OUR BOOKS
Below is our current catalogue of books
Kingston Court
** Top British book reviewer says Kingston Court has some of the best love scenes she’s ever read. **
Sometimes we have to fall to learn we can fly.
Samantha and Natalie are at a crossroads. Gorgeous, over-the-top Samantha, hides from her past by hanging her status and her happiness on her “perfect” husband. That is until she learns his secret.
But she’s not the only mother on the block struggling. Natalie, nurturing and careful, is thrust back into the workforce after her husband barely survives a near-fatal car accident.
This fast-paced novel follows the lives of two dramatically different women who are faced with life-altering experiences.
Death and misfortune in the span of a single year force these two women to either sink, or rediscover their inner strength and independence. Described as a modern day twist between Sex and the City and Desperate Housewives, Kingston Court is full of scandal, temptation, and all of life’s juicy little secrets.
Oppression (Children of the Gods #1)
Elyse knows what it means to keep a secret. She’s been keeping secrets her whole life. Two, actually. First, that she ages five times slower than average people, so that while she looks eighteen years old, she’s well over eighty. Second, that her blood has a mysterious power to heal.
For Elyse, these things don’t make her special. They make life dangerous. After the death of her parents, she’s been careful to keep her secret as closely guarded as possible. Now, only one other person in the world knows about her age and ability.
Or so she thinks.
Elyse is not the only one keeping secrets. There are others like her all over the world, descendants of the very people the Greeks considered gods. She is one of them, and they have been waiting for her for a long time.
Some are waiting for her to put an end to centuries of traditions that have oppressed their people under the guise of safeguarding them. Others are determined to keep her from doing just that. But for Elyse, the game is just beginning-and she’s not entirely willing to play by their rules.
Uprising (Children of the Gods #2)
Elyse has done everything she can to protect her friends from The Council’s reach. As long as they believe she’s dead, she has time to rest and train for war. And war is inevitable.
When Kara arrives with the news that Anna and Chloe have been captured, Elyse is faced with the realization that no one is safe until The Council is stopped and Christoph is destroyed. She doesn’t need a prophecy to tell her to lead an army. Christoph has done the one thing that ensures she’ll fight to the death. He’s threatened the people she loves.
It will take more than the words of an oracle to help them fight against the most powerful Descendant alive. To break The Council’s oppression and rise up against a plot so many years in the making, Elyse will need to get dangerously close to her enemy. So close, in fact, she may not survive.
Redemption (Children of the Gods #3)
Lead Council member, Christoph, is dead by Elyse’s hand, and Descendants have begun to emerge, exposing their secret to the world. Some see this as the prophecy come to fruition, but the prophecy caries a heavy consequence. It was never meant to be as peaceful as most had hoped.
Humans and Descendants struggle to live together in a world that isn’t ready for such a change. America is divided. Those who glorify the supernatural race believe Descendants truly are the gods they claim relation to. Others see them as a threat.
When Elyse gives birth to the next generation oracle, she sees one final vision—war. The destruction of the country’s major cities, and the end of America as we know it.
After her daughter is born, Elyse finds herself without the ability she needs to predict the future. Desperate to save the world from such conflict, she puts her faith in the hope that Descendants are the key to survival. After all, they have the power to supply a broken society with the means to survive.
Only from the ashes can a new world be born.
Somehow I Am Different
How do we come to be who we are spiritually? How does our political and social environment influence our development of self? What drives us to commit to our passions and to contribute positively to the world?
A young American author immerses herself in modern Jewish Hungary. The twenty-one stories she shares will make you laugh, make you cry, and make you want to be your own best self. Somehow I Am Different provides an opportunity to connect in a world that otherwise begs us to stand alone. This book serves as a reminder that in spite of the factors working against us, we have the power to stand up and make a difference.
In their own words, Hungarian participants will tell you about their views on the world, themselves and their city—
“Instead of emphasizing our victimhood, we should really tell another story.” – Tamas Buchler
“I am I. Maybe I am not perfect. Maybe I am not gorgeous, maybe I am not skinny, or fancy, or rich. But I am me. At least I am me.” – Devora Hurwitz
“After a while, you have to realize that you have the power, too. Our work is to put the power in everyone.” – Vera Feniasz
El Awake
In the year 2115, Eleutherius (El) is struggling to find meaning in a city where most are strangely submissive and unquestioning towards the absolute rule of the merciless authorities. But after discovering the dark truth behind the white city, El ventures on a fast paced and thrilling journey to fight for the freedom of a people he once resented.
Guided by his now-deceased grandfather’s poems, El’s body and mind must be broken and reassembled, in order that he become stronger and accomplish the work his Grandfather began, all the while struggling against questions of morality and discerning who is friend and who is foe.
Midnight Sea (The Fourth Element Series, #1)
They are the light against the darkness.
The steel against the necromancy of the Druj.
And they use demons to hunt demons….
Nazafareen lives for revenge. A girl of the isolated Four-Legs Clan, all she knows about the King’s elite Water Dogs is that they bind wicked creatures called daevas to protect the empire from the Undead. But when scouts arrive to recruit young people with the gift, she leaps at the chance to join their ranks. To hunt the monsters that killed her sister.
Scarred by grief, she’s willing to pay any price, even if it requires linking with a daeva named Darius. Human in body, he’s possessed of a terrifying power, one that Nazafareen controls. But the golden cuffs that join them have an unwanted side effect. Each experiences the other’s emotions, and human and daeva start to grow dangerously close.
As they pursue a deadly foe across the arid waste of the Great Salt Plain to the glittering capital of Persepolae, unearthing the secrets of Darius’s past along the way, Nazafareen is forced to question his slavery—and her own loyalty to the empire. But with an ancient evil stirring in the north, and a young conqueror sweeping in from the west, the fate of an entire civilization may be at stake…
Blood of the Prophet (The Fourth Element Series, #2)
Visionary. Alchemist. Savior. Saint.
The Prophet Zarathustra has been called many things. Now he spends his time drawing pictures of weird-looking goats. That's what happens when you've been stuck in a prison cell for two hundred years. But the man who might be mad, and is definitely supposed to be dead, has suddenly become very valuable again…
It's only been a few weeks since Nazafareen escaped the King's dungeons with her daēva, Darius. She hoped never to set foot in the empire again, but the search for the Prophet has led them to the ancient city of Karnopolis. They have to find him before Alexander of Macydon burns Persepolae, and Darius's mother with it. But they're not the only ones looking.
The necromancer Balthazar has his own plans for the Prophet, and so does the sinister spymaster of the Numerators. As Nazafareen is drawn in to a dangerous game of cat and mouse, her newfound powers take a decidedly dark turn. Only the Prophet understands the secret of her gift, but the price of that knowledge may turn out to be more than Nazafareen is willing to pay…
Queen of Chaos (The Four Element, #3)
Persepolae has fallen.
Karnopolis has burned.
As the dark forces of the Undead sweep across what remains of the empire, Nazafareen must obey the summons of a demon queen to save Darius's father, Victor. Burdened with a power she doesn't understand and can barely control, Nazafareen embarks on a perilous journey through the shadowlands to the House-Behind-the-Veil. But what awaits her there is worse than she ever imagined…
A thousand leagues away, Tijah leads a group of children on a desperate mission to rescue the prisoners at Gorgon-e Gaz, the stronghold where the oldest daēvas are kept. To get there, they must cross the Great Salt Plain, a parched ruin occupied by the armies of the night. A chance encounter adds a ghost from the past to their number. But will they arrive in time to avert a massacre?
And in the House-Behind-the-Veil, Balthazar and the Prophet Zarathustra discover that they have more in common than meets the eye. But is it enough to redeem the necromancer's bloodstained soul and thwart his mistress's plans?
As a final showdown looms with Queen Neblis, the truth of the daēvas' origins is revealed and three worlds collide in this thrilling conclusion to the Fourth Element series.
Shadows of Shame by Bruce Ashkenas
Harold Apple is a Jewish reporter willing to do anything for a story. When he’s asked to risk his life to infiltrate the Nazi Bund in late 1930’s New York, he jumps at the chance. Leaving behind his fiancée and the safety of his home, Apple goes undercover in search of the real story. Before the world knew enough to fear them, the hate-filled paramilitary mob known as the German American Bund terrorized the Jewish citizens of New York. After years of rumored reports of these attacks, Harold Apple finally gets his chance to expose them. He witnesses a piece of history unknown to many Americans and experiences the brutal cruelty of the Bund first hand. Becoming the enemy gives him his story. If he’s brave enough to tell it.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
www.bruceashkenas.wixsite.com/website
Seasons Within by Lele Iturrioz
Most sixteen-year-old girls know their name, where they came from, who they are. Not G, a beautiful redhead with unusual markings on her wrist. She gets her name from a silver locket she keeps around her neck, unaware the engraved letter “G” on its front holds the secret to her past.
G’s life before the age of six has been a mystery to her. Each night for the last ten years she’s been haunted by the same nightmare—a war. Horrendous beasts, warriors able to wield the four elements, and a boy who saves her by means of blue fire taunt her memory. But on her seventeenth birthday, G’s life begins to unravel. When she meets her new Chemistry professor, a man with an uncanny resemblance to the boy who saves her, she knows there must be more to her dreams.
To learn the truth is a dark and dangerous road. One G will be forced to take. Claiming her place as Mother Nature will bring death to her door. But G's not afraid of dying. Some things are worth dying for.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
Uncaged by Joe Gazzam
Jason Holden has been on thin ice since his mother died. Capping off a burglary and bar fight with a brutal car wreck, the seventeen year old finds himself firmly on the wrong side of the law.
His behavior isn’t winning him any points with his father, who happens to be the state governor. So when Governor Holden learns of a program for troubled youth, he jumps at the chance to deal with Jason’s outbursts while cementing his position for being tough on crime.
The program is a radical exercise designed to frighten teens from a life of crime. It’s called “Scared Straight,” and takes them into the heart of Blackenbush Maximum Security Penitentiary.
Jason, along with a group of hardened juvenile delinquents, quickly comes face to face with some of the most extreme convicts the state has ever seen. But what’s designed as an exercise becomes all too real as a prisoner take-over comes to fruition. Before long the entire penitentiary is under siege, surrounded by feds and overrun with violent lifers loose from their cells.
Jason, trapped in the middle of in the chaos, will have to trust in the most unlikely person— Karl Rix, a convict with his own body count. Between them, they just might find a way to save their skin and even a bit of redemption. But at what cost?
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
The Loneliest Whale by Jessica Therrien & Dorene Uhrich
"The Loneliest Whale was a sad little lad. He'd gone swimming alone and lost his dad."
Swim with the loneliest whale as he searches the ocean for his family and finds his happy ending.
The Loneliest Whale really exists! For more information visit: www.loneliestwhale.com
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
Hey Buddy, I'm Your Body by Agnès Déglon
Hey, Buddy, I'm Your Body is the first installment of a series on body, mind, and soul called Kids’ Questions about Life. An educational book written in simple language for parents, teachers, and kids who are pondering the deeper, more complex yet so essential issues of life. This is an early introduction on who we are and how to take care of ourselves.
Explaining the complexity of the human being in general — in this book, the human body more specifically — is not an easy but very important task for parents. These concepts are made more tangible and easily understandable through a family of bears. As the Bear kids ask questions about their bodies, Mommy Bear and Daddy Bear seek to answer their little ones with simplicity and honesty.
The awareness that we are part of nature and made from the same building blocks as everything else in nature helps to understand how to take care of the body. Knowing about the language of the body and becoming more aware of it is also very essential. The body knows how to heal itself, but it needs our help to make informed and wise choices for a healthy and happy lifestyle.
More information online at www.KidsQuestionsAboutLife.com
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
www.KidsQuestionsAboutLife.com
Wait For Me! Would You Mind? by Agnès Déglon
WAIT FOR ME! WOULD YOU MIND? is the second installment of a series on body, mind, and soul, called Kids’ Questions about Life. It is an educational book written in simple language for parents, teachers, and kids who are pondering the deeper, more complex but yet so essential issues of life: an early introduction to who we are and how the mind works.
