christmas is almost here, but ella is sad. daddy has taken mummy to hospital. Grandma and Grandpa come to look after her and take her to visit to santa. she asks him to help and is sure that he will do something to bring mummy home in time. but by bed time on christmas eve mummy is still in the hospital. has santa let her down?christmas is almost here, but ella is sad. daddy has taken mummy to hospital. Grandma and Grandpa come to look after her and take her to visit to santa. she asks him to help and is sure that he will do something to bring mummy home in time. but by bed time on christmas eve mummy is still in the hospital. has santa let her down?on christmas morning she finds much more than presents waiting for her.

In the wake of a tragic accident, the three members of an Exploratory Vessel find themselves at odds with each other - and their own beliefs.What if everything you knew was wrong?Captain Sanesh and his crew are on a mission in outer space, when an accident kills the navigator, Bill. Weeks have passed since Bill's death, but Dr. Aless Inge still isn't convinced that this accident was Bill's fault. Her accusing gaze falls on her crew mate, Martin, the perpetually intoxicated religious fanatic. Dr. Inge sees Martin and his 'ridiculous ideologies' as dangerous, while new events seem to uncover a different reality.Will Dr. Inge overcome her feelings, or will her faith in her own knowledge lead to disaster?

Luther Cross has been through Hell—literally. Born of a mother he watched die, conceived as part of a demonic ritual, and raised by monks after being saved by a mysterious, murderous individual, Cross now makes what living he does through confidence schemes…and the death of demons.Pro Se Productions goes to Hell and back with the debut of its newest Single Shot Signature Series. Author Percival Constantine introduces readers to the enigmatic, inexplicable Luther Cross.Luther Cross has been through Hell—literally. Born of a mother he watched die, conceived as part of a demonic ritual, and raised by monks after being saved by a mysterious, murderous individual, Cross now makes what living he does through confidence schemes…and the death of demons. What led to a school shooting in a small town, and why is there a mystic component involved? The spirits of the victims call out for help, and only Luther Cross can answer their cries.

This month we have stories that are all about people who never expected to be in the positions they find themselves in. This can mean anything from being trapped inside a dragon, to being trapped on a slab in the morgue. To each their own, and whatnot.This month we have stories that are all about people who never expected to be in the positions they find themselves in. This can mean anything from being trapped inside a dragon, to being trapped on a slab in the morgue. To each their own, and whatnot.Fiction Vortex publishes short stories in science fiction and fantasy genres.

Tracey DiMarco is homeless. And hungry. And cold. A storm is brewing and a dangerous virus has already claimed many lives. As she stands shivering at the gas station, a goodlooking young man offers her a ride in his new car. Her lucky break? Or a fast ride to hell? Come explore your date with a madman on a haunted road during the apocalypse!Tracey DiMarco is homeless. She is hungry. And cold. She has just spent her last money on food. The weatherman on the radio at the store warned about a storm brewing. This after reports a virus has broken out and already claimed many lives. A young man offers her a ride in his new car at the gas station. Should she take the risk ... he is so goodlooking. How could he be evil? And so she gets in his car and smiles at him, never knowing what she just got herself into ...A haunted road ... as the heavens conspire, and Earth's time is running out.

It is December 1892, and a train carrying rival ranchers has become snowbound in Nebraska. If the blizzard doesn't kill the passengers on board the train, a mysterious killer will. As the body count rises and the tensions heat and the temperature drops, it is up to a vagrant and a reporter to find out the truth and save the West from another range war.The American West, December 1892: a vagrant wins a train ticket to Wyoming in a game of poker. However, the train is overbooked with danger. There are cattle ranchers, both rich and poor, aboard, who still have open wounds from a recent range war. As well, there is a disturbed killer being transported by marshals to Wyoming to face trial for his involvement in the conflict. When the train derails during a blizzard in Nebraska, the passengers face the looming specter of death, which becomes more real when the killer is found mysteriously dead. But the killer's death is only the beginning, as more and more passengers are found brutally murdered. As tensions rise, it is up to the vagrant and his new friend, the investigative reporter Nellie Bly, to find out the truth before another range war is triggered.

