Fiction & literature - Books on Google Play

SOON TO BE A MAJOR MOTION PICTURE directed by Denis Villeneuve, starring Timothée Chalamet, Josh Brolin, Jason Momoa, Zendaya, Rebecca Ferguson, Oscar Isaac, Javier Bardem, Dave Bautista, Stellan Skarsgård, and Charlotte Rampling.

Frank Herbert’s classic masterpiece—a triumph of the imagination and one of the bestselling science fiction novels of all time.

Set on the desert planet Arrakis, Dune is the story of the boy Paul Atreides, heir to a noble family tasked with ruling an inhospitable world where the only thing of value is the “spice” melange, a drug capable of extending life and enhancing consciousness. Coveted across the known universe, melange is a prize worth killing for....

When House Atreides is betrayed, the destruction of Paul’s family will set the boy on a journey toward a destiny greater than he could ever have imagined. And as he evolves into the mysterious man known as Muad’Dib, he will bring to fruition humankind’s most ancient and unattainable dream.

A stunning blend of adventure and mysticism, environmentalism and politics, Dune won the first Nebula Award, shared the Hugo Award, and formed the basis of what is undoubtedly the grandest epic in science fiction.

Total Power

Book 19

“Mills’s suspenseful, strikingly original sixth Mitch Rapp novel…is as riveting as anything penned by Mitch’s creator, Vince Flynn (1966–2013). Mills has really hit his stride with this franchise entry.” —Publishers Weekly (starred review)
“One of the best thriller writers on the planet.” —The Real Book Spy

In the next thriller in the #1 New York Times bestselling Mitch Rapp series, it’s a race against the clock when ISIS takes out the entire US power grid and throws the country into chaos.

When Mitch Rapp captures ISIS’s top technology expert, he reveals that he was on his way to meet a man who claims to have the ability to bring down America’s power grid. Rapp is determined to eliminate this shadowy figure, but the CIA’s trap fails.

The Agency is still trying to determine what went wrong when ISIS operatives help this cyber terrorist do what he said he could—plunge the country into darkness. With no concept of how this unprecedented act was accomplished, the task of getting the power back on could take months. Perhaps even years.

Rapp and his team embark on a desperate search for the only people who know how to repair the damage—the ones responsible. But his operating environment is like nothing he’s experienced before. Computers and communication networks are down, fuel can no longer be pumped from gas stations, water and sanitation systems are on the brink of collapse, and the supply of food is running out.

Can Rapp get the lights back on before America descends irretrievably into chaos?

This compulsive thriller proves once again that the Mitch Rapp series is “the best of the best when it comes to the world of special ops” (Booklist, starred review).

Dune Messiah

Book 2

Book Two in the Magnificent Dune Chronicles—the Bestselling Science Fiction Adventure of All Time

Dune Messiah continues the story of Paul Atreides, better known—and feared—as the man christened Muad’Dib. As Emperor of the known universe, he possesses more power than a single man was ever meant to wield. Worshipped as a religious icon by the fanatical Fremen, Paul faces the enmity of the political houses he displaced when he assumed the throne—and a conspiracy conducted within his own sphere of influence.

And even as House Atreides begins to crumble around him from the machinations of his enemies, the true threat to Paul comes to his lover, Chani, and the unborn heir to his family’s dynasty...

The Evening and the Morning

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author, a thrilling and addictive new novel--a prequel to The Pillars of the Earth--set in England at the dawn of a new era: the Middle Ages

"Just as transporting as [The Pillars of the Earth] . . . A most welcome addition to the Kingsbridge series." --The Washington Post

It is 997 CE, the end of the Dark Ages. England is facing attacks from the Welsh in the west and the Vikings in the east. Those in power bend justice according to their will, regardless of ordinary people and often in conflict with the king. Without a clear rule of law, chaos reigns.

In these turbulent times, three characters find their lives intertwined. A young boatbuilder's life is turned upside down when the only home he's ever known is raided by Vikings, forcing him and his family to move and start their lives anew in a small hamlet where he does not fit in. . . . A Norman noblewoman marries for love, following her husband across the sea to a new land, but the customs of her husband's homeland are shockingly different, and as she begins to realize that everyone around her is engaged in a constant, brutal battle for power, it becomes clear that a single misstep could be catastrophic. . . . A monk dreams of transforming his humble abbey into a center of learning that will be admired throughout Europe. And each in turn comes into dangerous conflict with a clever and ruthless bishop who will do anything to increase his wealth and power.

Thirty years ago, Ken Follett published his most popular novel, The Pillars of the Earth. Now, Follett's masterful new prequel The Evening and the Morning takes us on an epic journey into a historical past rich with ambition and rivalry, death and birth, love and hate, that will end where The Pillars of the Earth begins.

The Book of Two Ways: A Novel

Jodi Picoult

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of Small Great Things and A Spark of Light comes a “powerful” (The Washington Post) novel about the choices that alter the course of our lives.

Everything changes in a single moment for Dawn Edelstein. She’s on a plane when the flight attendant makes an announcement: Prepare for a crash landing. She braces herself as thoughts flash through her mind. The shocking thing is, the thoughts are not of her husband but of a man she last saw fifteen years ago: Wyatt Armstrong.

Dawn, miraculously, survives the crash, but so do all the doubts that have suddenly been raised. She has led a good life. Back in Boston, there is her husband, Brian, their beloved daughter, and her work as a death doula, in which she helps ease the transition between life and death for her clients.

But somewhere in Egypt is Wyatt Armstrong, who works as an archaeologist unearthing ancient burial sites, a career Dawn once studied for but was forced to abandon when life suddenly intervened. And now, when it seems that fate is offering her second chances, she is not as sure of the choice she once made.

After the crash landing, the airline ensures that the survivors are seen by a doctor, then offers transportation to wherever they want to go. The obvious destination is to fly home, but she could take another path: return to the archaeological site she left years before, reconnect with Wyatt and their unresolved history, and maybe even complete her research on The Book of Two Ways—the first known map of the afterlife.

As the story unfolds, Dawn’s two possible futures unspool side by side, as do the secrets and doubts long buried with them. Dawn must confront the questions she’s never truly asked: What does a life well lived look like? When we leave this earth, what do we leave behind? Do we make choices . . . or do our choices make us? And who would you be if you hadn’t turned out to be the person you are right now?

Neverwhere: A Novel

Neil Gaiman

“Neil Gaiman is undoubtedly one of the modern masters of fantasy writing....For those who have not read Neverwhere, the new edition is the one to read, and is a fitting introduction to Gaiman’s adult fiction....American readers can experience this spellbinding, magical world the way that Neil Gaiman wanted us to all along.” —Huffington Post

The #1 New York Times bestselling author’s ultimate edition of his wildly successful first novel featuring his “preferred text”—and including his special Neverwhere tale, “How the Marquis Got His Coat Back”.

Published in 1997, Neil Gaiman’s darkly hypnotic first novel, Neverwhere, heralded the arrival of a major talent and became a touchstone of urban fantasy.

It is the story of Richard Mayhew, a young London businessman with a good heart and an ordinary life, which is changed forever when he discovers a girl bleeding on the sidewalk. He stops to help her—an act of kindness that plunges him into a world he never dreamed existed. Slipping through the cracks of reality, Richard lands in Neverwhere—a London of shadows and darkness, monsters and saints, murderers and angels that exists entirely in a subterranean labyrinth. Neverwhere is home to Door, the mysterious girl Richard helped in the London Above. Here in Neverwhere, Door is a powerful noblewoman who has vowed to find the evil agent of her family’s slaughter and thwart the destruction of this strange underworld kingdom. If Richard is ever to return to his former life and home, he must join Lady Door’s quest to save her world—and may well die trying.

The Silent Patient

Alex Michaelides

The instant #1 New York Times bestseller

"An unforgettable—and Hollywood-bound—new thriller... A mix of Hitchcockian suspense, Agatha Christie plotting, and Greek tragedy."
—Entertainment Weekly

The Silent Patient is a shocking psychological thriller of a woman’s act of violence against her husband—and of the therapist obsessed with uncovering her motive.

Alicia Berenson’s life is seemingly perfect. A famous painter married to an in-demand fashion photographer, she lives in a grand house with big windows overlooking a park in one of London’s most desirable areas. One evening her husband Gabriel returns home late from a fashion shoot, and Alicia shoots him five times in the face, and then never speaks another word.

Alicia’s refusal to talk, or give any kind of explanation, turns a domestic tragedy into something far grander, a mystery that captures the public imagination and casts Alicia into notoriety. The price of her art skyrockets, and she, the silent patient, is hidden away from the tabloids and spotlight at the Grove, a secure forensic unit in North London.

Theo Faber is a criminal psychotherapist who has waited a long time for the opportunity to work with Alicia. His determination to get her to talk and unravel the mystery of why she shot her husband takes him down a twisting path into his own motivations—a search for the truth that threatens to consume him....

1984

George Orwell

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

With extraordinary relevance and renewed popularity, George Orwell’s 1984 takes on new life in this edition.

“Orwell saw, to his credit, that the act of falsifying reality is only secondarily a way of changing perceptions. It is, above all, a way of asserting power.”—The New Yorker

In 1984, London is a grim city in the totalitarian state of Oceania where Big Brother is always watching you and the Thought Police can practically read your mind. Winston Smith is a man in grave danger for the simple reason that his memory still functions. Drawn into a forbidden love affair, Winston finds the courage to join a secret revolutionary organization called The Brotherhood, dedicated to the destruction of the Party. Together with his beloved Julia, he hazards his life in a deadly match against the powers that be.

Lionel Trilling said of Orwell’s masterpiece, “1984 is a profound, terrifying, and wholly fascinating book. It is a fantasy of the political future, and like any such fantasy, serves its author as a magnifying device for an examination of the present.” Though the year 1984 now exists in the past, Orwell’s novel remains an urgent call for the individual willing to speak truth to power.

Anxious People: A Novel

Fredrik Backman

Instant #1 New York Times Bestseller

A People Book of the Week, Book of the Month Club selection, #1 Indie Next Pick, and Best of Fall in Good Housekeeping, PopSugar, The Washington Post, New York Post, Shondaland, CNN, and more!

“[A] quirky, big-hearted novel… Wry, wise, and often laugh-out-loud funny, it’s a wholly original story that delivers pure pleasure.” —People

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of A Man Called Ove comes a charming, poignant novel about a crime that never took place, a would-be bank robber who disappears into thin air, and eight extremely anxious strangers who find they have more in common than they ever imagined.

Looking at real estate isn’t usually a life-or-death situation, but an apartment open house becomes just that when a failed bank robber bursts in and takes a group of strangers hostage. The captives include a recently retired couple who relentlessly hunt down fixer-uppers to avoid the painful truth that they can’t fix their own marriage. There’s a wealthy bank director who has been too busy to care about anyone else and a young couple who are about to have their first child but can’t seem to agree on anything, from where they want to live to how they met in the first place. Add to the mix an eighty-seven-year-old woman who has lived long enough not to be afraid of someone waving a gun in her face, a flustered but still-ready-to-make-a-deal real estate agent, and a mystery man who has locked himself in the apartment’s only bathroom, and you’ve got the worst group of hostages in the world.

Each of them carries a lifetime of grievances, hurts, secrets, and passions that are ready to boil over. None of them is entirely who they appear to be. And all of them—the bank robber included—desperately crave some sort of rescue. As the authorities and the media surround the premises these reluctant allies will reveal surprising truths about themselves and set in motion a chain of events so unexpected that even they can hardly explain what happens next.