Explaining the complexity of the human mind to children can be quite challenging. Abstract concepts, thoughts, ideas, imagination, focus, and attention are made more tangible and easily understandable through a family of bears. As the bear cubs ask questions, Mommy Bear and Daddy Bear seek to answer their little ones with simplicity and honesty.
The awareness that we perceive the world through our limited senses and that there is more out there than what we initially think helps broaden our horizons and open us up to a greater reality. Knowing about the mind’s way of thinking and becoming aware of the presence of more than we perceive is essential. The mind becomes our tool rather than our identity. We become more capable of distancing ourselves, of choosing what we want to believe and what kind of information to feed our minds.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
www.KidsQuestionsAboutLife.com
The Little Souls by Agnès Déglon
THE LITTLE SOULS is the third installment of a series on body, mind, and soul, called Kids’ Questions about Life. It is an educational book written in simple language for parents, teachers and kids who are pondering the often unanswerable issues of life, an early introduction on who we are and where we come from.
Attempting to explain the meaning of life, souls, birth, death and the Universal Soul can be quite a challenging task for parents. These concepts are made more tangible and easily understandable through a family of bears. As the bear cubs ask questions about life, Mommy Bear and Daddy Bear seek to answer their little ones with honesty and hopeful positivity about the Universe, from the comforting Universal Soul perspective of humanity.
The idea that we are all connected to one another, like many stars in a galaxy, many droplets of water in an ocean or many grains of sands in a desert, helps translate concepts like good and bad, birth and death, and even dreams into something more concrete.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
www.KidsQuestionsAboutLife.com
Spring (Seasons Within #2) by Lele Iturrioz
Gaia finally knows who she is and what she’s meant to do. It’s only been a few weeks since the earth element woke in her and now that she’s embracing her role as mother nature, she must journey with her group of power-wielding friends in a race against time to get back home before Azazel reaches them.
With the awakening of a brand new element, her true past with Edan, enemy attacks, a dangerous decision that could change the very essence of who she is, and a traitor among her group the broken road back to Terra will be in great jeopardy.
After all, even if Gaia doesn’t know it, war is closer than she thinks.
Storm at the Keizer Manor by Ramcy Diek
Straight out of high school, Annet moves in with her boyfriend Forrest to escape her mother’s multiple and often volatile relationships. She finds a job at the local museum, the Keizer Manor, where the oils from 19th century master painter Alexander Keizer are exhibited. Rapidly working her way up to administrative assistant to the director for collections and exhibitions, she has an important hand in the organization of the Manor’s two hundred year anniversary.
Although the celebration is a great success, it ends in a quarrel between Annet and Forrest. Talking it over, they stroll through the dunes. When dark clouds roll in, the beautiful sunny weather turns into a thunderstorm so violent that they get separated.
The next morning, Forrest finds himself alone. So does Annet.
Regaining consciousness in a monastery, Annet is convinced the nuns are playing a prank on her. It can’t be the 1800’s! She’s a pregnant Twenty-first Century woman and doesn’t belong here. But how will she get back to her own time?
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
Aglow in the Bronx by Bruce Ashkenas
Twelve year old, Adam, a Jewish boy, likes to visit his gramps in The Bronx. His best friend there is Rafe, a Catholic. The difference doesn't matter to the boys, even after they get involved in the biggest miracle to hit the Tri-State area in years. Over the course of a Thanksgiving weekend they help cause and then react to an event which uplifts the neighborhood and the city. Rafe has faith that what they did was right, Adam has faith in Rafe, and they both have faith in the best cleaning product ever made.
Constant Gray by Ryan Taylor
It's the end of the world...
Or at least it was. The apocalypse has come and gone in all its horror and glory.
Now, God and Satan have foregone the battlefield, and powerful allies have been left to their own devices.
The earth is divided. On one half, the sun never sets and the scorched earth burns eternally. The other half is a landscape of doomed darkness where demons lurk around every corner.
The scale is tipped in this ruined world. Unfortunately, not in favor of the righteous.
After being released from years of torture underground, Khadim emerges and embarks upon this wasted planet unaware of his fate. He is meant for something much greater than himself. He doesn't know it yet, but he is destined to bring balance.
In other words, some guy is going to kick a lot of ass and save everyone...
Whether he wants to or not.
Murder on the Lake of Fire by Mikel Wilson
At twenty-three and with a notorious case under his belt, Emory Rome has already garnered fame as a talented special agent for the Tennessee Bureau of Investigation. His career is leapfrogging over his colleagues, but the jumping stops when he’s assigned a case he fought to avoid - to investigate an eerie murder in the Smoky Mountain hometown he had abandoned.
This mysterious case of a dead teen ice-skater once destined for the pros is just the beginning. In a small town bursting with envious friends and foes, Rome’s own secrets lie just below the surface.
The rush to find the murderer before he strikes again pits Rome against artful private investigator, Jeff Woodard. The PI is handsome and smart, seducing Rome and forcing him to confront childhood demons, but Woodard has secrets of his own.
He might just be the killer Rome is seeking.
Carry Me Home by Jessica Therrien
CARRY ME HOME is a fictional novel inspired by the true story of a teenage girl’s involvement in several Mexican gangs in San Jose and Los Angeles. The members of her crew call her, Guera, Spanish for “white girl” and it doesn’t take long for her to get lost in their world of guns and drugs.
* * *
Lucy and Ruth are country girls from a broken home. When they move to the city with their mother, leaving behind their family ranch and a dead-beat father, Lucy unravels.
They run to their grandparents’ place, a trailer park mobile home in the barrio of San Jose. Lucy’s barrio friends have changed since her last visit. They’ve joined a gang called VC. They teach her to fight, to shank, to beat a person unconscious and play with guns. When things get too heavy, and lives are at stake, the three head for LA seeking a better life. But trouble always follows Lucy. She befriends the wrong people, members of another gang, and every bad choice she makes drags the family into her dangerous world.
Told from three points of view, the story follows Lucy down the rabbit hole, along with her mother and sister as they sacrifice dreams and happiness, friendships and futures. Love is waiting for all of them in LA, but pursuing a life without Lucy could mean losing her forever. Ultimately it’s their bond with each other that holds them together, in a true test of love, loss and survival.
Choosing Hope by Holly Kammier
A broken marriage.
A love affair.
A lie that changes it all…
Hope Sullivan has been with the same man since her freshman year of college. She knows her marriage has its cracks, but she doesn't realize how much resentment she has buried, or chosen to blame on herself, until a family tragedy forces her to reevaluate her long held beliefs.
When her husband isn't there for her, Hope's first love steps in and offers her a way out. Adrian, appears to be everything her husband isn’t. He’s sexy, strong and fit. He listens to her, sympathizes with her, and makes her feel valued. Best of all, he lives for spending time with his kids.
Hope’s affair is just the beginning. Her journey inward will require untangling her complicated past and surviving an astonishing revelation.
Her lover is not who he pretends to be.
She’s searching for her happily-ever-after, and no matter how painful the journey, she’ll find what she’s been looking for all along—the chance to choose Hope.
Nocturne by Kat Ross
Nocturne, a wilderness of eternal night.
Solis, a wasteland of endless day.
For a thousand years, the world has been rigidly divided between light and dark, humans and daevas, science and magic—until the arrival of a young woman named Nazafareen. She has no memories of her past and few ambitions for the future. Still recovering from a power that nearly destroyed her, Nazafareen just wants to live out her days in peace under the triple moons of Nocturne.
But when an assassin forces her to flee to the sunlit mortal city of Delphi, she finds herself in even greater danger. The Oracle is burning heretics alive. The philosophers are at each other’s throats. And something ancient is stirring in the arid death zone called the Kiln.
If all that isn’t bad enough, Nazafareen’s murky past has come back to haunt her with a vengeance. Everyone seems to want her dead, her lover Darius has vanished, and a hidden enemy is lurking at the center of a web whose strands reach across the entire continent. War is brewing. Part-human, part-daeva, Nazafareen faces just one question: Which side will she choose?
Reversed by Lois Letchford
“He’s the worst child I’ve seen in 20 years of teaching.”
Can a child’s fate be sealed by the age of seven?
Every parent has high hopes for their children. When Lois Letchford learns her son has been diagnosed with a low IQ at the end of grade one, she refuses to give up on his future.
After thorough testing, Nicholas proves to have no spatial awareness, limited concentration, and can only read ten words. Although discouraged, Lois knows things have to improve. After all, her son is young, and every child learns at their own pace.
But once Nicholas is labeled "learning disabled," a designation considered more derogatory than "dyslexia," the world of education is quick to cast him aside. Determined to prove them all wrong, Lois temporarily removes her son from the school system and begins working with him one-on-one. She has no formal reading education herself, and no one to guide her. But she has hope and the strength of will to persevere. And sometimes that's all you need.
What happens next is a journey--spanning three continents, unique teaching experiments, never-ending battles with the school system, a mother’s discovery of her own learning blocks, and a bond fueled by the desire to rid Nicholas of the “disabled” label.
Reversed is a memoir of profound determination that follows the highs and lows of overcoming impossible odds, turning one woman into a passionate teacher for children who have been left behind. Nothing is impossible when one digs deep, and looks at students through a new lens.
The Thirteenth Gate by Kat Ross
Winter 1888. At a private asylum in the English countryside, a man suspected of being Jack the Ripper kills an orderly and flees into the rain-soaked night. His distraught keepers summon the Lady Vivienne Cumberland—who's interviewed their patient and isn't sure he's a man at all. An enigmatic woman who guards her own secrets closely, Lady Vivienne knows a creature from the underworld when she sees one. And he’s the most dangerous she's ever encountered.
As Jack rampages through London, this time targeting rare book collectors, Lady Vivienne begins to suspect what he's looking for. And if he finds it, the doors to purgatory will be thrown wide open…
Across the Atlantic, an archaeologist is brutally murdered after a Christmas Eve gala at the American Museum of Natural History. Certain peculiar aspects of the crime attract the interest of the Society for Psychical Research and its newest investigator, Harrison Fearing Pell. Is Dr. Julius Sabelline's death related to his recent dig in Alexandria? Or is the motive something darker?
As Harry uncovers troubling connections to a serial murder case she’d believed was definitively solved, two mysteries converge amid the grit and glamor of Gilded Age New York. Harry and Lady Vivienne must join forces to stop an ancient evil. The key is something called the Thirteenth Gate. But where is it? And more importantly, who will find it first?
Touchy, Feely, Squeezy by Mandy Urena
Touchy, Feely, Squeezy is not about happy endings. It is a comedy, a tear-jerker and a heart-warming memoir. With the British eccentricity of Bridget Jones’s Diary and the wanderlust of Eat, Pray, Love, Mandy Urena, a British writer who has been to 59 countries, takes you deep into the underworld of massage and behind the scenes.
Loaded with hysterical tales and candid stories, Musings of a Masseuse is a no-holds barred book about the world of massage, sharing a passion for the field, unique adventures around the globe, and all the laughter that comes with it.
Stories include hysterical chapters like “The Penis Monologues” and “Hookers, Madams and not so Happy Endings”, but the hilarity is contrasted with chapters such as “Loved and Lost” and “Daddy’s Feet” – all with the backdrop of massage, reflexology, and a colorful clientele.
Musings of a Masseuse is a touching, humorous, and exotic cultural trip around the world. Get ready to laugh, cry, and schedule your next massage.
Sammy's Flame by Sam Ashkenas & Dorene Uhrich
Sammy the dragon is a young competitive fire-breather. He becomes the town champion and is admired by both his friends and the adult dragons in his life. But when an evil witch feels threatened by Sammy's power and takes away his fire breath - everything changes. Will Sammy ever compete again?
Dark Paradise by Gene Desrochers
Boise Montague’s life in Los Angeles has fallen apart. After his wife dies, he returns to the tiny island where he grew up. Unfortunately, coming home doesn’t bring him the peace he’s looking for.
Things have changed drastically since his last visit. The island has moved on and so have the people he once knew. When Boise tries to find the one friend he thinks he can count on to be there for him, he’s confronted with another death. A murder. A murder that the police did not think important enough to investigate thoroughly.
