FIRST THREE CHAPTERSApocalyptic Earth. Humans, Vampires, Zombies.Abby Rose is a smart and capable member of the Vanguard. She also waits tables at the O Motel Bar & Grill between her shifts of zombie killing. When a strange and viscous series of murders closes in on her home, she finds herself fighting side by side with members of the VIG—vampire increment guard. Abby soon gets close to one of their leaders, Ethan Sterling, a tall, dark and handsome vampire. Loss is prevalent in this world, but can Ethan and Abby find their way, and avoid the loss of love?

Diane D In The Headlines is a sequel to DIANE D The Musical Drama and DANGEROUS DANA A Suspense Thriller. It is a suspense, drama, psychological, thriller about a family owned Charity and Entertainment Organization. This story involves 3 generations of the Diaz-Davidson family. The family's Charity and Entertainment Organization performs shows around the country and the world to raise money.This story involves two male hospital employees, one white and one black, who work the night shift. One night during the night shift, the two male hospital employees are working inside a dimly lit isolated clinic hallway as they eavesdrop outside one of the closed clinic room doors secretly listening on Diane D’s private conversation while Diane D is alone inside the clinic room talking on the telephone. The two male hospital employees hear Diane D about to leave the room. They quickly back up away from the door and quietly race back down the other end of the hallway going around the corner. As the two male hospital employees hide around the corner, they hear Diane D leaving the room shutting the door behind herself. They go to take a peak around the corner and accidentally make a loud noise! They fear that the loud noise has attracted Diane D’s attention, blowing their cover! They then hear slow footsteps coming so they quickly turn and sneak down the stairwell into the lower level of the clinic area. They then hide and bend behind some boxes in the dimly lit hallway on the lower level. They then see Diane D in the distance coming from around the dark corner. They secretly watch Diane D from the distance and see her strange eerie behavior as she looks around the dimly lit hallway as if looking for someone. They then see her go from locked clinic room door to locked clinic room door trying to open each door. They then witness Diane D do something so strange and so frightening that they become shocked and frozen in fear! They can't believe what they just witnessed her do! They frighteningly have their backs leaned against the wall with their mouths and eyes wide open not able to move! Diane D then angrily goes into a storage room. While she is inside the storage room, the two male hospital employees manage to break loose from their fear! They quickly sneak away and frighteningly run back down the hallway out of the area! They then turn around the corner and race towards the stairwell! They reach the stairwell door and run back into the stairwell! Once inside the stairwell, they run right back up the stairs, not looking back!This story also involves Diane D’s eerie and frightening performance in Germany which causes several thousand spectators in a German park to scream and run in fear!This story also involves, the Dianettes’ back stage attack on another well-known female singer who wanted to perform and collaborate on stage with them and Diane D at a shopping mall. Again, the Dianettes will not hear of it! They later chase down the well-known female singer and her husband behind the shopping mall inside the parking lot. They catch up to the well known female singer and her husband and knock them down to the ground! They then attack the well known female singer and her husband! All six of the Dianettes are then arrested over the beat down! The well-known female singer and her husband both had to be hospitalized which causes the well-known female singer’s upcoming concert in New York to be canceled! While the Dianettes’ are in police custody, they overhear that the two well-known Latin female duo who tried to perform and collaborate with them and Diane D before are outside the police station secretly talking to Diane D. The Dianettes then bust out the back door of the police station! They charge after the two well-known Latin female duo! The two well-known Latin female duo turn and have to run for their lives!

The Pennsylvania Pickle is a funny comedy story about a Superhero who fights crime with a Pickle.The Pennsylvania Pickle is a Superhero who fights crime with a Pickle and always gets in a Pickle. In this comedy story, watch how he teams up with Captain Common Sense to try and stop the bad guys. You will learn how he became The Pennsylvania Pickle. Enjoy the laughs and stupidity along the way as he battles The Balloon Bandit and The Big Stink. The Pennsylvania Pickle is a funny short must read book.

