This bonus e-only short story is the perfect introduction to bestselling author Virginia Smith’s latest series, Tales from the Goose Creek B&B. Set in the years before the Richardsons launch their bed-and-breakfast scheme, the quirky residents of the small Kentucky town are all in a tizzy over the upcoming Fall Festival. Alison, Al and Millie’s headstrong daughter, astounds everyone with the news that she’s getting married—in three weeks—to a Colombian! As her parents frantically try to stop the nuptials, Dr. Horatio, Goose Creek’s beloved veterinarian, is determined to solve the mystery of the six-toed kittens that have been popping up all over town.

Lia needs ANSWERS from beyond, NOT matchmaking!

When twenty-something Lia’s grandmother dies, her life is knocked upside-down. In order to satisfy the terms of her inheritance, Lia is forced to move to the family’s apartment complex in the scenic mountain town of Applebarrow, leaving behind her dead-end job and long-term boyfriend, Jason. While she’s happy to fulfill her Granana’s unusual dying wish to play social director to the eclectic group of tenants, she’s surprised to discover they are not what she was expecting.

Her days as an RA in her college dorm were inadequate preparation for personalities such as a jealous librarian who names her Thanksgiving turkeys, a charmingly naive mechanic who thinks New Wave is beach music, and a volatile menopausal woman who claims to be a delicate flower.

Suffer a Witch

Occult Horror

England, 1645. The country is torn apart by civil war, but in the mind of young Matthew Hopkins, a different fear grows. He knows the land is infected with evil, that women—the servants of Satan—are plotting against him.

For seventeen-year-old Pippa Wylde, life’s greatest concern is winning the heart of the local lord’s son . . . and learning the ways of the “cunning-folk,” the herbal remedies and spells taught to her by her aging mother. But when Matthew Hopkins, self-styled Witch-finder General, rides into their tiny hamlet, Pippa and her friends are swept into a nightmare hysteria. While loyalties are twisted and lives shattered by the massive scale of the witch hunt, Pippa finds herself in a personal battle for survival against Hopkins, a man both obsessed and dangerous.

Living a secluded life in Belgium, Sei has no thoughts of returning to her former life as an assassin until a mysterious person confronts her with a contract she can’t possibly turn down. Payment isn’t monetary; instead, it’s information leading to the whereabouts of a little girl.

Hers.

In a matter of seconds, Sei is pulled back into a world she left behind. She accepts the contract to chase the truth about her daughter, but what appears to be a routine mission turns into a fight for survival. If Sei is to have any hope of reuniting with her child, she must first save herself.

The media has a nickname for Marnie Baranuik, though she’d rather they didn’t; they call her the Great White Shark, a rare dual-talented forensic psychic. Twice-Touched by the Blue Sense—which gives her the ability to feel the emotions of others, and read impressions left behind on objects—Marnie also has a doctorate in preternatural biology and a working knowledge of the dark arts. She is considered without peer in the psychic community.

Then her first big FBI case ended with a bullet in one shoulder and a chip on the other, a queasy heart and a serial killer in the wind. When the FBI’s preternatural crimes unit tracks her down at a remote mountain lodge for her insight on a local case, her retirement is promptly besieged by a stab-happy starlet, a rampaging ghoul, and a vampire-hunting jackass in tight Wranglers. Marnie figures the only real mystery is which one will kill her first.

Eating healthy gets a whole lot easier with this delicious collection of 75 recipes—each one photographed—for nutritious and satisfying meals made quickly in your electric pressure cooker, all developed by a certified nutritionist and cookbook author for maximum health and flavor.

In The Fresh and Healthy Instant Pot Cookbook, Megan Gilmore presents recipes that use easy-to-find, whole-food ingredients for simple weeknight meals from morning to night—through the revolutionary cooking power of the Instant Pot, an electric, programmable multicooker. There are gluten-free options for each recipe, and all recipes are free of refined sugar and many of the most common food allergens, yet don’t scrimp on flavor. With dishes like Korean Chicken Bowls, Eggplant Parmesan Bake, Peanut Butter Crunch Granola Bars, Flourless Banana Oat Bread, and One-Pot Chocolate Cake and Frosting, following a healthy diet while enjoying your favorite whole foods has never been more achievable.

Scientist John Yudkin was the first to sound the alarm about the excess of sugar in the diet of modern Americans. His classic exposé, Pure, White, and Deadly, clearly and engagingly describes how sugar is damaging our bodies, why we eat so much of it, and what we can do to stop. He explores the ins and out of sugar, from the different types—is brown sugar really better than white?—to how it is hidden inside our everyday foods, and how it is harming our health.