Boise wants answers. He enlists a local reporter named Dana, who has theories of her own, to help him dig deeper.
With not much left to lose, a bone to pick with the justice system, and a relentless partner, Boise sets out to do what the police would not: solve the murder of Jeffrey Black.
The island of St. Thomas is a gleaming tropical paradise. Welcome to the Caribbean, where murder is as common as sunshine.
Bubby Knows Best by Joan Rosenberg
This is a reference book, mostly for Joan's grandchildren, children, and for anybody else who might outlive her. She's hoping people, namely her family, will take her advice if it's in print, because she's not sure they're actually listening when she talks. Gathering from her long and tumultuous life experiences, Joan reduces her wisdom into short succinct rules to follow.
If you heed her words, your life will be better; if you don't, it won't.
Courting Kate by Tori Kron
Slapped with court ordered community service for brawling—again, Miller Cassidy, the Indianapolis Panther’s star player, is forced into laboring under stodgy non-profit supervisor, Kate Gallagher. Her saving grace—she happens to be best friends with Stella, the woman he’s been chasing for years.
Despite the masses falling for his charm, Kate doesn’t care for Miller’s notorious reputation or his flippant behavior. But wanting to impress her strict boss, she agrees to a trade that could give them both a shot at success.
Propelled into an unlikely alliance, Miller finds himself taking a defensive stance when he sees beyond Kate’s hard exterior. And Kate is equally thrown off guard when she discovers there’s more to Miller than games.
But is love worth sacrificing friendship? And can Miller let go of the feelings for Stella he’s held onto for years?
In love and basketball, it’s five fouls and you’re out, and every play counts.
TRUDGE: A Mid-life Crisis on the John Muir Trail by Lori Oliver-Tierney
Lori Oliver-Tierney is every woman with a dream. She is fifty, asthmatic, overweight, with arthritic knees. And like most married women with children, she’s lost herself.
When she decides to hike the John Muir Trail, considered by many to be the most challenging and beautiful part of the 2,650-mile Pacific Crest Trail, she’s sure it will help her reconnect with the adventurous girl inside.
But by the end of the first day, Lori realizes she may have made a huge mistake.
Monstrous bleeding blisters oozing with pus line the backs of her heels. It soon becomes painfully apparent her hiking partner, Debra, can hardly stand her. She can’t breathe and is using her asthma inhaler with alarming frequency. Trudging along, Lori walks most of the trail alone, and eventually loses her way.
Lost on the trail Lori is forced to dig deep into her soul to find the strength to go on. But will inner strength be enough? Given her grim circumstances she chooses to believe her husband’s words: even ordinary people can do extraordinary things.
Death Opens a Window by Mikel J. Wilson
Still struggling with the consequences of his last case, Emory Rome must unravel the inexplicable death of a federal employee in a Knoxville high-rise.
But while the reticent investigator is mired in a deep pool of suspects – from an old mountain witch to the powerful Tennessee Valley Authority – he misses a greater danger creeping from the shadows. The man in the ski mask returns to reveal himself, and the shocking crime of someone close is unearthed.
Solis by Kat Ross
In the second volume of the Fourth Talisman series, Nazafareen’s path takes a twist, setting her on a journey into the heart of the maelstrom…
It’s been a thousand years since the Avas Vatras tried to burn the world to ashes. A thousand years since they were imprisoned in the brutal wasteland called the Kiln. But revenge is a dish best served cold—even, apparently, by the children of fire.
In Delphi, Nazafareen joins forces with the followers of Dionysius to rescue her friends from the Oracle’s dungeons and seek out the three talismans whose extraordinary powers stopped the Vatras before. With her own breaking magic growing stronger by the day, she must walk a razor’s edge to control her volatile temper. And if the Vatras find the talismans first, their last hope will die.
In the frozen wastes of the Valkirin range, Victor strikes an uneasy bargain with bitter enemies to keep his tenuous grip on the Maiden Keep. The other holdfasts are coming for him. But it’s a traitor within Val Moraine’s walls that may prove to be his downfall.
The Scent of Heat by E. P. Sery
Ariella Paz is not in a good place. It’s the 1950s, and the 19-year-old is serving her country in the Israeli military, going home at night to a mother who is devastatingly ill, and realizing her dream of leaving home and going to America is slipping further and further away.
Meeting Arik Emmanuel, her boss’s friend, lifts her spirits and distracts Ariella from her sorrows. He showers her with love and luxury, which only masks the dangers inherent in his increasingly possessive behavior.
As their torrid and secret love affair plays out in Israel and Europe, Ariella has some big decisions to make. Can she really leave her family in their time of need? Does she have a legitimate future with Arik? And is there anyone in whom she can confide?
Each direction she turns will change her life dramatically. Perhaps our destiny isn't something written in the stars, but a path forged by the choices we make.
Maiden by Teresa Harrison
Marta and Jayme are old friends with different beliefs. Marta dreams of becoming a healer. Jayme has been schooled by the black-coats, a group of priests who claim women are inferior, and he fears Marta is jeopardizing her eternal future.
Despite a heated debate over Marta’s soul, Jayme betrays her to the priests. The consequences of his betrayal change Marta’s life forever.
After a brutal massacre, Marta awakens deep in the forest overcome with grief for her lost sisters, but the world will not let her rest. The tragedy has changed her. She hears the call of nature, eventually steering her toward a small cottage in the wilderness. There she learns of nature’s magic and what it means to be a Lightwalker.
The path is there for her to follow. If she’s strong enough to embrace it…
Monstrum by Kat Ross
In the third volume of the Fourth Talisman series, the hunt is on for the three daevas whose powers saved the world once before….
On the wave-tossed White Sea, realm of smashers and sea monsters, a ship is carrying Nazafareen and Darius to the Isles of the Marakai, where the wise woman Sakhet-ra-katme has guarded the secret of the talismans for centuries. But another is searching too, a man born in the brutal prison of the Kiln, who plans to use the talismans to free the Vatras and their mad king. Between them stands a young Marakai girl, ignorant of her own powers. From the moonlit treasure vaults of the Isles to the emperor’s lavish palace in Tjanjin, Nazafareen and Darius face their deadliest and most cunning foe yet.
In the mountain fastness of Val Moraine, the Pythia’s minions are on the scent of another talisman, this one from the Danai clan. Trapped behind a thick wall of ice, everyone’s going slightly mad—the perfect cauldron of suspicion and betrayal for Thena, who sees a chance to redeem her failure and bring the talisman back to Delphi. Then she’ll be free to indulge her twisted obsession with Darius—and make him pay.
And in Samarqand, Javid is drawn into the treacherous currents of a royal succession. When the old king dies and his son takes the throne, the depths of the prince’s depravity become clear. A journey north reveals the source of the spell dust he’s addicted to—and leaves Javid with an impossible choice.
Flygirl by R. D. Kardon
It’s 1997. Women stand beside men in combat and fly fighter jets. Pilot Tris Miles is not content with her job as a First Officer for tiny Clear Sky Airlines. She wants to be a Captain—the only way she knows to prove her worth as a pilot and atone for a deadly mistake.
To further her career, Tris accepts a prestigious job with Tetrix, Inc. But her dream of becoming pilot-in-command twists into a nightmare. As the company’s first woman pilot, she encounters resistance, marginalization and harassment on a daily basis. Fortunately Tris has one thing her co-workers can’t deny—skill.
When Tris finds herself in a crippled airplane thousands of miles from home she must prove she can lead. With her career on the line, can Tris earn the respect she’s been craving? And if this is the end, can she find the strength to forgive herself?
The Berlin Tunnel by Roger L. Liles
During the Cold War, a tunnel was built by British MI-6 and the CIA to tap into a message cable in East Berlin with the hopes of intercepting and exploiting communications with Russia. The Berlin Tunnel is based on this historic event.
* * *
In the height of the Cold War, American Air Force Captain Robert Kerr finds himself in a divided Berlin awash with spies who move freely between the East and West. His task—build a TOP SECRET tunnel under the River Spree into East Berlin—tap into highly classified communications links between civilian and military leaders in Russia and the Warsaw Pact countries.
Love couldn’t have found him at a worse time.
Soon after he arrives, Robert falls for a German girl, Anna Fischer. Nasty East German Secret Police harass them both constantly, intent on determining what Robert and his work crew are doing in Berlin, but it’s Anna who gets caught in the crossfire.
The wall is closed, trapping 19 million East Germans including Anna’s entire family behind the Iron Curtain. As the world holds its collective breath over the Berlin Crisis, Robert and Anna fight for their lives as they attempt to free her family.
Awakened by Dot Caffrey
Power and Prophecy!
Seventeen-year-old Regnaryn grew up in an idyllic land among mythical beings.
She believes she is the last surviving human.
Her world begins to shatter when Evil invades her dreams, demanding she relinquish unknown powers foretold by her long-deceased mother. When Graeden, a young human male, arrives, he further disrupts her once-orderly life. Her emotions in chaos, Regnaryn flees the only home she's ever known, only to be captured by the servants of Evil from her dreams. Now she must take a stand, confronting her late mother’s prophecy while also attempting to survive and protect those she loves.
Cursed by Dot Caffrey
Born with the face of an angel and cursed with the soul of a demon, Sevich possesses an unquenchable thirst for power, his father’s throne, his brother’s demise and a young girl’s magic. CURSED: Book Two of the Power Trilogy reveals the face behind the voice in a dream to be an evil that even the fires of hell dare not challenge.
Conquest by Dot Caffrey
Born of two kingdoms, in a place of peace and wonder, she will grow to possess great magic and power. But there will be one who will try to wrest that which is hers.
With friend and loved ones at her side, they will stand in opposition against the evil born of her bloodline. And together with another of near equal power they will make a final stand in the battle against this evil.
Still Breathing by E. A. Fournier
Newly widowed and on the threshold of seventy, Lizzie Warton questions the value of her remaining years. Uncharacteristically, she decides for the first time in her life to do what she wants, instead of what everyone expects.
Against the wishes of family and friends, she sets out for Africa to work at a Ugandan middle school. When she lands at night in the Entebbe airport, her hosts are not there to meet her. Near panic, she hires a local taxi. The driver drugs her, steals everything, and dumps her limp body in a slum. Waking in the dark, she feels someone tugging off her shoes.
Without money, a passport, clothes, or medications, Lizzie is forced to start over and find a way to survive.
Soon she learns that nothing in Africa is as it appears. The grind of daily life in the third-world is beyond anything Lizzie imagined. Nevertheless, encouraged by budding friendships in surprising places, and against every sensible instinct she’s ever developed, Lizzie’s own personal search for meaning becomes the grand adventure of a lifetime.
Ricochet by David Kennedy
Brenda Roseberry is young, brilliant, and relentless, but her moral compass is radically skewed. Recruited by the secret government agency Special Crimes Response And Mitigation, she dispenses depraved justice to the streets and the corporate boardrooms of America.
Whether globe-trotting to exotic locales or prowling the dusty backroads of California, she strikes fear into the hearts of her targets, employing disguises, devious technology of her own invention, and deadly fighting skills.
Her only friend, an MS-13 gangster, manipulates her even as he assists her. Will the dark secrets of Brenda's adolescence and the shocking truth behind SCRAM destroy them both?
Jen's Hens Make New Friends by Jen Petrovich
COMING SOON
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
The Winner's Circle by PJ Colando
FAITH… FAMILY… FRENZY!
Life in a rural small town can dull the senses. A trio of gal pals—mired in middle age, middle America, and other people’s problems—long to escape.
When Bonnie wins the Boffo Lotto, her circle of friends urge her to lawyer up, invest, and sequester herself.
But secrets are inconceivable in small towns, so Bonnie and Carl invite close friends to witness their Vegas wedding and honeymoon in Hawaii with endless vagabond beyond. The sky’s the limit!
The allure of travel is fun for a while—hilarious, in fact. But when the husbands are jailed, wanderlust is no longer a romp, and things get complicated when you’re halfway round the world, untethered from all you know and love.
