He stopped, hovering above her lips, giving her the opportunity to back away...create space between them. Instead, she leaned into him, met his kiss. The moments evaporated as he held her, a touch as light as if she were a cherry blossom he could crush. Get caught up in romance and suspense with this novella from award-winning author Cara Putman. Things were business as usual for family law attorney Ciara Turner, until she walked into her mentor’s office to find the judge had been murdered.

There’s no place like home. Until the heart gallops off in an unexpected direction... Prepare for romance in this heartwarming holiday book brought to you by USA Today best-selling author Josie Riviera. After Chiara passes her RN license exam, she plans to leave Virginia and return to her beloved Kansas hometown for good. Except her home health client’s handsome brother makes her consider changing her plans.

Kaitlyn Bell thought she was going to marry Dillon Fields until he decided he needed to see the world. She waited for him to return, but when the communication stopped, she married another. Unfortunately, that marriage wasn't a good fit. When she is asked to redecorate the Fields' winter lodge, she is hesitant at first, but after being assured Dillon won't be there, she takes the job. Dillon Fields thought he wanted to see the world, but 10 years after leaving his hometown, he finds himself unable to commit to his relationship.

When a Miami investor calls in search of prime property-flip prospects, North Carolina real estate broker Candee Contando expects to meet a balding, steely-eyed land shark. Turns out the first customer she’s had in months is a hot prospect in more ways than one. Except his gaze has fallen on her dream house, a dilapidated Victorian she just bid her last penny on in hopes of creating a safe place for disadvantaged children - like the girl she used to be.

Dorothy Jean Wetstra, 87, is the town matriarch in Partonville, Illinois. Fully aware of both her strengths and flaws, she often asks "the Big Guy" in heaven for help: "Dear Lord, DO SOMETHING!"

When Detective Noah Adams meets the abused son of a powerful judge, he knows he must intervene - and fast. The violence is escalating, and even Noah's special gifts may not prevent the unthinkable from happening. Relentlessly pursuing two cases, Noah receives a chilling message: Cody's deranged father has taken his son and it's up to Noah to follow the judge's twisted trail to find the boy before it's too late.

Madison is booming with dreamers and drifters, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Among them is Sydney Richardson, the daughter of a cop who died on these streets and now the proud, stressed-out owner of Hush Money, one of the city's top new restaurants. Like everyone else in town, Sydney is shocked when Madison's popular mayor - a crusty, charismatic man of the people - is shot to death in his own home. But the news hits especially close to home for Sydney because one of her own stands accused of the brutal crime. Sydney's the one person that Wanda Fields, a quiet, hardworking waitress and single mother, can think to call after her arrest.

Kevin Wake hates being rich. He despises everything his father stands for, but he can't abandon his kid sister and baby brother. Their future is tied to his own. When his father threatens to rob them all of their mother's legacy, Kevin takes bold action to protect what should be theirs.

Jack Livingston has been raising his nine-year-old adopted niece, Natalie, since the accident that took her parents' lives. While he travels for work, Natalie is lovingly cared for by Laura, an Amish nanny who loves her as her own. Kelly Maines is nearing the end of her rope. Her baby was kidnapped, the apparent victim of a black market adoption ring, and for eight years, Kelly has tirelessly pursued every lead to its bitter end. Now, there's one last lead from a private investigator: Just a few miles away lives a girl who matches the profile....

Make it a merry Christmas with these four heartwarming stories. In Christmas Homecoming, sparks fly between former Air Force Pararescueman Kevin Matthews and the town's new surgeon, Kate Stafford. Widower Billy Morgan and his longtime friend, Bella, might discover an occasion to celebrate in An Unexpected Gift. In Christmas in Blue Hollow Falls, Attorney Moira Brogan is rescued by a Aussie chef Hudson Walker. And event planner Julia Louisa Fernandez meets former pro baseball player Ben Thomas who just might inspire a winning strategy in Holiday Homerun.

Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and so not qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it's Lucy's turn to step up and help out - in the name of love. Plus, her rent is due. Here's the problem: Lucy doesn't have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read "auras" and pair up perfect couples.

Carter is an insurance adjuster whose longing for creative expression spills over sometimes into his accident reports. Abby works for her adoptive father, Uncle Mannie, in the family bookstore, the ReadMore Cafe. Carter barely tolerates Christmas; Abby loves it. She can't wait past October to build her favorite display, the annual Christmas book tree stack, which Carter despises. When an automobile accident throws Carter and Abby together, Uncle Mannie, who is harboring secrets of his own, sees a chance for lasting happiness for his little girl.

Verena Valent is at the helm of her family's legendary Swiss skincare company in Beverly Hills. After her parents die, she becomes the sole provider for her younger twin sisters and her grandmother, rising to the challenge to guide and expand her family's business. She is in the midst of a critical international expansion when her carefully organized life begins to unravel. While she struggles to save the business that means everything to her, she meets Lance, an executive chef at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Back in Balsam Dell to heal after the death of her husband, Carly Hale is finally pursuing her lifelong dream — opening Carly's Grilled Cheese Eatery. After only five months, business is booming as Vermont vacationers and townspeople alike flock to lunch on her Party Havartis and other grilled-cheese concoctions. That is, everyone is but Lyle Bagley, her one-time high-school boyfriend who’s now the town bully — and he just bought the building that houses her eatery and wants her out.

