Love Stinks, Inc., an Uncollected Anthology story Read Online Free PDF Page A

ice cream flavor, too.
    Truly great love affairs had started with far less.

 
     
     
     
     
    ABOUT THE AUTHOR
     
     
    Award-winning author Annie Reed describes herself as a desert rat who longs to live by the ocean. Since she hasn’t yet convinced her family to relocate to a nice chunk of beachfront property, she’s done the next best thing—written a series of stories set in a contemporary Pacific Northwest city where magic and reality go hand in hand. Private investigators Diz and Dee populate Annie’s more lighthearted stories, while denizens of a much rougher neighborhood lurk in her Tales From the Shadows .
    A talented and versatile writer whose fantasy, science fiction, and mystery stories have sold to a wide variety of publications, including five of the first seven volumes of Fiction River’s inaugural year, Annie is also the author of the Abby Maxon mystery novels Pretty Little Horses and Paper Bullets, as well as A Death in Cumberland.
    If you liked Love Stinks, Inc., and want to read more about Dyte, check out Annie’s Diz & Dee story Omens and Oracles and Eros, Oh My! for Dyte’s first appearance.
    For more information about Annie, go to www.annie-reed.com .

 
     
    THE UNCOLLECTED ANTHOLOGY STORIES
     
    Love Stinks, Inc., is part of the innovative Uncollected Anthology series.
    Every three months, the talented group of UA authors picks a theme and writes a short story for that theme. But instead of bundling the stories together, each author sells their own. No muss, no fuss—you can buy one story or you can buy them all. (We’ll be honest; we hope you buy them all!)
    This time around we’re thrilled to feature a story by USA Today bestselling guest author Kristine Kathryn Rusch!
    If you’d like to keep reading more fine stories with this issue’s theme—Heartspells—click on the following links:

 
     

     
    TRACK 61
    Kristine Kathryn Rusch
    ( featured guest author )
     
    Kessa possesses only small magic. But her skills allow her to help those who wield bigger magic.
    Her latest job takes her deep into the bowels of New York City’s subway system, hunting for bits of history long since forgotten.
    And what she finds deep down in the dark will both threaten her life and change it forever.
     
    “Rusch is a great storyteller.”
    — RT Book Reviews

 
     

     
    THE MIDNIGHT GARDENER
    Leah Cutter
     
    Joanie finally found her heart out in the backyard, hanging in an old fir like a Christmas ornament, covered in bees…
    Now she must discover what it means to hold her heart open for another.

 
     

     
    THIS IS THE WORLD CALLING
    Dayle A. Dermatis
     
    Tansy and Ki’s families are two of the most powerful witch dynasties—and the feud between them puts the Hatfield and McCoys to shame. So why, then, did their parents not care when the two would run off and play as children, lost in their own little world? When they meet again as adults, Tansy and Ki’s mutual attraction makes it vitally important that they find the answer to that question.
     
    “…One of the best writers working today.”
    — USA Today bestselling author Dean Wesley Smith

 
     

     
    LOVEBIRDS
    Michele Lang
     
    Nancy gave up on love a long time ago, and lives a well-researched, rational life in Buffalo, New York. But winter gives way to spring, and the voodoo love store downtown sells not just lovebirds, but the potential for a different kind of life. When she finds the courage to say yes, love swoops out of Nancy’s dreams on borrowed wings.
    “Lang is a writer to watch.” – Booklist

 
     

     
    HEARTFIRE
    Leslie Claire Walker
     
    — Vengeance is mine. —
     
    Someone kills a woman in the alley behind Snake Bite Tattoo—a clear declaration of war against its dangerous proprietor, Malek, the serpent from the Garden of Eden made an immortal man. If he can work a spell in time to bring the woman back to temporary life, she can tell him who murdered her and why. He’ll track them down and make they pay.