Tallulah is smart, vivacious and studying to be a marine biologist. But she’s broke. So when Burgess, a battle-scarred hockey veteran and newly single dad to tween Lissa, offers her a job as his live-in nanny, she jumps at the opportunity. According to…well, everyone except Burgess, he needs to get back on the dating scene, and Tallulah is just the girl to show him how. But as boundaries are slowly crossed and Burgess finds himself pulled between his daughter, who wants her parents back together, and his insane chemistry with Tallulah, a huge rift is formed. So Tallulah breaks her own heart and walks away. Though Burgess knows it’s for the best, a chance meeting and a new push from Lissa force him to put everything on the line and fight to prove that he's worthy of a happily ever after with Tallulah.

Nearly 20 years ago, Sam Leto left her small hometown of Tybee Island, Georgia, to pursue her dreams of becoming a pilot. While she’d prefer to keep flying away from her painful childhood memories, her beloved grandmother Pearl decides it’s time to sell the family home. Reluctantly, Sam is summoned back to pack up the house. The 2000s nostalgia from Sam’s old bedroom hits immediately: Fall Out Boy posters, drawers of roll-on body glitter, and even her favorite CD player with a mixtape from her best friend, Damon Rocha. Damon was always a safe place, and Sam often wonders what would’ve happened if her teenage self admitted her feelings for him back then. Mysteriously, the CD player still works all these years later. And somehow it has the power to show Sam an alternate version of her life.

Benny Catspaw’s perpetually sunny disposition is tested when he loses his job, his reputation, his fiancée and his favorite chair. Someone is out to get him. He just doesn’t know who or why. Then Benny receives an inheritance from an uncle he’s never heard of: a giant crate and a video message. All will be well in time. Stranger yet is what’s inside the crate. He’s a seven-foot-tall self-described “bad weather friend” named Spike whose mission is to help people who are just too good for this world. He’ll find Benny’s enemies and deal with them. This might be satisfying if Spike wasn’t such a menacing presence with terrifying techniques of intimidation. In the company of Spike and a fascinated young waitress-cum-PI-in-training named Harper, Benny plunges into a perilous high-speed adventure.

Long before Gene Roddenberry put him on a starship to explore the galaxy, long before he actually did venture to space, William Shatner was gripped by his own quest for knowledge and meaning. Though his eventful life has been nothing short of extraordinary, Shatner is still never so thrilled as when he experiences something that inspires him to simply say, “Wow.” Within these affecting, entertaining and informative essays, he demonstrates that astonishing possibilities and true wonder are all around us. By revealing stories of his life --- some delightful, others tragic --- Shatner reflects on what he has learned along the way to his ninth decade and how important it is to apply the joy of exploration to our own lives.

Blowing Rock, North Carolina, 1951. Blackburn Gant, whose life is irrevocably altered by a childhood case of polio, seems condemned to spend his life among the dead as the sole caretaker of a hilltop cemetery. It suits his withdrawn personality, and the inexplicable occurrences that happen from time to time rattle him less than interactions with the living. But when his only friend, the kind but impulsive Jacob Hampton, is conscripted to serve overseas, Blackburn is charged with caring for Jacob’s wife, Naomi, as well. Jacob and Naomi’s elopement has scandalized the community and angered Jacob’s parents. Shunned by the townsfolk for their differences and equally fearful that Jacob may never come home from the war, Blackburn and Naomi grow closer, even as a stunning betrayal shatters familial bonds.

Mick Hardin is supposed to be retired, transitioning to civilian life. Back in the hills of Kentucky after a two-year absence, he’d planned to touch down briefly before heading to France, marking the end of his 20-year Army career. But in Rocksalt, trouble is brewing. Mick’s sister Linda, recently reelected as sheriff, and her deputy Johnny Boy Tolliver are investigating the murder of Pete Lowe, a sought-after mechanic at the local racetrack. Mick doesn’t want to get involved --- he wants to say his goodbyes and get out of Dodge. But when he reluctantly agrees to intervene in a family dispute requiring a light touch, he uncovers evidence of an illegal cockfighting ring and another body, somehow linked to the first. And then Linda steps into harm’s way, leaving Mick to solve the crimes himself.

