Never fall for a dark elf assassin. That’s rule number one in any world where elves exist—and especially true when that assassin is the most feared warrior in his entire army. ⚔️
Before tonight, Cassie Tate’s biggest concerns were whether she could pass Algebra without summer school and how she was going to keep Elora, her emo best friend with a flair for dramatic fashion choices, from dressing her in a skimpy fairy costume for Halloween. Normal teenage problems. Safe problems. The kind you complain about but secretly know don’t really matter in the grand scheme of things. 📚
Then Cassie saw something no human was ever supposed to see—an elf in its true form, not the glamoured appearance they present to the mortal world but the raw, otherworldly reality beneath. Beautiful and terrible in equal measure. The penalty for such a transgression, according to laws older than human civilization, is death. Immediate, certain, no exceptions. She’s seen too much, knows too much, and the elven kingdoms don’t tolerate security breaches. 😱
The only one who can save Cassie now is the person most unlikely to do so, the warrior sent to execute her. Triktaptic—known to his associates as Trik—assassin, spy, and the most feared warrior in the entire dark elf army. His reputation precedes him in whispers and legends. Bodies left behind with surgical precision. Missions completed with cold efficiency. Zero failures in a career spanning decades. 🗡️
Trik, the dark elf assassin, is the best to ever do the job, and he knows it. He kills whom he must without hesitation, has mercy on no one because mercy is weakness in his world, and never tires of seeing his prey fall. The dark elf king has ambitious plans to expand his kingdom into the human world, claiming territories that have long been neutral ground, and Trik will lead the charge. He’s been groomed for this role his entire life, molded into the perfect weapon for the dark court’s expansionist dreams. 👑
But when a chance encounter on a routine execution mission brings the assassin face-to-face with the most beautiful human he’s ever seen—this Cassie Tate with her defiant eyes and surprising courage in the face of certain death—Trik faces uncertainty for the first time in his long life. He should kill her. His orders are clear. She’s a liability, a witness, a loose end that must be tied off. Yet his blade stays sheathed. 💫
He knows the girl is much more than a simple human teenager who stumbled into the wrong place at the wrong time. There’s something about her blood, her essence, that calls to him in ways he doesn’t understand and can’t explain to his superiors. But he fears the truth of her identity will slay him faster than an army of light elves, that discovering what she really is will destroy everything he thought he knew about himself and his purpose. ✨
Now, Trik has a choice that no dark elf should ever have to make. Will he continue to follow the darkness in his soul that has led him so faithfully his entire life, bringing glory to his king and terror to his enemies? Or will the light and goodness within a simple human girl—or what he thinks is a simple human girl—be enough to overcome the darkness in his heart that’s been cultivated since childhood? 🌙
As Cassie and Trik are drawn together by forces neither understands, with dark elves hunting them both and light elves questioning their alliance, they must navigate a world of ancient magic, political intrigue, and a destiny that was written long before either of them was born. Because some connections transcend the boundaries between light and dark, mortal and immortal, duty and desire. 🔮
What makes this series addictive: Loftis delivers a fresh take on elf mythology with a morally complex dark elf hero and a human heroine who’s more than she seems, blending urban fantasy with romance and building a rich world where light and dark aren’t as simple as they appear. Perfect for fans of enemy-to-lover romance with fantastical elements.
