In the blink of an eye, my whole world has collapsed around me. Headed towards my dream vacation, I was snatched right out of the air. My husband, the love of my life, was destroyed right in front of my eyes. He fought bravely trying to protect me from a horror neither one of us could have ever imagined. I find myself standing in the spotlight on a stage.

As a third daughter on the farming colony of Meterion, Susan’s future prospects aren’t too promising. A pretty face, top-notch skills, and hard work mean nothing if your dowry doesn’t include fertile lands. With her 25th birthday approaching, and no suitors, her only way out is to settle for an arranged marriage through the PMA - the Prime Mating Agency. She just never expected to be paired with a grumpy, massive lizardman, and above all not to grow so fond of his scales and quirky ways.

When my sister is chosen for the Monster Mate Hunt—an annual event where two women must sacrifice themselves to the orcs for the good of us all—I volunteer in her place. The orcs hunt me as I bolt through the forest. I'm captured by the gruff, growly Commander Jaus, who expects me to cook and clean, plus sleep in his quarters with him at night, despite insisting he doesn't want a mate. Then something changes, and his dark, brooding gaze turns my way . . .

I accidentally launched an escape pod on my miserable honeymoon—with me on it—and crash-landed in the middle of an alien jungle on a forbidden "emerging civilization" planet, breaking about a hundred Cosmic Syndicate laws. Oh, and I robbed a hot lizard guy with sexy black eyes, the most colorful scales I've ever seen, and a powerful prehensile tail that curls up like a cinnamon roll. Even though I can't understand anything he's saying, my new reptilian friend turns out to be as sweet as honey and spicier than the seasoning he used on the meat I stole from his camp.

Hounded by a necromancer hellbent on appropriating her ancestral lands, Ronika must recover an ancient relic from a cursed mansion to keep her enemy at bay. To do so, she requires an escort. Convincing an enraged wraith to help seems like an impossible task. But she discovers that the being behind the billowing shadows is an honorable protector who moves her in an unexpected fashion.

Scoring a job at the exclusive and secretive Hotel Castle Verna is exactly what I need to pay off my debt and avoid a punishment I might not survive. The guests are a little eccentric, but they are great tippers. All I have to do is ignore the strange sights, smells, and sounds coming from the guest rooms, and I can remain gainfully employed. Simple, right? Except there's one guest at the hotel who's always watching me with his mismatched black and white eyes.

Being kidnapped by aliens is one thing. Being kidnapped by aliens and sent to a prison planet is something infinitely worse. Here in Haven’s prison system, I’m stranded among strangers, enemies, and the most ruthless criminals in the galaxy. There’s no safety for a human woman here, especially not one branded as a murderer. I’m doomed to a fate worse than death. Then, he decides I should be his. His name’s Jutari. He’s seven feet tall, blue, and horned.

When space pirates attack the exploratory spaceship I work on and I'm forced to evacuate in an escape pod, I never expected to crash land on an alien planet. I have no idea where any of my fellow crew members are or if they even got away. I'm entirely alone. Or so I think. Instead, I'm rescued from a fierce predator by a towering purple alien with a tail and color-changing tattoos who ignites strange feelings inside me.

Victoria’s dreams of a cozy life as a small-town doctor come crashing down when the monstrous Kryptids make first contact. The alien invaders have only one goal: to turn Earth into a breeding ground. As she fights to protect her patients in their makeshift hospital, an even more fearsome alien and his beast enter the fray. She should be terrified of the male ominously named Doom. But she’s mesmerized.

On a ruined world, I fell in love with a monster. And now he's back. Not that it matters. He is an orc warrior. I am a human woman. Amid a blasted Earth ruined by invasion, Yggy was always kind to me. His handsome face caused me to fall in love. Until one night, when I realized his love for me would lead to my death. Against all protests from my heart, I had to leave Yggy. But my orc never stopped searching for me. He never gave up. He always loved me. But when he found me, he found someone else that shocked him to his core. Our child.

