Finished and Loved
11 stories
[sic] by ScottKelly
ScottKelly
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Six teens are devoted to a game with one rule: If a player gets tagged, they must change their life within the next fifteen minutes. The better the player, the bigger the change. One might give their car away, or punch the school bully. Another might change identities or sacrifice their virginity. Anything to keep evolving, to avoid fitting into a label or caring about the junk they own. But their quest for enlightenment has taken a rotten final turn - one of the players has murdered the game's creator, the teen prophet (cult leader?) David Bloom. Our narrator is being framed for the crime; can he clear his name and discover which of his lifelong friends is the murderer before he takes the fall? [sic] is a gritty teen murder mystery that delves into the psychology of enlightenment among the criminally dysfunctional.
Paladin by SallySlater
SallySlater
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Sam is the most promising swordsman among this year’s crop of Paladin trainees...and knows it. Brash, cocky, and unbeatable with a sword (well, almost), Sam is the kingdom of Thule’s best hope against the violence wrought by demons. The only problem is that Sam is really Lady Samantha, daughter of the seventeenth Duke of Haywood, and if her father has his way, she’ll be marrying a Paladin, not becoming one. But Sam has never held much interest in playing damsel-in-distress, and so she rescues herself from a lifetime of boredom and matrimonial drudgery. Pity that Tristan Lyons, the Paladin assigned to train her, is none other than the hero of her childhood. He hasn’t recognized her as Lady Samantha--yet-- but if he does, he’ll take away her sword and send her packing. Sam is not the only trainee hiding secrets: Braeden is a half-demon with a dark past that might be unforgivable. Sam, Braeden and Tristan set out for the western coast, charged with rooting out an infestation of demons that has made the West unlivable. As they travel, they uncover a deep-seated corruption of power that threatens to derail everything they stand for. Rebellion stirs, led by a rival faction of warriors who tempt Sam to join them with an irresistible offer. A war between men is coming, and Sam must pick a side. Will saving the kingdom cost her life -- or just her heart? Reminiscent of Mulan, but with a medieval fantasy twist, Paladin is a tale of adventure, action, and romance.
Sleepwalker by AlexThomas
AlexThomas
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Book one. I'd spent my entire life without a mother. But, when professors come to my father's inn, a cloaked figure known only as Sleepwalker begins to torment me with thoughts of her. When these dreams become too malicious, my father sends me off to the capital city in order to answer the questions burning in my mind: Who is my mother? And what does she have to do with my nightmares? If only the journey had been so simple.
How To Write An Author's Note by AlexThomas
AlexThomas
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It's actually quite simple.
Cor Hominis by AlexThomas
AlexThomas
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"The Heart of Man" The body is a vessel, a simple tether to what truly defines a person: a soul.
Second Nature by MarkCanter
MarkCanter
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2012 SILVER MEDAL WINNER in the Indie Awards (from the Independent Publishers Association). When the heart sees more keenly than the eye, beauty is unexpectedly found. Gen is a teen-age woman. She is also a bio-warfare research project, designed by Col. Jack Eberhard. Born at Redstone Military Laboratories inside a quarantine unit rated Biohazard Level Four, Gen’s body harbors billions of microscopic organisms that have mutated from her genetically altered cells. The tiny entities in Gen’s tissues control life at the molecular level and Eberhard weekly tests their ability to heal the simulated combat wounds he inflicts on her. When a deadly threat forces Gen to escape the lab, she discovers that her marvelous power to reconstruct living tissue, from proteins to cells to whole organs, enables her to transform herself bodily into any animal whose DNA she collects through a simple touch. While in the form of a dolphin, Gen saves dolphin researcher Cade Seaborne from drowning. Her heartfelt attraction to him compels her to spontaneously shape-shift back into human form; but the morphing is incomplete and Cade encounters Gen as a woman with her head and face hideously deformed. As Gen struggles with her dilemma of falling in love with a kind-hearted man who nonetheless regards her as pitifully ugly, the evolving microscopic life-forms inside her compel her to complete a frightening journey to fulfill their mysterious mission. Meanwhile, Eberhard has tracked down Gen and he’s sending in Special Forces to carry out a priority-one Executive Order: capture and destroy his dangerous experiment. When Cade at last recognizes beauty behind the mask of a beast, he’ll give his life to protect the unusual woman he cherishes. And he learns that love has its own transformative power. Michael Crichton meets Hans Christian Anderson in this romantic thriller with the brains of science fiction and the heart of a fairy tale.
Finvarra's Circus by DistantDreamer
DistantDreamer
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Born with a damaged heart, Leanna Weston has lived a sheltered life with little chance at adventure. When she hears that Finvarra's Circus is coming to her small town, she sneaks off to witness the magic first hand, sure that this is her only chance at experiencing true magic-even if the frightening rumors about the heartless Ringmaster, Finvarra, are true. Caught by Finvarra, Leanna is given one chance at survival: she must join the circus. As slowly she becomes part of the strange family, Leanna learns that there is more than magic to this circus, but an ancient curse that has tied Finvarra's life to its rings. If the circus fails, he dies. Leanna vows to save the circus, but when a ruthless enemy emerges, set on destroying it and Finvarra, will Leanna be able to save them both, or will her broken heart fail her just when she needs it most? Cover Artist: Lisa Rhodes
Promise the Sky by SamanthaJR
SamanthaJR
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The city of Harborne is one with a troubled past. Its influence once wiped out an entire nation and, in return, it brought the wrath of the Dragon-Kin, of Bron and the Viper, down upon its walls. For over a year it survived, protected by the subtleties of its location, by the ocean and the rain, until its fate was eventually sealed by one of its own. In this world where everyone is born with magic, Edward Montgomery, who somehow had not a scrap of power within him, turned his heart to darkness and let the serpents through Harborne’s battered gates. And though this happened seven generations ago, there is still a saying in the city that survived Bron: “No magic leads to dark magic”. Which wasn’t a problem when Kiara was a child and could disappear from sight with nothing more than a simple thought. Only now she’s inexplicably crippled, with no magic to speak of, and the horizons beckon. She’s headed East, to the Mirror City, because they say a man can buy anything there, anything at all. And anything is exactly what she’d give to get her magic back. She’s willing to face dragons for it. Lucky, really, since Ben is tired of this power he cannot control, and he’s headed East too, to see if he can’t just sell his. **** Watty Award Shortlisted (Most Imaginative Setting) 2012 *****
A Gift in the Dark by TheOrangutan
TheOrangutan
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A collection of paranormal, horror and fantasy short stories woven around old legends, odd characters, the occasional werewolf and the darkness within, some of which have been published or picked up the odd award. There are things you cannot see unless they want to be seen, and some legends linger on despite the modern world. A Gift in the Dark is a compilation of short works, many based around old myths and legends, and starts with a tale of a miner's descent into madness, history and legend, drifts through darkness, past a retelling of Red Riding Hood, up a crane, and along to the end of the world.
Inamorata by irishrose
irishrose
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Nightingale is human - or would be, had it not been for the manner of her creation. Genetically engineered and grown to adulthood in a lab, she was created, not born. Why? For the sole purpose of the entertainment of rich men as one of the many Inamoratas in the bordello business . Beautiful, elegant, a superb dancer and an even better singer, she is the perfect lover for any man. Perfect, that is, except for her personality - the one thing you can't engineer.