A legend reborn, a prophecy fulfilled…Princess Rainna has escaped Devon Castle with the ancient Book of Wisdom. Marsonee the archangel and Justin the farm boy journey to the fallen city of Rone. As their paths collide on a dark road, an even greater challenge awaits them in the catacombs of the old cathedral of Rone. Can Justin remove the sword and become the Golden Knight?Sometimes the monster lurks closer than you think... The people of Capernia live in an era of progress, and, as such, during a time where much of the past is left to rot, including its horrors. Although, the world may have to face past horrors sooner than it realizes, as demons begin slaughtering the nobles in public, threatening the tiers of society set by man to keep the chaos at bay for so many years. In Part One of The Demon-Eater, there are two whom we watch . . . The Hunter: plagued by a past he cannot remember; tormented in his search for the “faceless woman's” murderer. And the Daughter, set on a course to save her father by any means necessary. A course that will break the world, or save it. NOTE: This is Part One of a novel...

Fr. Arthur Gerdtz is on a mission from God. His church is fighting for relevance in the modern world. Attendances are dwindling, atheism is on the rise, and Instagram celebrities are bigger than Jesus. This veteran priest is in grave danger of losing his religion.Until he decides to introduce some Old Testament values to the twenty-first century.FALSE ICONS & SACRED COWS is part one of HOLLYWOOD HACK JOB, with parts two and three due for release in the coming months.

An American boy struggles with village life in Franco's Spain. He is baffled by his enemy.Magic is real - just not always in the ways you've imagined.Punk guitar player Kaya Cade is rather down on her luck. She's lost her job, her home, and frankly the band is going nowhere. But what really puts an exclamation mark on just how bad her situation is, is when she's attacked and almost has her eyes gouged out by a creature possessing superhuman speed and strength. Battered, dazed and confused, she believes she has encountered a faerie (not fairy, as those are cute) and turns to an ex-friend for help, Jennifer Airhart.The two had bonded as children and been close as sisters. But, as they grew, Jennifer became increasingly shy of and withdrawn from the world while Kaya found herself drawn to others who seemed outwardly stronger - and may have encouraged Kay's more aggressive tendencies, particularly toward Jen.Because of the evidence Jen is compelled to help, and together they embark on an adventure that sees them come up against the rambling CEO of a research and development company, ‘faeries’, changelings, Killer Aqua Bunnies, and The Little Queen - a tired young girl who won’t rest until she’s had revenge.Taking inspiration from fantasy and folklore and presenting it as exciting science fiction, The Little Queen is a fun adventure and thriller that will leave you asking one question - Just where the hell did that lighthouse computer come from anyway?

THE SINS is a collection of three flash fiction stories. The stories are each in the point of view of a main character who is trying to change their current life, who refuse to settle for anything but their dream. The stories consist of fiction, supernatural and suspense. "Anthos" is a flash fiction about a character named Aurora who awakens confused on how she is alive in a different world named Anthos. You see, when people on Earth die they are reincarnated to Anthos but are forbidden to expose themselves to Earth. What are they hiding? Aurora meets Wyatt who is also missing his family on Earth. Will they break the law or will Aurora learn how to function in Anthos?Being "Murdered" isn't easy but being stuck on Earth is just plain unfair. Hailey must reveal the truth but when her murderer finds an accomplice willing to make sure Hailey does not succeed, what is she to do? Whether talking a walk or taking a run anything outside of Haley's home is her perfect "Escape" but what happens when that is not enough?In this flash fiction story titled "The Frayed Rope" Jade and Jess walk through the woods and stumble upon a dangerous scene. In fear of their lives being on the line, will they do what is right or will the fear kept them shut?

The last time I saw my best friend’s younger brother, he was a geek wearing braces. But when Cannon shows up to crash in my spare room, I get a swift reality check. Now twenty-four, he’s broad shouldered and masculine, and so sinfully sexy, I want to climb him like the jungle gyms we used to enjoy. At six-foot-something with lean muscles hiding under his T-shirt, a deep sexy voice, and full lips that pull into a smirk when he studies me, he’s pure temptation. Fresh out of a messy breakup, he doesn’t want any entanglements. But I can resist, right? I’m holding strong until the third night of our new arrangement when we get drunk and he confesses his biggest secret of all: he’s cursed when it comes to sex. Apparently he’s a god in bed, and women instantly fall in love with him. I’m calling bullshit. In fact, I’m going to prove him wrong, and if I rack up a few much-needed orgasms in the process, all the better. There’s no way I’m going to fall in love with Cannon. But once we start... I realize betting against him may have been the biggest mistake of my life. THE ROOM MATE is a full-length standalone romance.

