Lost and Found- A Soldier’s Return – R.M. Olivia
When Isiah Johnson returns home after being M.I.A for two years, his wife Kasey doesn’t know just what to expect. After a night of lovemaking, she is feeling satisfied that they are being offered a second chance to correct all that was wrong in their marriage. But is that reality?
Isiah is the walking wounded after witnessing his best friend getting killed. In the midst of his devastation, he decides to take his own life. Luckily, the gun barrel is empty and he survives. Mrs. Johnson, Isiah’s mother has been living with Kasey and the twins while her son was away. Kasey appreciates her mother-in-law’s help; she also resents her intrusive manner.
Her husband may now be with them physically yet emotionally he is gone. With the change in his circumstances, he is no longer battling an outside enemy. He is battling himself. Can his wife help him find the man he once was?
The Holiday Mermaid – Alice Renaud
Adam fell for surfer girl Rowena the second he saw her. But just as their summer fling was becoming serious, she left him without any explanation. Now, with Christmas just a few days away, she’s back… and Adam discovers that she’s a shape-shifting mermaid, from a Clan that hates humans. Can he love her as she is? Can she brave her family to be with Adam for good, not just for Christmas?
Second Chance – Dee S. Knight
Sandy Henderson had been a sweet, wholesome girl in her first year of college, sure of herself and totally in love with her high school sweetheart, Tom Pritchard. Then something happened that shattered her dreams, her confidence, her will to live. When she meets Tom again many years later, she resists taking a chance on love because of her secret, but Tom won’t give up on her. On them. Or will he, once she tells him about her past?
Temperance – Gibby Campbell
Doms aren’t perfect. Sometimes they screw up. When it’s true love, though, they deserve a second chance. Even the tarot cards think so in this erotic short story.
The Handcuff Proposal – Patricia Elliott
Cora Kegan’s day doesn’t end well, and she finds herself fired from her waitressing job. When she returns home, she learns that her roommate ate the last drumstick, which makes her day even worse. Who doesn’t like to drown their sorrows with ice cream?
Especially when that sorrow includes still having the hots for your ex-boyfriend, who just so happens to be your roommate…
What kind of trouble does she find when she visits a strip club to get his attention?
Xposé – Annabel Allan
Arianna Pierson is an up-and-coming journalist with the Toronto Star. Being a newbie, she mainly writes fluff pieces, like baby or bridal showers. Then she gets wind of a story that could break her into the mainstream—the recent disappearance of three girls from the sex club Xposed.
Arianna takes it upon herself to investigate, going undercover as a regular at the club. While there, she runs into Koran Conley, her first kiss and first love from high school. She tries to keep her focus on the story rather than her growing obsession for a man she had thought walked out of her life so long ago. Her lust is a wonderful distraction…until it becomes her life on the line.
Together at Last – Carol Schoenig
Grace Burrows and Ian Hobbs were high school sweethearts. After three years together, they parted with broken dreams and little hope for the future.
Years later Grace visits the lake where she and Ian had spent many a day. It was to say a final good-bye to her lost dreams before moving on with her life. Lost in the memories, she turns to watch a barking dog running toward her. She loses her balance and falls in the lake. A turn of events brings her face to face with Ian. Is it a reunion filled with hope or is it dead in the water?
Flight to the Stars – Zia Westfield
Nine years ago, Talon LaRue left Vega Cosmos without a word. Now he’s back in her life with an offer she can’t refuse. Help him find a stolen database of supernatural beings and she’ll not only establish her business, she’ll also be protecting her family. But Vega discovers there’s much more at stake. Talon’s life hangs in the balance. Is she willing to let go of old hurts to grasp a second chance at love?
A Convict’s Prayer – Jan Selbourne
Famine, disease, poverty and crime dominates 19th century Ireland, and Eleanor Craddock is just one of the thousands convicted of stealing to survive. However, it is her brother Thomas’s treachery that sentences her to transportation to Van Diemen’s Land (now Tasmania, Australia) for fourteen years. The only thing that keeps Eleanor going is her prayer that one day she will earn her ticket of leave, because only then can she apply for her two children to join her on the free emigration scheme. This prayer is sorely tested during the long 13,000-mile journey on the convict ship Hope, the brutal Hobart Cascades Female Factory and her years as an assigned servant to the wealthy Ian Franks. Richard Barnett, horse trainer for Franks finds it almost impossible to break through Eleanor’s hard defensive wall until a theft of important documents. This is a true story of two people finding love again.
