Merry Christmas! Your child will enjoy this cute Christmas book full of fun stories and Christmas jokes.* Excellent for early and beginning readers* Great for reading aloud with friends and family* Christmas stories and adventures about Christmas* Funny and Hilarious Christmas jokes & illustrations for kids* Christmas coloring book downloads includedMerry Christmas! Your child will enjoy this cute Christmas book full of fun stories and Christmas jokes.This is an excellent read for early and beginning readers. Big and bright illustrations for younger readers!* Excellent for early and beginning readers* Great for reading aloud with friends and family* Christmas stories and adventures about Christmas* Funny and Hilarious Christmas jokes & illustrations for kids* Christmas coloring book downloads includedThese stories are great for quick bedtime stories and cute tales to be read aloud with friends and family!

The Twelve Crimes of Hannah Smith is a series of crime stories, following the stellar fortunes of art thief Hannah Smith.Acolyte to Priestess contains the first six of Hannah's twelve crimes, each charting the on-the-rise career of arch thief Hannah Smith. All of Hannah's crime stories are free and they can also be read on Alp Mortal's website.The Twelve Crimes of Hannah Smith is a series of crime stories, following the stellar fortunes of art thief Hannah Smith.Acolyte to Priestess contains the first six of Hannah's twelve crimes, each charting the on-the-rise career of arch thief Hannah Smith. All of Hannah's crime stories are free and they can also be read on Alp Mortal's website.... Hannah got back into the car and drove down the driveway towards the gates, which did not open immediately; she waited. Eventually, they did open and she waved as she drove out; it had been touch and go all along. Her relief in not having to ram the gates and pay out for the damages to the car was palpable ...Audacious, brilliant and cunning, Hannah may have fallen into thievery but having tasted of the forbidden fruit, no other path offers anything quite as sweet as the chance to alleviate the rich and powerful of their most treasured possessions.The Twelve Crimes of Hannah Smith, of which Acolyte to Priestess charts the first six, and which Goddess to Infinity charts the second six, are the prequel to the crime trilogy, The Virtue of Dishonesty, which will appear later in 2016.I am always very happy to receive your feedback. Please visit my website for updates on the next gay romantic story or crime thriller which I am working on.Thank you,Alp Mortal

Zombies.Nasty. Scary. Hungry.Never thought I'd become one.But, somehow, my brain didn't rot away and I maintained my human mind and will.Hi. I'm Alex Henry. And this is my story of how I went from being a human with no life to a zombie battling against the rising zombie onslaught. This is how it all began.THIS IS THE PREQUEL TO "THE HUMAN SIDE OF A ZOMBIE - THE STORY OF ALEX HENRY" AND "ONCE A ZOMBIE, ALWAYS A ZOMBIE - THE STORY OF ALEX HENRY."Zombies.Nasty. Scary. Hungry.Never thought I'd become one.But, somehow, my brain didn't rot away and I maintained my human mind and will.Hi. I'm Alex Henry. And this is my story of how I went from being a human with no life to a zombie battling against the rising zombie onslaught. This is how it all began.2014: Hey - writing this was a lot easier than living it. Let me know what you think. - Alex

A collection of poems and short stories. The poetry is inspired by emotions. Anger, joy, love and spirituality all find their way out in them. The short stories are studies in different genres. There is humor in the Wiki-esque biography of Popeye the Sailor and the irreverent "When the Music Stops", fantasy in the "Bonds of War" and drama in "Silver Lining".A collection of poems and short stories. The poetry is inspired by emotions. Anger, joy, love and spirituality all find their way out in them.The short stories are studies in different genres. There is humor in the Wiki-esque biography of Popeye the Sailor and the irreverent "When the Music Stops", fantasy in the "Bonds of War" and drama in "Silver Lining".It is my hope that you will find something in these pages that will give you pause. Pause to remember the simplicity of a child's laughter, the joy of discovery, the realization that love has found you or just the unadulterated ability to laugh.Life has shown me so many of the stories and poems in this book. Life has shown you the stories that made you who you are. Take the time to allow your own tales find their way back into your memories. Let my stories remind you of your own forgotten treasure.

This is a book of poetry that I have written over the years ever since I've began writing. They're about many different women and many different things. I've broke some hearts over the years and I'm here to tell the world my story. Thank you for everyone that's reading my books I do this for ya'll! It's more coming soon just stay tuned with me!Twenty-something Jenny Campbell's life has been a series of screw-ups, and the latest one endangered her little brother's life. But when she falls for sophisticated Gabe Harrison, she has a chance to turn her life around...if she can keep her past a secret.Gabe's career as a successful doctor has left just enough time for his teenage children and little else. But when beautiful, vivacious Jenny comes along, she breathes love and happiness into his lonely life. There's only one problem: their families are opposed to their relationship. Money and age differences mean nothing to Gabe as long as they have trust, love, and respect.

