Results narrated by "Heather Masters" in All categories

Hannah Hickok is looking forward to her first Christmas in Casper Creek. She has plans for cookies, cuddles with her fiancé Cooper Wyatt, and a visit from Chris Kringle. Instead, the man who visits isn’t the one Hannah was inspecting. No, it’s her former fiancé Michael…and he’s arrived with an agenda. Michael has more attitude than brains, and he’s ready to make life difficult for Hannah…right up to the point where his new fiancée is killed and her body goes missing from the morgue.

Holly Cross is counting down the hours to the moment her foster brother’s trial begins. Collin has haunted her footsteps - and her dreams - for 15 years, and she wants nothing more than to put that pain and fear behind her and build a new life. But before that can happen, she has to confront the man who tried to destroy her. DA Shannon Marx is known for her skill and force of personality in a courtroom, and she's determined to put Collin Wells where he belongs: behind bars and away from everyone she loves. But Collin Wells is unlike any defendant she's ever come up against in court.

This genre-bending debut collection of stories constructs eight eerie worlds full of desire, wisdom, and magic blooming amidst decay. In stories that beckon and haunt, Fruiting Bodies ranges confidently from the fantastical to the gothic to the uncanny, as it follows characters—mostly queer, mostly women—on the precipice of change.

High school sucks for a lot of people. High school extra sucks when you believe, deep in your soul, that every kid in the school is out to get you. I wasn't popular before I got locked up in Straight Inc., the notorious "tough love" program for troubled teens. So it's not like I was walking around thinking everyone liked me. But when you're psychologically beaten for 16 months, you start to absorb the lessons. The lessons in Straight were: You are evil. Your peers are evil. Everything is evil except Straight, Inc. Before long, you're a true believer.

"I should have tried harder." Those final words are scrawled across a note that’s been pinned to a man's remains. Pulled to a crime scene in the middle of the night, Detective Marx struggles to unravel the mystery behind a message written by the victim. A suicide note...or an admission of guilt? Before he can discover the truth, what seems to be a random act of violence becomes something far more dangerous. With very little evidence and even less time, Detective Marx searches for the common thread between the victims, but his efforts might put him directly in the killer’s path.

Hannah Hickok and Cooper Wyatt are newly engaged, and ready to celebrate. Cooper just didn’t think the celebration would involve a hike to a long-abandoned boom town called Blackridge. He had something more romantic in mind. Despite that, he agrees, and believes the trip will be fine - right up until they stumble across a homeless man, warning them away from their destination. He's more than a ghost. He’s more than a shadow. He’s a monster who can straddle two worlds. And he needs Hannah to lift the curse that has kept him trapped for a century.

An urgent and fractious national debate over public monuments has erupted in America. Some people risk imprisonment to tear down long-ignored hunks of marble; others form armed patrols to defend them. Why do we care so much about statues? And who gets to decide which ones should stay up and which should come down? Erin L. Thompson, the country’s leading expert in the tangled aesthetic, legal, political, and social issues involved in such battles, brings much-needed clarity in Smashing Statues.

Hannah Hickok didn’t know she was a witch, but life is certainly wickedly delightful for her now. As the owner and proprietress of Casper Creek, a cosplay western town, she’s found her niche in life...and love in Cooper Wyatt. It’s not all smooth sailing for the couple, though, because Casper Creek was built on a magical nexus. That means evil of all kinds is drawn to the property...and Hannah in turn. 

Zombies in Casper Creek? Say it ain’t so. Unfortunately, it looks to be true...and Hannah Hickok and her motley crew of helpers have a mess on their hands. As Cooper Wyatt struggles with the perfect way to propose, his girlfriend is buried in zombie lore...and seemingly having a good time digging up solutions. The bodies are rising from two different cemeteries, one so old it hasn’t seen a new resident in 30 years. Why, though?

