Women’s Fiction

Ocean in a Dropby Tami Shaikh

Miraj Hussain remembers the moments when her mother admonished her for being too stubborn. She was always told that good girls were created to obey. In her native land of Pakistan, this was a lie that almost everyone believed. But Miraj couldn’t bear living the lie.

As she and her brother Asad grew up in their father’s stifling household, they became more and more disillusioned with Sadiq Hussain’s religious hypocrisy and favoritism toward their older brother, Adam. While Miraj couldn’t keep her opinions to herself, Asad suffered from secrets of his own. He could never tell his traditional father and brother that he was gay. There was no life for him in Pakistan.

Now the two have traveled far from their homeland to start new lives in the United States, but it isn’t as easy as they dreamed it would be. The Hussain siblings face new prejudices, bigotry, and hypocrisy in their adopted country. As they navigate their way through an unwelcoming society, they must examine what they truly want in their lives. Along the way, they will discover that the obstacles to their happiness don’t just lie within Pakistani and American cultural conventions but within themselves.

King Solomon’s Carpet (Onyx)by Ruth Rendell

From an Edgar Award–winning author: Murder intrudes on a student’s secret history of the London Underground in this “brilliantly unexpected” mystery (The Times, London).
 
Jarvis Stringer is a young man of many peculiarities, but no obsession has taken hold quite like that of writing the strange and twisting history of the London Underground. To finance his project, he rents out cheap rooms in the long-disused West Hampstead schoolhouse he inherited—a crumbling monument to morbid local lore.
 
The boarders, each eking out their invisible lives above—and beneath—the city’s surface, are a collection of strays, waifs, subway buskers, and loners, who are raising the concern of Jarvis’s relatives and more proper neighbors. But even Jarvis has become suspicious. One of his outcasts may be a killer who’s plotting something unforgettable and catastrophic—and Jarvis himself has unwittingly become a conspirator.
 
“A jolting novel of psychological suspense,” King Solomon’s Carpet was the recipient of the Crime Writers’ Association Gold Dagger Award (The New York Times Book Review).
 

Chasing Mayfliesby Vincent Donovan

A Dying Wish…

What would you do if your best friend’s last wish was to help him escape from a hospice so he could “take care of a few things?”

The initial dilemma for Dennis Sullivan is not the anger he will incur from Jack’s family, or how to manage a terminally-ill curmudgeon who mistakenly believes he knows everyone. He can even humor Jack’s desire to become like a mayfly – one of those nasty spring bugs with a lifespan of only a few days, but are unforgettable monsters.

The true question is why help someone who was not there for him when his own wife was dying and he needed a friend?

Guilted into this late odyssey, Dennis soon discovers the road to hell is truly paved with good intentions and it takes courage, faith, and a generous dose of anarchy to change the destination. He finds his best friend’s “bucket list on steroids” is not a tale of self-absorption at all, but rather a well-considered plan to touch his estranged family and seek forgiveness. And Jack plans the biggest makeover of all for Dennis.
Chasing Mayflies is a “R.I.P.” roaring, hilarious journey that matches an intriguing plot with a thought-provoking message that will resonate with your soul long after the story ends.

The Things We Leave Behindby Tanya Anne Crosby

Zoe Rutherford has come to the end of her rope. Her relationship with Chris has reached the breaking point and it is time to leave. But can she leave? And if she does, what is she willing to leave behind?

This stunning short story, the prequel to Tanya Anne Crosby’s remarkable new novel, THE GIRL WHO STAYED, is tense, poignant, and deeply satisfying – exactly what readers have come to expect from this New York Times bestselling author.

Las Vegas Girlby Leslie Wolfe

By day, she’s a Las Vegas cop. By night, all bets are off.

Detectives Laura Baxter and Jack Holt are members of the elite: Las Vegas Metro PD, one of the toughest and most respected law enforcement agencies in the United States. In the middle of a city with two million residents and 43 million annual visitors, they’re hunting for a killer.

The crime: audacious

In a glamorous Las Vegas hotel, in front of hundreds of witnesses and under the lenses of countless video surveillance cameras, a young girl is brutally murdered. What promises to be a quick and easy investigation soon becomes a nightmare. The most recorded crime in Vegas is missing one key protagonist, the killer.

The forensics: stupefying

A crime-scene fingerprint unleashes dozens of unsettling questions instead of providing answers. Was this a murder for hire? In the politically-charged case, the scenario seems plausible; the victim’s secret life could’ve been the obstacle in an ambitious politician’s path. As the investigation unspools the well-concealed secrets surrounding the girl’s life, Baxter and Holt attract the attention of someone desperate to keep history’s terrible secrets buried.

The truth: shocking

A testimony from beyond the grave turns into a death warrant for the two unrelenting detectives. While they expose a connection with the victim’s distant past that could hold the key to catching her killer, they must learn to rely on each other to survive.

