Stories from the Psych Ward: Eva's Story

      Robert Bowker
     Stories from the Psych Ward:  Eva's Story

This short story is a fictional account inspired by real people encountered by the author during his own stay in the mental health ward. Eva's Story portrays a woman suffering from clinical depression, and some of the choices she and her husband must face--and the consequences they must live with.CRANSOF, STAR CLUSTER 24:A top secret techno facility falls prey to a sudden terrorist attack. But the attackers are no ordinary ones.The spectrum’s worst fear has been realised: this is the return of its most ancient, deadly threat … a threat that has lain suppressed for millennia. The return of the ones they call as mystics.FARNOR, THE OUTER SPECTRUM:Elderly master Mantra feels a sudden disturbance within him. One that signals towards a grave threat ahead for their entire realm… SACROGON, STAR CLUSTER 32:For two years now, Ion has lived a reclusive existence, keeping to himself … carrying the scars of a greatly dark past. But now, as chaos begins to stir in the spectrum, Ion’s life twists overnight, and he is thrust into a perilous new world. A world where good and evil clash with catastrophic proportions … while the fate of the entire realm hangs in the balance.As his life changes overnight in the face of this grave new threat, Ion must muster the courage to put away his inner woes and give himself over to a greater cause … and confront the demons of his past along the way.

Read online

  • 712

    There's a Mouse In the Store

      Timothy Ayers
     There's a Mouse In the Store

Judachew, the singing mouse, goes shopping with his friend Riley at a large department store in town. The sight of a mouse in the store has strange and comical effects on the customers and the workers. Riley's greatest fear is that the store manager, her grandmother, will find out she brought a mouse to Boscov's Department store.Judachew, the singing mouse, goes shopping with his friend Riley at a large department store in town. The sight of a mouse in the store has strange and comical effects on the customers and the workers. Riley's greatest fear is that the store manager, her grandmother, will find out she brought a mouse to Boscov's Department store. This book is also available in paperback from CreateSpace and Amazon. https://www.createspace.com/4156527

Read online

  • 712

    Pretender at the Gate

      SJ Garland
     Pretender at the Gate

Captain Esmond Clyde-Dalton's adventure continues as he begins his search for a traitorous document linking many powerful Scottish nobles to the Jacobite cause. With James Stuart poised to cross to the Firth of Forth, will Clyde-Dalton be able to preserve the fragile Act of Union and save the woman he loves from unknown peril?Captain Esmond Clyde-Dalton is as shocked as the rest of the village of Markinch when English soldiers arrive to arrest Philomena Clunes and her father Magnus Clunes on charges of treason in the early spring of 1708. Esmond soon learns the truth of the Philomena’s entanglement with the Jacobite cause as he is commanded to find a copy of a treasonous Jacobite document outlining the Highland Lairds support for James Francis Stuart’s first invasion attempt. With Edinburgh on the brink of falling into enemy hands, Esmond desperately enlists the help of old foes from Markinch to keep Queen Anne safely on her throne. Along with new allies Esmond searches through the dangerous back alleys and glorious drawing rooms of Scotland’s capital. Esmond’s growing fears over whether he has been right to put his faith once again in his old commander is fuelled by the news James Francis Stuart has left the French coast. The old Pretender has enough French mercenaries and Scottish allies to take Edinburgh and most of the highlands. Esmond will face the ultimate choice, save the woman he loves, or find the identities of the men who would see the fall of the new United Kingdom.

Read online

  • 712

    Ashes to Ashes

      Jenny Han
     Ashes to Ashes

New Year's Eve ended with a bang and Mary, Kat and Lillia may not be prepared for what is to come. After Rennie's death, Kat and Lillia try to put the pieces together of what happened to her. They both blame themselves. If Lillia hadn't left with Reeve... If Kat had only stayed with Rennie... Things could have been different. Now they will never be the same. Only Mary knows the truth about that night. About what she is. She also knows the truth about Lillia and Reeve falling in love, about Reeve being happy when all he deserves is misery, just like the misery he caused her. Now their childish attempts at revenge are a thing of the past and Mary is out for blood. Will she leave anything in her wake or will all that remain be ashes?

