Nineteen-year-old Baran Arslan gets a shocking Christmas present from his father. When Turkish businessman Marat Arslan discovers his son is gay, he flies him from Istanbul to New York City for the holiday - and abandons him. Cut off from access to his family and any funds Baran must figure out how to survive. Fortunately, he speaks English and soon meets a young man who directs him to Rainbow Haven, a homeless shelter for gay young men.

Randy Miller wants nothing more than to make a living selling the fantastic cookies he dreams up when he’s not working as a web designer. He’s always loved baking, but he’s afraid of taking the leap from hobby to business. Mostly he’s afraid of failing, and of Eli coming up with a better recipe. Eli Canton has a crush. A big crush on someone who avoids him whenever he can. Eli loves everything about Randy, even if he’s grouchy and seems to work way too much. Eli knows he’s not all bad and hopes to have a chance with him someday.

Miguel needs a daddy because he can’t protect himself from gangs and bullies. His mother sends him to the Jersey shore for the summer, away from the gangs bullying him. Miguel needs a daddy for the summer because he can’t take care of himself.

Hudson Carter returned to Foggy Basin and now owns his family’s hardware store Nuts and Bolts. He not only gained a new business when he moved home, he also found the love of his life.

The four Stroud brothers were all born into magic, and when they all come of age their powers will be revealed. It all sounds like a fairytale, but not all magic is good. Their mother embraced the darkness and paid with her life. Finn Stroud was happy working on the family farm until the day his father announced it was time for them all to go out and find their place in the world, and their magic. He and his four brothers knew this was the tradition of the Imagi people who were meant to wield elemental magic, but Finn soon finds how ill prepared he was for the real world.

Steve Reynolds prefers to avoid people, and working as a tech guy at one of the big box electronic stores has guaranteed that. He does the repairs and lets the person at the counter deal with the rest, it’s perfect. Until this year, when the store is downsizing and he’s laid off just before Thanksgiving.

Jack Hulbert has worked at the hardware store Nuts and Bolts since he was sixteen. He had big dreams of leaving town and traveling, but five years later, not much has changed, and he worries he'll end up living the rest of his life in the small town he was born in. Hudson Carter has been working in Sacramento for the past ten years, managing a big box store. He left Foggy Basin for college in the city and he never once looked back. His parents have owned the hardware store in town for two generations, and he'd hoped to avoid the same fate.

What’s a loyal son worth? Jasha Kozlov is apparently worth two hundred thousand dollars, both to his father, who is deeply in debt to ruthless businessman Kaleb Bronson and to Bronson himself. When Valentin Kozlov can’t come up with the cash to pay his debt to real estate magnate Kaleb Bronson, Kaleb offers to accept Jasha in lieu of the cash. Jasha is stunned but agrees to the deal in order to save his father’s life.

Jack Mathews wanted to get away from the city and enjoy some time on the slopes. He’d rented a nice cabin in the mountains and was more than ready to spend some time alone before the holidays. Being from a large family, Ronnie Diaz decided this was a good year for him to spend a white Christmas with his dog, Chewie. He’s looking forward to some peace and quiet, but no amount of planning would have helped when the weather took a turn for the worse.

Luka trades the short-term approval of his lover by helping with a home robbery for the gilded cage of Captain Clarke's cruise ship. A year of servitude, a court-mandated reprieve from prison, all thanks to his influential fathers deal. Sadly, Lukas immediate future includes scrubbing the decks and hauling suitcases, a stark contrast to the prison sentence he could have faced alongside his lover, Maleko. Haunted by the ghost of his lovers absence and his own guilt, Luka grapples with newfound tenderness coming from the least expected person.

My world flipped upside down when my Dad suddenly remarried. What ten-year-old wants that surprise dropped on him? I wasn't expecting my stepbrother to become my best friend, my everything, and the source of my utter confusion. I didn't realize he was hiding something from me, and I didn't mean to see it. It made me question everything.

Mael Nguyen doesn’t believe in fate, but he does believe in magic. His entire life revolves around the study of the arcane—spells and rituals, potions and illusions. As far as Mael is concerned, all he needs is a book in one hand and magic in the other. Anything outside of his bookshop, hidden away in the streets of New Orleans, isn’t worth his attention. But when a strange human stumbles into his life and hires him for a job, bringing along his blinding smile and curious magic, Mael finds that Fate is just as dangerous as Magic.

An undercover officer goes missing and the body of a young man is found mutilated in a shop doorway. Is there a connection? Returning to work after a short convalescence, DCI Brendan Moran’s suspicions are aroused when a senior officer insists on freezing Moran out and handling the investigation himself.

My death day is sacred. I spend it the same way I wish I could spend every day: alone in my isolated cabin, with a glass of wine in one hand and a book in the other. But when the scent of human blood shatters my solitude, I find James—unflappable, undeniably gorgeous, and utterly unafraid of me. He makes my blood boil and he stirs desires dormant for over a century. I must protect him, even if it costs me everything.

He'd lost everything. No place to live, nowhere to go and now, he'd lost the one man, Buck, he'd ever loved and who ever loved him in return. Now, Nathan has been kidnapped by a werewolf who he knows has "plans" for him. But will Nathan live through the night? And is there more to the man he loved really than who he said he was?

Two little girls stand with their heads bowed in my living room. I’m told they’re my granddaughters. Daisy is nine, and Alice seven. Daisy is the spitting image of her mother. This is the first time I’ve met them since my daughter and I fell out after she married that waste of space, Vince. They’ve come to live with me because their mother — my daughter — was murdered. In her own home while they slept close by. I think Vince killed her. But the police can’t prove it. I’ve always known he was no good. He treated my daughter like dirt. I said he’d cheat on her — but she wouldn’t listen.

Who is Audrey Hoedemaker? It's a question her sister Maureen has heard more times than she can count, and she doesn't know what the short answer would be. Little sister, troubled teen, backpacker, musical theatre coach, con artist, childcare worker. Murderer. A tragic, traumatic childhood casts a long shadow on the Hoedemaker sisters. Maureen has worked hard to move beyond the violence of the past and build a good, honest life for herself. Audrey, however, just can't seem to do the same, careening from one state of chaos to another.

Lucas knows the perfect night entails just three things: video games, wine, and pad thai. Peanuts are a must! Other people? Not so much. Why complicate things when he’s happy alone? Then one day the apartment board, a vexing trio of authority, rings his doorbell. And Lucas’s solitude takes a startling hike. They demand to see his frying pan. Someone left one next to the recycling room overnight, and instead of removing the errant object, as Lucas suggests, they insist on finding the guilty party. But their plan backfires. Colossally.

It’s 1984, and life has changed beyond recognition. Airstrip One, formerly known as Great Britain, is a place where Big Brother is always watching, and nobody can hide. Except, perhaps, for Winston Smith. Whilst working at the Ministry of Truth, rewriting history, he secretly dreams of freedom. And in a world where love and sex are forbidden, where it’s hard to distinguish between friend and foe, he meets Julia and O’Brien and vows to rebel.

The 13 chapters of The Art of War, each devoted to one aspect of warfare, were compiled by the high-ranking Chinese military general, strategist, and philosopher Sun-Tzu. In spite of its battlefield specificity, The Art of War has found new life in the modern age, with leaders in fields as wide and far-reaching as world politics, human psychology, and corporate strategy finding valuable insight in its timeworn words.