World Fiction

Annika never thought of herself as weak - until vampires murdered her parents and kidnapped her to their hidden kingdom of the Vale. As a brand-new blood slave, Annika must survive her dangerous new circumstances - or face death from the wolves prowling the Vale's enchanted walls. But sparks fly when she meets the vampire prince Jacen, and while she hates the thought of falling for the enemy, her connection with the mysterious prince could be the key to her freedom.

England, 1959: Laurel Nicolson is 16 years old, dreaming alone in her childhood tree house during a family celebration at their home, Green Acres Farm. She spies a stranger coming up the long road to the farm and then observes her mother, Dorothy, speaking to him. And then she witnesses a crime.

Tuscany, 1944: As Allied troops advance and bombs fall around deserted villages, a young English soldier, Ulysses Temper, finds himself in the wine cellar of a deserted villa. There, he has a chance encounter with Evelyn Skinner, a middle-aged art historian who has come to Italy to salvage paintings from the ruins and recall long-forgotten memories of her own youth. In each other, Ulysses and Evelyn find a kindred spirit amidst the rubble of war-torn Italy, and set off on a course of events that will shape Ulysses's life for the next four decades.

Texas? Toast. Battered by five cataclysmic hurricanes in three weeks, the Texas Gulf Coast and half of the Lone Star State is reeling from the worst devastation in history. Thousands are dead or dying - but the worst is only beginning. Amid the wreckage, something unimaginable is happening: a deadly virus has broken out, returning the dead to life - with an insatiable hunger for human flesh. The nightmare begins...

It is 1870 and Captain Jefferson Kyle Kidd travels through northern Texas, giving live readings to paying audiences hungry for news of the world. An elderly widower who has lived through three wars and fought in two of them, the captain enjoys his rootless, solitary existence. In Wichita Falls, he is offered a $50 gold piece to deliver a young orphan to her relatives in San Antonio. Four years earlier, a band of Kiowa raiders killed Johanna's parents and sister; sparing the little girl, they raised her as one of their own.

This book has no pretension about it whatever -- it is neither a Manual of Rhetoric, expatiating on the dogmas of style, nor a Grammar full of arbitrary rules and exceptions. It is merely an effort to help ordinary, everyday people to express themselves in ordinary, everyday language, in a proper manner.

With the end of the Second World War in sight, the Allies begin to divide up the spoils and it proves to be a dangerous game. The British have become aware that, contrary to what's been agreed, the Soviet Union is intent on controlling Austria once the Second World War ends. And Major Edgar is given the job of establishing an espionage unit in Vienna. He sends in a married Swiss couple - Rolf Eder and Katharina Hoch - who, in fact, have only met each other a week before their journey. Their job is to track down Austria's most respected politician and bring him over to the British cause.

Sen Anon is assigned to be a witness for the Department of Transition, recording the changes in the environment as the world begins to rewild. Abandoned by her mother in a cabin somewhere in upstate New York, Sen will observe the monumental ecological shift known as the Great Transition, the final step in Project Afterworld. Around her drones buzz, cameras watch, microphones listen, digitizing her every move. Privately she keeps a journal of her observations, which are then uploaded and saved, joining the rest of humanity on Maia, a new virtual home.

Maria von Wedemeyer knows the realities of war. Her beloved father and brother have both been killed on the battlefield. The last thing this spirited young woman needs is to fall for a man under constant surveillance by the Gestapo. How can she give another piece of her heart to a man so likely to share the same final fate? Yet when Dietrich Bonhoeffer, an old family friend, comes to comfort the von Wedemeyers after their losses, she discovers that love isn't always logical.

How far must you run to escape the past? Broken from past trauma, Laura heads to small-town Texas, where she crosses paths with sharp-witted Tess. Laura isn't ready to open up again - but her feelings for Tess are undeniable.... Will Tess be able to get past Laura's defenses? And will Laura allow herself to love, and live, again? Find out in this powerful new novel by chart-topping author Harper Bliss.

