Books that ranked at the top of my list last year.

Hannah Nicole Maehrer

Light Paperback (1 lb or less)

Ohio

ASSISTANT WANTED...Notorious, high-ranking villain seeks loyal, unperturbable assistant for general office duties, admin work, and supporting staff for mayhem, terror, and Dark Things In General. Discretion necessary under pain of death. Excellent benefits.Evie Sage has been working for the Villain for exactly five months. She thought that being the assistant for Rennedawn's lord of darkness might make her a little more, yunno, evil. Instead, she's getting used to suspended severed heads, the screams of fear, and the odd squish of an errant eyeball beneath her heel.Of course, no job is perfect, especially when you have a teeeeny crush on your terrifying, temperamental, and undeniably hot boss. Don't find evil so attractive, Evie.Only something is rotten is growing in the kingdom of Rennedawn. Someone wants to take the Villain - and his entire nefarious empire - out. Now Evie is determined to figure out exactly who is sabotaging her boss, and ensure he makes them pay.After all, a good job is hard to find.And the monsters that we should fear aren?t the ones that live in the light - but the ones who hide in the shadows.

Assistant to the Villain

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Rebecca Yarros

Heavy Hardcover (2 to 4 lbs)

Maine

"Suspenseful, sexy, and with incredibly entertaining storytelling, the first in Yarros' Empyrean series will delight fans of romantic, adventure-filled fantasy." --Booklist, starred review

"Fourth Wing will have your heart pounding from beginning to end... A fantasy like you've never read before." âe*#1 New York Times bestselling author Jennifer L. Armentrout


Enter the brutal and elite world of a war college for dragon riders from USA Today bestselling author Rebecca Yarros

Twenty-year-old Violet Sorrengail was supposed to enter the Scribe Quadrant, living a quiet life among books and history. Now, the commanding general--also known as her tough-as-talons mother--has ordered Violet to join the hundreds of candidates striving to become the elite of Navarre: dragon riders.

But when you're smaller than everyone else and your body is brittle, death is only a heartbeat away...because dragons don't bond to "fragile" humans. They incinerate them.

With fewer dragons willing to bond than cadets, most would kill Violet to better their own chances of success. The rest would kill her just for being her mother's daughter--like Xaden Riorson, the most powerful and ruthless wingleader in the Riders Quadrant.

She'll need every edge her wits can give her just to see the next sunrise.

Yet, with every day that passes, the war outside grows more deadly, the kingdom's protective wards are failing, and the death toll continues to rise. Even worse, Violet begins to suspect leadership is hiding a terrible secret.

Friends, enemies, lovers. Everyone at Basgiath War College has an agenda--because once you enter, there are only two ways out: graduate or die.

Fourth Wing

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J. T. Geissinger

Paperback (1 to 2 lbs)

North Carolina

A young woman on the verge of bankruptcy. A mysterious billionaire with an offer that will change her life. An obsession so powerful, it could destroy them both. Sex Lies Secrets Passion What Callum McCord wants, he takes. No matter what he has to do to get it. Author's note: Liars Like Us is a standalone marriage of convenience romance with an obsessive & possessive morally gray hero and spicy bedroom scenes intended for mature readers only.

Liars Like Us

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2023 Favorites 🏆

Past, current, and upcoming book box/club picks I’m looking forward to.

Karissa Kinword

New York

There are a few things Coconut Creek has that Pine Ridge does not. Palm trees, sandy beaches, butterfly museums-infuriatingly attractive special forces veterans. When Colorado elementary school teacher Ophelia Brody decides to ditch her divorced family for a Christmas in the sunshine state with her college roommate, she doesn't expect a mile high meet cute to tailspin the entire trip. Frankie Casado is cocky, he's presumptuous, he's shameless-and he's just the right distraction from her depressing, fruitless dating life back home for a few weeks. It just so happens the retired fighter pilot is in somewhat of a rut of his own, and the circumstances around their coincidental meeting and unavoidable physical attraction are the perfect excuse for a festive fling. The rules are simple: Ophelia teaches him how to date again, and Frankie shows her exactly what she should be demanding behind closed doors. Friends with benefits until the ball drops in the New Year. But a little bit of long-lost Christmas magic just might find a way to stir up more than their complicated pasts.