When my brother steals a treasure from a dragon’s precious hoard, I find myself facing down the monster sent to retrieve the locket. Mateo gives me three days to produce the stolen goods, or he’ll lock me in the dungeon and throw away the key. The catch? He’s not letting me out of his sight. What starts out as a hunt for my wayward brother ends up with me in the sights of a ruthless wizard. My manticore captor-turn-protector is more than the sum of his parts, and I soon realize I’m falling for him. But love means nothing if I can’t get out of this alive.

As merchandise heading to an intergalactic auction, Ashe’s future looks grim. So when a too-sexy-for-his-own-good alien outlaw solicits her help to break them out of lockup, she jumps on the chance. Ashe only needs to survive long enough with the known criminal to get her end of the bargain: freedom. She trusts the clawed and fanged Tallean warrior to keep her safe, but who will keep her safe from him?

Tour guide Ivy has always secretly fantasized about minotaurs. So when a Beast Hunters tour to Motham City goes horribly wrong, she's thrilled to be rescued by wickedly handsome minotaur, Bryn. Until she finds out that he runs a male escort agency with the sole purpose of pleasuring humans. And Ivy just isn't that sort of girl . . . Bryn isn't looking for love. He sells it. Besides he's too busy caring for his disabled mom and four brothers and sisters to have time for romance.

Stuck slinging pizzas in the deadest of dead-end jobs, I make a wish. In a blink, I'm teetering on top of a standing stone in Faerie, where I have magical powers! And monsters fighting over me! Thank god, the orc wins. A fierce and deadly warrior, Rovann's nothing but gentle with me.

Abducted off the space station where I teach the standard galactic language, I'm imprisoned with two other women in a cold, dirty cell on an alien ship. We're destined for something worse than death until a fierce, blue-haired alien male rescues us. We recover on his ship with his group of Heveian pirates. There, the attraction that formed when he first carried me in his arms grows into a force neither of us can deny. But something else has taken up residence on the ship. Something that will stop at nothing to destroy us all.

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.

Two astronomers have detected a strange, pulsing signal from deep space. Within hours, the US government goes into lockdown, restricting airspace and scrubbing scientific data. Was the signal an intercepted communication revealing alarming plans for an enemy’s military strike? Or has humanity at long last found proof of extraterrestrial life?

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.

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.

Hounded by a necromancer hellbent on appropriating her ancestral lands, Ronika must recover an ancient relic from a cursed mansion to keep her enemy at bay. To do so, she requires an escort. Convincing an enraged wraith to help seems like an impossible task. But she discovers that the being behind the billowing shadows is an honorable protector who moves her in an unexpected fashion.

As a third daughter on the farming colony of Meterion, Susan’s future prospects aren’t too promising. A pretty face, top-notch skills, and hard work mean nothing if your dowry doesn’t include fertile lands. With her 25th birthday approaching, and no suitors, her only way out is to settle for an arranged marriage through the PMA - the Prime Mating Agency. She just never expected to be paired with a grumpy, massive lizardman, and above all not to grow so fond of his scales and quirky ways.

In the blink of an eye, my whole world has collapsed around me. Headed towards my dream vacation, I was snatched right out of the air. My husband, the love of my life, was destroyed right in front of my eyes. He fought bravely trying to protect me from a horror neither one of us could have ever imagined. I find myself standing in the spotlight on a stage.

I need to quit. I've been telling myself that every day for the last six months. I knew as soon as I started working for Hudson as his virtual assistant that this wasn't going to work out. He's rude, bossy, and a total grouch. I've only managed to last this long because whenever he starts being a jerk, I sass him right back. Enough is enough though. It's time for me to find a new job. Except when I finally meet him in person to tell him that I quit, he refuses to accept my resignation. Suddenly, instead of the grumpy jerk that I'm used to, Hudson seems to be trying to be almost . . . nice.

