Showing results by author "V.V.A.A." in All Categories

My alien concubine refuses to please me. That gruff, muscled Vandalar saikh I bought myself keeps running away. So I do what every lonely woman in her 30s would: I cuff him to my bed, until he comes to his senses. At least now I don’t have to chase behind him in high heels and can concentrate on starting my mail-order-saikh business. What could possibly go wrong? I tell you what: He frees himself. Of course, he does. Now I’m the one tied to the bed while he threatens punishment.

Young Teddie Crawford is dead from multiple stab wounds in a restaurant kitchen awash with blood. LAPD homicide detective Kate Delafield is relentless in her pursuit and capture of his killer. But bringing that killer to trial imperils Kate's professional standing and personal privacy—and her belief in the justice system to which she has devoted her life.

On the night of the new moon, the demons rise in force, seeking the deaths of two men both of whom have the potential to become the fabled Deliverer, the man prophesied to reunite the scattered remnants of humanity in a final push to destroy the demon corelings once and for all. Arlen Bales was once an ordinary man, but now he has become something more - the Warded Man, tattooed with eldritch wards so powerful they make him a match for any demon. Arlen denies he is the Deliverer at every turn, but the more he tries to be one with the common folk, the more fervently they believe.

In Shadow Magic, the third book of the Haven Series, Herla of the Wild Hunt makes his move to gather all the Jewels of Power. Hunting down and killing those who wield them, the undead king is as relentless as death itself. He is not the only interested party, however, as several armies march to meet Brand and his allies in a desperate battle for control of the River Haven.

In the summer of 1942, as war rages across Europe, a series of anonymous leaflets appears around the University of Munich, speaking out against escalating Nazi atrocities. The leaflets are hidden in public places or mailed to addresses selected at random from the phone book. Natalya Petrovich, a student, knows who is behind the leaflets - a secret group called the White Rose, led by siblings Hans and Sophie Scholl and their friends. As a volunteer nurse on the Russian front, Natalya witnessed the horrors of war firsthand.

Layton Foxx works hard for what he has. The condo, the career, the chance to make his mark are all down to the sacrifices he has made. With tragedy in his past, he doesn’t want or need love. Then he meets Adler Lockhart, the extroverted, sexy winger for the Harrisburg Railers, and abruptly he can’t avoid love even if he wanted to.

Continuing the award-winning epic of a world where faith and dreams become reality, Mythborn Three follows Masters Silbane and Kisan, the young blade-master Ash, and Princess Yetteje as they journey into the ethereal realm Arcadia, home to the Celestial Lilyth and her Aeris demons. They search for Silbane's apprentice, Arek, and the lost prince of Bara'cor, Niall, as the two explore Arcadia for clues to the mystery of Arek's origin. Is he the son of the demon queen Lilyth, as she claims?

Spanning continents and centuries and defying literary categories, A Way in the World tells intersecting stories whose protagonists include the disgraced and half-demented Sir Walter Raleigh, who seeks El Dorado in the New World; the 19th-century insurgent Francisco Miranda, who becomes entangled in his own fantasies and borrowed ideas; and the doomed Blair, a present-day Caribbean revolutionary stranded in East Africa.

The year is 1870. Torn from the protective community of American missionaries in China, young, innocent teenager Lydia Holt has no idea of the harsh realities she will soon face. Forced into a loveless marriage to a sadistic Chinese nobleman, Lydia escapes her cruel confines and flees to San Francisco, only to meet the man she once trusted with her life - a man who now threatens to destroy the cosmetics empire she has established and rules with an iron hand.

The new psychological thriller from V.A. Rudys: How far would you go for your freedom? Ethan Page had it all: a respectable job, loving friends, and a beautiful apartment - the envy of all his friends. He was madly in love with his wife, Jodie - until he discovered the power she possessed beyond all comprehension and the price she demanded for engineering his perfect life.

