Showing results by narrator "Collins" in All Categories

Something quite odd is happening in Second World - the planet's foremost MMORPG. Something that's causing alliances to be broken, and friendships, forgotten. A worthless low-level mine becomes the stage of vicious battles, its burned ruins suddenly contested by the game's toughest clans. Every border is controlled, and every road in the province blocked off. The weak players and NPCs alike are subjected to non-stop violent raids courtesy of Eastern invaders. And the strong are scouring the virtual world for the culprit - the weirdest noob the game has ever seen.

In Kindle County, a woman is killed in an apparent random drive-by shooting. The woman turns out to be the ex-wife of a prominent state senator and an old acquaintance of Judge Sonia Klonsky, on whose desk the case lands. As the pursuit of justice takes bizarre and unusual turns, Judge Klonsky is brought face-to-face with a host of extraordinary personalities and formidable enemies bent on her destruction.

The whole of London society has long assumed Lord William Hartwell will marry his childhood best friend, Lady Rebecca Warrington. After two seasons, Hartwell remains quite content with bachelorhood - his parents do not. When Hartwell learns they intend to cut his purse strings unless he makes a match this season, he resigns himself to a marriage of convenience with Becca, and yet he can’t help but be drawn to her younger brother, Warry.

Once the Church of God Awaiting dominated all the kingdoms of Safehold. Then, after centuries of stasis, the island kingdom of Charis began to defy the edicts of Mother Church—egged on, some say, by the mysterious warrior-monk Merlin Athrawes, who enjoys the Charisian royal family's absolute trust. What vanishingly few people know is that Merlin is the cybernetic avatar of a young woman a thousand years dead, felled in the war in which aliens destroyed Earth...and that since awakening, his task has been to restart the history of the long-hidden human race.

The dark forces of Drakfort have seized Valhadria-and it's up to the few students who remain free to retake it. But Drakfort's iron grip extends far beyond the floating islands of Valhadria. With the help of the Grand Council, the entire realm is now under their thumb. Basch and his friends need to tread carefully as they seek out the tools-the magics-that will turn the fight against Drakfort in their favor.

In April 1943 a young woman washes ashore on a deserted beach in Cornwall, England. With shorn hair and a number stitched on her tattered chemise, Alice is the survivor of a ship torpedoed by a German U-boat. She's found by the mysterious Viscount Jack Trewella, who suspects that she's a prisoner of war or a spy. But the secret Alice asks Jack to keep is one he could never have guessed, and it creates an intimate bond he never expected.

George Rott wants revenge. After the death of his daughter, Cassandra, he vowed to find and destroy all the dragons. When he locates one of their hidden enclaves within the city, he enlists the help of an angry and unstable demigod to make them all pay. If he launches an attack, he risks angering the dragons, plunging the city into an all-out war, and getting the unwanted attention of powerful gods. Now Simon, with Tristan’s help, must find and stop George before he turns the city into his personal battlefield, killing them all.

After a busy season as a charter-hire skipper, Tom yearns for some downtime. His lonely heart also aches for adventure with someone special, but paying his bills has to come first. A surprise sailing contract and huge bonus offer his first glimpse of freedom for years. There's only one catch: he must crew with Nick, a deckhand who jumped ship once already.

Catch up with Ethan, Lena, and Link as they finally graduate from high school and get ready to leave the small Southern town of Gatlin. But when Dark Caster Ridley makes an appearance, the sometime bad girl can't resist picking a fight with her sometime boyfriend, Link. Angry and rebellious as ever, Ridley ends up alone in New York City and becomes entangled in the dangerous underground Caster club scene, where the stakes are high and losers pay the ultimate price. Where's a Linkubus when you need him?

Logan Sutton lives in the shadowy underworld of London, rooting out evil before it can strike. He’s a nameless enigma prowling the streets to keep the innocent safe. His next mission? Seducing a beauty with ties to the villains he’s out to destroy. It ought to be simple: learn her secrets and then never see her again. Yet, there’s something about the midnight-haired temptress that won’t allow him to walk away.

