Reluctant Hero

It's 1959, and humanity is entering a new age of cosmic exploration. Four ships with crews of two are sent out into the unknown to see firsthand what lies beyond the stars. Over a year into the mission, the crew of the Silent Horizon, Dex Prullen and Lacy Carradine, have joined each other in marriage and are content living out their days just floating through space. But on the day of their anniversary, the Empire finds them. Swiftly pulled apart, Dex and Lacy are thrown headfirst into a new world led by a god-like being and his imperium of theocratic zealots. And it is only a matter of time before one of them is delivered to the Emperor himself, dooming all of humanity with them, unless they can be reunited and escape the Empire of the Void.

March 1864. The American Civil War is reaching its agonizing twilight, but for the citizens of Shreveport, Louisiana, the horror is just beginning. Captain Douglas Ivey, CSA, starts his morning with a quiet cup of coffee on his mother's front porch, unaware that an unstoppable Union juggernaut—30,000 soldiers of the Army of the Gulf—is marching straight toward his home with devastating intent. Tasked with a high-stakes, borderline-suicidal reconnaissance mission, Douglas is ordered down the Red River Road to locate and count the invading enemy. What begins as a strategic military assignment quickly spirals into an intimate nightmare. The mission thrusts Douglas, his closest friends, and members of his own family directly into the path of an oncoming war machine, fracturing loyalties and putting everything he loves in mortal danger. Spanning the massive, 565-page canvas of a nation tearing itself apart, the narrative follows the explosive fallout of Douglas's discovery. As the Union army advances, the Ivey family is split across ideological and physical battle lines. From the gritty, tactical tension of deep-reconnaissance scouting to the grand, visceral chaos of major military campaigns, the story explores the brutal realities of 19th-century combat through the eyes of those forced to fight it. As General George S. Patton famously observed, "Compared to war, all other forms of human endeavor shrink to insignificance." For Douglas and his kin, this insignificance becomes a tragic reality. They are stripped of their peace, their security, and their innocence, forced to endure the absolute limits of human endurance. Ultimately, the story builds to a gripping climax where survival is just the first step. As the smoke finally clears over the blood-stained soil of Louisiana, the surviving members of the Ivey family face an even greater challenge: how to heal, how to forgive, and how to reconstruct their shattered lives from the ashes of a war that changed them forever.

**One ordinary night changed the world forever.** When a mysterious meteor shower lights up the sky, fourteen-year-old Derek watches as the impossible becomes reality. Dragons awaken, ancient powers stir, and the world he thought he knew begins to unravel. As fear spreads and civilization struggles to understand the mysterious changes, Derek discovers he has become part of something far greater than himself. Alongside unexpected allies, he must navigate a dangerous new world where courage, friendship, and sacrifice may be humanity’s only hope against a growing darkness. Filled with unforgettable characters, breathtaking adventure, and the timeless battle between hope and evil, **Meteor** is an epic fantasy that asks one question: *What would you do if the impossible suddenly became real?*

When the Time Comes is a grounded dystopian epic exploring how control is maintained not through open tyranny, but through comfort, fear, and gradual compliance. Following the collapse of traditional governance, the United States is reorganized into 9 centralized authoritarian districts under the Continuem of America. A regime promising stability and survival in exchange for obedience, surveillance and erasure of the old world. Behind the Continuem operates a technocratic cabal leveraging artificial intelligence, institutional capture and predictive modeling to shape outcomes rather than rule openly. The story centers on siblings Rose and Maurice, divided by ideology yet bound by blood, whose choices force them into irreversible defection and collision with resistance networks, nomads, and defectors-all making understandable but incompatible choices. Each book in the series is titled by the consecutive era's that occur within them.

Jasper Van Terra and her team of superpowered criminals seek revenge on the governor of city-planet Kronos.

