Flowers Fiction

I've lived in the mud quarter my entire life, watching as the fireguards came every five years to select the prettiest girls to go to the Seat to start new lives. They get it all: husbands, houses without a speck of dirt, and enough food that hunger wasn't a constant pain in your belly. This year, it's my turn. The dragon that forces our kingdom to cower under our magnificent dome and hide behind stone walls hasn't shown any signs of leaving.

My future is a big "what if" at the moment and I'm fine with that. For the most part. When Thayer Holmes moves in next door, the grumpy landscaper both fascinates and amuses me. When he asks me to nanny his kid, it's a great way to make some extra money. It's impossible not to fall in love with Thayer and his adorable son. There's a big problem though. I'm eighteen. He's thirty-one. Falling for someone almost fifteen years older than me wasn't part of my plans, but sometimes things happen when you least expect them.

One late fall Sunday in southern Minnesota, a farmer brings a load of soybeans to a local grain elevator - and a young man hits him on the head with a steel bar, drops him into the grain bin, waits until he's sure he's dead, and then calls the sheriff to report the "accident." Suspicious, the sheriff calls in Virgil Flowers, who quickly breaks the kid down...and the next day the boy's found hanging in his cell. Remorse? Virgil isn't so sure....

Twelve-year-old Georgia assumed she would one day be the last Restorationist protecting art from evil forces. So she was thrilled when her cousin Vincent finally joined the family calling. But Vincent’s flashier Gift makes Georgia feel like a sidekick rather than a hero. And things only get more complicated and perilous after he willingly steps into the heart of danger. Will the remnants of the Restorationists’ society fracture under the pressure of the Distortionists’ schemes? Or is Georgia’s Gift really enough to rescue her family, the art world, the Restorationists—and save the day?

I have a type. I love the good guy. Responsible and stable. Safe. So when a beer-drinking, quick-witted, tattooed hockey player asks me to tutor him, I'm suddenly thrust into the world of bad boys and bad decisions. Jordan is a renowned player on campus. He doesn’t take anything seriously, except hockey and partying. But he gives me butterflies. I’m a wallflower tutoring Valley University’s hottest player.

A few years back, Virgil investigated the corrupt - and, as it turned out, homicidal - local school board in Trippton, Minnesota. Now the town's back in view with more alarming news: a woman's been found frozen in ice. There's a possibility that it might be connected to a high school class of 20 years ago, and so Virgil begins to dig into 20 years' worth of bad blood.

While competing in a fishing tournament in a remote area of Northern Minnesota, Virgil Flowers receives a call from Lucas Davenport to investigate a brutal murder at a nearby resort for women only. As Virgil begins investigating, he finds a web of connections between the people at the resort, the victim, and some local women, notably a talented and popular country singer. The more Virgil digs, the more he discovers the arrows of suspicion point in many directions, encompassing a multitude of motivations: jealousy, blackmail, greed, anger, and fear.

Valley U’s hottest QB has heard in detail how I want to climb him like a tree. One viral video, and my life as a wallflower is over. Felix Walters knows exactly how I feel about him—so does everyone else on campus.

Francine Thwaite has lived all her fifty-five years in her family's ancestral home, a rambling Elizabethan manor in England's Lake District. No other living soul resides there, but Francine isn't alone. There are ghosts in Thwaite Manor, harmless and familiar. Most beloved is Bree, the mischievous ghost girl who has been Francine's companion since childhood. When Francine's estranged sister, Madeleine, returns to the manor after years away, she brings with her a story that threatens everything Francine has always believed.

Giles Renwick, Earl of Lilford, has never made a fool of himself over a woman—until he meets Lady Yasmin Régnier. Yasmin is ineligible for his attentions in every way: not as a wife, certainly not as a mistress (she is a lady!), nor even as a friend, since they vehemently dislike each other. Her gowns are too low, and her skirts are dampened to cling to admittedly lovely thighs. She loves to gossip—and giggle.