Rich with Fredrik Backman’s “pitch-perfect dialogue and an unparalleled understanding of human nature” (Shelf Awareness), Anxious People is an ingeniously constructed story about the enduring power of friendship, forgiveness, and hope—the things that save us, even in the most anxious times.

Star Wars: Thrawn Ascendancy (Book I: Chaos Rising)

Timothy Zahn

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • Discover Thrawn’s origins within the Chiss Ascendancy in the first book in an epic new Star Wars trilogy from bestselling author Timothy Zahn.

Beyond the edge of the galaxy lies the Unknown Regions: chaotic, uncharted, and near impassable, with hidden secrets and dangers in equal measure. And nestled within its swirling chaos is the Ascendancy, home to the enigmatic Chiss and the Nine Ruling Families that lead them.

The peace of the Ascendancy, a beacon of calm and stability, is shattered after a daring attack on the Chiss capital that leaves no trace of the enemy. Baffled, the Ascendancy dispatches one of its brightest young military officers to root out the unseen assailants. A recruit born of no title, but adopted into the powerful family of the Mitth and given the name Thrawn.

With the might of the Expansionary Fleet at his back, and the aid of his comrade Admiral Ar’alani, answers begin to fall into place. But as Thrawn’s first command probes deeper into the vast stretch of space his people call the Chaos, he realizes that the mission he has been given is not what it seems.

And the threat to the Ascendancy is only just beginning.

Psychological fiction

Before Mars

Hugo Award winner Emma Newman returns to the captivating Planetfall universe with a dark tale of a woman stationed on Mars who starts to have doubts about everything around her.

After months of travel, Anna Kubrin finally arrives on Mars for her new job as a geologist and de facto artist in residence--and already she feels she is losing the connection with her husband and baby at home on Earth.

In her room on the base, Anna finds a mysterious note, painted in her own hand, warning her not to trust the colony psychiatrist. A note she can't remember painting.

When she finds a footprint in a place that the colony AI claims has never been visited by humans, Anna begins to suspect that she is caught up in an elaborate corporate conspiracy. Or is she losing her grip on reality? Anna must find the truth, regardless of what horrors she might discover or what they might do to her mind.

The Accusation: An addictive psychological thriller with a jaw-dropping twist

Victoria Jenkins

‘Wow, what a fantastic read! I was hooked right from the start… it really kept me guessing all the way through… I didn’t see the twist coming. It was fast paced and twisty and I wanted to keep reading.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘Help me! Help me, please!’

When Jenna hears the cry in the park one night, she feels she has no choice but to run and help. Cradling the injured woman in her arms, the attacker nowhere to be seen, all Jenna wants is to keep her alive until the ambulance arrives and for the ordeal to be over.

But the nightmare begins when the victim wakes up…

Jenna’s relief turns to horror when the finger is pointed at her. There must be some mistake: she’s never seen the woman before in her life, and Jenna tried to save her life. Why would she accuse Jenna of a crime she didn’t commit?

As the case against Jenna grows, her world starts to fall apart. Her teenage daughter is keeping secrets and her husband is growing more distant every day. To save her family and clear her name, Jenna has to prove she didn’t do it.

But someone knows something Jenna did do. And they want to make her pay…

The Accusation is an addictive psychological thriller that asks how far you would go for justice. Perfect for fans of He Said/She Said, The Silent Patient and The Woman in the Window.

Readers are loving The Accusation:

‘Gripping, suspenseful and downright addictive… There was no way I could stop myself as I furiously flicked the pages… will keep you on the edge of your seat and will have your heart racing on multiple occasions.’ Once Upon a Time Book Blog, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Gripping and unputdownable. This has been a great read which has kept me guessing and I have found really difficult to put down… a highly talented author.’ Little Miss Book Lover 87, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘An absolutely riveting and addictive read… so unexpected and completely shocking yet satisfying that I sat and went over it in my head to attempt to come to terms with it… a thoroughly enjoyable page-turner that I read in one nail-biting sitting.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘This is one of the top reads I have read so far this year. Didn't see any of the twists coming. Really blew my mind.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Wow, wow, wow another roller coaster of a book… like opening Christmas presents but early… Victoria Jenkins is the Queen of twists. I never see them coming. I would definitely recommend it.’ Blue Moon Blogger, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Knows how to blow your mind with a twist!... I couldn’t put it down!! Excellent thriller!!!!’ Passion Reading Books, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘I literally could not put this book down. It is so addictive and twisty and dark I just had to know more and more.' Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘This book does not miss a beat… a thrilling ride from start to finish, and was impossible to put down.’ Robin Loves Reading, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A fast-paced psychological thriller that keeps you on the edge of your seat, frantically turning the pages to see what happens next… A fantastic read.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Once you’ve picked it up, you won’t put down till you have read the final page… Lots of twists and things you’ll never see coming.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A fast-paced and addictive thriller that had me engrossed from the very first page into the small wee hours!’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘This book had my heart racing… it took me a while to calm down and go to sleep!... an excellent book.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

We Are All the Same in the Dark: A Novel

Julia Heaberlin

PEOPLE PICK • The discovery of a girl abandoned by the side of the road threatens to unearth the long-buried secrets of a Texas town’s legendary cold case in this superb, atmospheric novel from the internationally bestselling author of Black-Eyed Susans.

“If you only read one thriller this year, let it be this one. Psychologically absorbing, original and atmospheric. I could not turn the pages fast enough.”—Elin Hilderbrand, #1 New York Times bestselling author of 28 Summers

It’s been a decade since Trumanell Branson disappeared, leaving only a bloody handprint behind. Her pretty face still hangs like a watchful queen on the posters on the walls of the town’s Baptist church, the police station, and in the high school. They all promise the same thing: We will find you. Meanwhile, her brother, Wyatt, lives as a pariah in the desolation of the old family house, cleared of wrongdoing by the police but tried and sentenced in the court of public opinion and in a new documentary about the crime.

When Wyatt finds a lost girl dumped in a field of dandelions, making silent wishes, he believes she is a sign. The town’s youngest cop, Odette Tucker, believes she is a catalyst that will ignite a seething town still waiting for its own missing girl to come home. But Odette can’t look away. She shares a wound that won’t close with the mute, one-eyed mystery girl. And she is haunted by her own history with the missing Tru.

Desperate to solve both cases, Odette fights to save the lost girl in the present and to dig up the shocking truth about a fateful night in the past—the night her friend disappeared, the night that inspired her to become a cop, the night that wrote them all a role in the town’s dark, violent mythology.

In this twisty psychological thriller, Julia Heaberlin paints unforgettable portraits of a woman and a girl who redefine perceptions of physical beauty and strength.

Praise for We Are All the Same in the Dark

“[Julia] Heaberlin knows how to build to a truly shocking twist, how to break a reader’s heart and then begin mending it. ‘What’s coming is always unimaginable,’ Odette’s one-time therapist tells her, ‘and by that, I mean just that. It cannot be imagined. What’s coming never acts or behaves the way we think it will.’ That’s true for this novel, too.”—The Dallas Morning News

I Know Where She Is: a breathtaking thriller that will have you hooked from the first page

S. B. Caves

'This explosive debut reels you in from the first page and never lets up. Sinister, unsettling and gripping.' The Sun A heart-stopping, gripping thriller for fans of C. L. Taylor, Karin Slaughter and Linwood Barclay

On the tenth anniversary of her daughter Autumn's abduction, Francine receives an anonymous note containing just five words: I KNOW WHERE SHE IS

When a young woman approaches her the next day claiming to have sent the letter Francine wants to dismiss it as a cruel, twisted joke.

But the stranger knows things that only Autumn would know.

It soon becomes clear that Francine must go to dark places in order to learn the truth about her child’s kidnapping.

She will discover that danger comes from unexpected sources. She will do things she never imagined herself capable of.

But will Francine get her daughter back – or is it too late?

Praise for I Know Where She Is

'This explosive debut reels you in from the first page and never lets up. Sinister, unsettling and gripping.The Sun 'Ebook of the Week'

‘A clever, fast paced and gripping thriller, brought to life by a truly outstanding lead character.’ The Chestnut Reading Tree

‘An excellent roller coaster of emotions with some great twists and turns. Five stars!’ Stardust Book Reviews

‘A fast paced, dark, gritty thriller, that will hook you from the first page.’ Whispering Stories

‘A thriller of the highest order.’ The Writing Greyhound

‘Fantastic story full of unexpected twists and turns.’ Turn The Page

‘This book is dark, and delicious. I loved it.’ Rachel Dove

‘A compulsive read... plot twists that leave you breathless.’ Reader review

‘Had me hooked from the first page and I didn't want to put it down.’ Reader review

‘Gripping and twisty throughout, kept me gripped from the word go. An absolute must read! Definitely one of the best books of it's genre that I have read this year.’ Reader review

‘This novel's starts with a bang and doesn't let up from there. It is a hard-hitting, fast-paced novel, that will have you guessing what is going to happen next.’ Reader review

‘One of the most gripping books that I have read in a long time.’ Reader review

‘I decided to start this last night and finally finished at 3am! I could not put it down.’ Goodreads reviewer

‘Fantastic read could not put this down :) Would recommend’ 4* Reader review

The Weekend Away

Sarah Alderson

Two friends go on vacation. Only one comes back.

If you loved The Vacation by T.M. Logan, get ready for your new obsession...

Orla and Kate have been best friends forever. Together they’ve faced it all – be it Orla’s struggles as a new mother or Kate’s messy divorce. And whatever else happens in their lives, they can always look forward to their annual weekend away.

This year, they’re off to Lisbon: the perfect flat, the perfect view, the perfect itinerary. And what better way to kick things off in style than with the perfect night out?

But when Orla wakes up the next morning, Kate is gone. Brushed off by the police and with only a fuzzy memory of the night’s events, Orla is her friend’s only hope. As she frantically retraces their steps, Orla makes a series of shattering discoveries that threaten everything she holds dear. Because while Lisbon holds the secret of what happened that night, the truth may lie closer to home...

A twisty holiday read for fans of The Holiday and Date Night.

Friends Like These: A gripping psychological thriller with a shocking twist

Sarah Alderson

As addictive as THE SILENT PATIENT, as gripping as THE GIRL BEFORE.

One wrong click can ruin your life...

Lizzie hasn't thought about her colleague Becca in years - not since the accident.

Then Becca's ex-boyfriend turns up on Tinder, and Lizzie's curiosity is sparked.

It looks like Becca hasn't changed. She's still all over social media: #perfectlife, #perfectjob, #blessed. Lizzie can't resist a dig. But she sends her mean comment to Becca by mistake...

She's about to find out you can't always believe what you see online.

And that with friends like Becca, you don't need enemies...

A gripping read with a twist you won't see coming - the perfect thriller for the digital age.

Readers love FRIENDS LIKE THESE

'FABULOUS. Best psychological thriller I've read.'
'Absolutely loved every second of it and didn't want it to end.'
'Can't wait for her next book. Just blown away.'
'This was the best book I have read all year. Absolutely amazing. It kept me up ALL night because I just couldn't put it down.'
'More than a 5 star, completely original, scary, tense, thrilling, and chilling. Loved, loved, loved, loved.'

All He Ever Wanted: A Novel

Anita Shreve

"A marriage is always two intersecting stories."

This realization comes perhaps too late to the husband of Etna Bliss-a man whose obsession with his young wife begins at the moment of their first meeting, as he helps Etna and her companions escape from a fire in a hotel restaurant, and culminates in a marriage doomed by secrets and betrayal.

Written with the intelligence and grace that are the hallmarks of Anita Shreve's bestselling novels, this gripping tale of desire, jealousy, and loss is peopled by unforgettable characters as real as the emotions that bring them together.

