An aging star. Four Los Angeles misfits. And the Marilyn Monroe you only thought you knew.
Del Corwyn is an aging relic. An actor who advanced from errand boy to Academy Award nominee, Del kept company with the elite of Hollywood's golden era and shared a close friendship with Marilyn Monroe. Today, however, he faces bankruptcy.
Humiliated, Del is forced to downgrade his lifestyle, sell the home he's long cherished, and fade into a history of forgotten legends--unless he can revive his career. All he needs is one last chance. While searching through memorabilia from his beloved past, Del rediscovers a mysterious envelope, dated 1962, containing an original screenplay by Marilyn Monroe--and proof that she named him its legal guardian.
Del surges to the top of Hollywood's A-list overnight. But the opportunity to reclaim his fame and fortune brings a choice: Is Del willing to sacrifice newfound love, self-respect and his most cherished friendship to achieve his greatest dream?
A story of warmth, humor and honesty, Beautiful Mess follows one man's journey toward love and relevance where he least expects it--and proves coming-of-age isn't just for the young.
After her stellar career at a major corporation goes up in flames, Samantha Newman is in desperate need of a new job, a place of her own, and a second chance at her rocky romance with cyber-expert Carter Chapman. Now there's a dead man next door, and his wife is holed up in the apartment where Samantha is staying.
To make matters worse, a mysterious stalker prowls the balcony. Could it be the real killer?
The murder investigation thwarts Samantha's chance at a new career and drives another wedge between her and Carter. To get to the truth and redeem her reputation, she must dodge an aggressive police detective, an overbearing defense attorney, a nosy neighbor and more than one murder suspect. As she struggles through one alarming possibility after another to identify the killer, she's forced to question her assumptions about her own life and the kind of future she longs to live.
After struggling to accept the changes forced upon her, Margaret Hawkins and her family take a perilous journey on an 1851 immigrant ship to the New World, bringing with her an Irish family quilt she is making. A hundred and sixty years later, her great granddaughter, Maggie, searches for the family quilt after her ex pawns it. But on their way to creating a family legacy, will these women find peace with the past and embrace hope for the future, or will they be imprisoned by fear and faithlessness?
Zane, a seminary and grad school dropout, obtains a USB drive left by a cloaked figure on a bridge in the middle of the night. The drive’s content offers Zane “The Secrets of All Secrets”—a tantalizing proposal for someone who has nothing left to lose. Following the drive’s directions, Zane heads to Florida where he encounters Dali, a poor waitress who received an identical USB. Initially clashing, they band together, taking a chance that The Secrets are genuine as they receive more instructions from their USBs. Four conflicted government operatives; an extremely tall corporate executive with an extremely short, scholarly hit man in tow; and two crackbrained, fringe-element, anti-government separatists are after The Secrets—and are all willing to kill to get them. Zane, Dali, and their pursuers encounter an armadillo festival, visit a nudist resort, and hang out with a presumed dead ’60s rocker. Pandemonium occurs at each venue with Zane and Dali one step ahead of everyone… that is, until all parties convene for a climactic confrontation over The Secrets.
With the death of his father, Benjamin Becker inherited a small estate in his hometown in the Adirondack mountains of upstate New York, which fit in beautifully with his failed marriage and lackluster life. Ben returns home to take stock in his life...to see if there was any way to save it. Was he messing things up...or was someone—something—else? A sexy, emotional thriller!
In Book One of the Shooting Stars Series, Catch a Falling Star, bestselling author Leah Downing introduces Lauren St. Germain, a Federal Investigator accused of assisting the Taliban in a homeland terrorist attack.
Scandal, mystery, and Hollywood's dashing leading man refuse to let her fade from the public's eye. Her relationship status? It's complicated...and that's not even the half of it!
The deadly actions set in motion by Collin St. Germain during the Gulf War created a catastrophic chain of events, resulting in an IED triggered homeland terrorist attack over a decade later. In 2008, Fort Bliss was targeted by one of its own: Army Captain Burak Yilmaz. When it’s discovered that Collin’s wife has close ties to the Captain, she is thrust into the spotlight of a national investigation that leaves her scorned by the nation. Now, the time has come for her to confess what happened—what really happened with her marriage, her trial, and Captain Yilmaz—to the new love of her life before the couple embarks on a perilous mission to Africa. But, when movie star James Bayer learns the truth about what haunts Lauren St. Germain, will he still want her in his life?
In In and of Blood, Kat Lewis uses beautifully violent language to prove that there is no good or evil - only circumstances. As her characters try to mitigate their immorality and point fingers to say that their monstrosity is no worse than others', Lewis splays a truth about the human condition across each page.
Her stories, "Six Weeks of Solitude" and "Jello Shots and Shopping Carts" focus on the psychological monsters of hate and self-destruction. Lewis turns to physical monsters with the resurrection of a teenage girl in "#324" and the personification of death as a fisherman in "Hook, Line, and Dead." The title story, "In and of Blood," explores the lives of two werewolf sisters as one sister embraces her feral nature and lives as a wolf while the other rejects her inner creature and struggles to live as a human.
