Christmas Wishes & Heartwarming Kisses: A Sweet Holiday Romance Collection


Sophie Mays - 2018
    Each book takes place in a unique setting! Let these stories lift your spirits, make you laugh, and get you decking the halls! This Collection Includes The Following Books: In From New York, With Love, we join Emily and Josh as they confront some of life's trickier decisions. Can a big city girl survive the holidays in her boyfriend's small hometown? Throw in a Christmas tree farm visit, some warm apple cider, good Southern cooking, and everyone's favorite little town of Magnolia Harbor. Watch the downtown come alive under the twinkling holiday lights and find out if Emily and Josh will be celebrating the New Year alone or together.In A Whole Latte Christmas, Sonia returns to her hometown of Evergreen Valley from teaching abroad, wishing for a simple Christmas with her family. When her character is put to the test, she saves a life and in the process earns the gratitude of Aiden, the charming new café owner in town. Sparks fly, but can Sonia overcome her own doubts and at the same time save the youth choir's Christmas Eve performance? Travel to the beautiful Canadian Rockies for a sweet story and a good latte to find out!In A Girl's Guide To Creating Christmas, single mom Natalie is overwhelmed running her small flower shop. Can her precocious daughter Fiona convince her after-school mentor, Paul, to help her plan a magical Christmas for her mom, and hopefully remind Natalie of the true meaning of the holidays?In Key West Christmas, Josie makes a dramatic life change but quickly realizes the realities of paradise may be a little more than she bargained for. Can her new friend Nate help her find her holiday spirit in the not-so-snowy Key West, Florida?In Santa Baby, Maybe, we take two strangers whose paths can't stop crossing and sprinkle in a little art, coffee, and an opulent holiday party. Mix it together, and you have been whisked away to the scenic Great Smoky Mountains for a cute, clean holiday romp! A Christmas story of family, faith, and finding out that sometimes the mall Santa is more than meets the eye!In Scottish Holiday, a journey of self-discovery leads New Yorker Jillian on a quest across the Atlantic. Will her Christmas holiday home provide the quaint getaway she has in mind...or will a chance occurrence with a local Scotsman change her plans completely? Venture to the wee Scottish Isle of Lewis and help Jillian track down her roots.

Checkout Girl


Denise Deegan - 2013
    She's taken on an unexpected detour back to her life shortly before she died. But she's seeing the world from a different point of view. This is the first time she has ever experienced a detour being the best part of a journey. 'A wonderful, warm read that's guaranteed to tug at the heartstrings,' author Colette Caddle. Checkout Girl was published as part of the short story compilation, Moments, in aid of the tsunami. It was also part of a short story collection published in Germany. Aimee Alexander is the pen name of bestselling Irish author Denise Deegan Checkout Girl includes a short excerpt from Pause to Rewind, a contemporary novel by Aimee Alexander.

The One True Story: Daily Readings for Advent from Genesis to Jesus


Tim Chester - 2016
    But the story of the baby in the manger is the culmination of a thousand other stories. It is the focus of the story of the Bible and the story of human history. The book has 24 short meditative readings working through Bible stories from Genesis to Jesus. Each day ideas for reflection, prayer and application, designed to excite you about the Gospel message in the run up to Christmas Day. As you prepare for Christmas, get a fresh insight into the full script of the nativity, the story of our world, and the plotline for the rest of your life...

Secret Santa


Amanda Tru - 2012
    After losing her job as a teacher, she finds herself broke, unemployed, and tricked into accepting a date from a department store Santa Claus. When new opportunities and new love interests present themselves, will Hailey choose a career and a man she's always admired, or will she wait for the identity of her Secret Santa to be revealed?

Christmas in Rome


Holly Greene - 2015
    She also adores Christmas, so all her dreams are about to come true when she and her fiancé Ben plan to tie the knot in the Eternal City on Christmas Eve. Yet things start to go wrong from the moment of their arrival - her Italian wedding planner is more laid back about the arrangements than she’d hoped, and seems more interested in Molly's best friend than her wedding. Bridesmaid Caroline has never been to Italy but she’s heard all the rumours about swarthy Italian men and their charms. So when she happens across a handsome native who seems intent on showing her the best of everything the city has to offer, she wonders if romance is truly blossoming, or if it’s just a fleeting encounter. The wedding ceremony is set to take place on Christmas Eve in a small Italian church near the Trevi Fountain, after which the happy couple and their guests plan to celebrate by throwing coins in the fountain as per the famous legend. But with so many ups and downs during their short stay in Rome over Christmas, will any of Molly and Ben's wedding party want to return? Or will the picturesque magic of the Eternal City over the holiday season ensure they never want to leave.... ESCAPE TO ITALY All stories are standalone and can be read in any order. SPRING IN SICILY SUMMER IN SORRENTO AUTUMN IN VERONA WINTER IN VENICE CHRISTMAS IN ROME