The Divorce: A gripping psychological thriller with a fantastic twist

Victoria Jenkins

‘I couldn’t put this book down. Wow, wow, wow.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, Goodreads reviewer

‘Amazing read. I couldn't put it down and finished it in a day.’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, Goodreads reviewer

‘Absolutely fantastic. Had me gripped!!! Loved it!’ ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐, Goodreads reviewer

They seemed like any other couple

Josh and Lydia Green. A doctor, and a stay-at-home mother. They met at a party, which led to a dinner, which led to a happy and comfortable life together. They married young, and had children earlier than planned.

Their marriage seemed like any other marriage

They have their moments, of course – who doesn’t? With Josh working longer hours in the hospital, and Lydia feeling increasingly isolated at home, the strain is starting to show. They don’t talk as much as they used to.

But they have a secret like no other

Not every wife is as scared as Lydia.

Not every husband is hiding as much as Josh.

Not everything you think about them is true.

And this book contains a twist like no other…

The Divorce is an absolutely unputdownable psychological thriller which will have you hooked until the final incredible twist. Perfect for everyone who loved Gone Girl, The Woman in the Window and The Wife Between Us.

Readers are loving The Divorce

‘Once I started reading this book, I found it impossible to leave down, the story was gripping from the start and it keeps you guessing to the end.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars

‘I raced through this book once started and can honestly say I didn’t see the plot twist coming which was original and very clever. I highly recommend.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘Drawn in from the first pages, a book I read late into the night.’ Netgalley Reviewer, 5 stars

‘This book was everything I wanted, and didn't even know at the time. There are so many twists and turns, and just when I thought that I had it all figured out, I was proven wrong time after time. I read this book in one sitting because I simply could not put it down. Highly recommended.’ Cuppfam, 5 stars

‘A brilliant psychological thriller that had me gripped.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘So clever and thoroughly gripping!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars

‘What a read… From the first page I was hooked. It had me enthralled, I could not stop reading!… So many twists, turns and heartache.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘A great book!… I definitely recommend this!’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars

‘Gripped me from the very first page.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘I loved it… Well written, entertaining, and difficult to put down. I highly recommend this book.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars

‘I was propelled through the narrative quickly, desperate to see where it was all going.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘Absolutely loved this novel! Excellent character development, and totally keeps you wanting to find out what happens next.’ Goodreads Reviewer, 5 stars

Death Score: An absolutely gripping crime thriller packed with suspense

Book 13

You have to stop me from hurting anyone else. I don’t want to do these horrible things. Help me before I’m forced to do it again. And I will do it again because I have no choice. I’ve never had a choice.

In a busy shopping centre, a little girl clutches a teddy bear, clinging to it in the absence of her mother, Katrina. Hours later, Katrina’s body is discovered in an abandoned building. For Detective Kim Stone, it looks like a quick, functional kill. But Kim’s instincts tell her there’s more to this senseless murder than meets the eye. What was the motive for killing a young mother out shopping with her child?

Days later, a second victim is found in a local park, her neck broken just like Katrina’s and her six-year-old son missing.

With her colleague, Detective Stacey Wood, working on another unsolved crime and a member of the team grieving the loss of a close relative, Kim is struggling to make inroads on what is fast becoming a complex case. And when a handwritten letter from the killer lands on Kim’s desk addressed to her, and pleading for help, she knows time is running out to bring the little boy home alive.

With the support of a handwriting analyst and profiler, Kim and the team begin to get inside the mind of the killer and make a shocking discovery.

Some of the victims have scratch marks on their wrists.

But these are no random scratches. The killer is using them to communicate with someone. The question is… with whom?

And if Kim doesn’t find them soon, another innocent soul will die.

The multi-million-copy bestselling Detective Kim Stone series is every bit as addictive, original and exciting as readers say and you’ll be hooked from the very first page. Nobody does it better than the Queen of Crime, Angela Marsons.

Read what everyone is saying about the Detective Kim Stone series:

‘Marsons for me is the QUEEN of this genre. She knows how to add the human touch to each story and I just adore her. Bloody FABULOUS.’ Postcard Reviews

‘The uber-sharp Kim Stone has to be one of the best detectives out there.’ Bookpreneur

‘D.I. Kim Stone is the most fascinating character to arrive on the scene since Val McDermid gave us Tony Hill.’ Mark Edwards

‘The most fabulous crime series ever written.’ Goodreads Reviewer,

‘The whole series is unmissable.’ The Book Review Café

‘I could read about Kim Stone and her team every week and never get bored’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘This has to be the best crime series I have read, and long may Kim Stone continue! Fab-u-lous!!’ Stardust Book Reviews

‘I have been an avid reader of detective novels for years and in my opinion nobody does it better than Angela Marsons.’ Goodreads Reviewer

‘The Kim Stone series is one of the best crime series ever written.’ Book Addict Shaun

‘I just LOVE this author and LOVE Kim Stone!! If you haven't yet read any of Angela Marsons' books, you're seriously missing out.’ Relax and Read Book Reviews

‘The Detective Inspector Kim Stone books are nothing short of brilliant.’ Nigel Adams Book Worm

‘Angela Marsons is a keen observer of human nature, and her wide cast of characters are both fascinating and distinct from each other… it is immediately clear why her books stand out from the crowd. Chilling and compelling plots, brilliant characterisation… addictive from start to finish.’ Rachel Abbott

‘If you haven't read any of her books yet then you are seriously crazy! What are you waiting for!’ Chapterinmylife

‘I blooming love this series. I love Kim, her vulnerability and tenacity, I love the interaction and banter between the characters.’ Goodreads Reviewer

The Life She Left Behind: An absolutely gripping and heartbreaking page turner

Nicole Trope

When I wake up in the middle of the night, it’s not a sound that disturbs me. It’s a feeling. Silently, I creep to my daughter’s room, breathing a sigh of relief when I see her sleeping, her night-light twirling, butterfly shapes moving their pink wings. Quickly, I lock the door. I won’t let anything happen to my little girl.

You tell him everything. The husband you adore, the father of your child, your best friend.

He knows, just by looking at your sage-green eyes, when something is wrong. The two of you can communicate with a glance, or a touch of the hand.

Except what if you can’t?

What if your happy marriage has plastered over one huge lie? A lie you have even started to believe yourself, in order to survive?

What if you have a secret, something you have hidden from your beloved husband and your strawberry-scented baby girl, to keep them safe? What if the guilt has kept you up, night after night, for as long as you can remember?

Because, after twenty-eight years, that secret is refusing to stay buried. The past you have tried so desperately to outrun is catching up with you. A faded photograph, torn in half, threatens to expose the truth and everyone you love, everything you cherish, is in harm’s way…

An emotional, thought-provoking and beautifully written novel which examines the pieces of ourselves we are afraid of, and the impossible decisions we make when we are desperate. Fans of Jodi Picoult, Kerry Fisher and Liane Moriarty will be moved by this heartbreaking tale.

Readers absolutely love The Life She Left Behind:

‘Oh my... This was literally “un-put-downable”... This was not a book I could read chapter by chapter and take breaks in between, I NEEDED to keep going!… I know I will be thinking about this story for days… Amazing.’ NetGalley Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘What a fantastic book!! I absolutely loved it, and it is hands down the best book I’ve read this year so far… Amazing… I couldn’t recommend it more highly. Now I’m off to buy several more of Trope’s books to get stuck in to.’ My Little Bookcase, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Wow oh wow, what an absolutely gorgeous read. I devoured this beautiful book in just over an hour… I adored the writing style in this one, the author writes elegantly and in a way that just pulls you into the pages. I cannot say anything negative about this book, I have been truly engrossed and shocked by how quickly I read this one. I didn't want to put it down. This is definitely a beautiful read by a very talented author.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Loved this book! Very emotional! Read it in 1 sitting!’ Reading through the Looking Glass, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘A highly emotional read that had me hooked from the start. This is another fantastic book by Nicole Trope!’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Once I started this book, I couldn't put it down. It was that good. It was definitely emotional, and left me guessing until the end.’ The One Where She Blogs, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Page 1, I was hooked and couldn’t put the book down… So enthralling.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Loved it!… This is my third book by this author and they have all struck gold!... As soon as I picked it up, everything around me faded to grey… The author is a great storyteller and she enchanted me.’ B for Bookreview, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘5 stars! Nicole Trope continues to be one of my favourite authors! While her books aren't often easy to read due to their content, I'm always left amazed at her ability to tell a story so well… Very gripping and I found myself race through it. I think this one will stay with me for a while.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Superbly written… Well worthy of 5 stars.’ Goodreads Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

‘Wow what an emotional book a rollercoaster of emotions… Definitely my number one book of the year.’ NetGalley Reviewer, ⭐⭐⭐⭐⭐

Political fiction

Rise to Rebellion: A Novel of the American Revolution

Jeff Shaara dazzled readers with his bestselling novels Gods and Generals, The Last Full Measure, and Gone for Soldiers. Now the acclaimed author who illuminated the Civil War and the Mexican-American War brilliantly brings to life the American Revolution, creating a superb saga of the men who helped to forge the destiny of a nation.

In 1770, the fuse of revolution is lit by a fateful command "Fire!" as England's peacekeeping mission ignites into the Boston Massacre. The senseless killing of civilians leads to a tumultuous trial in which lawyer John Adams must defend the very enemy who has assaulted and abused the laws he holds sacred.

The taut courtroom drama soon broadens into a stunning epic of war as King George III leads a reckless and corrupt government in London toward the escalating abuse of his colonies. Outraged by the increasing loss of their liberties, an extraordinary gathering of America's most inspiring characters confronts the British presence with the ideals that will change history.

John Adams, the idealistic attorney devoted to the law, who rises to greatness by the power of his words . . . Ben Franklin, one of the most celebrated men of his time, the elderly and audacious inventor and philosopher who endures firsthand the hostile prejudice of the British government . . . Thomas Gage, the British general given the impossible task of crushing a colonial rebellion without starting an all-out war . . . George Washington, the dashing Virginian whose battle experience in the French and Indian War brings him the recognition that elevates him to command of a colonial army . . . and many other immortal names from the Founding Family of the colonial struggle - Abigail Adams, Thomas Jefferson, Joseph Warren, Samuel Adams, Richard Henry Lee - captured as never before in their full flesh-and-blood humanity.

More than a powerful portrait of the people and purpose of the revolution, Rise to Rebellion is a vivid account of history's most pivotal events. The Boston Tea Party, the battles of Concord and Bunker Hill: all are recreated with the kind of breathtaking detail only a master like Jeff Shaara can muster. His most impressive achievement, Rise to Rebellion reveals with new immediacy how philosophers became fighters, ideas their ammunition, and how a scattered group of colonies became the United States of America.

Devil's Brood

A breathtaking and sweeping epic of a family at its breaking point, Devil’s Brood shows how Henry II and Eleanor of Aquitaine—two monumental figures once bound by all-consuming love—became the bitterest of adversaries...

A.D. 1172. Henry II’s three eldest sons conspire against him and align themselves with his greatest enemy, King Louis of France, but it’s Eleanor of Aquitaine’s involvement in the plot to overthrow her husband that proves to be the harshest betrayal. As a royal family collapses and a marriage ends in all but name, the clash between these two strong-willed and passionate souls will have far-reaching and devastating consequences throughout Christendom.

Closure: Jack Randall #1

When a prominent lawyer is shot while waiting at a suburban stop sign it sets off a nation-wide manhunt for an elusive killer. Special Agent Jack Randall of the FBI finds himself appointed to track down and stop the shooter. Not by his superiors, but by the killer himself.

