The Genevians are at war with Nietzschea, and they’re losing badly enough that desperate measures have become standard procedure. ⚔️
In a last-ditch hope born from desperation and moral compromise, the Genevian mech program was founded with a singular brutal goal: augment humans into cyborg fighting machines, mechanized warriors sent to hold the front lines against an enemy that was systematically storming a hundred worlds and winning. The program promised salvation through technology, transforming soldiers into unstoppable combat platforms. But there was a problem: few people wished to undergo the brutal process of having their bodies stripped away and replaced with metal and weapons. Volunteering for conversion meant becoming more machine than human, and most people quite reasonably preferred to stay organic. 🤖
So criminals were used instead, because if you’re going to commit war crimes, might as well make them efficient. Their minds were enslaved by control chips that removed free will, their bodies forcibly converted into weapons, and obedience was enforced through Discipline—a system so brutal it makes actual torture look gentle. The Genevians spent their mechs against the Nietzscheans with the same casual disregard you’d give disposable equipment, burning through converted criminals like ammunition, eventually struggling to find enough bodies to meet military quotas as the war dragged on. 💀
So quotas were set in the courts with all the subtle evil of bureaucratic corruption. Prosecutors and judges were paid off handsomely to ensure that even the most benign offenses—parking violations, petty theft, jaywalking—would see the perpetrator end up in a mech factory, their rights and minds stripped away as thoroughly as their bodies. Justice became a conveyor belt feeding the war machine, and nobody with power cared because mechs were winning battles even if Genevia was still losing the war. 😱
Rika is one such victim of this system, convicted of a crime that in any sane society would have resulted in community service, not cybernetic conversion. Forged into a second generation scout mech against her will, her body replaced with combat hardware and her mind enslaved by control chips, she is sent to the front lines where she serves with distinction because she has no choice. She crushes countless enemies beneath her clawed feet, follows orders without question, fights with mechanical precision, and gives everything she has to a war effort that stole her humanity. ⚡
But despite giving literally everything—her body, her autonomy, her life—Genevia still loses the war in the kind of catastrophic defeat that makes all the sacrifices meaningless. And Rika, along with thousands of other mechs who were promised freedom after victory, is abandoned like broken equipment when the government that enslaved her collapses. The control chips remain. The trauma remains. The mechanical body that requires constant maintenance remains. But support, care, or gratitude? Those are nowhere to be found. 💔
Now Rika slings cargo on Dekar, a backwater station where she’s little more than a human loading machine, struggling desperately to keep ahead of the slow breakdown of her mechanized body as parts fail and repairs become unaffordable. She’s survived war only to face a different kind of death—the gradual decay of systems she can’t fix, in a body she never wanted, with a mind still haunted by what she was forced to do. The question becomes: can a weapon become human again? And if so, how? 🌟
Why this matters: M.D. Cooper delivers the complete Rika’s Marauders series featuring a forced cyborg conversion, military exploitation, war crime aftermath, and a protagonist fighting for agency after being treated as disposable equipment—perfect for readers who love their space marines with brutal honesty about the cost of war and genuine stakes about reclaiming humanity.
