Iraqi American Mariam Hassan transfers to a local Catholic school and before her first day her parents remind her that she might be the first Muslim her classmates have ever met. No big deal, right? Just represent an entire religion while making new friends, keeping up with schoolwork, and figuring out who she is. When Mariam’s younger sister, Salma, is diagnosed with a serious lung condition, her family faces endless doctor visits and sleepless nights. Mariam tries to lighten their burden and keep her own problems to herself—including the fact that she’s just… Read more.
When I move back to my ex’s small town, I want to avoid him at all costs. JD didn’t just break my heart ten years ago. He ran it over, then backed over it again. So naturally, I end up as his physical therapist. And to rub salt in the wound, he finds out I’m living out of my car and demands I move into his spare room. Yeah, he’s as bossy as ever. He still acts like he’s allergic to laughter. But he also pampers me after a long night out, remembers my favorite lunch…and insists on making it for me when I forget to eat. The more he grumpily dotes on me, the more I remember how good… Read more.
Raised in the closed cult of Mana’s Hearth and denied access to modern technology, conjoined sisters Taema and Tila dream of a life beyond the walls of the compound. When the heart they share begins to fail, the twins escape to San Francisco, where they are surgically separated and given new artificial hearts. From then on they pursue lives beyond anything they could have previously imagined. Ten years later, Tila returns one night to the twins’ home in the city, terrified and covered in blood, just before the police arrive and arrest her for murder–the first… Read more.
When Maisie is struck by lightning, her face is partially destroyed. She’s lucky enough to get a face transplant, but how do you live your life when you can’t even recognize yourself anymore? She was a runner, a girlfriend, a good student …a normal girl. Now, after a single freak accident, all that has changed. As Maisie discovers how much her looks did and didn’t shape her relationship to the world, she has to redefine her own identity, and figure out what ‘lucky’ really means.
Can you love someone to death? Some would say Becky Gerard is a devoted mother and would do anything for her only child. Others claim she’s obsessed and can’t stop the vicious circle of finding a cure at her daughter’s expense. Fifteen-year-old Meghan has been in and out of hospitals with a plague of unexplained illnesses. But when the ailments take a sharp turn, doctors intervene and immediately suspect Munchausen syndrome by proxy, a rare behavioural disorder where the primary caretaker, typically the mother, seeks… Read more.
Shelly Laurenston turns up the heat with two sizzling novellas. In “Christmas Pride”: How come all the good-looking ones are insane? That’s what runs through NYPD cop Desiree “Dez” MacDermot’s mind the minute she hooks up again with her childhood buddy, Mace Llewellyn. It isn’t just the way he stares at her with those too-sexy gold eyes, as if he could devour her on the spot. Or the six-four, built-like-a-Navy-SEAL bod-o-death. It isn’t even that he sniffs her neck and purrs, making her entire body tingle. It’s more about that disconcerting, shifting-from-man-to-lion… Read more.
Drinking and Tweeting meets Unorthodox in this vulnerable memoir about The Real Housewives of Salt Lake City star’s departure from the Mormon Church, and her unforeseen success in business, television, and single motherhood. Straight off the slopes and into the spotlight, Heather Gay is famous for speaking the gospel truth. Whether as a businesswoman, mother, or television personality, she is unafraid to blaze a new trail, even if it means losing family, friends, and her community. Born and bred to be devout… Read more.
Meet Hanna. She’s the sweet-but-silent angel in the adoring eyes of her Daddy. He’s the only person who understands her, and all Hanna wants is to live happily ever after with him. But Mommy stands in her way, and she’ll try any trick she can think of to get rid of her. Ideally for good. Meet Suzette. She loves her daughter, really, but after years of expulsions and strained home schooling, her precarious health and sanity are weakening day by day. As Hanna’s tricks become increasingly sophisticated, and Suzette’s husband remains blind to the failing family dynami… Read more.
I haven’t touched anyone, let alone slept with anyone, since the Beerona Virus killed half of Earth’s population. This virus mutates faster than scientists can create a vaccine for it. I’ve lost all my family and all hope of seeing my friends again. Until a naked, silver alien comes for me. The only words he knows are “Give antibodies” and “Mine.” He could be lying. He could have Beerona. I could be dead in three days after the virus eats me from the inside out. But I haven’t had sex in so long, and he’s as strong as a gladiator. , as beautiful as Adonis, and did I mention his… Read more.
Once a promising alchemist, Helena Marino is now a prisoner—of war and of her own mind. Her Resistance friends and allies have been brutally murdered, her abilities suppressed, and the world she knew destroyed. In the aftermath of a long war, Paladia’s new ruling class of corrupt guild families and depraved necromancers, whose vile undead creatures helped bring about their victory, holds Helena captive. According to Resistance records, she was a healer of little importance within their ranks. But Helena has inexplicable memory loss of the months leading up to her capture… Read more.
Amnesia & memory loss, including non-consensual memory alteration
Nightmares
Suicidal ideation & self-harm
Alcohol consumption (on-page) & mentions of smoking
Forced pregnancy & childbirth*
Miscarriage & abortion mentioned
Blood & injury depiction, including eye trauma/ loss of eye, seizures, broken bones, emesis, traumatic brain injury, weight loss & gain due to malnutrition, disembowelment & amputation
Medical procedures, human experimentation. needles & surgery, including forced sterilization of a child
Cannibalism mentioned (secondary characters)
Murder & attempted murder
Physical assault
Attempted kidnapping
Arson & bombing
Imprisonment & captivity
Torture, including sensory deprivation and solitary confinement
War themes including war crimes & eugenics
Animal death & cruelty (experimentation)
Poverty
*Context: The female protagonist is raped by the male protagonist as part of a breeding program. The male protagonist cheats on his wife, who he was forced to marry and is also cheating on him, with the female protagonist.