A Thriller Set In The Midst Of Jihad. In this fast-paced page-turner set in the chaotic landscape of wartime Iraq, the country’s top terrorist makes two chilling promises broadcast to the world via grainy internet video: one, a kidnapped American contractor will be executed on a given date, his body dumped in Baghdad’s heavily fortified Green Zone as a message of defiance. And two, a major attack will occur in seven days—something bigger than anything the coalition forces have seen, an operation that will change the course of the war. The clock is ticking. ⏰
The Elite MP-5 Team Is Called Into Action. A four-person CIA team that operates in the shadows behind official military operations, including an attractive female doctor with specialized trauma training, a linguistics expert who speaks six dialects of Arabic, a former Marine sniper, and a tech specialist who can hack anything, is working desperately behind the scenes to find the American contractor before it’s too late and thwart the impending attack that could kill hundreds. 🎯
But they can only watch helplessly, along with millions around the world, as the terrorist and his masked henchmen behead the American contractor during a live video feed on the Internet, his final moments captured in brutal detail for propaganda purposes. The execution is designed to terrorize, to demoralize coalition forces, and to recruit more jihadists to the cause. The MP-5 team has failed their first objective. Now they have less than seven days to prevent something even worse. 💻
Unbeknownst to them and to the terrorist leader himself, one of the masked men standing behind the doomed contractor is not actually a terrorist, but rather an Iraqi pharmacist named Khalil who has infiltrated the group through months of careful deception. He’s embedded himself in the terrorist cell in the desperate hopes that he can find his missing fiancée, Amira, whom the terrorist leader has also kidnapped for reasons Khalil doesn’t understand. She disappeared three months ago, and every lead suggested the same terror network was responsible. 💔
After the beheading, with his role in the execution complete and his value to the cell proven through his apparent willingness to participate in barbaric acts, Khalil is finally free to go, released back to his pharmacy with instructions to await further orders. But little does he know that his fiancée Amira, traumatized and desperate to escape herself, will soon bring the deceased American contractor’s severed head to the Green Zone in a final act of defiance against her captors, trying to alert coalition forces to the terrorist compound’s location. And inside the dead man’s mouth, hidden where only an autopsy would reveal it, is evidence linking Khalil to the terrorist cell—a piece of paper with his pharmacy’s address, planted by the terrorist leader to ensure Khalil’s continued cooperation through the threat of exposure. 🔍
Now Khalil is a wanted man, hunted by both the terrorists who no longer trust him and the American forces who believe he’s complicit in the murder. The MP-5 team must decide: is Khalil a cold-blooded killer or an innocent man caught in an impossible situation? Can they trust Amira’s story when she insists he’s not what he appears? And can they use Khalil’s knowledge of the terrorist network to prevent the major attack before seven days runs out—or is he leading them into a trap? ⚠️
As the countdown continues and the body count rises, the team races through the dangerous streets of Baghdad, navigating the complex web of informants, double agents, tribal politics, and religious extremism that defines modern warfare. Trust is a luxury they can’t afford, but without it, they’ll never stop the attack in time. 💣
What makes this pulse-pounding: Sargent delivers an authentic military thriller with insider knowledge of intelligence operations, complex moral dilemmas, and ticking-clock suspense. The Iraqi pharmacist’s perspective adds unusual depth to what could have been a simple action story, exploring the impossible choices ordinary people face in war zones.
A classic holiday meet cute, except one of them is naked…for art! And therefore completely, frustratingly, professionally off-limits according to the waiver she signed. 🎨
Spending Christmas alone for the first time in my life? No problem, I tell myself with false confidence. After a difficult breakup and with my family scattered across the country for various obligations, I decide to embrace my newfound independence. I sign up for an art class at the local community center, thinking it’ll be a productive way to spend the evenings and maybe meet some new people who aren’t asking why I’m single during the holidays. I’m completely unprepared for my immediate attraction to the life drawing model—a man with a body that looks carved from marble and a face that belongs on magazine covers, not in a drafty community center studio. 💪
Which only gets more complicated when I discover he’s also my brand-new next door neighbor. Ben Simmons, recently returned Navy SEAL, now living in apartment 3B directly across the hall from my 3A. We share a wall. We share a mail slot. And I’ve seen every inch of him under the unflattering fluorescent lights of the art studio, sketched the curve of his shoulders and the lines of his abdomen with charcoal-stained fingers while trying to maintain professional detachment. 🏠
Navy SEAL Ben Simmons’ return from an overseas tour hasn’t gone exactly to plan—the transition from active duty to civilian life is harder than he expected, the nightmares are persistent, and his apartment is painfully empty of the things that make a place feel like home. He needs a distraction from his thoughts, something to fill the hours that once held structure and purpose. My holiday to-do list, which I’ve mentioned in passing during one of our hallway conversations, turns out to be the perfect way to fill his days. Finding the perfect Christmas tree. Hanging lights that won’t electrocute anyone. Baking cookies that don’t taste like charcoal. Ben tackles each task with military precision and unexpected humor. 🎄
And exploring our immediate chemistry? That would be the perfect way to fill our nights, if we weren’t bound by ridiculous professional ethics and a waiver I signed without reading the fine print. 🔥
Too bad I’ve signed a document with actual legal language treating him with nothing but professional distance for the duration of the art class. No kissing, no flirting, no touching beyond what’s required for artistic purposes, and absolutely nothing else his sexy smile and heated glances suggest when he thinks I’m not looking. The art instructor made everyone sign to prevent exactly the kind of situation Ben and I are desperately trying to avoid falling into. At least until the class ends the night before Christmas Eve, when the waiver expires and all bets are off. 📝
But as we spend more time together—decorating my apartment, shopping for gifts, building a gingerbread house that collapses spectacularly—the line between neighborly assistance and genuine connection blurs. Ben opens up about his struggles adjusting to civilian life, and I share my fears about starting over. What begins as physical attraction deepens into something neither of us expected to find during the holidays. The question is whether we can wait until Christmas Eve to act on feelings that grow stronger every day, or whether some rules are meant to be broken. 💕
Why this sizzles: York delivers a fun, steamy holiday romance with a unique meet-cute, a hero dealing with real veteran issues, and enough sexual tension to melt all the snow. The professional boundary that keeps them apart makes the inevitable coming together all the sweeter. Perfect for fans of military romance with holiday charm.
