Caleb is a man with a singular interest in revenge. Kidnapped as a young boy and sold into slavery by a power-hungry mobster, he has thought of nothing but vengeance. For twelve years he has immersed himself in the world of pleasure slaves searching for the one man he holds ultimately responsible. Finally, the architect of his suffering has emerged with a new identity, but not a new nature. If Caleb is to get close enough to strike, he must become the very thing he abhors and kidnap a beautiful girl to train her to be all that he… (more)

Persistent faith brings redemption and reconciliation.Propelled by blind love, Mary Rachel Buckmeyer defies her father to elope with Caleb Wheeler. The newlyweds run off to California then partner with his cousin in his dry goods business.Unbeknownst to the young bride, her new husband sends his kissing cousin ahead. He wants his love and his new wife’s money, too. Betrayal and murder drive Mary, soon a young mother, to the depths of despair. But she hates the man who loves her enough to cover her sins and deliver her out of the horrible pit she’s dug for herself in. Or does… (more)

Who really killed JFK? What happened in Roswell, New Mexico? Is Elvis still alive? Was the moon landing staged? In this short story collection, today’s top fiction authors pull back the curtain on the biggest conspiracies of all time. Explore the JFK assassination, Area 51, the moon landing, the surveillance state. Meet a French spy posing as Abraham Lincoln, play a video game designed by the CIA, watch “Suicide Mickey.” Learn the truth about Adolf Hitler and Elvis Presley.Twelve short stories, twelve conspiracy theories, twelve twisted rabbit holes.Hold on to your hats… (more)

Sydney’s Observatory on a balmy summer evening is the perfect venue for a cocktail party and, it would seem, a murder, for Peter Van Goren’s body is discovered bludgeoned to death in the grounds.The first question Detective Chief Inspector Fitzjohn must answer is why Van Goren was present given his name does not appear on the guest list.The second is what was the subject of Van Goren’s vehement argument with Richard Carmichael, one of the function’s hosts.Meanwhile, Richard’s son, Ben Carmichael, a photojournalist, returns to Sydney from an overseas assignment to find his fiance, Emma Phillips, has gone missing.Although… (more)

Eighteen-year-old Jenny Morton has a horrific secret: her touch spreads a deadly supernatural plague, the “Jenny pox.” She lives by a single rule: Never touch anyone. A lifetime of avoiding any physical contact with others has made her isolated and painfully lonely in her small rural town.Then she meets the one boy she can touch, and her life begins to change. Jenny feels herself falling for him, but first Jenny must learn to use the deadly pox inside her to confront her new enemy, a girl who secretly wields the most dangerous power of all… (more)

Tom Reed is a crime reporter with The San Francisco Star, whose superb journalistic skills earned him a Pulitzer nomination. But years later Reed’s life is coming apart. His editor wants him fired. His wife has left him to wrestle with his demons. Alone, Reed is tormented by the fear he may have caused the suicide of an innocent man suspected of murdering a two-year-old girl.Reed’s friend on the case is legendary San Francisco Homicide Inspector, Walt Sydowski, who has one of California’s highest clearance rates. He is also a lonely widower haunted by the fact he cannot… (more)

Before she can become the greatest empress in history, fifteen-year-old Sophie will have to survive her social-climbing mother’s quest to put her on the throne of Russia — at any cost.Imperial Court holds dangers like nothing Sophie has ever faced before. In the heart of St. Petersburg, surviving means navigating the political, romantic, and religious demands of the bitter Empress Elizabeth and her handsome, but sadistic nephew, Peter. Determined to save her impoverished family — and herself — Sophie vows to do whatever is necessary to thrive in her new surroundings. But an attempt on her life and an unexpected… (more)

Meeting him was fate, loving him was a choice, and spending the rest of my life with him… well, that was destiny.”At the brink of adulthood Jess thought she had it all figured out, that was until her parents split and her mom whisked her away to the middle of nowhere. Her Grandpa’s farm was the last place on earth she wanted to be, and with no cell phones, internet or cable she was destined for a summer of boredom.Man of Her DreamsClint Foster, the man who has everything going for him. Successful, charming and downright gorgeous; Can Clint… (more)

