Short Family

Snuggle up around the fireplace with these three-feel good short holiday stories for the family. They show healing from the past, embracing the past while creating new memories for the future as well as teaching that not all fruits of betrayal are rotten. Some can grow into a love you never knew you needed. Enjoy the read and share it with the family!

Sisters argue. They also make up. Sometimes one of them gets scared. Sometimes a big sister has to overcome her own fear, and sometimes she has to help a little sister overcome hers.

Katherine Sutton might have walked away from a successful career without any clear plan about what to do next in her life, but in the weeks since, all that has changed.The old house on Sourwood Street is finally hers and she now has a friend and partner in the adventure. Cory is almost as excited about the speed and success of the ongoing renovations as she is. And they are taking full advantage of the hidden secrets they've discovered in the old house. But the old house isn't the only thing that’s on Cory’s mind these days. She’s been spending more and more time with Jed Morgan. ...

Some bonds can never be completely broken…though they can be damaged to the breaking point…When Claire and Pamela meet alone for the first time in over a year both know there is much to be said…but does it need to be? Both sisters struggle with all that has taken place in recent years and the knowledge that rehashing it would do little but deepen the chasm between them. Each are aware that this meeting was…destined. And that it is up to the two of them to decide what path it takes and where they go from there. But sometimes the unexpected happens… The Andersen Saga is a story of ...

Who was St. Joseph? Why did Jesus want him as his foster-father? Pope Francis, declaring 2021 the Year of St. Joseph, invites everyone to "discover in Joseph—the man who goes unnoticed, a daily, quiet and hidden presence—an intercessor, a support and a guide in times of trouble." He also states that "In Joseph, Jesus saw the tender love of God." God chose St. Joseph as His favorite carpenter—and to be the man who taught Jesus how to be a carpenter. But St. Joseph never speaks a single line in all the Gospels. How to discover someone who is so quiet? 'God's Carpenter' lets us discover ...

For an imperial assassin, assignment as a courtesan in the Floating World seems like a waste of her talents...until killers target her clan sisters. In the legendary Floating World, wars are waged with wit, the strongest soldier can be bound with threads of silk, and flesh is the currency by which life, death, and freedom can all be purchased. Half-elf Jie bemoans her temporary assignment as a Night Blossom in the most sought-after house, even if it's the perfect cover for her real work as an assassin in the emperor’s service.

It is All Souls Day, and the spirit of Marcus Conway sits at his kitchen table and remembers. In flowing, relentless prose, Conway recalls his life in rural Ireland: as a boy and man, father, husband, citizen. His ruminations move from childhood memories of his father's deftness with machines to his own work as a civil engineer, from transformations in the local economy to the tidal wave of global financial collapse. Conway's thoughts go still further, outward to the vast systems of time and history that hold us all.

She wants the adventure of a lifetime. He needs to heal old family wounds. If they are going to help each other, they cannot fall in love along the way.

Where there’s a Will, there’s not always a way in Japan. For the unsuspecting, risks and dangers lurk in the shadows of Japan’s unique inheritance system. These fictional short stories illuminate the real-life system’s inner workings in an easy-to-understand format. A revealing, entertaining window into a rarely seen corner of modern Japanese life. The protagonists represent a cross-section of modern Japan (urban and rural, suburban and expat). What links them all is how they confront the inheritance system's unexpected risks and deal with them in equally unexpected ways. (Earlier ...

When a sweet, curvy woman is matched with a guarded single dad, love feels within reach—but so do their insecurities. Laurel is ready for a fresh start after a toxic relationship that left her doubting her own worth. Tired of men who don’t see beyond her curves, she takes a chance on the True Curves Matchmaking Agency. Laurel dreams of finding someone who will treasure her for her kindness and loyalty, not just her looks. What she didn’t expect was to be paired with Noah—a quiet, devoted single dad with shadows of his own. Since losing his wife, Noah’s entire world has revolved ...

