Devastated by the loss of her friend and under constant threat from an unknown spy at Cimmeria Academy, Allie Sheridan is finding it hard to cope. In Fracture, the third book in the Night School series, she’s not the only one losing it – everything is falling apart. And when Nathaniel begins to reveal his game plan, Isabelle starts to lose control. As the school slides into a deadly morass of paranoia and suspicion, everyone is guilty until proved innocent. Anyone can be held without proof, and convicted without a trial. No one is safe. This time Nathaniel doesn’t need to hurt them. This time they’re hurting themselves

Shatter Me - 2.5 In this electrifying sixty-page companion novella to the New York Times bestselling Shatter Me series, discover the fate of the Omega Point rebels as they go up against The Reestablishment. Set during and soon after the final moments of Unravel Me, Fracture Me is told from Adam's perspective. As Omega Point prepares to launch an all-out assault on The Reestablishment soldiers stationed in Sector 45, Adam's focus couldn't be further from the upcoming battle. He's reeling from his breakup with Juliette, scared for his best friend's life, and as concerned as ever for his brother James's safety. And just as Adam begins to wonder if this life is really for him, the alarms sound. It's time for war. On the battlefield, it seems like the odds are in their favor—but taking down Warner, Adam's newly discovered half brother, won't be that easy. The Reestablishment can't tolerate a rebellion, and they'll do anything to crush the resistance . . . including killing everyone Adam has ever cared about. Fracture Me sets the stage for Ignite Me, the explosive finale in Tahereh Mafi's epic dystopian series. It's a novella not to be missed by fans who crave action-packed stories with tantalizing romance like Divergent by Veronica Roth, The Hunger Games by Suzanne Collins, and Legend by Marie Lu

Rachel’s life is perfect. A handsome boyfriend, great friends and the prospect of starting at university in a few weeks means she’s never been happier. But in a single heartbeat her world falls apart forever. Five years later, Rachel is still struggling to come to terms with the tragedy that changed everything. Returning to her hometown for the first time in years, she finds herself consumed by the thoughts of the life that could have been. But when a sudden fall lands her in hospital, Rachel awakes to discover that the life she had dreamed about just might be real after all. Unable to trust her own memories, Rachel begins to be drawn further into this new world where the man she lost is alive and well but where she is engaged to be married to someone else . . . FRACTURED is a heart-warming tale of love and second chances which will leave you wondering whether two very different storylines can ever lead to the same happy ending

‘No one does American small-town evil more chillingly… Slaughter tells a dark story that grips and doesn't let go' – The Times ‘Without doubt an accomplished, compelling and complex tale, with page-turning power aplenty' – Daily Express ‘Slaughter deftly turns all assumptions on their head… Her ability to make you buy into one reality, then another, means that the surprises – and the violent scenes – keep coming' – Time Out ‘A great read… crime fiction at its finest' – MICHAEL CONNELLY ‘A fast-paced and unsettling story… A compelling and fluid read' – Daily Telegraph ‘Criminally spectacular' – OK! ‘Slaughter knows exactly when to ratchet up the menace, and when to loiter on the more personal and emotional aspects of the victims. Thoroughly gripping, yet thoroughly gruesome stuff' – Daily Mirror ‘Slaughter's plotting is relentless, piling on surprises and twists… A good read that should come with a psychological health warning' – Guardian ‘The writing is lean and mean, and the climax will blow you away' – Independent ‘Karin Slaughter is a fearless writer. She takes us to the deep, dark places other novelists don't dare to go… one of the boldest thriller writers working today' – Tess Gerritsen ‘Confirms her at the summit of the school of writers specialising in forensic medicine and terror… Slaughter's characters talk in believable dialogue. She's excellent at portraying the undertones and claustrophobia of communities where everyone knows everyone else's business, and even better at creating an atmosphere of lurking evil' – The Times ‘Brilliantly chilling' – heat ‘A salutary reminder that Slaughter is one of the most riveting writers in the field today' – Sunday Express ‘Don't read this alone. Don't read this after dark. But do read it' – Daily Mirror ‘With Blindsighted, Karin Slaughter left a great many mystery writers looking anxiously over their shoulders. With Kisscut, she leaves most of them behind' – JOHN CONNOLLY ‘Brilliant plotting and subtle characterisation make for a gruesomely gripping read' – Woman Home ‘Unsparing, exciting, genuinely alarming… excellent handling of densely woven plot, rich in interactions, well characterised and as subtle as it is shrewd' – Literary Review ‘Energetic, suspenseful writing from Slaughter, who spares no detail in this bloody account of violent sexual crime but also brings compassion and righteous anger to it' – Manchester Evening News ‘It's not easy to transcend a model like Patricia Cornwell, but Slaughter does so in a thriller whose breakneck plotting and not-for-the-squeamish forensics provide grim manifestations of a deeper evil her mystery trumpets without ever quite containing' – Kirkus Reviews ‘Slaughter has created a ferociously taut and terrifying story which is, at the same time, compassionate and real. I defy anyone to read it in more than three sittings' – DENISE MINA ‘Wildly readable… [Slaughter] has been compared to Thomas Harris and Patricia Cornwell, and for once the hype is justified…deftly crafted, damnably suspenseful and, in the end, deadly serious. Slaughter's plotting is brilliant, her suspense relentless' – Washington Post ‘Taut, mean, nasty and bloody well written. She conveys a sense of time and place with clarity and definite menace – the finely tuned juxtaposition of sleepy Southern town and urgent, gut-wrenching terror' – STELLA DUFFY

