All she has ever known are the artificial confines of underground fallout shelter, the ARC. Under the Council’s rule, ruthless officials roam the hallways, community comes first and everyone lives in fear of failing their annual testing. With one simple blood test you could be taken away without any warning or a word of goodbye.There are only a few people in the ARC who Elle truly cares about and she desperately tries to keep them at arm’s length away for fear of losing someone else. Especially, her best friend Sebastian who she denies her feelings for, even from herself. Chilling secrets and mysterious disappearances plague the ARC, but Elle would never dare to voice the forbidden questions that linger on her lips. That is until they take the wrong person.No one is truly safe in the ARC and Elle is about to experience her own personal apocalypse. With nothing left to lose she will risk everything to uncover the truth about the tainted.Will she find what she's looking for or are some secrets better left buried deep underground?Don't miss the first book in this young adult series!

    And only one man can stop it. The year is 2026 and up and down the Eastern seaboard of the United States a virulent toxin is killing people. What was initially believed to be food poisoning turns out to be a terrorist attack using genetically modified insects to poison the American food supply. For Gabriel Marx, news of the poisoning is eerily familiar. A Marine Corps veteran and trained viticulturist, Gabriel is now working as a vintner at Landmark Estates Winery in California, but was once part of a secret CIA effort to use insect vectors to destroy the Afghan Taliban’s poppy industry. He’s long feared that genetically synthesized toxins delivered by insects could be used as a terror weapon. One day a stream of black SUVs carrying the Secretary of Homeland Security shows up at the vineyard, and Gabriel is recruited to help the government respond to the attack. He is drawn into a complex web of rogue scientists with links to ISIS and Chechen terrorists, and discovers that an even more devastating attack is imminent. Merging cutting-edge synthetic biology with global politics and international terrorism, The Bug Hunter is both thriller and cautionary tale of how advances in technology can be used to turn nature itself into a devastating weapon.

    Collette's suspicions and jealousies arise, but are tempered from the guilt of her own infidelity. The field slave, Tabari, finally escapes but is hunted by two saddle tramps and the law. Throughout it all, the scalawag Doctor disrupts everyone's lives, managing to line his own pockets all the while. Set in and around New Orleans, this deeply moving tale of scandal, sex, and suspense follows the voyages of these very different characters in the 1850s.

    The final megalomaniac is dead. The universe stepped back from the edge of extinction. The intergalactic war between the forces of Good and Evil versus the rest of us is over. Fortunately the rest of us won. Welcome to the universe once we’ve conquered the urge to control everything or else blow it up. But even a universe at peace is still a very dangerous place. 22 years ago a spaceship crashed on Earth Seven. One of the boys that found the wreckage is on the cusp of uniting the planet under his rule. By convention, all planets in contact quarantine are called Earth and given a numerical designation. For example, if you are reading this on Amazon, you are on Earth Five. The war taught us that we can never let barbarians loose in the universe again. Earth Seven is thousands of years from joining the Federation. They are at a medieval level of development and have met none of the contact criteria. Allor heals the sick with alien technology and they love him for it. Allor promises to end the religious wars. His sister runs an informant network and collects the severed heads of his rivals. His mother has created a religion to worship him. Oh, dear. Koven Modi, a rookie field historian, is sent to investigate the use of advanced comms technology on Earth Seven, a Prim-3 planet. Koven is well-armed, well-trained and well-scared. War is constant on Earth Seven. His goals are simple. Don’t get killed and don’t get dumped by his girlfriend. Staying alive may be easier. Under other circumstances, Allor and Koven would be good friends. But their roles make them enemies. Calcus Majoris has deteremined that there is a 62.37% probability that Earth Five will self-destruct. Read Earth Seven before your planet blows up Your money back if your planet self-destructs before you read my book. Cursing: Yes Imaginary Sex: Yes Satirical Viewpoints: Overwhelmingly

    Jahana continues to struggle with her grief a year after her mother's death. She wishes she knew her maternal relatives, but her mother refused to talk about them. To help her move on, Jahana's husband buys her a DNA kit. When the results come in, she discovers more than she bargained for. Her DNA reveals a family secret she would like to ignore, but can't. The Lie is too big.

