Now in paperback, the New York Times bestseller by one of rock's most provocative figures Scar Tissue is Anthony Kiedis's searingly honest memoir of a life spent in the fast lane. In 1983, four self-described "knuckleheads" burst out of the mosh-pitted mosaic of the neo-punk rock scene in L.A. with their own unique brand of cosmic hardcore mayhem funk. Over twenty years later, the Red Hot Chili Peppers, against all odds, have become one of the most successful bands in the world. Though the band has gone through many incarnations, Anthony Kiedis, the group's lyricist and dynamic lead singer, has been there for the whole roller-coaster ride. Whether he's recollecting the influence of the beautiful, strong women who have been his muses, or retracing a journey that has included appearances as diverse as a performance before half a million people at Woodstock or an audience of one at the humble compound of the exiled Dalai Lama, Kiedis shares a compelling story about the price of success and excess. Scar Tissue is a story of dedication and debauchery, of intrigue and integrity, of recklessness and redemption--a story that could only have come out of the world of rock.

Where are our Children rolls on to it's devastating climax.Dr. Seth Dupree and Thomas Pepper witness racial strife in the streets of Atlanta firsthand. Friendships will be strained. And enemies will face off at long last.The apocalypse starts here—starts now.With all sides unable and unwilling to back away from the brink, open hostility has begun in earnest on the streets of Atlanta and in communities across the country. Order has broken down. People have grown desperate. And lawlessness reigns supreme.And yet, the worse is still to come.Xavier Prince is dead and his father’s vison for tolerance and harmony between the two prominent races in this country is in flames. Both Pandora and her rivals are taking heavy losses in resources and manpower. Yet, the Circle—the surviving governing body of a House in Chains has plotted all along not to go down quietly.The authorized use of Scar has been authenticated.And the world will watch in horror and disbelief as an unparalleled chapter of carnage never witnessed on America soil is unleashed.

A teenage girl and her gangster father embark on a road trip toward revenge in this award-winning coming-of-age Argentinian noir.Fifteen-year-old Ámbar has never known any parent other than her father, Víctor Mondragón, nor any life other than his. On any given Friday night, Ámbar longs to be at the arcade or a rock concert, but she’s more likely to be patching up Víctor’s latest bullet hole in a dingy motel or creating a new set of fake identities for the both of them.When a tattooed mercenary kills Víctor’s best friend and vows that Víctor is next, father and daughter set off on a joyride across Argentina in search of bloody retribution. But Ámbar’s growing pains hurt worse than her beloved sawed-off shotgun’s kickback as she begins to question the structure of her world. How much is her father not telling her? Could her life ever be different? And will she survive long enough to...

Winner of the Arthur C. Clarke Award and the British Fantasy Award by the age of 30, China Miéville has also been a World Fantasy Award and Bram Stoker finalist. IThe Scar,/I arguably his most ambitious novel yet, takes us on a bizarre voyage on a vast ship teeming with grotesquely re-engineered prisoners. Among them, biding her time for a peaceful landing, is the brilliant Bellis Coldwine, a linguist whose access to secrets protects her. But on the Swollen Oceans, pirates overrun this vessel of mutants, and Bellis, now doubly captive, confronts a death sentence that others call life

A wizard and a warrior must join forces. Galoran is a scarred soldier who's life takes an unexpected turn when a distant cousin dies leaving him heir to a castle, the title that goes with it, and a holy man named Melchior. At first the two distrust each other--but soon their only hope against treachery and the cold steel that surround them lies in each other.

Firsts can come in many forms, first love, first realizations...

In Wear Your Home Like a Scar, Nik Korpon explores the catastrophic consequences of trying to start anew and reinvent yourself. A clandestine surgeon goes to extreme lengths when she's torn between family loyalties. A con man tries to help his girlfriend escape her pimp, despite what the tarot cards tell her. A drifter hunts down the man who hung her out to dry with a cartel boss. A sicario has a crisis of faith when an old legend stalks him. From the streets of Baltimore to the comunas of Medellín, the Mexican Sierras to Texas border towns, Wear Your Home Like a Scar shows that no matter how deep you cut, you'll never truly leave your home behind. Praise for the Stories by Nik Korpon: "Nik Korpon's stories read like Sonny Chiba and Don Winslow somehow made a literary baby, in that they will kick your ass, then kick you in the head, and then in the heart." —Todd Robinson, author of The Hard Bounce and Rough Trade "There's an electric...

