New MM Audiobooks

He describes himself as an ethical ghoul. Eight years working the special kitchen at Broth with a Bite, in the Creepy Court Mall food court, feeding customers with the same dietary requirements and getting his own needs met without feeling too much like a monster. Then the new guy starts. Human, shy smile, rad hair, and smelling like a five-course meal. Ricky has no idea he works in a restaurant for ghouls, or that ghouls exist at all, and wanting to take a bite out of him is not, strictly speaking, appropriate. Content warnings on the author’s site.

Rodian expected to see out his life in the far north of Urova, minding his reindeer and his small fjord town. After the Infernal War the Midnight Star decides otherwise, and he finds himself crowned and thrown into a royal court he was never trained for. His only way through the nobles arrayed against him is Arkadi, a young nobleman whose favoured currency is secrets and whose public role hides his training as one of the Star Order’s assassins. Keeping his ruler alive is the job. Keeping his own heart is the difficulty.

Ewan Fate left home seven years ago meaning to come back, and now cannot work out how. A creative block that will not lift puts his painting career at risk, so he packs a bag and heads for the east coast. Not much has changed in Siren’s Point: the locals still gossip, the lobstermen still haul traps, and Shiloh Lepage is still the love of his life. Shiloh spends his days on the water and his nights alone, stuck in a relationship that stopped moving, missing a friend he has not spoken to in seven years. Content warnings on the author’s site.

Laurence Dalziel is worn down and washed up, six years past his last meaningful relationship, pushing forty and tired of pretending nothing has changed. Then he meets Toby Finch: young, fearless, fierce and easy to hurt, everything Laurie cannot remember being. Toby has no idea who he wants to be or what he wants to do, but he knows he wants Laurie. Laurie will surrender his body and not his heart, because this cannot last and cannot mean anything. Third in the Spires world, from the author of Boyfriend Material, with new bonus material.

After losing his bondmate to illness he accepted that his time to love was behind him, and promised her on her deathbed that he would never take another. He meant it. Since then he has served his clan, leading it while Uttin travelled from town to town freeing those forced to hide who they loved, and told himself devotion was enough. He did not expect one of those townsfolk to change his mind, or to be looked at not as a leader or a legend but as a man. Loving him means breaking the last promise he made.

Pax, the last dragon in all the kingdoms, wakes from a centuries-long sleep looking for a worthy mortal to give three scales and three wishes, after which he intends to leave the Gemstone Kingdoms for good. For now he wants adventure and a new partner in his bed, and he picks Bertram, the newly crowned Emerald King. Thirty years into a golden age the peace is proving fragile, opponents of magic are resurfacing, and Bertram wishes he knew what his life would have been had he never taken the throne. Be careful what you wish for, especially from a dragon.

Nobody should have to choose between love and justice. Patrice Denis, Haitian-born professor and activist, has no room for anything that pulls him off the path he worked so hard for, and Easton Archer is exactly that kind of dangerous distraction. The assistant district attorney gave him some of the most intense nights of his life last summer and still makes him forget they come from different worlds. With local law enforcement targeting young men of colour, and Easton’s career and conscience both on the line, this is the worst possible moment. Winner of a Ripped Bodice Award.

Hadestown by way of You’ve Reached Sam. Eighteen-year-old August is still adrift years after the accident that killed his boyfriend, carrying the guilt with him, when he stumbles into a world beyond his own. The Underworld is everything his grey existence is not: lavish, strange, full of curious gods who all want to know how he got there. He goes looking for his lost love, guided by Cary, the broody ferrier of souls, and the longer he stays the less certain he is about what he came for.

Reid Alexander is an out and proud dance instructor, a California boy used to flashy comfort, and distinctly unthrilled to inherit his late grandfather’s horse ranch in South Dakota. Three months of cowboy hell stand between him and the right to sell it. Walker Corrigan, the ranch foreman, has built his whole life around Pine Ridge, and sets about making Reid love the place. Reid was not prepared to grow attached to the land, the horses, or Walker, and then threats to the property put all of it at risk.

Max has never had time for a relationship in the high-stakes world of diplomacy, and when an ambassadorial post opens in Athens he is discreetly told his single status is not helping. Appearances matter, and his rival Quentin has a charming girlfriend. So Max hires Hunter, an actor, to play the perfect boyfriend. Hunter dazzles the diplomatic circuit, the charade takes on a life of its own, and when visa complications force them to make it official they end up in a marriage of convenience that is anything but. The Proposal meets Heated Rivalry.

Having had his world upended by a billionaire CEO werewolf and a whole hidden order of magic, Dakota is settling into life as alpha mate of the Crescent pack, and even into being heir to the witchwolf legacy. Then he comes back from Japan with a ghost attached to him, a great-great-grandfather distinctly unimpressed to find his descendant leading a werewolf pack. Worse, they land to a bloody welcome: the Wildwood wolves are coming to take the pack back. A direct sequel, to be listened to after Witchwolf.

A debut queer novel where video games, first love, magic and horror run together. Mikey Redman and Kris Dwyer are two very different teenage boys whose shared love of computer games holds them together through trouble at school and at home. While they try to work out what is happening to their friendship, increasingly unpleasant things start happening in Pytt End, and there is more magic about both of them than they realise. There is also something ancient stirring under the well in Mikey’s back garden. Full cast narration with original music. Heavy content warnings, listed by the author.

One year sober. Miles Bennet’s recovery was meant to be his way back to his children, and instead his ex-wife has turned it into a weapon, twisting every bit of progress into something else. When a crushing setback sends him toward a bar and a double whiskey, he has one choice left: go under, or reach for the man holding his tether. For Darren Quinn, loving Miles means being the authority Miles needs when his own self-control gives out. Then a mysterious benefactor offers one last chance at custody.

Until recently he was a fairly average twink whose biggest problems were being a terrible barista and having a cheating ex. Then comes hulking, scruffy, deeply quirky Daddy, who calls him Twink as though it were his name. That should have been a clue, because he is not human: he is a parasitic, shapeshifting, tentacled alien who crash-landed on Earth escaping a Vorcon ex who used him for breeding drones. Which is a lot of baggage. He is also thoughtful and kind, and the tentacle thing is frankly not a dealbreaker.

