For fans of determined plus-sized heroines and cinnamon-roll bear shifters, A Polar Expedition is the first standalone novella in the Shades of Sanctuary series, where the vibes are cozy, the heat is high, and the mates are monstrous. Grab a cup of tea and snuggle in because while the burn might be slow, the HEA is only a few hours away!

Some people have monsters for a boss, but not everyone has an undead Necromancer Lord at the office. Lily has been the Lich's secretary ever since his evilness took over the company. She loves her job, but she's got some questions about her boss. Like what's under that cloak of ever-billowing. Her wondering intensifies when one day the Lich needs something from her that isn't just scheduling appointments—but a shiver. He needs it for a spell, but it feels like it crosses a line from their usual workplace banter.

When my sister thrifts an aged map with iridescent lettering leading to a town called Ever, I roll my eyes. According to a quick internet search, the town doesn't exist. We only manage to find it with the help of a sexy gas station owner who offers to come for me if I call him. Swoon. I quickly learn that Shepherd isn't actually human; nobody in town is. News flash—he's a gargoyle—a dominant, possessive, crème brûlée-loving monster. That should terrify me, but something about him keeps me coming back.

When I had nothing left to lose, I traveled to the hut in the woods, where no one dared approach. The witch who lived there recognized the darkness in my soul and took me under her wing to witness her reign of terror firsthand, and eventually, to inherit her legacy as my own. Now, I’m the monster they fear, the one humans avoid at all costs. In this welcome isolation, I've attempted to forget my past and the future that was taken from me. Until three men appear, somehow able to break through my protective wards and see me in my true form.

I swear I was only looking for a roommate. Just someone to watch TV and eat dinner with. Nothing… romantic. No way. But when I see all these humans gazing at me with open adoration and blatant lust and other things that make me wildly uncomfortable, I realize what a terrible mistake this is. Until I spot the one human woman in the group who is definitely not pleased to see me. In fact, she's scowling at me. She looks really, really annoyed. I'm kind of into it.

I didn't think pulling off for a quick bite to eat in a tiny town in the middle of nowhere would change everything. I was wrong. Now, I'm running through the forest wearing nothing but a red cloak, being hunted by wolves. I'm desperate, terrified, and not ready to die. When they attack, I know this is it. Except…it isn't. Because the den of wolves that bite me somehow turns into men. Men who swear I'm just like them—a shifter. And as much as I don't want to believe them, I'm not sure they're wrong.

Dahlia Abernathy has only known revenge. When her parents were killed at an early age by vampires, Dahlia spent the rest of her life under the thumb of the Witch's Guild being trained to kill them. Her latest mission sends her undercover to a prestigious music academy in Venice, Italy. Her goal? To kill Professor Valtu Aminoff, her teacher and the notorious vampire who inspired Bram Stoker's Dracula. But getting close to a dangerous vampire like Professor Aminoff is one thing. Falling for him is another.

One of the many engineers that keep Beta, the city under the sea, running, Mira only wants to make her family proud and to prove herself worthy. She knows the mysterious city better than anyone and it's her dream to help it flourish. Then, on a solo job in an abandoned section of the city, she encounters a monster of legend: an undine, a dangerous merman from an ancient civilization, long forgotten.

She spends her days chasing around her high-energy, half-shifter toddler and her nights working full-time trying to make ends meet. Oh, and add in the absolute cluster of a situation her ex dumped in her lap on his way out? Well, that's just icing on the cake. With virtually no options left, Emerson heads for Haven, a sanctuary city for monsters and humans alike. Survival means taking a job at The Monster's Den—a club that caters to the inhuman residents of her new home. But freedom comes with complications of its own.

Jamie Canning has never been able to figure out how he lost his closest friend. Four years ago, his tattooed, wisecracking, rule-breaking roommate cut him off without an explanation. So what if things got a little weird on the last night of hockey camp the summer they were 18? It was just a little drunken foolishness. Nobody died.

Tabitha Mathews has never had much luck with men. Her past relationships only left her heart aching and her self-esteem beaten down. But who needs them? She’s doing just fine on her own. She has a booming home business, an adorable, mischievous dog, and she just became a first-time homeowner…right next door to the hottest man she’s ever seen. Oh, did she mention that he happens to be an alien? An alien with dreamy, glowing eyes, wicked fangs and claws, and a tail. But she’s not supposed to know that.