Julianne can't believe she landed a job 'across the pond' as event planner at a country house in Cornwall, England. Her first assignment: a celebrity wedding! Surrounded by rugged shores and elegant gardens at a house to die for, Julianne must keep her nerves at bay if she's going to make this event a success. Her attraction for the estate's handsome and mysterious gardener isn't helping either...It’s the career move of a lifetime, and Julianne can’t believe it’s hers: a position as an event planner at a country house in Cornwall, England, beginning with the wedding of a celebrity! If her old firm's senior planner back in the States hadn't fallen suddenly sick with the chicken pox, Julianne would never have found herself chosen for a life in one of England's most beautiful coastal counties, surrounded by rugged shores, quaint cottages, elegant gardens and a house to die for.But life in Cornwall isn't exactly as Julianne imagined it. Her first bride-to-be is a resentful, petted snob, the groom is immature and bored, and the Cornish staff of Cliffs House has a difficult time believing that an event planner from a mid-level position can handle a wedding this big. And then there's a personal matter -- the handsome, sometimes charming, sometimes standoffish gardener Matthew Rose. He and Julianne have a strangely complicated relationship somewhere between friendship and attraction. But with a secret in his past, and a scheming bridesmaid plotting to have Matthew all to herself, will Julianne find a way to untangle her feelings and the problems of planning a perfect Cornish wedding?

As a boy soldier in WWII Akira Yoshimoto vows to restore Japan's honor. Rising to high government office, he makes a deal with right wing Israelis to destroy their enemies in a nuclear holocaust and share world domination.As a boy soldier in WWII, Akira Yoshimoto has a profound spiritual experience and he emerges as the Seventh Samurai. Rising to high government office, he makes a deal with right wing Israelis to destroy their enemies in a nuclear holocaust and share world domination. However, Taro Watanabe, an Osaka city detective and his girlfriend, Nana Liberman, stumble onto a clue that plays havoc with Yoshimoto's plan. Taro and Nana are led on a perilous chase ending in a devastating discovery.

David Ricardo and his ideas attacked: tariffs, free trade, comparative advantage in production, Iron Law of Wages discussed and refuted. Social issues and human nature looked at from historical and common sense perspective.A preface notes some basic concepts of David Ricardo and his background. Chapter 1 deals with comparative advantage as an economic theory. It notes that the real problem is the dissemination of wisdom, not a lack of specialization of labor. It notes that specialization results in economic problems, social strife, injustices of every sort. It notes that it hides the real source of wealth, the wisdom that guides labor and makes it worthwhile. Chapter 2 gives reasons why excessive division of labor has drawbacks that actually reduce wealth, ruin men's lives, passes the blame onto labor for faults in production, when the real problem lies in management. Chapter 3 discusses briefly the Iron Law of Wages. It maintains that employers are well advised to keep loyal employees by protecting their income to the benefit of both employer and employee, and the forces undermining this commonsense behavior. Chapter 4 discusses tariffs, the advantages of tariffs, how free trade can produce trouble, reduction in wealth. It notes how free trade hides the value of free dissemination of ideas as the real generator of wealth. I use the American tariff policy of the nineteenth century to illustrate the problems of the tariff.

After witnessing his brother's death and fleeing from the killer in the woods during a camping trip, Gunner returns to the remote timberlands of Northern Maine with three friends to recover the body. He feels he's ready for the killer this time, but he's not ready for the surprises the forest hides.Two men try to steal a famous art piece. A young girl struggle with her fate. A teen needs a way around her mother's wrath. THE FATE OF JULIET AND OTHER SHORT STORIES is a collection of short stories by Beth Lindsay, ranging in genre and length. The collection includes "The Fate of Juliet," "The Multiple Choice Life," and "The Fountain Heist." These stories tackle themes related to consequences of one’s choices. Two men break into a museum during a dangerous storm and must escape unharmed in the story THE FOUTAIN HEIST. THE Multiple Choice Life explores a world where all a person's choices are presented before them, and they must make a choice from only those options. The Fate of Juliet follows the decision making of Juliet, a high school girl that hates her name and the fate that associated with it.

The classic YA story of a boy, a horse, and pursuit of a dream. TAMING THE STAR RUNNER written by celebrated novelist S.E. Hinton, now available as an eBook for the first time.With an absent mother and a domineering step-father, Travis uses his tough-guy exterior to hide his true passion: writing. After a violent confrontation with his step-father, Travis is sent to live on his uncle’s horse ranch - exile to a born-and-bred city kid. Angry and yearning for a connection, Travis befriends Casey, the horse-riding instructor at the ranch, and the un-tamable horse in her stable: the Star Runner. When a friend from the city visits with stories of other kids from the neighborhood facing jail time, Travis is more determined than ever that he needs to escape the life of juvenile delinquency he seems destined for. When the offer of a book deal comes through, Travis is hopeful that this is his chance to escape, if only his step-father will stop standing in the way of his dreams.From the author of THE OUTSIDERS, S.E. Hinton once again writes about what it feels like to be unaccepted, and the power in being true to yourself.“Hinton continues to grow more reflective in her books, but her great understanding, not of what teenagers are but of what they can hope to be, is undiminished.”—Kirkus ReviewsAn ALA Best Books for Young AdultsAn ALA Quick Pick