Retirement is a time for knitting, gardening, and an occasional quiet lunch with friends, according to Kathleen Williamson.Her sister Andrea has an altogether different point of view.When the sisters go to the Canaan Valley to search for paintings mentioned in a document found in an old hotel once owned by their grandparents–paintings that might be Monets–Andrea immediately becomes involved in tracking down a murderer.Kathleen would much rather be looking for the paintings, but she goes along with Andrea, since the victim was their hotel-keeper, murdered just down the hall from their room. The question is: Does the… (more)

Fresh from college and with no real work experience, Victoria Westernly considers herself lucky to land the coveted position of personal assistant to Darien Ritter, the CEO and owner of a multibillion-dollar company. His busy schedule and eccentric ways are enough to keep her on her toes. But, all is not what it seems when she discovers the handsome man employing her just happens to be the most powerful vampire in the area.This is the first book in The Ancient Fire Series. It is part one of two… (more)

Haven’t you ever told a little lie in the name of love? Vivia Grant couldn’t be happier. She has her dream job and is about to marry her dream man. Does it really matter that she’s led him to believe she’s a virgin? After all, being in love makes every experience feel like the first time anyway! But an unexpected encounter with an ex-lover is about to expose her embarrassing lie… When Vivia’s fiance discovers the truth, he ends their engagement–via text–and uses his connections to get her fired. Unemployed and heartbroken, Vivia begins planning her new… (more)

When their hard-drinking, but loving, father dies in a car accident, teenage brothers Kyle and Klint Hayes face a bleak prospect: leaving their Pennsylvania hometown for an uncertain life in Arizona with the mother who ran out on them years ago. But in a strange twist of fate, their town’s matriarch, an eccentric, wealthy old woman whose family once owned the county coal mines, hears the boys’ story. Candace Jack doesn’t have an ounce of maternal instinct, yet for reasons she does not even understand herself, she is compelled to offer them a home.Suddenly, the two boys go from… (more)

The Enchanted Life of Adam Hope is an unconventional and passionately romantic love story that is as breathtaking and wondrous as The Time Traveler’s Wife and The Story of Edgar Sawtelle.During WWII, teenager Evelyn Roe is sent to manage the family farm in rural North Carolina, where she finds what she takes to be a badly burned soldier on their property. She rescues him, and it quickly becomes clear he is not a man… and not one of us. The rescued body recovers at an unnatural speed, and just as fast, Evelyn and Adam fall deeply in love.In The Enchanted… (more)

Available to readers for the first time, Sucker’s Portfolio showcases a collection of seven never before published works from Kurt Vonnegut, one of the greatest writers of the 20th century. Short, sardonic, and dark, these six brief fiction stories and one non-fiction piece are consummate Vonnegut with piercing satire and an eye for life’s obscene inanity. Also available for the first time is an unfinished science-fiction short story, included in the appendix. These stories trace trivial human lives and mundane desires, which is precisely where Vonnegut’s inimitable perspective as a humanist shines, illuminating his alternating hopeful and dismal… (more)

Set in rural New York state at the turn of the twentieth century, superb new talent James Scott makes his literary debut with The Kept — a propulsive novel reminiscent of the works of Michael Ondaatje, Cormac McCarthy, and Bonnie Jo Campbell, in which a mother and her young son embark on a quest to avenge a terrible and violent tragedy that has shattered their secluded family.In the winter of 1897, a trio of killers descends upon an isolated farm in upstate New York. Midwife Elspeth Howell returns home to the carnage: her husband, and four of her children, murdered. Before… (more)

From the PEN/Malamud Award-winning author of Lucky Girls comes an intricately woven novel about secrets, love, art, identity, and the shining chaos of every day American life.Yuan Zhao, a celebrated Chinese performance artist and political dissident, has accepted a one-year artist’s residency in Los Angeles. He is to be a Visiting Scholar at the St. Anselm’s School for Girls, teaching advanced art, and hosted by one of the school’s most devoted families: the wealthy if dysfunctional Traverses. The Traverses are too preoccupied with their own problems to pay their foreign guest too much attention, and the dissident… (more)