Contractor Tess Covington has spent her entire life as a regular non-shifter human, so after she lands in the Denver ER with flu-like symptoms, it comes as a complete shock to be told that, no, she's not sick - she's actually a late-presenting omega wolf shifter. With her family in dire financial straits and a contract for her own television show on the line, she can't afford not to complete the renovation job she came for. And given that her newly emerged wolf is in danger of going into heat, she'll just have to do her best to follow the doctor's advice to keep away from alpha shifters.

Alpha wolf Hunter Barrett has spent most of his adult life living by a routine, and a big part of that involves staying clear of omegas after having one stomp on his heart. So when the tiny contractor shows up at his place smelling like the one thing he's determined to avoid, he thinks it must be some sort of cosmic joke. But with his lodge on the verge of failing and this sweet-smelling omega his only hope to turn things around . . . he's left with few other options than to grin and bear it.

Set on avoiding each other as much as possible, they find things unexpectedly starting to heat up between them enough to thaw even the frostiest of hearts. Though even with the pair going head over paws for each other, there's no changing that their fling has an expiration date. The more time they spend together, the more they realize they're playing a dangerous game - one where the only thing on the line is their hearts.

For Cassandra Fairfax, it's a reminder of everything she lost, when Chiron kicked her out and all but shuttered the shop. Since then, she's used her skills in less . . . ethical ways, trading stolen books and magical readings to wealthy playboys looking for power money can't buy.

Then Chiron dies. And if Cassandra knows anything, it's this: the bookshop must always have an owner.

To restore the shop, she'll need the help of Lowell Sharpe, a rival bookseller who is everything Cassandra is not - and knows it, too.

But as she is plunged into a world of unscrupulous collectors, deadly ink magic and shady societies, a dark force threatens to unravel the bookshops entirely . . .

In exchange for her brother's life, Arvelle must enter the Sundering -- a deadly competition where the winners are chosen for the Imperius -- the emperor's elite guard.

It's a dangerous task made even worse when she attracts the attention of the same ruthless vampire who shattered her heart six years ago.

With elite gladians targeting her in the lethal arena, and an assassin picking the competitors off one-by-one, Arvella has no choice but to ally with the man who once betrayed her. The man who has since become even more implacable, colder and merciless.

A devoted follower.

At the dawn of a new era, Mary of Magdala is swept up by the radical teachings of Jesus of Nazareth. But her choice to follow him comes at a great cost: her family's disapproval and rejection.

A woman with a voice.

Together with her companions Prisca and Lydia, Mary begins a journey to share the message of love, hope, and renewal in a world where women's voices are silenced. As they face hostile crowds and the ever-present threat of persecution, their determination is tested, their faith redefined.

A leader ready to rise.

As the early Christian community struggles to find its footing, Mary discovers the strength within herself to inspire and help shape a movement that will echo through history.

Ancient Rome, AD 37

A scribe in a noble household, all Cormac has ever known is a life of slavery. When his master suddenly relieves him of his post, along with a hundred other men and women, Cormac is furnished with documents to free him from bondage but given no means to survive.

Somewhere between slave and citizen, the freedom to live is the freedom to starve too. All that was once orderly, structured and routine is now chaos, and Cormac must learn life anew.

His writing skills have afforded him flickers of opportunity in a world far wealthier than his, but will he resist the pull of the city's underbelly? Can he untangle himself from its crimes?

Sometimes the fate of entire worlds can be decided by a woman with nothing to lose, and the smartest gun in the multiverse in her hand . . .

This is the story of Bess - or Dog-Bitch Bess as she came to be known. It's the story of the gun she carried, whose name was Wakeful Slim. It's the story of the dead man who carried that gun before her and left a piece of himself inside it. And it's the tale of how she turned from teacher, to renegade, and ultimately to hero.

This is also the tale of the last violent engagements in an inter-dimensional war - one of the most brutal the multiverse had ever seen.

This is how Bess learned the truth about her world. Came to it the hard way, through pain and loss and the reckless spilling of blood, and carried it with her like a brand on her soul. And once she knew it - knew for sure how badly she'd been used - she had no option but to do something about it.

My name is Mawukana na-Vdnaze, and I am a very poor copy of myself.

In telling my story, there are certain things I should perhaps lie about. I should make myself a hero.

Pretend I was not used by strangers and gods, did not leave people behind.