As more bodies fall the shooter takes his message to the press, earning the support of the public with his choice of targets and confounding the FBI at every turn. From the desert of Nevada to the urban jungle of New York City, Jack and his team follow the trail of bodies and haunting messages left behind by the killer. With the pressure to find him mounting on Jack, the assassin’s crimes grow bolder, and his message more sinister and closer to home.

It becomes clear to Jack that in order to find the shooter, he may have to look inside his own past, and become the man he was years ago.

Lady of the Eternal City

From the New York Times and USA Today bestselling author of The Alice Network and The Huntress comes a historical saga about obsession, betrayal, and destiny.

Sabina may be Empress of Rome, but she still stands poised on a knife’s edge. She must keep the peace between two deadly enemies: her husband Hadrian, Rome’s brilliant and sinister Emperor; and battered warrior Vix, her first love. But Sabina is guardian of a deadly secret: Vix’s beautiful son Antinous has become the Emperor’s latest obsession.

Empress and Emperor, father and son will spin in a deadly dance of passion, betrayal, conspiracy, and war. As tragedy sends Hadrian spiraling into madness, Vix and Sabina form a last desperate pact to save the Empire. But ultimately, the fate of Rome lies with an untried girl, a spirited redhead who may just be the next Lady of the Eternal City....

The Wings of the Dove + The Ambassadors + What Maisie Knew + The Turn of the Screw (4 Unabridged Classics)

Henry James

This carefully crafted ebook: “The Wings of the Dove + The Ambassadors + What Maisie Knew + The Turn of the Screw (4 Unabridged Classics)” is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. The Wings of the Dove is a 1902 novel by Henry James. This novel tells the story of Milly Theale, an American heiress stricken with a serious disease, and her effect on the people around her. Some of these people befriend Milly with honorable motives, while others are more self-interested. The Ambassadors is a 1903 novel by Henry James, originally published as a serial in the North American Review (NAR). This dark comedy, one of the masterpieces of James's final period, follows the trip of protagonist Lewis Lambert Strether to Europe in pursuit of Chad, his widowed fiancée's supposedly wayward son; he is to bring the young man back to the family business, but he encounters unexpected complications. The third-person narrative is told exclusively from Strether's point of view. What Maisie Knew is a novel by Henry James, first published as a serial in the Chap-Book and in the New Review in 1897 and then as a book later that year. The story of the sensitive daughter of divorced, irresponsible parents, What Maisie Knew has great contemporary relevance as an unflinching account of a wildly dysfunctional family. The book is also a masterly technical achievement by James, as it follows the title character from earliest childhood to precocious maturity. The Turn of the Screw, originally published in 1898, is a ghost story novella written by Henry James. Due to its ambiguous content, it became a favourite text of academics who subscribe to New Criticism. Henry James ( 1843 – 1916) was an American-born British writer, regarded as one of the key figures of 19th-century literary realism. He was the son of Henry James, Sr. and the brother of philosopher and psychologist William James and diarist Alice James.

ANIMAL FARM - Orwell

George Orwell

George Orwell was a novelist, essayist and critic best known for his novels Animal Farm and Nineteen Eighty-Four. He was a man of strong opinions who addressed some of the major political movements of his times, including imperialism, fascism and communism. Animal Farm was published in 1945 when Orwell, a democratic socialist, was angered at Joseph Stalin for betraying the ideas of the Russian Revolution. In fact, that is the basis of Orwell's book. The characters in Animal Farm resemble significant people that impacted the Russian Revolution. These characters act similarly to the real people and actions that were done in the past. Through this book, George Orwell exposes Stalin's true nature and evils using a corrupt pig named Napoleon that eventually dictates the farm. Animal Farm is one of the most influential political texts ever written.

The Talbot Odyssey

Nelson DeMille

WITH 50 MILLION BOOKS SOLD WORLDWIDE, NELSON DEMILLE IS "A TRUE MASTER." - DAN BROWN

It started as a simple spy hunt. It became a desperate battle to save the West.

For forty years Western intelligence agents have known a terrible secret: the Russians have a mole -- code-named Talbot -- inside the CIA. At first Talbot is suspected of killing European agents. Then a street-smart ex-cop uncovers a storm of espionage and murder on the streets of New York, while in a Long Island suburb a civic demonstration against the Russian mission masks a desperate duel of nerves and wits.

Engineered by Talbot, a shadow world of suspicion and deceit is spilling onto the streets -- leading to a new Soviet weapon and a first-strike war plan threatening the foundations of American government.

For the U.S., time is running out. For Talbot, the time is now.

Future Home of the Living God: A Novel

Louise Erdrich

A New York Times Notable Book

Louise Erdrich, the New York Times bestselling, National Book Award-winning author of LaRose and The Round House, paints a startling portrait of a young woman fighting for her life and her unborn child against oppressive forces that manifest in the wake of a cataclysmic event.

The world as we know it is ending. Evolution has reversed itself, affecting every living creature on earth. Science cannot stop the world from running backwards, as woman after woman gives birth to infants that appear to be primitive species of humans. Twenty-six-year-old Cedar Hawk Songmaker, adopted daughter of a pair of big-hearted, open-minded Minneapolis liberals, is as disturbed and uncertain as the rest of America around her. But for Cedar, this change is profound and deeply personal. She is four months pregnant.

Though she wants to tell the adoptive parents who raised her from infancy, Cedar first feels compelled to find her birth mother, Mary Potts, an Ojibwe living on the reservation, to understand both her and her baby’s origins. As Cedar goes back to her own biological beginnings, society around her begins to disintegrate, fueled by a swelling panic about the end of humanity.

There are rumors of martial law, of Congress confining pregnant women. Of a registry, and rewards for those who turn these wanted women in. Flickering through the chaos are signs of increasing repression: a shaken Cedar witnesses a family wrenched apart when police violently drag a mother from her husband and child in a parking lot. The streets of her neighborhood have been renamed with Bible verses. A stranger answers the phone when she calls her adoptive parents, who have vanished without a trace. It will take all Cedar has to avoid the prying eyes of potential informants and keep her baby safe.

A chilling dystopian novel both provocative and prescient, Future Home of the Living God is a startlingly original work from one of our most acclaimed writers: a moving meditation on female agency, self-determination, biology, and natural rights that speaks to the troubling changes of our time.

Living with Agenda 21: Surrendering Our Freedoms

Dr. H. Lawrence Zillmer

The United States has surrendered to a foreign power! Impossible! But true! Agenda 21 is a United Nations program, inaugurated in 1992 and signed by our delegates. It became our law through executive order 12858 issued by Bill Clinton. The Obama administration is working feverishly to carry out this program through more than 900 executive orders designed by the fifty plus czars. Most people have never heard of Agenda 21. This administration is quietly at work turning us into a socialist state. To save our freedoms we must know what is being foisted on us even as you read this.

The Siege: A Thriller

Stephen White

New York Times bestselling author of Dead Time

Disgraced Boulder detective Sam Purdy, FBI counter-terrorism specialist Christopher Poe, and CIA analyst Deirdre Drake are drawn to Yale University to investigate the disappearances of several students- including the sons of both the Secretary of the Army and a Supreme Court Justice. An unseen enemy is playing by no rules, making no demands, somehow anticipating every FBI move-and executing hostages, one by one...

Addictive thrillers

The End of Her: A Novel

Shari Lapena

AN INSTANT NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER!

“The End of Her will keep you guessing right up to the end . . . once you pick it up, you will not want to put down.”—USA Today

The new domestic suspense novel from the New York Times bestselling author of The Couple Next Door and Someone We Know

A long-ago accident--and a visitor from out of the blue. . .

Stephanie and Patrick are adjusting to life with their colicky twin girls. The babies are a handful, but even as Stephanie struggles with the disorientation of sleep deprivation, there's one thing she's sure of: she has all she ever wanted.

Then Erica, a woman from Patrick's past, appears and makes a disturbing accusation. Patrick had always said his first wife's death was an accident, but now Erica claims it was murder.

Patrick insists he's innocent, that this is nothing but a blackmail attempt. Still, Erica knows things about Patrick--things that make Stephanie begin to question her husband. Stephanie isn't sure what, or who, to believe. As Stephanie's trust in Patrick begins to falter, Patrick stands to lose everything. Is Patrick telling the truth--is Erica the persuasive liar Patrick says she is? Or has Stephanie made a terrible mistake?

How will it end?

Target Zero (An Agent Zero Spy Thriller—Book #2)

Jack Mars

“One of the best thrillers I have read this year.”

--Books and Movie Reviews (re Any Means Necessary)

In this follow up to book #1 (AGENT ZERO) in the Agent Zero spy series, TARGET ZERO (Book #2) takes us on another wild, action-packed ride across Europe as elite CIA agent Kent Steele is summoned to stop a biological weapon before it devastates the world—all while grappling with his own memory loss.

Life returns only fleetingly back to normal for Kent before he finds himself summoned by the CIA to hunt down terrorists and stop another international crisis—this one even more potentially devastating than the last. Yet with an assassin hunting him down, a conspiracy within, moles all around him and with a lover he can barely trust, Kent is setup to fail.

His memory is quickly returning, though, and with it, flashes into the secrets of who he was, what he’d discovered, and why they are after him.

His own identity, he realizes, may be the most perilous secret of all.

TARGET ZERO is an espionage thriller that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

“Thriller writing at its best.”

--Midwest Book Review (re Any Means Necessary)

Also available is Jack Mars’ #1 bestselling LUKE STONE THRILLER series (7 books), which begins with Any Means Necessary (Book #1), a free download with over 800 five star reviews!

Relic: Volume 1

Relic, a Douglas Preston and Lincoln Child thriller that introduces FBI Special Agent Pendergast

Just days before a massive exhibition opens at the popular New York Museum of Natural History, visitors are being savagely murdered in the museum's dark hallways and secret rooms. Autopsies indicate that the killer cannot be human...

But the museum's directors plan to go ahead with a big bash to celebrate the new exhibition, in spite of the murders.

Museum researcher Margo Green must find out who--or what--is doing the killing. But can she do it in time to stop the massacre?

At the Publisher's request, this title is being sold without Digital Rights Management Software (DRM) applied.

Trapping Zero (An Agent Zero Spy Thriller—Book #4)

Jack Mars

“You will not sleep until you are finished with AGENT ZERO. A superb job creating a set of characters who are fully developed and very much enjoyable. The description of the action scenes transport us into a reality that is almost like sitting in a movie theater with surround sound and 3D (it would make an incredible Hollywood movie). I can hardly wait for the sequel.”

--Roberto Mattos, Books and Movie Reviews

In TRAPPING ZERO (Book #4), a terrorist cell in the Mideast gains a new, fanatic leader, one intent on orchestrating what would be the deadliest attack on American soil. Can Agent Zero uncover the plot and stop him in time?

Although Agent Zero’s daughters are home safely, the mental anguish from their experience weighs heavy on their small family. Zero, working to be a good father and to repair the damage, decides the time has come to undergo surgery to regain all of his memories. But will it work?

In the midst of it all, he is again thrust into the line of duty as a U.S. embassy is destroyed in the Mideast and as an experimental new weapon is uncovered. But without his memories, with some of his own CIA allies intent on his destruction, who can he really trust?

TRAPPING ZERO (Book #4) is an un-putdownable espionage thriller that will keep you turning pages late into the night.

“Thriller writing at its best.”

--Midwest Book Review (re Any Means Necessary)

“One of the best thrillers I have read this year.”

--Books and Movie Reviews (re Any Means Necessary)

Also available is Jack Mars’ #1 bestselling LUKE STONE THRILLER series (7 books), which begins with Any Means Necessary (Book #1), a free download with over 800 five star reviews!

