Shoot Me


Lesley Crewe - 2010
    She mothers everyoneher social work clients, her husband, her twenty-something daughters, and her reclusive sister who lives in the attic. Elsie is committed to taking care of everyone--everyone but herself. So, when crazy Aunt Hildy writes to demand a bedroom in their Halifax home, Elsie cant help but say yes. When Hilda arrives, she enchants and enrages the family with her moxie. That and her proclamation that she has hidden treasure in the house and the kings ransom will go to whoever loved her most. When someone threatens Aunt Hildy, she responds with her trademark sass: Go ahead. Shoot me. I dare you. Whoever it is takes her up on it. Suddenly, the house is turned topsy-turvy as Elsies family searches for a treasure that Elsie doesnt believe even exists, and for a killer that could be any one of them. Shoot Me is a funny and sometimes heart-wrenching story about family, fortune, and figuring out who you are and who you love. In Elsie, Crewe has created a character who speaks with humour and honesty to conflicts that exist in the lives of so many women: between work and home, between loving one man and wanting others, and between feeling fulfilled not only as a wife and a mother, but as a woman.

Wilderness Tips


Margaret Atwood - 1991
    In each of these tales Margaret Atwood deftly illuminates the single instant that shapes a whole life: in a few brief pages we watch as characters progress from the vulnerabilities of adolescence through the passions of youth into the precarious complexities of middle age.  By superimposing the past on the present, Atwood paints interior landscapes shaped by time, regret, and life's lost chances, endowing even the banal with a sense of mystery.  Richly layered and disturbing, poignant at times and scathingly witty at others, the stories in Wilderness Tips take us into the strange and secret places of the heart and inform the familiar world in which we live with truths that cut to the bone.Contents:True trash --Hairball --Isis in darkness --The bog man --Death by landscape --Uncles --The age of lead --Weight --Wilderness tips --Hack Wednesday.

Dollybird


Anne Lazurko - 2013
    Determined to find redemption in the midst of their derision and to find joy despite uncertainty, Moira faces impossible choices with consequences beyond anything she can imagine.Thrown into the purgatory of a bleak prairie landscape as unforgiving as her mother, twenty-year-old Newfoundlander Moira Burns is certain she will rise above the locals of Ibsen, Saskatchewan. Until the reasons for her flight west become clear. Until she is befriended by a prostitute and courted by a ‘half breed’. Until she becomes the “dolly-bird” of superstitious Irish Catholic homesteader, Dillan Flaherty.Scattered through with birth, death, and the violent potential of both man and the elements, Dollybird excavates the small mercies which come to mean more than they should on a prairie peopled with characters struggling under a huge sky that waits, not so quietly, for them to fail.

Irresistible - Fall Into Romance


Tamara Ferguson - 2020
    

The Sons of the Aristocracy: Boxed Set


Linda Rae Sande - 2016
     In TUESDAY NIGHTS, boxer Michael Cunningham is more interested in building his fortune than finding a wife, but made a promise he would marry by his twenty-eighth birthday. Reminded of the deadline by his sister, Michael realizes he has much to do in the three weeks he has if he’s to propose to Olivia—or she’ll become his sister’s governess! With no time for courtship, banns, or wedding planning, his sister insists Michael ruin Olivia! Despite feeling affection for Michael since the day he rescued her from a rake, Olivia is still shocked—and ruined!—when he climbs into her bed. Once they're married, Michael is sure Olivia despises him, while she is sure he wandered into the wrong bedchamber that fateful Tuesday night. Will a week be enough time for Michael to court Olivia, to convince her of his affections? Or will he regret his last-minute efforts to keep his promise? Only time will tell… When Clarinda married the Earl of Norwick, she thought she was marrying the Fitzwilliam twin who courted her. But it was David's identical twin brother Daniel, the spare heir, who captured her heart with pink roses and delectable kisses. So when the rakish David made her his countess, the embittered Daniel left London to run the earl's estates in Sussex. With David's sudden death comes a reunion of the star-crossed lovers—and Clarinda's randy mother-in-law. Clarinda thinks Daniel despises her for being a fortune hunter—and because she's pregnant with what might be an heir to the earldom. Daniel knows Clarinda despises him, but can't remember what caused the row they had when they last spoke. Meanwhile, David's ghost is paying nocturnal visits to Clarinda while annoying Daniel with instructions to pursue his widow and pleas to discover who caused his untimely death. Who can be in mourning when twin brothers are causing so much trouble? Or is two times the romance worth a bit of sibling rivalry? Twins double the fun in THE WIDOWED COUNTESS. When Lady Julia and her friend Samantha notice an especially handsome groom from their vantage point of a second-story bedchamber window in Mayfield House, they decide the man would make the perfect gentleman. Julia accepts Samantha's challenge to transform the man in time for a ball. Little do they know Alistair Comber is already a gentleman. The estranged second son of an earl works in service in order to make good on a promise he made to a fellow soldier while he was an officer in the British Army. Alistair agrees to Julia's request that he learn how to bow, dance and dress like a gentleman in time for her mother's ball. After all, how hard can it be when MY FAIR GROOM is already a gentleman? How hard indeed!

