Blending fantasy and science fiction, N. E. Davenport’s fast-paced, action-packed debut kicks off a duology of loyalty and rebellion, in which a young Black woman must survive deadly trials in a racist and misogynistic society to become an elite warrior. It’s all about blood. The blood spilled between the Republic of Mareen and the armies of the Blood Emperor long ago. The blood gifts of Mareen’s deadliest enemies. The blood that runs through the elite War Houses of Mareen, the rulers of the Tribunal dedicated to keeping the republic alive. The blood of the former Legatus, Verne Amari, murdered. For his granddaughter, Ikenna, the only thing steady in her life was the man who had saved Mareen. The man who had trained her in secret, not just in martial skills, but in harnessing the blood gift that coursed through her. Who trained her to keep that a secret. But now there are too many secrets, and with her grandfather assassinated, Ikenna knows two things: that only someone on the Tribunal could have ordered his death, and that only a Praetorian Guard could have carried out that order. Bent on revenge as much as discovering the truth, Ikenna pledges herself to the Praetorian Trials—a brutal initiation that only a quarter of the aspirants survive. She subjects herself to the racism directed against her half-Khanaian heritage and the misogyny of a society that cherishes progeny over prodigy, all while hiding a power that—if found out—would subject her to execution…or worse. Ikenna is willing to risk it all because she needs to find out who murdered her grandfather…and then she needs to kill them. Mareen has been at peace for a long time… Ikenna joining the Praetorians is about to change all that. Magic and technology converge in the first part of this stunning debut duology, where loyalty to oneself—and one’s blood—is more important than anything.

Vanessa’s plagued with dreams of a gorgeous man with haunting eyes that saves her from the grasp of an enemy sorcerer. Until she realizes the man’s not a dream. Gentry’s an outcast sorcerer strip of his powers, trying to figure out what he’s supposed to do with his life, until he starts having these dreams, where he’s saving a woman and he’s got his magic back. And then one day, she walks into his life, and turns it upside down.

Richard Titmuss (1907-1973) was a pioneer in the field of social administration (now social policy). In this reissued classic, listed by the New York Times as one of the 10 most important books of the year when it was first published in 1970, he compares blood donation in the US and UK, contrasting the British system of reliance on voluntary donors to the American one in which the blood supply is in the hands of for-profit enterprises, concluding that a system based on altruism is both safer and more economically efficient. Titmuss’s argument about how altruism binds societies together has proved a powerful tool in the analysis of welfare provision. His analysis is even more topical now in an age of ever changing health care policy and at a time when health and welfare systems are under sustained attack from many quarters.

More than any other altruistic gesture, blood and organ donation exemplifies the true spirit of self-sacrifice. Donors literally give of themselves for no reward so that the life of an individual—often anonymous—may be spared. But as the demand for blood and organs has grown, the value of a system that depends solely on gifts has been called into question, and the possibility has surfaced that donors might be supplemented or replaced by paid suppliers. Last Best Gifts offers a fresh perspective on this ethical dilemma by examining the social organization of blood and organ donation in Europe and the United States. Gifts of blood and organs are not given everywhere in the same way or to the same extent—contrasts that allow Kieran Healy to uncover the pivotal role that institutions play in fashioning the contexts for donations. Procurement organizations, he shows, sustain altruism by providing opportunities to give and by producing public accounts of what giving means. In the end, Healy suggests, successful systems rest on the fairness of the exchange, rather than the purity of a donor’s altruism or the size of a financial incentive.

A billionaire vampire. An ordinary girl who needed to be saved. In Blood Gift (Vampire's Choice Paranormal Romance #3), the billionaire vampire Dorian Thorne has searched the world to find Cora Shaw, a once-human woman with whom he has formed an eternal bond. But his triumph is shattered when Cora is attacked, sending her running from their sworn enemies. Dorian is determined to rescue her before she can come to harm—and wreak his vengeance upon those who have tried to destroy them both. Blood Gift (Vampire's Choice Paranormal Romance #3) is a new adult vampire paranormal romance / urban fantasy that features a billionaire alpha vampire hero, a college student heroine, a love triangle, and a dangerous bargain. Intended for a more mature audience than Stephenie Meyer's Twilight Saga, Blood Gift (Vampire's Choice Paranormal Romance #3) takes the "every girl" heroine in a direction more reminiscent of Anne Rice's Vampire Chronicles or Sherrilyn Kenyon's Dark-Hunter Series. A new release from New York Times Bestselling author V. M. Black.

When a mysterious bomb goes off in town and Aeri's closest friends are turned to stone, it becomes a race against the clock to stop the demon who is still at large. Every six hours, another bomb takes out more people.