The novel is set in Varanasi. Chetan Bhagat initiates the story through the central character of Gopal. It is through Gopal's narration of his life to the author that we are introduced to Raghav and Aarti. The story revolves around these three characters. While Gopal comes from a poor family, Raghav comes from a well-off family. Both set out to achieve success and realise their dreams.

Over the years, thousands of tales both true and fantastic have been told about the dastardly thievery of pirates. Their rum-drunk exploits and high-seas violence never fail to delight. Now in a brand new series collection, The Best Pirate Stories Ever Told includes many of the very best pirate yarns ever created on history’s most debaucherous scalawags. Anyone who loves a good story full of excitement, adventure, thrills, and laughs will find this collection irresistible.

Throughout history, food has acted as a catalyst of social change, political organization, geopolitical competition, industrial development, military conflict, and economic expansion. An Edible History of Humanity is a pithy, entertaining account of how a series of changes---caused, enabled, or influenced by food---has helped to shape and transform societies around the world.

Count Hamnet Thyssen is a minor noble of the drowsy old Raumsdalian Empire. Its capital city, Nidaros, began as a mammoth hunters camp at the edge of the great Glacier. But that was centuries ago, and as everyone knows, its the nature of the great Glacier to withdraw a few feet every year. Trasamund, a clan chief of the mammoth-herding Bizogots, the next tribe north, has come to town with strange news. A narrow gap has opened in what they'd always thought was an endless and impregnable wall of ice.

Decades ago, the High King of Sundolia waged a war that vanquished the Serpent clan and drove them out of the empire. But they did not leave peacefully. Their parting gift included curses that now rest within the empire's soil, growing more and more dormant as the years pass under the rule of that increasingly tyrannical high king. Until Alaya - a young woman with a hidden Serpent mark who shouldn't exist - accidentally wakes one of them up. Then another. She must seek the truth about her lost clan and the so-called curses they left behind. About her true home.

Michael reaches Nexus, but finds advancing more challenging than he’d anticipated. Factions abound, allegiances shift, and separating truth from lies is harder than ever. The line between friend and foe blurs, and Michael’s path grows murkier. Nexus is a place of both opportunity and danger. Sitting at the heart of the world, the city is home to thousands—ordinary people, players, but Powers too. Can Michael remain free of their clutches, or will he become entangled in the Powers’ machinations? Will Nexus be the death of Michael?

Kousuke suddenly wakes up alone in a vast forest that clearly isn't anywhere on Earth. Now he has to find some way to eat, drink, and survive! Luckily, Kousuke also has the power to craft using a special video game menu that allows him to harvest resources and build whatever he can imagine. However, every time he goes to sleep, he's attacked by one of the many non-human races of this world, all of whom despise humankind. Enter Silphy, the beautiful dark elf who lays claim to Kousuke and vows to protect him--after all, she's taken him as her property!

The world of magick and the world of man have long been estranged from one another. But some can walk between the two—including Breen Siobhan Kelly. She has just returned to Talamh, with her friend, Marco, who’s dazzled and disoriented by this realm—a place filled with dragons and faeries and mermaids (but no WiFi, to his chagrin). In Talamh, Breen is not the ordinary young schoolteacher he knew her as. Here she is learning to embrace the powers of her true identity. Marco is welcomed kindly by her people—and by Keegan, leader of the Fey.

Shannon Moss is part of a clandestine division within the Naval Criminal Investigative Service. In western Pennsylvania, 1997, she is assigned to solve the murder of a Navy SEAL's family - and to locate his vanished teenage daughter. Though she can't share the information with conventional law enforcement, Moss discovers that the missing SEAL was an astronaut aboard the spaceship USS Libra - a ship assumed lost to the currents of Deep Time. Moss knows firsthand the mental trauma of time travel and believes the SEAL's experience with the future has triggered this violence.

New York Times best-selling author Charlaine Harris thrills listeners with the fourth book of her spectacular Sookie Stackhouse series. Driving home from work, barmaid and telepath Sookie Stackhouse discovers vampire and area sheriff Eric on the side of the road missing his shirt, his shoes and his memories. Featuring vampires, werewolves and magic galore, Dead to the World will satisfy any listener's craving for the supernatural.