From the New York Times bestselling author of Beautiful Lies, Black Out, and Die For You comes a novel of corrosive secrets, tenuous connections, and the all-encompassing strength of a mother's faith. Despite their mostly happy marriage, when their son Ricky's girlfriend vanishes, Maggie and Jones find themselves at odds – Maggie is positive Ricky had nothing to do with Charlene's disappearance, while Jones isn't as sure. With Charlene gone, the memory of another young girl who went missing some twenty years ago is haunting the town. That story didn't have a happy ending, and almost everyone has an unrevealed reason to keep the horror of it firmly in the past. As Jones and the police turn their focus on Ricky, Maggie must find out the truth about what happened all those years ago. In order to save her son and the young woman whose life hangs in the balance, she'll test the bonds of her community – and find out just how fragile they can be

From Kaliningrad on the Baltic to the Russian Far East, journalist Ben Judah has travelled throughout Russia and the former Soviet republics, conducting extensive interviews with President Vladimir Putin’s friends, foes, and colleagues, government officials, business tycoons, mobsters, and ordinary Russian citizens. Fragile Empire is the fruit of Judah’s thorough research: a probing assessment of Putin’s rise to power and what it has meant for Russia and her people. Despite a propaganda program intent on maintaining the cliché of stability, Putin’s regime was suddenly confronted in December 2011 by a highly public protest movement that told a different side of the story. Judah argues that Putinism has brought economic growth to Russia but also weaker institutions, and this contradiction leads to instability. The author explores both Putin’s successes and his failed promises, taking into account the impact of a new middle class and a new generation, the Internet, social activism, and globalization on the president’s impending leadership crisis. Can Russia avoid the crisis of Putinism? Judah offers original and up-to-the-minute answers. Judah’s dynamic account of the rise (and fall-in-progress) of Russian President Vladimir Putin convincingly addresses just why and how Putin became so popular, and traces the decisions and realizations that seem to be leading to his undoing. The former Reuters Moscow reporter maps Putin’s career and impact on modern Russia through wide-ranging research and has an eye for illuminating and devastating quotes, as when a reporter in dialogue with Putin says, “I lost the feeling that I lived in a free country. I have not started to feel fear.” To which Putin responds, “Did you not think that this was what I was aiming for: that one feeling disappeared, but the other did not appear?” His style, however, feels hurried, an effect of which is occasional losses of narrative clarity. In some cases limited information is available, and his pace-maintaining reliance on euphemistic, metaphorical, and journalistic language can leave readers underserved and confused. Judah is at his best when being very specific, and perhaps the book’s achievement is that it makes comprehensible how Putin got to where he is; those wondering how Putin became and remained so popular will benefit from this sober, well-researched case. (June) A journalist’s lively, inside account of Russian President Putin’s leadership, his achievements and failures, and the crisis he faces amidst rising corruption, government dysfunction, and growing citizen unrest