"What is going on with me?" Jazmyn Wolff felt a wave of panic wash over her. It was her 21st birthday, and she had no idea what the future held for her. All she knew was that the word 'magic' was about to play a big role in her life. She was gifted with a special power, and it was up to her to unlock it with help from a group of witches, a healer, and her own strength of will. She had to learn to become her true self and use her powers to stop a deadly demon from ruling the world. Jazmyn must trust in her ability to overcome this daunting challenge and her determination to succeed. She was allowed to make a difference, and she was determined to take it. With courage and bravery, she set out to learn all she could about her magical powers and use them to save the world.

When retired CEO Kate Warner's best friend and president of Sunhaven HOA is brutally murdered, Kate can't resist investigating. What begins as a search for a killer soon uncovers affairs, contractor kickback schemes, bitter election grudges, and a neighborhood at war over replacing lush lawns with drought-tolerant landscaping. When another board member is murdered and the HOA president's home goes up in flames, Kate realizes someone will do anything to keep Sunhaven's secrets buried. In a race against time, Kate devises a desperate plan to unmask the killer - one that puts her squarely in the crosshairs of a ruthless murderer. Kate must outsmart a predator who's always one step ahead or risk becoming their next victim. DEATH BY HOA is a humorous mystery that proves murder doesn’t always lurk in dark alleys—sometimes it hides behind beautifully trimmed hedges, landscaping disputes, and the facade of friendly neighbors.

The empire of Valdris runs on dragon blood. Every three years, the Conscription comes — and the lower wards of Oakhaven know better than to hope their names won't be called. When Elara Voss watches her younger brother Corvin chosen for the Wyrm Corps, she does the only thing she can: she steps forward in his place. What waits for her at the Rookery is worse than she imagined. The Initiates are not trained — they are broken. The Wyrms are not mounts — they are weapons, half-mad with pain, bonded to soldiers through a process that kills as many as it saves. And the bond Elara forms with a dying Wyrm named Obsidian is unlike anything the Corps has seen before. Obsidian should not have survived. Elara should not have bonded with him. And the things he shows her in the dark — the memories buried in his marrow, the truth about where the empire's power really comes from — should not exist. truth in a world built on beautiful lies. For readers of epic fantasy with horror undertones, morally complex characters, and a bond between woman and dragon that neither of them asked for — and neither of them can survive without.

For over a thousand years, the world has believed the same lie. History remembers Atlas as a monster—a powerful being whose incredible abilities nearly destroyed civilization. According to legend, the rulers of the ancient world united to imprison him beneath Blackstone Mountain, sealing him away forever to protect humanity from his wrath. Over time, the truth was forgotten. Atlas became nothing more than a myth. A warning. A story passed down through generations. Seventeen-year-old Mason Reed never believed those stories. While exploring a forbidden cave system hidden beneath Blackstone Mountain, he discovers an ancient chamber containing an impossible sight: a man suspended inside a glowing crystal prison. When the seal breaks, the prisoner awakens. Atlas. The last superhero. As strange disasters begin occurring across the globe and ancient enemies begin stirring in the shadows, Mason learns a terrifying secret. Atlas was never the villain history claimed he was. He was humanity's greatest protector, betrayed by the very people he fought to save. Now Atlas must adapt to a world that has forgotten him while uncovering the truth behind his imprisonment. But powerful forces are determined to keep the past buried, and an ancient enemy known only as the Void King is preparing to finish a war that began a thousand years ago. With the fate of the modern world hanging in the balance, a forgotten hero must rise once again. Because some legends were never meant to stay buried.