FROM THE FOREWORD BY J.A. KONRATH: “Scar Tissue will make your heart race and your heart ache, often in the same sentence.” Not only that, but buying this collection helps battle real-life heartache—50% of every e-book sold is donated to fighting pediatric cancer. Marcus Sakey’s thrillers have won numerous awards and been translated into twenty languages. Celebrities like Ben Affleck and Tobey Maguire have snatched up his film rights. Now from the “modern master of suspense” (Chicago Sun-Times) comes seven stories of men and women pushed to—and beyond—the ragged edge: -- “The Desert Here and the Desert Far Away”Nick is back from Iraq, or so he keeps telling himself. But an old squad mate shows there are some battlefields you can’t leave behind. (Twice short-listed for Best Short Story of 2009) “Gravity and Need”After having sex with a total stranger atop a $3000 television, you’re supposed to walk away. But for two lonely people, that’s just the beginning of a very complicated relationship. “No One”The line between love and obsession is stretched razor-taut in this story where nothing is as it seems—and no one can be trusted. “Cobalt”In this comic send-up the dotcom era, as the world panics over the last days of Y2K, one man searches for his soul. If he could only remember where last he saw it… “The Time Before the Last”The shortest story I’ve ever written. It’s also inspired three paintings and made my wife cry. “As Breathing”Billy Dexter has sworn off killing. But when he falls in love with the wrong woman, Dex discovers murder is a hard habit to break. “The Days When You Were Anything Else”Frank has been many things: a conman, a hustler, a thief. But when his little girl finds herself in desperate trouble, he has one final shot at becoming something that matters. -- These seven stories “contain some of the best writing in crime fiction today. You're in for quite a ride.” (J.A. Konrath). And it’s a ride you can feel good about, with 50% of every sale going to defeat pediatric cancer. ---A PERSONAL NOTE FROM MARCUS---In 2010, two of the best people I know received unimaginable news: their four-year-old son had an incurable brain tumor. Julian Boivin was a superhero in training, and fought an epic battle. But in the end, cancer stole this beautiful boy. Nothing can make that right. But the Team Julian Foundation is trying to give other kids a fighting chance against this devastating disease. To help, I’m donating 50% of the proceeds from every single copy of SCAR TISSUE sold to pediatric cancer research. It’s a small way to work toward a big change. Want to get more involved? Visit TeamJulianFoundation.com. ---MARCUS SAKEY IS:--- “A brilliant writer.”-The Huffington Post “Brainy, twisty, twisted, and entirely ingenious.”-Gillian Flynn, bestselling author of GONE GIRL “One of our best storytellers.”-Michael Connelly, bestselling author of THE LINCOLN LAWYER “Exactly the electric jolt crime fiction needs.”-Dennis Lehane, bestselling author of MYSTIC RIVER “The new reigning prince of crime fiction.”-The Chicago Tribune

"So, why are the barns closed?" "Stuff they don't want you to see." For retired investigative reporter Arabella "Billie" Snow, stuff they don't want you to see tasted better than caviar. But what she saw when she snuck into one of those barns horrified her... Heidi Vanderbilt's suspense writing first appeared in Ellery Queen's Mystery Magazine. She is a recipient of the Robert L Fish award, a special Edgar Allan Poe award from Mystery Writers of America. A lifelong horseman, Heidi has completed the arduous one hundred miles in a day Tevis Cup endurance ride three times. She owns and manages LuckyPup Horse Ranch in Mescal, Arizona.

Bad guys hurt me.I want revenge.But not like this.I am, Alexandra and I let the beast out. It terrorizes villages and kills many innocent people, and not so innocent people. Am I sad about it, probably not as the bad people are gone.Do I need revenge, I do not know. Something inside me wants it, but I feel that I must do something else. Revenge is not sweet because something else inside me gets revenge and I do not.Alexandra is of the Dochani race, the race that is the parent to the elves, dwarves, ogres, and orcs. Legend has them living to over a 100,000 years, but no one is old enough now to know if that is true or not.The Fenshian are coming, will Alexandra be able to collect herself to save worlds? A Fenshian has a common ancestor to the Dochani, but Fenshians are more like dragons than the human-like Dochani.Get it Now!!

A forty-year-old self-cutting workaholic abandons everything she knows for a stripper with a death wish. Both lives change, only one ends. Scar Tissue is a psychological noir novel that stunningly brings to life a world others dare not dream of. This is a vivid and memorable portrayal of desire as seen through the eyes of two women with dark hearts and very different goals who cross paths at critical moments in their lives. The power of their hopes and despair, their weaknesses and strengths is a testament to the yearning that resides inside all of us. Praise for Scar Tissue: "This persuasive and dizzying novel grabs you and doesn't let go. It is sexy, disturbing and relentless. What it says about human nature will keep you up at night. It's also constantly entertaining and unnervingly passionate. Scar Tissue is amazing and weird in all the best ways." —Fred Leebron, author of Six Figures, Out West, and Welcome to Christiania "Scar...