Seth never expected he would want to settle down with anyone — but that was before Aislinn. She is everything he'd ever dreamed of, and he wants to be with her forever. Forever takes on new meaning, though, when your girlfriend is an immortal faery queen. Aislinn never expected to rule the very creatures who'd always terrified her — but that was before Keenan. He stole her mortality to make her a monarch, and now she faces challenges and enticements beyond any she'd ever imagined. In Melissa Marr's third mesmerizing tale of Faerie, Seth and Aislinn struggle to stay true to themselves and each other in a milieu of shadowy rules and shifting allegiances, where old friends become new enemies and one wrong move could plunge the Earth into chaos

Estaba en el lugar equivocado, en el momento equivocado y por las razones equivocadas. Cordelia Naismith, de la Fuerza Expedicionaria Betana, llevaba incluso el uniforme equivocado: sin saberlo había entrado en batalla vistiendo el viejo uniforme pardo del equipo científico de Exploración Astronómica. Su encuentro con Aral Vorkosigan, el poderoso y temido Vor, apodado «el carnicero de Komarr», sólo podía deberse a una de esas complejas intrigas, tan sórdidas y abundantes en la militarizada sociedad de Barrayar. Tras el primer contacto con Aral, Cordelia volverá a la guerra como capitana de una nave suicida en una misión de engaño: transportar a través de las líneas Vor un arma terrible capaz de atrapar y destruir a toda la flota enemiga. Un conjunto de intrigas dentro de intrigas, de traiciones en el seno de más traiciones, de nuevos engaños que se unen a otros conocidos, obligará a Cordelia a establecer una paz personal con su principal oponente: Aral Vorkosigan. Una paz que puede acarrear la ignominia, aunque presagia nuevas posibilidades no sólo entre Cordelia y su enamorado, sino también entre los pueblos de ambos

Z „NF” 2/91

Police thriller published to tie in with the TV four-part mini-series. Escaped criminal Myers — missing and presumed dead — is discovered under the alias Philip von Joel by Jackson while holidaying in Spain. The devilishly charismatic Myers is brought to justice and extradited back to England following a nerve-wracking Scotland Yard operation. Once back on English soil, Myers says he’ll talk — but only to Jackson

Pierre Tardivel, a French Canadian geneticist, works on identifying junk DNA for the Human Genome Project. There is a 50 percent chance that Pierre is carrying the gene for Huntington’s disease, a fatal disorder. That knowledge drives Pierre to succeed in a race against time to complete his research. But a strange set of circumstances — including a knife attack, the in vitro fertilization of his wife, and an insurance company plot to use DNA samples to weed out clients predisposed to early deaths — draw Tardivel into a story that will ultimately involve the hunt for a Nazi death camp doctor

Kipling was reported missing, believed killed, in his first battle on the Western Front. From this time he was constantly in pain from a gastric ulcer. He published some (censored) articles of war journalism in 1915, collected as The New Army in Training and France at War

This moving tale of imprisonment and escape, persecution and loss, is narrated by the daughter of an alleged Harki, an Algerian soldier who fought for the French during the Algerian War for Independence. It was the fate of such men to be twice exiled, first in their homeland after the war, and later in France, where fleeing Harki families sought refuge but instead faced contempt, discrimination, and exclusion. Zahia Rahmani blends reality and imagination in her writing, offering a fictionalized version of her own family’s struggle. Lara Vergnaud’s beautiful translation from the French perfectly captures the voices and emotions of Rahmani’s childhood in a foreign land.  While the author delves deeply into the past, she also indicts present-day France and Algeria. From the unique perspective of the daughter of an accused Harki, she examines France’s complex and controversial history with its former colony and offers new insight into the French civil riots of 2005. She makes a stirring plea for understanding between generations and cultures, and especially for an end to the destructive practice of condemning children for their fathers’ actions and beliefs

The world's most famous monster comes to life in this 1818 novel, a compelling narrative that combines Gothic romance and science fiction to tell of an ambitious young doctor's attempts to breathe life into an artificial man. Despite the doctor's best intentions, the experiment goes horribly wrong in a timeless tale about the hazards of playing creator

