Who does this Marine recruiter think he is? Her brother is a boy and is not ready to be sacrificed on the altar of “service to your country.” No. Thank you. When trying to talk sense into Max doesn’t work, she does the only thing she can think of. Take it to the top.Gareth Hudson has an exemplary record as a Marine recruiter and knows a good man when he sees one. So when Maxton McCollum starts asking questions in a diner one afternoon, it was obvious. This was a match made in military heaven. One young man anxious to serve his country. One country ready to train him to be the best version of himself.So when Avalon walks into Gareth’s recruiting office, all the wrong kinds of fireworks explode. In a peacekeeping move unlike him, Gareth asks for four Saturdays to change her mind. If he can’t, he’ll suggest that Max wait six months before signing up.Romance wasn’t part of the bargain, and with their age difference, Gareth knows it still shouldn’t be, but how do you resist the pull of love at Christmas?♥ Most Wonderful Time by Toni ShilohGabe Lewis loves Christmas, just not as much as his eccentric mother who gave him and his siblings Christmas names. When he discovers that his new co-worker Shanée Mitchell wants nothing to do with the season, he makes it his mission to show her the true meaning. But he never expected feelings to develop for the Air Force veteran. Can he take a chance that she feels the same way or miss the best gift of all?♥ The Road Home by Cathe SwansonTally has tried to leave her military history far in the past, but she's not ready to go back to her former life, either. Can an old army buddy help her find a new road home?♥ Now and Forever Christmas by Jaycee WeaverRomance ruined their friendship. This could be the Christmas they repair it?CJ Sinclair never imagined trading her chef’s toque for the domestic life but her pregnant sister needs help over the holidays, and the timing couldn’t be better. A breakup and a bad case of burnout are just two on a list of things out of her control these days. Then there’s Tobin, her once best friend who she hasn’t spoken to in years. Now he’s everywhere all the time and sparking feelings she thought she got over ages ago.The past eight years as a professional musician for the US Army prepared Tobin McGhee for his new job as high school band teacher. They didn’t prepare him for how he’d feel seeing CJ again. This time, though, he won’t make the same mistakes. He’s determined to rebuild the friendship they lost. Maybe even rediscover those feelings they had back in high school before everything went wrong.Can they make holiday music together and rekindle the friendship they once had, or will romance ruin everything again?

    Whether fictionalizing his dramatic exploits as a Royal Air Force pilot during World War II or concocting the ingeniously plotted fables that were dramatized on television as Tales of the Unexpected, Dahl was brilliant at provoking in his readers the overwhelming desire to know what happens next—and at satisfying that desire in ways that feel both surprising and inevitable.In this collection:-A Fine Son-Death of an Old Man-Parson’s Pleasure-Poison-The Hitch-Hiker-The Wish-Mrs. Bixby and the Colonel’s Coat-Dip in the Pool-The Landlady-Skin-Lamb to the Slaughter-Man from the South-The Way Up to Heavan-The Umbrella Man-Taste-The Swan-William and MaryFilled with devilish plot twists, his tales display a tantalizing blend of macabre humor and the absurdly grotesque. Dahl’s creations amuse and shock us in equal measure, gleefully reminding us of what might lurk beneath the surface of the ordinary.

     A detective has the chance to solve cases that have baffled her colleagues for decades. But only if she can work out who he is, before he gets to her. Because - in a story where not everything is what it seems - not even murder is black and white. Killing Kind is a tense novella with a twist that will stay with you. From UK and US bestselling author Gregg Dunnett.

    Here, Sma argues for contact with Earth, to try to fix the mess the human species has made of it. Another Culture citizen, Linter, goes native while Li, who is a Star Trek fan, argues that the whole "incontestably neurotic and clinically insane species" should be eradicated with a micro black hole. The ship Arbitrary has ideas, and a sense of humour, of its own.This limited first edition only includes the novella and no extra collections. It had a print of 400 numbered copies and comes in a slip-case signed by both author and cover artist.

    How did he allow the other person to die? How did he help the other person to hang himself to death? He was terribly upset about this. The moment his eyes saw a rope in any form he used to remember everything.........