Love is All we Have


Chelsea Maria - 2018
    Love Publications come together for five highly entertaining, emotional, and edifying love stories that are guaranteed to leave you wanting more! Authors included are: A. Marie Johnson ShanicexLola Chelsea Maria A. Jones Alexis Cñe Foreword by: B. Love

One for the Rock


Kevin Major - 2018
    But when he leads a group of tourists along the cliffs of St. John's harbour, one of them ends up dead. Not only is there a murderer in his tour group, but the cop assigned to the case is sleeping with Sebastian's ex-wife. It seems like things can't get any worse, but as he's enlisted to help flush out the perpetrator, the trail leads deeper than expected, and Sebastian finds himself on the edge.

A Wake For The Dreamland


Laurel Deedrick-Mayne - 2015
    It is a Canadian summer in 1939 and Robert and Annie’s love has blossomed, even as the inevitability of the boys joining up means separation and the first of many losses. Fearing he might not return, Robert makes William promise to take care of Annie. Every arena of their lives is infiltrated by the war, from the home front to the underground of queer London to the bloody battlefields of Italy. Even in the aftermath, in the shadow of The Dreamland, these friends fight their own inner battles: to have faith in their right to love and be loved, to honour their promises and ultimately find their way “home.”

Christmas Romance Collection: 3 Contemporary Romances


Jennifer Youngblood - 2018
     Love on the Rebound Add a little Aloha to your Christmas this year! When Everly Watson takes her young son Jordan to Hawaii, she’s not just celebrating Christmas but also searching for answers surrounding a tragedy from her past. She doesn’t expect to be faced with a tsunami threat her second day on the island. Nor does she count on meeting the famous Christian Ross, superstar of a hit action-movie series. Sparks fly as Everly and Christian have an instant attraction. But things spiral out of control when Everly realizes someone is following her and watching her every move. Christian soon finds himself drawn into Everly’s complicated world of betrayal and deceit and feels the need to protect her from a perilous threat. Can Christian and Everly’s newfound love withstand the growing obstacles? Or are they doomed to keep reliving the heartaches of the past? Loving the Movie Star Actor Blade Sloan gets the opportunity of a lifetime when he lands a leading role in the new Jase Scott action movie, co-starring with Hollywood megastar Christian Ross. Too bad Blade’s having stress issues brought on by a longtime stalker who’s getting more aggressive. If Blade can’t find a way to loosen up on set and perform to the best of his ability, he’ll lose everything he’s worked so hard to achieve. Dani Fairchild is trying hard to turn over a new leaf and transcend into adulthood. Yes, she may have been irresponsible in the past when she jilted billionaire Liam Barclay and ran off with a surfer, but that’s all behind her. Dani has a food blog she wants to take to the next level, and she’s holding down a full-time job. Granted, being a receptionist isn’t her dream job by any means, but hey, it’s a start. Too bad she can’t keep her big mouth shut and gets fired when the boss acts like a jerk. An unlikely encounter on the public bus brings Blade and Dani together where sparks fly and attraction sizzles. But Dani isn’t having it. No matter how charismatic Blade is or how good he looks with his chiseled abs and piercing blue eyes she’s vowed to never again get involved with someone who doesn’t live on the island permanently. Long distance relationships are a kick in the pants, and she’s tired of being hurt. Home alone for Christmas while Samantha and her family go to the mainland, Dani settles in for a quiet, predictable holiday. But fate has other plans when Dani and Blade are unwittingly thrown into a cycle of events that lead to a heart-pounding climax. Can Dani and Blade find a strong enough love to sustain them in the face of danger? Or will the stalker win in the end? False Identity Believe in miracles … believe in hope … believe in love. It's Christmastime, and Chancy Hamilton can’t bear the thought of spending the holidays without her late husband Max who died in a plane crash. When Chancy and her teenage son, Travis, have an argument, Travis storms out of the house and ends up in the wrong part of town where he is attacked by a group of thugs. When a homeless man comes to his rescue, he invites the man home to have a meal with his mom and little sister. Gabe Jones is not like any other homeless man Chancy has ever seen—he’s confident, intelligent, and devastatingly handsome. Jake, Chancy’s boyfriend, takes an instant dislike to Gabe and warns Chancy to stay away from him.

