Winter Women

It was New Year's Eve, and I should've been ringing in the night with cheap champagne and bad decisions at home in New York. Instead I found myself holed up in some hotel room in Southern California. But I wasn't alone. I was in the company of a fellow stranded traveler by the name of Cristiano. We spent one night together - forced into the same hotel room by the snowstorm that canceled our flights and changed our lives.

One morning Gwen Thomas takes a short walk with her Siberian husky in the outskirts of the Welsh town she calls home. She is drawn to a desolate area where, some 20 years ago as a teenager, she was brutally attacked and her friend killed. Disorientated by a sudden rush of memories, she has a fall. Later, recovering in hospital, she begins to recollect the events that led up to her friend’s death.

I fell for someone I shouldn’t have. I’m not the only person to ever do such a thing. I know that. And I’m not an awful person for desiring his touch, his kiss, his everything...but I knew I shouldn’t have indulged. There’s something about knowing it’s wrong that tempts me that much more. The seduction became a game with higher stakes than any before him. In fact, it was only ever him. The thing is, I knew I shouldn’t. Now that the game is over and the pieces have fallen...I know I should have just walked away. There’s no way out of the wreckage.

I'm used to getting what I want. But I've never wanted anyone like her. I'm the CEO. I dominate the boardroom with my presence. What I want, I get. I have the world at my beck and call. But that no longer excites me. Nothing does. Until she comes along. My Rose. Her deep blue eyes. Her tempting curves. They call to me, holding my attention like nothing has in years. I should walk away, but the soft sighs spilling from her plump lips are addictive.

FBI Special Agent Katie Winter is no stranger to frigid winters, isolation, and dangerous cases. With her sterling record of hunting down serial killers, she is a fast-rising star in the BAU, and when a woman is discovered in the middle of a frozen lake, Katie is the natural choice to partner with Canadian law enforcement to track the killer across the brutal and unforgiving landscape.

Lexi Winter is tough, and has stood on her own two feet since childhood, when she was a victim of notorious paedophile: the Spider. All she cares about now is a roof over her head and her long-term relationship with Johnny Walker. She isn't particular about who she sleeps with...as long as they pay before leaving. Lexi is also an ace hacker, tracking and entrapping local paedophiles and reporting them to the cops. When she finds a particularly dangerous paedophile who the police can't touch, she decides to gather enough evidence to put him away. Instead, she's a witness to his death.

Moving from Boston to remote Bearkill, Maine, isn't homicide cop Lizzie Snow's idea of a step up. But breaking away from tragedy and personal betrayal is at least a step in the right direction. Her dead sister's fate still torments her, as does her long-missing niece's disappearance. The town is full of people who see everything, say little, and know more than they'll share with an outsider.

Prosecutor Jessie Black has an airtight case against Tyrone Nash, a gang thug who shot a man behind a bar in West Philly. But what should be an easy trial turns complicated when Nash somehow intimidates her eyewitness, and he recants his testimony on the eve of the trial. Now Jessie's only move to stop the killer from walking is to call a witness she had hoped to avoid - Reggie Tuck, a smooth-talking jailhouse snitch who claims Nash confessed to him during a short time they shared a cell.

Abandoned by his father after his mother drowns in a frozen Minnesota lake, fifteen-year-old Wes Ballot is stranded with coldhearted grandparents and holed up in his mother’s old bedroom, surrounded by her remnants and memories. As the wait for his father stretches unforgivably into months, a local girl, whose own mother died a brutal death, captures his heart and imagination, giving Wes fresh air to breathe in the suffocating small town.

Zauberhafte Nächte in der Stadt, die niemals schläft – Ein winterliches Märchen über die Liebe zweier FrauenDie kalte Luft New Yorks zur Weihnachtszeit erfüllt von Zimt, gebrannten Mandeln und heißem Punsch schafft eine festliche Atmosphäre, während die Stadt in bunten Lichtern erstrahlt. Doch für Clara, eine kreative Künstlerin, sind die winterlichen Abende oft einsam. In ihrem Atelier, einer umgebauten Lagerhalle, lebt sie zwischen Kunstwerken, eingehüllt in Nostalgie und die Last vergangener Träume.