Ex-con Ray Rhodes’ claim he was framed on weapons and drug charges is only the beginning when former cop Lucky Lucas is reluctantly dragged into an investigation as a family favor. Lucas quickly finds himself mixing with crooked cops, Chinese assassins, and a broken family with a disturbing and dangerous history that leads to blackmail and murder.Scar Tissue is the first novel in a projected series of detective/mysteries in the spirit of Raymond Chandler and Robert B. Parker. Robert “Lucky” Lucas, a fifty year old retired police Detective and widow from Southern California, has relocated in San Francisco to be near his son’s family. As a favor to his daughter-in-law Kathleen, Lucas reluctantly agrees to speak with Ray Rhodes, a childhood friend with prison record who has been arrested on weapons and drug charges, but adamantly proclaims his innocence. During his investigation, Lucas becomes convinced Rhodes is the victim of jealousy and crooked cops, and is trapped in the middle of a disturbing and dangerous family history, a history that will lead to murder and attempt on Lucas’ life. Mark Gummere lives in San Francisco, teaches classes in Cinema Studies, and is a former San Francisco Private Investigator. The second Lucky Lucas novel, The Damage, has just been released, and is also available on Smashwords as a downloadable ebook. The third Lucky Lucas Novel is underway.

Suspended by chains over a seemingly bottomless abyss, the ancient city of Deepgate is home to a young angel, an assassin, and a psychotic murderer hungry for revenge—or redemption. But soon a shocking betrayal will unite all three in a desperate quest.... The last of his line, Dill is descended from legendary Battle-archons who once defended the city. Forbidden to fly and untrained even to wield the great sword inherited from his forebears, he has become a figurehead for a dying tradition. Now he lives a sheltered existence in one of Deepgate’s crumbling temple spires under the watchful eye of the Presbyter who rules the city. Spine assassin Rachel Hael has better things to do than oversee the Presbyter’s angel. Each dark moon she must fight for her life among the city chains, hunting an immortal predator with a taste for blood. But when a traitor brings enemies to Deepgate’s doorstep, Dill and Rachel are forced into an uneasy alliance with the city’s oldest and most dangerous foe. They must journey down into the uncharted chasm to save their sprawling metropolis—and themselves—from annihilation. Once they descend however, they learn that what lies below is far more sinister than what they’ve been taught to expect. From the Hardcover edition.

"Fans of laugh-out-loud romantic suspense will enjoy this author as she joins the ranks of Janet Evanovich."—Booklist"Elise Sax will win your heart."—New York Times bestselling author Jill ShalvisGladie and Spencer have the perfect marriage. Or do they? Lately, Spencer has been spending a lot of time with the sexy owner of a new pie shop in town. He also changed his cologne, and he's been giving his hair more attention than normal. Gladie is furious...and worried. When she's offered a chance at a major makeover from a local plastic surgeon, she decides to take it in order to give the sexy pie shop owner a run for her money. But before Gladie can get refreshed, the plastic surgeon winds up dead, and now Gladie has been swept up in the town's dangerous scar wars.Scar Wars is the third book in the Matchmaker Marriage Mysteries, the continuing adventures of Gladie Burger with all of the regular characters from the Matchmaker Mysteries. It's perfect...

Cairo MacKennon doesn’t give a shit about rules, save for one. Avoid SCAR Force at all costs.When a high-end heist goes south and not even the best stealth ship in the Vedrina trinary system can keep her off SCAR Force’s radar, Cairo’s thieving ways become the least of her problems.The Space Combat and Retrieval Force doesn’t forget past sins.And what they have in mind for Cairo’s transgression beats even her worst nightmare.

NK taught Leora that all was not what it seems on the surface.SPARK taught her that there are two sides to every story.Now Leora has had enough of lessons—she wants to make her own story.The explosive finale to the best-selling INK trilogy sees Leora struggling to reconcile her past and her future—and recognising that there may be no easy answers.

'The home scar - that's what they call the mark limpets make on the rock when they return.''Wait, they leave the rock?''Of course. How else would they survive?On opposite sides of the world, half-siblings Cassie and Christo have built their lives around work, intent on ignoring their painful past.When a dramatic storm in Galway hits the headlines, they're drawn back there to revisit a glorious childhood summer, the last before their mother died. But their journey uncovers memories of a far less happy summer - one that had tragic consequences.Confronted with the havoc their mother left in her wake, Cassie and Christo are forced to face their past and - ready or not - to deal with the messy tangle of parental love and neglect that shaped them.The Home Scar is a luminous and precise story about the inheritance of loss and the possibility of finally making peace with it._________'A powerful story about legacy and loss and...

When a successful but brutish playwright is stabbed to death in the aftermath of a wild party, there is no shortage of suspects – but which is the killer? In his latest assignment, Chicago Chronicle crime reporter Hank Janson finds himself participating in a striptease party game, being roughed up by the police investigators and dodging the attentions of a determined nymphomaniac, while he desperately tries to separate the clues from the red herrings. With their erotic pin-up covers and hardboiled crime tales, the Hank Janson pulp paperbacks were a British publishing sensation in the 1940s and 1950s, selling millions of copies to readers craving escapism from post-war austerity. Prosecutions under Britain's then-harsh obscenity laws dealt them a severe blow, however, and today they are highly sought after by collectors. The Lady Has a Scar, originally published in 1950, is one of the most risqué of these classic novels. It is reissued by Telos Publishing...