Life has its consequences… and there’s no place like home.
Path of Progress by Flora Beach Burlingame
It’s the late 1800s, and John Ogilvie Stevenson, pastor of the Congregational Church in Waterloo, Iowa, believes women are equal to men in intelligence, and superior to men morally and spiritually.
During a sermon on temperance, wherein he advocates laws to shut down the saloons, he is struck with the irony that his audiences are composed mostly of women—that segment of the citizenry who cannot vote. Thus begins his campaign for women’s suffrage. A large portion of the public believes a woman’s place is in the home, that she has no business in politics, and probably isn’t smart enough to vote.
Every two years the Iowa state legislature considers putting an amendment on the ballot for a public vote on the issue and time after time it doesn’t get that far. The Reverend John Stevenson never gives up. Through the triumphs and tragedies of his own personal life, he is determined to forge the path of progress.
Nemesis by Kat Ross
In the fourth volume of the Fourth Talisman series, Nazafareen risks everything on a desperate gamble to stop the Vatras once and for all…
With Meb safely among her own people, Nazafareen has finally embraced her dangerous fire magic. She is the Fourth Talisman, destined to free the heirs from the wards binding their own extraordinary power. With Nocturne and Solis poised on the brink of war, the choices she makes will decide the fate of mortals and daevas alike.
Determined to confront Culach and make amends, Nazafareen goes to Val Moraine, setting off a chain of events that ultimately leads her deep into the perilous wasteland called the Kiln and the faceless enemy waiting there. But the ancient hatred that shattered the world a millennium before is stronger and far more devious than she and her companions imagine.
Is the Viper truly dead? And can Nazafareen triumph without facing the darkness that lurks within her own heart?
Chasing Beverly by Ashlynn Cubbison
Two people. Two sets of rules. One chance to let it all go.
Seeking redemption, Beverly Morgan has spent the last nine years building an empire that was someone else's dream. Devoted to her work, a handful of friends, and an array of charities, she’s been able to lock away her heart and convince herself it's dead. After an unthinkable tragedy, Beverly should know by now that a single day can change everything.
She can't run from love forever.
Gavin has it all, a thriving business, phenomenal family, supportive friends, but an hour with Beverly Morgan makes him question his entire life and his own happiness.
She could be exactly what he needs, if she's brave enough to open up again.
My Name Is Rose by Alexa Kingaard
Rose is unsettled, curious, and bored. Life in a hippie commune is her parent's dream come true, not hers. She doesn't share their passion for living off the land, nor does she enjoy the isolation that is thrust upon her. When she convinces them to send her to public school in the nearby town, a new world opens up to her.
As she pursues her education, Rose chooses a different path, leaving her parents heartbroken at her insistence they are hiding something from her. She's convinced her father isn't the man her mother married.
Although she finds love far away from her roots and upbringing, her wounds only deepen as she keeps her family at arm’s length.
What she loses during those years can only be retrieved with her understanding that “a Rose by any other name is still a Rose.”
AGELESS
Coming
Soon!
By Barbara Franklin
Ageless by Barbara Franklin
You don’t need an age…
No one (adult) does. You are going to love what you see without those strange and disorienting “age-glasses” you have been wearing. Take them off completely and look into a brave new world with no age and no limits.
AGELESS challenges our cultural obsession with numbers and sets out to change the world one person at a time.
Join conscious men and women everywhere in experiencing the freedoms of an AGELESS life and never think about age the same way again.
COMING SOON
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
The Haunting of Elmwood Manor by Pamela McCord
Pekin Dewlap hasn’t seen a ghost since she was twelve. But she’d do anything to get them back. Starting a ghostbusting business with her two best friends, Amber and Scout, seems like the perfect way to accomplish her goal. Of course, playing with ghosts isn’t high on their wish list, so Pekin has to do some arm-twisting to get them on board.
Once committed, Pekin and her friends find themselves in deep, trying to solve the disappearance of fourteen-year-old Miranda Talbert. Miranda went missing in 1918, and her spirit has wandered the halls of Elmwood Manor for the last hundred years.
In the midst of finding Miranda, discovering her budding feelings for Scout, and consoling a terrified Amber, Pekin is met by an angry ghost set on thwarting her plans. Will the Ghosties be able to help Miranda, or will Pekin’s business die before she solves the mystery?
The Devil's Own by K. A. Fox
Delaney Murphy has always known she's the Devil’s daughter. And although the title itself is a burden, she never expected to inherit all her father's infernal abilities. When her new found magic begins to poison the people closest to her, Laney must make a choice. To protect the world from the worst she can do, she leaves everyone she loves behind and builds a new life for herself, alone, in a place where she can control the urge to give in to the magic living within her.
But when she recognizes a familiar pattern in a string of murders, Laney leaves her peaceful, isolated life behind and goes on the hunt, unleashing a threat she never dreamed possible. Confronting this menacing specter could mean giving in to temptation and becoming the one thing she fears most. Will she use her magic to do the right thing, even if it means hurting the ones she loves?
Shoes on the Stairs by Jan Steele
Inspired by the many frustrations of parenthood and the ever-present fear of failure, SHOES ON THE STAIRS centers around a mother’s struggle to accept what she has left behind after her death. She takes the reader on a journey of both laughter and tears while learning even the smallest of gestures can make a significant and lasting impact.
***
Claire Blackwell can’t find that damn white light. Thanks to a mishap at an intersection, she’s dead and stuck somewhere between Heaven and what seems like Hell as she is forced to watch her husband and children unravel without her. While she struggles to find answers for her limbo state, her family begins to see her ghost, offering what she believes, is a gift of second chances.
As she navigates through this new, untouchable world and the challenges it creates, she is forced to face some sad and potentially dangerous truths. Determined, she works to mend her relationship with her family, but her stubborn teenage son refuses to acknowledge her, and when tensions escalate with his long-time bully, her inability to control the physical world around her leaves her fearing for her family’s safety. With her time running out, she must find a way to save them before the progress she has made is lost and she fades from this world forever.
Section Roads by Mike Murphey
When attorney Cullen Molloy attends his fortieth high school reunion, he doesn’t expect to be defending childhood friends against charges of murder…
In a small town on the high plains of Eastern New Mexico, life and culture are shaped by the farm roads defining the 640-acre sections of land homesteaders claimed at the turn of the Twentieth Century. Cullen and Shelby Blaine explore first love along these section roads during the 1960’s, forging a life-long emotional bond.
As junior high school band nerds, Cullen and Shelby fall under the protection of football player and loner, Buddy Boyd. During their sophomore year of high school, Buddy is charged with killing a classmate and is confined to a youth correctional facility. When he returns to town facing the prospect of imprisonment as an adult, Cullen becomes Buddy’s protector.
The case haunts the three friends into adulthood, and it isn’t until their fortieth reunion, that they’re forced to revisit that horrible night. When a new killing takes place, Cullen, Shelby and Buddy find themselves reliving the nightmare.
Murder is an easy thing to hide along old country section roads.
Inferno by Kat Ross
In the fifth and last volume of the Fourth Talisman series, the worlds of the living and the dead collide in a final confrontation that will leave Nocturne and Solis forever changed….
Three talismans adrift.
Two mad kings.
One poisonous crown.
As dark forces gather at the Rock of Ariamazes in Samarqand, Nazafareen discovers that there are worse places than the afterlife. The twisted creature pulling the Vatras’ strings is holed up in the deepest level of the Dominion—and only she has the power to follow him there, though at the potential cost of her own soul.
Prophecy claims the three daeva clans must unite to face their greatest enemy again, but two of the talismans have vanished and the third is a child more used to skulking in the shadows than leading an army. Meb the Mouse might be their last hope—if anyone bothers to take her seriously.
And within the confines of the Rock, a dying king makes a pact with the devil, setting in motion a chain of events that could spell doom for friends and foes alike.
WARNING: This book contains twists and turns, richly deserved comeuppances, shocking revelations, knock-down, drag-out fights, obsessive stalkers, some very nasty monsters…and, of course, true love.
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Nutmeg Street: Egyptian Secrets by Sherrill Joseph
World-famous Egyptologist Dr. Winston Thornsley died suddenly two months ago in disgrace. His widow, Ida Thornsley, remains convinced her husband was falsely accused of stealing an ancient burial urn he discovered in Egypt last summer, but local and federal law enforcement officers are stumped.
Mrs. Thornsley, desperate for answers, calls in her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, Moki Kalani, and Rani Kumar. Their exciting mission? To find the urn and its real thief, bring the criminal to justice, and exonerate Dr. Thornsley so his spotless reputation can be restored.
A roomful of venomous snakes, the poisoned Egyptian pond, and Dragon Pit Man are just a few of the tests awaiting the four tech-savvy teenagers. As the detectives begin to unravel the sinister plot, the mystery takes a dangerous turn. Answers are at their fingertips—if they can only convince their parents to let them solve the case.
The Wingless Angel by Fabrice Wilfong
Hope has no lungs, yet it breathes. Hope has no heart, yet it beats. Hope has no legs, yet it travels. Hope has no mind, yet it knows all.
Fire and brimstone, pitchforks and horns, eternal damnation; this is the story you’ve been told about Hell.
It is false.
Hell is far worse.
Covered in human skin, coursing with rivers of blood, bodies falling from the sky day and night; it will take much more than faith if you are to survive.
The epic battle between Angels and Demons has raged for centuries, but it’s about to encounter a twist: the arrival of Army Medic Silton. And before it’s over, the balance between Heaven and Hell will be shifted, shifted by a Wingless Angel.
Sin follows the sinner, it does not lead.
Lost Girl by Holly Kammier
An appalling act of violence and an unsolved double-murder.
Small-town investigative reporter, Shelby Day, is determined to hunt a killer.
As her search draws closer to uncovering the twisted truth, she begins receiving ominous warnings to stay quiet and drop the story. The young journalist is in danger. Her charming cameraman and best-friend, a person with his own secret past, says he wants to protect her. But Shelby is headstrong and dodging anything that could lead to love. She can't allow anyone to distract her as she fights for the two women who deserve justice.
She never expects along the way she'll have to stop and save herself.
Tick tock… If Shelby doesn’t solve the crime soon, she’ll become the killer’s next victim.
A Bad Breed by Kat Ross
Pricolici.
A creature out of folklore. And nightmare.
January 1889. When a Romanian village suffers a series of brutal attacks, occult investigator Anne Lawrence is dispatched to the forests of the Old Country to hunt the killer – only to vanish without a trace.
The trail leads her mentor Vivienne Cumberland deep into the Carpathians to a remote monastery. As a blizzard rages outside, trapping them all with the pricolici, Vivienne risks sharing the fate of the woman she came to find. But is the culprit truly a werewolf … or something even more dangerous?
A man bent on revenge. And a love that was never meant to be.
Imprisoned in a decaying castle, Anne finds herself ensnared in a web of dark enchantment, at the mercy of a mysterious captor with a beast inside – and a memory as old as the ancient legends.
As the weeks pass, Anne learns his real identity, and slowly uncovers a complex and deeply passionate man. But is she willing to pay the price for falling under his spell?
Author’s Note: This darkly magical reimagining of Beauty and the Beast is the third book in the Gaslamp Gothic series, but can be read as a standalone with no need to start with Book #1, The Daemoniac.
Once You Know by Agnes Deglon
Our children are our hope, our future, our everything. Yet, we are often very unaware of the consequences of our actions, and the impact they have on our children’s future. The dangers of our lack of awareness are real. For the first time in history, our children’s life expectancy is shorter than ours. It is our duty as parents to educate ourselves and help our children thrive. This book is:
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An invitation to take a deeper look at the cultural influence on our children’s health.
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A helpful resource for parents who wish to take an active role in preserving their children’s health in today’s toxic environment.
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Anempowering guide with life-changing information that most of us don’t have.
Once you know, you can make changes. NOW is the time to act.
The Diseased Ones by Danielle Harrington
On the morning of her 16th birthday, Hollis Timewire receives the worst possible news. She can't become a citizen of the world. She's a Diseased One.