Here is one truth: out there in deep-space, in the pilot's chair, I died. And then, I was reborn. I became something not quite human, something that could speak to the infinite dark. And I vowed to become the scourge of the world that wronged me.

This is the story of the supernova event that burned planets and felled civilizations.

This is also the story of the many lives I've lived since I died for the first time.

Are you listening?

Spanning the genres of fantasy and science fiction, this collection features stories from beyond the bounds of Brandon Sanderson's Cosmere universe.

Along with the never-before-seen novella 'Moment Zero', Tailored Realities will include 'Snapshot', 'Perfect State', 'Defending Elysium' (a novella set within the world of Skyward), and five other stories that were originally published individually elsewhere - never before collected into one volume, and many never before available in print.

The collection will also include a stunning black-and-white illustration for each story.

Melbourne teacher Netta Phillips is staring down the barrel of her fortieth birthday with months' worth of negative pregnancy tests behind her, her relationship in the bin and a mortgage she can't afford. Things really aren't going to plan.

When she unexpectedly finds the childhood diary of notoriously private celebrity musician Morrison 'Mo' Maplestone, things get even messier. Mo's desperate to keep the diary's dark contents hidden from the tabloids and well away from his beloved younger brother, and he's willing to pay Netta handsomely to personally return it to him in London. The financial reward he offers would would mean Netta could keep her apartment and try assisted conception treatments; after all, the clock's ticking. Loudly. But she can't go. After what happened there twenty years ago, she vowed never to return to the UK.

Not for anything.

When necessity bites, Netta reluctantly accepts Mo's offer and life quickly becomes even more complicated. There's paparazzi to contend with, a fake date that feels all too real and a Christmas Day confession that changes everything.

Amongst the chaos, Netta and Mo forge a rare connection, and discover that facing up to the past might be the only way to find the real thing. Or maybe something even better.

Albany, Western Australia, 1881.

Stifled by English society, Molly Bentley has always yearned for adventure. When her father offers to send her to the bustling port town of Albany in Western Australia, Molly readily agrees, even if it means assuming a secret identity. With only her chaperone Mrs Caldicott to answer to, her life of freedom can finally begin.

Until Molly is knocked down in the streets, nearly trampled, and a threatening letter is slipped into her hands.

Suddenly, Molly and Mrs Caldicott must reckon with the darker motives behind their move to these southern shores. The women have no choice but to put their safety into the hands of the enigmatic colonial Leo McRae and his cousin Alistair who seem to know exactly who Molly and Mrs Caldicott are, and why they're in the colonies. But from whom has Mr McRae sourced his information? And why has Molly's father stopped replying to her messages?

Attempts are made on their lives, and their motley crew must undertake a dangerous journey from Albany to Adelaide and into rural Victoria to evade capture. As secrets are revealed and loyalties tested, will Molly ever be able to find the freedom she so desperately craves?

In the fading glow of Australia's print journalism era, The National is more than a newspaper: it's an institution, and the only place that George Desoulis has ever felt at home. A world-weary subeditor with a bookish sensibility and a painful past, George is one of nature's loners.

But a late-night encounter with an unorthodox and self-assured reporter, Cassandra Gwan, begins to unravel both of their carefully managed worlds. As the decline of the newspaper enters a desperate stage, George and Cassandra struggle to balance their turbulent relationship with their responsibilities to family, and the compromises each has built their life upon.

With a deft wit and a sharp eye for emotional complexity, Pippos examines the stories we tell ourselves, and the ways people handle grief, guilt and generational change. The Transformations is a novel about endings - of dreams, relationships, institutions- and the chance of new beginnings.

Skwerl and Cheese are down on their luck. Skwerl, who is resourceful like a squirrel (Marines win battles, not spelling bees), used to work for the CIA's elite paramilitary wing. He was unceremoniously fired after a raid went bad in Afghanistan. 'Big Cheese' Aziz, a legendary pilot - his nation's Maverick - is equally hard up. So Skwerl recruits Cheese into an anonymous network of so-called sheepdogs, who operate in the shadowy moral grey zone between predator and prey.

Their first mission? To repossess a private jet stranded on a remote Ugandan airfield. Their fee- a commission on the jet's $5 million value. But nothing about the job seems to add up. Their contact goes missing. Their handler is as mysterious as the real source of the money. And when the women in their lives get involved - one pregnant wife and one dominatrix - the stakes skyrocket overnight.