By day, Joseph scrubs toilets and fixes broken light fittings. By night, he looks into weird stuff: local hauntings, unexplained disappearances, and satanic cabals dancing naked around ancient stone circles. The usual. The uncanny calls to him like a beacon, and he follows its signal wherever it leads, hoping that one day it will shine a light on who he really is. So far, the clues haven't added up to much, but now, a mad woman is stalking him, he’s tripping over dead bodies in the street, and he keeps having terrifying apocalyptic visions.

There is a need for new ideas on ethical leadership in business today. Success is more about making money than providing the highest value to the client served. Greed is king, lies are rampant, and a "whatever it takes" attitude is pervasive when money is involved. Many corporations have become dependent on people losing: losing their life savings, losing their dignity, and losing their way towards opportunity.

Outsmart the competition and learn inside tricks to enable you to own property and secure your future. How much money do I need for the right deposit? What do I do in a bidding war? How can I spot red flags in a potential home? If you have questions like these about buying your first home, you aren't alone. Becoming a homeowner can be the most challenging, but most rewarding, thing you can do in your life. With prices high and money tight, 40% of new homeowners believe buying a home is the ‘most stressful event in modern life’.

Fights at school, sexual abuse, eating disorders, school crises … the list goes on and on. Hardly a day passes without a local crisis at involving junior highers or high schoolers. This practical resource covers the whole continuum of private and public crisis, equipping parents to work with their kids to deal with any crisis in a way that helps the individual and helps the family stay intact.

Harith Athreya is taking a well-earned break at a boutique hotel in the Himalayan foothills. But his holiday is swiftly cut short when mysterious bloody handprints start appearing on the walls around the resort. When a woman then falls to her death, chaos and confusion reigns. The hotelier is convinced that the key to the case rests with four other young people who checked in at the same time as the victim, all pretending for some reason not to know each other.

It turns out Addison was right: The world as he knew it did come to an end by means of a killer virus. He’s by himself now, near what was Sicily, Oklahoma, tending to a wilted vegetable garden, foraging for rabbits, and eking out not quite enough water from a dried-up well. It’s time to move. Uncle Izzy, whom he’s decided to seek out in his survivalist cabin hundreds of miles away, had prepared him well for an apocalypse - all but for the loneliness. But the virus didn’t quite kill everybody. And humanity isn't all that humane anymore.

Dark tides flow as Arek and his party try desperately to flee Arcadia before the realm collapses, swallowed whole by the life-stealing touch of the nephilim. Their only escape is the Gate of the East Winds, ruled by the Celestial Zafir. Once brothers-in-arms with both Arek and Duncan's aeris forms, now Zafir rules his kingdom with an iron fist. Arcadia dies beneath them, a place even the mighty Celestial seeks to escape, but what price must Arek pay for passage? Always hunting them is Alion Deft, Queensmark of Lilyth and magehunter turned demon.

A traumatic brain injury is a life-changing event, affecting an individual's lifestyle, ability to work, relationships - even personality. A severe blow to the head results in acute and, often, lasting symptoms. People with brain injury benefit from understanding, patience, and assistance in recovering their bearings and functioning to their full abilities. Neuropsychiatrists Drs. Vani Rao and Sandeep Vaishnavi - experts in helping people heal after head trauma - explain how traumatic brain injury, whether mild, moderate, or severe, affects the brain.

Blackmailed by his sister into giving a Christmas house party to celebrate her recent marriage, Edward Greyston, Marquess of Winterbourne, is quite certain the next few days will be an utter nightmare. Nightmares, however, are something Edward is all too familiar with. After the bloody battle of Waterloo, he has returned from the war a changed man, full of rage and guilt. Suspecting one of his house guests, the bluestocking Belinda Holbrook is about to trap unsuspecting and gullible Lord Nibley into marriage, he goes to warn him, only to get caught himself.

When Erin Banks was nine years old, her whole life was capsized. Her baby brother was abducted by a mysterious man with burning, red eyes, and her family torn apart. Since that day, Erin has sworn to discover what happened to her brother and reap bloody vengeance on his kidnapper.