The singer-turned tycoon prefers his privacy and he is not thrilled to be the subject of a “Fallen Stars” segment aired by a local television station. When the host for the show, Claire Carson, won’t drop the proposed follow up segment, Trace doesn’t get mad—he buys the station and Claire’s contract.If Trace thinks he can tell Claire what to do, he can just think again. The talk show host didn’t sweep the ratings on her smile alone. Now she will need every ounce of her determination and people savvy to win this power struggle. She has never met a man so infuriating…so deliciously handsome…and so completely lonely. Claire’s desire to win is suddenly second to her need to touch Trace’s heart.

    They might both be competing, but only one can win the Kiss Off Challenge.NoraWhen I get assigned to work the kissing booth at the annual New Year’s Eve festival, I’m tempted not to show. But then Reid Blanchett, the closest thing I have to a nemesis, issues a challenge. Whoever can get the most kisses during our shift wins, and I have no intention of letting him add another tally to his long line of wins.ReidI didn’t expect Nora to accept my challenge. The last thing I want to do is watch her pucker up and pass out kisses, even if it is for a good cause. Those kisses should be mine, and I’ve only got one shot to prove it to her.This year, make the ultimate resolution to fall in love with the sexiest book boyfriends around.Midnight kisses, parties in the city, cozy cabins, and all the taboo sexiness you can handle.Strap on your slippers, and get cozy, because these men are coming to you.

    Pictures, principles, and perspectives for success in leadership and life.In this idea-packed book, Jim Dornan offers thirteen added-value glimpses into the characteristics most often associated with success and significance.

    is the story of Sarah P. Worth, a thoroughly modern spiritual seeker who has become enamored of a Hindu mystic called the Arhat. A native New Englander, she goes west to join his ashram in Arizona, and there struggles alongside fellow sannyasins (pilgrims) in the difficult attempt to subdue ego and achieve moksha (salvation, release from illusion). “S.” details her adventures in letters and tapes dispatched to her husband, her daughter, her brother, her dentist, her hairdresser, and her psychiatrist—messages cleverly designed to keep her old world in order while she is creating for herself a new one. This is Hester Prynne’s side of the triangle described by Hawthorne’s Scarlet Letter; it is also a burlesque of the quest for enlightenment, and an affectionate meditation on American womanhood.

    I'm here to celebrate the mad energy of this strange novel. In it we have the pleasure of seeing Mark Twain's imagination go berserk," writes Bobbie Ann Mason in her introduction. The American Claimant is a comedy of mistaken identities and multiple role switches--fertile and familiar Mark Twain territory. Its cast of characters include an American enamored of British hereditary aristocracy and a British earl entranced by American democracy. The central character, Colonel Mulberry Sellers, is an irrepressible, buoyant mad scientist, Mason writes, "brimming with harebrained ideas. Nothing is impossible for him.... He's totally loopy." His voluble wackiness leaves the reader reeling in the wake of inventions that prefigure DNA cloning, fax machines, and photocopiers. Twain uses this over-the-top comic frame to explore some serious issues as well--such as the construction of self and identity, the role of the press in society, and the moral and social questions raised by capitalism and industrialization in the United States. A unique melange of science fiction and fantasy, romance, farce, and political satire, Twain's least-known comic novel is both thought-provoking and entertaining.

    A life half-lived. Jane Lang, innocent and starved of love, was an easy target for a man like Carlo Santini. He swept into her life and made her love him. How could she not? Apart from his obvious physical attributes (tall, dark and handsome on speed) he was commanding, powerful, intelligent and interesting. And he claimed to love her too. It hadn't taken long for Jane to realise she didn't have what was necessary to hold Carlo's interest. After months of being ignored and rejected, Jane finally saw that their marriage was a farce. Three years later, Jane thinks she's over Carlo. But a freak accident brings them together again, and this time, Carlo isn't letting her walk away. As their passionate flame reignites with a greater strength than ever before, Jane slowly begins to unravel a web of lies and deceit - with Carlo at the centre. Everything she thought she knew about her husband is shaken to the core. So how can she believe that he ever loved her? That he might love her again?

    Which is why she has, politely, turned down every suitor her mother has brought before her. When her family accepts an invitation to the annual Christmas house party at the Earl of Walsingham’s, Ivy sees no cause for celebration, as it is the same people, the same games, the same gossip.Except, this time, she is surprised. For Everett Pine, the disowned son of the earl, has been tricked by his mother into attending the house party. Everett arrives bearing grudges against the father who chose to believe the word of others over his own, and is prepared to step on the first stagecoach back to London -- until Ivy proposes a scheme to teach their matchmaking mothers a lesson.When their fake courtship becomes much too real, will they overcome all that is holding them back from fully surrendering their hearts, or will a little bit of Christmas Spirit work its magic?This Regency Romance contains steamy scenes.

    A rich prize for the enemy, the British navy must capture her before she is used against them.For Commander Robert Ainslie, it is the greatest challenge of his career. He must take the foreign submarine and use her against the enemy in the defence of Singapore…

    And, now the Orcs, whom Earthlings hunted down and slaughtered like beasts of the field, may be the chosen creatures destined to win peace for all...