From the jungles of Kampala to a glamorous hotel in Marseille, from a veteran-run pizzeria in Kyiv to a Panera in northern Virginia, Skwerl and Cheese must navigate an increasingly tangled set of loyalties where no one and nothing is what it seems. Globe-trotting and page-turning, full of heart and humour, Sheepdogs is a wild ride through the underbelly of modern war and intelligence.

A beautiful collection of seasonal stories inspired by the Christmas carol, from the Sunday Times No. 1 Bestselling Author

The air glitters with hope as the snowy village of Merrywake celebrates the Christmas season after the tumult of the Napoleonic Wars.

As the Viscount's famous Twelfth Night Ball draws closer, many of the villagers have a story to tell - we meet a lovelorn vicar and kindly maid reunited after a misunderstanding, three sisters vying for the hand of a dastardly duke, two servants hiding a dangerous secret and a solider making his way home, unsure of the welcome he might receive. As their tales braid together, we see life and love in the village from belowstairs to high society.

Reimagining each of the traditional carol's gifts, and written in tribute to Jane Austen and Georgette Heyer, The Twelve Days of Christmas is a collection of festive tales filled with seasonal cheer and heart-warming characters. Will the challenges and mysteries that the Viscount's guests encounter be resolved by the night of the ball?

My name is Elinor Gilbert. And I am the Invisible Woman.

Elinor Gilbert was once a young woman with a thriving career at the FBI.

Now, decades past solving crimes with the bureau, she is personally and professionally forgettable.

Which is exactly what her former FBI boss needs. He disguises Elinor as a middle-aged nanny, and casts her as an agent on the inside of his investigation into a New York art dealer suspected of ties to organised crime.

But as Elinor pushes toward the truth, her superpower - anonymity - risks doubling as a fatal flaw.

The more the invisible woman integrates into her 'host' family, the more dangerously memorable she becomes.

Five years ago, DCI John Lomond was forced off the hunt for Glasgow child-killer 'The Sandman,' who was never caught. Now, with another child abducted in a similar manner, Lomond is back on the case. But the only evidence links to a girl murdered twenty years ago.

Is the Sandman back, or is there a new killer?

What danger could lie within a book?‘I wish you had not killed him.’

Lilian Delaney, apprentice to a master bookbinder in Oxford in 1901, chafes at the confines of her life, caught between the oppressive walls of her father’s bookshop and the limitations of being a woman in a man’s profession. But when a burned book comes into her possession, she finds hidden beneath the binding a fifty-year-old letter speaking of love, fortune and murder.

Lily is drawn into the mystery, which hints at a forbidden romance between young lovers, and learns there are other books which conceal more of the story. Lily becomes obsessed with finding them, but she is not the only one looking, and what began as a simple intrigue quickly turns dangerous.

Her journey takes her across the country, to the eccentric booksellers of London, private libraries of unscrupulous collectors and the dusty archives of society papers, as she delves further into the heart of the secret. But with sinister forces closing in, willing to do anything to obtain the books, Lily’s world begins to fall apart, and she must decide if uncovering the truth is worth losing everything.

The festive season is fast approaching.

Jane Austen fears that without her siblings at home, there won't be much Christmas cheer in the Austen household this year.

But when she uncovers a skeleton in the cellar of Deane Rectory, Jane soon forgets her woes. Who needs merriment, when there's a mystery to solve?

Her investigation leads her to the legend of a young bride who's long been thought to haunt the woods nearby. After fleeing her wedding breakfast, the bride was never seen again.

Has Jane found her at last? Or is there more to this mystery than meets the eye?

Tis the season for Jane to embark upon festive delights, making merry, and solving murders...

Tessa De Santis's orderly life is upended when she must foster her late friend Skye's daughter, Grace. Moving to an isolated property, Tess uncovers a buried secret and faces a choice that could either mend the past or destroy her future

A haunting tale of guilt, redemption, and friendship

Nolan Callahan intends to spend this holiday season exactly like every other; haunting the terrible people of Annapolis in his aimless existence as the Ghost of Christmas Past.

Harriet York is a good person – or, at least, she tries to be. A people pleaser to her core, she always does what’s expected of her.