A teenage boy ventures through a world devastated by a drug known as Chem 1 and eventually finds success he never expected.A teenager is recruited by a woman (Macy) who appears to be a police officer yet wholly partakes in both Chem 1 and Chem 2. She is much older, but they decide to date. He feels not like a lover but like one of her kids. She introduces him to Chem 1 and he experiences hallucinations, delusions, and thoughtful inspirations about the nature of death. Frightened and confused, he spends less time with Macy. Soon, he learns from one of the Captains that Macy intends for him to achieve some purpose as an "archetype." The captain, on Chem 2, explains that he's going to be famous. When Adam uncomfortably leaves his house, he is struck by a vehicle and sustains a brain injury.The book is about mental health and psychology, and contains those relevant depictions of what goes on in the mind of a unique boy dealing with a harsh science fiction reality.

What if I told you that the only reason you were safe, was because of the stars that shine in the sky? Ailey knew nothing about the world which fate has thrown her into. The guardians that have stood watch over humanity for countless years are now in danger. Ailey will have to fight alongside the man who has captured her heart but who also the hatred of an enemy more powerful than any before.What would you say if I told you there was more to the stars than meets the eye? What if I told you that the only reason you were safe, was because of those stars?Ailey Grant had a plan, she was going to graduate and go to college. Life doesn't always follow your plans though. After losing her parents, Ailey is throwing away her plans and taking time for herself. She's going to travel the country and figure out what she is going to do now that she is alone. She almost achieves this before life throws her through another loop and into the arms of a man she just met. Tossed into a world she didn't even know existed, with beings as old as time itself, she will have to adjust her plans once again. After hundreds of years of being on top, these ancient beings are finding that they are not invincible, and that they have an enemy that is far more cunning and powerful than they have ever seen before. Ailey is caught in the middle and has to choose to either run away or stand with them as they face this new threat. Finding a new purpose, she embraces this new life full of powerful beings that have stood watch over humanity for countless years. Trying her best to help, Ailey will have to rely on her instincts and put her trust in these timeless guardians if she hopes to save the man who seems to have captured her heart.

For the first time together in one volume, the complete short story collection starring Sookie Stackhouse—with a new introduction from the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the series, Charlaine Harris. For the first time together in one volume, here is the complete short story collection starring Louisiana’s favorite telepathic waitress, Sookie Stackhouse—from #1 New York Times bestselling author Charlaine Harris. New fans can fill in the gaps in their Sookie lore while old friends can revisit some of their favorite moments and characters. From investigating the murder of a local fairy to learning that her cousin was a vampire, from remodeling her best friend’s house to attending a wedding with her shapeshifting boss, Sam, Sookie navigates the perils and pitfalls of the paranormal world. Belly up to the bar at Bon Temps’s favorite watering hole and hear stories that will make you wish Sookie never left, including... “Fairy Dust” “One Word Answer” “Dracula Night” “Lucky” “Gift Wrap” “Two Blondes” “If I Had a Hammer” “Small-Town Wedding” “Playing Possum” “In the Blue Hereafter” This definitive collection is the perfect binge read for people who like their stories with bite! **Review Praise for Charlaine Harris and her Sookie Stackhouse novels   “It’s the kind of book you look forward to reading before you go to bed, thinking you’re only going to read one chapter, and then you end up reading seven.”—Alan Ball, executive producer of True Blood “Vivid, subtle, and funny in her portrayal of southern life.”—Entertainment Weekly “Charlaine Harris has vividly imagined telepathic barmaid Sookie Stackhouse and her small-town Louisiana milieu where humans, vampires, shapeshifters, and other sentient critters live…Her mash-up of genres is delightful, taking elements from mysteries, horror stories, and romances.”—Milwaukee Journal Sentinel “The series continues to be inventive and funny with an engaging, smart, and sexy heroine.”—The Denver Post “Blending action, romance, and comedy, Harris has created a fully functioning world so very close to our own, except, of course, for the vamps and other supernatural creatures.”—The Toronto Star About the Author Charlaine Harris is the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the Sookie Stackhouse and Midnight, Texas, fantasy/mystery series and the Aurora Teagarden, Harper Connelly, and Lily Bard mystery series. Her books have inspired HBO’s True Blood, NBC’s Midnight, Texas, and the Aurora Teagarden movies for Hallmark Movies & Mysteries. She has lived in the South her entire life.