    This time there are no suave, wise-cracking good guys, no humorless, drug-addled bad guys. The story I want to tell you is all about how I learned to sleep at night, to close my eyes without seeing cold places and dead eyes… how I dragged whatever was left of me up out of the dark, finally. That’s the story I want to tell, because that’s the story I need to hear. I want to know how it ends..."Returning to normal life after his dark days in the depths of the Jianghu hasn't been easy for Randall Lee. With big changes coming in his future, though, Randall offers to help rehabilitate an injured friend, only to find that the need for healing goes far deeper than he ever expected. Bridging the events of Jianghu and the upcoming Randall Lee Mystery, The Art of War, Eating Bitter is a quiet story of resilience and perseverance, punctuated with Randall's trademark humor and self-deprecation.

    

    VERA & LINUS is a series of short sketches. The book's theme is the love between the two protagonists, Vera and Linus. They are mischief makers and tricksters of the most daring sort, and they are constantly up to no good, but the language holds them with a clear restraint, a restraint born perhaps out of the peculiar nature of their love, a love both for each other and the things of the world. Their mastery, and shifting natures allow them to compel the workaday world as they see it, but not to rule over each other, and so their game begins, as Vera struggles to outwit Linus, and Linus to outwit Vera.

    Be they straight-up monsters or nightmares behind a human mask, they track us and they kill us. Sometimes, they play with their food, where death would be a kindness. But there is hope. There are those who search out the monsters, those who hunt the hunters. These are their stories. ********* Featuring 13 stories of military horror by some of the best known and emerging writers in the genre. 1. Apex Predator -- N. X. Sharps & Tim Marquitz 2. Two Birds, One Stone -- Evan Dicken 3. Non Zero Sum -- R. P. L. Johnson 4. Only Stones -- Christine Morgan 5. That Old Black Magic -- James A. Moore 6. Ngu Tinh -- D. F. Shultz 7. Warm Bodies -- Kirsten Cross 8. The Bani Protocols -- Rose Blackthorn 9. Hungry Eyes -- Seth Skorkowsky 10. The Secret War -- David W. Amendola 11. Outbreak -- V. E. Battaglia 12. Droch Fhola -- Brad C. Hodson 13. Bonked -- Patrick Freivald

    *** Volume 1 plays a key role in the plot of the US movie Sex and the City. *** This Volume 2 includes love poems written by Matthew Arnold, Alfred Austin, Samuel Alfred Beadle, William Blake, Christopher Brennan, Lord Byron, Robert Burns, John Clare, Samuel Taylor Coleridge, Henry Constable, William Cowper, Michael Drayton, George Eliot, Thomas Ford, Stephen Foster, Robert Frost, Thomas Frost, Norman Rowland Gale, Johann Wolfgang von Goethe, Alfred P. Graves, Robert Herrick, Leigh Hunt, Benjamin Jonson, John Keats, Richard Lovelace, Pablo Neruda, Edgar Allen Poe, and William Shakespeare.

