Winter Women

At first, his words were harsh and his touch cold. I knew he was a dangerous man and he could destroy me if only he wanted to. That’s not what he wanted though. It’s not what he needed. It’s not what I desired either. It’s so easy to get lost in the touch of a man who’s powerful and unattainable. A man who wants for nothing...except me. Soft touches and stolen glances made my blood heat and my heart beat in a way I never knew it could. Yes, it’s easy to fall into a haze of lust and desire. But there’s a reason his reputation is one of a heartless man.

Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.

Something stirs in the murk of the Volga River, something big, emerging at night to sow mayhem and death along the banks. And Since Solstice Winters is already stranded at ground zero, she agrees to help, even though coping with giant lizards is far from her skill set as an intrepid reporter for a paranormal tabloid. Yay for being the only elf in the world. After narrowly escaping the Ordo Sanguinem Aeternam, she winds up sharing a flat halfway across the world from home with the enigmatic Cristiano, an agent of the secretive organization she may have obligated herself to join.

Based on real-life events in Meiji-era Japan, award-winning and critically acclaimed veteran writer Kiyoko Murata re-creates in stunning detail the brutal yet vibrant lives of women in the red-light district at the turn of the twentieth century—the bond they share, the survival skills they pass down, and the power of owning one's language.

The serial killer who slaughtered Winter’s parents has come out of retirement, leaving bloody victims in his wake. Special Agent Winter Black has spent her entire life preparing for this moment, and she intends to end the man who took everything from her and solve the disappearance of her little brother — no matter the cost.

After five months of training at Quantico, Dr. Autumn Trent is ready for her first day on the job as an official special agent with the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit. She left for training with a heavy heart, feeling responsible for all that happened to her best friend and fellow agent, Winter Black. Now, her heart is just as heavy, but her spirit has grown stronger as she and Winter continue their fight against evil. She’s only home a few days when a woman with a paralyzing fear of water jumps to her death from a waterfall. Was it suicide or was something much more sinister at play?

From Dallas Willard, one of the most important Christian intellectuals of the 20th century, comes a collection of readings, interviews, talks, and articles - many previously unpublished. In his groundbreaking books, teacher, philosopher, and spiritual guide Dallas Willard forever changed the way many Christians experience their faith. Three years after his death, the influence of this provocative Christian thinker - "a man devoted to reestablishing the exalted place moral reasoning once held in the academy" ( Christianity Today) - remains strong.

When her stepmother dies, Caro returns to her childhood home in the rural English countryside. She hadn’t seen Elizabeth in years, but the remote farmhouse offers refuge from a bad relationship and a chance to start again. But going through Elizabeth’s belongings unearths memories Caro would rather stay buried. In particular, the story her stepmother would tell her about two little girls and the terrible thing they do. As heavy snow traps Caro in the village, where her neighbours stare and whisper, Caro is forced to question why Elizabeth hated her so much and what she was hiding.

At Christmastime we remember that an ordinary, young, poor, oppressed woman was chosen to play a significant and breakthrough role in the redemption of the world. It is no mistake that a woman gets to be a part of all this, and that her voice, her questions, her fears, and her actions matter.

I knew she'd ruin me. But I wanted her anyway. I was born into wealth and my name comes with a reputation. One I've upheld and leveraged for power. Now everyone owes me and I plan to keep it that way. Until she's offered to me. My sweetheart. Only for a single month to repay a debt. Her tempting curves call to me and beg me to risk it all. I shouldn't take her, I shouldn't even consider his offer. Women like her bring men to their knees.

Li Juan and her mother own a small convenience store in the Altai Mountains in Northwestern China, where she writes about her life among grasslands and snowy peaks. To her neighbors' surprise, Li decides to join a family of Kazakh herders as they take their 30 boisterous camels, 500 sheep, and over 100 cattle and horses to pasture for the winter.

It’s springtime in Benedict, Alaska, and with the warmer weather comes an unseasonably somber local tradition...the annual Death Walk. At the end of each brutal winter, citizens gather downtown and then break into groups to search the community for those who might have somehow gotten stuck at home. Beth Rivers sets off with her friend Orin and dog Gus toward the cabin of an elderly resident, intending to check on him. When they reach the cabin, the old man is alive, but not in the best shape. Beth stays with him while Orin hurries to town for help, but it’s not Orin who returns.

I saw her from across the bar. My bar. My city. Everything in that world belonged to me. She stood out from the crowd like she was looking for someone to blame for her pain. That night, I felt the depths of my mistakes. I felt my scars. With a single glance, I knew her touch would take it all away. I craved it more than anything. I knew she would be a tempting, beautiful mistake. One I would make again and again...even if it cost me everything.

Dr. Autumn Trent hasn’t even finished the paperwork from her first official case as a federal agent before she and the rest of the FBI’s Behavioral Analysis Unit are called to Washington, DC to investigate a series of home invasions. The six victims have very little in common other than they’re all wealthy couples brutally slayed just hours before hosting a dinner party. Who targeted them, and why?

Victorian Countess Amelia Amesbury’s secret hobby, writing an advice column for a London penny paper, has gotten her into hot water before. After all, Amelia will do whatever it takes to help a reader in need. But now, handsome marquis Simon Bainbridge desperately requires her assistance. His beloved younger sister, Marielle, has written Amelia's Lady Agony column seeking advice on her plans to elope with a man her family does not approve of. Determined to save his sister from a scoundrel and the family from scandal, Simon asks Amelia to dissuade Marielle from the ill-advised gambit.

Destiny finds herself kicked out of the house because her parents aren’t willing to put up with her anymore. She’s 18 and sleeps in her car the first night. She finally decides she needs a sugar Daddy and dresses as sexily as she can before going to a coffee shop in an elite area of the city. It isn’t long before a man shows interest and she thinks she’s got it made.

Early in 1815, Louisa Catherine Adams and her young son left St. Petersburg in a heavy Russian carriage and set out on a difficult journey to meet her husband, John Quincy Adams, in Paris. She traveled through the snows of eastern Europe, down the Baltic coast to Prussia, across the battlefields of Germany, and into a France that was then experiencing the tumultuous events of Napoleon's return from Elba.

Ever since Beth Bailey was a girl, she’s been in love with her best friend’s older brother, Mark. She’s continued to hold out hope that maybe, someday, he’ll love her back. But now Beth is thirty-five years old, and on the day of Mark’s wedding to another woman, she finally accepts the wake-up call she needs to move on.

Sixteen years ago, Sylvie’s sister, Persephone, never came home. Out too late with the boyfriend she was forbidden to see, Persephone was missing for three days before her body was found - and years later, her murder remains unsolved. In the present day, Sylvie returns home to care for her estranged mother, Annie, as she undergoes treatment for cancer. Prone to unexplained “Dark Days” even before Persephone’s death, Annie’s once-close bond with Sylvie dissolved in the weeks after their loss, making for an uncomfortable reunion all these years later.

Thirteen years ago, Winter Black came home early from a sleepover to find her parents brutally murdered and her little brother gone — taken by a serial killer called The Preacher. Now a rookie FBI agent assigned to her first murder case, Winter has returned to the small Virginia town where she grew up. But when bones found by a hunter lead to the discovery of a secret burial ground containing the remains of children, the investigation suddenly hits close to home as the past and future collide with each new shocking discovery.