I have lost everything. My purpose. My love. My soul. Death knocks on my door, I want to answer, but every time I reach for the handle--the promise I made her, brings me back. So I breathe. I live. I hate. And I allow the anger to boil beneath the surface of a perfectly indifferent facade. I am broken, I dont want to be fixed. One last trip to New York, one last chance to redeem a lost part of the mafia family. The Empire is crumbling and it's my job to fix it, my job to mend the pieces that were scattered over thirty years ago. The only issue is, the only way to fix, is to do something I swore I'd never do again. An arranged marriage. Only this time. I won't fall. Or so help me God, I'll kill her myself. My name is Sergio Abandanoto, you think you know my pain, my suffering, my anger, my hate--you have no idea. I am the mafia. I am the darkness. Blood in. No out.

Ray Bradbury, America's most beloved storyteller, has spent a lifetime carrying readers to exhilarating and dangerous places, from dark street comers in unfamiliar cities and towns to the edge of the universe. Now, in an extraordinary flight of the imagination a half-century in the making, he takes us to a most wondrous destination: into the heart of an Eternal Family. They have lived for centuries in a house of legend and mystery in upper Illinois -- and they are not like other midwesterners. Rarely encountered in daylight hours, their children are curious and wild; their old ones have survived since before the Sphinx first sank its paws deep in Egyptian sands. And some sleep in beds with lids. Now the house is being readied in anticipation of the gala homecoming that will gather together the farflung branches of this odd and remarkable family. In the past-midnight stillness can be detected the soft fluttering of Uncle Einars wings. From her realm of sleep, Cecy, the fairest and most special daughter, can feel the approach of many a welcome being -- shapeshifter, telepath, somnambulist, vampire -- as she flies high in the consciousness of bird and bat. But in the midst of eager anticipation, a sense of doom pervades. For the world is changing. And death, no stranger, will always shadow this most singular family: Father, arisen from the Earth; Mother, who never sleeps but dreams; A Thousand Times Great Grandmére; Grandfather, who keeps the wildness of youth between his ears. And the boy who, more than anyone, carries the burden of time on his shoulders: Timothy, the sad and different foundling son who must share it all, remember, and tell...and who, alone out of all of them, must one day age and wither and die. By turns lyrical, wistful, poignant, and chilling, From the Dust Returned is the long-awaited new novel by the peerless Ray Bradbury -- a book that will surely be numbered among his most enduring masterworks.

Beatrice Lockwood, one of the intrepid ladies of Lantern Street, is in the middle of a case when her past comes back to haunt her.  Joshua North, a former spy for the Crown, has come out of a self-imposed retirement after a disastrous case that left him scarred and forced to use a cane.  He is hunting the villain who is blackmailing his sister.  The trail leads him to Beatrice who is his chief suspect.  But when he realizes that she is not the blackmailer they set out to find the real extortionist.  Passion flares between them as they dodge a professional assassin.  Meanwhile a mysterious scientist intent on resurrecting his dead lover using an ancient Egyptian formula for preserving the bodies of the dead is also hunting Beatrice. He is keeping his dead love perfectly preserved in a special, crystal-topped sarcophagus filled with the special fluid.   But he needs Beatrice's paranormal talent to activate the reviving properties of the preservative in the coffin.  Time is running out for everyone involved. The two cases collide at a mysterious country-house filled with artifacts from ancient Egyptian tombs.  The drama concludes in the mad scientist's laboratory where Joshua discovers that the past he thought was dead is still very much alive -- sort of.

"I'd want you to help me win a war..." After discovering the shocking secret buried deep within The Green, Violet has a grave decision to make. Trust the woman who saved her, or not? So far, everything about the woman has taken Violet by surprise. Her behavior has been honest and upfront - a refreshing change for Violet. Besides, with one of her loved ones hanging on life support, and the other close to falling completely out of reach, Violet doesn't exactly have a lot of choice. Her only way forward is to embark on a dicey excursion. For this, she knows she needs the Liberators' help - and must be prepared to take whatever risks that comes with. But what neither she, nor any of her new Liberator comrades can prepare for, is just how deep the lies of their homelands run... Continue Violet and Viggo's journey in the EXPLOSIVE third book of the bestselling The Gender Game series. Buy now! Beware of spoilers in the reviews below that are without spoiler alerts

Alexander McCall Smith, best-selling author of The No. 1 Ladies’ Detective Agency, has turned his hand to humour. The delightful result is a creation of comic genius. For in the unnaturally tall form of Professor Doctor Moritz-Maria von Igelfeld, we are invited to meet a memorable character whose sublime insouciance is a blend of the cultivated pomposity of Frasier Crane and of Inspecteur Clouseau’s hapless gaucherie. Von Igelfeld inhabits the rarefied world of the Institute of Romance Philology at Regensburg, a world he shares with his equally tall and equally ridiculous colleagues, Professors Florianus Prinzel and Detlev Amadeus Unterholzer. Their unlikely adventures are described in three deliciously funny instalments: Portuguese Irregular Verbs, The Finer Points of Sausage Dogs and At the Villa of Reduced Circumstances.

