Showing results by narrator "Natasha Soudek" in All Categories

A short story magazine that assembles a thrilling new mix of stories from genres including horror, science-fiction, comedy, and suspense. Buried at the heart of every story in the magazine is a unique artifact, an object that has inspired our storytellers to create a big idea, an irresistible question, a new immersive world, or a sense of wonder. Unearth your next great story with Assemble Artifacts.

Gina Torrio is trying to break her addiction to bad boys with wounded spirits and dysfunctional pasts. Micah Wyatt is a flirt and a player, a little naughty but with no real harm in him. Gina thinks they might have a simple, no-strings fling without endangering her heart. But as animal attraction and flirtatious friendship blossom into sincere affection, neither Gina nor Micah knows how to deal with the depth of feeling growing between them.

Adventurous Amanda McCormick travels west to marry a man she's met through correspondence and create a home of her own at last. Gambler Spencer Teague intercepts the bride-to-be waiting for her fiancé at the Kansas City train station. On a whim, he pretends to be the man, seduces her, and they spend a torrid night together. Travis Baxter arrives to claim his bride, welcoming her into his home and heart. Though racked by guilt, Amanda hides the misguided affair and focuses on forging a relationship with her new husband.

Three long years have passed since Anna, First of Tomas, survived the purge in Malijad after being forced to use her scribe sigils to create an army of immortals. Safely ensconced in the shelter of the Nest, a sanctuary woven by one of her young allies, Anna spends her days tutoring the gifted yet traumatized scribe, Ramyi, and coming to terms with her growing attachment to an expatriate soldier in her company. Away from her refuge, war drums continue to beat. Thwarted in her efforts to locate the elusive tracker and bring him to justice, Anna turns to the state of Nahora for help.

Tourmaline Harris's life hit pause at 15, when her mom went to prison because of Tourmaline's unintentionally damning testimony. But at 18, her home life is stable, and she has a strong relationship with her father, the president of a local biker club known as the Wardens. Virginia Campbell's life hit fast-forward at 15, when her mom "sold" her into the services of Hazard, a powerful attorney: a man for whom the law is merely a suggestion.

Joelle Gordon is leaving Chicago and her cheating husband to head for her hometown of Landon, Minnesota. There, she returns to the Shore Leave Café, the lakeside diner the Davis women have run for decades. Joelle's family, including her three teenaged daughters, Camille, Tish, and Ruthann, is made up of strong women who have long believed in a curse upon them - a curse that robs them of the men they love.

A struggling single mother. Rianna Cutter strips to survive. It's the best paying gig for a young woman with little education and puts a roof over her child's head and food on the table. Working toward a better life for her son, she has no time or energy for love. A tough criminal businessman. Jonah Wyatt is ready to make a big change, moving away from his successful pot growing business into a legitimate enterprise. He's all business all the time and has no interest in finding love he doubts even exists.

The Wyatt brothers and their special ladies are back to celebrate a wedding in a final novella. Three couples. Six points of view. Three stories tied up and resolved - more or less.

At the close of WWI, moonshine and bootlegging rule the night in the Kentucky hills, but two damaged souls manage to find light and love amidst the darkness. Nearly destroyed by a grenade blast, Shadow Robeson returns home from war only to be trapped by family expectations he has no energy to fight - until a secret romance with a loving woman sets him on a new course. Bound by poverty and a ruined reputation, Lettie Calloway seems destined to spend her days serving at the local tavern. It takes a kind and gentle man entering her life to expand her dreams.

Adya Parish has drifted through life for too long and vows to take back control, not relying on any man to take care of her. Her pledge to become more self-reliant requires time spent alone - not with the sweet man, his adorable daughter, and crazy dog that careen into her life. But with one chance meeting in the park, Adya begins to find the family she has always longed for. It will take real strength of will to refuse to fall for them and continue to stand on her own two feet for the first time in her life.

