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V is for Villainous by Danielle Allen


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Only Time Will Tell


Jeffrey Archer - 2011
    But then an unexpected gift wins him a scholarship to an exclusive boys’ school, and his life will never be the same again.As he enters into adulthood, Harry finally learns how his father really died, but the awful truth only leads him to question, was he even his father? Is he the son of Arthur Clifton, a stevedore who spent his whole life on the docks, or the firstborn son of a scion of West Country society, whose family owns a shipping line?This introductory novel in Archer’s ambitious series The Clifton Chronicles includes a cast of colorful characters and takes us from the ravages of the Great War to the outbreak of the Second World War, when Harry must decide whether to take up a place at Oxford or join the navy and go to war with Hitler’s Germany. From the docks of working-class England to the bustling streets of 1940 New York City, Only Time Will Tell takes readers on a journey through to future volumes, which will bring to life one hundred years of recent history to reveal a family story that neither the reader nor Harry Clifton himself could ever have imagined.

Office Hours


Katrina Jackson - 2020
    Deja Evans, it sucks. Hard. Every day. Between the class prep, the meetings, grading student work, trying to find time to complete her own research and the meetings, she didn't have a life, she had a digital calendar that decided whether she got to wallow in her feelings at 3pm or 7pm, on Thursday or maybe Sunday. And the worst meeting of them all was the two-and-a-half-hour, once a month Faculty Senate, which was drier than her dating life, duller than her skin in winter and far longer than her attention span. The only thing that made those never-ending Faculty Senate meetings bearable was watching Dr. Alejandro Mendoza, Associate Professor of History, breathe. For years, Deja had harbored a kind of secret crush on the sexiest man on campus never thinking that he would ever feel the same, until one unexpected day, they have a steamy after hours encounter in her office and suddenly her life seems much more exciting.That lasts about half a minute. Over the course of a hectic academic year, Deja tries to survive her classes, help her students, prepare herself for her third-year review, and most important of all, she has to learn how to get out of her own way and just let Alejandro love her.

Riding Dirty


M'Renee Allen - 2018
    Being a mechanic and part of an all-female bike club means, Antoinette ‘Toni’ Keys is used to men looking at her and saying, “Hey pretty girl, you sure you can fix that engine?” Or, “Hey doll, you sure you can handle all that bike?” So, when an outlaw biker name Dirt steps into her shop and refuses to allow a female to work on his bike, she’s determined to show him she’s the best mechanic for the job. What she doesn’t plan on, is the instant attraction she has for him. She’s not looking for love. She doesn’t have time for a tattooed bad boy and the trouble that follows him everywhere he goes. She has her own problems with a rival bike club. Yet, she’s finding it hard to resist his wicked smile and his sexy tattoos. He knew he was in trouble the moment he laid eyes on her. Dietrich Tate, aka Dirt, is a third generation Reaper. His club is the most important thing in his life. He’s loyal to his brothers. When one of them goes rogue with the club’s money, Dirt is the one chosen to hunt him down. Instead of finding his target, he finds a sexy brown-skinned mechanic with the prettiest smile he’s ever seen. He knows his club wouldn’t approve of him seeing her. Yet, he can’t resist her. Spending time with her makes him forget his troubled past. However, it also brings trouble to her doorstep. Trouble she wants no part of. Trouble that puts her entire club and her family in danger. Trouble that makes her not want to be around him. Dirt vows to protect her from his vicious crew. Imagine his surprise when he learns she can be just as vicious as they are. That only makes him want her more. ~Are you ready for a ride you won’t forget?~

Perfume Girl


Vanessa Fewings - 2018
    A seductive suspect. A dangerous romance.Raquel Wren’s world has fallen apart. Her husband has divorced her. Close friends have abandoned her. The money has run out. The pieces of a once idyllic life have completely crumbled. And now, the only thing that can save Raquel from total ruin…...has been stolen.Raquel is the owner of the small town boutique store Perfume Girl, a quaint location offering bottled scents from around the globe, including her own personal formulas. Creating perfume has been a passion since she was a little girl, but her latest work, a scent years in the making, is her masterpiece. The one that will make her mark on the industry and save her life in the process.But now it’s gone. Stolen right from her shop. All would be lost if Raquel didn’t feel she knew who was behind the theft. Devastated to her core, she decides to do something about it. Astor Beauregard is the sexy, enigmatic owner of House of Beauregard, the renowned cologne empire based in the notorious city of South Beach, Miami. It’s within this luxurious kingdom that Raquel will delve to unravel the mystery of the crime, a path that will lead her directly to Astor, sparking an unforgettable passion while uncovering a shocking truth.It’s on the famous, sun-soaked, salsa-fueled streets of South Beach that USA Today Bestselling Author Vanessa Fewings releases PERFUME GIRL, a heart-racing romance novel that will have readers feeling the heat like never before, leaving them soaked and satisfied.

