Kate Winton-Jones is marrying one of America’s most eligible bachelors and living the fairytale. Edward Carnarvon III is rich, handsome, and hers—everything a woman could want in a future husband. But at the final fitting of her wedding gown, one of the seamstresses pricks her finger and a tiny blood spot appears on the outrageously expensive designer gown. The famous designer fires the clumsy seamstress on the spot, whereupon the girl puts a curse on the dress and storms out dramatically. Kate doesn’t believe in curses because she’s modern, American, and in love with the perfect guy. What could possibly go wrong? 👰

But that very evening she meets a man who makes her question her entire future. And then she discovers that Edward has been hiding a secret or two about his life and his expectations for their marriage, and before she can say “This dress is so cursed,” she’s on the run from Edward, his powerful family, her controlling mother, the paparazzi who smell scandal, and the person she thought she was before everything fell apart. When she finds herself falling for a sexy private investigator who’s nothing like her polished fiancé, she decides it’s time to throw her cautious good sense out with the satin shoes she won’t be wearing. 💔

Playing it safe hasn’t done her much good—it’s gotten her a cursed wedding dress and a fiancé with secrets. Maybe it’s time to play by a new set of rules. Her rules. Nancy Warren delivers romantic comedy about cursed dresses, runaway brides, and discovering that the perfect life you planned might not be as perfect as the messy one you stumble into. 💕

What makes this essential: A romantic comedy where Kate Winton-Jones marries one of America’s most eligible bachelors Edward Carnarvon III—until at her final gown fitting a seamstress pricks her finger, gets fired, and curses the dress before storming out, leading Kate to meet a man who makes her question everything that evening, discover Edward’s hidden secrets, and find herself on the run from his family, her mother, and the paparazzi before falling for a sexy private investigator and deciding to throw cautious good sense out with her unworn satin shoes.

He’ll dig her out of debt if she agrees to his terms. Kat Wilder is struggling to keep her head above water. She waits tables to support her little sister, but the money never goes far enough no matter how many double shifts she works. She needs help fast or she’s going to lose their home and her sister’s stability. Enter Blake Sterling, tech billionaire with more money than he knows what to do with. The impossibly handsome stranger offers Kat a lifeline that seems too good to be true. A million dollars for her hand in marriage—not real marriage, just the appearance of it. 💰

A million dollars to don designer dresses she could never afford, smile at paparazzi like she’s enjoying the spotlight, stare into his eyes like she’s madly in love with him instead of just desperately in need of his money. As long as she keeps up the ruse and plays the devoted wife convincingly, she secures her family’s future. It’s a good deal even if Blake is arrogant, impossible to read behind his cold exterior, and insanely handsome in ways that make concentrating difficult. How can someone so cold and calculating leave her so hot every time he’s near? When she’s with him, she’s on fire in ways she’s never experienced. 🔥

There’s something about his dirty demands that shouldn’t appeal to her but does, and her body begs her to obey even when her mind says she should keep her distance. She can play his wife for the cameras and the public. But can she fall into his bed without falling in love with him? Crystal Kaswell launches Dirty Rich with contemporary romance about marriage of convenience and the danger of fake relationships becoming real. 💕

What makes this essential: A contemporary romance launching Dirty Rich where struggling waitress Kat Wilder supports her little sister but never has enough money—until tech billionaire Blake Sterling offers a lifeline of a million dollars for her hand in marriage, wearing designer dresses and smiling at paparazzi while staring into his eyes like she’s madly in love, securing her family’s future as long as she keeps up the ruse, but arrogant, impossible-to-read, insanely handsome Blake leaves her on fire despite being so cold, his dirty demands making her body beg to obey as she plays his wife wondering if she can fall into his bed without falling in love.

When twins are abducted from a tent in the Lake District during what should have been a safe family camping trip, the hunt for a dangerous trafficking ring begins. Detective Alec Ramsay faces his most challenging case as *The Child Taker* follows the desperate search for the missing children before they disappear into a network that specializes in making people vanish without a trace. Conrad Jones launches Detective Alec Ramsay Series with psychological thriller about every parent’s worst nightmare. 👶

What makes this essential: A psychological thriller launching Detective Alec Ramsay Series where twins are abducted from a tent in the Lake District during a family camping trip, beginning the hunt for a dangerous trafficking ring as Detective Alec Ramsay follows the desperate search for the missing children before they disappear into a network specializing in making people vanish without a trace—every parent’s worst nightmare.

