Two short romances celebrate a Gilded Age Christmas! In Amanda McCabe’s A Convenient Winter Wedding, marrying Connor O’Neill is about survival for penniless heiress May Van Der Berg. The distant self-made millionaire is far from the passionate husband she once dreamed of…except for that scorching kiss! In Lauri Robinson’s The Railroad Baron's Mistletoe Bride, after years of family estrangement, romance blooms when Kurt invites store clerk Harper and their shared niece to spend Christmas at his mansion. But are they just a family for the holidays?

A second chance ...with his first love?

An intriguing encounter… With the lady next door Henry, Earl of Beaufort, was London’s most eligible bachelor. Only now someone is trying to frame him for murder! He finds an unexpected ally in his enchanting neighbour Suzanne who, after fleeing the American Civil War, also finds herself on the fringes of Society. She agrees to help prove his innocence, and a fake engagement provides the perfect cover. Until his real feelings threaten their charade…

The Duke's Southern belle... Causing a stir in Society! Committed bachelor Andrew, Duke of Mansfield, is content to believe the lady he's been betrothed to since childhood will never return. But when the American Civil War drives Annabelle from her life in Virginia to England, he finds himself reluctantly captivated by her! Luckily, she is as unwilling to wed as he is-yet when inhibitions are lowered at a masked ball Andrew's intrigued to know the real Annabelle...

With this ring...they're temporarily wed! Heiress Jane Dryer will do anything to escape her controlling father and the life of domestic drudgery he decrees - even elope with the handsome stranger she meets in a speakeasy! Wealthy railroad owner David Albright needs a temporary wife and Jane needs her independence, so the plan is to marry, then walk away. Only very soon, their fake marriage feels seductively real!

Penny Jordan doesn't want a husband- she needs one. It's the only way she can save her ranch. Her pickings are slim, so she asks her friend from back east to find one and send him to the Black Hills of the Dakota Territory, ASAP. Penny soon discovers that her mail ordered husband is the last thing she needed- he's nothing more than a mail order problem! Jace Owens doesn't want a wife-again. When his meddling sister-in-law drugs and ships him to the middle of nowhere as a mail order husband, all he can focus on is getting back to Pennsylvania to wring her scrawny neck. Then he meets his new wife, and soon discovers he's going to have to convince her to let him stay-for a lifetime.

A new collection of compelling and challenging essays from one of the nation's leading voices on criminal justice reform, "Reducing Crime, Reducing Incarceration "makes the argument that sometimes small changes on the ground can add up to big improvements in the criminal justice system.

How do you launch a new criminal justice reform? How do you measure impact? Is it possible to spread new practices to resistant audiences? And what's the point of small-bore experimentation anyway? Greg Berman answers these questions by telling the story of successful experiments like the Red Hook Community Justice Center in Brooklyn and by detailing the challenges of implementing new ideas within the criminal justice system. As Laurie Robinson, a professor at George Mason University, writes in her introduction: "Berman offers vivid testimony that-even in the face of opposition-it is, in fact, possible to push our criminal justice system closer to realizing its highest ideals. And that, indeed, is good news." Other experts share their opinions:

"The central insight of "Reducing Crime, Reducing Incarceration" is that small tweaks in practice within the criminal justice system can sometimes lead to big change on the streets. By telling the story of the Red Hook Community Justice Center and similar innovations, Greg Berman offers a hopeful message: criminal justice reform at the local level can make a difference." - James B. Jacobs Warren E. Burger Professor of Law New York University School of Law

"Innovation is hard work. In "Reducing Crime, Reducing Incarceration," Berman offers a look at how change happens at the local level-and how, sometimes, it doesn't. These well-written essays offer a compelling vision of both the challenges and opportunities of criminal justice reform." - Nicholas Turner President, Vera Institute of Justice

"The topic of criminal justice reform has challenged and bedeviled social thinkers for centuries. In this book, Berman offers a clear-eyed and inventive approach to the problem. Recognizing that change is best achieved at the local level with small, incremental steps using demonstration projects, Berman provides concrete examples of both successes and failures stemming from the work of the Center for Court Innovation over the last two decades. For anyone interested in the future of criminal justice, this book should be on the top of the 'must read' list." - John H. Laub Distinguished University Professor, Department of Criminology and Criminal Justice University of Maryland, College Park