Merged With Him


Kylie Kent - 2021
    A hot nightclub owner with darker interest. Two souls destined to merge as one, can they hold on to each other when someone is out to keep them apart?Alyssa Summers, orphaned and raised within a broken system, is a fighter. She has focused her entire life on one goal, to graduate collage and have a stable, steady career. Her job in one of Sydney’s busiest ER’s keeps her busy and the last thing on her mind is love. She learned the hard way not to rely on anyone other than herself. But when her eyes are captured by a pair of emerald green ones she can’t look away from, everything changes.The Merge is the place to go when looking to unwind and experience an exciting night out. The Ambitious and driven owner Zac Williamson knows what he wants and how to get it, and right now? He wants the beautiful blonde who just stepped into his club. When these two meet the sparks quickly explode into so much more. But are his secrets too twisted for her to accept? And even if she could, will she stay with him when she realizes that being his has put a deadly target on her back?

Her Name Is Knight


Yasmin Angoe - 2021
    Her Name Is Knight is a propulsive character story and action thriller driven by retribution, passion, strength — and coming to terms with your own true self, regardless of what anyone calls you.

The Girl with Stars in Her Eyes: A story of love, loss, and rock-and-roll


Xio Axelrod - 2021
    Seb was a little older, a lot wiser, and he became Toni's way out, promising they'd escape their small town together. Then Seb turned eighteen and split without looking back.Now, Toni B is all grown up and making a name for herself in Philadelphia's indie rock scene. When a friend suggests she try out for the hottest new band in the country, she decides to take a chance. She's in for a surprise when one of the decision-makers turns out to be none other than Seb. Toni can handle it. No problem. Or it wouldn't be if Seb didn't still hold a piece of her heart, not to mention the key to her future.

A Spy in the Struggle


Aya de León - 2020
    So when her prestigious New York law firm is raided by the FBI, Yolanda turns in her corrupt bosses to save her career—and goes to work for the Bureau. Soon she's sent undercover at Red, Black, and Green—an African-American “extremist” activist group back in her California college town. They claim a biotech corporation fueled by Pentagon funding is exploiting the neighborhood. But Yolanda is determined to put this assignment in her win column, head back to corporate law, and regain her comfortable life... Until an unexpected romance opens her heart—and a suspicious death opens her eyes. Menacing dark money forces will do anything to bury Yolanda and the movement. Fueled by memories of who she once was—and what once really mattered most—how can she tell those who’ve come to trust her that she’s been spying? As the stakes escalate, and one misstep could cost her life, Yolanda will have to choose between betraying the cause of her people or invoking the wrath of the country’s most powerful law enforcement agency.

To Buy a Vow


Chencia C. Higgins - 2018
    Her marriage to her college sweetheart has begun to fizzle out, with conversations dwindling down to nothing and intimacy becoming sporadic at best. Unwilling to endure the stigma of being a 30-something divorcee, she does everything in her power to hold onto her marriage, but Chris isn't just on a different page, he's in a whole other book entirely. Despite their disconnect, her vows meant something to her and marriage is supposed to be forever. When all seems lost, she makes a last-ditch effort in hopes of generating results, but what exactly does a Hail Mary look like between friends and lovers?Jermaine Hawkins is nearing the end of a prominent career playing professional basketball and is ready to put his retirement plan into action. That plan includes many things but most important on the list is putting an end to his status as a hermit and starting a family. A chance encounter with a firecracker of a woman makes him think he's found his capital F. But whether that F is for "future" or "frustrating" is to be determined. Can Jermaine convince Nedra that everything happens for a reason while also getting her to give him a chance at something real?

Whiskey & Ribbons


Leesa Cross-Smith - 2018
     Evi—a classically-trained ballerina—was nine months pregnant when her husband Eamon was killed in the line of duty on a steamy morning in July. Now, it is winter, and Eamon's adopted brother Dalton has moved in to help her raise six-month-old Noah. Whiskey & Ribbons is told in three intertwining, melodic voices: Evi in present day, as she’s snowed in with Dalton during a freak blizzard; Eamon before his murder, as he prepares for impending fatherhood and grapples with the danger of his profession; and Dalton, as he struggles to make sense of his life next to Eamon’s, and as he decides to track down the biological father he’s never known. In the vein of Jojo Moyes’ After You, Whiskey & Ribbons explores the life that continues beyond loss, with a complicated brotherly dynamic reminiscent of Elizabeth Strout’s The Burgess Boys. It’s a meditation on grief, hope, motherhood, brotherhood and surrogate fatherhood. Above all, it’s a novel about what it means—and whether it’s possible—to heal.

