Darrel, an ex-US Marine, in his last year of medical school, falls in love with Lala, a Spanish artist, while on vacation in Spain. She introduces him to bull-fighting in the streets, corrida, and a matador. Collisions of American and Spanish mentality, a clash of Darrel and the matador, and the bohemian and bull-fighting atmosphere of Spain make this novella a fun and thought-provoking read.

Edward Green, a likable, young, successful professional, had seemed happy with life. The only son of rich and generous parents, he had a good career, a loving girlfriend, and plenty of friends. So why did he cut his veins in his luxury condo apartment? Melissa Bonar, one of the best homicide detectives in Canada, is on the case. She found no evidence of a crime. The only clue is Edward's last word: Wolverine.Melissa's search leads her to Brenda Rorke, a young woman jailed five years...

Two upper middle-class snobbish women talk in French in the presence of a cleaning lady who hardly speaks English. When the day wears on, the two women discover, to their embarrassment, that the Ukrainian immigrant has a higher education and understands all.

These stories were inspired by real-life events. Some of them are funny and hopefully will make the reader laugh; others are tragic, revealing the drama of loss, love, and shuttered dreams, so often tormenting our souls. And, of course, erotica and epicurean indulgence in sensual pleasures, which reward us occasionally for our deeds and misdeeds.

Based on a true story: an elderly woman believed all her life that she was German. She thought that her ancestors were somehow associated with the Nazi regime. It was a shock for her to discover her true identity, secrets of her childhood and destiny of her parents in the late 1930s.

Almost all Jews left city N* in Ukraine during mass emigration of the 1980s and 1990s. A handful remained: Misha, a 27 years old surgeon, was one of them. In love with Oxana, a beautiful nurse, fond of Ukraine and passionate about his work, he thought of his life as wonderful and rewarding. One day Oxana told him that two scary guys dropped by in the hospital when he was in an operation room and left a message that they would be waiting for him in the local tavern. When they met, Misha rec...

There is a dialectical logic to why an individual like Putin came to power in Russia. His policies in the past were controversial at best, but now, after the annexation of Crimea and turmoil in Ukraine, Russia's future is not expected to be bright. Why do Russia's leaders always seem embroil the country in one conflict after another?Every nation has a character—the sum of its temperament, values, traditions, and mindset—that explains its history and its present, and helps define its...

Can erotica and humour blend into a romantic story? We laugh, when something funny happens with others, but take it grim-faced, when it is about us. It gets hilarious when such a story is told by someone about himself, while he sees nothing amusing about it.Nelson, a sophisticated university student, has casual sex with a pretty, but primitive Mexican girl, who works as a help at a small California fruit market. She is about his age; as she does not know a word in English, arranging...

Romance and adventure novellas about contemporary North American upper middle class family, exposing highly intense drama behind a decent façade. Acting in exotic places of American wilderness, boardrooms of corporations or comfortable homes, dangerous locales of Jamaica and megalopolises of Canada and the US, the characters must deal with tough reality of competition, temptations and intense desires, often passing the threshold of morality and law.These are not purely romantic stor...

In one episode Born with Sin exposes the life of homosexual young man, who was trying to come to terms with uncomfortable and often hostile world around him.

A turf war between two biker gangs has erupted, turning the streets of a peaceful city into scenes of Hollywood-style assassinations, explosions, and motorcades to killed gangsters' funerals. Public outcry, police pressure, media, and politicians seem helpless to curb the violence. In the midst of this turmoil, Claude, an ambitious criminal and sadist, is hired by the Devil's Knights gang leader, Marcel, for the most hideous job: murder. His hits, thoroughly contemplated and executed, with...

What sacrifice is too big for all-consuming love? What revenge is worth? Are there psychological and moral boundaries, beyond which passion does not dare to step?Chantal, a woman with irresistible charms was a clear-minded, very successful journalist when at the age of 28 she married a financial tycoon who convinced her to try a different life style.Jovan, a 42 years old surgeon from Yugoslavia - an extraordinary man both in appearance and in substance, considered his life as...