Cold-blooded predators lurk in the Everglades—and not all of them are gators When Jesse Crane returned to his roots to serve on the Miccosukee police force, he'd hoped to leave behind the violence of the city and the memories of his murdered wife. But bodies start to pile up in Jesse's corner of the sultry Florida swampland… As he probes these crimes, Jesse is drawn to the beautiful Lorena Fortier, a new hire at the local gator farm and research facility. Lorena is a little too interested in Jesse's investigation, but before he can uncover her true motives, they're both pulled into a dangerous web of greed, ambition and animal cunning. To survive, they'll have to decide whether they can trust each other…before the hunters become the hunted. BONUS BOOK INCLUDED IN THIS VOLUME! The Sheriff of Shelter Valley by USA TODAY bestselling author Tara Taylor Quinn Six months ago, Beth woke up with no memory of her past, a bruised face and a little boy who called her "Mama." Until her memory returns, the most dangerous thing she can do is to fall for the sheriff—the one man who can uncover the truth and destroy the person she's become.

From New York Times best-selling author Samantha Towle comes a sexy and laugh-out-loud stand-alone romance… Vaughn West is at the height of his acting career. He’s the it man of Hollywood—until the ultimate betrayal sends him into a downward spiral of alcohol-infused days, ending with a different woman in his bed every night. His only way out of the funk is accepting a new movie deal with the hottest director in Hollywood. Charlotte Michaels is a designer-brands girl on a thrift-store budget until she lands the mother of all jobs as Vaughn West’s wardrobe assistant on his latest movie. Only their first meeting doesn’t go as planned, and now, Vaughn is acting like a jerk. So, why do their clothes seem to keep falling off whenever they’re around each other? And why can’t Charly seem to keep her mind in the closet and off Vaughn? Things are about to get hot, dirty, and messy in Hollywood. Especially if Charly’s closely guarded secret falls out of her closet.

From the New York Times bestselling author of A Million Little Pieces and Bright Shiny Morning comes Katerina, James Frey’s highly anticipated new novel set in 1992 Paris and contemporary Los Angeles. A kiss, a touch. A smile and a beating heart. Love and sex and dreams, art and drugs and the madness of youth. Betrayal and heartbreak, regret and pain, the melancholy of age. Katerina, the explosive new novel by America’s most controversial writer, is a sweeping love story alternating between 1992 Paris and Los Angeles in 2018. At its center are a young writer and a young model on the verge of fame, both reckless, impulsive, addicted, and deeply in love. Twenty-five years later, the writer is rich, famous, and numb, and he wants to drive his car into a tree, when he receives an anonymous message that draws him back to the life, and possibly the love, he abandoned years prior. Written in the same percussive, propulsive, dazzling, breathtaking style as A Million Little Pieces, Katerina echoes and complements that most controversial of memoirs, and plays with the same issues of fiction and reality that created, nearly destroyed, and then recreated James Frey in the American imagination.

Along with completely original material, this new collection is a compilation of the best of Dennis Lehane's previously published short fiction, including "Until Gwen," which was adapted for the stage in 2005 and appears in this book as the play Coronado. By turns suspenseful, surreal, romantic, and tragically comic, these powerful tales journey headlong into the heart of our national myths—and reveal that the truth awaiting us there is not what we would expect.

The Billionaire’s Club: The wealthiest, most powerful men, not only in Chicago, but in the world.  They are used to having whatever they want, whenever they want it. Luke Preston is the ultimate playboy among his billionaire friends.  Every bad girl in Chicago has surrendered in his bed.  Some good girls, too.  But when he ends up in the hospital after an assassination attempt, his friends suggest he take a long vacation to recoup, regroup and lay off the women until the man is caught.  However, when Luke lays eyes on the stunning brunette across the beach, she inspires every dark, erotic thought his mind can conjure. Peyton Lane has always been serious and responsible and she’s determined to have some fun for once in her life.  And that means a deliciously, sexy affair with a stranger while she’s on vacation.  So when a blond Adonis named Luke crosses her path at the Cancun resort, she’s determined that he will be the one. But Peyton gets more than she bargained for when Luke introduces her to a passion unlike any she has ever experienced and she discovers that behind that charming smile are secrets and a beautiful, damaged soul.   Red Garnier takes readers deep into a world of incredible emotion and undeniable power and possession. Also, don’t miss CLAIMED BY HIM, the first unforgettable story in The Billionaire’s Club, available now.

