Showing results by author "Drake" in All Categories

After the collapse of the galactic Web, civilizations crumbled and chaos reigned on thousands of planets. Only on planet Bellevue was there a difference. There, a Fleet Battle Computer named Center had survived from the old civilization. When it found Raj Whitehall, the man who could execute its plan for reviving human civilization, he and Center started Bellevue back on the road leading to the stars; and when Bellevue reached that goal, Center sent copies of itself and Raj to the thousands of worlds still waiting for the light of civilization to dawn.  

On the planet Hafardine, civilization must rediscover progress or collapse. Adrian, guided by disembodied electronic mentors from space, has brought gunpowder and steam power to the Kingdom of the Isles to break the stranglehold of the Empire. But he will have to avoid being killed by the suspicious king he serves, by the barbarians he must recruit, and even by his insanely vengeful brother.

Duisberg is one of thousands of planets plunged into darkness and chaos by the collapse of the galactic republic, but where other worlds have begun to rebuild a star-travelling culture, Duisberg remains in an uneasy balance between mud-brick civilization and bloodthirsty barbarism. The people of Duisberg have a god: Zentrum, a supercomputer from the ancient past. Zentrum has decided to avoid another collapse by preventing civilization from rising from where it is. This is known as the Stasis.

The gateways linking the great libraries of the world don’t require a library card, but they do harbor incredible dangers. And it’s not your normal bump-in-the-night kind. The threats Gia Kearns faces are the kind with sharp teeth and knifelike claws - the kind that includes an evil wizard hell-bent on taking her down.

What price will Edna Pontellier pay to be free? She seems to have everything she needs - her loving husband, Léonce, two beautiful children and a wonderful home in turn-of-the-century New Orleans. But deep inside her burns a creative fire that longs to be unleashed. One summer changes everything. When Edna meets Robert, she starts to question all that she was taught to believe. Is her comfortable marriage nothing more than a cage?

One night in 2012, executive Zhang Guo Xing takes a group of European clients to a fashionable nightclub in Shanghai. While there, he meets a strikingly beautiful young Western woman called Naemi Vieno Kuusela. The physical attraction between them proves irresistible, and they embark on an intoxicating affair. But Naemi is not what she appears to be... To Zhang’s surprise, she veers between passion and wariness, conducting the relationship entirely on her own terms. He feels driven to find out more about her, and is swiftly drawn into a web of intrigue, mystery, and horror.

The Romans left Briton years before. The great King Arthur has been gone two decades as well. There were scattered invasions, of course, but in one village, those of Celtic, Frisian, Angle, Saxon, Jutes, and even descendants of the Roman legion lived in peace. Kyleigh grew up there. Though she had been a foundling, she’d been taken in by a kind and learned couple and allowed all the learning she might enjoy with Father Peter. The greatest difficulty she had to deal with day by day was gently rejecting a dear friend who longed for marriage.

An authorized mission to rescue a friend may be the last adventure of Stiletto's career...or his life. A coup stirring in Russia to overthrow President Putin faces the wrath of Moscow police and government agents. Suspects are arrested or assassinated. Survivors run for their lives, including Vladimir Glinkov, a friend of Scott Stiletto. Glinkov desperately calls for help, but the US government will not get involved. Despite his pleas to aid a friend in need, Stiletto is ordered to stand down.  

An urgent plea from a former flame brings CIA agent Scott Stiletto to San Francisco. Ali Lewis was once a capable spy herself before striking out on her own, creating a fashion empire that stretches around the world. Now her father has been murdered, and Stiletto is the only man Ali can trust to learn the truth behind the killing. Evidence points to a growing international conspiracy orchestrated by Iran involving the smuggling of nuclear bomb parts, kidnapped scientists, and a decades-old mafia/Silicon Valley alliance the government has been powerless to stop. 

Tessa James has worked and planned tirelessly to open her own millinery shop. All she needs now is a loan from the lord who sired and abandoned her. The only problem is she doesn’t know his name. What’s a woman to do to find him but enter the aristocratic world by becoming a governess? Guy Whitby, the new duke of Carlin, has returned to London after years abroad to discover that his young daughter Sophy has become a wild child known for scaring away every governess who's crossed his doorstep. 