Deadly Cross

James Patterson

A double homicide in the nation's capital opens the psychological case files -- of Detective Alex Cross.
Kay Willingham led a life as glamorous as it was public-she was a gorgeous Georgetown socialite, philanthropist, and the ex-wife of the vice president. So why was she parked in a Bentley convertible idling behind a DC private school, in the middle of the night, with the man who was the head of that school? Who shot them both, point blank, and why? The shocking double homicide is blazed across the internet, TV, newspapers- and across Alex Cross's mind. Kay had been his patient once. And maybe more.

While John Sampson of DC Metro Police investigates the last movements of Christopher Randall, the educator killed along with Kay Willingham, detective Alex Cross and FBI special agent Ned Mahoney find unanswered questions from Willingham's past, before she arrived in DC and became known in DC society as someone who could make things happen. They travel to Alabama to investigate Kay's early years. There they find a world of trouble, corruption, and secrets, all of them closed to outsiders like Cross and Mahoney.

Kay had many enemies, but all of them seemed to need her alive. The harder the investigators push, the more resistance they find when they leave behind the polite law offices and doctors' quarters of the state capital. Alex Cross will need to use all his skills as a doctor, a detective, and a family man to prevent that resistance from turning lethal...again.

Marauder

Book 15

It is up to Juan Cabrillo and the crew of his ship, the Oregon, to stop a terrorist plot to release a deadly chemical weapon across the globe in the explosive new novel in Clive Cussler's #1 New York Times bestselling series.

While interrupting an attack on a Kuwaiti oil tanker, Juan Cabrillo and his team discover something even more dangerous: a ruthless billionaire's dying wish has allowed a paralyzing chemical to end up in the hands of a terrorist group. When an Oregon crew member falls victim to the poison, Juan Cabrillo will stop at nothing to find an antidote before it is too late. He and his team must connect an ancient mystery with a cunning modern enemy in order to save millions of innocent lives, including their own.

Hush

James Patterson

Top cop, devoted sister, and now Inmate 3329: even prison bars won't stop Harriet Blue from seeking justice for the murder of her brother.
Prison is a dangerous place for a former cop -- as Harriet Blue is learning on a daily basis.
So, following a fight for her life and a prison-wide lockdown, the last person she wants to see is Deputy Police Commissioner Joe Woods. The man who put her inside.
But Woods is not there to gloat. His daughter Tonya and her two-year-old child have gone missing.
He's ready to offer Harriet a deal: find his family to buy her freedom . . .

The Fifth Witness

Michael Connelly

After taking on a foreclosure case, defense attorney Mickey Haller must prove his client's innocence -- but first he must follow a trail of black market evidence to its sinister end.
Mickey Haller has fallen on tough times. He expands his business into foreclosure defense, only to see one of his clients accused of killing the banker she blames for trying to take away her home.
Mickey puts his team into high gear to exonerate Lisa Trammel, even though the evidence and his own suspicions tell him his client is guilty. Soon after he learns that the victim had black market dealings of his own, Haller is assaulted, too -- and he's certain he's on the right trail.

Despite the danger and uncertainty, Haller mounts the best defense of his career in a trial where the last surprise comes after the verdict is in. Connelly proves again why he "may very well be the best novelist working in the United States today" (San Francisco Chronicle).

The Last Coyote

Michael Connelly

Suspended from his job with the LAPD, Harry Bosch must face the darkest parts of his past to track down his mother's killer . . . even if it costs him his life.
Harry Bosch's life is on the edge. His earthquake-damaged home has been condemned. His girlfriend has left him. He's drinking too much. And after attacking his commanding officer, he's even had to turn in his L.A.P.D. detective's badge. Now, suspended indefinitely pending a psychiatric evaluation, he's spending his time investigating an unsolved crime from 1961: the brutal slaying of a prostitute who happened to be his own mother.

Even after three decades, Harry's questions generate heat among L.A.'s top politicos. And as the truth begins to emerge, it becomes more and more apparent that someone wants to keep it buried. Someone very powerful...very cunning...and very deadly.

Edgar Award-winning author Michael Connelly has created a dark, fast-paced suspense thriller that cuts to the core of Harry Bosch's character. Once you start it, there's no turning back.

Recall Zero (An Agent Zero Spy Thriller—Book #6)

Jack Mars

--Roberto Mattos, Books and Movie Reviews

In RECALL ZERO (Book #6), the President’s translator is the only one privy to a secret conversation that can change the world. She is targeted for assassination and hunted down, and Agent Zero, called back into the line of duty, may just be the only one who can save her.

Agent Zero, trying to get his life back in order and to win back the trust of his girls, vows not to return to service. But when he is needed to save the life of this defenseless translator, he can’t say no. Yet the translator, he realizes, is as intriguing as the secrets she keeps, and Zero, on the run with her, just might be falling for her.

What secret is she keeping? Why are the most powerful organizations in the world trying to kill her for it? And will Zero be able to save her in time?

RECALL ZERO (Book #6) is an un-putdownable espionage thriller that will keep you turning pages late into the night. Book #7 in the AGENT ZERO series will be available soon.

“Thriller writing at its best.”

--Midwest Book Review (re Any Means Necessary)

“One of the best thrillers I have read this year.”

--Books and Movie Reviews (re Any Means Necessary)

Also available is Jack Mars’ #1 bestselling LUKE STONE THRILLER series (7 books), which begins with Any Means Necessary (Book #1), a free download with over 800 five star reviews!

Historical fiction

Dead Man's Folly: Hercule Poirot Investigates

Book 31

When a mock murder game staged for charity threatens to turn into the real thing, the intrepid Hercule Poirot is called in to take part in this Dead Man’s Folly, a classic from the queen of suspense, Agatha Christie.

Sir George and Lady Stubbs, the hosts of a village fete, hit upon the novel idea of staging a mock murder mystery. In good faith, Ariadne Oliver, the well-known crime writer, agrees to organize their murder hunt.

Despite weeks of meticulous planning, at the last minute Ariadne calls her friend Hercule Poirot for his expert assistance. Instinctively, she senses that’s something sinister is about to happen….

The Aviators

Book 8

It is 1964. The Vietnam War has begun to escalate, its new style of battle demanding new weapons and tactics, and men who can use them. Overnight, it seems, the United States Army must scramble to create its first-ever Air Assault Division, a force critical to its chances of success. The obstacles are staggering--untrained men, technical mishaps, interservice rivalries. But through sheer courage and dedication, these heroic fighters rise to the challenge. For they are America's bravest--facing the ultimate test...

War Lord: A Novel

Bernard Cornwell

The final installment in Bernard Cornwell’s bestselling Saxon Tales series, chronicling the epic story of the making of England, “like Game of Thrones, but real” (The Observer, London) —the basis for The Last Kingdom, the hit Netflix series.

THE FINAL BATTLE AWAITS…

The epic conclusion to the globally bestselling historical series.

England is under attack. Chaos reigns. Northumbria, the last kingdom, is threatened by armies from all sides, by land and sea – and only one man stands in their way. Torn between loyalty and sworn oaths, the warrior king Lord Uhtred of Bebbanburg faces his greatest ever battle – and prepares for his ultimate fate…

“Perhaps the greatest writer of historical adventure novels today” (Washington Post), Bernard Cornwell has dazzled and entertained readers and critics with his prolific string of page-turning bestsellers. Of all his protagonists, however, none is as beloved as Uhtred of Bebbanburg, and this thrilling historical novel continues the saga of his adventures and the turbulent early years of England.

Property

Valerie Martin

Valerie Martin’s Property delivers an eerily mesmerizing inquiry into slavery’s venomous effects on the owner and the owned. The year is 1828, the setting a Louisiana sugar plantation where Manon Gaudet, pretty, bitterly intelligent, and monstrously self-absorbed, seethes under the dominion of her boorish husband. In particular his relationship with her slave Sarah, who is both his victim and his mistress.
Exploring the permutations of Manon’s own obsession with Sarah against the backdrop of an impending slave rebellion, Property unfolds with the speed and menace of heat lightning, casting a startling light from the past upon the assumptions we still make about the powerful and powerful.

The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society: A Novel

Mary Ann Shaffer

#1 NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • NOW A NETFLIX FILM • A remarkable tale of the island of Guernsey during the German Occupation, and of a society as extraordinary as its name.

“Treat yourself to this book, please—I can’t recommend it highly enough.”—Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love

“I wonder how the book got to Guernsey? Perhaps there is some sort of secret homing instinct in books that brings them to their perfect readers.” January 1946: London is emerging from the shadow of the Second World War, and writer Juliet Ashton is looking for her next book subject. Who could imagine that she would find it in a letter from a man she’s never met, a native of the island of Guernsey, who has come across her name written inside a book by Charles Lamb. . . .

As Juliet and her new correspondent exchange letters, Juliet is drawn into the world of this man and his friends—and what a wonderfully eccentric world it is. The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Pie Society—born as a spur-of-the-moment alibi when its members were discovered breaking curfew by the Germans occupying their island—boasts a charming, funny, deeply human cast of characters, from pig farmers to phrenologists, literature lovers all.

Juliet begins a remarkable correspondence with the society’s members, learning about their island, their taste in books, and the impact the recent German occupation has had on their lives. Captivated by their stories, she sets sail for Guernsey, and what she finds will change her forever.

Written with warmth and humor as a series of letters, this novel is a celebration of the written word in all its guises and of finding connection in the most surprising ways.

Praise for The Guernsey Literary and Potato Peel Society

“A jewel . . . Poignant and keenly observed, Guernsey is a small masterpiece about love, war, and the immeasurable sustenance to be found in good books and good friends.”—People

“A book-lover’s delight, an implicit and sometimes explicit paean to all things literary.”—Chicago Sun-Times

“A sparkling epistolary novel radiating wit, lightly worn erudition and written with great assurance and aplomb.”—The Sunday Times (London)

“Cooked perfectly à point: subtle and elegant in flavour, yet emotionally satisfying to the finish.”—The Times (London)

Behind the Lines

Book 7

Behind the Lines is W. E. B. Griffin's powerful novel of World War II -- and the courage, patriotism, and sacrifice of those who fought it.

By 1942, the Japanese have routed the outnumbered American forces and conquered the Philippines. But deep in the island jungles, the combat continues. Refusing to surrender, a renegade Army officer organizes a resistance force and vows to fight to the last man. A Marine leads his team on a mission through the heart of enemy territory.

And the nation's proudest sons fight uncelebrated battles that will win -- or lose -- the war . . .

The Book of Lost Friends: A Novel

Lisa Wingate

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER • From the bestselling author of Before We Were Yours comes a new historical novel: the dramatic story of three young women searching for family amid the destruction of the post–Civil War South, and of a modern-day teacher who learns of their story and its vital connection to her students’ lives.

Bestselling author Lisa Wingate brings to life startling stories from actual “Lost Friends” advertisements that appeared in Southern newspapers after the Civil War, as newly freed slaves desperately searched for loved ones who had been sold away.

Louisiana, 1875: In the tumultuous era of Reconstruction, three young women set off as unwilling companions on a perilous quest: Hannie, a freed slave; Lavinia, the pampered heir to a now destitute plantation; and Juneau Jane, Lavinia’s Creole half sister. Each carries private wounds and powerful secrets as they head for Texas, following roads rife with vigilantes and soldiers still fighting a war lost a decade before. For Lavinia and Juneau Jane, the journey is one of stolen inheritance and financial desperation, but for Hannie, torn from her mother and siblings before slavery’s end, the pilgrimage west reignites an agonizing question: Could her long-lost family still be out there? Beyond the swamps lie the limitless frontiers of Texas and, improbably, hope.