Born with a biomarker that bestows dangerous, brain-altering powers, Hollis is forced to hide underground with other Diseased Ones, who believe that the government falsified history to cover up their genocide.
Now Hollis must discover the truth, and is willing to risk anything, including her powers, to go back home.
The Necromancer's Bride by Kat Ross
Forgiveness is not Gabriel D’Ange’s strong suit.
A self-appointed soldier of God with a penchant for ruthlessly punishing his enemies, he vanished after Anne Lawrence stabbed him with his own dagger.
The smart thing would be to let him go.
Unfortunately, Anne’s life isn’t just lonely without Gabriel. It’s insufferably boring.
Determined to heal the rift between them, she goes in search of her tempestuous former lover, black parasol in hand and daeva magic crackling at her fingertips. But Gabriel has his own plans afoot and Anne finds herself drawn into one of his tangled webs, much against her better judgment.
Gabriel’s nemesis has reappeared in Brussels, a vile slaver who’s plundering the Congo Free State with the blessing of King Leopold. Gabriel might be willing to give Anne a second chance, but not until Jorin Bekker’s head is lying at his feet.
Back in London, the quasi-reformed necromancer Balthazar sets his sights on the same quarry. He holds a very personal grudge against Bekker — and killing him might be the only way to keep Gabriel D’Ange from Balthazar’s own throat.
When the hunters collide at a lavish gala thrown by the king, Anne learns just how far she’ll go to save the man she loves.
Note: The Necromancer’s Bride is the sequel to A Bad Breed, which should be read first.
The Conman by Mike Murphey with Keith Comstock
Conor Nash has lived his life with a single purpose—to pitch in the Major Leagues. He’s been released from professional baseball contracts ten times over a sixteen-year career, but he’s overcome every obstacle to finally reach The Show when he’s a decade too old.
As he faces the specter of injury-forced retirement, he becomes a man neither he nor his wife recognizes. During his career, Conor avoided the trap of alcohol and drugs because his drug was baseball. And what can an addict do when he realizes he will never get that high again?
Conor climbs treacherous Camelback Mountain, drinks a bottle of Champagne, recalls people and events, and seeks an answer. Who is Conor Nash if he can’t pitch?
Haskell Himself by Gary Seigel
Meet Haskell Hodge. At sixteen he’s already garnered some fame as a former child actor and star of a popular cereal commercial. But that doesn’t do much for him when he’s dumped at his aunt’s house in the suburbs of Los Angeles to face an assortment of neighborhood bullies.
He thinks he might be gay. In fact, he could be the only gay person in the valley, maybe on the entire planet. Even if he does manage to find a boyfriend, their relationship would have to be secret and invisible.
After all it’s 1966. And though Time Magazine claims the sexual revolution is in full swing, the freedoms straight people are enjoying don’t seem to apply to everyone. And as much as Haskell attempts to hide his true self, carefully navigating the tricky and risky terrain of being queer, he’s still taunted and teased relentlessly.
Rather than give in to the irrationality of this hate, Haskell fights back, eventually finding an unlikely outlet to vent his frustration and angst—playing a bully in a screen test for a major motion picture. If he plays his cards right, it could catapult him into Hollywood stardom.
Of course, like most things in life, it comes with a heavy price Haskell’s not certain he’s willing to pay.
What Remains by Carol Ann Heasley
Carol's poems are "in the moment" experiences, where at the root of every word is a bond between the speaker and subject of the poem. Although at times beautiful, there is a stark reminder of our humanity. She employs free verse in various forms. The poetry exemplifies humankind's place in the universe, through settings which range over time and space. The inspiration for Carol's work derives from the spirit - the chi- that transports us beyond the disrepair of our world.
Judas Kiss by K. A. Fox
Delaney Murphy is learning what it really means to be the daughter of the Devil and that not everyone appreciates her father's kinder, gentler side. When tragedy strikes and upsets the fragile balancing act of her life, Delaney will have to choose between the world she's sworn to protect and the father who has changed the whole of Hell just for her.
As betrayals around her mount, she begins to question herself and those closest to her.
Cut off from her magic, Laney's tie to humanity is fraying. She’s slipping closer and closer to giving in to the overwhelming darkness growing inside her.
Ultimately, she’ll have to confront her demons or risk losing herself entirely.
Keep Forever by Alexa Kingaard
Now that Paul O’Brien has returned from serving in Vietnam, he wants nothing more than to piece together a meaningful life. But the war-spawned, guilt-driven nightmares won't stop haunting him. Elizabeth, the woman who loves him most, is committed to helping him overcome the obstacles in their path.
Despite living in an era where veterans refuse to speak of their pain, are ignored by the bureaucracy that put them in harm's way, and are vilified by public opinion, the couple is determined to live in love.
Together, they struggle a lifetime with the challenges of raising a family and learn to accept the realities of living with the burden that Paul brought home.
In the shadows of the Vietnam War, tens of thousands of veterans keep silent, even amongst themselves. Their children are witness to the travesty of war, seen through the eyes of their fathers who, in spite of themselves, leave behind legacies of light, love, and understanding.
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The Ghost on Firefly Lane by Pamela McCord
A heartbroken ghost searches in vain for her baby. Pekin Dewlap and her best friends Scout and Amber are hired to help her spirit go into the light by the kindhearted homeowners who’ve grown fond of the crying ghost. The teens move into the house while their clients are on a cruise, and their first order of business is to find out the ghost’s identity. A neighbor is able to provide the name of the house’s last owner, and the story of how his wife died in childbirth. Now, armed with the ghost’s name, along with those of her husband and baby daughter, it’s time to set the ghost free.
However, it isn’t as easy as the kids expect. First, Lily the ghost doesn’t seem to be aware of their presence, and when she finally “sees” them, she becomes angry and destructive. The Ghosties track down Lily’s husband and daughter to ask for their help, but much to their surprise, their invitation is met with hostility. The father has secrets of his own that he must protect.
If Pekin and her friends can’t convince the father to help them, they may never be able to set Lily free, and send her into the light.
The Mercenary's Daughter by Joe Gazzam & Jessica Therrien
When Special Ops recruit, Tara Kafee is dishonorably discharged, there’s only one place to go—Home.
But there’s more waiting for her there than she’s ready for.
It’s been four years since she’s been back and ten since her mother walked out on the family never to be heard of again.
She’s determined to rekindle things with her father and keep him close. That is, until he goes missing.
Soon after stumbling upon a safe room full of weapons, fake passports, and a mission’s dossier marking a target in Cuba, she reluctantly accepts the help of her angsty teenage brother. He’s the only one she can trust, so together, the two set out for Havana.
Tara is determined to get her father back, whatever it takes, but things are never easy when you’re the mercenary’s daughter.
Your Words Count by Lacey Impellizeri
A large format intensive 6-Month writing and editing planner to help you finish your book.
The best time to start writing your book is now.
Your Words Count is an interactive 6-month creative writing planner to help motivate you to improve your writing habits and help you discover the discipline needed to finish your novel.
Designed to be picked up any time of the year, or in any phase of the process, this workbook serves as a daily accountability journal. With sections on weekly reflection, character creation, story outlining, and marketing and publishing advice, Your Words Count serves as the ultimate guide for the beginning of your writing career.
Sticks and Stones by Dianne Beck
When fourteen-year-old Emily Greene wakes up to police banging on her door, she is shocked to see her mother arrested on drug charges.
Uprooted and in disbelief, Emily moves to a new town to stay with her grandmother, known as Crazy Carol for her outspoken faith and quirky behaviors. As if the arrest isn’t enough, kids at her new school immediately begin to stereotype and judge her based on the news they’ve heard about her mom.
Emily is sure her stepfather is to blame for the crime. He has conveniently disappeared since the day of the arrest. She’s determined to find him, and prove he’s at fault. But something awful happens, shaking her world yet again.
After this string of tragedies, Emily starts to question God, but is gently and consistently reminded by her grandmother, through stories she tells of all the sticks, leaves, and stones she collects, that God is her good and faithful parent.
Emily must learn that the words others say about her don’t matter, that her mom’s mistakes don’t define her, and she is always deeply loved by her heavenly father. If only she can learn to forgive herself.
Scoring Reagan by Tori Kron
Basketball star, Deacon Bailey didn’t mean to fall for his best friend’s little sister, but matters of the heart can’t be controlled. Nor can Reagan Cassidy. She won’t agree to advance their relationship beyond a fling.
With a troubled past that haunts her, Reagan refuses to risk her heart, so she pushes away the opportunity to date the perfect man. But when Deacon takes center stage as the city’s celebrity bachelor, Reagan can’t help but question her choice.
Especially when Saachi enters the scene as a contestant on the show. She’s Deacon’s perfect match. And Reagan’s worst nightmare.
In a world where love isn’t a game easily won, Deacon and Reagan will have to decide if they want to play fair or if they want to play for keeps.
Once in a Blood Moon by Dorothea Hubble Bonneau
Heaven’s Hill plantation, upriver from Georgetown, South Carolina, 1807: Sixteen-year-old Alexandra de Gambia is the daughter of a wealthy African-American planter and a social-climbing mother who can pass for white. But, balancing the tightrope between girlhood and the complicated adult world is a treacherous undertaking. One misstep could ruin a young woman’s prospects forever.
Alexandra yearns to establish her own place in the world as an accomplished violinist. She assumes her talent and her family’s wealth will pave her way to success—however, her life becomes a nightmare when her mother dies and her father is murdered by bigoted officials eager to seize Heaven’s Hill for their own.
Alexandra and her little brother, Jimi, heirs to Heaven’s Hill, have targets on their backs. They are forced to flee for their lives and for their freedom.
What the futures holds is uncertain. Sometimes fate has its own plans.
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Nightmasters by Loran Holt
Kelgan Defthand is used to being top dog at the Academy of Magic where he is Senior Apprentice Mage. Compared to his peers, he’s faster, more skillful, and well aware of it, but when he finds himself beset by fearful voices that come in the night, his confidence is shaken.
Adding to his worries, Kelgan is summoned to the headmaster, Sargal’s presence; it looks like he’s really in trouble. But to his bewilderment, he finds he’s being sent on a “mission” with two very hostile-seeming aristocratic twins, Neroma and Nevander Di Nerrill.
Upon embarking on this mission with the twins, Kelgan soon realizes the world outside the cloistered Academy is a bit different than he imagined. First of all, there seems to be women doing magic! Secondly, he’s not the only one hearing voices.
Following a strange compulsion, Kelgan and the Di Nerrills find themselves seeking out the source of the voices, hoping to put an end to it.
The fateful journey tests Kelgan’s underdeveloped skills to the limit, and could come at an unbearable cost to both to him and his companions. Once Kelgan accepts the challenge of Magehood, there’s no going back.
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The Voice of Reason by Kat Clark
There’s nothing like young love. But from the beginning, Amy’s wealthy, opinionated parents disapprove of Josh Everett. Josh is a high school drop-out working for his father’s modest construction company, when Amy becomes pregnant during her senior year of high school.
Her parents begrudgingly throw a lavish wedding for her and Josh to avoid the scandal of an unwed and pregnant teenage daughter. Freed from her parents’ expectations, Amy begins to thrive as a wife and mother. But Josh and Amy’s simple love story endures an unwanted plot twist when Josh is struck by mental illness and begins suffering from auditory and visual hallucinations.
Confused and scared, Amy does her best to hold her little family together. When his symptoms escalate and Josh lands in a locked hospital ward, Amy’s parents see an opportunity to sabotage the relationship. Unless Amy divorces Josh and returns home to them, they will move to take custody of the couple’s young son.
An embittered legal battle ensues, and Josh and Amy are thrown from hospital to court room. Time is running out as Josh grapples with what’s real and the couple searches for an accurate diagnosis. In order to save their family, they must face the biggest obstacle in their relationship and fight together against everything – and everyone – determined to tear them apart.
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Beauty is the Beast by D. James McGee
It’s 1985. Lady Laura Lacy of Britewood is beautiful and graceful, a celebrity in her own right. She is cousin to Her Majesty The Queen, and her father is the well-respected Earl of Britewood, honorary commander of the Army’s elite reserve special forces unit. Laura seemingly has it all. She should be happy.
