From cult phenomenon to award-winning literary sensation, “the sexiest action figure since James Bond” (Seattle Weekly) returns in an exhilarating new thriller. It doesn’t matter how well trained you are, how big, how fast, how strong; there will always be someone out there bigger or faster or stronger. Always. That’s what Aud Torvingen teaches the students in her self-defense class. But the question is whether Aud really believes this lesson herself-and if not, what it will take for her to learn it. Aud has trained herself to achieve a fierce, machine-like precision, in hand-to-hand combat as well as life. But in Always she is abruptly confronted with the limits of her own power. Her self-defense classes spin violently out of her grasp and, still reeling from the consequences, she embarks on a seemingly simple investigation of Seattle real estate fraud that pulls her into something far more complicated and dangerous than she had imagined

1 New York Times bestselling author Iris Johansen provides her trademark blend of seductive romance and pulse-pounding suspense in this classic tale of a woman who unexpectedly finds herself living – and loving – on the edge of danger. Lisa Landon makes her living with her voice – a voice fueled by a heartbreak she vows never to experience again. But despite her renown, Lisa's real ambition is to escape the memories that follow her from one sold-out engagement to the next. Perhaps that's what brings her to the exotic desert nation of Sedikhan and the nightclub where she meets Clancy Donahue. Clancy takes one look at the beautiful, vulnerable chanteuse and knows she is exactly the woman he's been searching for. The Sedikhan security chief needs to bait a trap for a terrorist moneyman, and Clancy is certain that Lisa will be irresistible. What he doesn't count on is that he won't be able to resist her either – and that he'll do anything to protect her, even if it means risking his own life. With deadly plans in motion and Lisa in the crosshairs, Clancy realizes that before their romance can get to always, it will first have to reach tomorrow

She helps people put their demons to rest. But she has a few of her own… In the lockdown ward of a psychiatric hospital, Dr. Nadine Lavoie is in her element. She has the tools to help people, and she has the desire—healing broken families is what she lives for. But Nadine doesn’t want to look too closely at her own past because there are whole chunks of her life that are black holes. It takes all her willpower to tamp down her recurrent claustrophobia, and her daughter, Lisa, is a runaway who has been on the streets for seven years. When a distraught woman, Heather Simeon, is brought into the Psychiatric Intensive Care Unit after a suicide attempt, Nadine gently coaxes her story out of her—and learns of some troubling parallels with her own life. Digging deeper, Nadine is forced to confront her traumatic childhood, and the damage that began when she and her brother were brought by their mother to a remote commune on Vancouver Island. What happened to Nadine? Why was their family destroyed? And why does the name Aaron Quinn, the group’s leader, bring complex feelings of terror to Nadine even today? And then, the unthinkable happens, and Nadine realizes that danger is closer to home than she ever imagined. She has no choice but to face what terrifies her the most…and fight back. Sometimes you can leave the past, but you can never escape. Told with the trademark powerful storytelling that has had critics praising her work as “Gripping” (Kirkus), “Jaw-dropping” (Publishers Weekly) and “Crackling with suspense” (People magazine), ALWAYS WATCHING shows why Chevy Stevens is one of the most mesmerizing new talents of our day

Ever wonder why “psychic fairs” have to advertise?