J.A. Konrath, Ann Voss Peterson
FREE
Action Thriller Fiction
🔫 SHE’LL BE THE LAST THING YOU EVER SEE…
She’s an elite spy, working for an agency so secret only three people know it exists. Trained by the best of the best, she has honed her body, her instincts, and her intellect to become the perfect weapon.
Before special operative Chandler was forced to FLEE, she executed the most difficult missions—and most dangerous people—for the government. So when she’s ordered to eliminate a crooked corporate CEO in a manner that looks like natural death, it’s a regular day at the office… until she discovers she’s not the only assassin hunting this particular prey, and her competition is aiming to make this hit into a political statement that will shake the nation.
J.A. Konrath and Ann Voss Peterson continue their Codename: Chandler series (this is Book 4) with a female assassin working for an ultra-secret agency who finds herself competing with another killer on the same target. Fans of Barry Eisler’s John Rain or Killing Eve will appreciate the elite operative whose “natural death” assignment gets complicated by a rival assassin with a political agenda.
What makes this compelling: Chandler is established enough in the series that readers know her capabilities, and the twist of discovering she’s not alone on this hit adds immediate tension—is the other assassin better? What’s their agenda? The “political statement that will shake the nation” angle means this isn’t just a contract killing but something with massive implications. The ultra-secret agency (only three people know it exists) adds layers of deniability and danger.
Kele Moon
FREE
Alpha Male Romance
🔥 Marcos Rivera is a fighter. A gang member. Someone who has seen the dark side of humankind and survived. He has lost family and gained enemies. He has stolen cars and destroyed hearts, stripping one for money and the other for pleasure. His past is haunted and his future is bleak. Until her.
Katie Foster is a high school history teacher. Smart, strong, and sexy. She is a woman Marcos shouldn’t want. Shouldn’t touch. Shouldn’t love.
He met her in Garnet, a backwards, hick town that’s the last place in the world he wants to be, but he finds himself going back, all for a taste of the forbidden. Katie represents a different world, and Marcos knows he’s nothing but trouble for her sheltered life.
He fights and he screws. He commits crimes, and he breaks the rules.
Kele Moon delivers a forbidden romance between a gang member/fighter and a high school teacher with stark class and lifestyle differences. Fans of Kristen Ashley’s alpha heroes or Joanna Wylde’s biker romances will recognize the dangerous-man-meets-good-girl dynamic, but Moon adds boxing/MMA fighter elements to the gang member background.
Why this works: The “shouldn’t want, shouldn’t touch, shouldn’t love” framing immediately establishes the forbidden nature and the internal conflict Marcos faces. Katie isn’t naive—she’s described as smart and strong—which suggests she’s choosing this dangerous man with eyes open rather than being swept along. The Garnet setting (backwards hick town) creates geographic isolation that forces their paths to cross repeatedly. This is a series starter, so expect Marcos’s criminal past and gang connections to create ongoing obstacles.
Sheena Jolie, SJ Himes
FREE
LGBTQ+ Science Fiction & Fantasy
✨ A collection of brand-new short stories, featuring characters from The Beacon Hill Sorcerer Series by bestselling author SJ Himes writing as Sheena Jolie.
Red Wine and Blood: The Blood Wars raged for centuries across Boston. Witness a brief glimpse into the brutal history of the Wars with Ignacio Salvatore and the vampire he loves, Ashwin Metcalfe, in 1897.
A History of Trouble: Angel was joking when he asked O’Malley if someone resurrected a mammoth. Little did he know that was exactly what someone did. Experience the untold story of what happened that unfortunate night at the Boston Public Museum.
A Dragon in the City: What happens when Eroch goes adventuring in Beacon Hill without Angel? Chaos, pure chaos.
SJ Himes (writing as Sheena Jolie) offers a short story collection for fans of the Beacon Hill Sorcerer series, filling in backstory and side adventures. Readers who enjoyed Ilona Andrews’s Hidden Legacy or Seanan McGuire’s InCryptid series will appreciate the urban fantasy Boston setting with vampires, sorcerers, and apparently resurrected mammoths.
What you’re getting: Three stories spanning different time periods (1897 to present) that explore the world’s history and character dynamics. The Blood Wars backstory provides historical context for the vampire politics, the mammoth resurrection story sounds delightfully absurd, and the dragon chaos promises comedic mayhem. This is best appreciated by existing series fans but could work as an introduction to the world’s tone and characters.
NEW RELEASES
Debbie Macomber
NEW RELEASE
Holiday Romance
❄️ Grab a warm blanket and cuddle up with these holiday stories from #1 New York Times bestselling author Debbie Macomber!