Scar Lover is a miraculous, true-to-the-bone story of love and redemption, at once a classic southern novel and purely, unmistakably, Harry Crews.Running from a past that has scarred and blamed him, and a tragic accident that has destroyed his family, Pete Butcher avoids all personal contact. Then Sarah Leemer, the oddly beautiful girl next door, walks into his life. Slowly, sweetly, and with a determination almost Faulknerian in its ferocity, Sarah pulls Pete back into life and into the ever increasing complications of love, family, death, and deliverance. For Sarah has made Pete her own, and as she takes her claim, we see the miraculous power of love without boundaries or fear."Reading a Crews novel is like watching a savage brawl on top of a derailed train careening toward a cliff!" -Miami Herald“With an effortless ear for dialect, mood and atmosphere, Harry Crews has drawn a deft portrait of tenderness with his typically savage strokes.” —Seattle Times“Pure gold, pure Harry Crews, with plenty of the grim humor and enraged charity that have become his trademark.”—The New York Times Book Review“Imagine William Faulkner in a fright wig or Carson McCullers and Flannery O’Connor strapped side by side on a roller coaster, and you have Harry Crews writing Southern gothic....Scar Lover works a wacky kind of magic.”—TimeFrom Publishers WeeklyAlthough this demented and darkly humorous tale is billed as Crews's ( Body ) "most mainstream" novel, rest assured he hasn't gotten there quite yet. Acerbic college-dropout Pete Butcher loathes himself for accidentally causing his little brother brain damage with a claw hammer, and he is haunted by the sight of the dual dents on the child's forehead. On his way to a Jacksonville, Fla., warehouse--where he works with a Rastafarian whose wife repeatedly brands him to commemorate each year they are together--Pete encounters Sarah Leemer, a handsome, mesmerizing young woman with a golfball-like lump in her breast. Against his better judgment, he and Sarah become lovers and he is welcomed into her family, which includes a mentally unhinged mother who has just had a radical mastectomy and a father who complains of a bad heart "the size of a watermelon." The suffering foursome have just achieved an uneasy peace when tragedy strikes them anew, launching its survivors into a gruesome, comical, grimly poetic night of graphic death and Rasta remedies. Pete's sudden responsibility to the Leemers serves to expiate his guilt over his brother; Crews admirably sustains his theme of disfigurement and healing, and if the finale is slightly ambiguous it still bears its author's trademark perverse twist.From Library JournalWhen Pete Butcher ends up in Jacksonville, Florida, he carries with him emotional scars from a devastated family life that cause him to recoil from the strangers he meets daily. Pete just wants to be left alone, but he has landed himself in the middle of a carnival of characters, especially Sarah Leamer, who has staked a claim to Pete. Pete is thus reluctantly drawn into her family's own tragic affairs. Through Sarah, Pete confronts life, death, and, ultimately, his own greatest scar. In the meantime, Pete befriends Burnt George, a co-worker and Rastafarian who carries his own horseshoe-shaped scars seared into his back. Crews darkly comic tale gives a disturbingly accurate portrayal of characters from the rural South, each fiercely shaped by sweat, grit, and cruel hardship. Although the plot becomes very strained at points, Scar Lover will not disappoint Crews's fans.

Kirsten has spent her life trying toforget. But mercy begs her to remember. When she was in high school, aterrible accident fractured her family, and the only relief Kirsten could findwas carving tiny lines into her skin, burying her pain in her flesh. The painshe caused herself was neat and manageable compared to the emotional pain thatraged inside. She was coping. Or so she thought. But then, eight years later, on thenight she expects her long-time boyfriend to propose, Kirsten learns he's beensecretly seeing her best friend. Desperate to escape her feelings, she reachesfor the one thing that gives her a sense of control in the midst of chaos. But this time the cut isn't so tiny,and it lands her in the psych hospital. Within hours of being there she knowsshe can't stay—she isn't crazy, after all. But she can't go back to the lifeshe knew before either. So when her pastor mentions atreatment program on a...

War is too much for me. Training for it is the worst. It is not enough. So much death and destruction at the hands of the Fenshian. I buried many of my comrades, my children were lost on another world, along with my husband. The dead walk and fight us, a rotting corpse of a man uses them to fight us. Many die only to pop back up to fight, and die again. I lose myself, only to find that I must sing for a man. War is all that I know, death of my comrades is all that I see. I don't sing, but I must learn. Get it now!!

The year is 1593. The London of Elizabeth I is in the terrible grip of the Black Death. As thousands die from the plague and the queen hides behind the walls of her palace, English spies are being murdered across the city. The killer's next target: Will Swyfte.For Swyfte--adventurer, rake, scholar, and spy--this is the darkest time he has known. His mentor, the grand old spymaster Sir Francis Walsingham, is dead. The new head of the secret service is more concerned about his own advancement than defending the nation, and a rival faction at the court has established its own network of spies. Plots are everywhere, and no one can be trusted. Meanwhile, England's greatest enemy, the haunted Unseelie Court, prepares to make its move.A dark, bloody scheme, years in the making, is about to be realized. The endgame begins on the night of the first performance of Dr. Faustus, the new play by Swyfte's close friend and fellow spy Christopher Marlowe. A devil is conjured in the middle of the crowded theater, taking the form of Will Swyfte's long-lost love, Jenny--and it has a horrifying message for him alone.That night Marlowe is murdered, and Swyfte embarks on a personal and brutal crusade for vengeance. Friendless, with enemies on every side and a devil at his back, the spy may find that even his vaunted skills are no match for the supernatural powers arrayed against him.

