A galactic empire of a quarter of a million worlds stumbles across the Earth. Their philosophy on life is totally unexpected. With the help of intelligent automatons, they've turned a reviled political system into a utopia for the masses, but are they a force for good or evil? A Daragnen university graduate, Yol Rummy Blin Breganin, discovers that Earth failed in its attempt to join the Federation, and, for some unknown reason, members are forever banned from visiting or contacting the planet. Rummy had never heard of a whole world being outlawed. Perhaps it would be sensible to leave well enough alone but no, he decides to investigate… FEDERATION is the first in a series of near-future, hard science-fiction novels by Tony Harmsworth, the First Contact specialist. Immerse yourself in humankind’s cultural and economic dilemma by buying FEDERATION today.

    It rains too much, she misses her mother and the country life they once shared, and with Christmas coming up she's having a hard time adjusting to life with only her dad. When she finds a kitten trapped in their garage, Brianna is sure things will get better. But nothing goes as planned, and Brianna wonders what she's gotten herself into. CAT TALES is a series of short, stand-alone fiction celebrating the human-animal bond, from award-winning author Linda Benson.

    Together, Hutch and his friends become ensnared in a web of secrets and moral dilemmas. A local ne’er-do-well goes to jail for the crime while the boys keep their pact of silence. Each boy shoulders the burden of truth in his own way as each attempts to leave the past behind. Thirty-three years later, in 2004, Van Buren is the prosecuting attorney in Summit County, Ohio, and a candidate for state attorney general when he learns that he and his boyhood friends weren’t the only ones keeping a secret about Petey’s death. A convicted sex offender in need of a favor attempts to blackmail Van Buren in return for his silence. Van Buren must decide between his political career and the duty of the office he has sworn to uphold. With the clock ticking, Van Buren has a week to seek out his boyhood friends and search his soul while he sorts out three decades of deceit he helped create.Favorite Sons is a wonderful, suspenseful novel with nuanced, memorable characters and unpredictable plot twists.

    When he and a small group of coworkers attempt to respond to an unexpected message, believing it to have originated from somewhere on Earth, they find more than they anticipate. The message is from deep space. Once contact is made, the Remotes, as they are called, will not be dissuaded. Humanity becomes an unwilling newcomer to a staggeringly ancient galactic collective, which regards the Earth as an ‘emerging world’ that is subject to its oversight. As humanity slips further into the grip of the enigmatic consortium, the mysteries become deeper; there is more to Earth’s history than meets the eye, and even the galaxy itself is not what it seems.

    A decade later, she emerges from the Hong Kong underworld with payback on her mind. They gunned down her husband and kidnapped her daughter, and now the debt needs to be repaid. It's a blood feud she didn't start but she is going to finish.Beatrix has already crossed one name off her Kill List. Her second target is a mercenary being held hostage by Somali terrorists. Can she infiltrate the most dangerous failed state on the planet and scrub him off the List, too?BLOOD MOON RISING"Murder's out of tune, and sweet revenge grows harsh."Ten years ago, Beatrix Rose headed an off-the-books hit squad that did the dirty work of the British Government. When she discovered that the commander of the squad was corrupt, he sent five of his assassins to rub her out.But they failed. Bad mistake.There were six names on Beatrix's Death List and now there are four. She's going to account for the others, one by one, even if it kills her. Beatrix has returned from Somalia with a fresh target in her sights. Bryan Duffy is in Iraq, surrounded by mercenaries, with no easy way to get to him and no easy way to get out.Will Duffy prove to be a challenge too far?BLOOD & ROSES"Before you embark on a journey of revenge, dig two graves."Beatrix Rose has worked her way through her Kill List. Four are dead and just two remain. But now her enemies know she has them in her sights. The hunter becomes the hunted.In a thrilling conclusion to the breakneck trilogy, Beatrix and her daughter must fight them in North Africa, New York and finally in the swamps of North Carolina. It's a lightning-paced roller-coaster of action that pits a deadly assassin against the might of the most powerful private army on the planet.It's long odds for Beatrix. And that's just how she likes it.

    Powers Unlocked. An Alliance is Born.Ten thousand years ago, the Furies nearly exterminated all life in the universe before being defeated by a coalition of worlds led by the Olympians.Or so everyone thought.Now they're back, and a new reign of terror has begun.