A Cold Wind From Moscow (Tom Wilde Book 8)
Winter, 1947. Britain’s secret services have been penetrated at the highest levels. The country is more vulnerable than ever—reeling from the war, broke, and exposed—and Soviet leader Joseph Stalin knows it. He can see every weakness, every crack in the British intelligence apparatus, because his spies are already inside, reporting back with devastating accuracy. He decides it is time to send his master of ‘Special Tasks’ to create extra chaos and test just how far Britain can be pushed before it breaks completely. ❄️
But Stalin has a more important motive than mere disruption or even destabilization of the British government. He has a man on the inside who must be protected at all costs—a communist super-spy who has infiltrated the most sensitive levels of British intelligence and has the secrets of the atomic bomb at his fingertips. This agent has access to everything: research, scientists, facilities, blueprints. If he’s exposed, decades of Soviet intelligence work will be lost and Stalin’s nuclear ambitions will be set back years. The spy must remain hidden, whatever the cost in British lives. ☢️
Freya Bentall, a senior MI5 officer and one of the few people in British intelligence who seems to grasp the full extent of the penetration, no longer knows who to trust within her own organization. Every colleague could be the mole, every conversation might be reported back to Moscow. She is left with one option: to bring in an outsider whose loyalty is beyond question—Cambridge professor Tom Wilde, a man who has proven himself in previous operations and whose position outside the intelligence community makes him uniquely valuable. His task: to find the traitor in MI5 before more damage is done and before Stalin’s agents can complete whatever operation they’re planning. 🕵️
Bentall has three main suspects based on access, behavior patterns, and circumstantial evidence, and Wilde must get close to them all without revealing his investigation. That means delving deep into the criminal underworld where Soviet agents recruit assets and move money, attaching himself to the cultural elite of the arts where communist sympathizers gather and ideological recruitment happens over wine and intellectual conversation, and finding a way into the extreme reaches of British politics where some members of Parliament secretly harbor sympathies for the Soviet system. Each suspect has motive, means, and opportunity—and getting close to any of them puts Wilde in danger.
As winter bites and violence erupts across London with targeted killings that suggest someone knows Wilde is investigating, Wilde faces an uphill battle to protect those he loves from merciless killers who will stop at nothing to protect their operation. And he knows that one slip, one moment of carelessness or misplaced trust, will spell disaster for the country—and his family. ⚡
What makes this series essential: Clements delivers authentic Cold War espionage with meticulous historical detail and a protagonist who brings an academic’s analytical mind to intelligence work. The 1947 setting captures the paranoid atmosphere of early Cold War Britain while the atomic secrets subplot adds genuine historical stakes.