Since the man I thought I would be walking down the aisle with broke up with me out of nowhere, I’ve been focused exclusively on my business to avoid the heartbreak. As the designer of Emma Belle Bridal Gowns, headlining the Blushing Bride Convention in Las Vegas has been the highlight of my year—professional validation I desperately needed. And the legendary editor of *The Dress* magazine wants to feature me in their upcoming issue? A dream come true that proves I’m succeeding even if my personal life is a disaster. 👗

And it’s my birthday! Nothing can get me down except maybe my ex’s engagement splashed across social media, rubbing salt in fresh wounds. What’s a girl to do other than drink a truck load of champagne and see a male revue show to forget her troubles? When a dancer pulls me up on stage, the chemistry between us is undeniable and electric in ways my ex never made me feel. 💃

Forget holy matrimony and waiting for the right person—I’m going to lower my expectations for one night of fun without consequences. One night that just may last forever when what starts as escapism becomes something real. Erin Hawkins delivers romantic comedy about bridal gown designers, male revue dancers, and unexpected chemistry on your birthday. 🎂

What makes this essential: A romantic comedy where bridal gown designer headlining the Blushing Bride Convention in Las Vegas—getting featured in legendary *The Dress* magazine on her birthday—sees her ex’s engagement splashed across social media, drinks a truck load of champagne, attends a male revue show where a dancer pulls her onstage with undeniable chemistry, deciding to lower her expectations for one night that just may last forever when escapism becomes something real.

The fae live among us hiding in plain sight. And one of them is a serial killer prowling London’s streets. I thought this would be a simple profiling case when I was assigned to it. Just another Jack-the-Ripper wannabe searching for easy kills in dark alleys. I was wrong about everything. This killer is fae with magic that makes him as elusive as smoke on the wind, impossible to track using normal investigative methods. But I’m an FBI profiler trained to get inside killers’ heads, and it’s my job to track him down no matter what it takes. 🔍

It doesn’t matter that one of the main suspects—a lethally alluring fae who makes my pulse race—is trying to seduce me or kill me, I’m not sure which and he won’t clarify. I won’t be stopped, not even when panic roils through the streets of London as bodies pile up, or when the police start to suspect me of the murders I’m investigating. As I close in on the killer following clues into the fae underworld, I follow him to a magical shadow realm that’s like nothing I ever expected—a place where I’m hunted like prey instead of the hunter. 🌙

Fine. Bring it on. I’m an FBI Agent trained for hostility. And it turns out I have magical powers of my own that nobody told me about. C.N. Crawford and Alex Rivers launch Dark Fae FBI with paranormal romance about serial killers, seductive suspects, and discovering hidden powers. ✨

What makes this essential: A paranormal demons and devils romance launching Dark Fae FBI where FBI profiler thinks tracking a serial killer in London will be simple—just another Jack-the-Ripper wannabe—but this killer is fae, elusive as smoke on the wind, and one lethally alluring fae suspect is trying to seduce or kill her (unclear which), but she won’t be stopped even when police suspect her, following the killer to a magical shadow realm where she’s hunted like prey until discovering she has magical powers of her own.

Blair: You know those fairytale moments when your life is on the brink of transformation and everything feels possible? I thought I had one that would change my trajectory forever. I can still picture it with cinematic clarity: dressed to the nines in a dazzling ball gown that cost more than my rent, clutching a glass of liquid courage to steady my nerves, and the eyes of my very own Prince Charming finding me from across the crowded room like something out of a romance novel. It was the quintessential meet-cute, the beginning of my happily ever after. Or so I thought before reality intervened. 👗

Fate had other plans that involved far less romance and far more medical intervention. The glare of emergency room lights jolted me awake after one wrong bite had me waking up into a nightmare involving anaphylaxis, an ambulance, and the humiliation of being seen at my absolute worst by the man I was trying to impress. Things couldn’t possibly get worse after that disaster, right? Then the universe laughed and said “Hold my appletini” while preparing even more chaos. 🚑