Jonathan Grisby is the newest arrival at the Slabhenge Reformatory School for Troubled Boys—an ancient, crumbling fortress of gray stone rising up from the ocean. It is dark, damp, and dismal. And it is just the place Jonathan figures he deserves. Because Jonathan has done something terrible. And he's willing to accept whatever punishment he has coming. Just as he's getting used to his new situation, however, a freak accident leaves the troubled boys of Slabhenge without any adult supervision. Suddenly the kids are free, with an entire island to themselves. But freedom brings unexpected danger. And if Jonathan can't come to terms with the sins of his past and lead his new friends to safety... then every boy on the island is doomed. Dan Gemeinhart's most gripping novel yet, this is a tale of misfits and outcasts at odds and in peril, and a redemption story that shines a light on dark truths to reveal that the strongest prisons of all are the ones we build for ourselves.

Cortland Addison, a reclusive military specialist from three hundred years in the past, arrives in the future with Sköll, his rescued wolf, to find he has become a legend. Facing new enemies and finding new friends, Cort learns that he cannot escape his past, and only a man willing to abandon peace can secure it. Cort and Sköll arrived in the future to find themselves barricaded in a vast underground cavern. A cavern filled with everything they might need. From how-to survival books to enough weaponry and powered armor to wage a war, Addison was well prepared to face whatever challenges awaited him. Or so he thought. He wasn’t prepared for what he found outside the cavern. Because a family he didn’t know existed had been waiting and preparing for him for over three centuries. Now it was up to the family legend to make good on the promise ‘Hope lies in the blood.’

A wallet dropped by a scar-faced beggar sets the three investigators on the trail of bank robbers.

Sixteen-year-old Noah Daniels wants nothing more than to fight in George Washington’s Continental Army, but an accident as a child left him maimed and unable to enlist. He is forced to watch the Revolution from his family’s hard scrabble farm in Upstate New York—until a violent raid on his settlement thrusts him into one of the bloodiest battles of the American Revolution, and ultimately, face to face with the enemy. A riveting coming of age story, this book also includes an author’s note and bibliography.

Scars. We all carry them. Some are mere scratches. Others run deeper. At a school rife with bullying, Will and his best friend Luke are involved in a horrific incident that results in Luke leaving. Twenty-five years later their paths cross again and memories of Will's painful childhood come flooding back to haunt him. His wife, Harmony, who is struggling after a miscarriage that has hit her hard, wishes Will would open up about his experiences. But while Will withdraws further, she finds herself drawn to the charismatic stranger from her husband s past, and soon all three are caught in a tangled web of guilt, desire, betrayal.

Far away from everything in the Scottish Highlands, Peter Irwin is far from your normal teenager. Thriving in his remote surroundings Peter finds himself facing some tough problems as his father battles Gulf War Syndrome, he struggles with his irresponsible mother and fights with his pregnant teenage sister who is following in her mother's flamboyant footsteps. He never complains but is silently tormented by his mother's abandonment, the traumatic death of his father and his sister's disappearance. All alone he is left to manage the house, the farm and look after his new born niece. Soon, when circumstances threaten to uncover the secret that he never wants anyone to know, Peter reaches breaking point. Take a walk in Peter Irwin's shoes and experience the struggle of growing up and the hope he discovers at the bottom of the hill.

When Trinidad was twelve, his Wiccan parents blew themselves up in an ecoterr attack that killed several Christians. Orphaned and disillusioned, he fled his home?and his best friend Castile?to soldier for the powerful Christian church inside the walled city of Boulder, Colorado. Fostered by a loving priest and trained by a godless warrior, Trinidad learned the brutal art of balancing faith and war. He is the perfect archwarden, disciplined and devout. But when his Bishop turns up with a silver scar she claims is proof of angelic orders to crusade, Trinidad alone knows her story is a lie. The silver is from a mystical, ancient graveyard called the Barren?a place of healing reached only by Wiccan magic, a place that could turn Christianity on its head. Accusing her outright is treason and gaining proof means committing heresy, both of which is a death sentence for an archwarden. Instead, torn between the lure of powerful magic, his love for Castile, and his vows to defend...