In these stories, inspired by long-lost photographs, the lives of the people in the frame are imagined and then explored, layer by layer. What must have it like to be them? We share the lives of three sisters, brought up in Penang. We hear of what happened to them, and to their Chinese neighbours caught in the tides of war. We see a group of small boys in a Glasgow slum, their young lives stunted by poverty, and hear how life worked out in contrasting ways for them. We follow a young woman's search for love in the unlikely realm of Egyptian antiquities.

Ginny O'Toole has spent a lifetime repaying her family's debt, and she's finally at the end of her servitude with one last job. Of course, it couldn't be easy. After stealing the computer files that will free her once and for all, she finds herself on the run from a pissed off vampire who has never fallen for her helpless act. A deadly predator too sexy for his own good. If he doesn't knock it off, he's going to see just how powerful she can really be.

A young woman leaves her parent's home for the twelve hour drive home, with her German Shepherd Sarge along. A horrible storm and a downed tree force her car off the road and down a steep mountain side where it crashes into a tree, far from the sight of the road. Trapped in the car, her only hope of rescue is Sarge and his military training while serving with troops in Iraq. It's a daunting journey to find a way back up to the road, and he faces many challenges along the way. This is an amazing story of one dog's determination to save the woman he loves before it's too late.

In 1956, Updike published a story, "Snowing in Greenwich Village," about a young couple, Joan and Richard Maple, at the beginning of their marriage. Over the next two decades, he returned to these characters again and again, tracing their years together raising children, finding moments of intermittent happiness, and facing the heartbreak of infidelity and estrangement.

Annamae Hartman shouldn’t be alive. After nearly dying from a fever that addled her brain, she doesn’t take anything for granted and has found joy again in the simple things. No matter how much Sawyer Mills brings her joy, he is not simple! When she refuses to see him after a botched proposal, the last thing she expected was to be quarantined with him, alone, with the same fever that nearly claimed her life. When the minister insists, Annamae marries Sawyer for proprietary’s sake. She does it reluctantly and ends up half-married to a man who has no recollection of the wedding!

Cheer on as karma delivers justice to entitled JERKS! It's a sad truth that some people think they deserve special treatment because of their job, appearance or social status. Or just because it's Tuesday. These self-centered jerks act as if the world revolves around them, while pushing down anyone who stands in their way. Demanding sacrifices and obedience from their friends, co-workers and even complete strangers. But what happens when karma catches up to these self proclaimed elites, and delivers them a hefty dose of justice? Deliciously satisfying and humorous results. And the odd ...

They say money can’t buy love. But what about fame? Ever since rock legend Ziggy Barnes died in a fiery plane crash, his family members have been struggling to put their lives back together and find love. Fans of reality TV and family dramas will love these three steamy romance novels.

Frances and Ginger Park, authors of both children's books and young adult novels, based this inspiring and deeply affecting tale on their own mother's childhood. Winner of the International Reading Association Award, My Freedom Trip features a courageous girl named Soo who makes a desperate bid for freedom by journeying from North Korea to South Korea. Her father awaits across the border, but to achieve her new life, Soo must leave her mother behind.

Enjoy the romance, suspense, and humor in this collection of short stories. In award winning “Mabel and the Garage Sale,” Mabel’s house rests in the path of a proposed highway. As Mabel sorts her things to move, she recalls the colorful characters who’ve passed through her life. The story, “Delphine and Rainelle,” poses the question, is a marriage worth saving at all costs? In “Joy Ruth and Minnie Hendrix” the ladies find more than arrangements for a funeral over at Miller’s Funeral home. Newlyweds, “Wally and Bun,” are set for life as they fly off in a hot air balloon...

Family meant everything to Ayden Stratton. It always had even when he didn’t always allow it to show. Because of that, he understood the fury in Tobias Blaise’s eyes when they learned that his sister had been dragged out the backdoor of her restaurant despite every effort to stop her from being kidnapped. Fury didn’t begin to describe what he saw in his brother’s face. Cassidy Blaise might be Tobias’s sister, but she was Benjamin’s entire world. Tobias Blaise never expected to find any woman he wanted to spend his life with, let alone one who looked at him the way Ellis did, ...