In the secluded village of Xinat, children aren't born with a name. Instead, they must earn theirs through a heroic deed by the time they are sixteen or are banished. One month away from her birthday, Unue's time to find a task is running out. Scrambling to find anything worthy, she catches wind of reports of wild beasts attacking other villages, with even some of the townsfolk disappearing when the creatures retreat.Convinced this is how she can earn her name, Unue sets out to tra...

Zara Marrok is handed to Alistair Vane to settle her father's gambling debt, and she walks into his house with a hidden ledger and a plan to take it apart from the inside. Killian Vane has been his father's instrument for 15 years, a cold heir raised to make the family's cruelest moves look like obedience, and his new bride is the first person in his life who has ever refused to flinch. Their marriage is a contract with a crown buried in it, and as Zara starts to map the house, the locked ...

Bedtime can feel scary for many young children, especially when the lights go out.Lucy Lamb knows that feeling all too well. As shadows stretch across her room, her imagination begins to race. But with a gentle night light, loving support, and growing confidence, Lucy slowly learns that the dark isn't filled with monsters-it can be peaceful, beautiful, and safe.Filled with heartwarming illustrations and an encouraging message, Lucy Lamb and the Little Night Light g...

Forty minutes early, third row, back to the wall, sightline clear to the side entrance. That is how long she has been getting ready for a conversation that is going to cost one of them a career.A single microphone stands on the podium, black foam head angled toward the empty chairs like a bird waiting for something to die. Lena Vasquez settles in with her press badge clipped to her lapel and the recorder already running in her jacket pocket. The media room smells of stale coffee an...

Three years in that locker room and he still could not tell you what his own apartment smells like. That is not a joke about dedication. It is the reason none of this was ever going to end quietly.The Zamboni has already made its rounds when he pushes through the practice facility's back door at 5:47 in the morning. The ice gleams under the fluorescents, smooth as glass, unmarked by blades or pucks or the thousand small failures that will scar it by noon.He drops his bag on...

Most conversations about money begin with the same question: How can I earn more?But a bigger paycheck does not automatically create a stronger financial life. Income can disappear into rising expenses, recurring commitments, debt, and lifestyle upgrades just as quickly as it arrives. Two households can earn similar amounts for years and still end up in very different positions.The difference is often not income. It is what the income becomes...

She went to confront her father's girlfriend. She never expected to fall for her.Jennifer St James is determined to discover what her seventy-year-old father's stunning new girlfriend—who happens to be Jen's age—is really after. But when she confronts Clancy Estevez at her dance studio, Jen is caught off guard by her warmth, disarming humor, and undeniable magnetism.Soon, suspicion gives way to private tango lessons, simmering attraction, and one v...

Garrett Cross scrapes tape across his stick shaft and bites it off clean, and he does not look toward the glass. He knows what is up there. A woman in a team jacket, clipboard balanced on one knee, eyes scanning the ice like she is reading a balance sheet. The email went out from the GM at six that morning. Mandatory player cooperation. Confidentiality assured.Every season they bring in someone new to poke at the team's heads. Every season Garrett smiles, nods and tells them exactl...

It is dawn on the Channel, and the Mercury's rigging is groaning above the deck like a wounded animal. Nathaniel Lockwood's first officer wants him to ease off before the mast comes down. Nathaniel wants the French brig running for Cherbourg. *We're asking politely. There's a difference.*He takes the brig. He also finds, standing on her deck with a pistol to the French captain's head, the one man in the service he least wanted to see again.Julian Croft testified at Nathanie...

Life is over for Riley McMahon.Well, it isn't really, but when you're the star setter of the volleyball team and on the brink of academic ineligibility, the actual End of Everything™ feels closer than you think. Terrified of failing math and losing her spot on the team, she's desperate to do anything to save her grades.So when she finds out about the gaming club run by Simon, the smart kid in her math class, she joins without a second thought in order to convince him to tut...

Eight months ago a tendon let go during a routine block and the whole world collapsed into one sound, like a bowline parting. Since then he has been the oldest man in the room, taping his wrists like a rookie, and pretending nobody has noticed which of those two things bothers him more.The tape rips clean, a sound like tearing skin. Levi Carter presses the white strips across his left wrist, then his right, working the adhesive flat with his thumb. Three years of this ritual before...

Declan O'Rourke hits the office door with his shoulder because his hands are full of coffee and regret. Three whiskeys the night before, four maybe, after the nightmare about sand and heat and the wrong kind of quiet. He woke at three in the morning with his sheets soaked and his hand reaching for a rifle that wasn't there.His boss slides a folder across the desk. Jasper Finch, wildlife photographer, contracted to document the last pair of marbled murrelets on Blackthorn Island bef...