Ashley Lambert jumped eighteen stories to her death. It’s a clear-cut suicide. And Ashley’s parents want to know why their flawless daughter would take her life. They’ve hired the PI team of Griff Cole and Britt Callahan to find the answers. When the investigation leads to performance enhancing drugs and blackmail, Ashley’s coaches, peers and even her parents come into question. The disturbing truth is testimony to the lines that are crossed, and risks taken…in the name of love. Meanwhile, when Britt sees the bruising on her neighbor’s arm she can’t let it go, and is working overtime to bring to light the violent behavior next door. The neighbor, Rhea McKenzie, has a secret. Bruises aren’t the only thing she’s hiding. When an off-hand comment discloses a connection to Ashley Lambert the two cases become entwined, setting off an unstoppable chain of events. Britt is sucked into an alliance with Rhea and forced to make decisions that challenge her ethics, threaten her relationship and in the end, may cost her everything.

Emery wants to die. Good thing she just ran into a killer."They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but that's bullshit. What doesn't kill you leaves a scar. More than the eyesore down my torso, I was a scar, the jagged, fucked up remains of a tragedy." Scar's Nomad status gives him a chance to fulfill his one wish, but his lonely mission is interrupted when a possible one-night stand goes horribly wrong. "They say what doesn't kill you makes you stronger, but what if I can't live with myself anymore?" Finding the blonde face down in a puddle of her own blood jeopardizes everything. Saving her and keeping her quiet could get Scar killed, but when Emery wakes up, her shocking proposal for him to kill her starts the ride of his life.

"You would be pretty if you didn't have that . . . You just have to take what you can get since you got strikes against you!" Tineya has experienced a lot of trauma in her short life. Losing both parents has left a broken, weak soul. As if that's not enough she's left with physical wounds that no woman should have to deal with. More than just bad memories, Tineya's wound runs deeper. What would you do if everybody could see the remnants of one unforgettable night that changed your life? Follow Tineya as she hunts for acceptance from others, but most of all, from herself. Some people are rooting for her to succeed, while a few selfishly want her to stay in a sunken place. In walks Marsell, a self-centered hustler. He's the type of slick-talking man who can sell water to a fish and dope to the Pope. Marsell can convince any woman to jump as high as he needs her to. He typically wants the type of woman who looks like a centerfold, damn near perfect, until he is humbled....

Western Historical Fiction

For Every Crime There's a SecretBoston attorney Brady Coyne is devastated after receiving a call from his old friend Jake Gold. Jake's son, Brian, and the boy's girlfriend were involved in an accident that plunged their car into the depths of a local river. The girl was dragged up with the wreckage, DOA. Brian is still missing-most likely swept away by the frigid February currents.For Every Secret There's a LieBrady already has unanswered questions, and with a personal interest in the case, he can't help but look beneath the surface of the watery grave in what he suspects was more than a tragic accident. Then when Jake disappears, and local authorities are loath to investigate, Brady's convinced that very little in the rural suburb of Reddington is what it seems.For Every Lie There's a VictimBut finding his friend, Jake, is only the first piece of the puzzle. The trail leaves Brady to wonder who he can trust, who else is in danger, and how he can hope to survive a shocking small town secret that's taking no prisoners-and leaving no survivors.Amazon.com ReviewBrady Coyne is a Boston lawyer who'd rather be fishing than trying a case. Most of his clients are also his friends, so when Jake and Sharon Gold's 15-year-old son and his girlfriend are killed in a car accident, Brady tries to lighten their load by handling the details of the police investigation and the funeral arrangements. But Brian's body hasn't been recovered yet, despite the efforts of police divers at the accident scene. There are other signs that this was more than a typical scenario of teenage drivers taking a curve too fast, but the authorities don't seem interested in looking into them. Brady soon realizes that someone's applying political pressure to keep the lid on a secret everyone but Brady and the Golds seems to know about: a pornography ring in which a beloved community leader and the best and brightest local high school students are deeply involved. This is Coyne's 17th outing, as reliable a harbinger of fall as the first bonfire of the season. No big surprises here, but William Tapply's popular series continues to win fans charmed by his thoughtful hero, his solid plotting, and his smooth pacing. --Jane AdamsFrom Publishers WeeklyYou can always rely on Boston lawyer Brady Coyne, as shown in this outstanding whodunit, the 17th in this underappreciated series from suspense master Tapply (Cutter's Run, etc.). When Brian, the 15-year-old son and only child of Jake and Sharon Gold, is apparently involved in a fatal auto accident, Brady rushes to their home in suburban Reddington, Mass., to lend his support. The local police, headed by Chief Ed Sprague, have fished the body of Brian's girlfriend out of a car that plunged through a guardrail into the frozen river below. The two were inseparable, so the search goes on for Brian somewhere beneath the ice. Brady, however, soon suspects the boy is alive. Then Jake, after sending Brady a sealed envelope for safekeeping, asks that they meet at a motel outside Boston. When Brady enters the room rented by "John Silver," he finds not his friend but Chief Sprague, shot dead. Jake turns up later in Sprague's barn, his corpse showing signs of torture. The plot gets even thicker when Brady finds hundreds of dollars torn into shreds hidden in Brian's room. The tension mounts as Brady comes under pressure from politically ambitious DA Gus Nash and cynical detective Roger Horowitz to reveal what he knows. Plus there's girlfriend Evie, who isn't returning his calls, as well as the bereft Sharon, who sorely needs consolation. A confrontation in Brady's office with a gun-wielding goon bent on retrieving the sealed envelope is only one of several electrifying episodes that wrap up this ingenious yarn, featuring one of the most convincingly heroic and likable of contemporary sleuths. Agents, Jed Mattes and Fred Morris. (Oct.) Copyright 2000 Reed Business Information, Inc.