He’ll get what he came for, no matter how many bodies he has to step over. Collin Wells is relentless and ruthless, and he’ll stop at nothing to get what he wants: his foster sister, the girl who always manages to slip through his fingers. Holly’s foster brother has haunted her footsteps for years - taunting her, toying with her - and until recently, she never dared to stop running and build a life for herself. Now, everyone she loves is in danger. How can she protect the people she loves when her foster brother comes to collect?

Written in 1892 but not published until 1916, this beautifully crafted story features two sisters who keep a shop in a shabby part of New York City. When Ann Eliza, the eldest sister, gifts Evelina with a clock on her birthday, events are set in motion which will forever change not only their...

Now that she’s absorbed the power of the Casper Creek nexus, Hannah Hickok is a witch on a mission. Her new powers require regular venting, and she’s surpassed even her limited expectations. It’s not magic on her mind when her father comes for a visit, though. Brad Hickok has always wanted to see Casper Creek, and now that he gets to visit, he’s extremely excited. He’s not alone, though. He’s brought his new girlfriend...and Hannah is thrown for a loop by her appearance.

A new year has begun, and the annual Sower’s Festival gala is brimming with Dockhaven’s elite and their entourages. Some attend for the spectacle, some for the exotic indulgences, some to augment or gamble away fortunes. Others come to play opening moves in more subtle competitions, ones that will not realize their endgames for months to come.

Collin Wells is no ordinary foster brother. He is evil wrapped in human skin - a living, breathing nightmare, and when he steps back into Holly's life, she's faced with a choice: trust the people who claim they can keep her safe, or trust the instincts that have kept her alive for the past 14 years. As the threads of her life begin to unravel around her - leaving her terrified, displaced from her home, and caught in the middle of a drug battle - she can't help but wonder if she made the wrong choice.

Under the dirty streets of Ismae's greatest port city, an old nightmare waits for Sylandair and Aliara, one that is stealing Dockhaven's children, one only they can end. When the pair escaped their owner and abuser years ago, they left him behind in a ball of blue flame, but as more children disappear near the city's desalinization plant, their suspicions turn to the predator they believed dead. Accompanied by their less-than-reliable puka scout Schmalch, they delve into the forgotten depths of the patchwork city.

Zoe Cain knows that Grant Evertide is way out of her league. So, naturally, she kisses him. Out of spite. Not only is Grant her brother’s number one nemesis, but he has zero interest in being tied down to one girl. She’s shocked - and secretly thrilled - when they start spending more time together.

Amarrah came from nothing, had nothing...was nothing. The discovery of her secret talent changed that in an instant. But rather than a gift, what Mara uncovered was a curse - a deadly one. Searching for a way out leads Mara to even more hidden truths; legacies beyond her wildest dreams. The real nature of her birthright is finally revealed, only to be cruelly snatched away in the rising tide of war. Cast adrift and deprived of everything she’d earned, Mara is once again left with nothing.

Hannah Hickok is a brand-new witch living in a brave new world. Casper Creek, a cosplay Western town left to her by a grandmother she didn’t know, belongs to Hannah...and a few colorful characters (more affectionately referred to as workers) are part of the deal. Cooper Wyatt is head of security, and the last thing he wants is a new face on his turf...until he meets Hannah and feels that instant sizzle. Unfortunately, the flirtation comes with a heaping side of trouble.

Hannah Hickok was looking for adventure when she inherited Casper Creek from her grandmother. She got more than she was bargaining for. Now she’s grappling with two ancient sister witches, both of whom are inhabiting the bodies of others, and a war is brewing. Hannah knows she has to fight on the side of good, but she’s not certain their ally has anybody’s best interests at heart, and it has her faltering. On top of everything, there’s a new demon on the loose and he appears to have joined sides with the dark witch who wants to end them all.

Hannah Hickok is struggling. After the death of one of her workers, a woman who had been making life difficult, Hannah finds she is awash in a myriad of feelings she can’t quite put a name to. Things don’t get better when, following a romantic dinner with her boyfriend, Cooper Wyatt, magic and mechanics collide in a multi-vehicle accident that looks to have been caused by a dark shadow. One of the survivors, a young teenager, could be shuffled into the system if someone doesn’t step up.