Ranging from an island holiday gone wrong to a dive bar on the upswing to a yuppie mother in a pricey subdivision seeing her worst fears come true, these deftly written stories are populated by barkeeps, good men down on their luck, rebellious teens, lonely immigrants, dreamers and realists, fools and quiet heroes. In author Kerry-Lee Powell’s skillful hands, each character, no matter what their choices, is deeply human in their search for connection. Powell holds us in her grasp, exploring with a black humour themes of belonging, the simmering potential for violence and the meaning of art no matter where it is found, and revealing with each story something essential about the way we see the world.A selection of these stories have won significant awards including the Boston Review fiction contest and The Malahat Review’s Far Horizons award for short fiction. For readers of Lorrie Moore, Denis Johnson and Michael Christie.

    “Well, I had that gun. What else was I to do?”Lawrenceville, Illinois, 1952: Jean De Belle, the new high school librarian, is eager to begin the next phase of her young life after breaking off her engagement to Charlie Camplain. She has no way of knowing that in a few short hours, Charlie will arrive at the school, intent on convincing her to take back his ring.What happens next will reverberate through the lives of everyone who crossed paths with Charlie and Jean: the hotel clerk who called him a cab, the high school boy who became his getaway driver, and the English teacher who was Jean’s landlady, her confidant, and perhaps more.Based on a true crime and ideal for readers of The Heart Is a Lonely Hunter by Carson McCullers and Elizabeth Strout’s beloved Anything Is Possible, Pulitzer Prize finalist Lee Martin's Yours, Jean is a powerful novel about small town manners and the loneliness that drives people to do things they never imagined.

    While her almost-but-not-quite ex-boyfriend Adam is on a work assignment in Europe, Anna finds herself tricked into a ditch-the-loser intervention by her supportive yet meddling girlfriends. More frustrated than ever, Anna starts to smoke, asks Buddy, the backyard squirrel, for advice, and finally seeks out the help of a caring but fashion-challenged therapist. Adding to the emotional overload, Anna's beautiful but rash sister decides to move to the Middle East. Luckily, Anna has a resource even better than Buddy or the therapist: her devoted grandmother, who tells it like it is, refuses to conform to anyone's expectations, and who continues to live on her prairie farm all alone, half-blind, and completely happy. In her richly rewarding debut novel, Daria Salamon explores the bonds that make and break family, friendship, and love with warmth and good humor.

    or get them killed. From the depths of the Atlantic off Cape Canaveral Florida, searching for sunken Spanish treasure, to the Andes mountains of Ecuador chasing the legend of a lost golden library, Dr. Colten X. Burnett and the Risky Business team are on a quixotic adventure.While trying to make an honest, well sort of honest living, searching for remnants of the lost 1715 fleet, Risky Business Ltd. becomes entangled in a mystery that covers two continents and may rewrite history.The lure of uncovering a lost civilization, as well as the secrets it holds, motivates the team on their dangerous journey into a cosmological unknown. -Sunken Treasure Lost Worlds is the first book in Hep Aldridge's action and adventure series about Dr. Colten X. Burnett and the Risky Business team Grab a copy today.

    Like most teenage boys, he longs for a girlfriend but hasn't found one yet.In another part of town, beautiful and popular Amyra leads a flawless life. All the boys desire her and all the girls want to be her best friend.A chance encounter with Amyra in the college canteen makes Apurv fall head over heels for her. But it isn't long before he realizes that she is not interested in him, at least not in the way he wants her to be.Can Apurv get Amyra to change her mind before it's too late, or will he be friend-zoned forever?

    Intent on burying the past, Taylor determines to keep busy in the present. This includes following in her mother's footsteps (whether she likes it or not), a part-time job learning the art of the perfect latte from a sharp-tongued barista, and volunteer hours at an animal shelter. At the shelter, Taylor meets a savagely wounded mare whose strength and grace mysteriously touch her own damaged spirit, reawakening old ghosts and inviting new healing. With the help of friends - including a handsome veterinarian with saving hands - Taylor discovers second changes are found in unlikely places and that, against all odds, love restores a broken heart.

     George is the new owner of a craft store in Pottsville. From her first days in town, she has found herself in the middle of trouble, even to the point of being the target of a murder. When the police department is unwilling or unable to bring the guilty party to justice, George does what she must to keep the killer from getting away. Can she solve three of Pottsville’s murders before it’s too late? This collection of cozy mysteries includes books one through three in the Craft Circle Cozy Mystery series. If you like cozy mysteries with interesting characters, the Craft Circle Cozy Mystery series is for you. Buy the Craft Circle Cozy Mystery Boxed Set and start solving your next mystery (or three) today! Steps from Death - When you’re the new girl in a small town, you have to step out of your comfort zone and meet new people. But sometimes that can leave you only Steps from Death. Arts, Crafts and Murder – Crafts are big deal in Pottsville. But is it big enough to murder for? A Finely Crafted Murder – When someone is murdered in a rival craft store, her suspicions intensify. Was her ex-husband capable of murder? The Craft Circle Cozy Mystery Series Each book in the series is a stand-alone story, but your enjoyment of each story will be increased if you read them all. Be sure to check them all out. * Book 1: Steps from Death * Book 2: Arts, Crafts and Murder * Book 3: A Finely Crafted Murder The Bakery Detectives Cozy Mystery Series Be sure to check out Stacey’s other series, the Bakery Detectives. Each book in the series is a stand-alone story, but your enjoyment of each story will be increased if you read them all. Be sure to check them all out. * Book 1: A Pie to Die For * Book 2: Donuts, Antiques and Murder * Book 3: Death by Chocolate Cake * Book 4: Rest, Relaxation and Murder * Book 5: Til a Death Do Us Part * Book 6: The Mud Pie Murderess * Book 7: Catering and Kidnapping * Book 8: The Pumpkin Killer * Book 9: Wined, Dined and Dead Always FREE on Kindle Unlimited

