Short Family

How quickly the ground shifts beneath our feet. We make choices—in the face of love, or violence, or necessity—and the effects ripple outward. In these moving short stories, acclaimed authors examine the foundations of the past, uncovering the irreversible decisions and life-changing encounters that mark the turning point between before and after.

You can’t have faith with the spirit of fear. The ancestors cannot reach you if you aren’t strong enough to believe. REINA is excited about leaving her hometown of Houma, LA. Away from the legends, stares, and whispers that run rampant about her family. She just wants to get away and feel normal for once in her life. Her parents OSCAR and ESMERALDA fear losing their daughter to her independence, not knowing a more menacing force awaits her. After settling into the private university in Alabama, she embraces her freedom. A day trip with one of her roommates, NIKKI, turns into a nightmare...

When Luke Brenner takes an off-the-books job on the MacKenzie-Delta joint task force, he has one goal: shut down sex traffickers on his personal hunt for retribution. This operation brings him closer than he's ever been to avenge his first love, who was taken, sold, and likely dead.... Madeleine Mercier is the daughter of an infamous cartel conglomerate. Their family bleeds money, they sell pleasure, they sell people. She knows no other life, sees no escape, except for one.

She swore she’d never go back. Now she has, but not to stay. Seven years ago, Rebecca King left her Amish community behind. Now, her father’s stroke forces her return to Lancaster County, but only long enough to help him heal. She doesn’t belong there anymore. Not after choosing the English world over her family. Not after breaking Samuel’s heart. Samuel Lapp never stopped loving her. But Rebecca’s return brings whispers of doubt and painful memories he thought he’d buried. When her modern nursing methods clash with Amish tradition, the community questions her loyalty. Samuel ...

*** Amazon #1 Best Selling Author *** He’s Amish. She’s not. Each is looking for a change. What happens when God brings them together? Elijah Troyer is eighteen years old when he decides to go on a delayed Rumspringa, an Amish tradition when adolescents venture out into the world to decide whether they want to continue their life in the Amish culture or leave for the ways of the world. He has only been in the city for a month when his life suddenly takes a strange twist. Eve Campbell is a young woman in trouble with crime lords, and they will do anything to stop her from talking. ...

A seventeen-year-old girl prodigy, physician and first-year resident in the nation's most prestigious pediatric residency program, navigates the new, turbulent and sometimes heart wrenching waters of professional life and romance while masking her true age.

Available as a value box amazon.com/dp/B07Y2B5HJG (copy and paste the link into your browser) Join Emily from Marshall Manor as she prepares for a wedding she doesn’t want to go through with and find out what happens when her entire life changes in a span of a week. It’s a crisp autumn evening and the weather in Chicago is not the only reason for the chill in the air. Promised to an older man when she was just a young girl, Emily has now come of age and is forced to face a long-delayed reality. Living in Marshall Manor has been an exceptional blessing for Emily and her fellow orphan ...

It’s 1974 in the Cherokee Nation of Oklahoma, and 15-year-old Justine grows up in a family of tough, complicated, and loyal women, presided over by her mother, Lula, and Granny. After Justine’s father abandoned the family, Lula became a devout member of the Holiness Church - a community that Justine at times finds stifling and terrifying. But Justine does her best as a devoted daughter, until an act of violence sends her on a different path forever.

Pen/Hemingway finalist Jamil Jan Kochai ​breathes life into his contemporary Afghan characters, moving between modern-day Afghanistan and the Afghan diaspora in America. In these arresting stories verging on both comedy and tragedy, often starring young characters whose bravado is matched by their tenderness, Kochai once again captures “a singular, resonant voice, an American teenager raised by Old World Afghan storytellers.” The Haunting of Hajji Hotak and Other Stories is a moving exploration of characters grappling with the ghosts of war and displacement.

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.

WHITE CAT BLACK CAT - The Hunter ******************************************** One hot summer day, in front of the fan The white cat was sweating as only cats can When outside the window he suddenly spied A tiny bird chirping on the other side. The cat stretched hard, from his back to his front, And thought, “What a great day to go out and hunt!”

