Short Family

In 1998, an apparently ordinary Australian man is arrested and charged for a series of brutal murders. The news shocks the nation, bringing both horror and resolution to the victims’ families, but its impact travels even further: into the past, as the murders rewrite personal histories, and into the future, as true crime podcasts and biopics tell the story of the crimes. Highway Thirteen, Fiona McFarlane’s newest collection, takes murder as its starting point, but it unfolds to encompass much more.

Motherhood isn’t always what’s expected. One woman may delight in navigating the unknowable, while another may look to the past to chart the course ahead. Still another may have the urge to redefine the relationship between mother and child. For each, the journey can be heartwarming and heartbreaking, ever changing and challenging. In these provocative stories, acclaimed authors probe the growing pains that can change the lives of both mother and child in ways they never imagined.

Five entertaining audio readings of best-loved children’s festive stories for children of three years and over to enjoy at Christmas. This audio download is a heritage-rich collection showcasing some of the best-loved characters in children’s literature. Compiled by HarperCollins Children’s Books, it features popular stories by authors

Gifted empath and security expert Landon Love has spent a lifetime trying to keep everyone at arm's length, never wanting to know what people personally think about him. His gift of sensing emotions isn't one he'd wish on anyone...ever. Beautician Alexis Love has been called many things by her family. Mother Nature on crack is the most accurate, thanks to her unusual DNA. The weather and the vibrations of the earth are her playground.

In the mystery of Christmas, we find its majesty. The mystery of how God became flesh, why he chose to come, and how he must love his people. Such mysteries can never be solved, just as love can never be diagrammed. Christmas is best pondered, not with logic, but with imagination.

Mia Russo spent 10 years working undercover, entrenched in the dregs of society, before handing in her shield. Opening her own pawnshop is a piece of cake in comparison. All she needs is the bad attitude she developed on the streets and the shotgun under her counter to keep law and order. Until the day Zeke McBride walks into her shop. Zeke knows Mia has every right not to trust him. He was the one who chose the next op instead of her.

Rich Manning and Jamie Warren have always been friends - and nothing but friends. However, that changes when she asks him to father the child she so desperately wants. Rich agrees - if she'll marry him. Because he thinks their Marriage of Inconvenience could become a real marriage instead.

You may think you know the love triangle, but you've never seen love triangles like these. These top YA authors tackle the much-debated trope of the love triangle, and the result is 16 fresh, diverse, and romantic stories you don't want to miss: A teen girl who offers kissing lessons. Zombies in the Civil War South. The girl next door, the boy who loves her, and the girl who loves them both. Vampires at a boarding school. Three teens fighting monsters in an abandoned video rental store. Literally the last three people on the planet.

The Against All Odds series is a romantic comedy saga with lots of humor and some angst.

In A Family Affair Shorts: Heartbreak, book four, Gloria finally decides to confront her suspicions that Charles has been having an affair and hires a private investigator. It is one thing to suspect, but what she discovers is so much more than a simple affair. And for those who remember Gloria’s ability to exact revenge, you won’t want to miss this!

In A Family Affair Shorts: Peace, book five, Charles visits Miriam and Lily, as he’s done for the past several years. Their time is ordinary and enjoyable, and passes too quickly. There’s already talk about the next visit and Lily’s 14th birthday in a few months. Such grand plans and dreams that will die on the icy road with Charles and create what can only be called fate as his two families converge.... And that’s where A Family Affair begins!

In A Family Affair Shorts: Regret, book two, Harry Blacksworth commits an unthinkable betrayal against his brother when he has an affair with his sister-in-law, Gloria. Listeners have often wondered about the events that led up to the betrayal and the aftermath that culminated in a pregnancy and a child who could belong to either brother.

In A Family Affair Shorts: Love, book three, Charles is determined to let duty prevail over desire and breaks off his relationship with Miriam. But he soon realizes his real life is with Miriam, even if it is only four days a month. When he confesses this truth, she shares a truth of her own; She’s pregnant. Together, they will form a new family, one that, while not conforming to society’s standards, is nonetheless filled with love and commitment.

"Canadian Family Adventures" follows the tale of 10 Irish siblings who immigrate to Canada in the late 1880s. Their mother, Maggie Collins, wants her children, between the ages of 10 years old and 30 years old, to have a good life, and she arranges for them to sail to Canada. The ten siblings arrive in Canada by ship, and each one settles in a different area of Canada and pursues a different career.

We need heroes. We need examples of what right looks like, where we can see a principle put into action and then observe the results. The farmer's law is eternally true, “You reap what you sow”. What are the consequences of a life lived with audacity, integrity, and thankfulness? We can look to Patton, Regulus, and Helen Keller to find out. What is the outcome if we persevere, and live nobly, with zeal? Ed Coan, George Washington, and Amelia Earhart show us. They say, you sow a thought; you reap an action.

Clendenin Hughes first kissed Dabney Kimball during a Nantucket snowstorm freshman year of high school. Ever since that moment - God, the rush, the chemistry! - Dabney has known that she and Clen are an unsplittable unit - essentially the same person in two different bodies. Of course, with Dabney now at Harvard and Clen at Yale, those bodies are 140 miles apart. A stirring portrait of young love at a crossroads, The Tailgate introduces two irresistible characters and invites us into a world we don't want to leave.

Set in colonial New Zealand, The Aloe captures a moment of transition for the Burnell family as they move into a new home. At the heart of it all is Kezia, a perceptive young girl whose sharp eyes and quiet curiosity offer a child's view of adult tension, familial love, and the quiet dramas of everyday life. Through lush, lyrical prose, Mansfield explores the unspoken complexities of women's roles, family expectations, and inner longing—all from the inside out.

It's been 12 years since Liza Carmichael stepped foot in Surrender, but after her great aunt's death she has no choice but to return and settle her estate. Which includes the corner bakery that's been a staple in Surrender for more than 50 years.

An exquisite new collection from a Pulitzer Prize-winning master of the short story, the culmination of a five-decade career: work that takes us beneath the placid surface of suburban life into the elusive strangeness of the everyday.

In 1980, young lovers Pea and Nam arrive in Bangkok in search of a life, and a world, beyond Thailand’s rural outskirts. Thirty days, they promise each other. Thirty days for Pea to find work, for him to put aside his violent and unstable past and take root in this strange new land.