Short Family

Polly’s fourth-grade daughter has been spending a lot of time with her classmate Sylvie—maybe too much. Sylvie’s clothes are a little…flashy…and her phone (a ten-year-old with a phone!) doesn’t seem to have any parental controls. It seems that Sylvie’s mother, with her vape pens and her too-high heels, may not be making good choices. As Polly tries to exert a positive influence, she discovers just how little anyone can tell about a family from the outside.

A woman with a broken past, a man with a fragile heart, two people who realize they can be the salve for each other’s wounds. After tragedy destroys Cara McGregor's family, her only choice is to become a mail-order bride to a widower in the Dakota territory. When she arrives, she’s thrust into taking care of three resistant children and a distant man. James Cassidy doesn’t want a new wife, but he needs a mother for his children and helpmate around his farm. Since the jobs go hand-in-hand, he reluctantly takes out a mail-order advertisement to acquire what his family needs. What ...

Two husbands secretly agree to a night of passion - with each other's wives; a slighted old man takes an elaborate and chilling revenge on his tormentor; a sculpture comes between a scheming wife and her put-upon husband.... Lust highlights a domestic familiarity always on the edge of something much, much darker.

Sevastiano Cantarelli can barely believe Amy Taylor is real. After the lifetime of betrayal he’s experienced, her surprising sweetness is the ultimate threat to his cynical worldview! Unwrapping her innocence was a gift he couldn’t forget...but one he knows it wouldn’t be fair to repeat. Their encounter left Amy exhilarated - and wanted for the first time. She knows that walking away from the commanding Italian is the safest way to keep her heart intact. Yet it’s the one thing she can’t do...because she’s pregnant with Sevastiano’s twins!

The Duke of Greystoke’s Christmas Revelry is famous throughout the British Isles for its plays, dancing, magical grotto...not to mention scandals leading to the marriage licenses he hands out like confetti. But not everyone welcomes a visit from Cupid.

The unsolved murder of a farm family haunts the small, white, off-reservation town of Pluto, North Dakota. The vengeance exacted for this crime and the subsequent distortions of truth transform the lives of Ojibwe living on the nearby reservation and shape the passions of both communities for the next generation.

Eva Gray has a secret. Eight years ago her sister entered the Brothers of Sin Motorcycle Club and never came back. Seven years ago she vowed revenge, even if she had to change everything about her life to do it - her look, her name, her face. Now she's stalking the Brothers and looking for weakness. She's close to achieving her goal, so close she can taste it. But a prominent federal judge is now in ICU, and Eva's the only one who can prove the club hired the hit.

Dive into this thrilling bundle featuring three erotic stories of younger men exploring the boundaries of passion with their older, more experienced counterparts, harboring secrets no one else can know. Featuring: Dad's Secret Grandpa's Secret My Elder's Secret

In The Girl of the Lake, Bill Roorbach conjures vivid, complex characters whose layered interior worlds feel at once familiar and extraordinary.

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes. Highway Thirteen, Fiona McFarlane’s newest collection, takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more.

A woman seeking refuge. A man out of his depth. A set of orphaned twins. Rosemary Clark toils daily at the Morton Match Factory. Though she has wonderful friends, she yearns for a family of her own. The Matrimonial Times offers the opportunity to start a new life in Colorado with a dashing sawyer. Before her courtship is complete, Rosemary must flee westward after an alarming incident with the factory supervisor. But when she arrives, no one is waiting. She travels to the sawmill, only to be confronted with the shock of a lifetime... Grant Ferguson loves his work at the sawmill in Hidden ...

A Grammy-winning lyricist and accomplished poet, Joe Henry turns his immense talent to the novel form in this moving debut. Spencer Davis and his wife Elizabeth have carved out a rewarding existence on the fierce plains of Wyoming, where they raise three sons alongside herds of cattle. But as their oldest son Luke comes of age and begins testing the boundaries of his independence, Spencer fears that their simple way of life may not be enough for Luke.

A wounded U.S. Marshal. A Princess in peril. And an enemy that refuses to back down. Tucker Caine is scarred, gruff, and as rugged as the Colorado mountains. He’s made it painfully clear that I’m a thorn in his side. Too bad neither of us has a choice. And if he thinks I’ll crumble under his scowls, he’s in for a surprise. Tuck’s brooding blue eyes see through my defenses, stirring emotions I’ve spent my life hiding. Yet he locks himself behind walls of rough edges and biting words, guarding his pain like a fortress. Still, he can’t hide the rare flickers of kindness that slip...

During the hectic Christmas season, slow down with these heartwarming stories from some of literature’s most beloved writers. In this collection, listeners will discover lesser-known but tender stories and poems from classic authors they know and love. Each selection celebrates the beauty, mystery, and joy found in the season that commemorates Christ’s birth. A Vintage Christmas includes stories from Louisa May Alcott, Charles Dickens, Nathaniel Hawthorne, Harriet Beecher Stowe, Mark Twain, and many more great writers....

Pamela is a newly retired teacher with time on her hands. She’s finding it hard to muster enthusiasm for what’s ahead: exhausting postdivorce dating rituals and an uneasy relationship with her emotionally stunted, live-at-home son. But for Pamela, there’s a surprise in store that could challenge the status quo and, against all expectations, make life interesting again.

The Complete Series 6 Books in one boxed set! Clean and Wholesome American mail order bride historical western short story romance by bestseller and Kindle All-Star author Katie Wyat! Journey with the courageous women in this five-book historical mail-order bride series as they step out in faith, searching for true love and a home to call their own.The American Wild West was a time of lawlessness and danger, but also a time of deep courage…and not just from cowboys! Countless mail-order brides made the journey west to marry, not knowing what they would find on the other side of the ...

I know I've been bad, but the man of the house always likes to spoil me. He won't punish me, right? It turns out, he knows exactly how to keep me in line…I need a responsibility. And to grow one in my belly, I'll need him HARD, FAST, and WITHOUT PROTECTION. Warning: This is a taboo erotic story. All characters are over the age of 18 and not related by blood. Adult readers only.

Margot's reservoir of romantic feelings for her husband, Drum, is running dry. But while the family is on vacation in Nantucket, Margot finds an opportunity to potentially regain her romantic love for her husband - in the form of Hadley Axelram, his ex-girlfriend. She is counting on jealousy as a relationship defibrillator. But after forcing her surfing-god husband to make plans for a surfing lesson with Hadley and her son, Margot is left to reminisce about the summer she fell in love with Drum, and the unexpected blossoming of their relationship. When she sees Drum and Hadley spending time together, will the spark reignite - and will her marriage be saved?

Four children's Great books, all rolled into one. best for bedtime stories beginner / early reader poetry for kids. best animals stories, value tales

These 12 stories - published over the last five years in Harper's, The Best American Short Stories, McSweeney's, Playboy, and other publications - veer from comic tales of love to social satire to suspenseful crime fiction, from hip Portland to once-hip Seattle to never-hip Spokane, from a condemned casino in Las Vegas to a bottomless lake in the dark woods of Idaho. This is a world of lost fathers and redemptive conmen, of meth tweakers on desperate odysseys and men committing suicide by fishing.