This extraordinary collection of short stories traverses many different worlds. From the smoky banks of the Ganges to the breaking waves of Bali, the characters teeter on the edge of life-changing moments. Problematic false teeth, festering limbs and deadly weapons are all par for the course. Quaff expensive wine and discover the real danger of smoking. The ninth issue of The Mechanics’ Institute Review features work from Jenn Ashworth, Nick Alexander, Julia Bell and Alison MacLeod, alongs...

A thrilling new family drama from multimillion copy bestselling author Nick Alexander.Two sisters on a secluded Greek Island.Old resentments.A seductive host.An invitation that will change everything.Dee’s quiet life in rainy Salford couldn’t be further from her sister Trina’s champagne-and-caviar shenanigans.So when Trina invites her to spend ten days on a remote Greek island, Dee can’t resist the promise of sunshine — or the chance to step brie...

As a high school hockey star, I was on track for greatness. Until an opponent attacked me on the ice, leaving me half blind.For the past twenty-seven years, I’ve avoided hockey and its painful memories. But when my old teammates get back together to play in a local recreational league, I realize it could be a chance to rewrite history. The only person standing in my way is Jack Gross.Hockey isn’t complete without a rivalry, and ours comes courtesy of the Blades: they’re you...

The new goalie is a secret prince. Red white and royal WTF?!As the Prince of Ardenia, I don’t want for anything – except freedom.Freedom from bodyguards and media scrutiny. Freedom to love who I want without bringing shame to the throne.So when I get a chance to live incognito while on a trip to America, I take it. It’ll be my royal rumspringa. I can be Nick, not Prince Nicholas.Then I meet a plumber named Hank.I’m instantly...

Totally fake marriage. Very real feelings.When my hockey teammate, the recently widowed Tanner Chance, loses his job, he and his four kids are left with no medical coverage. So I suggest a wild idea: get married and put his family on my company’s insurance plan.It’s supposed to be a marriage on paper only. But this being a small town, our nuptials accidentally go public. Now, we have to play house in order to make this scheme believable. Suddenly, I’m tradi...

In occupied France, two people sacrificed everything. Now their granddaughter has come looking for the truth…Ruth’s childhood was a happy one, and her family—on her mother’s side—large and loving. But her father’s French origins have always remained a mystery. Now, with aged relatives beginning to die, Ruth decides to research her father’s family before it’s too late.When she discovers a series of long-lost cassettes, everything she thought she knew about t...

A summer romance for one, please!One summer. An island resort escape. Solitude to banish the demons in my past.What begins as a chance meeting on a beach during sunset turns into the most romantic, life-changing five weeks I could ever dream up with two of the most amazing men I've ever met. The end of summer comes all too soon, and we're forced to part ways, though we promise to keep in touch.Fate isn't letting this be the end, though. The start of...

Dawn and Rob were never meant to be together.It’s the summer of 1990 and seventeen-year-old Dawn is infatuated with Billy. He’s cool, in a band and the opposite of her other besotted admirer: gentle electrician Rob.But then Billy disappears, and Rob is still around. He's there when Dawn falls pregnant and he’s there for the sleepless nights. And though Dawn and Rob were never destined to be together, suddenly they’re married.This real-life relations...

Following his 2011 top ten hit "The Case of The Missing Boyfriend", Nick Alexander returns with another #1 bestseller: The Half-Life of Hannah, now available as an audiobook. Hannah is thirty-eight and the happily married mother of eleven-year-old Luke, the diamond in her world. Her marriage is reassuringly stable and after fifteen years she has managed to push the wild dreams of youth from her mind and concentrate on the everyday satisfactions of here and now. The first half of her life h...

She’s given her daughter everything. Now it’s time to give her the truth.Becky’s father is not just absent: he’s a mystery, a gaping hole in her past. He died before she was born and for her mother, Laura, the subject is strictly off-limits. But when Laura books an unexpected trip to Greece, Becky decides to join her, determined to get closer to her mother—and to the truth.As they make their way to the beautiful island of Santorini, it becomes clear that th...

She ran away from the truth, but she can’t run forever.Seven years after his sister vanished without a trace, Jude is on the road, determined not to return home until he has found her. He wants to reunite his broken family, but more than this he wants to know why Zoe left—what happened when they were kids, on that terrible day when everything fell apart.They’d been enjoying the funfair—grasping a rare moment of happiness following their parents’ divorce—whe...

Four people looking for love. Four choices that could be the start of everything.At thirty-three, nurse Heather is desperately waiting for her romantic life to begin. Then she meets handsome, strong Anthony and is sure she’s found the one. Brushing any doubts aside, she projects all her hopes for true love onto him.Meanwhile, at a yoga retreat in Spain, happy-go-lucky Joe can’t believe his luck when he meets vivacious, witty Amy. She’s the sharpest, most be...