1200 A.D. - After decades of warring between the Lairds of Kerr and Prudhoe Castle in Northumbria, a tentative peace is reached. The Lady Carington Kerr is sent to Prudhoe as a hostage to ensure her father's good behavior, and a more reluctant hostage there never was. Small and dark, with emerald eyes and a luscious figure, she is as gorgeous as she is fiery. Enter Sir Creed de Reyne; a gentle giant of a man, he is, by nature, calm and wise. He is the ice to Carington's fire. As Carington resists the attempts to keep her in her English prison, Creed is placed in charge of the captive as both jailer and protector. Suffering through tragedy and triumph, Creed and Carington have a love that only strengthens with each passing moment. Even when Creed is forced to flee for his life and leave Carington behind, their only thoughts are of being together again. Creed and Carington must fight for their very survival as two countries and a kingdom seek to separate them.

On the alien, sunless planet they call Eden, the 532 members of the Family shelter beneath the light and warmth of the Forest’s lantern trees. Beyond the Forest lie the mountains of the Snowy Dark and a cold so bitter and a night so profound that no man has ever crossed it. The Oldest among the Family recount legends of a world where light came from the sky, where men and women made boats that could cross the stars. These ships brought us here, the Oldest say—and the Family must only wait for the travelers to return. But young John Redlantern will break the laws of Eden, shatter the Family and change history. He will abandon the old ways, venture into the Dark…and discover the truth about their world. Already remarkably acclaimed in the UK, Dark Eden is science fiction as literature; part parable, part powerful coming-of-age story, set in a truly original alien world of dark, sinister beauty--rendered in prose that is at once strikingly simple and stunningly inventive.

The wandering female bodyguard Balsa returns to her native country of Kanbal, where she uncovers a conspiracy to frame her mentor and herself.

A powerful, moving, and revelatory novel set in nineteenth-century Africa--the captivating story of the loyal men and women who carried the body of explorer and missionary David Livingstone from Zambia to Zanzibar so that his remains could be returned home to England. Dawn, 1 May 1873, on the outskirts of Chitambo's village, near Lake Bangweulu in modern-day Zambia. The Scottish explorer and missionary David Livingstone has died. He had been heading south in the African interior on an increasingly maniacal mission to penetrate the greatest secret of Victorian exploration. He wanted to find the source of the world's longest river, the Nile. Instead, on an isolated and swampy floodplain, Dr. Livingstone found his death. How Livingstone is to be buried will be decided by his African companions, a group of sixty-nine men, women, and children. They decide that come what may, Livingstone, his papers and maps, must all be carried to England. They bury his heart and other organs under a tree and dry his flesh like jerky in the sun. Over nine months, battling severe illness and hunger, hostile chiefs and unknown terrain, all while taking a tortuous route of more than 1,000 miles to the coast to avoid marauding slave traders, they march with Livingstone's body and the evidence of his explorations. Their journey has been called "the most extraordinary story in African exploration." In this novel, their story is retold anew in the distinct, indelible voices of Livingstone's sharp-tongued female cook, Halima; a repressed, formerly enslaved African missionary named Jacob Wainwright; and the collective voice of the retainers. The result is a profound and tragic journey--an epic like no other--that encompasses all of the hypocrisy of slavery and colonization while celebrating resilience, loyalty, and love. In Out of Darkness, Shining Light, Petina Gappah has created an ambitious and artful masterpiece.

A music professor finds herself mixed up in a world of vampires, immortals, and humans with extraordinary gifts in this paranormal romance. Once, Sarah Bingham’s biggest challenge was making her students pay attention in class. Now, after rescuing a wounded stranger, she’s landed in the middle of a battle between corrupt vampires and powerful immortals who also need blood to survive. Roland Warbrook is the most compelling man Sarah has ever laid hands on. But his desire for her is mingled with a hunger he can barely control… In his nine centuries of immortal existence, no woman has tempted Roland as much as Sarah. But asking her to love him is impossible—when it means forfeiting the world she’s always known, and the life he would do anything to protect… “These dark, kick-ass guardians can protect me any day!”—Alexandra Ivy New York Times bestselling author “This is a strong start in what looks to be a thrilling and chilling new paranormal series. Fantastic!”—RT Book Reviews “Electrifying, Funny, Lust-inducing, and Inventive.”—Fresh Fiction Praise for New York Times Bestselling Author Dianne Duvall's Immortal Guardians series “If you love J.R. Ward’s Black Dagger Brotherhood and Kresley Cole’s Immortals After Dark, then you need to put Dianne Duvall and her Immortal Guardians books in your reading wheelhouse.”—Literati Literature Lovers