Daisy and Craig’s marriage is in serious trouble. That’s why Daisy has signed up for the Eden Test, a week-long getaway for couples in need of a fresh start. Yet even as she’s struggling to salvage her marriage, it seems Craig has plans to leave her for another woman. In fact, his bags are already packed --- long before he arrives to meet Daisy in this remote cabin in the woods of upstate New York. At first, their week away is marked by solitude, connection and natural beauty --- and only a few hostile locals. But what Craig doesn’t know is that Daisy, a slyly talented actress, has her own secrets, including a burner phone she’s been using for mysterious texts. Not to mention the Eden Test itself, which poses a searing new question to the couple every day, each more explosive than the last.

What became of Mitch and Abby McDeere after they exposed the crimes of Memphis law firm Bendini, Lambert & Locke and fled the country? The answer is in THE EXCHANGE, the riveting sequel to THE FIRM, the blockbuster thriller that launched the career of America’s favorite storyteller. It is now 15 years later, and Mitch and Abby are living in Manhattan, where Mitch is a partner at the largest law firm in the world. When a mentor in Rome asks him for a favor that will take him far from home, Mitch finds himself at the center of a sinister plot that has worldwide implications --- and once again endangers his colleagues, friends and family. Mitch has become a master at staying one step ahead of his adversaries, but this time there’s nowhere to hide.

Zhu Yuanzhang, the Radiant King, is riding high after her victory that tore southern China from its Mongol masters. Now she burns with a new desire: to seize the throne and crown herself emperor. But Zhu’s neighbor in the south, the courtesan Madam Zhang, wants the throne for her husband --- and she’s strong enough to wipe Zhu off the map. To stay in the game, Zhu will have to gamble everything on a risky alliance with the talented but unstable eunuch general Ouyang, who already has sacrificed everything for a chance at revenge on his father’s killer, the Great Khan. Unbeknownst to the southerners, a new contender is even closer to the throne. The scorned scholar Wang Baoxiang has maneuvered his way into the capital, and his lethal court games threaten to bring the empire to its knees.

After discovering seven men murdered aboard their yacht --- including two Senate rivals --- Israel Pike is regarded as a prime suspect. A troubled man infamous on Salvation Point Island for killing his own father a decade before, Israel has few options, no friends and a life-threatening secret. Elsewhere on the island, 12-year-old Lyman Rankin seeks shelter from his alcoholic father in an abandoned house only to discover that he is not alone. A mysterious woman greets him with a hatchet and a promise: “Make a sound and I’ll kill you.” As the investigation barrels forward, Lyman, Israel and the fate of the case collide in immutable ways.

A struggling midlist writer, Jane feels trapped in an underwhelming marriage. There's only ever been one person she cared about: Thalia, her best and only friend nearly a decade ago during their Creative Writing days at Oxford. But then one night ruined everything. The blood-soaked night that should have bound Thalia to Jane forever instead made her lose her completely. Thalia disappeared without a trace, and Jane has been unable to find her since. Until now. Because there she is, her name at the top of the New York Times bestseller list: A Most Pleasant Death by Thalia Ashcroft. When she discovers a post from Thalia on her website about attending a book convention in New York City in a week --- “Can’t wait to see you there!” --- Jane can’t wait either. Jane won’t lose Thalia again.

Alfie wakes up one night to find his twin daughters at the foot of his bed, claiming there's a shadowy figure in their bedroom. When no such thing can be found, he assumes the girls had a nightmare. He isn't surprised that they're troubled. Grief has made its home at Hart House: nine months ago, the twins' mother, Pippa, died unexpectedly. But the situation quickly develops into something more insidious. The girls set an extra place for him at the table. They whisper to him. They say he's going to take them away. Alfie calls upon Julia --- Pippa's sister and a psychiatrist --- to oust the malignant tenant from their lives. But as Alfie himself is haunted by visions and someone watches him at night, he begins to question the true character of the force that has poisoned his daughters' minds, with dark and violent consequences.

By day, Maeve Fly works at the happiest place in the world as every child’s favorite ice princess. By the neon night glow of the Sunset Strip, Maeve haunts the dive bars with a drink in one hand and a book in the other, imitating her misanthropic literary heroes. But when Gideon Green --- her best friend’s brother --- moves to town, he awakens something dangerous within her, and the world she knows suddenly shifts beneath her feet. Untethered, Maeve ditches her discontented act and tries on a new persona. A bolder, bloodier one, inspired by the pages of AMERICAN PSYCHO. Step aside Patrick Bateman, it’s Maeve’s turn with the knife.