The dramatic lives of two bold, independent adventurers--Paul Gaugin and his grandmother Flora Tristan, a trail-blazing women's suffragist--as imagined by "one of the master storytellers of our time" (Chicago Tribune Book World) In 1844, Flora Tristan embarked on a tour of France to campaign for workers' and women's rights. In 1891, her grandson Paul Gauguin set sail for Tahiti, determined to escape civilization and paint primitive masterpieces. Flora died before her grandson was born, but their travels and obsessions unfold side by side in this deft, utterly absorbing novel. Flora, the illegitimate child of a wealthy Peruvian father and French mother, grows up in poverty, and after fleeing a brutal husband, journeys to Peru to demand her inheritance. On her return, she makes her name as a popular writer and a champion of the downtrodden, setting herself the arduous task of touring the French countryside to recruit members for her Workers' Union. Paul, struggling painter and stubborn visionary, abandons his wife and five children for life in the South Seas, where his dreams of paradise are poisoned by syphilis, the stifling forces of French colonialism, and a chronic lack of funds, though he has his pick of teenage Tahitian lovers and paints some of his greatest works. Affectionate, astute, and quietly caustic, this double portrait is a rare study in passion and ambition, as well as the obstinate pursuit of greatness in the face of illness and death, from Mario Vargas Llosa, whose previous novels, "The Feast of the Goat," "pushed the boundaries of the traditional historic novel [in] a book of harrowing power and lasting resonance" ("The New York Times").

The Dark is rising in its last and greatest bid to control the world. And Will Stanton -- last-born of the immortal Old Ones, dedicated to keeping the world free -- must join forces with this ageless master Merriman and Bran, the Welsh boy whose destiny ties him to the Light. Drawn in with them are the three Drew children, who are mortal, but have their own vital part in the story. These six fight fear and death in the darkly brooding Welsh hills, in a quest through time and space that touches the most ancient myths of the British Isles, and that brings Susan Cooper's masterful sequence of novels to a satisfying close.

A tie-in edition of the Sunday Times bestselling contemporary thriller, to coincide with the release of the Golden Globe award-winning film directed by Roman Polanski; starring Pierce Brosnan and Ewan McGregor. 'The moment I heard how McAra died I should have walked away. I can see that now...' The narrator of Robert Harris's gripping new novel is a professional ghostwriter - cynical, mercenary, and with a nice line in deadpan humour. Accustomed to working with fading rock stars and minor celebrities, he jumps at the chance to ghost the memoirs of Britain's former prime minister, especially as it means flying to the American resort of Martha's Vineyard in the middle of winter and finishing the book in the seclusion of a luxurious house. But it doesn't take him long to realise he has made a terrible mistake. His predecessor on the project died in circumstances that were distinctly suspicious, and the ex-prime minister turns out to be a man with secrets in his past that are returning to haunt him - secrets with the power to kill. The Times has called Robert Harris 'the leading current exponent of the intelligent literary thriller'. The Ghost is his most compelling novel yet.

After being forced to leave HMS Dolphin and Jaimy, her true love, Jacky Faber is making a new start at the elite Lawson Peabody School for Young Girls in Boston. But growing up on the streets of London and fighting pirates never prepared Jacky for her toughest battle yet: learning how to be a fine lady. Everything she does is wrong. Her embroidery is deplorable, her French is atrocious, and her table manners--disgusting! Then there's the small matter of her blue anchor tattoo. . . . Despite her best efforts, Jacky can't seem to stay out of trouble long enough to dedicate herself to being ladylike. But what fun would that be, anyway?

Fans of Laini Taylor’s Daughter of Smoke and Bone will love this second book in the Maeve'ra trilogy by Amelia Atwater-Rhodes that asks the question: how much is one life worth, and when is the price too much to pay? Some lines should never be crossed. Sixteen-year-old Kadee is proud to be a part of the Obsidian guild, whose members refuse to bow to anyone in Midnight—including the vampires who claim to rule this world and the shapeshifter royals who obey them. She knows firsthand what it’s like to live with the Shantel and serpiente, and she’ll never forgive these shapeshifters for taking her from her real father as a sick and frightened human child. Fortunately, Kadee is the master of her own life and decisions now, but some of the choices she’s made to protect her Obsidian family—and one of her peers in the guild—have begun to haunt her. Praise for Bloodkin:  "Like all of Atwater-Rhodes’ heroines, Kadee is brave and brash but still has realistic doubts. Fans of the first volume will appreciate this solid follow-up."--Booklist    "This rich story is recommended for libraries serving readers with an avid interest in fantasy. The book ends on an action-packed cliff-hanger, generating a ready-made rapt audience for the conclusion of the trilogy, due to be released in 2016."--VOYA  "In this second installment in the trilogy, Atwater-Rhodes thickens the plot and carefully crafts a tale of suspense and intrigue."- -The Bulletin   ** ** From the Hardcover edition.