His special ability to heal at a touch seems to be slowly draining the life out of Mason Reed. It might be a blessing for the people he heals, but it feels like a curse to him. Hiding out in a small town, he just wants to work his menial job while he gets his strength back - no helping and no entanglements. But when he meets waitress Ava Wheaton, avoiding involvement becomes impossible.

Given as a sexual toy to a violent warrior, Katya fights for freedom. In her world, a sect of indoctrinated fighters protect the villages and occasionally "brides" are given to the caged men. Katya finds her warrior is an innocent and gentle man, just as much a prisoner as she is. Passion blooms as the lovers search for a way to save themselves, overcome their masters, and change their world.

Three years have passed since the devastation of Golyna. Anna, once the maker of immortals, continues to fight the evil she unwillingly created through her rune-carving magic. Secreted away in an isolated mountain monastery, she works as a teacher to young scribes, guiding them toward runes that foster peace rather than endless war. So when the tracker who murdered her brother comes to Anna’s redoubt, begging for his eternal runes to be undone, Anna agrees to grant his wish on one condition - that he aid her in rooting out the remnants of Volna, a genocidal regime....

Twelve years ago, Jillian Henriksen cut off all her hair and placed it in her young husband's hands as he was buried. After his tragic accident, she clung to the only remaining stability she had - her young son Clint, her family of women, and her job at their lakeside diner, the Shore Leave Café. Now it is summer again, and change is in the hot and humid air. Jillian's sister, Joelle, and her teenaged nieces, Camille, Tish, and Ruthann, have come home to Landon, bringing a welcome distraction.

Fans of Jennette McCurdy’s I’m Glad My Mom Died will love this true story of a damaged primal bond between mother and daughter that, after decades of estrangement, was finally repaired. The conflict began when Carla, as a preteen, stepped in to defend her father against what she perceived as her mother’s harsh treatment—a move that destroyed the warm love she and her mother had for each other and began an “ice age” between them.

A young girl’s life is torn apart when her parents are killed in the NATO bombing of Belgrade, Serbia, during the 1999 Kosovo War. An embittered Katarina Petrovic grows up with a hatred for Americans and becomes a willing candidate for special training by Russian agents. Alex Baker commanded an Air Force Office of Special Investigations unit until an incident forced him to resign his military commission. Still in his thirties, he finds a new career as the owner of a Manhattan-based travel agency specializing in tour packages.

The past summer has been a wild ride for Joelle Gordon, in more ways than one. After discovering her husband cheating, she fled Chicago for her small-town childhood home in Landon, Minnesota. There, her family's lakeside diner, the Shore Leave Café, remains unchanged. Yet nothing else in Landon is the same, including her family of women, her three teenaged daughters, Camille, Tish, and Ruthann, and the intense, passionate love she has found with Blythe Tilson.

Bree's wedding to Tony, the man she truly loves, has almost arrived. But first it's time for a bachelorette weekend with the best friends from her youth, Graci, Tara, Corinne, and Adya. Considered the wild one of the group back in the day, Bree hardly seems a candidate to be first down the aisle. As the weekend progresses, she begins to panic about making her wedding vows. It takes the support of her friends to set Bree back on the course to love.

Corinne Cartright has an agenda: to snap up the office hottie before someone else does. She and her buddy Seth make a pact to each try to land their current crushes and failing that, to set each other up with the perfect match. But learning more about her friends' romantic choices causes Corinne to rethink what she wants from a relationship. Is it possible that the man of her dreams has been right in front of her all this time? Can she find love where she least expected it?

A gorgeous stranger in an old photograph. A desperate search from another century. And a mystery Camille Gordon cannot resist. It has been two years since Camille discovered that she was going to be a teenage mother. Abandoned by her child's father, Camille is determined that she and her daughter will make it on their own. When she discovers an old picture hidden in a trunk in her grandmother's attic, Camille is at once drawn to the man in the image.