Charades


Janette Turner Hospital - 1987
    A mysterious and elusive love affair haunts the lives of three women in Australia. Twenty years later, on the other side of the world, Charade Ryan sorts through story and counter-story for her father, the legendary Nicholas, and the truth about her origins.

The Sudden Weight of Snow


Laisha Rosnau - 2002
    Seventeen-year-old Sylvia (Harper) Kostak is caught between her mother’s regrets and the strictures of small-town life in the interior of British Columbia. When Harper meets Gabe, an intense and enigmatic young man living on the ’60s-style arts commune outside of town, she is transfixed. Gradually we learn Gabe’s story and what led him to join his estranged mother on the commune, where, in a bid for freedom, Harper eventually finds herself, setting in motion a series of events leading to tragedy. Resonant with longing and a sense of isolation, the novel brings alive the agonies and ecstasies of growing up, sexual discovery, and how the need to belong can shape both decisions and destinies.Author Biography: Laisha Rosnau was born in Pointe Claire, Quebec, and grew up in Vernon, British Columbia. She has worked as a child-care worker, a landscaper, a waitress, a fruit picker, an interpretive guide, a journalist, and an editor. She received a Master of Fine Arts in Creative Writing from the University of British Columbia, where she was the Executive Editor of PRISM international. Her poetry and short fiction have been published in literary journals and anthologies in Canada, the United States, and Australia. The Sudden Weight of Snow is her first novel. Laisha Rosnau lives in Vancouver, where she is at work on a collection of poetry and on her second novel.

What the Soul Doesn't Want


Lorna Crozier - 2017
    Her arresting, edgy poems about aging and grief are surprising and invigorating: a defiant balm. At the same time, she revels in the quirkiness and whimsy of the natural world: the vision of a fly, the naming of an eggplant, and a woman who — not unhappily — finds that cockroaches are drawn to her.“God draws a life. And then begins to rub it out / with the eraser on his pencil.” Lorna Crozier draws a world in What the Soul Doesn’t Want, and then beckons us in. Crozier’s signature wit and striking imagery are on display as she stretches her wings and reminds us that we haven’t yet seen all that she can do.

King John of Canada


Scott Gardiner - 2007
    A series of minority governments, and endless Quebec referendums (designed to lose narrowly, to keep the money coming) have left Canada almost ungovernable. When the Governor General resigns in disgrace and the House of Windsor implodes in London, a media baron launches the idea of a Canadian king or queen elected by lottery.It starts as a joke — except that the lucky winner, King John, a bright and charismatic guy from Toronto, knows exactly what people want. Soon Quebec is gone, while Toronto’s surprise bid to leave Canada is averted by shifting his official residence, the new seat of power, to the Toronto waterfront. Many good things happen, and the politicians go along for the ride. And the blockades of Native lands are ended for good, after John is heroically wounded keeping the peace at risk to his life.His popularity soars and Canadian morale soars with it. Soon the rest of the world is taking notice of this model leader. In the United States, the blue states look enviously northward. Then Canada’s king, ignoring assassination threats, goes on a formal visit to Washington. . .From the Hardcover edition.

Causeway: A Passage From Innocence


Linden MacIntyre - 2006
    At once a vibrant coming-of-age story, a portrait of a vanishing way of life and a reflection on fathers and sons, the narrative revolves around the construction of the Canso Causeway that would link the small Cape Breton village of MacIntyre's childhood to the wide world of the mainland. Shot through with humour, humanity and vivid characters, Causeway is an extraordinary book, a memoir that has set a new standard for the genre.

Dance of the Happy Shades


Alice Munro - 1968
    In these dazzling stories she deals with the self-discovery of adolescence, the joys and pains of love and the despair and guilt of those caught in a narrow existence. And in sensitively exploring the lives of ordinary men and women, she makes us aware of the universal nature of their fears, sorrows and aspirations.