It's Christmastime in London, and unwittingly Grace is swirled into the sumptuous and scandalous world of Prince Maksim Rostov. When the unworldly secretary learns he took her innocence in exchange for a business deal, she flees broken-hearted.But when Maksim discovers Grace's pregnancy secret, the ruthless Russian drags her to his guarded mansion in snowy Moscow. There he'll keep her as his captive bride and unwilling princess.... Views: 44
Love is in the air this Christmas with two heartwarming holiday storiesChristmas Bells for Dry Creek by Janet TronstadThe holiday season brings quite a surprise for Virginia Parker. Her former boss, Colter Wells, is back in Dry Creek--with a newly discovered daughter who needs some female guidance. But can one motherless little girl--and the two adults bonded to her and to each other--make up a perfect family?The Christmas Secret by Sara MitchellClara Penrose's bluestocking ways have branded her a spinster among Virginia's elite. Yet a reunion with Dr. Ethan Harcourt rekindles feelings Clara thought long lost. Her second chance finally here, Clara needs only to catch the good doctor under the mistletoe! Views: 44
In this funny, touching collection about music, identity, liars, and love, Geoffrey Becker brings us into the lives of people who have come to a turning point and lets us watch as they take, however clumsily, their next steps.In the title story, an aging black singer who performs only Elvis songs despite his classic bluesman looks, has his regular spot at the local blues jam threatened by a newly arrived Asian American with the unlikely name Robert Johnson. In "Man Under," two friends struggling to be rock musicians in Reagan-era Brooklyn find that their front door has been removed by their landlord. An aspiring writer discovers the afterlife consists of being the stand in for a famous author on an endless book tour in "Another Coyote Story." Lonely and adrift in Florence, Italy, a young man poses as a tour guide with an art history degree in "Know Your Saints." And in "This Is Not a Bar," a simple night on the town for a middle-aged guitar student and jazz buff turns into a confrontation with his past and an exploration of what is or is not real.In his depictions of struggling performers, artists, expectant parents, travelers, con-men, temporarily employed academics, and even the recently deceased, Becker asks the question, Which are more important: the stories we tell other people or the ones we tell ourselves?From Publishers WeeklyIn twelve tightly-coiled stories, Becker (Dangerous Men, Bluestown) mines the thwarted dreams, failed relationships, and wayward lives of chronically luckless characters. The award-winning title story is a good introduction to Becker's work, featuring his recurring muse: the down-and-out musician, in this case an African-American Elvis impersonator upstaged by a Chinese Robert Johnson. "Another Coyote Story" is narrated by a Native-American writer living in Sherman Alexie's literary shadow. In "Jimi Hendrix, Blue Grass Star," a street musician fakes a brain tumor in an effort to woo a beautiful but cold violinist. In "Santorini," middle-aged and recently-dumped Laura makes a play for her best friend's much, much younger son. The cumulative effect of these stories is disheartening; protagonists always end up worse off than they were at the story's start. The rewards Becker offers readers take the form of wry humor and the occasional lapse into grace, alongside the more immediate pleasures of "cigarette and pork grease smell, of cold beers and loud music." Copyright © Reed Business Information, a division of Reed Elsevier Inc. All rights reserved. Review"Black Elvis addresses the most potent of the bittersweet mysteries, herein writ right, that animate our condemned kind: family, loyalty, religion, memory and love. If there were a short story Hall of Fame, Geoffrey Becker would be installed in its rotunda--on the Jumbotron, in fact, keyboard held aloft in much-deserved triumph." --Lee K. Abbott, author of All Things, All at Once: New and Selected Stories"These are wonderful stories, both humorous and deadly serious, and sometimes with a touch of magic as well. If you think you don't know these characters--in all their variations--you surely will before you are halfway through a page." --Elizabeth Strout, author of Olive Kitteridge"Many of the characters in this collection are journeyman musicians--has-beens and never-weres--but make no mistake, Geoffrey Becker is no journeyman himself. He is an artist of the highest order. Without flourish or pretension, Becker delivers these sparkling stories with conviction, verve, and perfect pitch." --Don Lee, author of Wrack and Ruin Views: 44
SWING! Adventures in Swinging by Today's Top Erotica Writers is the definitive anthology of swinging erotica, from a veritable who's who of erotic authors. The stories in this collection contain interludes between men and women and women and men. There are stories involving couples and single women, couples and single men and couples with other couples. There are straight characters, gay characters, lesbian characters and bisexual characters. There are stories of solo performances, one-on-one exchanges, swapping, threesomes, foursomes and more. There are vanilla encounters, sweetened by the flavor of breaking a taboo, and there are harsh BDSM scenarios packed with punishing, painful pleasures. There are love and hate, pain and pleasure, doubt and certainty, elegance and vulgarity and upset and satisfaction. SWING! is, in short, a celebration of all the sexual diversity that is swinging. Views: 44
Twelve-year-old Scarlett is the star and victim of her mum's popular blog—the butt of school jokes, she's eager to stay firmly out of the spotlight. But one evening, she finds a gorgeous kitchen in the house next door, left empty by an elderly neighbour in hospital. As Scarlett bakes, she starts to transform her life, discovering new friends and forming the Secret Cooking Club. But can she fix her family, seal her friendships and find the mysterious secret ingredient? Views: 44
Mason Stark has a problem with minding his own business. This worked to his advantage when he helped bring peace between humans and the alien Tremist. He’s now considered an intergalactic hero, but that hasn’t made school any easier. With his new reputation, any bully with something to prove wants to fight him.With the new peace treaty on shaky ground, Mason is called upon to infiltrate the Tremist school for soldiers. Mason’s bound to find trouble, especially now that he has the power to channel electricity through his Tremist gloves, but when his new classmates begin to disappear under mysterious circumstances, trouble might find him first. The Tremist are working on a secret project, but what Mason discovers goes beyond that, to an ancient, powerful enemy.With that very enemy threatening to invade, Mason must call on his friends, both human and Tremist, to fight. They call him a hero, and now that’s what he must be—even if it requires... Views: 44
A wonderful collection of moral tales, anecdotes, jokes, reports of murders, disasters and mysteries, all originally written for inclusion in a popular religious almanac. Views: 44
