**The brand new novel from Holly Hepburn, perfect for fans of Cathy Bramley and Katie Fforde.** Originally published in four parts this is the full story in one package. When Hope loses her husband, she fears her happiest days are behind her. With her only connection to London broken, she moves home to York to be near her family and to begin to build a new life. Taking a job at the antique shop she has always admired, she finds herself crossing paths with two very different men. Will, who has recently become the guardian to his niece after the tragic death of her parents. And Ciaran, who she enlists to help solve the mystery of an Egyptian antique. Two men who represent two different happy endings. But can she trust herself to choose the right man? And will that bring her everything she really needs? The brand new novel from Holly Hepburn, author of Coming Home to Brightwater Bay. ~*~Praise for Holly Hepburn~*~ '...treat yourself to a feel-good hit of warm fuzziness from Holly Hepburn. This enchanting novel tells the story of a grieving widow who finds herself ready for love again.' - S Magazine, Daily Express 'This book has everything from a beautiful setting to romance...and even a fascinating Egyptian mystery!' - My Weekly 'Uplifting' - Bella Magazine 'A fresh new voice, brings wit and warmth to this charming tale of two sisters' Rowan Coleman 'Warm, witty and laced with intriguing secrets! I want to pull up a bar stool, order a large G&T and soak up all the gossip at the Star and Sixpence!' Cathy Bramley 'The Star and Sixpence sparkles with fun, romance, mystery, and a hunky blacksmith. It's a real delight' Julie Cohen 'Like the dream pub landlady who always knows exactly what you want, Holly Hepburn has created the most delightful welcome to what promises to be a brilliant series, in the first Star and Sixpence. The sisters are warm and intriguing, the neighbours are (mostly!) friendly and the gossip is utterly addictive. I was very sad when it was time for last orders, and am already looking forward to the next round. Especially if a certain blacksmith happens to be at the bar...' Kate Harrison 'Warm, witty and utterly charming, Snowdrops at the Star and Sixpence is the perfect book to curl up with on a cold winter's day. It left me with the most wonderful happy glow' Cally Taylor 'A super sparkling star of a story and I can't wait for part two' Alexandra Brown

This real-life inspired, yet fictional, young adult and adult fable focuses on a young Inyupiaq (Northern Native Alaskan) who was born into a troubled home when the U.S. was just beginning its involvement with her rural arctic village. The text, interwoven with Emily Dickinson inspired poetry, is comprised of vivid descriptions of Alaskan tundra, intense and whimsical dialogue between varied dynamic characters, and action-filled, intelligent, and suspenseful narrative as Samantha ventures into endless Alaska. One day, Sam wakes up after one of her father's drunken evenings and leaves her arctic village in the middle of winter with nothing but the essentials to survive. Mid-walk, she encounters a polar bear and its cub. With her home blocked by these territorial gargantuas, she is tempted to take an adventure into the -20 - -40 degree weather. With her questionable choice, she ends up having to fend off off wildlife, the elements, and even polar bear. A mere 80 miles from the Arctic Ocean in the Alaskan wilderness, Sam begins to redefine her perspective on the lifelong stories she has heard from elders, her relationship with her seized sister, supportive best friend, goofy uncle, drunk father, and troubled mother. She even begins to change her perspective on interracial relations.

"He flicked the coin onto the table and it spun lazily, resting on tails. An eagle, squatting on a cactus, snake held aloft in its beak. Cinco pesos, the worn script read . . . " Within these covers, you will find murderous dropbears, zombie kangaroos and undead camels. Poignant endings to the world mash-up with muscle car battles, featuring feral killers that make Mad Max look like the Disney channel. Everything is a Graveyard delves into the fantastic, the horrifying, the sad and the just plain weird.

Fantasy is a phenomenon that affects all of us more than we consciously recognize. Are we not constantly daydreaming or dreaming of the future-pondering our wishes and desires? Or, do too many people accept things as they are-readily to concede all appearances as gospel? Stranger Than Fantasy is a collection of forty fantasy short stories. Each story should be taken for what it is-for the most part, an entertaining excursion of fiction that challenges one's thoughts, one's acceptance of reality. Hopefully, after reading my stories, the readers will look at their lives, their life situations a little differently and finally stand up and exclaim, "That which is, is not and that which is not, is! And if that happens, then I think the world will be a little bit better off today than it was yesterday. George Mauro

This is a book about stories. Plato described Socrates, saying, "Remember the stories for they will save you in the end." And it's about stories within stories. And it's about forgetting. About losing, remembering, and finding. A Native American once told me a story of going through the woods, finding a fork in the trail, and deciding on one of the paths. He discovered that the trail ended nowhere and that from there, it's best to go back to where the fork was, rather than to try and find your way from where you discovered an error, which is very much like a well-known Middle Eastern story of Nasreddin who, when a neighbor found him crawling in his front yard looking for something and asked him what it was, he said it was a key. The neighbor joined him on the ground looking for it. And for a long time, not finding it, he asked the mullah, "was heu sure he dropped it here?" And the mullah said, "Oh no, I dropped it in the house." The neighbor said, "Why are we looking for it here?" The mullah replied, "Oh, it's too dark in the house." And it is also about language. How do we decide what a word means and how it travels from one language to another? The great storyteller Leo Tolstoy, when setting himself the task of understanding the story of the gospels and looking at the first sentence of John, "En arche en o logos," and noting that logos has either eleven or thirteen chief meanings (which could boil down to four that are possible in the context), and then finding what he could use in Russian, used razumyenie since it actually can carry those four possible meanings. So we can see the undertaking might be quite complex.

Horror master Junji Ito explores a new frontier with a grand cosmic horror tale in which a mysterious woman has her way with the world! A woman walks alone at the foot of Mount Sengoku. A man appears, saying he's been waiting for her, and invites her to a nearby village. Surprisingly, the village is covered in hairlike volcanic glass fibers, and all of it shines a bright gold. At night, when the villagers perform their custom of gazing up at the starry sky, countless unidentified flying objects come raining down on them-the opening act for the terror about to occur! A woman walks alone at the foot of Mount Sengoku. A man appears, saying he's been waiting for her, and invites her to a nearby village. Surprisingly, the village is covered in hairlike volcanic glass fibers, and all of it shines a bright gold. At night, when the villagers perform their custom of gazing up at the starry sky, countless unidentified flying objects come raining down on them-the opening act for the terror about to occur!

DISCOVER THE SHORT STORY COLLECTION THAT GAVE THE WORLD DRIVE MY CAR, THE BAFTA AND OSCAR WINNING FILM A dazzling Sunday Times bestselling collection of short stories from the beloved internationally acclaimed Haruki Murakami. Across seven tales, Haruki Murakami brings his powers of observation to bear on the lives of men who, in their own ways, find themselves alone. Here are vanishing cats and smoky bars, lonely hearts and mysterious women, baseball and the Beatles, woven together to tell stories that speak to us all. Marked by the same wry humour that has defined his entire body of work, in this collection Murakami has crafted another contemporary classic. 'Supremely enjoyable, philosophical and pitch-perfect new collection of short stories...Murakami has a marvelous understanding of youth and age' Observer 'Murakami at his whimsical, romantic best' Financial Times