Caffy's a tough but vulnerable young woman, feisty as they come. She works for Paula's Pots, an all-women team of decorators. When one day she sees through a window what all people in their profession dread - a dead body - the lives of the Pots are changed forever.

BEHIND THE ENEMY'S WALLS Badly disfigured Lady Isobel Dalceann has fought fiercely to defend her Keep, with little thought for her safety. Why, then, has she let a stranger within her walls? Whilst he threatens danger, his battered body marked by war mirrors her own scars and tempts her to put her faith in him. Marc de Courtenay is a mercenary and a loner, although he is drawn to damaged, beautiful Isobel. But in taking him into her highly defended buttressed walls she has unwittingly given him secrets that will enable him to betray her. What would she do if she were ever to find out who he really is...?Excerpt. © Reprinted by permission. All rights reserved.1346—Fife Ness, ScotlandIsobel Dalceann saw the shapes from the beach, beyond the waves, turning in the current, dark against silver. Eight or more of them, lost in the grey swell of stormtide as mist swallowed outline.'There,' she shouted to the two men beside her. 'Two hundred yards out.'The Heads yielded an odd wreck of a boat sometimes or the carcase of a sea creature long since dead…but this? Dusk spread from the west, burnishing lead with a blushed quiet pink and changing something that was not known into something that was.'People!' Ian voiced the knowledge first. Not wood or fish or the trunk of a tree that had slipped into the brine somewhere near Dundee before travelling south in the cold currents, but people. People who would drown unless she helped them; she had always been a strong swimmer.Stripping off brogans and tunic, she removed the dirk held by straps against her ankle and ran.The water took her breath before she had crossed the first waves, long beaching swells with the chill of the northern climes on their edge; when her hair knotted around her arms, forcing her to tread water, she rebound it tight.Ten yards away Ian shouted and Angus responded, the next breaker lifting them all and aiding direction. She could hear the beat of blood in her ears as the wash took her under. Counting the seconds to surface, she kicked her feet hard and broke through just short of one of the survivors.An open cut from elbow to shoulder bone wept red into the sea, swirling in the foam before being lost to the great vastness of the German Ocean. He barely registered her presence as she paddled across, noticing for the first time that another lay beside him.'I will take him while you swim in,' she shouted above the wind as rain started, each drop forming bowls on the surface, tiny pits in a boiling sea.'No.' He held on with the tenacity of one who would not let go, green eyes steeled into resolve; as Isobel looked closer, she saw the man between them was long dead.'He's gone. The sea has taken him.'Shaking his head, he turned from her, shoulders hunching into grief. The curl of his fingers tightened even as she watched, dimpled white and marred with bruises as he breathed in once and then twice, garnering strength and regrouping will. How often had she done the same herself, the loneliness of everything unbearable?'Let me help,' she called, 'for the shore is far away.' Her touch against his shoulder roused him from his own private hell as he gazed at her with all the arrogance of one unused to direction.Isobel pushed down a stir of unease. Even the few paltry moments that she had been in the ocean had chilled her and she wondered how these people could have survived for so long.'H-help the others behind me f-first.' When he shifted his hand to cradle the head of the man he supported, a thick band of wrought-plaited gold lay at his wrist.No simple sailor, then, plying the straits between England and Scotland to gain a living. His accent held the softer beat of another more foreign land.A shout behind made her turn. Isobel saw that Angus panted with cold, his legs treading water with exaggerated hurry as he tried to keep warm. Fear struck deep. Two hundred yards from safety, with the rolling edge of a sea storm coming in from the east. Behind him two men were trying to rise on his bulk in their fight to gain breath.Lord. The sea claimed its victims without recourse to any fair play or just reserve. Swimming over, she clouted the oldest man hard across the head, breaking his grip and pressing against his throat, pleased as his eyes rolled into white. Then she did the same to the youngest.'Que Dieu nous en garde!' Marc muttered. The woman with the scar from one side of her face to the other was killing those with him one by one and the chill that held him stiff with cold meant he could do nothing about it.Guy was dead. He had known it all of an hour ago and still his fingers could not open to simply let go.The water beneath him called, an easy rest and an ending, and the strength that had held him to the task of rescue was suddenly gone. He could not care. It was finished. As his fingers opened and his eyelids rested he felt the warmth that had long since been leached from his body return in a quick and bright light.Scotland. His father's land. He had not quite made it.'Hold him from behind,' Isobel instructed Angus. 'Do not let him turn for he will pull you down in his panic.''I cannae handle the both of them, mind.' Angus's words were thrown through the gathering wind. 'Then choose the youngest.' Such a choice out here in a sea that was rising held no guilt for Isobel. The fittest would survive and be done with it.But the green-eyed stranger was gone, too, pulled beneath the sea by lethargy, his red sleeveless surcoat with the bright gold braiding disappeared. She should leave him, of course, should take the advice she had just offered Angus, but a stronger force willed her to action. Diving down through the murky water, she saw him turn towards her, as if he had known she might be there, glances catching through the brine, the white of his skin the colour of death.One last kick and she reached out to snag cloth before hauling him up into the dusk and air. They surfaced like a log might in a swollen mountain stream, a curtain of foam and salt lashed around them, rain stinging skin.Thumping his back hard with the heel of her hand, she felt him take a breath, the rise and fall of his chest strong as he coughed, a hacking endless bark that dislodged the water he had swallowed. His hair lay around his face in tousled dark-blond tails, wiped back as he found breath in a hard movement, his lips blue.Around her the cries of the survivors told another story. One stranger perished here and another there. They floated away with their faces down in the water, swirling as leaves in the current.She could not save everyone with a changing stormtide on the turn for out. All the will in the world could not alter what happened to those too long in the hands of the sea as the heat of skin cooled and relaxed into death.But the green-eyed stranger hung on through the breakers, his mouth tilted towards the air, the cold chattering of his teeth like a drum beat as they came closer to landfall. He was using his strength to help her, too; she could feel his legs move against her own until his feet found purchase on the ocean floor.He was tall, then. Much taller than her husband had been before…But she did not think of that as she brushed away anger and watched him stand, the sea to his waist now, every second showing more of a man who looked nothing like anyone from around Fife. Menace and danger lingered in the long bones of his body, the fancy surcoat with its plaited braiding belying the man beneath.'I can m-manage,' he said abruptly and turned to watch her two men find the shore, each bringing with them a survivor from the stricken boat.Three people out of eight, was her anguished thought. Lord God, that it could have been more.The fierce desolation in his eyes told her that he also counted, though he was swaying with cold, tiredness and injury, the open gash on his arm pulled apart by the sea into a lengthy, grim, dark line on his upper arm. It no longer bled. Isobel wondered whether that was a good sign or a bad one.'We are camped in the trees and there is warmth there.' She did not like the anxiety she could hear in her words, as though it might be important to her that he did live, but he was barely listening as he walked across to his friend and spoke softly in a language she recognised as French. Both turned to the line of bush behind them as if weighing their chances of safety.'How is it you are called?' His voice was stronger now as he switched back to English.'Isobel Dalceann. My home lies two days' walk west along the coast from here.'She saw how his glance took in her sodden hose, tight about her legs, her ankles full on show. It had been so long since she had worn the garb of a woman that she'd forgotten that those who did not know her might find it odd. Without meaning to she smiled and saw the sting of it in his eyes. Her scar, probably. It always puckered badly over one cheek when she showed emotion.With the night coming on, however, she had had enough. She had risked her own life and any criticism of what she looked like or dressed like would have to wait till later. There were rabbits skinned and trussed near the fire and a half-a-dozen fish wrapped in leaves beside them. Once they had eaten their fill and found blankets to shelter beneath she could determine just what it was these newcomers sought and how quickly she could be rid of them.