Trust no one. I learn that the hard way after hockey star Carter Masters stabs me in the back and turns our rival school against me. Suddenly, I'm public enemy number one at Framingham State. Just a year later, that's exactly where I'm forced to enroll. No one has forgotten what I did. The anti-Sydney campaign is led by two gorgeous, psycho hockey players. Oliver Ruiz, captain, and Penn Walker, the devastating goalie.

According to the FBI, I was considered a serial murderer after three kills. What do they call me after fifty-two? They call me the Silencer. One final bullet would have been all it took to stop me from taking another soul, and I would have been doing Meridian City a service by pulling that trigger. An angel crying for help stopped me, and that night, I took three lives for her. Then three turned into eight. Then eight turned into twenty. Twenty turned into twenty-one. Twenty-one turned into twenty-three.

King Midas rescued me. Dug me out of the slums and placed me on a pedestal. I'm called his precious. His favored. I'm the woman he Gold-Touched to show everyone that I belong to him. To show how powerful he is. He gave me protection, and I gave him my heart. And even though I don't leave the confines of the palace, I'm safe. Until war comes to the kingdom and a deal is struck.

Once upon a time, there was a little boy. His belly full of laughter, his life full of joy. Until one day, something changed; stripped his innocence away. The hole inside making space for the devil to come and play.

Ryland Grace is the sole survivor on a desperate, last-chance mission - and if he fails, humanity and the Earth itself will perish. Except that right now, he doesn't know that. He can't even remember his own name, let alone the nature of his assignment or how to complete it. All he knows is that he's been asleep for a very, very long time. And he's just been awakened to find himself millions of miles from home, with nothing but two corpses for company.

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.

Six days ago, astronaut Mark Watney became one of the first people to walk on Mars. Now, he's sure he'll be the first person to die there. After a dust storm nearly kills him and forces his crew to evacuate while thinking him dead, Mark finds himself stranded and completely alone with no way to even signal Earth that he’s alive - and even if he could get word out, his supplies would be gone long before a rescue could arrive. But Mark isn't ready to give up yet.

Inheriting your uncle's supervillain business is more complicated than you might think. Particularly when you discover who's running the place. Charlie's life is going nowhere fast. A divorced substitute teacher living with his cat in a house his siblings want to sell, all he wants is to open a pub downtown, if only the bank will approve his loan. Then his long-lost uncle Jake dies and leaves his supervillain business (complete with island volcano lair) to Charlie. But becoming a supervillain isn't all giant laser death rays and lava pits.

Jazz Bashara is a criminal. Well, sort of. Life on Artemis, the first and only city on the moon, is tough if you're not a rich tourist or an eccentric billionaire. So smuggling in the occasional harmless bit of contraband barely counts, right? Not when you've got debts to pay and your job as a porter barely covers the rent. Everything changes when Jazz sees the chance to commit the perfect crime, with a reward too lucrative to turn down.

On the eve of the autumn equinox, unicorn shifter Sybil Vandeleur is kidnapped and stolen away to the Kingdom of Shadowvale, charged with treason against the crown. Only, she has never committed any crimes. Aramis Adrastos, crown prince of Shadowvale, is told otherwise. Tasked by his father to capture the leader of a rebel group, he corners the woman planning to infiltrate the palace and take down the kingdom from the inside.

They say you can never go back… ‘Course, I never wanted to return. It took me years to age out. Once I made it, I took off and never turned around. Trust me, there were only three reasons I managed to survive there as long as I did and they abandoned me as soon as they were able. I’d like to say I didn’t blame them, but that would be a lie. I had zero desire to return. Yet here I was, on the road to Northland chasing a story cause my editor told me kids were disappearing… again.

One hundred years ago, the Eternals, 13 men and women closer to gods than mortals, stood against the greatest threat the world had ever faced. They died. All save for one who managed to flee with the enemy leader’s weapon, a cursed blade of incredible power. This is a battle he fights alone, for after they defeated the Eternals, the enemy used their magic to pose as their conquered opponents, taking over rule of the world in their stead. For the last 100 years, the people have believed that the legendary Eternals triumphed, that they are safe. Only the wanderer knows the truth .

n the quaint town of Eldridge, where the air is thick with the scent of pine and nostalgia, a veil of mystery drapes itself over the landscape like a silken shroud. The night sky, an endless canvas painted with shimmering stars, beckons to those who dare to dream. Here, in this enchanting realm where time seems to pause, young astronomer Jenny Hart stumbles upon an ancient telescope hidden away in her late grandfather's attic—a relic steeped in secrets and celestial whispers. As she brushes off layers of dust that have settled like forgotten memories, intricate carvings emerge from the ...