In the captivating stories that make up The Empty Family, Colm Tibn delineates with a tender and unique sensibility, lives of unspoken or unconscious longing, of individuals often willingly cast adrift from their history. From the young Pakistani immigrant who seeks some kind of permanence in a strange town, to the Irish woman reluctantly returning to Dublin and discovering a city that refuses to acknowledge her long absence, each of Tibn's stories manage to contain whole worlds.

Question: What does a weathered old, buried chest, five scrapbooks, and a strange strawberry shortcake recipe have in common? Answer: Tabitha Clive! A weathered chest buried under a grove of oak trees on the Clive family farm holds the power to unravel the tightly woven fabric of Tabitha’s family’s past. The year is 2010 and Tabitha Clive, now in her eighties, begins to question everything she knew about her family. Was her family’s history a lie? As Tabitha begins to sort through the items concealed in the long-buried chest, she uncovers a tangled web of heartache that stretches ...

Some secrets are worth coming home for. Others change everything. A Sweet Amish Romance collection with TWO brand new, never before published books from best-selling author Miriam Beiler. Grab four books full of heartwarming romance for less than the price of two individual books! An Amish Homecoming: Can a prodigal son and a grieving widow find love in the face of community doubts? When Eli Zook returns home, widow Hannah Stoltzfus sees past the gosspip but buried truths could destroy their hope. (NEW!) The Amish Farmer Next Door: She needed a miracle to save her family. She got a grumpy ...

Wilder As the oldest St. James sibling, I’m used to everyone relying on me. When planning the company Christmas party gets added to my already overfilled agenda, it’s too much. I yell at my mom and stomp around my office. Everyone thinks I’m a boss behaving badly. Until I see her. She changes everything overnight and now the company Christmas party planner is number one on my to-do list. Ivy I spent every summer in Star Mountain and now I’ve moved here permanently. Everything is falling into place - except I can’t find a job. Luckily, my best friend got me a holiday party planning...

Angelina Gianetti is a lot of things: mother to an absolutely adorable four year old daughter, sister to the world's most spirited wild child, heir apparent of Papa Gino's Famous Italian Cuisine, and a 26 year old widow. Papa Gianetti, her mentor and father-in-law, loves her like his own, and the whole matter of his retirement looks settled and done... Until Vinny shows up at the restaurant for work. Vincenzo Gianetti is several things as well: Papa's nephew, a former Marine, a high placing, extremely controversial contestant on a famous reality television cooking show... And a ridiculously...

He's better than a corned beef sandwich! I'm meeting my sister Mel for St's St. Patrick's day. She said she ordered takeout, but I wasn't expecting a naked celtic warrior in my cauldron. Even if he does come with an extra large pickle. Join the powerful Delazney clan for a magical holiday meal and remember--the extra large pickle goes on the side. Or does it? This is a short, quick read, perfect for a relaxing break or a little ME-time.

Anatoly I’m a man set on revenge, even if it stains my soul black. I didn’t count on the sweet girl that got caught in the middle. She’s my new obsession. So beware. No one touches her ever again but me. This lovely Bratva princess is all mine now. Polina I’m no prize, I’m just a pawn. My father’s dirty money and filthy secrets are what I’m really valued for. If I get hurt along the way, there’s no one to care for or protect me. Except him. The fierce warrior unlike any man I ever knew. He’s caught me. And all I want is more of him. I’m willing to surrender everything. I...

The unstoppable, irreverent mother-daughter team presents a new collection of funny stories and true confessions that every woman can relate to. From identity theft to the hazards of bicycling to college reunions and eating on the beach, Lisa and Francesca tackle the quirks, absurdities, and wonders of everyday life with wit and warmth.

Some bonds are unbreakable...Chris Andersen had spent years throwing himself into one project then another...one painting and then the next one...all in an effort to bury the profound grief he had never completely faced... Enduring is the seventeenth novella in the ongoing story of the Andersen family. Livia Andersen was a woman who held her family together with a quiet smile and an iron will. It’s been months since her death and her children and grandchildren she leaves behind continue to grapple with the shifting changes in their lives now that she’s gone. Chris Andersen is searching ...