Caleb: Seriously? The hospital called me to pick up my ex-wife from the emergency room in the middle of the night like I’m still her emergency contact after everything we’ve been through. Two long years of moving on and trying to forget her—two years of carefully rebuilding my life without Blair in it—had gone up in flames with one phone call. The ink may have dried on our divorce papers, but now I’m on the verge of putting them through a shredder because seeing her vulnerable and needing me has awakened feelings I thought I’d successfully buried. Maggie Gates and Landon Gates deliver second chance romance examining whether fairytale moments can survive emergency room reality, and whether ex-spouses can find their way back to each other when fate keeps forcing them together in the most embarrassing circumstances possible. 💕

What makes this essential: A second chance romance where Blair’s fairytale moment—dressed to the nines in a dazzling ball gown, clutching liquid courage as Prince Charming’s eyes find her across the room in the quintessential meet-cute—turns into emergency room nightmare when one wrong bite causes anaphylaxis, with the universe holding her appletini while ex-husband Caleb gets the middle-of-the-night hospital call two years after their divorce, the ink dried on their papers but now he’s on the verge of putting them through a shredder.

Ardor Benn is no ordinary thief operating in the usual criminal underworld. Rakish, ambitious, and master of wildly complex heists that require months of planning and dozens of moving parts, he styles himself a ruse artist extraordinaire—someone who creates elaborate cons that are as much performance art as theft. When he gets hired for his most daring ruse yet—a job that seems impossible even by his inflated standards—Ardor knows he’ll need more than quick wit and sleight of hand to pull it off successfully. 🎭

Assembling a dream team of specialists—forgers who can recreate anything, disguisers who can become anyone, schemers who can anticipate every contingency, and thieves with skills so specific they’ve never been caught—he sets out to steal from the most powerful king the realm has ever known, a monarch whose security measures are legendary and whose reach extends into every corner of the kingdom. But it soon becomes clear as the heist unfolds that there’s more at stake than fame and glory or even the massive payday Ardor was promised. ⚔️

Ard and his team of specialists might just be the last hope for human civilization against a threat nobody saw coming. Tyler Whitesides launches Kingdom of Grit trilogy with epic fantasy that begins with an Ocean’s Eleven-style heist and quickly explodes into a full-tilt, last-ditch plan to save humanity when the con becomes something far more important than anyone anticipated. Discover the start of a trilogy where stealing from kings is just the warm-up for saving the world. 🌍

What makes this essential: An epic fantasy launching Kingdom of Grit where rakish Ardor Benn—no ordinary thief but ruse artist extraordinaire mastering wildly complex heists—assembles a dream team of forgers, disguisers, schemers, and thieves to steal from the most powerful king the realm has ever known in his most daring job yet, but it soon becomes clear there’s more at stake than fame and glory as Ard’s team might be humanity’s last hope, beginning with an Ocean’s Eleven heist that explodes into a full-tilt plan to save civilization.

What sets space opera apart from other science fiction subgenres is its sheer scale and ambition: it is an exuberant celebration of the very large and the very small, of civilizations that span galaxies and individuals who shape them, of the very old empires crumbling after millennia and the very new technologies being born, of the vast panoramic instant we live in where everything that went before melds with everything yet to be in explosive combination. It is Star Wars’ epic scope and Battlestar Galactica’s intimate character drama combined, stretching across both space and time in ways that make planetary-bound stories feel claustrophobic by comparison. 🚀

The only anthology book of its kind when published, *The New Space Opera* brings together for the first time the generation of writers who spawned and embody the “new space opera” movement—authors who took the pulp sensibilities of classic space opera and infused them with literary sophistication, complex characters, and contemporary concerns—as well as other talents destined to join their ranks in reshaping science fiction. Going beyond everything that has come before in both ambition and execution, this fresh visionary anthology is essential reading for every science fiction fan who wants to understand where the genre has been and where it’s going. 🌌

Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan curate exploration science fiction examining humanity’s place in an incomprehensibly vast universe, featuring stories that span from intimate human drama to galaxy-spanning civilizations, from first contact scenarios to far-future post-human evolution. This collection defines what space opera became in the 21st century: not just action and adventure among the stars, but literature that uses the infinite canvas of space to explore what it means to be human, to build societies, to face the unknown, and to dream bigger than any single planet can contain. ✨

What makes this essential: An exploration science fiction anthology where editors Gardner Dozois and Jonathan Strahan bring together for the first time the generation of writers who spawned and embody the “new space opera”—celebrating the very large and very small, very old and very new, the vast panoramic instant where everything melds in Star Wars scope and Battlestar Galactica character drama, going beyond everything before as the only book of its kind and essential reading for understanding where science fiction has been and where it’s going.