Baron Frankenstein fashioned just one creature from the remnants of the dead, but the Governments who have hijacked his discoveries see the advantage of resurrection on an industrial scale. What better way to fight their never-ending wars than with armies of obedient undead soldiers, recycled from earlier battles? And how better to silence their own citizens who protest at ceaseless conflict and plundered graveyards? Set in the 1830s, Frankenstein’s Legions details an alternative history in which Frankensteinian science is a reality, revived after patchy prohibition by a second and even more fanatical French Revolution. The republican regime, inspired by zeal and desperation, has swept over Europe, employing inexhaustible swarms of zombie-like (or Lazaroid) troops. The remaining independent nations, including England, are obliged to shed their scruples and likewise raise Lazaroid armies. Across this crazed and Gothic history stride Julius Frankenstein, soldier nephew of the notorious scientist; Charles Babbage inventor of the proto-computer Difference Engine; and the Honourable Augusta Ada, Countess of Lovelace, genius daughter of Lord Byron. Pulling their strings – they believe – are the puppetmasters Talleyrand, French statesman par excellence and now a renegade in English employ; and Sir Percy Blakeney, sometime Scarlet Pimpernel and current head of the British Secret Service. Meanwhile, the French have been unwise enough to revive their recently deceased Emperor. The intention was simply to pick the brain of history’s foremost military mind. However, the risen Emperor Napoleon is developing fresh ambitions of his own…

Рассказ эстонского писателя о мальчике, родители которого мечтают определить его в спецшколу с углубленным изучением иностранных языков. Автор с юмором изображает обывательские настроения взрослых и реакцию на это ребенка

D'inspiration champêtre, 'François le Champi' est un roman où il n'est question que d'amour, écrit dans un style limpide et lumineux. Dans son livre, George Sand s'attache à reproduire le parler berrichon, et met en avant la grandeur de la vie à la campagne, décrivant avec poésie et sensibilité personnages et paysages

Intended for 18+. Strong sexual content, violence and vulgarity. Sometimes rules must be broken. Sometimes your beliefs are challenged. Other times... you just have to follow your heart. For Marine Corps Sgt. Alex Cruz, the Corps' rules and regulations have served as a blueprint for how he should live his life. In his mind, the way to maintaining proper conduct and order relied heavily on the ability of the individual to follow orders without question. Alex was that individual. Until... Pfc. Cassie Bennett. She is brand new to the Corps, looking to cement a place in the world for herself after breaking free from the oppressive life she's lived with her mother. Making it in the Corps is her way of showing her mother that she is more than she thinks she is, while also proving to herself she can survive one of life's biggest challenges. Both Alex and Cassie are tested when an intensely strong attraction develops between them. They feel it, they want it, but one thing stands in their way... The Marine Corps order on Fraternizing. Their lust filled thoughts, their strong and aching cravings for one another, and their conflicted minds lead them on a roller coaster of emotions and feelings that neither can ignore, no matter how hard they try. Loyalties will be tested, hearts will be broken, and careers will hang in the balance. Can Alex and Cassie keep their forbidden relationship a secret, or will they lose it all by Fraternizing?

In this free Rizzoli & Isles short story from New York Times bestselling author Tess Gerritsen, author of The Silent Girl, a bizarre death comes with a supernatural twist. Homicide cop Jane Rizzoli and medical examiner Maura Isles have seen their fair share of mortal crimes, but the death of Kimberly Rayner may qualify as inhuman in more ways than one. When corpse of the emaciated seventeen-year-old girl is discovered next to an empty coffin in an abandoned church, mysterious bruises around the throat suggest foul play. Caught fleeing the scene is the victim’s closest friend, Lucas Henry, an equally skeletal, pale teenager who claims he’s guilty only of having a taste for blood—a craving he shared with Kimberly. But the victim’s distraught father doesn’t believe in vampires, only vengeance. And now, another life may be at risk unless Rizzoli and Isles can uncover the astonishing truth

