New York Times bestselling author Lora Leigh and top-selling authors Nalini Singh, Erin McCarthy, and Linda Winstead Jones have a special gift for readers this year: heartwarming holiday stories featuring passionate romance, paranormal adventure, and a distinctly alluring feline touch. With four new stories?including one featuring Lora Leigh's genetically altered Feline Breeds?this is a collection packed with more surprises than Christmas morning, and more chills than the snowiest winter night. . .

A semi-autobiographical novel, set in New Hampshire, from a significant literary figure of the mid 19th centuryA semi-autobiographical novel, set in New Hampshire, from a significant literary figure of the mid 19th century

My perfect life was a lie. Now I'd do anything to uncover the truth. Not long ago, I had everything a girl could wish for: amazing friends, an adorable boyfriend, a loving family. But none of them know that I'm gone--that I'm dead. To solve my murder, my long-lost twin sister, Emma, has taken my place. She sleeps in my room, wears my clothes, and calls my parents Mom and Dad. And my killer is watching her every move. I remember little from my life, just flashes and flickers, so all I can do is follow along as Emma tries to solve the mystery of my disappearance. But the deeper she digs, the more suspects she uncovers. It turns out my friends and I played a lot of games--games that ruined people's lives. Anyone could want revenge . . . anyone could want me--and now Emma--dead. From Sara Shepard, the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Pretty Little Liars books, comes a riveting series about secrets, lies, and killer consequences.

One of the most beloved characters in children's literature, Peter Cottontail is up to his long-whiskered nose in rib-tickling escapades in this delightful classic. With gentle charm and humor, famed storyteller Thornton W. Burgess draws young readers into the timeless world of the Green Forest, the Smiling Pool and the Purple Mountains.Warmth and whimsy are the order of the day as Peter discovers the folly of changing his name, outwits the ever-hungry Reddy Fox, manages a number of hare's-breadth escapes and finally makes an ill-advised decision to hibernate-as Johnny Chuck and other woodland creatures do. The silliness of trying to do what nature never intended is one of the gentle morals of these adventures that combine the fun of a good story with little lessons about wildlife, the environment and being true to one's self.Newly reset in large easy-to-read type, this unabridged childhood classic will delight young readers today just as it did their parents and grandparents.

A Kasey Michaels Classic Alphabet Regency. Tansy Tamerlane, left penniless by her late father, is working as a governess when she's caught up in playing chaperone to a distant cousin, the sister of a duke. Ashley Benedict, Duke of Avonall, is a man beleaguered. His grandmother is a terror; his aunt is odd. Now, Ashley has a new problem … how to keep himself from falling for Tansy Tamerlane.A Kasey Michaels Classic Alphabet Regency.You’ve heard about them, “those perfect little books” USA TODAY and NEW YORK TIMES bestselling author Kasey Michaels penned in the 1980s, known to her many fans as her “Alphabet Regencies.” These are classic Regencies, not Regency historicals, and they center on the foibles of the day, the eccentrics that populated the drawing rooms (and there were many of these silly people, especially when Kasey is the one telling their stories). The love scenes fade to black with the reader encouraged to use her or his imagination to fill in the blanks — oh, come on, you know how to do that, right! Classic, traditional Regencies are sophisticated, lighthearted character studies if you will, and a fine introduction to the Regency Era.They’re also a lot of fun.Being Kasey, she didn’t start with the letter A, and then move on to B, C, etc. No, she started with B…and then jumped to T and The Tenacious Miss Tamerlane for her second book. Why? Because nobody told her she couldn’t, that’s why. That’s the beauty of being a writer — when it hits you, it hits you, and you run with it.Tansy Tamerlane hit Kasey like a ton of bricks one day, refusing to be anyone but who she was, refusing any name that ended with A, or even C. That’s the thing about Tansy. She’s tenacious (which is just a short hop to “stubborn,” but nobody ever got anywhere by being a shy, shrinking violet, now did they?).Tansy, left penniless by her late father, has been putting herself out as a governess to other people’s brats for two years when she is somehow caught up in playing chaperone to a distant cousin, the sister of a duke, no less. Ashley Benedict, Duke of Avonall, is a man beleaguered. His grandmother is a terror, his sister a lovely but none-too-bright chit, his valet a superstitious twit, and his aunt Lucinda is … well, different. Singular. Okay, so she’s downright odd.Lucinda Benedict, you see, speaks only in quotes. Other people’s words. Really. And if you think an author can’t have a lot of fun with a character like that, well, you haven’t yet met Aunt Lucinda! In fact, Kasey was so taken with her that Aunt Lucinda went on to appear in THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE, and (as a ghost, no less!) in THE HAUNTED MISS HAMPSHIRE.You’ll notice that Kasey never did buckle down and do the alphabet in order. Too boring by half, as Tansy would have said.Thanks to the wonders of technology, Aunt Lucinda is back, along with Tansy and Ashley, and all the other eccentric characters that make up Kasey’s “rainy day book,” the one she penned during a very trying time in her personal life (see accompanying bio), and a book that has brought a smile and a laugh or twelve to thousands of readers over the years. Indeed, one reviewer wrote Kasey to complain that she had to get off the New York city bus she was riding to work because she was reading Tansy’s story and began to laugh so hard that “people were looking at me funny.”Be sure to search out THE PLAYFUL LADY PENELOPE and THE HAUNTED MISS HAMPSHIRE, and more of Kasey’s Alphabet Regencies, soon available in e-book form. After all, everyone needs a good laugh now and then, right?