"Seth has led the Immortal Guardians for thousands of years. With them fighting by his side, he has protected humans from psychotic vampires, defeated corrupt mercenary armies, defended military bases under attack, and more. But the latest enemy to rise against the Immortal Guardians has proven to be a formidable one, wielding almost as much power as Seth. His goal is simple. He wants to watch the world burn. And he will use every means at his disposal to accomplish it. Seth and his Immortal Guardians have succeeded thus far in staving off Armageddon despite heartbreaking losses. But they have never before faced such danger. Leah Somerson has suffered losses of her own. It has taken her a long time to rebuild her life and find some semblance of peace. Then one night a tall, dark, powerful immortal with what appears to be the weight of the world on his shoulders stumbles into her shop, and everything changes. Peace and contentment are no longer enough. Now she wants more. She wants to find happiness. She wants to erase the darkness in Seth's eyes and replace it with love and laughter. She knows he's different in ways that make most fear him. Even some of his immortal brethren keep a careful distance. But Leah will not. Nor will she shy away when danger strikes. Contains mature themes."--Provided by publisher

Tales of alpha angels...from four alpha authors. They soar through the night, unearthly creatures of legends and lore. Four masters of urban fantasy and paranormal romance explore the rapture of the heavens above, and the darkness below in four all-new stories of angels and guardians, and good and evil.

WHO PROTECTS YOUR CITY IN THE HOUR OF DARKNESS? In the days of Prohibition, mobster and racketeer Nicholas Diamond-aka Nicky Dynamite-held Union City in an iron grip of fear. But in a heroic moment on a summer night in 1922, one good cop stood his ground and sacrificed his life to stop Diamond's relentless advance and protect his city. More than a decade later, Diamond is back and determined to reestablish power by building an organization even more widespread and nefarious than his alcohol empire of old. Leaving an explosive calling card wherever he strikes, his exact whereabouts remain a mystery to the police. Enter Jack Hunter, Union City's up-and-coming assistant district attorney. He's fiercely committed to taking Diamond down by any means necessary, even if he has to bend the rules to do it. When Hunter acquires advanced technology that pushes his natural abilities to a level that's more than human, he dives headlong into the gray area between law and justice and becomes a defender of a different kind. Will Hunter be strong enough and fast enough to stop a madman so obsessed with controlling the city that he's willing to destroy it? The answer lies somewhere in the Hour of Darkness. Join author John C. Bruening for New Pulp thrills and adventure in his debut novel, a work Jim Beard (SGT. JANUS, CAPTAIN ACTION) calls "pulp world-building at is high-octane finest!"

A beautiful werewolf and her ferocious protector face deadly enemies and dark desires in a supernatural romance by the New York Times bestselling author. Cassie is a werewolf prophet blessed with visions that portend the fate of the world. A rare and delicate creature, she must be protected at all costs. Enter Caine, a powerful cur turned pureblooded Were whose recent tangles with a demon lord have left him in serious need of redemption. Caine is duty-bound to keep Cassie out of danger—and that includes resisting his potent urge to seduce her. As Cassie's mysterious visions lead them in and out of danger, Caine becomes increasingly certain that he has found his true mate. Cassie is charmed and frightened by Caine's magnetism. But she can't afford to doubt Caine now. A deadly enemy bent on destruction is closer than they realize—and only they can keep chaos from ruling the world.

"Republicans and Democrats increasingly distrust, avoid, and wish harm upon those from the other party. To make matters worse, they also increasingly reside among like-minded others and are part of social groups that share their political beliefs. All of this can make expressing a dissenting political opinion hard. Yet digital and social media have given people new spaces for political discourse and community, and more control over who knows their political beliefs and who does not. With Democracy Lives in Darkness, Van Duyn looks at what these changes in the political and media landscape mean for democracy. She uncovers and follows a secret political organization in rural Texas over the entire Trump presidency. The group, which organized out of fear of their conservative community in 2016, has a confidentiality agreement, an email listserv and secret Facebook group, and meets in secret every month. By building relationships with members, she explores how and why they hide their beliefs and what this does for their own political behavior and for their community. Drawing on research from communication, political science, and sociology along with survey data on secret political expression, she finds that polarization has led even average partisans to hide their political beliefs from others. And although intensifying polarization will likely make political secrecy more common, she argues that this secrecy is not just evidence that democracy is hurting, but that it is still alive; that people persist in the face of opposition and that this matters if democracy is to survive"--