All of Chicago followed the news about Diego Ferguson’s injury and the season he spent on the bench, and it does not hurt that he broods handsomely in every photograph. Sweat is the last place Callan expected him to turn up, but he needs a personal trainer to get back in shape before the season and Callan is the man for the job. He is straight, obviously, which does not stop anyone enjoying the view. He is also surly, arrogant, and unexpectedly desperate for some bro time between workouts. Maybe not as straight as advertised.

Joining Mike Bravo Ops to finally meet the godfather he only knows from his late father’s journals does not go the way Hazard imagined. Instead of the warm, ride-or-die man on the page he gets coldness and hostility from someone who does not want to know him, and finds him annoyingly attractive anyway. Decaf has survived rejection, enlistment and a warzone, and none of it comes close to losing his best friend. Now that friend’s grown son is here, Mike Bravo Ops is dangerous, and the promise he made to keep him safe says he should push him away.

Beard’s past is not pretty. After an incident that nearly destroyed him he rebuilt a life he would call comfortable rather than happy, and he does not let anyone close enough to do it again. Then six feet of pure temptation starts walking into his bar, repeatedly, for a year. He has done a decent job of ignoring the college soccer player until the night the man’s teammates leave him stranded and drunk, and offering him shelter stops being optional. Soccer plays to win, has never been subtle about it, and can see the interest behind the gruff exterior.

Everyone knows the way to a god’s heart is to put him on a roller coaster. Probably not, but it is the dash of normality Riley and Torin need before dealing with a malevolent god intent on destroying four realms. Riley then finds himself handcuffed to a stranger who would rather punch him than help, trying to lift a curse that has stolen Mickey’s powers and interrupted his naps, and explaining to his god of love and war that they do not need to join the mile-high club. Torin, meanwhile, is fairly sure neither of them should be trusted with a houseplant, let alone a realm.

Miles Curtis owes his career as a painter to the band Cloverlily, whose music pulled him out of a slump years ago and made him a fan for life. Back home temporarily to help with his family’s inn, he discovers their guitarist Calvin Lowe is staying in one of the rooms. Calvin is quiet, withdrawn, dealing with the band’s breakup, and makes it plain from the start that he intends to keep to himself. Finding out Miles is the painter he has been wanting to meet seems mostly to annoy him. They clash, and then work out how much they have in common.

Trading his glorious merfolk hair for human legs was supposed to be the hard part. Winning over the gay disaster pirate captain of his dreams turns out to be considerably harder. Silverfin has spent years watching Captain Hawk from a respectful, deeply romantic distance, and when a night of drunken brooding sends Hawk overboard he does the only reasonable thing: rescues him, steals a kiss, and bargains his hair to a sea goddess for legs. Now stranded aboard a pirate ship with a treasure to find and a secret to keep. Found family chaos and one extremely judgmental crab.

Perfect Shores Funeral Parlour is the family business: they bury the bodies and reap the souls. Mal does not do humans, does not like humans, finds them tedious, and is cold and unfeeling about the whole thing. Then one walks in with sad eyes and sallow skin, grieving a lost love, and it is all Mal can do not to hide him away and look after him. Jason, for his part, has heard there is a man who can bring the dead back, and he will do anything to hold Kieran again. Neither of them was supposed to happen.

Impulsive, careless, self-destructive: he is the cliché everyone warns you about, the head case with a pretty face, the one playing Russian roulette at parties. Then Will Foster comes barrelling back into his life, the boy from his childhood he had filed away as a fluke and a mistake. It is only a matter of time before Will sees what is underneath, and loving someone who does not want to be loved is hopeless. A long, raw slow burn. The story continues in If There’s a Way. Content warnings listed by the author.

College student West Millbrook is in real financial trouble since his overbearing parents cut him off for moving away to study. His answer is to work for Polished P & P, which also lets him be himself: he sells his company, not his body. Easy enough, until Adrik Hail walks in. Adrik is wealthy, organised, lonely, and pays for no-strings company precisely so nobody can weasel their way into his life, because that way he stays in control. Then adorable West comes through the door and control stops being the point.

Levi’s boy band days are behind him, heartbreak included, world tours swapped for bedtime stories with his orphaned niece. Then Cassian Monroe, the man who broke his heart and never looked back, walks in and asks him to fake a romance. He should say no. He has never been able to. Cassian spent years hiding behind a dazzling smile, too frightened to be himself, and it cost him the only man who ever saw him properly. He is done hiding, but with the world watching he wants a soft launch with someone safe, and walking away from Levi nearly destroyed him the first time.

Chatterbox has confirmed it: America’s heartthrob Jace Wilder and Britain’s bad boy Lennox Rome are starring together in the year’s most anticipated biopic, the story of a legendary rock duo. Jace is a child star turned industry veteran who has said nothing about the controversial script. Lennox went viral two years ago, then took the Best Actor award away from his new co-star, and has been unfiltered and unpredictable ever since. Two men who could not be more different, locked into one film. Multicast duet narration.

Wes has spent his life chasing a good time with no strings attached. Settled into a job as a physical therapist at the university, he is ready for something deeper, and then Jared “Jett” Cordier walks in: former Olympic golden boy, track legend, and about as welcoming as a slammed door. Jett lost his career, his relationship and his father, and starting over as an assistant coach was supposed to be simple. Late nights and arguments that burn too hot turn into something neither of them planned to keep.

Toby Glin was abandoned as a baby and has fought for every scrap of comfort since. A job as a busboy in a charming cafe feels like his luck finally turning, until he learns the cafe belongs to Prince Valentin Izarius, second husband of King Ryu. Valentin is warm and welcoming, and falling for him is hopeless: he already has two soulmates. What Toby does not know is that Valentin recognised the soul mark on his wrist the moment they met. Third in the Missing Pieces series, to be listened to after Confusion.

The Paranormal Society has been Oliver’s home for over a decade and he still is not sure where he fits. Joining the mutual aid committee brings misunderstandings, sabotage and a life-changing proposition, and once again he fears he is out of his depth. Felipe has always been the one everyone depends on, but after years of bloodshed the cracks are showing, and the cases that used to sustain him now fill him with dread. A plot against magical folk is unfolding inside the Society itself. An autistic necromancer and his undead love.

