Showing results for "Amazon" in Short Stories

For Lily, falling in love with her childhood friend Walker was the easiest thing to do back in high school. His sudden rejection was unforgettably crushing. Seven years later, their families have conspired to bring them back together at a cabin in the Rockies when a sudden snowstorm traps them overnight with no power. Thanks to a cozy fire, a prowling bear, and a little forced time in an open-air gondola, they confront their unresolved feelings—and a past more complicated than Lily knows.

Reuben thought he’d spend the rest of his life with Beth, until she broke his heart six months ago. He’s not even remotely over her, so he’s devastated to hear she’s getting married—this weekend. Now he’s faced with the ultimate question: what should he do on the day of the wedding? Grieve? Disrupt the ceremony? Or do everything in his power to pretend it’s not happening? Enlisting the help of his friends, Reuben is all set to mark the occasion with distraction on a grand scale: Ferraris, champagne, and a VIP box at the races.

The Blackthorn women have always possessed magic. For Helena, working at her candy store in the small town of Faith Falls, it’s the secret ingredient for handmade chocolates that satisfy more than a craving. But behind Helena’s delicious gift is a secret she’s kept from everyone, including the patient handyman who waits for her heart. As a rejuvenating spring thaw arrives, it’s time for Helena—as well as friends, family, and enemies alike—to set her secrets free.

Eric, a college freshman, joins his four dormmates for an afternoon in New York City—the first time he’s seen them outside their campus bubble. But feeling increasingly invisible among these new friends, Eric’s anxieties compound. As they roam the streets of New York, Eric begins to question if he’s even truly wanted there. Soon, though, the friends start to reveal pieces of themselves. Can Eric let go enough to show them who he really is?

Burned out and working a postcollege job she hates, Allison Yang drops dead in her office—and wakes up three years in the past. Back at college. She has one chance for a redo at life: from switching majors and facing toxic friends to being fearless with her parents. And, perhaps, approaching the popular athlete she’d always loved from afar. Fingers crossed that this time will count.

On the eve of her senior year, Julia has a look so new she doesn’t even recognize herself in the mirror. It’s the only reason she feels bold enough to talk to Wyatt, the boy she’s been staring at for three years. Tonight, at the drive-in, Wyatt finally stares back. Does he see Julia? Or some new and perfect stranger?

Tommy Cordero always likes watching his wife, Denise, make an entrance, and never more so than when she comes through the door of his hospital room. He’s looking for words of comfort—after all, his lungs are shot—but Denise is looking for honesty. In their forty-six years together, Tommy considers they’ve done well. Denise and their children have never wanted for anything: a comfortable home, cars, vacations. Surely that outweighs a couple moments of weakness? But Denise is ready to unpack his assumptions, and Tommy is in for some revelations.

When vandals destroy beach hut 512 on Brighton’s iconic seafront, they reveal a dead body that has apparently lain undisturbed for two months. But according to the hut’s owner, Sims, its locks rusted shut three months ago and she hasn’t had access to it since. So how could the man have got in, and why is there no evidence of the murderer?

Pamela is a newly retired teacher with time on her hands. She’s finding it hard to muster enthusiasm for what’s ahead: exhausting postdivorce dating rituals and an uneasy relationship with her emotionally stunted, live-at-home son. But for Pamela, there’s a surprise in store that could challenge the status quo and, against all expectations, make life interesting again.

Isabel Gibson has all but perfected the art of forgetting. She’s a New Yorker now, with nothing left to tie her to Brinkley’s Island, Maine. Her parents are gone, the family bookstore is all but bankrupt, and her sister, Sophie, will probably never speak to her again. But when a mysterious letter arrives in her mailbox, Isabel feels herself drawn to the past. After years of fighting for her independence, she dreads the thought of going back to the island.

With a newborn in tow, Bubbles Jones escapes a brutal sanctuary for “wayward girls” to confront the hypocritical shame of her pastor father and the betrayal of a lover. But Bubbles is accompanied by a woman who offers her shelter and a dream. Forging an unpredictable path ahead, Bubbles will not yield and will not hide in her unwavering commitment to make a big life real in a world determined to keep her small.

It’s a New Jersey summer in 1967, and thirteen-year-old Ravi Ramanathan has the makings of a tennis prodigy. His surgeon father encourages his ambition, while his mother dreams of their only child following his father’s path. Surrounded by his parents’ love, Ravi chafes a bit at their daily routines and little traditions. Then one unexpected day, everything changes. Realizing how much he took for granted, Ravi must grow up overnight and find a new role in the life of his family.

A bloodthirsty sheriff is terrorizing a small Texas town where justice has been buried with his victims. Until Nameless arrives - a vigilante whose past is a mystery and whose future is written in blood. Anyone who crosses Sheriff Russell Soakes is dead, missing, or warned. One of them is a single mother trying to protect her children but bracing herself for the worst. Nameless fears the outcome. He’s seen it in his visions. Now it’s time to teach the depraved Soakes a lesson in fear. But in turning predators into prey, will Nameless unearth a few secrets of his own?

Eve has a fake ID, a .38, and a violent lover receding in the rearview mirror. He’ll never find her at the isolated motel, and its kindly manager is happy to ease her fears. But if Eve is the only guest, whom does she keep hearing on the other side of the wall? Eve won’t get a good night’s rest until she finds out.

Jon Talbot is a history professor who makes sense of the past by examining facts. He also knows how to speculate about the what-ifs. Jon’s doing both following the death of his wife, Pax. Driving home late from a volunteer assignment, she plunged off a mountain highway and died. The police find nothing suspicious about the facts: a deer in the road, a blown tire, a broken neck. But the what-ifs are leading Jon down a twisting trail of secrets. After five years of marriage, he is finally getting to know his wife.

For decades, Marge has been spying on her neighbors Doris and Bob, reporting every sordid thing she sees to her husband, Harold. Flamboyant Doris and boring Bob are an odd couple, but as Marge watches their comings and goings, she starts to wonder if there’s more than meets the eye. Is Doris’s latest hobby—flamenco dancing, of all things—an attempt to spice things up, or is there something more sinister going on in the house across the street? Soon enough, Marge learns that digging into her suspicions means digging herself into a very deep hole.

In the sun-bleached idyll of his Greek island home, seventeen-year-old Petros Castellanos’s future seems mapped out: he’ll inherit his father’s modest taxi fleet and continue his family tradition. However, his English mother sees a different path for her son, one that leads far from the watchful eyes of their small community. So Petros goes to London to stay with his mother’s cousin. The capital is an overwhelming city whose dazzling possibilities both terrify and enthral him.

Sam has retreated to her late father’s rental house, a safe place to commune with the animals in the greenbelt out back, tend to her garden, and keep her secrets. Her sense of security slowly returns - until an aggressive neighbor from the other side of the ravine fells a tree on her property. How little he regards nature. Or understands its darkness. How little he knows Sam.

You will have ninety minutes to solve the murder. A startling declaration by a new Harvard instructor: sixty-seven-year-old Frances Glessner Lee. It’s 1945. Before her, six wary male students given to assumptions—especially when it comes to women without a formal education—are challenged to solve a real-life whodunit using Mrs. Lee’s creation, the crime scene diorama. Every detail is accurate. And every detail matters when solving a crime with no survivors…

Growing up, Violet was so busy helping others realize their dreams, she found little time to pursue her own. But five years ago, she took the chance of a lifetime, leaving the family bookshop on Brinkley’s Island, Maine, to attend culinary school in Paris. Now she’s working her dream job as a pâtissiere in an upscale Parisian restaurant—yet all she can think about is home.