    Dive into this collection of 10 contemporary romance novels and novellas ranging from sweet to sizzling: Up Close and Personal by MAGDA ALEXANDER NEW RELEASE! Desperate to pay her mother's medical bills, Caitlyn Bennett's thrilled when Sterling MacKay hires her as his personal assistant. But soon the reclusive billionaire demands things no gal Friday should be expected to do. Should she walk away? Or surrender to her desires … and him? Split Decision by USA Today Bestselling Author WENDY ELY NEW RELEASE! Sports reporter Grace Avery is up for a promotion, but only if she gets an interview with the notoriously private, heavy weight champion, Rally Brewer. Grace discovers who Rally is beyond the boxing ring. Little does anyone know, as Grace gets Rally to open up, a two-year-old secret is in jeopardy. Is revealing his secret worth gaining Grace’s love? Stud Unleashed: Barry by KYLIE GILMORE NEW RELEASE! Successful, not-so-great-with-the-ladies, nice guy Barry Furnukle can’t believe his luck when Amber Lewis agrees to date him. But when the world’s most awesome date (birding and fro-yo) lands him in the friend zone, it’s time to unleash his inner stud to win the woman he can’t forget. Setting Sail by ALLIE BONIFACE NEW RELEASE! When real estate agent Jason McClintock discovers his billionaire client’s latest target is the historic diner owned and run by his high school crush, Pearl DeVane, things get more than a little complicated. Does forging a successful career mean giving up everything from his past, including the only woman to ever steal his heart? Tempting Vivi by LIZ KELLY NEW RELEASE! Graduating college and starting her dream job, Vivi DuVal’s confidence is severely shaken, sending her spinning right into the arms of heroic Lane Kettering. But their ultra romantic beach fling may turn into nothing but tabloid fodder when Lane’s secret is revealed, tossing Vivi into some very hot, tempting water. A Masterpiece Of Our Love by NIKKI LYNN BARRETT Their lives are entwined by a tragedy. Now twenty years later, neither Becca or Hunter can deny the deeper feelings they have for the other. Their bond is tested when an unknown face from the past wants them to remember the entire events of the fateful crash that changed their lives. Escape: Part One by SYDNEY HOLMES When beautiful and mysterious Rowan Baker moves upstairs from Shane Adams, he’s instantly captivated, but as an experienced Private Investigator, he can’t shake the suspicion that Rowan is hiding something. Rowan is good at keeping her distance from people, but can’t seem to stay away from Shane. The closer they get, the more she fears he won’t accept her if he learns the truth.Borrowed Stilettos by REBECCA J. CLARK Plans go hilariously awry when mild-mannered Audrey Thompson dresses as Ava, her flamboyant but cowardly twin, in order to break up with Ava's fiancé, Zach Banister. However, as Audrey pretends to be Ava—which means stuffing her bra and tottering around in borrowed stilettos—she can’t help falling for Zach herself. Little does she know he has his own agenda, one that involves a seduction she can’t refuse. Geek God by VICTORIA BARBOUR Looks can be deceiving. Just ask Classics professor Jillian Carew.

    He protects those he loves with a ferocity and purpose few can overcome. If challenged, he takes a "kill first, question later" approach. His life has taken him around the world and back again, to a home that is no longer his, in a country that would see him dead. He seeks both truth and purpose in himself and others, at a time when the traditions and values of old do battle against the emerging tyranny of the present. He is Mac Walker, and this is his story, spanning decades, available here as a single download for the first time ever, allowing readers to save up to 50% over purchasing each of the Mac Walker stories individually. SEVEN STORIES - ONE LOW PRICE! "Being a 77 year old widow and knowing I would never fall in love again, I'm afraid that Ulsterman's writing has caused me to fall in love with his fictional character, Mac Walker! What a MAN!" -Patricia Tadlock “All of the Mac Walker books are great! Once you start reading, you cannot put them down! If I could meet any character of any book, it would be Mac Walker!” --Lyn R. Toney “Excellent read. Readers can certainly relate to Mac Walker as a truly believable hero.” -Cavalry

    They are stories about the woods, houses hidden in the gaps between mountains. Behind them, the skeletons of old and powerful machines rust into the slate and leaves. Water red with iron leeches from the empty mines and pools near a stone foundation. The boy there plays in the bones because he is a child and this will be his childhood. He watches while winter comes falling slowly down over the road. Sometimes he remembers a girl, her hair and the perfume she wore. These are stories about her and where she might have gone. He waits for sleep because in the next story he will leave. The boy watches an airplane blink red past his window. From here, you can't hear its violence.

    The wind tries first, but however hard it blows it fails to make any progress because the traveller simply buttons his coat even tighter than before. Only when the sun shines brightly does he finally remove it, and the wind roars away in a bad temper.

    It's theme is the reader. Everyday we must live through moments of waiting--to get from one place to the next, from one appointment to another, for something to happen. This ingeniously useful compendium offers reading material to fill those gray moments with beauty, wonder, insight, and emotion. Organized by the time that the reader has available at that moment, the anthology provides a poem for that elevator ride to the lawyer's office; a short story for the thirty-minute commute; a novella for the three-hour plane ride. As ever, The Paris Review provides work from only the best writers of the last three generations.Among those to appear:- Mary Robison- Denis Johnson- Michael Chabon- Marilyn Hacker- Robert Pinsky- and many more.