For years, Mitford's sixtysomething rector has been happily married to his parish. Now he's also married to Cynthia, his vivacious next-door neighbor. For Father Tim, life in Mitford has never been so full of surprises. His wife is "aging" his already ancient kitchen walls, not to mention burning his draperies. The mountain boy he's learned to love as his own makes a heartrending decision. And the agony of mastering the church computer system is as boggling as the pandemonium that breaks loose when his quiet rectory becomes a nursery. All this, however, is small potatoes compared to what happens on a wilderness camping trip that sends him home a changed man. In These High, Green Hills, Jan Karon takes her readers on a heartwarming and hilarious visit to Mitford, where her lovable characters always inspire laughter, tears, and fresh hope.

When Kate Mitchell decided to research the mysterious portrait in the student gallery, she had no idea how her life would change. She thought she knew what she wanted in life. She had a great boyfriend, a promising career, and a clear path. How could one simple portrait change all that? A photograph. A sculpture. A painting. One clue leads to another, and Kate learns that pieces of the past might leave unexpected marks on her own future, too. And how, exactly, did she end up in an irritable sculptor's studio? One portrait may hold the answers, but learning its secrets will challenge everything Kate thought she knew about love, art, and life. A single picture can tell more than one story, and in the end, a young artist will discover that every real love story is a unique work of art.

I wrote this novel just after the burst of the Dot Com bubble, as a commentary to the insanity and self-indulgency that gripped Wall Street and American businesses during a time when no investment could fail and billionaires were created overnight. I wanted to explore the immoral side of the dot-com era greed that spread across America, but I also wanted to temper it around a story of overcoming life’s hardships.  Inside Traitors is this story. It is a contemporary novel about betrayal and the insatiable desire for money, but is woven around a story of overcoming inner torment, grief and life’s adversities.  This is my first released novel. The work is just fewer than 100,000 words in length.  I hope you enjoy it.

Time is almost out for the Keepers of the School in this fifth Keepers adventure from Andrew Clements, the master of the school story.The Keepers of the School—known to their friends as Ben, Jill, and Robert—have one last chance to save their school before it's torn down to make room for a seaside amusement park. But their nemeses, Janitors Lyman and Wally, are just as determined to keep the kids out of the way and the demolition on schedule.One way or the other, this battle is about to come to a head. When all is said and done, will the school still be standing? Or will everything the Keepers have fought for be destroyed?

Three teenage descendants of Medusa, the once-beautiful Gorgon maligned in myth, must reunite and embrace their fates. Grace just moved to San Francisco and is excited to start over at a new school. The change is full of fresh possibilities, but it's also a tiny bit scary. It gets scarier when a minotaur walks in the door. And even more shocking when a girl who looks just like her shows up to fight the monster. Gretchen is tired of monsters pulling her out into the wee hours, but what can she do? Sending the minotaur back to his bleak home is just another notch on her combat belt. She never expected to run into this girl who could be her double, though. Greer has her life pretty well put together, thank you very much. But that all tilts sideways when two girls who look eerily like her appear on her doorstep and claim they're triplets, supernatural descendants of some hideous creature from Greek myth, destined to spend their lives hunting monsters. . . .

Berger presents a collection of moments, each supremely vivid, that together make up a frieze of human history at the end of the millennium as well as a subtle and affecting self-portrait of their author. Using careful, intensely visual prose snapping frozen vignettes of life, these twenty-nine "photocopies" teach us about lying and self-invention, dignity and tenderness, charity and courage. Overflowing with the sights, sounds, and smells of life, Photocopies is a masterpiece from one of the most important chroniclers of our time. From the Trade Paperback edition.

The Hatford boys' New Year's resolution is "the girls can stay . . . but only if they play by our rules." Their mother insists that they "treat those girls as though they were your sisters." Okay, but somehow theboys' interpretation owes more to sibling rivalry than to brotherly love. The one weak link is young Peter, who doesn't understand the rivalry, openly likes the girls, and sees nothing wrong with sitting in their kitcheneating homemade cookies and answering questions about his brothers' plans. Readers will find themselves laughing out loud at the pranks, the conversations, and one unforgettably embarrassing moment. The high-flying humoris juxtaposed with the budding affection between Josh and Beth and the way all the children pull together during a blizzard. The fifth entry in Naylor's refreshing series chronicling the feud between the Hatfords and theMalloys. "From the Hardcover edition."

In this companion novella to The Girl with the Iron Touch, American cowboy Jasper Renn finds himself in a situation his lightning-fast skills cannot rescue him from… After surviving a triumph-turned-tragedy in New York City, Jasper is determined to secure a happier future with his gifted band of friends. So when the group's mechanical genius Emily is abducted, he'll plunge into England's darkest places to rescue her…. But his old flame Wildcat is turning London town upside down to find her missing sister, and Jasper finds the attraction between himself and the fierce beauty as tempting and dangerous as ever. Their trail leads deep into the city's most unusual circus. Soon, Jasper will find his loyalties—and future—tested more than he could ever imagine…. And don't miss Jasper's continuing exploits in The Girl with the Iron Touch by Kady Cross, available now from Harlequin TEEN.