"Here you will find Berman's compelling case for community justice, along with classic readings on problem-solving courts. Berman writes like all the rest of us wish we did...." - Candace McCoy The Graduate Center and John Jay College City University of New York

Snake Quinter believes he dodged a bullet when he refused to wed the girl Ma was set on hitching him to. Then he wakes up. Not only had he been shot-twice, he and Summer Austin are definitely married. For over ten years Summer Austin had known her life was tied to the Quinter family-her guardian angel said so. She was willing to do whatever it took to keep her siblings safe, but what would Snake and his family do when they discovered she, a half-breed, was responsible for their father's death?

Howard (Hog) Quinter is hell bent on getting The Majestic, the finest hotel and restaurant west of the Mississippi, open by May 1st. The last thing he needs is interference from his family, but that's exactly what he gets when Ma Quinter strikes one brisk morning. Sound asleep, Howard rolls over to discover a lovely young woman lying beside him, however, standing at the foot of the bed are his mother, the girl's father, and a blubbering preacher reading wedding nuptials. Randilynn Fulton runs from a forced marriage to her aunt in Dodge City, only to discover Aunt Corrine is one of Danny J's brothel girls. If she stays, Randi may become one as well, which would damage her father's chance at running for the Governor's seat. But it gets worse when she finds herself in the middle of what she ran from-a shotgun wedding, and she's the bride.

April Simonson hated all men. They were cruel, sinful beasts. Her disfigured face was proof. That is until she met Jerek Brinkley. Then, as the revered Sultana explodes, April falls into the dark, muddy waters of the Mississippi River terrified she'll never see the light of day or the handsome riverboat gambler again. Jerek Brinkley fought hell and high water to save the northern vixen who[--[d won his heart with her cards tricks, only to fear Allan Pinkerton's arrival in Memphis might reveal secrets he's not ready for her to know. Based on history's greatest maritime disaster, An April to Remember, sprinkled with real facts and events, revives the Sultana, a civil war riverboat whose death toll surpassed the Titanic's, and offers a new twist on what might have happened that fateful night in 1865.

Ma Quinter is at it again-using the double barrels of her shotgun to force some unsuspecting female to marry one of her boys. This time it's Skeeter and the young, pregnant girl he hauled home. Escaping from her abuser, Lila Scott, crawls through a tunnel, and ends up in 1882. Even though her rescuer is the most wonderful man she's ever met, she must hold true to her mission of returning to the future where she can have her baby with modern medical care. With the help of some rotgut whiskey and a few peyote buttons, Steven Quinter, aka Skeeter, participated in Buffalo Killer's ghost dance. When he wakes up there's an adorable redhead staring down at him. Not knowing what else to do, he takes the girl home to his mother, but when Ma Quinter realizes the young girl is pregnant, another shotgun wedding takes place.

At first sight, Dani Jones fell in love- not with Big John, but with his stove. It's the latest model and makes her believe her cooking alone will encourage the Boss Man to let her stay until she has enough money to travel to California and be reunited with the man she promised to marry. Big John Thompson returns from the spring river drive to find the man he hired to cook for the lumberjacks is a slip of a girl- Danielle Jones. To make matters worse, Miss Jones decides John needs a wife, and sets out to find him one...

Like most girls, Jessie Johnson will never forget the first time she met her mother-in-law. After all who can forget a shotgun pointed at them? Bartered for a dead horse at gun point, she either agrees to marry one of the Quinter boys or her brother will hang for horse theft. Jessie knows nothing about being a wife- other than the wedding will likely put her new husband in grave danger. After being knocked unconscious by his brothers, Kid Quinter finds himself surrounded by his uncouth family, the sheriff, a preacher, and an adorable young woman. Tied to a chair, he's given no choice but to marry Jessie Johnson. And that's just the beginning of his troubles- it appears his pretty little wife has quite a past, including a notorious gunslinger looking for retribution.