The acclaimed medieval historian Michael Haag chronicles the rise of Templar powers in the Levant—and the saga of their destruction through betrayal and condemnation. Founded on Christmas Day 1119 in Jerusalem by a small group of knights who took vows of poverty, chastity, and obedience, the Knights Templar was a religious order dedicated to defending the Holy Land and its Christian pilgrims in the decades after the First Crusade when the newly established Crusader states needed military protection from Muslim counterattacks. Legendary for their bravery in battle, their dedication to their vows even unto death, and their distinctive white mantles emblazoned with red crosses, the Templars became one of the wealthiest and most powerful bodies of the medieval world—and the chief defenders of Christian society against growing Muslim forces seeking to reclaim territory lost during the Crusades. ⚔️

In *The Tragedy of the Templars: The Rise and Fall of the Crusader States*, Haag masterfully details the conflicts both external and internal, the military campaigns both victorious and disastrous, and the betrayals both political and personal that sent this faction of powerful warrior-monks spiraling from domination to condemnation over the course of two centuries. The Templars’ fall was as dramatic as their rise: accused of heresy, arrested en masse on Friday the 13th, 1307 (the origin of that date’s superstitious reputation), tortured into false confessions, and ultimately dissolved by papal decree, their vast wealth confiscated and their leaders burned at the stake. 🔥

This stirring and thoroughly researched work of historical investigation includes maps that chart the Crusader states’ changing borders and full-color photographs of important cultural sites—many of which doubled as battlefields during the Crusades, from the walls of Jerusalem to the fortress of Acre. Haag examines not just military history but the economic, political, and religious forces that elevated the Templars to unprecedented power and then destroyed them when they became too powerful for European monarchs to tolerate. Medieval military history revealing how the defenders of Christianity became its most famous victims. 🏰

What makes this essential: Medieval military history where acclaimed historian Michael Haag chronicles the Knights Templar’s rise—founded Christmas Day 1119 in Jerusalem as a religious order defending the Holy Land, becoming legendary for bravery and dedication while growing into one of the wealthiest, most powerful medieval bodies—and their destruction through conflicts, betrayals, and condemnation, arrested en masse on Friday the 13th 1307, tortured into false confessions, and dissolved by papal decree as their vast wealth was confiscated and leaders burned at the stake, with maps and full-color photographs of cultural sites that doubled as battlefields.

Rose gets her long-awaited invite to attend a magical university on the island of Academia where the best and brightest fae students learn to master their powers. But what happens when she ends up at a different academy from those she knows and trusts—separated from her friends and support system—in a co-ed dorm room that’s far more intimate than she anticipated? She’s thrust into a world of dark magic that whispers from the shadows, temptation at every turn from classmates and professors alike, and a threat she can’t protect herself from because first-year students aren’t supposed to use their magic outside of supervised classroom settings per academy rules designed to prevent accidents. 🎓

And when she’s caught trying to defend herself with magic against the mysterious threat stalking her, she’s made to wear a magic suppression necklace as punishment—leaving her completely vulnerable in an environment that’s proving more dangerous than she expected. Can her roommate and his friends protect her when she can’t protect herself? And what if the threat targeting Rose hits a little closer to home than anyone suspects, possibly coming from within the academy’s walls or even her new friend group? 🔮

Kathy Haan delivers fae academy romance examining power, vulnerability, and trust when the rules designed to keep students safe might be the very things putting them in danger. *Bedlam Academy* is a spin-off of the Bedlam Moon Trilogy and while you don’t have to read that trilogy to understand this new series about Rose’s academy experiences, it may provide context and backstory you’ll appreciate about the magical world’s politics and the threats that extend beyond campus boundaries. ✨

What makes this essential: A fae academy romance launching Fae Academia where Rose gets her long-awaited invite to magical university on the island of Academia but ends up at a different academy from those she knows and trusts, thrust into a co-ed dorm room with dark magic, temptation at every turn, and a threat she can’t protect herself from because first-year students aren’t supposed to use their magic—caught trying to defend herself, she’s made to wear a magic suppression necklace leaving her vulnerable as the threat hits closer to home, possibly from within the academy walls.