A scandalous ex-porn star demon and a morally shady billionaire vampire walk into a bar, and this is absolutely not a joke—it’s opening day at my hotel. 😈
That lust demon causing chaos in the lobby? He’s my business partner. I know. What was I thinking? The answer is I wasn’t thinking, I was desperate, and desperate people make questionable decisions like partnering with a demon who has zero concept of appropriate workplace behavior and an unfortunate tendency to solve problems through seduction. The sexy, suave vampire however, checking in as our first guest and looking like he stepped out of a gothic romance novel? He’s something else entirely, and I’m trying very hard not to think about what that something else might be. 🧛
Creating a sanctuary for the supernaturals left stranded here when the tear in the veil sealed permanently, trapping them in our dimension like the world’s worst Airbnb situation, was always going to be difficult. But it’s all I have left after my previous life spectacularly imploded, and I’m determined to make the SOS Hotel work against all odds. Despite the murders happening with alarming frequency, the missing humans that nobody seems concerned about except me, and the psychotic real estate mogul who wants to bulldoze the hotel and build luxury condos because gentrification apparently extends to supernatural sanctuaries. 💀
The SOS Hotel must thrive whatever the cost, because if it fails, I lose everything I’ve worked for. Including, quite possibly, my life, since the people who want the hotel gone aren’t above using lethal force to achieve their real estate goals. And some of my guests are starting to look at me like I might be food, which is concerning given that I’m just the boring human manager trying to keep things running while supernatural chaos erupts around me. 🔥
My name is Adam, which is the most generic possible name for someone running a supernatural hotel. I’m just the boring human who works here, handling reservations, managing complaints about holy water in the plumbing, and absolutely, definitely do not have any secrets hidden in my past. None whatsoever. The fact that I’m unusually good at handling supernatural crises? Pure coincidence. The mysterious tattoos I keep covered? Totally normal human decorative choices. The reason I needed a fresh start and a hotel nobody else wanted? Nothing suspicious about that at all. 😅
As murders pile up and the mystery of the missing humans deepens, I’m forced to work with my demon business partner (who’s surprisingly competent when he’s not causing scandals), the vampire guest (who keeps looking at me with unsettling intensity), and a growing roster of supernatural residents who are starting to feel like family. Together we’re uncovering a conspiracy that goes deeper than real estate development and involves the kind of power plays that could get us all killed. But hey, at least the hotel’s occupancy rate is up. 🌟
Welcome to the SOS Hotel, where the supernatural come to feel safe, humans mysteriously vanish, demons run the front desk, and nothing can possibly go wrong. Narrator spoiler: everything is already going wrong. 🏨
What makes this explosive: Adam Vex and Ariana Nash deliver LGBTQ+ urban fantasy combining a supernatural hotel sanctuary, a human manager with secrets, found family dynamics, murder mysteries, and discovering that sometimes safety is worth fighting for—perfect for readers who love their fantasy with queer romance, snark, and genuinely high stakes.
A canceled children’s charity event, a cold-hearted victim who earned her nickname honestly, and a faithful dachshund with a nose for trouble lead a retired Boulder detective to solve a frosty mystery. 🎄
In Boulder, Colorado’s snow-dusted streets where the mountains provide a backdrop and the locals take their craft beer seriously, widowed detective Howie O’Sullivan thought retirement meant more time for his beloved charity Pedals of Promise and less time dealing with murder investigations. Every Christmas, he works tirelessly to deliver bikes and holiday meals to children in need, bringing joy to families who might otherwise go without. It’s become his purpose after losing his wife, his way of making sure her memory lives on through generosity. 🚲
But this December brings an unwelcome gift wrapped in spite and tied with malice: Ebenita Scroogina, the town’s notorious curmudgeon who actually lives up to her dramatically appropriate nickname, convinces the city council to cancel the beloved annual event with arguments about liability and budget concerns that everyone knows are just excuses. Before Howie can mount a proper counterargument or rally community support to fight back, his loyal dachshund Scooby makes a chilling discovery—Ebenita’s frozen body in the frost-covered grounds of the Starlight Community Center where the canceled charity event was supposed to take place. ❄️
When police, operating on the kind of lazy logic that drives retired detectives crazy, arrest Howie’s best friend Sammy for the murder based on circumstantial evidence and the fact that Sammy publicly threatened Ebenita after she killed the charity event, holiday cheer turns to desperate urgency. Now Howie must dust off his detective skills for one more case that matters more than any before. With Christmas less than a week away and counting down fast, he’s racing against time to unmask the real killer, free an innocent man from jail, and somehow save a charity event that means everything to dozens of waiting children who are counting on those bikes. 🔍
As Howie investigates with Scooby faithfully at his side (because dachshunds make excellent detective partners when treats are involved), he uncovers a surprising list of people who wanted Ebenita dead. Turns out, spending decades being cruel to everyone you meet creates a lot of enemies. From business owners she’d ruined with false complaints, to families she’d reported to social services out of spite, to charity organizers whose events she’d killed just like she killed Pedals of Promise. The woman was a one-person destroyer of community joy, and someone finally decided to stop her permanently. 😱
This cozy Christmas mystery serves up small-town charm where everyone knows your name and your business, a lovable canine sidekick who’s better at detecting than most humans, and just enough holiday suspense to keep you guessing without ruining the seasonal spirit. Perfect for readers who adore festive whodunits where community spirit, friendship, and a dachshund named Scooby help solve the crime before Christmas morning arrives. 🐕
Here’s what you’re getting: B.I. Skinner launches the Holiday Cozy Mystery series featuring a retired detective, his dachshund partner, a murdered Scrooge figure, and the race to save Christmas charity while solving murder—perfect for readers who love their holiday mysteries wholesome, charming, and full of community spirit with just enough darkness to make solving the crime satisfying.
