Akron Public Library

Gorya Amurov might be known as his family's peacekeeper, but the leopard inside him wants nothing more than to claw to the surface and unleash hell. Maya Averina has spent years hunting the criminals who destroyed her life, and she always takes down her prey. But with her body burning up and her mind distracted by her first heat, an ambush catches her by surprise. Now she's trapped, an unmated female shifter about to be sold off to the highest bidder....

Deep in the heart of the Allegheny Mountains of Pennsylvania, the beautiful and weary Amish widow Grace Beiler is not looking for a husband -- especially one so much younger than she is. But handsome, and smitten, Seth Wyse stumbles upon a way to help her, and they marry to keep Grace's autistic son safe from his ill-intentioned uncle. Grace soon discovers that she is far from immune to her young husband's experienced charm and realizes that her first...

"Otto finds [a] note left by his wife in the kitchen of their farmhouse in windswept Saskatchewan. Eighty-three-year-old Etta will be walking 3,200 kilometers to see the ocean, but somehow, Otto understands. He took his own journey once before, to fight in a faraway land. With Etta gone, Otto struggles with his demons of war, while their friend Russell initially pursues the woman he has loved from afar. And James--well, James you have to meet on the...

"The Persimmon Tree is unashamedly a love story. I've always wanted to write one but until now have been afraid to do so. The reason is simple enough: most men in my experience have very little idea of what really goes on in a woman's heart or head. Now, at the age of 74, I just might know enough and have sufficient courage to write on the subject - the way of a man with a woman, of a woman with a man. My story is set in the Pacific, although not...

Frustrated with her lack of ninja skills, the leader of a prestigious ninja village sends his granddaughter, Usagi, to marry Lord Hanzo and bear him lots of ninja babies, but Lord Hanzo has no interest in her childbearing potential.

After the devastating attack on Iga, Usagi becomes a better-skilled ninja. Even as Usagi takes solace from her friend Yuki and vows to move forward, she struggles to come to terms with her tragic losses. Meanwhile, rumor has it that Goemon is still alive in the capital! Usagi heads off to investigate, but she'll be surprised to see how much he's changed.

"In fierce, agile poems, Felon tells the story of the effects of incarceration - canvassing a wide range of emotions and experiences through homelessness, underemployment, love, drug abuse, domestic violence, fatherhood, and grace - and, in doing so, creates a travelogue for an imagine life. Reginald Dwayne Betts confronts the funk of post-incarceration existence in traditional and newfound forms, from revolutionary found poems created by redacting...

A novel of star-crossed lovers, set in the circus world circa 1932. When Jacob Jankowski, recently orphaned and suddenly adrift, jumps onto a passing train, he enters a world of freaks, grifters, and misfits, a second-rate circus struggling to survive during the Great Depression, making one-night stands in town after endless town. A veterinary student who almost earned his degree, Jacob is put in charge of caring for the circus menagerie. It is there...

Heartbroken by rejection, Risa decides to give up on ever getting together with him. But a chance encounter with her musical hero helps Risa get back in the fighting spirit.