Nineteen years, two hundred and twenty eight months, nine hundred and eighty eight weeks, six thousand nine hundred and thirty five days—that’s how long Jim kept his identity secret from his wife, Cora. One crisp fall evening, a wolf appeared along Jim and Cora’s fence line, shattering her understanding of the world—the mortal world. Before Cora had the time to process that her husband isn’t who he says he is, she’s thrown into the Autumn Court and forced to navigate a new culture.

In a world with ancient relics and forgotten magic, young Benj has always found comfort in the warm, flour-dusted corners of the village bakery. Adopted into a life of hard work, his quaint existence is soon disrupted by a chance encounter with a mysterious thief. At the same time, Key, a lowly guard in Royal City, only wants to get by unnoticed. Yet, as luck and misfortune intertwine, he finds himself on an adventure brimming with secrets, conspiracies, and intrigue.

After a one-night stand that ends in two pink lines, Cammie thinks she's found her happily ever after. She forgets all about scent matches, fated mates, and the truth about being a beta from the town of Crawley. That is until her alpha drops her when he finds his scent match. Cammie finds herself back home and out of options. She's got two kids, two jobs, and more bills than she can keep up with. Her neighbor Reid comes to the rescue after a run-in with the wrong side of the law, vowing to protect Cammie and her kids. But she can't trust another alpha, no matter how much he promises.

In the future: A united Earth, to deal with the problem of population control, divides its population into classes of citizen and non-gratis. To be born a non-gratis means a life of little freedoms and the constant possibility of being assigned to work on a colony. Lacking citizenship, every aspect of their life is controlled from where they live down to marriage and childbearing regulations. The only possible escape from life as a non-gratis is to qualify for one of the limited slots available for entrance into the military.

Walking home late one night, burned-out barista Nell accidentally incinerates someone. Whoopsie! Now, if this tale began in a fantastic far-away land, or Nell was, perhaps, a wizard, such a mishap might make some kind of sense. But this is not a wondrous fantasy world. This is real life, and Nell just wanted to go home and eat macaroni. As Nell stares at the smoldering corpse, she realizes something with horrifying certainty: She's magic. And not the cute pulling-a-rabbit-from-a-hat kind of magic.

Worn down by war and conflict, Commander Artek and his brothers - the soldiers under his command - have chosen to start a new life on a backwater planet. As hard work and peaceful surroundings start to heal old wounds, he realizes that something - or rather someone - is missing from his new life. None of the human females in the small town on the other side of the mountains appeal to him except for the shopkeeper’s daughter. She’s smart, sensible - and disturbingly attractive despite her shapeless clothes and brusque manner.

Victoria’s dreams of a cozy life as a small-town doctor come crashing down when the monstrous Kryptids make first contact. The alien invaders have only one goal: to turn Earth into a breeding ground. As she fights to protect her patients in their makeshift hospital, an even more fearsome alien and his beast enter the fray. She should be terrified of the male ominously named Doom. But she’s mesmerized.

Every month, for three days, a mysterious fog filled with demonic creatures swallows the world. Since its first appearance a decade ago, I’ve diligently secured my home against the danger. Today, my sister’s negligence has allowed something in. A Mistwalker. A part of him now resides inside of me, his brand on my chest a constant reminder of his presence. He terrifies me and threatens to derail the life I’ve been building. And yet, a part of me is drawn to him.…

Nick has no direction in his life, as his mother often reminds him. He works paycheck to paycheck, which becomes a problem when the paychecks stop coming in. When he's offered an opportunity to work off his rent, Nick decides there are worse things in life than being a super, especially when the job includes free rent. There is, however, a catch. His landlord is a vampire, and he needs more from Nick than maintenance and renter-wrangling. He needs Nick's blood.

I was born under the shadow of death, and my life since has been intricately entwined with that of the Grim Reaper. They call me the Death Whisperer. One hand fixes; the other breaks. All I have ever known is a life full of pain and suffering, because what the legends don't tell you about my power… is that there's always a price. And I'm the one who has to pay for it. My powers took my voice from me, and every day, I'm forced to experience unbearable agony. But my suffering doesn't stop the fae of our realm from using me and my gifts, regardless of the consequences.

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!