NEW RELEASES
Christmas and I don’t mix. Never have, never will. 🎄
Then my best friend’s little sister, the girl who once sat on my lap in a Santa suit years ago and asked if I had a candy cane in my pocket with all the innocent curiosity of a child who didn’t understand the implications, walks back into my life. She’s not a kid anymore. She’s sunshine personified. I’m frostbite in human form. She’s broke, working three jobs and still barely making rent. I’m a billionaire with a reputation to fix after one too many tabloid scandals involving models, yachts, and behavior my PR team calls “extremely problematic.” 💰
So I make her a deal she can’t refuse: pretend to be my girlfriend until Christmas, help me rehabilitate my image in the eyes of the board and the media, and I’ll change her life financially. Easy money for playing dress-up at holiday parties, right? Until we land in NYC and the fake dates start feeling real in ways that terrify me. Until her smile ruins me, breaking through defenses I’ve spent years constructing. Until I’m kissing her like she’s the only gift I’ll ever want under any Christmas tree ever. 💋
This was supposed to be a bet with my friends about whether I could fake a relationship convincingly. A publicity stunt orchestrated by my team. A win for my corporate image and her bank account. Instead? She’s the one woman I can’t lose, even though she’s the only person who knows exactly how to melt the ice around my heart because she’s seen me at my worst and somehow still looks at me like I’m worth believing in. 🎁
As Christmas approaches and our fake relationship feels increasingly real, I realize the bet I’m going to lose isn’t the one with my friends—it’s the one where I convinced myself I could let her go when December 26th arrives. Because it turns out, some candy canes are meant to be permanent, not just seasonal. 🌟
Here’s what you’re getting: Ali Parker and Weston Parker deliver holiday romance featuring a grumpy billionaire, a sunshine heroine, fake dating that becomes real, and discovering that sometimes Christmas miracles come in the form of your best friend’s little sister all grown up—perfect for readers who love their holiday romance with steam, banter, and billionaires learning to feel.
