In a world where vampires rule and the humans are only there to feed the vampires and keep them alive, things can turn pretty nasty. They call them Blood Auctions, where vampires auction off blood slaves to the highest bidders. Fresh blood is passed amongst them all. Payton is a blood slave.Seth is a vampire, and as one of the most powerful bloodsuckers in the city, but for some reason, he's got his eye on Payton and is willing to pay anything for her.

LONGLISTED FOR THE BAILLIE GIFFORD PRIZE 'An incredible work of scholarship' Sathnam Sanghera Through the story of his own family’s history as slave and plantation owners, Alex Renton looks at how we owe it to the present to understand the legacy of the past. When British Caribbean slavery was abolished across most of the British Empire in 1833, it was not the newly liberated who received compensation, but the tens of thousands of enslavers who were paid millions of pounds in government money. The descendants of some of those slave owners are among the wealthiest and most powerful people in Britain today. Blood Legacy explores what inheritance – political, economic, moral and spiritual – has been passed to the descendants of the slave owners and the descendants of the enslaved. He also asks, crucially, how the former – himself among them – can begin to make reparations for the past.

In the late 1630s, lured by the promise of the New World, Andrea Stuart’s earliest known maternal ancestor, George Ashby, set sail from England to settle in Barbados. He fell into the life of a sugar plantation owner by mere chance, but by the time he harvested his first crop, a revolution was fully under way: the farming of sugar cane, and the swiftly increasing demands for sugar worldwide, would not only lift George Ashby from abject poverty and shape the lives of his descendants, but it would also bind together ambitious white entrepreneurs and enslaved black workers in a strangling embrace. Stuart uses her own family story—from the seventeenth century through the present—as the pivot for this epic tale of migration, settlement, survival, slavery and the making of the Americas. As it grew, the sugar trade enriched Europe as never before, financing the Industrial Revolution and fuelling the Enlightenment. And, as well, it became the basis of many economies in South America, played an important part in the evolution of the United States as a world power and transformed the Caribbean into an archipelago of riches. But this sweet and hugely profitable trade—“white gold,” as it was known—had profoundly less palatable consequences in its precipitation of the enslavement of Africans to work the fields on the islands and, ultimately, throughout the American continents. Interspersing the tectonic shifts of colonial history with her family’s experience, Stuart explores the interconnected themes of settlement, sugar and slavery with extraordinary subtlety and sensitivity. In examining how these forces shaped her own family—its genealogy, intimate relationships, circumstances of birth, varying hues of skin—she illuminates how her family, among millions of others like it, in turn transformed the society in which they lived, and how that interchange continues to this day. Shifting between personal and global history, Stuart gives us a deepened understanding of the connections between continents, between black and white, between men and women, between the free and the enslaved. It is a story brought to life with riveting and unparalleled immediacy, a story of fundamental importance to the making of our world.

Death is a sweet release this blood mage will never be given. Nina Rodriguez would rather die than submit, but that choice isn't hers. Because whoever kills her will take her death curse, a fate worse than death, and no one is willing to risk that. When she saved the lives of the vampire king and his mother, she didn't do it for glory, but she'd be a liar if she didn't think it would mean freedom. Instead, all it did was reveal her for who she is-a blood mage, the most feared creature in the world. Now, the vampires who rule the world have taken her as a slave, to use her as a weapon. With her under their thumb, there's nothing they can't do. But it isn't the pain they threaten, the dungeons they'll throw her back into, that keeps her in line. It's the vampire king who stands to change everything she's ever believed in that is the key to her captivity. She knows she can't have him, they're enemies to the core, but that doesn't stop her from wanting him. Death doesn't scare her. It's a cage she fears. But some cages are made out of more than just iron.