What happens after the happy ending. Gathered together for the first time, a collection of short stories about some of the much-loved men from Lily Morton’s books: wet and windy marriage proposals, surprise visits at work, and a thoroughly entertaining ghost tour. It brings together pieces written for her website, newsletter and readers’ group, plus four brand new and exclusive stories, Gertie and the Glitch, A Red Ribbon, When Will Met Jem, and Sun Cove.

Wren did everything asked of him from the moment his wings first glowed, and asking to be released from a courtesan contract that should never have been legal got him banished. Now he needs a new calling, and the smouldering baker at Warwick’s Wicked Bakery might be it. Talon is a griffin shifter who would rather bake than fight, and who gets very grouchy when a certain fae messes up his clean space just for a snack. Then his boss pairs the two of them together. Welcome to Hex, Indiana.

As Prince of Ardenia, Nicholas wants for nothing except freedom: from bodyguards, from media scrutiny, from bringing shame to the throne by loving whoever he likes. A trip to America becomes his royal rumspringa, and he joins a local hockey team as their backup goalie. Then he meets Hank, a plumber and single dad who activates every kink he has. Between one-on-one practices, bar crawls and lazy afternoons texting about Christmas movies, easy company turns into real chemistry. He is due back in Ardenia on Christmas Eve.

Numbers make sense. Intense alien men with big feelings do not. Stranded on a strange planet eight years ago and fully expecting to die, Assistant 23 now lives anxiously among alien residents who are nothing but kind, and still will not take off his hazmat suit, show his face or give his real name. So when a Maeleon called Farr’vye gets too personal, he does what he is best at and panics, straight into a thorn bush that shreds his clothes and undoes the hiding. Farr’vye is obsessive, caring, and entirely willing to nurse the damage.

He does not let anyone in, and cannot afford to. Then Caleb moves in and breezes through his life like unexpected sunshine, and the secrets and sharp edges built to keep people out stop working quite so well. Every time Caleb wraps around him, needy and trusting, something cracks open. The deeper Caleb settles into his chest, the more certain he is that he should push him away before he sees too much, because the truth is going to break them both. Tenth and final in the Unexpected series.

Chase Hooper does not like people, his housemates and his twin brother excepted. He particularly does not like the handsome man who stops at Goose Run Gas every night to interrupt his nap and tell him the coffee is terrible. Lee Torres is a baker, and the best and worst part of his morning is that coffee. It is awful. The man serving it is cute, if openly hostile, and something keeps bringing him back, and it is definitely not the stale pastries. Then they end up working together in Goose Run’s newest venture, professionally, obviously.

Causing a scene on his own lawn with his scumbag ex was bad enough. Being rescued by his two enormous, gorgeous neighbours makes it worse, even if their arms feel safe. They look like a happy couple, and are presumably just pitying the fool next door. Duke and Stellan have wanted Bailey since the day they moved in, when he was firmly off-limits, and he is not any more. They worked out years ago that a third person would make what they have complete, and Stellan is impatient. Whether Bailey is ready is another question.

Malachite has a good life and no right to complain. Between his brothers and their new mates the house has not felt this alive since their parents died, which is precisely the problem: they are all paired off, and it is just him and his dragon Kesia. Then he walks into the Overlord’s Lair and sees Quentin. His. Mate. He would very much like to win him over before mentioning the dragon rider part, and he is not sure he can, since being anywhere near Quentin turns him into an idiot. Quentin, meanwhile, can tell he is hiding something.

Kade Mills spent over a decade dreaming of the perfect meet-cute, and the universe delivers the perfect mage while he is a scarred shadow of himself, still recovering from the malicious spirits haunting his pack’s territory. Liam Batiste wants a quiet room and a stack of books, and is only in Lost Creek to help a friend. Paired up to capture the threat, they end up entangled physically and magically, and have to control a bond neither of them asked for. Reluctant mates, forced proximity, and an overarching plot with cliffhangers.

A ruthless meth dealer is burning through Atlanta’s streets, and God and Day’s task force is the only thing standing between the city and a growing plague. Wes and Law, childhood friends turned blacklisted pyrotechnic rivals, are hiding out in Atlanta until the fire they started in Hollywood is extinguished, and get dragged onto the front line. Cinematic special effects become real explosions. The team is fracturing under secrets and betrayal as the merciless army of their fiercest kingpin yet closes in.

Aiden is known as the Ice King, and he did not become one of the best rugby players in the world by handing out free hugs. He got there through work, sacrifice and denying a large part of himself, and he plans to become the poster boy for gay rugby after he retires. Tyler has just made the New Zealand team in his first professional season, has been told to room with Aiden, and has spent years using him as a private fantasy. One of them is gunning for the other’s starting spot.

Family means everything to Carter Whitlock, and keeping his safe now means marrying his enemy. Kaison St. Clair has been a thorn in his side for years, and when they meet they trade insults or blows. But someone is coming for both families, and the only way to keep everyone alive is to combine the might of the St. Clairs and the Whitlocks through an arranged marriage. Life with Kai is supposed to be about winning a war, not about love and emotions. Somewhere along the line he gets under Carter’s skin.

A year ago Owen Henson had a close group of friends and a boyfriend who made his heart race. Now the friends are moving on without him and Jacob has left for a research team in the United Kingdom. Jacob walks back into the city for the annual Christmas party looking as infuriatingly handsome as the day he left, and their friends spring a seven-night Alaskan cruise on the group. Jacob says he wants to be friends. Owen agrees, sceptically, and finds his walls coming down somewhere between the fjords and the cruise-mandated activities.

Tl;dr: am I the problem for trying to sabotage my gay roommate’s relationship? He transferred colleges purely to room with his best friend, and discovered that in the meantime the man came out and acquired a boyfriend. He is totally supportive. Really. So why does seeing them together drive him insane, and why is the boyfriend so obviously the worst. Somebody has to save his roommate from a terrible mistake. The harder he tries to break them up, the more it dawns on him that he might be hopelessly in love. A gay-awakening rom-com with one spectacularly clueless himbo.

