About one woman's fine, hard life at the racetrack, Kick the Latch–with its ruthless concision and artful mysteries–is lightning in a bottleKathryn Scanlan's Kick the Latch vividly captures the arc of one woman's life at the racetrack—the flat land and ramshackle backstretch; the bad feelings and friction; the winner's circle and the racetrack bar; the fancy suits and fancy boots; and the "particular language" of "grooms, jockeys, trainers, racing secretaries, stewards, pony people, hotwalkers, everybody"—with economy and integrity.Based on transcribed interviews with Sonia, a horse trainer, the novel investigates form and authenticity in a feat of synthesis reminiscent of Charles Reznikoff's Testimony. As Scanlan puts it, "I wanted to preserve—amplify, exaggerate—Sonia's idiosyncratic speech, her bluntness, her flair as a storyteller. I arrived at what you could call a composite portrait of a self."...

This stunning debut thriller, set in a girls' boarding school, will leave you breathless until the final page is turned.Sometimes girls are the meanest of them all...Female friendship is intense and that intensity can erupt into dangerous passions when teenage girls are cooped up in an exclusive East Coast boarding school.Beautiful, streetwise Cassidy Thomas; debutante jock Abby Madison; academic, sensitive Karen Mullens; and sophisticated troublemaking Zoey Spalding are four seventeen-year-olds who should be cruising happily through their Senior Year. But jealousies are simmering. And when Zoey plays a game with the class list—if you lose your virginity you get a star beside your name—it sets in motion a chain of shocking events. Nine months later, when one of the girls is murdered, the others must ask themselves if they can carry the truth of what happened the rest of their lives.Tell Us No Secrets describes the...

I love you...Nox's tear-filled words echo across the sand as she and Amaris are torn apart. They've battled fiercely to find each other again, and have barely reunited when Amaris is taken away by the queen's dragon.Injured and desperate, Amaris is forced to navigate her new surroundings with the help of Raascot's enigmatic general if she hopes to stay alive. At the same time, across the land and running out of options, Nox forms a partnership with the continent's league of peacekeeping assassins, begging their help to find Amaris and forge some stability between the kingdoms.As wounds heal and new relationships blossom, Nox and Amaris must confront impossible obstacles and stretch their magic to its limits if they are ever to create a world that might finally reunite them for good. The odds are narrow, the stakes are high, and one question remains: Is it fate, love, or something else entirely that binds these two women...

In the latest Harlequin Medical Romance by Scarlet Wilson, sparks fly between a doctor and a surgeon when they get trapped together by the snow!Stranded for Christmas...Will he capture her heart? Dr. Paige is a straight-talking, sassy Scot who desperately needs a break from the demands of a big city hospital. But when she's thrown into a major incident and subsequently snowbound with sexy, adrenaline-fueled surgeon Stefan, any possibility of getting her head straight is swept away. Paige can't deny the sizzling hot chemistry as they work together, but what will happen when the snow melts and they have to face their demons back in the real world?From Harlequin Medical: Life and love in the world of modern medicine.

Octavia Arlette Peterson is a survivor. Growing up in foster homes and struggling with childhood obesity only strengthened her resolve to do something extraordinary with her life. Now that she's an award-winning author and a creative writing professor for her local community college, it seems she has it all . . . except for one thing: the love of a good man.All of that changes for Octavia with the arrival of her new next-door neighbor-the handsome and talented Sebastian Warwick, a renowned classical pianist and composer who turns out to have a connection to Octavia's past.Although they are drawn to one another, Octavia and Sebastian soon learn that mutual affection may not be enough. Standing in the way of their coming together are Sebastian's crippling doubts about himself-a doubt that stems from his own childhood traumas, and one he must come to terms with if he can ever be the man Octavia truly deserves.The debut novel by...

Five Feet Apart meets Kate in Waiting in this timely story of two best friends navigating the complexities of friendship while their world is turned upside down by a global pandemic. The lives of high school seniors Parisa Naficy and Gabriela Gonzales couldn't be more different. Parisa, an earnest and privileged Iranian American, struggles to live up to her own impossible standards. Gabriela, a cynical Mexican American, has all the confidence Parisa lacks but none of the financial stability. She can't help but envy Parisa's posh lifestyle whenever she hears her two moms argue about money. Despite their differences, as soon as they met on the first day of freshman year, they had an "us versus the world" mentality. Whatever the future had in store for them—the pressure to get good grades, the litany of family dramas, and the heartbreak of unrequited love—they faced it together. Until a global pandemic forces everyone...