Western Historical Fiction

Parts 1-4 of the steamy and suspenseful romance serial, *Stepbrother: Scar Tissue.* After my stepbrother, Luke, left our small town, I thought I'd never see him again. So when he rescues me from a brutal assailant one night, I can hardly believe my eyes. It has been years since I've last seen him. Judging by his slick new wardrobe and fancy car, he's doing just fine for himself. Better than me. I've all but given up my dream of escaping this town. Until now. He's offering me a way out, but I'm hesitant to accept. Working with him, spending that much time with him, would drive me insane. I've always had a crush on him, and I've tried to hide my feelings. But ever since he saved me, I can't stop fantasizing about his ripped body and handsome face, or how his hands would feel all over me. Not that it matters anyway. Powerful, driven, and gorgeous, Luke could have any woman he wants. Why would he want me? But the way I see him stealing glances at me, the more I think there's something else on his mind. What if... it's me? This is a complete, standalone serial that does not contain a cliffhanger ending.**

From their last months of high school to their early twenties two overlapping stories told from both Hanna's and Tanner's memories and perspectives center on acceptance, forgiving and the journey it takes to get there.

When The Scar Boys ended, the band has fallen apart. Harry and Johnny are barely speaking, and Cheyenne is feeling desperate about Johnny, who has retreated into silence. It's only through their music that the group is able to rebuild their relationships, and they slowly begin to reach musical success and fame. In Scar Girl, Cheyenne, Harry, and Richie tell their own stories as they discover the ups and downs of being rock musicians—including meltdowns on stage, too much drinking, keeping secrets that should be shared, and having fights that test the limits of their friendship. The band's reputation grows and grows, but will the kids themselves survive?Len Vlahos delivers a powerful sequel to his bestselling YA sensation, The Scar Boys, with a story of love, music, and heartbreak.