Louisiana, 1987: For first-year teacher Benedetta Silva, a subsidized job at a poor rural school seems like the ticket to canceling her hefty student debt—until she lands in a tiny, out-of-step Mississippi River town. Augustine, Louisiana, is suspicious of new ideas and new people, and Benny can scarcely comprehend the lives of her poverty-stricken students. But amid the gnarled live oaks and run-down plantation homes lie the century-old history of three young women, a long-ago journey, and a hidden book that could change everything.

Circe

Madeline Miller

"A bold and subversive retelling of the goddess's story," this #1 New York Times bestseller is "both epic and intimate in its scope, recasting the most infamous female figure from the Odyssey as a hero in her own right" (Alexandra Alter, The New York Times).

In the house of Helios, god of the sun and mightiest of the Titans, a daughter is born. But Circe is a strange child -- not powerful, like her father, nor viciously alluring like her mother. Turning to the world of mortals for companionship, she discovers that she does possess power -- the power of witchcraft, which can transform rivals into monsters and menace the gods themselves.

Threatened, Zeus banishes her to a deserted island, where she hones her occult craft, tames wild beasts and crosses paths with many of the most famous figures in all of mythology, including the Minotaur, Daedalus and his doomed son Icarus, the murderous Medea, and, of course, wily Odysseus.

But there is danger, too, for a woman who stands alone, and Circe unwittingly draws the wrath of both men and gods, ultimately finding herself pitted against one of the most terrifying and vengeful of the Olympians. To protect what she loves most, Circe must summon all her strength and choose, once and for all, whether she belongs with the gods she is born from, or the mortals she has come to love.

With unforgettably vivid characters, mesmerizing language, and page-turning suspense, Circe is a triumph of storytelling, an intoxicating epic of family rivalry, palace intrigue, love and loss, as well as a celebration of indomitable female strength in a man's world.

#1 New York Times Bestseller -- named one of the Best Books of the Year by NPR, the Washington Post, People, Time, Amazon, Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Newsweek, the A.V. Club, Christian Science Monitor, Refinery 29, Buzzfeed, Paste, Audible, Kirkus, Publishers Weekly, Thrillist, NYPL, Self, Real Simple, Goodreads, Boston Globe, Electric Literature, BookPage, the Guardian, Book Riot, Seattle Times, and Business Insider.

And Then There Were None

Agatha Christie

A PBS Great American Read Top 100 Pick

One of the most famous and beloved mysteries from the queen of suspense, Agatha Christie! More than 100 million copies sold and now a Lifetime TV movie.

Ten people, each with something to hide and something to fear, are invited to a isolated mansion on Indian Island by a host who, surprisingly, fails to appear. On the island they are cut off from everything but each other and the inescapable shadows of their own past lives. One by one, the guests share the darkest secrets of their wicked pasts. And one by one, they die…

Which among them is the killer and will any of them survive?

News of the World: A Novel

Paulette Jiles

Soon to be a Major Motion Picture Starring Tom Hanks

National Book Award Finalist—Fiction

In the aftermath of the Civil War, an aging itinerant news reader agrees to transport a young captive of the Kiowa back to her people in this exquisitely rendered, morally complex, multilayered novel of historical fiction from the author of Enemy Women that explores the boundaries of family, responsibility, honor, and trust.

In the wake of the Civil War, Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings from newspapers to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence.

In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna’s parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own. Recently rescued by the U.S. army, the ten-year-old has once again been torn away from the only home she knows.

Their 400-mile journey south through unsettled territory and unforgiving terrain proves difficult and at times dangerous. Johanna has forgotten the English language, tries to escape at every opportunity, throws away her shoes, and refuses to act “civilized.” Yet as the miles pass, the two lonely survivors tentatively begin to trust each other, forming a bond that marks the difference between life and death in this treacherous land.

Arriving in San Antonio, the reunion is neither happy nor welcome. The captain must hand Johanna over to an aunt and uncle she does not remember—strangers who regard her as an unwanted burden. A respectable man, Captain Kidd is faced with a terrible choice: abandon the girl to her fate or become—in the eyes of the law—a kidnapper himself.

Action & adventure

Montana Territory

From Spur Award-winning author Charles G. West comes a blistering tale of the American West, where guns are the law, good men are outnumbered—and sudden death is a way of life . . .

MASSACRE IN MONTANA

Raised among the Blackfoot, John Hawk is a valuable asset to the US Army. As a military scout at Fort Ellis, he is able to cross the line between two worlds—and help keep the peace. But when he disobeys a direct order from his commander, Hawk is immediately dismissed from his post. That was the army’s first mistake.

The second was losing track of a small mule train en route to Helena. At the request of his former lieutenant, Hawk leaves his cabin on the Boulder River to help find the missing party. The mule train, it appears, was ambushed by a savage gang of outlaws. Most of the travelers were murdered. Only a few survived to tell the tale. And now it’s up to Hawk to stalk the killers across the lawless Montana territory—alone. No backup. No calvary. No mercy . . .

“Rarely has an author painted the great American West in strokes so bold, vivid, and true.”
—Ralph Compton

In this fast-paced thriller, a power plant explosion takes a small-town community off the grid -- all while a terrifying force lurks in the shadows.
Two roads lead to Mount Hope. None leads out.
A small southern town was evacuated after a freak accident. As the first anniversary of the mishap approaches, some residents are allowed to return past the national guard roadblocks.
Mount Hope natives Maggie and Jordan quickly discover that their hometown is not as it was before. Downed cellular networks fail to resume service. Animals savagely attack humans. And the damaged power plant, where Jordan's father is an engineer, is under military lockdown.
As friends and family morph into terrifying strangers, Maggie and Jordan increasingly turn to each other. Their determination to discover who -- or what -- has taken control of Mount Hope soon has them caught in the crosshairs of a presence more sinister than any they could have imagined.

Tom Clancy Duty and Honor

Jack Ryan Jr. is caught in the cross-hairs of a would-be tyrant in this exhilarating thriller in Tom Clancy's #1 New York Times bestselling series.

Jack Ryan, Jr., is on his own. He's been ousted from his position at the Campus, the off-the-books intelligence agency that was set up by his father, the President. As if that's not bad enough, someone is out for Jack‘s blood. The police think that he was just the victim of a mugging, but he knows a professional assassin when he kills one.

Using clues found on his would-be dispatcher, Jack launches his own shadow campaign to uncover the brutal truth about a world-renowned philanthropist and human rights advocate—and a long-running false-flag war of terror that has claimed thousands of lives....

Hush-Hush

Book 56

Stone Barrington is in hot water in the newest novel from #1 New York Times-bestselling Stuart Woods.

Daylight

David Baldacci

FBI Agent Atlee Pine's search for her sister Mercy clashes with military investigator John Puller's high-stakes case, leading them both deep into a global conspiracy -- from which neither of them will escape unscathed.

For many long years, Atlee Pine was tormented by uncertainty after her twin sister, Mercy, was abducted at the age of six and never seen again. Now, just as Atlee is pressured to end her investigation into Mercy's disappearance, she finally gets her most promising breakthrough yet: the identity of her sister's kidnapper, Ito Vincenzo.

With time running out, Atlee and her assistant Carol Blum race to Vincenzo's last known location in Trenton, New Jersey -- and unknowingly stumble straight into John Puller's case, blowing his arrest during a drug ring investigation involving a military installation.

Stunningly, Pine and Puller's joint investigation uncovers a connection between Vincenzo's family and a breathtaking scheme that strikes at the very heart of global democracy. Peeling back the layers of deceit, lies and cover-ups, Atlee finally discovers the truth about what happened to Mercy. And that truth will shock Pine to her very core.

The Summer House

James Patterson

When seven murder victims are found in a small town, the homicide investigation shakes a small-town sheriff to her core in James Patterson's tense thriller.

Once a luxurious southern getaway on a rustic lake, then reduced to a dilapidated crash pad, the Summer House is now the grisly scene of a nighttime mass murder. Eyewitnesses point to four Army Rangers -- known as the Night Ninjas -- recently returned from Afghanistan.
To ensure that justice is done, the Army sends Major Jeremiah Cook, a veteran and former NYPD cop, to investigate. But the major and his elite team arrive in sweltering Georgia with no idea their grim jobs will be made exponentially more challenging by local law enforcement, who resists the Army's intrusion and stonewall them at every turn.
As Cook and his squad struggle to uncover the truth behind the condemning evidence, the pieces just won't fit -- and forces are rallying to make certain damning secrets die alongside the victims in the murder house. With his own people in the cross-hairs, Cook takes a desperate gamble to find answers -- even if it means returning to a hell of his own worst nightmares . . .

Double Jeopardy

Book 57

Stone Barrington is in hot water in the newest novel from #1 New York Times-bestselling Stuart Woods.

Fire Ice

Leader of the NUMA Special Assignments team, Kurt Austin must work with a former KGB spy to save the United States from a lunatic with a generations-spanning grudge in this novel in the #1 New York Times-bestselling series.

Kurt Austin is preparing for an interview while aboard a research vessel in the Black Sea. But his television spot suddenly becomes a rescue mission when the waiting film crew is attacked on a nearby island. With little information on the attackers, and no clue to their true agenda, Austin is forced to turn to an unlikely source: his old KGB Cold War adversary Vladimir Petrov. According to Petrov, the island is actually an old submarine base that’s been commandeered by clever mobster-turned-billionaire-businessman Mikhail Razov. Razov is certain he descends from the great Romanov family and he’s out to reclaim his rightful position as czar of Russia. With a powerful resource called “fire ice”, discovered by his mining company, Razov may just have the ammunition he needs to take over the modern world. To stop him, Austin will have to work with Petrov. And he’ll have to find out fast how much trust he can offer an old nemesis in this thrilling adventure that “goes down like a chilled Stolichnaya martini.” (Kirkus Reviews)

Choppy Water

Book 54

In this exhilarating new thriller from #1 New York Times bestselling author Stuart Woods, Stone Barrington must go up against an enemy with deadly intentions--and ideologies.

Stone Barrington and his friends are vacationing in Maine when their leisure is suddenly disrupted by extreme weather. To make matters worse, the inclement conditions allow for a menacing adversary to sneak in unnoticed and deliver a chilling message. Soon it becomes clear that the target of the incident is one of Stone's closest companions, and that these enemies have a grander scheme in mind.

From the bustling streets of New York City to the sun-drenched shores of Key West, Stone intends to nab the criminals that appear behind him at every step. But his search only leads him further down a trail of peril and corruption, and he'll soon find that at the end of the road is a more dangerous foe than he could have imagined...

Biographical fiction

The Dead (A Novella)

James Joyce

This carefully crafted ebook: "The Dead (A Novella)" is formatted for your eReader with a functional and detailed table of contents. Considered as one of the greatest short stories in the Western Canon, James Joyce's complex narrative "The Dead", explores the intricate issues of identity and power through the lens of language, patriarchy, and imperialism. These issues are directly tied to the longstanding political turmoil of his native Ireland and the social questions of his day. Joyce's story reveals that we often achieve what we tried to avoid by pretending to be what we are not. At 15,672 words The Dead is often considered a novella and the best of Joyce's shorter works. James Augustine Aloysius Joyce (2 February 1882 – 13 January 1941) was an Irish novelist and poet, considered to be one of the most influential writers in the modernist avant-garde of the early 20th century. Joyce is best known for Ulysses (1922), a landmark work in which the episodes of Homer's Odyssey are paralleled in an array of contrasting literary styles, perhaps most prominent among these the stream of consciousness technique he perfected. Other major works are the short-story collection Dubliners (1914), and the novels A Portrait of the Artist as a Young Man (1916) and Finnegans Wake (1939). His complete oeuvre also includes three books of poetry, a play, occasional journalism, and his published letters.

