Paranormal Adventure

Shelly Laurenston turns up the heat with two sizzling novellas. Christmas Pride: How come all the good-looking ones are insane? That's what runs through NYPD cop Desiree "Dez" MacDermot's mind the minute she hooks up again with her childhood buddy, Mace Llewellyn. Shaw's Tail: Brendon Shaw, hotel owner and lion shifter, has seen better days. He's been beaten, had a gun to the back of his head, and had to be rescued by a Pack of shape-shifting wolves.

In the wake of an unexpected homecoming, Jason questions if there is still a place for him in the world he left behind. Forced to confront what he has become in his time away, he feels more alien than ever. But his old world is hiding secrets that he never knew. As he starts to unravel what has been hidden from him his entire life, he discovers that not only might he fit in better than ever but he may be exactly what the world needs.

James Crowley met his mortal end in a hail of gunfire. Now, he finds himself in purgatory, serving the White Throne to avoid falling to hell. Not quite undead, though not alive either, the best he can hope for is to work off his servitude and fade away. His not-so-sacred duty as a Hand of God? Use his new abilities to hunt down demonic beings that have infiltrated the mortal realm. This time, the White Throne has sent him to the middle of nowhere: a Western town called Dead Acre with a saloon, a moldy church, and little else worth talking about. There isn’t even a sheriff.

"Kill. Kill them all." It's the first four words Lars usually wakes up to every morning, a voice telling him she's just giving him a "quest" that will help him "level". But even if he wanted to do it, he can't. They're cultivators: beings with ancestral bloodlines that have powers he could only dream of, while he is stuck as a puny human. Even if he could kill them, the people who bullied him, beat him, treated him like a punch-bag pariah for being a "tailless worthless human", he wouldn't. That is, until a vicious group of murderous psychopaths called a "sect" descend on his village.

In the second installment of Dianne Duvall's Immortal Guardians series, when Marcus Grayden's grief over the loss of the woman he loved causes him to become reckless, he is assigned a new Second, who proves to be immensely distracting. Contains mature themes.

Cathal MacNachton and Connall MacAdie are cousins bound by far more than blood ties and the rugged Highland landscape their clan calls home. The ancient curse of their ancestry has fated them to live by night with an unquenchable thirst that neither can tame. The only thing that can save their souls is marriage to Outsiders - mortals whose untainted blood will weaken the curse in their children and break the chains of fear that have made their clan a breed apart.

Jason arrives at a kingdom in peril and he's surprised to discover that it's not his job to save it. With the authorities fulfilling their responsibilities (for once), he looks forward to some quiet time to rest and recuperate. The locals might not find ceaseless monster onslaughts and an interdimensional invasion relaxing, but Jason has had a rough few years. He's doing his best to let go of his anger. While his team is caught up in duty, Jason has no shortage of people looking to interfere with his rest. Enemies—old and new—are circling, and even would-be allies are trouble.

With the empire now off their backs, Forge Eizo welcomes Anne as a permanent member of the family! Eizo offers to buy everyone gifts as rewards for their hard work, but they suggest something else—each member of the household gets to spend an entire day alone with him. Meanwhile, Camilo informs Eizo of a commission request from an unexpected customer: Marius! The count is finally getting married, and he wants a set of custom wedding rings. Just one problem—Marius wants them made from meghizium, a rare and expensive metal that only a handful of blacksmiths in the world can manipulate.

Jace wants to learn to make goods that pay well so that he can support himself, and maybe even send some money to his family. His goal is to gain the blacksmith class and start his own forge. But then, one of the other apprentices decides he needs to be taught a lesson. When a rare and valuable magic item is destroyed, Jace is left with a racial transformation and cast into the wilds without guidance. Now, he has to figure out how to survive in a kill-or-be-killed world as a monster race that most goodly folk will want dead.

Following the devastating attack on Yaresh, its people are left to pick up the pieces. The city lies in ruins, but its decimated defenders have more to deal with than just reconstruction. Jason's actions during the battle have brought unwelcome attention from allies and enemies alike. While the adventurers question his loyalty, the messengers question his very nature. Both have designs on Jason that he intends to thwart, but a danger comes to light that shifts everyone's agenda.

