A whirlwind 24-hour romance about two teens who fall in love in New Orleans on the brink of a hurricane, perfect for fans of Jenny Han and Katie Cotugno. When Julie needs an escape from family issues and her brother’s PTSD, she heads to New Orleans with her youth group. But their volunteer project makes her feel more trapped than ever. Desperate to break free, Julie ditches her paint clothes for tinsel fairy wings and heads straight into the heart of Mid-Summer Mardi Gras, where she locks eyes with an utterly irresistible guy named Miles. Play-It-Safe Julie knows her group leader will be looking for her but the new, In-the-Moment Julie isn’t looking back . . . at least not tonight. So when Miles offers to show her the real New Orleans, she jumps at the chance. But the night takes an unexpected turn when a hurricane switches course and heads straight for New Orleans. Mia García’s Even If the Sky Falls is a whirlwind, romantic story about a girl who discovers what it means to feel alive in the face of one of life’s greatest dangers: love.

If the Sky Falls is the debut short-story collection from award-winning fiction writer Nicholas Montemarano. These eleven stories show why Jayne Anne Phillips has called Montemarano "an American stylist capable of redeeming our darkest dreams." Redemption in these intense and sometimes violent stories is found in the lyrical prose, in the act of storytelling itself. A young man tries to rescue his sister from her abusive lover, and in the process must revisit his own family's violent history ("Note to Future Self"); a home healthcare worker pops pills and takes two men with cerebral palsy to a strip club ("The Usual Human Disabilities"); a man has a breakdown years after witnessing a brutal murder and doing nothing to help the victim ("The Other Man"). In "The November Fifteen," a man is taken from his home and tortured, though he has no idea why; when he returns home he finds a different kind of torture awaiting him. Two of the stories -- "Shift" and the Pushcart Prize--winning "The Worst Degree of Unforgivable" -- are stylistic tours de force. But style in this collection is always at the service of story. Montemarano's fiction maintains that rare balance between traditional storytelling and experimentation: his work is innovative without being flashy, sincere without being sentimental. In an age of hype, If the Sky Falls truly is the real thing -- an original and important achievement in the short-story form.

A boy and a gorilla create an unbelievable bond in this powerful WWII tale for young readers, for fans of Alan Gratz and Michael Morpugo. “A wonderful story of hurt, kindness, and what it means to be human in an inhumane world.” -The Times of London, Children's Book of the Year In 1940, with his father off to war, Joseph is sent on a train out of his British town into the care of Mrs. F., a gruff woman with no great fondness for children. But he soon discovers her softer side when she takes him to the rundown city zoo and he learns she is the only one who ever checks in on it. Many of the animals have escaped, been released, or have sadly starved . . . but not Adonis, a huge silverback gorilla. Adonis is strong and ferocious-and a danger to the whole city if a bomb should fall and damage the fence that keeps him in. But as Joseph struggles in his new school and starts to spend more time at the zoo, he finds, unexpectedly, Adonis becoming a loyal new friend. From acclaimed author Phil Earle comes a touching historical fiction story of how a boy and a gorilla find redemption in each other amid the toughest of circumstances.

A broken past and a divided future can’t stop the electric connection of two teens in this epic series opener from the author of the New York Times and USA TODAY bestselling Keeper of the Lost Cities series. Seventeen-year-old Vane Weston has no idea how he survived the category five tornado that killed his parents. And he has no idea if the beautiful, dark-haired girl who’s swept through his dreams every night since the storm is real. But he hopes she is. Seventeen-year-old Audra is a sylph, an air elemental. She walks on the wind, can translate its alluring songs, and can even coax it into a weapon with a simple string of commands. She’s also a guardian—Vane’s guardian—and has sworn an oath to protect Vane at all costs. Even if it means sacrificing her own life. When a hasty mistake reveals their location to the enemy who murdered both of their families, Audra’s forced to help Vane remember who he is. He has a power to claim—the secret language of the West Wind, which only he can understand. But unlocking his heritage will also unlock the memory Audra needs him to forget. And as the storm bears down on them, she starts to realize the greatest danger might not be the warriors coming to destroy them—but the forbidden romance that’s grown between them.