Renewing Forever – Virginia Wallace
Most of us wander blissfully throughout our daily lives. We pass in and out of crowds on a daily basis, willfully oblivious to those around us. Anonymity is comforting; it simplifies life. But anonymity is a double-edged sword because it can also provide a mask for monsters, allowing them to walk un-detected among us.
But even monsters often seek a sense of normalcy. They run errands, hold down ordinary jobs, and sometimes they even get married. It is in marriage that the difference between plebeian and monster disappears, for all marriages suffer friction. Conflicts can be caused by issues such as children, money, careers, and cultural differences.
David Wollstonecroft has always tried to be a good husband to his wife, Jillian. Jillian was born into a world of shadows, and secrets; she comes from a society quite different from David’s, and thus their marriage occasionally falters. Lately, it almost seems destined to fail.
David, however, is determined to repair the damage…
Because if he can’t, Jillian might literally tear him to pieces.
Excerpt:
Janelle’s Website
When Jack and I lived in a small town in Virginia, we routinely drove in and out of Richmond and Charlottesville (50 miles and 35 miles respectively) for grocery shopping, plays, dinner, work, etc. and never gave a thought that we were driving those distances on two-lane country roads WITHOUT A DARN CELL PHONE. In fact, there weren’t any cell phones back then. Sure, the thought of breaking down crossed my mind, but houses weren’t spaced out too far, and I just figured I’d walk to one of them and call for help. Now that I have a cell phone? I can’t drive half a mile from home without panicking if I discover I’ve forgotten the phone. I’ve turned into a phone wuss, and I’m not proud of it.
smart phones were out. “You have the oldest phone of anyone I know,” a friend once told me. I smacked the lid down on the screen and said, “I use my phone for making calls. I don’t need all that stuff that comes on smart phones.” Sigh. Or for the naivete! Of course, as soon as I got a smart phone I set up weather, Google, a news app, and Solitaire. I am picking the phone up a hundred times a day to do something on it that doesn’t involve making a call.
Although the author of several local histories, and numerous articles on the topics of American and military history, antiques and collectibles, Henderson’s first love is fiction. Her work in the museum and history fields enables a special insight into the creation of fantasy worlds. The descendent of a coal-miner’s daughter and an aviation flight engineer, her writing reflects the contrasts of her heritage as well as that of her Gemini sign. Her stories cross genres from historical westerns to science fiction and fantasy. In the world of fantasy romance, she is the author of the Dragshi Chronicles and The Windmaster Novels. In her books, she invites you to join her on travels through the stars, or among fantasy worlds of the imagination.
Excerpt from Weighing Anchor:
Anyone who’s ever ordered anything from a catalogue knows that once you have, you’ve condemned yourself to a lifetime of a mailbox filled that catalogue’s brethren, forevermore. It only takes one small, single purchase from even the most obscure catalogue and your name goes on every mailing list for all catalogues, big and small. It’s a racket, and you’re the sucker.
retailers pull out all the stops. Tee shirts have cute sayings on them, each page is alight with candles, fairy lights, flashing outdoor lights, flashing indoor lights, and so on. I love all those lights! I love looking at the beautiful sweaters and coats. I love seeing models standing in snow (because A) it’s not real, and B) I don’t have to stand in it) while they show off the latest winter footwear. Gifts, gifts, gifts! They’re so much fun to look at!!
Excerpt from Weighing Anchor:
I should qualify that title. I’m for the sunshine, if I can watch it from behind a window. I’m not fussy about where that window is—could be in the house or in the car or a restaurant or… You get the idea. Suffice it to say, like Scarlett, I’ve always been one to watch my complexion. Why? Because I burn in nothing flat. Plus, I’m not much of an outdoors person. Plus 2, sunshine means bugs. Flying bugs, crawling bugs, all kinds of bugs. Nope. Not for me. But I am happy to open the blinds and curtains and “Let the sunshine. Let the sunshine in, the sunshine in!” (Courtesy of the 7th Dimension)
the sunshine, it is during the fall. My favorite season, it always seems as though the sky is bluer, the breezes brisker, and the sun most welcome during the autumn. Maybe because we know winter is coming? At any rate, being outside in September, October, or November is a treat. I’ll take the sunshine then, thanks very much!