    Abby Wilmore, attempts to escape her past by starting over at the Grand Canyon Clinic. Silently battling her own health issues, Abby struggles with adjusting to the demands of this unique rural location. She encounters everything from squirrel bites to suicides to an office plagued by strong personalities. While tending to unprepared tourists, underserved locals, and her own mental trials, Abby finds herself entangled in an unexpected romance and trapped amidst a danger even more treacherous than the foreboding desert landscape.Sandra Cavallo Miller’s debut novel transports readers to the beautiful depths of Arizona and weaves an adventurous and heartwarming tale of the courage and strength it takes to overcome personal demons and to find love.

    Ruminate the searing to the sultry as you absorb this haunting lilt of burning carnality. The poems ignite rapid and surprising shifts in focus and perspective as they twist and turn your preconceptions, allowing the implications to linger in your thoughts.Vignette verses explore the workings of love, nature, spirituality, and dreams with sprinklings of tarot symbolism and jazzy blues. Together these verses contemplate the subtle underpinnings of a soft earth.Hear what readers and reviewers have said about Frank Watson’s poetry:"This collection is truly captivating and beautifully written." —Lenore Jordan, NetGalley (In the Dark, Soft Earth)“Compact poems replete with stunning and visually arresting images.” —Kirkus Reviews (The Dollhouse Mirror)“Watson left me wanting more. More poems. More imagery. More blue nights and haunted dreams. More weeping wood and moonlit ecstasy.” —The Portsmouth Review (The Dollhouse Mirror)“This book was HAUNTING. There is no other word for it. Fantasy, romance, contemporary, mystery, and historical all rolled into one; each poem brought all of my emotions bubbling to the surface. It’s not something I will soon forget.” —Shawna Brooks, Goodreads (The Dollhouse Mirror)“A collection that is both sensuous and graceful; I found myself drifting into a tranquil garden of dancing words and imagery. The eloquence is revealed in the rhythm as each page prances past the reader. A highly recommended compilation of words become art.” —Patricia Zarounas Murphy (Seas to Mulberries)

    All of the victims share a dark secret that dies with them. No one survives... Not until seventeen-year-old Gee.Drugged and wounded, Georgia escapes painting a bloody trail in the snow behind her. In the process of dragging herself to safety, she’s able to save the life of a second teenage victim, Josie. But the first survivors of the maniacal murderer leave detectives with more questions than answers.Gee’s memory blocks may hold the key to stopping a killer who has taken the lives of 12 people. As all parties struggle to find the missing pieces, the killer’s timeline is escalating and he’s straying from his pattern. Can the two victims team up with a local detective to stop the Catoctin Creek killer’s deadly spree? Or won’t they be as lucky the second time around?“A taut game of cat and mouse played on a razor’s edge. One where you’re never sure who is the cat and who is the mouse. Lime Kiln Road comes at you like that car in your rearview mirror that’s been following you for too long, the one that keeps inching closer until it’s riding your bumper and there’s no escape.”~Matthew FitzSimmonsUSA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Authorof The Short Drop, Poisonfeather, and Cold HarborThis novel was originally soft released in September 2018 with a title of Broken Betties. Content, book matter, cover, and title have been updated.

    In an era where automated systems and A.I. robots perform most work obligations, scores of humans have lost their societal value. As these displaced people struggle with their new reality, Eric sympathizes with their hardship. Once a neuropsychologist, his career ended when medical tech pushed him into obsolescence. Now a community therapist, he spends his days working with the displaced, helping them craft meaning in a world that no longer needs them. Then one day, a robot unexpectedly marches into the counseling center for mental health services. Eric is forced to work with the embodiment of what he loathes, and while doing so, he uncovers a damning secret. With his life at a low point, he shelves his professional obligations and investigates the revelation. However, he quickly learns that solving the mystery will only be possible with help from an unlikely source.

    On the other side of North America, a young survivalist is leaving the seclusion of his cabin deep in the woods, traveling with his aging canine companion, Winston. For individual reasons, these men are traveling east, where the fragmented lives of a small number of survivors will soon be decided by the choices of a corrupt few. Although they are not yet aware, the strength that resides inside them will soon be tested, and destiny will call for their fates to be forever intertwined.