Two mavericks make an intriguing team. Baxter and Holt trust each other with their lives, only not with their darkest secrets.

A Night of Angelsby Various Authors

Enjoy a holiday collection from some of your very favorite Dragonblade Publishing authors in this collection of never-before published tales!

From the bedecked halls of Regency England to the cold and crisp air of Medieval England, and everything in between, welcome to the magic of a holiday collection that will bring the joy of the season into your heart and into your home. Nine USA Today or Internationally bestselling authors bring you their twist on the holidays using some of your favorite characters in A NIGHT OF ANGELS.

This collection includes:

Eleanor FitzHerbert's Christmas Miracle by Maggi Andersen – Childless widow, Eleanor Fitzherbert has resigned herself to a life alone, because most unmarried gentlemen wish for an heir. But after a young sweep gets stuck in the Duke of Broadstairs' chimney, and a handsome viscount comes to his rescue, surprising things begin to happen.

Wicked Christmas by Mary Lancaster – Mystery, murder and the miracle of new love – it's Christmas in Blackhaven! During a magical Christmas, Blackhaven welcomes a new birth and catches a murderer – and Dr. Lampton encounters the wonder and pain of an impossible new love

A Midnight Clear by Chasity Bowlin – Stranded together by a freak winter storm, Sarah, the Dowager Viscountess Vale, must finally face her long buried feelings for Branson, the brother of her late husband. Can their secret feelings overcome years of animosity?

If You Wished For Me by Meara Platt – Two hearts meant to be together, one secret keeping them apart. Is William Farthingale just the man to bring Meggie Cameron the Christmas miracle she needs?

Season of Honor by Alexa Aston – In the midst of celebrating their first Christmas together, Geoffrey and Merryn de Montfort are summoned to their stables, where a young woman is about to give birth on the most holy of all nights. Will her baby be the Christmas miracle a couple at Kinwick longs for?

The Viking's Gift by Anna Markland – A heartwarming Yuletide story set in medieval England before the Norman Conquest. A Viking saves the woman he loves from the wrath of a vengeful king.

Father's Day by Elizabeth Ellen Carter – Privateer Captain Kit Hardacre is persuaded to learn more about his family. At the same time, Naval veteran and retired spy Adam Hardacre learns he has a son he never knew existed. Both reluctant, father and son must find mutual ground on which to come to terms with the past.
A Joyful Song by Lynn Winchester – Seamus MacAdams needs a miracle–a woman who will love him as much as he'll love her. Joy Song is new in town and not looking for love, but it isn't long before love finds her in the form of a man in need of help, just in time for Christmas.

A Sprig of White Heather by Avril Borthiry – A crusader knight, thousands of miles from his home in the Highlands, and the young wife he left behind, soon to give birth to his child. In this adaptation of an ancient legend, a token of eternal love gives hope and comfort to a family at Christmastide.

From Dragonblade to you, we wish you a very happy holiday season!

Close Liaisonsby Anna Zaires

For college student Mia Stalis, the invaders–the beautiful, mysterious Krinar–are only stories on the news. Rumors about them abound: about their impossible strength and speed, their intentions toward Earth… their vampiric tendencies. None of it concerns her, though–until she catches Korum’s eye.

Powerful and terrifyingly seductive, the Krinar leader will stop at nothing to possess her. Helplessly drawn to her magnetic captor, Mia is plunged into the dangerous, secretive world of the Ks and forced to choose between truth and lies, her people and her lover… her freedom and her heart.

Take My Timeby Ali Parker

I never wanted wealth, power, or the responsibility that goes with it.

Making a difference by fighting fires was my dream. That and a pretty girl to love at night.

But life didn’t ask me.

After struggling through the business world, I finally have a chance to return home to chase my dreams.

The girl next door, my best friend’s little sister, was there waiting. And she’s all grown up.

But she’s not too thrilled to see me back.

But I’ll change that. I can’t help but fight for what I know we could be, no matter what it costs me.

When I finally start to melt her heart, life calls me back to the city, back to the grind thanks to tragedy.

It’s her or my future, and I have no choice in the matter.

My father’s company is my only legacy, or is it?

A little life is growing inside of her, and that changes the game. My self sacrifice doesn’t seem so damn important anymore.

I might have been forced into becoming a billion dollar man, but I’ll always be a small town guy at heart.

And that pretty girl that stole my heart all those years ago?

She’s gonna be mine. Like she always has been.

His Power Over Meby Zoe Reid

Power.

It’s addictive and misused, but not this time.

This time, it’s the one thing that protects, that guards against the potential of loss.

It’s a glass house in the midst of a turbulent storm.

You see, I have it all.

Wealth. Status. Power.

I am the be all and end all within my small world.

A woman with a tight grip on everyone and everything.

Nothing can soften my blow or tame my fire.

Nothing but Nate. Oh God, Nate can so do it.

And I want him to. Badly.

Too bad he’s married and one of the good guys.

Or is he?