Winter Women

In Winter, life force matches up to the toughest of the seasons. In this second novel in her acclaimed Seasonal cycle, the follow-up to Ali Smith's sensational Autumn, Smith's shape-shifting quartet of novels casts a merry eye over a bleak post-truth era with a story rooted in history, memory, and warmth, its taproot deep in the evergreens: art, love, laughter. It's the season that teaches us survival.

I trust no one. I thrive with control and I've learned to be ruthless and coldhearted. A love life? I'm not interested. But I still have desires. That's where Dahlia came in; my treasure. She had never been a submissive before and I was eager to train her. When I saw her on stage at the auction, dressed in gold, I knew I had to have her. She's mine for an entire month. I own her. But one lie changed everything.

Cameron Winter is troubled in heart and mind. He's plagued by memories of his time as a government operative investigating a notorious Turkish sex trafficker. The fact that the mission was left unfinished still haunts him and threatens to tear him apart. In the midst of his painful soul-searching, Winter crosses paths with an ex-flame—his first love—and the chance encounter ignites a passion he thought was long lost. But just as soon as she wanders back into Winter's life, the woman vanishes, leaving Winter scrambling to track her down.

Dominic Valetti is only interested in two things: getting paid and getting laid. He's a bookie for the Valetti crime family, and he knows his shit. Dom's busy doing business, no time to dabble in social niceties. The women that chase after him wanting more than a dirty, hard f--k are only gonna get their hearts broken. That is, until Becca stumbles into his office to pay off her ex's debt. A hot brunette who's just as guarded as he is and has a body made for sin...and for him.

Private detective Winter Black finally knows the identity of the puppeteer behind the recent string of murders she’s been entangled in investigating—the same man who’s been stalking and tormenting her for weeks. But when he leaves recent photographs he took of her and Noah, her husband’s eyes scratched out, his vendetta becomes frighteningly real. And terrifyingly personal. Because Noah is missing. The nightmare becomes disturbingly real when Noah’s wedding band is placed on Winter’s doorstep, accompanied by a taunting note written in cryptic, video game jargon.

Poland, 1943: Please don't do this! Her shrill cry pierces the night air, the screams breaking the silence of the falling snow. But the man she calls to does not turn, vanishing into the darkness with a child clasped in his arms.

I ran from him, even though my heart knew better. Love was one thing, but survival another. I should have known he'd come for me. Men like him always get what they want. The temptation in his eyes, the heat of his touch...it's all still there, but his gaze is harsher now and his grasp unrelenting. He's not the boy I fell in love with, although pieces of what we once had are still there. I can feel it. I know what he wants from me, and I know it comes with a steep price. I'll pay it though, if for no other reason than to touch him again.

The Dogs of Winter begins after a howling snowstorm envelops Montreal, and the body of a young woman is discovered in its wake. The only clue to her identity is the photograph in her pocket, and on it, the phone number of Detective Inspector Romeo Leduc. Meanwhile, Marie and Romeo are busy navigating their deepening relationship, and a student at Marie’s college is the victim of a terrible assault.

From New York Times best-selling author of The Dollar Series comes the first novel in a dark romance duet. She is a woman divided. Her past, present, and future are as twisted as the lies she's lived for the past eight years. Desperate to get the truth, she must turn to the one man who may also be her greatest enemy...He is the president of Pure Corruption MC. A heartless biker and retribution-deliverer. He accepts no rules, obeys no one, and lives only to reap revenge on those who wronged him. And now he has stolen her, body and soul.

Young Elizabeth Stuart was thrust into a life of wealth and splendor when her godmother, Queen Elizabeth I, died and her father, James I, ascended to the illustrious throne of England. At 16 she was married to a dashing German count far below her rank, with the understanding that James would help her husband achieve the crown of Bohemia. Her father's terrible betrayal of this promise would ruin "the Winter Queen", as Elizabeth would forever be known, imperil the lives of those she loved, and launch a war that would last for 30 years.

I should’ve known she would ruin me the moment I saw her. Women like her are made to destroy men like me. I couldn’t resist her though. Given to me to start a war; I was too eager to accept. But I didn’t know what she’d do to me. That she would change everything.

Toby thought she understood her own past; she thought she knew the score. She was wrong. It's time to learn the truth.

All newly minted pediatrician Jamie Malek wants is to borrow a roasting pan for Christmas dinner. Unfortunately, that requires her to interact with Marc—her best friend’s troublemaking brother, who’s now a tech billionaire. He’s the one who got away. She’s the one who broke his heart. Outside, a howling blizzard. Inside, a crackling fire. Suddenly, being snowbound with the man she never expected to see again might not be such a bad way to spend a winter’s night.

Although beautiful young widow Phoebe, Lady Clare, has never met West Ravenel, she knows one thing for certain: He’s a mean, rotten bully. Back in boarding school, he made her late husband’s life a misery, and she’ll never forgive him for it. But when Phoebe attends a family wedding, she encounters a dashing and impossibly charming stranger who sends a fire-and-ice jolt of attraction through her. And then he introduces himself...as none other than West Ravenel.

Ambitious ice queen and corporate lawyer Felicity Simmons has spent her life focused on one thing: scuttling up the career ladder. She's achingly close to taking charge of a media empire for her boss when she's sent to investigate a South Bronx charity that helps homeless people's pets. Has the charity made off with her boss's generous donation? And, who on earth is that gorgeous soft-butch veterinarian who looks as if she could toss a Shetland pony over one shoulder? Not that Felicity has any interest in some opinionated Amazon or her adorable fleabag of a dog.

Ambitious Daily Sentinel journalist Lauren King is chaffing on LA’s vapid social circuit, reporting on glamorous A-list parties while sparring with her rival - the formidable, icy Catherine Ayers. Ayers is an ex-Washington political correspondent who suffered a humiliating fall from grace, and her acerbic, vicious tongue keeps everyone at bay. Everyone, that is, except knockabout Iowa girl King, who is undaunted and unimpressed and gives as good as she gets.

Based on an Athabascan Indian legend passed along for many generations from mothers to daughters of the upper Yukon River Valley in Alaska, this is the suspenseful, shocking, ultimately inspirational tale of two old women abandoned by their tribe during a brutal winter famine.

She thought this was a game. She thought she could walk away. She thought wrong. I've lived a cold, unforgiving life. I've seen things, I've done things, that would break a man. If they didn't kill him first. With my past behind me, I have nothing. No way to atone for my sins and nothing to lift me from the depths of despair I've come from. And no one to give me the control that I so desperately desire.

I was only a boy when I saw my mother murdered in front of me. That does something to a man. It turns him hard, cold, and makes him an addict for control. In all things. My desires are dark and what I'm interested in is far more than simple submission. I've been waiting for someone as broken as me. Someone who truly needs to give up complete control and rely on me to take away her pain. And then I found her. Katia. My kitten. The moment I laid eyes on her gorgeous face, full lips, and seductive curves, she stole the air from my lungs.

The founder of Byrner, a global social media platform, Gerald Byrne is universally admired as a visionary, a philanthropist, and a devoted husband and father. And every person who gets in the way of his good work seems to die.