Psychological Science

Actor and sex worker Nats is experienced at putting on a show. However, her new gig supplying intimate whispers for growgirls takes her to a place darker and lonelier than she could have ever imagined. The lab-grown dolls can respond to pleasure or pain; their synthetic heads contain only the simplest AI to prevent any pesky robo sex doll uprisings. But just because growgirls don’t have a brain, doesn’t mean they don’t have a voice...

Fresh out of high school and off to college, Cassie thought she had the world by its tail, and then she met Mike. Tall, handsome, and a police detective to boot, he swept her off her feet and into a whirlwind relationship that led to an engagement ring. But things aren't always as they seem, and Cassie comes to discover that Mike has a dark side. When she learns just how dark it can be, she comes face-to-face with the greatest forward she could imagine, and it leaves her burned and scarred for the rest of her life.

Step into a haunting vision of the future. In the year 2032, a relentless pandemic grips the world, spreading an insidious madness that knows no bounds. As society grapples with the pervasive grip of insanity, only a few glimmers of hope emerge—innovative technologies promising to shield minds from the relentless torment. But at what cost? Is surrendering one's humanity the only path to salvation?

AltaMira Pharmaceuticals releases Vigorex, a drug that allows people to sleep and experience R.E.M. while they're awake. A colorful cast of characters begin to take the drug, which if not taken properly will have hazardous consequences. But each of these people has undergone a deeply traumatic episode in their formative years, which will affect them in differing ways; murder, arson, kidnapping, vigilantism, among other crimes, will characterize their nightly personalities and send them crashing into one another.

Being a mind runner isn't easy, but catching criminals is all that matters to Jane Spears. Though her job may be gruesome, she's not willing to stop just yet. And even as she admires the ring from her fiancé, she has no intention of letting a wedding sidetrack her work - not when she's about to delve into the darkest mind she's ever encountered.

John Smith has a special gift that seems more like a curse: He can access other people's thoughts. He hears the songs stuck in their heads, their most private traumas and fears, the painful memories they can't let go. The CIA honed his skills until he was one of their most powerful operatives, but Smith fled the agency and now works as a private consultant, trying to keep the dark potential of his gift in check - and himself out of trouble.

Have you ever wondered what made Crispin so wicked - why his heart is so black? What drives his hunger for total control, and his need to cause such horror and pain to others? Was he born this way, or did something horrific happen to him as a child? What goes on behind those dark, hauntingly beautiful, blue eyes? Step into the mind of a killer. He is charming, cunning, and his velvet voice will enchant you. Is Crispin really as evil as he is portrayed, or is there more hidden beneath the skin? Now you can find out all about Crispin, and what makes him tick.

Half Life is a triplet of supernatural stories which journey to worlds that linger between life and death. Fear, disappointment, and loneliness permeate these worlds, forcing each character to face up to the dark side of human existence. An original blend of horror, pathos, and humour, these curious stories will cause disquiet, heartache, and a thrilling sting of pleasure.

Ten strangers, recruited by an edgy new reality show and marooned on an abandoned island overrun by wildlife. One dies in a horrible accident. Nine realize they are all past survivors, alive only because they've beaten incredible odds once before. One by one, their hidden secrets are revealed. Eight discover they are trapped. Caught in a game so deadly that the most terrifying experiences of their lives were only its qualifying round, they must now face the greatest danger on the island... each other.

Waiting for Fireflies is a story about how love can change both the past and the future in unexpected ways. Connected through time by the secretive Red Manor and a mythical white stag, Elise, Andrew, and Anna may just find the hope they are so desperately waiting for.

When Maxon met Sunny, he was seven years, four months, and eighteen-days old. Or, he was 2693 rotations of the earth old. Maxon was different. Sunny was different. They were different together. Now, twenty years later, they are married, and Sunny wants, more than anything, to be "normal." She's got the housewife thing down perfectly, but Maxon, a genius engineer, is on a NASA mission to the moon, programming robots for a new colony. Once they were two outcasts who found unlikely love in each other: a wondrous, strange relationship formed from urgent desire for connection.

Volk is Piers Anthony's serious novel of World War II and forbidden love, featuring a romance between a Nazi SS officer and his American friend’s fiancée, a pacifist Quaker lady. Politically incorrect, it covers some hard truths. Not all Nazis were evil, and the allies also kept death camps. The author was in Europe as a child, deported in 1940, and raised as a Quaker, so has some basis to address the subjects.

Niki Ky spends her days in a medicated haze, haunted by the ghosts of those she left behind 10 years ago after a confrontation against an unspeakable evil that left her shattered. To find peace, Niki must return to the house on the side of Red Mountain in Birmingham, Alabama-to face creatures no human should ever have to face.

In the year 2112, technology has advanced and immortality is nearly achieved - at least for those who can afford it. Those born before the stemgineering revolution, or TrueElderly, soon discover the problems of advanced age. This is just the beginning, as an avalanche of new problems is waiting on humanity's doorstep. For enthusiastic salesman Dylan Dansby, selling an innovative new product to combat these problems could be a career defining opportunity - but Dylan's selling a product he doesn't believe in, and one that might just work a little too well...

At 11 years old, Gabriel Naumann is witness to a horrific crime. Twenty-nine years later his girlfriend is taken. Then the messages begin. 'If you want to find her, then you'll have to find me.' Somebody knows the truth. Somebody knows what he did. And now his girlfriend will pay for it - unless he can find her in time. When you've spent decades running from your past, what do you do when it finally catches up with you?

When offered a one-way trip to the past, Isabel sacrifices everything for a chance to change the rapidly deteriorating present - and see her murdered lover one last time. When she arrives 20 years in the past, buck naked and mortally wounded, she has 24 hours to convince a stunned but enraptured 19-year-old to change their future. Definitely easier said than done, as success means losing him to a brainy, smart-mouthed bombshell (her younger self), and that's a heart breaker, save the world or not.

Once a century, for only six days, the bay around a small Washington island glows like a water-bound aurora. Dr. Rachel Bell, a scientist studying the 100-year miracle and the tiny sea creatures that create it, knows a secret about the phenomenon that inspired the region's myths and folklore: the rare green water may contain a power that could save Rachel's own life (and change the world).

The Difference Between You and Me is a modern-day comedy of manners, an insider's take on Hollywood protocol and prestige. With her sly yet generous wit, DeMarco illuminates everyday annoyances and disasters that every woman will recognize - office backstabbing, why-won't-he-call frustrations, and the unsettling vacuum that can open up in the middle of the busiest life.

If evil shook your hand, would you know it? Jay Grady wakes up in handcuffs. Sitting at a table in an isolated room. Across from him sits a man who wants Jay to recount his life. Every detail of it. If not, he'll kill him. So begins Jay's reluctant journey to a past he's tried to forget. From his days ruling Wall Street as an impossibly intuitive stock picker, to just a few hours before, when he pumped six bullets into a transient outside a dying Missouri town; a drifter he'd once thought was just an ordinary man. But he was far from ordinary. And Jay came to realize he was not a man at all, but something darker.

Denise Berg, a professor of psychology, and her molecular biologist husband, Gabe, expected an intelligent child. When Denise gave birth to Zack, they were thrilled. They were not surprised to find that Zack had physical and mental gifts but were astounded by their magnitude. By every parameter Zack was extraordinarily gifted, and they took pride in their genes and their good fortune.