Lionheart

NEW YORK TIMES BESTSELLER

“The great Crusader king Richard the Lionheart comes alive in all his complex splendor in this masterpiece of medieval tapestry.”—Margaret George

A.D. 1189. After the death of his father, Henry II, and the early demise of two of his brothers, Richard is crowned King of England and immediately sets off for the Holy Land. This is the Third Crusade, marked by internecine warfare among the Christians and extraordinary campaigns against the Saracens. Richard’s surviving brother, the younger John, is left behind—and conspires with the French king to steal his brother’s throne. Only their mother, Eleanor of Aquitaine, now freed from decades of captivity, remains to protect Richard’s interests and secure his destiny.

In this engrossing saga, Sharon Kay Penman delivers a novel of passion, intrigue, battle, and deceit. Lionheart is a sweeping tale of a heroic figure—feared by his enemies and beloved by those he commanded—who became a legend in his own lifetime.

“[Sharon Kay] Penman displays her usual grasp of sweeping historical events as well as an uncanny ability to get inside the hearts and minds of her real-life characters. Her reputation for character-driven, solidly detailed historicals is richly deserved.”—Booklist

“The beautifully described settings and the characters’ interactions are simply outstanding.”—The Historical Novels Review

“Penman takes historical writing to a whole new level.”—The Sacramento Bee

“[A] gritty, unsentimental, and richly detailed epic.”—Publishers Weekly

Don’t miss the exclusive conversation between Sharon Kay Penman and Margaret George at the back of the book.

Kinsey and Me: Stories

Sue Grafton

From the #1 New York Times bestselling author of the acclaimed Alphabet series comes a collection of stories that “combines glimpses of her series detective, Kinsey Millhone, with a revealing self-portrait” (Publishers Weekly).

In 1982, Sue Grafton introduced Kinsey Millhone and created an iconic female detective. Here, in a story collection divided into two parts, Sue Grafton provides a glimpse of her own early life in the guise of the character Kit Blue, and enriches our understanding of Kinsey Millhone, one of the spunkiest, smartest, and most entertaining private investigators in all of mystery fiction.

“Terrific...The Kinsey stories and the Kit stories together open a window into Grafton's soul.”—USA Today

The Queen's Fortune: A Novel of Desiree, Napoleon, and the Dynasty That Outlasted the Empire

Allison Pataki

A sweeping novel about the extraordinary woman who captured Napoleon’s heart, created a dynasty, and changed the course of history—from the New York Times bestselling author of The Traitor's Wife, The Accidental Empress, and Sisi.

As the French revolution ravages the country, Desiree Clary is faced with the life-altering truth that the world she has known and loved is gone and it’s fallen on her to save her family from the guillotine.

A chance encounter with Napoleon Bonaparte, the ambitious and charismatic young military prodigy, provides her answer. When her beloved sister Julie marries his brother Joseph, Desiree and Napoleon’s futures become irrevocably linked. Quickly entering into their own passionate, dizzying courtship that leads to a secret engagement, they vow to meet in the capital once his career has been secured. But her newly laid plans with Napoleon turn to sudden heartbreak, thanks to the rising star of Parisian society, Josephine de Beauharnais. Once again, Desiree’s life is turned on its head.

Swept to the glittering halls of the French capital, Desiree is plunged into the inner circle of the new ruling class, becoming further entangled with Napoleon, his family, and the new Empress. But her fortunes shift once again when she meets Napoleon's confidant and star general, the indomitable Jean-Baptiste Bernadotte. As the two men in Desiree’s life become political rivals and military foes, the question that arises is: must she choose between the love of her new husband and the love of her nation and its Emperor?

From the lavish estates of the French Riviera to the raucous streets of Paris and Stockholm, Desiree finds herself at the epicenter of the rise and fall of an empire, navigating a constellation of political giants and dangerous, shifting alliances. Emerging from an impressionable girl into a fierce young woman, she discovers that to survive in this world she must learn to rely upon her instincts and her heart.

Allison Pataki’s meticulously researched and brilliantly imagined novel sweeps readers into the unbelievable life of a woman almost lost to history—a woman who, despite the swells of a stunning life and a tumultuous time, not only adapts and survives but, ultimately, reigns at the helm of a dynasty that outlasts an empire.

Hollywood

Charles Bukowski

From iconic tortured artist/everyman Charles Bukowski, Hollywood is the fictionalization of his experience adapting his novel Barfly into a movie by the same name.

Henry Chinaski, Bukowski’s alter-ego, is pushed to translate a semi-autobiographical book into a screenplay for John Pinchot. He reluctantly agrees, and is thrust into the otherworld called Hollywood, with its parade of eccentric and maddening characters: producers, artists, actors and actresses, film executives and journalists. In this world, the artistry of books and film is lost to the dollar, and Chinaski struggles to keep his footing in the tangle of cons that comprise movie making.

Hollywood is Dirty Old Man Bukowski at his most lucid. It overflows with curses, sex, and alcohol. And through it all, or from it all, Bukowski finds flashes of truth about the human condition.

The Twentieth Wife

Indu Sundaresan

An enchanting seventeenth-century epic of grand passion and adventure, this debut novel tells the captivating story of one of India's most legendary and controversial empresses -- a woman whose brilliance and determination trumped myriad obstacles, and whose love shaped the course of the Mughal empire.
She came into the world in the year 1577, to the howling accompaniment of a ferocious winter storm. As the daughter of starving refugees fleeing violent persecution in Persia, her fateful birth in a roadside tent sparked a miraculous reversal of family fortune, culminating in her father's introduction to the court of Emperor Akbar. She is called Mehrunnisa, the Sun of Women. This is her story.
Growing up on the fringes of Emperor Akbar's opulent palace grounds, Mehrunnisa blossoms into a sapphire-eyed child blessed with a precocious intelligence, luminous beauty, and a powerful ambition far surpassing the bounds of her family's station. Mehrunnisa first encounters young Prince Salim on his wedding day. In that instant, even as a royal gala swirls around her in celebration of the future emperor's first marriage, Mehrunnisa foresees the path of her own destiny. One day, she decides with uncompromising surety, she too will become Salim's wife. She is all of eight years old -- and wholly unaware of the great price she and her family will pay for this dream.
Skillfully blending the textures of historical reality with the rich and sensuous imaginings of a timeless fairy tale, The Twentieth Wife sweeps readers up in the emotional pageant of Salim and Mehrunnisa's embattled love. First-time novelist Indu Sundaresan charts her heroine's enthralling journey across the years, from an ill-fated first marriage through motherhood and into a dangerous maze of power struggles and political machinations. Through it all, Mehrunnisa and Salim long with fiery intensity for the true, redemptive love they've never known -- and their mutual quest ultimately takes them, and the vast empire that hangs in the balance, to places they never dreamed possible.
Shot through with wonder and suspense, The Twentieth Wife is at once a fascinating portrait of one woman's convention-defying life behind the veil and a transporting saga of the astonishing potency of love.

The Quintland Sisters: A Novel

Shelley Wood

"A historical novel that will enthrall you... I was utterly captivated..." — Joanna Goodman, author of The Home for Unwanted Girls

AN INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER

For fans of Sold on a Monday or The Home for Unwanted Girls, Shelley Wood's novel tells the story of the Dionne Quintuplets, the world's first identical quintuplets to survive birth, told from the perspective of a midwife in training who helps bring them into the world.

Reluctant midwife Emma Trimpany is just 17 when she assists at the harrowing birth of the Dionne quintuplets: five tiny miracles born to French farmers in hardscrabble Northern Ontario in 1934. Emma cares for them through their perilous first days and when the government decides to remove the babies from their francophone parents, making them wards of the British king, Emma signs on as their nurse.

Over 6,000 daily visitors come to ogle the identical “Quints” playing in their custom-built playground; at the height of the Great Depression, the tourism and advertising dollars pour in. While the rest of the world delights in their sameness, Emma sees each girl as unique: Yvonne, Annette, Cécile, Marie, and Émilie. With her quirky eye for detail, Emma records every strange twist of events in her private journals.

As the fight over custody and revenues turns increasingly explosive, Emma is torn between the fishbowl sanctuary of Quintland and the wider world, now teetering on the brink of war. Steeped in research, The Quintland Sisters is a novel of love, heartache, resilience, and enduring sisterhood—a fictional, coming-of-age story bound up in one of the strangest true tales of the past century.

Wolf Hall: As Seen on PBS Masterpiece: A Novel

Winners of the Man Booker Prize and hugely successful stage plays in London's West End and on Broadway, Wolf Hall and Bring Up the Bodies bring history to life for a whole new audience having now been adapted into a six-part television series by the BBC and PBS Masterpiece.

England in the 1520s is a heartbeat from disaster. If the king dies without a male heir, the country could be destroyed by civil war. Henry VIII wants to annul his marriage of twenty years and marry Anne Boleyn. The pope and most of Europe oppose him. Into this impasse steps Thomas Cromwell: a wholly original man, a charmer and a bully, both idealist and opportunist, master of deadly intrigue, and implacable in his ambition.

Sister Carrie

Theodore Dreiser

The controversial classic novel of a young woman’s journey from poverty to stardom in capitalist America.

Dissatisfied with life in rural Wisconsin, eighteen-year-old Carrie Meeber travels to Chicago. With no money or prospects, her only means of survival is a job in a squalid factory—until Charlie Drouet, a charming, well-dressed man, offers to take her to dinner.

Lavishing her with gifts, fine clothes, and her own apartment, Charlie introduces Carrie to a life of wealth and sophistication far removed from the Victorian moralizing of her youth. But when Carrie begins an affair with another man—and a career as an actress—her ambitions and desires reach far beyond what Charlie, or any man, can offer.

Later adapted into the Academy Award–nominated film Carrie, starring Laurence Olivier, Sister Carrie is widely considered “one of the landmark novels of the twentieth century” and a masterpiece of literary realism (The New York Times). But when it was first published in 1900, it stirred controversy for its depiction of female sexuality. In his Nobel Prize speech, Sinclair Lewis declared that “Sister Carrie . . . came to housebound and airless America like a great free Western wind, and to our stuffy domesticity gave us the first fresh air since Mark Twain and Whitman.”

This ebook has been professionally proofread to ensure accuracy and readability on all devices.

A Boy's Own Story: A Novel

Edmund White

“An extraordinary novel” about growing up gay in the 1950s American Midwest (The New York Times Book Review).

Critically lauded upon its initial publication in 1982 for its pioneering depiction of homosexuality, A Boy’s Own Story is a moving tale about coming-of-age in midcentury America.

With searing clarity and unabashed wit, Edmund White’s unnamed protagonist yearns for what he knows to be shameful. He navigates an uneasy relationship with his father, confounds first loves, and faces disdain from his peers at school. In the embrace of another, he discovers the sincere and clumsy pleasures of adolescent sexuality. But for boys in the 1950s, these desires were unthinkable. Looking back on his experiences, the narrator notes, “I see now that what I wanted was to be loved by men and to love them back but not to be a homosexual.”

From a winner of the PEN/Saul Bellow Award for Lifetime Achievement in Literature, this trailblazing autobiographical story of one boy’s youth is a moving, tender, and heartbreaking portrait of what it means to grow up.

Coming of age

Everything You Want Me to Be: A Novel

Mindy Mejia

People’s Best New Books Pick * The Wall Street Journal’s Best New Mysteries * Bustle's Best Fiction Books

“Fans of Gillian Flynn's Gone Girl will devour this fast-paced story.”—InStyle

No one knows who she really is…

Hattie Hoffman has spent her whole life playing many parts: the good student, the good daughter, the good girlfriend. But Hattie wants something more, something bigger, and ultimately something that turns out to be exceedingly dangerous. When she’s found brutally stabbed to death, the tragedy rips right through the fabric of her small-town community.