    When Kelley Spencer moves back to her hometown of Hopeful with her sister, she hopes desperately to protect sixteen-year-old Madison from the trouble that seemed to find her in Dallas. Almost immediately, a brush with the law reveals that the police chief is none other than Jack Morgan -- the man who broke Kelley's heart many years before. He's the last man she thought she'd find still living in Hopeful...and the only man she's ever loved.Jack Morgan wants nothing more than a second chance with Kelley Spencer -- and he's not shy about showing it. Their love might have been doomed all those years ago, but nothing's stopping him now. That is, nothing but Kelley's dark secret that might drive Jack to leave her again...this time forever.

    For her, there is only the present...and the chilling knowledge that the world's most lethal assassin has set his sights on her.When your only link to your identity is a stranger who claim to be lover? Gordon is so gentle, so loving--and so secretive. If Liz dares to put her life into his powerful hands, will he guard it with his own--or snuff it out?When violence explodes around you, when nothing makes sense, when nobody--including you--is whom he or she appears to be? As Liz unravels a series of lies, she begins to suspect that the truth she encounters might be far more sinister--and deadly--than the original deception...

    Levine * Paul J. McAuley * Mary Rosenblum * Daryl Gregory * Jack Skillingstead * Paolo Bacigalupi * Greg Egan * Elizabeth Bear * Sarah Monette * Ken MacLeod * Stephen Baxter * Carolyn Ives Gilman * John Barnes * A.M. DellamonicaSupplementing the stories are the editor's insightful summation of the year's events and a list of honorable mentions, making this book a valuable resource in addition to serving as the single best place in the universe to find stories that stir the imagination and the heart. Contentsxiii • Summation: 2006 • (2007) • essay by Gardner Dozois1 • I, Row-Boat • (2006) • novelette by Cory Doctorow28 • Julian: A Christmas Story • (2006) • novella by Robert Charles Wilson66 • Tin Marsh • (2006) • novelette by Michael Swanwick81 • The Djinn's Wife • [India 2047] • (2006) • novelette by Ian McDonald112 • The House Beyond Your Sky • (2006) • shortstory by Benjamin Rosenbaum121 • Where the Golden Apples Grow • (2006) • novella by Kage Baker164 • Kin • (2006) • shortstory by Bruce McAllister172 • Signal to Noise • (2006) • novelette by Alastair Reynolds204 • The Big Ice • (2006) • shortstory by Jay Lake and Ruth Nestvold221 • Bow Shock • (2006) • novelette by Gregory Benford251 • In the River • (2006) • shortstory by Justin Stanchfield266 • Incarnation Day • (2006) • novella by Walter Jon Williams295 • Far As You Can Go • (2006) • shortstory by Greg van Eekhout305 • Good Mountain • (2005) • novella by Robert Reed350 • I Hold My Father's Paws • (2006) • shortstory by David D. Levine360 • Dead Men Walking • (2006) • novelette by Paul J. McAuley374 • Home Movies • (2006) • novelette by Mary Rosenblum395 • Damascus • (2006) • novelette by Daryl Gregory418 • Life on the Preservation • (2006) • shortstory by Jack Skillingstead431 • Yellow Card Man • [The Windup Universe] • (2006) • novelette by Paolo Bacigalupi457 • Riding the Crocodile • (2005) • novella by Greg Egan492 • The Ile of Dogges • (2006) • shortstory by Elizabeth Bear and Sarah Monette499 • The Highway Men • (2006) • novelette by Ken MacLeod524 • The Pacific Mystery • (2006) • shortstory by Stephen Baxter540 • Okanoggan Falls • (2006) • novelette by Carolyn Ives Gilman566 • Every Hole Is Outlined • (2006) • novelette by John Barnes589 • The Town on Blighted Sea • (2006) • shortstory by A. M. Dellamonica606 • Nightingale • [Revelation Space] • (2006) • novella by Alastair Reynolds653 • Honorable Mentions: 2006 • (2007) • essay by Gardner Dozois

    And from the start it had been a real marriage, not an "in name only" one. Yet hadn't Tara any mind of her own at all? Why hadn't she flatly refused to marry him? Why didn't she try to run away? After all, she loved her fiancé David, didn't she, and wanted nothing but to get back to him. This feeling she had for her pagan husband, a feeling she couldn't deny, was only physical attraction, wasn't it? So what was stopping her?

     In today's world, it's especially critical for girls to grow up strong and capable. In this impassioned follow-up to his bestselling Raising Boys, author Steve Biddulph brings together the best thinking from around the world on how to raise daughters of sound character who know that they are loved, and can stand up for themselves and others. Biddulph teaches parents how to build their daughters' self-assuredness, encourage friendships, and equip them to learn and believe in themselves. This detailed guidebook teaches parents, grandparents, and caretakers exactly what matters for and to girls at which age, and how to build confidence and connectedness from infancy to young womanhood.

    In WHY ME WHY THIS WHY NOW, Robin Norwood uses compelling stories of real people to illuminate adversity's purpose at each stage of our spiritual evolution. The result is a highly personal guidebook for every seeker, a map of unfolding consciousness in which all readers will find themselves. By making esoteric principles and spiritual laws that apply to all of us understandable, Norwood helps her readers fulfil their own destiny. In her earlier books, Norwood showed how the roots of addictions stem from family dynamics. WHY ME WHY THIS WHY NOW takes readers on a more far-reaching journey, preparing them to join in today's global awakening to the next stage of human consciousness.