Never has Mallory faced as many surprises as in the case before her now. It seems cut-and-dried at first: a burglar has been caught in the act and killed by an ice pick-wielding homeowner. Except that the homeowner turns out to be the most famous lost child in NYPD history, missing for almost 60 years, thought to have been kidnapped following the massacre of her family: five siblings, father, stepmother, nanny, and housekeeper, nearly the entire household wiped out...with an ice pick.

From the outside the parents of the kindergarten class at Darley Heights primary school seem to have it all. Living in the wealthy Sydney suburbs, it's a community where everyone knows each other - and secrets don't stay secret for long. The big date in the calendar is the school's annual fundraising trivia night, but when the evening gets raucously out of hand, talk turns to partner-swapping. Initially scandalised, it's not long before a group of parents make a reckless one-night-only pact. But in the harsh light of day, those involved must face the fallout of their behaviour.

Compelled by deep instinct and the curious mind of a retired nurse, scientist, midwife, and nascent naturalist, the author retrieves a too-late-to-migrate monarch caterpillar from a December ice storm. She decides to learn all she can to care for the butterfly that soon emerges in her home while the second winter of COVID-19 rages outdoors. Each day of its longer-than-expected life brings new observations, challenges, and rewards, which the author shares with the listener as journal entries.

Trey Westcott - devastatingly gorgeous. Intimidatingly brilliant. Powerful beyond belief. As the first trillionaire in existence, my boss lives a life most people can only dream of. Anything he wants is a snap of the fingers away. But when the coldhearted magnate snaps his fingers and requests me for a stint on his arm playing the role of his devoted fiancée and then some, he makes an offer I can’t refuse. And so I don’t. But I make it clear that he’ll have my time, my body, my attention, my discreet professionalism - everything except my heart. It’s not for sale.

From New York Times best-selling author of The Dollar Series comes the first novel in a dark romance duet. She is a woman divided. Her past, present, and future are as twisted as the lies she's lived for the past eight years. Desperate to get the truth, she must turn to the one man who may also be her greatest enemy...He is the president of Pure Corruption MC. A heartless biker and retribution-deliverer. He accepts no rules, obeys no one, and lives only to reap revenge on those who wronged him. And now he has stolen her, body and soul.

Armed with a slew of advanced degrees and powerful intuition, forensic psychologist Dr. Autumn Trent is ready to conquer the world and touch the lives of its seven billion inhabitants. She’s prepared to fight for justice, right the wrongs...because she knows what it’s like to be wronged. As a child, a single blow from her father left her changed forever. Her body survived the aftermath, but her brain was altered in ways that were both good and bad.

Seattle, 1933: Vera Ray kisses her three-year-old son, Daniel, good night and reluctantly leaves for work. She hates the night shift, but it’s the only way she can earn enough to keep destitution at bay. In the morning - even though it’s the second of May - a heavy snow is falling. Vera rushes to wake Daniel, but his bed is empty. His teddy bear lies outside in the snow. Seattle, present day: On the second of May, reporter Claire Aldridge awakens to another late-season snowstorm. Assigned to cover this "blackberry winter" and its predecessor decades earlier, Claire learns of Daniel’s unsolved abduction and vows to unearth the truth.

When Mrs. Claus is found murdered days before the Annual Heywood Christmas Festival, Sheriff Mallory Richards cancels the beloved event. As the flu takes out the whole sheriff’s department—except for Deputy Jordan Branson—he begs Sam to help him find the killer. She and Annabelle set out to catch the murderer but land themselves in a tangled web of deception and danger.

I've made a living playing by the rules only when the clock is ticking, the ball has been snapped, and I'm cleat-deep in AstroTurf. But I screwed up last year. I went too far with the girls and the partying and the benders. As a result, the team owner sentenced me to live in some gated, Floridian retirement village until I can "calm down". If I lay low and repair my reputation, I won't get cut. It's that simple. For the first time in my life, I was living by someone else's rules, and then she showed up for the summer.

As the holiday season lights up Seattle's famed Pike Place Market, Pepper Reece's beloved Spice Shop is brimming with cinnamon, nutmeg, and shoppers eager to stuff their stockings. Add to the mix a tasty staff competition—a peppermint bark-off—along with Victorian costumes for this year's Dickensian Christmas theme, and Pepper almost forgets to be nervous about meeting her fisherman boyfriend's brother for the first time. But when a young woman working in her friend Vinny's wine shop is brutally assaulted, costumed revelers and holiday cheer are the last things on Pepper's mind.