It soon comes to light that Hattie was engaged in a highly compromising and potentially explosive secret online relationship. The question is: Did anyone else know? And to what lengths might they have gone to end it? Hattie’s boyfriend seems distraught over her death, but had he fallen so deeply in love with her that she had become an obsession? Or did Hattie’s impulsive, daredevil nature simply put her in the wrong place at the wrong time, leading her to a violent death at the hands of a stranger?

Evocative and razor-sharp, Everything You Want Me to Be challenges you to test the lines between innocence and culpability, identity and deception. Does love lead to self-discovery—or destruction?

Mine Series Box Set

Janeal Falor

In a world where only men can do magic, and women are bought and sold like cattle, five girls stand up, determined to shatter the oppression.
You Are Mine

Serena knows a few simple things. She will always be owned by a warlock. She will never have freedom. She will always do what her warlock wishes, regardless of how inane, frivolous, or cruel it is. And if she doesn’t follow the rules, she will be tarnished. Spelled to be bald, inked, and barren for the rest of her life—worth less than the shadow she casts.

Then her ownership is won by a barbarian from another country. With the uncertainty that comes from belonging to a new warlock, Serena questions if being tarnished is really worse than being owned by a barbarian, and tempts fate by breaking the rules. When he looks the other way instead of punishing her, she discovers a new world. The more she ventures into the forbidden, the more she learns of love and a freedom just out of reach. Serena longs for both. But in a society where women are only ever property, hoping for more could be deadly.

Mine to Spell

Cynthia has always hidden from her father’s hexes behind her older sister. When her family gains independence unheard of for women, she’s relieved that her days of harsh punishments are over. But as her seventeenth birthday approaches—the typical age to be sold to a new master—death threats endanger her sisters. She now faces two options: run or meet society’s expectations.

For once, Cynthia isn’t going to let her older sister shield her from the problem. She’s going to prove to herself, her sisters, and society that her family isn’t a threat to their traditions. She willingly chooses to be purchased by a new master. A bold step that takes her somewhere she never thought she would go and to a man she might possibly fall in love with. With his help, she may just find a way to save her sisters while discovering how to stand up for herself. If she lives long enough.

Mine to Fear

Waverly resents being sent home to Evando just as things are getting intense in Chardonia. She can't just sit in safety while her friends suffer under oppression and restrictions simply because they are women.

Upon returning to Chardonia, she discovers conditions have degraded faster than she thought possible, and her mere presence puts her loved ones in grave danger. When the Grand Chancellor calls for a change in laws that threatens the lives of her friends, her family, and anyone who doesn't comply, her only option is to run, with both friend and foe.

As the stakes grow higher with each passing day, Waverly must become the leader she's never been, or her life, and the lives of all those she cares for, will be lost.

Sacrifice of Mine

After a ravaging war, Bethany and her family are forced to flee to Envado. There, women are safe from the oppressive rule of male owners. When her pursuers draw too close, Bethany stays behind to buy her sisters time to escape and she's captured.

She's turned over to a depraver who tarnishes her. Now bald, branded, and barren, she's worth less than the shadow she casts. From this lowly place she leads the tarnished to overthrow the Grand Chancellor--the man behind Chardonia's oppressive rules against women and the tarnished. If they fail to defeat him and his supporters, all will be lost.

Mine to Tarnish

Katherine’s place is the same as any woman’s—on the shelf next to the dresses and bolts of cloth. When she’s sold to a warlock, life grows even bleaker. Her new owner is as old and rancid as he is cruel, driving her to do the unthinkable: run.

Nothing prepared her for being on her own. And she’s definitely unprepared for the warlocks hunting her down. But she must stay one step ahead because if caught, the best she can hope for is death.

The Obsidians (Oliver Blue and the School for Seers—Book Three)

“A powerful opener to a series [that] will produce a combination of feisty protagonists and challenging circumstances to thoroughly involve not just young adults, but adult fantasy fans who seek epic stories fueled by powerful friendships and adversaries.”

--Midwest Book Review (Diane Donovan) (re A Throne for Sisters)

“Morgan Rice's imagination is limitless!”

--Books and Movie Reviews (re A Throne for Sisters)

From #1 Bestselling fantasy author Morgan Rice comes a new fantasy series for teens and adults!

In THE OBSIDIANS, Oliver Blue finds himself in the race of his life to save his beloved friend Esther, dying of time-travel sickness. The only chance to save her is to risk his life and travel back in time once again.

Oliver must travel to the Italy of the 1400s, to visit two very important people: Leonardo Da Vinci, and his rival, Michelangelo. Only Leonardo’s inventions hold the answer—and only Michelangelo’s paintings hold the key.

The Obsidians, though, are bent on revenge, and Chris is determined to not stop until his little brother is finished.

An inspiring fantasy, THE OBSIDIANS is book #3 in a riveting new series filled with magic, love, humor, heartbreak, tragedy, destiny, and a string of shocking surprises. It will make you fall in love with OLIVER BLUE, and keep you turning pages late into the night.

Book #4—the finale—is now also available!

“The beginnings of something remarkable are there.”

--San Francisco Book Review (re A Quest of Heroes)

Friends and Strangers: A novel

J. Courtney Sullivan

A TODAY SHOW #ReadWithJenna BOOK CLUB PICK!

An insightful, hilarious, and compulsively readable novel about a complicated friendship between two women who are at two very different stages in life, from the best-selling author of Maine and Saints for All Occasions (named one of the Washington Post's Ten Best Books of the Year and a New York Times Critics' Pick).

Elisabeth, an accomplished journalist and new mother, is struggling to adjust to life in a small town after nearly twenty years in New York City. Alone in the house with her infant son all day (and awake with him much of the night), she feels uneasy, adrift. She neglects her work, losing untold hours to her Brooklyn moms' Facebook group, her "influencer" sister's Instagram feed, and text messages with the best friend she never sees anymore. Enter Sam, a senior at the local women's college, whom Elisabeth hires to babysit. Sam is struggling to decide between the path she's always planned on and a romantic entanglement that threatens her ambition. She's worried about student loan debt and what the future holds. In short order, they grow close. But when Sam finds an unlikely kindred spirit in Elisabeth's father-in-law, the true differences between the women's lives become starkly revealed and a betrayal has devastating consequences.

A masterful exploration of motherhood, power dynamics, and privilege in its many forms, Friends and Strangers reveals how a single year can shape the course of a life.

Lost Before You: A Friends to Lovers Standalone Romance

Book 2

I wish someone would’ve warned me about the dangers of falling in love with your best friend.

I was no stranger to covering up my problems with meaningless sex and alcohol.

When Brea asked me for one night to help her forget, I craved being the man she needed.

Just sex.

No commitment.

Then she begged me to promise her nothing would change between us. I couldn’t bring myself to lie to her.

One night.

One broken promise.

I will never forget the night I fell in love with my best friend, and now nothing will ever be the same.

Author's Note: This is Book Two in the Heart's Compass series. It can be read as a standalone and has a HEA. Due to strong sexual content, coarse language and mature subject matter, this book is not suitable for under the age of 18.

Good Kings Bad Kings: A Novel

Susan Nussbaum

This PEN/Bellwether Prize–winning novel set in a state-run facility for disabled teenagers is “saucy, brutally funny, gritty, profane, poignant and real” (The Kansas City Star).

Playwright and activist Susan Nussbaum’s powerful debut novel invites us into the lives of a group of typical teenagers—alienated, funny, yearning for autonomy—except that they live in an institution for juveniles with disabilities. This unfamiliar, isolated landscape is much the same as the world outside: friendships are forged, trust is built, love affairs are kindled, and rules are broken. But those who call it home have little or no control over their fate. Good Kings Bad Kings challenges our definitions of what it means to be disabled in a story told with remarkable authenticity and in voices that resound with humor and spirit.

“This is fiction at its best . . . Simply and breathtakingly honest . . . A stunning accomplishment.” —Barbara Kingsolver

“Nussbaum’s dramatist skills translate powerfully into fiction as she gives voices to an infatuating cast of characters . . . This is unquestionably an authentic, galvanizing, and righteous novel.” —Booklist (starred review)

My Brilliant Friend

Now an HBO series: the first volume in the New York Times–bestselling “enduring masterpiece” about a lifelong friendship between two women from Naples (The Atlantic).

Beginning in the 1950s in a poor but vibrant neighborhood on the outskirts of Naples, Elena Ferrante’s four-volume story spans almost sixty years, as its main characters, the fiery and unforgettable Lila and the bookish narrator, Elena, become women, wives, mothers, and leaders, all the while maintaining a complex and at times conflicted friendship. This first novel in the series follows Lila and Elena from their fateful meeting as ten-year-olds through their school years and adolescence.

Through the lives of these two women, Ferrante tells the story of a neighborhood, a city, and a country as it is transformed in ways that, in turn, also transform the relationship between two women.

“An intoxicatingly furious portrait of enmeshed friends.” —Entertainment Weekly

“Spectacular.” —Maureen Corrigan, NPR’s Fresh Air

“Captivating.” —The New Yorker

A Family Affair

ReShonda Tate Billingsley

From the national Essence bestselling author comes an engaging tale about a family secret that sends one young woman scrambling to uncover the truth about her past.

Award-winning author ReShonda Tate Billingsley, whose bestselling fiction “tackles some of life’s toughest situations” (The Florida Times-Union), unravels the secrets in a mother’s past that turn her daughter’s life upside down—by revealing the family she never knew existed.

Her dream of studying dance at Juilliard is within reach, but Olivia Dawson turns down the opportunity, choosing instead to stay with her ailing mother in the Houston projects where they barely make ends meet. Lorraine Dawson is Olivia’s whole world, and now Olivia insists on being there for her. But when Lorraine learns Olivia is sacrificing college for her sake, her heartache triggers a series of shattering events that results in Olivia discovering her father, a man she was told had died years ago. But he is alive and well—and he’s the powerful CEO of one of the country’s richest corporations.

With her best friend urging her to claim a much-deserved chunk of Bernard Wells’s fortune, Olivia seeks out his Los Angeles mansion. But it’s not money she wants—it’s answers: Why did he abandon Lorraine when Olivia was three years old? Why did they suffer in poverty while he gave his “real” wife and son a life of luxury? Opening up the past, however, is more complicated than Olivia—or Bernard—expected, and the pain of yesterday’s sins must be confronted before true healing and a bright tomorrow can begin.

A Painted House: A Novel

John Grisham

The hill people and the Mexicans arrived on the same day. It was a Wednesday, early in September 1952. The Cardinals were five games behind the Dodgers with three weeks to go, and the season looked hopeless. The cotton, however, was waist-high to my father, over my head, and he and my grandfather could be heard before supper whispering words that were seldom heard. It could be a "good crop."

Thus begins the new novel from John Grisham, a story inspired by his own childhood in rural Arkansas. The narrator is a farm boy named Luke Chandler, age seven, who lives in the cotton fields with his parents and grandparents in a little house that's never been painted. The Chandlers farm eighty acres that they rent, not own, and when the cotton is ready they hire a truckload of Mexicans and a family from the Ozarks to help harvest it.

For six weeks they pick cotton, battling the heat, the rain, the fatigue, and, sometimes, each other. As the weeks pass Luke sees and hears things no seven-year-old could possibly be prepared for, and finds himself keeping secrets that not only threaten the crop but will change the lives of the Chandlers forever.

A Painted House is a moving story of one boy's journey from innocence to experience.

BONUS: This edition includes an excerpt from John Grisham's The Litigators.

Ring of Dragons (Age of the Sorcerers—Book Four)