    Over 1,200 pages to feed your sense of wonder. Something amazing lies hidden in the remote jungle wilderness of New Guinea. It is unremarkable in appearance yet beautiful in purpose. It is intelligent yet not human. It is a gift. But gifts always come at a price.Together in one box set for the first time, the Diffusion series is a story of first contact unlike any other. As one reviewer states, reading this series is “like entering a mystifying portal and attaching jumper cables to your imagination.”Books included in this complete box set:- Diffusion- Infusion- Profusion- Savage- Blue Arrow“Don't worry, you'll have time to breathe at the end! From the first word I was drawn into a vortex of action and tension! This did not abate until the last word was read. Whew, what a ride! Kudos Mr. Smith!”- Tammy, Amazon reviewer  ★★★★★“This whole series has been incredible not only to read, but to become immersed in the ongoing lives of all involved. Hopefully this is not the End! Stan Smith has an amazing gift that enables him to make his books on the edge of virtual reality.”- Claudia Riggs, Amazon reviewer  ★★★★★“You need to read this series! Underestimating the potential for destruction that the Lamotelokhai holds within, the actions of a misguided few come with potentially lethal consequences for the whole planet.- Mandy Walkden-Brown, Amazon reviewer  ★★★★★“New Favorite Author. This author just keeps on getting better with each book. I am enthralled with his world. The characters are well developed and entertaining. The action is non-stop.”- Linda W, Amazon reviewer  ★★★★★“This series has to be the most original concept in recent years, and is executed by an author who puts images into your head that will hold you in thrall.”- Walter Scott, Amazon reviewer  ★★★★★ Scroll up and grab this heavily discounted series!

     READ FREE WITH KINDLE UNLIMITED Grab all 28 haunted house stories for one low price! You get all 28 complete stories in the Haunted House Tales boxed set. Riley Amitrani does it yet again by giving readers another amazing box set of scary horror stories complete with terrifying encounters involving supernatural entities like spirits, demons and ghosts. There is something that is sinister, evil and dark in every one of these locations, which include mansions, churches, houses, butcher shops, hotels, pet stores, and more! Each one has it's own frightening, horrific and twisted past... The Box Set Includes: The Haunting of Prescott House The Haunting of Luciano House The Haunting of Perry Property The Haunting of Alfred House The Haunting of Woodchester Mansion The Haunting of Magnolia House The Haunting of Excelsior Hotel The Haunting of Shawcroft House The Haunting of Sanderson Mansion The Haunting of Carver's Arms Pub The Haunting of Westmore Hospital The Haunting of Sunnyday House The Haunting of Yellow Sulphur Springs The Haunting of Cleeman House The Haunting of Glass Mansion The Haunting of Ashley Mansion The Haunting of Drummond-Evans Mansion The Haunting of Harmony House The Haunting of Abberfield Church The Pet Store The Cat Clairvoyant The Haunting of Sprucewood Mansion The Haunting of the Regent Theatre The Haunting of Daucourt Mansion The Haunting of Crooked Cottage The Haunting of Bonner Springs The Haunting of Mason House The Haunting of Carroway Mansion Start reading the Haunted House Tales box set right now...

    She wants the world to know what it’s like to start secondary school with a best friend who stages one-person flash mobs in the canteen, a mother who over-shares at parents’ evenings and an unwelcome suitor who draws pictures of her as a unicorn. But it’s when she decides to start a band with a spoon-player and a lead-singer who’s a cat that things take a turn for the truly crazy…With kooky, cool incidental illustrations throughout, this hilarious novel about how to fit in when you don’t want to conform will be adored by fans of Louise Rennison and David Walliams.

