Showing results by narrator "Caroline Shaffer" in All Categories

On the windswept plains of northwestern China, Mongol bandits swoop down upon an American missionary couple and steal their small child. The Reverend sets out in search of the boy and becomes lost in the rugged, corrupt countryside populated by opium dens, sly nomadic warlords and traveling circuses. This upright Midwestern minister develops a following among the Chinese peasants and is christened Ghost Man for what they perceive are his otherworldly powers.

Three men are trapped in time. One woman could save them all. Historian Lia Carrer has finally returned to southern France, determined to rebuild her life after the death of her husband. But instead of finding solace in the region's quiet hills and medieval ruins, she falls in love with Raoul, a man whose very existence challenges everything she knows about life - and about her husband's death.

Thirteen authors (fifteen if you count pseudonyms) from the Book View Cafe got together one rainy Saturday afternoon with a big bowl of popcorn and reruns of Buck Rogers. They started comparing short stories and a new anthology took form. Rare reprints, hard-to-find favorites, and new tales all combine in this one-of-a-kind story collection, available exclusively from Book View Press.

Kimmer Reed is a Hunter Agency operative, a street foundling escaped from an abusive family and raised to be code-name Chimera - a fierce, savvy loner with a natural gift for reading people. Now on her first assignment with the one man she trusts - the one man she can't read - she finds herself overseas in the Basque countryside, framed for the theft of the very antiquity she has been sent to guard and doubting her ability to work with a partner at all - never mind the man she loves.

When best-selling author Glory Mathers married handsome Wade Wilson, an out-of-work actor, all the gossips shook their heads. In those early days in New York City, she was the breadwinner and mother to three children, while Wade struggled with his uncertain career. Now, 10 years later, Wade has his turn to shine - as one of Hollywood’s brightest film stars. But Glory feels eclipsed amidst the California glitter. Her agent, friends, and inspiration are on the East Coast - the man she adores is on the West Coast.

Dauntless news reporter Eleanor Dancy and handsome senator Bram Foremost make the ultimate “odd couple”. Her liberal views challenge his conservative policies; his common sense tempers her zeal. But their passion is as steamy as their politics are stormy, and in matters of desire they vote the same ticket. Life on turbulent Capitol Hill keeps their marriage fresh - until an issue vital to Ellie pits her publicly against Bram. Hidden resentments flare as politics become personal.

Tess Dyer’s husband, Jason, promised to love her forever. That was eleven years ago, before the fights, before the pain, before the bitter divorce. Now he is just another in a long line of people who rejected Tess, from her coldly distant mother to the seemingly endless string of one-night stands from her youth whose names she can’t remember. Desperate to escape the pain of the past, Tess flees her small Maine hometown of Brookfield for the even smaller New Mills. There, she hopes to start over and forget what she left behind…with the help, perhaps, of her handsome new neighbor, Brian.

Thirty-year-old Max Maguire, detective with the New York Police Department, finds herself in France again when she is sent as a bodyguard for one of America's most famous wine critics, who is traveling to Bordeaux to taste some of the most expensive wines in the world. In the tragic circumstances that follow, Max is once again paired with French examining magistrate Olivier Chaumont, with whom she had had a fling the year before while solving a case in Champagne.

Possibly the only romance ever set in a high-end Montreal kosher restaurant, A Taste of Heaven layers spicy love scenes with directions for making velvety pâté and musings about babies. Will Dena and Richard Klein's marriage overheat - or will they find more savor and sweetness?

Stuck in a dead-end job at the DMV, Brenda feels invisible, certain no one could guess she was once loved by someone who's now a famous movie star. But when she fails an angry woman on her driving test and the woman turns the situation into a violent standoff, Brenda discovers just how grand her own stage can be in this funny, wrenching story of how past loves can reverberate for years and keep us going in ways we never imagined.

Meeting handsome actor Byron Slater after winning a contest, Miranda Peterson enjoys the attention of the media and the glamour of Byron's world, until she stumbles on the private actor's deadly secrets.

Being the wife of a cop isn't all it's cracked up to be. Especially when dead bodies keep ruining your romantic dinner plans. But fashion designer turned amateur sleuth Maddie Springer is determined that her husband's latest case, dubbed the "Sex Shop Murder", will not keep him from celebrating their first anniversary together, which just happens to fall on the most romantic of all holidays, Valentine's Day. She's ready to do whatever it takes to make this night special and distraction-free.

Living in the present as well as the past, Montserrat de la Rosa plans a grand escape from her assisted living community, banking on the help of her deceased husband.

After running away from her drug kingpin boyfriend (and turning him in to the cops), pregnant Amber hides away in her friend Higgins' house. Higgins works at a convalescent facility and writes morbid short stories, but she feels safe - until both her body and Higgins start to change on her. On Halloween night, it becomes clear who is wearing a disguise and why.

Forget the French perfume and the boxes of candy, the Hallmark cards and the gift certificates. The birthdays in this collection are observed in more carnal ways, with suitably sexy presents for all. In Simone Harlow's "Happy Birthday", a tough policewoman gets the tables turned when naked Nick arrives to tame her. In Marilyn Jaye Lewis's "The Birthday Party", an unexpected menage a trois in the dark proves the perfect gift.

Caught in a frustrating relationship with a man who can’t accept her for who she is, passionate, flame-haired violinist Summer Zahova finds release in her music. She spends her afternoons playing for money in the London Underground, lost in the works of Vivaldi or Mendelssohn. When her violin is damaged beyond repair, Summer receives a surprising proposition from Dominik, a university professor with powerful desires, who has been captivated by Summer ever since he heard her perform. Dominik will replace her priceless violin, but only if she agrees to play for him in a private concert.

We've all heard the saying "all work and no play makes Jack a dull boy." Luckily, for Jack, this collection offers more than 20 stories filled with the art of sexual play at work to make even Jack more lively. Here the most mundane 9-to-5 job can lead to a rowdy romp that's sure to leave people talking by the water coolers.

At first, Manhattan financial planner Melanie Banks adores Dan Swain, her pro-football player husband who has a sexy Oklahoma drawl to go with his athletic good looks. But then his career comes to a screeching halt, and he spends the next few years out of a job, seemingly unconcerned about it. Suddenly, she's the one bringing home the bacon and falling out of love with the paycheck-devouring, couch-sitting mooch. Divorce is the answer, she decides - only to learn she has to fork over alimony while he lives like a prince on her income, and she has to share custody of their precious dog.

From the author of the "lively and spirited" ( Providence Journal) Wine Country Mysteries comes the first in a new series featuring a savvy female photographer whose husband's abduction embroils her in the world of international espionage and lost Romanov art treasures. Weaving together political intrigue, art history, and espionage, this fast-paced story marks the start of a promising new series.

A newly blended Irish-Chilean Jewish family sits down for their first Passover dinner together. Joe Wenderoth, who chose Ghost Deer was the winner of the 2015 New Guard Machigonne Fiction Contest, writes, "Ghost Deer, for me, is nothing less than the conjuring of human beings. They have grown strange - they appear haunted - from years (and centuries) in the trap of loving one another."