Imagine this... The power of imagination has been lost! Now it's all about the artillery as AD52s, crystal shooters, spikejack tumblers, and orb cannons are unleashed in a war of weapons and brute force. As Alyss searches wildly for the solution to the disaster that has engulfed her queendom, Arch declares himself King of Wonderland. The moment is desperate enough for Alyss to travel back to London for answers, where Arch's assassins are threatening Alice Liddell and her family. But after coming to the Liddells' assistance, Alyss discovers herself trapped in a conundrum of evaporating puddles. The shimmering portals that exist to transport her home through the Pool of Tears are disappearing! What is happening in Wonderland? Deep within the Valley of Mushroom the Caterpillar Oracles issue this prophecy: "Action shall be taken to ensure the safety of the Heart Crystal. For Everqueen." But who is Everqueen? As the metamorphosis of Wonderland unfolds, enemies become allies, bitter rivals face off, and Queen Alyss and Redd Heart must both confront their pasts in this thrilling, no-holds-barred conclusion to the New York Times bestselling series.

In the sequel to Summer of My German Soldier, Patty Bergen sets out to find Anton’s mother—and the love she lost It has been six years since Patty Bergen hid German war prisoner Anton Reiker in the room above her family’s garage. Six years since Anton was hunted down and killed before Patty’s eyes. Six years since she was branded a “Jew Nazi-lover,” kicked out of school, and sent to a reformatory. No one in the small town of Jenkinsville has forgotten what she did, and Patty’s graduation from high school is bittersweet. As lonesome as ever, Patty decides to use the money her parents set aside for college tuition to travel to Europe in search of Anton’s mother. But while Patty searches for the last connection to her lost love, she might find even more than she was looking for. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Bette Greene including rare photos and never-before-seen documents from the author’s personal collection.

THE ABDUCTION Dominic Alistair, Marquis of Vidal is a bad lot a rake and seducer, reckless, heedless, and possessed of a murderous temper. He is known by friend and foe alike as the "Devil's Cub." Yet as the handsome and wealthy heir to a Dukedom, he is considered a good prospect on the marriage market. Vidal currently has his eye on the young, lovely, and unintelligent Sophia Challoner, and Sophia's greedy mother is more than happy to encourage his dubious attentions. When lovely, saucy Mary Challoner had practiced her bold deception upon the hot-blooded, fiery-tempered young Marquis of Vidal--substituting herself for her young sister he had thought to carry off to France--she had little notion he would grimly hold her to her part of the bargain. Now he had left her, and she was alone, a stranger in a strange land, prey to the intrigues of glittering, heartless, 18th century Paris. Only one person could rescue her--the Marquis himself. But how could she ever trust this man? How could she even hope to overcome the contempt in which he held her? And how could even the sudden flowering of her love ever bridge the terrible gap between them?

They say young love isn’t real. It’s only our bodies full of raging hormones, and our minds filled with lust that make us think we are in love. I can tell them that they’re wrong. Young love is real. It can, and it does exist, at least in my seventeen year old life. My name is Claire Montgomery, and I come from a family of snobs. Born into wealth, against my will, my family will do just about anything to uphold the perfect Montgomery name. I ruined that for them the day my car broke down on the side of the road and I met the love of my life, Sam Snow. Sam is from Santa Ana and I’m from Newport Beach. Even though, I come from a family of wealth, I want nothing to do with any of it. I like the simple things in life, like Sam. My family doesn’t approve of him and they try to keep us apart. The last thing I remember is waking up in the hospital with no memory of my life. This is my journey after my accident to figure out who I am and who I was. The road to recovery isn’t easy but the one thing that stayed with me after the accident was the soft voice and words that I’d never forget. “If your love was true and eternal, you will find your way to each other again.”

The girls at Modesta High School feel like they're stuck in some anti-feminist time warp-they're faced with sexism at every turn, and they've had enough. Sponsored by their new art teacher, Ms. Stark, they band together to form the Daughters of Eve. It's more than a school club-it's a secret society, a sisterhood. At first, it seems like they are actually changing the way guys at school treat them. But Ms. Stark urges them to take more vindictive action, and it starts to feel more like revenge-brutal revenge. Blinded by their oath of loyalty, the Daughters of Eve become instruments of vengeance. Can one of them break the spell before real tragedy strikes?