However, due to unspeakable acts committed against her as a child, she’s developed a blood lust for revenge. Secretly trained by her father’s regiment in the arts of war, Laura begins to target men who prey on the innocent and helpless. As her skills sharpen, Laura becomes a formidable force against evil.
That’s when she uncovers a transatlantic child trafficking ring led by an elite group within British society. With the help of commanding officer and police inspector Billy Smythe, her mysterious family attorney Arthur Mosely, and an unorthodox group of American allies, Laura sets out on a vengeance-fueled quest to stop them. She is determined to save as many innocents as she can.
It’s a mission that will put her very life and sanity at stake, making her question everything she’s ever believed in. But to make things right, Beauty must become the Beast.
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Under the Willows by Pamela McCord
After her husband is killed by a drunk driver, Kelly Harris and her son TJ move to Ohio into a sprawling Victorian house left to her husband by his grandmother. Dealing with her overwhelming grief is a struggle as she adjusts to life in a small town. And, just as she’s beginning to feel more comfortable, life takes another unexpected turn.
The Alexa unit in her son’s bedroom starts to cry, and a little girl’s voice comes out of it asking for help.
At first Kelly is unnerved by the presence of the voice. After ruling out all the other likely possibilities, she begins to put the pieces together, and suspects the girl is a ghost. Unwilling to be uprooted from another home, she decides to find out what the girl wants. Maybe she can help.
Kelly isn’t the only one interested in the voice. Detective Rob Porter is investigating the disappearance of a child named Marilee. As the two cross paths, Porter is taken aback when Kelly’s ghost mentions Marilee’s name. In fact, the ghost says “Marilee’s with me.”
Whether that means the child is a ghost as well is a question Rob and Kelly hope to answer.
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Taking Time by Mike Murphey
A tale of physics, lust and greed...
The year is 2044. In a secret complex beneath the eastern Arizona desert, a consortium of governments and corporations have combined in a program on the scale of the Manhattan Project. Their plan is to bludgeon the laws of physics into submission and make time travel a reality.
Rife with insecurity, Marshall Grissom has spent his whole life trying not to call attention to himself, so he can’t imagine he would be remotely suited for the role of time travel pioneer. He’s even less enthusiastic about this corporate time-travel adventure when he learns that nudity is a job requirement. The task would better match the talents of other candidates, like the smart and beautiful Sheila Schuler, or the bristle-tough and rattlesnake-mean Marta Hamilton. The three are among a hundred or so candidates vying to make up the first traveling team.
As the project evolves into a clash between science and corporate greed, problems begin to escalate. Those contributing the funding are mostly interested in manipulating time travel for profit, and will stop at nothing, including murder.
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Angel Flight by R.D. Kardon
Two women. The men they love. One desperate plan.
Pilot Tris Miles is finally getting the recognition she deserves. She is a trusted captain and confidante to her boss at Westin Charter Company, and mentor to her young, ambitious co-pilot Bruce. Tris is offered a coveted promotion and the opportunity of a lifetime—to fly a prestigious “angel flight,” transporting a critically ill woman from a remote town in northern Canada to the US for medical treatment.
But Tris needs more than professional success. Still alone almost three years after her lover Bron’s death, Tris meets Mike, a local pilot with a secret past he refuses to discuss. Their budding relationship stumbles when Mike gets hired by Westin Charter to compete for the promotion Tris was promised.
As Tris & Mike’s professional battle intensifies, their personal relationship deepens. Life is getting a whole lot more complicated for Tris, and it’s about to get worse as the “angel flight” embarks. No one could imagine what awaits them in Canada, and how each will have to fight for their lives on this mission of mercy.
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First Second Coming by Jeff Pollak
In 2027 the deity known as NTG – short for New Testament God – retires after more than two thousand years of minding the store for his employer, Milky Way Galaxy, Inc. The new god, a planetary turnaround specialist, must decide whether Earth’s dominant species should or should not be included in his plan to bring the planet back into full compliance with Milky Way Galaxy, Inc.’s planetary operation standards.
Earth’s new God introduces himself to humanity by unexpectedly appearing on the Ram Forrester Hour talk show. Ram, an atheist, and co-host Brendali Santamaria, a devout Catholic, are stunned. God interview, beamed worldwide, shocks and infuriates viewers. They learn that a sixty-day conference will take place in Los Angeles to determine whether humans are capable of helping him implement his planetary turnaround plan. All mankind must do to earn a coveted spot in this God’s good graces is eliminate religious violence forever, without his heavenly help. Failure means extinction.
God designates Ram and Bren as the conference’s only authorized media reporters. This assignment, fraught with peril, ignites their romance. Not only must the harried couple attend the conference meetings by day and do their show at night, they must also outwit a fanatical religious group bent on killing them. When rising conflicts within the conference intensify, it’s up to Ram and Bren to do whatever it takes to protect their budding romance and mankind’s very survival.
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Death's Legacy by Dennis Crosby
Twenty years ago, Reaper of Souls Kassidy Simmons battled Azra-El, the Angel of Death and won—or so she thought.
Now, a number of strange and unexplained deaths are afflicting Kassidy’s quiet New York town. She wishes she didn’t care. But she does.
Her empathic abilities are expanding beyond her control, and the intense emotions are tearing apart her relationships. They’re also degrading the magical wards put in place to protect her from other Reapers and the even deadlier Wraiths—onyx-eyed henchmen of Azra-El.
Allied with her longtime mentor and a college professor with ties to her past, Kassidy learns that the untimely deaths are regenerating Azra-El, and that the only way to stop him is with the Scythe of Cronus, the legendary weapon of the God of Death.
To save her loved ones and reset the natural order, Kassidy must journey home and confront a past she’s been running from for two decades. She’ll face-off with enemies, old and new, and through a haze of fear and addiction, Kassidy will learn the secrets of her heritage, and challenge head on the one being she fears most—herself.
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Eris Rising by Courtney Ramm
Warrior’s aren't born, they are forged from the harsh experiences that shape them as they strive to defend what is sacred and true. And geniuses aren’t born either—or are they? Courtney Ramm would know, as she’s one of 229 offspring born from the controversial “Genius Sperm Bank”, a genetic experiment that existed in the 1980s and ‘90s. With a predisposition for “genius”, Courtney found herself driven toward success. Following her passion for dance, by the age of eight she was studying at the renowned School of American Ballet and soon thereafter, performing on New York’s greatest stages. At twenty-five years old, she acted upon a strong inner calling to start her own dance company—in Hawaii.
Moving across the globe from the concrete jungle of Manhattan to the tropical jungle in Hawaii, Courtney brought along her endless to-do lists and a strong determination to succeed. But one thing was missing from the picture-perfect life she had imagined: a perfect husband.
When she first locked eyes with Marcus at a spiritual gathering, she sensed something was off in the uncanny intensity of his stare. But she dove into a relationship anyway, not grasping the graveness and outright danger of the decision.
Eris Rising is a story of breaking deep karmic patterns, grappling with the calling of destiny, and changing long-held karma into mission. With the powerful feminine warrior spirit of Eris as inspiration, this memoir shows how it’s possible to move forward after life-altering “mistakes”, and recover the true “genius” within.
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Uphill And Into The Wind by David Reed
It's 1973. Our nation is torn apart by the Vietnam War, and the massacre of unarmed students at Kent State. The Vice President has resigned for bribery and tax evasion. The President is being investigated for engaging in criminal activity.
At twenty-three, David Reed has become embittered by political strife and corruption. Disenchanted with his future, he wants out. Along with new friends, Rusty and Susie, David leaves everything he knows to cross the United States with little more than his bicycle and a camera.
The trio gets more than they bargain for, with menacing animals, extreme weather, and astonishing encounters.
Uphill and Into the Wind recounts an odyssey that spans 5420 miles on bicycles. It chronicles the sudden and surprising glories of nature, the raw beauty of the land, and the majesty of the mountains. But that is just the start. Through it all, the three are changed forever, in ways they did not expect, by their long journey into the unknown.
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Young, Broke, & Educated by Alexander Baima
Alexander Baima graduated college with $80,000 in student debt at the age of 23 from one of the top 25 business schools in America. After college he went to work as a financial planner and serviced fortune 500 clients. He created the financial plans that brokers took credit for, and while they grossed millions a year, he made minimum wage.
At 29, his parents had a house with an $80,000 mortgage and a child – and they lived on one income. At 29, Alexander still had over $50,000 in student debt. How could previous generations have so much more than most millennials who still struggle with little hope for the future?
Young, Broke and Educated investigates the decline of purchasing power among young people, especially over the last generation. It explores in basic, easy to understand terms, how economic systems have evolved to hinder the financial success of millennials and the incentives that government, big business and banks have to prevent progressive change.
Alexander Baima, a master in the field of eCommerce and early adopter of blockchain technology, walks you through, step-by-step, what the issues are and what needs to change to ensure that millennials and future generations have access to the same type of success that previous generations took for granted.
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Eagles in Flight by Ramcy Diek
Emma’s life changes the day Ruben Templeton walks in and asks her out on a date. Over dinner, she’s a little disappointed when his best friend, Jesse Kimball, joins them. Jesse is a senator’s son who just announced his candidacy for mayor. Twenty-seven-year-old Emma is surprised, but excited when it's Jesse who calls her the next day instead of Ruben.
Jesse introduces Emma to a life with mansions, expensive cars, cocktail dresses, and status. It doesn’t take long for him to sweep her off her feet. He’s handsome and charming, making her feel like the center of his universe.
When Emma receives devastating news, Jesse asks her to marry him. From the moment she agrees, their relationship starts to deteriorate. Desperate to understand why her new husband is so cold and distant, she reaches out to him, only to be met by anger. Hurt and confused, Emma turns to Ruben for advice.
Ruben suggests they give each other space for a few weeks. Weeks she can use to help him locate his younger brother Axel, who has gone missing. Emma agrees, and soon finds herself on a road trip across the country.
Will Emma and Jesse’s temporary separation clear the distance between them, or will she find love in the arms of another man?
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Counterfeit Lover by J. C. Farmer
Darrin Clark is an impoverished young man, madly in love with his long-time friend Janie. He is desperate for a job, and any way to win Janie’s affections. Then a Hollywood studio promises to make him a movie star—if he will submit to a face-modifying procedure they are developing.
Darrin’s love overcomes his fear, and he allows the movie studio to alter his face. Soon his dreams come true. He is extraordinarily handsome, rich, and popular, full of the confidence he needs to earn Janie’s love. Yet, changing faces doesn’t seem enough, and the studio wants him to sacrifice more of his identity than just his appearance.
His plan to win Janie’s heart becomes more challenging when she unexpectedly joins the cast and changes her face too. Now a gorgeous star, she’s pursued by prominent, powerful men, and beneath the glitz and glamour, Darrin finds himself in a world of death and deceit, where anyone can have any face.
Several of his friends have been murdered by a mysterious killer, and the ability to alter appearances seems to make the criminal invincible. Soon, Darrin abandons his pursuit of Janie, simply hoping to keep her alive.The only way to outsmart the ruthless villain is to risk everything. How drastic a transformation is Darrin willing to make for love?
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What to do About Your Monsters by Jessica Woo
Meet Kinzie. She has a bunch of fun loving, slightly smelly, Monsters that live in her room. They never let her sleep at night. But that’s ok, her parents always help her out. Until one day they decide it’s time she learns to sleep on her own. What will Kinzie do about her Monsters?
What To Do About Your Monsters is a heartfelt story about a girl who has sleep issues. At its core, however, the story is not just about having problems sleeping, but about being afraid to try something new.
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Eucalyptus Street: Green Curse by Sherrill Joseph
In 1945, Isabela de Cordoba’s great-grandfather, the famous silent movie actor Lorenzo de Cordoba, mysteriously hid a legendary, multimillion-dollar emerald somewhere on the family’s sprawling Eucalyptus Street estate. Seventy years later, the gem remains concealed. Nicknamed the “Green Curse,” the emerald is blamed for the Southern California familia’s numerous, untimely deaths.