In 1972, Yudkin was mostly ignored by the health industry and media, but the events of the last forty years have proven him spectacularly right. Yudkin’s insights are even more important and relevant now, with today’s record levels of obesity, than when they were first published. Brought up-to-date by childhood obesity expert Dr. Robert H. Lustig, this emphatic treatise on the hidden dangers of sugar is essential reading for anyone concerned about their health, the health of their children, and the wellbeing of modern society.

A laugh-out-loud must-read illustrated novel starring the one and only cartooning genius, king of detention, and Cheez Doodle connoisseur, Nate Wright. Nate’s not having the best of luck . . . in fact; he’s not having ANY luck. But with a little boost thanks to Chad’s lucky foot, suddenly good luck is everywhere Nate turns! Nate’s in the zone! But how long will it last?

In Talking as Fast as I Can, Lauren Graham hits pause for a moment and looks back on her life, sharing laugh-out-loud stories about growing up, starting out as an actress, and, years later, sitting in her trailer on the Parenthood set and asking herself, “Did you, um, make it?” She opens up about the challenges of being single in Hollywood (“Strangers were worried about me; that’s how long I was single!”), the time she was asked to audition her butt for a role, and her experience being a judge on Project Runway (“It’s like I had a fashion-induced blackout”).

In “What It Was Like, Part One,” Graham sits down for an epic Gilmore Girls marathon and reflects on being cast as the fast-talking Lorelai Gilmore. The essay “What It Was Like, Part Two” reveals how it felt to pick up the role again nine years later, and what doing so has meant to her.

In his latest historical novel, bestselling author Robert Morgan brings to full and vivid life the story of Jonah Williams, who, in 1850, on his eighteenth birthday, flees the South Carolina plantation on which he was born a slave. He takes with him only a few stolen coins, a knife, and the clothes on his back–no shoes, no map, no clear idea of where to head, except north, following a star that he prays will be his guide.

Hiding during the day and running through the night, Jonah must elude the men sent to capture him and the bounty hunters out to claim the reward on his head. There is one person, however, who, once on his trail, never lets him fully out of sight: Angel, herself a slave, yet with a remarkably free spirit.

It’s 1885 and five preachers sit around a campfire out West, trading stories of unlikely couples they’ve seen God bring together. This is one of those stories . . .

She’s reckless spitfire and, thanks to her, he’s a wreck . . .

Maisy Place didn’t mean for Ryan to come to any harm. She was just looking for a quiet space to nurse her wounded pride after he’d hurt her feelings. But then she wandered onto Ryan’s property and into a heap of trouble. Ryan rescued her from a charging grizzly only to find himself with serious breaks and bruises.

Maisy sheepishly agrees when her father insists that she nurse the wounded Ryan back to health as penance. And when his ranch hand leaves him high-and-dry just weeks before a critical cattle sale, Maisy steps in to help. Her cowboy-like ways that have always driven him crazy may ultimately prove to be his salvation . . . and pave the way to their romance.

A rollickingly good new novel from the bestselling and much loved author of The Farmer’s Wife and Fifty Bales of Hay. On the surface Elsie Jones, country music superstar, has it all. But after a brush with death she is forced to re-evaluate her life. Events soon take her back to her home town in the wheat belt of western NSW, where she reconnects with her childhood friend tara Green. Elsie and tara were misfits together, eventually running away from their small town to muster cattle. After a terrible betrayal came between them, Elsie moved on to material success but she soon realises that tara is the one who has managed to overcome her traumatic childhood and find inner peace – lessons Elsie needs to learn. the must-read novel from Australia’s no.1 female fiction author.

When Rachael Ray wants to tell her 2.6 million viewers how to shop wisely at the meat counter, she invites veteran butcher Ray Venezia on her show. This handbook condenses Venezia’s expert advice from 25 years behind the butcher block, giving every weeknight shopper and grill enthusiast the need-to-know information on meat grades, best values, and common cuts for poultry, pork, lamb, veal, and beef. The Everyday Meat Guide includes easy-to-follow illustrations and instructions for the questions butchers are most often asked, plus a handy photo gallery for quick identification at the market. Also Includes Ray Venezia’s popular turkey carving method, as seen in The New York Times, with step by step instructions including hand placement illustrations. This refreshingly simplified, confidence-instilling take on the most intimidating part of grocery shopping makes navigating the meat counter truly easy.