Short Family

“Look at her flush,” Lucy whispered. “Oh, please tell me you flush like that when you come.” After another disastrous Tinder date, I turned to my friend Lucy for support. She was there for me, as she always was, and even told me that I couldn’t be as bad looking as I thought I was. When I told her I was looking for the opinion of a guy, she offered a solution. Her husband, the handsome and loyal Evan, was home. He could provide me with his honest opinion. When Evan started to compliment me on my looks, I beamed with pride. And when Lucy joined in, touching me in ways that no woman...

"Nuevo perro" **************** Fue un día terrible para el alegre y negro gato ¡Sus padres adoptaron a un perro, en un solo rato! Un caniche tan pequeño que no podía dañar a un ratón Actuaba como si mandara en la casa y creía tener la razón.

Hildie and Ben Woodman were not able to have children; however, they found an abandoned little girl on their way into town five years ago who has brought so much happiness into their lives. Prior to this happening, Hester Newson enjoyed gossiping about Hildie's inability to have children and seemed to draw quite the crowd when sharing her bits of gossip. Ironically, the Woodman's little angel, Joy, is also the same age as Hester's daughter, Darla. The community soon discovers what an amazing voice Joy has, and she is chosen over Darla to do the solos in the school programs and church ...

It’s been a while since Patrick Andersen has seen his twin sister. It’s been even longer since the two of them were able to sit down and talk about anything more substantial than the weather or the kaleidoscope of world events. He was on his way to his aunt’s where Pamela had been living for the last year since the last final split with her husband to find out why. More importantly he wanted to do whatever he could to change it.During his visit he reconnects with a childhood friend and finds out that he’s not the only person who is interested in how his newly-single sister is doing....

He’s her small-town ex. She’s his biggest what-if. Can a neglected orchard and a little cider magic give them a second chance at love? Desirae Lane never planned to return to Cedarwood Valley. But when her glittering city career crumbles, she’s forced to confront the overgrown orchard—and the heartbreak—she left behind. Selling her grandmother’s farm and escaping small-town gossip seems simple enough… until she runs into Cole Carter. Cole has always been the one that got away—or rather, the one who pushed her away. Now, the ruggedly handsome farmer-next-door is determined to...

The theme of trust, betrayed or fulfilled, runs through this collection of short stories: Parents lead children into peril, husbands abandon wives, wives manipulate husbands, and time undermines all. Love pangs, a favorite subject of the author, take on a new urgency as earthquakes, illnesses, lost wallets, and deaths of distant friends besiege his aging heroes and heroines.

Trust and love are two things that Leah Brady no longer believes in. The quirky freelance journalist with a reckless streak comes to Copper Canyon to attend her friend’s wedding and to escape her abusive ex. She doesn’t expect to fall in love with the kind, warmhearted town and its citizens. Nor does she anticipate befriending a sick little girl and possibly falling in love with the girl’s father, handsome rancher Carter Orbison. Carter Orbison has just signed the divorce papers that should have been signed years ago. With his daughter Amy in desperate need of a bone marrow transplant...

In this moving collection of short stories, James Lee Burke elegantly marries his flair for gripping storytelling with his urbane writing style and complex, fascinating character portraits. The backdrop of the hurricane-ravaged Gulf Coast proves to be a versatile setting for Burke's stories, which cover the scope of the human experience, from love and sex to domestic abuse, to war and death and friendship.

When grandmother Maureen Phelan is surprised in her home by a stranger, she clubs the intruder with a Holy Stone. The consequences of this unplanned murder connect four misfits struggling against their meager circumstances. Ryan is a fifteen-year-old drug dealer desperate not to turn out like his alcoholic father, Tony, whose feud with his next-door neighbor threatens to ruin his family. Georgie is a sex worker who half-heartedly joins a born-again movement to escape her profession and drug habit.

The second novel and first quick-listen title from Sunday Times and New York Times best-selling author Cathy Glass. My Dad's a Policeman is a dramatic and engaging story of a young boy with an alcoholic mother. Lonely, bullied and desperate for a life of happiness and security he tells everyone he meets his dad's a policeman. Fast paced and compelling, this short story from Cathy Glass follows the experiences of a Ryan, a small and lonely 12-year-old boy who struggles to fit in.