Christmas Letters: Katherine spends the most festive time of the year writing Christmas letters for other people at a cozy café, meaning that she couldn’t be more different from her sister, who subscribes to the theories of child psychologist and author Wynn Jeffries. Not only is the handsome curmudgeon threatening to ruin the holidays for her five-year-old nieces, but he’s also her next-door neighbor!
Wynn’s edict to parents to “bury Santa under the sleigh” couldn’t horrify Katherine more, but as the calendar marches ever closer to December 25, the two find themselves spending more and more time together. This may be a Christmas season where they learn a valuable lesson about how accepting your differences can lead to sharing more than presents…
Let It Snow: All Shelly Griffin wants is to finally be back in Seattle to spend the holidays with her father. Unfortunately, the weather has other plans and she finds herself rerouted from San Francisco to Portland. To make matters worse, she’s forced to share the last available rental car with a fellow passenger: handsome, uptight businessman Slade Garner.
The flight over didn’t exactly warm her to the man, in spite of his good looks, and the blizzard that stands between her and her father’s house isn’t helping things. Bundled up next to Slade during their drive, Shelly starts to find her icy exterior begin to melt away, and an unexpected gift may be waiting for the two of them at the end of their journey: love.
Debbie Macomber delivers two classic holiday romances in one cozy package—“Christmas Letters” (the Santa-hating psychologist versus the Christmas letter writer) and “Let It Snow” (forced proximity during a blizzard road trip). Fans of Jenny Colgan or Emily Henry’s winter romances will appreciate Macomber’s signature warmth and the opposites-attract dynamics in both stories.
What you’re getting: Two complete romances with different flavors—one features next-door neighbors with clashing holiday philosophies, the other delivers forced-proximity tension during a snowstorm journey. Macomber is the queen of cozy holiday romance, and getting both stories in one package means you have options depending on whether you’re in the mood for slow-burn neighbors or strangers-to-lovers road trip romance.
Caleb Stephens
NEW RELEASE
Kidnapping Crime Fiction
⏰ When his wife and unborn child are abducted, Grant Wilson races against the clock in this pulse-pounding thriller packed with riddles, danger, and the desperate fight to save his family, perfect for fans of Adrian McKinty’s The Chain.
They took his wife. They took his child. He only has hours to find them … or they’re dead.
Grant Wilson has never been happier. He has a wife he loves, a home in the country, and a brand-new baby on the way. But all of that shatters when two masked men abduct his wife, Avery, in broad daylight.
The instructions Grant receives are bizarre: If he wants Avery back, he must solve a series of riddles that arrive one after another—and the clock is ticking.
With every piece of the puzzle more outrageous and complex than the last, Grant knows he’s playing a dangerous game. But he’s determined to do whatever it takes to save Avery’s life … even if it kills him.
Caleb Stephens delivers a high-concept thriller where a husband must solve increasingly complex riddles to save his kidnapped pregnant wife. Fans of Adrian McKinty’s The Chain or Harlan Coben’s twisted premise thrillers will recognize the “ordinary person forced into impossible situation” setup with escalating stakes.
Here’s the hook: The riddle-based kidnapping adds an intellectual puzzle element to standard kidnapping thriller tension. Each riddle solved leads to the next, creating a scavenger hunt structure that keeps pages turning while the clock runs down. The pregnant wife detail raises the emotional stakes beyond typical kidnapping scenarios—Grant isn’t just saving his wife but his unborn child too.
Julie Weaver
NEW RELEASE
Dark Irish Mafia Romance
🎙️ As a true crime podcaster, I should be able to spot a monster a mile away. Wrong.
The moment I lock eyes with Rook O’Connell, I know I’m about to do something reckless. Sharp suit, broad shoulders, and a smile that promises sin. He’s the kind of man who could ruin me, and God help me, I might let him.
One drink turns into a night I can’t forget and a trap I never saw coming. Now I’m bound to an Irish gangster in a fake marriage, and he won’t let me go until I solve the murder that haunts him.
I don’t have a choice. If I want my life back, I have to crack the case. But the longer I spend in his world and in his bed, the more I crave the very man I swore I’d never trust.
And the harder it is to remember this was ever a lie.
Julie Weaver launches her Beasts of Belfast series with a dark Irish mafia romance that combines forced/fake marriage with true crime investigation. Fans of Cora Reilly’s mafia romances or Sophie Lark’s Brutal Birthright series will appreciate the possessive antihero, the enemies-to-lovers tension, and the murder mystery that binds them together.
What makes this work: The true crime podcaster heroine who completely misreads the dangerous man she’s attracted to is a fresh twist—her professional expertise becomes ironic when she can’t spot the threat right in front of her. The fake marriage trope combined with forced proximity and a murder investigation creates multiple layers of tension, and Weaver promises the lines between performance and reality blur the longer they’re together. This is the series starter, so expect setup for future Belfast books.