Ex-army ranger Mitch Guidry never should have let his brothers talk him into joining them in the Big Easy. Particularly when they have him going head-to-head with the very last thing he needs: a feisty redhead who has more opinions than even his hard-headed brothers. Loyal and overprotective to a fault, Catherine Hurley will do everything she can to stop Mitch from finding her fugitive brother...and yet, he can't get enough of her.

Hadrian Ames, the duke of Clayton, needs a bride. He even has the perfect one picked out...that is, until he meets the lovely, free-spirited Natalie Fanshawe. She’s the opposite of what a man of his high rank should desire in a wife - an outspoken American who has never even set foot in a London ballroom. But Natalie doesn’t have time to be swept off her feet by a handsome duke who’s probably a spoiled scoundrel like every other British lord. And she couldn’t care less about Hadrian’s title. After all, it’s not as if he actually worked to attain his wealth and status.

Melanie Hansen loved her younger sister, Carrie. But when Carrie moved to Missouri to restore an antebellum house, Melanie was pretty sure her baby sister had lost her mind. Then her worst fear comes true: Carrie dies. When a letter arrives, asking Melanie to return to Celebration House, she has no choice but to leave all that she knows in Seattle and travel to Missouri. All Melanie wants to do is find a buyer. But that’s a difficult task with all of the restrictions her sister and the local historian, Zach Oakes, put on the sale of the house.

Beth Kozera promised her best friend, Carrie Hansen, she would stay and manage Celebration House in Carrie’s absence. How she regrets that promise! She has no idea how to run an event venue. Since when did brides become so demanding and grooms so lecherous? Plus, she can’t boil water, let alone supervise a sit-down dinner for 200 guests every weekend! Thank goodness for Joshua - or, at least, she thinks. But when Beth offers his mom a job overseeing the kitchen, Josh shows his patriarchal colors - so much for tall, dark, and haughty.

In 1920's Kansas, the mangled body of champion buggy racer Tommy Donnan has been discovered beneath his carriage, dragged to his death by his own horse. His twelve-year-old sister, Millie, does not believe his death was an accident. She wants to know the truth behind the night Tommy died. But with her mother given over to grief, her father to fate, and her only surviving brother, Junior, a shell of himself since returning from The Great War, Millie will have to seek this truth alone.

On the beautiful Hawaiian Islands, not all is paradise in this high-stakes, action-packed romantic suspense. He'll risk his life for her . . . but will he risk his heart? Jiang Ying Yue assumed her kidnapping was random, that she was in the wrong place at the wrong time. After all, who would...

Evan has always dreamed of being a superhero, and on his 16th birthday he discovers the ability to stretch and bend his body in impossible ways. He decides that's it's time to make the most of his super stretchiness and become a real-life superhero - except he can't find any crime to fight. When a video of his superpower goes viral, Evan gets a taste of the fame he has hoped for, but he knows he hasn't really done anything besides a few cool tricks. After an accident on the freeway causes everyone to look to him for help, Evan will learn if he's truly up to be the hero he wants to be.

Using real-life practical experiences, serial entrepreneur and thought leader Faisal Hoque teams up with journalist Drake Baer to provide a personal and professional playbook that is part philosophy, part business, and part history. Everything Connects offers the wisdom of 2,500-year-old Eastern philosophies and the interconnected insights of Leonardo da Vinci. Couple that with Fortune 100 corporate cross pollination for creativity and startup thinking for how to adapt with ease, and you'll quickly discover that everything connects. 

In the postapocalyptic Midwest, now a ravaged dust bowl, former guardsman Derek Covington must find help for a sick boy. With nothing but memories of all he lost, Derek crosses the desert alone in search of the doctor who saved his own life 10 years ago. Drifter gangs who loot and pillage don't dare come near, for Derek has a formidable weapon: a prosthetic arm with a deadly blade. For a decade, Dr. Lidia Sullivan has fantasized about the handsome guardsman who'd been in her care. And now she can't deny his dangerous request.

At Dragonsdale, where riding is the most important thing in the world, there’s trouble ahead for best friends Cara and Breena and their beloved dragons. When Breena’s show dragon, Moonflight, is injured, it looks like time will run out for the pair to qualify for the Island Championship. Cara and her dragon, Sky, however, have never looked better, and although she misses her friend at her side, winning means so much.