     Surrounded by unimaginable adverse forces, one strong woman would ultimately lead her entire family to survive. Beautiful Hero is an autobiographical narrative told from a daughter’s perspective. The story centers around Meiyeng, the eponymous Beautiful Hero, and her innate ability to sustain everyone in her family. She shepherded her entire family through starvation, diseases, slavery and massacres in war-torn Cambodia to forge a new life in America. Over two million people—a third of the country’s population—fell victim to a devastating genocide in Cambodia. The rise of the Khmer Rouge posed not merely a single challenge to survival, but rather a series of nightmarish obstacles that required constant circumvention, outmaneuvering, and exceptional fortitude from those few who would survive the regime intact. The story eerily unravels the layers of atrocity and evil unleashed upon the people, providing a clear view of this horrific and violent time of the Cambodian revolution.br>

    Inspired by a real-life case of an IVF laboratory mix-up.Grace and Dan Arden are in their forties and have been on the IVF treadmill since the day they got married. Six attempts have yielded no results, and with each failure a little piece of their hope dies. Priya Laghari and her husband Nick Archer are being treated at the same fertility clinic, and while they don’t face the same time pressure as the Ardens, the younger couple have their own problems. On the same day that Priya is booked for her next IVF cycle, Grace goes in for her final, last-chance embryo transfer. Two weeks later, both women get their results. A year on, angry and heartbroken, one of the women learns her embryo was implanted in the other’s uterus and must make a devastating choice: live a childless life knowing her son is being raised by strangers or seek custody of a baby who has been nurtured and loved by another couple.

    Debra, an unhappy billionaire’s wife, decides to resurrect the 18th-century trend of hiring a man to live on their property as an ornamental garden hermit. An elderly serial killer, bored by her dull nursing home existence, finds a deadly new purpose when her high school nemesis ends up living down the hall. In 1953 a young couple drives to Makeout Point where instead of an evening of heavy petting, they find mountain lions, a man with no gaps in his teeth, and the opportunity to kill Henry Kissinger. Within these pages, a man tries to date after losing his wife to The Salem Witch Trials, a Wi-Fi router gains sentience, a series of cardboard boxes oozing with smoky-sweet baked beans mysteriously appear at a woman’s front door, and a Chuck E. Cheese is haunted by the spirit of Princess Diana.Boldly strange, deliciously satirical, and laugh-out-loud hilarious, Penny Pinching Tips for the Morally Bankrupt swings from the grim and ghastly to the exquisite and lovely. This one-of-a-kind book takes the reader on a surreal journey through the compulsory despair of daily life and concludes that the only sensible reaction to that much pain is laughter.

    Based on little-known history, this timely book will strike a chord with readers of Fiona Davis, Tracey Lange, and Marie Benedict.Based on the true story of America’s only leper colony, The Second Life of Mirielle West brings vividly to life the Louisiana institution known as Carville, where thousands of people were stripped of their civil rights, branded as lepers, and forcibly quarantined throughout the entire 20th century. For Mirielle West, a 1920’s socialite married to a silent film star, the isolation and powerlessness of the Louisiana Leper Home is an unimaginable fall from her intoxicatingly chic life of bootlegged champagne and the star-studded parties of Hollywood’s Golden Age. When a doctor notices a pale patch of skin on her hand, she’s immediately branded a leper and carted hundreds of miles from home to Carville, taking a new name to spare her family and famous husband the shame that accompanies the disease.At first she hopes her exile will be brief, but those sent to Carville are more prisoners than patients and their disease has no cure. Instead she must find community and purpose within its walls, struggling to redefine her self-worth while fighting an unchosen fate.As a registered nurse, Amanda Skenandore’s medical background adds layers of detail and authenticity to the experiences of patients and medical professionals at Carville – the isolation, stigma, experimental treatments, and disparate community. A tale of repulsion, resilience, and the Roaring ‘20s, The Second Life of Mirielle West is also the story of a health crisis in America’s past, made all the more poignant by the author’s experiences during another, all-too-recent crisis.

    NOT WITHOUT USE OF FORCE.California, 2020. After a severe injury, ace mecha designer and pilot Reiko Morikawa is recruited to a secret organization plotting a revolt against the corrupt governor (and Nazi sympathizer) of the United States of Japan. When their plan to save the USJ from itself goes awry, the mission is only saved from failure because the governor is killed by an assassin known as Bloody Mary. But the assassin isn't satisfied with just the governor.Bishop Wakana used to be a cop. Now he's an agent of the Tokko, the secret police. Following the trail of a Nazi scientist, Bishop discovers a web of weapons smuggling, black market mecha parts--and a mysterious assassin. This killer once hunted Nazis but now seems to be targeting the USJ itself. As the leaders of the United States of Japan come to realize the devil's bargain they made in their uneasy alliance with the Nazis, Bishop and Reiko are hot on the trail of Bloody Mary, trying to stop her before it's too late.