Born This Happy Morning


John Bytheway - 2020
    Although Christmas can feel over-commercialized and stressful, Born This Happy Morning helps readers recapture the magic of childhood Christmases by focusing on how we can give the joy of Christ's light to those around us, reminding us that the spirit of Christmas is multiplied in our hearts when we share the spirit of Christ with others.Table of ContentsJoy of Giving SpontaneouslyJoy of Giving AnonymouslyJoy of Giving to a Friend in NeedJoy of Giving to FamilyJoy of Giving a Return to ChildhoodJoy of Receiving God's GiftsJoy of Forgiving

Stories I've Heard, Characters I've Met, & Lies We've Told in My 44 Alaskan Years


Tom Brion - 2016
    An Off the Grid lodge owner in Fish Lakes, Alaska, Tom enthralls roomfuls of guests every year from the Lower 48 and around the world with tales of his adventures, foibles, and SNAFUs in 44 years living in the Alaskan wilderness. From his start as a Pennsylvania farmboy who ran off to join the United States Air Force, to his arrival in Alaska with less than a hundred dollars in his wallet and a growing family in his back seat, to his forty years as a Bush pilot and his accidental introduction to the fishing lodge business, to his multiple brushes with death, hardship, and questionable characters, Tom Brion has a story to cover it all. A pioneer in sustainable homesteading and off-the-Grid living, Tom Brion built his first lodge in Alaska on five acres in the Lake Creek area, in 1979, and continues to this day building and working heavy machinery 60 miles from any road. Born in 1941, Tom has collected 74 years of humorous, heart-wrenching, and sometimes mind-blowing stories of traveling, hunting, and exploring the backcountry of Alaska in the pilot’s seat of a Vietnam-era Cessna Birddog. A biography in the form of short life stories, Tom Brion’s memoir takes us to a rural Bush life where people live off the land, drill their own wells, put out their own forest fires, and depend on their neighbors to pick up their mail. Surrounded by nature, Tom continues to fly, plow, run his bulldozer, and wrangle his subsistence fishwheel up the river every year in the Skwentna area of Alaska, where temperatures in winter drop to 45 below zero and summers can see entire months without rain. Follow him in this (mostly) nonfiction anthology of (somewhat) true stories from the Last Frontier as he gives the straight scoop about bears, outhouses, farming, flooding, fishing, moose, guns, and aviation in the 49th State.An avid hunter, outdoorsman, fisherman, and jack of all trades, Tom documents his life with photos and illustrations that detail an epic adventure from start to finish.

Tense: Holiday Edition of When the Vows Break


Lakisha Johnson - 2019
    They’ve experienced all kinds of things but with each other, their families, prayer, and God; they’ve made it through 2019, to the month of December. But not every relationship salvaged will make it to the future. In this Holiday Short Story, Special Edition of When the Vows Break, you’ll get to peek into the lives of these friends and see how they’re spending their Christmas holiday. Will the past they’ve endured affect their present, attempting to shatter their future? Or has the past given them instruction to treasure the present while preparing for the future? You’ll have to read to find out.

The Little Cottage by the Sea


A.L. Jambor - 2016
     A short story by A.L. Jambor When Meg’s sister dies, she is devastated. The last of three children, Meg misses her siblings and has never felt so alone. She’s an author, but her emotional state hinders her ability to write, and she can’t sit in front of her computer without trembling. A trip to Port Revere, MA recalls memories of the summers spent there with her family when she was a girl, and Meg decides to buy the Christmas Cottage, an abandoned little house on a bluff near town. She refurbishes it, and with the help of her nephew Zack, starts to come out of her shell. But then the holidays, a time for families and celebrations, arrive, and Meg must again face her loneliness, and guilt over something she can't forgive herself for – she wasn’t there when her sister died and never had a chance to say goodbye. With the cottage almost completed, Meg has one last thing to do; she has to find out if her plumbing is up to snuff, and arranges for a plumber to visit the cottage. On Thanksgiving Day, she is sipping a cup of coffee when someone knocks on the door. She looks out the window and sees an old man, an old truck, and an old dog. Lettering on the truck announces that Angus O’Malley, Plumber Extraordinaire, is standing on her doorstep. What she doesn’t know is that Angus is on a mission and that his appearance heralds the beginning of something wonderful, and the best Christmas Meg has ever had. The Little Cottage by the Sea was formerly published as The Christmas Cottage. The content has not changed. It is a short book of 20,000 words.