All Jill wants is a calm wellness evening in the secure environment of her bath to recuperate from an exhausting week at work. However, fate intervenes in the form of an attractive neighbor . . . This hilarious & romantic short story will make you laugh out loud. It also includes a preview for another contemporary romance, set in Italy.Each year the two high mages of Wynter and Pyria come to the Neutral Lands to sign a treaty that has kept a fragile peace between the lands of ice and fire. However, climate change is destroying these two delicate societies and it's up to Asha and Shard not only to find a solution to the danger facing their people, but to come to terms with the fire and ice in their own hearts. Will these elements of love save their countries or drive a bigger wedge between them?

When a leader of the local Wiccan community is found dead of an apparent overdose, her husband turns to E.S. Peters to find the real answers. With the help of his werewolf partner, Dusty, E.S. Peters seeks the truth as more witches die in mysterious and seemingly-unrelated ways. Will they unravel the mystery in time to save one of their own from “Perfect Love?”When a leader of the local Wiccan community is found dead of an apparent overdose, her husband turns to E.S. Peters to find the real answers. With the help of his werewolf partner, Dusty, E.S. Peters seeks the truth as more witches die in mysterious and seemingly-unrelated ways. Digging through the darkness that surrounds them, their quest takes them from the bars of Deep Ellum to the canals of Las Colinas and beyond. But will they unravel the mystery in time to save one of their own from “Perfect Love?”Author Note. This is a new version that has now gone through a professional editor due to early reviews of the book. ThanksA.M. Burns 5/01/2012

"Two mothers asked me who you were at the PeeWee soccer match yesterday, Frank. I just said, 'Oh him? He's a Catholic priest and a physics professor, cosmic rays—that kind of stuff, and is helping a woman detective catch whoever is trying to kill us. He's also my fiancé.' They gave me a strange look. I don't think they'll be inviting Olivia and Joey over for any more play dates."Frank Donnelly is a physics professor at a Philadelphia university and a Catholic priest; a rare combination but not unique. What may be more unusual is that Frank is also married, one of less than a hundred such priests in the United States. When his wife is killed in a tragic accident Frank is left to raise his young daughter alone. Eventually he falls in love with Vicki Meyers, a young widow mystery. As their love grows, and they struggle with the difficulties of raising children as single parents, Frank and Vicki form a "virtual" family and join with other young families in an endless round of soccer matches, birthday parties, and car pooling while Frank uses with a small boy and a teacher in the parish school where Frank is the weekend assistant. The Vatican is not amused at Frank's petition to marry — and that is not his only problem. He has been receiving threatening emails suggesting that he is not a "true" priest and a woman detective investigating the threats discovers similar ones on the computer of a murdered elderly priest. Could Frank and those he loves be in danger? He and the detective team up to find the murderer and presumed author of the emails. In Frank's physics lab a routine student experiment to observe cosmic rays produces an unusual number of tracks but only when Frank is near the apparatus, and only when he is carrying a Holy Communion wafer. As a scientist Frank is reluctant to consider a supernatural explanation and he and an astrophysicist friend conduct experiments to find a physical explanation of the the cosmic ray phenomenon as "ecclesiastical blackmail" to push the Vatican toward an unprecedented concession.

