Meet Zac Mackay, military codename Cyclone—he’s a widower, a protector, a hero, and the person who could destroy Anne’s life. Janie Crouch launches Linear Tactical with romantic suspense where Doctor Anne Griffin is back in Oak Creek, Wyoming only because she has no other options, returning to where she was always the shy, stuttering girl invisible to everyone except Zac Mackay, the very reason she left in the first place. 💪Zac’s years in Special Forces taught him survival skills, and he’s created Linear Tactical to teach those skills to others so they never have to live in fear—then why is Annie, the last person he’d ever want to hurt, afraid of him? Crouch explores what happens when protector becomes threat through no fault except past mistakes, with Zac determined to wipe the fear from the eyes of the woman who has never been far from his mind and fix the mistakes that put that look there in the first place. 💔
But a predator has set his sights on Annie, and now survival skills will become much more than lessons as Crouch delivers romantic suspense where protecting the woman you hurt years ago means confronting why she’s terrified of you while an actual threat closes in. The author balances second-chance romance with real danger, proving that sometimes the hardest person to protect is the one who has every reason not to trust you. The first Linear Tactical novel establishes a series where military expertise meets personal redemption. 🔒
Why I’m including this: Romantic suspense launching Linear Tactical where widower Zac Mackay (military codename Cyclone) created a company teaching survival skills so others never live in fear, but when Doctor Anne Griffin returns to Oak Creek, Wyoming with no other options—the shy, stuttering girl invisible to everyone except Zac, the very reason she left—he’s determined to wipe the fear from her eyes and fix his mistakes as a predator sets his sights on Annie, making survival skills more than lessons.
Samuel Warner is rich, charming, the CEO of his family’s business, and the guy she’s hated since grade school—now thanks to one of her more questionable ideas, he’s also her new pretend boyfriend. Nikki Bright launches The Warners with romantic comedy where their families have been at each other’s throats for three generations, fighting over the future of their small town, with the Warners wanting to bulldoze and modernize every corner of Fox Creek while her family is determined to preserve their quirky town’s quaint ways. 💕But even without the family feud, Samuel’s charm and charisma (and his maddening smirk) would still get on her nerves—he’s insufferably smooth, his favorite hobby is teasing her even though he’s able to charm the most cantankerous granny in the county, and he’s spine-tinglingly handsome with the maddening awareness that he knows it. Bright explores what happens when your brother falls head over heels for a Warner girl and you’re desperate to find a way to unite your families, proposing a totally sane, not-at-all-ridiculous plan: fake a serious relationship with Samuel, performing Romeo-and-Juliet-style for family peace and town harmony (minus the tragedy at the end). 😂
The author delivers romantic comedy about enemies who know each other too well to successfully pretend indifference, proving that fake dating your childhood nemesis means every staged touch and scripted endearment risks becoming real. Bright captures small-town dynamics where three generations of feuding creates the perfect setup for forced proximity romance, with Samuel’s teasing and spine-tingling handsomeness complicating her perfectly reasonable plan to save Fox Creek through strategic fake romance. The first Warners novel asks whether you can fake your way to real love. 🎭
What makes this special: Romantic comedy launching The Warners where she’s hated rich, charming CEO Samuel Warner since grade school, but when her brother falls for a Warner girl amid three generations of family feuding over Fox Creek’s future—the Warners want to bulldoze and modernize while her family preserves quirky quaint ways—she proposes fake dating insufferably smooth, spine-tinglingly handsome Samuel to unite families Romeo-and-Juliet-style minus the tragedy.
A jilted duke, a shy wallflower, and a marriage of convenience that neither of them wants—when Lady Emma Carlisle’s twin sister jilts the wealthy and influential Duke of Ashford, their distraught parents pressure shy Lady Emma to marry the duke in her sister’s place, dashing her hopes of a love match. Jayne Rivers launches Unconventional Brides with Regency romance where Lady Emma is determined to make the best of the situation, but her new husband is cold, aloof, and wants nothing to do with her, though in his quieter moments she catches glimpses of a thoughtful and intelligent man she’d like to know better if only he weren’t determined to keep her at a distance. 💔Lady Emma is willing to offer the duke her heart, but she knows there’s every chance he’ll break it—after all, why would the handsomest man in the ton fall for his second best bride? Rivers explores the pain of being someone’s consolation prize, examining how marriage of convenience becomes torture when you’re falling for someone who sees you as a poor substitute for what he really wanted. The author captures the particular heartbreak of watching your husband remain distant while you desperately wish he’d see you as more than his first choice’s replacement. 💍
The first Unconventional Brides novel delivers Regency romance about earning love rather than inheriting it, proving that second-choice brides can become first in their husband’s hearts if given the chance. Rivers writes a heroine brave enough to offer her heart to someone who might break it and a hero so wounded by betrayal he can’t see the treasure standing right in front of him. The Duke of Ashford got an inconvenient bride, but Lady Emma might just be exactly what he needs. 👑
Why I’m including this: Regency romance launching Unconventional Brides where Lady Emma Carlisle’s twin sister jilts the wealthy Duke of Ashford, forcing distraught parents to pressure shy wallflower Emma to marry him in her sister’s place—she’s determined to make the best of this unwanted marriage of convenience, but he’s cold, aloof, wanting nothing to do with his second-best bride despite her willingness to offer him her heart knowing the handsomest man in the ton might break it.