**Everwind**\ *By Jack Cruse* Kailynn has spent her life believing she is nobody. After the death of her guardians, Kailynn was raised on a remote farm by her guardians brother who treats her more like a burden than family. Every day she dreams of little more than a full meal and a chance at a better life. But when a mysterious noblewoman named Sera Beaufort arrives and reveals that Kailynn's past is built on secrets, everything she thought she knew begins to unravel. Hunted by powerful enemies and haunted by the murder of her closest friend, Kailynn is thrust into a dangerous world of kings, conspiracies, and forgotten legends. As she flees across a fractured island, she discovers she may be the last surviving descendant of the Ash King—the ancient ruler who once united the Empire of Everwind before a dying wizard's curse shattered their dynasty. Now, whispers of her existence are spreading. Some would see her crowned. Others would see her dead. With an infamous bard turning her story into legend and a deadly swordsman sworn to protect her, Kailynn must learn the art of politics, survival, and leadership before those hunting her close the distance. Every ally may hide an agenda. Every kingdom of the old empire holds secrets. And somewhere in the shadows lies the truth about the curse that has haunted her bloodline for centuries. But reclaiming a lost throne may be the easiest challenge she faces. Because the fate of Everwind—and the future of the Ash King line—rests on a young woman who has only just discovered who she truly is. **A sweeping fantasy adventure filled with ancient curses, court intrigue, deadly assassins, found family, and a lost princess destined to change the world.**

THE STORY AT A GLANCE   Holder Williston is a young Black man freshly off probation — smart, guarded, carrying the weight of choices that cost him years and the absence of a mother who was never really there. The judge who released him calls in one favor: drive four terminally ill women on a road trip they have planned for themselves. Holder expects a simple job. What he gets are four women who see straight through every wall he has ever built.   The story is short. The impact is not.   Every mile of the road trip costs Holder something — his defenses, his cynicism, his conviction that he is not the kind of man people love. Every woman gives him something in return — honesty, warmth, correction, laughter, and the specific gift of being mothered by someone who chose to mother him even though they had every reason to spend their remaining time on something else.   When the last woman is gone and Holder is standing alone at the end of the road, he is a different man. Not because life got easier. Because four women showed him what it meant to live toward something, face death without flinching, and love without conditions — and he watched all of it up close from the driver's seat.   He never had a mother. He got four. And then he had to let all four go.   That grief, and the man it makes him, is the whole story

Growing up eleven years behind her big sister Tonya on a mountain in rural Northwest Alabama, Chasity Phillips spent her childhood living in the wake of someone larger than life. Tonya was the kind of woman who fought a claw machine to win a stuffed bear for her baby sister in a hospital room, who let a seven-year-old ride shotgun in her Ford Ranger through the Alabama evenings, and who stayed up through the long, dark nights so a grieving child could finally sleep. She was fierce, funny, and stubbornly alive — and to Chasity, she was the safest place in the world. But life on the mountain was never without its storms. Tonya's teenage pregnancy brought fear and anger crashing through the family in the summer of 1996, followed by a dangerously complicated birth that left her newborn son Ronnie fighting through withdrawals in the dead of winter. Through it all, the family bent but never broke, planting roots deeper into the same hillside soil — two siblings building side-by-side homes on land their father secured for them, raising a wild, beloved army of cousins, answering fire calls for their neighbors, and holding each other through the losses that came without warning. As the years passed, the bond between the sisters only deepened. Chasity grew from the little girl hiding behind Tonya's shirt into a young woman who still reached instinctively for her sister whenever the ground shifted. Through car wrecks, grief, and the ordinary beautiful chaos of mountain life, Tonya remained the constant — the one who always showed up, always made room, and always kept the light on. Then, in October of 2025, the mountain went quiet in a way it never had before. Headlamp in the Dark is Chasity's tribute to the woman who shaped her — a raw, tender memoir about sisterhood, sudden loss, and the impossible work of learning to stand in the open when the person who always sheltered you is gone.