It was Beth Katz’s serial killer father who made her like she is: a successful FBI agent and an unstoppable vigilante dedicated to hunting down murderers who have evaded capture. Beth will push herself to the limits to deliver justice. Even if it means killing those who deserve to die.

In Southeast Minnesota, a school board meeting is coming to an end. The board chairman announces that the rest of the meeting will be closed due to personnel issues. Issues is correct. The proposal up for a vote is whether to authorise the killing of a local reporter. Meanwhile, Virgil Flowers is helping out a friend by looking into a dognapping when he gets a call from Lucas Davenport. A murdered body has been found, and the victim is a local reporter....

Amish Candy shop owner and star of TV's Bailey's Amish Sweets, Bailey King has a lot to be excited about. She's happily engaged to Aiden Brody, newly appointed county sheriff, and her candy factory is finally having its grand opening in Harvest, Ohio—just before Christmas! Bailey is ready to let the sweet celebrations begin. With the help of local community organizer Margot Rawlings, Harvest will have a Candy Land themed Christmas on the village square—featuring Bailey's recently perfected recipe for gingerbread men. When the big day comes, everything is going well—until bitter news arrives.

In different corners of the world four high-profile figures are assassinated in less than a week. Nobody links the deaths but one thing is certain: each of them has been stalked, sought out, and killed with care and preparation. Then a sinister connection is established: a single, blood-tipped rose is sent to each funeral and an unremarkable female agent is murdered in Switzerland.

Bailey King is living the sweet life as assistant chocolatier in New York City. But then her grandmother calls with news that her grandfather's heart condition has worsened. Bailey rushes to Harvest, Ohio, where her grandparents still run Swissmen Sweets, an Amish candy shop. She finds her grandfather is doing better than she feared. Unfortunately, the same can't be said for a local Englisch developer, whom Bailey finds dead in the candy shop kitchen - with Jebediah King's chocolate knife buried in his chest.

As a child, the Name-Bearer had one duty; to receive and deliver the names of the future monarchy from the Flowers of Prophecy. But on the day of the Naming Ceremony, the Flowers refused. They claim another child was born more worthy of the Naming, and the Name-Bearer must find him and deliver him to them in order to restore peace to her land.

Twenty-four years after losing her daughter in a tragic accident, Carol Denman has finally made peace with Katie's father. But releasing her ex-husband from blame and facing how deeply she held herself responsible were only the first steps in Carol's journey toward peace. Carol is determined to mend her broken relationship with her mother. But she soon discovers she isn't the only one who has been hanging on to bitterness. A road trip to face the past leads Carol's mother, Judith, to unearth the seeds of past mistakes and deep resentments in ways neither of them would expect.

Bailey King's in New York wrapping up a six-week shoot on her first cable TV show, Bailey's Amish Sweets. But back home in Harvest, Stephen Raber keels over from an apparent heart attack - with Bailey and Raber's pet bunny as witnesses. Except it wasn't Raber's heart that suddenly gave out - a lethal dose of lily of the valley was mixed into a tasty piece of toffee. Who'd want to poison a jovial rabbit farmer who reminded Bailey of an Amish Santa Claus?

Peony Bellefleur runs Betwitching Blooms, the charming flower shop in a picture-perfect Cotswold village in England. Her flowers seem to make the sick improve, wedding days happier, and birthdays more special because she infuses her bouquets with a little magic. Peony’s a witch in a village that seems too perfect to be true. Probably because it is. She’s got her hands full between running her flower shop, managing her mother—who’s a medium with a habit of conversing with the dead wherever she happens to be—and helping her protégé to embrace her newfound powers.

When I was young, I was told that my true love would be a faerie king. I didn’t heed the warning. I tumbled into love as soon as our eyes first met, unaware that he wasn’t what he seemed. My king wanted marriage, power, devotion, and a family. He had all but one, and as our kingdom stood upon the precipice of ruin, the weight of failure tore us apart. Though it was not the war but his betrayal that sent me running to a foreign land. And straight into the arms of a one-eyed warrior. The wolf was a weapon of heartless destruction, a rogue without a real name, and nothing I was allowed to want.