Featuring many of the beloved characters from Sylvia Price’s bestseller, The Christmas Arrival, as well as a new cast of characters, Amish Love Through the Seasons centers around a group of teenagers as they find friendship, love, and hope in the midst of trials. Tragedy strikes a small Amish community outside of Erie, Pennsylvania when Isaiah Fisher, a widower and father of three, is involved in a serious accident. When his family is left scrambling to pick up the pieces, the community unites to help the single father, but the hospital bills keep piling up. How will the family manage?...

This foreword is written by the author’s son, Peter. This is a superb collection of 48 short stories my mother wrote in her senior years. There are a few fanciful stories, but the majority are nonfiction accounts. They are accurate recollections of my mother’s young life in Hungary, growing up under German, then Russian occupation. The stories continue through the heroic and tragic Hungarian Revolution, during which my mother left the country of her birth. It was an arduous journey to finally arrive in Canada, her new home, as an immigrant with nothing but the clothes on her back. Yet, ...

Featuring many of the beloved characters from Sylvia Price’s bestseller, The Christmas Arrival, as well as a new cast of characters, Amish Love Through the Seasons centers around a group of teenagers as they find friendship, love, and hope in the midst of trials. Tragedy strikes a small Amish community outside of Erie, Pennsylvania when Isaiah Fisher, a widower and father of three, is involved in a serious accident. When his family is left scrambling to pick up the pieces, the community unites to help the single father, but the hospital bills keep piling up. How will the family manage?...

Denver, Colorado, 1914 Joy Michaels, grieving mother and widow, resides in an aging but remarkable Denver home: a beautiful, three-story Victorian/Queen Anne mansion resplendent with towers, turrets, peaks, and gables and known locally as Palmer House. Palmer House—a most extraordinary refuge for young women rescued from prostitution. Joy and her mother, Rose Thoresen, share the responsibilities of ministering to and mentoring the young women who live under Palmer House’s roof. But now Joy faces an agonizing decision: Should she remain true to the memory of her first love or open her ...

In such acclaimed novels as The Photograph, Family Album, and How It All Began, Penelope Lively has captivated readers and listeners with her singular blend of wisdom, elegance, and humor. Now, in her first story collection in decades, Lively takes up themes of history, family, and relationships across varied and vividly rendered settings.

Returning to Sunset Glade was supposed to be a fresh start, but some secrets refuse to stay buried. Gabrielle Fairway thought she left her small town for good, but when her father's wild theories bring her back, she can't ignore the pull of her old life—or the love she left behind. Sunset Glade isn't the sleepy town she remembers. Shadows linger in the swamp, and Tucker Auric—her high school crush turned town protector—seems to be hiding something much darker than the past. As a panther shifter, Tucker has enough on his plate keeping the local wildlife safe and fending off the rogue ...

These interrelated stories are arranged in two sections, one devoted to virtues ("Bravery", "Loyalty", "Chastity", "Charity", and "Forbearance") and the other to vices ("Lust", "Sloth", "Avarice", "Gluttony", and "Vanity"). They are cast with characters who appear and reappear throughout the collection, their actions equally divided between the praiseworthy and the loathsome.

Leila is on her way home for the holidays. She has a big surprise for her family and friends…only to find out there is a surprise of a different kind waiting for her. Lizzie is so ready for Christmas…she’s also ready to solve the mysterious puzzle Harry found carved into the front of the saloon’s very antique bar. A suggestion from Leila has them searching the saloon yet once again for something else they might be missing. If it exists, it could help solve the old puzzle they were beginning to believe was an impossible feat. Kevin is ready for the holidays too. His and Lizzie’s ...

A Romantic Tourist Town, Cafés…and Dead People? Discover Miranda Rose Barker’s The Fatal Family Reunion Cozy Mystery When Conley George, a widely-disliked man in the small town of Sycamore Grove appears to be murdered during a family reunion, his errant soul comes to the only ghost whisperer in town, Eden Kyle. But the last thing she wants is to help this guy, dead or not. “Do you plan on staying in the kitchen the whole time?” I ask, putting the bat down and walking about the corner. “Ahh! What the -?” “He’s dead, Eden. Just like us.” “I know that. But why is he with ...

A betrayal...a secret baby….an unknown imposter…will Tess survive the wagon train journey to Sunset Hills, Oregon after her life is threatened? And if so, what will she do once she gets there? 1855. Tess Findlay can’t wait to be reunited with her beau who went out west three months ago to mine for gold, saying he’d send for her soon. Even though she hasn’t heard from him, she’s discovered she’s with child and decides to join a wagon train to travel to Oregon to surprise him with the news. When a band of robbers holds up the caravan, Tess is shocked to recognize her beau as one...