Elorion's eyes are opened as he visits the succubi capital. Are they monsters? Victims of an ancient magic? Or are they just misunderstood? War is coming. Lilith's human experiment is finally revealed. What will El and Aeris do when face to face with the real players of the Underworld?

Aeons once ruled the world. Now, their empire lies in ruin, and the survivors hide on the fringes of society. Nahlia is a librarian's apprentice who's obsessed with Aeon lore, scavenging for hints of their legendary power. But others are searching too, including the Templars who seek to hunt down the Aeon survivors. When the Templars attack her family, Nahlia is forced to infiltrate a secret academy and rise beyond everything she's ever known.

It's not always easy being a female warrior with a nickname like Annwyl the Bloody. Men tend to either cower in fear-a lot-or else salute. It's true that Annwyl has a knack for decapitating legions of her ruthless brother's soldiers without pausing for breath. But just once it would be nice to be able to really talk to a man - the way she can talk to Fearghus the Destroyer. Too bad that Fearghus is a dragon, of the large, scaly, and deadly type.

When an invitation to try a cutting-edge game promising darkly sensual adventure drops in Abram's lap, it's an offer he can't refuse. After all, as an agoraphobe who never leaves his apartment, his social life is defined by, and limited to, games. Yet an interesting premise quickly shows its dark side as his mind is filled with memories of unspeakable torment, forcing him to rely on his meta-knowledge just to stay sane. The game is like nothing he's ever played: It has no tutorial, no HUD, no levels, no experience system, no respawns, and no mercy.

The world teeters on the brink of destruction. The people who should be saving the Earth ignore Jason Asano's warnings and choose to loot the house as it burns down around them. He lacks the strength to save the world himself, but resolves to do it anyway, impossible be damned. The impossible, in this case, means seizing a power that no mortal should touch. It's a choice from which there is no turning back, and marks Jason's first step into a wider cosmos that he is not yet ready to face. Holding the fate of two worlds in his hands, Jason must decide for himself what home truly means.

For all that Jason knows, life is amazing. But he's about to learn that all his new power, wealth, and influence comes at a price. Riding high on success, he and his team are looking to the future, preparing themselves for the challenges to come. Nothing, however, could have prepared him for the lessons his enemies have to teach. When magic is involved, the stakes can be even greater than life and death. While Jason’s personal enemies make plans, the greater foes plaguing his new home have been pushed to the brink.

Raysha will do whatever it takes to fix her broken soul, even if it means venturing into the unknown with nothing but her brother, an enchanted water bottle, and her fierce determination. The only one without the ability to cultivate aeon from the world, Raysha has been ostracized her whole life for her weakness. In a world where true masters of aeon have slaughtered gods, Raysha's future in her village is limited to babysitting pre-awakened children.

My standard issued lab badge reads "Simon", but it really should say "unexciting nerd with no social life". Don't get me wrong - I love what I do with a passion, but it doesn't leave a lot of time for much else. Especially romance. While chipping away at my work, I'm suddenly the person between hired cartel muscle and the fossil that will define my career. Which isn't the most insane part of the story. My savior is a chaotic, bat-wielding punk with a bubble-gum pink mohawk and a killer smile.

Death and reincarnation. Kuroe Makoto, the tomboyish ace of her high school track-and-field club, never spared a thought for these things before. However, when she falls asleep in her Tokyo home after an exhausting marathon and wakes up in a fantasy world, those concepts become her reality. Unlike common light novel settings, she isn't reincarnated as the naturally good-looking and talented human hero who gathers a harem effortlessly. In fact, she isn't reincarnated as a human at all. She is reborn as "Chaos", child of the demon queen and heir to a kingdom at war with humanity.

Olivia Moreland prides herself on discrediting charlatans, particularly the false mediums that flock to London. But when Lord Stephen St. Leger requests her help in investigating an alleged psychic's claims, she can't deny the ominous feeling she has within the walls of his ancient estate - or the intimately familiar connection she has with Stephen himself. The last time he'd called Blackhope Hall home, Stephen had watched as his elder brother claimed both the family title and the woman he loved.