Rhys likes his life controlled, quiet and predictable. At Frost + Foam every espresso shot is measured to perfection, and the last thing he wants is the annoyingly cheerful owner of the new coffee shop down the block. Caleb arrived in Frostwick Harbor determined to make Cloud Nine Coffee work, gets along with everyone, and cannot understand why the gorgeous, sharp-tongued man at Frost + Foam refuses to speak to him. Then the Harvest Festival committee pushes them into creating a signature autumn drink together. Cosy and spicy, with a neurodivergent hero.

Ten years have passed since the North Tahoe Ripper was killed, or so everyone believed. Detective Eli Winter goes back to the case that still haunts him and asks the only person who can help him end it: the only survivor. Colton Sacks is no longer the boy Eli met in the woods that night, and he has unfinished business with the killer and with the man who saved his life. They found each other in the dark once. Detective and survivor, off limits, slow burn, forced proximity, happy ending.

Elite marathoner Darius Hewitt is the golden boy of British athletics until a media scandal takes his Olympic dreams down with it. Hoping to win back the selection committee, he agrees to help at a charity running clinic. There he meets Jamie, a sharp-witted West End dancer training for his first marathon, with a crumbling career, an outrageous fundraising target and publicity problems of his own. In the run-up to the London Marathon a fake relationship solves both their image problems, and stops feeling pretend fairly quickly.

Indy and his chosen family are celebrating the holidays in true No Shame style. It is time to say I do, and Indy could not be more excited to take his vows beside Noah, Josh and Connor with their friends watching. Post-wedding bliss lasts until his past comes back to haunt him again, and Connor gets news of his own that leaves him reeling. Before they can share the best Christmas of their lives they will have to come together as one family. Fifth in a continuing series, best listened to in order.

Carter Reed moved to Morningwood Estates for peace, quiet and a fresh start, and got Benji Stewart instead. Benji does not believe in rules, subtlety or minding his own business, especially when Carter’s perfectly organised life is begging to be disrupted. Competitive decorating and passive-aggressive pranks make their standoff the most entertaining thing on the block, and the neighbourhood is placing bets. In Morningwood Estates privacy is a myth and falling for your rival is practically a community event. HOA nonsense and a plot-twisty happy ending.

Damen, Laurent and the rest of the Captive Prince cast, in stories set around the events of the novels and beyond the final page. Ride with Jord, Aimeric and the Prince’s Guard. Follow Damen and Laurent as they dally in the romance of the Summer Palace. Go with Charls the merchant on a caper of delight and disguise in the new kingdom. And step into the world of pets as Ancel climbs the Veretian court. The English edition of the collection, on audio.

Born unable to feel pain or fear, Pennsylvania has spent his life being told he is a monster and a freak, and the last few years drifting from town to town without putting down roots or letting anyone know him. Then he steps out of the shadows to pull children from a burning house, and only afterwards learns they belong to a mob boss. Gideon has kept his territory profitable and quiet for two years, raising twins as a widower with his family’s help. Family is everything to him, and someone has just tried to take it.

Levi let his best friend set him up for his sister’s wedding and did not expect the blind date to be Austin Cade, his brother’s best friend and his high-school crush. Everyone assumes they are together, so Austin proposes they keep up the act, and then adds a second proposition on top of it. Neither of them has time for a relationship anyway. Austin has been in love with Levi for years and knows exactly what he is doing, which is showing him how good this could be without saying so out loud. To Levi it is all for show.

Pierce has been running for years, and this time he needs a doting boyfriend to stop his parents dragging him back to Boston. With a few sneaky accomplices, turning that fake boyfriend into a real one is the plan. So is finally understanding Pierce’s secrets, and the haunted look that crosses his face every time his brother comes up, preferably before Pierce finds out too much about his own. Fourth and final in the series, with a grumpy billionaire, a sassy violinist, stolen kisses and an old mystery to close.

Dylan spent his formative years pining after an alpha who happens to be his brother’s best friend, and he does not recommend it to anyone. Leaving Foxwood Hollow to start fresh was the only solution, until he has no choice but to come home and finds that the years and the miles have not put the flame out. Axel repeated the same mantra for years, ever since his brain shifted from omega smells good to omega smells like mine. Dylan’s absence left a gap his alpha instincts refuse to ignore.

Duke Evander Ravenwood is barely back on his feet after the catastrophe at the Royal Institute when Parliament drags him in to answer for the chaos that followed. Political scheming is the least of his problems: the mastermind he and Viggo Stonewall have hunted for months is tightening his grip across Europe, and their new mission to find the legendary Crimson Codex puts them straight in his path. From the salons of Paris to the archives of Prague, the opera houses of Vienna and the courts of Brussels, with dark mages who will stop at nothing.

Six feet of cocky charm, easy smiles and a reckless streak a mile wide: Harlan “Gator” Thibodeaux is not Julius Petros’s type, so why is he the one Julius calls when his world falls apart? Julius spent years dazzling older men who wanted arm candy and never stayed long enough to see the person underneath. Gator is bold, disarming and far too willing to look past the performance. Then Julius witnesses an abduction behind a nightclub, and the ex-military man who promises to protect him turns out to be far more dangerous than he lets on.

A string of bad boyfriends has Lennox questioning his taste in men. They are either jealous of his job dancing at a strip club or they use it to try their luck with his friends, and his overprotective big brother makes sure nobody is ever good enough. Then he notices his brother’s very straight, very good-looking best friend at the club more than once. Jensen keeps his life simple: remote work, his best friend Nick, his motorcycle. Then a bachelor party puts Nick’s brother on stage right in front of him.

Tired of being haunted by memories that hurt you? Drained by every heartbreak, sick of replaying every word you wish you could take back? Neurovance Laboratories presents the NeuroExtractor: erase the moments that weigh you down, keep the ones that make you whole. Seamless, painless, permanent. Some memories may be incompatible with deletion. A dark romantic techno-thriller for mature listeners, narrated in duet style, with a note from the author.