Read online

  • 712

    I'll Be Your Blue Sky

      Marisa de los Santos
     I'll Be Your Blue Sky

The New York Times bestselling author revisits the characters from her beloved novels Love Walked In and Belong to Me in this captivating, beautifully written drama involving family, friendship, secrets, sacrifice, courage, and true love for fans of Jojo Moyes, Elin Hilderbrand, and Nancy Thayer On the weekend of her wedding, Clare Hobbes meets an elderly woman named Edith Herron. During the course of a single conversation, Edith gives Clare the courage to do what she should have done months earlier: break off her engagement to her charming, yet overly possessive, fiancé. Three weeks later, Clare learns that Edith has died—and has given her another gift. Nestled in crepe myrtle and hydrangea and perched at the marshy edge of a bay in a small seaside town in Delaware, Blue Sky House now belongs to Clare. Though the former guest house has been empty for years, Clare feels a deep connection to Edith inside its walls, which are decorated with old photographs taken by Edith and her beloved husband, Joseph. Exploring the house, Clare finds two mysterious ledgers hidden beneath the kitchen sink. Edith, it seems, was no ordinary woman—and Blue Sky House no ordinary place. With the help of her mother, Viviana, her surrogate mother, Cornelia Brown, and her former boyfriend and best friend, Dev Tremain, Clare begins to piece together the story of Blue Sky House—a decades-old mystery more complex and tangled than she could have imagined. As she peels back the layers of Edith’s life, Clare discovers a story of dark secrets, passionate love, heartbreaking sacrifice, and incredible courage. She also makes startling discoveries about herself: where she’s come from, where she’s going, and what—and who—she loves. Shifting between the 1950s and the present and told in the alternating voices of Edith and Clare, I’ll Be Your Blue Sky is vintage Marisa de los Santos—an emotionally evocative novel that probes the deepest recesses of the human heart and illuminates the tender connections that bind our lives.

Read online

  • 712

    Wish You Were Mine

      Tara Sivec
     Wish You Were Mine

Five years. I would’ve stayed away longer if I hadn’t received the letter. Not a day has gone by that I haven’t thought about her, haven’t missed her smile, haven’t wished that things were different. The last time I saw my two best friends, I vowed to not stand in the way of their happiness, even if that meant I couldn’t be a part of their lives. Cameron James and her emerald-green eyes were too much of a temptation and I couldn’t stay and watch them together. Cameron deserved better than me. She deserved him. But now that I am back, things are different. I’m not going to stand by and watch the woman I’ve always loved slip away again. I’m done living my life with regrets and I’m ready to tell her the truth. And I’ll do whatever it takes to show her that I always wished she was mine.

Read online

  • 712

    Forty Signs of Rain

      Kim Stanley Robinson
     Forty Signs of Rain

The bestselling author of the classic Mars trilogy and The Years of Rice and Salt returns with a riveting new trilogy of cutting-edge science, international politics, and the real-life ramifications of global warming as they are played out in our nation’s capital—and in the daily lives of those at the center of the action. Hauntingly realistic, here is a novel of the near future that is inspired by scientific facts already making headlines. When the Arctic ice pack was first measured in the 1950s, it averaged thirty feet thick in midwinter. By the end of the century it was down to fifteen. One August the ice broke. The next year the breakup started in July. The third year it began in May. That was last year. It’s an increasingly steamy summer in the nation’s capital as Senate environmental staffer Charlie Quibler cares for his young son and deals with the frustrating politics of global warming. Charlie must find a way to get a skeptical administration to act before it’s too late—and his progeny find themselves living in Swamp World. But the political climate poses almost as great a challenge as the environmental crisis when it comes to putting the public good ahead of private gain. While Charlie struggles to play politics, his wife, Anna, takes a more rational approach to the looming crisis in her work at the National Science Foundation. There a proposal has come in for a revolutionary process that could solve the problem of global warming—if it can be recognized in time. But when a race to control the budding technology begins, the stakes only get higher. As these everyday heroes fight to align the awesome forces of nature with the extraordinary march of modern science, they are unaware that fate is about to put an unusual twist on their work—one that will place them at the heart of an unavoidable storm. With style, wit, and rare insight into our past, present, and possible future, this captivating novel propels us into a world on the verge of unprecedented change—in a time quite like our own. Here is Kim Stanley Robinson at his visionary best, offering a gripping cautionary tale of progress—and its price—as only he can tell it. From the Hardcover edition.

Read online

  • 712

    The Mask of Apollo: A Novel

      Mary Renault
     The Mask of Apollo: A Novel

“Mary Renault is a shining light to both historical novelists and their readers. She does not pretend the past is like the present, or that the people of ancient Greece were just like us. She shows us their strangeness; discerning, sure-footed, challenging our values, piquing our curiosity, she leads us through an alien landscape that moves and delights us.”—Hilary Mantel In the fourth century BC, Nikeratos is an actor, a devotee of Plato, and a friend of Dion of Syracuse. Their relationship gives Nikeratos rare proximity to the Greek political stage at a moment when ambitions are about to collide. In Syracuse, the young tyrant Dionysios the Younger rules, but Dion is determined to bring democracy and strength to the city. In an effort to curb Dionysios’s excesses, Dion has Plato pose as a tutor—only to learn that the corrupt youth won’t be so easily contained. With a combination of erudition and storytelling force, Renault immerses the reader in intrigue and crafts a vibrant Syracuse that leaps off the page. This ebook features an illustrated biography of Mary Renault including rare images of the author.