The Brothers Grimm never told a story like this, and Mother Goose's egg would crack under the allegorical weight of this dark fairytale. *The Shards of Color Trilogy* is a battle cry of resilience for any person who's ever felt as if they are not good enough. With loving queer relationships at its core, this dark fantasy follows one man's story as it unfolds into a multi-generational epic. Classic fairytale tropes shatter in satisfying and surprising ways. In Evenhere, survival depends upon emotional intelligence, radical vulnerability, and psychological integration, in a universe where emotions are physics and color is physical force.  Blush Born is available for pre-order now ahead of its August 31st launch on Amazon! Click this link to secure your ebook today! https://a.co/d/0bq6EbyV Jethran Frye escapes a monochrome existence within Evenhere City under the Uncrowned King. After fleeing into the vibrant expanse of the Western Wilds, he meets Fable, sparking a connection that alters their lives. Years later, the FADES Crisis begins turning the Silvarii to dust. Jethran teams up with Fable's younger sister, Saga, as they journey to the seven Edges of Evenhere, seeking the Pixxels of Power. Meanwhile, Fable returns to Silvarii Hollow to defend against old enemies and face a faction of Silvarii who blame Jethran and his magic for the genocide threatening their people. The trilogy reaches its sweeping conclusion as an existential threat emerges to erase reality itself. The next generation of Evenhere steps into the story as secrets from the past come to light. Jethran and Fable face the most difficult test of their love while the boundaries of the world collapse. Saga and her future wife must answer for her past while preparing for motherhood and facing immense tragedy. As the kingdom faces erasure, the heroes combine their powers in a fusion unlike anything they have ever done before, making a monumental sacrifice to protect Evenhere.  \*death&violence

In the unseen war between Heaven and Hell, some of the most dangerous warriors are neither angel nor demon—but something in between. **Jovias and the Exiled Seven** is a dark supernatural thriller series that explores the fate of a group of fallen angels exiled to Earth after the ancient rebellion in Heaven. Stripped of their wings and their place in the celestial order, these beings walk among humanity for centuries, hidden in plain sight. Each exile carries the burden of their fall, struggling with pride, guilt, and the lingering pull of darkness. Among them is **Jovias**, once a formidable warrior in Heaven’s ranks. Unlike the others, Jovias believes exile is not merely punishment—it is a test. A chance for redemption. But Hell has not forgotten them. As demonic forces begin manipulating human history from the shadows, the Exiled Seven discover they are pawns in a much larger plan. A hidden hierarchy within Hell is working to weaken the spiritual boundaries protecting Earth. Cults rise, false doctrines spread through influential churches, and ancient demonic entities move closer to breaking through the veil separating realms. To stop it, the exiles must confront both **their enemies and their pasts**. Each member of the Seven faces a personal crossroads: - remain trapped in bitterness and condemnation - or fight for humanity and reclaim their purpose. Along the way they form fragile alliances with humans—detectives, scholars, believers, and skeptics—who slowly uncover the terrifying truth about the spiritual war unfolding around them. The conflict builds toward an apocalyptic confrontation in **Jerusalem**, where the forces of Heaven, Hell, and the exiled must collide. There, the final choice will be made: redemption… or permanent damnation. Some will fall. Some will be restored. And the fate of humanity will hinge on whether the exiles can prove that even those who once rebelled against Heaven can still choose the light.

Ten years after escaping a life of servitude behind the Veil, Wren is dragged back into the shimmering, cruel world of the fae. Her captor is Fionn, a silver-tongued bastard prince from her past who remembers the magic in her blood better than she does herself. Fionn is crafting a masterpiece of manipulation to usurp the throne, and he needs Wren’s rare, touch-based mind-reading to harvest the secrets of his treacherous brothers. Forced into a secret coven of gifted women, Wren must master forgotten, ancient magic to survive a world where every smile is a snare. Caught between her hatred for the monsters who stole her life and a growing, dangerous desire for the prince who promises to change everything, Wren must decide if she is Fionn’s greatest weapon, his equal partner, or merely the latest sacrifice in his climb to the crown.  *For fans of ACOTAR and The Cruel Prince.*

