angry fiancée and a medical emergency?Rachelle Ayala – Toy Soldier Christmas: Can a toy soldier make her wish come true?Dani Haviland – A Plate of Christmas Cookies: Is it too much to ask for a second miracle?Taylor Lee – Please Christmas: Be Done: When his 7 year old son ran away looking for Santa... and all his teenage daughter wants for Christmas is for it to be done....the district attorney concedes not only did he lose his wife to cancer, but he was in danger of losing his children.Susan Jean Ricci – Cruising for Mr. Right: Can a widow discover second chance romance aboard a Christmas cruise and make the right choice between two adoring men?Alyssa Bailey – Christmas Wishes and You: Beth’s Christmas Wish of a Second Chance at Love could happen if only she would be willing to risk her heart... again.Nancy Radke – Zsuzsa’s Christmas Wish: She asks Santa for a strong man to help corral a mule that won’t stay home, and is given a rancher who plans to corral her.Carmen DeSousa – Chicago Hope: Aspiring journalist Maura Hall dreams of changing the world, but she'll settle for Chicago.

    each) : analog.Part Two Of Two Parts It is 30,000 years ago, the final Ice Age of the Pleistocene Epoch. The earth is peopled by Neanderthals -- squat, bow-legged, nonverbal, they live in clans, exist by foraging, and are ruled by taboos. The Cro-Magnons, the people who will replace them, are just emerging. When an earthquake destroys a Cro-Magnon dwelling, they tame the prairie, to the sudden fortune of a lucky few. "A ripping yarn...a gorgeous piece of work." (Saturday Review of Literature)

    

    Now, inside 72 hours, Jeremy Ross will have to defuse an insidious plot to genetically rewire the human race. And in a heartbeat, allied with an ex-lover on a quest of her own, he must confront a threat more devastating than any living creature can imagine.

    The stories originally appeared in the American magazines Super Science Stories and Astounding Science Fiction between 1940 and 1950 and were then compiled into a book for stand-alone publication by Gnome Press in 1950, in an initial edition of 5,000 copies. The stories are woven together by a framing narrative in which the fictional Dr. Susan Calvin tells each story to a reporter (who serves as the narrator) in the 21st century. Although the stories can be read separately, they share a theme of the interaction of humans, robots, and morality, and when combined they tell a larger story of Asimov's fictional history of robotics.Foundation was originally a series of eight short stories published in Astounding Magazine between May 1942 and January 1950. According to Asimov, the premise was based on ideas set forth in Edward Gibbon's History of the Decline and Fall of the Roman Empire, and was invented spontaneously on his way to meet with editor John W. Campbell, with whom he developed the concepts of the collapse of the Galactic Empire, the civilization-preserving Foundations, and psychohistory.[1] Asimov wrote these early stories in his West Philadelphia apartment when he worked at the Philadelphia Naval Yard.

    GETTING ROWDY Charismatic bar owner Rowdy Yates isn't the kind of man women say no to. But waitress Avery Mullins has good reasons for keeping her distance—including a secret that Rowdy won't rest until he's unearthed. As the sparks between them ignite, she'll be forced to choose between the security she's finally found…and the passion she's always wanted. DASH OF PERIL To bring down a sleazy abduction ring, Lieutenant Margaret "Margo" Peterson has set herself up as bait. But recruiting Dashiel Riske as her unofficial partner is a whole other kind of danger. Dash is six feet four inches of laid-back masculine charm—until a threat to Margo makes him determined to prove he's all the man she needs—in all the ways that matter…

    Lorraine Dawson is Olivia’s whole world, and now Olivia insists on being there for her. But when Lorraine learns Olivia is sacrificing college for her sake, her heartache triggers a series of shattering events that results in Olivia discovering her father, a man she was told had died years ago. But he is alive and well—and he’s the powerful CEO of one of the country’s richest corporations.With her best friend urging her to claim a much-deserved chunk of Bernard Wells’s fortune, Olivia seeks out his Los Angeles mansion. But it’s not money she wants—it’s answers: Why did he abandon Lorraine when Olivia was three years old? Why did they suffer in poverty while he gave his "real" wife and son a life of luxury? Opening up the past, however, is more complicated than Olivia—or Bernard—expected, and the pain of yesterday’s sins must be confronted before true healing and a bright tomorrow can begin.

    Melinda has been missing for weeks. The police would normally be all over it, but Melinda is a prostitute. Women in that line of work change addresses like they change lipstick. She probably just moved on.Staci is determined not to let Melinda become just another statistic added to the long list of girls who’ve gone missing over the years. Staci is also a prostitute – although not for much longer if Detective Reece Geary has anything to do with it. Reece will do anything to win Staci’s love. If that means putting his job on the line by launching an unofficial investigation, then so be it.Detective Jim Monahan is driven by his own dangerous obsession. He’s on the trail of a psychopath hiding behind a mask of respectability. Jim’s investigation has already taken him down a rabbit hole of corruption and depravity. He’s about to discover that the hole goes deeper still. Much, much deeper...

    He thought the small, peaceful valley miles away from the busy resort town of Hawthorn would be the perfect setting for his work. He invites two of his closest friends to stay a few weeks to do some hunting in the rugged and remote area. After their arrival, Troy gives them a tour around the property and plans are made to get an early start the next day. Morning arrives quickly and the eager hunters head out to their tree stands to settle in for a long hunt. Soon, an unexpected storm front moves in, and they are forced off the mountain. As they begin making their way down, they are suddenly and viciously attacked by a beast they can't believe is real. Separated from the others, badly injured and desperate to escape, Troy attempts to go for help. The winter storm makes the drive down the mountain road extremely treacherous and with his injuries making it more difficult, he loses control and wrecks his Jeep. He is found unconscious by a snow plow driver and wakes up days later in a hospital bed. Troy tells the unbelievable and horrifying story of the cryptid encounter on the mountain and desperately pleads for help for the friends he was forced to leave behind. Believing it to be a sensationalized story geared at publicity, the sheriff all but dismisses Troy's unbelievable claims, but when a search uncovers the body of one of the men and the other one missing, Troy becomes the prime suspect. How can he prove his innocence when the real killer isn't supposed to exist?