Christmas in Coconut Creek

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Lana Ferguson

Light Hardcover (1 lb or less)

Texas

Two wolf shifters agree to be fake mates but unexpectedly find something real in this steamy paranormal romantic comedy by Lana Ferguson. Mackenzie Carter has had some very bad dates lately. Model train experts, mansplainers, guys weirdly obsessed with her tail—she hasn’t had a successful date in months. Only a year out of residency, her grandmother’s obsession with Mackenzie finding the perfect mate to settle down with threatens to drive Mackenzie barking mad. Out of options, it feels like a small thing to tell her grandmother that she’s met someone. That is, until she blurts out the name of the first man she sees and the last man she would ever date: Noah Taylor, the big bad wolf of Denver General. Noah Taylor, interventional cardiologist and all around grump, has spent his entire life hiding what he is. With outdated stigmas surrounding unmated alphas that have people wondering if they still howl at the moon, Noah has been careful to keep his designation under wraps. It’s worked for years, until an anonymous tip has everything coming to light. Noah is left with two options: come clean to the board and risk his career—or find himself a mate. The chatty, overly friendly ER doctor asking him to be her fake boyfriend on the same day he’s called to meet the board has to be kismet, right? Mackenzie will keep her grandmother off her back, and Noah will get a chance to prove he can continue to work without a real mate—a mutually beneficial business transaction, they both rationalize. But when the fake-mate act turns into a very real friends-with-benefits arrangement, lines start to blur, and they quickly realize love is a whole different kind of animal.

The Fake Mate

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Cross-posted.

Latte Darling by S.J. Tilly. Brand new, unread, and still wrapped. This limited Hello Lovely
Box (HLB) edition was included in the Call Me Daddy trope box and has an exclusive cover and is signed by the author.

Latte Darling (Signed Hello Lovely Box)

2024 Book Box/Club Picks 📚

Books I’ve read/am currently reading in 2024.

Aurora Ascher

Hardcover (1 to 2 lbs)

Delaware

LIMITED FIRST PRINT EDITION―featuring spray-painted and stenciled edges, as well as gorgeously detailed map endpapers. This breathtaking first edition is only available for a limited time and while supplies last. The elemental magic of Avatar: The Last Airbender meets the atmosphere of The Sandman in this intense and darkly imaginative fantasy debut.

Sanctuary of the Shadow

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2024 Reads 📖

My favorite fantasy reads that transported me to different worlds and/or another time and made me wish I could travel between their pages. (Spoiler: I’m also trash for romantasy, so you’ll see a lot of that here as well.)

Jacqueline Carey

Regular sized hardcover edition of Kushiel's Dart. This is not the tall hardcover edition.

Florida

A nation born of angels, vast and intricate and surrounded by danger... a woman born to servitude, unknowingly given access to the secrets of the realm... Born with a scarlet mote in her left eye, Phédre nó Delaunay is sold into indentured servitude as a child. When her bond is purchased by an enigmatic nobleman, she is trained in history, theology, politics, foreign languages, the arts of pleasure. And above all, the ability to observe, remember, and analyze. Exquisite courtesan, talented spy... and unlikely heroine. But when Phédre stumbles upon a plot that threatens her homeland, Terre d'Ange, she has no choice. Betrayed into captivity in the barbarous northland of Skaldia and accompanied only by a disdainful young warrior-priest, Phédre makes a harrowing escape and an even more harrowing journey to return to her people and deliver a warning of the impending invasion. And that proves only the first step in a quest that will take her to the edge of despair and beyond. Phédre nó Delaunay is the woman who holds the keys to her realm's deadly secrets, and whose courage will decide the very future of her world. Not since Dune has there been an epic on the scale of Kushiel's Dart-a massive tale about the violent death of an old age and the birth of a new. It is a novel of grandeur, luxuriance, sacrifice, betrayal, and deeply laid conspiracies. A world of cunning poets, deadly courtiers, deposed rulers and a besieged Queen, a warrior-priest, the Prince of Travelers, barbarian warlords, heroic traitors, and a truly Machiavellian villainess... all seen through the unflinching eyes of an unforgettable heroine.

Kushiel's Dart

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The lush epic fantasy that inspired a generation with a single precept: “Love As Thou Wilt." Returning to the realm of Terre d’Ange which captured an entire generation of fantasy readers, New York Times bestselling author Jacqueline Carey brings us a hero’s journey for a new era. In Kushiel’s Dart, a daring young courtesan uncovered a plot to destroy her beloved homeland. But hers is only half the tale. Now see the other half of the heart that lived it. Cassiel’s Servant is a retelling of cult favorite Kushiel’s Dart from the point of view of Joscelin, Cassiline warrior-priest and protector of Phèdre nó Delaunay. He’s sworn to celibacy and the blade as surely as she’s pledged to pleasure, but the gods they serve have bound them together. When both are betrayed, they must rely on each other to survive. From his earliest training to captivity amongst their enemies, his journey with Phèdre to avert the conquest of Terre D’Ange shatters body and mind... and brings him an impossible love that he will do anything to keep. Even if it means breaking all vows and losing his soul. “Decadent and dark, Cassiel’s Servant reveals the secrets of the mysterious Cassiline brotherhood. In this gorgeously realized novel, Carey returns to the world of Terre d’Ange and offers us a new and dazzling perspective on a character we thought we knew.”—Nghi Vo, author of The Chosen and the Beautiful and Siren Queen Kushiel's Legacy #1 Kushiel's Dart #2 Kushiel's Chosen #3 Kushiel's Avatar Standalones Miranda and Caliban Starless The Sundering #1 Banewreaker #2 Godslayer

