Be careful as you approach the garden of spinal thorns: some of the flowers and bones are too fragile and too helpless, others are spiky and unbent. They can sting or heal you. The same applies to words. Some of them will soothe you, make you feel loose, and some may hurt you, like an unavoidable truth you never wanted to hear. But in the end, you will know that it was all needed, so you could grow into the beautifully-ornamented skeleton you support, flourished and blossomed. With spikes and all.This is an autopsy of the heart and the soul of the young.
Author: Décio Coelho
Rating: 
5 reviews
Know Me Well: A Small Town Southern Romance (Wishful Romance Book 2) by Kait Nolan
WARNING: Contains a sexy ex-marine, a stubborn, independent woman, and an incurably romantic BFF with matchmaking tendencies.Welcome back to Wishful, Mississppi, full of eccentric characters and southern charm, where author Kait Nolan delivers another heart-warming story of a strong, successful woman and the equally strong man who learns how to be her partner.Liam Montgomery is the last person who’d call himself a hero, but he does have a tendency to try to save the world. Now that he’s left the Marine Corps and returned to Wishful, he feels out of place and unsure of what comes next. He does know one thing: The girl who used to look up to him like a brother is all grown up. No way he can see her as a little sister now. And she won’t give him the time of day.Riley Gower isn’t holding out for a hero. In fact, a knight in shining armor is the last thing she wants. She’s been watching her mother chase that fairy tale for most of her life, with Riley the one left to pick up the pieces of unhappily ever after. Running Wishful’s downtown pharmacy is a dream Riley’s worked toward for years. Now that the business is finally hers, the realities of the current economy have made it seem like the dream is falling apart. So when her mother calls, expecting yet another rescue, Riley feels like she’s spread thinner than the last pat of butter at Sunday dinner.It’s hard enough for a woman like Riley to admit she could use a hand, but mixed up with the embarrassment of a childhood crush and the devastating attraction sizzling between them? No way. Liam is determined to help, but taking down insurgents is less complicated than infiltrating Riley’s defenses. This will require reinforcements. And a plan.Q: What makes the Wishful series special? Wishful is a collection of southern romance novels honoring my Mississippi roots. When I started the series, I set out to highlight everything that I love about living in the small town South–all our quirks, foibles, and dreams provide a fabulous (and often funny) backdrop to contemporary romances about stubborn, independent women and the men who love them. Q: Who would dig these books?Wishful is a southern romance series written for anyone looking for love in a small town. If you loved Hart of Dixie and miss the residents of Bluebell, you just might fall in love with Wishful. It’s a town where everybody knows your name and hope springs eternal! My many of my readers also enjoy the books of Susan Elizabeth Phillips, Kristan Higgins, Melanie Shawn, Ava Miles, and Jill Shalvis.Q: What order should I read the books in?This southern romance series has been written so that each story is a standalone that wraps up with a happily ever after by The End. That said, if you want to read them in chronological order I suggest this:* To Get Me To You (Cam and Norah)* Be Careful, It’s My Heart (Brody and Tyler)* Know Me Well (Liam and Riley)* Just For This Moment (Myles and Piper)* Wish I Might (Reed and Cecily), part of the Virtually Yours anthology* Turn My World Around (Tucker and Corinne) Q: Are there crossovers with other series?YES! My Meet Cute Romance series of novelettes includes two Wishful stories.* Once Upon A Coffee (predates To Get Me To You)* Once Upon A Setup (the prequel to Just For This Moment)And my Wishing For A Hero series is more of the small town romance you love with a darker tone and shot of suspense.*If I Didn’t Care (Autumn and Judd)
Author: Kait Nolan
Rating: 
5 reviews
Torch by Roxie Noir
I lost her once. I can’t lose her again.I fight wildfires. It’s dirty, sweaty, and dangerous, but there’s nothing else like it. There’s no adrenaline boost like a hundred-foot wall of flame. There’s no victory better than saving a town.Particularly when the town you save is your ex-girlfriend’s.Clementine’s that ex. The one I haven’t seen in eight years. The one I thought I was going to marry.We were over a long time ago, and there was a good reason why. There were a hundred good reasons, and I know every single one by heart.Or at least, I thought I did. The more time I spend with Clementine, the harder they are to recall.She’s still hotter than any fire I’ve ever fought. Still the same feisty, whip-smart, headstrong girl I fell for. When we’re together, it feels like eight years may as well have been eight minutes.I already know how this story ends: we go down in flames. Crash and burn.But I’ve never loved anyone like I loved Clementine. Not even close.Maybe some fires are worth rekindling.Torch is a steamy standalone romance!