On her twenty-first birthday, Isabela receives a secret letter with a cryptic poem. These documents from the long-deceased Lorenzo invite her to hunt for the gemstone. But first, she must decipher the poem’s eight stanzas for clues.
To assist, Isabela hires her thirteen-year-old neighbors, the four Botanic Hill Detectives—twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt, and their best friends, Moki Kalani and Rani Kumar. Eerie footsteps inside the mansion, unexplained occurrences in the adjacent cemetery, and the mysterious tenant in the backyard casita challenge them. But they ingeniously make progress on the poem’s meaning with startling discoveries. Sliding wall panels, a secret room, and hidden passages reveal much. The detectives aren’t the only ones looking for the emerald. The perilous race for the de Cordoba treasure is on!
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Sammy's Village by Sam Ashkenas
Sammy is famous in his dragon village for his perseverance. When an evil witch's curse took away his fire-breathing skills, he practiced every day until he could spit flames once again. But the witch is back, and this time, she's stealing the ability to breathe fire from every single dragon living in Sammy's village. To reverse the terrible curse, Sammy will, for the first time in his life, adventure beyond his town and experience a world that is less than friendly to dragons. Will he complete his mission and save his friends and family, as well as himself?
Overland by Ramcy Diek
Skyla Overland is proud to work for Overland Insurance, the company founded by her grandfather. She enjoys sharing an apartment with her best friend, Pauline, and is in love with Edmond. Besides one nerve-wracking insurance fraud case in the past, her sheltered life is uneventful and just the way she likes it.
Until one day, everything changes...
Skyla and Troy, the manager at Overland Insurance, are the last ones to leave the office. In the empty parking lot, Troy takes her in his arms. Why would he ruin their easy-going friendship by kissing her, especially since he knows she’s dating Edmond?
Left alone, Skyla hurries to her car, puts on her seatbelt, and glances in her rearview mirror.
The face of a stranger grins at her from the backseat. “How nice to see you again,” he hisses close to her ear.
Regaining consciousness, Skyla finds herself on the backseat of her own car, with her hands tied behind her back. Is she getting kidnapped? Who is he? And where is he taking her?
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Wasting Time by Mike Murphey
When time travelers fail test after test to significantly alter the past, most financial backers abandon the Global Research Consortium leaving veteran traveler Marta Hamilton to administer a vastly scaled-down project. She must protect the past from a greedy future, fend off political meddling, and foil a murder plot originating in a parallel universe. She presides over a conspiracy to hide the truth of her best friend’s death while coping with a confusing and discomforting romantic entanglement involving fellow traveler Marshall Grissom.
Marta, who has by professional necessity always distanced herself from emotional commitment, lapsed by allowing herself the luxury of friendship with Sheila Schuler and a night of wild sex with Marshall. Now, Sheila is probably dead, and—according to a genius physicists’ theory—Marshall soon will be. As she assumes her role as administrator of the time travel program, Marta must choose between the risks of loving someone or the lonely safety of emotional solitude.
(No cats were harmed in the telling of this story.)
Blood Money by Chris Riedel
BLOOD MONEY is the true legal thriller of a terrifying David vs. Goliath fight against massive healthcare fraud by a brave Whistleblower. It includes attempted murder, extortion, money-laundering, fraudsters hiding money in the Cayman Islands, gold buried in a storage container in a CEO’s backyard, an Assistant Attorney General sabotaging her state’s case, and a corrupt Governor torpedoing litigation by his own Attorney General. From Silicon Valley to the Sunshine State, in a showdown that reads like a Hollywood movie, Chris Riedel survives to share it all. His actions have resulted in more than $550 million in settlements and a court verdict... and counting.
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Chokecherry Girl by Barbara Meyer Link
It’s 1958. Racial tension and class disparities have everyone on edge in a small Montana town. Despite their differences, three women of the community become the unlikeliest of friends.
BOBBI VERNON is a quirky teen, who will do whatever it takes to drive her teacher’s new Chevy convertible. Adding to the already volatile mix, she meets Pretty Weasel, an Indian basketball player, who calls her Chokecherry Girl. She dreams of dating him and wearing his class ring.
PATSY OLSON, after two failed marriages, is desperate to get her life back. After opening a beauty shop with a shaky bank loan, she watches Coach Vernon, Bobbi’s father, arriving for school each day. Attracted yet wary, she needs the business of the town ladies, including the Coach’s wife, Lois.
MARY AGNES LONE HILL, an alcoholic Crow Indian who was sent far away to a brutal Indian school as a child, now cleans houses for the town ladies and longs to end her estrangement with her son, Pretty Weasel.
These three women are drawn together through an illicit love affair, a stolen car, and a shooting that changes their lives forever.
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The Unseen Ones by Danielle Harrington
After the government’s brutal attack on the Diseased Ones, Hollis Timewire must wade through the carnage of her treacherous mistake. The survivors want justice, and now Hollis faces impending execution. Each day, she must prove herself to be a model community member. But chopping firewood for the new camp in the forest isn’t enough. Hollis longs to redeem herself, and this sparks an idea to rescue the little boy from the Testing Center. Stealing the government’s secret weapon might just be the perfect way to destabilize the system—enough to bring the whole thing crumbling down. But unseen forces are at work. The world is not what it appears to be, and society has a dark secret that not even Hollis is prepared to face.
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The Problem at Wisteria Gardens by Pamela McCord
The ghost haunting Wisteria Gardens Antiques appears to be a charming and loving mother who can’t stand the thought of being separated from her son.
But appearances can be deceiving.
The Ghosties are moved by her expression of devotion, until they discover the truth. Her attachment to the real world has nothing to do with love.
As the teen ghost hunters struggle with the case, Althea’s determination to stay threatens their very lives. Will Pekin, Scout and Amber convince the ghost to move on before it's too late?
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Sweet Paradise by Gene Desrochers
Boise Montague is adjusting to his new life in The Caribbean. He has officially opened his private detective agency with only one thing missing: clients.
Armed with a new brightly colored office door and a desperate need to make his new career work, Boise jumps at the job when in wanders the grandson from a dysfunctional wealthy island family whose grandmother has gone missing.
Before Boise knows it, murder is once again on his doorstep. As Boise investigates, he uncovers surprising truths about a woman seeking redemption, a family on the brink, and why no matter how hard we try, the past can sometimes never be fixed. In the end, Boise must not only confront a killer, but the island's dark history and his own inner demons.
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Things My Mama Never Told Me by Nancy "Pants" Johnson
An insightful glimpse into what it is to be a teenager today... making mistakes, surviving them, and rocking your beautiful, powerful self.
In Things My Mama Never Told Me, Nancy "Pants" Johnson, mentor, leader, educator, and teen advocate shares the stories of brave, resilient, powerful young women who, despite their sometimes overwhelming and scary circumstances, overcome their fears and hold onto their dreams with unwavering strength.
Here are some of the questions she asked herself and her teen authors:
· Do you have questions, concerns, fears about being a teenager?
· Do you sometimes feel like your stress is going to burst out of your eyeballs?
· Do you sometimes get fed up with friends, family, or social media?
· Have you ever ignored your intuition and ended up in an unsafe situation?
Learn how to embrace your beautiful body, your abilities, and your worth; to monitor your own use of social media, cell phones, and computers, becoming aware of how they make you feel; to recognize your power as a woman in all aspects of your life; to own your choices about what you want to do with your life and with whom you want to spend it; to deal with your stress in more positive and creative ways; to listen to your intuition and form personal safety boundaries; to love yourself first when making decisions about relationships, intimacy, your body, sex, and birth control; to be alert to red flag warnings and signs of abuse; to recognize the signs of alcoholism and addiction in yourself and others; to bring your secrets into the light; to forgive yourself; to prioritize your own health and well-being.
Being a teenager is hard and sometimes totally frustrating. You will survive. I’ve got you. You are just the person for the job.
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The Walls of Orion by T. D. Fox
Orion City has been on lockdown for ten years. Courtney Spencer, a disillusioned barista doomed to live a “normal” life in a quarantined fishbowl, is certain she’ll never see over the Wall again.
Until one rainy evening, Courtney unintentionally befriends W, an eccentric customer who leaves a switchblade in the tip jar. The unexpected acquaintance soon opens to the door to a frightening string of questions that flips everything she knows upside down. Stumbling into a world of secrets, lies, and disturbing truths, Courtney grapples with a burning temptation to look again at the Wall. Surrounded by citizens trained to ignore its looming shadow, Courtney no longer can.
Intrigued and terrified to expand her world, Courtney finds herself toeing a knife’s edge between the law and justice, learning quickly that the two are not always compatible.
She wants to cling to her morals. She also wants to stay alive. But most of all, she wants to see a certain customer again, despite everything in her whispering W is dangerous.
In a gritty urban clash of hope and fear, passion and survival, The Walls of Orion explores the edges of light, dark, and the gray in between.
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The Last Stop by Patricia Street
The true story of a son’s battle with addiction and a mother’s struggle with loss.
David is only fifteen years old when he first feels morphine flow through his veins after his foot is crushed in the hydraulics of a Bobcat. From that moment on he chases the feeling for the rest of his life. Alcohol, marijuana, cocaine – he goes through drugs like candy, but it isn’t until he finds heroin that he is satisfied.
Through his personal correspondence and essays, David’s story unfolds as he goes from being an average American kid who loves sports, racing around on his skateboard, and writing stories, to being a heroin addict. His heartbreaking journey deepens as he takes his family with him down the dark and dangerous road of heroin addiction.
In 2014, David loses the battle, leaving his mother, Pat, to cope. Grieving a death from addiction is two-fold. After already losing her son to addiction, Pat must find a way to grieve his death.
The Last Stop reveals intimate and detailed scenes of living the life of an addict and explores ways for families who love the addict to cope. David’s story gives hope for families immersed in the life-altering aspects of active addiction and for those who do not find recovery.
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Manflu by Simone De Muñoz
Following a global pandemic, which has either killed or weakened most of the male population, women now dominate all aspects of life.
Dr. Morgan Digby, married to a man rendered bedbound from his bout with manflu a decade prior, is working tirelessly on a vaccine, yet obstacles keep springing up in her path.
When she meets a handsome neighbor who has never been exposed to the deadly virus, things become…complicated. There’s something between them, but he can’t leave his home.
Morgan’s struggle to remain faithful to her ailing husband isn’t her only battle. Someone has been one step ahead of her, countering her every move. Will she find a vaccine before it’s too late to protect those she loves?
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Under a Lavender Moon by Christina Mai Fong
Sixteen-year-old Rilla Marseas believes she has a calling to become a healer. Her soul yearns to help people and save lives. Why else would Heaven grant her a singing voice that can heal any ailment? But if the palace discovers her power, she’ll be selected for the annual Showcase, where the most beautiful and magically gifted girls in Seracedar Kingdom compete for the chance to enter the emperor’s harem. That’s the last thing Rilla wants. To avoid such a fate, she hides her power. No matter how the other villagers ridicule her for being worthless and talentless, she suppresses the urge to reveal her powerful voice and prove them wrong. When a palace scout poisons Rilla’s auntie and coerces her into revealing her power, she’s thrown into the competition. The scout threatens to harm her family if she doesn’t win. But Rilla learns there really is no winning. The emperor and empress keep girls with magical powers as pets. In cages. With some help from a handsome, but brooding prince and his mysterious bodyguard, Rilla must outsmart the palace and escape. If she fails, she’ll spend the rest of her life as the royal couple’s puppet, using her voice to grant them eternal youth.
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Killing Time by Mike Murphey
At every crossroads he’s encountered in life, Sean Brody has made the safe choice. In the year 2046, at the age of ninety-three, Sean is given one final opportunity to deal with his greatest regret. Sean is the only man Marshall Grissom and Marta Hamilton can find who might be able to save Sheila Schuler, their friend and fellow traveler lost in the distant reaches of time. If he accepts the task of traveling to his childhood in a parallel universe—with no guarantee that any aspect of the past can be changed—Sean must also accept his death in the only world he knows.
