Some people have it, and others don’t—Jeffrey Pfeffer explores why in Power.

One of the greatest minds in management theory and author or co-author of thirteen books, including the seminal business school text Managing With Power, Pfeffer shows readers how to succeed and wield power in the real world.

Daffodil Caron is not a princess, even though she once dreamed of being one. After all, she grew up as a playmate to royal princes, running through the halls of Perrigwynn Palace in the North Sea’s Lauchtenland. But the day she stumbled upon a royal secret, everything changed.

Flash forward eighteen years, and Daffy’s living a sweet, non-royal life. A skilled art curator for the Royal Trust, she has friends, a flat in the heart of the capital city, and a handsome, successful boyfriend. The last person on her mind is Gus, the prince she once called her best mate.

The story opens with the apparently accidental drowning of a sixth form student in the Norfolk countryside. As a matter of routine, or so it seems, the case passes across the desk of Detective Sergeant Smith, recently returned to work after an internal investigation into another case that has led to tensions between officers at Kings Lake police headquarters.As a former Detective Chief Inspector, Smith could have retired by now, and it is clear some of his superiors wish that he would do so. With a new trainee detective in tow, Smith begins to unravel the truth about what happened to Wayne Fletcher. As the investigation proceeds, it becomes obvious that others are involved – some seem determined to prevent it, some seem to be taking too much interest. In the end Smith operates alone, having stepped too far outside standard procedures to ask for support.

Alessio…

Cold. Ruthless. Killer. I am respected and feared by all.

I wasn’t put on this earth to love or be loved. I was put here to wipe out every last member of the damn Abandonato mafia, to pay them back for my mother’s death.

When I find a strange girl hiding, beaten, under my bed, I don’t let her live out of compassion. She’s a trinket, my plaything.

Ayla…

I thought Alessio was only one more man who wanted to use me, hurt me, and throw me away. I don’t know what it is to trust anymore. I can’t find my heart under the pain.

Alessio found it. He touched it, and brought it alive again.

Harper Winston’s brother has disappeared. Pursuing his dream of sailing the Caribbean, Michael hasn’t responded to texts or emails in days. When even the Coast Guard can’t find him, Harper is forced to take desperate measures. Which means going to Chase Garrett, once her brother’s best friend, now the only man she can trust…or so she hopes.

As the successful owner of Maximum Security, Chase has learned to trust his gut. He knows Harper’s father is mixed up in a deadly business, and suspects there’s more to Michael’s disappearance than meets the eye. Getting involved again with the Winstons goes against everything he stands for, yet old loyalties die hard.

Laura Frye has been happily married to her husband, Jeff, for twenty years. She has everything she ever wanted: strong, enduring, romantic love; two wonderful kids; even her own successful catering business. But her picture-perfect world shatters into a thousand pieces when Jeff mysteriously disappears.

Laura is certain the man she married would never leave his family voluntarily. But as the days go by, she learns there was much more to her husband than she had ever suspected. As Jeff’s many secrets come to light, Laura is left to wonder how well she really knew him—or if she knew him at all. In the wake of emotional disaster—with all she cherished in ruins around her—she will have to reach deep inside herself for the strength and will to hold her family together and somehow reclaim her life.

She was chosen by the beast. Now she must tame him.

In the dark, windy Highlands, life is hard and unforgiving for the farmers and the workers, and Lorna Balfour has found this out the hard way. Coming from a wealthy father, Lorna had a good start in life until bandits slaughtered her whole family. Her uncle, who is her only living relative, has made Lorna work in the fields since she was a child, but when she turns eighteen, he decides to really put her in use…

Lorna’s devious uncle calls her back in her malnourished, thin, and exhausted state and announces to her that she will be sent to the infamous Laird Alasdair Galloway as a potential bride. Her uncle does his best to dress her up and cover up years of hard labor. But no matter how elegantly she is dressed, her hardened eyes reveal the truth; she is nothing like the other lasses.