This is the story about a man that didn't straddle the fence of life. In everyone there is a combination of good and evil, that creates a tug of war within one's inner self. This is very normal and consistent from one person to the next. Therefore, some people tend to do more good than evil socially, and some tend to do more evil than good. All of this balance depends on the amount of good versus the amount of evil contained deep in the soul of a person's inner self. But this story tells of a man that possesses only one trait. This trait is 100% evil and inside this man there is no tug of war. He is everything that is left after all good has been stripped away. He has no conscience or moral values. There is nothing that this man won't do or say in his vicious chase for money and power. He can be best described as the total package for your worst nightmare. T.P. is the name that has been ordained to this man of evilness. T.P. carries within himself a deadly cheat and a vicious evil, which he conceals under a warm smile, a nice looking friendly face and breathtaking charm. He is king of predators and T.P. must be destroyed. The coldness and the evilness possessed by this man of darkness generate an atmosphere identical to a light breeze with cool chilling effects when first felt. This breeze can be best described as a Night Wind. Without further a do, prepare yourself for shocks and chills as the saga of Night Wind unfolds unto you.

Huzzah! I made it to my twenty-third birthday! Given how much dragon magic I have rolling through me now, doing its best to cook me from the inside out, this feat is no small thing. I’ve earned a hearty celebration and then some. I’m gonna party down at Sharmayne’s and let her ply me with as many of her cocktails as she wants. Her magic touch is exactly what I need after how nutty life in Traitor’s Den has been lately. I deserve every hypnotic, milky, swirling Moon Mixer she sends my way. Hell, I might get fancy and skip right on to a Roll in the Hay, maybe even a Sirens on the Rocks, and if I’m tipsy enough, end the night with a Dragon Slayer like a proper wild child. Who needs to be clear headed anyway? For one night, I can be one clown short of a circus. All the responsibility of being both sheriff and mayor of our fine, one-way town will still be waiting for me tomorrow. It always is. A night at Sharmayne’s oughta leave me loose and ready to finally take advantage of all the dragon shifter Rhett and the vampire Zeke keep trying to offer me—every damn day, all day long...and into the night. Their looks are heated enough that if all the power inside me weren’t already threatening to give me a good cookin’, their constant seduction would. Those men could sell heat to a roasting fire. But trust me, what they’re sellin’, I’m lookin’ to buy. They say I’m their mate? Their queen? Well, bring it on. I’m wearing my favorite dancin’ boots. Near on every free woman in the Den is looking to move in on them. Good thing they’ve only got eyes for me. And since I’m also the one stuck dealing with all the trouble they cause—and they get into trouble faster than a balloon at an overcrowded porcupine party—I may as well reap the benefits too. It’s past time to examine the goods... Of course, just when I’m starting to get hot and heavy with my two guys, a knock on the door upends my world—yet again. Why in tickled tarnation does nothing in our town ever go down the way it’s supposed to? ‘Cause plans are for losers, apparently. Even when they’re no-plan plans, my specialty. Well, at least, I ain’t complainin’ none. Not one tiny, little bit. Not with who’s on the other side of my door. Not till the sky starts falling, anyhow... * A sexy fantasy western with growly shifters, sketchy vamps, peculiar mages and creatures, and one badass cowgirl sheriff. Within this small town, magic and gossip flow as freely as whiskey, and work and pleasure are nearly the same thing. Weird things happen on the regular in Traitor's Den. Come and join the quirky family, where everyone's packing. Oh, and don't mind the tiger. * Loretta Maybelle Ray is hot stuff. When several fine cowboys vie for her affections, this series becomes a reverse harem. * Though this series does not contain curse words, but rather a comical variation of them, it contains slow-burn romance that eventually leads to sex on the page with more than one man. * Each book in the Six Shooter and a Shifter series is a full-length novel that ends on a cliffhanger. However, a happily-ever-after is guaranteed for the series finale.

Esther Emery was a successful playwright and theater director, wife and mother, and loving it all - until, suddenly, she wasn’t. When a personal and professional crisis of spectacular extent leaves her reeling, Esther is left empty, alone in her marriage, and grasping for identity that does not define itself by busyness and a breakneck pace of life. Something had to be done. What Falls from the Sky is Esther’s fiercely honest, piercingly poetic account of a year without Internet - 365 days away from the good, the bad, and the ugly of our digital lives - in one woman’s desperate attempt at a reset. Esther faces her addiction to electronica, her illusion of self-importance, and her longing to return to simpler days, but then the unexpected happens. Her experiment in analog is hijacked by a spiritual awakening, and Esther finds herself suddenly, inexplicably drawn to the faith she had rejected for so long. Ultimately, Esther’s unplugged pilgrimage brings her to a place where she finally finds the peace - and the God who created it - she has been searching for all along. What Falls from the Sky offers a path for you to do the same. For all the ways the Internet makes you feel enriched and depleted, genuinely connected and wildly insufficient, What Falls from the Sky reveals a new way to look up from your screens and live with palms wide open in a world brimming with the good gifts of God.