    The summer Fancy Mosher turns twelve, she goes to work at Petal’s End, the rotting, sprawling mansion perched on the cliffs of The Bay of Fundy. Owned by the Parker family, abandoned after the First World War, and briefly revived as a convalescent hospital during the next, it has been kept barely standing for years. The remaining Parkers—Estelle and her daughters, the beautiful, talented Pomeline, and the young, mercurial Jenny—now ruled by fading matriarch Marigold, return for one final visit. But we come to realize that, like the children in Shirley Jackson’s We Have Always Lived in the Castle, the children here are not entirely innocent or naïve. Marigold, having suffered a stroke, lives in fey twilight, only half-hearing the sinister and sordid goings-on that are slowly closing in on her family. Her son, Charlie, died at Petal’s End many years before, as a result of what is insisted was an accidental hanging. When she decides to give a late summer garden party, Marigold finally becomes a witness to her own complicity. But the reckoning she has so feared, and so scrupulously avoided, is only beginning. Salvation resides in Fancy Mosher’s quest to accept what could either be a gift or a curse. Fancy may have inherited her grandfather’s power to see and commune with the dead, what the Mosher family calls the memento. The memento shows itself to each person who possesses it in different ways; just as memory often materializes unbidden, so too can the dead. After a horrific accident on the cliffs of Parker Island, Fancy is the sole hope for learning what the dead want and how to appease them.

    And Mansoor Visram has lived in Canada for 25 years, ever since dictator Idi Amin expelled South Asians from Uganda. As a refugee with a wife and child, Mansoor has tried his best to recreate the life they once had, but starting over in Canada has been much harder than he expected. He's worked as a used car salesman, as a gas station attendant, and now he runs a small dry cleaner in suburban Calgary. But he's hatching plans for a father and son empire that will bring back the wealth and status the Visrams enjoyed in Uganda. The problem is, his son Ashif does not share his dreams, and he's moved across the country to get away from his father. He's a rising star at a multi-national corporation in Toronto, on the cusp of a life-changing promotion, but he can't seem to forget his girlfriend from long ago. Mansoor's wife, Layla, has spent the past decade running her own home cooking business and trying to hold her family together. But Ashif rarely comes home to visit and Mansoor's pride has almost ruined their marriage. As the fissures that began generations ago--and continents away--reappear, Mansoor, Ashif, and Layla drift further and further apart.On the Night of Power, a night during Ramadan when fates are decided for the next year, a terrible accident occurs. Will the Visrams survive this latest tragedy?Night of Power is a heart-wrenching story of a family in crisis. Gripping and unforgettable, Anar Ali's debut novel vividly illuminates the injustices of displacement and the nuances of identity--of losing a home and coming home again.

    More than 455,000 words of fiction, including the complete text of: VIRGIN by F. Paul Wilson-- She was hidden in the desert...to rest in peace. They shouldn't have disturbed her. HAUNTED HOUSE by J.A. Konrath & Jack Kilborn—People are dying to leave. WOLF HUNT by Jeff Strand-- Two thugs. One innocent woman. And one VICIOUS frickin’ werewolf. EERIE by Blake Crouch & Jordan Crouch-- One scary m*****f****** house. SPEED DATING WITH THE DEAD by Scott Nicholson-- Ghost hunters at a paranormal conference stir up demons. THE FINAL WINTER by Iain Rob Wright-- The snow was just the start...of the end.

    She would be my sheikhess; she just didn’t know it yet. Pressure.That was all I felt.Duty to my country.To my peopleTo my borders.They were my priorities.Well, and taking a wife to sustain the sheikh succession.It was by obligation that I succumbed to my advisors.But it was by choice that I chose her.Natalie Fielding.Her innocence had been too enticing.Straight-laced.A good girl.With long black hair,C@#k twitching green eyes,And curves that a man would never tire of… Hmm, what devil could resist such an angel. To my surprise, she went with the engagement –Said she thought it was time to “take a walk on the wild side.”My delicate American flower bloomed for me,Over and over again.Until our temporary “whirlwind romance” hit the rails.A pregnancy.Unplanned.But what Nat doesn’t realize now is that blood to a sheikh is sacred.She will bear my child.She will remain my sheikhess.There will be no further negotiations… Note: Accidentally Wifed to the Sheikh is a steamy romance between a powerful Sheikh and the innocent American who finds herself engaged to him.

    It’s their turn. First off, it at long last solves the enigma of Abigail’s first husband Joel Sutton’s disappearance, and death, a decade before…the tragic event that sent Abigail to Spookie in the first place to begin a new life. The new life that would grow so big as to include a new love, a new family, quirky, but well-meaning friends, and the strange murder mysteries her new friends would drag her into over the years. As an unsolicited, and unwanted, envelope arrives from Abigail’s now dead detective she’d hired a decade before to find her missing first husband, its contents sends Frank searching for the truth. The envelope’s files are full of disturbing facts concerning the unsolved crime and it piques Frank’s interest. Soon, against Abby’s wishes, he’s on the cold trail of what actually happened to Joel Sutton–had he been a victim of just an accident, as some have always believed, or did someone murder him? In his search for the truth, Frank ends up in lethal danger when the investigation comes to a violent conclusion. This story is also about an infamous haunted house at 707 Suncrest, in the woods; about the cold blooded murders of a whole family that occurred there forty years before. Is the house on Suncrest truly haunted by the ghosts of the dead family? Is it dangerous? When Abby decides to paint a series of canvases of the spooky old house, she’ll find out. Then along with those two new mysteries to unravel, of course, all of Spookie’s quirky town characters have returned to irritate, amuse and sleuth with Abby and Frank. Will they get out of these new mysteries alive, too? Perhaps.