Brock gets caught in a dangerous triangle between a jockey, a mobster, and L.A.'s finest blondeGloria Malone is a big woman with a little husband, and a problem only Brock Callahan can solve. Her jockey beau, Tip, has fallen in with a half-reformed gangster, and Gloria fears trouble for the pint-sized horseman. But as Brock quickly finds, L.A.'s criminals have more to fear from Tip than he does from them. The short man has a long mean streak, a girl on the side, and a couple of illegitimate children to boot. Even his horses don't like him. Brock isn't surprised when someone decides to end the little gremlin's racing career once and for all—with a carving knife.The world of horse racing is buried under a layer of grime that's thicker than the Santa Anita racetrack's mud after a thunderstorm. To penetrate it, Brock will have to take the whip into his own hand and do whatever it takes to stay on the horse.

The Heat Is On Rosemary Bliss will do anything to get back her family's magical Cookery Booke. That's why she challenges Aunt Lily to an international baking competition in Paris: If Rose wins, Lily agrees to return the Cookery Booke that she stole. If Rose loses . . . well, the consequences are too ugly to think about. But Lily isn't playing fair—she's using a magical ingredient to cheat. The only way for Rose to compete is for her to find magical ingredients of her own. Together with her long-lost grandpa, his sarcastic talking cat, and a turncoat French mouse, Rose and her brothers race around Paris to find essential—and elusive—magical ingredients that will help her outbake—and outmagic—her conniving aunt. She has to win or the Bliss Cookery Booke will be lost to her family forever. This second helping in Kathryn Littlewood's Bliss series combines hilarious magic and daring adventure to make one delectable reading treat. Review“Readers will savor this latest Bliss family adventure...Fantastic fantastical fare.” (Kirkus Reviews (starred review) )Praise for BLISS: “Quite delicious and very funny.” (Wall Street Journal )Praise for BLISS: “Middle-grade readers who enjoy slapstick humor and fantastical adventures will get a generous helping of each here in what amounts to an impressive debut.” (Boston Globe )Praise for BLISS: “Delicious and exciting.” (Washington Post )Praise for Bliss: “Littlewood’s first novel mixes the sincere and the silly with entertaining results.” (Publishers Weekly )Praise for Bliss: “A heroine with baking in her blood and a zany plot liberally sprinkled with humor blend into fun family adventure. Lighthearted bliss.” (Kirkus Reviews )Praise for Bliss: “Humor abounds in this sweet story that stresses the importance of family, and readers will enjoy getting to know the eccentric Bliss family. ” (School Library Journal )Praise for Bliss: “The children’s attempts at magic and the subsequent flubs simply make this cannot-put-it-down delectable.” (Voice of Youth Advocates (VOYA) )Praise for Bliss: “This sweet (but never syrupy) story has surprising substance and broad appeal. A humorous tone, clear, thoughtful writing, and a brisk pace will also ensure that this one is gobbled up quickly.” (Bulletin of the Center for Children’s Books ) About the AuthorKathryn Littlewood is a writer, actress, comedienne, and bon vivant who lives in New York City, works often in Los Angeles, and has a sweet tooth for pain au chocolat and sweet novels for middle-grade readers. This, her second novel, is a sequel to her first, Bliss.

Drummer Phoebe Byrd prides herself on being one of the guys, and she's ready to prove it by kicking all their butts in the snare solo competition at the Indoor Percussion Association Convention. Writer Vanessa Montoya-O'Callaghan has been looking forward to the WTFcon for months. Not just because of the panels and fanfiction readings but because WTFcon is where she'll finally meet Soleil, her internet girlfriend, for the first time. Taxidermy assistant Callie Buchannan might be good at scooping brains out of deer skulls, but that doesn't mean it's her passion. Since her parents' divorce, her taxidermist father only cares about his work, and assisting him at the World Taxidermy and Fish-Carving Championships is the only way Callie knows to connect with him. When a crazy mix-up in the hotel lobby brings the three girls together, they form an unlikely friendship against a chaotic background of cosplay, competition, and carcasses!

Caterer and cook Lilah Drake is up to her elbows in deadly trouble in the latest mystery from the author of The Big Chili... The Christmas holidays are one of Lilah's favorite times of the year, filled with friends, family, and, of course, tons of food orders for her Covered Dish clients. But Lilah's Yuletide cheer ends when she sees a most Grinch-like crime: the murder of a Santa in a school parking lot. It turns out the deceased Kris Kringle was a complicated tangle of naughty and nice, with a long list people who might have wanted him dead. And whoever did the deed wants to make sure that Lilah keeps quiet. Now, Lilah will have to team up with her former fling, Detective Jay Parker, to unwrap the mysteries of a deadly Christmas killer and stay alive long enough to ring in the New Year...From the Paperback edition.

A powerful YA debut, told with astonishing insight and wit, about the depths and boundaries of true friendship and obsessive teenage love—perfect for fans of Sarah Dessen, E. Lockhart, and Sara Zarr.When Betts meets Aiden at the candy store where she works, their connection is like a sugar rush to the heart. Betts already knows the two of them are infinite. Inevitable. Destined to become an us.Betts has only ever kept one secret from her best friend, Jo, but suddenly there's a long list of things she won't tell her, things Jo wouldn't understand. Because Jo doesn't see how good Aiden is for Betts. She finds him needy. Possessive. Controlling. She's wrong. With a love like this, nothing else matters.

On the night of her twenty-fifth birthday, alone in her apartment, Air Force Sergeant Christine Canady wished for one thing: a little magic in her life. After drinking way too much champagne, she performed, of all crazy things, a goddess-summoning ritual, hoping that it would somehow make her life a little less ordinary... but she never believed the spell would actually work! When her military plane crashes into the ocean, CC's mission overseas takes an unexpected turn. She awakens to find herself in a legendary time and place where magic rules the land—occupying the body of the mythic mermaid Undine. But there is danger in the waters and the goddess Gaea turns this modern, military gal into a beautiful damsel so that she can seek shelter on land. CC is soon rescued (literally) by a knight in shining armor. She should be falling in love with this dream-come-true, but instead she aches for the sea and Dylan, the sexy merman who has stolen her heart.

Mormon bishop's wife Linda Wallheim knows a bit about the LDS church's history of polygamy, but for mainstream Mormons, that epoch ended in the 1890s. However, there are still sects of fundamentalist Mormons who still practice "the Principle of plural marriage"—in fact, some of them are living in plain sight here in Utah. And now Linda's son Kenneth is marrying a young woman who was raised in a polygamist family. Linda isn't sure what to expect—will her future daughter-in-law wear 19th-century style long-sleeved prairie dresses and fix her hair in a bouffant braid, like the FLDS women on TV? No, Naomi Cannon is a modern woman, currently in medical school to become an OBGYN, and she seems like a good match for Kenneth—even if they have both left the Mormon faith. Linda is very curious about polygamy, though, and now, her future daughter-in-law, Naomi, has presented the perfect excuse for Linda to visit a polygamous compound and satisfy her...