An Old-Fashioned Christmas: Sweet Traditions for Hearth and Home


Ellen Stimson - 2015
    It’s got your Christmas goose and the maple syrup with which to glaze it. It’s most of the reason author Ellen Stimson made Vermont her home. Here she shares recipes that have been in her family for generations, mixes up a cocktail or two, and invites readers to make their own traditions.

Rick Steves' European Christmas


Rick Steves - 2005
    With enchanting photos and more than a dozen recipes, this great gift book captures the spirit of the season perfectly.After producing a hundred travel shows, Rick Steves and his public television crew finally went to Europe for Christmas. And the cameras were rolling. As only they can, Rick and his gang brought home a vivid and authentic portrait of how Europeans celebrate the holiday. This book is the companion to that PBS special.The Christmas we know today is a rich and fascinating mix of traditions that came over on the boat — an ancient celebration with pre-Christian roots. From Yule logs to mistletoe, from singing shepherds to the split personalities of Santa, from traditional recipes to the top ten ways to celebrate in Paris, you'll learn something new — or old — about Christmas.

Off-Camera Flash: Techniques for Digital Photographers


Neil van Niekerk - 2011
    Seeking to address the various challenges of off-camera lighting, professional photographers and advanced amateurs alike will find a range of confidence-building instruction, beginning with basic how’s and why’s of lighting for creative effect, the types of equipment available and instruction about their proper use, clear definitions of various technical concepts such as managing shutter speed and controlling flash exposure, using ambient light as well as natural sunlight during a shoot, and incorporating off-camera flash into a portrait session. Concluding this lesson plan is a look at five different real-life photo sessions, each employing a different flash technique. Here, photographers get a deeper understanding of each concept put into practice, marrying the elements of lighting with the natural elements presented by the shoot.

Santa Claus: A Biography


Gerry Bowler - 2005
    The very idea of him is enduring and powerful.Santa Claus was born in early-nineteenth-century America, but his family tree goes back seven hundred years to Saint Nicholas, patron saint of children. Intervening generations were shaggy and strange — whip-wielding menaces to naughty boys and girls. Yet as the raucous, outdoor, alcohol-fuelled holiday gave way to a more domestic, sentimental model, a new kind of gift-bringer was called for — a loveable elf, still judgmental but far less threatening.In this engaging social and cultural history, Gerry Bowler examines the place of Santa Claus in history, literature, advertising, and art. He traces his metamorphosis from a beardless youth into a red-suited peddler. He reveals the lesser-known aspects of the gift-bringer’s life — Santa’s involvement with social and political causes of all stripes (he enlisted on the Union side in the American Civil War), his starring role in the movies and as adman for gun-makers and insurance companies. And he demolishes the myths surrounding Santa Claus and Coca-Cola.Santa Claus: A Biography will stand as the classic work on the long-lived and multifarious Mr. Claus.From the Hardcover edition.

In the Last Days: A Brief Guide to Christ's Second Coming for Latter-day Saints


Michael James Fitzgerald - 2015
    Students of the Second Coming won't find anything sensational, highly speculative, or particularly new or groundbreaking in this book. Though not exhaustive, the guide walks through many of the major events surrounding the Second Coming of Christ, mainly through the Standard Works of the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints—the Bible, the Book of Mormon, the Doctrine and Covenants, and the Pearl of Great Price—but also through some archaeological, historical, and statistical sources. (It's a compilation of posts from the blog "Put on the Armor of Light," written between September 2014 and November 2015.)

"I'm just an ordinary girl." The Sharon Kinne Story


James C. Hays - 1997
    husband, her boyfriend's wife and a man in Mexico. All this before her twenty-fifth birthday.Sentenced to thirteen years in Mexican prison, she escaped and is still at large with an active murder warrant biting at her ass.This story has been featured on Unsolved Mysteries and Discovery I.D.'s Deadly Women series. (Episode-"Born Bad").