After years of drifting apart, Iris Prince and her husband are going through a surprisingly drama-free divorce. It feels like her life is finally exactly what she wants it to be. Then, one beautiful morning, she looks outside her kitchen window --- and sees that a wall has appeared in her front yard overnight. Meanwhile, a Silicon Valley startup has launched a high-tech wrist wearable called "the Band." Pitched as a convenient, eco-friendly tool to help track local utilities and replace driver's licenses and IDs, the Band is available only to those who can prove parental citizenship. Suddenly, Iris, a proud second-generation Mexican American, is now of "unverifiable origin." Amid a climate of fear and hate-fueled violence, Iris must confront how far she'll go to protect what matters to her most.

Author Shelby Archer found inspiration for her first novel while living on the picturesque shores of Provincetown on Cape Cod. When she comes to the town to celebrate her new bestseller, she is expecting a warm homecoming. But instead she is confronted with the cold shoulders of friends and neighbors who feel exposed and betrayed. Heartbroken, Shelby tries to move on and focus on her next novel. But then an unexpected call comes: her dear friend, who owns the beloved Land's End bookshop, needs help for the summer. Shelby reluctantly returns to the Cape to manage the store. Back at the beach, she sets her focus on the tiny seaside shop. But as her manuscript deadline nears, Shelby is again forced to choose between her own success and a second chance at love and belonging.

All drummer Vienna Taylor ever wanted was to make music. If that came with fame, she’d take it --- as long as her best friend, guitarist Madison Pierce, was sharing the spotlight and singing lead. And with their new all-female pop rock band gaining traction, soon everyone would hear their songs. Except, on the way to an event, the Bittersweet’s van careened off an icy mountain road during a blizzard --- leaving one member dead and another severely injured. In order to survive the frigid night, the rest took shelter in a nearby abandoned cabin. But Vienna’s dreams devolved into a terrifying nightmare as, one by one, her fellow band members met a gruesome end…and Madison simply vanished in the night. What really happened to the Bittersweet? Did Vienna’s closest friend finally decide to take center stage on her own terms?

Alex Walker has always looked up to her perfect older sister. Maddie escaped their hometown and seems to have put the memories of their unstable childhood behind her. But despite the different paths their lives have taken, they made a pact to spend one week together every summer. It was a promise they’d never broken...until now. When Maddie suddenly cancels her annual trip home, Alex begins to worry. But when Maddie stops returning her calls altogether, Alex is certain something is wrong. Relying on the only clues Maddie left behind, Alex follows her sister’s footsteps to the Hamptons where she meets the Blackwell family --- the last people to have seen Maddie before she vanished into thin air. The Blackwells seem to have it all, but Alex quickly discovers that a life of luxury always comes at a cost.

Adam Rubenstein and Sunil Rao have been reluctant partners since their Uzbekistan days. Adam is a seemingly unflappable American Intelligence officer, and Rao is an ex-MI6 agent with the uncanny ability to discern the truth of things --- about everyone and everything other than Adam. When an American diner turns up in a foggy field in the UK after a mysterious death, Adam and Rao are called in to investigate, setting into motion the most dangerous and otherworldly mission of their lives. In a surreal, action-packed quest that takes Adam and Rao from secret laboratories in Colorado, to a luxury lodge in Aspen, to the remote Nevada desert, the pair begins to uncover how and why people’s fondest memories are being weaponized against them by a spooky, ever-shifting substance called Prophet.

Three years ago, Detective Saga Bauer received an ominous postcard describing a gun and nine white bullets --- one of which was intended for her partner, Detective Joona Linna. The sender alleged that Saga was the only person who could save him. But as time passed, the threat faded. Until now. A sack with a decomposing body has been found hanging from a tree in the forest. A milky white bullet casing turns up at the scene. When the body count begins to rise, the police realize that the killer is sending riddles, offering them the chance to stop the murders before they happen. But the police always seem to arrive a moment too late. As they begin to close in, the case becomes more and more tangled: someone is spinning a fiendishly intricate web, pulling Joona ever closer to a trap he may not be able to escape.

Cornwall, 1730: A young girl known only as Red travels with her father making a living predicting fortunes using the ancient Cornish method of the Square of Sevens. Shortly before he dies, her father entrusts Red’s care to a gentleman scholar, along with a document containing the secret of the Square of Sevens technique. Raised as a lady amidst the Georgian splendor of Bath, Red’s fortune-telling delights in high society. But she cannot ignore the questions that gnaw at her soul: Who was her mother? How did she die? And who are the mysterious enemies her father was always terrified would find him? While Red’s pursuit of these mysteries brings her the possibility of great reward, it also leads to grave danger.

