Read Online: Middle Grade & Children's
The Terra-Cotta Dog
Since I’ve known you I’ve been forced to see them about fifty times. You can therefore stick them, column by column, you-know-where. I’m going off by myself and don’t know when I’ll be back. Livia’s note oozed with rage, and Montalbano took it in. But since a wolflike hunger had seized hold of h...
Mysterious Gift
He’d suffered severe head trauma, and God only knew what had been ripped, depressed, or generally moved around in his brain. Then he mentioned her grandpa, and she had to believe. The very idea of flying across the country with a relative stranger, instead of scaring her, ...
Scorch Atlas (2010)
The bed cramped small and dirty; the air above her suffocating. The mother in her nightgown, tight, worn ratty where she rubbed her fingers in worry circles. She got up and left her husband crimped with his back toward her on the mattress and went downstairs. She went through the kitchen stuffed ...
Coco Chanel (2011)
It is at once about self-presentation and conformity. Like music, it is improvisation within a structure. As the human condition doesn’t appear to respond well to too much repetition, fashion could be described as one of our antidotes to boredom. It must be new, but not too new; novel rather than...
Seducing the Viscount (2014)
It was not a difficult task to catch sight of the crumbling ruin of a castle on the hill south of him. Although it had once been a royal residence for Henry III, it was now little more than a shell that spoke of grander days. Angling toward the river, he ignored the assessing stares from the loca...
Streetlights Like Fireworks
She scans the building and I wonder what she’s thinking. Her expression doesn’t give anything away but I remember kids making fun of her. I feel bad now for not sticking up for her. I didn’t know her but that doesn’t make it okay. “Wow, never thought I’d be here again,” she says. “I know. It’s w...
Hair-Trigger (2013)
Picking up her small platform, she walked through the bar in an easy strut, showing off her long legs. At twenty-nine she figured they were her best asset. Any weight she’d gained didn’t show much on a toned, big-boned, five-eight black frame, though she could see the evid...
Raven: Blood Eye
It was loud and it stank, but heathen and Christian were getting along better than anyone could have hoped. Even Wulfweard was there, though I did not see him talking to any of the Norsemen. He sat on a footstool drinking mead and fingering the wooden cross he wore round his neck as though the th...
At Last
“Perfect timing, Mr. Crane. Where is he?” Technically, she had lied to Kevin. Though she’d needed some more time to prepare for the showing, she had no intention of attending it. Curtis Browning was a highly regarded artist, and he trusted Liz with showing and auctioning h...
Dog Training The American Male
Nancy said, pouring herself another glass of lemonade. “They’ll put you under, snip-snip, and you wake-up with a small bandage on your penis. No big deal.” “It’s far less invasive than breast implants,” Helen added. “Plus there’s the added benefits. For instance, you’ll never have to worry about ...
Your Room or Mine?
CHAPTER TEN Izzy shifted from foot to foot, waiting on the delivery of a load of gravel to rake over the newly-laid paving. So it turned out Shauna had been right all along. A no-strings fling could only work if it was anonymous. Throw yourself into work, Izzy, that’s right. Always worked before....
Encore
It brought to mind string instruments and Russia, as “Kussova” had suggested an arrow, powerful and direct, and “Oblonova” graceful curvature, voluptuous and honeyed. Names had always held a magic for her. “Natasha” had been in the prison of her youth, harsh and barren, and that was why only ever...
Duality
“Rest. Now.” “Good idea.” Loren was exhausted. His arms tightened around Dara. She had not awakened once during the long flight northward. He saw a thicket aside the path. “Through there. We can rest unseen.” Hani`ena eyed the long thorns. “You cannot be serious.” He bowed his head, closed his ey...
Redemption
He heard the patrons calling out greetings to her but she disappeared upstairs a few minutes after her arrival. He could feel William's gaze boring into him from across the table as he tapped Millie on the butt and urged her off of his lap. He'd succeeded in trying to appear as uncaring as possib...
Forever
For Steve, who started me. For Miranda who guided me. For Angie, for all of the above and more -- especially for forever. And for everyone -- over the last 36 years -- who gave me Roni. Cover art by ...