So, when Nolan is assigned the sweeter-than-candy-canes antique shop owner for his holiday haunting, neither of them have any idea why. To escape one another, Harriet and Nolan must unravel the threads that bind them together – all by Christmas Eve.

Hand in hand, they uncover each other’s pasts, but why is it that Nolan doesn’t want to let go? And might Harriet be the key to giving the Ghost of Christmas Past … a future?

An open road. A dead cop. A killer in the hills …I flicked on the torch, swept the surrounds. Nothing. Then I directed the beam into the trees on the other side of the road.

Up on a high, jutting branch, something moved. It may have been a white face, a pale body, a curved leg. Or it may have been none of those things. Was it human? Too quick for me to tell. A ripple, a blink and it was gone. But it seemed to leave an afterglow, an impression upon the fabric of the night.

I took a deep breath. What had I seen? It had appeared to be a pair of piercing eyes in a pale visage. It could almost have been an owl, so compelling was its gaze, so swift its departure. Maybe it was just a trick of the light, a distorted shadow?

There was a crunch of leaf in the litter below and it was gone.

Whatever it was, it sent a chill through me.

It’s the festive season in the Windmark Ranges and Sergeant Jesse Redpath’s day is going from bad to worse. It begins with her having to arrest the usual drunks and troublemakers and ends with the death of a colleague out on the Redline road. A death that may or may not have been an accident.

Jesse learns there have been other deaths and disappearances in the ranges, and that the local rumour mill suggests the perp is an elusive, semi-mythical character who goes by the name of ‘Anarchy’.

Beneath the charm of a close-knit community, a darker truth festers, and Jesse’s driven to expose it, no matter the disruption to the valley’s fragile tranquillity.

Q is out of MI6 . . . . . . and in over his head

After Major Boothroyd (aka Q) is unexpectedly ousted from his role with British Intelligence developing technologies for MI6's 00 agents, he finds himself back in his sleepy hometown of Wickstone-on-Water. His childhood friend, renowned quantum computer scientist Peter Napier, has died in mysterious circumstances, leaving behind a cryptic note. The police seem uninterested, but Q feels compelled to investigate and soon discovers that Napier's ground-breaking work may have attracted sinister forces . . . Can Q decode the truth behind Napier's death, even as danger closes in?

It's 1985, what will soon become known at ""The Year of the Spy,"" and fourteen-year-old Peter Bennett is convinced his mom's new boyfriend is a Russian agent.

""Gary"" isn't in the phone book, has an unidentifiable European accent, and keeps a gun in the glove box of his convertible Porsche. Peter thinks Gary only wants to get close to his mom because she works at Scientific Atlanta, a lab with big government contracts. But who is going to believe him? He's just a kid into BMX and MTV.

But after another woman who works at the lab is killed, Peter recruits an unlikely pair of allies-a has-been pulp writer and muckraker named Dennis Hotchner and his drag performer buddy and heavy, Jackie Demure. Both soon become the target of an unhinged Russian hitman (is it Gary? Maybe!) with a serious Phil Collins obsession.

Meanwhile, Sylvia Weaver, a young, Black FBI agent, investigates Scientific Atlanta in the wake of the employee's murder and discovers a nest of Russian spies in the Southern ""city too busy to hate."" Little does she know her investigation is being thwarted by a seriously compromised colleague in Washington, D.C., who is in league with a lovesick, hypochondriac KGB defector who is playing both sides of the Cold War to his benefit.

As Ronald Reagan and Soviet Premier Mikhail Gorbachev prepare for a historic nuclear summit in Geneva, what happens in Atlanta might change the course of the Cold War, the 20th Century, and Peter Bennett's freshman year of high school.

Former soldier. Deadly enemies. One fight for survival.

In a deadly game of cat and mouse, former Australian Infantry soldier Cable Martin faces his most dangerous mission yet: taking down a ruthless enemy — a rogue faction of ex-Australian Special Forces operatives who will stop at nothing to achieve their twisted goals.

When a chance encounter with an old comrade drags Cable into the shadows of modern crime, he finds himself hunted by Jack — an enigmatic and relentless leader hardened by the brutal battlefields of Afghanistan and Iraq. Expert killers forged by war, Jack and his team thrive on the thrill of the hunt, and Cable is their next target.

Outmatched and outgunned, Cable must rely on every ounce of his military training and instincts to survive. But these are no ordinary foes — they are predators who exploit weakness and kill without mercy.