Magical Girl Understudy Anika DuPont has finally made it to the minor leagues on an Earth-wide reality show created to entertain Ilneat alien children. She's got bigger ambitions though. When Tokyexico University offers her and her girlfriend, Bianca—the superhero Fursona—spots in an elite associate's program, they're quick to sign up; this could be their ticket to the major leagues. Meanwhile, as minor leaguers, they're solely responsible for keeping their villains in check, and failure could hand the supervillain group 3V1L control of whole districts.

Light years from home, an off-the-books corporate mission beyond the boundary goes horribly wrong, and the crew’s starship crashes onto an alien world that shouldn’t exist. To make matters worse, they trigger an ominous light that appears in the sky, and provoke the native wildlife. Though saved from disaster, the survivors learn they’ve moved out of the frying pan and into the fire.

Living a life of grinding poverty in the General Laborer class, Alice's only hope was the System would someday notice her and reward her hard work. That day arrives when she discovers a System-seed, a one-time chance to change from the lowest to the highest of classes. Now, she is a rare minion-master in charge of an ever-growing horde of dragons. Dragons that will not stay small and cute forever. As each grows and multiplies, so does her power.

When Wren Jacobi sets eyes on Wolf Hall Academy’s newest inductee, all he sees is an easy mark. A reserved little girl with a target painted on her back. He knows nothing of my troubled past, though. Nothing of my mother’s suspicious death or the horrific treatment I’ve had to endure at the hands of my psychotic father. And he has no idea of the lengths that I, unassuming little Elodie Stillwater, will go to in order to break the savage beast who dreams of breaking me first.

Humans and dragons are at war, and I am a pawn in the battle. Princess of a dying land, my life is not my own, and a marriage to a vicious, dragon-hunting prince will save my people from deadly famine or death by fire. But before I can vow my life to a monster, dragons drop screaming from the sky with a single aim. End the alliance. Kill me. I welcome the flames, relieved to burn instead of rot. But the flames never come.

Mercenary captain Sabine Giroux knew that death was a constant companion in her line of work, and when it finally happened, she wasn’t surprised. What surprised her was that she didn’t stay dead. Brought back as an undead revenant by the god Gnessos, Sabine is tasked with stopping a foe that seeks to siphon the power of death and destroy everything she holds dear in the process.

Aspiring painter Alden Oakes is invited to join a mysterious art commune in Arkham: the New Colony. When celebrated Spanish surrealist Juan Hugo Balthazarr visits the colony, Alden and the other artists quickly fall under his charismatic spell. Balthazarr throws a string of decadent parties for Arkham’s social elite, conjuring arcane illusions which blur the boundaries between nightmare and reality. Only slowly does Alden come to suspect that Balthazarr’s mock rituals are intended to break through those walls and free what lies beyond. Alden must act, but it might be too late.

Hi, I'm Eve Wakefield, twenty-five years old, professional caterer, recently abducted by aliens alongside my best friend. I'm also completely and utterly screwed. Lost on a jungle planet. Rooming in a downed spaceship with a dragon dude. Being hunted by a moth man with demon eyes and vampire teeth. Begging for help from a tentacle-tailed fox man who also happens to be… a space cowboy?

A man who was forced to become an Assassin is interrupted just as he was to kill the last impediment to get to the Senator who sent him down the path. Earth has been chosen for Integration into the Multi-Versal System and reality itself will shift to a post apocalyptic scenario. It will not stop him from keeping the promise to end the Senator and bring justice for the broken women he left behind.

Port Royal, South Carolina, was my home. I was born there. I fell in love there. And I nearly died there. I never thought I'd go back. Now, after so many years, I have to return to bury the man who made my life a living hell. Some nights, I used to cry myself to sleep, praying my father would die. Other nights were different. Other nights, there was him. Callan Cross.

Elania's life takes an unexpected turn when demon-worshiping cultists summon her to their world, aiming to revive their dead god. When their hated foe strikes, she escapes into Eladu's darkest depths. Amidst savage predators and underground monsters, Elania discovers her newfound abilities are both a formidable ally and a haunting burden that threatens to reshape her very soul. To climb higher towards civilization means she must contend with anti-demon sentiment and those who would use her as a source of arcane power. But Elania is not alone in her struggles.