Author: Roxie Noir
Rating:
5 reviews
Tales of Intrigue & Plumage by Catherine Arra
Author: Catherine Arra
Rating:
5 reviews
All I Want for Christmas: A Kinnison Legacy Holiday novella by Amanda McIntyre
PERSISTENCE. PERIL. PARENTHOOD.Not necessarily in that order.Rein Mackenzie is doing his darnedest to give Liberty her wish of starting a family. Ready for action every time his wife’s ringtone–Wild Thing–summons him, the man is giving parenthood his best shot.Liberty Mackenzie knows she and her husband have had their share of heartache in the baby department, but both feel certain it’s only a matter of patient persistence before they get what they want. And Rein, bless his heart, can be very persistent.But just before Christmas, when fate offers them the chance to test drive parenthood with taking in a young boy to care for whose life is more complicated than it should be, they realize that having a child and raising a child are two very different challenges that every good parent faces.
Author: Amanda McIntyre
Rating:
5 reviews
The River Snakes by Adam Darby
The man’s plan is to smuggle ketamine lozenges down the Missouri River from Montana to Kansas City. All he needs now is a worthy captain for the voyage. Kidnapped outside a cornfield, Seth quickly learns it’s impossible to escape from the man. But after a few days, a couple bodies, a thousand miles or so of highway, he finds the line between captive and accomplice beginning to disappear. Seth’s not the first person the man ever kidnapped. There’s four of them now; just enough for the man’s plan. Not long after Seth meets the others, they’re paddling down the Missouri River in two canoes with packs of ketamine stacked between the seats. They’re given maps and instructions and sent off to trade drugs for cash across the Midwest.Seth’s hands are blistered, his skin sunburned. He doesn’t trust the others but has to count on them to survive. Danger lurks around every bend in the river. There’s storms to look out for, angry landowners, drug addicts, thieves and police. But the biggest danger lurking is what’ll happen if something goes wrong, if the man doesn’t get what he wants.
Author: Adam Darby
Rating:
5 reviews
Mail Order Family (Fortune Creek Romance Book 1) by Amy Callahan
A Sweet, Clean, Modern Day Mail Order Bride RomanceTanner Holt neither wants nor needs a wife. For the wealthy rancher, his daughter Chloe, foreman Josiah, and ranch hands are all the family he needs.Chloe Holt loves her dad, but she needs a mom. So, armed with her dad’s credit card, the ten-year-old finds them the perfect wife and mother. She prays that the pretty lady with the kind eyes will give them a chance…. and that her dad doesn’t ground her for life when he finds out! Heather Ayer is down on her luck and has just done the craziest thing. She applied to a mail order bride agency. Marrying a man she’s never met is crazy. Then again, maybe it’s the fresh start she needs.Mail Order Family is a short, 23,000 word story. It is a contemporary mail order bride romance with inspirational and Christian themes of family, faith, and love. As always, it is clean and wholesome with a guaranteed happily ever after ending.
Author: Amy Callahan
Rating:
5 reviews
Lost Sunshine by Lynn Daniels
A collection of short poems about the journey to rock bottom and the subsequent challenge of attempting to repair a severely damaged psyche.
Author: Lynn Daniels
Rating:
5 reviews
The Bad Guys by Paul Hostovsky
Who are the bad guys, anyway? Which one is the good fight, anyway? In Paul Hostovsky’s eighth book of poetry, The Bad Guys, there are poems about suicide bombers and high school bullies, capricious exes and ecstatic bums, fastidious drug-dealers and contemplative alcoholics, evil stenches and spiritual moms; poems about the Republicans, the mega-hospitals, the brusque and bearded anesthesiologists, and the lady who gave out pencils on Halloween. Plus a host of other unlikely, often likable, always loveable, candidates. These poems are by turns funny and poignant, formal and free verse—a villanelle here, a pantoum there, and lots of loosey-goosey sonnets peppered throughout. Of Hostovsky’s poetry Thomas Lux has said: “Hostovsky’s poems strike me as kinds of non-religious prayers—of joy, of grief, of praise, of pain…but mostly prayers as a form of gratitude, a kind of thank you, thank you, Life!”
Author: Paul Hostovsky
Rating:
5 reviews
Caught Me Dreaming by Sophia Jenkins
Shanisha “Neeci” Lee is a star…in her head. Right now she’s still a struggling singer in Baltimore trying to find her big break. In the meantime she is struggling, working a dead end job, with a beat up car and a rundown apartment. Her luck begins to change when she gets a gig at the Coffee Cat Club that has the potential to change her life. But just when she gets excited she runs into him: Sha’quan Long, a gorgeous man who she was once burned by. Unfortunately they are forced together which begins a series of events that turn their hate into potential love. As they try to figure out which it is they both find themselves in a position to make their dreams come true or have them turn into nightmares. Will Neeci sing the sweet song of love and salvation or will they both end up singing the blues?
Author: Sophia Jenkins
Rating:
5 reviews