aventura romano

The bestselling story of a king’s crusade to vanquish the Devil and to defeat the monster in each of us. A visiting lecturer is lured to the remote, gothic mansion of an estranged professor and his only son, who is described as a monster. But soon, the visitor enters an enchanting new world when he begins reading the son’s hidden manuscript. Part history, part myth, the story conjures a sixteenth-century Sweden in which good and evil clash for the ultimate prize. To attain the throne, the protagonist, Gustav Vasa, accepts the Devil’s counsel, but to remain in power and rule justly, he must drive the Devil underground. This sweeping, masterful tale transports us from the wasted mining hills of Dalarna to the frozen northern country of the Lapps — and into the very heart of the struggle over what it means to be human. This ebook features a new illustrated biography of John Gardner, including original letters, rare photos, and never-before-seen documents from the Gardner family and the University of Rochester Archives

Written in Georgette Heyer's lightest vein, this is the story of the adventures in Regency London of the Merriville family: Frederica, riding the whirlwind and directing the storm; Harry, rusticated from Oxford and embarking with enthusiasm on the more perilous amusements pursued by young gentlemen of ton; the divine Charis, too tender-hearted to discourage the advances of her numerous suitors; Jessamy, destined for the Church and wavering, in adolescent style, between excessive virtue and a natural exuberance of spirits; and Felix, a schoolboy with a passion for scientific experiment. In Frederica, Georgette Heyer created one of her most engaging heroines; and in the Marquis of Alverstoke — a bored cynic who becomes involved in all the imbroglios of a lively family — a hero whose sense of humour makes him an excellent foil for Frederica

Frederika Merivila ir ieradusies Londonā ar nolūku apprecināt savu neparasti skaisto māsu. Debitantes iziešana sabiedrībā ir ārkārtīgi dārgs pasākums – lai tiktu pie spīdošas partijas, nedrīkst žēlot ne zīdu, ne mežģīnes. Bet ko iesākt, ja tam nepietiek līdzekļu? Vajag tikai nedaudz drosmes un bezkaunības – aizrakstīt vēstuli nejaukajam brālēnam, kurš izslavēts ar savu bagātību un briesmīgo raksturu

When it comes to crafting happily-ever-afters, the Agency is the best in the land of Kingdom. The Fairy Godfather Grimm can solve any problem—from eliminating imps to finding prince charming—as long as you can pay the price… Working for Grimm isn’t Marissa Locks’s dream job. But when your parents trade you to a Fairy Godfather for a miracle, you don’t have many career options. To pay off her parents’ debt and earn her freedom, Marissa must do whatever Grimm asks, no matter what fairy-tale fiasco she’s called on to deal with. Setting up a second-rate princess with a first-class prince is just another day at the office. But when the matchmaking goes wrong, Marissa and Grimm find themselves in a bigger magical muddle than ever before. Not only has the prince gone missing, but the Fae are gearing up to attack Kingdom, and a new Fairy Godmother is sniffing around Grimm’s turf, threatening Marissa with the one thing she can’t resist: her heart’s wishes. Now Marissa will have to take on Fairies, Fae, dragons, and princesses to save the realm—or give up any hope of ever getting her happy ending…

Рассказ вошёл в сборники: Quicker Than The Eye (В мгновение ока)

"A blisteringly paced story that cuts to the bone. It left me ripping through pages deep into the night." – James Rollins Crisis in the skies Pilots with no control… High above the Adirondack Mountains, a commuter flight to New York City turns into a rolling, twisting nightmare, plunging from the sky before the crew regains control. Then, in London, a jetliner crashes into the runway, killing fifteen people. Investigators with no answers… Reporter Kate Page believes something beyond mechanical – or human – error is behind the incidents that have air investigators baffled. But the mystery deepens as teams scramble to pinpoint a link between the tragedies, and Kate receives an untraceable message from someone boasting responsibility and threatening another event. A looming disaster… As Kate, the FBI and the NTSB race to find answers, the shadow figures behind the operation launch their most devastating plan yet, and time ticks down on one of the greatest tragedies the world has ever known

