It’s been over two years since Melanie’s life was forever changed. Over two years since she met Holden on a Panama Canal cruise that went awry. Over two years since she had the best sex of her life for ten amazing days before returning to the real world and tucking that vacation adventure away forever. After walking away from Melanie, Holden worked several long-term assignments for the Holt Agency, keeping himself busy, keeping his mind off the woman who had seemed so perfect for him in every way. Their lives weren’t compatible. She was a professor at Georgetown. He thrived on dangerous rescues and protection details. Time has not changed how either of them feels for each other, nor has it changed their circumstances. But Melanie’s apartment has been ransacked and another professor has been found dead. Someone is after her. She might not like it, but she needs Holden’s protection. The two of them can try to keep their feelings for each other at bay, but for how long?
It's been over two years since Melanie's life was forever changed. Over two years since she met Holden on a Panama Canal cruise that went awry. Over two years since she had the best sex of her life for ten amazing days before returning to the real world and tucking that vacation adventure away forever. After walking away from Melanie, Holden worked several long-term assignments for the Holt Agency, keeping himself busy, keeping his mind off the woman who had seemed so perfect for him in every way. Their lives weren't compatible. She was a professor at Georgetown. He thrived on dangerous rescues and protection details. Time has not changed how either of them feels for each other, nor has it changed their circumstances. But Melanie's apartment has been ransacked and another professor has been found dead. Someone is after her. She might not like it, but she needs Holden's protection. The two of them can try to keep their feelings for each other at bay, but for how long?
"A hugely absorbing first novel from a writer with a fluid, vivid style and a rare knack for balancing the pleasure of entertainment with the deeper gratification of insight. More, please.” —Maggie Shipstead, The New York Times Book Review (Editors’ Choice) "A story about Russia, the United States, friendship, identity, defection, and deception that is smart, startling, and worth reading regardless of when you were born.” —Kathryn Schulz, New York Magazine "Holt's beguiling debut… in which there is no difference between personal and political betrayal, vividly conjures the anxieties of the Cold War without ever lapsing into nostalgia." —The New Yorker Sarah Zuckerman and Jennifer Jones are best friends in an upscale part of Washington, D.C., in the politically charged 1980s. Sarah is the shy, wary product of an unhappy home: her father abandoned the family to return to his native England; her agoraphobic mother is obsessed with fears of nuclear war. Jenny is an all-American girl who has seemingly perfect parents. With Cold War rhetoric reaching a fever pitch in 1982, the ten-year-old girls write letters to Soviet premier Yuri Andropov asking for peace. But only Jenny's letter receives a response, and Sarah is left behind when her friend accepts the Kremlin's invitation to visit the USSR and becomes an international media sensation. The girls' icy relationship still hasn't thawed when Jenny and her parents die tragically in a plane crash in 1985. Ten years later, Sarah is about to graduate from college when she receives a mysterious letter from Moscow suggesting that Jenny's death might have been a hoax. She sets off to the former Soviet Union in search of the truth, but the more she delves into her personal Cold War history, the harder it is to separate facts from propaganda. You Are One of Them is a taut, moving debut about the ways in which we define ourselves against others and the secrets we keep from those who are closest to us. In her insightful forensic of a mourned friendship, Holt illuminates the long lasting sting of abandonment and the measures we take to bring back those we have lost.