Elyse Abram is desperate. On the wrong side of a relationship with a man who has lost his mind, she’s making big changes, starting with being utterly done with love. But life on her Alaskan homestead is too hard to handle alone, so she’s got a plan. Hire a husband. No romance, no emotions, just a marriage certificate that will tie an able-bodied man to her. But when a strapping giant of a man shows up on her doorstep and gives her all the right answers, leaving romance off the table might prove harder than she thought. Too bad the growl in her new helpmate’s throat and his careful way with explanations have her thinking she’s stepped into something much bigger than she bargained for. Dominant grizzly shifter, Ian Silver, has a job to do. One of the local werewolves is on a violent bender, and as a shifter enforcer, Ian has an order to put him down. But when his mark begs him to check on the woman he hurt, Ian can’t help his curiosity. One meeting with Elyse and his shock nearly doubles him over. A husband for hire? Hell no. Forget his protective instincts and his inability to stay away from the beguiling woman. He would make a terrible mate and besides…what Elyse doesn’t know about him could kill her. A full-length first book in T. S. Joyce’s brand new Bears Fur Hire series. Content Warning: Explicit love scenes, naughty language, and piles of sexy shifter secrets. Intended for mature audiences.

Winged demons gather, silent and unseen, above the city of Usa, their talons long and sharp. Their purpose is clear, as is the prophesy: Upon the deaths of the three kings, the demon riders of the Krayakin will become flesh, free to slake their thirst with human blood - and the stench of evil will cover the land.   Two of the kings are already dead. For the prophesy to be fulfilled, spreading carnage across the world, the Demon Lord must sacrifice the third king: Queen Axiana's unborn child. When Emperor Skanda disbands his army, the pregnant queen takes flight, pursued by the Lords of the Undead. All hope lies with three ancient heroes, though discarded by the emperor, they are still Drenai soldiers: Bison the giant, Kebra the bowman, and the great swordsman Nogusta - the Demon Lord's greatest foe. But will these warriors - once the best in the land - be enough to stem the tide of gruesome horror that threatens to envelop the world?

R.S.V.P. to the most riotous wedding of the year.... Lucy Jorik is the daughter of a former president of the United States. Meg Koranda is the offspring of legends. One of them is about to marry Mr. Irresistible—Ted Beaudine—the favorite son of Wynette, Texas. The other is not happy about it and is determined to save her friend from a mess of heartache. But even though Meg knows that breaking up her best friend's wedding is the right thing to do, no one else seems to agree. Faster than Lucy can say "I don't", Meg becomes the most hated woman in town—a town she's stuck in with a dead car, an empty wallet, and a very angry bridegroom. Broke, stranded, and without her famous parents at her back, Meg is sure she can survive on her own wits. What's the worst that can happen? Lose her heart to the one and only Mr. Irresistible? Not likely. Not likely at all. Call Me Irresistible is the book Susan Elizabeth Phillips's readers and listeners have long awaited. Ted, better known as "little Teddy", the nine-year-old heartbreak kid from Phillips's first best seller, Fancy Pants, and as "young Teddy," the hunky new college graduate in Lady Be Good, is all grown up now—along with Lucy from First Lady and Meg from What I Did for Love. They're ready to take center stage in a saucy, funny, and highly addictive tale fans will love.

The hilarious chapter book series about an accidental rule breaker from Katherine Applegate, Newbery Medal–winning and bestselling author of The One and Only Ivan and Crenshaw, returns with a fresh new cover from artist Brian Biggs and bonus material! Roscoe’s first grade class is going on their first field trip ever to an apple orchard! It’s so much fun picking apples and seeing how applesauce is made. Ms. Diz, his teacher, expects the class to be on their very best behavior. And Roscoe tries—he really does—but somehow he still manages to land in a very sticky situation. Roscoe and his comical misadventures will appeal to fans of Megan McDonald’s Stink series, Nancy Krulik’s George Brown, Class Clown series, and Dan Gutman’s My Weirder School series. This repackaged edition includes Roscoe Riley’s Time-Out Activities, featuring lists, games, and more.