❄️ 🧵Falling in love is never seamless…🧵❄️
Phoebe Baker has two passions in life: vintage dresses, with their exquisite construction and stories woven into every seam, and her French Bulldog, Coco Chanel, who accompanies her to work every day and has become the shop’s unofficial mascot. As the fierce and sassy manager of The Vintage Dress Shop, it’s not only her job, but her calling to make sure everyone leaves her shop with their dream outfit, perfectly tailored to both their body and their personality. She knows fabric, she knows fashion history, and she knows how to make women feel beautiful in clothes that have already lived a life. She doesn’t need anyone or anything when she’s in her frock heaven, surrounded by silk and tulle and the whisper of decades past. 👗
When an incident between Phoebe and a difficult customer goes viral on social media—a video taken out of context that makes Phoebe look unreasonable and the shop look unprofessional—it risks damaging the reputation of the shop that she’s poured her heart into building. Suddenly her job, the only thing in her life that makes complete sense, is on the line as the shop’s owner considers whether Phoebe’s passion has become a liability. The internet pile-on is brutal, customers are canceling orders, and Phoebe’s confidence is shaken in ways she didn’t think possible. 📱
But Phoebe risks losing more than just her beloved shop; there’s also Freddy, the shop’s business advisor who handles the numbers and strategy side while Phoebe handles the creative vision, who’s had enough of being second best to a bunch of second-hand dresses. He’s been in love with her for longer than he cares to admit, but watching her prioritize vintage frocks over any possibility of a relationship has finally worn down his patience. He’s smart, kind, supportive, and completely in love with a woman who barely notices him as anything other than the guy who does the boring financial stuff. 💔
As Christmas approaches and the shop prepares for its busiest and most crucial season—the one that could save Phoebe’s job or seal its fate—can Phoebe stitch everything back together again, repair the shop’s reputation, and open up her heart to the possibility that maybe, just maybe, there’s room in her life for love alongside vintage fashion? And can she convince Freddy that she’s finally ready to let someone in before he walks away for good? 🎄
Why this charms: Darling creates a cozy, heartfelt romance set against the delightful backdrop of vintage fashion, with a workaholic heroine who needs to learn that loving beautiful things and loving people aren’t mutually exclusive. The Christmas setting adds warmth while Coco Chanel the Frenchie provides adorable comic relief.
Manhattan royalty.
Notorious playboy.
Heir to a media empire.
…And my new boss. 💼I could have impressed him with my credentials, my portfolio, my references from respected industry professionals, if not for last month’s unforgettable one-night stand that I thought would remain anonymous and consequence-free. I left it with more than orgasms and a pleasant memory—namely, his wallet, which I took in a moment of tipsy audacity after he fell asleep. I meant to return it the next day, I swear, but then I couldn’t find him and life got complicated and now here we are. 😱Now he’s staring me down from across the boardroom like I’m the dirt under his Italian loafers that probably cost more than my rent, and I’m supposed to take it. Supposed to apologize profusely, supposed to grovel for keeping my job. But the thing about being Judith “Jude” Humphry is I have nothing to lose that I haven’t already lost. Brooklyn girl. Infamously quirky according to my ex who couldn’t handle my personality. Heir to a stack of medical bills for my mom and a tattered couch that’s seen better decades.
When he looks at me from across the room during meetings, I see the glint in his eyes—recognition mixed with challenge mixed with something that looks like desire he’s trying to suppress—and that makes us rivals. Not just boss and employee, but two people in a silent war of wills. He knows it. So do I. 🔥
Every day in the newsroom is a battle where he critiques my work with laser precision and I refuse to back down, defending my angles and my sources with equal intensity. Every night in his bed, war breaks out in the best possible way—the kind of combat where we’re both trying to win by making the other lose control first. The attraction that sparked that first night has only intensified with proximity and conflict, and neither of us can seem to stay away despite all the reasons we should. 💕
But it’s my heart at stake here, not just my job or my pride, and I fear I’ll be raising the white flag long before he does. Because falling for your boss is one thing—falling for a Manhattan heir who sees you as a Brooklyn novelty is quite another. And loving Célian Laurent when he’s still got walls higher than the buildings his family owns? That might just destroy me. 💔
What makes this irresistible: Shen delivers a scorching enemies-to-lovers, grumpy boss romance with a heroine who refuses to be intimidated and a hero whose icy exterior hides genuine passion. The workplace tension combined with their past one-night stand creates delicious conflict, while the class differences add emotional stakes beyond the chemistry.
… See the rest of today ‘s Book Picks here on page 3Page 3