     ************************************************************* Book #1: Peace Warrior It’s the mid-21st century when Sergeant First Class Grant Justice is killed during an ambush on an enemy tank column. Six hundred years later, his body is retrieved from the frozen, arctic lake where he perished. Re-animated by a team of scientists, Grant awakens to a civilization that has abolished war. A civilization that has outlawed violence and cherishes Peace above all else. A civilization that has been enslaved by an alien race called the Minith. Grant is humankind’s final hope against the alien menace. He must be the… Peace Warrior. ************************************************************* Book #2: Peace Army It’s been six years since Grant Justice was brought back to life to help the Peaceful citizens of Earth defeat the Minith. Life should be good. The Minith are gone. Grant now has a loving wife and a remarkable son. He is a hero to the society that once shunned him. But Grant hasn’t been taking life easy. He’s been recruiting fighters away from Peace. He’s been cobbling together an army from the dregs of society and training them to fight. Which is a good thing, because another alien Mothership is heading their way. It will reach Earth in less than a week. Grant and his small army have been preparing for this day. They must be the… Peace Army. ************************************************************* Book #3: Peace World Reanimated after six hundred years, Grant Justice has become the leader of Earth's new army. Unwilling to sit back and wait for the next attack, Grant decides to take the fight to the enemy. He and a mothership full of his best fighters are headed toward Waa, the aliens' new home world. Unknown to Grant, a fleet of alien motherships is headed toward Earth—intent on punishing the planet for destroying Minith. Who will win the battle for supremacy—the alien slavers with a thirst for war, or the humans struggling to survive and save their way of life? Who will finally rule the… Peace World. ************************************************************* REVIEWS FOR THE PEACE WARRIOR TRILOGY "I'll get right to the point: Peace Warrior is a flawlessly-written science fiction adventure with sympathetic characters and a fast-paced plot. Though billed as military science fiction, Peace Warrior cuts across genres and subgenres by incorporating cultural issues of nature and nurture, war and peace. Complex heroes like Grant Justice and complex issues like these hit the page with the force of an alien mothership biting the dust. " Isabella Morales, The Scattering Blog "Steven Hawk has written a sci-fi masterpiece. Each of the three books is a great story in and of itself. Together they achieve greatness. Hawk writes with the straight-forward, action-driven style of Asimov, and at the same time brings an inventive, provocative point of view like Orson Scott Card. If you like great science fiction with compelling characters, you'll be glad you connected with this trilogy. You will get a real kick out of the hero and ancient warrior Grant Justice, and your perspective on the concept of "peace" will be stretched.

    After all, he's not one of the handful of lucky lottery winners scheduled for rescue. But he did luck into a NexGenVR capsule, which means Jack can risk a one-way trip to the virtual reality world of Viridan Gate Online, a completely immersive online multiplayer fantasy role-playing game, or RPG. The transition to Viridian Gate Online (V.G.O) is irreversible, and will kill Jack's corporeal form. And once players transition fully into the world of V.G.O., the risks aren't over—from cutthroat fellow players to greedy developers eager to replicate the wealth discrepancies of Earth in virtual reality, V.G.O. is just as dangerous as the 'real world' was. If Jack can’t game the system, he’s going to be trading in a quick death for a long, brutal one… LitRPG books combine tropes and themes from role-playing games with sci-fi and fantasy elements to tell a unique story that's exciting and super-relevant to today's world. Jack's adventures in a cutthroat virtual reality fantasy world will grip fans of Blackmirror, Ready Player One, and The Stormlight Archive alike. With over 200,000 copies sold, this is one series you don't want to miss! Included in this box set: Cataclysm (VGO Book 1)Crimson Alliance (VGO Book 2)The Jade Lord (VGO Book 3)

    When her younger sister Tess becomes pregnant, Libby convinces her not to have an abortion by promising to raise the child herself. But then Tess takes off after the baby is born and Libby finds that her new role puts her dreams that much further away. Her already haphazard life becomes ever more chaotic. The baby's father, a Christian rodeo rider, suddenly demands custody. Libby loses her job, her boyfriend abandons her, and her own mother harps on how stupid she was to make that promise to Tess. More than a story of a single mother overcoming obstacles, Sky Bridge is a painfully honest, complex novel that leaves readers with a fresh understanding of what it means to inhabit a world in which dreams die, and are sometimes reborn.