In The Land and Its People, his first new collection since Happy-Go-Lucky, David Sedaris reflects on what it means to be a foreigner navigating cultures that perplex him, a brother grieving and celebrating siblings simultaneously, a lifelong friend watching people disappear from his life one obituary at a time. 📖
He tries on the role of caretaker after his boyfriend Hugh’s hip-replacement surgery, and both succeeds spectacularly and fails in ways that only Sedaris could make hilarious. He buys his sister a cape because apparently that’s what you do when words fail. He discusses his brother with a jaded Duolingo bot that judges his family drama with automated responses. He walks dozens of miles with his friend Dawn, having the kind of deep conversations that only happen when you’re too tired to maintain pretense, and challenges her to eat a truck tire as proof of… something. Friendship? Insanity? With Sedaris, it’s both. 🚶
Ever adding to his obsessive list of “Countries I Have Been To,” he rides a horse named Tequila in Guatemala, which goes exactly as well as you’d expect. He buys a bespoke priest’s cassock in Vatican City because when in Rome, dress like clergy. And he goes on safari in Kenya without taking a single photo, which might be the most radical act of the entire book—experiencing something without needing to prove it happened on Instagram. 🌍
There is sadness here that hits harder as Sedaris ages—scrolling through his address book, he realizes how many dear friends are now deceased, how his contact list has become a memorial. But there’s also pure delight in the mundane: he revels in authors’ biographies, finding the weird details that humanize literary giants. He treasures the malapropism that becomes a decades-long inside joke with Hugh. He celebrates a pair of well-made cotton underpants with the enthusiasm most people reserve for fine art. 😊
He is bitten by a dog and turns it into comedy. A train passenger vomits in his face and somehow this becomes a meditation on human resilience. A woman on the street late at night either sexually harasses him or doesn’t, and the ambiguity becomes the point. Look how hard it is to be alive! Look how strange everyone is! Look how we keep trying anyway! 🎭
Throughout these essays—at once acerbic and tender, playful and profound in ways that sneak up on you—Sedaris shows how much there is to marvel at when you keep your head up and your eyes open, observing with warmth and curiosity this fascinating, frustrating human species and the lands we inhabit. 🌟
Why this matters: David Sedaris delivers his signature blend of humor and heartbreak, proving that the best essays find extraordinary meaning in ordinary moments—essential reading for anyone who needs reminding that life is simultaneously absurd, beautiful, and worth documenting even when nobody’s watching.
The definitive account of the warrior-monks who stood as Christendom’s shield against centuries of relentless Islamic aggression and a superlative example of Muscular Christianity for an era marred by increasingly effete and effeminized forms of the faith that have forgotten how to fight for anything. ⚔️
In this magisterial history, Raymond Ibrahim chronicles the long and brutal conflict between Islam and the West through the eyes and lives of Christendom’s original commando forces: the knights of the Temple and Hospital. These warrior monks, whose unprecedented fusion of piety and militancy remains unmatched to this day, played a pivotal—though deliberately overlooked if not actively suppressed by modern academia—role in defending Christian civilization against the onslaught of Islamic forces during the Crusades and beyond. They were monks who killed, soldiers who prayed, the answer to the question: what happens when faith requires a sword? 🛡️
Drawing on an exhaustive study of primary sources that most historians conveniently ignore, and infused with his signature blend of rigorous scholarship and compelling storytelling that doesn’t apologize for Christianity, Ibrahim’s groundbreaking work far transcends the typical constraints of modern academic retellings that sanitize medieval history. He debunks widely held myths such as the persistent claim that the Templars evolved into the Freemasons (they didn’t), and uncovers the theological foundation that gave rise to and provided justification for these military orders that modern Christians find embarrassing. 📚
In line with Christ’s now ignored directive that “two swords” are “enough” (Luke 22:38), these two brotherhoods wielded both spiritual and martial power to safeguard the faith against enemies who understood only force. They were prayer and violence incarnate, defending pilgrims, holding fortresses, and fighting battles that allowed Christian civilization to survive when Islamic conquest seemed inevitable. Ibrahim argues they represent a model of engaged Christianity that modern believers have forgotten—faith that doesn’t just turn the other cheek but also knows when to draw steel. ⚡
Warning: Brimming with epic battles where heavily armored knights charge into overwhelming odds, stunning heroism that modern Hollywood won’t touch, and self-sacrificial martyrdom against the savage hordes of Islam that make contemporary Christians uncomfortable, The Two Swords of Christ—the third installment of Ibrahim’s trilogy following Sword and Scimitar and Defenders of the West—stands as his fiercest and most unapologetically violent narrative to date. This isn’t academic history for seminars. This is war history for an age that’s forgotten what defending civilization actually requires. 🗡️
What makes this essential: Raymond Ibrahim delivers uncompromising history of the Templars and Hospitallers, arguing that warrior monks represent authentic Christianity that modern faith has lost—essential reading for those seeking historical truth over politically correct revisionism about the Crusades and Islamic expansion.