Cassiel's Servant

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Favorite Fantasies 🐉

These romance books stuck with me and delivered on heart, heat, and swoon-worthy characters. Whether they brought on all the feels (e.g., hurt so good in the angst department), brought something unique/refreshing to the table, fed a trope obsession (hello, hockey romance), made me blush/swoon, and/or what have you, they secured permanent places on my favorites shelf and in my lovers era. (Note: I love my books spicy, and many of these have top-tier spice! 🌶️)

Nikki Sloane

Kentucky

No one knows how new members are selected to the board of Hale Banking and Holding. But there are rumors of a sordid rite of initiation. Whispers how one woman and nine men disappear into a boardroom. This time, that woman will be me. The Hale family owns everything--the eighth largest bank in the world, everyone in our town, even the mortgage on my parents' mansion. And now Royce Hale wants to own me. He is charming. Seductive. Ruthless. But above all, he's the prince of lies. My body may tighten with white-hot desire under his penetrating gaze, but I refuse to enjoy it. I'll make a deal with the devil to save my family and sell myself to the Hales. But Royce will never own my heart.

The Initiation

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#paperback #fiction #signed Signed and personalized 

Georgia

I would do anything for my dream job. Now I have to. In order to save my skin at the office, I'm forced to sell it at an exclusive and illegal blindfold club. He paid thousands of dollars for one night to own me, but when my blindfold comes off, I want more. More nights, more rules, and more from this unavailable and uncompromising man. Rule number one, no questions. Rule number two, no lies. But, rule number three? That's the hardest one to obey.

SIGNED Three Simple Rules

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Elle Kennedy

The first book in an all new series featuring college hockey stars and the women they fall for, by New York Times bestseller Elle Kennedy.

The Deal

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Favorite Romances ❤️‍🔥

Books I devoured and couldn’t/can’t stop thinking about (i.e., I was/am obsessed). These quickly became favorites, altered my brain chemistry, and/or reinvigorated my love of reading in some way.

#wutheringheights #emilybronte #academic #highschool

Pennsylvania

In the eighteenth century, the lives of two families become intertwined through marriage, passion, and the dominating force of a man called Heathcliff, with SAT vocabulary words highlighted and defined on pages opposite those of text.

Wuthering Heights

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My Roman Empire(s) 🏛️

Books I hope to get to in this lifetime (but really, who am kidding?). ⚰️

Samantha Shannon

Indiana

The New York Times bestselling "epic feminist fantasy perfect for fans of Game of Thrones" (Bustle). NAMED A BEST BOOK OF THE YEAR BY: AMAZON (Top 100 Editors Picks and Science Fiction and Fantasy) * CHICAGO PUBLIC LIBRARY * BOOKPAGE * AUTOSTRADDLE A world divided. A queendom without an heir. An ancient enemy awakens. The House of Berethnet has ruled Inys for a thousand years. Still unwed, Queen Sabran the Ninth must conceive a daughter to protect her realm from destruction--but assassins are getting closer to her door. Ead Duryan is an outsider at court. Though she has risen to the position of lady-in-waiting, she is loyal to a hidden society of mages. Ead keeps a watchful eye on Sabran, secretly protecting her with forbidden magic. Across the dark sea, Tané has trained all her life to be a dragonrider, but is forced to make a choice that could see her life unravel. Meanwhile, the divided East and West refuse to parley, and forces of chaos are rising from their sleep.

The Priory of the Orange Tree

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To Be Read (TBR) 💀

Books that opened the floodgates, tore out my heart and made my eyes swell, and/or offered some catharsis.

Wilson Rawls

Vermont

Young Billy having purchased two dogs for fifty dollars is determined to create the valley's best hunting team

Shelves by The Dragons’ Den

The Dragons’ Den

2023 Favorites 🏆

2024 Book Box/Club Picks 📚

2024 Reads 📖

Favorite Fantasies 🐉

Favorite Romances ❤️‍🔥

My Roman Empire(s) 🏛️

To Be Read (TBR) 💀

Ugly Cries 😭

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Shelves by The Dragons’ Den

The Dragons’ Den

2023 Favorites 🏆

2024 Book Box/Club Picks 📚

2024 Reads 📖

Favorite Fantasies 🐉

Favorite Romances ❤️‍🔥

My Roman Empire(s) 🏛️

To Be Read (TBR) 💀

Ugly Cries 😭