    One snowy night, exhausted parents Evelyn and Gabe Mitchell have just put their colicky four month old baby, Abigail, to sleep in the nursery of their farmhouse. Afraid their large mixed breed dog, Girl, will wake the baby, they unsuccessfully try to coax her out from under the crib where she has slept since the baby was born. Girl refuses to budge, because Girl senses what nobody else knows: something is catastrophically wrong. Told in lean, luminous prose, and inspired by a real life rescue, Miracle on Wolf Hollow Lane is a riveting story about one dog’s power of fortitude and gritty determination to live, to beat the odds, to return home, and maybe, just maybe, save the family from impending tragedy.OTHER BEST SELLING AND AWARD-WINNING BOOKS BY BLAKE O'CONNOR:Trust MeUnspoken Bond

     After the unfortunate events that took place in Britain, Jacob Hunter is no longer certain of many things, but this ill-fated truth is one he understands implicitly. Having spent months battling his addiction to the all-powerful blue orb, a device capable of traveling through time but equally adept at breaking a man’s mind, Jacob has finally succumbed to it. Once aided by loyal companions and the woman he loves, Jacob has abandoned everyone he has ever trusted, his mind warped by the orb’s influence. However, recently given new clues concerning the orb’s potential, Jacob departs for Rome, where he now knows a second orb lay hidden, waiting to be reunited with the orb he already possesses. Accompanied only by Rome’s manipulative empress, Agrippina the Younger, the pair journey to Rome where they hope to discover the secret to the orb’s power, but a destructive truth lies behind what they seek, one he may not be fully prepared to combat… But Jacob is not the only one about to embark on a daring quest. Having been abandoned and left without direction in the hinterlands of ancient Britain, Jacob’s sister, Diana, must find it in herself to rally Jacob’s jilted friends and corral an enraged Helena, the woman he loves, who carries her own mysterious secret after her life was miraculously saved at the brink of death. Unprepared for the responsibility suddenly thrust on her by Jacob's disappearance, Diana understands that she and her friends must find him before it's too late. Clouded and perverted though his mind may be, she knows her brother all too well. Jacob, tormented and driven beyond rationality, is prepared to sacrifice everything to find the lost orb. Including his life...

    He was on top of the world—until he nearly threw it all away. Meredith Perkins lived a life of luxury, courtesy of her husband’s hard work and diligence, but was isolated from the realities of the working world. Her days were spent decorating their spacious home, lunching with affluent friends, practicing yoga, and shopping in boutiques… Until her husband’s crime turned her world upside down. Meredith found herself hounded by the media, deserted by friends she had counted on for support, and struggling to reconstruct a life for her and her children…But her friends kept their own secrets...How much do you trust your spouse? Do you keep secrets from your partner? How much do you trust your friends? Is everything what it seems on the outside?

    No Zombies. No games. After their hurried escape from the Drake Mountain Facility, Isaac, and his group stumbled upon a farmhouse in a secluded valley. It's what they've been looking for. A place to make their home, both now and in the future.Can it be so easy though? Danger is coming and only time will tell if they have found the salvation they've been seeking or if their dreams will be crushed, leaving them to the same fate as all of those that died before them. This boxed set contains episodes 4-6 of America Falls, a compelling, action-packed series about who we are, and who we have to become in order to survive.What Amazon readers are saying: ★★★★★ "The characters are rich and believable, I was cheering, raging and crying as I read."★★★★★ "The story kind of sneaks up on you and before you know it, the afternoon is gone."★★★★★ "Compelling action! I could not stop reading this series... give me more, more, more!★★★★★  " I LOVED IT ! I couldn't skip words or chapters or paragraphs, I was afraid I would miss something!!!

     He unleashes a series of devastating attacks on the mob designed to destroy their operations before exacting his final revenge. Using his skills as an experienced army sniper, Dan methodically sets out to assassinate those responsible and take down the Brooklyn crime family involved in killing his wife. However his reign of terror and killing leads to a dead end. There seems to be no way out after his mission of revenge is completed. His activities attract attention of an unusual group and they offer an exit path. As events draw to their exciting conclusion and Dan’s options close down around him, will the devil’s bargain he’s offered prove a way out? In Dan Stone we have a new thriller hero. A blue collar kind of guy who’d rather not play the role he’s now called to play no matter how good he is at it.

    Lacy starts on a journey to find to find the man that could change her life. As Lacy gets closer to finding the man, circumstances force her to do something that she will regret for the rest of her life. This explosive coming-of-age story set in the late 1970s is full of twists and turns, forgiveness and courage.