King’s Heart Preparatory Academy for Young Men is not where Landon wants to be, but a scholarship could get his family out of their tiny trailer, so he takes the place. He did not know Grant would be there: the sickly kid from his past who always tried to mess with him, now grown and captain of the football team Landon is joining. Grant wants him miserable and gone, because Landon belongs to a time nobody is supposed to know about. Getting close enough to see what sits under the anger ruins both their plans.

Noah was rich, confident and motivated, right up until his father threw him out for a one-night stand. Then someone offers him a room: a cute place with a tattooed, sexier-than-he-knows-how-to-handle man attached. His best friend keeps warning him off, which only makes Noah want him more. Jamie needed a roommate after his own best friend moved in with a boyfriend, and offering Noah the room was a bad idea. The adorable bookworm knocks down walls Jamie built after a tragedy, and now his past is coming back.

Problem number one: his personal life is falling apart. Problem number two: his public life is on thin ice as well. Problem number three: a ridiculously hot NHL defenceman who cannot get his head out of his own way has decided to make him a target, and his idea of targeting involves the locker room. Which would be less of an issue if our blind PPHL goalie liked guys. Admitting he is bisexual turns out to be the easy part. First in the Punk as Puck spin-off, with chirping, praise and a very swoony ending.

Everyone’s favourite vampire odd couple is back. Arthur Miller, no relation to the playwright, and his beloved Salvatore Conte are settling into their paranormal lives in Trident Falls: business is booming at the inn and Arthur has his first case as a private detective, finding their friend Brody’s missing mother. Then a pet psychic is felled by a poisoned potion she somehow did not see coming, and the trail leads to the Celestine Coven, a powerful group of witches who sell their charms for a price.

Christian Sands is a doorman at Gramercy Place on the Upper East Side. His first love died in her sleep, and he asks forgiveness every day from a God he struggles to believe in, writing poems in a basement and keeping his failures to himself. Gibson Hayes is married, wealthy, powerful, and the man who gave him a job when he arrived in New York. When Gibson offers to promote him from doorman to personal assistant, curiosity and loyalty say yes, and the connection that follows will cost them both.

Hayden Harlow, once the mighty Hades, has spent centuries resenting his fall from immortality. Stripped of his godhood, he runs Harlow and Sons Funeral Home, a front for his sentence among mortals and a daily reminder of the purpose he lost. He intends to claw his way back, if the Fates at City Hall would stop toying with him. Then he storms into a florist’s shop to complain about a bouquet of sunflowers and meets Levi Wilder, who finds beauty in life’s messiest moments. A Hades-inspired rom-com from the author of Winging It With You.

Rhett Thornwood has always known exactly who he is. He works hard, he is the son his parents are proud of, he is the golden child the town of Cedarbrook believes in. He knows what to do about everything except Colton Dawson. Colt came back to Cedarbrook with three goals: work hard, keep his head down, and leave before anything pushes him over the line again. Rhett has always been his favourite line to cross. Rhett has secrets, and Colt has never been good at pretending not to see them. Check the triggers before saddling up.

Asher Bennet thought his relationship was fine, right up until he is dumped at Boston airport days before a worldwide travel competition show. Armed with a ticket, righteous indignation and an airport TGI Fridays mimosa, he needs a new partner, and there is a smooth-talking airline pilot sitting right in front of him. Theo Fernandez is the only pilot who has never taken a vacation and has been told to prove he has a work-life balance or lose his wings. They buckle up to fake date for the cameras. Only one bed, every location.

Carlos Reyes is having a quarter life crisis. The romantic comedies he used to believe in stopped making sense somewhere between losing his dad, the pressure at work and a heart that never quite healed. Then the job of a lifetime lands in his lap: follow reclusive blockbuster author Claudia Leighton on her book tour and write the tell-all piece her readers have been waiting years for. The catch is her publicist, Elliot Simpson, arrogant, insufferable, and the man who broke him. Weeks together across Sydney, Dublin, Edinburgh and London, with nowhere to put any of it down.

My clan calls me vigilant. My brother calls me overprotective. I call it duty. So when one of the towns we were visiting turned us away without letting us speak to anyone, I could not make myself leave it alone. I went back after dark and found a terrified man being hunted by his own people. He collapsed into my arms, sobbing and grateful, and something in my chest lit for him. Getting him out of the country was going to be harder than I expected, and I would smuggle him out if that was what it took.

Drew takes a job at his uncle’s MMA training centre to turn his life around, and ends up questioning everything he thought he knew about himself. Light heavyweight champion Asher Ramsey is the definition of a ladies’ man, all stormy grey eyes and inked skin, and the artist in Drew itches for his pencils every time he looks at him. Asher’s own life is a script written by his PR manager, with the biggest fight of his career weeks away and no room for distractions. Then he offers Drew his spare room.

Hayden cannot remember a time when he did not love Dean, who has only ever seen the boy next door and his little sister’s best friend. Then Dean comes home after graduation and notices that Hayden has grown up. What he proposes is a summer, in secret, with an expiry date attached, and Hayden knows he should refuse. Dean is sure he just needs to work this out of his system before his dream internship starts. By the end of August neither of them has it figured out.

Recruited by the FBI, Brandon Havili is sent to shadow his brother and the psychic he is anchored to. Three weeks of following people around and learning the job, in theory. Then he accidentally picks up a hitchhiker of the ghostly variety. Donovan is not pleased, Jon is enormously amused, and sorting it out means going back to Eureka Springs to find an FBI medium. Mackenzie Lafayette turns out to be nothing like what Brandon expected, and Nashville can wait.

Cloyce was looking forward to a Fourth of July weekend by the lake with his hockey player boyfriend and his best friend. Then Jax walks in on the two of them, and the weekend takes a very unexpected turn. Draper is head over skates for Cloyce and there is nothing he would not share with Jax, but does that include his boyfriend. And Jax has been sitting on a confession he made two years ago in the dark, wondering whether Draper even remembers it.

Summer is off-season in southern Florida: families leave to escape the heat, the streets empty out and the nights go quiet. Good weather for mischief while the police are not looking. Dallas, the middle Jaeger brother, spent his childhood lost in the shuffle and is now fiercely protective of Sanoa Bay and everyone in it. Callum Ames is back in the affluent neighbourhood next door after four years away, rich and popular and carrying one secret he cannot afford. To impress his father he proposes a curfew to squeeze the Bay. The Jaegers do not like rules.