*Notes on the Trouble Line* is a literary crime novel about a streetwise young horseracing handicapper who becomes entangled with rival race-fixing mobsters. In the summer of 1982, twenty-one-year-old Michael Kipness claims he won big just in time to flee New York City. The truth: he stole money from his grandfather's mob associates. With enough cash for a stake and a cross-country train ticket, Michael heads west seeking refuge with his friend and mentor, Alfred, who is dying of AIDS. Alfred sees Michael clearly - a troubled young man whose gifts as a handicapper (attention to detail, memory, imagination, disciple) make him a brilliant storyteller. He challenges Michael to pursue his passion for the races and to tell his story honestly. At Seattle's Longacres racetrack Michael discovers his gift for reading horses makes him valuable to dangerous men. A notorious race-fixer wants Michael’s help fixing races. A local gangster with a taste for violence claims Michael’s expertise for himself. Back in New York the men Michael stole from want their money and revenge. The FBI wants him to inform against them all. The danger Michael faces is both physical and moral. He must use his nerve and his ability to read a trouble line to outmaneuver the men who are determined to control his destiny. Along the way, he meets Lisa, an intuitive counterpart who sees Michael is ways he is yet to see himself. Caught between loyalty, survival and the longing to make one clean bet, he must discover what honesty means in a world built on secrets and bad odds. My first novel, *Gloria*, was published by Simon and Schuster and several foreign houses, including Rizzoli, Belfond, MacMillan and Goldman. It received praise from the *New York Times*, *Washington Post*, and the *Los Angeles Times*, among many others. I’ve won several literary awards, including the Rinehart Prize for Fiction from George Mason University. *Notes on the Trouble Line* is set in the authentic world of 1980s horse racing. It will appeal to readers of Stewart O'Nan's *City of Secrets*, Frederick Exley's *A Fan's Notes*, and Don DeLillo’s *Underworld.*

***Harry Potter meets Sorcery of Thorns.*** *For fans of dark academia, magical university, and rivals-to-lovers.* Gwen O'Dorchaidhe thought her life was going to plan as the perfect heir to a pureblood line of sorcerers. Until the ordinary, untaught, *American* Chosen One entered her life, challenging everything she was raised to believe about potential. Breaking curses and challenging the outdated rules of sorcerer society is just another year at Cairn-Gait Conservatory.

His life is a total mess; hers isn’t. He’s never once been accused of overachieving and she doesn’t date losers. So when a potentially life-changing promotion is dumped on his lap, it appears his laid-back snow bumming days might be over, that is if he wants to prove he’s serious about her. *It might help if everyone would just be honest, but that doesn’t seem to be the theme here*. Can Winston Mac change his ways before it’s too late? Before Erica is swept off her feet by country music’s hottest badboy at the most exclusive mountain party known to man? Will his old college rival spoil all the fun by setting him up and stealing the promotion out from under him? Will a knockout Norwegian supermodel show up just to test him in ways he didn’t think possible? *Love-triangle, anyone?* Or will his people-pleasing ways, ADHD and debilitating caffeine addiction get the better of him, forcing him to accept his role as a world-class loser? *Anything can happen in a ski town.*

On a fictional Greek island, Anastasia Livanitis solves murders and other crimes with her ghostly sidekicks, and her journalist best friend, Nikos.

In 1955, a secret experiment at the Large Hadron Collider tore open a doorway to another realm.\ \ Extradimensional beings came through, possessed the top scientists and military officials in the room, and kept the portal open.\ \ One of the first crossed over and took a human infant as its host. That infant was Christina.\ \ The only issue is that Christina forgot what she was,  and the others could not enter or control her, but she could see them. So they declared her unstable and institutionalized her.\ \ Years later, world leaders, billionaires, media figures, and political dynasties are all possessed. The New World Order is not a conspiracy theory. It is literal possession.\ \ A decade later, Christina escapes and resurfaces in Berlin. The forces that have tracked her since childhood want her reclaimed or eliminated.\ \ With the help of Jory, who has been able to see the entities inside people since surviving a near-death experience as a child, Christina uncovers a power structure that has ruled humanity from within for generations.\ \ When she learns she is one of them, she must choose between her own kind or the man she loves and the humanity she chose to protect.\ \ They have ruled the world from inside us.\ Now one of their own stands against them.