Visceral, vicious, and unwavering, In and of Blood captivates as it comments on the monstrosity inside us all and reminds us that sometimes it's okay to be a monster.
When widower Rich Redman returns to Pennsylvania with his young daughter to sell his deceased grandmother’s house, he discovers Grandmother Gertie’s final request was for him to find a missing relative and a stash of WWI jewels. Torrie Larson, single mom, is trying to make her landscape center and flower arranging business succeed while attempting to save the lineage of a rare white rose brought from Austria in the 1900s. Together, the rich Texas lawyer and poor landscape owner team up to rescue the last rose and fulfill a dead woman’s wishes. But in their search to discover answers to the mysteries surrounding them, will Rich and Torrie also discover love in each other’s arms? Or will a meddling ghost, a pompous banker, and an elusive stray cat get in their way?
Imperfect, impervious and improving, Brenda Cankles is an unlikely heroine. Unfazed by the enduring censure of society, she is determined to realize the fabulous life that she has always believed is her destiny.
Brenda’s story—written in the unflinching first person—is utterly unvarnished. Here, find a fantastically real person, sometimes struggling to fit in, but mostly giving the rest of the world the mother-lovin’ bird. From her clunky childhood through her stumbling yet optimistic adolescence to her full-figured and unapologetic emergence into adulthood, Brenda is a special brand of warrior. She is big, bold and beautiful. While the quirky cast of characters who surround her is eternally insistent that Brenda live her life in the background and fit into society’s mold, she will have none of it.
Dip into the outspoken world of Brenda Cankles and get lost in the adventure of a big and fabulous gal who takes no prisoners, makes no excuses and has never had any doubt about how truly special she is.
Welcome to the Shipley Hotel, where the perky and attentive staff provides the gold standard in artificial concern and comfort to all the colorful characters who pass through its polished brass revolving door and find themselves in The Lobby. Practically engineered for eavesdropping, San Francisco’s juiciest hotel lobby offers the perfect place to witness the comings and goings - and the most comedic intersections - of staff, long-term residents and eclectic guests. Featuring over fifty stories all transpiring in a single twenty-four hour period and intersecting in The Shipley’s elegant lobby, readers will meet an eccentric and vast array of characters, most of whom will look awfully familiar and all of whom will speak to the heart.
THE HOOK: After three years away, Dana, a globe-trotting journalist, reluctantly returns to her foggy coastal hometown, Half Moon Bay. She's been running away, all of her adult life, from the mental illness and chaos that defined her childhood.
Now, her junkie brother, a former surf star, is tangled up with a brutal meth dealer and he's in the hospital. Dana and Shane bonded over surfing as teenagers, frequenting local breaks, including THE HOOK, to escape their violent and damaged family. Dana's father and brother walked away from Shane years ago, unwilling to deal with his volatility and drug use. But, she just won't give up on him.
As Dana turns to her friends and the tight-knit surfing community for help, she confronts her brother's illegal activities and nearly homeless existence. But, that's just the beginning ... a drug kingpin is chasing Shane, and then Dana, the FBI are involved, a gang war is building, and a new family crisis is brewing.
Meanwhile Dana's gut-wrenching and frightening journey forces her to face her ruinous childhood, her inability to sustain relationships, and her struggle to move on with her life...
Reckless, desperate, and distraught, Noa Sullivan leaps into a collapsing Portal in the explosive finale of Shattered Blue --the jaw-dropping, award-winning first installment in The Light Trilogy --in wild hope of rescuing her little sister Sasha. Now Noa and the Fae brothers who love her--Callum and Judah Forsythe--must find a way to survive not only across worlds but between them, in places so treacherous and deceptive their own minds are twisted against them. As the three fight to survive their passage, they battle not only enemies but themselves, and their darkest, most difficult secrets.
Surviving, however, is only the beginning: Noa needs to find Sasha. That means becoming a warrior herself, one just as fierce as the magical brothers battling for her love. Across broken cities, underground labyrinths, rushing floods and endless skies; in the face of legions of armies, horrifying tyrants, and the most deceitful of friends, can Mortal Noa rescue her sister--and understand her own heart--in time to escape the most deadly of magic realms?
Emily Addams, foodie professor of women’s studies at Arbor State, a land grant university in Northern California, finds herself an unlikely suspect in the poisoning of a man she barely knows: Professor Peter Elliott of Plant Biology, the hotshot developer of a new genetically modified corn.
How did her cornbread end up in his hand as he lay in the smelly muck of a pig’s pen?
As Emily and her colleagues try to identify who and what has poisoned Peter, they also struggle to keep a new and corporate-minded administration from defunding the women’s and ethnic studies programs.
In the process of solving the mystery, Emily and her network deepen their ties to each other and uncover some of the dark secrets of a university whose traditionally communal values are being polluted by a wave of profit-fueled ideals.