Ashby is not in love with his best friend, except that he has been since forever. Kieran left their tiny hometown to become a doctor in London while Ashby stayed behind, running his dad’s old business and hanging everyone’s fairy lights. Now Kieran is back for Christmas, newly curious about kissing boys and very interested in Ashby’s opinion on the subject. Ashby offers to wingman instead, because he refuses to be anyone’s safe experiment. Then his ex turns up, Kieran kisses him to make a point, and nothing about it feels hypothetical. A cosy holiday novella with mutual pining, snow and shelter dogs.

Jacob Browne comes from rugby royalty and has spent his career failing to be the hero his father was, and now his relationship with New Zealand’s favourite It Girl has fallen apart too. When she hires a male nanny, it lands like a kick in the guts that another man gets more time with his kids than he does. Austin is fresh back from London, determined to win over his glowering second boss and equally determined not to crush on a straight man again. Princess parties, Lego wars and long nights of talking take that resolution apart. Then it turns out Jacob is not as straight as everyone assumed. Contains mature themes.

As heir to the most successful tutoring company in the world, Rory studies harder than anyone else and never loses. Except to Luca, the infuriatingly good-looking hockey player who wins every academic competition without appearing to try. After a very public meltdown, Rory sets his sights on the most cutthroat academic camp in the country to salvage his reputation, and then Luca turns up. This time Rory has a plan: make Luca fall in love with him, and break his heart. Queer YA from the author of And They Were Roommates.

A hundred years after the world ended in a wave of fire, a broken man survives in the wasteland that used to be America. Cavalo has deliberately cut himself off from what is left of civilisation, holed up in the crumbling ruins of a North Idaho prison with a mutt called Bad Dog and a robot on the edge of insanity for company. He is deteriorating too, his memories rising like ghosts. Then he crosses into the irradiated Deadlands and takes prisoner a mute man who belongs to the murderous Dead Rabbits. First half of the duology, on audio for the first time.

Twenty-one days. Cavalo has been given an ultimatum: hand the prisoner back to the cannibalistic Dead Rabbits, or the town that took him in is destroyed along with everyone in it. Twenty-one days to prepare for war, to hold together what is left of his shredded sanity, to talk the survivors around him into fighting back, and to work out what the marks covering the mute criminal mean. Lucas has a secret, and Cavalo has to decide whether it is worth dying for. The second half of the duology, after Withered + Sere.

Prince Julian Davaros is heir to the throne of the Lamdera Islands. Gorgeous, rich, adored, and a serial killer. His family and his bodyguard know what he is; everyone else sees the heir apparent. He cannot stand most people, he does not do relationships, and being alone with him usually means you are next. Then Wynn Carter catches his eye in a small café, and for once the obsession is not one he wants to kill. Wynn came for his thirtieth birthday, some sun and some culture, and ends up swept into lavish dinners and intimate nights with a future king. Secrets never stay buried, and when someone hurts the one person Julian wants, the quiet monster gets out.

Michael McCabe does not take holidays, especially not after nearly losing his brother to an arsonist. When an explosion tears through his enforced getaway in Tahiti, the off-duty SWAT officer is pulled into something that looks like a great deal more than bad luck. Alex Kessler came to the islands to scatter his late wife’s ashes after a year and a half of grieving, and did not expect danger, or a man like Michael. The threat follows them home to Seattle, and so does a classified operation called Project Asphodel.

Will came back to Shiloh a shell of the person he used to be, and staying was the bigger mistake. Where Waylon McAllister is concerned he never stood a chance: damaged, reckless, a walking grenade aimed at his heart. However hard he tries, Will cannot shake him, least of all now that he has had a taste of what they could be. He wants to love him, protect him, keep him, if only Waylon would let him. Second in the Lost Boys series and a direct continuation of Where There’s a Will. Triggers are listed at the front of the book.

Sean O’Brien handles his anxiety by being the funny one: at school, in his relationships, and on stage at local open mics. Then the act starts to feel like a performance of someone he is not. Between awkward encounters with his girlfriend and rising panic, he meets Elijah, a new boy with quiet confidence and a kind of honesty Sean has never allowed himself. His life, his comedy and his sense of who he is all come into sharper focus. A coming-of-age story about the courage it takes to speak when your voice shakes.

Mark is being blamed for a crime he did not commit, and Derrick holds his future in his hands. The way out he is offered is simple on paper: date the hockey captain, break his heart, walk away. Hunter turns out to be gentle, patient and so disarmingly kind that it terrifies him. Hunter, meanwhile, is stretched thin between caring for his best friend after an accident, school and his spot on the college team, and Mark arrives at the exact moment he has nowhere else to go. The closer they get, the clearer it becomes that Mark is hiding something, and the truth detonates everything they were building. Contains mature themes.

Gabe is pining after one man and has just been stood up by another, so he leaves for a holiday retreat for two on his own and lets the storm outside match his mood. Edries has spent years making headlines as an eccentric billionaire, and is now making them because his wife wants a divorce, says she never loved him, and is taking the children for the holidays. He reaches the mountain just ahead of the blizzard. Someone is already inside the room he paid for. Contains mature content, and the author lists the content warnings on her website.

Ever since he was sacrificed as part of a forbidden ritual, Julian can see and speak with the spirits of passed brujx, which would be fine if it let him belong to his boyfriend Yadriel’s community. But he sees other things too: shadows at the edge of his vision, glowing eyes in the dark, and dark spots on people that feel deeply wrong. Then Ángel arrives, a nonbinary brujx who can heal the living and release the dead, and who sees the same spots. Yadriel has reservations, and Ángel’s methods are ruthless. Sequel to Cemetery Boys.

A science fantasy monster romance with a Howl’s Moving Castle streak, set after the Rise, when the old gods came back and brought humanity down. Helios has never known anything else and is very good at surviving it. On the day he is about to be sold into slavery, rescue turns up in the shape of a mutant: Griffin, the Devil of the Wastes, who takes him aboard the Beetle, a six-legged machine run by a bad-tempered AI. Given the chance to do more than survive, Helios is not about to let go of it. Contains mature content, full content warnings on the author’s site.