Herb Moss is a nice young man. He's a Vegan. It's a good life, really; he's engaged to his childhood sweetheart Lily, has a job with his father's firm, and can look forward to a solid if unexciting future. And if he's bored and wistful every time he thinks about it--well, that's normal, isn't it? Surely, thinks Herb, a little romantic correspondence on the side can do no harm. Especially if Lily doesn't find out. Meanwhile, on a planet far away, a nice young woman named Spring only wishes she were bored. Spring's been living with her widowed father Gabriel, a practicing sorcerer, keeping house and helping out with the business. It's been a good life. But the evil wizard Zygote has learned of the existence of those secrets. And he'll do anything to get them, including the obvious. When Gabriel is killed, Spring takes refuge with the austere Order of Companions. There, grieving and lonely, she places a personal ad, looking for a pen pal who can discuss botany. Little does she know that she's actually placed a personal ad in Play Plant magazine, and that her new pen pal Herb thinks she's interested in romance. When Zygote closes in on her, Spring flees to the only friend she can think of: her buddy Herb. Trouble ensues--with Zygote following close behind it!

Somedays, Jena Crowe just can’t get a break. Work at her diner never ends, her two boys are bundles of energy, and she’s pretty sure her oldest is about to shift into something furry or feathery. Added to that, changes seem to be coming to the tiny town of Cambio Springs—big changes that not everyone in the isolated town of shapeshifters is thrilled about. Caleb Gilbert was looking for change, and the quiet desert town seemed just the ticket for a more peaceful life. He never counted on violence finding him, nor could he have predicted just how crazy his new life would become. When murder rocks their small community, Caleb and Jena will have to work together. And when the new Chief of Police isn’t put off by any of her usual defenses, Jena may be faced with the most frightening change of all: lowering the defenses around her carefully guarded heart. Shifting Dreams is the first novel in Cambio Springs, the new paranormal romance series from Elizabeth Hunter, author of the best-selling Elemental Mysteries series.

A short novel of the Shifters Unbound series. Spike, a wildcat Shifter and the champion fighter of Shiftertown, is stunned when Myka, the best friend of a dying human woman, announces that Spike has fathered a cub. What's more, the mother is giving the boy to Spike to protect and raise. Myka, who'd been raised by an abusive stepfather, is not sure that a wild fighter named Spike is the best man to bring up the cute little jaguar cub. She goes to Shiftertown to check out Spike, and finds that the man behind the name is a lonely Shifter who's lost most of his family and is a fierce caretaker to those he has left. Spike is torn between the cub and his duties as tracker to the Shiftertown leader, and begs Myka, the only person who understands, to help him. He starts to like the sassy Myka, a horse trainer who's not afraid of working with animals, even if they're wildcats who turn into humans. When Spike's job puts his cub and Myka in danger, Spike is forced to choose between those to whom he's pledged his loyalty and his need to protect the woman and cub he's come to love.

BONUS: This edition contains an excerpt from Steve Berry’s The Columbus Affair and a Cotton Malone dossier. When Napoleon Bonaparte died in exile in 1821, he took to the grave a powerful secret. As general and emperor, he had stolen immeasurable riches from palaces, national treasuries, and even the Knights of Malta and the Vatican. In his final days, his British captors hoped to learn where the loot lay hidden. But he told them nothing, and in his will he made no mention of the treasure. Or did he? Former Justice Department operative Cotton Malone isn't looking for trouble when it comes knocking at his Copenhagen bookshop. Actually, it breaks and enters in the form of an American Secret Service agent with a pair of assassins on his heels. Malone has his doubts about the anxious young man, but narrowly surviving a ferocious firefight convinces him to follow his unexpected new ally. Their first stop is the secluded estate of Malone's good friend, Henrik Thorvaldsen. The wily Danish tycoon has uncovered the insidious plans of the Paris Club, a cabal of multimillionaires bent on manipulating the global economy. Only by matching wits with a terrorist-for-hire, foiling a catastrophic attack, and plunging into a desperate hunt for Napoleon's legendary lost treasure can Malone hope to avert international financial anarchy. But Thorvaldsen's real objective is much more personal: to avenge the murder of his son by the larcenous aristocrat at the heart of the conspiracy. Thorvaldsen's vendetta places Malone in an impossible quandary—one that forces him to choose between friend and country, past and present. Starting in Denmark, moving to England, and ending up in the storied streets and cathedrals of Paris, Malone plays a breathless game of duplicity and death, all to claim a prize of untold value. But at what cost?