“Baby girl, I’m going to count to three…” Carlee is doing just fine on her own. She doesn’t need a man in her life. They never treat her right anyway. She certainly doesn’t need her best friend’s brother to swoop into town and take over like he never left her. It takes him less than one day to cause her to lose her car, her job, and her apartment. Now she’s furious. Atlas is in town as a favor to his father to help the MC club. What he’s not prepared for is Carlee—a woman he’s spent years trying to forget. A woman with cute pigtails, a sassy attitude, a pile of problems, and the need for a good spanking. She can push him away all she wants, but he's not going anywhere without her. Combining the sizzling talents of bestselling authors Pepper North, Kate Oliver, and Becca Jameson, the Shadowridge Guardians are guaranteed to give you a thrill and leave you dreaming of your own throbbing motorcycle joyride. Are you daring enough to ride with a club of rough, growly, commanding men? The protective Daddies of the Shadowridge Guardians Motorcycle Club will stop at nothing to ensure the safety and protection of everything that belongs to them: their Littles, their club, and their town. Throw in some sassy, naughty, mischievous women who won’t hesitate to serve their fair share of attitude even in the face of looming danger, and this brand new MC Romance series is ready to ignite!
Unidentified floating objects over the U.S.A. force the Holt Agency and Black Swan Team 2 into the frozen Alaskan winter. Kenner Lane grew up struggling in the unforgiving Alaskan interior. He knew what it meant to be freezing cold and how to avoid it. Move away. Joining the Navy the day after high school graduation was step one. Becoming a SEAL was step two. Subzero temperatures for months had been all the motivation he’d needed to earn his Trident. Now medically retired and a Holt Agency employee, he went where they paid him to go. Even if that meant guiding a bunch of women through his godforsaken birth state. Lieutenant Piper Knight always expected the best of herself. She would have made the Olympic swim team but instead took a commission in the United States Navy. She’d been accused of being half fish because of her love of all things water related; swimming, snorkeling, SCUBA diving, even fishing. Completing the Joint All-Female Special Operations School at the top and joining Black Swan Team 2 accomplished her next goals. However, she had never aspired to go to Alaska in the dead of winter, hunting what might be nothing more than a high school science experiment gone wrong. Opposites can attract but can Piper get Kenner past his preconceived notions of women and his loathing of the cold and allow her to warm his heart?
She was the job and off limits, but his heart wanted so much more. Heath Kubiak jumped at the chance when a Holt Agency job came up in the Apostle Islands. After years of working back-to-back missions all over the world, he longed to take some much-needed time off. He knew that area of Lake Superior extremely well. He’d take lead of the team this time, they’d find whoever was lost in the National Park, then he’d stay for a week or two, fishing and camping. Sounded like a perfect plan. All Annali Frantz wanted to do for the summer was get away from teenagers, her parents, and Washington D.C. She loved teaching biology to high school students, but she also needed a break from them. When the opportunity arose for her to work at a research station—and get a full semester credit toward her second master’s degree—she couldn’t pack her bags fast enough. For the past two years, her mother had been on a mission to find her the right husband for when her father, the senator, made a run for the White House. Ali, who preferred her nickname, found trout more interesting than politics, the only subject discussed inside the Beltway. Avoiding boring first dates and spending time on the Great Lakes with other scientists and forest rangers was the perfect summer plan. You know what they say about best laid plans. Will they work out right this time for Heath and Ali?
After being rescued from the Ethiopian rebels’ prisoner of war camp, Keene Soto returned to the United States a broken man. His torture had been of an especially personal nature. He believed himself to be only half a man, and that half hadn’t worked since his return to the USA. He was too damaged for any female, so he given up hope of finding love. Until she touched him. Kelly Edson had moved to the Holt farm with her son Jock when her stepbrother and his best friend opened the Holt Agency. She’d hoped living on the farm in the middle of nowhere Indiana would change her luck. She’d been a loser magnet. Almost every man she’d ever dated was a failure at life, pulling Kelly and her son down with him. Working two jobs and studying for her next nursing certification while raising a son, she hadn’t dated a loser in over two years. Because she hadn’t been on a date. She was surrounded by hot single men who all worked for her brother and considered her a little sister. Except Keene. She looked forward to their nightly conversations on the porch swing. When Kelly and Keene discover she’s the only one who can help him recover from his POW physical and emotional damage, will her brother keep them apart? When Kelly disappears, will the truth keep Keene from helping them find her?