Flirt with a stranger, get the photo, walk away. The job should have been simple, except the stranger turned out to be the most famous player in the league. Stellan is very good at being irresistible to the wrong kind of man, and when a Chicago hotel job ends with a career-ending photo of Matt Harkins, Stellan gets fired for trying to stop it. Seven months later Matt walks into a Seattle suit fitting and finds Stellan holding out the next jacket. A closeted captain with everything to lose is about to find out how much he will risk.

The youngest foster brother, the one with the most potential, and the one his brothers have plans for. College, and leaving the family auto shop behind. Plans that definitely do not include a big, sexy ex-con called Flynn Donovan, who is older, bigger, and looks hard all over, though he is soft underneath if you can get him to admit it. Flynn resists, citing all the obvious reasons, until he confesses the real one. He has guilt about his past and fears about the future that make everything else look like child’s play.

Prince Zavrius has spent his life in the shadow of his family, fifth in line to a throne he will never claim. While his eldest brother Theo schemes and the court whispers about war, Zavrius is told to prove his worth with a display of swordsmanship he is nowhere near capable of. Balen, a rising star of the Paladin Order, offers to train him: disciplined, unflinching and loyal to his duty, everything Zavrius is not. Their stolen hours build something that defies both their stations. Set five years before the events of Reforged.

Noah Rossi met Atticus King in the worst year of his life, and while everything else was falling apart Atticus stood out like a lifeline. Two years later they are finding their way back to each other, picking up a love that never really ended. Rebuilding trust does not erase the wreckage, and Noah’s past still sits in the shadows of everything they are trying to become. The story moves between the present and the past, through grief, addiction and the scars he has spent years outrunning. A companion novel to Echoes of Us.

Jude rarely meets anyone who becomes more than a passing acquaintance, and his cousin’s graduation party is the last place he expects to. He is intrigued enough to invite the boy to spend the summer with him at the boat club on Dark Island. Conner had built his whole future around an NHL draft that never came, so being taken in by a frat brother’s hot cousin, a professional hockey player at that, is not the worst way to float through a summer he has no plan for. The castle and the club are far too good to be true. One man there takes an instant dislike to him, and Conner ends up inside the wall, in front of a circle of masked people holding knives and deciding whether he lives. Contains mature content, and the author lists the content warnings on her website.

Bastian is a vampire who does not bite, not any more. He would like to spend his undead life visiting charming Italian villages and dancing in the square with a cute boy, with his best friend Whitby, a magical talking cat, beside him. Stumbling across a dead girl on the beach who appears to have been killed by a vampire was not the plan. The local police chief does not trust him and assigns detective Nico De Luca to watch him until his trial. The Vampire Council has been called, and the bodies keep piling up.

A wounded soldier and a devoted fisherman, boyhood best friends until one night changed everything. Then Jack lost the memory of it. Sol cannot forget. They share a life in Porth Luck now, holding it together with silence and sacrifice, while Jack keeps reaching for something he cannot name: charged moments, stolen touches, a pull in his gut. His mind may be broken, but his heart remembers what it lost. A steamy second chance with bi awakening, first times, a wounded hero, small town and found family, and a lot of angst.

Jack and Zak do everything together. Best friends, business partners, and never once the other B word. When Zak inherits his grandmother’s house in a quiet small town, they head off for a lazy summer and run into Harvey: six foot nine, a former stunt double living well out of the spotlight, and the first person who does not look down his nose at what they do for a living. He rather likes their work, in fact. They both fall. The only question left is whether three people can make it work. A short, scorching MMM about two retired adult performers and a big soft-hearted man, all of them in need of some healing.

Since moving to the coastal town of Willowhope, Skylar Reign has been building an interior design business from the bones up, with a psychic medium for a best friend and a clairvoyant mentor who drops hints like breadcrumbs. Between coffee dates with ghosts and battle plans that double as family dinners, he has found a real home, made of oddballs and outcasts who refuse to let him fall apart. The only thing missing is Kingston Porter, grumpy and guarded and the one man he is secretly in love with. Kingston is being pulled into dreamscapes tied to a mansion, and whatever waits there is hungry.

Haden likes his life exactly as it is. No mess, no attachments, no complications, because solitude means control and control means nobody gets hurt. Then his sister dies and he becomes the reluctant guardian of her daughter, and on the day of the funeral he saves a stranger and brings him home. Jay is paying off a debt that was never his, buried in a past that clings like a shadow, and in Haden’s house he remembers what safe feels like. Whether either of them can fight for it is another matter.

Nakht has loved one man in his short, sheltered life: Meryt, his fellow palace dancer. They are two among Pharaoh’s many personal slaves, not free but content, so long as they have each other. Then Meryt is killed during an attempted coup. Lost, Nakht surrenders himself to the gods, who do not want more bloodshed. They want him to prove his love by resisting every pleasure and temptation they can put in front of him. He is certain he can. His certainty is about to be tested. A standalone in the series.

Zach is flying home from his first semester at college with presents for his family, a voicemail from his ex and about as much travel anxiety as a body can hold. After a run of humiliations, including his bags being stolen, he meets Kieran, who is dreading his own Christmas at home and travelling with his sister Rena and her boyfriend Lucas. The snow keeps falling, the flights keep not leaving, and one long night in an airport turns into something neither of them planned. Rena and Lucas have to work out whether their relationship survives another storm. A holiday rom-com about first loves, flight delays and finding home.

Elio Hampton lost everything at seventeen: his wings, the only family that had ever truly loved him, and his best friend. Almost a decade later, after years at the hands of the man he thought loved him, he is standing on a bridge with daisies in his fists when Crescent Miller wraps his arms around him and pulls him back. Crescent had moved to a new town for a fresh start and never imagined Elio would be part of it, and the moment he recognised the bloodied man on that bridge he knew he was not losing him twice. They keep turning up at the same park, at the same hour, by the same patch of daisies, and Elio starts to wonder whether fate is cruel or he is simply too hurt to read it. Contains mature themes.