In the grim darkness of the far future, there is only war.Throughout the Imperium and beyond, tales are told of heroes and villains – indomitable Space Marines, valiant soldiers of the Astra Militarum, inscrutable Aeldari, and ferocious Orks – locked in endless battle. Some seek simply to survive, others to atone for their mistakes through sacrifice. From Saint Celestine, to Ahriman of the Thousand Sons, to the lowly rank-and-file of the Imperial Guard, each will play their part, but none will escape their duty... or their fate.This Warhammer 40,000 anthology contains 24 short stories featuring both new and established characters from the 41st Millennium.CONTENTS– The Taste of Fire by Steven B Fischer– Refuge by Steve Lyons– Redemption Through Sacrifice by Justin Woolley– The Price of Duty by Matt Smith– Anarchy's End by Rob J Hayes– The Jagged Edge by Maria Haskins– The Place of Pain and Healing by Justin D Hill– The...

A moving novel about storytelling, about truths, love and our desire to name and rename things, from two-time Miles Franklin Award winner Alex Miller.'More than one ghost haunts this tender novel about love in its many guises, condoned and illicit. In his deceptively simple, lucid prose, Alex Miller examines the emotional contradictions inherent in apparent opposites as his central character learns to draw strength and inspiration from unlikely places. Hauntingly beautiful, A Brief Affair will resonate long after its pages are closed.' Sylvia Martin, author of Ink in Her Veins: The Troubled Life of Aileen PalmerFrom the bustling streets of China, to the ominous Cell 16 in an old asylum building, to the familiar sounds and sight of galahs flying over a Victorian farm, A Brief Affair is a tender love story.On the face of it, Dr Frances Egan is a woman who has it all-a loving family and a fine career - until a brief, perfect...

Meiling — All I've ever known is pain. My life has been far from a fairy tale. No parents. No friends. Just an endless nightmare that I can't wake from. Until the day a man offered me his hand and promised to keep me safe. I've never trusted anyone before, but there's something about him. Maybe it's insane, but I know he won't hurt me, and when he puts his arms around me, for the first time in my life I feel loved. Dingo — I've always had a soft spot for women and kids in trouble. One look at Meiling, and I knew I had to protect her at any cost. The beautiful girl with the wounded soul. After all she's suffered, all I want is to make her smile, make her feel secure, and give her a chance to find happiness. But first, I need to take out the men and women responsible for hurting her. It might get ugly, and messy, but they don't call me Dingo for nothing. I'm a crazy bastard, and I won't stop until she's safe. I just didn't count on falling for her along the...

Rhodesia, 1972.Tessa Harmand is nine-years-old when a humiliating experience forever alters her naïve perception of the society in which she lives, forcing her to question her own attitude to her black compatriots – an attitude she's inherited from her elders.Nathan Owen is twelve-years-old, dark haired and inscrutable. To Tessa, he is a dead-pan, distant ghost flitting into view and then dissolving in a blink... but an odd conversation with him only serves to heighten Tessa's new and unwelcome awareness of the political uncertainty.As the first whisperings of the armed struggle that will transform Rhodesia into Zimbabwe gradually invade Tessa's daily life, the adults in her world remain oddly dismissive, even as civil war becomes an inescapable reality. Tessa comes to realise that white dominated Africa belongs in the past; her optimism for the inevitable political change is shocking to a generation desperate to preserve what it has. But amid the chaos...

FROM BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LGBTQIA+ ROMANCE BRIAN LANCASTEROne starry, starry night, an unexpected romance blossoms between two unlikely souls during a time of Christmas lockdown.One glacial Friday night in late October 2020, Spencer K Wyrrell— Squirrel— sits hidden behind an evergreen bush, freezing his arse off on a stone bench in the deserted twentieth-floor rooftop garden of his boss' London flat. Taking a break from volunteering to show social-distanced guests around her penthouse gallery of abstract art, he is waiting with an ice bucket and a bottle of champagne for the arrival of his habitually unpunctual colleague and best friend, Bev. But when the balcony door eventually slides open, the person who steps out is not his friend at all but the smoking hot celebrity and chat show host, Marshall J Highlander. Unsure what to do, Squirrel stays put and overhears Highlander's private call. A newspaper is threatening to publish nude photographs of...