Showing results by narrator "Kimberly M. Wetherell" in All Categories

Reeling from a breakup with her long-term partner, Gray—an optimistic lesbian Aries—relocates to New Orleans for a new job. Gray wants to meet someone, settle down, and build the loving, accepting family she’s always wanted, but having been out of the dating scene for a decade, she has no idea where to start. After visiting an iconic astrologer, Gray and her best friend, Cherry, draw up a dramatic scheme: Gray will go on a date with someone of each zodiac sign to test their compatibility and get a jump start on creating the queer family of her dreams.

Humans have always been fascinated by darkness. Especially the darkness of a city at night, when the black sky is made ever more inky by the pools of illumination dropped under streetlights. Whether the mean streets be in an alternate past charmed with dark magic or the dirty alleyways of futuristic crowded space stations, the city—and its darkened streets—will always fascinate us. Here then, an anthology of all new stories of science fiction and fantasy with a hardboiled noir twist that acknowledge that the city is a living, breathing entity...and it isn’t always on our side.

Deep in the dark forest, in a cottage that spins on birds’ legs behind a fence topped with human skulls, lives the baba yaga. A guardian of the water of life, she lives with her sisters and takes to the skies in a giant mortar and pestle, creating tempests as she goes. Those who come across the baba yaga may find help, or hinderance, or horror. She is wild, she is woman, she is witch—and these are her tales.

Sixteen-year-old Maggie Scott is a little dramatic. Life is just more fun when you’re always putting on a show! But apparently her boyfriend, Theo, disagrees, because he unexpectedly dumps her. She’s so distressed she breaks her foot, has to be rescued by the most obnoxious boy in school, Carson, and can no longer star in the school play. Now everything is terrible and Maggie doesn’t understand where it all went wrong. So when she gets a mysterious text from an unknown number offering her a chance to relive the day when she and Theo met, Maggie can’t help clicking.

For Joel and Stella, it’s the trip they’ve been dreaming about. Fresh air, quiet time in the woods, and no work to distract them from each other. Being a new couple, they don’t waste any time with their first full weekend away together. But their perfect getaway turns into a nightmare when an accident occurs and they find a dead woman lying outside their cabin. Clearly, they have to call the police, but what Joel reveals to Stella makes her understand there’s no way they can get the authorities involved.

In Cult Following, Ocker sheds light on the terrifying attraction of cults, demonstrating the elasticity of belief, the desperateness of belonging, and the tragedy of trust.

Alex Rush is ready for the trip of a lifetime. She and her friends have made some creepily awesome films together throughout high school, so with only a few months left before they go their separate ways for college, they’re determined to make the best one yet: an epic short film that reimagines the story of Dracula, filmed on location at a remote castle in Romania.

New Orleans, 1944. Sabotage—that's the word on factory worker Justine Byrne's mind as she is repeatedly called to weld machine parts that keep failing with no clear cause. Could someone inside the secretive Carbon Division be deliberately undermining the factory's war efforts? Raised by her late parents to think logically, she also can't help wondering just what the oddly shaped carbon gadgets she assembles day after day have to do with the boats the factory builds....

Amy, a semicloseted queer baker and bartender in mid-2010s Oklahoma, has spent a lifetime putting other people’s needs before her own. Until, that is, she’s fired from her job at a Christian bakery and turns her one-off gig subbing in for a bridesmaid into a full-time business, thanks to her baking talents, crafting skills, and years watching rom-coms and Say Yes to the Dress. Between her new gig and meeting Charley, the attractive engineer who’s just moved to Tulsa, suddenly Amy’s found something—and someone—she actually wants.

Now, the king is dead. The would-be brides have forged their own destinies - some for the better, others for worse. Not all who started this dance will finish it. Those left will wear the lingering scars with a mix of pride and remorse. From his stolen throne, Oldwin rules with a hand that grows shakier by the hour, as his once unparalleled magic dwindles. His grasp on power is reliant upon his truths remaining hidden by the shadows, just beyond the reach of the fraught kingdom.

Chaos paints the White Kingdom. Missing children, dead nobles, and a daring escape have created an upheaval that threatens the future of the entire realm. The lords and ladies are armed with a powerful secret weapon as they prepare to make a stand against the crown, but the resistance has plenty to overcome before they can claim triumph.

Weston Aldrich is known for his devastating looks and crisp Italian suits. He's been groomed to take over his family business and is on the brink of closing a massive merger. Only two wild cards can derail him.

Growing up with an adoring father for a boxing legend isn’t all sunshine and rainbows. It looks more like hospital visits, bloody noses, and cracked ribs.

A crown woven together by lies. A kingdom with the power to unravel them. Four Reaches. Four brides. Only a fortnight separates the young women from becoming reluctant queens of the usurper king, Eoghan Rhiagain. Twenty years earlier, King Eoghan’s father cunningly devised marriages between the highborn sons and daughters of the oft-warring Reaches, sealing the unions before they could protest, shattering existing betrothals in place of forced alliances. Now, Eoghan, the cruel boy king who stole his crown through murder, demands the eldest daughters of these unions.

In a city teeming with stories, how do lost souls find one another? It’s a question Meg Rhys doesn’t think she’s asking. Meg is a self-identified spinster librarian, satisfied with living with her cat, stacks of books, and her dead sister’s ghost in her New York City apartment. Then she becomes obsessed with an intriguing library patron and the haunted house he’s trying to research. The house has its own story to tell too, of love and war, of racism’s fallout and the ghost story that is gentrification, and of Brooklyn before it was Brooklyn.

Jolene Carter lives in Merrylark Lake, a quaint town where neighbors are like family and vacationers become fast friends. With her dream of opening a downtown storefront on hold, Jolene volunteers wherever she can, whether it be at Cat's Coffee Cart or the town's annual tree lighting. It is while she's tending to her neighbor's vacation rental that Jolene meets Luke, a cowboy with a mustang rescue and a past he's hoping to leave back at the ranch.  

Iris Clayton is supposed to be on a tropical island, soaking up the sun and a few dozen mojitos. Instead, she’s snowbound in Chicago overnight, holding out hope the morning flight isn’t cancelled. Good thing there’s a hot cowboy to keep her company. And it doesn’t hurt that Mr. Tall, Calm, and Sun-Streaked can make her tremble with one sultry look from under his well-worn hat.

Single mom Lena Oserkowski just wants to relax at the five-star resort where her brother is getting married. Oh, and figure out how to make one of her businesses successful enough to support her son. Her focus is thrown out of whack when Elliot Debusshere, twin brother of her new sister-in-law, swims to her rescue at the hotel pool.

Cher Debusshere hates being the black sheep of her posh, well-to-do family almost as much as she hates driving which is exactly what she's forced to do when her flight home for her perfect sister's wedding is grounded. Fan-freakin'-tastic. Then a hot guy offers to share both the car rental and the driving duties...only to drive her crazy by assuming she's just some spoiled little rich girl.

When Jill Goodman’s picture-perfect marriage implodes, she’s heartbroken. The only thing she receives in the hasty divorce settlement is the deed to her husband’s sprawling beach house on the New Jersey shore. She hates the sight of it but knows she must face it if she’s to move on. With no other choice, Jill travels to Dewberry Beach intending to sell the house quickly - but the task is not as easy as she expects. Still, she can’t help but be charmed by the little town even the unexpected attentions of a handsome local with dark eyes and a teasing smile.