Complexity: The Emerging Science at the Edge of Order and Chaos
In a rarified world of scientific research, a revolution has been brewing with activists who are not anarchists but rather Nobel Laureates in physics and economics and pony-tailed graduates, mathematicians, and computer scientists from all over the world. M. Mitchell Waldrop delivers the story of how they formed an iconoclastic think-tank with a radical idea: to create a new science called complexity, wanting to know how a primordial soup of simple molecules managed to turn itself into the first living cell and what the origin of life four billion years ago can tell us about the process of technological innovation today. 🧬This book is their story—the story of how they have tried to forge what they like to call the science of the twenty-first century, exploring questions at the edge of order and chaos where simple rules create complex behaviors and patterns emerge from randomness. Waldrop chronicles the intellectual revolution taking place at institutions like the Santa Fe Institute, where researchers from diverse fields converge to understand how complexity arises in everything from ecosystems to economies. 🔬
The author captures the excitement of scientists tackling fundamental questions about emergence, self-organization, and adaptation—asking how order arises from chaos and how simple interactions create sophisticated systems. Waldrop makes accessible the cutting-edge thinking about how cities grow, how markets behave, how life evolved, and how innovation happens, showing that all these phenomena share underlying principles. The emerging science of complexity promises to transform our understanding of everything from biology to business. 🌟
What makes this compelling: The story of how Nobel Laureates, mathematicians, and computer scientists formed an iconoclastic think-tank to create a new science called complexity, studying how primordial soup became living cells and what the origin of life four billion years ago reveals about technological innovation today—their attempt to forge the science of the twenty-first century at the edge of order and chaos.
Elizabeth travels with her aunt and uncle, the Gardiners, to Derbyshire, reassured that the Darcy family is away from home when she agrees to visit Pemberley—but encounters Mr. Darcy who is elated to have a second chance with her, having reason to hope her feelings have changed. AnnaMarie Wallace delivers Pride and Prejudice variation where an unkind fate intervenes when Jane’s letters containing news of Lydia’s elopement arrive while Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley are visiting, and unable to contain her despair, Elizabeth tells her visitors of Lydia’s misstep. 💔Mr. Darcy and Mr. Bingley leave at once, unaware of a third message’s arrival telling Elizabeth that her mother has passed away—the Gardiners and Elizabeth travel south immediately to reunite with her grieving family while Mr. Bingley returns to Netherfield hoping to be of service to Jane, and Mr. Darcy goes to London to find Lydia. Wallace explores how tragedy complicates everything when Lydia, realizing Mr. Wickham will never marry her, sets off alone to find the Gardiners but becomes hopelessly lost on London’s busy, unforgiving streets. 🏛️
As a result of Mrs. Bennet’s demise, only the immediate family and the estimable Mrs. Hill are aware of Lydia’s terrible indiscretion—the family is desperate to keep it secret as long as possible, hoping to secure marriages for Jane and Elizabeth before the family is ruined forever. Wallace asks whether the Bennet family can work together to create and maintain such a deception, and how long before the truth is uncovered. The variation examines how grief and scandal force difficult choices about honesty versus survival. 💍
What makes this special: Pride and Prejudice variation where Elizabeth’s Pemberley visit with the Gardiners gives Mr. Darcy a second chance until news of Lydia’s elopement arrives along with word of Mrs. Bennet’s death, forcing the family to hide Lydia’s indiscretion while she’s lost on London’s streets and Jane and Elizabeth’s romantic futures hang in the balance of maintaining the deception.
In North America’s first major conflict known today as the French and Indian War, France and England—both in alliance with Native American tribes—fought each other in a series of bloody battles and terrifying raids, with no confrontation more brutal and notorious than the massacre of the British garrison of Fort William Henry, an incident memorably depicted in James Fenimore Cooper’s The Last of the Mohicans. Stephen Brumwell delivers colonial history where that atrocity stoked calls for revenge, and tough young Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers were ordered north into enemy territory to exact it. ⚔️On the morning of October 4, 1759, Rogers and his men surprised the Abenaki Indian village of St. Francis, slaughtering its sleeping inhabitants without mercy—a nightmarish retreat followed, and when after terrible hardships the raiders finally returned to safety, they were hailed as heroes by the colonists with their leader immortalized as “the brave Major Rogers.” Brumwell explores how perspective determines heroism, showing that while colonists celebrated Rogers, the Abenakis remembered him differently: to them he was Wobomagonda—White Devil. 💀
The author examines this brutal chapter of colonial warfare where revenge creates cycles of violence that define how different cultures remember the same events. Brumwell balances the colonists’ narrative of righteous retribution against the Abenakis’ experience of massacre, revealing how the French and Indian War’s savagery shaped American mythology and Native American trauma. The true story challenges simple hero narratives, showing that one side’s brave major is another’s white devil. 🪶
Why I’m including this: Colonial history where the Fort William Henry massacre depicted in The Last of the Mohicans stoked revenge calls, sending Major Robert Rogers and his Rangers to surprise the Abenaki village of St. Francis on October 4, 1759, slaughtering sleeping inhabitants—colonists hailed Rogers as hero while the Abenakis remembered Wobomagonda, the White Devil.
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