Relieved from deadly toil in the mines, a slave is brought to his master's household to work and there encounters a new form of torture in a seductive young woman who he is forbidden to have. Original.

From one of the most admired public intellectuals of our time, and a multi-award winning and #1 bestselling author, comes a collection of his most important and controversial essays on the theme of culture and politics and how the two relate.

Everyone wants a dragon until they have to feed one.Rory’s personal guard knows the little dragon is bursting with magic which could revitalize all the farmer’s fields, and still rid an old man of his aches and pains. Too young to defend herself she’s forced to run when the king discovers she could also be his source to eternal youth.Adeline Ve’duer Remenon has been on the run for ten years. Framed for the murder of her entire family, and hunted by an elite force of warriors from the warmongering kingdom of Varscodia, she finds herself at the limits of her emotional resilience.On the night marking the tenth anniversary of her flight as a fugitive, Adeline broods over a painful past and contemplates a grim future. She has had no encounters with the Varscodian Enforcers in over three months. Most would consider that a good sign. But not Adeline. She has been shadowed by the conniving fiends long enough to realise how they work, and their lack of presence for so long does not bode well...

When Karen's class "adopts" grandparents, Karen eagerly signs up for the program. Now she has five grandmothers and that's a lot of work!

The King challenges three knights to prove their love for his daughter. True love wins in Karen Kingsbury's heart-warming tale of inner beauty and devotion.

Book I. Uninvited Strangers;When a game of catch-ball suddenly goes wrong, Oliver wakes up in a place unlike any other.Soon his mind recalls the young blonde girl who would tell stories in the classroom. Alice said it was always tea time with the Hatter, but looking at the man on the opposite side of the table, Oliver was sincerely beginning to believe he had come down the wrong rabbit hole."Oh, that's just the dog lady. Ignore her, she's harmless." This is said often about Annabelle Carson, the "Dog Lady". And most of the time it's true. Annabelle prefers the company of dogs to people, and simply wants to live out her days in peace.Even when her house is broken into by a pair of mistaken criminals, she is brutally beaten, and most of her possessions destroyed, Annabelle simply wants to be left alone.But when the intruders harm her beloved pet dog, Annabelle grows angry. And the Dog Lady has a lot of friends.(This is my first attempt at a horror story, please be gentle Hahaha, if it's deemed acceptable, I may attempt another)

Recovering drug addict Dannie crosses the head of a drug cartel which puts her and her husband Junior on the run from a hitman right out of a nightmare. WARNING: Although this story is written tastefully (Tarantino-esque) some readers may be offended by the violence and torture.When recovering drug addict Dannie takes a job for a local drug dealer working at his drycleaning store that he uses as a cover to launder more than just towels she has no plans of crossing him. But when she sees the cocaine that's delivered and put into her care to lock in the store safe she decides to steal just a taste. But after she's high she grabs both the drugs and the money. She flees the store and tells her husband Junior what she has done. The two of them are chased across the country by Raycraft the coldblooded hitman that works for the drug lord.