Slice of Cherry


Dia Reeves - 2011
    The daughters of the infamous Bonesaw Killer, Kit and Fancy are used to feeling like outsiders, and that's just the way they like it. But in Portero, where the weird and wild run rampant, the Cordelle sisters are hardly the oddest or most dangerous creatures around.It's no surprise when Kit and Fancy start to give in to their deepest desire - the desire to kill. What starts as a fascination with slicing open and stitching up quickly spirals into a gratifying murder spree. Of course, the sisters aren't killing just anyone, only the people who truly deserve it. But the girls have learned from the mistakes of their father, and know that a shred of evidence could get them caught. So when Fancy stumbles upon a mysterious and invisible doorway to another world, she opens a door to endless possibilities.

Dark Promise


Nikki Landis - 2016
    An unknown enemy breaks into her apartment only months after her mother's brutal murder. When a handsome stranger saves her life, she's forced into a world she never knew existed. Does she dare to trust her life – and her heart – with a man who walks the endless night?Andre is immediately drawn to the innocent, beguiling human who turns his world upside down. Cursed and soulless, his immortal existence has never brought him this close to his humanity. One look into Mare's haunting eyes and he makes a promise he never expected to keep. Can he save her from the dark fate that awaits?NIGHTBORNE—Dark PromiseDark VengeanceDark PersuasionDark Deception (2022)Bitten: Crimson CovenantCarnage: Ravaged Souls MC

A Life Intercepted


Charles Martin - 2014
    Married to his high school sweetheart and one of the winningest quarterbacks in the history of college football, he was the number one NFL draft pick. But on the night of the draft, he plummeted from the pinnacle of esteem. Falsely accused of a heinous crime with irrefutable evidence, it seemed in an instant all was lost -- his reputation, his career, his freedom, and most devastatingly, the love of his life. Having served his sentence and never played a down of professional football, Matthew leaves prison with one goal -- to find his wife, Audrey, whom no one has seen since the trial. He returns to an unwelcoming reception from his Gardi, Georgia, hometown to learn that Audrey has taken shelter from the media with the nuns at a Catholic school. There she has discovered a young man with the talent to achieve the football career Matthew should have had. All he needs is the right coach. Although helping the boy means Matthew violates the conditions of his release and -- if discovered -- reincarceration for life, he'll take the chance with hope of winning back Audrey's love.

The Secret Stealers


Jane Healey - 2021
    Everything changes when she’s recruited into the Office of Strategic Services by family friend and legendary WWI hero Major General William Donovan.Donovan has faith in her—and in all his “glorious amateurs” who are becoming Anna’s fast friends: Maggie, Anna’s down-to-earth mentor; Irene, who’s struggling to find support from her husband for her clandestine life; and Julia, a cheerful OSS liaison. But the more Anna learns about the organization’s secret missions, the more she longs to be stationed abroad. Then comes the opportunity: go undercover as a spy in the French Resistance to help steal critical intelligence that could ultimately turn the tide of the war.Dispatched behind enemy lines and in constant danger, Anna is filled with adrenaline, passion, and fear. She’s driven to make a difference—for her country and for herself. Whatever the risk, she’s willing to take it to help liberate France from the shadows of occupation and to free herself from the shadows of her former life.

Southie


Courtney Dean - 2020
    The son of a policeman with a drinking and gambling problem and a pill addicted schoolteacher mother who was nothing more than a punching bag for his Pops, Liam never had the best outlook on life or love. But he was always good at one thing.Fighting.His love for fighting brings him face to face with the underworld of South Boston, and his natural skills in the ring catch the eye of the notorious Southie mob boss, Paddy O’Connor. Paddy offers Liam the deal of a lifetime for a young man living in Southie; in return for becoming the notorious mobster’s Enforcer, Paddy would spare his father’s life and cancel the gambling debt his father owes to the mob. With no other choice, Liam agrees to the deal to save his father’s life. Liam’s job as Enforcer brings him to a crossroads when he meets his childhood idol, boxing legend Roland Jennings...and Roland Jennings’ daughter, Camilla, an up-and-coming Boston photographer. Roland tells Liam to stay far away from his daughter. Their relationship wouldn’t be welcomed in the insular, working-class Irish neighborhood and them being together could put Camilla on Paddy’s radar.She’s the one woman he needs to resist.Should resist.