Read online

  • 712

    Front and Center

      Catherine Gilbert Murdock
     Front and Center

After five months of sheer absolute craziness I was going back to being plain old background D.J. In photographs of course I’m always in the background... But it turns out other folks have big plans for D.J. Like her coach. College scouts. All the town hoops fans. A certain Red Bend High School junior who’s keen for romance and karaoke. Not to mention Brian Nelson, who she should not be thinking about! Who she is done with, thank you very much. But who keeps showing up anyway... Readers first fell in love with straight-talking D.J. Schwenk in Dairy Queen; they followed her ups and downs both on and off the court in The Off Season. Now D.J. steps out from behind the free-throw line in this third installment of the Dairy Queen series.

Read online

  • 712

    Proving Paul's Promise

      Tammy Falkner
     Proving Paul's Promise

He has watched her from afar… Paul Reed has been raising children since he was a child himself, but he wouldn’t change his life, even if given an opportunity. That is, until one of his brothers says four little words that shake the foundation of his world. “She’s not a lesbian,” shouldn’t be quite so earth shattering, but suddenly the woman he loves is available, and he’ll do whatever it takes to win her over. They call her Friday, and she’s hiding more than just her name... Friday has worked in the Reeds’ tattoo parlor for four years. She’s become more than just an employee, and she loves being in the middle of something so wonderful. She treasures the way the Reeds live for one another, and she adores the way they take care of their family. She would do just about anything to be part of it, if not for the fact that she doesn’t deserve a family of her own. Or does she? Friday is punishing herself for her past, and by doing so, she pushes away the one man who could truly love her. Separately, they’re strong. Together, they’re vulnerable. As a team, they rock. First chapter here: http://tammyfalkner.wordpress.com/201...

Read online

  • 712

    The Fire Between High & Lo

      Brittainy C. Cherry
     The Fire Between High & Lo

There once was a boy, and I loved him. Logan Francis Silverstone was the complete opposite of me. I danced while he stood still. He was quiet, and I was always running my mouth. He struggled to find a smile while I refused to frown. The night I saw the darkness that truly lived inside of him, I couldn’t look away. We were broken together, yet somehow whole. We were wrong together, but always right. We were the stars that burned across the night sky, searching for a wish, praying for better tomorrows. Until the day I lost him. He threw us away with one hasty decision—a decision that changed us forever. There once was a boy, and I loved him. And for a few breaths, a few whispers, a few moments, * I think he loved me, too. *

Read online

  • 712

    Throb

      Vi Keeland
     Throb

The rules:No dating.No sex outside of the game.No disclosing the terms of the contract.Rules were made to be broken, right?Eight weeks ago I signed a contract. One that seemed like a good idea at the time. A handsome bachelor, luxury accommodations, and a chance to win a prize my family desperately needed. There were some rules though. Lots of them actually. Follow the script, no dating, sex, or disclosing the terms of the deal. After my self-imposed moratorium on men the last year, it wouldn’t be hard to live up to my end of the bargain…so I thought. Until I realized the deal I’d made was with the devil…and I was in love with his dirty-talking brother.

Read online

  • 712

    Cinder & Ella

      Kelly Oram
     Cinder & Ella

It's been almost a year since eighteen-year-old Ella Rodriguez was in a car accident that left her crippled, scarred, and without a mother. After a very difficult recovery, she's been uprooted across the country and forced into the custody of a father that abandoned her when she was a young child. If Ella wants to escape her father's home and her awful new stepfamily, she must convince her doctors that she's capable, both physically and emotionally, of living on her own. The problem is, she's not ready yet. The only way she can think of to start healing is by reconnecting with the one person left in the world who's ever meant anything to her-her anonymous Internet best friend, Cinder. ... Hollywood sensation Brian Oliver has a reputation for being trouble. There's major buzz around his performance in his upcoming film The Druid Prince, but his management team says he won't make the transition from teen heartthrob to serious A-list actor unless he can prove he's left his wild days behind and become a mature adult. In order to douse the flames on Brian's bad-boy reputation, his management stages a fake engagement for him to his co-star Kaylee. Brian isn't thrilled with the arrangement-or his fake fiancée-but decides he'll suffer through it if it means he'll get an Oscar nomination. Then a surprise email from an old Internet friend changes everything.

Read online

  • 712

    Charlie Bone and the Beast

      Jenny Nimmo
     Charlie Bone and the Beast

The sixth magical adventure in the NY TIMES bestselling CHARLIE BONE series!Life should be perfect for Charlie now that his parents have been reunited. But mystery and adventure always find him. This time Asa, a fellow classmate who changes into a beast at dusk and Charlie's sometime enemy, is missing. His parents seek out Charlie for help, and now Charlie needs the help of the Flames to rescue his classmate.Manfred Bloor has also taken the new endowed student, Dagbert Endless, under his wing and Charlie is highly suspicious of the pair. Can the Flames and Charlie rescue Asa without being caught by Manfred and Dagbert?

Read online

  • 712