By day, Evra Scott is at the helm of Sunset on Sunset, the store beloved by Hollywood’s young and beautiful. By night, she’s on the arm of Kai de la Faire, Hawaii’s hottest export and the screenwriter of the moment. Enter Theodora Leigh. The twenty-something Paramount assistant looks like a big screen star, but her sights are firmly set behind the scenes, as she fights to become a movie producer in a town where sex and sexism sell. Observing it all is Bea Dupont, a photographer for Rolling Stone and Vogue, who holds Evra’s Sunset crowd together. She’s also Kai’s oldest friend, and she’s harbored a not-so-secret flame for him since they met at an elite Swiss boarding school. It’s not long before Theodora’s unrelenting ambition sets in motion a dramatic quest for power.

2160: It's been 10 years since the cataclysmic events of Eventide, Water City, where 99.97 percent of the human population was possessed or obliterated by Akira Kimura, Water City’s renowned scientist and Earth’s former savior. Our nameless antihero and his daughter, Ascalon, navigate through a post-apocalyptic landscape populated by barbaric Zeroes --- the permanent residents of the continent’s biggest landfill, The Great Leachate --- who cling to the ways of the old world. They live in opposition to Akira’s godlike domination of the planet. She has taken control of the population that viewed her as a god and converted them into her Gardeners, zombie-like humans who plod along to build her vision of a new world. What that world exactly entails, Ascalon is not entirely sure, but she intends to find out.

Kel is an orphan, stolen from the life he knew to become the Sword Catcher --- the body double of a royal heir, Prince Conor Aurelian. He has been raised alongside the prince, trained in every aspect of combat and statecraft. He and Conor are as close as brothers, but Kel knows that his destiny is to die for Conor. Lin Caster is one of the Ashkar, a small community whose members still possess magical abilities. By law, they must live behind walls within the city. But Lin, a physician, ventures out to tend to the sick and dying of Castellane. Despite her skills, she cannot heal her best friend without access to forbidden knowledge. After a failed assassination attempt brings Lin and Kel together, they are drawn into the web of the mysterious Ragpicker King, the criminal ruler of Castellane’s underworld.

For Stella, deputy editor of The Globe, the choice has always been clear. It doesn’t matter how low she has to stoop --- getting the best story is what she’s built her reputation on. For Jess, The Globe’s rookie reporter, the story stops when the truth does. But she knows that the dirty tricks of the tabloids will be hard to overturn. And when a celebrity is hounded by The Globe and pays the ultimate price, Jess wonders just how much Stella and the paper are responsible. Determined to show the world what the tabloid is capable of, Jess will do whatever it takes to uncover the truth. But she needs to watch her back, because someone else is prepared to kill to bury it.

Chief medical examiner Dr. Kay Scarpetta finds herself in a Northern Virginia wilderness examining the remains of two campers wanted by federal law enforcement. The victims have been savaged beyond recognition, and other evidence is terrifying and baffling, including a larger-than-life footprint. After one of the most frightening body retrievals of her career, Scarpetta must discover who would commit murders this savage, and why.

For decades, journalist Rachel Louise Snyder has been a fierce advocate reporting on the darkest social issues that impact women's lives. WOMEN WE BURIED, WOMEN WE BURNED is her own story. When eight-year-old Rachel's mother died, her distraught father thrust the family into extreme evangelicalism. After a childhood marked by silent rage, teenage Rachel became outwardly furious. She was expelled from school and home at age 16. Living out of her car and relying on strangers, Rachel found herself masquerading as an adult, talking her way into college and eventually traveling the globe. Survival became her reporter's beat. In places like India, Tibet, Niger and Cambodia, she witnessed those who had been through the unimaginable choosing hope over despair.

Five friends arrive back in Eternal Springs, Arkansas, the small town they all fled after high school graduation. Each is drawn home by a cryptic, scrawled two-word letter that reads, You promised. It has been 15 years since the summer that changed their lives, and they’re anxious to find out why Brandi called them back, especially when they vowed never to return. But Brandi is missing. She’d been acting erratically for months, railing at whoever might listen about magic all around them. About a power they can’t see. And about strange houses that appear only when you need them.