Melanie McLaughlin desperately wants to adopt two orphaned siblings and give them a real home for Christmas. A just-for-the-holiday marriage to Bryce Landry fits her plan perfectly...until unexpected sparks have Melanie dreaming of forever by his side....

He stopped, hovering above her lips, giving her the opportunity to back away...create space between them. Instead, she leaned into him, met his kiss. The moments evaporated as he held her, a touch as light as if she were a cherry blossom he could crush. Get caught up in romance and suspense with this novella from award-winning author Cara Putman. Things were business as usual for family law attorney Ciara Turner, until she walked into her mentor’s office to find the judge had been murdered.

Madison is booming with dreamers and drifters, visionaries and entrepreneurs. Among them is Sydney Richardson, the daughter of a cop who died on these streets and now the proud, stressed-out owner of Hush Money, one of the city's top new restaurants. Like everyone else in town, Sydney is shocked when Madison's popular mayor - a crusty, charismatic man of the people - is shot to death in his own home. But the news hits especially close to home for Sydney because one of her own stands accused of the brutal crime. Sydney's the one person that Wanda Fields, a quiet, hardworking waitress and single mother, can think to call after her arrest.

Lucy Valentine is as smart as can be, as single as you can get, and so not qualified to run a matchmaking service. But when her parents temporarily step down from the family business, Valentine, Inc., it's Lucy's turn to step up and help out - in the name of love. Plus, her rent is due. Here's the problem: Lucy doesn't have the knack for matchmaking. According to family legend, every Valentine has been blessed by Cupid with the ability to read "auras" and pair up perfect couples.

Verena Valent is at the helm of her family's legendary Swiss skincare company in Beverly Hills. After her parents die, she becomes the sole provider for her younger twin sisters and her grandmother, rising to the challenge to guide and expand her family's business. She is in the midst of a critical international expansion when her carefully organized life begins to unravel. While she struggles to save the business that means everything to her, she meets Lance, an executive chef at the Beverly Hills Hotel.

Melanie McLaughlin desperately wants to adopt two orphaned siblings and give them a real home for Christmas. A just-for-the-holiday marriage to Bryce Landry fits her plan perfectly...until unexpected sparks have Melanie dreaming of forever by his side....

Regina Beswick is content to be a small-town girl, running a classic auto-restoration shop, unaware a secret destiny awaits her - one that will leap from the pages of her grandmother’s hand-painted book of fairy tales. Tanner Burkhardt is the stoic minister of culture for the grand duchy of Hessenberg. When he is tasked to retrieve the long-lost princess, he must overcome his fear of failure in order to secure his nation’s future - and his own.

Denver chef Rachel Bishop has accomplished everything she's dreamed and some things she never dared hope, like winning a James Beard Award and heading up her own fine-dining restaurant. But when a targeted smear campaign causes her to be pushed out of the business by her partners, she vows to do whatever it takes to get her life back...even if that means joining forces with the man who inadvertently set the disaster in motion.

Dev Sinclair is the happy new owner of the old-fashioned shop in her small Missouri town. But if she doesn't focus on finding the killer of her ex's fiance, this five-and-dime owner may find herself serving 25 to life.

Charles Brewster, history professor, curmudgeon and resident of Boston, wants to avoid Christmas altogether. He figures a prison town should be nice and quiet over the holidays - except he’s thinking of the wrong Leavenworth!Through an internet site, Charles and Emily arrange to swap houses for the holiday. So Emily goes to Boston - and discovers that her daughter has gone to Florida. And Charles arrives in Leavenworth to discover that it’s not the prison town - it’s Santa’s village! The place is full of Christmas trees, Christmas music and...elves.

Olivia Limoges is the subject of constant gossip. Ever since her mysterious return to the small coastal town of Oyster Bay, North Carolina, Olivia has kept to herself, her dog, and her unfinished novel. With a little cajoling from charming writer Camden Ford, she agrees to join the Bayside Book Writers to break her writer's block and even make a few friends. But when townspeople start turning up dead with haiku poems left by the bodies, anyone with a flair for language is suddenly suspect.

Kelly Flynn never picked up a pair of knitting needles she liked—until she strolled into House of Lambspun. Now, in the first in a brand-new series, she learns how to knit one, purl two, and untangle the mystery behind her aunt's murder.

When Skye Denison left Scumble River years ago, she swore she'd never return. But after a bout with her boyfriend and credit card rejection, she's back to home sweet - homicide....

When vintage cookware and cookbook collector Jaymie Leighton spies an original 1920s Hoosier brand kitchen cabinet at an estate auction, it's love at first sight. Despite the protests of her sister that the 19th-century yellow-brick house they share in Michigan is already too cluttered with Jaymie's "junk," she successfully outbids the other buyers and triumphantly takes home her Hoosier.

One night four lives entered the world by the hands of an Amish midwife just outside North Star, Pennsylvania. Rebekah's babies, as they are called, are now grown adults, and in four heartwarming novellas each young person experiences a journey of discovery, love, and the wonder of Christmas.

After surviving a devastating tragedy, combat reporter Nate Garrison returns to the only place that ever felt like home: Starfish Bay on the Northern California coast. But his reunion with childhood friend Lindsey Collier is nothing like he’d imagined. The wary widow who runs Starfish Bay Mercantile was once the girl who made young Nate dream—of a future, of family ties, of deep roots. Now Lindsey avoids love, loss … and Nate. Yet when they join forces to save a beloved town landmark and help a hurting little boy, might they also find healing, hope—and love?