To prevent a war in Asia - one that could quickly spread to the rest of the world - Paul Janson and Jessica Kincaid must learn the truth behind a young woman's murder...Prominent US Senator James Wyckoff hires former government agents-turned-private security consultants Janson and Kincaid to locate his teenage son Gregory. Gregory's girlfriend Lynell has been found strangled in a Seoul hotel, and Gregory has fled the city to avoid being arrested for the crime.

Brand-new stories by: Daniel Woodrell, Matthew Eck, Catherine Browder, Nancy Pickard, John Lutz, J. Malcolm Garcia, Kevin Prufer, Linda Rodriguez, Nadia Pflaum, Phong Nguyen, Andres Rodriguez, and others. Kansas City: where East and West collide, where naked ambition meets broken dreams, where blues and the night go together like rye whiskey, vermouth, and bitters. Yes, Kansas City is a surprising place of grit, gore, and betrayal, at least in the imaginations of our diverse lineup of contributors.

One year ago, Lucy’s sister, Nicki, left to meet friends at a pub in Dublin and never came home. The third Irish woman to vanish inexplicably in as many years, the agony of not knowing what happened that night has turned Lucy’s life into a waking nightmare. So, she’s going to take matters into her own hands. Angela works as a paper-pusher in the Missing Persons Unit, but wants nothing more than to be a fully fledged member of An Garda Síochána, the Irish police force. With the investigation into the missing women stalled, she begins pulling on a thread that could break the case wide open.

Superhuman terror incidents are on the rise, riots are breaking out everywhere like a plague spreading across the face of the world, and the unknown enemy still stalks the world. However, Pierson and Hale are determined to bring down the monster that caused this turmoil, no matter what it takes. With violence exploding on all sides, when given a clear shot at the source of the chaos, they determine to take their chance. Hale will throw every bit of power he has at the very source that granted him his strength, backed by a world thrown into chaos looking for someone, anyone, to blame.

Once upon a time, a boy from a noble family fell in love with a girl from the gutter. It went as badly as you’d expect. Seventeen years later, Susan Lazarus is a renowned detective, and Templeton Lane is a jewel thief. She’s tried to arrest him, and she’s tried to shoot him. They’ve never tried to talk. Then Templeton is accused of a vicious double murder. Now there’s a manhunt out for him, the ports are watched, and even his best friends have turned their backs. If he can’t clear his name, he’ll hang.

Anton Chekhov’s The Seagull is considered one of his most haunting and atmospheric character studies. A would-be playwright is at war with his egoistic mother while the town has become intoxicated by a sensational author. And as the alluring newcomer steals away Kosta’s only love, their new romance could have devastating consequences.

Regeneration offers a visionary new approach to climate change, one that weaves justice, climate, biodiversity, equity, and human dignity into a seamless tapestry of action, policy, and transformation that can end the climate crisis in one generation. It is the first book to describe and define the burgeoning regeneration movement spreading rapidly throughout the world.

He started with nothing, and built an empire. She was born to bad times - and lived through much worse. Orphans and outlaws alike, Gino Santangelo and Carrie Jones were survivors in a harsh, loveless world....a passionate young Italian and an exotic dark beauty whose chance meeting yields a secret that can't be spoken for years to come.

A hot-blooded beauty in love with power and hungry for pleasure, Lucky's dazzling odyssey, and her trail of enemies, sweeps from the casinos of Las Vegas to a private Greek island, from cutthroat Hollywood to chic New York and Paris.

That is Ethan Chase's unbreakable rule. Until the fey he avoids at all costs begin to disappear, and Ethan is attacked. Now he must change the rules to protect his family. To save a girl he never thought he'd dare to fall for. Ethan thought he had protected himself from his older sister's world—the land of Faery. His previous time in the Iron Realm left him with nothing but fear and disgust for the world Meghan Chase has made her home, a land of myth and talking cats, of magic and seductive enemies. But when destiny comes for Ethan, there is no escape from a danger long, long forgotten.