Theo is done with Valentine’s Day. Dumped on the most romantic night of the year, he ends up at a hotel bar ready to drown his sorrows alone, except the last free booth already has someone in it: a captivating stranger who calls himself E. Better known as Eros, who has spent millennia firing arrows for everyone else and never found his own soulmate. One look at Theo and the god of love knows exactly what he has been waiting eons for. One bottle of wine, one night, one divine spark.

A Romeo and Juliet retelling set in modern-day Oxford, with two vampires on opposite sides of a brutal power struggle. Centuries ago Tobias had his mortality taken from him by Vladimir Damianos, head of Britain’s most powerful clan, and he has wanted revenge ever since. His plan runs through Vladimir’s son Alexander, who turns out to have rebelled against his father by protecting mortals instead of hunting them. Alexander falls first, and hard, with no idea that Tobias is every bit the monster he is. Contains mature content, full content warnings on the author’s site.

Jory Harcourt is back with his columns, this time covering 2021. Different from the year before, he says, and also a lot of the same. Like everyone else he assumed things would go back to how they were after the lockdown, and when they did not, because they could not, that took some getting used to. What held him up through it was the ordinary, grounding presence of family, friends and community. And on the worst nights, stepping outside to look at the stars.

Growing up in rural Texas, Mitchell Evans wanted to dance, which made him a target. He found success in New York, and twelve years later he heads home at a crossroads. A reindeer jumps in front of his car, he goes off the road, and lands in the path of the one man he was hoping to avoid. Texas Ranger Web Eisley was not expecting his first love four days before Christmas. They quarrelled years ago over coming out, and Web is out now, but he has worked hard for the respect of his colleagues. The attraction has not gone anywhere.

Hugo refuses to be anyone’s pawn. He wanted to find a husband. What he got was flirty chaos wrapped in a charming smile, with a side of adventure and danger. The son of a famous baker, Hugo is hunting a rich husband to save his family, mostly because his mother would rather die than trade their pseudo-aristocratic life for actual jobs. He never set out to win the heart of Prince Everand, and he certainly did not mean to land in the middle of a brewing war between Brenam and Wulia. A cosy romantasy with magic, secrets, meddling mothers, a mad king, a bit of spice, and a playful prince who will do anything to keep Hugo.

Mother Jones has spent his life running the royal stables at Lilleforth and watching fondly while everyone around him falls in love and lust. Nobody has ever stoked that fire in him, until the new royal groom barrels into his life, all sunshine smiles and golden hair. Mother is past thirty and rough around the edges, and cannot imagine Vasily returning the feeling. Vasily, meanwhile, is the fourth son of the king of Koroslova, travelling incognito for a year in a place where he can finally stop denying who he is. He has not worked out how to mention the prince part.

Ten years ago the Van Dorens pulled him out of a megachurch cult where the leader kept him as his own, and he has spent a decade trying to outrun it. The past will not let go. The leader’s voice is still in his head, his figure still at the edge of vision, reminding him that he belongs to him and should have died alongside him. Then Gracen fills his office with phone books, and the voice goes quiet. The closer they get, the louder it comes back, until Gracen works out that the man is not in his head at all. Mature listeners, content warnings on the author’s site.

He saved Tobi’s life the same night he burned his own to the ground, and now the man who has haunted his dreams for months is his roommate. Which would be great, except they met on the worst night of Tobi’s life and all he sees is another hockey player. It gets worse when Savage, the cocky step-brother he already cannot stand, starts flirting with Tobi purely to get under his skin. Jealousy does the rest, and competing for Tobi twists his head until he no longer knows what, or who, he wants.

They say the world was better before the Red Rain, before the skies turned toxic and the virus made people savage. August disagrees. Desperation is profitable, hope is a commodity, and he sells dreams daily. Keaton Levine was supposed to be another mark, until he turned out to be someone who actually sees him. Keaton lost everything when he was bitten, was discharged, discarded and diseased, and has nothing left but vengeance. He came for answers and got lies, and found a reason to fight anyway. Set in the shared 1nf3ction universe, readable alone.

Rush is in love with his best friend. There was no exact moment, it grew and evolved, and it will never be more than platonic because Torin is straight. Then one night Torin kissed him and left him with more questions than answers, and the next morning a family secret shattered everything he thought he knew. Torin was there through all of it. Four years on, having put his own feelings aside and stepped back into the role of the friend who could be counted on, he wants to find out whether Rush is ready now.

Liam West thought he was on the verge of stardom until one disastrous season of reality TV made him America’s favourite villain. Now he is broke, hiding in a small town, and spending December dressed as an elf in Santaland, and the green tights are not even the worst of it. Charlie Fisher is Christmas’s number one fan. When he finds a little girl’s letter to Santa asking for one thing, a new boyfriend for her uncle Liam, he decides to make it happen. Liam is not easy to love, and Charlie starts to suspect he is the one who wants the chance.

At twenty-two, Alessandro Silva knows that coming back to tiny Perch Creek for his foster mother was the right call, even if a missing degree and a delinquent’s reputation mean he is lucky to be waiting tables. Not everyone is pleased he is back. The one bright spot is his boss’s brother. Jaime Winters has watched the world go by from hospitals and behind stacks of textbooks, and years of heart failure have left him a virgin at twenty-three. He has a new heart now and no idea what giving it away would mean.

Baseball fans know Matty Miller as a two-time Gold Glove nominee and proud dachshund daddy to Instagram’s favourite wiener dog. Off the field he is a bisexual farm boy from Alabama renovating a fixer-upper farmhouse and pretending the butterflies he gets around his left fielder are pregame jitters. Peter Diaz has never been accused of being subtle, quotes Chris Evans at every opportunity, and secretly writes filthy Roasters fanfiction under a pseudonym. When the truth comes out he agrees to join Matty on a televised holiday baking competition to win his trust back. Final book in the series.

Caspen Coolsby’s dad has been missing a few months and everyone has stopped looking except him. His first real lead comes from his new upstairs neighbours: using candle scents tied to their memories, he can transport himself inside those memories, and nobody loved candles more than his dad. Then a boy called Lars starts turning up in moments where he has no business being either. The line between memory and reality thins, Caspen falls for him, and finding his dad means reliving the hard parts of his own past and not only the good ones. From the author of If I See You Again Tomorrow.