'The ultimate armchair travel ... I've Been Gone Far Too Long is the perfect way to explore without getting bitten.' - Publishers Weekly 'Gripping ... well written. Disaster is usually but a couple of pages away in this collection.' - San Jose Mercury News

This heartwarming picture book reassures children that a parent’s love never lets go—based on the poignant lyrics of JJ Heller’s beloved lullaby “Hand to Hold.” “May the living light inside you be the compass as you go / May you always know you have my hand to hold.” With delightful illustrations and an engaging rhyme scheme, this book offers the promise of security and love every child’s heart longs to know. From skipping stones and counting stars to climbing trees and telling stories, every moment is wrapped snugly in the certain warmth of a parent’s presence and God’s blessing. With poignancy and joy, this bedtime read captures the unconditional love parents want their children to know but so often fail to express amid the chaos of daily life.

As a child, I didn’t have imaginary tea parties. I was an outlaw fighting alongside the greatest rogue in Sherwood Forest, the notorious Robin Hood. The stories kept me sane when I had no control. They freed me from a bleak existence of abuse and neglect. If life taught me anything, it was that living was hard, and only the dreams you made happen came true. At nineteen, living in my uncle’s cabin in the Oregon Cascades, my life was anything but the fantasies of my childhood. I was free, but I was alone. I was surviving. Until I hiked into the mountains and carelessly challenged the universe to notice me. A door made of white light appeared in front of me, compelling me to step through. I took it. I stepped through. Into the greatest trials, both physical and emotional, I’d ever face—into another time and unknown world that would test my strength to my core. I would fight… I would kill… I would love... Most of all, I would live.

Dalton had barely survived the ambush. Her sister, Luann, had taken out a life insurance policy on her and had decided it was time to collect. Luann hadn’t counted on Dalton surviving the hitman’s attack. Lord Kipling Newton, Duke of Winehammer Castle, watched his mate, Dalton, breathing from the hospital bed. He had just given her his blood to help her heal when the monitors started screaming. He thought his dragon’s blood had killed her for sure. Now she was resting and would recover. Dalton wasn’t happy that all her choices had been taken from her. It wasn’t that she didn’t like Kip, it’s that she wasn’t asked, she’d told her grandmother. But Dalton was soon to discover that a few choices where the least of her worries. Her sister and brother were out for her blood. Kip had his own issues to deal with. The only way to protect Dalton from his family was to marry her as soon as possible. Once she took the title of Duchess of Winehammer Castle, his parents couldn’t harm her, or could they? Trouble had a way of finding them. Was the new love they now shared strong enough to survive the rough roads ahead? Find out in the final installment of the English Dragon Series—Kip.

"Sophie Patterson. Don't you dare walk away from me." Logan's menacing stare bore at me. I suddenly didn't feel drunk anymore. I sobered up quickly. "What, Logan? You're gonna tell me that you suddenly love me again? That you're here to sweep me off my feet? Please! I didn't need you all this time, and I don't need you now." He clenched his jaw, fisting his hands. "Enough. Stop being so damn stubborn. You know I do. I love you. I never stopped loving you, Sophie. It was always you." I left my hometown hoping to never see him again. I left with his baby still inside of me. Seven years after, and here I am again. Standing before him and a six-year-old wanting to know who his dad is, and asking me to marry him because everyone in his class but him and his best friend don't have a daddy. What am I supposed to do with all these feelings that are resurfacing? I'm realizing every day that I never got over him. I merely suppressed my feelings, and his telling me this now- to my face, just made things more complicated.

Ellie Homans, artist and wife of a prominent surgeon, lives in sumptuous luxury in a Boston suburb. Senator Alexander Lindsay, of Bostonian aristocracy, is vital, handsome, and politically powerful. But privilege has shielded neither from loveless marriages. Together they find a passionate commitment that submerges their mutual devotion to fidelity and personal integrity. The discovery of their affair leads Ellie¿s husband to devise a life-threatening method to imprison his wife in her unwanted marriage. He unwittingly passes his vendetta to his daughter, whose fury brings mother and daughter to the brink of disaster. Ellie¿s escape from innocence to costly awareness leads her to the realization that love, no matter how mature, can have a dreadful price. A woman finally discovers what she wants¿and what it costs. Ellie Homans keeps a running tally of "shoulds" in her mind, a list of her failures as the wife of an eminent surgeon from one of Boston's first families and mother to a son following in his father's footsteps and a daughter who hates her. The list is a catalog of battles she's lost over the years, from the decoration of the house to where her daughter Annie should go to college. Curtis (Song for a Lifetime, 1999) unfolds this romantic drama set among the New England aristocracy with an assured hand. Rich, engaging characters demonstrate that love often comes at a high price. -Kirkus Discoveries

I've been killing slimes for 300 years, and my family has finally decided on my birthday! We didn’t have a date until now (mainly because I forgot it...), but my daughters are going to celebrate it with me this year, and I'm really, really excited! Later, I meet the goddess of fate (I can't be surprised anymore!), I help out a phantom thief (and my family grows), and I visit a strange land where there are no slimes! I'll share another short story from a drama CD at the end, so don't miss it!