Lost to time, the artefacts of the Egyptian Zep-Tepi have been returned to the world from the deserts of their origin.Split across two epochs, Coincidence Theory will take you on a voyage through what you thought you always knew as truth, retelling one of the most famous stories in history, to uncover the story behind the myth.What if one of the greatest stories ever told, was created to hide the real intentions of its characters? What if the truth was uncovered today? How would you react? And what would you do?Join author Steven Allinson, as he takes you on an epic journey to uncover the story behind one of the most sought-after religious relics of all time.- - -From the Back Cover:The Truth is a Matter of Perspective…Separated by millennia, a bodyguard of the pharaoh and a British military specialist take voyages of discovery to understand the mysterious artefacts of the Egyptian Zep-Tepi.Hounded by a secretive sect intent on using the artefacts for their own ends, each man finds himself embroiled in events beyond his control.With time running out and enemies at every turn, will either man complete the mission they have set out to accomplish? Or, will greed and ignorance destroy mankind's last chance to uncover what those in power prayed would remain hidden forever?

Issue 39 of Jupiter Science Fiction magazine featuring brilliant new stories from Simon Fay, J. Rohr, Robert Thayer, Graham Keeler, Tyler Winstead and Steve McGarrity. Poems by Alessio Zanelli and a wonderful cover by Daniel Bristow-Bailey.After the interest created by his recently published ebook The Onion Peeler,as promised is the first of two volumes of what the author describes as street poetry,after the style of that great Australian Poet Banjo Paterson. Most of these poems are in a humerous vein and a number are love letters to his beloved City of Nottingham and its people,the remaining poems are a reflection of the darker side of life,human nature,and various events.

A tranquil village at the centre of an international conspiracy, and a predator who will stop at nothing to meet the demands of his corporate paymasters.A tranquil village.An international conspiracy.A predator with diabolical intentions.Returning home to his corner of rural Buckinghamshire, former Paratrooper and Afghanistan veteran Sam Faris receives a disturbing call from his friend Celia. Celia’s husband Andrew has descended into an emotional abyss, barely able to communicate. Desperate to identify the source of his sudden malaise, Celia turns to Sam for help.But Andrew’s fate has been sealed. A stranger is stalking the village and in a conspiracy that will rock the very core of international security, Sam’s fellow villagers will be taken one by one until his home is rendered a ghost town.Fresh from a brutal tour of duty in Kabul, Sam must call upon every facet of his combat experience to outwit this strange and terrifying presence. But it’s a different and more deadly arena here on his own streets, and the enemy has a chilling agenda.

Something transpired two years prior, unveiling something hidden that Milly seemed to constantly dream. A hidden something, concealed by brambles, forgotten in time.A hole. A deep, deep hole, with something inside.A MIND IS A TERRIBLE THINGSally suffers from a curse: the ability to Touch others and see their thoughts. She doesn’t know how. She doesn’t know why. All she knows is what people are thinking. And she doesn’t like what she sees. Driven to a life of seclusion trying to avoid the minds of those around her, she has given up hope of a normal life. Until a friend is murdered, and the police have no leads on the killer. Now, in order to bring justice, Sally must come out of hiding, embracing her gift instead of rejecting it, and making use of every ability at her disposal – natural and unnatural. New enemies rise along with new friends, and the hope of a life Sally had long since given up on – if she can keep herself alive to enjoy it. This debut work of independent author Garrett Robinson thrills from start to finish, exploring themes of thought versus action and takes a new, realistic look at the effect of inhuman abilities. A pulse-pounding ride that promises to keep you at the edge of your seat.

In this retelling of a Greek myth, the author explores and comments on the human character and condition through the story of how the Titan Prometheus so loved the creatures he had created that he stole fire from the gods and gave it to them to further their intellectual and technological development and the development of civilization. But was there a price to pay, for Prometheus and us?After exploring the human character and condition through the retelling a number of Polynesian myths and legends in Under the Hala Tree: Twice Told Polynesian Myths and Legends, the author found himself returning to the Greek myths, legends and fables that inspired his childhood and so much of Western literature. In this retelling of a Greek myth, he explores and comments on the human character and condition through the story of how the Titan Prometheus so loved the creatures he had created that he stole fire from the gods and gave it to them to further their intellectual and technological development and the development of civilization. But was there a price to pay, for Prometheus and us?