For readers of such crusading works of nonfiction as Katherine Boo’s Beyond the Beautiful Forevers and Tracy Kidder’s Mountains Beyond Mountains comes a powerful and captivating examination of two entwined global crises: environmental destruction and human trafficking—and an inspiring, bold plan for how we can solve them. A leading expert on modern-day slavery, Kevin Bales has traveled to some of the world’s most dangerous places documenting and battling human trafficking. In the course of his reporting, Bales began to notice a pattern emerging: Where slavery existed, so did massive, unchecked environmental destruction. But why? Bales set off to find the answer in a fascinating and moving journey that took him into the lives of modern-day slaves and along a supply chain that leads directly to the cellphones in our pockets. What he discovered is that even as it destroys individuals, families, and communities, new forms of slavery that proliferate in the world’s lawless zones also pose a grave threat to the environment. Simply put, modern-day slavery is destroying the planet. The product of seven years of travel and research, Blood and Earth brings us dramatic stories from the world’s most beautiful and tragic places, the environmental and human-rights hotspots where this crisis is concentrated. But it also tells the stories of some of the most common products we all consume—from computers to shrimp to jewelry—whose origins are found in these same places. Blood and Earth calls on us to recognize the grievous harm we have done to one another, put an end to it, and recommit to repairing the world. This is a clear-eyed and inspiring book that suggests how we can begin the work of healing humanity and the planet we share. Praise for Blood and Earth “A heart-wrenching narrative . . . Weaving together interviews, history, and statistics, the author shines a light on how the poverty, chaos, wars, and government corruption create the perfect storm where slavery flourishes and environmental destruction follows. . . . A clear-eyed account of man’s inhumanity to man and Earth. Read it to get informed, and then take action.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred review) “[An] exposé of the global economy’s ‘deadly dance’ between slavery and environmental disaster . . . Based on extensive travels through eastern Congo’s mineral mines, Bangladeshi fisheries, Ghanian gold mines, and Brazilian forests, Bales reveals the appalling truth in graphic detail. . . . Readers will be deeply disturbed to learn how the links connecting slavery, environmental issues, and modern convenience are forged.”—Publishers Weekly “This well-researched and vivid book studies the connection between slavery and environmental destruction, and what it will take to end both.”—Shelf Awareness (starred review) “This is a remarkable book, demonstrating once more the deep links between the ongoing degradation of the planet and the ongoing degradation of its most vulnerable people. It’s a bracing reminder that a mentality that allows throwaway people also allows a throwaway earth.”—Bill McKibben, author of Eaarth: Making a Life on a Tough New Planet

Winner of the Cundill History Prize Winner of the Frederick Douglass Book Prize Named One of the Best Books of the Year by NPR A breathtakingly original work of history that uncovers a massive enslaved persons' revolt that almost changed the face of the Americas Named one of the best books of the year by NPR, Blood on the River also won two of the highest honors for works of history, capturing both the Frederick Douglass Prize and the Cundill History Prize in 2021. A book with profound relevance for our own time, Blood on the River “fundamentally alters what we know about revolutionary change” according to Cundill Prize juror and NYU history professor Jennifer Morgan. Nearly two hundred sixty years ago, on Sunday, February 27, 1763, thousands of slaves in the Dutch colony of Berbice—in present-day Guyana—launched a rebellion that came amazingly close to succeeding. Blood on the River is the explosive story of this little-known revolution, one that almost changed the face of the Americas. Michael Ignatieff, chair of the Cundill Prize jury, declared that Blood on the River “tells a story so dramatic, so compelling that no reader will be able to put the book down.” Drawing on nine hundred interrogation transcripts collected by the Dutch when the rebellion collapsed, and which were subsequently buried in Dutch archives, historian Marjoleine Kars has constructed what Pulitzer Prize–winning historian Eric Foner calls “a gripping narrative that brings to life a forgotten world.”

Darrian's dreams were his only escape. Being the blood slave to a clan of vampires wasn't exactly what he'd had in mind for his life. Not that he had a choice in the matter. He was bonded to the master. Nothing he could do to break that bond, short of someone vanquishing the blood-sucker and there was slim chance of that. Master Broman was cautious, and strong. No one got close to him. He didn't feed off of Darrian, preferring to hunt for his meals. No, the rest of the clan used Darrian for his blood. Darrian was just thankful that the vampires considered it a filthy and disgusting habit to do more than feed from him. He wasn't sure what he'd do if they found his body to be as enticing as his blood. Of course, he wouldn't mind it so much from one certain vampire...Easton. He'd let that vamp do whatever he wanted. But as the heir apparent to Master Broman, Easton didn't feed from him either. Darrian was considered tainted, only good enough for the lower class. It was probably for the best since Easton was arrogant and cruel. Darrian's entire life changed the day the clan was attacked and the impossible happened. Broman was gone, and Darrian was free. Or so he thought. But, as the old, archaic human saying went, "from the frying pan, into the fire". For Darrian found himself in the middle of another clan...one that was very different than the one he'd been freed from. And the master...Kylor...was beyond anything Darrian had ever seen before. The only problem? They failed to kill Easton...and it seemed he didn't like Darrian belonging to another clan.

This text explores the 1823 slave rebellion in Demerara (now Guyana) - one of the largest in history. The 60,000 black slaves who rose up against their British masters were brutally put down. The book looks at the conflict which gave the rebellion life and the forces which finally ended slavery.

Because of the growing need for labor in the South and an overabundance of slaves in Maryland and Virginia, Baltimore became the main port for the selling and shipping of slaves to New Orleans.

The fates of two families--one Islamic African aristocrats, the other Druidic Irish slaves--collide as two young men, one from each dynasty, confront each other, in this novel of alternate history where Africans colonize America.