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The Woe of Shadows by D. Fischer
For the sake of her kingdom, one young mother will risk everything.
As Queen of the Shadow Kingdom, Amala Ashcroft spent her days providing for her people whose skin shone as brilliant as a thousand stars.
She was loved.
Exalted.
Treasured.
Until a god descended upon their land.
The god warned of a cloud of darkness approaching that would enslave her people and crush her reign. To save all she holds dear, Amala must strike deals with dangerous enemies and swear blood oaths to powerful allies.
But protection doesn’t come without sacrifice.
Forced to keep grim secrets, her carefully laid plans begin to unravel in the face of the ultimate betrayal. Can Amala prevent the merciless evil from taking hold? Or will generations to come battle the same malicious war?
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
The Shape of Darkness by D. Fischer
For ten years, Nefari Ashcroft, princess of the Shadow Kingdom, has hidden.
For ten years, she's endured the memory of everyone she's lost.
But now, dark magic has allowed the Queen of Salix to wreak havoc on the realm; her wraiths hunt from the sky, her possessed armies march across the land, and the bone criers pick apart the flesh of the corpses both leave behind.
Nefari was prophesied to rise and be the sword of the realm. With her bright starlight magic, she was born to conquer the Queen's darkness.
And for the last decade, she's trained to do just that. . .
It should be easy, since everyone thought she died the day her kingdom fell. But staying hidden - remaining 'nobody' - is simpler than accepting her dark past, enduring her harrowing fate, and claiming her broken crown.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
Phone Warriors by Paul D. Olsen
Exposing the Dirty Tricks and Unscrupulous Tactics Used by AT&T and other Villains in the Telecom Wars of the 1970s
For most of the 20th Century, one name presided over the American telephone industry. Ma Bell, a behemoth monopoly that ruled telecom like a Cold War dictator, was a sophisticated network of AT&T companies that controlled the telephone world until its mandated break-up in 1982. The general public, accustomed to the sleek and sophisticated business of wireless carriers, was unaware of the misdeeds and unethical activities at Ma Bell.
Full of exclusive interviews with industry insiders who reveal a picture of deplorable actions and fly-by-night practices, Phone Warriors exposes the ruthless extent to which AT&T attempted to protect its monopoly. Author Paul Olsen found himself in the center of a telecom war, uniquely positioned to tell these true stories of scandal and success that surrounded the largest company in the world.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
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We Never Knew Just What It Was by Mike Murphey
For all their differences, Mike Kobluk and Chad Mitchell never disagreed on the quality of their music. The rehearsal process of creative collaboration—finding songs and harmonies—was sacred.
The Chad Mitchell Trio was better than anyone in the emerging 1960’s folk scene. But as Mike, Chad and Joe Frazier raced along a frantic treadmill of rehearsals, recording sessions, nightclubs and concerts, Mike and Chad began to realize the demand for musical perfection was the only thing they had in common. Their personalities were and remain polar opposites. When Chad left in 1965, neither mourned the parting. John Denver replaced Chad. Two years later, Joe’s demons caught up to him forcing Mike and John to fire Joe.
When folk reunions became popular, fans and folk historians agreed that The Trio was the one group that would never take the stage again. Their schism was just too great.
Mike, Chad and Joe hadn’t spoken in twenty years. Then came a call. I will if he will. Their mentor and music director Milt Okun worried they were making a mistake. They couldn’t possibly be as good as their fans remembered.
They were. Mike and Chad kept their day jobs, and their distance. But once again, they shared the music.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
City of Loons by T.D. Fox
There aren't many places to run in a city surrounded by a wall.
Courtney Spencer has left her safe, normal life behind. Joining up with Orion City's #1 Most Wanted man, she plunges headfirst into an underworld she never knew existed—a realm full of Changers, like herself, willing to do whatever it takes to bring Orion's darkest shadows into the light of day.
But W's plan for justice may reach further than she's willing to go. With a murderous organization on their heels, and her detective ex-boyfriend not far behind, Courtney must rely on dangerous new friends to bring down AITO and the Wall once and for all. But when using her newfound ability means risking her own sanity, and her ties to W put her in danger of falling in more ways than one, Courtney will need to fight to become someone who can bring true justice—without losing herself, or her heart, in the process.
Packed with suspense, heart-pounding action, and forbidden romance, this thrilling conclusion to The Walls of Orion duology tests the boundaries between villain and hero, revenge and revolution, and raises poignant questions for a world not so far-off from the world within the Wall.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
Six Feet Apart curated by Holly Kammier & Jessica Therrien
SIX FEET APART is a carefully curated collection of inspirational essays and poetry written by girls and women from around the globe. These women go deep and share their real-life struggles and triumphs during the time of the novel Corona virus.
From the story of a little girl in New Jersey adjusting to school at home and time away from her best friends and extended family, to a 20 year old in Lima Peru under military lockdown, to a 60 year old woman fighting off the debilitating disease alone and afraid, SIX FEET APART will give you a view through the window of other women's lives.
Akin to reading personal diaries from around the world, this anthology captures women battling loneliness in India, heartbreaking emotions like fear and loss across the US, and even finding and losing love in the far corners of the earth as the world navigates a global pandemic.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
Clipped by Adrienne Alitowski
Clipped is a quirky memoir about a new mother whose desperation to get her baby to sleep catapulted her into becoming an inventor and small business owner—just before the world fell apart in 2008.
As a full-time mother and entrepreneur, Adrienne Alitowski rolled out her invention, blankyclip®, to retailers across the country, including over thirty stores in the Buy Buy Baby national chain. LA Parent Expecting and Kids Today both made blankyclip a “Top Pick." The United States Patent and Trademark Office awarded her three utility patents and a trademark. All that fabulous glory aside, Adrienne also learned what it’s like to fly halfway around the world to a Chinese factory and to be pregnant, throwing up on the street just before an investor meeting. These experiences led her down a path to write this memoir about sticking to your vision and being open to finding gold in the muck.
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Secrets and Promises by Anna Wilcoxson
When Virginia, a feisty ninety-six-year-old schoolteacher, and her daughter, Anna, travel to Scheggino, Italy, to explore their roots, they uncover a secret about their family’s history that connects them to the powerful Urbino Truffle Empire. They share the same last name, but no one in the village is talking…except for a one-eyed man named Enzo who still remembers. He believes some stones are better left unturned, but Virginia can feel the family secrets in this village, and she wants to know them all.
In Italy in the 1900s, three brave but imperfect brothers flee their Umbrian home, hoping to escape their troubled past by settling in the seaside town of San Diego, near the Mexican border. The brothers are determined to secure a piece of the American dream, but devastating loss and consequences prevent them from finding the freedom they seek.
Virginia and Anna cling to fragments of their heritage and a mysterious locket that may hold the most surprising revelation of all. Will their discoveries be too shameful to accept? Or will the scandals of the previous generation inspire forgiveness that redeems the family name for good?
Reign of Silence by D. Fischer
There are rumors of a crown that will show the true whereabouts of those who were chosen to replace the gods. A crown that once belonged to the late queen of shadows.Nefari Ashcroft doesn’t care about rumors. She plans to take it for herself because with it, she can claim what’s rightfully hers: Her title as her peoples’ fated queen.First, Nefari must travel to her kingdom - a kingdom that hasn’t witnessed a living soul for a decade. This harrowing journey will test everything and everyone she thought she knew.It was prophesied that the shards of a broken kingdom will find the fated queen, but what if these shards slice deeper than glass?
Death's Debt by Dennis K. Crosby
Kassidy Simmons dispatched the Angel of Death, secured the Scythe of Cronus, and claimed her birthright. As she navigates her new role and tracks down rogue Wraiths still loyal to Azra-El, an unknown force is plotting to make an ancient prophecy foretelling the end of the world a reality. Seven hundred years ago, Jaxon Burke awoke in a field outside of Rome, with no memory of his former life. Now a present-day killer for hire, the immortal assassin has taken countless lives and because of the recent shake-up in the natural order, the memories of those deaths are fueling his nightmares. Nightmares that feel real. He longs for relief. He longs for peace. He longs for death. A recent brush with the hereafter brings him to the attention of Solomon Steele, a Wraith, angered by Kassidy’s recent ascension. With the promise of death as his reward, Jaxon agrees to help Steele destroy Kassidy—but he is ill prepared for the repercussions of this strange world he is now in. As the truth of Jaxon’s life comes to light, Kassidy must find a way to pay for the sins of the past and stop this deadly duo from destroying her, taking the Scythe of Cronus, and ushering in the apocalypse.
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Walnut Street: Phantom Rider by Sherrill Joseph
Objects of value have been disappearing from the Mayfield family’s rural California horse ranch. The Botanic Hill detectives—Moki Kalani, Rani Kumar, and twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt—are hired to come to the ranch for a week to investigate.
Legend has it somewhere on the Mayfields’ forty-acre property is a long-lost gold mine. It was supposedly staked by thirteen-year-old Ben Mayfield’s five-time great-grandfather, “Papa” Mayfield, in 1875.
Adding to the excitement, a nervous Ben reveals a frightening secret to the detectives. At the ranch, he alone has seen a threatening black-clad figure on horseback whom he calls the Phantom Rider. Who is this mysterious person? Is he responsible for the recent thefts? Where is the lost gold mine? And what’s going on in the nearby, snake-infested ghost town of Rainbow Flats? The four intrepid detectives aim to find out.
Spider and Friends Cafe by Kat Clark
Objects of value have been disappearing from the Mayfield family’s rural California horse ranch. The Botanic Hill detectives—Moki Kalani, Rani Kumar, and twins Lanny and Lexi Wyatt—are hired to come to the ranch for a week to investigate.
Legend has it somewhere on the Mayfields’ forty-acre property is a long-lost gold mine. It was supposedly staked by thirteen-year-old Ben Mayfield’s five-time great-grandfather, “Papa” Mayfield, in 1875.
Adding to the excitement, a nervous Ben reveals a frightening secret to the detectives. At the ranch, he alone has seen a threatening black-clad figure on horseback whom he calls the Phantom Rider. Who is this mysterious person? Is he responsible for the recent thefts? Where is the lost gold mine? And what’s going on in the nearby, snake-infested ghost town of Rainbow Flats? The four intrepid detectives aim to find out.
AMAZON | BARNES & NOBLE | GOODREADS
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The Dragon and the Girl: True North by Laura Findley Evans
The last dragons in the kingdom were killed a half century ago. At least that’s what twelve-year-old Eliana has grown up hearing. Imagine her surprise when one morning in the forest she finds herself eye-to-eye with a young dragon named Winston who is just as terrified as she is.
Overcoming her fear, Eliana reaches out to the shaking dragon and miraculously can understand what he is telling her just by touching his brilliant emerald green and turquoise scales. Winston says his father has been missing since the last full moon, and she vows to help.
Together, they seek out the King for guidance, but upon reaching the castle they realize that short, frazzled King Halwyn has problems of his own. The kingdom’s treasure is missing and the tribute to the Overking is due in a few short weeks. If unpaid, Halwyn will lose his kingdom to the Overking’s feckless nephew.
Elianna and Winston must work fast, discovering the gifts and courage within themselves to find the treasure before their kingdom falls into the wrong hands, and people and dragons perish forever.
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Wings of Silk by Li-Ying Lundquist
After surviving a childhood under the oppressive rule of Chairman Mao’s “Cultural Revolution," a young, courageous teenager abandons her life in China for the freedom of the unknown in America.
Arriving at the New York City doorstep of family members she’s never met, Ying-Ying has been promised they’ll help her learn English and accomplish her dream of attaining a college degree. But weeks later, she’s kicked out without explanation.
Now a homeless immigrant, Ying-Ying must learn who to trust, how to find work, and how to succeed in a bustling metropolis that looks the other way.
Overcoming obstacles of abandonment, heartbreak, and injustice in a foreign land, she remains fiercely determined to become a woman who will impact the world. An incredible story of second chances, Wings of Silk reminds the reader that underneath the fragile form of an individual, a strong and resilient heart is always ready to take flight.