Unflinching and unforgiving, Free Fall is a gripping account of a young soldier's experiences in a brutal and bloody war. Nicolai Lilin, author of the international bestseller Siberian Education, was conscripted and trained as a sniper in an unorthodox Russian special forces regiment called the Saboteurs. Operating outside traditional military codes, this elite band fought their way through the inhospitable terrain of Chechnya, encountering mercenary fighters and anti-personnel mines, hand-to-hand combat and extreme torture

Search-and-rescue expert Logan White is no stranger to high-pressure performance. That's why this ski vacation is so important…and so hard to take. He knows he needs to unwind, but since he can't seem to do it, this holiday looks like a bust. Then he meets ski patroller Lily Harmon, who shows him precisely how sexy daring can be. She has an extreme move to beat every one of his own on the slopes, during rescues and in bed! Now he has to figure out a way to keep this melt-the-ice affair going after the vacation

When David and Sarah Woodson take a much-needed vacation with their ten-year old son, John, their intention is to find a relaxing, remote spot to take a break from the artificial stimulation of their busy world back in Jacksonville, Florida. What happens within hours of settling in to their rural, rustic little cottage in a far-flung spot on the coast of Ireland is an international incident that leaves the family stranded and dependent on themselves for their survival. Facing starvation, as well as looters and opportunists, they learn the hard way the important things in life. Can a family skilled only in modern day suburbia and corporate workplaces learn to survive when the world is flung back a hundred years? When there is no Internet, no telephones, no electricity and no cars? And when every person near them is desperate to survive at any cost? Free Falling has been named a Semi Finalist in Kindle Book Review’s Best Indie Books of 2012!

From the grand master of Scandinavian crime fiction — and one of the best crime writers of our time — here is the final volume in the critically acclaimed Story of a Crime trilogy, centered on the assassination of Olof Palme in 1986. It’s August 2007, and Lars Martin Johansson, chief of the National Bureau of Criminal Investigation in Sweden, is determined once again to reopen the dusty files on the unsolved murder of Prime Minister Palme. With his retirement quickly approaching, Johansson forms a new group, comprised of a few trustworthy detectives who doggedly wade through mountains of paperwork and pursue new leads in a case that has all but gone cold despite the open wound the assassination has left on the consciousness of Swedish society. But the closer the group gets to the truth, the more Johansson compromises the greater good for personal gain, becoming a pawn in the private vendetta of a shady political spin doctor. A detailed and boldly plotted police procedural, Free Falling, As If in a Dream lifts the veil on one of history’s greatest unsolved crimes, bringing dark humor, suspense, and wit to bear on a case long thought to have no answers

From the author of the highly acclaimed The Story of Land and Sea comes a captivating novel, set in the late eighteenth-century American South, that follows a singular group of companions — an escaped slave, a white orphan, and a Creek Indian — who are being tracked down for murder. In 1788, three men converge in the southern woods of what is now Alabama. Cat, an emotionally scarred white man from South Carolina, is on the run after abandoning his home. Bob is a talkative black man fleeing slavery on a Pensacola sugar plantation, Istillicha, edged out of his Creek town’s leadership, is bound by honor to seek retribution. In the few days they spend together, the makeshift trio commits a shocking murder that soon has the forces of the law bearing down upon them. Sent to pick up their trail, a probing French tracker named Le Clerc must decide which has a greater claim: swift justice, or his own curiosity about how three such disparate, desperate men could act in unison. Katy Simpson Smith skillfully brings into focus men whose lives are both catastrophic and full of hope — and illuminates the lives of the women they left behind. Far from being anomalies, Cat, Bob, and Istillicha are the beating heart of the new America that Le Clerc struggles to comprehend. In these territories caught between European, American, and Native nations, a wilderness exists where four men grapple with the importance of family, the stain of guilt, and the competing forces of power, love, race, and freedom — questions that continue to haunt us today

In January of 2011 we started posting free short stories we thought might be of interest to Baen readers. The first stories were "Space Hero" by Patrick Lundrigan, the winner of the 2010 Jim Baen Memorial Short Story Contest, and "Tanya, Princess of Elves," by Larry Correia, author of Monster Hunter International and set in that universe. As new stories are made available, they will be posted on the main page, then added to this book (to save the Baen Barflies the trouble of doing it themselves). This is our compilation of short stories for 2018